Madrona: Most of My Photos are of Swatches

Madrona was a lot of fun this year (as expected), but I don't have a lot of photos this time. I had two full days of classes, plus events in the evening, and then I just came back for a few hours on Sunday, so I didn't have a lot of time to think about photos, or to take them. But I'll run the mostly-swatch photos in chronological order (rather than numeric order).

Photo #5, The Hotel: This is the first year that I've stayed at the Murano Hotel during the retreat, and this is my room. I had full day classes on Friday and Saturday, and even though I live close enough to drive back and forth I decided that I'd stay over the one night. The room was very comfortable, the staff was great, and they only charged me for one day of parking even after I told them that I would be parking for the whole second day. I wasn't really sure what to expect (last year, they were still renovating much of the hotel and it was a mess), but I will definitely try to stay there again next year. I wish that I lived in a room that looked like that.

Photos #2, 8 & 9, Lucy Neatby's Even Cooler Socks: My Friday class was "Even Cooler Socks" with Lucy Neatby. We started with a tubular cast-on that was much more intuitive than the methods I've used before, and also involved my first ever successful crochet chain provisional cast on. I love tubular edges, but they're usually so fiddley that I skip them--this method felt much more straightforward. You can see the edge on photo #9, which also features a striped quilted pattern that can be used for a strong heel flap, and a twined chain bind off, which is just cool looking. We knit a short-row garter stitch heel that does not involve picking up wraps or excessive counting, and we knit a sideways garter cuff and used a "no kitchener instructions" method of grafting together the ends.

I really enjoyed this class, especially seeing the techniques up on the big screen. Lucy's DVDs illustrate many of the techniques we used, so she projected videos of the tricky parts and talked us through them. This was very useful--the class was reasonably large, and having an easily visible visual aid made a big difference. Many of the techniques we used are part of Lucy's Fiesta Socks (Rav Link) pattern, so I've started a pair of those.

Photo #7, Cat Bordhi's Friday Evening Talk: The talk featured a skit illustrating how yarn may have been made and knit in pre-historic times. This is the Yarn Harlot as a cavewoman inventing finger knitting. This talk was 100% pure knitting entertainment gold, and not just the skit--Cat's a very inspiring speaker with a LOT to say.

Photo #4, Yarn: I don't even want to discuss how much yarn I bought this year, I came home with a lot more than I intended. For instance, I've got a sweater's worth of yarn on the way from Black Water Abbey. I'm excited about the yarn, but I had planned to check out their booth but NOT to buy sweater yarn until I've finished one of the sweaters I have in hibernation. But I won a door prize (yippee!) gift certificate for their booth, and it covered about a quarter of the cost, so it made sense to order it now. I ended up with some great yarn (the yarn above is from Blue Moon Fiber Arts), but there were a few things I brought home that I probably didn't need (like more needles). I am hereby implementing a yarn moratorium until at least April 1, with a couple of exceptions for yarn that I've been planning to buy that is only available in March, or that will be purchased with a Christmas gift card. And really, I might rethink that March yarn altogether.

Photos #1, 3, and 6, Jean Wong's Fine Finishing Techniques: More tubular finishing, but this time it was cast offs. Jean showed us how to use a tubular cast off for 1x1 rib and 2x2 rib in any number of different configurations--when you're knitting flat, when you're knitting in the round, when you're knitting a piece that will be seamed, etc. It was very detailed work, and a little brain scrambling, but it's really something that I think is worth doing (except on Swatch #5, which nearly sent me over the edge). Jean brought several sample sweaters, and the tubular finishes look just lovely. We also covered Japanese short rows (very neat looking, and no wraps), joining a shoulder seam, and weaving in ends in the middle of a row with no gap (very handy). Most of these techniques are related to sweater knitting, which I really don't do much of, but it's easy to see how these can be applied to smaller projects.

Event Without Photo #1, Elsebeth Lavold's talk at the Banquet: Elsebeth's talk was very interesting, she discussed how she became a knitting designer, her work with Viking Knits, and her plans to research the use of knotwork motifs in other (non-Nordic) cultures. The food was better than expected--the choices are always salmon or vegetarian meals, and this has kept me from attending the banquet until this year. I'm a picky eater, I chose what was for me the lesser of two evils (the vegetarian meal), and reminded myself that I could always pick up a sandwich on the way home. I was expecting over-cooked pasta, or slimey tofu, but instead the meal was a mushroom risotto that was genuinely tasty, and not too mushroomy. The meal was somewhat beside the point, of course, but I would have been embarassed to just pick at my food at a table full of strangers.

Event Without Photo #2, Fair Isle Class Reunion: On Sunday, Janine Bajus arranged a get-together of students who had taken her color class at Madrona or her three day class last summer. Although nobody showed up with a completed sweater (which would have made me cry), it's got me thinking about next steps for my long-forsaken swatches. I think I need to get organized again, and try to make some progress on these. Maybe next year, I'll have a hat to bring for show and tell. Or maybe at least another swatch!

It's really nice that today is President's Day, and I've been able to lounge around a bit today instead of getting right back to the office. I do have a few things that I need to take care of today (unpacking, catch up on e-mails, make sure I'm prepared for my week or at least tomorrow), and it's going to be hard to get back to the non-knitting regular world. But I've got a lot of inspiration (and new yarn) to fall back on!

Panic on the Streets of London, Panic on the Streets of Birmingham

O.K., it's 7pm on Thursday, and I have to leave for Madrona in about 12 hours. I know that it's only about 20 minutes away, but I've still got quite a number of things to do before bedtime (but not homework, yeah!), like spend some time on Facebook's Pet Society, pack some clothes, and thank E__ for sending (sorry, single) me AWESOME Valentine's Day chocolates. In any case, this post might not be as comprehensive, readable, or spell-checked as well as I might like, but I'm afraid that if I wait until after Madrona I'll skip it altogether.

Last weekend, I took Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knits: Creating Cables class at Seattle's Nordic Heritage Museum. I snuck in as a last minute substitute, and I'm really glad that I went. I've knit a number of cabled projects over the years, and I'm pretty comfortable with them, but it turns out that there is a LOT to learn about cables. We spent the morning talking about Elsebeth's work designing with Viking cables, which are inspired by artifacts from the Viking Age, and Elsebeth gave us a tour of her work that is now on exhibit at the Museum. We worked a small cable from a chart, then applied the cable principles she taught us to a chart-free cable based on a drawing. Then I attempted an interlocking cable, that I didn't get very far on but turned out sort of interesting anyway. Here's those three swatches:

One thing that is interesting to me is the way increases are added to start the cable, and stitches are decreased at the end of the cable to compensate for the fabric pulling in. I didn't block this as perfectly as I could have, but it really doesn't pull in for the cable. It's also neat that the motifs are suspended in the reverse stockinette--they just emerge from the background, without the need for vertical or horizontal connections. Neat!!!!

The afternoon was all about trying out our own cables. Based on my experience with the cable on the far right hand (which doesn't follow the rules, and only approaches (rather than achieves) the intended result), I decided to go for something asymmetrical. If you're not going for symmetry, then you don't have to worry about symmetry. However, you still have to worry about the limitations of the technique (pointy starts, for instance), and the results might still not be ready for a giant project:

The top swatch was my in-class attempt, with my detailed, work-of-art showing what I was going for (highlighted in orange for better visibility). The swatch itself is somewhat different--pointier, and also even wobblier than my lame doodle. I kind of like it though--it's unrefined, to be sure, but I think it shows some potential.

After I got home from class, I decided that I should try a simpler version, and actually chart it out. The chart is flawed in that I didn't map out the increases and decreases, and clearly there's not enough space between the bottom edge and the cable that lines it. But I still kind of like it, and I look forward to exploring these types of cables further. I wish that I'd also taken Elsebeth's mitered cables class the day before--I saw some of the work that people had done for the class, and it was amazing.

I think that I have accurately represented my enthusiasm for this class, without even having to mention that Elsebeth is a great teacher and that she was wearing a sweater that I wanted to start knitting immediately (unfortunately, the pattern's not out yet). However, just in case I'm not being totally clear, I bought her Viking Knits book and a hat & neckwarmer pattern she designed for the Nordic Heritage museum, and I stopped on the way home from a full day class to buy the yarn for it, and cast on as soon as I finished the swatch above.

Whew! Next up--dispatches from Madrona (or more likely, from home after I get back and recover from Madrona).

Pink Swatches are Taking Over!

Finishing requires a lot of swatching

This past week has been incredibly busy, and the next couple of weeks look like they'll be more or less the same. I'm not sure why I always forget how one day it's New Year's and I'm sooooo glad that the holidays are over, and the next day it's mid-February and my schedule is jam-packed with both work and non-work stuff. It's the non-work stuff that throws the biggest wrench into the works, because it eliminates the buffer that I usally have to take care of things that I haven't been able to get to during the week (laundry, anyone?) or to get organized for the next week. I'm not really complaining, because I could opt NOT to do some of the things on the schedule--for instance, I added a full day knitting class (Elsebeth Lavold at the Nordic Heritage Museum) to my weekend schedule on Thursday, even though my week had already been really, really, really long. I'll write more about the class (which I LOVED) once my swatches are dry and photographed. Maybe I'm just a little cranky because Frieda woke me up at 4:30am, which is very early for her and even earlier for me.

So! What's up next? Next weekend is the Madrona Fiber Arts retreat, and I'm taking a couple of classes that feel like they're on the opposite sides of the brain. I'm taking Lucy Neatby's "Even Cooler Socks", which I expect to be fun and creative and inspiring, and Jean Wong's "Fine Finishing Techniques", which I expect to improve my skills in my weakest area of knitting. I'm never quite sure which seaming technique to use when, and I no longer have a great reference book for guidance. Remember my "Baby Yours" sweater? I put it into hibernation rather than finish it, and now it won't fit the baby it was intended to fit. I'm hoping that Jean Wong's finishing class will help me finally get this done, before I lose the yarn that I need for the button band. As you can see in the photo, there's a lot of swatching required for this class--eleven swatches in total. I hope that I did them right--as I was working on them, I was acutely aware that there are different ways to interpret instructions, and although I am pretty confident when choosing a direction for a project, it's a lot harder to be sure that I'm doing what's correct when I'm not sure what will be done with the swatches. Here's hoping that I'm not re-knitting them during lunch!

Two Toe Tuesday: Black & Bright Orange Edition

Haida Leyburns and Red Hot Chili Empoisonnée socks

I'm not quite sure what it is about the new year that makes me want to join knitalongs. My success in these ventures is horribly mixed--for every Ravelympics success there is another Sock Knitters Anonymous failure. Sometimes, a KAL starts up right when I'm thinking about knitting something that fits the criteria anyway, or it involves materials that I already have onhand, as with the Red Hot Chili socks. Sometimes, you think that it involves what you already have onhand, and then you go out and buy new yarn anyway, as with the Haida Leyburn socks. Either way, it's a good excuse to start something new and join the global knitting community. An excuse I don't really need, obviously, but an excuse nonetheless.

Last week I finished the first of the Red Hot Chili socks (which is why there's another toe in progress), and I'm very pleased with the result:

The toe-up-sock-with-gussets construction is fairly new to me, but I tried to just follow the instructions and believe that it would all work out. That strategy worked out just fine--I was genuinely surprised that I had the right number of stitches before starting the heel turn. I love the twisted stitch ribbing on the gusset & the expanding cables up the leg. At the same time, I really like that there's a lot of plain knitting to show off the yarn and keep the knitting speedy. I knew that the yarn for the Haida Leyburns was on the way, so I tried to get a good start on the second sock.

I'm glad that I did, because the Leyburn pattern is also a lot of fun to knit and it would have been easy to stop thinking about the orange socks once the black sock was on the needles. I'm knitting the Leyburns using the stitch counts in the pattern so far, but I substituted an Easy Toe (from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks) for the short row toe. It's much easier for me to remember "increase every other row" than "wrap, turn, pick up wraps, double wrap". The toe is fairly wide, in keeping with the designer's preference, and I like it that way--it feels comfortable so far, anyway.

I'm taking both of these to Boston next weekend, and leaving the bigger projects at home this time (though maybe I should sneak in another project, just in case). There should be enough variety in between these two to keep me occupied on the plane. I can knit the red socks if the light is bad (provided I can see the charts), and knit the black socks if it's too bumpy for chart reading.

The Only Thing That's Different is Underneath My Hat

Due to the snowy / icy conditions in December and my recurring fever / cold, I only exchanged the last of my holiday gifts last weekend. This gave me a little extra time, and I whipped up this Owl Hat out of some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from my stash. Although J____ was too hopped up on goofballs (or whatever it is that sends a 4 year old into crazytown) to try it on when I gave it to her, her mother sent me the photo above, and it looks pretty cute! 90% of the cuteness is J____, but the hat is a good color for her pretty blue eyes and it's big enough to accomodate her giant head of hair, so I couldn't be happier. J____, on the other hand, may have liked the cotton dishcloth with a mitten (Rav project link) on it better than either the hat or the felted slippers. Good to know, J_____, good to know.

____________________
The Only Thing That's Different is Underneath My Hat": They Might Be Giants, Purple Toupee.

Should I Be Worried?

(or, How Worried Should I Be?)

I've been sucked into another KAL, this time via the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry. The pattern is the Leyburn Socks, and the group is trying to knit it in as many different colorways as possible. This pattern was already in my queue, and the deadline for finishing isn't until the end of March, so it's a good fit. About 150-ish people signed up before me, so all of the colors I already have were taken. I ordered a skein of Haida that I've had my eye on. When I wind yarn at home, I always hold the yarn over my finger so that I can feel for knots and get a slightly tighter ball of yarn. Here's how it looked when I finished:

The yarn looks great, but my finger? Normally there's not a black ring there, so really--how worried should I be? All that dye coming out isn't going to leave me with weird brown socks instead of richly blue and black socks, is it? I'll have to remember to give the socks a vinegar bath once they're all knit up. On the plus side, the color is just what I was looking for (assuming that it doesn't fade), and if it really sheds a lot of dye once I start knitting it, I know that Blue Moon will exchange it.

Twisting, Twisting in the Wind

. . . or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat is coming up next month, and while knitting swatches for one of my classes I realized that it's been a long time since I worked on my Vickie Cardigan (here's the Rav Link). I bought the pattern at Madrona in mid-February from Black Water Abbey, got the yarn in mid-March, and finished the first sleeve by mid-April. Not a bad pace, considering that I usually have a lot of projects going at once and that I didn't take it with me when I was travelling in March. However, once spring really rolled around, I put it away and haven't taken it out again. My original intention was to finish it before Madrona 2009, but now I'd just like to get back to it so that I have a shot at Madrona 2010. That's a good goal, right? Work on a WIP instead of buying more yarn, add more variety to the projects that are currently in rotation ('cause it can't all be on size 0 needles, or plain stockinette, or stranded colorwork), and eventually end up with a really nice sweater.

So I pulled out the second sleeve, found my notes and the pattern, and got right back into it. After knitting a couple of inches, I realized that I'd made an error before putting this into hibernation. An error that I could have fixed without ripping if I'd seen it a few days ago, but now:

Now it needs to be ripped. You can see the error, right? There should be an additional twist between the diamonds. This may have been the reason I stopped working on this sweater, but I don't remember seeing the mistake, and I definitely didn't make any notes about it. It's not that bad, really--it's still the cuff edge of the sleeve so it won't take that long to get back to where I started. The photo above doesn't show that I'm barely past what's shown of Sleeve #2--the photo below shows better how much needs to go:

Note to self: examine dormant WIPs better before restarting. And maybe before putting them into hibernation, look at them first and make a note if anything is wrong. Or better yet, rip back before putting it into hibernation--there's barely enough vacant space in my brain to remember to look at notes!

You're Trying My Patience, Try Pink Carnations, Red Roses, and Yellow Daffodils

A friend at work mentioned that she'd like a felted flower pin a looong time ago, and after checking out "Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers"at the library and returning it overdue without knitting, and then buying it and forgetting about it, I finally cranked out the posy above in maybe a half hour. The pattern is the "Five Star Flower", and I used Cascade 220 in a few different shades from my stash. This flower pattern knits up very quickly, and there are several other patterns in the book that I have my eye on. The pin has been all but assembled since mid-December--the weather and holidays made my schedule a little erratic, and then it took some time to remember to buy pin backings. I still can't quite believe that I didn't already have any pin backs, but lesson learned--assemble all supplies at once! I finally got it together, and my friend likes it, so all is well. And finishing it has made me want to knit more of these things, maybe to embellish a bag, or make a garland (I don't know what for), or just for the sake of felting some stuff.

The reason I finally remembered the pin request is that I needed something to embellish these felted clogs, and thought felted flowers would be a good way to go. I considered needle felting something, but I have zero experience and I wasn't able to locate my needle felting supplies (I'm still looking for them). Also, since the clogs are likely to be washed at some point, I wanted to avoid things like beads and sequins (which would have looked awesome) that might fall off in the wash. I knit a large flower and a leaf for the pin, and then I knit a pair of smaller flowers for the clogs. Here's what they looked like unfelted:

And here they are felted:

I felted them possibly a little too much, because I wanted them to be firm. You can see that the small flowers are basically just the center of the larger flowers. The pattern is very adaptable.

Here are the finished clogs sitting on the back of the couch (with mild dachshund intervention):

The slipper suspense is mounting--I haven't given them away yet (yes, it's mid-January), so I'm not sure whether they will fit J____ or whether she'll like them as much as Frieda and Gretel do. Fingers crossed I can deliver them this weekend--can't wait too long with a growing kid, or the "it fits" window may pass right by!



_______________
"You're Trying My Patience, Try Pink Carnations, Red Roses, and Yellow Daffodils": Wilco, Forget the Flowers

I Have Got to Start Reading More

This is the stack of books that I'm trying (though not hard enough) to get through. All but "Twilight", which I started but haven't gotten very far into, have been added to the stack in the last two or three weeks. It's a pretty wide selection, though maybe a bit heavy on European royal history/ I think that both the Antonia Fraser book and Alison Weir books recently came out in paperback, and I'm a big fan of both authors (and not a secret Royalist). Time to get cracking, even though all I can think about are the Red Hot Chili Socks & other knitting projects.

Any suggestions for after I get through or abandon these books?

A Tale of Two Gussets

So the fever that I had a couple of weeks ago went dormant, and then came back as a continuing mild cold. First it was a stuffy nose, then it was a slightly scratchy throat, then it was coughing, and now it's runny eyes & nose accompanied by intermittant sneezing. Tomorrow? I predict more nose running, and chapped lips. I share this not because I want your pity (except for the fever, and yesterday's hacking cough, it hasn't been that bad), but because it's possibly to blame for my gusset knitting blunder on my newest sock pattern. Behold, the gussets:

See the nice right triangle in the top photo? And the bad, broomstick-looking triangle in the bottom photo? I was trying to be so careful about increasing on the top of the foot to maintain the triangle, but I totally missed the error on the right side gusset until I'd finished the whole gusset and was trying to figure out where to start the heel turn. I'd taken a laissez-faire attitude towards top and bottom of the toe and stitch marker placement, and so I had to take a break to read the directions to figure out where to start, when I finally saw the mistake. Urgh. Slightly weird beginning to side cable at the toe? I can live with that. Weirdly assymmetric gussets? No can do. I've ripped back to the good old days, the days when both gussets had right triangles, and I'm going to fix it. I'm hoping I don't end up having to rip back to the beginning of the gusset, but I can live with it if I have to.

Even though I lost a lot of work (which I blame on being very cough-y while knitting), I love these socks. The pattern (Empoisonnée by Yarnissima) is very nicely written, with enough usual detail to keep me moving along, but not so much that it overwhelms the yarn. I love the detail of the cables running up the side of the stockinette foot, and I'm very pleased with the stripes in the yarn. This is the first time I've knit with Wollmeise (this is Red Hot Chili - Medium in the 100% superwash base), and it is really nice to work with. It's a little tricky to pick up the stitches without catching one of the fine strands, but that's the case with any yarn I knit on size 0 needles.

Although I'd love to be further along, I'm not at all sorry that I'm reknitting part of this sock. It's that interesting. I can't wait to find out what happens after I get to the heel--I hope my brain can handle it.

Two Toe Tuesday: Hulk Angry! Hulk Smash! edition

It's been a really, really, really long time since I finished a pair of socks in less than two weeks, and I have to say that it's a pretty nice feeling to have finished these Hulk Smash (Rav Link) socks. The yarn (CashSport String in Hulk Smash) is super cozy, and since it's a sport weight it knit up quickly and will be warm. The cashmere content makes the yarn super soft, too. I only had one skein, and wasn't so sure how far it would go, but there was plenty for these short socks. I used about 85% of the skein, which was fine by me--I prefer not to start freaking out about running out of yarn when I'm knitting a new pattern or new yarn, and the length of these is very comfortable as-is.

I know that I've been over this before, but the pattern is Berry Season (Rav link) from the book 2-at-a-Time Socks. The pattern was very easy to follow (although it took me a while to memorize the stitch pattern, because I was spacing out instead of looking at the very very simple chart). I am relieved that I now have an offline source for clear kitchener stitch instructions--I'm so tired of having to kitchener in front of my desktop computer while reading the directions in Knitty. Seriously.

A big problem with living in the Seattle area this time of the year is that the days are dark--on a rainy day like today, there may have been a 15 minute photography window at some point, but if there was I didn't see it. As a result, the color in the photo above is a little dull, and doesn't lend full credit to the socks. It is more accurate than the super saturated version below that really makes me think of the Hulk, and reminds me that I need to start running more if I'm going to run this year's St. Pat's Dash:

I Got the Chills, They're Multiplyin'

Brrrr . . . it's cold outside today. The downside is that I was hoping to take the dogs for a long walk or go for a run, and the upside is that I don't feel bad about doing neither. Instead, I've been finishing Christmas Cards (just looking for a few missing addresses now), running errands, packaging up the Green Buzzbee, and knitting. I finished the Red Tune Cap, and although it is too small for me (my head is Large, I knit size M as a gift), I want to wear it around the house because I love it. I love the shaping at the top, I love the yarn (Malabrigo, in Ravelry Red from Webs), I love the idea of a secret iPod and headphones pocket. I used about 54 grams of the 100 g skein for the Medium, so there's no way I'll get a Large hat out of the remainder, but I may have some leftover Malabrigo that I could stripe into another hat. This is the first time I've knit a top-down hat, and it makes so much sense to knit hats this way because you can try it on as you go. That didn't help me a lot, since the hat is for a smaller-headed person, but I did try it on a few times anyway. The pattern, as I mentioned in my first post about this hat, is available here.

In other knitting news, the Red Hot Chili socks are a lot slower work, but they are starting to look awesome:

I love the way the Wollmeise is striping, even though I know that it won't last once I start increasing for the gussets. I'm knitting these on size 0 needles, and the fabric is nice and firm (but not too stiff to knit).

What I really should do, on this cold winter day, is finish the last several inches of the Hulk Smash socks, and put them on my freezing cold toes--but it's more likely that I'll take a nap right now, and use dachshunds to warm up my feet!

Out With the Old, in With the New

Presenting on the left: the last finished item of 2008, the Green Buzzbee hat. I knit this hat in a few days, and I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I used Cascade 220 superwash in a heathery evergreen, and the color has a ton of depth. In addition to the evergreen, there's yellow, and copper, and more--as I learned while cutting off the tip of the hat and reknitting it because I didn't like the way the point looked. The end knot made it look asymmetrical, and weaving in the end (which is why I had to cut off the top) made it look worse. On the second attempt, I turned the hat inside out before pulling the yarn through the last three stitches, and the result looks much better. The hat didn't look as awesome as I'd hoped on my Godzilla nightlight, but I might try it again now that it's been washed and blocked--although I'd like to get it in the mail tomorrow, if it's dry.

Presenting on the right: the first new project of 2009. The pattern is Empoisonnee from the Twist Collective, and at long last I'm using the Wollmeise sock yarn that I've had for several months. So far, so good, but it is early days. It's not bad luck to abandon the first new project of the year is it? Hmmm. . . maybe I should check to see if I've done that before.

Happy New Year everyone! I don't know about you, but I was pretty sick of 2008. I've been mulling over some "best of" lists from 2008 to post, and maybe I'll get around to them, but probably not. I've been really behind on everything for the last several months, so there hasn't been a lot of time for reflection. Maybe my goal for 2009 should be to let stuff go . . .

Some Hats May Have Been Started

Too late in the evening to blog . . . . but I may have started a couple of new hats.

Maybe one that's knit from the top down, and will hide an iPod and headphones . . .

(it's a lot bigger now, but hard to photograph).

. . . and maybe one from the cover of this collection of patterns, that if finished & mailed quickly will keep a Southern baby warm when he visits Germany in January:

(I started this yesterday, so I should get it in the mail maybe this weekend).

So much for working on the same projects all the time . . . although I'd like the record to reflect that the progress on the Hulk Smash socks has been significant. I've finished the gusset decreases, and now it's a race to the toes. The pooling is a little weird in the photo, but the cashmere softness and quick pace of the knitting more than makes up for it:

You'll have to trust me when I say that these look a lot less busy in person (at least until they're finished & blocked).

I've Been Gambling Like A Fiend On Your Tables So Green

Ahhhhhhh . . . now that's better. A new project, using a new yarn. With cashmere! The pattern is Berry Season (Rav Link) from the book 2-At-A-Time Socks. It's a short sock with garter stitch, then ribbing, then a textured pattern. So far, so good.

The 2-At-A-Time Socks book is a good introduction to knitting two socks at once using the magic loop technique, although the construction of the socks is all top down. I would have liked to see some toe-up patterns, but I've also been using the 2-at-once technique for a couple of years so I'm already reasonably comfortable with it. I'm sure I could convert some patterns to toe-up, but for me the point of buying this book was to have patterns I didn't have to think too much about! Anyway, even though the construction is all the same, there are some beautiful and unusual patterns in the book as well as some solid basics.

I bought the yarn I'm using completely on a whim, and specifically because the color is called "HULK SMASH". It's Cashsport String by The Yo Yo, purchased at the Loopy Ewe, and as the name implies, it's sport weight. These are going to be some cushy socks, and hopefully they won't be too thick to wear with clogs (but they probably will be). This yarn (which is 10% cashmere) is really nice feeling, and there are a few other colors that I've got my eye on--but likely not until I've used up the Hulk Smash. Hulk Smash!!! I can't stop typing Hulk Smash!!!!!!



__________________
I've Been Gambling Like A Fiend On Your Tables So Green: Wilco, Casino Queen

Santa Claus Singing on Naughty Snow

Wow, how can it be Christmas Eve already? This holiday season has flown by, what with the weather problems, sick dogs, and feverish me. I finished up my holiday knitting last night, and it feels good, even though the recipients won't actually receive them on Christmas. There are quite a few other things I planned to knit, and some that I might take a crack at later, but what's done now is it--I want to move on to other things!

The last two items are the felted clogs (not yet felted) above, and the Postwar Mittens. The Felted Clogs are HUGE, and I was worried about running out of the color I used for the sole on the second clog so I knit the first couple of rows with the top color. It would have bothered me if I ran out of yarn on the edges of the sole, but a contrasting row on the bottom doesn't bother me a bit. There's not much left of the grey yarn, so I think I made the right choice.

I am pleased with the way the Postwar Mittens came out, but the second half glove and especially the thumb were a slog. My mental powers must have been particularly lacking this last week, because I could not concentrate on that thumb for more than about 5 minutes at a time, and even working slowly and deliberately, I made a lot of mistakes. They're fixed, as far as I can tell! The pattern and yarn are great (the pattern is available from the Twist Collective, and the yarn is Dale Baby Ull), but for myself I prefer wearing a gussetted thumb over a traditional thumb. Adjusting the pattern for a gussetted thumb wouldn't be too difficult, athough it would mean sacrificing the dated thumb (which I love) and probably the continuous pattern. Maybe not though?

Have a great Christmas (if that's what you celebrate)!

______________

Santa Claus Singing on Naughty Snow: Stephen Colbert, Another Christmas Song

Put On Your High Heeled Sneakers, We're Goin' Out Tonight

I've been fighting a fever for most of the week, and although I did some knitting early in the week and a little yesterday, I don't have too much to show for it. I'm so behind on Christmas cards that I may scrap them altogether, and I've not attended a single holiday related social event. There is good dog news, though--Frieda had her first post-hospital checkup yesterday, and she came out of it with flying colors. We need to keep her on the bland food for awhile, and we need to be extra careful about keeping other foods (and stuffed toys, since she sometimes eats a little stuffing) away from her, but it's very good news.

We didn't get any good advice about how to keep her or Gretel from being bad, however. In the last week, Frieda escaped to the neighbor's yard (where she can enter their house and eat anything within reach), and tried to find human food on the coffee table while I was standing right next to her. Gretel was able to reach my bowl of soup from an armchair and to drag tissues out of the bathroom trash that has a lid on it.

Anyway, the video above is in no way payback for the bad behavior witnessed in the last week. We've had an unusually cold & snowy spell here, and the backyard is full of icy snow. Frieda is susceptible to skin allergies, and has an itchy area on one paw that needs protection from the snow. She was visibly limping on the snow yesterday--and a dog that is uncomfortable outside is not good for anyone. However, as you can see, she's not super pleased with the shoes, either. Notice that Gretel makes a special guest appearance, if only to butt ahead of Frieda when going inside. Gretel loves to be first!

Purple Toupee and Gold Lame

Thanks for all of the well-wishes for Frieda. She seems more or less back to normal (see above), though she's still taking medication and is on a special bland diet. We're keeping a close eye on her, because she's sneaky. Not as sneaky as Gretel, but still pretty sneaky.

I feel like I'm still hopelessly behind on pretty much everything, but I'm trying to prioritize a little and not get much crazier. I finished the purple fingerless gloves earlier today, and will get them in the mail to Austria on Monday. The pattern is available here on Ravelry, and it's a good pattern. I really like the twisted rib on the palms, and the shaping of the thumb gusset. I shortened the wrist in an attempt to squeeze these out of a single skein of Alpaca Silk, and came up 2 grams short. Very annoying--cables are such a yarn-hog! There's still enough of the second skein to make a pair of lacy mitts, so it won't go to waste.

I didn't start a single new project last weekend, but there are a couple of other Christmas gifts that I should probably start on this weekend if there's any hope of finishing them up in time. Hmmm. We'll see--this could just be a Christmas card avoidance tactic. I keep reminding myself that none of this is mandatory . . . .

Ugh.

I'm not going to sugar-coat it--it's been a pretty terrible week. Frieda had an attack of pancreatitis, which meant a middle of the night trip to the animal emergency room, followed by two and a half days at the regular vet hospital. $1,200 later, she's doing pretty well, but we're watching her like a hawk and feeding her a special diet. Add to that the threat that this could happen again if she gets her paws on rawhide, or fatty human food, or any number of things that we don't think she has access to (but you never know, with a dachshund), and it's been very upsetting. My understanding is that pancreatitis is manageable through diet, but I'm still really worried about Frieda. This has basically killed my holiday spirit, while simultaneously eating up a ton of time that I should have spent on gifts, cards, or work-work. And the $$. Oh, the $$. Ugh--it's totally worth it, but it's definitely going to have an impact on more than a few things that I've been planning for early 2009, like reducing my debt level and saving for another trip to Europe.

I did finish the fingerless glove (Rav Link) above this week, which is half of a pair that should have gone in the mail on Monday. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it, since I have only finished about 4 rows of the second glove. The yarn is Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk. I've shortened the wrist-end of this a little in hopes of getting two gloves out of one skein, but I don't think I quite made it. I do have a second skein, so there should be plenty of yarn--and I may be able to get another pair of these out of the remainder. I like the cables on this pattern, but my favorite part is the twisted rib on the palm--it keeps them from being baggy, and the texture looks very cool.

Time to get back to my endless to-do list--at least I can check off "blog post" off of today's list!

Two Toe Tuesday: Three toe edition

Before felting, on my feet, after felting, next to my feet, and after felting, with my hand for scale

Last week at knit night, J_______ was working on some weird garter stitch item, and as we were leaving Starbucks, I asked her what it was. It was the sole of a felted slipper, and I was immediately reminded that a) I had purchased yarn and the pattern for these some months ago and b) that it's getting close to Christmas and these would make a quick, cozy gift. At home that evening, I located the adult sized pattern and plenty of yarn, but shockingly didn't have two sets of size 13 needles. I could hardly believe it--I've got a bad habit of purchasing multiple sets of needles as an alternative to finishing one project before starting another that requires the same needle. As a result, over the last 20 years I've purchased approximately one billion needles, but not the size I needed for clogs.

Friends, I'm not totally sure what took hold of me that night, but the next day I spent $40 on two sets of needles (though I probably could have gotten by with one), and the children's pattern. The blue yarn is Cascade 220 leftover from my Noni Carpet Bag, and the pinkish purple was stashed yarn originally purchased as an option for this octopus. So despite the needles and the pattern (which can be reused over and over again), this was really a stash-busting exercise.

By Friday morning, I'd finished knitting and felting the pair pictured above, for a 3.5 year old friend, which I plan to embellish with embroidery or needle felting once they dry. Or maybe with beads--a 3.5 year old won't eat beads, will she? I know that I made some errors on this pair, but the felting just smooths everything right out. Hopefully, these will fit just fine, and will be comfortable--they're probably a little bit large, but are likely to be worn with socks.

You may have thought that the mania would have subsided a little, but I've moved on to some adult-sized clogs. There are several people I can make these for this year, and I'd really like a pair for myself as well. As of Sunday afternoon, I had the main part of another clog finished, as modelled by Frieda below:

Another thing to love about these is that they are comically large before being felted--large enough for a slightly overweight dachshund to wear as a cape, while another, slightly less bright dachshund wonders what's going on. Just wait until I try to cram her into the felted clog!!!