With The Help Of Pets

I think the four-legged members of this family like having invalids around.

And just because this is still a knitting blog, here’s a photo of my latest socks in action.

But first, here’s what’s going on at our house this week. My sweetie, John, had surgery on both of his feet earlier this week. We planned this for a week that I had off, so I could wait on him hand and foot, or foot and foot, in this case. Here’s what he looked like the evening after surgery.

Those are icepacks on his feet, and would you just look at those fashionable shoes! He’s doing pretty well, all things considered. Here’s Lewey, consoling him.

In between running errands and fetching things, I have gotten some knitting done. I have three projects actively going right at the moment. First up is the new sock.

The yarn is from Three Irish Girls, from their Sock Yarnista monthly sock club. This is my first club shipment, and I am more than pleased. It’s very squishy, lovely yarn, and Sharon sent a coordinating contrast color for heels and toes if you’re one of those people, like me, who won’t use the included pattern. The club is a monthly offering, and has either a variegated colorway or a semi-solid, and you can choose on a monthly basis which one you want. The pattern this month is a lovely cabled sock that will look much better in the semisolid yarn, so I’m substituting, you guessed it, my favorite sock pattern over there to your right in the menu bar. I’ve decided to use the darker yarn for the tops, heels, and toes, just for a change.

And the needles, you ask? Those are my latest acquisition, sterling double points from Celtic Swan Forge. It’s hard to get a decent photo of them, but here’s an attempt.

These are just fabulous. They are not for everyone, I’d guess, though. They have a rather blunt tip, for one thing, which doesn’t bother me in the least, but some people might hate them. If you insist on a sharply pointed dpn, these are not your needles. They are also substantially heavier than any other double points I’ve used. They are also very expensive, so you have to really want them. And I really wanted them, so I got them. If you have a special occasion coming up, and need to give your significant other a gift idea for you, this might be it.

Next time: Whatever happened to that Cobblestone thing? Stay tuned to find out!

OK. This is very embarrassing. I joined the Summer of Socks over on Ravelry at the beginning of summer. The whole point was to see how many pairs of socks you can knit during the summer. While I knew I wouldn’t win by a long shot, I had high hopes of at least not humiliating myself publicly. Oh well. Here they are, my first, and likely only, completed socks of the summer.

Project Details:

Yarn: Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn, color number 637A. The name is Wartende Häuser, or “Waiting House”.

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony dpns, size 2.25mm.

Pattern: Um, the same old sock pattern. Look over there to the right in the menu bar, you’ll find it.

Started: June 24th, 2008

Finished: August 26th, 2008

For: Me

What I learned: Opal is still one of my favorite sock yarns. It’s not as soft and squishy as some of the new kids on the block, but it is just a fabulous yarn. I also learned to let my matchy-matchy tendencies go on this one. The color repeat is really a long one for this colorway, so I’d have had to pull out close to a quarter of a sock’s worth of yarn in order to start the second sock at exactly the same place. I just decided to make them different. I like ‘em!

Oh, and those socks are actually the same length, they just don’t look like it.

I also learned about the German artist, Friedensreich Regentag Dunkebunt Hundertwasser, who was the inspiration for this line of yarn. Check out my previous post for details. Here’s that photo again that inspired this color:

Next time, a Project Roundup! And while you’re at it, go vote in today’s Hunk contest. Rickman is having a hard time of it, again. These young whippersnappers seem to think they are going to take the title away from him.

Just a quick post to let you all know that the Knitting Hunk contest is going on over here at Kim’s place. We’re already into round 2, and last year’s winner, Alan Rickman, really needs your vote. While you’re there, vote for Patrick Stewart in the second contest for today. I didn’t nominate him, but I wish I’d have thought of it after seeing today’s photo. This should provide entertainment for the next few weeks, so even if you don’t care, go check out the eye candy.

A real knitting update tomorrow, I promise!

Project Details:

Yarn: Alpaca With A Twist Fino, 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk, 1 hank, 100grams, 875 yards. And I used all but 1.2 grams of the hank.

Pattern: I put this together using Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles book. It’s 16 repeats of the Medallion pattern, then 3 repeats of the Ripple pattern, then the edging. The Whitewater name came from our river raft trip in June of this year. I knit part of the shawl on that trip.

Needles: Holz & Stein ebony circulars, size 3.25mm.

Started: February 2008. I took a class from Evelyn Clark using her triangular lace shawl techniques at the Madrona fiber festival in Tacoma. As I was working on the Langsjal Jóhönnu shawl at the time, this sat in hibernation until April.

Finished: August 1, 2008.

For: ?? Maybe me, maybe a gift. Who knows.

Modifications: Well, it’s all a modification, really. I didn’t deviate from Ms. Clark’s plan, though, except for leaving off one plain row at the end. I was running out of yarn, and just left it out.

What I learned: The cast on used in this book is rather clever. Basically, you provisionally cast on 2 stitches and knit a little 2-stitch garter strip for several rows, then pick up stitches on one long side, then those first 2 stitches. This gives you a garter “tab” that flows better into the top border.

I also learned a lot about how triangular lace shawls are constructed. Ms. Clark’s book makes the whole process very simple, and takes all the guess work out of it. The book has a lot of instructional material, then pattern charts (also written out, for you chart-o-phobic types) for four different laces. There are instructions on how to knit the transition sections between one lace type and the next, then one edging stitch chart. You basically pick which laces you want in your shawl, decide the order and how many repeats, then put in the appropriate transitions to make it work. This works whether you are making a small neck scarf or a ginormous shawl.

The book is by no means comprehensive as far as lace shawl construction. I would have liked to see more information on how to take this method and run with it. She doesn’t really explain the process of taking stitch patterns with varying stitch counts and making them work together. I think that after one or two of these shawls, you’d get tired of the four stitch patterns and want to branch out. I love the finished project though. And the yarn is divine. It has enough silk to really glow, and the alpaca has just a bit of a halo.

And a few more photos, because it’s my blog, and I don’t finish something every day:

Before I get to that, it’s 56 degrees here today. In August. Our furnace came on this morning and John looked at me suspiciously and asked, “did you turn that on?”

No dear, it’s just fracking cold here.

The lace is done, ends woven in, and it went for a swim this morning. As I’ve said before, I believe in full-immersion blocking. Besides, this one went down the Green River and the Colorado River, and needed a bath.

I use Kookaburra wool wash, and soaked this for about half an hour, then rinsed. I’ve used both the regular and the delicate versions of this product, and really can’t tell much difference.

Ready for the pinning ceremony:

I used a combination of blocking wires for the straight top edge, and pins for the side points.

Yes, that’s a lot of pins. It would be even more ridiculous without the wires on the top edge.

I’m going to find a wool sweater to wear. Project details and the requisite artsy photo when it’s dry.

Cast off is done. 1.2 grams of yarn left. While it’s conceivable that I could have done that one more row, I doubt it. This way I’ll have a little left over for repairs should I need them.

Lewey says, “I told you so.”

It’s off to the blocking station. Project details next time!

2.1 grams left, but the plan has changed. At our last post, I had one plain row, then the bind off row, and 3.1 grams of yarn left. In an uncharacteristic turn of events, I actually stopped to think before I did that plain row. I generally do a very loose cast off for lace, which chews up way more yarn than the usual “knit 2, pull the first stitch over the second stitch” cast off. I decided to skip the last plain row, and just wade into the binding off part a row early.

Here’s the bind off I’m using: Knit 2, put your left needle through the front legs of those two stitches, and then knit them together through the back loops. Knit 1, repeat, loosely. It makes a nice stretchy bind off for lace.

So I’m half way through the bind off row, and have 2.1 grams left. The
last row had 565 stitches, by the way. I should have about a gram left
at the end, which would have been short if I’d knit one more row.

Lewey says, “I knew that, if you’d asked me.” Or maybe he’s saying that it’s time for supper.

*See the previous several posts to find out what the heck I’m talking about.

3.1 grams left. 1 row to go, then bind off. Will I make it??

Lewey’s unconcerned. Or bored, it’s hard to tell with Corgis.

4.0 grams left, 2 rows to go, then the bind off. It’s going to be very, very close.

The suspense is killing Lewey.