Crap!

So, the plan was to secretly knit a pair of socks for Sister#1 for her birthday (which is at the end of July). I recently knit a pair of socks for Niece#1 which fit Sister#1 perfectly. I had another ball of that same yarn (Trekking XXL) and I took detailed notes about what I did to make those socks, so I figured this would be easy peasy -- I could use the same pattern and quickly whip out another pair. [Queue the music of impending doom.]

So that's what I did. I used the same type of yarn (just blue instead of purple), the same needles, the same number of stitches, the same number of rows, the same everything. [OK, I did a different thing at the cuff, but that's not significant.]

And here's what happened:

Craptastic socks that won't even fit over a ten-year old's heel.

Say it with me, "AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" Somehow I managed to knit the whole damn sock without noticing that it was extremely narrow. I was just knitting merrily away, so happy in my thoughts of how wonderful it was to be able to knit a sock without having to try the damn thing on all the time to check the fit. Sigh. Granted, most of the foot of this sock was knit in the dark in the car, in the movie theater, or while trying to catch up on some blog reading, but still. I really should have noticed. [Shoulda, woulda, coulda...]

I checked my gauge and it's 1/2 stitch (on the 2.5mm ndls) to 3/4 stitch (on the 2.0mm ndls) tighter on these blue Trekking socks than on the purple Trekking socks. According to my calculations, that should give a difference in circumference of about a half inch. Hmmm, that doesn't sound like a big enough difference to explain the amazing narrowness of these socks. Maybe I knit the foot on those purple socks with more stitches than I wrote down -- possible, but unlikely. Next time I see Niece#1 I'll have to examine those purple socks -- I'm really mystified.

At first I thought it might be that this color of yarn is thinner. But I just did a wraps-per-inch comparison and that does not appear to be it. I guess it's just me. I must have been 0.75 spi less stressed a month ago. Hmmm. Maybe that could be a new way to measure my stress level -- by knitting a gauge swatch with this sock yarn on US 0's. Kind of like a mood ring for knitters.

Persnickety's Handy Gauge Swatch Mood Indicator:

• 8-9 spi = super mellow (aka, too many cocktails),
• 9-9.5 spi = calm, relaxed (a rarely experienced state of mind),
• 9.5-10 spi = slightly on edge (my normal mood),
• 10-10.5 spi = overscheduled and stressed out,
• 10.5-11 spi = watch out, she's gonna blow!

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In happier news, we had a birthday party for Daughters #1 & #2 today. This was their "friend" birthday party, not to be confused with their "relative" birthday party, or even the celebration that happened on the actual day of their birthday. [It's been a week-long celebration basically.]

Anyway, Daughter#2 helped me make this Piggy Cake for the event (they have a thing for pigs lately). Not the best workmanship, but kind of cute.

Piggy Cake

A Busy June

As you may have noticed, this blog has been rather quiet lately. June is one of the busiest months for me. All four of the people in this household have birthdays within the 30-day period from June 3 - July 3, plus there have been multitudinous other events to prepare for such as:

• Father's Day,



• a ballet recital,

Can you tell that Daughter#1 has had a growth spurt recently?



• a piano & voice recital,

Daughter#2 playing something from the Magic Flute

Daughter#2 singing The Rainbow Connection

Daughter#1 playing . . . ummmm (bad Mommy can't remember)

Daughter#1 singing The Candy Man (note the candy-themed outfit, with candy necklaces adorning her various body parts -- her idea)



• two graduation parties,

Half-brother#1 (I only have 1 of these, but I figured he should get a number just like everyone else) swinging at a giant smiley face piñata at Niece#1's party.



• many, many softball games,

Daughter#1 pitching

Daughter#1 at bat

Daughter#2 hitting the ball

Daughter#2 ready to run home



• a mini-vacation (more on that in another post),



• plus all the usual crapola (trying to finish up homeschool lessons, trying to find time for work, etc).

Anyway, I've been busy. But I have gotten some knitting done. I've got a pile of completed projects to blog about. (OK, it's a small pile, but I feel good about it.) Here is the first on the list -- the Graduation Socks.

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Pattern:

No pattern, just basic stockinette socks

Yarn:

Zitron Trekking XXL [75% wool, 25% nylon],
color: 109 (variegated purple)

Needles:

ankles done on 2.5mm, heel & foot done on 2.0mm, top of foot done on 2.25mm & 2.0mm. (Yeah, I like to make good use of my needle collection.)

Gauge:

8.5 - 9.5 sts/inch

Comments:

I made these socks as a graduation present for Niece #1, aka Oh, Jane. She has tiny little muchkin feet so I had to rip back a little to make them smaller at her graduation party, which just happened to be on Knit in Public Day. I guess that sort of counts as knitting in public. There were certainly several people there who were amazed by the whole sock-knitting process.

Oooh, the pretty purpleness -- as modeled by Sister#1, who, like her offspring, also has petite munchkin feet with dainty little ankles.
(Who, me? Jealous?)

Free Arrowhead Lace Headband Pattern

As I mentioned in my last post, making the Saving Grace headband has inspired me to look through my pattern books for other potential lace patterns that would work well with a worsted weight yarn for a quick headband. This turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. The use of worsted weight yarn meant that I needed to keep the pattern under 14 stitches so the headband did not become uncomfortably wide. I swatched a few options, but the headband below is the most successful one so far.

This headband is based on the Arrowhead Lace pattern stitch in Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It has a tendency to poof up in the middle (I didn't bother to block it), but it seems to flatten out when worn. Here's the pattern.

Arrowhead Lace Headband

YARN

Cascade 220 [100% wool],
color: 9455 (turquoise heather)

NEEDLES

US 7

GAUGE

approximately 5sts/inch

DIRECTIONS

Cast on 11 sts.

Follow the arrowhead lace pattern (using chart or directions below) until the headband is approximately 16 inches long (or long enough to fit around your head when slightly stretched). Bind off and seam ends together.

Arrowhead Lace Chart

Arrowhead Lace Directions

Row 1 (WS):k1, p9, k1.

Row 2 (RS):k1, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k1.

Row 3:same as row 1.

Row 4:k2, yo, ssk, yo, slip 2 together as to knit--k1--pass the 2 slipped sts over, yo, k2tog, yo, k2.

Pattern & images © 2006 Tamara Stone-Snyder.
May be distributed freely for personal use only. Cannot be reprinted on the web or otherwise without permission.

A quickie

Looking for a quick knitting project to use up some leftover yarn? How about a simple lacy headband?

Pattern:

Saving Grace headband, a free online pattern by Dawn at Wild Yarn

Yarn:

Cascade 220 [100% wool],
color: 7811 (purple heather)

Needles:

US 7

Comments:

This was a great project -- super fast and easy, and yet quite lovely when done. The only thing I might do differently next time is to use a provisional cast on so I can kitchener the ends together and have no seam.

I made this headband for Daughter#1, and now Daughter#2 wants one as well. I'm happy to make more of these, since I have a whole rainbow of Cascade 220 that's just waiting for projects like this.

This pattern has inspired me to look through my stitch pattern books and find some simple lace patterns that might translate well to headbands. In fact, I found one that Daughter#2 likes, which I am currently working on. Pics of that soon.

House of Two Restaurants

Lunchtime has gotten a little more exciting here lately. The girls have been taking turns playing "restaurant". It was Daughter#2's idea. She started by writing out a menu and having us wait in the hallway to be seated.

[Click on the menu to view a complete list of the Lily Pad's offerings.]

Daughter#2 seated my party (which consisted of Daughter#1 and me) at a nicely set table with a view of the garden. She took our orders quite courteously and efficiently. She prepared all of the food herself (I was ordered to remain seated at the table -- and I was not about to complain). Our food was quite good, except for one small oversight. My peanut butter and banana sandwich had accidentally been made sans banana, so I had to send it back. The waitress took this in stride and quickly remedied the situation, explaining that she had been distracted by trying to make soup at the same time.

The pencil behind the ear was a nice touch.

My dining companion and I both agreed that our lunch was excellent and the service was outstanding. We promised our waitress that we would return again soon, especially after getting our bill and seeing how affordable The Lily Pad is.

What a bargain!

Of course, the next day Daughter#1 wanted to give waitressing a try, so she created her own restaurant.

[Click on the picture to view the menu offerings at Moo Bear's Restaurant.]

It was another enjoyable lunch. Now if I can just get them to do the dishes...

Yeah, I suck at being regular

No, I didn't drown in the flooding, I'm just a lazy slug who doesn't blog often. No, really, I've been quite busy and every time I sat down to blog, something came up to interrupt my spare time. I've even been sucked back into my computer consulting work, although only temporarily. And now there is gardening to do. Anyhow, thank you for your patience, dear readers. I will try to post more regularly.

At long last, I present to you photos of my Lady E. stole that I finished almost a month ago. Feast your eyes on its lovely colorifitude.

No, that tiny butt does NOT belong to me.

I finally got someone to model this for me. I am notoriously camera shy, and, anyway, it would be hard for me to take my own photo while wearing this. It can be a complicated business getting this thing to drape properly, or maybe I am just a stole-wearing novice.

My lovely model here is my about-to-become-a-high-school-graduate niece, aka Niece#1. She also goes by the alias Oh, Jane. when online. [I was instructed that I must include the period in her name -- and she says that I am anal.] She is starting her own blog to show off her artwork. She is super-talented and creative, so I can't wait to see more of her work, especially since I don't get to see her very often. If you go to her blog now you may still be able to see her temporary test post, which contains a picture of her at 8 years old, standing behind my daughters who were only about a week old. Too cute!

OK, back to the stole, here are the details:

Pattern:

Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole, by Kathleen Power Johnson, from Scarf Style

Yarn:

Noro (boo, hiss) Silk Garden [45% silk, 45% kid mohair, 10% lambswool],
color: #217, about 12.5 balls

Needles:

US 7 or 8 [Crap, I waited too long to write this up and I, in my apparent early senility, cannot remember which needle I used)

Gauge:

about 4-4.5sts/inch (it's hard to tell from the stole). Anyway, my gauge was way smaller than the 3.5sts/inch in the pattern.

Size:

22" wide by 78" long, excluding fringe. Fringe adds about 13.5" at each end.

Modifications:

I did an extra 2 rectangles in width to make up for using thinner yarn than the pattern called for. I also did about a million rows of rectangles. [OK, I counted. I actually did 55 'tiers' of rectangles instead of the 35 in the pattern. It just felt like a million.]

Comments:

I enjoyed making this stole and I love how it came out. I have gotten over my crisis about the lavender. Learning to knit backwards really helped with my enjoyment of this project. If I had to turn the stole every 8 stitches, it would have been a huge drag.
Also, although I do LOVE the colors that apparently only Noro can provide (and why is that?), I will no longer be purchasing yarn from them due to my enormous frustration with the knottiness (naughtiness?) of their yarn. Four knots in one expensive ball is 4 knots too many. Don't worry, they will definitely be receiving an email from me on Yarn Rant Day (read the PDF about this here).

What a cute model. However, please note that she is much shorter than me. The stole does not come as close to dragging on the ground when I wear it.

In the book, they show this stole also worn as a scarf. I tried to do a shot like that and this is what I got.

Ummm, not so good.

OK, I tried again (my model was getting a little sick of me by this time) and it kind of works as a scarf, but only if your neck is really, really cold.

No drafts can get near this neck.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this project. After the first few tiers of rectangles it becomes some nice mindless knitting. However, I suggest that you check out some alternatives to Noro Silk Garden, such as La Lana Wools Forever Random Blends (the yarn used in the book) or Karaoke by Southwest Trading Company. There must be other alternatives; please let me know if you find any.

Socks, Summer Cottages, and a Day to Rant

Howdy, I'm back from Rhode Island and ready to blog. First of all, let me just say that the yarn store in Newport was kind of a disappointment. Rachel, be glad you didn't put down that Corona. You didn't miss anything. No exciting yarns, no interesting supplies, and a musty smell. Bah, barely worth the walk down Thames Street. I did buy two balls of something or other that was on sale, but it's not worthy of a picture. Well, at least my fellow travellers were glad that I didn't make them wait long.

We had a great time in Newport -- there was much eating, drinking, shopping, knitting, and general relaxing. Didn't take many pictures, just this one:

Requisite tourist photo of dork standing in front of giant mansion.
[Uncool Guy gamely agreed to be said 'dork'.]

That's The Breakers, the 70-room summer "cottage" built by the Vanderbilts. Too bad they don't let you take pics inside, some of the rooms were quite resplendent.

I got some knitting done on the trip, but it was mostly swatching really. I am between projects and I'm having a hard time deciding what to make next. I started a couple projects. More on those next time.

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Before I forget, I need to talk about the upcoming Yarn Rant Day that Anne of knitspot is organizing. It's designed to be a day on which knitters around the world send emails to yarn companies that make poor quality yarn. Join us on June 1st, and write an email (or two or three) complaining about excessive knots in yarn (can you say "Noro"?), strange twigs and burrs in yarn (ummm, Noro again), yarns that pill excessively, colors that fade dramatically on first washing, or whatever other major yarn-related annoyances you have encountered.

The idea is to let the yarn companies know that we're mad as heck and we won't buy bad yarn anymore. Anne is hoping that the yarn manufacturers will pay more attention if a whole bunch of complaint emails are delivered on the same day. Ahhhh, we can dream, right? Download Anne's PDF flyer to read more about it.

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Speaking of Anne, I have finally finished the socks I was making from the handspun yarn she sent me. I was originally thinking of making socks with a lacy pattern or maybe some cables, but then I decided that I would rather just knit a plain stockinette pair. The color transitions are the focus of this yarn, and I didn't want to obscure that with a 'busy' pattern. So I went with boring old stockinette, but I don't think they came out boring at all. I love them.

Pattern:

Plain stockinette socks, with an eye-of-partridge heel, and my shaped toes.

Yarn:

Wool yarn that was spun and dyed by Anne of knitspot

Needles:

Addi 2.5mm

Gauge:

8.5 sts/inch

Comments:

I love the colors of this yarn and the way it blends from one shade to the next. There did not seem to be any real color repeat here, so it's a good thing I like nonmatching socks. ;-)

Left Sock

Right Sock

I knit these socks top-down, and things were a little tense for me as I was finishing up the second sock. See if you can guess why by looking at the photo below.

I was totally running on fumes at the end of these socks. I had less than 3yds of yarn left -- a little too close for comfort. I guess I can now appreciate the need for toe-up socks in certain circumstances.