Monthly Archives: January 2009

Second Sock Syndrome, conquered

Posted on January 31, 2009 | 20 comments

I finished my Leyburns a couple nights ago.

Yes, Leyburns, as in plural. Finally! I slogged through the second one. The first one was fun because I wanted to see if it would turn out the way I wanted, but the second one was just work trying to duplicate what I did on the first one. I’m glad I blogged it a few posts back, because I forgot how I did the toe and had to look it up!

It’s hard to get a good picture of a sock on your own foot. I like how you can really see the twisted cast on in this picture.

Details:

Leyburn Sock by Pepperknit for the Ravelry Knitalong

Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Eggplanted colorway
Size 2 needles
Mods: top down instead of toe up, twisted cast on edge, no wrap short row heel, 54 stitches throughout.

They’re a little bit loose, but they feel good. I think if I had gone down 6 more stitches, they would have been tight, so there’s a compromise there. But they’re cute! And done. I learned the short row heel on these. I like the fit of a standard round heel, better, so my next sock will go back to those.

Onward!

20 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, leyburn kal

Sudden stash

Posted on January 28, 2009 | 16 comments

I received a package yesterday. It was full of gorgeous things.

I won a prize on riizu’s blog back in December. One transit strike, an international border, and assorted bits of life later, the package is here!

Let’s start with the non-fiber fun. First up, Rooibos tea! I know what I’m having tomorrow morning at work.

There was this really cute button in the bottom of the bag.

Oh, you’ve gotten a peek at the yarn! It’s Mirasol Hacho. I have a little of this in blues from a trip to the coast last spring, so I knew it was yummy stuff.

Here’s a better look.

One more look, up close and personal.

The Hacho was the only thing I was expecting, so this was all quite a bonanza. But the crowning glory is this.

I’ve never seen it before. It’s Marisol Tupa, 50% merino and 50% silk. This is a glorious shade of red, with that subtle sheen that only comes with silk. It’s beautiful, and there are two skeins. I’ll have to find something worthy to make with it.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth!

16 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit

Tagged Knit, yarn

Leyburn snow

Posted on January 27, 2009 | 12 comments

I woke up to snow this morning. No, that’s not quite right. I woke up to a 6:30 a.m. robo-call from the school district, saying that buses would be on snow routes, but school was open. No snow.

I went back to sleep, and woke up to snow.

Snow is just another photo op for a blogger, right?

I was cruising down the foot of the second Leyburn last night, 2 repeats in (16 rounds), when suddenly I realized that the pattern didn’t match the first sock at the edges of the instep. After comparing with the first sock, trying to figure out what I did the first time, I finally just looked at the directions. Duh! A bit of ripping, and all is back on track now.

In other news, I’m mentioned in Lime & Violet this morning. There’s a picture of the twisted cast on from my Leyburn, and a link. Thanks for the shout-out, Sam!

Here’s a snowy cuff.

12 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit

Tagged Knit, leyburn sock

The yarniest day

Posted on January 26, 2009 | 13 comments

Saturday was the yarniest day of the year so far, at least for me.

The day started with a knitting party at Twisted, before the shop opened. It was a fundraiser event for the Grant High School Booster Club. Twisted provided the space and the teas, Lantern Moon provided the needles, Carole provided the treats, and Anna and I provided the knitting instruction. I also made party favors: the Checkerboard Scarflet pattern, and stitch markers in school colors. We had 15 people come to knit, some with previous experience, and some newbies. What a fun morning! Thank you to Shannon & Emily for hosting. I remembered to bring my camera, but I was moving so fast that I forgot to take pictures. Oops.

After the party I headed downtown to meet up with the Seattle to Portland Yarn Crawl. Knit Bloggers from Seattle came down on the train to meet up with Portland Knit Bloggers and check out yarn shops in the Pearl District and downtown. The shops on the list were Knit/Purl, Knit Knot Studio, and Dublin Bay. I joined the crawl late, so I went directly to Knit/Purl and met up with several Portland area bloggers that I’d met last September at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. We ended up at Starbucks for some knitting/chatting time. It’s funny, I know many of these women by their blogs and Ravelry names, but I’m still trying to connect the right faces with the right names!

I think my camera may have been in my knitting bag, but again, I forgot to take pictures. Bad blogger! Here’s a picture of a book I bought at Knit/Purl. It’s a calendar with a different stitch pattern every day. I’ve been looking for a stitch dictionary, but not one in several volumes. Just a little thing to inspire, to go along with the small section in my Vogue Knitting book.

What I didn’t realize, looking at that cute cellophane-wrapped package, is that the directions are written out row by row, without charts. I guess if I want to use any of them, I’ll have to chart them out myself. But the pictures are great, very clear.

By 3:30 I was pretty done, but I wanted to check out Dublin Bay since I’d never been there before. It’s a lovely shop down at the edge of the Pearl. Lots of natural fibers. But I was tired enough that I didn’t buy anything, despite the 20% discount they were offering to the Yarn Crawlers. I suppose it’s just as well, since I try not to stash. But the Sea Cell was really pretty…

13 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, yarn crawl

Same song, second verse

Posted on January 22, 2009 | 19 comments

A little bit faster and a little bit worse? Nah. Faster, maybe, but I think it’s going to be better!

The first Leyburn is done.

I really like the way this fits my foot. After all that fussing with the heel, it’s perfect!

The sock is 54 stitches, the heel is done on 31 stitches, or about 60%. I short rowed until there were 11 stitches in the middle, and 10 left unworked on either side. 9 in the middle was too far, resulting in the little balloon on my heel last time. (No pictures of that goofiness.) The leg at the ankle is slightly loose; I was trying very hard to stretch my floats on the leg as directed, but I don’t think I needed to. If I just knit in my regular way, it will be perfect. Why am I telling you all this? So that I’ve written it down, and can reproduce it in the second sock!

Here’s the toe.

I know how to kitchener stitch, but it’s not my favorite thing. I decreased at each side every other round until I had 30 stitches, and then decreased every round until there were 10 stitches total. Snip and run the yarn through the stitches, weave, and done! Hey, this method has been sanctioned in the current issue of Knitty (by the technical editor for socks, no less), so I’m good with it.

I started the second sock this morning. I love how this little twisted border takes the plain stockinette (left needle) and turns it into something magical (right needle).

Please excuse me, I have to go knit now!

19 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit, leyburn kal, leyburn sock, short row heel

Taming of the short row

Posted on January 19, 2009 | 22 comments

I knit my first short row heel.

What I didn’t know ahead of time was how shallow a short row heel on 50% of the leg stitches would be. This made the leg of my sock a lot shorter than I intended, and the heel didn’t fit all that well, either.

What I did like was how tidy looking the heel was. I used this tutorial to do the short rows without wrapping and turning, and I really liked it. Here’s the knit side.

And here’s the purl side.

No gaps. The sock was too short, though, and I didn’t like the fit of the heel, so I ripped it out, and did the same style of heel on 60% of the stitches instead. That felt a lot better, except I short rowed too far, making the heel cup too long, and the heel ended up with a little balloon of fabric on the end. I tried to ignore this, thinking that it would be fine when the foot was done and pulling on it, but alas, it was untrue. I was all the way to the toe shaping when I finally faced this fact. Now I’m here, again.

But as is so often true with my knitting, I’m hoping that the third time’s a charm.

I did decide to put the beginning of the round at the back of the leg, where I wouldn’t have to see that I goofed the stitch pattern a bit. If you don’t see it, I’m not telling you where it is. If you do see it, it will be our little secret. Shhhhh!

In other news, Mookie has adopted the log cabin blanket. She really likes it.

And I figured out how to turn off the infra-red auto-focus assistant, which means she doesn’t have devil eyes in this picture. Yay, me!

For those of you who are local in PDX, and on Twitter, here’s a Twitter contest with some interesting prizes. The contest is on Friday, January 23. Some of the prizes are already listed on the blog, and the rest will be listed this week. Good luck!

22 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, leyburn sock, short row heel

Leyburn KAL

Posted on January 16, 2009 | 17 comments

I’m in! I just joined the Socks That Rock Leyburn Knitalong on Ravelry. I’m doing it with Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Eggplanted, top-down, 56 stitches cast on for the ribbing, decreased to 54 for the Leyburn stitch pattern. Here’s what I have so far.

I really wanted to try this cuff treatment that I saw on the Twist Collective Blog. Theirs is in a contrast color to corrugated ribbing, but even so, it’s so cool looking! It gave me a little giggle to deliberately put a twist in, after years of admonishments to “be careful not to twist” for circular knitting. Be aware that you have to work this part on straight needles; ask me how I know…

I switched to knitting in the round as soon as the cuff detail was done, just before the ribbing.

And I think I may try a short row heel, since I’ve never done them before. It’s always fun to learn a new trick. We’ll see when I get there. For now, I’m just enjoying the stitch pattern.

Knit on!

17 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, leyburn kal, leyburn sock, ravelry

Answering the question

Posted on January 15, 2009 | 11 comments

I’ve been wondering: If I knit Athena one block narrower, would I be able to do it with one ball of Taos? The answer is…

Almost. But No. I made it all the way through the triangle blocks, but didn’t have enough to bind off. So now I know. This Athena is quite cozy at 20 inches around, yet still roomy enough, but since I have to buy the second ball of Taos anyway, why not make it more squooshy? So my next one will be at the size specified in the pattern. Wait, did I say next? Yes. It turns out this Athena isn’t for me after all. The colors are perfect for my friend D. And she’s having an Important Birthday. So off it goes.

Please note the lovely daylight, outside, no rain. A respite!

But I can’t knit another Athena right now. I promised myself that when I finished, I’d cast on for the Leyburn KAL on Ravelry. And so I shall. Tonight.

11 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Athena, cowl, entrelac, Knit, neck warmer

Knitting around in circles

Posted on January 11, 2009 | 14 comments

Pippi 3 is off the needles.

It looks just like Pippi the first, right?

Almost! The Cashmerino Aran colors are really rich and and seem to glow. I wouldn’t call it Aran weight, though. It’s a very nice worsted. Note the slightly shorter earflaps. And now that I’m looking at the picture, I see that I used double crochet instead of half double crochet on the edging! Oops. I’m not a crocheter, really, and I mis-remembered how to do it. I like the way it looks, though. I love this pattern, but after three hats, I’m definitely ready to move on.

What next? I started my Athena for me.

Lest you think that I am in a rut (three of the same thing, and three of the same thing?), I have another thing in the queue after Athena:

My friend Susan gave me these Lantern Moon Sox Stix for Christmas. Size 2! I guess that means I need to knit some somewhat skinny yarn socks. I bought some Socks That Rock Mediumweight (still not ready for the really skinny stuff); this color is “Eggplanted.” There’s a KAL on Ravelry for the Leyburn Socks, so I’ll start with that idea and see if it flies.

14 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, ravelry

Tagged cowl, earflap hat, entrelac, Knit, leyburn kal, neckwarmer, socks

An evening with BrooklynTweed

Posted on January 9, 2009 | 15 comments

Jared Flood (BrooklynTweed) is in town. He’s teaching classes at Knit/Purl this weekend. The classes filled very quickly, so they added a lecture/slide show. Beautiful photography! But I knew that already from his blog. Jared spoke about his inspiration, photography, designs, new designs. He gave some hints on photographing knits, and had a generously lengthy Q&A time after the slide show. There were a few sneak peeks of things that are coming soon, such as an amazing pair of Aran gloves that will be in the next VK. These are stunning, so texturally complex, I really want to make them. And I’ve never knit gloves! He’s also working on a book for Classic Elite due out this fall. Based on just a few pictures, this book is going on my wish list.

I did have to take a picture with my current project, just to show that I was there. But no flash (didn’t want to startle), so it’s not a great picture. More like a kinnearing, but it wasn’t my cell phone!

Yes, the project is one more Pippi. I’m knitting a sample for Twisted; they’re carrying paper copies of the pattern. This time I’m using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and it’s really soft. The yarn has a bit of a shine to it, too. Really lovely stuff.

The other thing that I’m really enjoying is my new Lantern Moon ebony 16 inch circulars. I love how smooth they are. These have fairly short needle tips; they are shorter than the tips on my bamboo circulars. I’ve come to find that this helps them fit well in my hand, and the cable curves nicely under the palm. They’re not too short at all. And I love the way they sound. Bliss! I’m almost done with Pippi, and then I can use these needles to finally knit Athena for myself. I’m looking forward to it!

15 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit