Traveling with Socks

Well, I'm back with my sock blockers, so I can finally get some decent pictures of the beaded (Black)hearted socks:



And a close-up of an adorable little beaded heart:



I realized after taking another look at my last post that I finished two of my own sock designs in a row. That was a little odd. I actually only knit Diamondy once before (while writing the pattern) and those socks were a gift, so it's nice to have my own pair now.

And I've knit a few pairs of (Black)hearted. The first pair, long before I actually wrote up the pattern, was a gift. Then I knit the pair for Valentine's Day last year, which is the one pictured in the pattern. I have yarn somewhere for a pair to match the pink pair in the pattern pictures (MJ knit those), but the Stitch Jones yarn was just perfect, and it *was* Valentine's Day, so I made the beaded pair to hold me over. I guess that's the good thing about mix & match patterns, none of mine will be exactly the same.

I got a little more knitting done on the train yesterday, and I now have one completed Leyburn sock:



I almost always knit my socks 2 at a time, so this one is giving me an opportunity for 2nd sock syndrome. I've already cast on the second sock, but we'll see how long it takes me to finish it...

I modified the pattern to be knit cuff-down and used only 60 stitches which should be plenty for me. The yarn is Socks That Rock lightweight in Carbon Dating.

Listening to: Eye ~ Smashing Pumpkins, Dope Hat ~ Marilyn Manson

Socks, Socks Everywhere

The sock knitting has continued in full force these past few days, even though I've been hopping between states and without internet for quite a bit of that time.

Early in the morning of February 14th I finished my Space Dust Diamondy twin socks:



Pattern: Diamondy
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in Space Dust
Needles: 2.25mm
Started: 1/27/09
Finished: 2/14/09
Miles: .18 (-10% because they were started before the beginning of the Sock Marathon)
Total Marathon Miles: .41

I seem to have a bit of an obsession with knitting Valentine's Day socks. I'm not even all that fond of Valentine's Day, though this year I made valentines with my little sister and sent them to the yarners.

I wanted to knit my (Black)hearted pattern since it was one of this month's choices for the Thrifty Knitters Sock Club on Ravelry, but I wanted to mix it up a bit so I did these ones with beads.



They're my first socks with beads, and I think they turned out great! (forgive the bad finished photo, I'm not with my sock blockers and it's dark outside)



Pattern: (Black)hearted
Yarn: Stitch Jones in Secret Touch
Needles: 2.25mm
Started: 2/14/09
Finished: 2/18/09
Miles: .24
Total Marathon Miles: .65

I found this yarn when visiting Twisted in Portland, and had to buy it. I claim not to like pink, but I was drawn to this very-Valentine-y colorway, and I had to have it despite the fairly frightening name.

The yarn was quite thin, but made a very nice fabric on size 1 needles. It's extremely soft but didn't fuzz much even with the beads dragging on it. The dyeing was really nice - two very distinct shades of pink, red, and a bit of white - and there was hardly any bleeding of the red / pink into the very-white white. I'm wondering what the base yarn is, most of the yarns I've seen are more of a natural white.

Also, I've been meaning to show this adorable button that one of my Salem knitting buds, Snarfy, made for me:



Hopefully I'll be back in a few days with even more finished socks!

Listening to: Holding On for Brighter Days ~ 27, The Love Song ~ Marilyn Manson

My friends are awesome!

Happy Friday the 13th! I actually like Friday the 13th, it's usually a pretty good day for me and so far this one has been too.

Yesterday I headed over to Stephania's house for some dyeing. Here are the results (with a bit of sock laundry too):



The yellow is a semi-solid wool/nylon I dyed in the crock pot for a design I've been thinking of. The turquoise is on her wool/bamboo base, and was also dyed in the crock pot. It turned out much more variegated, though.

The two flats were a cute idea I had... I've been wanting to get some blank flats and paint a star on one - I'm not dumb, I know it won't come out as a star on the socks, but it's like... stealth stars! So when we went to the Superbowl Sale at The Purl District and I saw that Flat Feet was 50% off, I decided I'd go ahead and pick some up. The light blue flat was a semi-solid that I thought would work well for painting on, and the darker blue one was just such a nice color.

I always think it's strange when I see Flat Feet with vertical stripes because that's going to come out just like if you dyed it in a skein - what's the point of doing it in a flat? So I doctored up the dark one by painting some horizontal stripes - they're not really going to show up over the darker yarn, but there will be stripes of different colors in the lighter sections. I think it will be a cool effect.

For the lighter flat we printed out a star and cut it out, and I painted around / over the paper. Then I spattered the flat with the same blue so that it wouldn't be only confined to the star area - I think it will add some interest. :) Both of the flats only show half - the other side is painted to match.

Then today I got a package from my most amazing friend Cathy:



Before I left Boston, I lent her a book, a project bag, and gave her some yarn one day when she was at my house with nothing to knit. Perhaps because of that - though I don't quite remember - she said she'd knit me a pair of Conwy socks. I have a shorter pair that I knit, but I *hated* knitting the pattern. I love the resulting socks, though. She likes knitting the pattern so I gave her a skein of my JKnits and she made me those Conwy socks.

I got the package today returning my stuff, sending me the above socks, and with a bonus yarny gift - Aussi Sock which she said I hadn't tried yet and it was my colors. Right on both counts!

Things I Love

Well, thanks to my V-day SP (again) I have something to post today too!



While I walking up the driveway with two dogs and an armful of mail, my SP box was making scary rattling noises. I was worried something was broken, but all was well. (Also, an aside, I love how my SP wrapped everything up individually. I don't usually do that when I send boxes mostly because I don't have festive wrapping and tissue around and don't think to go buy it, and partially because I'm kind of lazy unconcerned with presentation.)

Anyway, the little packages were unwrapped to reveal this:



Clockwise in a spiral: A pretty handmade card, raspberry jam which looks delicious!, some beads to make a necklace / bracelet, a button describing the steps of Kitchener Stitch, a bath... thing (not salts, but something bath-y), chai flavored mints!, Panda licorice (Hey! Pandas! Was that a clue yesterday?), a skein of Dream In Color Classy in Night Watch, an organic dark chocolate truffle bar, a grow your own wand, with a star on it, cherry 3 Musketeers.

My SP says a lot of the package is local to her area and where she spends the summers, which is a really cool idea. :) I'm going to the ocean with my family over Valentine's Day this weekend so I'll bring the licorice to share. I like licorice, but some of my family *loves* it. But that dark chocolate truffle bar is all for me!

The yarn is for my Blurple Waves blanket. You haven't seen it since I first started, but now it looks like this:



It's my blanket for all my random blue and purple worsted weight - a lot of which was gifted to me by SPs. I figured it would be nice to have it all together in a big project instead of making countless hats and scarves. At the moment it's looking pretty purple, though. Maybe this Classy should go in next.



That middle stripe (Eskimo by Bouton d'Or, from a past SP) is actually a light blue, but the lavender above (Woolarina handspun, prize from the Knittyboard WIP-along) makes it look purple. You can see more details on the Ravelry project page.

In other knitting news, I spent some time last night making Excel versions of the charts for a couple of patterns - Marble Arches from the 2006 Rockin' Sock Club and The Mystic Sea from my first time at sock camp. I started these socks ages ago and had to rip them out because I couldn't find my notes on pattern modifications or I forgot which size needles I used. I took screenshots of the charts and put them on my iPhone! I love my iPhone. Now I can start up the socks at home and not have to worry about carrying patterns with me when I take them to knitting group. :)

Listening to: Closure ~ Opeth, Nightdriver ~ Klimt 1918

Dear USPS,

Today I got a lovely card from my Valentine's Day swap pal.



Isn't that panda adorable? It's a pop-up card! She says hi and tells me that there's more to come - I can't wait. :D

I also received a second envelope from the USPS:



Click to embiggen if you can't read it.

Now, I see two problems with this situation.

#1 (noted in red) - The collection envelope states there is 34 cents postage on the envelope, when there is very clearly $1.

#2 (noted in purple) - My SP went into the post office and had a postal worker weigh and put the postage on this envelope - that is apparent from the kind of label which is on it. I know, I spend lots of time at the post office, and even the label from the APC is not like that. So even if there *is* 34 cents postage due, that is not my fault and not my SP's fault!

Sorry USPS, you're just going to have to eat that 34 cents since it was your own mistake. After being incredulous, I was actually quite amused by this. Thanks SP for inadvertently giving me some extra amusement today.

Now, let me say that overall our postal system is very good. I know that, and I appreciate it. Sure, packages get lost. Sure, they keep raising the rates. But on the whole we have an efficient and affordable postal system, and I'm glad it works as well as it does. But this? This is just silly! :P

And yes, this post is only very tangentially related to knitting. Sorry. Um, look, socks!

Not-So-Nutkin

As I mentioned after finishing the Nutkin socks, I had some ideas for some modifications. I knit a pair "my way" which also ended up being my first pair for the Sock Marathon!



Pattern: very modified Nutkin
Yarn: Interlacements Beibi Seda
Needles: 2.5mm
Started: 2/1/09
Finished: 2/8/09
Miles: .23
Total Marathon Miles: .23

The main modifications I made were:
1. Substitute 2x2 rib for the picot edging, beginning with a p1 to match it up with the purl columns in the stitch pattern later.
2. Knit 1 repeat of the chart as written, then mirror it (changing the decreases to k2tog). Do the same on the back of the sock.

I also did a heel flap instead of the original heel and didn't do purl ridges before the toe. It would also be possible to use the pattern to form toe decreases by omitting the yarn overs - but in this case the end of the pattern repeat came where I intended to start the toe decreases anyway, so it wasn't necessary.

Mirroring the chart gives the sock a very different look and also solves the problem of biasing since there aren't a whole bunch of decreases all going the same way.



I got the yarn from the Interlacements Sock Gang a while back, but judging by the fact that no one else has entered it in Ravelry, it's probably not out there in the world. It's a fingering weight silk / alpaca blend. It's quite fuzzy and a little more drapey than a lot of sock yarn, but it's very soft. I don't think it's going to be particularly hard-wearing, but it's more of a "luxury" sock yarn anyway.

Listening to: Synesthesia ~ AFI, Weaken ~ God Lives Underwater

Yarn Crawling and Weaving

Saturday after posting the Happy Birthday to MJ, I set out with my fellow Salem knitters and went on a yarn crawl in the Eugene area.

First we went to Ben Franklin, where I wasn't inspired to buy anything. They had a very nice selection of sock yarns, but most of them were things I had already. We went on to The Knit Shop which was really a nice store. They had a pretty decent selection of sock yarn (and a really great selection of lots of other stuff, but I'm not really an "other stuff" knitter). I wanted to get some Panda Wool, but none of the colors really appealed to me so I restrained myself.

Next we hit Soft Horizons where I found some Zauberball. This is a strange stripey yarn rolled into a rather lopsided ball - and in beautiful blues. :) I also couldn't resist a skein of Dream In Color Smooshy in Some Summer Sky. So pretty! I've been trying to pick semisolids or very lightly variegated yarn when I buy now, since I like to knit more complex patterns but don't like it when they don't show up.

Our last stop was Fiber Nooks and Crannies. They had a lovely store with lots of yarn and a small selection of spinning fiber. A huge amount of Koigu too! And a nice selection of sock yarn including some beautiful Arucania stuff that sadly had silk. I would have bought it otherwise.

It was a lot of fun to hang out with all the knitters, and nice to see so many new shops too. :)

As for knitting, I've been slogging along on a few different things, but nothing exciting enough for pictures except this:



I wove! After reading a book about weaving and doing a little experimentation with the loom - I had to figure out how to tie the heddles so they would move - I started a little practice weaving with the warp that was already there and some random scraps of yarn.

The tension is really uneven since I was too lazy to tie the warp on properly and it's been sitting on there for upwards of 15 years, so I think it's slipped sideways a bit. Also there were a couple of strings missing, you can see a thicker band of stitches (?) towards the middle.

But so far not bad. I learned how to make the heddles move properly, learned what kind of tension I need, fashioned a shuttle of sorts, and learned how to change yarn (you can see a bit of pink peeking out. I also learned that using a fuzzy single ply warp is probably not the best for a beginner - the strands sort of stick together and make it a bit hard to separate so there are a few spots where one of the "up" yarns stayed down and vice-versa. (Yeah, my weaving speak is so technical.)

I think I will go ahead with my sock yarn project, provided I can figure out how to warp the loom. And I've also discovered, already, that two heddles is not enough. With two you can only do a plain or "tabby" weave. That's what I wanted for my sock yarn scarf anyway, but if I was going to get into weaving I would want to be able to do stuff that was a little more complicated. I think I would definitely want at least a 4 heddle loom.

Listening to: Strange Machines ~ The Gathering, Muzzle, Smashing Pumpkins