2 steps forward, 1 step back

The last 2 weeks have been most unproductive, knit-wise. When we last spoke, I was ripping the koolaid socks back to rework the holey short row heel. I reknit a garter stitch heel which is just fantastic. The photo is not the greatest, but you might see, I'm finally just about back to knitting the toe. Unfortunately, the carpal tunnel in my left hand has been acting up for most of the last two weeks, so the sock hasn't gotten much attention.

I have been instead, knitting on the Cottage Creations (never ending) Tunic. I'm in the black hole of knitting on this one. Knit five rounds, see no progress. You've all been there, I'm sure. But it's still pleasurable knitting so I'm not unhappy.

I also started working on the 3 Seasons Cardigan from Lion Brand (in Oxford Grey). I had about 5 inches knitted when I decided I wasn't happy with the gauge. I tried my gauge swatch with the recommended 10s, but my gauge was too small, went up to an 11, but then I was too large. So I decided to just go ahead and knit the sweater on 10.5s. Alas, the gauge was still too small. I'm the kind of person who likes their clothes a little big rather than a little small. So not wanting to risk a too small sweater, I ripped the whole thing out and started over, now using 11s. Here's where I'm at today. Just finished the ribbing, ready to start the moss stitch body. I was afraid I wouldn't like moss stitch, all that switching back and forth between knit & purl, but it's not so bad once you get the rhythm going. I'm slower doing moss stitch in Continental, though, so I keep switching back and forth between English and Continental. I am staying faithful to Continental on the CC Tunic though, and am getting pretty darn fast at knitting that way.

More finished soap.
Please excuse my oh so fancy drying area, a cardboard box and needlepoint canvas! But, hey, it works like a dream. These are Pumpkin Spice (left back), Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (left & center front), Chocolate (center back) and Almond (right). Today I made Sage. Yes, I do seem a bit soap obsessed at the moment. I actually managed to sell a few bars, which made me feel inspired. I may list these up on eBay once they are fully cured. Meanwhile, I'm making plans for selling during the craft fair. Chuck has some neat packaging ideas to try. I've got a few more scents to make up then I'm going to stop for awhile. If we don't sell any of these, we will easily have enough soap to keep us clean for a good 2 years! But it keeps well and smells great, so no worries.


Only 2 weeks and counting until THE quilt show. Quilters Heritage Celebration is held every April in Lancaster and mom and I have been going for the last 5 years or so. If you are a quilter in this area, be sure to go check it out. Although we both found last year's show disappointing (too many art quilts, not enough traditional) it's still a ton of fun to attend. The quilts themselves are always beautiful and inspiring. Then there's the vendors. It's like quilter's heaven. There are easily, hundreds of vendors. Between the show at the Host and the little independent show across the street, you can find ANYTHING quilt related you could possibly want. Full report and pictures after the show!

Let's try that again

I made it all the way to the start of the toe decreases on the koolaid sock before I decided I just couldn't live with the heel. I put it on and you can see how bad it looks. Look at that hole. And the decreases look awful.
So I ran my needles in a row or two before the heel and ripped it all the way back. I love this technique. It's so much less scary than just ripping since you know the stitches can't go any further than where the needle is. This time I'm knitting a no-purl heel flap I found here. I love the look and it feels like it's going to be nice and cushy.



I was knitting on it while watching Goblet of Fire this afternoon. Had to stop when I reached the heel turn because I didn't want to miss any of the movie while reading instructions. I enjoyed the movie much more the second time around. I think my expectations were a little high when I saw it in the theater. But now, knowing what was and wasn't included, I could just enjoy it.

I've decided to try to sell some of my soaps. I'm quite happy with how they are turning out and think others will enjoy them too. I've listed a few on Ebay. Anyone who is interested and mentions my blog, will receive a 20% discount. All I ask is you let me know how you like the soap.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the nice comments you've been leaving. I was very disappointed that Blogger doesn't give me the email addresses so I could reply to you all directly. But I love to hear from everyone, so either comment here or send me an email (my address is in the sidebar).




The koolaid socks are progressing nicely. I've got the whole 2 circular needle thing down pat now. The Knitting Korner DVD was a big help. Often times, seeing something done is all it takes to understand how it's done.


I used Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' short row heel (from Simple Socks). I was a little lazy about paying attention to which decrease I should be using, though, and have some little holes down the sides of the heel (kind of hard to see here, but they're there). I will do better on the second sock. Short row heel seems faster than the heel flap/gusset combo. Not sure if it will wear as well, but I wanted to at least try it. I should have got reinforcing thread but haven't gotten to a store that had any. I will probably regret that I didn't since this is 100% merino. Someone did mention I could weave it in after the heel is finished, so I still have options.


Pictures of some of my finished soaps. Lovely, no?




They are Pumpkin Spice, Edelweiss Almond and Lavender Vanilla.






I think the little sleeping cat impression is just so cute. I'm really getting the hang of this and am figuring out which recipes and methods I like best. I just love these marbled soaps. So far I've only had one failure (the color turned out wrong and the soap never got hard) and even that batch is still useable. But I've been really pleased with all the rest.


Have been seeing robins nearly every day now. Guess spring might actually get here soon. I've got some onion and tomato seeds started for the garden this year. Don't plan on planting much this year, just onions, tomatoes and peppers probably. I tend to overplant in my small garden, then things don't do well because they are too crowded. And then it gets hot and I don't feel like tending it like I should. So this year, I'm keeping it small and easy (I hope!)

So the new knitting video came yesterday. Like a kid with a new toy, I immediately took the wrapper off and popped it in the DVD player. I watched the first few chapters while swatching the Magic Stripes yarn that also came in the package. I had no intentions of using the Magic Stripes for these socks, but it was so cute I had to at least TRY it. You can all relate, right? After watching up through how to do the heel flap, I stopped the video and got to work trying the technique. I'm using 24" size US 3 needles. One is a Susan Bates Silvalume and the other is a Boye interchangeable. It's great having two different color needles because it makes it so easy to tell which needle to use. The joins on the Boye are too bulky, though, and I'm having to work to get the stitches back up on the needle. They've worked fine for the other projects I've tried, but just not with the smaller tips. I ordered an Inox which hopefully will arrive quickly.

I'm using the kool-aid dyed KnitPicks yarn and am loving it! There's a nice gentle sheen to this yarn. It's soft with zero scratchiness. I'm concerned for how the heel is going to wear, though, being 100% wool and all. May try to find some of the wooly-nylon that's been talked about on the Socknitter's group to reinforce the heel. Didn't the colors turn out nice? I love the soft, muted colors. Not bad for my first try.


Finally, here's a picture of the Cottage Creations Tunic. Still not much to show. The Continental knitting is going quite well and it is way faster than English. Instead of getting 1-2 rows done a night, I'm usually able to get at least 3-4 in. I still have miles of knitting to go. But the yarn is really nice and it's great practice for learning Continental.

Two questions I received: First, the link for the baby sweater. Oops, I did mean to post that with the pictures and completely forgot. You can find the pattern here. And the info on the Opal yarn. It's Opal 6ply (6-fach since the label is in German!). The color is #1253. I purchased it from Shelmac/Fun Knits on eBay.

THE socks

Oh how I love Opal. Check out these lovelies...


As you can see, they are fraternal twins. I know some people are quite fussed to make sure their self striping socks match exactly. I'm not one of them. I love the quirky, close but not quite look.







I wanted to wear them to work yesterday, but I had washed them before wearing and they didn't get dry overnight. They were, however, dry by evening so I wore them when we went out shopping. They are wonderfully warm and soft. I will definitely be getting more of this yarn!


See? Even my tattoo is happy with the socks!
(Mom will be so embarrassed I posted this picture!)





This is the Knit Picks Dye Your Own that I kool-aid dyed last weekend. The mottled color is gorgeous. I'm hoping the socks on circular needles video gets here today so I can see how it looks knitted up.

Going Continental

I’ve been knitting a little over two years now. I knit English, meaning I carry the yarn in my right hand and “throw” the yarn around the needle. It’s somewhat slow, but as I’ve said before, speed isn’t the big issue for me. I enjoy the process of knitting and if a project takes weeks to complete, so be it. However, the list of projects I want to do is growing rapidly. Currently, I’ve got the Port Orford sweater sitting at the bottom of my bag, haven’t touched it in weeks; I’ve got The Shawl, it too hasn’t been touched in ages; I’m in the home stretch on the 2^nd Opal sock and am alternating knitting on that and knitting on the CC tunic. In the wings I’ve got Eris still waiting for me to make a yarn decision; I found a really cute cardi pattern on Lion Brand and actually have STASH yarn that will work (score!); I have several other patterns who’s names I can’t even remember that were purchased in the last few months, all calling “Knit me”. If I ever hope to knit all the things I want before they are dreadfully out of style, I have got to start knitting faster. Thus, I’ve decided to try (again) to switch to knitting Continental. In Continental knitting, one holds the yarn in their left hand and just uses the tip of the right needle to scoop the stitch. Most people find it much faster than English since you eliminate the whole drop the needle, wrap the stitch, pick up the needle sequence. You just scoop, scoop, scoop along. I’ve tried it before, but found I had problems keeping my tension even. I’m such a tight knitter, the looser tension I get in Continental just seems foreign to me (although this looser tension would probably help me get gauge without having to drop 2-3 needles sizes all the time!) And I am COMPLETELY hopeless purling Continental. However, since the CC tunic is knit in the round, and has miles of stockinette stitch (in the round that means NO PURLS!) I thought it would be a very good practice piece for learning Continental. So far, so good. I’ve done about 5-6 rounds Continental with no discernable change of gauge (this was a big concern since I’ve already knit 5 inches or so English). I’m getting the hang of it and definitely finding it much faster going. I tried Continental briefly on the Opal sock, but it was no good for me on dpns. I couldn’t get my first stitches tight enough to avoid ladders. I’m hoping, by the end of CC, to be pretty proficient in BOTH methods. Once I get the hang of knitting Continental, maybe purling will come easier. Will keep you posted on my progress.

I finally remembered to by some drink mix to dye the “Dye-your-own” yarn I got from Knit Picks awhile back. I would have liked blue, but couldn’t find any. In the end, I chose generic grape. I soaked the yarn in cool water with a cup of white vinegar for about half an hour. Then I dissolved two packs of drink mix in some water. I put the yarn, fresh water to cover, the “dye” and another splash of vinegar in a pot and slowly brought the heat up to just under a boil. Then I took it off the heat, covered the pot and let it sit for about half an hour until all the color was absorbed. I drained the water then let the yarn cool completely before rinsing it in cool water (I was very cautious to avoid felting.) Then I hung the skein over a hanger and let it air dry. The color turned out great, a pale lavender. I only stirred the pot once or twice, just kind of poked the yarn down into the water, so the yarn has a nice mottled look to it. Next time, I will use more drink mix. I found instructions (after I went to the store) that said use a pack of drink mix per 1 ounce of yarn to get a good saturated color. I had just over 3 ounces of yarn. Still, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I will try to get pics up this week if I can get the camera to cooperate.

Over the weekend I ordered this knitting video to learn to knit socks on two circular needles. Now that I’ve found sock yarn that I actually enjoy knitting with, I’m all for learning new techniques. It’s on sale at here and here if you are interested. I also ordered some Lion Brand Magic Stripes in Lumberjack. It’s described as sport weight, so it shouldn’t be too fine. Meanwhile, I’m trying to find plain, solid fingering yarn to double strand with the sock yarns I bought last fall so I can get them knitted up. Knit Picks Palette has lots of good choices so I should be able to find matches there.

FO's

I'm now back in the busy season at work, and not much else is going on. Work, eat, knit, sleep. Repeat.

We had our first snow storm of the year last night. Although I'm not a big fan of snow, this one was kind of nice because we didn't have to be anywhere today. It's sure nice to look at if you don't have to go out in it! No pictures, though. My camera is giving me fits already! The rechargable batteries only take 4-5 pictures before needing to be recharged. That's can't be right, I'm sure. And there's a short in the a/c adaptor. Hope to find better power options in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a few pictures of some finished objects. As predicted, I finished my first Opal sock during the Super Bowl. It's so pretty and fits very well. I've got the second one cast on, but spent most of my time working on the baby cardi.


Which I'm happy to say, is now finished. Cute, no?

The cotton yarn is soft and feels like it should be warm enough for a spring sweater.
Here's a close up of the cute little buttons mom picked out.

Hopefully someone at the Library sale will like it enough to bid on it.

I'm glad I'm not under any knitting deadlines again. It's nice to just pick anything up and knit without thinking I should be working on something else that HAS to be finished. I feel somewhat of a slacker though for not joining the Knitting Olympics. I do believe every other knit-blogger is participating. It's the main topic on just about every knit related mailing list, podcast, website I visit. Not being much of an athlete myself, I never really followed the Olympics much. When I was a kid and in gymnastics, I would sometimes watch the summer games, but rarely the winter games. If it weren't for Stephanie, I probably wouldn't have even KNOWN the Olympics were on! However, to all the knitting Olympians out there, best of luck on your projects. Wishing gold medals to all.

New podcasts I've just discovered: About Time with Whit Larson and Pointy Sticks with Christine. You go girls. Keep up the good work.

Another year older

Yeah, it was my birthday this week. Work, errands and other commitments kept me from being able to spend it in my rocker knitting, like I wanted to, but it was a nice day all the same. Birthdays are very low-key events around here. Chuck made dinner AND cleaned up so I didn't have to cook on my birthday. He also let me pick out my own presents, which is a fun gift in and of itself since I LOVE shopping. I ordered a swank new pillow and found another James Bond DVD on eBay. With any luck they'll arrive early this week.

Here's what I've been up to this week.The baby cardi is coming along quite nicely. I made my goal of finishing the right side and the left is going quickly. If I commit some time to it, I should have it finished in a week or two. Plenty of time for the auction.





Unfortunately for the cardi, the Opal sock has been too great a temptation to resist.
I'm only a few rows from starting the toe. Toes always go fast and then it's a finished sock! I must show some restraint and finish the cardi before casting on the second sock. I've also knit some on the CC Tunic, but it still doesn't look like much so no pictures. I'm still contemplating yarn choices for Eris. I'm leaning towards red for the color. Apart from that, no decisions have been made.





In Harry Potter news, I just saw over on Mugglenet that Amazon is taking pre-orders for the Goblet of Fire DVD. Production of Order of the Phoenix is starting too. I've started listening to the audiobook of Half Blood Prince. I LOVED this book and have been wanting to reread it. But with all this knitting sitting around, it's just a little easier to let someone else read it too me to keep my hands and eyes free. I have all the HP audiobooks, some read by Jim Dale and some of the British versions read by Stephen Fry. Love listening to both of them.

On the soap front, my first batches are drying and aging on a shelf in my basement. The shapes are not very even (I've ordered a good mold which should solve this problem on future batches). The smell is heavenly. I decided to live on the edge and try using some of the thin slivers that had been shaved off the ends of the blocks. The soap slivers lathered well but didn't leave as much of a scent on my hands as I would like. Need to research this some more. My favorite soaps are from Primal Elements. They are gorgeous and leave your hands smelling great. That level of scent is what I'm striving for. But I want to make sure I do it safely. Thankfully, the resources on soapmaking are nearly endless on the Internet. Just a matter of finding time to read it all!

Soap

My soap making supplies finally came on Friday. I was so excited, I made my first batch on Friday night and my second on Saturday. With all the cautions about working with lye, I made the lye solution in the basement (didn't want to endanger the cats). Hubby was a little concerned when he saw me with the goggles, smock and rubber gloves. Thought maybe soap making might be too dangerous. Later I explained the whole soapmaking process (I'm sure he was just thrilled to get that education) and how the base in lye reacts with the acid in oil to neutralize into soap. The end product is perfectly safe, but plain lye can cause a chemical burn. I didn't find it too hard to work with especially with the small 1 pound batches I was making. So here are the first fruits of my labors.

First is the "If you only make 1 batch of soap" recipe with almond fragrance and the other is the "Olive & Palm soap" with China Rain fragrance, both from Everything Soapmaking. Now I have to wait a day or so for it to setup, then I can cut it into bars to cure. That will take about 4 weeks. I've never been the most patient person, so this is going to be hard. But there's no cutting it short. Apparently it takes that long to be sure all of the lye has neutralized and for the bars to harden enough that they won't just dissolve away when they get in water.

At least I have plenty of knitting to keep me busy. I'm almost finished with the gusset on the Opal sock (I did take this one off the needles and tried it on to make sure it fits, it does and I love it!) I'm about 5 inches in on the CC Tunic. The Elann Siearra Aran is really wonderful to work with, so soft and the colors are gorgeous. I have a goal to finish the right side of the baby jacket by the end of the week. I got my letter from the library and the auction is March 25. Although I have plenty of time, I don't want to let this get away from me since I'm so easily distracted by other projects. Mom helped me pick out buttons at JoAnn's yesterday. She found some really cute little purple hippos. I also got some fabric to make new pillowcases while we were there so I'll be sewing this afternoon.

I purchased the pattern to make Eris from Girl from Auntie. Is this not an awesome sweater? Everyone talks about her other pattern, Rogue, and I agree, that one is pretty cool too. But hoodies just aren't my style. I am making myself finish the CC tunic before I even think about starting Eris, though. I've got too many big projects going already and really can't start another. Plus, there's that huge decision of what yarn to use. Suggestions?

And here's one of the newest visitors to our yard. Isn't he pretty?
You'll have to pardon the frying pan feeder. Something knocked the terracotta one off and broke it. Had to improvise. The birds don't seem to mind. Although, it's been so warm this month, they are hardly going through the feed. I guess they must be finding plenty of food in the wild.

Decision made

Sometimes when choices come along, fate makes the decision for you. As predicted, I finished the Pines sock on Friday.
Looks pretty good. As soon as the last end was woven in I slipped it on my foot. Ugh, it's HUGE! I did a gauge swatch before I started, 7 st/inch. I followed the pattern, 64 stitches. What I didn't do was the math. 64 stitches at 7 stitches per inch is a bit over 9 inches. My foot is 8. Bummer. Many nice ladies over on the Sockknitters group offered words of encouragement. Some suggested frogging and reknitting. One suggested knitting the second sock and entering them into a sock swap (there's bound to be someone with a larger foot that can use them.) My solution was to stick the sock and it's partner's yarn back in the stash box and start this...
Opal heals all wounds. This time I did a gauge swatch AND did my own math. I didn't want to risk messing up this expensive yarn! The $3 Woolease is no great loss, but $18 worth of wool is too much to mess around with! The patterning is really cool. The wool is soft and not at all scratchy.


I also cast on the Cottage Creations Tunic.
This is going to be a lot of knitting. The body is knit in the round, all in one piece, then the sleeves are picked up and knit down from the shoulders. The yarn is gorgeous. It's the wool/alpaca blend from Elann. The color is a rich, evergreen with flecks of blue. I bought a ball of tan for a contrasting collar, but I'm not sure if I'll do it or not. I'm pretty scared of color knitting unless someone else has thought it all out. Don't trust my own tastes here. I'm forever away from the collar, though, so I won't have to think about it for weeks.

Finally, some kitty goodness.
Here's Stuart supervising while I take the blog pictures. He and Quinn love to sit in this window. It's south facing so always sunny and warm.