What's in your purse???

Well, we all know about purses. Talk about everything but the kitchen sink!! This is nothing compared to what I pack for a day of spinning or weekends with the Twisted Sisters and the Dear Fiber Goddesses!! Trust me, you don't want to know! For one day at work I carry at least 2 projects, you can see the Dragon scale scarf being knit in Baby Cashmere (from Elann), and the cuff of an STR 'Marbles' sock.

Mind you, although I carry these projects with me daily, I never knit on them at work. Never. They are my binkies, my "just in case" projects. I'm comforted knowing that they are just there! However, I have been known to knit on socks when driving off 'pill-hill' when the traffic is backed up beyond all recognition, and cars are stopped longer than they are in motion....these are my knit a few stitches-inch the car forward projects. Enjoy the close-up of the Dragon scale scarf, I was pleased with the photo and had to include it!

Also of FO note, are the finished STR 'Ruby slippers' in heavyweight yarn that I knit for the red hot sizzling sock KAL.

And if you are interested, my purse (a Valentine gift from my dear hubby) is from a new LYS in Portland--Dublin Bay Knitting Company. The bag (Jetsetter) is from Namaste, the makers of the pyrex needles. I. love. it.

So, what's in your purse today?

Rogue sleeves

Quick post on things I've learned from starting the Rogue sleeves... We're doing them two-at once on two dp needles, which is pretty wicked cool. Photos on the way!
1. I started by casting on the full 39, but eventually decided that S was right and one should subtract 2 sts to account for not having a seam.
2. I also started by splitting the tube sts with half of each row on each needle. That is, the first half of each row on needle 1 and the second half on needle 2. However, once the cabling began in earnest, I realized this was no good because it meant the middle cable was split between needles. So, I'd recommend splitting the rows so that all of the chart D cable panel is on the same needle, with the other needle containing the stocking stitch portions. This means you'll need a stitch marker in the middle indicating the beginning of a new "row". I thought this was going to be confusing, but it's not.
3. This is more of a discussion point. I've been doing the increase rows using my favorite increase where you knit into the parent loop to make right slanted and the grandparent loop to make left slanted. I've been doing the first two increases (right of the cable panel) right slanted and the second two (left of the cable panel) left slanted. It looks pretty good, but I'd love to hear if there are better ideas!

Knitting? What's that?

Twas a very knitting-less weekend at Chez S, and my hands feel weird. They miss the needles, they miss the stitches, the double-decreases, the yarn. I had a busy weekend, to be sure, but knitting? No. Sadly, there was not much time for knitting. Shopping, yes. For a wedding dress. Si, senoritas. There were…problems with the seamstress I was going to use to make my dress. The biggest two being that she is a crazy bitch, and she doesn’t seem to know what the f*ck she’s doing. So, I had to dump the hoe. And now, 3 months before my wedding, I have to get a dress. So, my sister and I did the wedding dress store thang all weekend long.

What am I knitting on, or, I guess the proper question is what have I NOT been knitting on?

Jaywalkers in STR Marbles (WG is making some, too, and possibly Knitting Iris)

A mystery-ish project

and, well

Rogue, right? I guess not, as nothing Rogue-ish is on the needles right now, but casting on the arms has been dancing, dancing, dancing inside of my head for a while. E said she did it, casted on, so I must get on the old ball, eh? This week, at some point, I will cast on some Rogue-y arms. Because they will be Rogue-tastic. And Rogue-erific. And Rogue-y. Rogue-idicious. Rogue-iculous. Rogue-o-rama.

Jaywalkers for high insteps/narrow feet/cankles

So I have been sick ALL WEEK. I went to work for two hours Monday morning, then four hours on Wednesday and that was all I managed for the week. My hubby was also home all week, which did make it more bearable. We watched the entire first season of Lost as well as about six movies. The novelty has kind of worn off now, though. I think even our dog is getting sick of us being home. But, I've been well enough to knit the last few days and have been quite productive...

The Jaywalkers are done! The Jaywalkers are done! The crops are saved! Let the peasants rejoice! The first time I typed that I wrote "peanuts" instead of "peasants". It's not what I intended, but if peanuts were ever going to rejoice, they would do so now.

The specs: I did the toe on dp #1s (2.25mm), then switched to two Addi Turbo #1s (2.5mm) for the foot, which I worked with 60 sts. This made four panels of jaywalker-ness across the top, with five stitches between the increases/decreases.

Just before the heel, I effectively increased one stitch in each panel by skipping the decreases on the pattern row. On the plain row before and after this pattern row, I increased one stitch at each edge of the bottom stocking stitch section using the slanting increase (where you knit into the parent loop of a stitch to make one sloping right, then into the grandparent loop on the other edge to make one sloping left).

So that gave me eight more stitches for a total of 68, which I split evenly to do the heel. After the heel I knit a good 1.5" until it came to the middle of my ankle nub. Then I did a few more rows on 1s, then switched to the Addi Turbo 2s (3.0mm). And they fit. Where I switched to bigger needles, it made the stripping switched directions, which you can see in the photos and is pretty cool. Thanks to all those who have kept me sane through this process.

This weekend I also whipped up a felted bag. It's in the washer right now, but here are the before shots. It's in some random wool I found at Abundent when they were having their big sale. Hope it felts well! Will let you know...

Secret Pal, I Heart You!

I arrived home today to find a "special package" on my doorstep from my Secret Knitting Pal, whose identity still remains to be seen. I couldn't get the box open fast enough, literally, and found myself struggling with the tape and package wrappings because I was so impatient to get this box open. Much to my excitement, there were two wonderful knitting books inside! Could there be anything better? Not in my mind!

The first is "Bags, A Knitter's Dozen", which has some of the cutest bags I've seen. As most of you know, I really like knitting bags (love it, in fact) so this book is just perfect for me! I'm especially in love with the Flaps and Snaps bags....I'm sure you will see those show up on the blog in the future!


Second book was "Knitting Vintage Socks:New Twists on Classic Patterns" by Nancy Bush. Love this book! Love it! There's so many fabulous sock patterns in this book....esp love the Bed Socks and the Fancy Silk Socks.

Secret Pal, I heart you and can't wait to find out who you are so that I can properly thank you for these wonderful gifts!

I finally made it to the podium....

I dood it!!! I finished my Aran Weight Victorian Shawl!! Big sigh of relief. I must say, I am delighted. That would be De.Light.Ed!!!! Truly. The yarn is so soft, and blocking opened up the lace patterns in an amazing way. Lace knitting is definitely intoxicating and addicting! I can't wait to make another one...same pattern, different pattern, I don't care....I'm loving the lace action! So pictures...you want pictures do you??? Here goes....

It is exactly the depth I wanted it!!

The obligatory close up of the lace pattern work

Here is a close up of the picot bind off I did:

I owe my dear friend Tanya a hearty "thank you" as I ran short of yarn and she swapped me her 2 skeins of Chestnut for my 2 skeins of Walnut so that I could finish the shawl with an ever so slight hope of obtaining the size I wished! "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tanya!!!"

Final specs:

11 skeins of Chestnut from Elann in Sierra Aran

I started out on size 8 needles, moved up to 9, 10 and 10.5, and stayed steady with the 10.5 needles (60 cm Addi Turbo).

For the picot bind off (thank you Alina! Fantastic suggestion!), I used a size 13 needle and made the picot points with a size 9 needle, tedious, but the academy awards provided the perfect vegetative backdrop for bind off proceedings! ;) Thank you Shannon for the support and hand-holding (almost literally) to get me to "just do it"!

There are some errors in the pattern, if you check Barbara Walker's First Treasury and follow the pattern for English mesh lace and horseshoe lace as written there, you should be fine. Tanya and I concurred that a center stitch flanked by yarn overs would be nicer to look at then the solid block of knitting called for in the original pattern, so we changed the pattern ever so slightly to do that.

And as a treat for getting my grant in last week (which is why I was late to the knitting Olympic podium), I went shopping at Sundara Yarn. She is a delight to correspond with, and the skeins arrived faster than the speed of light!! Yippy! The yarn is so soft, and the colors are awesome!Without further ado....

Let me introduce you to 'Moss' and 'Pretty in Pink'

Well Dear Readers, that is it for now....Knit on!!

Updates....

Just a quick post today, to say Happy 16th Birthday to my lovely daughter, Whitney. I love you and am so proud of you!


to update on my Neptunites, as the 2nd one is striping as beautifully as the first....

And to show off some of my beautiful plants and flowers this time of year....

I stole me a meme

I was cruisin’ the net, looking for trouble, and I think I may have found it. This year has been a strange one for me, reading-wise, because, although I did finish a book last night, my reading has simply not been up to the level I am used to. A few years ago, I decided to start keeping track of the books I had read, and was both surprised and proud to see that I was averaging 65 or so a year. Now, my tastes run the literary gamut, so to speak, and I am in no way a reading snob. I heart Janet Evanovich and JK Rowling and STEPHEN KING as well as the more substantial newer fiction. I just heart reading.
But this year, there has been something amiss in my literary endeavors. I simply have not been reading. Sure, I read a book right at the start of the year, a bday present from S, the inimitable Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree, and I started Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire, and the second Eragon book, Eldest, by that wunderkind, Christopher Paolini, as well as a few self-help type books, but actually finishing anything? No, just 6. Five of which took me no more than a day-and-a-half to read. SO. I saw this meme on someone’s blog, and decided, hey, this is something I can get behind. Maybe it will force me to really examine my reasons for not reading. I have been knitting. And I have been doing some wedding-related stuff. And, magazines arrive at the house more often now than ever before. But why, oh WHY, has my reading fallen by the wayside so much? it's not that I am choosing horrible books - Wicked was fantastic, and the two-thirds of Son of a Witch I have read are wonderful, so why does it languish beside my bed, gathering dust on its jacket? Eldest I can see – I merely wasn’t in the mood for something so … fantastical, so I put it down “for later.”

What do I do, then, to get back in the swing of things? Well, for one thing, I should make a list of those books I have that I really want and need to read. Okay, let me begin now:

The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova

I am reading this now, and – wow. It’s a really great book. The story is compelling, the characters are rich, and the plot moves all over the place, both literally and figuratively. I have, however, put it aside for the quick reads I alluded to earlier, so for some reason, I do not have loyalty to this book.

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

This is on the meme list following – I bought it before Christmas. It was in the sale section at Powell’s on Hawthorne (the sale section at Powell’s…hmmm…it makes me drool just a little bit to think about it). I have heard nothing but great things about this book, and must read it.

How We are Hungry – Dave Eggers

My brother and his fiancée gave this to me for my bday and I LOVE me some Dave Eggers. S and J (sister) and I saw him speak at an event for a therapeutic writing program for homeless people here in Portland, and J and I wanted to be his best friend. He is a funny, funny man. Why haven’t I read this? Who knows.

The Truth (with Jokes) – Al Franken

Love him. He is one crazy-ass mo-fro liberal, and his books make you say ‘right on’ and cringe at the same time. Plus, a quick read.

Son of a Witch – Gregory Maguire

Nuff said.

And a lot more. Okay, so I gotta get to knitting, and I gotta get to readin’.

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

Nemesis, or, jaywalkers version 2,945

Jaywalker is out to get me. I cannot even bear to post photos. I made my oh-so-clever modifications and now they are way too big. Perhaps I can blame this go round on the ginger vodka. Once again, Shannon had to talk me down from a knitting ledge. I tore them out, once again, and I think I have it this time. I guess. Basically I just added a stitch to each panel of the pattern right before the heel. This is totally invisable, so at least that worked out. Then after the heel I knit about 1.5" until it was at the nub of my heel. Then I switched to 2s (I'm using addi turbos). I think this will work. Once I have finally friggin finished them I will post a thorough description. But I'm not counting these impish chickens until they're hatched. Will discuss with the girls at our KIP (knitting in public) session today.

Mass Transit Knitting

Ahh…knitting.  What a wonderful hobby, what a grand endeavor, what a beautiful way to spend a few hours.  Thursday, I was on the bus, the worst and slowest bus ever, but that’s the way I had to go to get to where I was going, so I made the most of it (I was one of the few, the proud, who actually had a seat for the first 15 minutes of the ride, so I can’t bitch too much).  I was happily knitting away on my socks (yeah, I am working on a different pair of socks, a pair I have not yet blogged about, WHO CARES?!?), probably smiling, and this small girl came up, plopped down in the seat in front of me, and said “whatcha knittin’?  “Socks,” I said, and she proceeded to tell me that her teacher, Mrs. So-and-So, (you know, she has brown hair and glasses?) taught her how to knit a few years ago on pencils.  Then, this past year, Mrs. So-y-So (I believe she said this one was blond and tall) re-taught her how to knit, and she just loves it.  “You won’t believe this, but I have been knitting for four years and just learned how to purl!” she exclaimed.  I told her that those were really the only things she needs to know, how to knit and how to purl, in order to tackle anything in the knitting universe, and that if she keeps it up, she will be a master knitter by the time she’s my age, and she asked me how old I was.  “31.”  “I’m 13,” she said, to which we both exclaimed, at the same time, “we are opposites!”


Here are the socks, which I finished last night. More on the socks later, because these are THE Socks that Rock for me, the quintessential, the yarn that made me want to become a sock knitter.





SPECS:

Construction: Two-at-once Toe-Up socks, with a K3, P1 rib
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Farmhouse colorway
Who for: MEEEEE

Oh, and the tiara at the top of the screen? My Olympic medal from S.

Jaywalkers: a 12 step plan

1. Meet S at the Sapphire Hotel for our traditional Tuesday night drinks and knitting.
2. Both order a ginger vodka and soda.
3. Brainstorm while tipsy and formulate a plan for the final stroke of brillance that will transform jaywalkers into something wearable for those with narrow feet/high insteps/cankles.
4. Try to implement plan and horribly mangle a few rows.
5. Give up and chat instead.
6. Walk home.
7. Go to sleep for 12 hours. (I feel I should stress I had one drink. I'm not a lush, just a ridiculously easy date.)
6. Awake refreshed and revitalized.
7. Implement a few tentative rows of plan.
8. Post to blog that a solution is in the works!
...to come...
9. Finish socks.
10. Confirm fit.
11. Write up pattern modification.
12. Share with my narrow-footed brethren!

The Prickley Stonewashed Pear Socks

Hmmmm. I am still trying to come up with the "perfect" name for these socks, and now that they are complete, I am even more perplexed! So, the "Prickley Stonewashed Pear" socks sounds pretty good to me, as good as anything, really. I had lots of fun working on these socks, but realized I do not want to knit another pair of fair isle socks in the very near future. At least not in this amount of time. Deadlines, schmeadlines, I am all with S in that I would like to slow down on the deadline knitting. I want to knit because I WANT to knit, not because I HAVE to knit or am committed to knit something for someone's birthday or anniversary. I want to knit for ME! I know, I know, probably selfish, but I want to be into the "me" knitting for a just a little while. Just a little while....

So, here's my Olympic wonders....let me introduce the "Prickley Stonewashed Pear" fair isle socks:


Here they are, posing again for the spotlight:
















And again (I couldn't keep them out of the spotlight, as they just loved posing for the camera!)

Slipper Socks by mi mama

Real quick - these are the first socks my mother made - she used a self-fair-isle-ing yarn, knitted them on size 1 dpns, and made them real nice and tall. They are a bit loose, so she got some slipper soles at the Woolery Mammoth, sewed them on the bottoms of her socks, and - guess what? They fit my dad perfectly!

All Hail the Conquering Hero

Okay, "conquering hero" may be a bit much, but I feel like a real Olympian. I am a GOLD MEDALIST. I finished the actual knitting on my Fair Isle socks late last night, and wove all the ends in this morning:



I am on the podium, proudly waving my socks for all to see. Very exciting.



I was able to share my happiness and excitement with some of my favorite knitters ever at Pix Patisserie, a very yummy place indeed:

Stranded

I am really digging the Fair Isle. Digging it with two shovels, as a good friend would say. It has not always been fun, nor has it always been pretty, but it is rewarding.

Without sounding TOO self-confident, because as we see from the Olympic Goddess herself, Stephanie, anything can happen, I do feel that I will achieve the coveted gold medal in these Olympic games.

After this and Rogue, I am going to try to get away from deadline-knitting. Too much pressure. No more knitalongs for a while, unless of course someone decides to do a knitalong for the new Socks that Rock sock club, just the good old, reliable self-imposed deadlines that I struggle enough with.

No Jaywalker Love

Well, the high instep strike again. The second-try enlarged-cuffs on my toe-up jaywalkers STILL don't fit me. Can't get the cuff over my heel. What a bummer. Are my feet really shaped that much differently from normal? I'm just a ribbed sock kinda gal it seems. They're striping nicely now at least. I'm not redoing the whole cuff a third time, as it is all done now except for the ribbing. I will just find someone who wears about an 8 or 8.5 and share the prickly pear goodness. A very nice gift I will squirrel away for someone with the right shoe size.

The Traveling Fair Isle Olympian

Surprisingly enough, I did not get as much knitting done this past weekend in Montana as I had hoped. I still believe I will win my gold medal for the Olympics, or at the very least make it on the podium, but thought I would have accomplished more than I did. I always forget how much gabbing there is when I see my folks; how much talking mom and I can do when face-to-face.

S and I climbed aboard the Amtrak Empire Builder in Portland at around 4:45 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a beautiful day here in the Rose City, and the train really tooled along for, oh, about 15 minutes. Then we hit our first delay - stuck on a railroad bridge crossing the Willamette for a half hour or so. It was still quite light outside, so we contented ourselves with drinking in the surrounding scenery and the feeling of un-movement that being on a train on a bridge inspires. We saw all manner of transportation from that bridge: planes, trains, automobiles, ships, barges, and many flocks of birds. The sky was blue, the sun was shining; all in all a gorgeous Wednesday. Having a shortened week made for a frantic day, so sitting together in the sunshine, holding hands, having no responsibilities, no real worries, eating a pic-nic-y snack that S had packed was really special. The trip itself was pretty great, although I don't think Amtrak EVER runs on time. Just the nature of the beast, I suppose.

What a way to travel! You actually have room on a train - leg room, head room, walk-around-and-get-off-your-ass room. There weren't even that many other passengers, which meant we each had our own double-seat to sleep when the mood struck us. (It seemed to strike S with a lot more force than it struck me; I can't sleep much in a space like that, so I end up staring at him with just a touch of malice, wondering if I should pinch him, hoping he, too, will wake up from the discomfort. He doesn't. Not unless I wake him. The bastard).

We ended up being about 2 1/2 hours late into Libby, which meant my parents sat in their truck from 5:30 am - 8:00 am, waiting for us. Because, you see, in the mountains, on the train route, cell phone coverage is spotty at best. We had a yummy greasy breakfast, and headed to the Lincoln County Courthouse to get our marriage license. We drove back to mom and dad's home base, and began visiting and figuring. Distance in Montana is different than distance in other places; the trip to the train depot was an hour and a half; getting to town from mom and dad's takes at least a half hour; going into the surrounding towns we needed to hit to meet with potential wedding vendors takes anywhere between one and a half and two hours. We accomplished a lot of wedding stuff; it was great. Made it a lot more real for both of us, too. We tasted cake; we met with photographers, both good and bad; we walked my parents property and figured out most of the ceremony and reception logistics; we drove all around the greater Eureka-Whitefish-Kalispell area. Mom and I talked so much, I am suprised we have anything left to say to each other (we do - we just proved it when she called me Tuesday morning AND Tuesday night). We hung out with their friends, one of whom is none other than Knitting Iris, the lovely and talented Siri. She and her fam came for dinner, and we ate an Asian-inspired feast. Mom, Siri, and I knitted, talked knitting, and knitted some more. Her Flower Basket Shawl is going to be lovely; it is the most amazing shade of green.

Mom and I also casted on for her toe-up socks in STR Scottish Highlands. We each did a toe, and last night, she put both toes on some Inox circulars - her second pair of socks, and she is doing two-at-once, toe-up, on two circular needles. She ain't scared of anything - she is quite a woman. We purchased the needles at the Woolery Mammoth, a new yarn store in downtown Eureka, Montana, of all places. I HAD to support such an exciting endeavor, so I bought the Opinionated Knitter and some double-pointed needles. The Opinionated Knitter, in this humble knitter's opinion, is super-fly, and all knitters should get it.

On to the Olympic knitting round-up: I began the Fair Isle last night, while watching the speed-skating race. Just one pattern repeat done on each sock, but, ooh, doggy, it is awesome! I had been reading a Philip Margolin book that my parents loaned me (mistake - I should have known better than to start something I knew I wouldn't be able to put down), and finished it, so I am going to renew my Olympic efforts and knit, knit, knit on.


A close-up of Goldfinger, with fair isle
A close-up of both socks with the first (very simple) fair isle pattern

And these are the colors that are in the running to be tag-alongs for the rest of the Fair Isle. All odds and ends from socks finished, NK gave me the idea to use 'em up:


That is all this knitter can write right now. Hope Olympic Knitting is going well for all atheletes out there, and remember, the only person you are competing against is yourself!

(Oh, and, yes, E and I realize that there has been no mention of Rogue for quite a while - we still heart her, but haven't really felt like hanging out with her lately. We both have our needles all ready to cast on some sleeves, but are biding our time. Don't judge us).