I had a little interlude from knitting yesterday after I found this post by Theresa from Knitting Underway. She has a series of posts about darning socks, and why you might want to do this. There is a “Part 1” and a “Part 3” as well, so check them all out.
I just happened to have a pair of holey socks in the basket by my sink in the bathroom, waiting for a decision. These happen to be one of my favorite pair, though they are nothing special. They are plain ribbed socks that were knit out of heavy worsted Peace Fleece, but they are great for wearing around the house, and with Birkenstocks. (Yes, this is considered “fashionable” in the Pacific NW, if not anywhere else in the world.)
Several weeks ago I noticed a big hole in one heel, and the other heel was on the way out as well, so I tossed them in the basket. I’m fairly brutal on my socks, both handknit and otherwise, as I hardly ever wear shoes in the house. To darn, or not to darn? I am not much for sewing, and was mostly tempted to toss them in the trash. Then I found Theresa’s posts, and she inspired me to give darning a try.
Here are the socks pre-darning:
Sad, eh?
First I gathered my tools. Yes, I have a darning egg, doesn’t everybody? And I went rummaging in the boxes in the yarn closet and found the leftovers of the Peace Fleece yarn. I knew there was a reason that I never throw anything away.
Then I made myself a cup of tea, because I can’t imagine Great-Great-Grandmother darning her socks without a cup of tea. That, and it was too early in the day for a glass of wine.
Notice the Cinnamon Graham Cracker from Trader Joe’s. Best partner for a cup of tea that I’ve ever found.
Here’s how it starts:
Now go back over and visit Theresa and follow her instructions, and check out her links. I didn’t take pictures while I was actually darning, but it looked like a real mess while it was in progress. Apparently that’s how it’s supposed to look.
Here’s the finished socks. I did a combination of duplicate stitch and weaving on the one with the big hole, and duplicate stitched over the bare one.
And there they are, good for another couple of years!
I cast on for the second sock late last night, so I’m ready for the Yankee’s game today, assuming it quits raining. And yes, I was the only person knitting in the line waiting for a table at the Carnegie Deli.
And yes, Sweet Pea is enjoying NYC very much, thank you.
The second one will be started as soon as I get this posted. And it’s a good thing, too, considering what came in my mail today.
I couldn’t resist joining the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club. If you haven’t received your first box of goodies, and don’t want the surprise spoiled, look away now.
There’s a binder with the first month’s pattern, a bumper sticker, the club pin, and of course the hank of sock yarn. The color is Rainforest Jasper, and included is a tiny little hank of yarn on a keyring, labelled Emergency Sock Yarn.
I will NOT cast on for these until I finish the Candy Stripe Socks. Really. I’m going to start that second one right now.
I missed an important anniversary of sorts around here. Last week was the 1-year anniversary of this. I’m happy to say that at one year, the hand is functioning much better than I thought it would. I can do almost everything that I was able to do before the accident. My “disability” consists mostly of not being able to get caps off things (damn those screw-top wine bottles); and heavy-duty wrenches, and the husband, takes care of those for me. I think the importance of the anniversary lies in the fact that I’m better enough that I forgot about it.
I’m having a knitting dilemma. I seem to have too many projects going at once. Normally I have one big thing, one sock, and one other…the current configuration seems to be sweater, sock, and lace project. This configuration suits me, and I don’t get too discombobulated by it all. I threw an extra sock into the picture a few weeks ago, for the bluegrass festival, and now I’m a mess. I can’t decide at any given moment which one to pick up and work on. I probably need to just pick up that second sock and get the pair done, then life will be back in balance.
Here’s where things are. I didn’t take another picture of the eggplant sweater, as I haven’t touched it since the last post.
Sock number 1:
I’m in the doldrums on this one, for a couple of reasons. One is that I think that it’s still going to be too tight for me. I’ve never done a two-color sock before, and the gauge is pretty firm, making a smaller sock. The cuff would go around my leg, but I’m not sure that the instep is going to go over my foot. That problem could be overcome, however, by putting these in the gift pile for someone with smaller feet than mine (not hard to find, admittedly). A more worrisome possibility is that I have a sinking feeling that I’m going to run out of the red yarn before the second sock is done. I have two balls of the rainbow, but for some reason only had one of the red. This is a busy enough sock that I’m relatively sure that a different dye lot wouldn’t matter much. I’ll probably finish them, if no other reason than to prove I’m no quitter.
Here’s the second, dither-inducing sock; the one that threw the knitting balance off-kilter:
Maybe I need a knitting challenge. Let’s see how fast Lorette can finish a pair of plain socks, shall we? This is the first of the pair, so I either need another bluegrass festival, a long train ride, or a heap of good movies.
Last, but not least, is the lace project.
This does have a deadline of sorts, though it’s a ways off in the future. This will be a gift for somebody later this year. I’m a little shy of half done with the center part of the scarf, and have memorized the pattern enough that I can do this while watching a movie or talking. The pattern stitch is really only four rows, as the back side is all purl rows. It’s also easy enough to see where you are by just looking at the row before. I could see making another of these someday. It’s an easy project, at least so far. I’ll give you another opinion later when I get to the border section.
Speaking of lace, go look at Eunny’s blog for her “Majoring in Lace” series. She’s done three different installments so far (go back a few posts to find them). This is the best lace “school” I’ve ever seen.
It’s actually prettier than that last picture would indicate. This color is hard to photograph well. Either it’s so dark that you can’t tell it’s a cabled sweater, or it’s washed out from the flash.
I think the size/gauge is going to be correct this time out. And the number of stitches on the needles is correct this version, unlike the first time, before I found out that the pattern was incorrect. I’m sure that there will be some other glitch that I will discover, but only after I’ve knit another eight inches or so.
I got quite a bit done on this the past week, due to a trip to Phoenix to visit my sisters. I have two sisters, one lives there, the other one still lives in North Dakota. We all met in Phoenix for a week of sister activities. The long-standing joke is that if any two of the three of us gets together, the third one has to show up too, or the other two will talk about her. Because of this, we actually see each other rather often. I worked a bit on the two pairs of socks I have in progress, but mostly on the sweater. And I didn’t do any yarn shopping while I was there. There are a couple of yarn shops in the Phoenix area, but my sisters have a low tolerance for hanging out in yarn stores, and I really don’t need any more yarn anyway.
Ack. I can’t believe I just said that. I did buy some yarn online before I left, and it was delivered while I was gone. Here’s a picture, but it just does not do it justice.
It’s laceweight silk, from Hip Knits. I purchased it from a UK shop called Yarnsmith, which quite possibly has the best online service I’ve ever experienced. Good communication, fast shipping, lovely yarn, and a handwritten note in the package; what more could you ask?
And what might I be planning for that lovely pile of ivory silk, you might ask?
This:
This is the Frost Flowers & Leaves Shawl, from A Gathering of Lace. I have a few things to finish up before I start on this one, but I’ve been dying to make this ever since I saw it. When I saw the silk yarn, I knew that it was just what this one needed. I hope it swatches up ok, as I’m not sure exactly what else I’d do with 3600 meters of silk laceweight yarn.
When my sisters and I get together, usually there is a lot of fun and shopping involved. Often it involves wine and bourbon. (OK, it almost always involves wine and bourbon, but we’re getting more responsible as we get older.) One year we each got a second ear piercing done while we were together. This time it was a tattoo*.
Really. Well, only two of us got tattoos, my third sister decided that it just wasn’t “her”. Here’s mine, first, just getting started:
And finished:
Note that I’m smiling in that first picture. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I had thought it might be. I have wanted to do this for a long time, and decided to put the first (!) one where it can be easily covered up, in case I didn’t like it. I love it! The next (!) one might have to be knitting related!
*And no, there were no alcoholic beverages involved in this escapade. Tattoo places insist that you be sober and not under the influence of anything when you sign up for body modification.
I finished a couple more repeats of the cable pattern, then got the bright idea to transfer it to a circular needle to finish it, as it was getting sort of unwieldy on the straights. As long as I had it on a circular needle, I decided to measure it.
Uh-oh.
I found a top that fits nicely, not too big, not too tight, and compared.
Well, damn. I got out my trusty gauge-measurer and found that I was off by half a stitch per inch. Now that doesn’t sound like much, does it? When you multiply that out over the width of the whole garment, this is what you get. It’s about an inch and a half too wide, which means it would be almost three inches too big around in circumference. This is just not the look I was going for with this one.
I contemplated this a bit, then got up, got myself a little fortification, and the camera. As long as I was going to rip the whole damn thing out, I might as well document it for the blog.
Here I am waiting for the fortification to take effect:
I’ve learned after four years of going to Wintergrass that it just isn’t over until the final band has performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, complete with audience participation, and until George (the emcee) says it’s over.
John always gives a big sigh of relief when they play that song. It means he can finally go home and not listen to banjo music for another year. For the record, I don’t make him go to the whole thing. We get two weekend passes, I sit through every note, he drops in and out when he feels like it, using the “I have to go home and feed the dog now” excuse.
Highlights of the last day? Sunday morning is always the bluegrass gospel show, and only the diehard bluegrass fans, or the ones who got some sleep the night before, show up. Everybody else starts drifting in to the pavilion around noon. Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum gave a fine performance, including an impromptu number called “The Vice President Has A Shotgun, and He Can Shoot Whoever He Wants”, that brought down the house. Mountain Heart had the whole pavilion crowd tapping its feet, and Del McCoury did a long set that was pretty good. He’s a little too much “high lonesome” sounding even for my taste, but puts on a good show.
I have 6642 bluegrass songs lined up on Rhapsody to tide me over for the next year. And I already have tickets for the next festival in July, the Adventure Bluegrass Festival in Stevenson, WA. My favorite bluegrass boys will be there; the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. And yes, John knows we’re going. It’s an outdoor festival, so he can take a book, or his Ipod, or wander around the Columbia Gorge area.
There was knitting going on yesterday. I got the heel turned and picked up the gusset stitches, and am on my way down the sock foot.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like that picot edge instead of ribbing, but now that I’ve gotten part of the sock done, it looks pretty cute. I have no high hopes of matching the stripes for the second sock, but I like how they’ve turned out on the first one.
Congratulations to all the Olympic Knitters out there! Whether you finished or not is not the point. There’s been some fine knitting going on, worthy of gold medals all around!
Added Later, Almost as an Afterthought:
I almost forgot, I needed to pick the favorite artist of the festival. I loved Uncle Earl the best. They play oldtime music as well as great bluegrass. Their banjo player, Abigail Washburn, also does many of their vocals, and has her own solo album. She also speaks fluent Mandarin. This may be the first time ever that there have been bluegrass songs sung in Mandarin at Wintergrass. If you like old time music, go buy their group album, She Waits For Night, as well as Washburn’s album. Their fiddler, Rayna Gellert, has a solo album out as well, and that one is a keeper also.
No, it’s not over yet.* Yesterday was all-bluegrass, all-day. And yes, part of it was in a church. One of the downtown Baptist churches loans their building every year as one of the venues for the festival. The sanctuary is a perfect place to play bluegrass; the sound is good, the surroundings are simple and lovely. The performers always like playing that stage, and it always shows.
Highlights? It was one of those great bluegrass days. Uncle Earl again was superb. The John Cowan band did a marvelous performance at the church in the afternoon, and the Wilders and Psychograss were wonderful. This morning is a gospel show at the main pavilion stage, followed by a great lineup of some of the best in bluegrass.
Knitting? Here you go. The Candy Stripe sock:
I discovered that I don’t mind doing heel stitch while bluegrass is going on. I suppose I could save all my sock heels until February every year.
And I managed to work in a couple of pattern repeats of this:
I sat up in the church balcony all afternoon, and at least part of the time there was enough light to work on this a bit.
I haven’t seen many knitters at the festival. A friend of ours was there yesterday with a scarf that she is working on, and I saw a woman down in the church seats yesterday with what looked like a sweater in her lap. Other than that, nothing. I think I’m an oddity. In between sets, I stand up and knit, to stretch out a bit. A woman came up to me Thursday night and said “It’s good to see you back with your knitting”. And Friday night I was standing and knitting during a break. After a while I noticed a young girl (maybe about 11?) standing next to me quietly, watching. When I talked to her, she got shy and left, but she clearly was either fascinated or horrified by what I was doing. I’ve gotten a number of “what the heck are you knitting?” comments, and a couple of “I didn’t bring my knitting because I can’t see in here” comments. Well, that doesn’t stop me. I just fix the mistakes later. A couple of times I’ve had to take the knitting out back where I can see it and give it a thrashing, but overall I’ve only had a couple of malfunctions.
I’m off for more coffee, then more bluegrass. There will be a final report later!
*Just be glad that I have no idea how to attach sound files to this, or you’d have to listen to bluegrass while reading about it.
Here’s what I accomplished last night. There would have been more, but I was knitting in the dark, and had to do a few rows over.
It is too bigger. Go look at the last post and check.
And in the spirit of full disclosure, this is NOT the Ladybug Rainforest yarn that I have been calling it. It is Opal, and it was in my stash. After I got to the first yellow stripe, I thought, hmmmm. Then that big stretch of red, and the repeating blue and yellow stripes. Hmmmm. So I got out the ball band, searched through my Access database*, and discovered that this is a different Opal color scheme. I called it Candy when I entered it into the database. I don’t know if that was something I made up, or the real color name. Opal just puts numbers on the ball band. This one is 518.
Pretty, but not ladybugs. So I’m now officially changing the name to the Opal Candy Stripe Socks.
Wintergrass was toe-tappingly good last night. My pick of the evening was the all-girl Uncle Earl. They even have a clogger-girl. How can you not like them? They’re playing again this afternoon, so I need to go get my butt in the shower.
It will be partial daylight for this afternoon’s shows, so I might get some noticeable progress done!
*Yes, I have an Access database of all my yarn. It includes the yarn, manufacturer, color, yardage, gauge, what I intended to use it for, fiber content, and a photo of each yarn. I also have my storage boxes numbered, with a number beside each entry so I can find it easily. It’s a beautifully obsessive-compulsive work of art.
Ok, Ok. Here’s a screenshot of my database.
And a little research reveals that the Opal #518 comes from the 2002 Collection. I apparently made up the name.
Thursday night at Wintergrass is always sort of low-key. The “real” Wintergrass doesn’t start until Friday night, and the crowd is always a bit sparse, with only one performance venue instead of the four or five that they have the other days. The “real” bluegrass fans show up on Thursday, though, and park their butts in a chair and never leave.
I didn’t take the camera, for a number of reasons. First is that it’s dark in there, and my pictures never turn out. Second, I’d have to put the knitting down to take pictures. Last, a few years back I lost* my binoculars at Wintergrass when I went to the bathroom and left my bag by my chair. Since then I don’t take the camera so as to not lose it.
The highlight of last night was the group Bluegrass, Etc. They’ve been around forever, but for some reason I’d never heard or seen them before. Byron Berline was playing fiddle with them, and boy can he play. They all are top-notch seasoned musicians, but their guitarist, John Moore, is just spectacular.
Here’s the knitting progress. I did work on the two-color sock a bit, until we decided to move closer to the stage and I didn’t have enough light to see what I was doing. I’ve finished the gusset decreases (again!), and am speeding towards the toe.
After I put those aside, I worked on the new socks for the rest of the evening. I cast on for these a week or so back, in anticipation of needing a mindless round-and-round project for the festival. Here’s what I accomplished last night.
This is one of the Opal Rainforest colors, in Ladybug. I have a bunch of Opal in the stash, but have never actually used it before. It’s lovely yarn, I must say. It’s also lovely having a plain round-and-round project after all that two-color, cable, and lace stuff that I’ve got going.
I have had a couple of questions in the comments about my needles on the two-color sock. They are Lantern Moon ebony dp’s. They are a dream to knit with; smooth, perfect points, short enough to not be in the way. The needles in the Opal sock are bamboo needles from S. R. Kertzer, purchased here. I love these; I also have a bunch of the circulars and a few of the straights. They are lightweight, flexible, and have perfect points. They are also a lot more economical than the Lantern Moons, which are a bit spendy. If I snapped one of those, I’d probably cry; if I snapped one of the Kertzers, I would say a bad word, then go buy another set.
Someone is making me bacon and eggs and grits (cheese grits, Kris, but not the instant kind!) for breakfast, so I’m off till the next post!
*”Lost” is of course a euphemism for “some sorry-ass person who can’t possibly be a true bluegrass fan swiped them right out of my bag”.
Well the Madrona Fiber fest was a blast. I didn’t sign up for any classes, as in my typically clueless fashion I didn’t know about the festival until they were all booked. I went anyway, Friday night to listen to Stephanie talk, and then again on Saturday to add to the stash.
Friday night I met Kris and Marti for dinner and the Harlot’s talk. We strolled up the street to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner after meeting in the lobby. They both were a delight to sit and visit with, and yet more proof that you all are not “imaginary friends”, as my husband refers to you. The biggest hoot, I have to tell you, was sitting in a Thai restaurant packed with knitters, all talking about knitting, some of them actually knitting. I can’t even imagine what the restaurant people thought.
Here’s a picture of Kris and I. It came out a bit blurry, but proves that without a doubt we exist. For some reason I didn’t get a picture of Marti. And none of my pictures of the Harlot’s talk came out. Honest, I had green tea with dinner, nothing else.
Saturday I went again, this time to the market to shop. There were several local shops represented, and a few not-local. My favorite was Blue Moon Fiber Arts, famous around the blogs for Socks That Rock yarn. I have a couple of skeins of this in the stash already, but that didn’t stop me from getting more, as they had a fine selection of colors at the market.
From left to right, Yosemite, Spinel, Prove It All Night, and Heavy Metal. Only the fact that I already have enough sock yarn to last the rest of my life kept me from buying more. One of these will just have to be the next pair of socks once I finish the two pair I already have cast on.
Which reminds me, my one and only NY resolution this year? To have enough hand knit socks by the end of the year that I don’t have to wear commercial socks unless I want to.
I also bought this, which was a totally unnecessary purchase:
It’s pink, very pink. And alpaca, and it has just a touch of a silvery glimmery yarn spun into it. This will be a pretty little scarf, perhaps all for me. This is where we need that “touch me” feature in Typepad; this stuff is heavenly soft in person, not so much in the picture.
After the shopping, I went out to the lobby of the Sheraton, which was full of people knitting. I joined a little impromptu knitting session with these bloggers:
That’s Meg, from Knitting Knot. Go to her blog and tell her how sorry you are that we made her unravel a whole sweater on the spot. What are friends for??
That’s Jessica, from Rose-Kim Knits. She’s working on her Knitting Olympics project, and I learned a few new swear words from her on Saturday.
And that’s Rebecca, from Supergirl’s Blog. She knits at Warp 10, really. I kept staring surreptitiously at her hands, wondering how the hell somebody could knit that fast.
I met with Kris again, who was getting a lesson in the lobby from a spinner, Blogless Betsy, on how to use a drop spindle. And met Kris’ family, including that adorable child of hers, Anna Grace. If I could have been guaranteed offspring that cute, I might have been convinced to reproduce at one point in my life. I didn’t get a picture of Betsy either.
Now it’s back to reality, though I got a real gift this morning at 7 AM. I had signed up for an extra day of work today, for some reason that totally escapes me. (My husband reminded me that it was no doubt to pay down the yarn debt, which is starting to rival the national deficit.) As I was getting my butt out of bed, grumbling to anybody who would listen, the phone rang. It was from one of my partners, to let me know that they weren’t busy enough to need me, go back to bed. Free knitting time!! Here’s where I am on the sock:
That two color heel was truly a pain in the ass to do, though it looks very cool now that it’s done. There’s no need to remind me that I need to do a second one.
On the knitting front, I have actually been knitting. That two color sock looks just the same, as I haven’t worked on it a bit in the past week. I have picked up the Jo Sharp eggplant sweater from several posts back (the one with the misbehaving schematic measurements). It is very difficult to take pictures of dark eggplant colored yarn, let me tell you. Well it’s actually not hard to take pictures of it, it’s just hard to take pictures that show any detail. Here are a couple of attempts.
I also started a new lace project. It is the Estonian Garden Wrap; here’s a link to a photo. And here’s mine:
The yarn is Zephyr lace weight, in a bottle green that doesn’t look nearly that washed out in person. I’m loving this pattern so far!
And one new one. Though I didn’t sign up for the Knitting Olympics, I have one project that will be worked on for much of that time. Around the Knitting Doctor house, the third week in February is the Week of Bluegrass, better known as Wintergrass. I have tickets for the whole four day festival, right smack in the middle of the Olympics. I have one heavily cabled project on the needles, one lace project, and one sock in two colors, all of which require a decent level of light and the ability to count. None of these will work at a bluegrass festival that is mostly in the dark and involves a lot of foot stomping and clapping. So I started a new pair of socks that will be the 2006 Wintergrass project.
The yarn is Opal, I think the color is one of the Rainforest group, Ladybug. It’s my first attempt at a picot edge. I used Claudia’s excellent instructions, found here. Other than the picot thing, these will be just plain socks. Perfect for knitting in a dark music hall!
I just love those little picot points! Very girly!
If any of you are going to Madrona this weekend in Tacoma, I’ll be there for the Yarn Harlot’s talk tonight, then shopping at the market tomorrow. I didn’t sign up for classes, but can’t resist the possibility of yarn that I might not own already. Hope to see some of you there!
The blue scarf is finished. Before I say anything else, if your name is Linda, and you’re my sister, and you’re expecting a gift from me, don’t go any further if you want this to be a surprise.
If your name is Linda, and you’re my sister, click here instead so you have something to do for the next few days until this arrives in the mail.
Here it is, for those of you not named Linda, and not related to me.
Pretty, eh? Project details:
Pattern: Lead or Follow Lace Scarf, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. Her website is here.
Yarn: Richesse et Soie, by K1C2, a cashmere-silk blend; color is #9633, which is a pretty cornflower blue.
Needles: 3.75mm
Started: July 2005. Actually I started this a couple of years ago, but it sat in hibernation for awhile, so I had to restart it because I couldn’t figure out where I was in the pattern.
Finished: January 24, 2006
This is a great pattern. It’s clear and well-written, and once I figured out that it doesn’t mix well with bourbon, I did OK with it. It’s “knitted lace” instead of “lace knitting”, meaning that every row is a pattern row with increases and decreases. “Lace knitting” means that every other row is a plain row, either knitted or purled. I didn’t know that before. “Knitted lace” is really no harder than the other kind, it just means you don’t have that long easy row every other row to relax with.
The yarn is heavenly too, though spendy for anything more than a scarf. It’s fingering weight, so it’s a little easier to handle for someone relatively new to lace.
My next lace project (already started, but no pictures yet) is in “real” lace yarn, and I’ve already expanded my knowledge of swear words logarithmically.
And then there are those socks. Here’s a picture:
If you’re thinking that it looks like I finished the first sock and that this might be the beginning of the mate, you would be wrong. I ripped the damn thing out and started over for two reasons. First, I decided that I liked the section where the contrast-rainbow color pops out better than the more subtle version. So I switched the yarn-hand-holding position when I restarted. So now the multicolor is in my LEFT hand. I like it better. The second, and more important reason, is that I think they were going to be a bit tight on my Bigfoot big feet, so I started over with the next bigger size on the chart.
Last, but not least, a little amusement, and a quiz. I always knew I was a nerd. Not bad for a biology major.
True English Nerd
You scored 89 erudition!
Not only do you know your subjects from your objects and your
definite
from your indefinite articles, but you’ve got quite a handle on the
literature and the history of the language as well. Huzzah, and well
done! The English snobs of Boston salute you.
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
OK, after some fiddling around, I still couldn’t get that to fit in the blog window, so it’s staying the way it is. I have zero patience for html crap.
I really liked this one, and it was a fast project to knit. Project specifications:
Pattern: Bea Ellis, her own design, purchased as a kit here.
Yarn: Dale Heilo in red and white, and cotton sportweight for the headband lining.
Started: December 2005
Finished: January 7, 2006
Needles: size 3.5mm. (3mm for the lining)
What I learned: Two color-knitting is a blast. I practiced knitting with one color in each hand. This required that I polish up my continental style knitting, which was awkward at best.
Would I do this one again? Yes, ma’am. I thought it might be too warm to wear this where I live, but the Heilo is a sportweight yarn so it’s not too heavy. I really, really liked making the tassle!
I’ve also been working on my socks:
This two-color stuff is big-time trouble for all the other stuff on my to-do list around here. I just keep knitting and knitting and knitting…
There was a question in the comments from the last post about the yarn for this one. It’s Lorna’s Laces sock weight yarn. The solid is red, of course, and the multi is her Rainbow color.
I’ve learned some things already. It does indeed make a difference which hand you hold each color in when you are knitting with one color in each hand, as most knitters knit with a different tension between the two hands. It’s a little hard to see in that picture, but the first half inch of the leg part (after the ribbing) shows that the rainbow stitches are more prominent than afterwards. I switched the yarn colors between the hands at that spot, and in person it is noticeable. I decided that I’m not ripping it out, but definitely learned the lesson for the future. Given my inability to remember simple things, I’ve made a note on the pattern itself which hand I’m carrying which yarn in for future reference. And in case I lose the working copy of the pattern with the notes, the multicolor is in my right hand on this one.
And in non-knitting pictures, I keep meaning to post this and keep forgetting:
Yes, it’s a ladybug. I took this picture in my bathroom, where I have about a half-dozen ladybugs that have taken up residence. There are no plants there, but they move in around December every year and stay until it warms up a little. I have no idea why, or what they eat, but I find this somewhat fascinating. So do the cats, though they never catch one.
Finally, the last of the Spain travelogue photos. There were lots of them, but I’m getting tired of putting them up, so here are all the rest of them, in one big post. The knitting content is at the end of this post, so if you’re getting tired of them too, just scroll on down.
Your fearless Spain adventurers left you on the road to Arcos the last time. We stopped along the way at one of the little white hill towns, Grazilema. We took the very scenic route off the main road to Grazilema, with miles of twisty, hairpin-turning roads.
I didn’t get much knitting done on this leg of the trip, as I wasn’t about to pry my hands off the dashboard to take up the sock. I did get one shot of the sock over the valley, though.
And here a a couple of pictures of the town of Grazilema. This was the cutest little town; I’d go back here for a longer stay next time.
After a lovely lunch, we continued on to Arcos. We stayed in one of my favorite hotels of the trip while there, La Casa Grande. If you have a few minutes, go to their website and check out the photos; they are better than mine. The house is almost 300 years old, and very charming. We had one of the rooftop rooms, next to the terrace with a spectacular view. The only drawback to the place is that it is on a tiny street too narrow for a car or taxi, so we parked and walked, lugging our luggage the last few blocks.
Arcos is only a short drive to Jerez, so we drove there the following day for a little horse-watching and sherry-tasting. Unfortunately, Jerez is one of the worst places in the entire world that I’ve ever navigated. There are absolutely no street signs, so a map is next to useless. We got hopelessly lost, though finally found our way after stopping several times and getting help from mostly non-English speaking locals. They couldn’t read the map, either, so I didn’t feel so bad. We missed the horse show at the Equestrian center, but made it to the Gonzales-Byass (the Tio Pepe people) sherry bodega with plenty of time to spare for our tour there.
That last photo is part of a display of some of their original bottles and barrels. The new ones weren’t quite that dusty.
After the tour, we got to have a little tasting and eating, our favorite part.
That tapas platter (and the bottle of sherry) was just for the two of us. They don’t believe in letting you go home hungry in Jerez. Probably this is because they know you will get lost and spend hours wandering around Jerez trying to get out.
We were back in Arcos for another night:
Those two photos really give you an idea of how narrow those streets are. And here is our private terrace:
After Arcos, we headed for Sevilla, another one of my favorite places in Spain. We had a walking tour of the old part of the city our first day, including a tour of the Cathedral, one of the largest in Europe. It’s hard to take a photo of it, as it is so huge. I didn’t get many good interior shots because of the vastness of the space.
We also toured another Moorish palace/fortress, the Alcazar. Here are a few photos:
And a fine example of rococo excess:
This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. It was in a cave-like lower room, with a ground level pool. The arched ceiling reflects in the pool below.
And a couple more Sevilla street shots:
We stayed at the Convento La Gloria Hotel in Sevilla, another one of my favorite sleeping-places on the trip. As the name suggests, it is an old convent that has been converted to a hotel. The rooms were small, but the service was wonderful, and the family run restaurant downstairs was fabulous. There were dozens of paintings on the walls of the hotel, but this is the photo I found the most amusing. This is the fire-extinguisher box outside our room.
I believe that was a commentary on the narrow streets of Sevilla. If there were to be a fire, there is just no way a fire truck would get here, so you might as well pray.
There was a little sitting area outside our room. I took advantage of it for a quiet knitting space.
We ate at the hotel restaurant our last night in Sevilla. I think they must have heard about us.
Sevilla was home to many more Don Quixote statues. Here are a few.
There were several more in the train station:
While we waited for our train back to Madrid, I did the usual:
We took the fast (Ave) train from Sevilla back to Madrid:
After our arrival in Madrid, we checked back into our original hotel for one more night before our flight home. We did a whirlwind tour of the Museo Del Prado and the Thyssen Museum. Without a doubt, my favorite museum of all time is the Thyssen. It would be worth a trip back to Madrid just to get a longer visit there.
Here is Sweetpea after a long journey. Sweetpea loved Spain, too.
And last but not least, the last photo of the trip, from the plane over the coast:
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Knitting Content
The Jo Sharp sweater is still in time-out. I’ll get back to it later this week, as I’ve decided that I don’t hate the details of the pattern as much as I love the look of the finished sweater. I’ve gotten caught up in two-colored knitting this week. First is the latest sock pattern that I started.
The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch. This is a great book, for all you sock-knitters out there.
The other one is a Bea Ellis hat pattern, using two-color Norwegian style knitting.
The pattern is rather ingenious. Because it is relatively itchy wool, the first two inches or so of the hat are knit in a soft sport-weight cotton. Then you change to the wool, purl a turning row, and start the hat pattern. When you’re done, you turn up the cotton lining and hem it, so you have the soft cotton over your delicate little ears. I am a right handed thrower, so I’m learning how to knit continental style, so I can have one color in each hand and not have to stop and change yarns every couple of stitches. I’ve learned that I actually do continental much faster than the way I’ve always knit, though I’ve not been able to master purling and picking at the same time.
I’m also still working on that blue lace scarf. I hope to finish that one soon, so I can get some wear out of it this winter!
