back on the bandwagon

for almost two months i've cruelly neglected this blog. i'm sorry. i'll try not to do it again.

the blog isn't the only thing that's been languishing in the bitter winter of my inattention. apparently blogging, picturetaking and knitting are linked in my life. i know this now because i haven't done any in any signifigant way since early april. before i was knitting a pair of socks a month, taking a zillion pictures and blogging almost daily. these days i've been doing schoolwork, earning a living, keeping up with housework, reading, walking, lots of stuff, but no knitting, photography or blogging. is it too late to start again? can you forgive me?

i hope not.

so anyways, i made this sock in april:and since its completion at the end of april i've knit about two inches of its pair. i suck. but the sock (a modification of the nutkin pattern) is slow, painful knitting. it looks cool, but is not worth it. and i feel that this design would look better as fingerless gloves, with a longish arm part. i may make that one day.and i don't like the yarn as much in sock form as in skein form. alas. it just sort of looks like a messy pile of colours here, instead of something beautiful and subtle.

this is my front door, as seen from inside the house. can you see it? i noticed the other night that the words 'men's toilet' are on the door, but painted over. my jiffy markers and i are renewing the letters. i do one letter for every chapter of my text that i read and write notes on. it's slow going, but filling in the letters is actually a good break from the mental strain of memorizing page after page of dry information. i'm hoping to have all of the 'men's' filled in by bedtime. we'll see, since the kids are getting ornery from all the inattention they've recieved today. i might need to actually aknowledge them and, you know, feed them or something, at some point. sooner or later.

i'll try to blog again tomorrow.

sockly love

my boy hears that i love him at least a hundred times a day. he can't walk past me, or even be in the same room as me, without me swinging him into my arms and squeezing him half to death while kissing him all over and/ or threatening to eat him. there comes a point, though, where the same thing repeated enough times becomes meaningless. and so i made him socks.you probably already know this, (daffodylic, megan and llama all do) but a handknit socks are actually hugs. long, warm, cozy hugs that wrap around your feet and you can wear all day and then to bed.

^this is a picture of me hugging my son.^

frigging awesome

my friend is getting married in a month, and i'm a bridesmaid. we have a lot of shared history (25 years, ish) and i love her to pieces, but we have nothing in common. my friend has a trendy townhouse, an important job, a successful fiancee, and is well off. she's stylish, classy, socially appropriate... like i said, we really have nothing in common.
so what the hell does someone like me give someone like her for a wedding present? i'm not actually able to get anything fancy, and she already has everything.
so, of course, i went to ravelry to solve my problem.
ravelry has a lot of patterns, but most don't scream 'classy and modern!'. even if a pattern did, i'd have to opt for the pattern that whispered it, instead, and i couldn't find any of those.
finally, i found this: a mobius shrug. with less texture (and no vile moss stitch) a more urban colour, and some mohair, it could be just the thing.
i wanted it to be charcoal, but i coudn't find the right yarn. in the clearance section, though, there was estelle watercolours (acrylic & mohair) in a creamy colour. don't tell my friend, but her present is costing me less than 2$. i grabbed my biggest needles, cast on an arbitrary number of stitches, and i was in business. it has very nice drape, a lovely luster and a subtle shimmer. my plan i to knit it like a scarf until it drapes comfortably around the shoulders, twist it once, and sew the ends together as invisibly as possible.
the result should be elegant, warm, and soft. if not, my credit card and i will be making an emergency shopping trip.

done!

my bff socks for daffodylic are finally done, and i am very pleased. look!
i mailed them off today. enjoy, friend.next up: a shrug for my friend's wedding and socks for my little boy, since he's already outgrown the ones i made him for xmas.

yarn joy

the other evening things were dreary and grey. my partner was taking the kid out, leaving the baby and i home to enjoy the marvelous joys of doing taxes. the baby was weepy and clingy, i had a headache... it was not the best moment of my life.
i was settling down in front of the computer, coffee in hand, whiny baby being ignored, when i heard a weird thump at the door. i looked out the window and saw a postal worker heading back to a canada post truck... do postal people deliver stuff at 7 pm? apparently so. or some divine spirit knew i needed some day-brightening and moved a spiritually aware package deliveryperson to bring me some goodness. either way, i was mightily surprised and pleased.

inside the screen door i found a plump, cheerful package that looked mightily pleased with itself. i was mightily pleased with it, too. pleased turned to ecstatic when i opened it...oh my dear lord.

• allergen-free 'granola' bars for my son
• lace-weight merino yarn in a stunning colourway
• packaged in a yarn bag

a yarn bag, i discovered as i read the tag, is a waterproof bag for holding a skein or two of yarn, for knitting on the go. if my thermos dumps itself in my backpack, if i set my bag down in a puddle, if the river overflows its banks and i'm chest-deep in water, i don't need to fret. my yarn is dry, secure, and in a stylin' bag.

the yarnis very, very soft. and pretty. i've never knit with lace-weight yarn and i have no idea what to make with it, but yarn doesn't go bad, so when the perfect idea arrives i'll be ready, pretty yarn in hand.

i don't have anything to say about the granola bars yet, since i'm saving them for the next outing i take my son on. there's nothing like an exciting new treat to bribe him into sitting still on the bus.

so thank you, yarnfloozies, for making tax night ten zillion times better.

four good things

i've been in a funk for a few days, so i am going to list some of the things in my life that are good.

1. last night i did a short session with a yoga dvd before bed, and it was wonderful. each of the dozen or so times that the babes woke me up i noticed how good my spine felt. when i'm done this post i'll do another session, and have another happy-spine night.

2. i won a contest! see? i think the prize is yarn, but i won't know for sure until i get an exciting surprise in the mail. the blog that hosted the contest is worth checking out, it's a collaborative effort with lots of good cat and knitting pictures.

3. my bff socks are practically knitting themselves. i've already started the second one, and the first looks fantastic. see? the yarn is very nice, the pattern gives me shivers, the knitting is supremely enjoyable, the end product is excellent. i'm not going to want to give these up when i finish them. i will, though, because no matter how nice the socks are, daffodylic is nicer and i want her feet to be clad in my love.

4. i drink fantastic coffee. really good coffee can make even the shittiest type of day quite a bit better.

so here's to coffee, friends, socks, knitting, contests, yarn, blogs, yoga and supple spines!

cheers!

knitting, knittting and knitting.

yesterday's post was written in a respite between torrential nosebleeds. those nosebleeds led to me spending most of today in a clinic waiting room, knitting. eventually the doctor cauterized my nose, (!!!!!) but not before i got a good lot of sock knitting done. i hope daffodylic likes them.

three of my friends are pregnant. i'm surrounded by fetally attractive women. i only have a handful of friends, so this is practically a mathematical impossibility, but there you have it. so i have some planning to do. these friends tend towards yarn snobbishness, but i think when the baby is puking on everything and my friends haven't slept, showered or eaten in days, they'll be ok with machine washable baby clothes.
i have a baby sweater made in moda dea's tweedle dee, and it's soft and pretty. you can't tell by looking that it's not natural fibres, and only a true yarn snob could tell by touching.
i'm also looking at sirdar's snuggly dk. it's soft, springy and washable. not gently shorn from baby alpacas hand raised by children in the andes, but i'm hoping my friends can overlook that. if the pattern is cute enough, they might. here are the patterns i'm considering:

this raglan sweater would be easy to add a graphic to the front of. i'm thinking a skull or something. newborns never wear enough skulls, you know?

this dress is so sweet. i want to make it so i can look at it and bemoan the fact that i have no daughter. i would not sully this design with skulls or silliness. it's too nice for that.

finally, this hoodie has a cool texture that would really show off a more interesting yarn.
the miles of seed stitch might kill me, but if i survived i could embroider flowers or a little truck or something on it.

so, preggos and non-preggos, what would you like best for your progeny? are my yarn choices appalling? do you despise my project ideas? what would you like for your hypothetical or actual offspring? you have a better idea?

for the love of the yarn

it all started, as these things do, on ravelry. that place makes people do silly things. 'ravelry made me do it' is probably a legitimate defense to use in court.

first, i learned that my local yarn store (lys) had some yarn that i love on sale. 3$ per big skein of soft, local, beautiful wool. then i just happened to be perusing the patterns for things that i could make with that weight of yarn, and i found this.i've never knit a sweater before, but isn't the best time to start when the yarn is on sale?

that did it. the yarn had my head in a death grip and wouldn't let go until i got some. so i made a deal with myself. if i could run all my errands and make it to the lys on one bus ticket, i could have the yarn. if anyone could make it to the five places on my list and the lys (which is far from all the other places) within the hour that a bus transfer is usable, i would say that the yarn gods must be smiling on them and they should get the fibre they seek.

so, of course, i did it. lightning-fast trips to the bank, the library, the drugstore... i did not stop to smell any roses. i had mild panic attacks every time i had to switch buses. what if i just missed it? what if the bus came late? for what was intended to be an enjoyable day off from my domestic responsibilities, it sure stressed me out. but i did it; i deserved all the yarn my backpack could hold.

my final bus dropped me off a little ways from the lys. google maps says it was about a mile. but have i mentioned the weather? it was -33 celsius that day, -27 fahrenheit. bloody cold. and the wind was crazy, blowing sheet after sheet of insidious snow into my face and into all the corners and crevices of my hat, my scarf, and my coat. it was worse than this looksand actually not that fun to walk in. that mile took me half an hour.

i got to the store and found my beautiful yarn. at the checkout i did what it took to cram the yarn into my already full backpack, telling the saleswoman that there was no way in hell that i would carry a bag, my hands needed to stay in my pockets for warmth. as i wound my scarf around my face and arranged my hat and two hoods, she jokingly said that she hoped i wasn't going out walking in that maelstrom. she was visibly shocked when i affirmed that i was. i admitted that if ever my commitment to yarn snobbery was challenged, it was today. but it's common knowledge that i have more stubbornness than smarts, so there i was, in the industrial area (read: bad bus service) in a winter storm.

my original plan was to stay at the store and wind all my yarn into balls using their equipment, saving myself heartache later. but the sun was about to set and the storm wasn't going to get better any time soon, so i figured it would be better to go for my stroll while the drivers could see me walking in the road instead of waiting for it to get dark. (the sidewalks were impassable)

i trudged, head down and shoulders hunched against the wind, through the storm. it sucked. but i happened to look up at just the right moment, and saw a bus! for a moment i thought it was just my wishful thinking taking me for a ride, but the rare and elusive bus that drives that route just happened to be going past! i sprinted and waved and yelled. (this is the place where if i were making this up i would say the bus driver didn't see me, but this here is a truthful account, yo)

the bus stopped. my transfer was long since expired, but the driver so admired my tenacity that he let me ride for free. the most wonderful part is that the bus i was on passes within a block of my house. i was home, drinking hot coffee, 15 minutes later.

but the story doesn't end here. nosirree. i may have escaped frostbite, but there were still more (less dramatic) adventures to come.

remember how i didn't wind the yarn into balls? well, i'm making socks out of that same yarn, from a skein that i bought (and wound) earlier. i'm almost at the toe of the second sock, but the yarn ran out. this evening i got to wind the skein into a ball.

oh, pshaw, you say. big deal. you probably do it all the time, just for fun. but do you remember that i have a 3 year old and a 1 year old? not so fun.to keep it all out of their reach, i had to hang the yarn from my splintery, beat-up bedroom door. as i wound, the yarn caught on the wood and caught on itself and caught on the wood again. plus yarn from the top kept slipping off the door, creating a messy tangle at the bottom of the loop. when the boys realized what i was doing, the wanted in on the action. they enjoyed swinging the door open and closed, crying when made them stop, kicking the door over and over, lying on the floor wailing when i made them stop, begging for treats, whining when i said no...

i wished i was back out in the blowing snow.

it took a couple of miserable hours, but i got it done.
it seems like a lot to go through for something so small, but this is yarn, people. 100% worth it. now i can finish up the socks and get them mailed off (they're already late for my dad's birthday. i'm a very bad daughter) and start a new, exciting project. one that uses yarn that is already neatly wound on cones.

my knittiversary!

on feb 13, 2008 i started knitting. i don't have pictures of several of my projects, but here's a selection of things i've worked on in the past year, in chronological order, with intermittent reminisces:
i used to knit when i was a kid. my dad taught me. he's a fantastic knitter, but his compulsion to constantly have something on the needles has worn off after more than 40 years. it's ok, i make up for his lack of knitting fanaticism.when i was 8 or 9 i read about hellen keller and became really interested in understanding how she perceived things. (i'd say i wanted to see things through her eyes, but that might be in poor taste) upon learning that she could knit, i started knitting in the dark. i remember my parents finding me sitting bolt upright on my bed (in my mind hellen keller had perfect posture) with the lights off and blinds drawn, knitting. as i recall they were baffled.my childhood knitting involved starting a lot of scarves and getting bored of them. i haven't made a single scarf, so far, and i have no plans to in the near future.my interest in knitting was reawakened by three things:

1. some good friends of mine knit. the things they make are beautiful and interesting. i like making things, especially beautiful, interesting things.
2. i was running low on socks and couldn't find ethical, affordable ones anywhere. my knitting friends, serendipitously, are sock knitters. it had never occurred to me before to make my own socks, but the idea was becoming appealing.
3. finally, i was in my favourite consignment/ yarn store and saw a yarn that took my breath away. the colours and textures sang to me. it was noro kureyon sock yarn, and with it i made these:

since then knitting has really grabbed me. my list of things i'd like to do is as long as my arm, easily. i spend lots of time on ravelry, and often as i drift off to sleep at night i'm thinking about knitting.
colour and light, followed closely by texture, are important to my mental wellbeing. photography satisfies my visual needs, but without something to touch, i'm not completley satisfied. yarn has colour and texture, and turning string into fabric is food for my soul.this year i'm hoping to make one pair of socks a month. included in that is at least one pair of felted slippers and some christmas stockings. i haven't decided if i need to make one stocking or two in a month to meet mygoal. i suspect that it will depend on how ornate the stockings are.on top of all those socks i want to make a sweater or two, a shrug, two hats, and more. it will be a busy year, knit-wise, but that appeals to me.these are my january socks. i've already blogged about them lots so you're probably bored of hearing about them. this hat has me stumped. i should have used a pattern. improvising is great when it works, but when it doesn't...this is one of my february socks. i'm making thick socks for my dad. they'll be done by the end of the month but not in time for his birthday.

sockly instruction

my friend is learning to knit socks, and i thought i'd post a tutorial so she doesn't have to take me out each time she needs to learn the next step. not that i don't love going out, but an at-home resource is helpful.

first, cast on: if you're using fingering sock yarn, 60 - 65 stitches on size 2 needles works for most women. i like working in multiples of 12 stitches when possible, so my improvised socks have all had 64 stitches in them. i suggest looking up a pattern designed for the type of person you're making the socks for (man, woman, child, baby, etc) using the weight of yarn you have. even if i ignore the rest of the pattern, i like having someone else do the work as far as figuring out how many stitches to cast on.
cast on your stitches, divide between three needles. to join in the round, make sure the stitches are all pointing down, with no twists. then use the free yarn hanging of the third needle to start knitting the first needle, pulling it tight so you have a triangle of needles. like this: knit at least 1/2 an inch in a ribbing pattern. knit 1, purl 1 or knit 2, purl 2 are the most common. knit 2 purl 1 or knit 3 purl 1 are ok, too. it really doesn't matter, so long as you switch between knitting and purling every couple of stitches. the ribbing acts like an elastic, keeping your socks up. keep in mind that your ribbing pattern should work with your number of stitches - don't try to do a 4 stitch repeating pattern for the ribbing (k2p2, for example) of you have 61 stitches. this is why i like using a number of stitches that is divisible by 12, since almost everything works. the ankle of the sock is just a tube. knit in circles until it's the length you like. the easiest and fastest thing to do is stockingette (knit every stitch, all the time) but the sock will be more interesting if you make a pattern. when you've knit as much as you need to in order to have the sock height of your preference, put half the stitches on a stitch holder or just leave them on the needles, but ignore them. the other half of the stitches you will knit back and forth, like you do with flat knitting. you knit all, turn your work, slip one stitch, purl all. turn your work, slip one, knit all. continue to knit/ purl, turn, and slip one until you feel that the heel flap is long enough. a typical heel flap is ~3 inches long, maybe slightly less.
i like to knit the heels and toes of my socks with a strand of sewing thread along with the yarn for added reinforcement. what's the point of spending all this time making socks if they're just going to wear out? i use the thickest polyester thread i can find, in a colour similar to that of the yarn. this is the part where things get tricky. take it slow and trust the directions, and ask people for help when you're confused. it works, i promise.

divide the number of stitches in your heel flap in half.
add one
knit that number.
knit two together
knit one
turn your work
slip one
purl three
purl two together
purl one
turn your work
slip one
knit four
knit two together
knit one
turn your work
slip one

and so on. you can either keep adding one to the number of stitches you're knitting/ purling and count as you go, or go by visual cues. if you're doing the latter, (as i do) you knit/ purl together the stitches with a gap between them.
then knit/ purl one, then turn your work, then slip one, then knit/ purl until you get to the next gap. keep going until you've knit together the last two stitches on each end. finish on a knit row.
this part can be tricky, but it's quick. use a spare needle and pick up all the slipped stitches along the side of your heel flap. pick up an extra one when you get to the place where the flap meets the held stitches. this prevents unsightly holes. (the pink sock here has one of the unsightly holes you're hoping to avoid.) knit across the picked up stitches, then across the stitches that were held while you knit the flap. now pick up the stitches that run along the other side of the flap, making your knitting a tube once again. (remember to pick up that extra stitch at the beginning) when all your stitches are on needles again, it's time to rearrange them. you want the stitches you held back while you knit the heel flap all on one needle, needle 2. the rest of the stitches should be evenly divided between the other two needles, needles 1 and 3.
in round one, knit until you have three stitches left on needle 1, point A. knit two together, then knit one. knit across needle 2. (or continue whatever pattern you've been doing, needle 2 is the top of the foot) on needle 3 knit one, slip one, knit one, and pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch, right off the needle. knit to the end of the needle.for round 2, knit the whole thing.
for round 3, follow the long instructions above. continue to alternate decreasing rounds and knitting rounds until you can add the stitches on needles 1 and 3 and have them equal the stitches on needle 2. for the body of the sock, knit your chosen pattern on needle 2 and knit all on needles 1 and 3 until you've got ~1.5 inches less than the length you need for your foot. a chart for figuring out lengths for foot sizes is here. you're almost done! the toe of the sock is fairly simple.
round 1: on needle 1 knit to the last 3 stitches, knit 2 together, knit one. on needle 2 knit one, slip one and knit one, then pass the slipped stitch over the knit one and off the needle. knit to the last 3 stitches on needle 2, knit two together, and knit one. on needle 3 knit one, slip one, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over, knit the rest.
round 2: knit all
repeat these two rounds until you have eight stitches left.
to close the toe you do the kitchener stitch. i'll let someone else explain that.
yay, socks!

sockly lessons learned.

i'm finally finished knitting my hedera. they took all month. i hate learning experiences. why can't complicated skills be easier to learn? the way they do it on the matrix looks convenient. can you imagine the knitting equivalent of this?

those would be some kickass socks, i tell you.


while knitting these socks i learned a thing or two. three things, to be precise.
1. pay attention, especially if you're knitting lace or deviating from the pattern. if you forget where you are but keep knitting, bad things happen. holes and blank sections in the pattern and holes and uneven parts and holes. and holes. 2. don't try two new things at the same time. if you're knitting your first lace socks, don't clutter up your thought processes by making them your first toe-up socks, as well. pick one new skill per project. after realizing that you're in way over your head, if you decide to spontaneously modify the pattern, you're an idiot.
3. just because you get bored doesn't mean you can stop, even if you're going out of your skull and can't bear another 4-row repeat of this damned lace pattern. keep going or the unfinished socks will haunt you from the bottom of the bin where you hid them. just buckle down and do it. and maybe make them shorter than you had originally planned, by a few inches. you know, for mental health's sake.

today i'm starting some straightforward, easy socks. ones in bulkier yarn so they knit up quickly. ones that i don't have to look at while i work on. ski socks for my dad's birthday, even. i can't wait. bring on the ridiculously simple!


nora, these are for you if you want them, llama llove. i don't know if they'll fit, but i made them in your foot size, i think.