Socktoberfest, oh Socktoberfest. I had such plans for you. Bearfoot! Yarn Pirate! Lots of socks! Lots of holiday gift knitting was to be completed! However, the second I mention these plans on this here blog, I abandon them. The lone pseudo Rib and Cable sock to the right there is all I have to show for a month of non-sock knitting. It’s not quite the Rib and Cable sock pattern (from an Interweave Knits last year) because my gauge was way off, but it’s still purty. The sock is enjoying some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, yum!

Does a scarf knit with sock yarn count for anything? It’s like knitting 3 socks, right?

Pattern: Chevron Scarf, Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Claudia’s Handpaints in the Ooops colorway
Notes: I alternated between two balls as I knit this, because they were very, very different in intensity (despite being in the same dyelot)

Which side do you prefer? I like the stockinette side, but there are definitely votes for the reverse-stockinette action.

The scarf needs to be blocked better – it has a tendency to fold in half when worn, which is already driving me crazy. It’s pretty thin and drapey, which is ideal for The Season that Houston Calls Winter (ie, fall). Overall, I am pleased!

I joined the Twisted Knitters knitalong, which involves dyeing roving, spinning it, then knitting up into something. I have a bunch of natural roving from the spinning lesson oh-so-long ago, and was itching to dye it up. So I invited some peeps from the Houston Stich and Bitch over and we dyed and bitched.

Staci decided on dip-dyeing her sock yarn. This makes your arm very tired. Katherine dyed some peacock-teal yarn, and overdyed some fugly lavendar and black-gray yarn red, which made it berry-and-black colored. All were looking good.

Amy dyed her yarn screaming red, then over-dip-dyed it with Violet. Turned out awesome! Her arm was also very tired.

Sharron and Jennifer went the traditional handpainting route. Both wound up with some lovely jewel tones, although Sharron’s yarn felted (she had the sole non-superwash yarn, oops). I dyed my roving, which is still drying. Still! We dyed the yarn yesterday! All will be revealed tomorrow, when we have some natural light.

ETA: Ok, we have some natural light!

The colors came out a touch on the blue side, but you get the general idea. The purple can best be described as Intense. Hoo, boy, that’s purple. I really like the pink in there, I wish the rest of the roving was a bit lighter to match. In my defense, things didn’t look that crazy bright when I was dyeing it up on Sunday. It’s a bit reminiscent of the Punched in the Eye yarn. Ah well.

Pattern: Beckmickle, from Louisa Harding Winter’s Muse Landscapes
Yarn: Louisa Harding Thalia
Notes: No modifications, knit exactly to pattern. Well, there was a small mistake (that drove me crazy every time I looked at it), but it was fixed without any problems.

Beckmickle, what a silly name for a pattern. This sweater is very, very warm. It is also very glittery – my photos don’t capture it, but this sweater glistens (a good photo of the yarn is here). At least there’s waist shaping, which is good – I am a big advocate of waist shaping. This will be handed off to Yarntopia tomorrow, I hope they’ll be happy with it!

I actually finished yet another project today, but it desperately needs some blocking so no photos yet. All this sweater knitting makes me want to make a nice warm sweater for myself!

Seemingly everyone in the knitting blogosphere (except for me!) went to Rhinebeck this weekend. I wish that I would have taken part in more knitting-type things when I was still living in MA, but alas. Right now TX to NY is too far of a trip for yarn and fiber, and there’s always the Texas Kid and Ewe (kinda sorta near Austin, I think) thing happening next month.

However, staying in Texas doesn’t mean that I didn’t buy any yarn. Oh no, apparently nothing can stop the force of a kelp! that wants yarn. First up is this beautiful skein of Schaefer Anne. I’ve been hearing about this stuff on Knitty D and the City, so I decided to buy a skein from Little Knits. I also bought a bag of the Debbie Bliss DK cotton (so cheap – $22!). Is it wrong that I spend almost the same amount on a sweater’s amount of yarn as I do on a single skein of sock yarn? Yes, yes it is. The Anne was going to be socks for Rob’s dad, until Rob saw it and said No. No, his dad will be getting socks that are black, brown, or navy. Thrilling.

Left: my purchases from the Twisted Yarns sale this weekend. Right: 10 seconds later, the girls descend and need to investigate every. single. thing.

My plan was to get some of the man-colored sock yarn for Rob’s dad, and I succeeded – the brown skein is Mountain Colors Bearfoot (I used this on my first pair of socks) in a gorgeous, subtly variegated brown colorway. The big skein on the right is Manos for a hat for my brother. Twisted Yarns is one of the few places that carries both Manos and Malabrigo, and I go for the colorways of Manos over the softness of the Malabrigo every time. The two skeins on the left are a Habu kit – the Kusha Kusha scarf. That silvery yarn is silk and 31% stainless. It is ever-so-slightly bendy. Cool! I was suckered in by a stole on display using the same yarns, but that silk-stainless stuff is not cheap! So a scarf it is for me. It’s garter stitch, so will likely be a long-term knit-while-travelling sort of project.

I did get a bit of knitting done today – I just need to set in the sleeves of Beckmickle, and it will be DONE! I can’t wait – there’s so many other things that I’d rather be working on. I’m the world’s worst Socktoberfest participant ever, and I really need to start belting out some xmas gifts…

Step 1: Buy some Rowan Glace because it’s pretty and you want good stitch definition for this project.

Step 2: Open Photoshop. Oh wait, no Photoshop in this household! Open the Gimp instead (free baby, free). Curse at the Gimp, because ugh, it really sucks.

Step 3: Realize that there’s about seven fonts that the gimp has access to. Pick a nice one anyway, blow it up extra-large, italicize. Go get some knitter’s graph paper in your gauge (super awesome resource, btw) and superimpose the italic script on the graph paper. Fudge it around a bit until it looks good.

Step 4: Start some fair isle knitting (baby’s first fair isle!). Realize that your tension is crap. Rip everything apart.

Step 5: Restart fair isle. Realize that the font is too skinny and looks terrible and rip again.

Step 6: Repeat step 3, bolding the font to make it plumper.

Step 7: Fair isle knitting again. Looks like crap. Rip and redo in intarsia.

Step 8: Finally done knitting! Wet block it on some towels.

Step 9: Realize that you’re clearly unable to eyeball a rectangular shape. Print out a few sheets of the knitter’s graph papar, tape them together, place a sheet of saran wrap on top (so that the damp knitting doesn’t make the paper wrinkle) and reblock to a grid.

Step 10: Photograph. The camera does not want to represent the colors accurately in any way. Take a boatload of photos over the course of a few days.

Step 11: Realize that the stitches look like crap. Whose brilliant idea was it to use rope-like cotton for this, anyway? Photoshop it (with Gimp) to death.

Step 12: Crop the image. Wish that this was knit this much wider, so that the kelp! would be nice and small in the lower corner, surrounded by a sea of stitches. Regret not intarsia-ing “kelp! knits” instead. Realize that stitches still suck, and the p is leaning forward in an unflattering manner.

Step 13: Pause for a few months, get new website, finally put the banner up. Realize that banner is massive. Huge. Ugh.

Want to see some crappy intarsia? The heavily edited version is below – mouse over for the original:

I really shouldn’t be so down on poor kelp! up there, but I’m really regretting my choice of cotton for this – it shows off every single wonky stitch. I’m inclined to knit another one, because I Am Anal Retentive.

Well enjoy, and remember, kids – friends don’t let friends knit sloppy intarsia!

Welcome to the new website. All of the posts and comments and such have been imported, and should be showing up a-ok. Let me know if things look wonky. There’s lots of tweaks and fixes to do, like figuring out why my nested list doesn’t look nested, and why the post titles look all squished if they’re more than one line, etc etc. In any case, welcome to the shiny new blog!

Coveting, right now!

Someone, please, give me $4000 for this couch (from Anthropologie). I am in love. Perhaps it’s for the best that money does not grow on trees and such, because I’d likely spill something dark and staining on the lovely couch the second I sit down. But still! I’m in love!

On a more affordable note, Snow & Graham wrapping paper (as seen on design*sponge). Also love this. Mittens! I want to wrap everything in my house in this stuff. Back when I lived in Noho, I would always peruse the S&G card selection at Essentials, and I totally wanted them to do our wedding invitations last year (only available in nyc at the time). Yum.

The Chevron Scarf, it grows. I’m desperately trying to find my inner kelp! and ignore the obvious color issues. Not quite pooling, but the scarf is decidedly darker on the left side than the right. This started happening around inch 3, and the only thing keeping me from ripping it all out is that I’m alternating between two balls to knit the thing (and therefore, ripping would involve untwisting the two strands every other row and would be impossibly slow and maddening and I’d rather poke at my eyes with a butterknife). Channelling my inner kelp!…

Oh, and I’m working on something new! A sweater! Not for me. For Yarntopia, a sample for the shop. I never would have chosen the yarn myself (Louisa Harding Thalia – a neato looking ribbon), but it is the fastest knit ever. Ever! Size 11 needles! Make that 13’s due to my death-grip gauge! The pattern is Beckmickle from the Winter’s Muse Landscapes book. If I put my mind to it, I can get through 1+ skeins in a day. I picked up the yarn last Tuesday, and I’ve got both sleeves and the back done already! Um, a certain 6 hour defensive driving course that someone had to take because she SPEEDS LIKE A DEMON also helped get the knitting done quickly.

And the Socktoberfest Rib and Cable socks? Ugh, I don’t even want to look at them right now. If I were speaking to the yarn, I would tell it how pissed I was that the socks came out too tight (and ignore the yarn’s retort that I have the aforementioned death grip on the needles), yet I was still hopeful because I have a new idea rooting around in my head for the socks. But I’m so not talking to the yarn, so there!

A Socktoberfest questionnaire:

* When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

I made my first pair as a beginner-ish knitter – I remember working on these while hanging out at Rob’s place in Noho, so that was probably 2 years ago. I taught myself (like all of my mad knitting skillz).

* What was your first pair? How have they held up over time?

Broadripple from Knitty, and I used Mountain Colors Bearfoot. My gauge tightened up as I got used to the teeny yarn and small needles, so the (garter-stitch) cuff of the second sock is a bit snug. They don’t get a ton of wear, but they’ve held up nicely from the machine washings (although they look much better if I remember not to throw them in the dryer).

*What would you have done differently?

Substituted ribbing for the garter stitch cuff. I hate garter stitch!

* What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

Koigu, yum. I’m currently knitting a scarf using Claudia Handpaints, and that’s super soft. The Knitpicks Bare superwash is incredibly soft, too.

The Bearfoot was ok, but I could do without all the mohair. I dislike the Regia yarn I got in a swap, I am truly spoiled!

* Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

5 DPNs, baby. Metal dpns make me happy, Brittanys make me sad (I snap them like the twigs that they are!). I just bought a long Knitpicks circular to try out Magic Loop.

* Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)

I like wearing flap heels, I think that they fit my feet better than short-row heels. I think that short-row heels look better, though. The heels on the Baudelaires are nifty.

* How many pairs have you made?

Four (plus one):
Broadripple in Mountain Colors Bearfoot
Retro Rib in Koigu (for Rob)
Pomatomus in Koigu (for Sockpaloooza)
Baudelaire in Koigu

Rib and Cable in Knitpicks superwash (in progress!)

Yay Socktoberfest!

Yay, Socktoberfest! I don’t (yet) have any size 0 needles for my Yarn Pirate yarn, so I’ve started knitting the hand-dyed Punched in the Eye yarn. It looks much less bruise-like once knitted up – my camera really wants to accentuate the crazy reds and blues in the skein, but it looks much more monochromatic in real life. And as always, yarn enjoys a tasty Flat Tire.

My plans for Socktoberfest are two, possibly three pairs of socks. I was planning on all sorts of sock knitting this evening, but was pulled away by beer instead. All in the name of Socktoberfest! The purple socks (Rib and Cable from Interweave Fall 2005) are for Rob’s mom for xmas. His dad will also be getting a pair of Manly Man socks (possibly Trekking. we’re still exploring our options for Manly socks). The Yarn Pirate is all mine, baby! I’m kind-of waiting to see if Lolly will get a full pair of kneesocks out of her skein – if so, then kneesocks it is! They’ll likely come in useful for the season that Houston calls Winter (also known as Fall in other, more northern, states).

This weekend I made a deal with Amy: I would knit 4-6 inches on Sarcelle in exchange for a completed Swallowtail Shawl. I totally finished my end of the deal – Sarcelle was 9 inches into the knit-straight rows on Friday night, and thanks to a movie night and some chill-out time on Saturday, is 13 inches long now. I seriously put some good knitting energy into the thing, so I’m pretty pleased with my progress. Amy has not finished the shawl, so BOOO! Hopefully we’ll see a finished Swallowtail at the Thursday Stich+Bitch!