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One of my best friends, Sara, is an awesome cook. She even started a catering company on the side, and she has been really busy!
Sara's coming to visit me in a few weeks, and she's planning to cook lots of food. I'm very excited!
Sara is also going to make a red velvet wedding cake for our wedding next spring. This is one she made for another couple a few weeks ago.
Have a great weekend!
So.... I have a story to tell you. It actually happened back on Memorial Day. I'm just now bringing myself to blog about it.
Poor Judgment
Super wash wool goes into the washing machine so well. I've started washing my socks by hand, but my superwash wool sweater behaves beautifully in a cold water wash and flat dry. I can give you a lot of excuses as to why this happened (some of them might be true), but the fact of the matter is that my gorgeous Drop Stitch Ming Sweater went into the washing machine on a cold delicate cycle. No it is not superwash wool. I might have thought about the consequences of my actions a little more.
Disaster
Yep. You can see the carnage below (sock and thumb are included to prove that the picture is not blurry).
There was shrieking. It did not help.
Mortification
Once I got over the initial shock of ruining my sweater, I began to think about all of you. Those of you who cheered me on when I was making the sweater, those who left such nice comments about it. Those who even linked to my post about it. I let all of you down by ruining a sweater that all of you liked so much. I was a complete idiot. I could feel your expressions of disapproval as you read about what happened.
Contrition
I'm very, very, very sorry.
Hope
As it turns out, that sweater didn't take me all that long to make. Drop stitch patterns are kind of fast because of all the gaps in them. And fortunately, Artfibers still makes Ming Yarn. In lots of pretty colors. With gradually increasing excitement, I placed an online order.
This arrived.
Making Amends
I said something about writing a pattern a while ago. I decided that tonight I would actually sit down and start writing it. I will be casting on again soon with this raisiny-brown replacement Ming yarn, and I'll check through my pattern as I go. I'll have another FO post with a new sweater and a free pattern. I hope that will help.
All things must come to an end. Especially when it comes to knitting single socks. Although I do like a good pair of coordinating socks, a pair of matching hand-knitted socks is impossible to beat. So far, you've seen eight completed single socks! It's my goal to have the pairs completed by the time it gets cold, and that means I'm going to have to suspend my membership in the Single Sock Liberation Movement.
But I do have one more single sock to report.
As everyone guessed, it's a Monkey! Now I understand what all the fuss is about! I apologize to those of you who have seen 10 trillion Monkey socks by now, but if you knit one you'll understand and not really mind. These socks warp time. In the good direction. And they look great with just about any kind of yarn.
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Apple Laine Apple Pie in Pretty in Pink
Needles: Susan Bates DPNs size 1
Time to Knit: June 1 - June 4
Modifications: I used Margene's idea for a picot edge. I lengthened the heel flap by four repeats and picked up 21 gusset stitches.
This yarn was scrumptious as well. Merino wool, silk, kid mohair, and nylon are all combined into one soft and fabulous yarn. I was lucky enough to win it in a blog contest, and I was totally guessing when I gave the correct answer.
What a fun month of May it was! I really enjoyed my single sock resolution. I think the excitement of every sock being a new yarn and a new pattern really made me knit through them faster. The variety and small project size was also great for all of the trips I took.
I'm going to have to get used to not starting up a new sock every 4 or 5 days. I've seen a lot of sock yarns and patterns recently on Ravelry, and I've been thinking to myself that I should try them out -- but now I'll have to wait until I catch up with all of my pairs. OK, maybe a new sock or two will slip in, but it will be a little more rare now.I am excited to finish up all of these pairs, though!
I'm also planning projects that cannot be worn on a foot. That will be fun!
PS. For those of you not yet in Ravelry, you might be interested in this and this. They're trying to add as many people as they can as quickly as possible!
My friend used to date someone who thought "penultimate" meant something like "super awesome" instead of "next to the last".
This is my penultimate single sock. It's really awesome ;) This brings my single sock count to eight.
Pattern: Evening Stockings for a Young Lady by Nancy Bush (from Knitting Vintage Socks)
Yarn: Brooks Farm Acero
Needles: Susan Bates DPNs size 1
Time to Knit: May 26 to June 2
Modifications: I didn't want to do a knee sock, so I started with the ankle width. I cast on 60 stitches, followed the ribbing directions for 2 inches, did 5 rows of the second ribbing pattern, and then did 14 lace repeats on the leg. Although I kept the purl stitches as written in the heel, I did slip every other knit stitch to make more of a reinforced heel flap. On the toe, I stopped before doing the k2tog round, knit one round even and then Kitchenered the remaining stitches.
I like the details on this pattern. The gusset decreases are bumped out an extra stitch so the slanted stitches are more prominent. I also like the continuation of the ribbing into the heel flap. This was my first time doing a Dutch heel, and it was fun to try something new.
This yarn was really great to work with. I really like the stitch definition and color. The yarn is not as stretchy as normal wool yarn, so you might want to keep this in mind when knitting socks. The normal measurements I do for deciding when to start the toe didn't quite work -- I had to extend my toe by a little bit. This is not a problem; it's just something to take into account. I did have a little bit of trouble making sure all of the fibers were picked up in a single loop (splitty is such an ugly word), but it wasn't a huge inconvenience.
Great pattern, great yarn. I'll definitely be looking for more Acero at Rhinebeck. I can also picture using it to make a sweater-- something simple and drapey on size 3 needles. It could do the job, and at $17 a skein, it wouldn't be all that expensive.
If you were to chart each knitter's blog posts, I'm guessing you could very nearly pinpoint the time that each knitter joined Ravelry. Suddenly blogging is not as interesting as taking pictures of every ball of yarn in the stash. I'm a little over halfway there, but my cataloging was interrupted by a trip to Indiana to visit my family. For all of you who are still waiting to join-- I'm sure you'll be invited soon. I didn't get a invite from another user, I just got mine from putting my name on the list.
I have been able to get a fair amount of knitting done. It seems that my good plane karma from the San Francisco trip did not last long. We sat on the tarmac in what I called an "airplane parking lot" for nearly two hours before our plane was permitted to take off. It's a good thing I had my knitting and David had his book of puzzles.
This is an Evening Stocking for a Young Lady, almost at the toe. I'm using the Brooks Farm Acero yarn, and I'm loving the way it knits up. It might not be quite as elastic as pure wool sock yarn, but I love the heathered look. It takes a simple stitch pattern and make it look fabulous.
Last night, at the prospect of spending several hours in a hot, crowded gym, I cast on for a new pair of socks. I didn't want to finish the Evening Stocking halfway through the evening!
Have you seen enough of these to recognize them on sight?
More frequent posting is coming soon, I promise! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
