What makes me happy?

Joceyln, the Knitting linguist, nominated me as one of the many blogs that made her happy, part of the thing going around about nominating blogs that improve your day. The rules of the nomination are these: “Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy.... Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times. " so .... what makes me happy, its hard, so hard to choose just 10 but here is my short list, all listed in random order - and Joceyln - you should be on my list but I'm not sure thats allowed, so I've listed A&C daily instead even if its not a blog.

1. Cogknition, where I find nice blend of educational in practice theory and knitting, from a knitter who also has a life, and some times it gets in the way.
   
2. Kathleen's blog, where she posts the most amazing vintage paper dolls and colour work mittens, e-v-e-r-y week, how does she do that, why did they dress like that?
   
3. Debs mostly sock blog, oh that woman is clever - I bet most of you have knit or wanted to knit her many different socks as seen on knitty.
   
4. Ysolda's blog, because she designs pretty pretty cardigans that I just want to knit and wear, and her Elijah is pretty cute (he is the elephant).
   
5. Desi-knitter, where just like me and many other knitters, she juggles knitting choices, successes, yarn selection and academic life, and shares the fab results, and shares also when its not to pretty, I love honesty.
   
6. Lene from Dances with wool, who knits amazing socks (check out her banner) and shows off pure simple beauty in finished knits where is it really cold and you need warm knits, she also details her design process.
   
7. Jane, well Jane who is calm, and knits and designs socks, and has a beautiful aesthetic and spins, it was the images of singles and plied yarn on a wooden spool that tempted me so strongly into spinning, and check out her tag line about which way the knitting can go ...
8. and this is not a knitting blog, its totally work related, but this is another Kathleen who thinks like I do, its so nice to see you are not alone, and she has such a great collection of useful tutorials and advice and just plain intelligent opinionated posts.
   
9. Practical Polly, because you gotta smile and laugh and feel happier about the world when some one like Kirsty turns Wonderwomans costume into a wearable hand knit sweater don't you?
   
10. Arts and Letters Daily, which makes me think, laugh, cry, wonder, and informs me and worries me and mostly makes the world more understandable.
    

so, with the hardest bit of the blog post to write done its onwards to the knitting stuff(I'll leave comments on the blogs next week - I promise - part of the feel good bit of this nomination is to share the praise).



... Well sock one is done, and sock two just begun, and the sock fits well, very well. Now I know the process by which these socks are built, well the knitting will be less blind. I did have to transfer them to a circ and try them on once the heel was formed. I'm a big footed girl at times living in a small footprint world. Have any of you with size 8.5's feet tried buying shoes in asia? Don't even ask - the assistants fall about laughing while you wish the earth would open up right there and then, or the shoe rack just fall and bury you. There was only 62 stitches on the needle, so I needed to put my mind at rest with a quick check that they fit and then I was able to confidently knit on to the toe. They did and I did.



And - I've been haunting the on line New Zealand equivalent of a boot sale-yard sale-garage sale-rummage sale-white elephant stall, Trademe. The spinning section needs to be seen to be believed, once you get past the people selling overly colorful fiber and new stuff, amongst whats left are the proverbial one-jaded fiber junkies cast offs is another spinners treasure. Look what I found, an older style Ashford spinning chair of beech wood, to match my wheel, all for $NZ20 +$NZ10 shipping. And sad to say thats not all, - I won't be posting this weekend, Bear and I are off on a road trip to adopt a second double drive castle wheel I won at auction, we will have to think of a name .....

So are spinning wheels tools or stash ?
Please do excuse me, but my new/old chair was only unpacked today when I got home, and I would love to stay and chat, but I really need to sit and spin and play with my new chair ....
Stella

Turning a new corner

Today, I've turned the heel and photos to show, I added a fake seam to the possum merinos sleeve, so a video showing that, and I didn't swatch, but I did sample twining vs stranding, so some technique show and tell, and I'll update on the vest quest. I've also had my nose in a book for much of the last few days, this arrived and the colour work chapters are amazing. Plus, blogs that make knitters happy, I've been nominated (thanks Joclyn), and there are so many great knit-blogs out there its made me think, I'll post my own list mid week, but its not easy to choose.



First, the CB Bartholomews Tantalizing sock heel went well, I blindly flowed the instructions and though unconventional, the heel is very nicely formed. I knew about the under heel from the photos in the book, but it still seemed a surprise to have knit a slip stitch panel under the heel. In hindsight that seems like a fine idea, cushioning and hole protection. And look! All the slip stitched ribs lined up, how magic is that?

Toby's first sleeve is done and as a treat/reward I laddered the under seam and added one of Elizabeth Zimmermans fake seams, first came the ladder.



Then, picking up the loops and re-knitting them one and two at a time.


And the video, just in case this is new info.

Then, I got to wondering about the twined knitting, mostly because I cast on and knit the cuff of sleeve two last night , but got the count wrong. The second cuff was a full 4 stitches short, and surprisingly smaller. So I frogged, but the twined section was not so easy to frog, Bear was called to help and we eventually got there. I began to wonder just how different twined knitting looked from stranded knitting, so cast on a tester to see. Mostly I couldn't face reworking the cuff so late at night. Robin Hansen is very clear in the introduction to the English translation of Twined knitting, that stranding is not twined knitting, and is not a substitute, and the two look vastly different, so I experimented.


What fun, first I knit a section stranded, then a chain divider and a section twined, then another chain, double this time, and a stocking stitch section.



First on show is the twined sample, followed by stranded, twined has the yarns continually twisting around each other in a clockwise rotation every stitch. The fabric is flatter and far more vertical in appearance than the stranded. I do have to say in the photo the vertical twists are much more prominent than in the swatch.



Stranded has the yarns remaining above and below and not twisting. This fabric is fuller, thicker and more like regular knitting. The difference is quite marked, or at least I think so.

Lastly is a view of the back of the knitting, with stranded below and twined above, the very different appearance makes it easy to identify from the back. Interestingly the 1x1 stranded seems as non-roll as the twined, so that is another easy option instead of twining, but not authentic so needs a new name.

Opps, I nearly forgot the vest update, and yes I could knit all of them, I know many of you like the corset, but I'm not sure I'd wear it, oh I'd really enjoy knitting it and it is still lovely but not on the list. I really enjoy the selection phase, and I'm not finished looking. I'll let you know.

Stell

Is that a sock you are knitting or ....?

So today, there is the puzzle of the curious shaped new sock, and the sleeve grows, and another swatch, but I'm not sure, which brings me to some vest discussions.

Cat Bordhi's sock design is intriguing, Bartholomew's Tantalizing sock is just that, tantalizing. I've knit socks top down and toe up, and with a variety of heel shaping s and toe forms, but this one has me guessing where it goes next. Oh - I know it starts at the top and widens for the ankle and heel, then will continue to close around the toe, but the exact way the shaping is working is a surprise. Having said that, I can see the shapes needed for a sock to fit emerge as I knit, the sock narrows in below the calf muscle, and is widening over the instep, even the Linen stitch is shaping the sock, shortening the front and curving it around into a leg and foot shape. I am having to pay attention - but I if I knit more of these, the shaping would have meaning and be easier to track. I'm up to the heel shaping, so the next post should have a heel on show.



A sleeve grows, surprisingly fast, only an inch and a half to go, and then onto sleeve 2. I plan to use the fake seam to mark the mid under-sleeve line just to match the body section. But do I have enough yarn? I am knitting a finished size chest of 34", and bought 3 skeins of 420m each, so a total of 1260m. Marnie Kelly (the yarn designer) suggested 2 skeins would be enough for a child's sweater, but I played safe and got three. I know I like a firmer gauge than most knitters, so 3 seemed safe. Now with skein number 2 nearly finished and only a body and a sleeve already knit, I am wondering if I can get a yoke and a 2nd sleeve out of one and tad skeins. If I need to I will buy more, and if the same batch is not available, I can knit the yoke in the darker colour, a muddy brown, my contingency plan.

....and yet more swatching, the knitters study group ongoing project for the year is to knit a vest, to be finished for display in October. I'm dithering over which vest to knit, I can't see myself in a loose boxy number, a granny vest, and I don't feel like knitting a cabled or garter one, so I'm a bit undecided. I do want to knit something that some one will wear, preferably me. A vest in Vintage Knits appeals, so I've swatched a little of the red possum merino silk for it, a little 1x1 rib, a little 4x1 rib and a little moss stitch in the round with a i-cord bind off. I wouldn't knit it in red, not sure if it is my limited vision or the predominantly dark Dunedin winter wardrobe but I can't get past the dark blue grey in the photo. I think I like - but I'm still looking, so maybe I don't like enough. The swatch was way off gauge, so I'd have to do the math and resize, which could be the challenge required for the project. Btw : the red is deeper and much nicer than the photos shows, apparently my new wizzy camera is no better at capturing deep delicious reds than the old one.


As for other options, there are two, first a deep V argyle, steeked, a real treasure from Eunny Jang, or this little number which is calling me, but not because I want to wear it, because I think it would be challenge to knit. Some one, please talk me out of that, please? Or perhaps in grey and without the word Corset above it would loose its boudoir and overtly corset connotations. Small note : the AM corset is knit to a gauge of 4.5 sts per inch, which is much larger than I enjoy working, while Eunny's vest is at 6sts per inch.

Just knitting, and frogging and knitting around ....

Yes, there has been some knitting, some frogging and then some more catch-up knitting, twice, so an update on the Toby's Possum merino sweater, and I've started, frogged, and started again Cat Bordhi's Barthomomews Tantalizing socks. Then there is new yarn, some bought and some spun.

First the Possum Merino, I still can't get over how nice this yarn is, despite finding 4 knots/joins in the first skein as I knit. The dessert lands of interesting knitting, the stocking stitch torso is now finished, and I spent some enjoyable time putting in the EZ fake seam down each side seam line. I love how this looks, subtle yet surprisingly effective, the sweater just folds along those fake seam lines. I also liked how the fake seam looks with the chain decorated hem.

So after 'seaming' and putting the torso aside, I cast on for a sleeve, worked the same hem, with a band of chain stitches, an inch of twined knitting and a second band of chain stitches. Then I set about increasing 4 stitches every 5th round until the sleeve was just over 33% of K, 64 stitches. I had Toby slip his arm into it this morning and it was very wide, far to wide, so I frogged back past the last 2 increases and am reworking the sleeve at 56 stitches. I think I deliberately sized the sleeve up to avoid the to tight sleeve of the last sweater. Gauge is 6.75 spi, so adding an extra 8 stitches, well it added 1.2 extra inches. On a skinny 8 year old, that was to much extra sleeve, I do have to be more careful with the rounding up. So for now its just knitting round and round until we get to 15.5 or 16 inches - little children grow and I'm not sure how much extra to put in to the length to accommodate next winters growth.


And my sock knitting, well it is interesting, not quite like the old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times', but in an 'keeps me on my toes' way. Before you begin to knit CB's socks, there are two practice socks (one of which I dutifully knit, the other I didn't), a gauge swatch to knit, measuring (round your foot, along your foot, other parts of your foot ....), calculating (5-6 pages of instructions to get 6 numbers), and then you knit paying close attention to the instructions because these are not socks like we have knit before. Some where between the swatch and the measuring and the book my sock was working out enormous, huge, to big, so I rechecked everything and found my gauge had shifted to the looser side, and the ease in the size I knit was generous.


and so here is my second attempt, knitting both a size smaller and on smaller needles. I'm paying very close attention to the instructions, having just discovered that the increase rate for this sock is every 3 rows, not every 2nd as on most socks. That little mis-expectation resulted in frogging back 5 rows. Still enough of the negative, the positive: wonderfully coloured yarn, which works up magically in the linen slip stitch pattern. Now I have started the sock shaping proper - its very exiting. Oh does that tell you the depths of my sad life? When a new sock shaping is an exiting new event? No thats not sad, thats the sign of an avid knitter at play.

So one of my LYS's has their big sale this month, the kind where they rearrange the shop to make way for huge boxes of yarn shipped in specially for the sale. As part of that they had Opal sock yarn for half price, I resisted all yarn on the first visit (you have to go, just to see what they have, just in case...), but when M from knit night pointed out that Sock-Opal in a rather nice blue was less than half price .... well I called in Friday morning to see if they had any left, and they did, so enough for a pair of socks came home. Much of the sale yarn was thick, chunky and not me.

And what I think of as my 'spinning-homework', or rather my practice for my spinning home work. I was invited a week ago to visit an experienced spinner who advised me to practice spinning loftier and thicker singles. Oh that was hard, while my fine spinning seemed great, my bulky spinning, that was a different story. Rather than 'ruin' the practice roving she gave me, I dug out the grey corridale that came with the wheel, and some other x-breed 29 micron fiber and spun it as thick as I could. but it is not very thick at all, spinning thick and consistent is much much harder than it looks. Still I did see some improvement in consistency and so have made a start on the bag of homework fiber. The workshop is on the 9th, so plenty of time.

I'm back to work tomorrow, after 5 weeks off, so there will be less knitting, and more writing and work type things. I do wonder how many hours it will take to work thru my email in box at work. I have made a deliberate move not to 'work' during my break, which means the emails have not been attended to at all. Lets hope I get the box cleared by lunchtime?