Ruthless Knitting

I wanted to show you progress pictures on Frances today, because I think it’s important that I not refrain from picture taking until the sweater is done and then say, “Here it is!” When I do that, it makes it seem as though I produced the sweater with no effort, when in fact I am madly knitting, knitting, knitting on it like Madame Defarge. Unfortunately, all of the pictures I took this morning came out blurry, so you’ll just have to take my word for it: much knitting is taking place on Frances, and she now has two sleeves and a body all the way down to the waist. I think it will take me about a week to finish the remaining bit of the body and weave in ends. I’m thrilled with how she looks so far.

Meanwhile, Zigzag Stitch has an enjoyable post today about her “best ever” handknit, and she asks at the end, “What’s your best ever?” While I agree with her that there are many different criteria with which one can answer this question, by her own criteria, I have a hands-down winner: my felted slippers.

My felted slippers, as you can see, are rather loud. These days, they are also rather ugly, misshapen things, with blue fibers mashed into the sides of the soles from our living room carpet. And they are starting to fall apart, to boot: these slippers have a double-thickness sole, and I’ve worn a hole straight through the outer sole on each slipper and am coming alarmingly close to wearing a hole in the inner sole as well. They are my best ever handknit simply because I wear them every night and every morning and I have done so for the last two years (nearly) since I made them. They have perfectly molded to the shape of my feet, they’re cushy, and they keep my toes warm.

The pattern is the ever-popular Fiber Trends Felt Clogs pattern (link takes you to one of many places where it can be purchased), with the bumper left off. I need to make a new pair soon so that I won’t have to go into mourning when these give out on me. I’m thinking they should be just the same, only less outrageous: blue soles would be nice, to go with the carpet fibers that will quickly get mashed in, and brown tops to keep them a bit more sophisticated than the first pair, yet also better able to disguise the inevitable dirt build-up.

What’s your best ever?

Since returning from Vermont, in addition to completing the Nine-to-Five Socks and making the XOXO Baby Socks, I’ve also finished up a couple old projects that have been lying around making me feel guilty.

First, I managed to reseam and weave in all the ends on the turtle sweater (explanatory backstory is here and here), and on Tuesday I returned it to its rightful owner, Gwendolyn. You may recall that the hood opening was too small for her, causing much consternation when her mother tried to dress her in the sweater. I solved this problem by (1) taking the sweater apart; (2) ripping out about 10 rows of the back, increasing a whole bunch of stitches evenly across the back so that it had as many stitches as the hood does at the back, and knitting up the remaining rows; (3) grafting the hood and the back together; and (4) grafting the shoulders together. Now it’s quite stretchy. As you can see, Gwendolyn looks adorable in it (though a tad concerned — I was babysitting her, and this is the look that means, “You are okay, but you are clearly not my mother”).

There are still some things about the sweater that I don’t like, but it’s better than it was. Should you ever wish to knit a copycat sweater, I posted the chart for the chart on my Designs page.

Next up, I finally got around to putting an edging on the hairpin lace afghan that may or may not have been knit by my grandmother. (Original posts about this project — from March, yikes! — are here and here.) To do this, I purchased some turquoise yarn in a similar color to the turquoise in the blanket, double crocheted across the unfinished edge, single crocheted back across, and then picked up a stitch through every crocheted stitch and knit several rows of garter stitch before binding off. The edges look much better now, though still not perfect. I did my best.

The blanket’s edge originally looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

Good enough, I think. I’m sending this off to my brother James today.

Having cleared up every last item of Duty Knitting except for my second Red Herring sock (to be cast on soon), I’ve been plugging away on the second sleeve of Frances and trying to get my Florence pattern written up. Busy as a bee, I am.

Also, Presents!

I got some excellent packages in the mail last week. First, I received two skeins of Undertow from Gryphon in the color “Cramp.” These were my prize for sort of winning her bodice design contest. I say “sort of” because I was the only entrant, and I didn’t exactly follow the rules. Still, a bodice will come of it, and I got some pretty yarn:

Now I just need to figure out to do with these. I haven’t formulated a plan yet. (The cardigan pattern and Undertow yarn are both for sale in Gryphon’s Etsy shop.)

Gryphon also sent a skein of Traveller, one of her hand-dyed sock yarns, for me to use in doing swatches for the bodice. I made a swatch using four different needles, and I had to show you a picture because this yarn is just so pretty. It’s soft and squooshy, too. I highly recommend it.

Then, on Saturday, I got my prize package in the mail from winning Mel’s contest. She sent a skein of Three Waters Farm fingering-weight yarn in the color lilac, as well as a great lavender rosemary goat’s milk soap from the same farm. I was thrilled to get these, both because I love to try local, sustainable products and because they remind me of the Piedmont of North Carolina, where I used to live. Thanks, Mel!

Pattern: XOXO Baby Socks. My own design.
Size: Newborn
Yarn: Henry’s Attic Kona Superwash DK (100% superwash merino wool)
Yardage: Small amount of leftovers
Source: Catnip Yarns
Needles: 4 US size 2 double-pointed needles
Gauge: About 7 stitches = 1″ in stockinette stitch
Notes: Last week, when the Nine-to-Five Socks and I were on a break due to my having messed up the heel flap and put them away in disgust, I whipped up these little baby socks for the newborn son of a friend of mine. I had seen a pair of baby socks by Ann Budd that use the hugs and kisses cable pattern, and I thought they were cute, but they’re in a 2005 issue of Interweave Knits that I don’t have access to, so I just winged it. The socks came out well enough that I thought I’d share the pattern. It can be downloaded as a PDF file here. Enjoy!

P.S. David discovered that if you casually leave the socks lying on your desk, they look exactly like a peeled banana. I made light of this observation, then later walked into my office and thought, “Why the hell is there a banana on my desk?!”

Pattern: Nine-to-Five Socks by Nicole Hindes of All Buttoned Up
Size: One size, about a women’s medium
Yarn: Zwergergarn Opal Uni Solid, no. 40 (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon; 465 yds. per 100 g. skein)
Yardage: 1 skein
Source: Loops & Links (De Pere, WI)
Needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm.) double-pointed needles
Gauge: 34 sts = 4″ in stockinette stitch
Notes: By the time I finished the second sock, I felt like I’d been knitting these since the Dawn of Time. Really, it’s only been since May, and I took off the period between June 23 and August 3, as well as at least ten days in August, so I suppose I’m not really entitled to complain.

And the truth is that as soon as I finished the second sock, it ceased to matter how long it had taken or how little I liked knitting the little false cable pattern, because these socks are so fabulous that they make up for everything. I love them.

These are a birthday present for my beloved sort-of sister-in-law, Angelyn, so I must kiss them goodbye and send them on their way soon. Hope you like them, Ang!

Since I last posted, I’ve been finishing up all sorts of knitting projects, some long-term and some instant gratification, but I haven’t been able to blog about them because my computer died and I’m using my old laptop. Okay, technically, nothing is stopping me from blogging, but everything’s harder on this old computer, and I am too lazy to import pictures and so on. I’m supposed to get my computer back today, and then I can play catch-up.

In the meantime, I will answer the “Eight Random Things about Me” meme that Gryphon tagged me for. I think that Mel tagged me for it a few months ago, but I was too lazy to do it. Also, I kept thinking it was “Eight Weird Things about Me,” and I couldn’t think of anything weird about myself. (I told David that, and he thought it was funny. He did not have any trouble coming up with weird things about me.) But then I thought of several items that are both weird (by some standards) and random, which I will list for your edification. There’s supposed to be a baby picture, too, according to Gryphon’s modified rules, but I don’t have any handy. I’ll try to remember to add one after I get my computer back.

Edited to add: Here’s that baby picture! I like this one because I am so obviously pouting. And if someone was taking my picture, the pouting was just as obviously not being taken very seriously. I am about two and a half here.

1. I have two TVs, but neither of them has any channels hooked up — no cable, no antenna, no reception. At least, I assume that they have no reception; I’ve never tried to receive anything on them, so I can’t be sure. There’s one TV in the bedroom, which we use at night to watch movies and shows we get through Netflix (currently season 3 of Deadwood), and there’s another TV on the wall in the basement, which entertains us when we’re on the treadmill. Otherwise, we don’t watch TV.

2. I exercise five or six times a week, and it’s one of my favorite things to do. I run, do yoga, walk and hike, ride my road bike, ride my mountain bike, ski, snowshoe, do indoor climbing, and lift weights. For the vast majority of my life, I considered myself to be “not athletic” because of my mediocrity at all the team sports and gym class games that constitute athletics in the public schools. I think it’s practically a crime that we introduce children to exercise by having them do competitive sports, which only a small fraction will ever excel in, and which teach many children, including myself, much more about what it feels like to fail and be humiliated repeatedly than they do about “cooperation” and “healthy competition.”

3. I’m a vegetarian, and I cook just about everything David and I eat from scratch. When I go to the grocery store, I’m usually quietly appalled at the groceries other people are buying. No vegetables! Hamburger Helper! Gallons of strawberry-flavored milk! Cases and cases of soda! Pounds and pounds of red meat! Frozen meals! Yikes!

4. Despite the impression items 1-3 above almost certainly give, I’m not an evangelist for my way of life. If you watch TV, don’t exercise, and eat processed food for every meal, I don’t care. Really.

5. I don’t do (and am not interested in doing) any craft except knitting.

6. I am the vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Brown County Historical Society.

7. I don’t understand and have never understood why people like cats so much. I have nothing against cats, really — they seem fine. I just don’t get their appeal.

8. I only blow-dry my hair about twice a year, and I don’t dye it, even though it is just plain brown. Sometimes I get the impression that this puts me in a very small minority of American women. Why am I the only person I ever seem to encounter in public with wet hair?

Pattern: Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher of 10 Feet High
Size: 21″ wide, 18″ long. Sized (I hope) to fit an eight-year-old girl with a 14″ shoulder-to-shoulder measurement
Yarn: Nashua Handknits Cilantro (70% cotton, 30% acrylic; 136 yds. per 50 g. skein)
Yardage: 2.75 skeins
Source: Monterey Yarn
Needles: Denise US11 and US9 circular
Gauge: 4 stitches per inch in ribbing, slightly stretched
Notes: I loved this bolero at first sight, but I am not someone who wears mini-sweaters, so I sent a picture of it to my eight-year-old niece, Lucie, and asked what she thought of it. She replied, “I love I mean love the bolero” and requested one in blue. A few very enjoyable hours of knitting later, and voila!

Kelly’s pattern (more of a recipe, really) is quite simple and produces an elegant result. I had to do the cable transition row just before the final ribbing a few times before I got it right, but this was mostly my fault, as I had switched the knit/purl order on the foundation row of ribbing and had to alter the pattern to match. Also, I kept dropping stitches.

My friend Rebecca keeps singing the praises of Cilantro, so I’d been looking for an excuse to try it out. I love it! It’s very soft and squooshy, but it’s also very elastic, which is why I was able to model the bolero. LOTS of stretch there. This makes it a great yarn for kids’ garments. According to the label, it’s supposed to be washed by hand and dried flat, but I sent my swatch through the washing machine and drier and observed no ill effects.

Once this is finished blocking, I’ll send it off to Lucie and hope for the best. If she likes it, I may manage to convince her to send me a few modeled shots to post here.

I’m back from Vermont, where David and I had a smashing time with my family. There was a lot of this kind of thing:

and of this kind of thing:

What with all the beautiful scenery, the old homes and churches and barns, the great riding, the steep climbing and descending, the rain and wind, and the occasional map-reading error, the trip was a challenging and exhausting adventure. Luckily, this is my idea of the perfect vacation.

Contest results

Thanks so much for all your contest entries and kind comments about Florence! It was fun to come home and read them all. Interestingly, while I was away, a lively sizing discussion got going over at Knitting Daily. I haven’t had a chance to read all the comments there yet, but there is an interesting survey of bust sizes, as well as the potential for a more thorough sizing survey in the future. I’ll be keeping my eye out for that.

Meanwhile, this morning, I put all the names of the people who entered my contest in my favorite camping hat . . .

. . . and picked the winner!

Mel, you’ve got a Kpixie gift certificate and a custom pattern coming your way — the former rather more quickly than the latter, to be sure.

It is funny that Mel won my contest, because I came home to discover that I won her contest while I was away. Life is strange and wonderful sometimes.

Even if we hadn’t won one another’s contests, I would have wanted to write about Mel in this post anyway, because she just had her first pattern published — the beautiful Summer Sky in this month’s MagKnits. I am not normally someone who wears short sweaters, but the details on this sweater are so lovely and perfect that I’ve been toying with knitting it since I first saw the design. Bravo, Mel!

Knitting update

Bicycling and knitting do not go together, unfortunately, so all I managed to get done during my vacation was about two-thirds of the leg of my second Nine-to-Five Sock. Before I left, however, I knit most of a Ribbed Lace Bolero for my niece Lucy, and I finished all but the weaving of the ends this morning. It’s been a fun knit — I’ll post about it within the next day or two.

Accolades

Last but not least, both Mel and Emilee have nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger, which was awfully nice of them. I have a strange aversion to buttons, as well as a strong left-wing-liberal-arts-college-education distaste for the word “girl” as applied to any woman past puberty, but I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment nonetheless. Thanks, Mel and Emilee!

Souvenirs

I posted this without remembering that I have one more picture to show you — my souvenir yarn! I found these at Vermont Beads and Fibers in Middlebury, Vermont. They are from Laughing Tree Farm in Monkton, Vermont, which raises angora goats. The yarn, a mohair/wool blend, is spun and dyed at the farm. I already have a sweater planned!