knit twisted

where the cats in my head unwind the thread of my thoughts around the legs of the furniture.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

yackin'..

don't have any pictures to show yet, but I have been kind of busy..

I finished a pair of plain ribbed socks of a regia cotton blend.. the first sock got done in may, the second took some getting around to.

I knit a pair of horcrux of socks that rock medium weight. I don't know if this ball is actually not quite so thick as the other one or if all the difference was in the pattern, but this pair doesn't seem anywhere near as bulky as the first pair does. there's also a bit more yarn left over, I'm sure I can get a pair of baby socks out of these leftovers. :)

I knit most of a man sock of a ball of fleece artist nova sock.. I'm not sure there's enough yarn here for a pair of man socks, so I did the heel first in regia 4ply.. decided that was too flimsy. ripped it out, did it again in regia 6ply.. that's plenty substantial :). I'm just as glad to do the heels in a blend with nylon, they'll wear better. anyway, I got about to the toe, shoved my foot in and decided the heel (short row) was a row or two too deep even for my heel so I ripped it all out again, back to where the heel needs to be.. and then I let it sit. I'll get around to it again eventually.

I knit a pair of socks... the socktopia fawkes socks, of a cherry tree hill mill end that looks nothing like a phoenix, but they're pretty anyway. I had a 10oz mill end that unwound into 3 pieces, 3 balls and I used the smallest ball so I was again unsure there was enough yarn.. so I knit this pair 2 socks at a time on DPN's.. which was a pretty unwieldy and pointy experience, but in the end I did make it all the way through the socks with a bit of yarn to spare, despite going an extra repeat in the leg because I thought they were too short.

my knitty secret pal hooked me up yesterday with a pattern for wavy socks, so I cast on one of those yesterday in royale hare sock yarn and that's pretty fun, I'm working on the first heel now, or was when I put it down a bit ago.

we're heading out on a 4 day road trip to illinois tomorrow. my husband's uncle.. my father in law's older brother is celebrating his 90th birthday.. the oldest male in the family.. my son is the youngest male in the family and the only male in his generation and they've never met. heck, I've never met the man.. my husband hasn't seen him since 1968 or so.. so we got the invitation and figured illinois is far, too bad we can't go and then a few days back we decided we really couldn't *not* go so we're driving.. google says 12 hours and 40 minutes each way, to spend 2 days in the homeland and then drive back. I have found a yarn store to visit, and a store that sells cat's meow custom pieces of the city so I can add a small replica of some piece of the homeland to one of my doorsills, I found a train store for my husband to visit and I'm still trying to find a white castle en route, because that's what my son most wants to do.. eat at white castle. go figure. :)

so.. I have printed out the wavy sock pattern because I don't think I can remember this one, and I printed the tumbling blocks sock pattern too, and packed another pair of needles, the second ball of royale hare, two balls of panda cotton and I may toss in a ball of trekking because I may decide I just want to knit stockinette in the car... but maybe I won't.. it'd be a good opportunity to make some progress towards the new harry potter.. I'm doing a re-read before the new one, my son's done with it so it's available and I still haven't finished book 5. :(

anyway.. when we return.. I'll get around to taking some pictures for the entertainment of my phantom readers. :)

Saturday, July 14, 2007

surprise!!

It *did* turn into a jacket!

baby surprise jacket

maybe the most surprising part is that I only changed yarn once..

elizabeth zimmermann's baby surprise jacket, done of a 100% merino cherry tree hill mill end (two of 'em, actually) that I purchased as supersock.. but it's about a third thicker than that, and somewhat skimpier in yardage to make up for it. EZ said I needed 3oz of yarn to make this sweater and I'm guessing I used closer to 6.. 5.5 maybe. it's a little bigger than it's supposed to be too, I was supposed to get 6 stitches/inch and I've wound up with not quite that, closer to 5 actually. so.. we'll call this a toddler surprise jacket, I guess. It's pretty cute though, huh?

is a good thing I got to the end of the instructions when I did though.. that weird yarn was going to transition from the light green/cream/pinkybeige there at the end to light green/pinkybeige/RED, in another row or two and I'm really not sure that would have enhanced the look of the finished thing. it's going to make pretty ok christmas baby socks though. :)

it was really fun to knit.. I was so excited when it finally got to the point I could see how it was going to "work" in the end.. and then it made me do another thing that didn't make sense and then came the point that did too.. way fun. the only hitch is the buttons. I found buttons I think will do nicely but I cannot find a needle that will do the job.. a needle with an eye big enough for the yarn I want to use to attach them, and at the same time skinny enough to go through the holes. it's not an impossible thing, I just.. don't seem to have one. so.. I reckon I'll be goin' shopping monday.

tomorrow we're loading the car up with 20somethings and heading to chucktown to see harry potter 3D at the imax.. which should be plenty fun enough to make the waiting to get the jacket 100% finished bearable. :)

Monday, July 09, 2007

the long and winding...

road... ok.. that's a bit too cliche even for me. .

I've spent a large part of this day winding yarn. I have wound.. 26 ounces of sock yarn.. somewhere in excess of 2600 yards. If you're thinkin' what's she whining about, that's a piece of cake, you either have fancy tools I don't have or are much younger and more flexible. :) geez.. I don't so much enjoy winding yarn. I.. enjoy it more in the winter, but.. not much more. but.. I keep acquiring more and more yarn that needs winding and I keep knitting the yarns that came in a form from which I can knit them without doing anything to them and the balance has tilted.. I now have far more yarn in need of winding than I have in a form from which I can just choose it and commence to knit.. and the yarn in need of winding is mostly much more appealing, or tempting, except for that pesky winding thing.. than what is.. in a form from which I can just pick it up and knit. with some exceptions.

oddly perhaps.. the yarns I wound today are not the most tempting of the ones waiting winding, either. I have 8 skeins of lorna's laces on hand and I wound the 2 that are my least favorite. I have 4 skeins of fleece artist and I wound the one that.. is my least favorite (but also the one that's most likely to make man-socks). I also wound 2 skeins of royale hare in a range of dark blues, a 4oz cherry tree hill mill end in solid turquoise and a 10oz cherry tree hill mill end that is a bunch of colors. it wound into 3 balls, none quite like another but close to the same size.. I think I can get a pair of socks each out of 2 of them and the third.. maybe not quite.. which is why I also wound the turquoise, I was thinking it might be willing to donate heels and toes to at least one pair.. now I'm thinking maybe I should have chosen the purple so I may do it next.

but not today. it's tiring. pieces of me hurt.

I wound ones that are not my personal favorites.. that were purchased with other people in mind because I have knit more pairs for myself than for other people lately and I need to get a few more pairs into the christmas knitting so it's not crazy like it was last year. so.. next.. after I finish the sock on needles (a plain summer sock.. for me..) and.. maybe the mate to the one I finished yesterday (a socks that rock horcrux that.. may be for someone else.. but.. may not :) ).. definitely next is going to have to be a gift pair. definitely.

sarah asked about the friend of the towel yesterday.. he's a black cat candy jar that lives on the kitchen table.. he came from the dollar spot at target after halloween when the dollar spot was 75% off. I collect black cat stuff, and for a quarter, could not leave him there. :) he is kinda cute, 'eh?

Sunday, July 08, 2007

a title.. aha.. ok, "now that's done.."

sheesh.. that was surprisingly difficult, making a title happen.. hahaha..

cotlin moss grid towel

here's the cotlin towel. I just cannot photograph anything inside..

as you can probably tell, 2 balls of the cotlin was insufficient to finish the towel.. however.. I had a bit of the natural color left over from erin's sweater and that did prove to be sufficient (for a little bit I was afraid I was going to run out of it *too* and (while I do have a few more balls of that color and could have broken one out.. I didn't want to) was afraid I was going to have to finish it up with 2 or 3 rows of the green. once I reconciled myself to the watermelonish look that would result from that, the natural magically stretched to finish the job. :)

since I still haven't seen the specified euroflax in person, I can't speak to how reasonable a substitute this is, but I do think it made a nice towel and I actually kind of like the odd colored end, so.. pending actually using and laundering this one, I expect I will make some more and use up the rest of this yarn.. I have 2 more balls of the natural, another ball and a bit of the green, and 2 balls each of the turquoise and dark blue.. I think I'll try a feather and fan of the green and turquoise and then moss grid ones with the rest, as far and randomly colored as that takes me. :) but.. one of these days, I *am* going to try the right yarn.. might as well knit up this substitute stuff first though, in case the right stuff ruins it for me.

today, I remain very happy with this towel.
really.. I do like it.. perhaps better, even, with the odd colored end!

technical question: I like the bind off end better than the cast-on end. I used.. what in my head work out to be sort of similar things.. I did the knitting on cast on.. where you start with a loop and knit a stitch of it and slip it to the left needle then knit another stitch and slip it to the left needle and.. on like that? don't know it's name.. and I bound off with the one where you knit a stitch and slip it back and knit two together and slip it back and knit two together and slip it back and.. like that, til you run out.. don't know the name of that either.. but I like how it looks on the end of this towel. is there a way I can put the stitches on in the beginning that would more nearly match that, in appearance?

it's convenient that I'm fonder of the two color end and the bind-off end both, since.. hanging over the towel rod, both my favorite bits present themselves to the public view. :)

knitting a sock today.. a horcrux in medium weight STR henpecked, which arrived the other day from the nice gal that I mentioned the other day.. and whether the smaller stitch count or the smaller needles (this batch really doesn't seem quite as thick as the harlotty for whatever reason, I'm knitting it on 2.5mm needles) or just.. different colorway, this one is behaving in a more appealing way than the harlotty did. I like it better in a less textured pattern too, I think. anyway.. I'm enjoying the sock.. I'll give you a peek when it's a pair. :)