Three Things on A Tuesday

The good news is that instead of "celebrating" my birthday at work today, I am at home.

The bad news is that I am at home because my youngest threw up in the car on the way to school.

Thankfully, she is not terribly ill and she is managing to create My Little Pony and Princess Barbie vignettes throughout the house without problem. Which means that I was able to find a few minutes to take and upload pictures.

1. Handspun
I have been working on this skein forever, as I haven't had much time to sit at my wheel. But I am happy with the end result. It is not the most perfect skein, but for once I did not underply to the extreme.

The fiber is "Real Vermonter" roving from A Piece of Vermont (Hi Jessie!). It is 60% Romney/Corriedale, 30% mohair, and 10% Alpaca. I fell in love with the colors and bought it on a whim, and I was not disappointed! It is not the softest yarn, and I may have spun it a bit too tightly, but I think it will work for a light scarf.

2. Coriolis II
Even after my struggles with my first pair of Cat Bordhi's "Coriolis" socks, I cast on for a second pair. It's all about the challenge. My first attempt at the heel was a failure, but I'm now on the second try and I'm optimistic. I made some changes to the pattern that I will eventually detail on Ravelry.

The yarn is Araucania Ranco Multi, and I am absolutely loving it. I also love Bordhi's whirlpool toe design. Easy peasy, looks nice, no pointiness.


3. Hope springs eternal, especially when it's time to plant the tiny garden. This year we hope for peas, mixed salad greens, purple carrots, cilantro, basil, morning glories, and sunflowers. The tomato plants will go in a different garden bed.

Coming soon: pictures of a fabulous birthday present!

Triumph In Sockland

Version 3.1 of the Spiraling Coriolis Sock is a success. It is admittedly a bit snug going over my heel, but then it fits like a glove. (Or, well, like a sock.) Which is much better than the first few versions, which would not go over my heel at all.



See that little spiral going around? Ingenious! You can't see the top of the sock here because the picot edge isn't hemmed yet and it looks rather silly. And, in fact, I'm not sure I'm keeping the picot edge, which was my own modification; I may do something else with the top of the second sock and then decide which version looks best. Other mods included adding extra wing stitches (this will make sense if you have the pattern) and a few extra instep stitches as well.

Yarn is Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, received from Renee when I participated in the Yarn Aboard! swap. (Thanks Renee!) This is the first time I've used this brand of yarn, and it knits up nicely. The second sock is already on my needles.

This pattern was a bit of a pain the first time through, as I was learning a new cast-on, a new type of toe construction, a new sock architecture, and a new style of heel; plus the book is set up in a way that using the "master patterns" requires a lot of flipping around to different sections. However, the actual knitting was easy, once I had that "a-ha!" moment where I understood how it all came together. I will barely need the pattern for the second sock, and it will be great "mindless knitting" for meetings and such.

And for my next pair of Coriolis socks, I want to incorporate a cabled design, like these. (You should definitely click if you are a sock knitter--these socks are gorgeous!)

Cat Bordhi Crush? or Crushing Defeat?

I love the way Cat Bordhi's mind works. I'm not so into the socks soaring on circular needle thing, but the moebius cast-on? Brilliant. I've only made one moebius using that technique, but every so often I have to get the book out just to try to wrap more of my brain cells around her ideas. So it was a given that I would buy her new sock book as soon as it was out, and cast on for socks as soon as possible after that.

The book is, indeed, interesting and challenging and mind warping. But, unfortunately, it involves measuring. Measuring your feet, measuring your gauge, measuring your patience while you flip around from section to section to find the instructions for the particular cast on, foot style, heel, and cuff that you like. I am not a measuring kind of gal. I tried, I really did. But I made mistakes.

My first mistake was picking one of the more complicated sock patterns. You see, I only knit socks when I am traveling, or in meetings, or when I need something relatively mindless to work on while watching Meredith mess up her relationship with McDreamy. The new cast on, new toe technique, and new stitch pattern I originally chose required Focus. Way more Focus than I could maintain. So Sock 1.0 was doomed after only a few inches.

Time then, for Sock 2.0: The Master Spiraling Coriolis. I learned another new cast on, learned another new toe technique, increased up to the 64 stitches that my measurements told me to--and the foot section was way too wide. Apparently I had measured around my foot at the wrong spot. So I frogged back to the toe, remeasured my gauge and everything else, and went with 56 stitches (Sock 2.1). I knit happily for five inches, did the easy and mindless arch increase pattern for another couple of inches, turned the heel (another new technique for me) and then--I couldn't get the sock over my foot. So I frogged back several inches and started the arch increase pattern sooner (Sock 2.2) but ended up with a baggy instep AND a sock that was too short.

The sock went into time-out, where it could cavort with the scarf from the previous post.

The book took a trip to Staples, where I had the copy clerk cut off the binding, laminate the front and back covers, and put the whole thing back together with a spiral binding. Well worth the $10--although it seems that the flipping book could have come with a flipping spiral binding to begin with, since the patterns require so much flipping flipping around.


So. I retrieved the sock from time out. I then cut the yarn, leaving Sock 2.2 in its incomplete and sad state (see above); and I started over, rather than frogging, as the yarn was starting to show some wear. (I'll use it for the cuff later, once I get the other parts figured out.)

So far I have a completed toe, and have increased up to 60 stitches. In about 5 inches I'll know if the third fourth time is the charm. If not--well, I will still love Cat Bordhi's mind. I just wish it lived nearby so that it could come do all the damn measuring for me.

p.s. Quote from previous post was indeed from The Grinch, whom I am channeling this week.
p.p.s. Grafting on scarf was successful--more details soon.

I'm Too Sexy Lazy For My Blog

Blog? What blog?

For those who have inquired: I'm still here, and I'm fine. There has been knitting and traveling and working and family madness. There was a personal health scare--now resolved--that means I will be having a baseline mammogram in the near future (ugh). I am feeling a bit like Liz these days. There are various blog posts in process. But just in case I never get to them, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over.
An actual completed sock! Pattern is a toe-up, short-row heel, plain old travel-knitting sock. The fabulous yarn is from the fabulous Jessie at A Piece of Vermont and it knit up beautifully on size 1 (American) Addis, using the magic loop method. The sock is lying on some gorgeous roving, also from Jessie, that I forgot to blog about a while back. Oops!


In April I had the pleasure of meeting Gryphon--of The Sanguine Gryphon--while on a trip to visit family in Maryland (because every vacation should have a fiber component). Somehow, while we were chatting, this Dragon Fly Designs roving and these skeins of handpainted silk just fell into my bag. I know that I'll be buying more of Gryphon's yarns in the future...especially as these particular skeins have already been gifted to a friend. Gryphon was lovely, and she has a cute baby, and a walking wheel in her living room, and she carries consignment handspun from Kelly--what more could you want?

More soon, as I transcribe the virtual posts in my head into actual text on the computer. It's time to chat about MA Sheep & Wool, among other things!