Eleven Stitches

Fool Me Once....

I skeined up the Collinette Jitterbug yarn the same day that I bought it.  I had to knit socks out of that luscious purple yarn.  I chose the Child's Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I tried it on when I was two repeats in (attempt #1), and I was worried that it was slightly too big.  With all my sock knitting experience, I decided this wasn't good enough.  I know how to make my socks fit.  I would do better.

I tried it with 7 repeats around, instead of 8 (attempt #2).  This was way too small. OK.  Since the first time I had 64 stitches and the second time I had 56 stitches, I decided I needed something in between.  I went to my Favorite Socks book, and found the Embossed Leaves socks.  This was also 64 stitches, but I could remove one of the purl stitches on each needle and have the pattern work out well.  I cast on 60 stitches and got started on the ribbing (attempt #3). I decided to do the regular k1 p1 ribbing instead of the twitsted stitch ribbing that was recommended.  After a few rows in, I could see that this clearly was not going to work.  The sock was way too small.

Swallowing my pride, I cast on 64 stitches to try again (attempt #4). I decided to also do the recommended ribbing, and bravely got started. I realized on the third round that I had read the first round wrong.  Instead of k1 (k1 tbl, s1) repeat, I did (k1, k1 tbl, s1) repeat.  This would not work.  I tore this out, and started again (attempt #5). I decided to go *back* to regular k1, p1 ribbing.  This time the ribbing looked great, and it fit over my foot easily.  I did 2.5 repeats of the pattern before the heel (one repeat less than the pattern) because the yardage isn't so great in the Jitterbug yarn. I turned the heel, and it was beautiful.  I realized that I hadn't tried on my sock in awhile.

It didn't fit.

This lace pattern isn't nearly as stretchy as Child's First Sock.  And oh, the book recommended size 2 needles, and I was using size 1.  I hadn't noticed that before. 

The sock is now ripped back to the cuff. I'm not yet certain when attempt #6 will begin in earnest.  I'm thinking about the Child's First Sock pattern over 64 stitches.....

Questions Asked, Questions Answered

1. Tiennie asked, "Now, do we get the engagement story?!"

Of course :)  Tuesday night, David asked me if I would "test solve" a crossword puzzle he had been writing.  He had been working on it for a few weeks, but had never let me see it until then.  Things were going along fine, and I noticed that one of the answers was "MERRYMI".  "Merry mi?" I said, kind of questioningly.  David didn't say anything, so I kept working on the puzzle.  I did notice that he was breathing strangely, however.  Then I realized that another answer (higher up in the puzzle) was "WILLEWE". Aha!  I actually finished the puzzle, filling in the "will ewe" last. 

Be sure to look at 15 and 27 across.

I looked over at David and said "So are you asking me something?" He gave me the ring and my first words were "It's so pretty!", which he said he was expecting.  That's what I say when I get new yarn :) The ring is white gold with a pink and a purple sapphire.  I love it!

David suggested that we just "drop by" and visit our friends S & J and C & A.  We were trying to play is casual, but if your friends call at 10:00 and want to stop by, something is up! S & J already had champagne and glasses out when we got there.

Two very happy people

C & A had also figured us out by the time we got there.  It was a lot of fun to see them right away and celebrate!

2. Tanya asked "And I love the belt, too.  Not being a "visual" knitter, could you give a few pointers on how you did that?"

I started with the Jaywalker pattern, but I only did one repeat for the front of the belt.  Also, since I didn't want it to be that wide, I lessened the number of stitches between the increase/decrease stitches.
So instead of

k-f/b, k7 (8), dd, k7 (8), k-f/b

I did

k-f/b, k6, dd, k6, k-f/b

Then to go across the back of the belt, I just did stockinette stitch.  Because the biased fabric pulls in, you don't need as many stitches across the back as the front, so I did a total of 12 stitches.  I actually knit this flat and seamed it up.  If I were to make it again, I probably would do it in the round, however.  It was a pain to seam!  Regardless, this is what I did:

Row 1: [RS] k6, k-f/b, k6, dd, k6, k-f/b, k6
Row 2: [WS] Purl

I had originally intended to put some sort of belt holes in the end.  However, I had already knit maybe 15" before I realized that I wanted them to be in the beginning of the belt, not at the end near the buckle. There was no way I was going to rip back to the beginning!  We realized that knitted fabric was loose enough that no belt holes were needed anyway.

This belt also stretches a lot, so you don't need to make it as long as a regular belt.  I had to lop off about 12" from the belt after David tried it on!

3. EVERYONE has asked "Have you set a date yet?"

Nope.

Ador(n)ed

Since I started knitting about 15 months ago, I've knitted various items for my boyfriend. He wears them with pride.

Pattern: Andean Cap with Earflaps from Hats On!
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8
Needles: Size 6 DPNs

Pattern: My own, based loosely on the Jaywalker stitch pattern
Yarn: Sundara sportweight merino in Drunken Plum
Needles: Size 2

Pattern: Based loosely on Brooklyn Tweed's The Scholar Collar
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky
Needles: Size 11

But now, I'm considering making him something like this.  Or maybe this.

Why?*  Because now I'm wearing this.

*For those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to, please read this.  It explains a popular knitters myth.

Wanna See a Swatch?

OK, I just checked, and you haven't seen any knitting content from me since March 18, when I finished my Cablenet socks!  What have I been doing with myself?  Well in addition to working on my Hana sweater (which is very slow going and 3 inches on the body of a sweater --just under the armpits-- doesn't look like much), I've been swatching!

Here's some of what I've been doing.

I'm planning on making a very open-knit sweater out of this yarn.  It's Artfibers (love this store) Ming in color #11.  My friend C was sweet and brought me back a ball when she visited San Francisco last year, and I bought a few more when I was there in December.

I started out with a lace pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns (I don't have the book with me and I'll edit to add the pattern name later Starlight Lace). Although I don't think this looks bad, it seemed to be a little too fiddly to get these results.  This yarn is so pretty on its own that it doesn't really need something this complicated.

I liked this a lot better. It's inspired by the Clapotis, of course.  It was pretty simple to drop the stitches down, and I cast on two stitches above the dropped stitch to preserve the open space.  Although it now seems clear that I should have done something at the bottom to account for this as well.  The top is significantly wider than the bottom (I stretched the bottom out to look good in this picture).  Also, the stitches that weren't dropped seemed a little too big and sloppy looking for my taste.

This seems to be what I want.  It's knit on size 6 needles instead of 9s, so the stitches look much more tidy.  I also cast on enough to account for 2 stitches per gap (more on this below), so I ended up with a rectangular piece of fabric.  This is what I did:

Cast on 38 stitches (multiple of 4 + 2 sts)
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: [WS] Knit
Row 3: K1 (k2tog yo ssk) 9 times, end k1 -- 29 stitches total
Row 4: [WS] (p2, k1) across the row, end p2 (you will be knitting into the yo's)
Row 5: (k2, p1) across the row, end k2

Repeat rows 4 and 5 until it's long enough -- lets say 20 rows. End with row 4.

Row 27: (K2, drop the purl stitches down until the yarn over, cast on 2 stitches using the backwards loop method) repeat until the end of the row, end k2. 38 stitches total.
Row 28: Knit all stitches
Row 29: Knit all stitches

The next step is to measure my "inspiration piece" to figure out the dimensions of my new sweater!

ETA: Sorry if this shows up on my newer subscribers' blogrolls.  I kept getting some weird hits from Google Image searches, and I've decided to change the image name to avoid that. 

Happy Along Again

Things that are making me happy this week.

1. Getting to attend Represent, and that David went with me.  He doesn't knit, but he still had fun. What a great guy :)  I also got some great things there that I forgot to mention before.

Stephanie's book, which is as funny as ever.  I was laughing out loud over the weekend.  How often do you actually do that with a book?  Also, this yarn was included in a gift bag on every seat.  It's Paton's SWS, which is 70% wool and 30% soya.

It's got some great colors.  It feels good in my hands but maybe a little to rough to go right against my skin. I'm picky though.  There was also a pattern included for afghan squares for Warm Up America. I'm planning to knit some up soon!

2. The weather this weekend!  I got to sit outside with my friend C at a local coffee shop.  I'm starting to actually believe spring is beginning.

3. I've gotten a hit almost every day from people searching for the phrase "www.myknittingshop.com", which I talked about in this post.  Clearly, Yahoo is missing out on a great opportunity here.

Represent!

I had a lot of fun at the Represent event!   David and I left work early and took the train up to the city. As I was bouncing on the seat in excitement, I was thinking about how cool it was that I had found a hobby I could get this excited about.  I kind of feel sorry for those who don't have such a hobby.

We got to the Fashion Institute of Technology about an hour early for the Knitting Lab tour.

I noticed a few other knitters sitting outside the door.  As I was knitting on my Hana sweater, a design student walked by and said "Oh my God, are you knitting that?"  I proudly replied "Yes!", but she had already walked on, which made me think it was more of a derisive than an interested question.  Oh, well.

As we got closer to the tour time, I got to talk with Christine.  We have a lot in common... Socks that Rock, sock knitting, different philosophies on knitting.  It was fun chatting with her and her mom.  Eventually, the tour got started.

The knitting machines were huge!  The first one we looked at knit at a gauge of 28 stitches per inch!  It knit in the round, and it was a kind of "dumb" machine.  The needles were locked in, so you couldn't increase or decrease the number of stitches once you got started.  One rotation of the machine would knit 12 rows.

When I was standing next to the machine, I could look up and see the spools of yarn overhead.

There was a "smarter" machine that could handle knitting in the round, increases, decreases, cables, and probably other things as well.  There was a class in session, and we got to see students using this big computerized machine.  The tour guide said that there's a constant problem of "disconnect' between the technicians who understand how the machine works, and the creative people who want to utilize it.  Being a computer scientist, I found this very intruiging and I'm planning to look into this more.  Maybe this would be a perfect job for me!

We also got to see students at work on the more manual machines.  These were set up to knit for them, but they had to slide a device over the needles for them to engage.

This girl had the beginnings of a beautiful sweater in orange and purple. The spool of plastic to the right of her scissors was actually her color pattern.

A lot of you wondered how I could leave the place of wonderful yarn. Although I couldn't stop staring at the gorgeous wall of thread, it really was more like thread than yarn.  Very, very thin (28 stitches per inch, remember). There wasn't the textural element going on, which is quite necessary for me.

It sure was a sight to behold.

During the tour, I got to meet Jessica.  She was very fun to talk with, and she sat with me and David in the auditorium as well.  I was also a bad blogger and didn't get a picture with her!  Next time! I also briefly got to meet Minty before Stephanie came out. And I (kind of) met Juno when she was collecting money for Knitters Without Borders.

Stephanie is as funny in person as she is in her books.  She was wearing her Bohus sweater, and it looked great on her!  She spoke a lot about the discrimination and stereotyping that knitters face, with a lot of her own funny experiences.  The last 45 minutes was supposed to be a Q&A session, but there were very few questions asked.  Mostly there were testimonials and stories about the lengths people went to attend this event.  We knitters are certainly a diverse bunch.

When Stephanie paused in her speech, you could hear hundreds of knitting needles clicking together.  I love that. Knit on!

Eye Candy Friday

Spools of yarn at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Knitting Lab.  More details this weekend!

Great Sweater, Really!

There's this guy I worked with, and one Monday morning he was wearing this really great sweater.  I admired the color, and I admired his fashion sense to pick out the color. Great sweater.  He also wore the sweater on Tuesday and Wednesday, and by Friday I was starting to wonder if maybe it wasn't such a great sweater after all. 

I have a great sweater I finished back in October.

Pattern: Cabaret Raglan from Interweave Knits
Yarn: Sundara worsted weight Brown over Orange
Needles: Size 9 (generic wooden)

I love this sweater.  It fits me well.  I actually wore it to the Yarn Harlot's book signing in Brooklyn. The conversation about it went something like this:

YH: Great sweater.
ES: Thanks!  I just finished it this morning.
YH: (with a grin) Aren't you glad I noticed?

I also wore it to the New York Sheep & Wool Festival. 

Would it be too much to wear it to Represent tomorrow night?  I was totally planning to wear something different.  I'm very close to the re-knit of the blue raglan sweater I ripped out a few weeks ago.  I tried it on and it's OK, but I don't love it.  When I'm meeting new people (even knitters-- I'm kind of shy) I want to be wearing something I really like.

So please don't think too badly of my sweater if you've seen it (several times) before.  I'll have something new for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  If you're going to be at FIT tomorrow night, please say hi if you recognize me (or my sweater)!

PS. I feel kind of shallow that I just wrote a post about deciding what to wear. Oh well :)

Happy Along Monday

It's time once again for a Happy Along!

Things that have made me happy

1. Visiting with Mama Pea and a few of her friends over the weekend.  Mama Pea "accidentally" started a blog a few weeks ago.  She's one of my best friends.  She's also on bed rest until her baby is born, and I'm so glad that she has knitting (and her two dogs) to keep her company during the day.

Mama Pea learning how to crochet

Me and Milo Pea

2. Buying yarn.  I was so excited to find out that my LYS currently carries Malabrigo!  I actually lightened my stash (see below) by eight skeins this weekend, so buying two still keeps me at a net loss and guilt free :)

The red skein is Malabrigo worsted weight in Vermilion and the purple is Collinette Jitterbug sock yarn in Velvet Bilberry.

3. TiVo.  I am an avid TV watcher, and proud of it.  If you're watching a good TV show, it's very likely I also watch it.  This is how I get all the knitting done -- I'm watching so much TV!

4. This because it is absolutely ridiculous, and it will make my friend M happy to see it here.

Things I've done to make others happy

1. I sent some yarn and needles off to a good cause.  I love it that Alison has started teaching kids (including several boys) to knit.  I'm very excited for her to get the package.

2. I went button shopping for Mama Pea.  She has finished a very lovely jacket and needed some buttons.  I took some pictures and she picked out the one she liked (it was also my favorite).

Happy Monday, everyone!

Cablenet Socks

Another pair of socks!

Pattern: Cablenet by Ariel Barton from Knitty
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight in Sunstone, 1 skein (all of it)
Needles: Susan Bates DPNs size 1
Time To Knit: 2/2 - 3/14
Modifications: None

I love this pattern.  It's very cleverly constructed, and it looks great.

 

I chose the cabled heel.  It wasn't too difficult, and it was a very cool design element.

I'll bet you didn't even see the rosy toe!