KnittyOtters Getting to Know You Contest
I’ve a bit of a weakness for otters, so I couldn’t resist KnittyOtter’s Getting to Know You Contest in honor of her 200th post! Congrats!
(For pictures of recent knitting, skip below the questionnaire..)
1.)How long have you been knitting?
Hrm.. really, pr’bly around 8 or 9 years. I learned pr’bly 10-11 years ago but didn’t really start knitting regularly until I went to grad school.
2.) How long have you been knitting socks?
About as long as I’ve been knitting.. pr’bly a year or so less. I was a bit ambitious and decided that I wanted to do my first socks from cotton.. I know better now - both how better to do cotton socks and that wool is generally more forgiving for socks! I also learned *after* making a few pairs where the toes were twisted out of alignment from the heel that I was twisting each and every stitch, which caused the tube of the sock to spiral on itself. Yeah.. not so useful.
3.) What do you do with a problem like Maria?
Let her loose in those hills and lock the doors. She was terribly romantic, and didn’t really strike me as the survivalist type. At most she’d have made it to the first real Alpine snow fall.
4.) What is your all time favorite sock yarn?
I don’t think I have one, which might be sacrilegious. At the moment, I rather like the Trekking that I started working with.. hrm.. several months ago. Should pr’bly get back around to working on those..
5.) Toe Up or Cuff Down?
Either, both? I like the economy of toe up socks, but there are so many patterns that are cuff down that I can’t be bothered to convert, so I’ll just knit them as written.
6.) What’s your favorite color (this week or for all time)? Do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand?
Blue. (Which brings me back to that lovely Trekking.. really need to pick those up again..) For family or palette or whatnot.. jewel tones, fall colors.. deep, saturated colors. I’m not fond of visually striking combinations in most yarns - the pansy colorway I used for my Jaywalkers still sets my teeth on edge a bit - but I love it in nature. And I really love Ruth’s hand-dyed nature-inspired yarns.. they’re all just so gorgeous!
7.) Do you have a pet(s)?
Yes. One (old) little black dog, Jalapeño, or just Jali for short.
8.) Babies: Oven Roasted or Barbecued?
Grilled, actually, with a little garlic and butter. 
9.) Besides socks what is your favorite type of thing to knit?
Heh. Um, depends on my mood. At the moment, I’ve been stricken with the urge to start sweaters (see below for proof!), but I could just as easily pick up a lace project. *shrug*
10.) What’s your favorite scent?
Mm.. that’s a hard one. There are way too many. Rain. Ocean breezes. Coffee. Campfire smoke. Fajitas. Good wine. Warm skin. Clean sheets dried in the sun. Bacon. Fresh cut grass.
11.) What music are you really loving right now? Like a song or a band?
Went on an Ani kick this weekend while with several friends, but lately I’ve been rather taken with Matt Nathanson, Gaia Consort, and the Paperboys.
12.) How many pairs of socks have you hand knit?
Uh.. Well, I have 8 or 9 in my own sock drawer, and I’ve knit at least that many as gifts, so call it 20ish?
13.) What’s your favorite treat? Salty or Sweet?
Both. There’s a jar of trail mix on my desk that is my ideal snack - peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, and M&Ms. As a child, I was inordinately fond of ants on a log and one of my favorite oddities is melted caramel between saltine crackers (think s’mores, but.. different).
14.) What was the most interesting thing you smelled yesterday. Not good or bad necessarily, just the thing that stuck out most so that you actually took notice of it.
Hrm. Shampoo. I’m out of my usual brand so used whatever was handy and I noticed it all day because it wasn’t what I’m used to.
15.) Needles - DPN’s: Wooden, metal or plastic?
Wood or bamboo. Metal is too hard on my hands and plastic just feels wrong. I almost exclusively use Harmony needles these days.
16.) What is your favorite sock pattern that you’ve knit? What do you recommend?
I really liked the 9-to-5 socks, but was also taken enough with Baudelaire to knit it twice.
17.) The last Question: If you were stuck on a deserted island who would you want with you, what knitting would you want with you and would you ever want to leave?
Kim & Tori. And maybe a chef or two. And if the island had good grape stock and clean water, we wouldn’t even need to leave to get more wine.
Right then.. since I’m on the topic, thought I’d post a picture to prove that I actually was knitting this weekend past:
(As usual, all photos are clickable thumbnails.)
That is, in fact, the start of a cabled sweater! Yes, it’s mid-July, but I have hopes of completing it in time to be worn this fall. Given my knitting track record of late, that’s being fairly optimistic, but here’s hoping this is just the little shove I need to get back into the swing of things.
And just because I was out in the garden again last evening, I’ll leave you with a few pictures from there:
These are, again, the Hollyhock from the roses back by the garage, but I don’t remember having all four colors in bloom at the same time in the past, so wanted to be sure to capture it.
This is a blue sea.. something. I never remember the right name.. I just call it the Blue Alien Plant because that’s what it looks like. It’s in the front yard, between a couple balloonflowers which should start blooming any day now.
Current Knitting
As hinted in my last post (which was, surprisingly, just this week instead of sometime last month!), I’ve been doing some, but not a lot, knitting. As expected, I finished the knitting for the Baby Surprise Jacket this morning in the car.
It took about two and a half skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic, one skein of the blue and a skein and a half or so of the red. The mom of the intended recipient is allergic to many animal fibers and they live in CA, so I figured cotton would be a good alternative. And as a bonus, it’s washable.
This is my first time doing a Baby Surprise Jacket, and it was kind of fun to see how it all went together. I wasn’t sure how the stripe would look as I wasn’t sure how the piece got folded up, but I think I like it. Something I never noticed in pictures of Baby Surprise Jackets is the increases across the back and at each cuff, which I think are certainly more noticeable in the photos above.
The cotton makes the diagonal increases in the second half (front) of the piece look a bit exaggerated, but I think a little blocking will tame them some. I may at some point try to figure out reverse engineering this so the diagonal decreases fall on the front of the jacket because they look a little neater. I may not, though. *shrug*
Also, as I tend to bind off too tightly, I replaced one of the ends of my circular Options needles with a larger needle and it worked like a charm - I bound off as I wanted too without worrying about trying to keep things loose and having it be uneven, and it looks neat and clean.
So, now I just need to figure out buttons, and which side of the sweater the buttons vs. button holes go on so that I can get it to the recipient before it’s too small for him!
In the mean time, I’ve been dabbling with some socks. I’ve fallen absolutely in love with the color of these (but can’t remember what the colorway is.. it’s Trekking, though) because it reminds me of the deep and varying blues of the ocean.
The pattern may be familiar, but I decided I wanted a pair of my own and to my eye the pattern works very well with the yarn. I’m into the gusset at this point and now that the Baby Surprise Jacket is done, these will likely become my car knitting.
And I’ve done a bit more knitting on Jack’s Panda Cotton socks, which are also into the gusset. These are a bit more tedious, though, both because it’s a solid black yarn and because it’s an intentionally simple pattern. I’ll keep plugging away at them, though and eventually he’ll get handknit socks.
I was also lucky enough to get in on the group of test knitters for Cookie A’s new pattern, so sometime in the nearish future, you’ll be able to get a sneak peak of what that will look like as she’s very graciously told us that we’ll be allowed to share photos of our progress in our blogs and on Ravelry. While we wait for the pattern, though, I’m trying to figure out a good yarn. I have some candidates in my stash, but I’m thinking I need a solid or a yarn with more subtle variations than most of the stuff I have. I’m also thinking that I’d like to support one of the many smaller hand-dyers out there, so if you know of some good candidates, pipe up in the comments.
Saturday morning cartoons
I used to love Saturday morning cartoons. I remember getting up and watching the Smurfs in my pj’s, back when The Monchhichis were the only Japanese-inpsired cartoon around (and none of us knew it at the time because it was produced by Hanna Barbera). The Flintstones, the Jetsens, Tom & Jerry (the real Tom & Jerry, not the new Tom & Jerry Tales I seem to have stumbled on this morning), and the Great Space Coaster were all weekday cartoons, but they were good too. There was a point in this somewhere, something about how Saturday morning cartoons these days all seem to be about saving the world from evil and having amazing special powers which just seems.. boring. *shrug*
Anyway, last time I mentioned I’d try to get pictures of the blue jeans handwarmers, so here you are:
(Pictures are clickable thumbnails; click them to load a larger version.)
It’s a little muted, but the flash washed it out so much it was no where near true. I’m holding two strands of the yarn together, which is making these a little stiffer than I think they’re intended to be, but I like them and I think the recipient will, too. Since taking this, I’ve finished all but the thumb on this one. I’m doing a modified version of Dashing (modified in that I made it shorter by leaving out one of the cable repeats in the cuff and two rows from the hand length), which should be perfect for the recipient.
And a bonus picture because I don’t think I posted it before:
This is some merino that I got from a fleece or spinning swap awhile back. The label is in a language I don’t read, but apparently merino is merino in that language, too. It’s really a joy to spin up and it’s been very fun to watch the color changes. I was a little worried about the brightness of the pink, but it’s much more muted in the singles and really works well with the blues and greens.
Too late for WIP-it Wednesdays.. must be FO Friday..
Or.. something. I’m sleepy and have been fighting a cold for the better part of what should have been a week of vacation, so this might be short and photo-laden..
(As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails.)
I have been thinking about making myself a new pair of fingerless gloves to replace the half-finger gloves I gave a friend last year for awhile. My sweetie gave me a swift for the holidays which prompted me to wind the two skeins of Chameleon Colorworks Evolution I had into center-pull balls and I decided it was soft and pretty enough (this is the Figgy Pudding colorway) to become fingerless gloves. I tried to do the Dashing pattern first, but the cable crosses made them *way* too tight, so I opted for a made up pattern for the cuff and tops and a basic glove pattern from a Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns for the hand. I like them. And they only took a day or so to knit up (yes, they’re both finished, even though only the first one is pictured).
Hrm.. this one’s a WIP..
An update on the DNA scarf. While it’s small enough in diameter to use a 16 inch circular, the tiny, tiny needles on the 16 inch Knitpicks Harmony needle made my hands hurt, so I’m doing what I think is pr’bly a bastardization of the two-circular method. It doesn’t make my hands hurt and I’m making better progress, so all is well. Hope to have this one finished and on it’s way to the recipient sooner rather than later.
A WIP that is now a FO..
These are another pair of Fiber Trends Felt Clogs, again just the uppers, made for my aunt Kathy, mom’s sister. This picture is while they’re drying, and, as with mom’s, they’ve got a bit of excess lint from the washer.
And two finished shots, but neither of them are terribly clear. The color is closest in the first one.
And finally, a finished picture of the Garter Rib Sweater, which was a holiday gift for my dad:
For all it’s plainness, it is pr’bly the first man’s sweater I’ve made that I really like. It fits well and looks very good on dad.
I’ve also made some progress on Catalina, but don’t have an updated picture because the battery in my camera is dying. I’m just about through with the first repeat, though.. well, maybe only 2/3rds of the way through.. I’ll take another picture once I change to the next color most likely.
One down, one to go!
Mom - if you didn’t follow the first warning, follow this one - GO AWAY! Come back next week. Love you!
Okay, so I’m back to just two knitted holiday gifts. I got a cold this week that helped tip the balance and I’m pretty sure I’m not up to anything more pressing than finishing the two that were really originally planned.
So here’s the first - Fiber Trends felt clogs with fleece lined suede slipper bottoms.
This is just out of the washer, still a little lint covered from the sheets they got fulled with. As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails.
And two finished shots.
I knit just the uppers, not the soles, from the Fiber Trends pattern, which worked pretty well. They’re a little unshapen, but they should work themselves out as they’re worn the first few times. I fulled them until they were about the right length, but still ended up having to do some forced shaping around the toes to make them fit the slipper bottoms. I think I like them that way, though, because there’s a little more room around the toes than there might have been if they’d been fulled to fit exactly.
And just to make sure anyone who stumbles across this doesn’t have to go digging, these were knit with just over a skein of Paton’s Classic Merino that I dyed with Tropical Punch Kool Aid using the Fiber Trends Felt Clogs pattern. I only knit the uppers - cast on the number of stitches you’re s’posed to have once you finish the sole and worked from there - and fulled them to the right size (I think it was four 15 minute hot wash cycles on our washing machine). I used more of the dyed yarn to sew them to the fleece-lined soles (purchased from Patternworks) and overlapped the stitches a few times at the toes to help reinforce them.
Must resist.. ooh, shiny! (Updated with pictures)
(Okay, so now that I’ve put in the pictures, MOM: GO AWAY. You can come back in a week. Love you!)
Gah. I am not doing many knitted holiday gifts this year (really just one, maybe two.. or.. well, three if I .. make that *four*.. uh, hrm.. yeah, five.. if I can make it all work), but I’ve managed to totally lose my knitting mojo anyway. I have about 6 inches of sleeves left on one project and I just can’t seem to focus on it. I’ll sit down, knit a few rows.. and get distracted by.. anything.. everything. *sigh*
Updated to add pictures - here are the sleeves as of.. sometime this weekend, I think. They’re not much farther now. One of them is lying on top of the other in this picture as I’m knitting them both at the same time on a singular circular.
This weekend I thought I’d find my mojo again if I just kicked out one of the smaller projects, and that worked until I ran out of the yarn I was using for the project. The yarn which had been hand-dyed. *sigh*
(As usual, all the pictures are clickable thumbnails..)
The little white specs are from where the skein was tied, but I kind of like how they make the yarn look a little heathered. These are the Fiber Trends Felt Clogs, but without the bottoms as I have some fleece-lined slipper soles for the bottoms. The pattern is written to make this possible, but I’ve never seen a pair actually done this way, so here’s hoping they turn out! I’m knitting with two strands of Paton’s Classic Merino held together. As you can see, I just have the cuff on the second one to finish.
It’s *possible* that I can recreate it well enough (it was some Paton’s Classic Merino that I dyed with Tropical Punch Kool-Aid*, so it’s not like I can’t reproduce the conditions nearly exactly or anything), but at the same time, the idea of *fulling* something that was dyed like this made me a little nervous from the start (but then, I told myself that if the dye all went down the drain, I could just overdye the finished product in more Kool-Aid.. right?), so that ended up in a paroxysm of “was this really a good idea after all?”
All the same.. I think I’ll stop out at Michael’s on the way home tonight and grab another skein of the Paton’s and then stop at the grocery store and grab some more Tropical Punch.** I have a back up plan for this one if the Kool-Aid dyed stuff doesn’t work, so I’m not that concerned, but .. yeah.. that whole mojo thing, combined with the realization that there are just a mere *7* days until Christmas.. yeah.
* Yeah.. on that.. did that .. last week sometime, I think. It was very nifty and SO very easy. I mean.. really. Bring pot of water to boil, stir in Kool-Aid, drop in skein of yarn, wait until water goes clear. Yeah. Dead. Simple. And yes, I did take a picture of the finished skein, but the camera is at home, so I’ll post it later.
And I have a whole slew of yarn I got from KnitPicks in their “bare” states, so I’m sure there will be more Kool-Aid dyed goodness.. I just have to find that colorwheel that I know I saw somewhere that showed what colors you get from which flavors…
** Yeah.. on that.. did that.. last night. *smile* I love that this so both so easy and so predictable! I think the color matches *very* well.. (and yes, I was careful to tie the skein a little tight so that I’d still get the white speckles.. *grin*)
Random.. Thursday.
I lose whole days all the time. This year.. I think I lost the whole month of November. *sigh* So.. this will be a sort of catch-up, wrap up loose ends kind of post..
First up - the last photos from last weekend’s dyeing spree! When I last posted, there was some yarn soaking in the 2nd exhaust dye bath of the cochineal, along with some blue vitriol mordant. I promised pictures the next morning, but I forgot to actually take the yarn out until the next morning (or maybe I was supposed to do it in the morning and didn’t get to it until that night? Something like that) so here’s both skeins sitting in warm water but not really rinsed while I reheated the dye bath and added the 2nd mordant (cream of tartar):
(All images are clickable thumbnails; click to load a larger version)
Both skeins have a definite purplish cast to them which I believe is due to the blue vitriol mordant. I was tempted to just leave the cotton skein (the lighter, lavenderish one) because I really liked that color, but I was also aware that it would likely fade quite a bit once I rinsed it well. So back they both went in, and when they came out the second time and were rinsed, they looked like this (sort of.. this shot is a bit washed out from the flash):
Definitely more reddish, but still more purple than the previous stuff. I hung them to dry and they ended up like this:
It’s pretty neat, all in all, especially since this was essentially the third set of items we dyed with this dye bath. I really love how the skein of wool turned out - it’s got some variation in it, but it looks like it’s been dyed in a nice red wine - and I can’t wait to see what Carol makes with it. The cotton is fairly subtle, but still definitely purple, and I’m thinking I might need to figure out a little girl shirt of some for my niece for her birthday in May.
Right then - up next is the Easy Lace Jacket. I’ve had a few people contact me, either here or through Ravelry, with questions about this pattern, as well as asking for modeled pictures.
Generally speaking, if you have questions about any pattern, I would strongly recommend you contact the person who wrote the pattern - in this case Joan McGowan-Michael at White Lies Designs - as they’re going to be the best person to help you out. I can tell you, at least as far as I remember, how I did the decreases (one stitch in from the edge, adjusting the lace pattern as I went) but I really am not that great at relaying the details of exactly what I did to text. Similarly with the lace for the cuffs & collar - I followed the pattern, knit each piece separately, and sewed them all together at the end. Sorry not to be of more assistance, but really - contact Joan if you’re running into difficulty or have questions!
Modeled pictures, though, I can do. *smile* First, though, I should pr’bly admit that I never bothered to do buttons or button loops for this one. I pretty rarely ever close cardigans when I wear them and I was excited to start wearing this one pretty much as soon as I finished it, so that part never got finished. For me, it works fine, especially because the lace pattern - which acts very much like ribbing - would make the cardigan more clingy than I’d be comfortable with, but your mileage may vary.
Sort of profile.. (and a bonus shot of one of my favorite prints in the background!)
An attempt to better show the collar and sleeve lace better
I think I mentioned this when I first finished it, but it’s worth mentioning again now - if I were to do this one again (and I might), I’d change the sleeves a bit. They are both too wide and slightly too short at the cuff. I would make them a few inches longer and taper them more to the wrist, and also likely try to figure out shortening the lace dags so the seam fell closer to my actual wrist. That said, I wear this one as it is pretty frequently and I *LOVE* the length of the body.
Right then, moving on.. the holiday sweater I’m working on is not terribly exciting to photograph, but I will let you know that the back is finished and the front is about 2/3rds finished. It should be finished in plenty of time and I’ll take pictures when it gets there.
I’m continuing to work on the DNA scarf, though not as diligently as I thought I might.
I have the cable chart memorized at this point, though, so I can knit it just about anywhere. It will need some judicious blocking when I’m finished as it’s a little lumpy at the moment, and at some point I’ll need to figure out how long it will want to be so that I know when to start crossing the cables in the other direction (I’m not doing the ribbing in the middle because I don’t like how that would look, so I’ll just end up picking a point at which to make the helix twist in the other direction).
And since I’m pretty sure my sweetie doesn’t make it over here to check up on me, here’s a peek at one of his holiday gifts:
I’m doing a pair of Garter Rib socks, toe-up, in black Panda cotton. I’m glad I heeded Cathy’s advice and went with a non-cabled pattern because the Panda is a bit splitty! Socks in a men’s size 11 are *huge*, too, and I’ve been trying not to knit them when he’s around (he doesn’t always pay that close of attention to what I’m working on, but sometimes he surprises me), so I’m hoping I can snag enough time in fits and starts to get them finished on time.
It’s all about the presents!
I got my CoffeeSwap III package today!
(Clickable thumbnail)
I love the yarn colors and can’t wait to try out the two patterns Julie included - Snowflake Lace Socks by Melanie Berney and Rococo Socks by Lisa Parker. The coffee and mug will get “christened” tomorrow morning and I’m sure it will be a great way to start out a vacation day! “Knit’s End” is just too funny - I was in Barnes & Noble just this afternoon and picked it up off the display, but then put it back since we were in a rush and I didn’t want to have to go through the check out. What a treat to come home and find if on my doorstep!
Thanks so much Julie!
And since I’m posting, here’s a shot of the finished Charade socks:
.. and the beginning of the DNA scarf I’m knitting for a friend:
I’m actually knitting two DNA scarves in the round so that the scarf is both thicker and reversible, which is why it looks a little off-kilter in the photo. The yarn she decided on is KnitPicks Swish DK and it’s very knitting up very soft, though it’s occasionally a little splitty on the cables.
The End, Part II
The obligatory pre-blocking pictures:
.. and several shots while blocking:
I blocked it on a queen-sized futon which was not quite big enough, so it’s a bit crooked and one tip didn’t actually get pinned out, just stretched. It came out great, though, and was folded up and delivered to the person who requested it, who will hopefully present it in a day or two to his lovely and charming wife of 13 years.
And, because I *had* to shop for things to send to Julie, I picked up a few things for me, too:
The pattern is from Wendy of Wendy Knits and is for the L-Bee Socks. The black and blue yarn is Claudia Handpaint in Argyle 2; the small black skeins are Panda Cotton (because Cate* raved about it so much I *had* to try it, especially since my sweetie would really really *love* handknit socks but is sensitive to every animal fiber used in yarn); and the Regia is from a recent destash from Ravelry and will likely be socks for me, but not until after the holiday knitting is done.
* And you really should go check out the Wedding Pi shawl that Cate just finished, too! She overdyed the yarn for it and designed it herself and it’s truly spectacular!
The End, Part I
It is finished. I bound off this evening and blocked it and it’s now folded up and stashed away ready for delivery tomorrow.
I’ll post pictures tomorrow; I have to go to bed now so that I can work a 6-8 a.m. volunteer shift at Herberger’s Community Day in the morning! If you’re looking to get a head start on your holiday shopping, check out your local Herbergers/Boston Store/Younkers/Carson Pirie Scott and get a coupon booklet for the sale tomorrow. The money from the sale of the coupon book goes to support local charities and you save money on your holiday shopping!
