I love having time to knit and spin...

So, lots of fibery thing have been going on these last two weeks. I’m not going to post a picture of the blue cardigan again until I’ve got past the arm holes, but I have been working on it while working through the Dimensions Church History II course. Lots of fine gauge knitting which will make an excellent, wearable cardigan, but not terribly exciting.

More exciting is my progress on my Vivid blanket! I don’t have enough yarn to finish it, but I have sure been powering through some odds and ends! Here are all the blocks so far; I’m liking all of them but the blue-brown one at the bottom left. I might not end up using that one…

I’ve also been really enjoying the Stitch Surfer Socks. I’m actually re-knitting a sock that was a fail many years ago; it was my first toe up, and I couldn’t get the bind off stretchy enough. So, I’m putting it to much better use. While I was at it, I worked in my forethought gusset that I wrote about in a previous post. Now I want a pair for myself…

Another goal I had for myself this holiday was to finish the current chart on my Names of the Doctor Scarf, and I did! I am so in love with double knitting…

While listening to my History of Ancient Egypt Great Course, I’ve been doing more Whovian knitting in the form of my Weeping Angel socks. I’m actually chugging down the foot now, and I’m quite pleased with how my adding one last feather repeat to the heel turn went. It’s the little things in life…

After a several month hiatus, I’ve also started spinning my Mountain Colors roving again, and I’m really enjoying it. I divided the roving into the three color repeats and an end; here is the end all spun up. I’m continuing with my plying on the fly—very satisfactory. I think my yarn might be getting more even too…

Lastly, two finished break projects, the Sprig cloche,

and my Pincha scarf (it’s not really a shawl or even a shawlette).

So, that’s what I’ve been working on! Various special and mundane cleaning projects have also been in the works, and today I sorted out the cleaning supplies for the coming term. Holiday is almost over…and I have a lot to do this week. Bring it on!

April Picks

One of the best parts of holiday is being able to gulp in music and books that I would usually not have near as much time to spend with. I finished Paolini’s Inheritance series; not revolutionary fantasy, but a nice vacation escape. Oh they were so written by a boy! Also, though I rarely say this, the movie was better. And, I’m glad they didn’t make the rest of the books into movies.

For my music pick this month, I downloaded Anna Johnson’s Winding Road. A friend gifted me a CD of hers last year, and as I enjoyed her Christmas albums as well I thought I’d try another. I like her style, and found it an enjoyable listen. I like Here better, but sometimes I crave the sounds of Nashville.

For my book pick, I downloaded the first three books in Anne McCaffry’s Dragonriders of Pern series. I’m listening to the Great Course, “How Great Science Fiction Works” right now on my walks, and that reminded me of these books. I had heard about them from my mom years ago, but just never got around to reading them yet. So far they aren’t quite what I was anticipating, but the idea of and contrast between sci-fi dragons instead of the clearly fantasy dragons of the Inheritance series is intriguing.

As I enjoy these precious days of holiday, I am also enjoying my journey through Season 2 of Parks and Recreation and various movies. I watched through the extended The Lord of the Rings trilogy; it had been a few years since I saw those movies! So many memories of my teenage years…my siblings and I were pretty much the biggest nerds ever. A friend also sent me the first two volumes of the show Gargoyles that I vaugly remember airing in the mid 90’s—we weren’t allowed to watch it at the time, but I’m enjoying the unusual depth of characters and stories.

I keep mentioning the Great Courses; I am so thankful that they are available through Audible! I have been drinking in “The History of Ancient Egypt” in preparation for this term’s history topic, and enjoying the history of science fiction as sheer nerdism on my walks. I’m taking notes through the Egypt course, and plan to pick up the one on ancient Greece next holiday. I have found that these courses are not only interesting, but have got me thinking about new ideas and given me insights that have made it possible for me to teach on a middle school level more clearly. I want to take a look at their music offerings again, and see what other literature topics are available. For someone like me who loves to learn, these are a Godsend in my narrow environment. Forever a nerd...

In which I ponder a knitting conundrum

Buckle up guys, this is a serious knitting post!

While I love self stripping sock yarn (effortless entertainment!), there is a bit of a drawback to actually using it to make socks. The heel throws everything off. So, you can do a lot of finicky cutting and measuring and keep your color sequence intact while also wasting some of the yarn, or you can just carry on and hope for the best. See on these socks here where the obvious break in the pattern is due to the heel?

It’s obvious to an obsessed person, but ye ordinary mortal might not obsessively follow color changes, so you can get by with it. However, I was dissatisfied with these results and wanted a better way. My preferred heel method is to do a small heel flap and short row heel unless the pattern absolutely won’t work that way. (We won’t talk about how many times I have failed to read the pattern properly and foresee the heel disaster about to come my way…) I like to do the small flap because in my experience most people need that little extra give over the top of their foot; feet generally aren’t perfect right angles oddly enough! So the other night I got to thinking, surely there is a way to get the end result of a small flap without having to break the yarn or kill the color sequence. Obviously an afterthought heel is going to be involved, but could I fake the flap? I decided to make a pair of toddler sized socks to test out my theory. Now, I will say up front that the yarn I used was NOT self stripping, but as I don’t have a lot of that and no yarn store in this country that I know of, I figured I could still find out what I needed to know with a semi-striping yarn. I cast on and did the leg per usual, then I began to try out my theory.

See that little triangle there? I alternated rows of increasing a stitch on either side of the ‘heel flap’ and plain knitting till I had increased 3 stitches either side; what I would have planned on picking up on a more traditional heel flap. I then did Elizabeth Zimmerman’s ‘Thumb trick’ to hold the stitches for my afterthought heel (I’m not quite ready for a true, snipped after thought heel yet!), and then for the next three rounds I decreased those three stitches. Since the sock was still tubular at this point it looked a little funny, but I held to the fact that I was going to be making this into a right angle!

Because I didn’t know how much length the heel was going to add and I didn’t have a measurement for this small of a sock handy, I decided to do the heel before I finished the rest of the sock. So, I began to undo my waste yarn, picking up the live stitches as I went. Such an ingenious trick! On an pair of adult socks, I have a chart so I wouldn’t have to do the heel right away.

I then knit a German short row heel (which I was a little less than pleased with; not sure why it turned out so sloppy), and then I was ready to graft the two sides together. Notice that I am grafting on the heel side; I figured if I had a bit of a bump, better there than under the heel. Next time I think I’ll stop the ribbing pattern a row before the heel to make it easier to graft together. Because I was grafting on to ribbing, it did leave a bump; good to keep in mind for next time.

So, there you have it, the conundrum that kept me up for an hour in the night, and I think will end up being the way to handle the pair of socks I’m planning with some self-stripping yarn. Of course on an adult sock the little ‘gusset’ will be a bit bigger, but as the principal is sound I’m confident it will turn out well. Yes, this will disturb the color pattern a bit because of the increases, but no where near as much if I carried on as normal. I need to make the second toddler sock to further refine this process, but I’m really excited to see it on a full sized sock too!

In the interest of fairness, the two personal drawbacks that I can see to this method are

a) You would have to know the foot length of your sock without the heel or toe. I have a very helpful chart for adults, but not for toddlers, so I had to do the heel shortly after passing it. And,
B) I think I would miss the excitement of the heel after the monotony of the leg. This way it’s interesting for just a few rounds before you’re back to the same old, same old, with the only difference being the smooth foot. Part of the reason I love socks is that about the time one part becomes unbearable, the next section comes up. So, I don’t think this will become my primary sock method.

Playing with yarn is fun!

I haven't finished much this week as I have several large projects that I'm working through. The problem with large projects is that it takes a long time for obvious progress to be made. But rest assured that my needles and hands have not been idle! I caved and started the Vivid blanket that I've been coveting for awhile now to use up some ends of sock yarn. Plus, being able to finish a square in an evening gives you a great finishing rush!

I've already got the yarn for the next few squares picked out...

I made the Mason Dixon washcloth and since my gauge was too tight the thing buckles, but it's a dishcloth so that's okay. More fiddly than I would usually do for a dishcloth, but I want to try it again with bigger needles and omit the bobbles. Bobbles are evil!

I worked some more on my big cross stitch-

And I worked out a sock conundrum which shall have a post of it's own once I finish the samples. I've been working on many other WIP's and hope to knock out at least one project before next week.

I've been cooking--potato pancakes, where have you BEEN all my life?--and reading quite a bit. Both for school--ancient Egypt is coming up for history, and the Inheritance Cycle because why not? Dragons are always fun, though this series was SO written by a teenage boy. Cleaning has happend--who KNEW it was so much work to scrub walls?--and napping. I got a lovely parcel from Annie and my calendars that were the last part of my Christmas present. I'm working through a Great Course on ancient Egypt, and enjoying the sound of silence. How my soul has needed this breathing space...

Despite my many projects, I still want to cast on more things.

I just bought this pattern (Foolproof) yesterday, and I’ve been wracking my brains to think of I have some suitable yarn for it. I need another project just now like I need a proverbial hole in my head, but it’s so fun to think of knitting new things! And since I knit so much faster in my head, I could get it all done before term starts up again!

Coming back to reality… First, a few finished items. My Ned hat,

and second my gingham dishcloth. Not a pattern I’d do that often, but a nice little side trip.

I’m still working on my peacock shawl, and I’m sating my cloche craze by doing Sprig. Now that I’m in the ‘brainless’ part, it will make good Great Course knitting. I’m loving how it’s turning out; here’s hoping that it looks as cute on me as I think it will! This is just the brim before stitches were picked up.

I had made really good progress on my Weeping Angel socks, but then I realized that the gauge was off, so frogged they were. *sigh* The worst part was that when I looked back at my notes from the first time I made these, I had made the exact same gauge mistake. So what’s the point of taking notes if you don’t go back and read them…

Finally, to give my hand a break from all that knitting, I’ve pulled out my four seasons wreath cross stitch and been working on that again. Nothing like huge project!

Parting shot: Hieroglyphs are a lot of fun to play with!

March Picks

Since St. Patrick’s Day is in March, I wanted to get an album of Irish music. I remembered the all ladies group, Cherish the Ladies, and decided to get another of their albums, Woman of the House. I was not disappointed! Though several years had passed between the last album I bought and this one, their sound is still the same, and I found this a comforting companion during the terrible night of report writing in my classroom. A great blend of instrumental and vocal pieces, and altogether good, solid Celtic music. Now I want to get the rest of their albums…

Apologies in advance for the weird cover... For a book for March, I decided to go with a mystery, so I got the first of Josephine Tey’s works, The Man in the Queue. My ‘bluestockings’ group is currently reading another of her books, Brat Farrar, which I’m really enjoying, so I thought I’d read another of her books. I was not disappointed. Tey has a wonderful style of writing and a real sly wit that has you laughing at the audacious statement that was just made so blandly. I fully plan to read the rest of the Inspector Grant novels. If you like Christie or Sayers, you should totally read some Tey as well. I’m not sure why she isn’t as well known as them, as she is just as good of a writer.

Also, I decided to bit the bullet and make another investment in my “beloved physical copies in Texas, bad books on my Kindle” plan, and bought the whole Inheritance series. I’m re-reading Eldest, and haven’t read the last two yet. Still not the world’s best writing ever, but a nice holiday treat! I guess I’m in a more desperate mood than I was when I first read this several years ago; while there are still some aspects of this book that make me either shriek with laughter or cringe, it’s a nice break from ‘school approved.’ I’m curious to see what the last two books hold…

What I’ve been watching, is Downton Abbey season 6, and the new Poledark season 1. I would have enjoyed both these things much more if the company had been better, but despite knitting furiously to avoid gnawing through my own leg, I did enjoy both these things. I now really want to read the Poledark novels that the series was based on… Also, fair warning, the last episode is not only a tear jerker, but also ends on quite a cliff hanger!

The Easter of Much Knitting

Now that the holidays are finally here, I’ve had some time to work on knitting projects. I’ve made some good headway on my peacock scarf—I love what you can do with short rows, and I love this yarn! That progress represents most of Downton Abbey Season 6.

I also finished the second Nelderoth sock! A lovely pattern, and one I’m already thinking of doing again, perhaps for myself, or perhaps for a gift… I’m all for Tolkien knitting!

I finished my second attempt at knit plaid; much happier with this one. I’m working on getting the instructions written up, and trying out a further refinement on the third one.

In the theme of ‘more effort than I usually devote to such things,’ I’ve been playing with a gingham dishcloth pattern I found. There is just something about taking a textile concepts and applying it to knitting… Just like knitted quilting, I find it fascinating!

Thought I’m not going to post a picture of it yet as there is only ribbing to see, I started my pair of Weeping Angel socks with the yarn my brother gave me for Christmas. I’m going to try some tweaks to this pattern as well; instructions are only a guideline, right? Also, I finally got motivated to finish my ‘Ned’ hat to match my Ned scarf. I made a band in the Ned pattern, sewed it together, and then picked up stitches and carried on with the Wurm pattern. So far, I’m pretty happy with the results! The big question, will the yarn hold out?

Parting shot: Tiny bunnies! *squee*

A Plaid Journey

One of the features that pops up on the Ravelry homepage from time to time is groups of similar objects—similar in color, style, or function. There was a display of David Bowie inspired items in the wake of his death, and two weeks ago there was a post on plaid projects. I was intrigued, and tried out a crochet plaid dishcloth almost immediately. I found the technique interesting, but I felt like the dishcloths was a) too thick, and b) too stiff. Both symptoms of crochet. I made it smaller than the instructions called for as I was using a heavier yarn, and I was seized with the desire to turn this pattern into knitting.

My first attempt was basically the same idea as the crochet, but with yarn overs instead of chain spaces. Drawback—I was cutting the yarn each time and had a ton of ends to weave in, and the pattern required you to pay a bit of attention. When I finished it and started crocheting the vertical strips through the yarn overs, I realized that they were too big, and it looked lame.

So, I’m trying a much simpler tack. Carrying the yarn from the stripes up the side isn’t the tidiest looking, but it sure beats weaving in all those stupid ends. I’m considering doing one row strips…who knows how far this madness will go? Now to see how the vertical stripes look over the stockinette…

While up super late writing report cards on Friday evening, I took a look at the new Knitty, and immediately fell head over heels in love with a scarf (they call it a shawl, but it’s totally a scarf!) pattern. I had the perfect yarn for it in the stash, and as a treat to myself for finishing I cast on Saturday evening while enjoying some Downton Abbey. Loving it so far!

Now that term is almost over, I’ll have time to do more work on creative things. I never get the half of what I planned done over the term breaks, but I’m going to try and make April really count. I don’t plan to go anywhere this holiday, so lots of cleaning, knitting, sorting, and reading should happen. Who knows? I might even go crazy and do some writing!

Parting shot: Lame pudding pie for pi day. Hey, anything was better than marking!

A bit of catch up 'cause life is crazy

Well, I actually have some FO (finished objects) to show off this time! Having last weekend off did wonders for my craft productivity… That being said, almost nothing at all interesting happened on the craft front this week. Little things like marking, sleeping, and not throwing students out the windows became rather time consuming.

First of all, I finished the first of the Nelderoth socks! I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and think I’ll be doing a version for myself in the near future. I’m a sucker for cables… Since I rarely blindly follow a pattern, I tweaked this one by omitting the texture pattern between the cable panels, and doing a German short row heel. If I did this again, I might use a subtle colored yarn to spice those stockinette bits up a bit, or I might try and find a texture pattern that I like better.

The other thing I finished last weekend was the amagarumi dragon that has been languishing in and out of my projects bags for the last two years. Meet Asea!

Asea means ‘leaf’ in Elvish, and I thought it was appropriate given the color of yarn I used. I love the finished result, but I would never crochet with that yarn again. It had a little thread wound round it for color interest, but it made it a real pain to work with. I had a few yards left after finishing of Asea, and I actually threw them out. Yes, that much of a pain!

Other than those two things, I just haven’t had the time to work on much else. I got the urge to finish things, and went with the two items that were the closest to being done! I need to get the socks ready so that when the upcoming chance to send items back home arrives, I’ll be ready. I still have my large projects more or less in the works, my cardigan and my second double knit scarf. I have a feeling that those will get more time spent on them over the holiday when I have bigger chunks of time to work on them. So, that’s all for now!

Since I wrote this a slight development has come up--I am no obsessively pondering knit plaid. Details to follow...

February Picks

Music-wise February has been all about my new favorite contemporary artist, Ed Sheeran. My sister asked for his album + (Plus) for Christmas, and I noticed that he was the guy who had done one of the songs for The Hobbit, “I See Fire” which I had liked. So, I took a listen…and got hooked. I bought X (Multiply) for my February pick, and then I found out that + had bonus tracks! A note of warning should any of you feel compelled to rush out and listen to Sheeran; I love his sound and some of his lyrics, but a lot of his songs are about a ‘party hard’ sort of lifestyle if you get my drift. Definitely not work approved, but I must admit that is part of the charm at the moment…

For books, I’ve been enjoying The Prestige. I decided to read it because I was thinking about how I’ve wanted to see that movie for awhile, especially since David Bowie played Tesla, and then I found the book and dove in. This is an excellent example of point of view; you get the story from several points of view as well as through some excellently done Victorian style journal entries. It makes me want to watch Now You See Me again… Now, I want to watch the movie even more than I did when I found out David Bowie was Tessla...

This month I’m also slowly watching through Castle Season 6, and so far I’m loving it. I was afraid that now that Castle and Beckett were engaged that the show would flop, but they are doing a good job of providing not only great cases, but good character development and plenty of Ryan and Esposito. Now the trick is to not rush through it too fast… I’m also doling out my last few episodes of Voyager Season 7. I borrowed Seasons 4-7 from my parents last time I was home, and as I’m two or three disks shy of the whole 7th season, I’m trying to make the geeky goodness last as long as possible. This is a show I’m going to have to have in its entirety one day…

Mitts, Socks, and Sweater

“No one could blame you, for turning away…”

Ain’t that the truth—stranded color work is NOT my fav, but I’m LOVING my new mitts! Now I just have to wait until I’m somewhere cold enough to justify using them. I ended up adjusting that pattern so the mitts came up higher on the fingers and thumbs; what’s the point of all that warmth if your fingers are chilly?

My big goal this week was to finish those mitts, but I did get some work in on some other projects. After three starts, two to play with cast on numbers, and one because I’m an idiot and twisted the collar while doing the short rows, I finally have made appreciable progress on my Bluebells Cardigan from the latest issue of Jane Austin Knits.

I also got two more cable repeats in on my Nelderoth socks—still loving them! So glad that I bought this yarn which totally didn’t work with what I had planned for it to go with…

Other than that, I spent a weekend fighting off strep with sleep, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and lots and lots of honey and lemon tea. Thankfully the antibiotics are kicking in and I'm feeling better; hopefully the fevers are gone, and I'll be up to full speed in the next day or so while this clears up.

Parting shot: Now I want to go gather rocks and play with them...

Into the Labyrinth and out with a Sock

Life has been pretty crazy lately… Pretty crazy is becoming the new normal. In between lots of marking, pushing kids to get to the designated half-term stopping place, and a weekend on, I haven’t done a whole lot in the creative realm. Oddly enough… However, I did make some progress on a few things, so here goes!

I’m well into the thumb gusset on my Labyrinth mitts; I’m getting to the point where I want them done, and where I’m super excited about having them. I might have to model them while loudly singing “Underground.”

I’ve had relatively quiet handwork times the last two weeks, so I managed to finish these two dishcloths. You can never have too many dishcloths in your gift box…

I also started a pair of socks which is delighting me greatly—Neldeorth from Knitty. I love the way the yarn and pattern are playing, and I am happy with my decision to omit the weird texture stitch in between the two cables. Yay for Elvish knitting!

I made more progress on my stealth knitting project, but I of course can’t post them here. I receive the bracelet I commissioned in December with this year’s quote on it—“Courage, dear heart” from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This year is and will call for the greatest measure of courage ever asked of me, and already it’s put several smiles in my heart to be reminded that He is with me. I got this from the Vagabond Studio on Etsy if you’re interested—I’m very happy with this order.

For Valentine’s Day I made myself some epic Reese’s brownies, and enjoyed two little tea lights while sipping a latte, knitting, and watching Miss Potter. Yes, I live on the edge…

I also got suddenly creative, and sketched out the painting part of a multi-media art project I’ve been thinking about for the last few days. I can’t wait to see how it turns out—hopefully at least somewhat close to what’s in my head!

Parting shot: Dictator Valentines. What’s not to love?