Corn socks and Merry Xmas

Again, I stopped blogging for a while, but I am still knitting and wishing everybody happy holidays. Here's what I've been working on:



Made with Maizy (82% corn fiber). I tried as best as I could to come up with a corn plant pattern. The tuft is going to be a challenge, but I think I can tackle it. What saddens me is that I could not come up with convincing corn ears, so I took them out.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone finds the time to knit over the holidays and enjoy themselves.

Baby Knitting

I hate baby knits. I know I sound bitter but that's the truth: I don't enjoy knitting for other people's babies given my own infertility issues. That said, I do share the joy babies bring to my friends' lives and am very happy for them. They know not to make me an outcast just because I have never experienced what they are going through, and they are wise to share the news and baby pictures, because they know I still love them and want to be part of their lives.

I am thrilled that one of my friends from college recently gave birth to a baby boy, but I felt terribly guilty about not sending in a handmade item. So here's a quick knit, from Bernat.



I used some leftover Caron Sayelle ack-rylic that I have had for quite some time. Not very absorbent, so probably a bad choice. But, it's machine washable, which is good, right?

Reno Socks

Recently I went to Reno with the spouse. My intention was to enjoy myself and knit a lot. Sadly I came down with a cold. I did manage to kint a lot (it happens when you're in bed two days in a row, I guess).

Anyway, here's the socks prior to ribbing, knitted on two circulars:



These come from Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. The pattern is called Ribbed Ribbon. I was hoping that the yarn would work with the pattern but sadly it does not. Those muddled colored bands concealed it completely. Live and learn.

Here's one complete sock with ribbing.


When knitting lace socks, I should stick to solids. But solids are so boooooring...

Finished!

I refuse to find out when exactly I started this shawl. It was more than a year ago, and that is bad enough.

But here is my finished Kiri, made with three balls of Kid Merino:



Of course, it looks prettier when actually worn.


And now, what shall I do with two balls of Kid Merino? Any suggestions?

I'm not dead!

Although this job is killing me! Who would have known? But I am not here to complain about my job and the lack of knitting. I'm here to show off:



Yes! I completed that blasted Debbie Bliss baby jacket after chasing down the errata on Ravelry and squeezing barely enough time to cast off, block, seam, and give it to my friend right before she relocated. And of course, I forgot to take a picture of it, but my friend kindly sent me one.

Now that I have it, it would be a shame not to post it, don't you think?

There is something else I managed to complete but I have been unable to get a good picture of it. But it will appear here soon, I promise.

In Other Crafts

My sewing machine and I do not get along very well, but we had to work together for this project. On top of that, I had to freshen up my embroidery skills, on which I had given up years ago.

I don't want to show the complete names but I think the letters came out well. I am still not 100% satisfied with the sewing results but I cannot waste anymore time working on it. The bride to be, one of my best friends from college, assures me she is going to like it no matter what. I hope so. I will not be at the wedding, which breaks my heart. At least  I get to sign the guest book anyway.

List of finished books:

Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer.
Finally finished the series. It's not so great but it kept me entertained.

Stolen Innocence, by Elissa Wall
More about the polygamous mormon sect.

Tear Down this Myth, by Will Bunch
I always thought the Reagan administration was overrated. Now I know how and why that happened, plus I got the real facts.

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
I missed the movie, which given the bad reviews, might have been for the best. The book is great, but one has to keep in mind that it was written during the 80's.

The Hero of Ages, by Brandon Sanderson
The last book in the Mistborn Series. Finally the whole thing makes sense. I liked it a lot, especially compared with the second book which seemed to have been written in haste.

Purple Socks!

My socks are here! They were knit by Nutsue, who used a lovely  embossed leaves pattern.



I have to show you a close up, this is a very pretty pattern indeed.



The socks themselves are wonderful, but she also sent me a few goodies, including a postcard from Paris, a Monet fridge magnet, two pens and some Fortissima Socka yarn with beautiful tweed colors.



All in all, a wonderful Spring package. I hope  mine arrives soon to its destiny too. I never took the time to post a picture of the finished socks, but here they are:



I also tackled the task of culturing some S.  marcescens and figuring out how to use the pink pigment from the bacteria to dye some yarn. It wasn't easy! The bacteria produced very little pigment when grown in a liquid culture, and also the pigment has low solubility in water. I did get a skein to absorb some color:



But that pale pink is very different from what  I was hoping for. I am thinking of giving this skein a second dye bath. Should I?

Plan B

After weeks of knitting and ripping one single argyle sock, I realized I was not going to meet the deadline if I did not switch to another pattern. But having mastered the grafted toe, I searched for a top down sock. I settled for one of Cat Bordhi's innovative patterns. I chose the "sky" architecture, which has the heel increases on top of the foot. Her pattern is called Bartholomew's Tantalizing socks, which has a very pretty linen stitch between the increases. I did not like the fold over cuff so I made a regular ribbed cuff.



Another change I made was to put the reinforced heel stitch on the back of the heel. I don't know why Cat likes to put it on the bottom of the heel for all her top down socks. It makes no sense to me.



These are my readings since the last post:

The Dark Elf Trilogy, by R.A. Salvatore (three books!)

Lyonesse, by Jack Vance

Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer

The Green Pearl, by Jack Vance

Escape, by Carolyn Jessop

All of them Fantasy with the exception of the last book, about a woman who escaped a polygamist mormon cult. I find it hard to believe that such groups still exist.

Finally, here is a picture of a plate inoculated with the bacteria Serratia marcescens. Whenever I look at that beautiful pink pigment I have the same idea.... Can you guess what I'm thinking?

Argyle Socks

This is what I learned to make this weekend:



Isn't it cute? I took a class at Stitches West with Suzann Thompson on how to knit Argyle socks. I was yet undecided on what to knit for my sock swap victim but, after taking this class, I am very tempted to scale up this sock and make a pair, of course, with more attention to detail. Some of the cross hatch stitches are not tight enough and there's a few twisted stitches on my little sample.

The only thing that worries me is the color scheme. A lot of people complimented it, but the spouse does not like it. He says I should ditch the purple, and make blue the main color with yellow diamonds.  Should I? Or should I stick with these colors?

Beheading

Yes, it is a horrible concept. But according to these two websites, it had to be done. My African violet (remember her?) had stopped flowering, and was starting to look like a miniature tree.


So I gathered all the courage I could and beheaded my dear potted plant, who's been with me for more than four years. It broke my heart. Then I discovered that she actually had three heads instead of one, and I felt better. I hope at least one of them survives.



Here's the picture of the fingerless mitts I made last month.



I'm looking at the last issue of knotions and trying to figure out whether or not I should knit bifröst for my swap victim. I love the look of it, but it is a top down sock. I'm not sure if I should try converting it to toe-up or try toe grafting once more and see if I do a better job this time. What would you do?

Sock Swap

This will be the third time I participate in Swapetines. This has always been a very small exchange, which gives it a very intimate feeling. By now I feel I know most of the people participating in the swap. I might have never met them in person but, with the exception of some new faces, I have been more or less following their blogs for two years.

Things at work have kept me busier than expected. One more person at work is also under treatment for breast cancer. That's two in a row and it makes us all very depressed. Plus, we had to find someone to substitute her during her leave, and even though we found three wonderful people (yes, it takes three part time people to cover one full time person), they are all on their learning curve and that puts a heavier load on some of us.

So I make no promises regarding blog updates. I will, however, make sure that I do not disappoint my swap recipient.

Somewhere in my camera there's a picture of the mittens I made for the other coworker that underwent chemotherapy last semester. I'll get it later.

Meanwhile, let me bore you with books I've read since my last post:

The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie
Buzón de Tiempo, by Mario Benedetti
Before they are Hanged, by Joe Abercrombie
The Well of Ascension, by Brandon Sanderson
New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
When you are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
Last Argument of Kings, by Joe Abercrombie
La Cena Secreta, by Javier Sierra
Novela de Ajedrez, by Stefan Zwieg (The original novel was written in German).

My, it seems that when I'm under stress I read a lot. Not all of it was good. I did not like neither The Well of Ascension nor New Moon. Both are second parts in their own series. There's a pattern here. An author can write a wonderful first novel in a series but then become very sloppy with the second one.

It had been a long time since I last read a book in Spanish. The Stefan Zwieg novel was a gift, that's why I read a Spanish translation. Otherwise I would have probably read an English translation. I should maybe ask for some more recommendations for books written in Spanish.

Booties

Yes, and happy new year, along with hope that recession is not getting to you either. I've been a bad blogger but still trying to keep up. I never posted a picture of the pair of booties after finishing them, so here they are.


I finished them at about the same time that I was reading The Hype About Hydrogen, an interesting book, even if a little outdated. That's the problem when writing about technology.  I know new nanomaterials are lowering the costs. There are also some uses for fuel cells that were not covered in this book, like using them to power laptops and other portable devices.

But the bottom line still applies: If you're making hydrogen from fossil fuels, you're still producing CO2 and contributing to global warming. The technology is not cost effective, neither for power plants nor for vehicles, and it comes with many risks attached.

Baby sweater? One sleeve seam down and that's it. I am in the middle of an urgent project. A person close to me underwent five months of chemotherapy and among all the unpleasantness of it, she ended up with peripheral neuropathy. In her own words, it feels like getting her hands and feet constantly pricked by a thousand needles, and the cold was making it much worse. Given that she has to work in an unheated environment (yes, she ran out of sick leave and vacation and even extended sick leave, so she must go back to work), I set out to make her a pair of fingerless mitts (pattern here, though I of course made some changes to it).

By now she might not need them, given that it is so much warmer now in California, but I am going to finish them anyway. I finished one and am in the middle of the second one.

And finally, happy Martin Luther King's day. I feel quite cheerful knowing that his dream is closer to becoming reality. But having an African American president will not magically set things right. Back in North Carolina,  I used to live on a street with a really dull name, and when the name of the street was changed to "Martin Luther King Blvd" there was a public uproar. Homeowners complained that the value of their property would go down. Incomprehensible, but true. There's still people out there that refuse to live on a street named after a black man, no matter how noble and wise he was.