The state of my soles

Recently Dharmafey of Socks in the City did a video podcast on her socks and how they are fairing. Her podcasts normally center around sock yarns and sock knitting and I found it extremely interesting to see some of the socks she's knit and her her opinions on how the yarns held up. We are all so excited when we get the new sock yarns and knit socks, but we don't often go back and talk about them after the fact.

So yesterday when I was taking my dry socks off the drying rack and hanging up the newly washed ones, I took notice of how my handknit socks are holding up. And I was a bit surprised by what I saw. So today I pulled out all my handknit socks and lined them up in order of least shabby looking to most shabby looking.

First the ones that look the best.These are the yarns (From left to right) Mr Joe Blanket, Opal 6 ply, Lion Brand Sock-Ease, Regia Bamboo

These look pretty good, only a bit of fuzziness.Online Supersocke 6ply, Opal Petticoat Cotton, Handspun colonial wool, Lime & Violet Sasquatch

And finally, the really fuzzy shabby socks.Knit Picks Bare Gloss, Knit Picks Essentials, Knit Picks Bare Merino

The socks more or less all get worn about the same. The handspun socks don't get worn much because they are really warm, but I wear my other handknit socks quite often. I was shocked that the socks that looked the worst included my most recently finished pair of socks (the green and brown Knit Picks Essentials)These socks are only a few months old and look as bad as the purple Knit Picks socks that are several years old.

I was also very happy to see that the Opal socks are holding up so well (especially given they are the oldest socks pictured here!)They are not quite as soft and cozy as the KP socks. Maybe it's the nylon in them that keeps them nice looking but also makes them a bit stiffer. Opal is also about 3 times as expensive as KP yarns so perhaps there's something to be said for paying for quality.

Now, none of these socks has holes or spots that are uncomfortably worn. This is strictly an appearance thing. I love my KP socks and can handle the fuzziness. In my opinion, a bit of felting on the soles is not really a bad thing. And just for the record, all my socks are machine washed (cold, gentle cycle) and hung to dry on a drying rack. This goes for superwash and non-superwash yarns.

Pretty much the only thing I've been working on is the February Lady sweater. I finished the body a day or two ago and started the first sleeve last night.Isn't she pretty? I'm planning to wear it for Easter. Normally I do not like knitting lace. However, this has been an extremely enjoyable pattern to knit. It's a 4 row repeat, very easy to memorize. It also seems to knit up very quickly. Despite the fact it's been on my needles for months, when it's actually seeing the light of day it progresses quickly.

I swatched for my fair isle sweater and decided I was not going to like black for the background color. Webs was nice enough to change my order to dark grey and shipped the yarn right away. So now I've got my yarns but I'm trying not to look at them and fall victim to their siren song to cast on. Poor Jen still hasn't received the yarn for her FI even though she ordered before me! Even if it weren't for my need to finish my existing projects, I would wait for her out of solidarity, since she's the one who conned, I mean talked me into this.

One step closer...

...to being able to start my fair isle sweater. A bunch of the yarn arrived this week from Webs.The colors are (from the top) light grey, dark grey, fawn, chestnut heather, pine, eggplant, dark navy and merlot heather. I'm stymied until the natural and black arrive from back order (expected the end of March). I do have some similar weight black and natural that I'm going to use to do some sample swatches with.

It's been ages since I spoke about spinning. I am indeed still spinning. My foot issues are pretty much resolved and I can treadle with two feet again. Here's what I've spun since I last posted handspun:

Hanks in the Hood merino wool in Cozy Stripes colorway. My first true fingering weight handspun.
CJ Kopec merino, bfl, silk blend in Cottage Rose colorway. Still find it difficult to spin with silk.
Ashland Bay merino in Sapphire colorway.
Pigeon Roof Studios Superwash BFL in the Nightshade colorway. This is only half the roving. I've given up on trying to squeeze 4 ounces of fiber on a bobbin. I've still got a ton of fiber to spin through, of course. Jen's trying to get me to spin for a sweater, but I'm not quite ready to commit to such a large amount of spinning just now. Maybe when my backlog of sweater knitting is a bit more under control!

My birthday turned out wonderful. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes. I got two fabulous presents which I, unfortunately, don't have pictures of just now. My folks got me a darling little 4 cup coffee maker since I've recently developed an addiction to the stuff after a lifetime of tea drinking. And my sister gave me the ultimate present, a Marauder's Map. This thing is awesome. As you fold it out, you find different map views depending which folds are together. There are also little mini fold out maps inside. It's not a true map of Hogwarts, which is unfortunate. And much of the writing on it is jibberish repeated over and over. But the over all effect is grand. I love it. I will get pictures of it posted when I can.

It takes so little to make me happy

So today is February 2. Groundhog day. The unofficial/official start to crazy tax time at work. Day before the birthday of doom. I wasn't exactly chuffed for a grand day and life has been serving up the crazy all morning.

Then, I came home for lunch and found my Woobie Valentines order arrived. Check out these awesome little bottles of scented goodness.Aren't they the cutest thing ever? The little cork stoppered one was a free sample and it leaked all over, but other than that I am just tickled. I love that they look like poison bottles. The Scorned Love scents even have the skull and cross bones. Squee. I'm so glad I opted for the 1/3 oz potion bottles rather than standard 5ml bottles. And I'm should also mention the scents (as always) are heavenly! The only drawback with getting a bunch of perfumes at one time is you can't sample them all at once! If you haven't checked out Penny's site, please do so. She's wonderful to deal with and has great products. And her prices are the best around. I'm sure I'll be going back and getting the rest of the V-day scents I was looking at, especially after seeing these gorgeous little bottles!

See, doesn't take much to make me happy.

In which I catch up for January and talk about age...

I'm back, after another month of not posting. Lots of pictures to share so lets get started...

First up is the Multi Strand afghan, which I dubbed the Cuddly Afghan because it is soft as a whisper.I knit the afghan using Patons Divine in Blue Halo and Soft Slate and Bernat Softee Chunky in Grey Ragg. It was knit on US 19 needles and took only a few weeks to complete. Although I have absolutely no need for a blanket, what with being a quilter and all and having an over abundance of those, I just had this desire to knit a big chunky project. It's a super easy knit, although it was hard on the hands and arms towards the end having all that bulk to deal with.

These socks started out as the Ragg Hikers from 2 at a Time Socks, but working in rib is mind numbing for me, especially since I chose fingering weight yarn rather than the worsted called for in the pattern
So I only ribbed the leg. The socks are knit from Knit Picks Essentials yarn in Terrain Twist. It knits up into a super cozy, soft sock. I'm not crazy about the color, much more suited to a man. But they look fine with my khakis and fit very well. I'll definetly use this yarn again.

These are the Felted Slippers with Elf Cuff from Patons Next Steps Four book.
Another very fast and easy knit. The pattern seems very odd when you start, but after awhile makes sense. The slippers are worked flat then seamed up the top of the foot. You start at the back of the heel then work up the sides and bottom of the foot to the toe. Then you pick up stitches around the ankle and knit the cuff. I used the Patons Classic Merino wool that was called for and the results were very nice. This yarn is so nice to work with and felts up into a sturdy yet soft and comfortable fabric.

I got 2 new books: Creative Spinning, which turned out to be mostly a picture inspiration book rather than alot of spinning technique. But the pictures are quite lovely and it does make me want to spin more. And also Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified.
I've looked at this book off and on over the last few years. Oooing and ahhhing over the gorgeous sweaters, but more or less writing it off as too much work. Something I'd never persevere through and finish. But it was always in the back of my mind. Then earlier this month Knit Picks sent out a new catalog all about fair isle and stirred up my mind. My friend Jen and I have been talking alot about colorwork knitting. She's interested in doing Norwegian style colorwork (which centers more around only 2 sometimes 3 colors). I love the cacophoney of color in fair isle, plus the prospect of changing colors every few rows should help to keep the knitting interesting. Both of us were a bit apprehensive about steeking that is involved with both styles of sweaters. The sweaters are knit as tubes, then you run some machine stitching done two columns of knit stitches and cut up the middle to make the holes for the arms to attach, the neckline or the front opening if you are making a cardigan. It's a somewhat frightening thought for a knitter to take scissors to their knitting, but it's been done for centuries so I'm sure its a safe and effective technique. I knit a little sample fair isle swatch and sewed and cut a steek to prove to myself it's not that bad (and it's not at all bad). Then I sent the swatch off to Jen to quell her fears as well. Jen's already ordered the yarn for her sweater so I figured I better make up my mind what I'm going to do. I've decided I'll knit the Color Your Own sweater and ordered my yarn this week.
I've decided to use Valley Yarns Northampton yarn in what Philosopher's Wool calls the Natural colorway, black and various shades of grey. I've also ordered a red, green, purple and blue and will use one or more as accent colors. I'm so excited!! Unfortuneately, the black is on backorder until the end of March. In a way it's good. Maybe I'll actually finish the Fylingdales and February Lady sweaters I've been not so much working on for the last 2 months.

And finally, I'm spending my weekend indulging in some nostalgic guilty pleasure.
As my family and friends are having a fun time reminding me about, I'm turning 40 next week. Now, birthdays mean very little to me. Often times, when I'm asked my age, I truly have to think about it. It just really seems irrelevent to me. But the turning of a decade is always a bit of a bummer. While on Netflix earlier this week, I found Sooner or Later and immediately hit add to queue, knowing this would raise my spirits. I told my sister I had rented it and lamented it would probably be a cheezy disappointment as so many of the movies I loved as a kid have turned out to be. Boy was I wrong. I'm not going to do a full movie review here since I've rambled on long enough. But I still found the movie enjoyable. The music really took me back. Rex Smith was one of my teenage hearthrobs (and he's not bad now either!) Sadly, I no longer have the book the movie was based on or its sequel Waiting Games (although I will be trying to track them done used). But I do have Forever which was THE pivitol teenagers in love novel of my teendom, so that will have to do for now. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't trade 40 for 14. But it sure is fun to remember what it felt like to be 14 and realize now how silly I was. If age has given me anything, it's perspective and the knowledge that ANY age is good when you are in it.

Spinning dvds

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Mine was very nice. The weather cooperated so we were able to visit hubby's family Christmas Eve and my family did our annual Christmas thing on Christmas day. My boss was nice enough to give us off both Thursday and Friday for the holiday, so it's been a wonderful, relaxing long weekend.

I've been spending my weekend watching spinning videos. There is a service available called Smart Flix. It is similar to Netflix in that it rents dvds. However, Smart Flix rents educational dvds. Prices vary, but in general it's around $10 per video and you get them for one week. I've been dieing to get some spinning videos . Being entirely self taught by book and Internet, I knew there would be a lot to be learned by being able to watch someone else spinning. But the $70-$80 it would cost to buy the videos prevented me from doing it. Enter Smart Flix. You can rent the spinning basics and advanced dvd set for $17. So I signed up and ordered the set. It took longer than expected to ship, the site said they would ship within 24 hours, but didn't ship for 4 days. The videos arrived a few days after they were shipped, packaged in a nice little box that will also be used to return them in (postage is included both ways). The first dvd covers all the basics of spinning, different types of wheels, fiber prep, different drafting methods and how to finish your yarn. I'm not quite through it yet, but so far the second video goes into more detail about chosing fiber to fit the project, how to spin to get the yarn you want for a particular purpose. I'm learning so much. Today I hope to sit at my wheel with the videos and try some of the techniques shown. I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to view these videos. I don't feel they would be worth the extreme price to purchase them, though. I think viewing them once or twice, for me at least, should be sufficent to imprint the concepts on my brain.

Beedle The Bard

Oh yes, my copy of JK Rowling's Beedle the Bard arrived today. I truly did intend to not open it until Christmas. But I just couldn't resist.

The box was much larger than I expected. Here's the first look.Inside the plain slip cover is the fake book.I'm not certain if it is leather or faux. It smells much like leather, but its hard to say and the Amazon description doesn't tell. It is sturdy and looks like an ancient book.
The inside is fabric lined with a pocket containing additional illustrations and a cavity for the book.
My illustration envelope was bent and so were the pictures inside when whoever packed the book forced them into the pocket. But the damage is barely noticeable and I can not bare to part with my treasure to send it back for replacement.
The book is phenomenal. I could not be happier.I could only get a picture of the outside. The binding is really tight and I'm not about to bust the spine just to get blog fodder. I'm thinking I may have to pick up the paperback book to actually read so I can keep this copy pristine! I was a wee bit disappointed that the pages were not deckle edged as the original, but in all other aspects, the book meets or exceeds my expectations. I'm sure it is leather bound. It is heavy and extremely well made (it should be at that price!). This is the single most expensive book I have ever bought. And so totally worth every penny.

My cat is trying to kill me!

So my sister turned me on to this site. After reading the information there, I suspected that perhaps Quinn might have it in for me. To be sure, I took the quiz. The results?



Yikes!

Yet another catching up post

Hmm, my blogging seems to be getting worse. More than a month since my last post! Yikes! I blame Ravelry. Since this blog mostly consists of my knitting adventures and it's just so darn easy and fun to post over there, I find I have less to say here. But the blog does serve the purpose of tracking my general history as well so I do want to try to post at least occasionally for that reason. So here I am. What's happened since last I wrote....

I was working on Fylingdales. I've made next to no progress on it since then.I'm a few inches up the back. I had really hoped to have this finished for Christmas, but at this point it's on the back burner.

I finished knitting the Christmas gift socks.I absolutely love how they turned out. You may recall I dyed the yarn for these and inscribed the recipient's name on the skein. The brown dots are bits of where the name is written. I'm 99% sure the recipient doesn't read my blog, but I'll wait until after Christmas to reveal the name that was dyed into the skein. I love this concept and will do it again whenever I have the opportunity.

This is the February Lady Sweater. It's being knit in Elann Superwash Bamboo in Polar White. The yarn is dreamy to work with. So soft and light. I'm nearly to the point of dividing for the sleeves. As I said before, this is filler knitting so have only worked on it here and there.

The current socks are the Ragg Hiker socks from 2 at a Time Socks.These are being knit in Knit Picks Essential in Terrain Twist. The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn so I had to adjust the stitch count quite a bit, but essentially it's just a basic ribbed sock so it was an easy enough adjustment to make.

My foot is finally getting back to normal after fighting planter fasciitis since spring. I owe a lot of thanks to my chiropractor not just for the treatments, but for educating me on proper stretching and support for my feet. He got me wearing orthotics (these are my favorites, can't wait to try the new Platinum series) and my feet are feeling wonderful. I'm back to doing the Leslie Sansone walking videos and feeling great. I've lost 24 pounds this summer and hope to at the very least keep it off over the winter and if I'm really lucky even lose a few more pounds.

My car is back on the road. Thanks to the diligence of my hubby finding the parts and the excellent body work of our neighbor Dave. Not quite perfect (still trying to find an uncracked light), but it's roadworthy and will pass inspection and that's what matters most. I am thrilled to bits to have my old car back in working order.

I've started work on a set of knitted items for a friend for St Patrick's Day. She requested hats, mittens and shawls for her and her daughter in the colors of the Irish flag. The hats are finished and I'm 3/4 finished with the mittens. My goal is to have the hats and mittens finished and be well under way with the child's poncho by the end of this month. The shawl and poncho should be fairly quick knits as they will be at a bulky gauge.

Speaking of bulky, I'm working on yet another sweater...Skully from Stitch and Bitch.Not much to show so far, this is the back. I dyed the yarn myself. The yarn is Victor from Kraemer Yarns and it's dyed with Jacquard Gunmetal.

We had vacation a few weeks ago and spent the time sticking close to home and relaxing. Most of the knitting you see here was done that week! We did venture out a bit and I visited a lovely new to me yarn shop in Hummelstown called Yarn Love. The people were delightful and the selection of yarns was really good. A whole row of sock yarns and sweater quantities of most yarns. A terrific store. Check it out if you are in the area.

Ok, I did not rip out Fylingdales. I did give it a soak and blocked it and it blocked out to 45". That should be good. I decided to make it just a bit shorter so it won't hit so low on my hips where the lack of width might be a problem. I have split for the armholes and am working on the back section now.

While I was waiting for Fylingdales to dry from it's blocking session, I ended up casting on the February Lady Sweater. I blame the power of suggestion for this one. It's been mentioned in numerous podcasts lately and there are over 2000(!) in the Ravelry Projects section!! The sweater is based on an Elizabeth Zimmermann baby sweater. It starts with a simple, top down garter stitch raglan and ends with a lace body. I'm not a lace fan. At all. But I'm hoping the fact that this is done in worsted weight will make the lace a bit more palatable than the lace weight lace I've tried in the past. This is strictly a filler project to work on when I need a break from my "serious" knitting. I must not get distracted from the projects with deadlines!

Have ya'll heard of Neil Gaiman? I discovered his work in the movie Stardust. I don't think the movie made much of a hit in the theaters, I caught it on DVD and was very pleasantly surprised. It was a delightful movie. I sought out the book. The book was even better. A most enjoyable read, I highly recommend it. Gaiman has a wonderful style of writing. I suppose I shouldn't speak so broadly. Stardust is the only of his books I've read so far. But it did make a huge impression on me. So a few days ago, my sister sent me this link. Gaiman has a new book that just came out, The Graveyard Book. And he did a series of live readings of the book which are being posted to the Mouse Circus site, one chapter each day, beginning October 1. It is such a delight to hear an author read their own work. You know that the inflection is exactly as they intended. And Gaiman has a fantastic reading voice. I'm nearly caught up with the available chapters and am excited to hear the end. The story, like Stardust, is fantastic. The tale of a little boy who is raised by the spirits of a graveyard. If you are a fan of fantasy, do go check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Pending doom

Oh no. My suspicions were right about Fylingdales. I've been knitting along on a 32" circular needle and thinking it looked like it might not be as big as it should be. It's hard to measure on the 32" needle so I transferred it to a longer needle so I could do a good measurement. It's small. I'm knitting the 48" version. Unstretched, it's around 40". I can stretch it to about 45" which, with the button band, will be close to where it should be, but don't know if it will stay that stretched in blocking and wearing. I just checked my gauge and I'm getting 18 sts/inch rather than 16! I DID a gauge swatch!! How can this be?! I am so upset. IF the sweater stays to the blocked size, it will probably be ok. It's not going to be as comfy as I wanted, but it should be ok. But I don't think I'm willing to accept "ok". This is a beautiful sweater and tons of work. I don't want to settle for something less than perfect. I'm a month in. I'm nearly to the split for the armholes. I am sick to my stomach because I KNOW I need to rip this out and start over. Why didn't I measure this sooner? Why did I trust my gauge swatch so blindly?

I did wash and block my gauge swatch. So maybe it will make that much of a difference. I've got 2 choices. Rip it and start over, which means I more than likely won't have it for Christmas unless another pending project for someone else falls through. Or, keep going and hope for the best. My inner voice, the Process Knitter, says rip it and start over. My practical side wants to slit her wrists at the thought of ripping all that work.

I think I'm going to try a little experiment before I do anything drastic. I'm using Knit Picks Options needles. So I think I'll unscrew the tips and put the caps on the cable and give this puppy a bath. I want to see if it actually does grow as much as my gauge swatch seems to indicate. If it does, well then, I've only lost a day or two of knitting while it dries and I can keep going with a clear concious. If not, at least I'll have a few days to come to terms with ripping it out.

So what else have I been doing in the last month? Well, I finished the Sock Ease Toffee socks.I just knit the plain sock pattern on the label. I used a US 2.5 needle and the gauge is a bit loose for my taste. Next time I'll use a 1 or 1.5. This is a sturdy sock yarn, a little coarser than I'm used to, but I think they will hold up well. They softened up a bit when washed. The label says there's aloe in the yarn, but it isn't anything I can feel. We'll see if it does anything for my feet when I wear them.

I'm also knitting a pair of socks on request for a Christmas present for someone.I hand dyed the yarn and inscribed the recipient's name on the yarn during the dyeing process. The little blips of brown in the sock are pieces of her name. I find this concept fascinating and endearing. I do hope the recipient will be as thrilled as I am. This is the KP Bare yarn which I adore for socks. They are so soft and cozy.

Apart from knitting, all my remaining spare time has been consumed with reading the Twilight book series. One of my coworkers convinced me to read these books, a 4 book series about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. The books are geared towards young adults, but I found them enjoyable nonetheless. Some folks equate the author, Stephenie Meyer, to JK Rowling. In my opinion, there is NO comparison. JKR blows this series away with her madeningly complex and intertwined story lines. Twilight is just a good, easy, albiet somewhat predictable, read. I'm better than halfway through the 3rd in the series, Eclipse and loving it. New Moon, the second book, was my least favorite so far. It added little to the plot and mostly consisted of Bella moping around and acting reckless. But Twilight and Eclipse have been great. I'd recommend them to someone looking for some light vampire reading.

Our weather has finally turned cool and I am psyched for fall. We decorated for Halloween yesterday. Hubby has started collecting old halloween blow molds and vintage die cuts. Here's some of the collection...There are way more blow molds scattered around and a few more die cuts here and there. He's on the prowl for more when we can find them. And check out this piece of goulish gorgeousness...Another of my sister's fine cross stitch pieces. This one even has glow in the dark threads in it! Totally awesome.