Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

Knitting on the Edge

Once again, it’s been awhile. Happy August! Just so I can bitch about it publicly, the temperature has gotten up to a steamy 61 degrees here today, and it’s raining, again. Where the hell is summer?

Actually, we have had a little summer weather, but only in bits and pieces. We had friends over a couple weekends ago for beach fun and barbecue, and to try out our latest toy.

Meanwhile, John managed to convince Riley that riding in the canoe is a good thing.

And after a tough workout on the water, a nice hearty dinner of barbecued ribs and all the fixings.

A closeup of the ribs:

Yum, they were really good. I bought John a smoker a couple years ago, and thanks to his southern heritage, he makes the best barbecue in the west!

Now, on to knitting. The title of this post has nothing to do with the knitting book by the same name. I’ve finally finished the body of the Whitewater alpaca silk shawl, and am about half way through the edging rows. I may or may not have enough yarn to finish.

6.5 grams. That’s how much yarn I have left, with half of the edging to go. I love the excitement of knitting, let me tell you. Fortunately, I placed a lifeline many rows back, after the second to the last repeat of the main shawl body. If I don’t have enough to bind off, I can always rip back to the lifeline, then knit the edging and have lots leftover. Where’s the fun in that, I ask?

Stay tuned next time to see how it all works out. Any guesses as to how much yarn I’ll have left?

Oh yes. The Elizabeth Zimmerman book in that photo has nothing to do with the shawl. I’m still working on that damned Cobblestone sweater that I’ve had on the needles for years (not really years, but it seems like it). I’m doing yet another bit of jerry-rigging of the pattern. I’ll tell you about that later, too.

Sock Pattern! Free!

Ok, this is really a knitting update of sorts, but first, there is a free pattern over there to your right, in the sidebar. It’s Lorette’s Wordy Generic Sock Pattern, now new and improved! This is just my cobbled together pattern that I’ve put together over the years. It has instructions for both a picot top and plain ribbing. I just put it up today, and hopefully it is relatively error free. It’s just a plain vanilla sock, so don’t expect anything fancy.

Now for the update.

Here’s one of those Generic Socks. I haven’t gotten much done on this since my last post, but I am done with the gusset decreases on the first sock. I still love this yarn. It’s endlessly amusing to me to see what color comes next. For the curious who want to know, the end of the first repeat in the color sequence was just in the middle of the heel flap. I have no idea if I’ll be able to match the second sock exactly or not. Oh, the suspense!

Next up is my alpaca lace shawl. Here’s where I am:

I did end up taking this with me on our Utah trip, though I didn’t take it on the second leg of the trip down the Colorado. I had dropped a bunch of stitches before we went on the trip, and finally got the whole thing straightened out and back on the needles. I pulled it out one night sitting around the campfire, and did exactly the same thing, dropping about 15 or 20 stitches off the needles, then spent the next two nights before dark getting it fixed yet again. For the record, the first time I did this, I just frogged back about 20 rows to my last lifeline. Getting those stitches back on the needle, even with a lifeline, was sort of a bitch, to say the least. The second time, I decided not to frog. I just got as many of the dropped loose stitches back onto a spare needle as I could, then patiently tinked back row by row, until I got to a section where I had everything back on the working needle with a correct stitch count. It was actually less painful than ripping all those rows again.

For those of you not following this saga, this is made using Evelyn Clark’s book, Knitting Lace Triangles. I did the whole first section with the Medallion stitch pattern, and have just switched to the Ripple pattern for the next section. This is a 20-row repeat, and I think I’ll do 2 or 3 repeats, then the edging, then it’s done.

And the shawl finally has a name: Whitewater Shawl. Of course, it was obvious, once it came to me. I’ve decided that the Ripple section represents the flatter sections of water, I think the Medallion part looks like the rapids. There isn’t anything in the pattern that represents me nearly drowning in Cataract Canyon, but you can’t have everything.

Hundertwassers

After looking at my new sock yarn, John asked me where the name “Hundertwassers” came from. I didn’t really know, and did a bit of research. Here’s what I found.

Opal designed this line based on some of the artwork of Friedensreich Regentag Dunkebunt Hundertwasser (not his real name, check out this article for the derivation of his name). He was an architect, painter, philosopher, and a free spirit. Several of his paintings, with bright, abstract colors, were used as the inspiration of the Opal Hundertwassers Werk line of sock yarn. Read the Wikipedia article for more info on the man and his work. Here are a couple of examples of his architecture:

That one is the interior of a women’s toilet in a public restroom.

I was wrong, my Opal sock yarn does have a name, not just a number. It’s “Wartende Häuser” which translates as “waiting house”.

Here’s a photo of the painting that inspired this particular colorway.

And my sock:

In case you need some of this, Webs has several of these colorways left in stock. Little Knits has some that are deeply discounted, but only a very few.

And don’t forget Claudia’s MS ride tomorrow. There’s still time to donate, but NOT MUCH! Get over there now! There are great prizes, but more importantly, lots of money to raise for a good cause.

Opal

I know you’ve all been in suspense since my last post, waiting to see what I would pick out of that immense pile of sock yarn for my next pair of socks. I have to admit, it would be easier if I only had four or five hanks of yarn to choose from. In the end, I just randomly picked a color that appealed to me, in a brand I haven’t knit with for awhile.

Claudia described my sock yarn stash as “biggish”, which I think was a bit of an understatement. Laurie asked how many there are. 162. There is enough yarn there for 162 pairs of socks. I’ll let that sink in a bit.

OK, here’s what I picked.

Opal Hundertwassers, color 1434. I just love the creative names these guys give their colorways. And I love Opal sock yarn. It’s not the “squooshiest” sock yarn out there, and is a bit finer than some, but it is well-made, not splitty, and wears like iron. And the colors are fabulous. This is the kind of stuff you keep knitting just to see what comes next.

Pretty, eh?

In case you’ve been napping, Claudia is doing her MS Ride this weekend, and there is still time to donate to the cause. There are lots of swell prizes to win, so get over there and empty out your wallet. Last year, knitters donated enough to win Claudia’s team the right to wear the #1 jersey this year. What are you waiting for? Go!

I’m off to see what comes after that orange band.

Finished!

Since the Summer of Socks 2008 started 3 days ago, you might think I’d have started a sock for the knit-along by now. The rules say that to qualify, socks have to be started on or after the beginning of summer. Well, I already had a half done pair on the needles, and thought briefly about starting a second pair and setting those aside for later. Instead, I lined up a bunch of Tivo’d JAG reruns last night, and did a sock marathon, finishing the Three Irish Girl socks I had going. Here they are:

Project Details:

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn, color Eire. Boy, do I love this yarn. It’s nicely spun, and the colors are fabulous. I like it so well that I joined their Yarnista sock yarn club.

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony dpns, size 2.25mm.

For: Me

Started: May 19th, 2008

Finished: June 24th, 2008

Pattern: Standard 68 stitch stockinette sock, with picot tops and standard heel flap and gusset. The usual.

What I learned: This yarn is my new favorite. It plays very nicely in the yarn box. And I learned that I can knit a whole sock foot (women’s size 10 1/2, thank you!) in an evening of mindless JAG reruns.

I’m off to cast on the first pair of SOS ’08 socks. I have to choose the yarn first, not so easy, given the multitude of choices I have available. I posted these photos on the Ravelry SOS group, and I’ll post them here as well. This is my three box-loads of sock yarn. How many seasons of JAG were there, anyway? I clearly need to knit faster.

Stay tuned next time to see what I pick!

River, Part 2

Ok, I was going to start with a list of excuses for why I haven’t posted since the last time, but you’ve heard them all, really. So I’ll just jump in with the story of the Great River Trip 2008. I’m going to put a bunch of pictures up here, but will link at the end to the whole photo album, for anybody with a lot of patience.

Now that the bruises have healed (more on that later), and the terror has faded (ditto), this stands out as one of my favorite vacations ever. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, which probably brands me as an insane person. Really, it was fun, I promise.

Here’s the rundown. We flew to Salt Lake City, rented a car, and drove to Vernal. I hope none of my readers are from Vernal, but if you are, I don’t mean to insult you. The people in Vernal were lovely, but the town is really dismal. It’s an oil boom town run amok, with little to recommend it to tourists. We had an extra day there due to some trip rescheduling, and drove up to Flaming Gorge, which was gorgeous. Fossils and rocks and desert, oh my. The geology in this part of the trip was amazing. One of the highlights was going to the dinosaur museum in Vernal. Here’s a photo:

I think she wanted to knit. Maybe if they’d had handknit socks, they wouldn’t have become extinct.

We put in on the Green River for the first leg of the trip through the Gates of Ladore. This was a 4-day, 3-night trip, with the raft company Oars. Both companies that we floated with were outstanding, by the way. I’d go with either of them again without any hesitation. Here are just a few photos.

The second leg of the trip was on the Colorado River south of Moab, through Cataract Canyon. This trip was with Sheri Griffith, another excellent long-term rafting company. The Colorado was at nearly all-time high water levels the week we were there. The first two days were nearly flat water through some spectacular red sandstone cliffs, with hikes every day. The rapids came later in the trip, and we ended up flipping a raft through a set of rapids known as the Big Drops on day 4. The six of us on our raft managed to stay with the upside down boat through the rest of the rapids, and the guides got us to the river bank and rescued us. The raft we were on was an 18 foot raft, with huge oars that you can see in some of those photos up there. I got banged around pretty good by the oar and the water, and had bruises to prove it. We were in wet suits, but I can tell you that the cold water was the last thing I was thinking about. Just to give you an idea of the force of the water, two of the guys on our boat were wearing swim trunks over their wet suits, and they were torn completely off in the water.

The boat that was behind us had a camera mounted on the deck, and is rumored to have a good video of our flip, but we don’t have it yet. Here’s something similar to what we did, in about the spot we went over. (If the link doesn’t work, right click it, and choose “watch on youtube”.)

Yeah, it was about that much fun.

Here are just a few more photos from the Cataract Canyon trip.

That’s Jose, our guide, and one of the owners of the company. Jose knows just about everything about river rafting, and a good deal more. After I brought out the knitting, he told me about the yarn shop back in Moab, and that they have a group that meets once a week to knit. We had to catch an airplane home, so never made it there to check his story, but next time.

That’s me explaining the basics of sock knitting to the boys.

Here we are, after the big flip, sharing war stories over cocktails.

And at baggage check-in at the Lake Powell International Airport:

Our rides back to Moab:

Here’s the link to the full photo albums, if you have nothing better to do. Next time there will be knitting updates!

Gates of Ladore

Cataract Canyon

The River

No, that’s not the name of my new shawl. It’s still “that cream lace shawl”. Although last night there were a few expletives interspersed in the name. I came to a mistake, and in the process of trying to fix it (gin & tonic-driven, I’ll readily admit), I dropped a couple of stitches. They rapidly unravelled across about a two inch segment, down about 4 rows. Fortunately, I had a lifeline installed. Unfortunately, the lifeline was 20 rows back.

I’ll stop and let that soak in. There are about 300 stitches on the needles. 300 times 20 rows. You figure it out. I didn’t bother to stop and take photos, but spent about 2 hours last night getting the mess back on the needles. I haven’t checked it tonight to make sure that the stitch count is OK. It’s in time out for a couple weeks.

Which brings me to The River. Tomorrow we leave for a little river trip. We’re doing two back-to-back river raft float trips. The first segment is on the Green River in northern Utah, through the Gates of Ladore, a four day raft trip. Then we drive to Moab, Utah, and do the second segment, a 5 day trip down the Colorado through Cataract Canyon. 9 days in a tent, with “no phone, no lights, no motorcar, not a single luxury”*. It sounds like heaven to me. And I will admit that in my yarny nerdiness, that I packed the sock yarn first. We’re limited on baggage weight on the flight back off the river to Moab at the end, so I’m just taking sock projects.

Speaking of which, here’s the latest sock photo. I’m still loving this yarn.

I’m off to pack. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks!

*Extra credit for knowing the source of that quote…

Amaranth Socks

As promised last time, I have a finished project to show you. Here are the mismatched, not-quite identical Amaranth socks.

If they look a little dilapidated, it’s because I couldn’t wait to wear them before I took photos!

Project Details:

Pattern: My own generic sock pattern. I started these with 64 stitches around, which was too small, then ripped and started over with 72 on the second go around, for some reason that escapes me. I had knit to the heel before I decided that they were too big. I was not about to rip them out again, so just decreased a bit extra in the gussets and ended up with 68 stitches for the foot. For the record, 68 stitches with this yarn is perfect.

Yarn: Madeline Tosh sock yarn, in Amaranth. This is just lovely yarn, in lovely colors. It’s 100% superwash merino wool. It has a very nice “hand” once it’s made up.

Needles: Size 2.25 mm Pony Pearls. Yes, I’m still old-fashioned and use dpns for socks. I could have gone down a needle size with this yarn and still had an acceptable fabric, but this was OK.

Started: November 2007. Really. I’m not that slow of a sock knitter, I just keep getting sidetracked.

Finished: Last week.

For: Me

Modifications: I’ll ask it again, how do you define “modify” when it’s your own jerry-rigged pattern? This one has 2 by 2 ribbing, and a standard heel flap and gusset. Nothing fancy.

What I learned: I’m still a plain-sock girl. And yarn can do weird things when you’re not looking. This yarn came in a single hank, and I don’t think there were any knots. The two socks are knit the same, with the same needles, and the gauge is the same. But look at them. They are just doing that not-matching thing to try to bug me.

And I’m already a good ways into the next sock. Remember that Three Irish Girls yarn I talked about several posts back? Some of the stuff I broke the yarn fast for? It came, I wound, I knitted. It is just indescribably lovely. I want this in every color.

This is their Adorn Sock Yarn, the  color is Eire, and I’m knitting them on my latest needle purchase, the Knit Picks Harmony dpns. These are very nice, and much less expensive than comparable wooden double points. I have a set of Lantern Moons, but I’m mostly afraid to use them for fear of breakage. This yarn is just so squooshy soft and wonderful that it almost knits itself!

I also have another gadget that I got a while ago, but haven’t posted a photo. This is a handmade tin needle protector, which might make me a little less fearful of using those nice needles. Just slip it over your needles with the sock in progress, put the cap on, and toss it in your bag!

Here’s where I got mine, though the home page of the online order site says it’s not working. There’s a contact email on that page, just email Jen and she’ll set you up.

And just to prove that I’m still working on that alpaca silk lace shawl, here’s a photo.

Even though it might not look much different than before, here’s a photo that proves it is indeed bigger.

That used to be 100 grams of yarn, I’m down to 61.6 grams. And I now have around 300 stitches on the needle.

I really need to call this one something better than “that alpaca silk lace shawl”. It’s getting made up using Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles book. I’m going to do a few more repeats of the vaguely flower-like motif, then add a ripple border, then a pointy edging. I know, it all sounds quite technical, doesn’t it? Any ideas for a clever shawl name?

Tagged!

Lee Ann tagged me for this one. I was pretty sure I’d done this one before, but I couldn’t find it, so here goes. I’ve mixed text and photos this time around. This is just mostly random stuff from the past week.

The Seven Random Things About Me Meme!!

But first, the rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving comments on their blogs.

I’m not tagging anybody for this. You’re all on your own. If you do decide to do this, let me know, I’d love to stop by for a visit to see your randomness.

1. I love spring and all the spring produce at the farmers’ market. Every spring I find some new vegetable that I’ve never heard of.

2. This spring it was flowering kale.

I clean it, saute some green garlic (or regular garlic), add the kale, stir for a moment, then add a bit of chicken stock, cover, and steam for a few minutes. When it’s time to eat, I put a splash of balsamic vinegar in it, with salt and pepper. I cook most of our greens this way, though sometimes I use raspberry vinegar for excitement.

3. I love halibut. I would have a very difficult time living anywhere but where I do, as we can get good quality fresh fish routinely. One of the vendors at the farmers’ market sells fresh fish, and while it’s not cheap, it’s a regular menu item around here.

This was the rest of the meal that went with the kale. There’s grilled halibut with a splash of homemade pesto, and risotto cakes. We make those with leftover risotto. You just form it into cakes and saute in olive oil until they are crispy on the outside and heated through.

4. We sometimes eat in front of the television, but mostly eat dinner together at the table, with the good dishes and candlelight. It’s a nice little ritual at the end of the day.

Here’s that risotto in its first life:

John made it with chopped sorrel, and it was served with fresh scallops, sauteed chard, and asparagus, all from the farmers’ market.

5. Another random fact:

We love a good bottle of wine around here. That is Yorkville Cellars Semillion, one of our favorite summer white wines.

6. I have some wacky stuff in my house. Here’s one of them:

Salt chickens! We love using good sea salt at the table, but the flakes don’t work in a shaker, and I just think this is more pleasing than a salt grinder.

7. Last but not least, my pencil collection. Yes, I’m a pencil geek. I even belong to a pencil-of-the-month club. Don’t laugh, I’m not making this up. Here it is. And here’s mine.

Oh wait, that’s not quite all of it. I don’t collect anything halfway. In my defense, I do actually use my pencils, though it looks as though the life expectancy of my pencil stash rivals mine. You might note that I collect erasers and sharpeners, too.

By the way, I’m not the only pencil loon out there. Here’s a blog that’s in my blog lineup as a daily read. And I actually got a proposal of marriage last week from another geek who is coveting my pencils. I think she just wants me for my office supplies, though.

Next time, perhaps a finished project!

Good Causes

This YouTube video made our local paper this morning. This was caught by a DOT camera as the police officer in the video stopped traffic for a family of baby ducks on one of our busy freeways during the morning commute. You just have to love a guy like this.

Cathy-Cate of Hither & Yarn is having a contest to celebrate her 1-year blogiversary. She’s giving away lots of free stuff if you enter, but for a good cause. You can enter the contest by donating to one of three charitable organizations, Doctors Without Borders, Knitters For Knockers, and The House That Yarn Built. Any one of those (or all of them!) would be a good choice, so get over there, send her an email, and help out one or more very worthy causes.

We’re off to the farmers’ market later this morning to check out the bounty. I’ll take the camera along so you all can see what’s for dinner!

Oops…

On Saturday I pulled out one of my favorite pairs of hand knit socks to wear, and discovered this:

I don’t usually get holes in the toes of my socks, but I think my aging pedicure was to blame this time. After rummaging around in my office, I found the ball of leftover yarn that goes with this sock. Here’s a link to the finished socks, if you want to see what they looked like brand new.

Fixing the toe was relatively easy. I just cut off the end of the sock with the hole, got it back on needles, and reknit it. It took less time than getting a new pedicure.

After I finished the toe, I inspected the rest of both socks, and found some perilously thin heels (the photo above), so I got out the darning needle and duplicate stitched over both of them. My duplicate stitching probably wouldn’t win any ribbons at the state fair, but it will hopefully give this pair a little longer lifespan.

And this is all the yarn I have left, so the next time this pair gets a hole, it’s history.

This past week was a bit busy, which might explain the lack of knitting and posting around here. My weekend was spent at a Catholic women’s retreat here. There were approximately thirty women at the retreat, and we stayed from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. It was a wonderful experience, and I would highly recommend it to any of you looking for something similar.

Here’s a photo of the view from the main conference room at the center:

I’m amazed that any of us could concentrate on anything but that view. I didn’t get much knitting done while I was there, but I did find a couple of other knitters to hang out with Saturday evening. I just might possibly even have some progress photos the next time I post. Though I suppose fixing socks is progress of sorts.

Last but not least, I was interviewed recently for WhoKnits online magazine. Go here to read the interview! New link via the Wayback Machine!

Project Update

I’ve come up with a new way to handle all my yarn stash. I created an Access database file a long time ago, before I got a Mac, but there is no good Mac equivalent of that software that is cheap and easy to use. I finally found one, and if you’re a Mac user, you might want to check out Bento. I was able to import the old Access file info, then I just had to update the thing, and add all the tons of new yarn I’ve added to the stash in the last year and a half since I got my Mac. I just love this software; it’s so easy that you don’t need any database experience to figure it out, and at $49, it meets the criteria of cheap. They have a downloadable demo so you can try it out. The only catch is that you must have the Leopard operating system installed on your Mac to use it.

The really nice part of all this organization is that I have one database field for yarn location, so I can figure out where something is without tearing apart the whole yarn closet to find what I’m looking for. I can sort by any field, which means that if I have a pattern for a lace shawl that uses 1200 yards of laceweight, I can figure out what I have in the stash that works. I also did a little reorganization this past week, as the various box contents are a bit random, and are in order of yarn vintage as much as anything else. I now have all the sock yarns in one place, and all the lace yarn in another place. And I’ve decided to start my own sock of the month club. Every time I get the urge to yarn shop, I’m just turning around and opening a box, and pulling something out that catches my eye. I brought all the sock yarn upstairs to sit right behind me, so I’m not tempted to buy any more.

Hey, it could work.

Here are the various current projects.

I’m not taking a photo of Cobblestone. I’ve done exactly two rows on it in the last two weeks. I need to line up some good movies and just sit down and work on this one.

Here’s my new lace project.

This is going to be a triangular lace shawl, using the Evelyn Clark Knitting Lace Triangles book. So far I think I’m going to use this particular motif for the whole body of the shawl, with a ripple pattern for the border, then an edging. Her book is simple, but brilliant.

The yarn is Alpaca With A Twist Fino, in cream. It’s an alpaca/silk blend, and is just heavenly soft, and whisper light.

Next up is the current sock. This is the Madeline Tosh yarn, in Amaranth. I’ve finished one, and near the heel on the second.

Notice anything odd about those stripes? Here’s a better photo to show you:

What the bloody hell? Yes, I’ve counted and measured. I have the same number of stitches on the needles, the same gauge, and the same size needles. Now I could understand this if this yarn came in smaller skeins, with one separate skein for each sock. But this was one skein, which I split in half to make things easier in trying to calculate how long I could make the cuff. These socks aren’t fraternal; I’m not even sure they’re related. For what it’s worth, I’m liking the second sock better.

Last but not least, I’ve resurrected the Sock Hop yarn from last fall. Remember the ball of sock yarn that I apparently misplaced somewhere between here and Idaho? I finally unravelled the first sock, figuring that after all this time, if I haven’t found the yarn, it’s lost forever.  Here’s its new incarnation:

That’s going to be a jaunty little beret. The pattern calls for one skein of Koigu, so I figure this should be enough. So far, I’m loving the way this yarn stripes.

And finally, my gadget of the week photo. I saw these on a couple of other blogs, and had to get one (of course!).

This is a knitting abacus bracelet, by Hide and Sheep. I figured this might be one of those gadgets that looks nice but never gets used. Not so. I really like the simplicity of how this works, and it’s much prettier than my office supply store clicker counter. I also got some of the stitch markers, which are lovely as well. They make a wide variety of marker styles, including markers for crocheters. Check it out!