The sock situation

The sock situation here is what the Brits would call dire.

Well, I think it is, anyways. Maybe it's really the sock-desire situation, or the sock-yarn-stash situation.

Let me elaborate.

• I have one pair of socks almost done, and that is a good thing, as there is a special date associated with them, but I can't tell you more about that right now.
• I have another pair of socks mostly done (a heel and a foot to go). This pair was started months and months ago, and really, let's get on with it.
• I have obtained yarn for three more pairs in recent days... and I already had too much sock yarn! I want to use some gaudy stuff to make plain socks, and some plain stuff to make lace or cable or some nice patterned socks, and I have a bunch of yarn and a bunch of patterns and not enough time.
• It takes me a long time to make socks, unless I just plow on, neglecting everything else, and there are other things I want to knit, too!
  
• Okay, I'll end this bullet list, now, and show you a picture.

I could have taken this picture on any recent sunny day, but now it is grey and damp out. I even had to put a plastic bag down under the yarn on the table.

(I'm not complaining really, as it is warm, and the ice is slowly slowly melting, and I have seen green things, in other people's gardens.)

Whatever... The pink I got from Haley, and will become socks for Elaine one day. The others I got in a swap from Heather, and I really want to knit up the rocking multicolour one at the top.

This was meant to be the year of socks for me, but I have, you know, other things to do as well. For example, the Felted Tweed is now in a big laundry basket in the living room, staring at me whenever I pass by.

Me and moss

I've always liked moss, you know...

Here's some moss and grass from the West Coast of BC.

Here's some from Mull, off the west coast of Scotland.

Wouldn't you love a shawl that looked like that!?

And here's some of my mossy wool!

For more on moss, you can check out today's London Daily Nature Photo, for moss on a lovely rock with pinky orangey purply black and white bits...

Vesuvio in the snow, and other things

February and March have been the months of fire in this year's version of Project Spectrum. I have not really been paying attention, but when we flew out west, I took this funny stretchy wool (the red is even called Vesuvio -- how's that for fiery?) that I got long ago when Mary Mary Quite Contrary was getting rid of yarn.

I used a lot of the yarn she gave me for charity blankets and this red and black vest was destined to be sent to Zimbabwe, but Elaine may have claimed it! It's a tad short on her, but being made of super stretchy yarn, it'll fit around anyone... It may yet get in the box, but I've decided to make a simple vest of my leftovers of Denim, just in case!

Not very exciting so far, is it?

It's going to have a bit of garter stitch checked texture on the front, but otherwise just straight stocking stitch. I have only a few balls, so I'll do what I can. A few stripes of lighter denim may find their way in.

Wait and see....

I've been working on the ribbed socks with the Kaffe Fassett yarn. One down, one barely started, and there is in fact a deadline on these babies. There's nothing like a sock-knitting deadline to get one thinking of other projects...

I got started with the Felted Tweed, on the cardigan with wacky stripes. The original has mohair and angora bits, and I did think of getting some fuzz to add in, but decided this was not the occasion for getting yet more yarn! There are stripes of garter chevrons, stocking stitch chevrons, and some multicoloured straight bits.


I ... don't like it.... I don't know if it's the colours together, or the tweediness/texture thing, or what. But last night I saw this great shawl at Mustaa Villaa, and I'm thinking a lot about that! I think great spreads of these colours would be better than the bitsy-ness of this sleeve.

Ah well, finally both kids are back in school after March Break, so I have time to, you know, get the kitchen straightened up and the towels washed and maybe a bit more knitting now and then!

Happy eggs

We don't do much about Easter here, but we do like our brightly coloured eggs!

And some of the weekend's other activities include bike riding and ice bashing.

Both at once!

Note the sunny side of the street, in Elaine's picture, and the shady side of the street, where Arthur is bashing!

The northerners will get crocuses and snowdrops and even daffodils, long before the ice is gone from our front yard.

But we get a nice shady porch in the blistering heat of August.

If we last that long...

And the socks go on

The blue socks are on the go again.

I've turned the heel and just have the (enormous) foot to go.

It was nice and sunny yesterday, with clean white snow for a photo background, but I neglected to take a picture till it was dark, so you get the indoor flash shot. Today is also sunny, but still below freezing and I'm blogging in my jammies here.

I'll knit some more and get another picture when I have more to show.

Knitting coral

I'm sure some of you will already know about this if you are on the same mailing list as I am... I think it's a remnant of the Knitted Wedding! In any case, I got this notice today from Rachael Matthews and thought it was very cool, although I am not in England to participate.

Dear Knitters,

You are all invited to participate in an exciting
project to be
displayed at the Southbank Centre, London, this
summer.

The Crochet Coral Reef is the brain child of
Margaret and Christine
Wertheim, co-directors of the Institute for Figuring
in LA. Crochet
and coral are the only ways to explain hyperbolic
space, a very new
discovery, and possibly the construction of the
whole universe.

I am not going to attempt to describe to you how and
why, because
Margaret and Christine explain it so beautifully on
their website
http://www.theiff.org where you can learn about
plant life, maths,
space, and follow their easy crochet patterns.

This project also raises awareness about how sick
our coral reefs are.

The Crochet reef is currently showing at The
Chicago Cultural
Centre, but the London Reef will be exhibited in the
main foyer of
the Royal Festival Hall from Wednesday 11th June -
Sunday 17th August
2008.
The thing is....WE HAVE TO MAKE IT FIRST!
Everyone can join this project and make some sort of
coral. Remember
no two plants are the same and there are NO RULES!
Any yarn, any size
and any colour is fine. The Southbank will be
holding crochet circles
through the summer and check the Prick Your finger
events page for
free workshops. The deadline for your named
contributions is 2-8pm on
Tuesday 6th May 2008 in the White Room, Spirit
Level, Royal Festival
Hall, or post to Cathy Woolley , Learning and
Participation,
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XX or deliver
it to Prick Your
Finger. For a contribution form, e-mail
ukreef@southbankcentre.co.uk. or pick one up from
PYF.

And for tips on knitting with plastic bags (much
encouraged) go to
http://prickyourfinger.blogspot.com and we will show
you an easy way
to chop them up.

LETS MAKE IT HUGE! I'll send you more info as I
receive it.

Love Rx

Party time

I have just returned from the parental homestead, where we celebrated a bunch of birthdays, but mainly my dad's 90th! Actually, his 89 and 11/12ths, but what the heck. Other recent birthdays include Arthur's and mine!

Arthur and I flew out of here on Friday morning but my brother had to wait till that evening, when he got stuck due to a wee bit of a snow storm, and a wee bit of traffic problems on the 401. I think they arrived at the airport about 3 hours after their plane left... This provided great entertainment for the westerners as Toronto's crazy weather is always interesting when you've shed your winter coat and the sun is shining!

I have a nephew I haven't seen in ages, and he brought 4 of his daughters, who provided a bunch of craziness for Arthur. The poor boy would have been lost and adrift without some little girls to hang out with, at the party and in the hotel pool!

And, while watching the Food network at night in the hotel, I finished the 2-row scarf. A bit short, a bit scratchy. Photo by Arthur, naturally.

Now to find some groceries, do some laundry, look at the snow... Ah, speaking of groceries, we learned about the bakery in Castlegar where you can buy chocoladehagel! And we got ourselves some, and some vruchtenhagel, too! It's our cultural heritage, so, absolutely necessary! For the kids, you know....

March goals

I guess it's time to get a bit organised again here. Who knows what I thought I would be knitting, but the truth is, I've got so far off track, I'll just make it up new now.

I do have 2 pairs of socks on the needles. I am going away for a few days and will take one of them with me, but I am not confident that I'll get a lot done. The ol' wrist is still not perfect and tiny dpns are a bit challenging. (When the smoke clears, I will ask the doc about physiotherapy, because having a semi-functional right hand is a real nuisance.)

Although I'm not doing much with sock needles, I have been knitting up a storm with the leftovers of the birthday sweater. Many half-balls of lite Lopi and scraps of Kureyon were left, and while the blues and browns have been mitered, though not yet felted, the greens have become a scarf.

Yes, I know I have more than enough scarves, and yes, I know this is not the softest yarn to have around one's neck. What the heck, it's pretty, and I'll think of something to do with it. Wash it in Eucalan and give it to someone who needs it. And when I am done, there will be no piece of Kureyon longer than a foot or so in the house. I bought some of this stuff in 2001! I wish that dark green didn't just happen to meet up with the brown there, but I ain't ripping this out to rearrange it!

Other things under consideration: I'll take some of the red yarn I used for the lacy scarf and the pattern for a "head snug" on this trip and see what comes of it. I'm a bit leary of gauge here, but we'll give it a whirl. Maybe I'll even take other red yarn, and pay attention to Project Spectrum!

I'm all aquiver

Hey, I made some mitered squares. Then, I wondered what to do with them!

A pretty baby blanket? Um, a tad scratchy, I think!

A felted bag would be logical, but I didn't leave room for any side panels or gussets, and I didn't want just an envelope -- it wouldn't look right when lugging stuff around!


So, I shall make a round bottom, a round bag. Not knowing how things will felt makes it all a bit more challenging! I'll make buttonhole bag handles, just in case it turns out usable as a bag, but I'm thinking it will be more of a vase-like creation, a knitting-needle quiver perhaps.


Stay tuned...

The story of the birthday sweaters

Today is my brother's 50th birthday, so I must tell you a story.

Once upon a time, when I was young and carefree and childless, my eldest sister turned 50. I was then spending my days lounging by a pool in Santa Barbara, waiting for a work permit, so I thought this was a fine excuse to make her a sweater, which I did. I think it was a blue wool/acrylic blend, and lacy vertical panels.

It was too small, and she had to send it back to me and I unseamed it and made new side panels, and might have done something with the sleeves but I forget, and sent it back to her.

A few years pass, and my next sister turns 50. However, at this point I was not carefree, but having my first baby! I started well in advance by making something so gigantic that it had to be totally ripped out, and then, finally, late, I made a vest, with some great Norah Gaughan diamond cables. I figured if it fit me, it would fit her, but didn't take into account my nursing-mom voluptuosity, and it was still too big.

Then, in my family there is a big gap before the next 50th birthday. But, if one looks around, one will find a sister-in-law to fill the gap. So I made her a sweater a few years ago. This one I actually have a picture of!

I designed all the stranded work (she lives in Victoria and so there are sea-things, mountains, trees, her house....) and knit like crazy (she was silly enough to be born around Christmas!) and was doing fine, till I went to sew the sleeves in and found that I had knit them both on, apparently, huge needles. Not the usual mistake of continuing on small needles after the ribbing... These sleeves were completely different gauge from the body, and had to be totally ripped and reknit. Grr. Anyways, this did ultimately work out, though I believe she said something like, "It fits fine, especially if I just lost 5 pounds..." It wasn't supposed to be so "body-skimming" but you know, one's gauge changes with stranded work!

That still left me several years before my brother's birthday. I had been on a quest (which, as a matter of fact, I am still on) to find a nice brown yarn that didn't look like mud after a while. I was buying lots of Lett-Lopi, thinking to mix browns and other colours in some artful way in a sweater for me. Then, my brother took this picture and I wondered how I could make a knitted version. A postcard of the Nova Scotia coast (he was living in Newfoundland, but what the heck: browns, greens, blues, greys...) and I was all set.

I started in England. I knew my timetable -- lots and lots of time. All went well till I got to the yoke, where I figured I'd put the clothesline of icicles. But, the yarn was already doubled and quite dense, and stranding doubled icicle-coloured yarn around would have made it incredibly lumpy. And, how does one make short, not totally regular, icicles look like icicles and not just little badly formed rectangles? It was not to be. He might recognise them, but no one else would, and the result would be an in-joke and a lumpy, funny looking sweater.

Now, if we can just avoid the size problem... It's long on me, which is good.

I loved making this sweater; the knitting was completely mindless, which left lots of interest in picking the colours and trying to work my way up to the sky on the yoke. The yarn was lovely to work with, really -- if only it hadn't made us all sneeze!

I have many many part balls of Lett-Lopi left, which will also make us sneeze. Some of them have already been dealt with. (I'd never looked at that colour card before; I think I used about 15 or 16 of the colours, along with a couple of full balls of Kureyon and a zillion scraps.)

With this year, my leisurely approach to 50th-birthday sweaters is over. In the next 6 years I have 2 SILs, a husband, yet another sister and myself! And then.... I think I'll wait till people start turning 100! Ohmygosh, my dad's almost 90!

Added later: My brother writes: Thanks for the lovely sweater, which fits as if it had been made for me.

Well, thank goodness for that!

The problem with pausing

Oh dear, I have fallen from the straight and narrow path yet again.

I guess it's almost 4 weeks since I hurt my wrist, and I have slowly got back into some knitting. But that little pause has left me somewhat adrift.

I thought I wouldn't do socks, though I have 2 pairs on the go and really should get them done. But, too tiny, too stressy on the old wrist -- I should do bigger yarn and needles.

So, I made a hat for Out of the Cold. More of the doubled lite Lopi, nice and warm.

So, la de da, look at the rest of that yarn, just sitting there, such pretty colours, la de da, let's make a mitered square, and then ....

Well, my plans are vague, and my supply of blues is limited (yeah, and that nice rust in there, too) but I can make enough squares to make a bag and felt it.

Only thing is, I don't like this miter pattern! I am used to making miters in garter stitch, with a centred double decrease on right-side rows. Mark the centre stitch, knit almost up to it, decrease, carry on. But, stocking stitch needs a different rate of decrease, and if you want a square, you have to decrease 6 stitches in 4 rows, not 4, like in garter stitch. Ann and Kay, who are clever indeed and must be acknowledged as the queens of the miter, have a pattern in their book, so I got it off the shelf and off I went.

Ack! Knit to somewhere near the middle, do three decreases that are sometimes 2 ssks and 1 k2tog, and sometimes 1 ssk and 2 k2togs. The line wibbles down the middle of the square, and I had to keep looking at the book and counting my stitches! Oh, lordy! Well, two miters was quite enough of that!

Luckily, I remembered that long long ago, in fact Winter 94-5, Vogue Knitting published an article about miters. This gives a much nicer way to decrease -- mark the centre, knit almost up to it, decrease, carry on! Do it on every knit row and every other purl row. Six stitches decreased in 4 rows, easy as pie.

The only thing that might put one off is the fact that one has to, ohmygawd, purl 2 together, and even purl 2 together through the back loops! This is not really that challenging, you know. Anyone can do it, truly! At least for me, it's easier than counting!

And see, it makes a nice straight line down the middle.

If you want a definite line like this, k2tog, then ssk (and p2togtbl, then p2tog on the wrong side); you can make a less noticeable decrease by doing the ssk first.

Well, now, just lemme finish up this project, whatever it finally turns into, and then I'll get back to those socks, really!

Fun in the sky last night

Okay, who saw the eclipse? Lucky us, we could stand on our new deck, with the camera on a tripod. Well, the guys did that, and I lay on the bed under the window inside! A great view, either way.

Okay, I'll just say one more thing about snow

Yesterday and today I saw big diggers in our neighbourhood, scooping up the snow and taking it away in dumptrucks.

Hooray for snow removal.

You can watch the mayor and the dumptrucks here, and see what I'm talking about!

Something else

I've been told my blog is boring, by someone whose blog has been, I admit, kinda interesting the last little while. I have too much knitting, or lamenting about the weather, he sez.

That's a laugh. I have stopped myself often from complaining even more about the weather!

But, we aim to please here, so I shall think of something else.

Ah, look, someone else has already thought of something else! Making tweed fabrics with reflective fibers, so you can be jaunty and safe at the same time, as you zip through London on your Vespa. If you scroll down their blog a bit you will see the cutest hat! I learned about this via Ham at London Daily Photo -- it's not like I could think of something else on my own...

But you can have a picture I took of the Saturday sky.

Don't be fooled by those south-facing roofs. There is still a huge amount of snow on the ground. And it's supposed to warm up, so we'll have huge amounts of slush. But, I mustn't complain...

I can't show you this

I'm quite thrilled, but also quite secretive, about my latest FO. If you are on Ravelry, you can find it in my projects (I'm SquareMary). If you're not, well, then you'll just have to wait a bit. All will be revealed shortly.

We got a whole lot more snow, and the fort-building has been intense.
I hear there are crocuses up in Cambridge!

Eye Candy Friday

It's been a while since I put up any eye candy, but today I can give you the clear blue sky we got yesterday. It looked lovely, the dark trees and white snow and all that...


Just get the snow off the sidewalks and roads!

An almost done blanket, and some snow

My blanket of squares is all sewn together. Sewing doesn't appear to pull the same bits of the wrist, and I think I didn't injure myself by finishing the last few seams. Now, a few little ends, and the @$(#$* edging. This is the horrible part. I think it needs a wide edge, not just an i-cord, and the horribleness of picking up the stitches would be as bad for a small or large border.

I think I will get a long circ, pick up and knit stitches all along the side, and attach a sideways knit border, something like this one.

But, I knit this bit ages ago and can't remember where I got the pattern! Also I want to knit it on as I go.

So. A huge tasks looms.

For your enjoyment, this is what it looked like outside yesterday, before the latest huge snowfall dumped on us:

What should Mary knit this time?

I kind of hate to even discuss this, since I still can't knit, so can't show you a swatch or anything! Perhaps it will all come to naught. But, heck.

This is my Felted Tweed.


I want to make a sweater. I don't especially love that purple; it just happened that I bought a bag of three on sale, and... so, I have lots of it. Also not sure why I have three of the grey! The one that looks red is a lovely rust colour.

But, to the point, what shall this sweater of mine look like?

I could round up a few more colours and make something like this:

(from Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Knitting, Zigzag,
"a quick and easy two-colours-a-row design" )

or I could make a multicolour masterpiece with some of these:

(mosaics by Barbara Walker)

or, I could just make horizontal stripes and turn them on their sides.

(from an ancient Vogue Knitting magazine, Winter, 92-93)

I am leaning toward the final one, but I feel this is the easy way out. I know what it'll look like when I am done, for one thing! I don't really have enough colours to do the Kaffe properly, and if I were to pick a mosaic or 10, who knows what trouble I could get into? Should I be more bold? Should I just make a big wrap out of my single balls and make a one-colour cardigan? (No, I should not!)

And there's always this, another VK treat, from Fall 1992:


I just wonder if I would have the fortitude to do the embroidery, and need I say, I didn't set out to have a sweater with lots of embroidery? But it takes care of the colour situation; it does look good; it's got that cool collar... And I think it would look silly without the embroidery. It's supposed to be patchwork-y, get it?

But wait, just over the page is this one:

I could get a few more balls of one of the greens for the main body, and it would be fun to knit, and I wouldn't put any angora in the bottom stripes, and I would likely sew the side seams up all the way to the bottom. I wish they hadn't shown it in black -- it's taken me 17 years to realise the top part was textured. Hmm.

Well, this has been very helpful... It's clear I have no idea what to do.

Oh, it almost slipped by me!

It seems today is the day of the Poetry!

I quick got Elaine's poetry book (Read Aloud Poems for Young People), and after a bit of searching through the "Laughing Lyrics" section, came up with this:

CONTRARY MARY

You ask why Mary was called contrary?
Well, this is why, my dear:
She planted the most outlandish things
In her garden every year:
She was always sowing the queerest seed,
And when advised to stop,
Her answer was merely, "No, indeed--
Just wait till you see this crop!"

And here are some of the crops, my child
(Although not nearly all):
Bananarcissus and cucumberries,
And violettuce small;
Potatomatoes, melonions rare,
And rhubarberries round,
With porcupineapples prickly-rough
On a little bush close to the ground.

She gathered the stuff in mid-July
And sent it away to sell--
And now you'll see how she earned her name,
And how she earned it well.
Were the crops hauled off in a farmer's cart?
No, not by any means,
But in little June-buggies and automobeetles
And dragonflying machines!

Nancy Byrd Turner

End of January check

My knitting a mile has ground to a halt!

Since I have trouble with the stresses of tying shoes, I don't think knitting is a good idea. I'm certainly not knitting anything more this month, so here is my January summary:

1) Poor Arthur has but one Jaywalker sock.

Getting somewhere. Stalled at present...



2) The big ol' Lopi masterpiece has to be totally done soon. And it will be!

I sewed in a billion ends; now I just have to sew on buttons, sew down pockets, wash. Sorry, no picture, but you'll learn all about it in a short while.

3) I'm on the third hexagon of the Basalt tank. When I finish this one, I will move the 4 mm circular needle to the blanket border...

Ah, nothing.

4) ... because I've got all the squares knitted, mostly sewn together. I actually keep changing my mind about this border.

More nothing on the blanket, but now that I realise that this and the big Lopi are both still hanging around from November 2005, I'll be getting 'er done!

5) I once told you I was going to frog the grey lacy glove, but I couldn't bring myself to do it! I ripped out the wee bit of finger I had done and made a mitten. Number Two to follow.

Nope.

6, 7) I have a couple of baby blankets on the go for a charity knitting project.

Some progress made on one of these, and I must finish that one to get the long needles to use on the other!

8) Right now I am toying with that blue Yorkshire Tweed Chunky.

Done!

And also this year, I mean to make a shawl or two, some birthday socks for a few people, and the Felted Tweed stash will be used for, I think, a cardigan.

The Felted Tweed will be my next cast-on, I think, when I am returned to my proper knitting life. I was somewhat alarmed to see that my collection is not browns, but overwhelmingly green and blue! Never mind.

Oh, and I want to knit up that sock yarn stash, lickety-split.


Oh, yeah, started another pair of socks. Kaffe Fassett sock yarn, blue pooling stuff, rather than the plain stripes, which I found uninspiring.

I make no promises for February! My doctor very reasonably said, about my wrist, "That'll probably hurt for a week or two." Grr, no magic solution?? I did get it X-rayed, and since I've heard nothing, presume that it is not actually broken. So, I shall peruse my whole supply of old Vogue Knittings and take every knitting book out of the library, but rest my hand till it stops hurting.

Hmm, better stop typing for today, too!