March 2007 Archives

Confession time... I have no idea who "Mothman" is, I just thought it would be funny to see what came up when I typed it into the flickr search engine. Apparently, there's a statue built of him in West Virginia. And it's pretty creepy. But anyway....

After a thorough freezing of my entire yarn stash, as well as a dose of common sense from my better half, I've determined that moths were most likely NOT invading my stash. After all, wouldn't we have noticed them getting into our wool sweaters? And there's no dead moths in the bottom of the closet where I store my yarn (It's in a rolling cart with three wire mesh drawers - so anything like that should have fallen to the ground when I was rummaging through it to pack everything away in the freezer.

The good thing about this whole episode is that it's motivated me to use up the stash before I buy much more, and it has also forced me to work on one project exclusively. My MDK moss-stitch handtowel is almost done! Well, almost done according to the pattern. I might make it a little bit longer since it looks like I'll have plenty of leftover yarn.

The verdict is in, and some moths have most likely invaded the yarn stash! (I guess this means I probably need to clean out the closet where it normally lives, too.)

But of course, knitting has not come to a total stand still. I've got a MDK moss stitch dishtowel that I started last weekend on the trip to visit my parents. It's nothing terribly exciting, but I can see how it could get addicting, combined with a stitch dictionary. I think I want to make another one to practice the lace stitch on my new Hempathy sweater. I keep screwing it up and that stuff just really splitty when you frog it.

Luckily, the big spring sale at Simply Fibers is coming up this Friday, so hopefully I'll be able to snag some more Euroflax linen there!

I've got good news, and bad news.  Which do you want first?  How about the bad news:  I can't pick a sock pattern to save my life, and I think I might have moths invading my yarn stash. 

Ever since I finished the Retro Rib socks, I've been wanting to start a new pair.  I pick a pattern, find yarn in my stash that's "perfect," cast on, and knit the cuff.... and for some reason it just doesn't work for me. 

Finally, I settled on the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks.  How can you go wrong with Nancy Bush by your side?  I had some beautiful hand-dyed yellow yarn from Lucia from the Project Spectrum yarn swap last year.  I started knitting... everything was working out perfectly... then all of a sudden I noticed that the yarn coming off the skein was fraying in one place.  I cut it and started with the new end.  Then I came to a spot where the yarn was compeletely broken, like it had been cut with scissors.  Then another.  Then a couple more frazzled places.  All of this and I haven't even finished the cuff of the first sock yet! 

PLEASE tell me this is not moths!!!!

And the good news, you were wondering?  How about a beautiful picture of a Shetland Sheep from my favorite photography blog?   

Remember this crazy pile of ends? All those squares got sewn together, but there were still all those ends to deal with.  Plus, the back of the afghan ws not all that comfortable, with ridges around each square.  What to do?

Sew a back on it!  (See the extended entry for details)

Voila!  A new pair of socks - aren't they pretty?  (Pretty in a manly way.) 

Project Details:

Pattern: Retro Rib Socks, available in Interweave's new book, Favorite Socks and Interweave Knits magazine Winter 2004

Yarn: Socks That Rock, mediumweight, Obsidian colorway - 1 skein

Needle Size: Size 2, Susan Bates metal DPNs

Skills needed: cast on, knit, twisted knit stitch, purl, slip stitch, decrease, short rows, picking up stitches, kitchner stitch

Pattern Modifications: I shortened the leg by 4 pattern repeats so I would have enough yarn - if you're planning on making men's socks, having an extra skein will never hurt.  I also added a row of purl stitches at the end of the patterning before starting the toe decreases.  I like how that separates the pattern from the toe.  

Time to knit:  February 2007 - March 2007 This was a really quick knit - thank you STR mediumweight!    

Final impressions:  These are socks for Matt (my husband), so it was a little tricky knitting for someone with much bigger feet than mine.  However, he tried them on and gave them his stamp of approval - hooray!  I really like that the yarn shows slight variegations but nothing crazy - and the colors didn't pool!  I will definitely use this yarn again (but mediumweight it sold out until April, so I'll save you a click over there.)  

Big Bird

Spike Lee

Holly Hunter

Mr. Rogers 

Well it's my birthday, too! 

I did get myself a little yarny present.....

(No, not the whole basket - but that's Tess superwash sock/baby, people!  For sale within a 20 mile radius of my house!)  I found a lovely turquoise skein that I just had to have.  (Actually, there was a burgandy one that I liked pretty well too, but someone got it first!)

But the very best gift of all was getting to spend Saturday with my knitty friends Tammy and Brianne! 

On Saturday morning we met at my house and drove out to Rogersville, Mo to look for a new yarn shop that opened recently.  It's called One City Market and it's in an old house that has been converted to yarn shop, knitting and weaving studio, and - coming soon - dye studio!  The selection is really good, and there is lots of room to pull up a chair, knit a while, and chat.  I loved the shop owner Lisa's stories about knitting socks for her teenage nephews, who insist on socks made from the yarn that has jojoba oil in it, because they like how it makes their feet soft!  I just kept cracking up picturing a pack of teenage boys surrounding the sock yarn section, picking out their next pair.  =) 

I'm back!  I'm still waiting for a new laptop battery from Apple, but in the meantime I can still use my computer while its plugged in.  I've gotten the finishing bug lately, so expect to see quite a few FO reports this week! 

Here's the first one... 

Project Details:

Pattern: Silk Shrug, by Bobbi Intveld (Blue Sky Alpacas pattern)

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (sportweight) - 7 skeins

Needle Size: Size 4 for main part of shrug, size 9 for edging

Skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, increase and decrease,  mattress stitch, picking up stitches, cast off

Pattern Modifications: I shortened the back by about 4 inches.  (I have really narrow shoulders.)  I think the back might have laid a little flatter if it were longer, but I like that the shrug stays put on my shoulders.  

Time to knit: October 2006 - March 2007  Whew!  Those LONG sleeves on Size 4 needles were no fun, but it's the back that really kills you.  (Perhaps another reason for the pattern modification!)

Final impressions:  The shrug fits well and I like the color.  I've already worn it twice!  I guess I didn't realize just how WARM Alpaca Silk can be, though.  I doubt I'm going to get to wear this too many more times before the weather gets too warm for it. 

 

In other news ---- tomorrow is my birthday!  Yippee! 

It's that time of year again - the sun is out, the warm winds of Texas and Oklahoma are blowing into the Ozarks - it's almost spring!  The daffodils should be blooming any day now. 

As part of this lovely circle of life, my laptop has decided to go on the fritz.  Maybe it has allergies?  It doesn't know it has a battery when it's not plugged in, and I spend WAY too much time each day staring at the evil spinning beach ball of death.  Anyway, long story short, I'm going to take a blogging break while I get my computer fixed. 

But stay tuned, there are exciting things happening behind the scenes at The Dropout:

    - I finished the Silk Shrug!

    - The backing is almost done for the Lizard Ridge afghan

    - Retro Rib sock #1 is done, #2 is begun 

    - and now for a teaser that only Anne knows... Hempathy, anyone? 

See you in a couple weeks!  

I so love YouTube - watch Wooly Bullies!

Why oh why am I so lazy?  The shrug is finished - Just a few ends to weave in - but have I done it?  OF COURSE NOT!  

I'm hitching a ride to St Louis this weekend with some relatives, so.... excellent knitting time.   Plus, wouldn't it be fun to show off my new knit to Annie?

Yippee!  Third time is a charm on the Retro Rib socks!  I ripped back about an inch of the leg, and the plan is to knit until I have used exactly half of the original skein (2.75 oz. - measured with our kitchen scale).  I guess I could post another picture, but it looks almost exactly like the one in this post.  Having shortened the leg, the yarn may hold out quite a bit longer than I think, but I still have the backup skein of black for the toe, just in case. 

I've also been forcing myself to work on the ribbing for the Silk Shrug, even though it's REALLY boring, and I hate that I can't seem to keep even tension.  The body of the shrug is knit on size 4s, but you switch to size 9s for the ribbing.  Hopefully blocking will even everything out, because right now?  Not zesty.  Anyway, I think I've only got about one more inch to go before it's done.  

Erg.  I'm still not happy with those dang socks.  Maybe I can come up with a good solution this weekend.  In the meantime, I've picked up the silk shrug again!  It's starting to feel like spring, and I want to finish that project so I can wear it!  I have about 4 inches of ribbing left to do on the ruffle.  It's 300 stitches around, though, so it takes FOREVER.  Doubleblarg. 

The most ingenious plan for solving my sock dilemma was coverting the pattern to resoleable socks - that way, the top of the foot would match the leg, but the bottom could be a different color, allowing me to stretch the precious STR a little further. 

I bought Favorite Socks, which contains a pattern for resoleable socks, and I read through the instructions very carefully, so that I could apply the resoleable concept even though I am knitting socks at a much smaller gauge than the pattern calls for.  I knit the top of the foot and picked up stitches all around, but it didn't take me too long to figure out that my knitting math skills were not up to converting the pattern without having knit it as written at least once.  I should have taken a picture when all the stitches were picked up.  It looks totally crazy.  You have to use about 6 dpns just to keep everything straight.  (luckily I always buy two sets of each size since I tend to lose them)

Since the resoleable thing wasn't working for me, I've decided the knit the heel in the contrasting black yarn, then I'm just going to try to get as far on the foot as I can with the regular yarn before switching to the contrast yarn for the rest of the foot.  

Even though this little experiment didn't work out like I'd hoped, there was one bright spot.  A new knitting book!  I'm sure long-time Interweave Knits subscribers think it's chintzy that IK made a book full of reprinted patterns, but I only have one of the patterns in the book, plus from what I can tell, the book contains a lot of extra information about each pattern.  Brenda Dayne wrote a really good review of the book here.  I agree with her assessment that this book is definitely for sock knitting traditionalists, but I must fall into that camp because I love the patterns in this book!  I especially like the fact that there are several more unisex or masculine patterns in there.  Those are pretty hard to come by, in my opinion.  

In non-knitting news - March came in like a lion in the Ozarks!  There's nothing like waking up to tornado sirens at 4am to start your day off right!  Luckily I don't think any tornadoes touched down, but it's still no fun.