And She Knits Too!

Socks and Stoles

I finished Emma's Socks a week or so ago and they fit (for now). She loves them. I'm very pleased with them too. I have chosen not to cast on a new pair (as is my custom) and see how life is without socks on the needles. I'm thinking the Ribbon Lace scarf might be a good alternative. Vino is my travel knitting right now (I promise to introduce you to it properly soon), but that will get too big soon.

When I do find time to knit, I'm all about the Earth Stripe Wrap. On the weekend I finished the called-for 148cm and discovered that it's too short to throw over one shoulder in that jaunty way that says I look fantastic . Shit. So, I trudge onwards to do another 20ish cm. I have about 2.5cm to go and that's my plan for tonight--tv, KSH, coca-cola and all dressed chips (or maybe a spicy tuna roll...).

Here it is at the almost completed mark.

Notice those fuzzy things? That'd be the ends. All the ones started on the right side are woven in and just need trimming. But the other side says: "You ain't anywhere near done this puppy yet, bitch."

Sigh. Maybe I can get Craig to take me for a beer on a patio on a not-quite warm enough night and I can do that jaunty thing.

What's in Dr. Steph's knitting bag(s)?

One area where my new MacBook totally delivers is on the photo side of things. My Canon Powershot S230 is five years old and on my PC I needed to download pictures using Canon's cumbersome software; without it, XP couldn't seem to find the camera. With my new 'puter, I plugged in the camera and there were my photos! So I took pictures of all my WIPs.

Earth Stripe wrap is at the 112cm mark (I think it's about 150cm at finished length without fringe). I'm sooooo close. I want to wear this a few times at least before Spring, so this is high on my list. It's too big and there's too many colours to carry around so I need to be home to work on this. Not a problem this week because Craig is off to the Tim Horton's Colts Provincial Championships tomorrow so it's just me, the kids and the tv. Go Beck Rink!

I finished the first Vinterblomster mitten last Tuesday night. Here it is blocked. I love it.

I started the second mitt last night so that there is a chance I'll have a pair to wear this Spring (I think they'll match nicely with Claudia).

Emma's socks are almost done (Oak grove mc and Sheldrige Farms soft touch cc). Her feet have appeared to stop growing (she's just turned 9 and wear's a woman's size 7, so having them slow down for a bit is good for sock knitting and shoe buying).

And this is the thing that is distracting me from all of the above. My first piece of Vino--Laura's awesome sweater coat. The yarn is Dream in Colour Classy in November Muse and I love knitting this and looking at it. The colour is exactly my style and it's fast and fun. I put this into the bottom of my knitting bag and left all the rest out so I don't play with it for a bit.

This also game me the chance to show off my new couch and funky ottoman.  The scary ikea couch is no more and I have place to rest my feet while I knit!

Knitting by Scale

Thanks for all the get well messages.  I managed to drag my butt to work this week and actually do a few things and now I am on holiday for 2 weeks AND I'm feeling better, so things are good.

Well sorta, Alexander now has it.  But the Christmas shopping is done and the tree is up and I'm off for two weeks.

Christmas socks were also finished today.  It was close.  So close I needed to pull out the scale and see what I could do for the cuffs. 

This is why toe-up socks are good, you can make these decisions and still come out with socks in the end.  I had 8 grams of yarn left at the cuff point.  I knit a little, weighed the ball, knit a bit more, you get the idea.  When I had 4 grams left and the cuff looked good, I casted off and did the other cuff.  I had a bit left (so I could have made them a bit longer, but this time of year, there's no messing around) and someone is getting a nice pair of socks for Christmas.

Now I get back to the Bohus. Did I mention I have two weeks off?

Too Sick for Socks

Yup, I got Emma's germs and now feel like dirt.  I did manage to be sorta well on the weekend and went to the Lettuce Knit Christmas party and even trudged in the snow (we had a *big* storm on Sunday) but now I'm sick, sick, sick.  I stayed home from work today and slept all day.  I knew it was bad because I'm not knitting, not even the socks for Christmas deadline.  I'm not going to be ready for my planned, Turn the Heel Tuesday which is needed so that I'm not knitting these socks late into Christmas Eve. 

Worse still, because I think I may run out of yarn, I had to put almost completed sock 1 on some waste yarn to wait until I finish sock 2 and decide if I need contrast yarn for the cuff.  So I can't even give him one sock with a pithy note about sock 2 being on the way.  Yikes.

But really this post is just so I can whine. 

At least there are socks

Emma and I stayed home again today.  She's at that not-good-enough-for-school-not-sick-enough-for-home stage which means she'll be fine enough tomorrow.  Now that I'm not a free-wheeling post-doc, working from home is a nice luxury.  The laundry is done, I'm wearing jeans and a handknit noro sweater and I'm comfortable working on my laptop at the dining room table.  Except that the vpn connection I need to use my work computer isn't working, so I didn't get the work done I wanted to do.  I set a goal for myself to finish before the Christmas break and I'm either going to end up working over the holidays or I need to work a few evenings next week.  I'm not too hot on either option.

But at least there are socks.  I finished Alexander's socks on Tuesday.  They look so tiny.  I hope they fit.  I also lost the yarn band, so I can't tell you what I used.  I won it on one of Cara's contests.

He knows I'm making them, but didn't notice I finished them so they're going under the tree.

I was planning on going back to my knitting (bohus is waiting) but the perpetual, what do we buy the man (my father-in-law) who has everything and has a birthday on December 24 question came up.  I realized he was the only member of my immediate family who has never received hand knit socks.  So I started a pair.

When I started, it seemed like a silly idea.  Time before Christmas is tight and I try to avoid knitting deadlines because they stress me out.  But being home with a sick kid and no connection to my work computer makes a knitter pretty productive.

It's a standard toe-up sock in Trekking XXL colour 101.  It's my first sock with trekking and I like the yarn.  I also did my first sherman heel.  It took a bit to figure out those encroachment stitches, but after reading this fantastic explanation I did a rather nice heel.  I think I still like garter stitch short row heels better, but they aren't good for people with high insteps so this is a good alternative and looks better than my traditional short rows.

Hopefully I won't be knitting these Christmas Eve.

Playdates: very noisy, but I get a moment to blog

Both kids have a friend over.  They will both be gone in just over an hour and I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not.  It'll sure be quieter (holy, playing cars and dress up is super noisy) but then I'll be in charge of entertaining them.

But I do have some time to blog.  I've been working on keeping warm these last few weeks and now that I have a hat, it was time for slippers.  I bought the yarn to make the Fiber Trends felted clogs last year, and now they're done.  I've used this pattern a bunch of time, but never for myself.  The magic of felted still tickles me.

Before (my old birkenstock for scale):

After:

They didn't quite felt the same (or possibly, I didn't knit them quite the same) but they will do nicely.  Once they're completely dry I'll add the leather slipper bottoms I bought.  On the hardwood, these things are slick. 

But they look nifty and Grinchy on my feet.

I also completed a first sock for Alexander and I need to really get going on the second one.  I swear his feet grow while I'm watching them.  He'll be 7 tomorrow and is already wearing a size 5.  The yarn is a nice one I won from one of Cara's fab contests, but I lost the label so I couldn't tell you much about it.

I'm also getting smarter with the socks.  The marker is the beginning of the toe decreases--I'm so pleased I remembered that.  And to write down things like how many stitches at the end of the heel.  This pair might be almost the same, unlike some of my others where I wing it a bit.

Now to put on some ear plugs and do some knitting.

Monkey-Talk

This low-impact living thing is complicated.  There are some great comments in the last post about the true efficiency of Blackle (I have been chastened) and the routes to sustainability.  I found the fact that modern life is bad for the environment particularly interesting.  But I'm not sure where to go with that.  Sure we could use a whole lot less Happy Meal-toys and other crap (I love this satire on it) but I also like living in a centrally heated home with a fridge and stove, so I also want to balance progress (ie not living in a cave or sod hut) and comfort within this whole process, so keep those comments coming--I like when this blog has dialogue (especially since I've been a bit light on the blogging this month).

I do have a sock to show:

I love the fit and it was fun to knit.  The yarn behaved very nicely with no pooling and overall I'm very pleased. 

Tonight I'll start the second one.  I'm still in barefoot mode, but I know Fall is approaching...

That's because I'm off to Rhinebeck again!  I was dithering a bit about it because I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with life and work and everything, but my very sweet husband kicked my ass and I asked for the time off and me and my pal Keri are goin' on a road trip to Rhinebeck!

Fun(ky) Monkey

I love these monkey socks!

The pattern is engaging without requiring all my attention and the Oak Grove yarn is beautiful.  I usually avoid anything but plain stockinette for my socks because I like to zombie-knit, so maybe I've turned a corner.

Now I have my 7 movies lined up and something to knit while I queue.

A Day by the Lake

I like this long-weekend stuff.

Spend a day by a lake, watch the kids swim, eat lunch, drink beer and make socks.

Put socks on.  Enjoy the perky picot hems and the almost perfect short row heels (me and short row heels are an emerging relationship.  I like the fit, I still don't have picking up the wraps down pat).

Cavort with nature:

Yarn is Vesper Sock in a colour I can't remember.  I believe Watermelon Stripe, but I could be completely wrong.  The yarn was from a trade with Anmyriam and it's great to knit with stripey fun.

Next I'm going to Monkey around and try some patterned socks.  I need something portable for all those film festival line ups.

I Love Summer

Long holiday weekend, sunny days, a big lake, sand...

 

and socks.  (Vesper sock yarn in a watermelon colourway) 

Oh and beer, but that was after the beach.