Kicking off the 'fest.

What better way to start Socktoberfest than with one sock finished and one begun?


I don't think the Twisted Tweed will be getting a mate for a good long while. It's soft and beautiful and I love the pattern and everything, but there's so much else on my plate right now.

Chief among which, of course, is Drunken Bee. Jesus H. Crackers how much do I love this pattern? So much. Much more than before I started knitting it, which was already a lot. The chart was much easier to learn than I had feared, and the result is mesmerizing -- you sort of can't take it in all at once, so your eye just keeps moving, which is one of my favorite qualities of any piece of art.

In fact, I like it so much I'm having a hard time working on anything else.

"One, two, three... [Chomp.] Ah-three."

You know how sometimes you're working on something and you promise yourself you won't cast on anything new until it's done, but then it ends up taking a bit longer than planned, so that you have ample time to dream about all the many things you could be knitting if you could just finish that one damned project, and then when you finally do finish it you turn around and find you've cast on for three things in 24 hours?

Yeah, me too.


These are Things One and Two: Charade in Louet Gems Sport and Twisted Tweed in Trekking. I generally go in for intricate, lacy socks, but lately I've had a hankering for something simple and eminently wearable. Still, I couldn't decide which of these two somethings to start first -- I was actually feeling some non-trivial tension over it. WTF? I knit for fun, remember? What is the Liberation Movement for, anyway, if not to remind us that this is our craft and we can do whatever the hell we feel like with it, whether that means knitting one sock or three? Onto the needles they both go. I'm actually not finding myself all that enamored with either of these yarns, though I do love the colors (and of course, the patterns).

Speaking of three, Thing Three is top secret; Xmas knitting has begun! My sincere apologies to the Ravelry-less, but a certain The Lady is among your number, and it's the best place I can think of to keep things from her prying eyes.

My sockapal = awesome.

So, in the rush to get my own pal's socks out the door? I halfway forgot that someone out there was knitting socks for me.

I don't knit for myself much, so I've never had a pair of handknit socks before, and I really, truly love these. Blogless Diana of Durham, North Carolina, you are a rad, rad lady.
I love that she really LISTENED to what I told her I like: warm colors, lace is cool but no huge holes, not TOO much variegation. The fit could not be better. She even made sure to ask me what my favorite heel was!

Slipstitch, natch.

She didn't mention what pattern this is, but it looks like River Rapids to me. Back me up on that, somebody? The yarn is Great Feats, from the folks at dyepot.com (who, though they dye a lovely skein of yarn, could use some help in the web design deparment). It's 20% nylon, so I have good faith that this pair can stand up to serious use.

Which is good, because they've already been subjected to my dog-fur-covered floors.

Redemption, mostly.

Baudepaloozalaires, A.K.A. A pair of socks that is neither as long-legged nor as punctual as I'd planned, but still very pretty if I do say so myself, A.K.A. the 36-hour sock:



Faced with two very mismatched socks ('very' being a relative term)I had three choices:
A. Knit a second sock in the lighter dyelot, on US 2s, knowing my pal specifically requested a fine gauge.
B. Rip out the lighter, looser sock, and knit two new socks on US 1s. Starting on Tuesday night.
C. Rip the darker, finer, better fitting sock (of which dyelot I had but one skein) back to where it weighed just under half of the total, reknit the ribbing, and knit a second short, dark, fine sock.

Once option C occurred to me, there really seemed no other choice. To whoever first thought to knit a sock toe-up? THANK YOU.

I think the thing I'm the happiest about, actually, is that despite the roadblocks and the frustration, and the almost crying late at night, I genuinely enjoyed knitting these -- all three of them. I think that means I like to knit or something.

And should I ever feel like knitting this pattern again (it could be awhile), I'm already halfway to a pair of my own.

*facepalm*

In her youth, my mother was a knitter, a seamstress, and a clerk in a dye and finishing company. I could not possibly count the number of times I have heard her say "make sure to check the dyelot!"


Of course, I don't remember her ever saying "if you're knitting two of something, you should probably use the same needle size for each". But I imagine that's just because she overestimates her daughter's intelligence.

It's back to better!*

My crazy class is over. It makes me breathe easier just to say it, so I'll say it again. My crazy class is over. It seems like a blur.

I slept a LOT this weekend, finished installing the trim in the downstairs bedrooms, and then slept some more. I feel like a human again. And a knitting human at that!

TWO little monkeys, finished just a couple of days late. (For The Lady's birthday)

OK, clearly this is not news, but this is a brilliant pattern. Possibly even more brilliant than the rest of Cookie's designs -- not just any pattern could make me feel good about variegation. I love this yarn (Artyarns Ultramerino 8), and it behaved with admirable consistency, but I am very very picky about things like striping and pooling. Just about every set of Monkeys that I've seen knitted up looks good. How often can you say that?

I've still got several longstanding WIPs going, including of course the house, which I will have more pictures of sometime this week. But there is one notable newcomer:

Apologies for the shitty light.
This was back when free time before dusk was a hot commodity.

I saw Margaux's Fifi and knew instantly I would knit it for my mother. After agonizing over the yarn choice for a bit, I found a deal on Calmer on eBay and hit the ground running. Although it's got some odd little quirks, I love this pattern. It's all I can do to leave it alone long enough to finish up my palooza socks. (I am an incorrigible procrastinator.)

*If Cadillac still isn't your favorite unicorn ever to be wished into existence by an 8-year-old gay boy named Shannon, you really need to go see this. Right now.

WIP report: Transformation

Isabella:


Living Room:


Monkey:



I'm tired and sore and ecstatic. I love my house more every day, and I can hardly concentrate on anything else, but I'm managing to do some scheming about xmas knitting. I promise a real post very soon!

Calm before the storm.

This house thing? It's a goddamned rollercoaster. From the furnace to the sewer to the easements to the insurance, I swear there has literally been a new wrinkle every day. Most of our belongings are packed up and we've given notice to our landlord, and I still couldn't tell you for sure if we'll get the keys to the new place on Friday or Monday. (Cross your fingers for Friday, k?)

Either way, I'm about to be a homeowner. (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!)
And I'm about to tear up some shag, send some linoleum bits away for asbestos testing, pull down some "wood" paneling, paint over some horrid pepto-bismol pink... I promise, as soon as we are the legally deeded owners we will be taking lots of 'before' pictures.

So before the whirlwind begins, a little documentation of where the knitting stands. The three projects I had going two weeks ago are pretty much stalled. Here's the newcomer:

I'm planning to finish the pair by The Lady's birthday, near the end of this month. Beyond that, though, I'm sort of curious as to what my knitting life will do. Will our intrepid blogger abandon the needles entirely in favor of the paintbrush and prybar? Or turn to her knits more than ever, seeking relief from the overwhelming tackiness? Stay tuned to find out!

Flakery.

We had a visit last week from an old friend who had never seen the Pacific Northwest, so of course we showed him the sights, which is an excellent excuse to see them again, ourselves.

We witnessed the beauty of our lovely state:

Photo credit on this one goes to The Lady.

We witnessed the pooches trying to save their favorite person from what they believed was certain death:


We witnessed a grown man being pushed around a Seattle city block in a pink Powerwheels Jeep, by another man (also full grown) singing Prince's "Kiss". He's learning the lyrics in this shot:

Which I hope you will take as sufficient evidence that no one involved was remotely sober, including the photographer. Said photographer, however, managed to fall into bed afterwards and knit a full repeat on the Baudelaires, which should itself be taken as sufficient evidence that this pattern is way easier than it looks. Possibly the highest beauty-to-difficulty ratio yet, narrowly beating out the Child's First Socks.

Back in Portland, however, I have evidence only of the fact that I am a terrific flake:

Endpaper, missing only a thumb, Baudelaire, waiting patiently to be bound off, aaaand... Rusted Root, cast on yesterday. I wonder if the ladies of the liberation front will allow me into their ranks with only 99% of a sock?

Purple socks: past, present, and future

Past:

I tried, I really did. I cast on for Eunny's Bayerische socks, and I plugged away with real diligence and optimism. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I was just too discouraged. They weren't too hard, exactly, they just moved so damn slow. The result was beautiful but if I'm not enjoying it, what's the point?

Present:

The second I ripped out the German Slog I cast on for these in the same yarn (the Lorna's Laces Blackberry that I jettisoned from the Endpaper project awhile back). I remembered immediately why it's so important to enjoy the process as well as the product: this first one is flying off the needles.

Seriously, in the time it's taken to knit this much, I had gotten maybe three inches of the Bayerische.


This pair is for my sockapalooza pal, who quite fortuitously has the same foot length and circumference as I do, though a lower instep.

Future:

I won something. Me! And in no time flat, this arrived in the mail from the lovely Julie Frick.

It's Artyarns Supermerino 4. I've never knit with this stuff before and I'm so glad it's landed in my lap. JF, you can keep destashing in my direction all you like. I'll even pay you next time!


It's super soft, and less shiny than most sock yarns I've seen. I think it will become a pair of Jaywalkers for my female companion. I don't think either of us can ever have too much purple.

I win!

Either I am the last person on the face of the internet to finish up her Christmas WIPs, or everyone else is just too ashamed to admit it. For the record, these were actually done in early March (cuz that's so much better, right?) but fell prey to the great camera drought of 2007.

Pattern: Child's First Sock, from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Denim, well under 2 skeins
Needles: US 1s

After three abortive attempts at Pomatomus with this yarn(I wish I'd taken a picture of the last iteration. I followed the pattern compulsively, to the letter, and still got these huge holes along the right side of the foot. Sometimes you're just more in the mood to move on than to document your faliures, you know?) this was a huge relief. Cuff, leg, heel, foot, toe. Repeat. Nary a frog in sight.

The lace pattern is easy easy easy, and not too lacy, which is good because seeing feet through socks makes me feel sort of uncomfortable. The slip stitch heel is thick and sturdy but still soft. I will definitely be keeping that one in my arsenal.

They fit my mom's little size 6 feet perfectly. I couldn't be more pleased.

Plainspoken Quilt, from The Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr

I don't know if I will ever make a queen sized quilt again. I certainly won't do it with a deadline, however forgiving of tardiness the recipient might be. I thoroughly enjoyed the piecing and even the basting, but everything else, particularly the quilting, felt like a bit of a chore.

That said? I love the result.