Charade on parade*
I finished mom’s Charade socks last night:
(Both clickabale thumbnails; color is more accurate in the first)
Such a simple and yet beautiful and elegant pattern! The bumpiness of the Fixation hides it some, but it’s still a lovely pattern. Were I to do this pattern with this yarn again, I’d change how the toe is done as it’s a little too boxy on yarn this thick.
Next up is 9-to-5 using some truly bright variegated yarn which I suspect will completely overshadow the pattern, but it’s another simple and elegant one and at this point, I’m going for something that will keep me entertained while knitting more than finished effect. *smile*
* Give me a break; it’s early!
Gift socks
I think I remembered to mention here that Christmas Day found my mother and my sister perusing the Webs website and ordering an rather embarrassing amount of sock yarn. My sister has a pair of dark green/sagey Cascade Fixation socks that I honestly didn’t even remember making until she brought them out to show to me after gushing for at least five minutes about how they were her favorites. Cascade Fixation being big for sock yarn, I told her that if she wanted more, she just needed to order it and have it shipped to me and I’d make her as many pairs as she wanted. That’s when mom got involved, and before I knew it, they’d ordered something like two dozen skeins in a variety of colors and sent them zipping on their way to me.
The attraction is the combination of the cotton – breathes well – and the elastic – doesn’t slump. For my sister, the addition of a lacy pattern helps, but mom likes solid patterns (which given that mom likes solid colors while sis likes variegated yarn makes for some muddy patterns here and there, but hey, it’s what they want). And since it’s Fixation – which, did I mention, is big for sock yarn? – it knits up into socks lickety-split. So when I realized a couple weeks before my sister’s natal day that I hadn’t thought much about a gift and then remembered the surprisingly small box containing all those future-socks, it was no trouble at all to whip up her first pair:
(Clickable thumbnail.)
They’re.. hrm.. one of the patterns from Charlene Schurch’s first Sensational Knitted Socks book.. Um.. one of the 12 stitch patterns even, but I can’t remember the name. Anyway, I sent them off and she got them and said they fit perfectly, which is good because I was a little worried that the foot got a bit long on them (they were knit toe-up, oh and on US7s for those who’ll want to know that, over 48 stitches – told you, big yarn, goes quick).
And I’ve started mom’s version of this pair – using the Charade pattern (PDF) that I’m ever so fond of:
Hope it to have those finished before Easter (that’s still awhile from now, isn’t it? Hrm.) and then to bring the rest of the box they ordered to Easter so they can tell me which one of them ordered which colorways since there are only 3 or 4 that they ordered enough for them each to get a pair out of.
How do they know..?
Like a good little energy-conscious homeowner, I turned the furnace down while I was away to celebrate the holidays, my mom’s birthday, and the fortuitous in-town-ness of several friends late last week and this weekend. So when I walked in this afternoon and it felt a little chilly, I didn’t think much of it – I was too preoccupied thinking about the ice-packed-snow-plow-debris that I’d just spent 20 minutes chipping out of my driveway* and the bit that I finally decided would have to wait until after I unloaded the car. Even when I walked around the corner to turn the thermostat back up and it was blinking at me that it needed new batteries (and while I was at it a new filter) did I register the fact that the other thing that it was blinking was that it was 45 degrees in the house. I scavenged in the desk for new batteries, wandered down to replace the filter.. and then noticed that one of the fans was running but the furnace wasn’t lit. Some quick investigation confirmed that it wasn’t just chilly, and that I wouldn’t be able to stay in the house without rectifying the problem. Fortunately, my furnace guy** was able to come out and fix it lickety split and the furnace has been running for the last hour trying to bring the internal temperature of the house back up.
In the mean time, I did the bits and pieces of dishes that got left in the sink before I left (mostly work travel mugs and other stuff that was safe to sit for a few days without going rancid), started a load of laundry, put away all the bits and pieces from the trip (including the Sipalu bag/pillow kit!), and made tea to go with the mango chutney and the last of the naan from friends. My fingers are still chilly (hence the tea), but it is getting warmer, so hopefully I’ll soon be able to just curl up under a blanket and watch a movie while working on mom’s socks*** some more.
* Really need to remember to call the guy about arranging for them to clear the sidewalk and driveways when I won’t be around.
** I sort of love living in a small town where I actually have *a* furnace guy – the same guy, every time – who knows my furnace and its history better than I do since he installed it several years before I bought my house.
*** Still not finished. Farther along, though – almost to the heel turn – so pr’bly in the next couple weeks. As a related aside, my sister commented on Christmas that she really liked a particular pair of socks that I’d gifted her a few years ago and after some back and forth where she tried to describe them without them ringing any bells for me, she went to get them: they were some socks I made out of Cascade Fixation and she loved that they were stretchy *and* lacy. I told her if she wanted more, to just order the yarn and send it to me, so she and mom spent about 20 minutes on the Webs website picking out yarn for about 10 pairs of socks. *smile* Looks like this will be a sock year.
It’s all over but the seaming.
Right then.. so, for reasons recently explained, my knitterly ambition has been somewhat scarce this year. All the same, I’ve been working on a blue v-neck cabled sweater intermittently for the last several months and last night I finished the last bit of knitting:
(As usual, clickable thumbnails. The flash in my camera tends to over-expose things, and I pr’bly corrected a smidge too much in this one; the next one is more color accurate on my monitor.)
Jali thought that it was just fine that way:
..but it still needs side and underarm seams, and to have the ends woven in, both of which I’ll pr’bly do tonight. This was my first foray into saddle shoulders and while it was a bit of a surprise not to be done with the sleeves when I thought I should be, I like how they turned out:
(Sorry for the blurriness of that one.) I also am pleased with the neck, which I was afraid was going to end up *way* too large.
Unfortunately, the Coriolis socks have languished while I worked on the sweater, partially because I’m afraid they’re going to be too big, even though I’m getting spot on stitch and row gauge (which makes me think I was too generous in my measurements).
These are for mom, though, and she knows about them (and that they’ll be late) so I’ll have her try them on tomorrow night to see how they’re fitting. I haven’t wanted to keep working on them if they’re just going to get ripped out, so the sweater was a good diversion.
Infidelity
I cheated on the blue cabled sweater this week. It was for good reason – my mom’s office is very cold and she needed fingerless glove bits so her hands wouldn’t freeze when she typed. Considering that mom spent her vacation sewing for me, it seemed only fair to return the favor by making her a pair.
With flash – a little washed out, but shows some of the colors better.
Without flash – color are a little harder to distinguish, but shows them a little closer to reality.
These were a quick little knit, taking a bit less than a skein of Claudia Handpaint in Argyle 2 on Clover bamboo US2 needles, and about three days worked in bits and pieces between working on the house stuff. They turned out beautifully and fit her perfectly. I washed them with some lovely handmade wool wash that I received in my knitting gnome swap package from Stephanie to get out some excess dye that stained my hands a smidge during knitting.
I’m going to pause a moment to wax rhapsodic about the wool wash: it’s really lovely. It’s a solid bar, like a bar of soap, that you lather under the running water. It’s 20% lanolin (so it softens your hands wonderfully when you lather it!) and smells delightful without being overpowering. I especially like that since it’s a solid bar, once it dries from being lathered, it can just get tucked away again. I’ll definitely be using this a lot, and once this bar is done, I’ll definitely be ordering more from her Etsy shop!
Mom has also requested some wool socks to wear around the house, and she picked out the yarn I won from one of the contests in the Coffee Swap, which I don’t think I ever took a picture of and posted. It’s a beautiful yarn and I’m enjoying knitting it up, but I don’t remember exactly what it is and it wasn’t labeled. I’m pretty sure it was dyed by the person who sent it though and I do wish that I had taken more care to jot down some additional information about it. I love that it has smaller and irregular splotches of the brown because it means that the yarn doesn’t really pool much.
I’m taking this as an opportunity to finally try one of Cat Bordhi’s sock architectures from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I’ve wanted to try Coriolis since I got the book (almost a year ago, for Christmas last year!), and I’m just about an inch into the start of the spiral on the foot. So far it’s very neat and a dead simple pattern to memorize. My swatch was 10 stitches to the inch on Harmony US0 needles, but my actual gauge is a bit looser than that – pr’bly 9 stitches to the inch, but I haven’t measured again yet. It may end up a little looser than I’d like, especially in the toes when I wasn’t paying as close attention, but since they’re socks to be worn around the house and not necessarily in shoes, I think that will be okay in the end.
Catching..
..squirrels.
(As usual, all photos are clickable thumbnails.)
After some phone tag and other missed connections, the squirrel guy came out last night to set a trap for the squirrel(s) in my wall. I’ve known there were squirrels up there for awhile, and when dad was here a few weeks ago and cleaned out the gutter on that side of the house, I learned that the damage is worse than expected: most of one complete fascia board has rotted away. At this point, I’m not sure which came first – the clogged gutter or the rotted board (it’s possible that the board rotted and caused the gutter to flex enough so that the mesh cover was dislodged in the wind; it’s also possible that the mesh cover was just dislodged and the gutter clogged and the constant moisture rotted the fascia) – but I did know that I would need the squirrels to be vacated before I could do any real fix to the fascia. So there’s now a squirrel trap coming out the side of my house, as well as several feet of wire mesh to patch the fascia and soffit so the squirrels can’t get out (or in again) any other way. One of them is either in trying to find another way out that’s not the trap, or out trying to find a way back in and has been making quite a ruckus this morning, so it may take a few days to get them out, but it will be worth it.
..up. I’ve been watching Heroes on Netflix for a while, first on DVD and then on demand for most of the second season. The last four episodes of the third season aren’t available on demand, though, which was annoying me until I went out to see if they were available directly from the network and realized that they haven’t aired yet. This might just be the first time in.. well, maybe ever that I’ve been caught up on every episode of a television series.
..on. One “side effect” of catching up on Heroes has been that I’ve been knitting again, after a several month hiatus. I’m still not as much into it as I have been in the past, but it’s a good accompaniment to movies and the like and now that it’s winter and darker longer I seem to have more patience for those kinds of things. I’ve finished the back and front of the cabled sweater I’ve been working on, and am about a third of the way through the first sleeve. I had the cable pattern memorized awhile ago, so this is almost mindless now. The photo is terrible, but unfortunately the best of the group.
Bit by bit..
I’ve not been knitting much lately. There’ve been other things preoccupying my mind, or rather, things I was trying to avoid taking over my mind, and the usually welcome time to think that knitting allows was too much for awhile. However, things are settling, and it’s getting on into autumn, so I’ve found myself more willing lately to pick up the needles again.
Neither is truly color accurate, though the second is pr’bly closer than the first. This is a completed back of my second ever all-over cable sweater.
And (blurry, sorry) how far I’ve gotten on the front. The pattern goes pretty quickly all things considered, I just have less time to knit so we’ll see how long it takes to finish the front.
Peas and Carrots
I just spent a half hour while working out trying to sing the alphabet to Mary Had a Little Lamb. First in English, then in German. (Try it.. it’s harder than it sounds.)
Sociological Images was on a sex (as opposed to gender-roles) kick (may not be work-safe) last week. I’m still trying to figure out what I think about most of that.
In other news, you may be amazed that there’s progress on a knitting project:
The scary thing.. that’s not even one full skein of yarn. I took this picture yesterday morning before running out the door to work and then knit through Casino Royale (yes, the new one) last night. So there’s about another inch or so completed but not pictured, most of which was done before I attached the second skein of yarn. (Plymouth Galway, for those interested; pretty sure this is the Cobalt colorway, and yes, it really is that electric blue.) I have the pattern memorized – it’s actually very easy and mostly mindless – which makes it decent movie knitting. Which is good given the timeline I have in which to finish it.
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.
Random Thursday
As an Institutional Researcher, this is about 90% of what I do daily. Because Institutional Research is one of those more or less obscure careers – most people have no idea what it is, even a fair number of the rank and file in academia – there’s no predominant path people take to get here. In the three and half or so years I’ve been in this profession, I think that my background as a social worker has been far more useful than my background as a researcher or a statistician. Social workers are trained to see person-in-environment – to explicitly see the context of a particular set of circumstances. More than anything else I do, being able to set the context around any particular piece or set of data is by far the most valuable (and also most often overlooked by users of data). (If you want an example, ask me about the IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey sometime.. *smile*)
I apparently smell like jelly beans today. *shrug*
The Peterson’s Graduate Survey has become officially known as “The Evil Survey(tm)” by my student survey monkey. This amusing me for several reasons, not the least of which being that it is truly an evil survey.
I promised pictures of Ornette; here are a couple from when I hit the 3 inch mark a few days ago (row 36 or the 40 row cable pattern):
As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails.
I’m knitting the large size of the pattern and started with the right sock. I’m using Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino yarn on US1 needles. I thought I had a set of Harmony US1s, but I can’t find them so I’m using Clover bamboo needles, which are just not quite pointy enough for the cabling and causing the yarn to be splittier than I think it should be. Despite the heavily cabled appearance, the sock is fairly elastic – relaxed, it measures about 6.5 inches, but it stretches enough not to be tight or luck stretched out around my 10.5 inch lower calf. (I’d show you a picture, but it’s rather difficult to take a picture of your own calf, particularly when the interesting part of the pattern is on the outside!)
At Cookie’s request, I washed and blocked it this morning (I’m now through row 40, one full repeat of the cable chart), but apparently can’t take a non-blurry picture today; it also appears darker because it’s still damp.
The yarn did bloom a little in washing, but I didn’t lose as much stitch definition as it appears from the pictures. I might go outside at lunch and try to get some better pictures.
A caveat: I’m test knitting the pattern along with a couple dozen other folks, so it’s possible that the pattern I knit will be different from the final released pattern. There have been one or two minor revisions already, but for cosmetic purposes; the pattern is well written and easy to follow if you understand how to read charts. I’ve been doing the cabling without a cable needle, which is a bit of a new trick with the small gauge (and is another reason I’d really like some pointier needles).
