Trekking Sock Finished!

That's right! That's *two* things I've finished this week. To make it even better, the Trekking sock is the second of the pair, so I have a new pair of socks to wear!

The pattern is my default "generic" sock pattern. It's beaded rib done over 60 stitches. The ribbing continues down the instep. If I were to guess, I'd say about half of my handknit socks followed this pattern. The rest are either plain 2x2 rib or are the Braided Toeholder pattern from 3Trails Designs (now defunct).

I have already cast on the second sock of the most recent pair of Braided Toeholder socks in Mountain Colors Bear Foot. I can't remember the name of the color for these socks.

Also on the needles now is a chemo cap. A friend's mom has been diagnosed with stage 2/stage 3 breast cancer. I offered to knit her a hat since she's starting chemo soon and her hair will be going on hiatus. It turns out that one of the first things she asked my friend was if I'd knit her a hat. It's a simple roll brim hat knit in Lion Brand Homespun. Not my favorite yarn to work with, but it's soft and it's in a nice blue color. I may pick up some Bernat Boa tomorrow and work on a 2nd hat for her. Perhaps I'll try knitting a hat when I'm at the movies this week, instead of a dishcloth.

Winter Holiday Knitting
For various reasons I don't knit people things for the holidays. That's not to say I don't give out holiday gifts which are hand knit, but I don't set specific goals of knitting X things for Y people. It's too hard to knit to deadline and, for me, it takes all the fun out of the knitting. If I'm going to spend my time knitting something for someone, I want it to be fun. Personally, I'd much rather knit something and just give it to them at random when it's finished. That also adds an extra element of surprise/delight since the recipient has absolutely no idea that the gift is coming. I do give away dishcloths at the winter holidays, but those get knit when I'm at the movies throughout the year. I give away as many as I get done and divide them up even among the folks who I know like them and use them. No pressure. No muss. No fuss.

Kiri Completed!

And I even blocked it! Here's a pic of it hanging out on my bed. I think the re-knitted section was done on a needle that was 1mm smaller than the original. Not enough of a difference to be particularly visible unless you look really closely for a long time.

Today I'm leaning toward working on my blue Trekking sock. I got to the start of the heel flap yesterday evening. The heel always seems to go pretty quickly. There are a couple of football games today I'd like to watch so that might be good timing. I really need to do a bit more work on my house too (patching holes in duct insulation), so the knitting might be a good break. By the end of the weekend, I might have a finished pair of socks!

Kiri Kiri!

Ok, so I'm focused again on the Kiri. I am on repeat number 3 of the four that I was going to re-knit. I ought to be able to finish that up this weekend, barring any difficulties or distractions. I promise to post pictures. (Sorry I haven't had many photos lately. There just hasn't been much to photograph.)

______________ While Knitting
Lately there hasn't been anything worth watching on TV while I knit, not even on my favorite Turner Classic Movies. So I have been using audiobooks from my library to keep my brain occupied while I knit. I can check out 10 books at a time for two weeks. The downloadable books are just *awesome*! This past week I listened to The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (and read by the author). It was quite entertaining. If you like humorous essays, this might strike your fancy. Next up, Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card.

For some reason I need to be doing something while I knit. I can't just sit and knit. My mind starts to wander and then I make mistakes in my knitting. I also get distracted and end up not knitting for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. So I need to read, watch TV/movie or listen to talk radio or an audiobook. Just enough to keep me occupied so I can knit. I know I'm missing details on the movie or the book, but I'm able to knit for a couple hours at a time, so I'm ok with that.

What do you do while you knit?

"Stay on target! Stay on target!"

I am having all sorts of difficulties deciding between working on the Kiri or the Swan Lake/Mystery Stole. I'm sort of alternating between the two. I probably ought to just focus on the Kiri and get it done, then focus on the Mystery Stole. At the rate I'm going I could drag out the two of them for another month or two. It's starting to get cold out so I ought to finish one of the silly things before too long. And I have another five skeins of alpaca laceweight on the way too, which will, no doubt, get me thinking about starting a new project.

Just two more repeats and the border left on the Kiri. I've just started Chart H on the Swan Lake. I'm a member of the Mystic Waters shawl knitalong, but I haven't even started that yet. I'm curious to see how big it will be and what it looks like before I start. What I've seen so far doesn't have me completely enamored, but that could just be me being grumpy.

The New and Improved Fiber Room

The fiber room got put back together last night in good time. I have managed to gain quite a bit of space and will gain another 9 square feet when I get rid of my extra computer monitor (and box). I don't quite have enough room to set up my loom, but it's really close and I could rearrange a few bins to gain that space pretty easily if I wanted to weave.

Tonight I'm taking it easy and knitting the Kiri. I am fighting the urge to knit some baby sweaters for charity this Christmas season. This urge is probably being driven by finding my bins of miscellaneous acrylic and odd ball wool yarns. They'd be perfect for making baby surprise jackets or even wallaby sweaters, as well as hats. I feel the need to do something that would be appreciated by someone, even if just by a random baby. Of course, I cannot find the address of the hospital to which I used to send preemie hats. *sigh*

Oh Dear....

I am taking advantage of the long weekend to rearrange my fiber studio. I had initially intended to empty several boxes and then assemble the sewing table my Mom gave me when I moved. The former was accomplished successfully. The latter was not. You see, my evil plan included assembling the table and then placing my stash of storage bins under and on top of said table. Except that the table would actually obstruct more or the room than the bins by themselves. So I shampooed the carpet under the bins and will put them back in their places in the morning.

While I was at this mass reorganization, I happened to inventory my fleece stash. I had always thought I had seven fleeces. It would seem I was mistaken. I have thirteen fleeces and that doesn't count the two fleeces that I have put in the garden as mulch/compost. This includes four fantastic Coopworth fleeces from Hidden Valley Farm. I started collected the gray fleeces (one dark, one light and one medium) when I had considered weaving myself a Lord of the Rings replica cloak. Soon after purchasing the first two gray fleeces, I changed my mind about this but didn't let that get in the way of purchasing additional fleeces.

The rest of the fleece collection includes two dark gray Shetland fleeces, one white Shetland fleece, a dark gray fleece labelled "Munchkin", two fine wool crossbred fleeces (at least part Border Leicester)from Cascade Sheep and Wool, one medium cream colored fleece with some veggie matter in it, one steel gray coarse and curly fleece and two Romney cross fleeces I bought from some 4-H kids (mild to moderate veggie matter and possibly slightly felted from storage). I really ought to send some of these things out for processing, though what I'd be most likely to send are the very fleeces that I'd rather play with myself--the Coopworths.

So here's my question: why is it that the sheep's fleeces apparently multiplied but I still have the same 4 ounces of angora rabbit fur that I started with? Shouldn't it be the bunny that reproduced?


Spinning Progress
I plied up a bobbin of worsted weight merino three-ply on Friday night. I could probably get another bobbin plied tomorrow after work. Once the singles are all plied, I will start in on the Autumn Leaves roving for a change from the plain white merino. I might get enough yarn from the Autumn Leaves to make a vest. If I could remember which issue of Knitters' magazine the On the Point vest was in, I might consider adapting that pattern to use this yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I found where I'd stored all my handspun. I have enough gray Romney worsted weight to make a aran vest. I don't know if I have enough of the merino worsted weight to do much with yet. There are also the two skeins of lumpy bumpy stuff I made when I first started spinning. It might make a good hat, but I haven't even tried yet.

Knitting Progress
I re-knit the toes of a pair of Socka socks this weekend. It's getting chilly enough in the mornings that I like to wear socks to work now. This makes for marvelous motivation to get one's holey socks darned. I also fixed the toe from the turquoise JaWoll socks I made ten years ago. I was surprised to see how much they had faded, until I thought about how old the socks actually are. I suppose it's to be expected that they might fade after that long, even with handwashing. Of course, it's also to be expected that there might have been some wear in the toe area too.

The Washing of the Sweaters

It's the end of daylight savings time and the weather has gotten cooler. I have begun the fall edition of washing all my sweaters. This house and the last house I lived in both have carpet beetles, so I try to keep a close eye on things. Although I escort nearly all bugs and spiders out of the house, these little critters I squish. Mostly what I find are the larvae or larval skins. I rarely find adults. The larvae are voracious eaters of wool, skin, hair and even leather. The adults just hang out on the window sill, as far as I can tell. I have found larvae on the bathroom counter, on sweaters (next to holes they ate), on the carpet, on the bedspread and on the walls. I have, of course, found them occasionally in my yarn and fiber stash. That's part of the reason why I keep it sealed in big plastic bins rather than on shelves out in the open. I try as much as I can to deny access to the munchies.

So the cotton sweaters went in the washing machine yesterday and I handwashed about half of the wool and mohair sweaters. Later this week I'll wash the other half of the sweaters, then put them all back. It also gives me a chance to go over everything and check for pulled threads, missing buttons, and other minor repair issues.

Minor Knitting Action
I did finish a repeat of the Kiri yesterday (three and a half rows). I will knit three more repeats and call it quits. I keep thinking I can knit a whole repeat in an evening, but at the bottom edge of the shawl it takes a while to knit a row. I haven't gotten around to counting the stitches yet. Part of me wants to know and part of me doesn't want to know. I thought about knitting away the day today, but I brought some work home with me and really need to do that instead. I also need to finish baking cookies for Twitchh and the SCinet fiber team. Set-up for the SuperComputing conference, SC07, starts tomorrow morning.

Maybe this evening I can get back to the Kiri....

Horror Films and Fiber Fun!

I *love* October. Both TCM and AMC show scary movies. AMC is going all out and showing horror flicks 24 hours a day between Oct 22nd and Oct 31st. They're not always flicks I'm interested in watching, like the Scream series or Dracula 2000, but it's hard to resist the quality movies, like The Exorcist, The Howling and The Fog. I suppose, when you think about it, Halloween, being made in 1978 and being nearly 30 years old, probably qualifies for "vintage" status now. It's hard to believe it's been that long. On Halloween day, all five Halloween movies will be shown in order starting at 10am EDT. By the time I get home, they'll be showing the later ones, which aren't nearly as good as the first one.

For some reason I like to spin while I watch horror movies. I spun up half a bobbin of merino lace-weight yesterday. This is from my stash of merino roving that I pick up at the Amana woolen mill factory store at the Amana Colonies in Iowa. I have probably seven pounds of this stuff. I've been turning it into a light worsted weight 3-ply. I have no idea what I'll do with it, though it would make for a nice Aran sweater. I suppose I should go through my stash and find out how much I've already spun up.

The Spinning Queue
Next will either be the alpaca roving I bought three years ago at the Fleece Fair or the red/gold striped roving called "Autumn Leaves" also purchased at the fleece fair. The alpaca is eight ounces of jet black roving from the Oak Meadow Alpaca Farm. I think it would like to be a lace-weight 2-ply for a shawl or stole. It would certainly make a beautiful Leda's Dream or Moon Dance. I'm leaning toward Moon Dance at the moment.

The Autumn Leaves roving is 70% dyed Border Leicester and 30% natural colored Border Leicester and was produced by Maple Row Stock Farm. It's more of a red-orange than the picture shows. The natural colored wool adds a bit of brown to the mix. I have 8 ounces of this wool. I had purchased a similar colorway the previous year, but it had more brown in it. I actually removed the brown from the roving because I thought it muddied up the color too much. I think I spun a 2-ply DK weight from the previous roving. If I can find that yarn, I'll spin this to match and double my yield.

I also have some red, purple and yellow roving that I really think is quite unattractive. I'm sure at the time I thought it was quite pretty and I had some sort of plan for it, but now I'm not sure what I was thinking. I haven't decided if I'm going to re-card it so the colors are all blended together or even add some cream-colored or gray wool. I'll have to experiment with the drum carder.

Fiber Stash Inventory
Yep, I really need to get the fleeces and roving cataloged and then re-arranged the fiber room. It's time to get it organized so I can use it more readily. There's too much to keep track of in my head. I had started preparing one of the Coopworth fleeces, but I can't remember how much of it was washed or which bins are just picked fleece or washed fleece.

Travel Knitting, Part 2

I am again comfortably ensconced in my hotel room with a belly full of food--this time it's good home cooking from Monell's. The menu tonight was fried chicken, baked chicken with stuffing, fried porkchops, greens, coleslaw, Italian green beans, corn pudding, biscuits, fried green tomatoes, broccoli salad, mashed potatoes, fried apples and strawberry shortcake. The food is served family style and everybody sits at big tables. Although I was a solo diner this evening, I sat with four other people, which was nice. The food is superb, which you might expect from a restaurant that's been in business since the 1880s. If they didn't have good cooking figure out by now they'd have gone out of business by now, don't you think?

I got three pattern rows on the Kiri done last night. I got another pattern row done this evening before dinner and hope to get two more pattern rows done before bedtime. Right now I think I'll do two more pattern repeats after this one, then the border. That will add one pattern repeat more than the original, if I recall things correctly. I might go with three more repeats to make it even larger.

The few times I wore the shawl before its unfortunate accident, I really wanted it to be a bit larger than it was. Not so much longer, as deeper across the shoulders. I suppose I ought to design a shawl/stole hybrid. No pointy bit pointing at one's behind (which makes me think of my friend Dr. Pete who refers to men's ties as "dick pointers") and a nice wide covering for the shoulders/upper arms before tapering to the traditional pointy ends. I expect this trapezoidal shape has already been developed and I might even have a pattern or three in that shape. Will have to do some research.

Travel Knitting Again!

I am comfortably ensconced in a hotel room with a belly full of good Japanese food and some mindless entertainment on the television (Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe). I have brought the Kiri and the blue sock for my knitting. I'll see how far I get with the Kiri in the next hour. I'm going to bed at 10pm so I can get up early to workout and have breakfast. If the weather cooperates, I'd like to walk to the training session tomorrow (about 5 blocks) and maybe pick up a latte at the library coffee shop while en route.

With any luck I'll get an uninterrupted evening of knitting tomorrow night too. w00t! Of course, I'll have to also consider what I want to eat tomorrow evening. Decisions, decisions.....

Becoming a Smarter Knitter

I have achieved a new level of knitting intelligence. I figured out that during the 4th quarter of the Illinois-Michigan football game I needed to knit something truly mindless, like ribbing, instead of trying to knit either the Kiri or the Mystery Stole.

Apparently I do learn eventually from having to rip back after making mistakes when distracted by a close game or other equally engaging activity. I did get one repeat of the Kiri knit before the game captured too much of my attention. I might get another repeat done tonight. I think I'll watch one of the Lord of the Rings movies, one of the Thin Man movies or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

More Knitting!

I have just finished picking up the live stitches on the Kiri (having had to rip back three repeats plus the border to fix the tear in it). I have no idea where in the pattern I'm at now. I'll have a look at that shortly. The working yarn is in the middle of a pattern row.

Fledgling Wing
I haven't quite finished the first repeat on the wing. I dislike having to keep a stitch marker at the end of the row where I turn and knit back. It gets in my way, but I have discovered with this particular pattern it's easier to use the stitch marker than to have to count or examine the knitting and see where the P2tog goes before the turn. Oh well, I'll live.

When I pinned out the stole last week for the picture, I discovered that it will block out larger than I thought. It might actually qualify as a stole, instead of a scarf. Of course, there's no telling how well it will stay blocked once I wear it. Once it's finished and blocked for real, we'll see how big it gets.

Ravelry
I have been slowly building up my Ravelry entries. I'm listed there as morenna if you want to look. I don't have any photos posted and I'm not likely to do so any time soon. I am not really keen on having to start a Flickr account in order to post photos. It would be nice if I could use them off my server instead of having to put them up somewhere else. Oh well.... I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending there anyway since it will, once again, cut into my knitting time.

Knitting!!

I did manage to get some knitting done while I was in Chicago for Marathon weekend. I ripped back the red sock repeat that I'd goofed up the previous week. I even managed to knit a repeat and a half correctly before setting the sock down. I might get the first sock done some time this fall. With any luck the second sock won't take me two years and I can have a complete pair by the spring....

No progress on the Mystery Stole's wing. I thought I had printed out the chart for the wing, but I'm not sure where I put it. If nothing else, I'll put the chart together tonight and perhaps get some knitting done on it tomorrow.

Kiri has not yet been put on the needles for it's re-knitting. That might be a Sunday afternoon job.

More Travel Knitting Coming Soon!
I have two nights of travel next week for work. I hope to spend at least one night just hanging out in my hotel room relaxing and knitting. I don't mean to be antisocial, but after a long day at a meeting it's nice to just drool on myself and do something therapeutic.

No knitting. :-(

I got really busy at work this week and now I'm on the road again (Iit's marathon weekend in Chicago, even though I'm not actually running waddling this year). I do have knitting with me, but I will be really surprised if I get any done. I brought the red lace sock to rip back and the blue trekking socks for actual knitting.
The MS3 stole is still hanging out on the couch after posing for its photo. It really wouldn't have been a good choice anyway, given that it requires concentration and attention to detail, which I'm unlikely to have hanging out with my family and participating in conversation.

Although I'll be in the Chicago area for the next three days, I will not actually be going to any yarn/fiber shops. I just don't have the time or the budget for that. I did buy yarn at Needleworks last weekend though and in Memphis a few weeks before that. I think that will get me by just fine. It's not like I have any shortage of yarn or spinning fiber or fleece. Anybody want to buy part of my 25 pound stash of plain white cotton roving? :-) (seriously, if you'd like some, let me know and we can work out a deal)

Clue 4 Finished! The Wing Awaits!

After knitting, ripping, knitting and ripping rows 405-407 about three times, I have finally finished Clue 4. I used my friend Beading Banshee's modification to carry the border pattern around the top of the stole before the wing starts. I am *not* going to start the wing tonight. It's nearly past my bedtime and I think I'll have to pay a bit of attention to what I'm doing at least for the beginning of the wing area.

Next I'll need to get the Kiri back on the needles, so I can finish knitting it again.

The Cursed Red Lace Sock
Remember the red lace socks? They're knit from red Nylamb using the Lacy Arrow Sock pattern from the Spin-Off Sock Book that came out several years ago. I took them with me to Champaign over the weekend so I could knit on them at Needleworks. I had marked the row I was ready to knit in the pattern, so I merrily knitted away for about 8 rows. And then discovered that I had not apparently marked the starting row correctly. I'll be ripping out the inch of progress I made. It seems like this happens whenever I make significant progress on that sock. I must have knit the gusset area four times. Once I got halfway down the foot before noticing an obvious error in the lace right in the middle of the instep.

Part of me wants to give up since I can't manage to finish even the first sock of the pair. The other part of me wants to beat this darned thing into submission. The sock is beautiful. It's just not cooperating particularly well at the moment.

Yarn Crawl!

I was able to visit my favorite "local" yarn shop yesterday. Needleworks is located in Champaign. I've been a customer of Sharon's since 1986, when I purchased a couple of cross-stitch patterns. Needleworks was primarily a needlepoint/cross-stitch shop then. Now it's mostly a knitting shop. Completely coincidentally they're having an anniversary party and giving discounts on purchases. W00t!

I hadn't intended to purchase any yarn at all, but then I found the stash of Mountain Colors yarns and saw a skein of Weaver's Wool Quarters in the Bitterroot Rainbow colorway that really wants to become my favorite pair of socks this winter. I'll probably use my usual pattern for this yarn--Braided Toeholder by 3 Trails Knitting Designs. There was a similar colorway in another yarn, but it would have ended up requiring three skeins to get a pair of socks and I didn't want to mess with that hassle.

That was going to be the end of the purchases, until I saw a lovely skein of lace weight yarn. It's 1200 yards of superfine alpaca from J. Knits in a pale sage green color called Pueblo. I tried to resist it, but it told me it wants to become the Print O' the Wave shawl.

I'll head back over there today so I can hang out and knit with my yarn buddies. W00t!

An Argument in Favor of a Knitting Journal

Remember the rip in the Kiri? I attempted to mend it today. I decided it was beyond my abilities. Part of the problem is that part of one row was ripped out and while I could fix a simple rip, I don't know how to recreate the missing row from nothing. So I ripped back about six repeats of the Kiri pattern. What does this have to do with a knitting journal? I don't know what needle size I used for the silly shawl. I think it was a size 3. The pattern calls for a 5mm needle, but I'm certain I used a smaller one than that. I have a size 4 out right now, but that seems too big. I'll pick up the stitches in the morning with a size 3 and see how that goes.

This weekend I will work on the Mystery Stole and see if I can get up to the wing section. I haven't got too much house/yard work to do this weekend so I should be able to manage some serious knitting (unless I get bored and too fussy to sit still).

Knitting Night!

I cleaned data until I was brain dead at work today. Now I'm going to brew a pot of lime-ginger tea, plant myself in the comfy chair and knit the night away. If there's nothing good on TV this evening, I have several audio books on my computer to keep me company.

I cannot think of anything I have to do this coming weekend, except mow the lawn and perhaps wash my car. Perhaps I can get the Mystery Stole up to the beginning of the wing....

Re-starting the charity knitting
While the Dulaan Project was running I spent at least a couple of hours every other Sunday knitting on charity items. I haven't done that in a while. I think it's time to resurrect that custom. I have plenty of yarn which would be suitable for hats, mittens, sweaters, scarves and socks. I just need to pick a charity and the relevant projects, then get started!

Bad Gauge

Well, I have unraveled Fawkes. They were going to be huge. Way too big for me. I could probably make them in Claudia's Handpaint if I went down a needle size. (I had started them on size 2 needles.) I might try them again on size 1s. Or I might make myself some ribbed lace socks from Sensational Knitted Socks instead.

So I spent last night with the blue Trekking socks. I don't know if I'll work on them again tonight or if I'll go back to the Mystery Stole. Decisions, decisions....

It's almost border time!

The Mystery Stole is presently at Row 327. The end of Melanie's cat's paw section is at Row 329. Beading Banshee's pattern adds some extra cat's paw sections (she estimates an extra 11 inches, but I suspect that will be shorter at my gauge). I'm printing out the modification now. I don't think I'll be ready to knit the wing by the end of today, but I should be fairly close.

I have found an extra yarn over in one of the cat's paws at the edge of the body, but I'm not going to drop the two involved stitches back and fix it. I might notice the error, but nobody else will. Ordinarily this sort of thing would bug me (I always have to fix lace errors in socks, for example), but apparently it's not an issue with a scarf/stole.

Which brings me to the size of the stole. Unblocked, I have a gauge of about 10 sts per inch in stockinette stitch. I don't think this will be so much as stole as a scarf, which is just fine with me. I seem to be developing a collection of knitted scarves. When I get enough of them, I'll start giving them away.

New Yarn
I decided a road trip was in order and visited a couple of yarn shops yesterday. I almost bought some Mountain Colors yarn at the first shop, but the colorways they had I already own or wasn't thrilled with. The next shop was crowded, but didn't have much in the way of anything in which I was interested. There was a bit of Koigu and some self-striping sock yarn, but I'm not a huge fan of self-striping and never have been bitten by the Koigu bug. I think the Koigu colors are wonderful, but it holds no magic for me. Had I been interested in sweaters of DK to worsted weight yarn, I would have found many things to buy, but that's not what I wanted.

At the third yarn shop, I did pick up a skein of cobweb weight wool (FaRe by Baruffa 1350 meters in 100 grams). I have already picked the project for this yarn--the Cheshire Cat Stole. I won't start it soon, but it's on the list now and the skein is labeled with its intended project.

Today's Knitting
I'd like to get the Mystery Stole done to the wing, but I'll settle for getting the cat's paw section finished and be ready to start the border. I could probably get more done, but yard work and housework need to be done. Much as I hate to do it, I will have to do some laundry and FOLD it today. The pile of clean clothes at the end of the bed just needs to go away.