Last of 2008 Knitting

Here's the last project of 2008 (not the last finished but the last photographed and blogged.) Spiral Eyelet Socks in Paca-Peds, color #604 Fireside.

These socks made it into both 2007 & 2008 projects list; I'm still pulling out UFOs and finishing them rather than buckling down and finishing my green sweater. (What is the matter with me? I just haven't been in the mood for knitting that requires any brain power.) Don't know why it took me a year to get to the second pair, since the second sock pattern changes to make the diagonal eyelet spiral in the opposite direction - it's like a different sock. There shouldn't have been any second sock syndrome fatigue. Anyway they're done.

Found out I'm going to be a Great Aunt again so I've been perusing baby blankets on Ravelry where I found the Barn-Raising Quilt from Knit-a-long

Thanks to friends (Hi Laurie) I have lots of left over sock yarn. A single square only takes 11 grams of yarn. Here's #1 and #2 squares.


It's fun to watch the spiral design come out as you knit. Wonder how long it will take me to knit all these squares? The baby is due in April...

Here's a photo of a knit gift card holder from Starbucks.




(Sorry they're a bit blurry, the camera just doesn't like red.) I wonder what something like this would look like in sockyarn? Might take longer to hand knit than it's worth but if you're a machine knitter - boy you can just go to town. They just stitched along the edge, no mattress or blanket stitch. The original has a machine stitched down bird design on the front but with a busy self-patterning sock yarn there's no need for a design on the front. Just a thought.

I won a book that I was just going to buy; seriously I was planning to get to Amazon that evening when Norma of Now Norma Knits wrote and told me I'd won the book Knitted Jackets she was giving away. How lucky is that! Thanks Norma.

Time to go and figure out what I did wrong on my Curlicue Afgan. I have 26 stitches hanging there with no where to go. I'm afraid I'm going to have to rip back a couple of sections. Hmmm...

Just made it to 2009

Those 10 days leading up to Christmas were my busiest of the whole year but I made it. The presents were bought and wrapped. The house was minimally decorated. The cookies were baked, packed, wrapped and distributed. Food was bought, cooked and served many times over. And the dishwasher was run two or three times a day! The time spent with Family and Friends was my favorite part of all. It's taken me a couple days with my feet up and knitting in hand to recover but I'm ready to face the New Year. I hope all you were better prepared and enjoyed your Holidays.

I did very little gift knitting this year, I don't know why. Maybe I didn't see any patterns that seemed perfect for anyone on my list or maybe I just wasn't very imaginative this year. I did knit a hat for Laura. It was Black Forest Hat made from Noro Silk Garden edits/leftovers. (I've admitted before to editing skeins of Noro when there's a color in a skein that I don't care for in a project.)


This was fun knitting; both the pattern and trying to select yarn bits that looked like they could be from a regular skein of Silk Garden. The scalloped edge is what initially caught my eye and I like it as much in my finished hat as I did when I first saw it on Ravelry. (The pattern is only available through a free Ravelry download.)

While I was stalling finishing my green sweater I pulled out and finished a sock UFO. These are a 2/2 rib pattern in Cherry Tree Hill, sorry I don't have the band so I can't tell you the color name.


Ty, kept bothering me while I was wrapping gifts. He kept trying to sit on the paper, to give myself a few minutes break from his attention I gave him his own piece of tissue. Little did I know that was all he wanted. He's been on that corner of the sofa sleeping on his paper for over a week now. I have to give him a new piece every other day as he shreds it kneading on it.


I think we all deserve a NEW Year, 2008 is broken and can't be fixed!
Happy New Year 2009 to all

Welsh Traveling Socks plus Toes

Here are the finished Welsh Traveling Socks

and a close up of the pattern (click on the picture and you can see a close-up on Flickr)


So what do you think of the color of the yarn I used for the toes? I'm still not sure about it but no matter what anyone says I won't be pulling it out. The pattern calls for yarn with 450 yards I used a yarn with 350 yards; I never noticed until the tail end of the yarn hit my hand. Surprised doesn't cover it! This was my blind faith I had enough yarn - No, I didn't compare my yardage to the pattern requirements. For some reason I was confidant that this yarn would work for this sock. I think I was led down the rosey path of dilusion because this yarn was so similar to the look of the yarn pictured in the book. I feel so dumb!

Anyway, the yarn was wonderful to work with, the yardage problem was all me. I bought it from emilyparson.etsy.com more than a year ago. It's called Starry Night in Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn.

I finished and blocked my Noro Striped Scarf and still had half a ball of both colors of Silk Garden (270 & 264) and decided I should make matching fingerless mitts.


I pulled out my favorite pattern for fingerless mitts, Maine Morning Mitts played around with the stitch count to get it to work with a 1x1 rib and I was off knitting in circles. (I added one stitch to get an even number next time I'd subtract a stitch or three. The gloves are a bit large because the 1x1 rib doesn't pull in as much as the original pattern's 3x1 rib.)


Tuesday I spent a foggy morning with my garden club taking a ranger guided tour of Presido Park, the site of the very first California Mission. 1769 Father Sierra claimed the land for the Church and Spain making San Diego one of the older European settled Cities in North America.

This cross was made of brick salvaged from the ruins of Fort Presidio, what was left on the site when the priests moved the Mission 6 miles east to get away from the soliders.

Edit: I was ask where to buy the Grayce's Scarf pattern by someone that didn't leave me a return email address. The pattern only has an email address: pearlyqueentx@prodigy.net There is no other names or address on the pattern. I bought this pattern at the Taos Wool Festival.

Catch-up

Sorry for the posting delay - I started reading the Twilight series and just couldn't put them down until I'd read all 4.5 books. Not sure if I want to see the movie - the Edward in my head looks nothing like the actor playing him. While, surprisingly the actress playing Bella is nearly identical to how I pictured her. I hope there will be more books in this series, I really enjoyed them.

Anyway, back to knitting. Here are my Kandy Korn Socks

knit from Rock Creek Yarn's, Super Soft Sock Yarn in the Koi color.


This color of yarn is no longer available but there's a very similar color here.

This was a plain 64 Stitch sock. To form the purl spiral stripes on the cuff I purled when ever the orange section of yarn was above an orange stitch in the row below.
Easy Halloween Socks, the yarn did all the designing; all I had to do was knit and purl!

Then there's my problem project: The Sofia Cowl from One-Skein Wonders.


My end result doesn't look in the least like the original in the book or like others I see on Ravelry. I can't figure out what I did wrong. This was for a shop sample but it looks more like a turtleneck than a soft cowl. I checked and there doesn't seem to be any corrections on the publishers site. I'm working from a copy from the shop rather than the book and it looks like there's a hic-cup in the printing. I'll compare it when I go into work this week and see if that explains my odd strangler variation.

That's the end of my knitting update; if you hate vacation pictures now the times to click away.

The second half of our Trip the beginning of the month was Denver.

Such a pretty city. This picture was taken from the Natural History Museum.

We spent a warm late afternoon in Golden

They have a cute business district and a gorgeous river running through town. This is the water that's turned into Coors Beer. The whole down smells odd and we couldn't figure out what it was until we remembered how they make beer. It was the mash we were smelling, kinda similar to the smell of boiling potatoes.

While driving down to Taos we stopped in the little town of Trinidad (yeah! THAT Trinidad!! we had no idea until we were home) for lunch. Our car was stuck due to street closures so we watched and enjoyed the High School HomeComing Parade before we could get back on Hwy 25.

It was a fun small town experience; it had that something that's missing in big city life.

We stopped in Manitou Springs and visited the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

Decided it was not a great idea to take the open railcars up a very tall mountain in a thunder storm. That's one of the problems of being older, you're way to practical.

The Rockies had their very first snow storm while we were there so, of course, we had to go see.
We headed west to Idaho Springs a very cute town. Most of the old buildings are still on the Main Street.
Estes Park was in full Fall Color - the most gorgeous Fall Color I've ever seen


And The Photographer was elated to find Elk to photograph.
Here is his portrait entitled"Elk Raspberry"

Repurposing Kureyon

I mentioned I bought 8 skeins of Noro Kureyon 213 to make the Sandy Cardigan, well...
There's this pattern that's been calling to me for awhile now, the Side-to-Side Vest from Creative Knitting, Nov 2007.

The amount of Kureyon I'd bought for the Cardigan is exactly the right amount for this Vest. And in a moment of weakness I grabbed the bag of Kureyon from the Stash and cast-on and haven't looked back.

The colors look very washed out in this picture. Below is a badly framed shot that has truer colors.

The only difficult part is trying to make the colors go in the opposite direction from the center back. Noro doesn't wind their yarn the same direction skein to skein even with them all from the same dye lot. I'd like the fronts to at least suggest they match but I think that's going to be harder than I originally thought.

I finished the Midwest Moonlight Scarf from Scarf Style.

This was an enjoyable project; the stitch pattern was easy to memorize and from then on it was mindless knitting. This is for a Christmas Gift - that's one done.
Ravelry listing here. Used 5 skeins of Noro Silk Garden 284 with all the orange removed for 27 pattern repeats; probably could have squeeked by with 4 skeins.

Here's a look at my own pattern for a cabled sock. I've pulled it out twice so far. Cherry Tree Hill, no idea what the name of the color is - I've had it several years.


This weekend I finished spinning the Roving from Creatively Dyed

I tried to split the roving lengthwise into four equal pieces. Funny how one skein is so much bluer than the other. Here's what the original fiber looked like.

This is 8 ounces of 70% superwash Merino 30% Seacell fiber.

On several foodie blogs there has been talk about Mark Bittman's Tomato Jam recipe. I had everything in the house

so I made a batch yesterday.

The whole house smelled like an Indian Restaurant while it was cooking. After all the chopping, measuring and stirring I barely had 2 cups but it was worth it. This stuff is fabulous. We were eating it warm on crackers with goat cheese. I'll have more tomatoes than I know what to do with so I'll be making more. I wonder what it would be like made from yellow tomatoes?

It was a Kureyon Weekend

The four day Holiday Weekend is over; we both took off Thursday. Daughter #1 was over for dinner Friday, #2 Daughter was here on Sunday. We ate, we watched The Music Man, listened to March Music and had a very nice, quiet celebration - except for the time Friday when the helicopters were circling because some kids set the canyon on fire playing with fireworks. (Small fire that was quickly put out - Thank-you Fire Dept!)

My personal celebration was lots of time spent gardening, spinning and knitting. I finished the Primavera Socks. Made from Trekking XXL, color 108


Earlier in the week I finished the Tile Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks made from Louet Gems Sportweight.


These are the first socks I've made in a yarn heavier than fingering weight. I love the socks but living in Southern California I don't know when I'll have occasion to wear them. Maybe I'd better stick to lighter weight yarns in the future.

Started the Ziggy Socks from Knitty.


I'm using Kureyon Sock yarn; sorry but I hate this yarn. As singles, it's all twisty on itself making it impossible to use for a stranded project! This is going to be ripped out. The pattern is fine except for one thing - this toe-up sock starts with Judy's Magical cast-on (this was my first attempt using this particular cast-on) Did I do something wrong, there's a row of garter stitch at the cast-on site (you can just see it in the photo?) I ripped it out twice but always ended up with those garter rows right at the tip of the toe. I like this cast-on method but I suspect I'm doing something backwards. Anyone have some pointers to help me?

Last Tuesday was my day to do the Spinning Demo at the San Diego County Fair.


Members of our spinning class covered this Demonstration over the run of the Fair. I was there on Kids Day so I must have been ask many times, "Where did Sleeping Beauty hurt her finger?" Since I was spinning on an Ashford Traditional there was no spindle to show them. We've discussed next time having an old wheel there that has a spindle, at least on Kids Day.

That Wheel was a single pedal which I'm not use to; by the end of my Demo hour my whole treadling leg hurt. Don't know what I did wrong but I'm sticking to double treadle wheels! I can spin for hours on either of mine with no aches or pains, thank goodness.

Last weekend I dyed this Superwash Merino Roving.


I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 mins and then let it sit to cool to room temperature.

Spinning this is so cool ; I love the way the singles are changing color.


Ravelry let me to Bobby's Blanket. The Hexagon pattern/recipe is posted here. I used some left over Kureyon to give it a try. (6 inch double point for size reference)


I enjoyed making these two hexagons but it's very hard on my hands. I probably won't be making more with worsted weight but I'm wondering if it would be easier with fingering weight? Maybe a use for that Kureyon Sock Yarn?

Under "Small World": Sunday I was reading Laurie's blog Issues with Knitting
where she talks about buying a bag of Kureyon to make Sandy's Sweater in Big Girl Knitting. Well I bought a pile of Kureyon #213 two weeks ago


to make the same sweater. And I too haven't decided on the solid to go with #213. I'd like to use a green but haven't found a green worsted weight I think works with this Kureyon colorway. Hmm, are sweater patterns contagious?

Finally, Annie's poodle foot is growing out. And she's doing fine - never would know she'd been so sick. We're really watching what she eats and
No Table Scraps!

SOS 2008 - Beginning

It was HOT!! here over the weekend! Record breaking Hot! Summer started with a big smack in the face here in Southern California!

I spent most of the weekend on the couch in front of the fan, drinking lots of ice tea, reading and knitting my Tile Sock.


Yeah, you read that right, Sock, as in singular. Summer of Socks 2008 started and this is what I have to show for it. Not a pair of socks which is the intent of the group but I felt I should make an initial post to show I'm participating again this year. I have three other second socks in progress; if you knit one sock in Springtime and the second sock in the Summer do you qualify for a half entry in the cumulative count?

Socks are my traveling and meeting projects; when a pattern needs more attention than I can give in a meeting, I'll start another sock to become the traveling project. Right now I have four socks in progress, usually it's only two; one in a traveling bag and one in the car. I live in fear of getting stuck in traffic, finishing my socks and having to sit there with nothing to do. I don't wait well without knitting to keep me distracted.

My spinning wheel is downstairs in the coolest part of the house so I spent the warmest part of the afternoon down there finishing my Orangecicle batts. This yarn came out very nice


6 ounces/250 yards - enough for a scarf?

Last post I left out this yarn I finish last week.


The fiber, Super Wash Merino Roving, was dyed in a black bag in the sun. The heat build-up in the black plastic sets the dye; no further heat processing is needed. I soaked the fiber in clear water then drained it, layed it out in the bag, sprayed the top side with white vinegar and blobed (does the past tense of "blob" have one B or two?) on five different colors of red, pink and magenta. Tightly closed the bag, left it in the sun for five hours, then went out turned it all over, sprayed vinegar on top, closed up the bag and gave the fiber a very light downward press to help distribute the dye. Left the bag in the sun the rest of that day and three or four hours the next day. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed - red is a hard color to rinse clear. Good thing it was superwash or it would have felted with all that rinsing.

I just left the bag outside overnight; afraid it would cause too much mixing if I moved it. Have to say that I would only do this with Super Wash; I'd be afraid of felting with the heat changes during the day. Anyone tried this with plain wool? Did it felt?

My next experiment in sun dyeing will be with blues.

Hiding from the US Open

Yeah, the US Open is "still" in town, just up the road. The Photographer and I spent most of the weekend just hiding out at home trying to avoid the traffic. Can you believe they're playing again today! I thought I'd be free to get out and about by now.

I pulled out my drumcarder; I wanted to try something I'd read on Abby's Blog. (Sorry I can't find the exact entry now when I want to link to it) Whenever I've tried to card fiber with silk in it all I get are neps - horrible neps everywhere. Not to mention the long silk fibers all wrapped around the smaller carding drum, a terrible waste of expensive silk! Abby suggests you don't add your silk until the last or second to last trip through the carder. You take your batt and split it lengthwise, lay out your silk on top of one half-batt and lay the second batt on top making a silk sandwich between two half-batts. So that's what I've been doing with (in my opinion) great success.

I've been using up bits of wool dyed at one time or another; three different yellow wools, two orange wools, a fuchsia wool, fuchsia and white silk and at the end some white tussah for a streaky effect. I'm rather happy with the look and feel. And almost no neps at all - yeah!


The color is very much the color of an Orangecicle so that's what I'm calling it. Once I'm done with this blog entry and move the wash to the dryer I'm going to start spinning.

Fairisle is still entrancing me; I started the Tile Socks (Ravelry link) from Socks, Socks, Socks.


I'm getting their gauge but the socks are too big so I'm going to rip what you see out and start over again with one size smaller needles. The pattern calls for sport weight yarn, I'm using Louet Gems Sport Weight, and size 4 & 5 needles. We'll see if that will tighten up the fabric enough.

Several emails want to know what's happened with the ZigBagZ. I'm working on the handles currently. This is taking me awhile; the double sided Icord is done extremely tightly with two strands of Cascade 220. I'm find this very hard on my bad arm so I can only knit on a handle for 10 mins everyother day. First handle is done and I'm ready to start the second handle. I'm not in a big rush to finish all the knitting because then it's felting time. I'm VERY nervous about the felting part; I only have a 50% felting success rate and I can't stand the thought of this bag not turning out.

Thank you for all the get-well wishes for Annie - she's seems to be back to her regular old happy dog self. She can't have her favorite chicken jerky treats (from China via Costco - the Vet said No, No!) so I tried baking her cookies. She has allergies to wheat, corn and beef so it was difficult to find a recipe to use so I just tried a few mixes of my own concoction.


First batch on the left were the consistency and crispiness I was looking for but my taste tester was only ho-hum about them. Second batch on the right aren't crispy at all more of a Molasses cookie consistency but Annie loves them. The Photographer even tried the second batch and says they have a fishy taste. My secret is several jars of Chicken Baby Food. If you're interested in the recipe email me and I'll be happy to send it to you and your pup. (This is the way to bake cookies and Not be tempted to eat any of them!)

The Photographer filled his weekend playing around with lighting. I had an Asiatic Lily in bloom that was happy to sit around modeling all weekend with no complaints.