Christmas Knitting

I made son-in-law Paul a pair of socks for Christmas.  His hinting at me knitting for him had taken on a “poor, pitiful me” tone and I finally caved.  The family were in town this weekend, so I was able to fit them before closing the toe.  (I don’t do a lot of measuring, unfortunately, and if I do, I lose the numbers immediately.)

Five am Sunday morning, in a dimly lit living room, an insomniac knits black sock toes.  Steve got up and asked how I could see to do that.  I explained that yarn that dark was impossible to see in any light, so I was knitting on faith and feel.  All was good.

Paul got his socks and was appropriately grateful.  That means he gushed, put them on to wear home and told me who he has going to show them to at work.  He will get more socks.  It also doesn’t hurt that he has the smallest adult male feet in the family.

When knitting socks for a guy, do you ever feel like it will never end?  Pat Moore has the exact row count down for the socks she knits for Tink.  I guess that helps keep her going.  Must try that.

These hats are for the other son-in-law Lanny and his son Evan.  Evan saw the big hat that I had knit to advertise a fair isle class and wanted it.  It was too big so he decided his daddy needed it and I could knit him another one.  I know a good idea when I hear it.  Evan is a miniature copy of his daddy, so almost matching hats just seems right.  Hope Lanny likes it as much as Evan will.

Also working on gifts for two special women in my life who have been my friends for forty years.  I  cannot imagive putting up with me for 40 years if you don’t legally or morally have to.  I’ll share pics soon.

Happy Hannakuh and Merry Christmas.  Stay safe and warm.

Halo

When I was a teenager, Southern women went to church on Sundays and wore white gloves and a hat.  Even then I thought if you were going to wear a hat, make a statement.

Halo, like my Top Cat pattern, says something about the wearer.  It says:

1.  I am fun.

2. I solve ordinary problems (cold head) creatively.

3.  I love color.

4.  I have a lot of leftover sock yarn.

The base is Malabrigo chunky—no scratchy stuff, just cloud-like wool.  It’s a simple basic hat with a few tricks.

First to keep it fuller around my full face, I cast on 70 sts (US#10.5) and knit about 1.5 inches in stockinette for a rolled brim.  I knit in the round, but you could easily knit this hat flat and then seam it up.

I knit the next 1.5 inches in 1X1 rib (knit 1, purl 1) to provide elasticity and some security in case of wind.  This also makes the hat fit a large group of head sizes and yet doesn’t squash you hair so badly.

From this point on I added the occasional purl row in order to suggest a place to put the ruffle.  I did every 5 rows, but this is just a suggestion.  In the end, I only used half of these and even put the first ruffle in a place where there was no purl row to facilitate the stitch pickup.  I decreased 4 sts when the mood struck and then decreased in eight sections to quickly close the top.  Obviously, if you need a bit more guidance, I will suggest any of the free basic hat patterns on the internet which use chunky yarn.

Finally I crocheted the ruffles.  You can knit them.  Just increase in every stitch until you like the way it looks.  I was in the mood to crochet.  I varied the rate of increase.  On the top two ruffles I did  6 dc in each purl st for the first round and 4 hdc in each stitch on the second round. 

The third ruffle was 4 dc and the 5 hdc for a looser ruffle.  Fourth round was 5 dc and 4 hdc.

Why did I vary the stitch rate?  Just to see what happens.

Worried about running our of yarn.  The gold ruffle is two very different yarns (see above).  If you run out of one, just tie on a new one and keep knitting.

Then wear you hat with a big smile.  Some folks will think you are stylish and fashion forward (Kate); others will assume you’ve lost your mind (Patsy).  Bestow your warm smile on each of them.

PS–Kate got the hat for her Bostom commute.  Patsy just got the smile.

Colorways in the Park

I’m feeling the itch to dye some yarn.  I’ve been lookin at Ma Nature in the Piedmont of NC and she has made several suggestions.

We took Evan to the Greenway to throw rocks in the creek.  I don’t quite “get” this, but he and G-dad love it.A sculptor named Buddy Gray took a chainsaw and other implements to the trunks of trees that had to be cut down in a flood control program.  Look at what he did with this one.

The carvings tell how we use the area, buy they also remind me of

Gansey sweaters.  Ganseys are one color and the pattern is carved onto the sweater using knits and purls.  As light hits the sweater, the purl sts cast a different effect from the knit sts and the patterns emerge.  Much like these carving use light and shadow and texture.  Guess it’s time to make another gansey.

Evan and I picked up beechnuts to make a holiday display.  The warm browns to orange tones of them is such a gorgeous color.  I thought of Kate who comes next week.

Crepe myrtles are popular in my ‘hood.  I love their bark as it strips away each year.  I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but I know a handpaint colorway when I see one.  This was an amazing display of neutrals.

The canebreak.  I love the greens of can and the sort of “alien” look of the plant itself.  Like Kudzu, no sane person plants it because it takes over, but I am so very tempted.

“Turtle on a rock” sounds like a colorway name.  The zoom feature has muddied the colors a bit, but that isn’t all bad.  Shaded tones have made Debbie Bliss a fortune.

FO and a Sat. Night Rant

FINISHED!  GREEN SOCKS/Cat Bordhi Discovery Sock

Yarn is Yummy by Universal Yarns.  It’s not as soft to the touch as comparably priced sock yarns, but I have high hopes for durability.  It pools badly in stockinette st.

I really like my ribbing.  [Ktbl]2X, P2.

Another look at the lovely toe.

THE SAT. NIGHT RANT

College Mascots

disclaimer:  I wrote this Saturday night during the first quarter of the game!!

Okay, I went to Emory University for my undergraduate degree.  In some circles this is impressive; NOT in athletic circles.  We were heavily endowed by Candler/Coca Cola money and the endowment disallowed football and basketball.  We had a soccer team, but in the mid-60’s no one knew what that was.

Atlanta was also home to Georgia Tech and my stepfather taught me to love the Yellow Jackets.  Marrying one was the epitome of achievements for my family.  (thanks, Steve)

Therefore I learned to have contempt for the University of Georgia Bulldogs.  And this was good—–until my son-in-law went there for his PH.D. and my daughter fell in love with Athens and my grandson grew up to love the Dawgs.  So, I disavowed my cultural heritage and bought/knit red and black things.  It wasn’t easy.

Things have changed.  Today at Dilworth Coffee I met a dog—-a bulldog—-more—-the grandson of Uga VI. (Uga is the Georgia mascot.  Uga VII passed away last week.)  A celebrity dog of regal bearing and noble, but not pretty, visage.

Tonight, as I sat down to watch the Tech-Ga. annual grudge match, I expected (after a one week period of mourning) to meet Uga VIII.  Now folks, there is not big casting call for this dog.  The Uga lineage is meticulously delineated like the DAR and Sons of the Confederacy.  Each offspring is pampered and the heir is prepped for his duties.

So what do we get tonight?  Russ!  A temp!  Georgia took the field with a temp mascot!  It was announced that Uga VIII was “not ready.”  What not ready?  All he does is wear the jersey and stand there.  My 17 year old Henry could do that without breathing hard.

Would Duke supplant the Blue Devil with a minor imp?  Would NC State substitute a poodle for the Wolfpack?  Won, lose or draw I thing the U of Ga must hang their heads in collective shame.

Props to Russ.  He looks good in the jersey and studded collar and he stood nobly–even led them to victory.

“Uga VIII is not ready!”  Big Wuss.  I say give the job to Russ and to heck with the dynasty.

FYI–this game did not end the way I anticipated and there is residual pain.  Wait ’til next year sounds so lame.

Knitting Hierarchy and Raglans

I’ve been alternately trying  resisting and actively trying new ways of knitting socks.  I love my friend Cristi’s enthusiasm about discovering new ways to bring little socklettes into the world.  I’ve been really trying to get on her fun-filled bandwagon. It ain’t workin’ for me.

Actually I am producing far fewer pairs of socks and am not having as much fun.  So what–other than I am NOT Cristi–is going on.

My friend B.J. took me to lunch today.  I had lots of fun.  We share much more than knitting.  We got into some rollicking theology discussions and the subject of meditation came up.

Ka-ching!!!!!

So–Why should my socks be simple things?  What I think is that they are my prayer/meditation knitting.  Wait.  I’ll explain.  Adding the concept of keeping my place in a pattern to the muddle of thoughts that are always racing through my brain defeats the purpose of meditation.  You know, the “ohm” stuff.

Meditation for me, such as it is, also requires rhythm.  Spinning is rhythmic .  For knitting to be rhythmic, the pattern must be simple enough to be automatic.  Stockinette, garter, seed, ribbing–these all meet that need, for me.  Even repetitive colorwork.  Stopping or slowing to turn a cable breaks the meditative focus. Thus cable knitting represents a different kind of knitting.

You may want to give up on this treatise now.  It’s very possible I’m full of it and you should protect yourself.

Patterns which require some attention are “play.”    They have their own rhythm or beat.  They involve slow- downs and speed-ups.  I don’t get lost in these patterns.  I enjoy them, but often put them aside after 20 or 30 minutes.  Eventually they are finished.  Maybe.

Then there is lace–real lace.  Patterns on both sides.  No purl back on the WS rows.  This knitting is Challenge.  It involves preparation and proper environment.  A strategy–It’s a competition, a war. It is to be conquered and finishing brings a feeling of invincibility.

I don’t do this kind of knitting very often.  It takes too much energy.  But a win here is a long lasting high.

Lay people have no concept of what a complex world knitting can be.  (Of course, their obsession is probably the same.) This is another reason I always have multiple projects going.  This is my rationalization and I am sticking to it. 

Oh–about the raglans–

BJ brought a top down raglan to lunch.  After reading my first blog on this issue. she saw fit problems in her new project that she wanted to fix.  it was great for me to be able to fiddle with an “in-process” sweater on a real body.

I’m even more convinced that my problem with raglans is that they are two-dimensional–the back and front have length and width, but no depth.  There has to be a way to add depth to a raglan.  I’m sure it involves knitting the sleeve (top down) to a point before it meets the back and then casting on for a wide underarm depth.

I am trying to figure out a way to research this short of actually knitting a sweater.  I’ll let you know.

Random Kindness

Steve took me shopping for new jeans.  I have trouble getting there on my own.

First stop was Belk’s at Southpark where I originally bought the jeans I was wearing about 20+ pounds ago.  I wanted the same jeans a size smaller.  (Not Your Daughter’s Jeans–Oprah recommends them.  Me, too.)  Belk’s doesn’t carry them in petites anymore–go figure.  But a nice sales clerk said that Nordstrom’s has them.  At this point I usually just go home and mope, but Steve dragged me to Nordstroms.

On the way we stopped at Anthropologie–You guys realize that Target is my normal store of choice, so this was a reat treat for me.  We bought some knobs for the china cabinet my friend Jennie gave me.  (Her mom’s which had been in her garage for years.)  Love the knobs, but enjoyed the salesclerk even more.

She had a fit over my charm necklace and we talked about charm bracelets and why you never wear them.  I told her where to find Bead Lush and I have no doubt she will soon visit and make her own necklace.  Debbie Crane has really started a new trend.  I left the store feeling so happy at the interaction.

Got to Nordstrom’s; found petites; found my jeans.  They now come in colors.  Steve insisted I buy 2 pair–black and dark denim.  Who am I to argue?  Besides he doesn’t want to do this shopping thing again any time soon.

Another saleclerk–”OMG, where do you get your nails done?”  She ws new in town and her hands were wrecked.  Like me she can’t grow any length nail.  We commiserated and I gave her Kim’s name at Fancy Nails and Jewelry, Kings Point on Kings Drive.  I’ve gone there for 10 or more years.  We discusses gel vs tips, etc. and we laughed a lot.  This just made my day.

I skipped back through the mall to the car.

You just never know when a quick smile or a genuine compliment to someone will have a huge effect–even change a life.

Knitters encourage each other all the time with questions and praise.  This is what makes us such a special community.

I guess I’m saying–spread it to the rest of the world————–and thank you to three salesclerks who made my day productive and very happy just by their positive, helpful attitudes

You just never know . . . .  

Like Jazz Sock Pattern on Ravelry

Guess I should at least mention on my own blog that I have a new pattern available.  It is the Like Jazz sock which I designed to prevent pooling around the gusset area.  Eliminated the gusset!!  Look up at the top of the page at the Tab labeled Patterns.  It is the only one on there.

You still have to go to Ravelry to download it ($4). The Patterns page tells you how.

This is a picture of the sock in a lighter colorway.This is a picture of the color problem I was attempted to solve.I’m pretty proud of this and the band heel is easy to knit.

Raglans and their problems

I knit  this sweater for Z when he was about 4, but ran out of steam and never finished the second sleeve.  Well, you know how kids are; he grew.  I saved it because I thought I could use it as a sample for class.

Along comes Evan to the yarn shop to see Nana’s work and he wants a sweater.  I turned him loose to pick out yarn—talked him out of the pale pink–but these were the colors he picked. Bought the yarn with a feeling of deja vu.  Search at home revealed Z’s old sweater.  All it needed was an arm.

I could only located one of the yarns—that big declutter a few years ago; I KNEW I should never get rid of yarn scraps–but found a grey that almost matches.  In a couple of hours, we had a sleeve.  I love asymmetry and Evan seems to agree.  He loves his sweater.  I think I’m saying just pack up and hang on to the unfinished objects.

Anyway, I’ve been pondering raglan sweaters.  They are so easy to knit from the top down and lend themselves to lots of color play and stitch patterns.  The problem I have is they don’t fit well.   I researched some patterns on Ravelry by designers whom I greatly respect.  These are examples of what I find if the model isn’t a size 2.Lovely pattern; well knit; but look at the underarms.  Same here–lots of wadding of fabric at the underarms.  And I have sweaters of my own that are even worse.

Why?  Can it be fixed?  Easily?  Here’s what I’m thinking.Great fit so far.Solves the problem by eliminating the sleeve.  Not exactly what I’m going for.

I’ve been swatching and changing the rate of decrease.  I have Shelda’s spreadsheet where she did this. I’m toying with the idea of knitting the sleeve short of where it comes together under the arm and actually adding my copious amount of underarm stitches.  That’s my best untested idea.

I am not being fussy.  If I buy a sweatshirt to wear around, then the sleeves can bag.  But if I’m going to knit it, I’m not so tolerant.

Any ideas?  How have you tweaked a raglan pattern?  Help is greatly appreciated.

Nicky Epstein Rocks!

Well, I’ve run out of journal notes from the cruise.  I didn’t write about Nicky’s class because I was too busy knitting and that is a great thing.  If you get a chance to take a class from her, do it!!!!!!!!!!! She’s positive, silly, encouraging and loads of fun.

Lots of what we did is in some of the many Epstein books I own, but I hadn’t done any of it.  Just doing a few edges and flowers gave me lots of ideas.  We made some circles and then she drew pictures of the dozens of different ways to sew them on stuff that occurred to her in thirty seconds.  I loved it.

Her new books is out. (Charlotte Yarn has it; I saw it there today).  The leaf pattern alone is worth the cost.I just happened to have a little Silk Garden left over from the Lililandia Cowl.

I love these leaves.  I think they will go on a pillow in my den.  Or on a tree in the neighborhood.  Nah, the pillow.

I created this one.  It’s from the Happy Tree.The Epstein rose.  Purl side out.   Out of photos but not ideas.  The woman is contagious.

Last part of the cruise was lovely.  We were excited to get home to our dogs and to call Shelley for her brain help.  She gets me.

Back to the lovely grind of my world.  New pattern (socks) is on ravelry and has already sold.   One or two more going up when I can manage it.

Does anyone know how to make this blog page the homepage for my website?

Tropical Storm Ida, Carla’s Class, Towels

Who says  huge ocean liners don’t wobble and roll?  We have experienced up to 15 foot seas and 60 mph winds.  It’s absolutely beautiful to watch the water and not at all scary.  Sun seekers are a bit bummed, but there are always the inside bars.

Our group is inside for classes most of the day anyway.  We’re meeting in a bar call the Catacombs.  Want to guess how good the lighting is?  Carla Scott is our teacher today.  She is the executive editor of Vogue Knitting and the editor of Knit Simple.  She’s the one who makes certain the instructions are correct and well written.  We did measurements.  She did a neat little graph trick that I will copy in my class.

She said in her experience, young designers tend to make sleeves too full at the top and too long.  You might want to keep that in mind as you look at some of the free patterns on the web.

The afternoon class was to knit EZ’ s spiral hat which involves a special M1.  It is the loop increase, but it must be backwards to the loop caston. I finished mine—looks awful on me–but I think I can tweak it.I don’t know the yarn–no label–but I think it was a  wool/acrylic blend, single spun.  It’s very soft.  When I get home I plan to pick up around the cast on and add a roll up brim of some size to make it look better on my moon pie face.  (Time warp–FINISHED)

After class Carla looked at some of my patterns and said she would put me on her designer list to receive submission calls.  Hands shaking, I thanked her and headed for the bar.  Scotch was a necessity here and it was 5 o’clock somewhere in the world.

Formal night, lobster, and another show.  The shows on board have been entertaining.  The production designer for the shows is a genius.  They even have an ice rink and and ice show.

Late night–10 pm–we headed for a piano bar.  I had the chance to play guitar while we sang “Blue Suede Shoes.”  It was a blue, blowup guitar, but I played so well, I won two Royal Caribbean keychains.

Back at the stateroom the towel artist had struck again.  Levi, our steward, left us towel art every night. Here are some examples:Vicki is going to loan me a book on towel folding so I can entertain the grandsons.

Tomorrow is Nicki Epstein’s class and they have been a hot bed of laughter.  Can’t wait.