Soon to be frogged

Another September Project.



The pattern is the Garden View Shawlette. I like the pattern, but not with this yarn, which is Newton's Yarn Country Rayon Ice Hand Painted. Rayon has no memory at all, and a stockinette shawl, no matter how well blocked, just rolls on itself. It slides of my shoulders, even after tying it.

Also, where did all the yardage go? The pattern calls for 200-300 yards. I started out with 2200 yards, according to the label. The fabric was thin and my gauge was way off. I order to get a better fabric and also to hit gauge, I used two strands, which meant I had 1100 yards, right? Enough to make a much larger shawl, with 9 or 11 leaves instead of 7. That’s why I started out with a long garter strip to be able to tie it behind my back.

Well, I am glad this pattern is constructed sideways. This allowed me to weigh the skein as I went. After three leaves I realized that I was approaching the middle. I had to settle for 7 leaves. Of course, The shawl is more triangular now than crescent shaped, given that there is only one center leave instead of three. Also, the tie strips are now pointless.

I am afraid to confess that for the first time ever a FO is going to the frog pond. I just do not see myself wearing this monster.

Snakes and Ladders

Another September project. I did not know if I wanted lace or cables in my socks, so I went with both. Someone from India told me years ago that she knew knitted cables as "snakes", and so I thought of the game "snakes and ladders" as I knitted the socks. Later I learned that in the US the game is know as "chutes and ladders".



Thanks to wikipedia, I now know that the game originated in India, and that over there it is still known as "snakes and ladders". So I'm sticking to that name.

I used a yarn called Summer Sox, which was a pleasure to knit with, though the ends tend to get splitty and weaving them in was not easy. In keeping with my obsession of using up all my yarn, I used the leftovers to make fingerless mitts for a friend, in the same pattern.



No leftovers! Yay!

Now with pictures

September was a productive month. Sadly, it was not a camera busy month. For one reason or another, I was posting to ravelry but not taking the time to take pictures of my stuff. But now that I did, let me show off, starting with a raglan I made with Sinfonia cotton that I got in Mexico eons ago:



I did not want to run out of yarn, so I started from the top and kept going until I had used up all three skeins. Yes, I am lucky to be short.

The one thing I regret is that I thought a seed stitch edging would be decorative enough, but it wasn't. Towards the end I added a few lace butterflies. If I were to knit this again (but I am not) I would add the butterflies at the neckline and at the sleeve cuffs.



The spouse concurs. Only to him those are little holes, not butterflies. But to him, all lace projects are just random holes.

Waffles

This was an August project: Socks for the spouse. Well I think I actually started them in July, but had to interrupt them to make the Shedirs. Which reminds me: Many thanks for those of you who offered to pray for my sister. She keeps to herself these days, and I repeat to myself over and over that no news is good news...

Anyway, onto the pictures:



Socks in a very boring gray, knitted with 2 mm needles (that's US size 0). They would have been a drag were it not for the fact that heritage quattro is really nice to knit with. Also, the Ridge Squares pattern was easy to memorize.



Nowadays I knit mostly socks. And I always start them from the toe with a figure 8 cast on, and I always do a short row heel, and I always cast off with Jeny's stretchy bind-off.

There was a time when I liked trying new techniques and I even bought Cat Bordi's first book on adventurous sock knitting. I usually do not buy many books, much less knitting books, so that was a biggie. But I never bothered with the second book. I didn't even try to check it out of the library.

As for Sock Summit, as much as I love the concept, I've never been there. Let's face it, I'm too settled into my sock knitting by now. I know what works for me, and I am not itching to learn anything new.

I am one boring knitter.

But Rabbitch's post about Sock Summit got me thinking about another undesirable aspect of my knitting. Why am I so cheap? Why can't I splurge once in a while? Especially when it comes to independent artists. I love the stuff they make, my mouth waters when I see their lovely merchandise, and yet I never buy any fiber or yarns from them.

Next year, I will skip Stitches West and spend some money on Etsy instead. I will try Rabbitch's goodies, of course, but I will also consider other Etsy shops. Does anyone have another favorite Etsy yarn or fiber shop to recommend?

Mini

I somehow missed blogging about this sweater for the new pooch. Heck, I guess I did not even blog about the new pooch. She's a rescue pooch, presumably a dachshund and poodle mix.



Anyway, she had a small wound that she kept scratching, and this sweater was the solution. It's made with cascade fixation.

It's truly a mini sweater since all I needed was to cover her shoulders. I could have done a one shoulder number but that would have been even more tacky.

Chemo Caps

I wish I'd made something else, but  my sister started chemo recently, so this is what I made for her. I wanted to knit a Shedir, but was unable to find a soft cotton yarn at the right gauge. And so I modified the Shedir pattern using five repeats around the hat instead of eight. I wrote my modifications on ravelry.



That's the spouse, kindly modeling for me. Please say a prayer for my sister if you read this.

I want one!!!

I am talking about this gorgeous R2D2 sweater. It's so wonderful that I am shamelessly stealing the picture:

I know, that's really bad and one should not do it... but I guess it's better than linking to the image itself, no?

The link is from boing boing, but the seller is, of course, on Etsy.

I don't have 450 dollars. I don't have 70 or 80 hours to spare. But, deep down, as much as I like the sweater, I don't think I have the guts to wear it in public either!

Nano

I had a physics teacher that hated the use of the term "Nano" to refer to tiny things, when they contained no parts that were actually sized in the nanometer scale, or had nothing to do with nanotechnology. He always gave as an example the iPod Nano.

Well, screw that. This shawl was a disappointment in that it turned out too small. So I'm calling it Nano. I actually finished it in July, blocked it and stashed it away immediately. When winter comes, I might pull it out and use it as a scarf.



This is Wendy's Summer Mystery Shawlette, which contains no gauge information. In fact, I remember she said that gauge does not matter with shawls. Well, I proved her wrong :)

By the way, I used my Serratia marcescens yarn, the one I dyed with bacteria.

Labyrinth socks

So this is the pattern that was playing in my head. It does not work in the round with all those diagonals, so it's mainly on the top of the sock. After the heel I added a bit of the pattern to the back without completing the whole circuit to avoid staggering.



Did you notice that they are mirror images? I am sometimes anal like that. If I have not made a Pomatomus pair it's because I am too lazy to figure out the mirror image of the pattern.

By the way, I know I said these other socks look like camouflage, but the name fits this yarn much better.



If you ever want to knit a pair of socks to go with a camouflage outfit, choose Panda Soy in the Chocolate Almonds colorway.

I am still busy packing, we are moving a week from now! Here's one sock on a foot, posing on one of the moving boxes:

More Scraps Soup

This is my second version of Scraps Soup. This time I used only one strand of yarn when knitting the cuff, though I did change yarns halfway. I'm not sure I like how it looks.



I am running out of ideas regarding what to do about the cuff. I am also running out of scraps, which is actually a good thing, because I was itching to try a non-wool yarn and a different, lacey pattern that has been running through my head lately.

I actually finished these socks more than a week ago, but I have been very busy lately. Why? Because we're moving to our own home pretty soon! We are ecstatic, but overwhelmed with packing. I started with the books, and I've filled up 50 boxes already. Luckily, I have the ideal packing material.

Scraps Soup

Not that you'd ever catch me making soup from food scraps. It's just that I find the name fitting for socks made with leftover scraps from two previous pairs.



The pattern is the Pinwheel Socks by Elise Duvekot. Except that they don't have the characteristic pinwheel on either the heel or the toe. I prefer not to use garter stitch on my socks, that's why. Additionally, they're knit from the toe up, using 60 stitches for toe and heel and 40 stitches for the body of the sock.

I added a knit one, purl one cuff after increasing again to 60 stitches. I was making all the purls with one yarn and the knits with the other. I don't like the results much. The cuff is not as stretchy as it would have been when using only one yarn, and it does not create the contrast I expected.



Still, I am not ripping, just making a note an moving onto the second pair, with more scraps. Though not with these yarns. This is all I have left:

Pretty in Pink

Well, I finally finished those sleeves. I must have knit them three or four times before deciding on a final version. Even now, I am not totally satisfied with how they look. They are a little baggy.



Also, I was unable to block it properly, given that all I have is this piece of styrofoam. It has worked for me well with all my sleeveless projects but now there was not enough room for the sleeves. I had to improvise, block it sideways and fold the bottom lace section up at the seam and pin the lace edging to the body.

It did not work. That bottom part took two days to dry and the lace was still a bit curly.

After adding the crochet edgings, here's the final result:





Yep, the sleeves look baggy, but so be it. Either I learn to live with them or I bring the whole thing back to a plastic bin to age for another three or four years.

I wore it to work, got a few compliments, and nobody said anything about the sleeves, but maybe that's because they're too polite.

Remember the lazy pink thing?

This blog has been all about small projects (socks, mitts and hats) for too long. I am kind of fed up and want to go back to larger things. Which brings me to the lazy pink thing that I started back in 2007. I hated it then, having made some mistakes when modifying the pattern and then having to start over. Also, I was a little fed up with pink back then.




I am less averse to working with it now. Except for the sleeves. They are designed so they stick out, just like t-shirt sleeves. My first attempt at a sleeve looked really awkward when sewn in. My poor sewing abilities are partly to blame but I also think they would look ugly anyway even when sewn in by a pro.

Here's when ravelry saved me. NaiadKnitter finished this project but wrote on her notes that she would pick up stitches and knit the sleeves down from the shoulder on the next one.

And that is, precisely, what I am attempting to do:



I hope it works...

Chess Whim

The husband wanted a very thin hat, in a solid color. I chose "Merino Dream" by Lucy Neatby.

Oh, how I regret that decision.

I started with 3 mm needles (the recommended needle size on the label), and ended up going down two needle sizes and using 2 mm. That's US 0. Which meant that I needed hundreds of stitches (Oh, how I miss the joy of the Addi hats, with their 46 stitches).

The yarn is also splitty, and uneven in both texture and color. The label warns you about color variations, but what I encountered were spots where the hank had been tied too tightly and the color did not penetrate. I seriously hate, hate, hate this yarn. I have about 55 grams left, enough for another hat if I wanted to, but I don't. The spouse suggested matching mittens and I growled at him.

Another problem was that the spouse wanted to have chess pieces as decoration. Without the benefit of a contrasting color, my only choice was garter figures. As I found out, those work well with light colors, but not with pitch black. So even after spending some time charting the figures and experimenting until they satisfied the spouse, once on the hat, they are very difficult to figure out.

Oh well. You can't always be happy with all your knitting projects.

Another Hiatus

Well, I have been knitting, but obviously not blogging. Rest assured, all is well and it's just been a matter of being too busy. I'm still enjoying the new job.

I finished the tabi socks. I followed the method described by Lyn Vogel in the Twisted Sisters' Sock Workbook. Here's a picture of the sock before the big toe was finished.



My, the spouse really has an ugly toe.

And here's the final results.



I hope they fit my father, who is the actual recipient.

New Project

Ugh. Another grey one. This one will be for my father. I have not made a cuff down pair of socks for a while and I think I made the cuff too long.

Final Results

I like my new socks. I was not crazy about the colors but let's face it, neutral colors can be combined easily with any attire. I could have made them longer but did not bother.

Panda soy is splitty and caused me some headaches, so I will not buy it again. Unless, of course, I find other advantages after wearing and washing them several times.

Camo socks approaching the end

I started the ribbing and noticed that somehow, I was missing a stitch in one of the socks. Somewhere I must have missed an increase. I was straining my eyes, trying to find the mistake when it downed on me that if I could not see it up close, I could completely ignore the mistake. So I just added one stitch at the ribbing and all I have to do is finish the cuff and bind off.

Last weekend I was at Stitches West. I only went to the Marketplace, and did not attend any classes. Here's what I got:



I was searching for bargains, but did not find so many. Still, I am happy with my stash. We'll see if I ever get to use it.

Camo Socks have heels

They also have a hump on the front, where the pattern begins. Hmmm. That did not happen with my previous pair of jaywalkers. Did I do something differently? The humpis not noticeable when I wear the socks.

Not so ugly

This is how the socks look after several blue dye baths. I would have continued to dye them a deeper green, except that the bands started to disappear. Call me sentimental, but self-striping yarn is hard to achieve, so I wanted to keep the bands.

Ugly Socks Finished

Here they are, in morning daylight:





I finished them yesterday. Today I am soaking them in a blue dye bath, hoping to get deeper greens.

I also started a new pair of socks using Panda Soy. The knitted look resembles camouflage.






I am making my own version of jaywalkers. Once more I had to change the total number of stitches.

DIY knitting loom

A co-worker showed me this video and I thought I'd post it here. Sadly, I was unable to embed it. It's in Japanese, but it is self-explanatory.

I've been working on the hideous socks. It's funny how I don't find them that hideous anymore. Ugly, yes, but not hideous.



I still want to give them another dye bath when I'm done.

No more squeaking

Thankfully, I finished the socks. The spouse likes them:




He wore them today and I missed taking a picture this morning with daylight. Sorry for the evening blurry picture.

I dug out some yarn I dyed in 2006. I predicted back then that it was going to take me a couple of years to knit it up. Well, as usual, I was being over-optimistic.




And as I go on knitting, I realize how hideous the color combination is. That's the problem with dyeing, you never know what you get because wet yarn looks darker that it actually is. I will keep on knitting and maybe later give the socks another dye bath. We'll see.

Almost Done!

Thanks to watching "Bones" over Netflix. We still don't have a TV and don't miss one, but it's nice to catch up with popular TV shows without publicity.



I have done about 1 cm of ribbing. Maybe I will finish them up today, let's see if I manage.

Heels and flowers.

The squeaky socks have heels. If I'm watching a movie while I knit the squeaking is bearable.



Oh yes, and the spouse sent me flowers. He's totally earning these socks.

Squeaky socks

It's time to start a new pair of socks for the spouse. I did promise I'd use that gloomy gray yarn soon. But alas, not only is it gloomy, it also squeaks! It's all synthetic: nylon and acrylic. It's driving me nuts. Stitch after stitch, it squeaks loud enough that I can hear it and even feel the vibrations on my fingers.



The pattern is Gentleman's Fancy Socks (ravlery link). The spouse chose the pattern, which by coincidence I had also chosen for myself (from the same library book) three years ago.

Tomorrow will be my first day at the new job... I'm so nervous... maybe that's why I can't stand the squeaking.

Happy New Year!

This year starts well enough for me, with a recently finished pair of socks. I said I was going to knit until I ran out of yarn, and I did!



I tried that once before when knitting the sunset socks, also with Opal yarn. In that occassion I was using the Coriolis pattern and I ran out of yarn earlier. Coriolis looks simple enough but it does use up more yarn than a plain sock. These socks are definitely longer.




They stay up if I am not moving around much, but I plan on adding elastic thread later on.

I used this bindoff, which is a variation of what I always do (learned from Vaxgirl), except I do purls instead of knits. The results are very similar.

Another great thing about this New Year is that I will be starting a new job soon. I will not be making as much money as before, but it beats being unemployed, right?