Mikknit

Summer is here and that means I’m spending a lot of time outside supervising the kids while they play in their little wading pool. Of course this also means that I’ve got a bit of knitting time on my hands, so it’s a good thing I have enough yarn here to last me for years! Spending the days outside also means that I’m not getting any housework done, but since we’re not inside much to mess it up, it can’t be that bad, right? Right? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. It’s a mess. But if I’m outside I don’t have to look at it, at least.

I’ve finished a couple pair of socks since my last post. Both were fun to knit but ultimately very tedious knitting. I suppose an 8-row repeat at the most will do that to you. Even the color changes of the Trekking weren’t enough to keep me excited. Sad, I know.

Trekking 100, Cloverleaf Eyelet Cable from Sensational Knitted Socks. Shocking, I know.

Meilenweit color 1313, 3×3 Cable with Moss Stitch from SKS. Again. This is more of a hot pink than it appears in the picture - I’m having some trouble getting the color right

Socks modeled by the lovely sock blockers Chris gave my for my birthday. I’m glad he did it, as I never would’ve been able to justify the purchase to myself. It seems a little silly to buy something like that for the sole purpose of displaying socks for blog photographs, but that’s what they’re best for! I’m very happy with them, though! He went all meta and bought the sock blockers with socks carved in them… Amusing as heck.

My Shapely Tee has stalled out - I got it up to the underarm bindoff the first time and realized that I’d gone way overboard with the short-row bust shaping. Ripped it back and did a more modest amount. Now it’s right in the bust but the waist is hitting me way too low, and this is *after* I shortened the torso to accommodate my freakishly short-waisted self. Apparently I didn’t shorten it enough. So I need to have a date with my tape measure and a notepad sometime soon, preferably tomorrow so I can maybe actually have a chance at finishing this in time.

Think I’ll go knit before it gets all hot & humid on me and I don’t want to think about wool.

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a fantastic day, despite threats of rain we only had a little bit of sprinkling and then the sun came out. Most of my family was going to be in town for my grandma’s memorial service, so I decided I should have a big party and invite them all. In my book, years ending in a 5 or a 0 are deserving of large parties, and it had been 5 years since the last one Extra points for the kids, who played on the playground for the entire time, pretty much leaving me alone to socialize. Their grandmas and one of my cousins kept them occupied, too, but they mostly just played and played and played.

Sunday wasn’t quite so fun, though all family gatherings turn into parties. We gathered at the MN Landscape Arboretum for the memorial service and to visit the bench that had been donated in memory of my grandparents. It’s on the Bog Trail, right near a bunch of trilliums, ladyslippers, and jack-in-the-pulpits, some of my Grandma’s favorite flowers. I only cried a little bit looking at those flowers. I cried a lot more looking at the picture slideshows that had been set up - seeing the old pictures of my grandparents was great, but seeing the ones as they got older and frailer just tore me up. I still have the image of them running their golf course - my grandma behind the bar and my grandpa out on the tractor, mowing the fairways. Grace asked about my grandma today, why she died. I’ve explained this so many times and I still have a hard time believing she’s gone. *Sigh*

Being stuck here wtih my thoughts is letting me get some knitting done, at least. I’ve started the Shapely Tee from White Lies Designs. I picked up some Silky Wool at Borealis’ sale this past weekend and it’s a touch lighter-weight than what’s called for in the pattern. Luckily, I’ve figured out that I can follow the numbers for the largest size and it’ll come out exactly in my size - great since I was struggling over which size to make, as one is 2″ smaller than my bust measurement and one 2″ too big. If only the boobs were smaller… I’ve made it a few inches into the sweater between last night and today - I should be ready to start the waist shaping decreases soon. I was a little worried that this’d drag on due to the fine gauge, but I think it’ll be okay as long as I have Tivo and Netflix to keep me going.

I’m also working on some pink cabled socks for myself - I started one last week and finished it on Monday, then started sock #2 that evening. I think these’ll be on hold for a bit, as I am planning on wearing the Shapely Tee to my sister’s wedding on July 7. That’s a lot of knitting in <6 weeks and not much time for socks. Sad, as I am truly hooked on sock-knitting. Will have to sneak in a few rounds here and there, I think.

I finished a new sweater for Grace last week (or maybe the week before), as well. Borealis is clearancing out the Ella Rae Classic Print yarn (love it!) and I picked up a few skeins in a colorway she'd like, as well as some for Arlo. I got started on her sweater right away, since I was procrastinating on finishing up something else. I think it maybe took 8 days at the most to finish. Something about variegated yarns just keeps me going. I certainly don't know any adults who could pull this off, though:

She looks so old in this picture, it just blows me away.

She doesn’t love the sweater, but it *is* the end of May (how the hell did that happen?) and it’ll be put away for fall. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it more when the weather cools off, though this is one warm-blooded kid. I think it turned out fine, I used the top-down raglan method from Barbara Walker’s Knitting From the Top. I lost track of where I was on the neckline increases, so it’s a little odd-shaped. I’m sure it’ll work out with wearing, and if not, oh well.

And now, since I am spending precious knitting time typing, I will sign off. I hope you all have a lovely Friday and a great weekend! I get to go to a baby shower, which should be great. I should probably figure out what sort of gift I’m taking, huh?

After some consternation when we couldn’t find the cable for my mom’s camera, I found a suitable substitute in with Chris’s computer stuff. So without further ado, I bring you the mystery project:

Peace Shawl, designed by Evelyn Clark for Fiber Trends. Knit in Skacel Merino Lace on various needles.

Another view of the shawl, modeled by my mom.

This was probably a more complicated lace project than I should’ve chosen for my first shawl, but it was well worth the time it took to knit. I started this in late February 2004 and finished it on May 2, 2007. I’m thrilled with how it turned out, though I don’t think I understood just how ethereal it is - it was really difficult to photograph. I wish I’d gotten a picture of it while it was blocking, as the different patterns showed up a lot better against the black background that was the blocking board (interlocking foam floor mats).

As I mentioned yesterday, I will be wearing the shawl to Shepherd’s Harvest tomorrow. I can’t wait to see everyone! And shop, too, of course.

Now there are wild animals children running rampant under the clothesline and trying to pull the clothes down. I should probably put this away and intervene, in the interest of not having to re-wash everything.

Send “go to bed easily” thoughts for Arlo tonight - I have some magic to perform!

It’s been so long since I’ve posted that WordPress logged me out. Good thing I finally changed my password to something I could actually remember instead of the random string of numbers and letters it gives you when you reset it, eh?

As alluded to in the title, it’s been all socks, all the time around here. There are other projects started and stalled around here, sure, but the socks are the only things that get finished with any regularity. I guess it’s that they’re small, portable, generally mindless, and easy to set down mid-row - all important things when your children are completely insane.

My aunt presented me with a bag of KnitPicks sock yarn a while ago, telling me to pick out two pair’s worth of yarn. She then proceeded to point out which yarn she really liked, so of course I had to grab that one as well as one that appealed more to my tastes. What she chose was Dancing, a blend of cotton, wool, nylon, and elastic. I started the first one on our Amtrak trip a few weeks back and finished the pair about two weeks ago. I didn’t love this yarn, but it knit up into a nice fabric which I think will be very comfortable.

They look a little disproportionate, but between the ribbing and the elastic in the yarn, they pulled in quite a bit

She loves them, of course, but that goes without saying. I knit her her first pair of socks in 2002 and she’s been hooked ever since. Luckily, my cousin is a knitter too, so I’m not the only one responsible for keeping her in handknit socks!

Once those were finished, I cast on another pair in Trekking XXL, color 144. They were originally for my sister, but I remembered that I have another more appropriate pair of socks planned for her. Thank goodness my mom and my sister have similarly-sized feet - I didn’t have to rip them back when I changed my mind. These knit up incredibly quickly - I think the jacquard Trekking yarns are a touch thicker than the marled, stripey ones.

I briefly considered making them match, but eh, too fiddly. I think fraternal socks are more fun, anyhow

These took six days to knit, which definitely makes them among my fastest-knit socks. Maybe I should knit for people with feet smaller than mine more often! (Mine are 10″ around and 10″ long. Yay.)

I’ve been struggling with the next pair of socks since Tuesday. I picked out some Schaeffer Anne in a blinding colorway - hot pink, lime green, bright yellow, and purple. I think this may have been the first skein of yarn I bought when Borealis opened up in 2004, or at least it was among my very first purchases there. I swatched and realized I needed to knit it on size 0 needles instead of my usual size 1, so I started looking for a pattern to make it a little less mind-numbingly boring. Of course most patterns don’t work well with a heavily-variegated yarn like this, so I struck out twice before deciding to switch to a different yarn and try again. I picked out some lovely rose-colored wool (Meilenweit, maybe?) and knit a few pattern repeats before deciding that A) I didn’t love the pattern as much as I thought I would, and B) they were too small. B was no real surprise, since I had to leave off about 1/2″ worth of stitches to make the pattern fit. I already make my socks with 1/2″ negative ease, so taking off that extra 1/2″ didn’t do any good. I ripped that puppy back and the yarn has been added to the stash. I finally pulled out a skein of Trekking XXL in colorway 100, a recent purchase, and cast on the feather & fan-style pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I knit on that all over the MN Zoo on Friday, only to discover that I didn’t like the look of the lace when knit from the top down. Ripped it out and started the toe-up version this morning. I still haven’t gotten past the increases there, though I’ve been knitting all night.

What did I spend my evening knitting? It would be a well-aged UFO that’s been resurrected and has a deadline. I’m aiming to have it finished by Shepherd’s Harvest (Mother’s Day weekend), and I think I can do it. I’ll post more about it tomorrow (famous last words), since I’ve rambled quite enough for tonight.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday! Ours was great, aside from the fridge giving up the ghost (I’m not terribly upset, it’s either fixable or I get to get a new fridge). The kids went over to my aunt’s house for Easter lunch and Chris and I took a long nap all afternoon, it was simply wonderful. It was something I really needed, for sure. The in-laws came over for dinner and we all ate and had nice conversation, I spun a little and knitted a bit. All good.

As I posted on Wednesday, The Yarn Harlot was in town and I was one of the lucky 400 who got in the door to hear her talk. Before heading over to the event, I got to meet up with a bunch of cool knitters at my favorite Thai restaurant - Pad Thai.

Clockwise from lower left corner: Chris of Stumbling Over Chaos, Beadslut, Cursing Mama, Stephania of Moraie Knitting, Connie of Between Loads, the blogless Cynthia, and Amy of Knit Think. Also shown is Flat Vicki, representing Vicki of Knitorious, who was with us in spirit if not in the flesh. I had a fine time at dinner, it was great to meet some new people!

After dinner, we headed over to William Mitchell, which had a nice room all set up for us. The Yarnery did a great job of setting up the event and they handed out some great canvas bags to everyone coming in the door. After a period of chatting, picture-taking, and knitting, we all joined in a rousing version of “O, Canada”. Stephanie seemed quite pleased by this, as I could see her off on the side of the stage taking pictures of us all singing. Of course I didn’t get a decent picture of that… but I did get a picture of her to prove I was there, haha:

She wore the Bohus sweater!

After waiting in line for almost two hours (and I was in the first round of people there!) I got my book signed. Chris was so kind as to part with a bottle of his precious homebrew, the Imperial Stout, so I could give Stephanie a little gift. I can’t believe how much fun she seemed to be having even after signing so many books and talking to so many people - by that point I’d be cranky as heck!

It was so nice to get a few hours out by myself! It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to go out so late (I got home after 10!), since I have to be home for bedtime, normally. I fully expected to find one or two screaming children waiting up for me when I got home, but they were both peacefully in bed. And Chris wasn’t even drinking beer by the quart! Heh. I guess it went just fine, thankfully. No guilt.

I finished a pair of socks on the Amtrak last weekend and iPhoto ate the picture, which is why I didn’t share it with you earlier. I finally got them off the clothesline and here they are:

Garter Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, Trekking color 16

I’m very pleased with these socks - they’ve been worn several times in the 10 days since I finished them! I wasn’t excited about the hand of the yarn as I was knitting with it, it was kind of squeaky and stiff (kind of how acrylic feels to me), but it softened wonderfully with washing. Good thing!

Well, it’s taken me over an hour to write this. Guess I should just post it already and get going with my day.

I know I’ve been knitting lately but I feel like I’m knitting into a black hole or else someone’s coming along and undoing my knitting when I turn my back. *Sigh*

I finished Arlo’s Wonderful Wallaby and there’s a picture waiting on the camera, which of course is out in the car. He likes it but it’s quite a bit too big for him, while the next smaller size is too small. *Sigh* I think he needs a cardigan. I’ll have to check the yardage of the yarn I finished the other day and see if it’d be enough. I think it was about 8oz, that *should* be enough, right?

I’ve started on Grace’s new Wallaby, using Ella Rae Classic Print in color 204 (pink, yellow, green). It’s my first time using this yarn and I’m finding it quite nice. The sweater is going very slowly, though, attributable to the fact that this is the second sweater in a row knit from the same pattern. *Yawn* I’d love to finish it by next week, since she’s going to spend a few days with my sister and I think it’d be nice for her to have this to wear then. Plus if I finish it I can justify buying some stuff at Herrschners and Black Purl while I’m over in Wisconsin.

I finished a sock, the Trekking 16 one I mentioned a while ago. I started the second one but ran into a knot that pulled out the center of the ball. I need to re-wind it but the ballwinder’s MIA. Sheesh.

It’s really been all about the spinning lately, though. I spun and plied 8oz of handpainted top from Creative Fibers. I need to go over one of the skeins and tighten up the plying, but I’ll have to wait until they’re dry - I didn’t notice how underplied it was until just now when I went downstairs to put in some laundry and to look at my skeins. One of them (the second one, oddly) is nicely plied but the first one is really loose and sloppy. Guess that’s what I get for lounging on the couch to ply while watching a movie instead of actually paying attention to my work. Ah well.

There’s also the fiber stuff - I got the last of the three Shetland fleeces washed, as well as a 1# bag of CVM that I bought at Shepherd’s Harvest in 2003 or 2004. That stuff is greasier than anything I’ve worked with before, especially after the Shetland which hardly has any lanolin at all. It’s so pretty and soft, though! The cats think so too - just about every time one of them goes down to the basement, I find chunks of the CVM fleece scattered around the basement. Stinkers. I found a plastic grocery bag full of clipped angora and two 1# balls of mohair top while I was cleaning up some of the mess down there last week, too. I haven’t a clue as to how long they’ve been there, or where the angora came from. I recall buying the mohair on ebay at some point, and that’s probably where the angora came from too, but when? No idea. I’ve got a plan to blend some of the angora with merino and silk - I have a pound of merino roving yet, and I got an ounce of tussah silk the other day to experiment with. I think I’m going to card up 2oz of the merino with an ounce each of the angora and silk. I’m trying to decide if I want to dye the wool and silk first - that’d definitely make it easier to tell if I’m making a homogeneous blend, but I’m not sure about color(s). Green is definitely up there, and the merino and silk will take the dye in a different way, plus the undyed angora will lighten up the color. There’s also the possibility of using different colors on the merino and silk, but that kind of scares me. But if I’m going to be a big chicken, I can use smaller amounts and if it looks like crap, oh well.

I need to go now before my kids kill each other or I am forced to throw them in the closet. We are going to IKEA with my friend Beth, who’s well past her due date and hoping to walk that baby out. I went over 42 weeks with Arlo, so I know how much fun she’s having. I don’t miss that (much).

Okay, I’m not *really* still snowed in but there’s still enough of the stuff on the ground to make me want to stay indoors for a while longer. Therefore, I’ve been busy with yarny pursuits.

I finished Chris’s Trekking socks last Wednesday:

Modeled picture taken after he couldn’t wait any longer to wear them

I think I could’ve used a few more stitches around on them but possibly would’ve run out of yarn had I done that. Damn men and their big feet!

I started a new pair of socks immediately after I finished those, as I was at the coffee shop with a friend and had childcare for another hour. They’re Trekking XXL in color 16, rainbow colors. I couldn’t find a color card with this colorway on it anywhere on the internets, who knows how old it is. I of course don’t have a picture for you today, but I’ll hopefully have the first one done soon and show you that. I’m using the garter rib pattern (such as it is) from Sensational Knitted Socks, which is easy but somewhat dull. A little more interesting than your standard 2×2 rib, at least.

I’ve also been spinning a bit. I finished spinnning the Cotton Candy roving and plied it. I ended up Navajo plying it, partly because I decided that’d look best, but also because I *really* enjoy Navajo plying. It’s somewhere around a worsted weight yarn, 230 yards to roughly 4oz. I dyed up another 8oz of roving in the same colors when I had childcare on Friday (I love that the kids’ grandmas enjoy spending time with them!) and once I get the current spinning project finished I’ll start on that. Eventually this will be a sweater for Grace, even though she asked for “pants made from knitting” - I hardly think this yarn would be suitable for pants for a 4 year old (an immobile baby, yes. An active big kid? No f-ing way). Probably for *next* fall, though. Gotta give myself time to spin it and time to think about styles & patterns. I took a couple of pictures of the yarn to share, though:

All nice and twisted up in its skein

All loose and pretty

I love how stretchy and squishy this yarn is! I’m itching to wind it into a ball and start swatching, but I have to finish Arlo’s sweater first. I cast on for the first sleeve of that today, finally.

This post brought to you by the almost-2yo boy child who has taken a miraculous, almost three-hour-long nap today. I just hear a peep from upstairs, so off I go. Good timing, kiddo!

Four years ago today, my life changed: at 12:09 PM on February 21, 2003, my daughter Grace Elizabeth was born. She amazes me every day with her intelligence and insight, she loves her brother very much and plays nicely with him (most of the time). I am so lucky to have her.

Brand new!

One!

Two!

Three!

Four!

Okay, so it’s not knitting, but I did make the dress she’s wearing in the last picture. (I made the outfit she’s wearing in her 2yo picture too, but that’s ancient history )

I *have* been knitting, just haven’t had the time, energy, or brainpower to do any writing about it. I finished my orange Silja socks last Wednesday and have worn them twice since. I love them, though I could’ve used at least 4 fewer stitches and quite possibly 8 fewer - they’re looser than I like. Still comfy, though!

Silja color 346, 2 skeins minus about 7 yards used. Corded Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks

I think this pair took me about 7-10 days to knit, a lot speedier than the previous pair. I found the pattern rather tedious and dull, but it did go by quickly if I had distractions. TV is good for something!

I’ve only got two more balls of Silja in my stash - lime green. I’m thinking they’ll be pulled out after I finish the current sock project, as it’s quite non-colorful. Socks for Chris in Trekking XXL, color 128. It’s listed as pink/brown/black there but really it’s beige, black/charcoal, and peach. I don’t love it but he seems happy enough with it. I started the first one last Wednesday evening, turned the heel on Friday, and could’ve finished the sock on Saturday night but fell asleep putting kids to bed - I wore myself out at the Knit Out at the MOA (totally lame, BTW). I finished the toe Sunday and then cast on for the next one that evening. I’m about 4″ into the cuff, will probably finish the cuff and start the heel flap tomorrow at ECFE. Yay.

I’ve also started a new Wonderful Wallaby for Arlo - his old one still fits, but just barely. Grace needs a new one sooner or later too, but since she chose purple for her current one and purple doesn’t look good on Arlo (makes him look deathly pale), I started his first. I’ve got Cascade 220 in a lovely rich blue (color 8891). I switched the ribbing to seed stitch, we’ll see how that works out. I think I’ll put seed stitch on the hood and on the placket too. Slightly more interesting than ribbing and/or garter stitch, though SLOW. Good thing he’ll love the sweater! He had no interest in choosing his yarn, so Grace picked it out. I had to steer her away from the pink, but that was the only poor choice. I can tell she’ll probably pick pink for hers, though I’m going to push her toward green - I never get to knit with green.

Still no progress on my sweater. I’m going to wind up some fresh balls of the Peace Fleece and retire the overworked stuff to a kid sweater, I think. Otherwise I *should* be good to go. Just need to figure the waist shaping and such once more before I start. Luckily, this is Minnesota and it’ll be cold enough for sweater wearing for 2-3 more months. *sigh* (Wait, maybe I shouldn’t say that. What if Annie Modesitt sees this and I scare her away? Really Annie, it’s lovely here! Honest!)

Wow, babble much Jess?

Once again, I’ve been lax in my posting. Sorry about that.

The knitting has been pretty unproductive around here, lots of ripping once again. But I did manage to get a decent picture of the Gentleman Socks (or at least one of them!):

Gentleman Socks pattern by Designedly Kristi, in Trekking XXL color 109.

I finally bit the bullet and took a stab at handpainting roving - I bought 2# of merino roving a few weeks ago with the intention of dyeing it and needed to justify the purchase Plus the theme of our spinning guild’s meeting tonight is merino, and I thought I should have something ready to take if I go.

Cotton Candy and Tequila Sunrise, respectively

I used Cushing’s dyes and the techniques from the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, a book I’ve had for years but haven’t really taken the time to read. It was a lot of fun and easier than I’d expected. For once I managed to avoid dyeing my hands strange colors (the gloves only work if you use them!) and wearing a dust mask while mixing dyes kept me from seeing crazy colors when I blew my nose. I’m thinking about what colors I want to do next. I’m thinking about a “C’mon Spring” type of colorway - greens, a touch of yellow, maybe a little brown for the mud? Also a maple leaf colorway I’ve had in mind for a long time - think of maple leaves as they’re changing colors in the fall. So many possibilities!

I also finally got around to listing my Louet S90 on ebay today. I hope it sells! It’ll be nice to have one less thing around the house, for sure!