Tag Archives: Knit

Toe-up? Lessons from Sock Summit…

Posted on August 27, 2009 | 22 comments

I’m knitting away on my Coriolis sock that I started after my class with Cat Bordhi at Sock Summit, Dancing with Socks. I made the baby Coriolis in class, very cute. (It’s the one on the right.)

I came home and decided to make Coriolis(es?) (Corioli?) for me. I’m using Socks that Rock Mediumweight; the color is Alley Oop.

I usually make my socks from the cuff down. This toe-up thing is a pretty new trick for me. I think I’ve mastered Judy’s Magic Cast On. This makes a very tidy toe.

I like the kfb increases on the sides. Again, very tidy.

And this is the nicest short row heel turn that I’ve tried so far. It doesn’t make the diagonal line; the heel looks very much like a flap and gusset heel. It’s also nice and deep, the way that I like my heels.

I”m knitting on the leg now, but it’s not compelling. Part of what kept me plugging away at the heel was the anticipation (dread?) of wondering if the stripe would run into the heel. It did, but it’s no big deal. Cat suggests a star toe in her book, New Pathways for Sock Knitting, so the foot can be rotated to avoid this issue, but I didn’t read the book before starting. I was working from class notes. No worries, it doesn’t bother me.

But now that I know how the story turns out, I’m not sure I have another of the same sock in me, even if the stripe rotates in the other direction. I may go for fraternal twins, and do a different pattern with the other half of the yarn. I want to play with Cat’s Riverbed sock architecture. Who says a pair of socks have to be the same? Second Sock Syndrome, I laugh in your face!

Do you have issues with doing the same thing over again? Apparently I do.

Knit on!

22 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged cat bordhi, Coriolis, Knit, sock summit

The winner, and the distracted…

Posted on August 24, 2009 | 8 comments

Thank you all for sharing your “how I learned to knit” stories. I really enjoyed reading them. Now for the payback: the random number generator at random.org has chosen the number 20, so the 20th commenter is the winner of the Cherry Mallow sock yarn. The 20th commenter is (drum roll please)…rustyfingers! Congratulations, Carol! PM me your snailmail addy, and I will pop the yarn in the mail.

Hmmm. What can I show you, to avoid showing you that I don’t have any knitting to show you? Oh, yes. Twisted‘s Single Skein Club offering for August. If you haven’t received yours yet, you must be even further behind than I am! Look away, if you must.

August’s Single Skein Club package is a seriously fun kit for either bottle cozies, can cozies, or coasters. Choose your own adventure! The patterns are by Michelle Molis, of Japanese Vines fame, and the yarn is the ever popular color wonder, Noro Kureyon. This skein is shades of green, blue, purple, and brown. There were other colors available, but this one is pretty much me, all over again.

Of course, I haven’t even cast on, since this kit came just before Sock Summit. But let me show you how far I’ve gotten on June’s project.

Oops. Look at that pattern. It says it’s April’s project! I think it’s a typo, but that doesn’t change the answer : not far. This will be the the Seedling Sampler Scarf. It’s my first beaded knitting. The cast on went well! The rest? Well, I’ll get to it, some day.

April’s project was a toe-up sock by Chrissy Gardiner, but I was pretty toe-up averse before Sock Summit, so that one hasn’t been cast on yet, either. Perhaps I’m not cut out for the pressure of being in a club with timed offerings! Yikes.

There are so many beautiful patterns and yarns to knit, and I just can’t knit them all. I’m still working on the stealth Noro/Mini Mochi project (no final verdict on which yarn is the winner of that contest), my blue ruffle tank, and, a Coriolis sock that I started after taking Cat Bordhi’s Dancing with Socks class at Sock Summit. More on that in another post, though; it’s too dark to take a decent picture tonight.

Knit on!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit

Luminary panel musings

Posted on August 20, 2009 | 49 comments

There were some interesting questions put to the Luminary Panel at Sock Summit. One that I found particularly intriguing was, “Why are there no knitters of color here?” I found it interesting on a couple levels. One is that I *am* a person of color, just not the color that the questioner meant. (I’m Asian-American, and I saw many other Asian-American knitters at Sock Summit.)

The discussion by the panel first delved into socio-economic issues; if food and housing is insecure, knitting is not going to be high on your priority list. Race is often tied to socio-economic status. Knitting in the US is primarily a recreational activity, and it can be quite spendy if you let it be! But I ran into an acquaintance right after the panel discussion, and she commented that she doesn’t have a ton of money, and that you don’t have to have a ton of money to knit. Another idea explored by the panel was that knitting isn’t a part of all cultures around the world. One could extrapolate that we should evangelize knitting and spread the word, but I don’t think all people should be forced to consider knitting for their leisure activity. It’s supposed to be fun. I think we should just say, “Here’s something I like. If you want to knit, I’d be glad to teach you.”

Who taught you to knit? Did you ask to be taught, or did someone offer to teach you? Or did you just find it intriguing on your own? As a child, I wanted to learn to knit because I was heavily into the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Deep in my heart, I wanted to be a pioneer girl. (Pretty funny for a Chinese girl.) In fact, part of the reason I still love my cuff-down socks on dpns is the whole pioneer sticks and string schtick; pioneer girls didn’t have two circulars or magic loop! (This reminds me of the “You can’t use the pedal when you play Bach because he didn’t” argument, although in that case I’d say, “He would have if it had existed!”)

I’m still knitting along on my ruffle tank, and swatching my colorful stealth project. And I think I’m going to start one of Cat Bordhi’s toe-up socks, just for review. And I’ve fallen in love with Lorelei from Twist Collective, but I don’t think I’ll start that right now! Just dreaming. I’ve noticed a good bit of start-itis in other bloggers that were at Sock Summit. Too many creative ideas all at once?

Besides start-itis, Sock Summit has had another effect on me. I had to buy another box to store my increased stash. Although the stash is growing, I’m still not a stasher at heart, so I’d like to share a skein from my Sock Summit goodies. This is from Deb Accuardi’s pre-summit lunch. The colorway is Cherry Mallow by CraftsMeow. It’s 100% superwash merino wool fingering weight yarn, 400 yards.

If you’d like to play, leave me a comment telling me who taught you to knit. I’ll do the random number thing and pick a winner after August 23. Good luck; I’m looking forward to some wonderful stories!

49 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit

Tagged contest, Knit, luminary panel, sock summit, yarn

Searching for “the one”

Posted on August 18, 2009 | 11 comments

It’s been quite a swatching week here. It’s like speed dating. Isn’t it tough when you know exactly what you want, and just can’t get it? I bought a bag of Noro Silk Garden Lite at Sock Summit with a project in mind. The yarn is too heavy for the intended project, so I went searching for something else. The Jojoland Melody wasn’t it; it didn’t have enough color change. Then I thought I had found it in the Noro Kureyon Sock. The colors were perfect.

The swatch was gob-smackingly pretty. But as I knit on, I found myself with doubts. Would I wear a garment that was gorgeous, but scratchy? I’ve already found that I prefer my Malabrigo Ishbel to my Shetland Triangle, because it’s so soft. Hmmmm.

I voiced my concerns in an email exchange with Melanie. I told her I was dreaming of something similar to Noro in the way color is treated, but as soft as Malabrigo Sock. She suggested Crystal Palace Mini Mochi. Not quite as soft as Malabrigo, but that’s hard to live up to.

Back to Twisted. I briefly eyed the Zauberball, but the colors were too eye-poppingly bright. Malabrigo Sock? The color runs were too short. Mini Mochi?

More swatching. Similar color palette, beautiful colors, and a long run of each color, with the colors gently shading from one to the next. Just like the Noro. But much softer to the touch. We may have a winner. I thought the extra Noro was going back to the store, but in the morning light it’s still really pretty and it’s not as horribly scratchy as I thought. It’s more of an art piece, though. Do I make two? Is this how stash starts? What am I making? I can’t show you yet; it’s my stealth project. Don’t you love surprises?

Speaking of surprises, the blue silk laceweight Ishbel has made it to its recipient. I made it for Susan as a thank you for guiding us through Vietnam. She says she’s going to call it Ishmael. I knit part of it on the trip, but I was so jet-lagged all the time that there wasn’t much knitting!

And one more surprise. The community baby quilt was presented to our music director, the mom-to-be, and she was very touched. We started this on our women’s retreat in May. The theme was hearts, but you could go anywhere you wanted with it. Each person there was asked to make a square. I see mine! It’s the heart-shaped music notes in the upper left corner.

My aunt called yesterday to ask about Sock Summit. I told her about Cat Bordhi starting class by asking our names and who taught us to knit, and that I had shared that she had taught me when I was 16. She thought that was pretty neat. So now I’m sharing it with you, too. Thank you, Aunt Rose!

11 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged Knit, yarn

Down the slippery slope…

Posted on August 15, 2009 | 17 comments

I’m having a hard time getting started on a post-Sock Summit project. I have several ideas in my head, but haven’t found the right combination of yarn and idea. The Jojoland Melody turned out to be not the right yarn for what I’m planning, so I went back to Twisted and came home with this.

Noro Kureyon Sock. Still not soft, but such gorgeous colors. I like purples. I like gray. I like black.

And I love purple with green! Noro skeins are always a surprise inside. I like this combo a lot. And while it seems like I’m sliding down the slippery slope for a self-avowed non-stasher, it’s not quite as bad as it seems. I exchanged the Jojoland Melody for the Noro.

On the other hand, I also said that I didn’t want to learn to spin, but then I bought a Turkish Delight drop spindle from Jenkins Woodworking at Sock Summit. Today I met up with the local spinners’ group, Portland Spinnerati. They meet monthly at the Central Library. Tami and Leila got me started on some beautiful merino and silk roving that I got from Knitted Wit.

I spun some yarn! And liked it. After I spin some more, I’ll have to learn how to ply…a slippery slope indeed. Oh, later today I brushed the cat. I found myself drafting out the hair from her brush, wondering if it could be spun. Help.

17 Comments

Posted in Knit, spinning

Tagged Knit, spinning, yarn

Post-Sock Summit blues

Posted on August 13, 2009 | 11 comments

Sock Summit is over; it’s time to go back to real life. What’s a knitter to do? I could go check out the Oregonian’s re-cap of the event here. I even saw myself in the video!

Or…

I could buy some more yarn! The Noro Silk Garden Lite wasn’t the right yarn for the new project in my head, so I went to Twisted to get some Silk Garden Sock. But I got distracted by this Jojoland Melody superwash, which is really soft. It also has a really long color run, and a very slow change to the next color. I think it will do what I want, but there’s only one way to find out. The S-word. Yes, swatch!

The colors are much richer than you see here; I can’t quite capture them.

I wanted to mention something that really struck me last weekend. Cat Bordhi began her class by having everyone give their names, and tell who taught them to knit. I love the honoring of the ones who came before. Mothers, grandmothers, aunts, friends, co-workers, Youtube! You can trace the lineage back, in much the same way that piano students can trace their teachers back to Mozart. Cat was also really good about crediting ideas, such as Judy Becker for Judy’s Magic Cast On and Magic Toe, and Jenny Staimann’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. It’s because of this that I can say that I learned my modified way of making an SSK (slip 1 as if to knit, slip 1 as if to purl, knit off together through the back loops) from Meg Swansen, who probably learned it from her mother, Elizabeth Zimmermann, and that was a modification of the SSK that was invented by…Barbara Walker. And so it goes.

Some other news: Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, one of the Sock Summit sponsors, is closing their brick and mortar store. They’ll still have an online presence, but this is a big loss for Portland. I’m sad to see them go.

Megknitficent (Ravelry name) is knitting her own wedding veil, and she had several teachers and students at Sock Summit knit on it. That will be a wonderful keepsake! And maybe she should get in touch with the woman who made this amazing wedding dress.

That’s the news from here. Knit on!

11 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, sock summit, yarn

Sock Summit: it followed me home

Posted on August 10, 2009 | 27 comments

For someone who doesn’t stash, I seem to have suddenly acquired a lot of yarn. (And yes, there’s a bag under there.)

I really only bought two yarns this weekend. One was a skein of Lorna’s Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies, colorway Cat Bordhi Ah Ha! This is a great yarn for teaching; the short color runs mean that the color of the stitch on the next row will probably be a different color than the one below it. It makes it easy to describe what’s happening with either stitch. It’s a worsted weight single ply yarn, nice and sticky so it doesn’t ladder when you drop a stitch. It’s perfect for investigating techniques, too.

The other yarn I bought is Noro Silk Garden Lite, which is DK weight. I know exactly what I want to do with it; there’s a design idea rolling around in my mind.

I bought a bag of 10 balls at Webs because I don’t know how much I’ll need, and the price was absurdly low.

Most of the rest of the yarn was from Deb Accuardi’s pre-summit luncheon at Gino’s. And it’s all fingering weight. I guess I’m going to start knitting with yarn that’s lighter than sport, because I have a lot of it! I love that it’s all from independent dyers. Here’s a recap of those yarns, starting with the one that was left behind. Deb brought it to me the next day. It’s from Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, colorway Accuardi Insalata by Stevanie Pico.

Ladies that Lunch colorway by Knitted Wit (Lorajean Kelley). Candace, who sat at our table, stopped by the Knitted Wit booth with the sock she was making from this yarn, and it was knitting up beautifully. I love the colors.

Jules Verne, by Larissa Brown for Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks. You know I love blues!

Pheasant by Abstract Fibers (Susan Stambaugh).

Cherry Mallow by Craft’s Meow.

What else followed me home? The swag bag from the Ravelry party!

How cute is that? here’s the back. I love that it’s labeled like the keepsake that it is.

What’s inside? More yarn! This is Berroco Vintage Wool, in a color that I love. (And the stash keeps growing…)

A tote bag from Namaste.

A note pad from Lantern Moon.

And a very cool sock pattern, Odenwald, by Stephanie van der Linden.

Oh, I have two other fiber items, but they’re not yarn.

Why in the world would I need roving?

I have succumbed to the temptation. All those spinners. All those wheels and spindles. I’ve resisted for years. But when they showed me the cute center pull ball you get when you take the spindle apart, it completely stole my fiber geeky heart.

Now I need to figure out how to use it. Fortunately, Portland Spinnerati meets this Saturday at the Central Library, and the temptresses who egged me on will be there.

I’m still pondering some of the questions from the Luminary Panel. More on that later. Good night!

27 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, sock summit

Sock Summit Sunday

Posted on August 9, 2009 | 19 comments

This is a short post, because I’m exhausted! I’ll have more tomorrow, when I’m awake and can take pictures of all the cool things that followed me home. But for now, a Sunday recap.

I invited my friend Joanne to come to the market this morning. She was about to pay the $2 entrance fee when I noticed that there were luminary panel tickets available. She decided to buy one, which meant she’d be a student, which meant she wouldn’t pay the market fee. And then the staffer told us that someone had donated their tickets because they couldn’t come, so they gave one to Joanne. Winner!

We did a quick tour, and then settled in to shop. Here’s the yarn play pen at Woolstock.

While we were ogling the Malabrigo Sock yarn at Webs, someone stopped to admire my shawl. It was Amy Detjen! She remembered meeting me at a Stitches West or two, way back. I think she liked the shawl because it matches her hair!

I made a couple purchases (you’ll see them in tomorrow’s post), and so did Joanne. Then it was off to lunch and the luminary panel. Cat Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, Lucy Neatby, Deborah Robson, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker, and Anna Zilboorg, all in one place. As I type this list, I realize that I’ve had classes with four of the nine: Priscilla, Meg, and Anna at Stitches long ago, and Cat this weekend. I’m pretty lucky!

It was flabbergasting to learn that Barbara Walker invented the SSK. Before that, the left-leaning decrease was skp (slip 1, knit 1, psso). That’s elemental. And listening to the panel discussion, I was struck again by Anna’s graceful spirit.

The day ended with cake to celebrate Elizabeth Zimmermann’s 99th birthday. All the panelists were asked what was the biggest influence EZ had on their knitting. Meg was last, and she simply said, “You are in charge of your knitting.” I remember reading that as “You are the boss of your knitting,” but either way, that’s EZ’s biggest influence on my knitting, too. I say it all the time when I’m teaching. Thank you, Elizabeth.

What a great weekend! On the way out, I ran into Barbara Walker. I admired her sweater, and thanked her for coming. She thanked me for coming, too.

19 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit

Tagged Knit, sock summit

Sock Summit: Saturday wows

Posted on August 9, 2009 | 13 comments

Saturday at Sock Summit. I knew this would be a long day for me. Six hours of Dancing with Socks with Cat Bordhi, plus the Ravelry party tonight.

Cat Bordhi’s class was a huge winner. She’s a great teacher. She walked us through her short row heel turn method, Judy’s Magic Cast On, a Bosnian garter stitch toe, a formula for a perfect fitting sock from the toe up, and how to turn all of that upside down for a cuff down sock. Along the way, she also taught us a cure for the wobbly SSK line of decreases, and a better way to finish off the yarn tail at the end of a project.

Here are the sample socks I worked on during class. The one on the right is a Coriolis. It was easier than I expected it to be! Note the garter stitch toe. The sock on the left is following her Upstream architecture.

Isn’t this yarn cool? It’s Bullfrogs and Butterflies from Lorna’s Laces, and the colorway is called Cat Bordhi Ah-ha. The short color runs make it easy to see what’s going on with the stitches from row to row. I didn’t have this yarn, but before class Elizabeth announced that she had bought some, had it wound into two balls, and someone was welcome to try the second ball. I did, and I loved it. Thank you, Elizabeth!

Oh, we also learned a stretchy new bind-off. It’s called Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off (JSSBO) by Jennifer Staimann, and it’s great. I can’t tell you more, because we’re sworn to secrecy. It will be in the next issue of Knitty. Keep your eyes peeled for this winner!

I sat next to Melinda (gldelx on Ravelry) during class. I didn’t realize it was gldelx until we swapped some stitch markers, and she gave me a card with her Ravelry name on it. She’s local here, too.

During lunch I met Kathy Elkins (on the left) from Webs. It was nice to meet her in person; we follow each other on Twitter.

The Ravelry party this evening was great. We all got swag bags with cool stuff in them. I’ll post an inventory and picture after I get a daylight shot. I hung out with old and new friends, including Sam and Kathy (I thought I had a picture with Kathy, but it’s not in the camera).

And GlennaC and Chrissy Gardiner (of the wonderful Toe-Up sock book).

Check out Glenna’s cool knee socks.

Deb interviewed Jess for the At the Kitchen Table podcast.

And I met Jess (frecklegirl on Ravelry); and got to pose with her and the Bob finger puppet! Note our Ishbels.

Bobbie, Leila, and Tami are trying to get me to spin. I’ve been successfully resistant. Then Leila pulled out the Turkish spindle, and showed me how it makes a center pull ball of yarn when you’re done. Uh-oh…

And I love this Dianna shawl that Kristin was wearing.

Lantern Moon was one of the cashmere sponsors. Thanks for a great party! Here’s Sharon, Joel, Sally, Sarah, and Jess.

13 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, sock summit

Sock Summit Friday

Posted on August 7, 2009 | 14 comments

I didn’t have classes today, so I arrived at the market at about 11 a.m. I cruised through the market, looking for the elusive perfect shawl pin. I almost bought a nickel/silver one in the shape of a treble clef, but eventually found an ebony spiral pin that I liked better. It has two points on it, and I thought it felt more secure than the pins with just one point. Even if I haven’t played the piano in months, I still like my ebony! I bought it from this young man at purrfectly catchy designs. You can see it in his hand.

This woman won an awesome door prize today: UK Knit Camp in Scotland next year. She has to pay her own airfare, but I think it’s worth it! I’m so jealous.

I met Jo from BritishYarn yesterday; she was quite jet-lagged but happily knitting away on a pi feather and fan shawl.

Today was Guinness World Record Day. The previous record of simultaneous knitters was set in June of this year by 256 Australian knitters. We had over 900. Sorry, guys.

The rules required that we use two (how many? two!) straight needles for this endeavor. No circulars, no sock heels on dpns. Two Straight Needles. Luckily, I had these Lantern Moon blondwood needles at home. Knitting had to be cast on before we entered the ball room.

Why yes, that’s my new Sock Summit tote! And my never-to-be-completed dishcloth, just before we started in earnest.

I can’t show you any pictures from the 15 minutes we were knitting. One must not jeopardize the record by putting down the needles to pick up a camera! The Oregonian newspaper had a video on their blog, though. I saw myself; that was pretty amusing.

After the Guinness event, I worked in the Knitted Wit booth. Some friends dropped by. Here’s Heather in her Central Park Hoodie.

And here are the Michelles, whom I met last year at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. We’ve been known to congregate over at Twisted, which seems to be a Michelle/Michele magnet. Michelle in the middle taught me Judy’s Magic Cast On last year; I just re-learned it so I’ll be ready for class tomorrow.

I made a couple forays out of the booth to check out market happenings. There was a needle-felting demonstration today.

This gentleman (Brian?) at the Skacel booth is knitting 7 pairs of socks (14 individual socks!) on a 120 inch needle. He says he doesn’t get tangles. You can read more about his multi-sock knitting adventure on the Skacel blog. I was impressed by his organizational skills!

Angora Valley Fibers is going to demonstrate knitting socks on a sock knitting machine on Sunday. We had a little preview, because they’re across the aisle from Knitted Wit.

Remember that I’ve said that I don’t stash? Somehow I found myself with a bag of Noro Silk Garden in my hand after I saw a beautiful Lady Eleanor stole walk by. The colors in the bag of yarn were exquisite. Can you guess what happened next?

After thinking about it for a while, I put the bag back in the bin. I don’t really need a new project. The yarn isn’t especially soft (but it is eye-poppingly gorgeous). I’ll go back in the next day or two and see if it’s still there. If it is, it’s meant to be mine. If not, I didn’t really need it. I’m leaving it up to fate! But I did buy a new pair of Dansko clogs, to replace my ancient ones. I bought them from Shannon. I met Shannon last year at Lorajean’s baby shower! Small world. And look: she knitted her dress, and it’s awesome!