Love Hurts

Oh, how I love this hat, but it is treating me badly. The WBBF asked for a hat for Christmas. He picked out the yarn on our trip to Ashland, saw a hat he liked at the outdoor theater, then picked the stitch pattern from my Vogue Stitchionary (I am one lucky girl, I tell you). The half of the hat you see below is great. Love it. Was such fun to make, enjoyed every stinking minute and was almost sad when it was over.

Dale of Norway Falk, Vogue Stitchionary "Butterfly Effect"

It is lined to make it nice and cozy and compensate for that whole less-elastic side effect of stranded color-work. It fits. No, it doesn’t just fit, it fits perfectly. And he professes to love it.

The crown? Oh yeah, the part that isn’t there anymore? Did I forget to mention that in my hat love-fest?

Ripped out.

I think I hear the ode to my socks playing in the back of my head…. It was too small (short, actually, left his poor little ears exposed in a very unfriendly fashion). Happily, the fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants pattern came together well, and I was not all that satisfied with my work on the crown anyway, but still, the holidays are no time to be spending time ripping back and starting over. There are deadlines, people, deadlines! And I was almost thinking I was ahead of schedule (pride goeth before the fall), ah well….

Composing a little song to my socks

It goes:

Tink, Tink, Tink, Frog,

Tink, Frog,

Tink, Frog,

Tink, Tink... Tink, Frog....

I bet you get the picture.

But, like someone with a sensitive stomach that still eats spicy food, I keep coming back for more. I love these socks.

I have ripped the toe out (because I wasn't paying attention and shot way past the cable twist), the entire foot (because I was impatient and didn't check my gauge), the heel flap (because I didn't like the way I was twisting the stitches), and most recently, about half the leg (because I (once again) wasn't paying attention and went way off the pattern, apparently intending to make a sock for a much taller person). I have tinked back more than I would be inclined to admit, if I could even recall. Almost always for really dumb things, too.

Through it all the yarn has remained resilient, springy, not fuzzed up one little bit and is still treating me like a queen. After all I have done to it. I can not say enough about how wonderful the yarn is, oh, and the color, soooo beautiful!

This pattern is quite well written, and very engaging. I wish I were a little more disciplined, then I might, oh, read it? Yes, I think that would help immensely.

Thank goodness I am thoroughly enchanted with the yarn and pattern, I am sure I would have given up otherwise. I am a very slow learner, apparently.

But I am so completely happy with my single, finished sock that i could not care less about these little disputes the sock and I may have had in the past. That is all behind us. The sock fit is amazing, the yarn is not only beautiful to look at, it is a soft treat for my feet.

I fear I may need to wait to knit the second sock until after my holiday knitting is done, and that makes me very sad indeed.

For now, I am just wondering if this is too odd a look to finish out my workday with. Probably.

Sottopassagio, knit in Black Sheep Dyeworks Fig Multi

Just returned from a wonderful weekend up in the Great Pacific Northwest (GPNW to me). We went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and saw some really beautiful plays. Perfect, gorgeous fall weather: cool, light breeze, sunny, and all the leaves beginning to turn. I did not know this, but apparently there is a misconception that they only have evergreens in the GPNW. I have been told by more than one person that it is a pity there are no deciduous trees, it would be so much prettier in the fall if there were (but they are sure I will have a good time anyway). So, just to clear this up, there are both. And it is hard to beat for a spectacle as the deciduous trees start to change color, as they are all mixed in with the beautiful shades of the evergreen trees.


These are not mine, wish I were so talented. I found them here: Travel Lane County, Girl Behind the Lens (Flikr: Oregon Girl), and The Oregon Bed & Breakfast Guild

But I digress.

We drove down from Portland and stopped along the way at the Rogue Creamery and picked up some cheese, next door there was the Daisy Creek Vineyard and Madrone Mountain winery tasting rooms, so we grabbed a bottle of wine, too, and headed to Ashland.

I think it is so beautiful there, and the WBBF found us a great place to stay that were wee little cabins and an easy 20 minute walk to the theaters. Perfect! There was even an amazing breakfast place called Morning Glory practically next door. Between our wine, artisan cheese, the Farmers Market, the plays and the outdoor gear required to sit through the outdoor plays in the evening, we had a lot of laughs about being straight out of a collection of Stuff White People Like posts (yes, we do have allergies, why do you ask?).

I scanned the crowd every night for handmade hats. Sad, but true, and found one in particular that was inspiring. we'll see if I have luck creating something like it for the WBBF. Sat next to a family of knitters (one rogue crocheter) at a couple plays, they examined my sock in progress, and generally had a lovely time.

And there was yarn. Oh yes, there was yarn.



This gorgeous undyed handspun mohair from Frolic 'n Fibers that I bought at the farmers market



This lovely merino laceweight (Baruffa Cashwool) from The Web*sters

And handcrafted soap from really nice people who used to live in San Diego. And used books. It was wonderful. I want to go back next year.

Coming soon to needles near you!

If, you know, you wanted to knit this, anyway....

Pictures taken at the Botanical Gardens in Tilden Park

I am not a big tooter of my own horn, but last year I knit this hat for myself, and I loved it. While I love to knit, love to knit hats (or just about anything) and think that, empirically, hats are a really good idea, I also think I look pretty stupid in them. But I love this hat. I even think it looks cute on me. My knitting pal Jenny who claims to not like to wear hats because she says she looks silly (she is way too pretty for that, you can see for yourself below) "appropriated" the sample I knit for the shop and wore it every day. In the summer. In Southern California.

Pictures of Jenny taken at Balboa Park by the amazingly talented Trevor Cornell

And it was fun to knit, kept me interested but was not so challenging as to make me curse at myself and let me play with some new (to me) ideas.

When I was home in December my sister and the WBBF encouraged (or badgered, depending on your point of view) me to write it up.

That is harder than I thought, so just about in time for the fall weather this year, I think I have it all done. Final formatting and proofreading approval pending, there will be a hat pattern coming soon!

WTF???

With the lovely yarn my sister made for me, I have managed to make the dorkiest looking hat ever in the history of hats (which I believe is long and illustrious). I called this project "chocolate kisses" on my Ravelry page, which was obviously a huge mistake. I thought it would be cute (a little too cute in fact, but hey, sometimes you need that) since the colorway was called chocolate, and there was so much love in that there yarn.

Disturbingly, my hat is shaped very much like a Hershey's Kiss, which is not what I was going for.

It is also much too large.

Ripping out and heading back to square one.

Note to self: do not try and get fancy without a better plan.

Change Your Gauge, Change Your LIfe

My sister gave me this lovely (that's a huge understatement) yarn that she spun herself for Christmas last year, and ever since I have been struggling to find the right thing to knit with it. This is serious, it must be perfect.


This means:

It must showcase the beauty of the yarn. It must be something I will wear a lot. It must be suited to a bulky gauge. It must require no more than 582 yards and preferably no less than 570 (I want to use every last bit, naturally).

I have had a tough time with this list of requirements.

Finally, after much swatching, I opted for a hat & scarf. Then I can knit the scarf until the yarn is all gone. Great.

Why is it so hideous, though? I ripped it out countless times over the first week. A hat should be done in a week, not a hopeless ball of yarn giving me dirty looks from my purse and making me feel bad for being so mean to it.

I swatched a lot over the past several months. I even swatched with a couple different balls of yarn, since there was a little variation in the weight.

What I didn't do, was swatch in the round.

I have been knitting for almost 35 years. I am not yet 40. This means I have been knitting longer than I have been reading. I should really know better.

Dropped two needle sizes for the ribbing and the clouds parted. Droppped one for the body of the hat and I swear I could hear the little birdies singing and I felt like I had lost weight. No lie. I have been knitting like a crazy woman, making it up as I go along. Thank goodness things are back to normal.

Just to make sure everything was ok again, I bought some more sock yarn.


Black Sheep Dyeworks Sock Weight in Fig Multi

So much to knit, so little time (it is a disease, people, a disease I tell you)

The holidays are fast approaching (people who don't make gifts don't know, you have to start early) but that isn't even the half of it. Seeing as how I already have more than enough sock yarn to keep me busy for a year, I should be happy and content to knit sock after sock after sock. maybe even the same sock twice to make a nice matching pair, but let's not go too far.

But I want to knit lace. Lots and lots of lace. More lace than I could knit in a year. And naturally, this will involve acquiring additional yarn. Clearly, it is time to move to a bigger place.

I think this is due to the self-imposed "knit what you already have" strategy I have been employing. The binge in the yarn diet. But, as always, I am way more child than adult and I have come up with these reasons (like why I can't go to bed yet or why I need ice cream) why I need more yarn.

Looks like my hopes that I will one day grow up are still in vain.

But I am still working on my socks (and really, what's not to love about socks?) and that is something at least.

Right?

Baby's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, made for my Mom

Lara, How Exactly Did My Car Get Covered in Buckwheat?

A very good question! See, it was like this....

There was a deadline. No, not a work deadline or a tax deadline or an organ transplant deadline, this was important, people! I was not finished with my monkey. With mere hours to go until the baby shower, I had no ears, a disconnected tail and about half a head finished. I also had no idea how I was going to get the buckwheat hulls into the head and make them stay, as they are not as obedient as polyfill. They are also lightweight and like to jump around, as I discovered....

But the World's Best Boyfriend (wbbf) produced a funnel and had the brilliant idea that I stuff Mr. Foster over a tupperware container (I would highly recommend this, it makes clean up much easier). With a really big knitting needle to guide the hulls through the funnel and gently beat the hulls into submission once into the wee little legs, we were on our way. He drove and I knit. And I stuffed. And I knit. Then we stopped in Pasadena and he stuffed and I knit. More driving and I sewed on ears. And I knit. And I stuffed. And I knit. I sewed on the tail outside of the showerand we were only about 15 minutes late, which for this crowd is almost like being early. I had to change my shirt in the car, but these are small sacrifices to make for one's art.

And that is one cute monkey.

Oh yeah, the stuffed one, too.

Monkey Business

Started working on Mr. Foster from Knit Picks for a dear friend who is expecting after a color selection disaster for the intended baby blanket/sweater/hat set she was supposed to be receiving. Why I thought it was a good idea to make a blanket that looks like it belongs in someone's basement with the shag carpet and other really ugly things left over from 1974, I may never know, but it did seem like a really great idea at the time....

Mr. Foster is pretty cute, though, and I hope will make a nice substitution. If I can just get him done by tomorrow morning.... Thankfully, the amazing boyfriend has offered to help me stuff him once I get done knitting. I am not sure there is going to be room for two people to work on this little guy, but it was awfully nice of him to offer.

Stuffing the monkey with buckwheat hulls from this place, they make a very nice natural alternative to polyfill and the folks who sell them are really helpful.

Pictures to follow.

Oh, the difference a single stitch makes!

So, I am making these socks for my boyfriend (he is amazing and I suspect it would disgust most anyone reading this if I were to wax poetic about how great I think he is, so I won't) from yarn he picked out. I would not have picked this stuff for him, but he likes more color than I realized. And it is very pretty and nice to work with (see? I am starting on how great he is again).

Anyway, I have these two matching skeins that are dyed by a computer, started them together, exactly the same....

And yet, my socks do not match....

I can't tell you how many times I thought I counted the stitches on each sock to make sure I had the same number. Turns out, if you keep counting the same sock over and over, that does not, in fact, help you figure out that you have different numbers of stitches on the back of your two socks. Who knew?

Ah, hubris, my old friend....

Lucky for me, he says he likes them this way. We'll see what happens now that I have added a stitch to the back side of the short sock and will correct the stitch count when I am finished with the heels.