Knitting the Blues

Finish AND Frog It Friday?Again With The Frogging of the Sock.Or-Must I always knit three socks to get two?

That seems to be my lot in life.  Start a sock.  Knit awhile. Find Fault. Rip.  Some, all, a little, a lot.  Reknit.  The reknitting almost always involves a heel turn.  Or two.  Good thing I am so totally charmed to bits every time I turn a heel or toe.  I know I say it all the time, it is like a little bit of knitting magic to me, the turning of the heels and toes.  It never fails to entertain and delight me.  So I guess, loving that few minutes of knitting so much, it makes me happy to repeat it over and over again.  I love to knit, right?  This just means I get to do more.

• Pattern:  Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn Clark, published in Favorite Socks and IK Spring, 2004
• Yarn:  SOCK! by Lisa Souza in Slate
• Needles:  sizes 1 and 0
• Cast On:  March 18, 2009
• Bound Off:  April 7, 2009

I know it sounds like a lot of drama, but really it is just me being pragmatic.  I do want to actually wear the socks, after all.  Against the urgings of my inner voice I used the needles called for to start this sock.  "But you always knit socks on zeros," my inner voice said.  "With fewer stitches and not usually in a stretchy lace pattern," my inner voice croned.  (I just had a major deja vu.  It didn't end well, I hope it isn't for real.  I'll let you know, meanwhile, I'm hitting save just in case.  There.)  I cast on for the sock on size 1s anyway and after turning the first heel decided that the ankle looked a little big for my dainty little ankles and tried it on.  There is one thing I can't stand, baggy sock ankles and this sock was a little baggy.  I thought maybe I could live with it at first and kept knitting.  I remembered I had another lacy pair of socks and figured they must be baggy as well, so I tried them on.  Not baggy.  So I ripped back to a pattern repeat or two of the lace and switched to the 0s I should have been on all along.

 

These are the first socks I have knit with my brand-spankin' new Darn Pretty Needles and I love them.  They are pointy little things though, and my fingers suffered a bit until I began remembering not to stab my finger pads with them.  Getting used to the shorter length was a bit of a challenge, but I have grown fond of that as well.  Have I lost stitches off the end?  Being used to eight inch needles, you betcha!  The one thing I am having trouble adjusting to is the anxiety associated with these purty things.  I tend to have a bit of a death grip on my needles, especially when rounding the corners between needles.  I haven't snapped one yet (there-I've suitably jinxed myself) and I am on a second project using them.  Fingers crossed.  The thing that strikes terror into my heart?  Sitting on them.  Or somebody else sitting on them.  While I am pretty sure the pointy needles would put up a good fight, I am hyper-vigilant about it, but it worries me so much that I am constantly checking them when I put my knitting down, in my bag, carry it around....  Surely this is having an effect on my normally low blood pressure. 

I'm also not so sure this was the best pairing of yarn and project.  The yarn, which looked much more tonal in the ball, is really kinda stripey and distracting for the lace and you really don't see it.  I'm tempted to knit them again, but I guess I don't like them enough to do it right away, if ever.  And it may have been the needles, but I found the yarn very splitty and not enjoyable to knit.  I did purchase this a while ago, so LS may be using a different yarn for her SOCK! these days, I'd be interested to hear of others who have knit with it. 

Usually my favorite pair of socks is the pair I have just finished, but this pair, while getting its turn in the wearing rotation, has not jumped to the top of the list.  I like them.  Not love.

Fifty-four. Yay for Finishing Friday!

WARNING! There Is A Whole Lot Of Blue In This Post.

In a few words:  First sock knitted in the Spring of '07, (1 sock knitted).  Second sock cast on for late winter '09.  Foot knitted and found to be larger than sock one.  Frog, reknit. (1 sock + 1 foot +1 foot = almost two socks knitted).  Cuff on second sock knitted and is longer than first sock.  Finish, frog cuff of first sock, reknit.  Still shorter than second sock AND having knit the last row there is not enough yarn to do sewn bind off, attach more yarn, knit a few more rows and work sewn bind off.  Okay, let's recap: 1 sock + 1 foot + 1 foot + 1 cuff + 1 more cuff + three sewn bind offs = 3 socks.  So how come I only have a pair?

Pattern:  Priscilla's Dream Socks (pdf link), toe up, 4 x 2 rib on the cuff.
Yarn:  Lorna's Laces Denim Stripe, exclusive to Purl Soho
Needles:  size 0
Cast On:  June 2007
Bound off:  March 18, 2009

Thinking that I should probably try to match the first sock to the second, I frogged that one, and while it was a tad bit closer to the second sock, that yarn had been tightly knitted long enough that it mostly wanted to just go back to that state.  I had promised myself that whatever the end result I would be done with it and be happy, so the minute the ends were all woven in I stripped my feet down and put them on.  After wearing them for several hours I could not notice a difference in the wearing from underneath my jeans.  I KNOW!  No comments from the peanut gallery, we all have our processes that we have to go through, you don't have to understand mine.  K?

Another finished project, not frogged!  Well, not frogged for good.

And now for something completely different:

What?  Another blue sock?  Yeah, that's different alright.

 

Alright, yes, socks again.  Oh yeah, they are blue socks.  Again.  But look at the needles!  Instead of my usual Inox size 0s I am knitting on shorter, earthier needles from Grafton Fibers.  I didn't think it would be easy to get used to the shorter needles, but I think I am getting the hang of it, and even liking them.  I might not have tried them ever, but Claudia raves about them so I wanted to see what the raving was about.  I am spending the day in Boston with my mom and I'll have plenty of time to give these a good workout.  Maybe I'll have a finished sock by the end of the day!

And because I know you haven't had enough blue just yet, take a look at what I have!

Yes, blue fiber, but look a little more closely.  My friend Kelly and her husband have come up with ingenious drink/cup holders to attach to spinning wheels.  Did.You.EVER!?  This is just great, because I am well known to kick over the mug of tea that is sitting on the floor next to my wheel when out spinning.  You used to  sit next to me (with your fiber) at your peril, but no longer!  These are being custom fabricated for different wheels, note the nifty angled attachment to my angled Lendrum!  Engineering at its best!  See how my drink stands up at attention on my listing wheel?  Love.It!

This particular cupholder is extra special because Kelly put in a request for blue plastic just for me.  Now, the blue is not something that will be available on a regular basis, but if you are quick there may be a couple of special "Knitting the Blues" Special Edition Lendrum cup holders available.  Hurry! you Lendrum spinner!  We can have matching cupholders!

  

Forty-four. Just another blue day at Knitting the Blues!

Finish AND Frog It Friday?

Contemplating this post yesterday I figured I would be showing y'all an in progress sock with a little story about how I rarely succumb to second sock syndrome.  I was going to write about how I am usually motivated enough to finish both socks in a row, even if they are not the primary project of the moment.  Then I was going to show this pair of socks, the first one knitted back in the spring of 2007 (I think), started on my way out the door to a school concert where I needed some plain, able to knit in the dark, stockinette stitch.  Then I was going explain that occasionally I can be in the middle of the pair of socks and other things become priorities. New babies, contract knitting, birthdays, sick friends, whatever, all conspire to get in the way and the sock may be forgotten until searching through the stash for something and it pops to the surface as it patiently waits its turn for my attention. 

Having taken this sock out last week to demonstrate the short row heel and toe for a student in one of my knitting classes, I had knit the foot and rounded to the cuff and thought it would be the perfect knitting for a day in Boston with my mom.  At that time I figured I would be posting a partially finished cuff and proof that I was "finishing" not "frogging" for Finish or Frog It Friday.  Things being what they were, and hours longer in the hospital than anticipated, I actually finished the sock!  Who knew!? 

Aren't the stripes pretty?

Unfortunately, the story does not end there.  Once upon a time I posted about my own personal version of Second Sock Syndrome. (That last one has two of my favorite-to-this-day pairs of socks in it.)  It has little to do with not finishing a pair of socks and more to do with my inability to knit a second sock at the same gauge as my first sock.  Drives.Me.CRAZY!!!!!! 

These two sock cuffs are the same number of rows.  While I was willing to live with the striping being different on the cuffs (even though I like the second one better-not that it matters, once they are on my legs you can't even see the striping, they aren't that pretty on as they are off), I don't know if I can live with a difference of almost an inch in the length.  There is a part of me that wants to work the EZ sewn bind off and call it a day, but this little niggling voice in my head is telling me I might not be able to live with that.  UGH.  To be me.  It isn't always easy.  So Finish and Frog It may be the story of this day.

And just because this gave me a little giggle:

My little argyle ball of yarn.  Hee.

Thirty-eight.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll mark these as finished by next week.

He's Got Legs! (And Knows How To Use Them...)

Not bad for forty-<cough, ahem>

The man with the hot legs had a birthday last week (and I didn't blog it, I know!  I robbed you all of the opportunity to send well wishes to his aging self!) and I made him a pair of socks.  He is not a lover of the handknit, doesn't wear sweaters, has a thing about scarves (never wears the Noro striped scarf I made him, and it is my favorite one), might wear a hat or felted mittens when he is winter hiking, BUT!  He is a lover of the handknit sock.  So I made him a pair for his birthday.  It was the bulk of my vacation knitting, I knit one and a half socks in Florida and flying home, then finished the next week.  He loves them.  yay!

Pattern:  Priscilla's Dream Socks (raverly link) by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts in IK, Fall 2000 or Favorite Socks or Simple Socks Plain and Fancy
Yarn:  Lang Jawoll Superwash, 2 skeins
Needles:  size 0
Cast On:  February 24, 2009
Bound Off:  March 3, 2009

The color was hard to capture, it is a really dark blue with bits of emerald green running through it.  I was gifted four skeins of this yarn in a swap and can now make a pair for myself.  We'll be matchy-matchy!  And don't think I got off that easy on the birthday present.  I did get him something else, which I'll show you tomorrow or the next day or the next week.  A little story goes with.

Speaking of little stories.  After convincing Gillian that the day was beautiful and yes, she should make it up to the city to go to church I get a call.  "Guess who I saw at church today?"  Now, Gillian lives in NYC and that question can mean anything from my cousin to her cousin to anybody she ever went to school with over seventeen years to anyone she ever met, or cover the range to some no name actor/actress or a named one that I don't know or a big star.  That question usually has me quipping something fresh back at her, but I was a bit dim on Sunday and my silence led to, "Oh never mind, I'll tell you, you'll never guess."  Gillian attends a teeny little church in NYC and Bono attended services there on Sunday.  BONO!  Humanitarian BONO!  Singer BONO!  Of U2, BONO!  And he stayed for coffee hour and chatted with people.  Gillian met BONO!  This was, of course, more exciting to me than when she met Elton John or Patty Lupone or, oh hell, she is in theatre, the list is long.  Now I want to go to church with Gillian.

Thirty-seven.  When I was in high school the show Spencer for Hire was filmed locally and Robert Urich and his family went to our church regularly.  While Robert was something, I was more thrilled that his wife, Heather Menzies, was Louisa in the Sound of Music!  See, you can meet people anywhere!

Finish or Frog It Friday

I think the Finish or Frog It idea is a great one.  Every Friday I have had a project for Finish or Frog It on my needles and a blog post to go with it in my head.  I have to say, I am pretty committed to my poor languishing projects so there might not be a lot of frogging, hopefully a lot of finishing.

Here's one.  As Superbowl 2009 approached I thought back to Superbowl 2008 and remembered that I had been knitting on socks that I cast on in the fall of 2007.  I didn't blog or ravel them at the start, so I have no evidence, you'll have to trust me.  I did post about them over the winter, along with raves about Kim's yarn of course.  There is proof of that.  Twice.  Anyway, Superbowl 2009 in the wings, I decide to pull out these socks and finish the second sock while watching the game, I even took a photo and intended to post a Finish or Frog it post.  See?  

 

A lot of undocumented knitting has been going on around here, during which I decided I really needed a new pair of socks.  Okay, need is not exactly a physical need, but maybe an emotional one, but the bottom line is this:  FINISHED!

Pattern:  Loksins! by Cassie Thoreson.  Ravelry link.
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Sock yarn in Lady Sings the Blues.  This blend is no longer available, but the color is!
Needles: size 0
Cast On:  November 2007
Bound Off:  February 2009

I love these socks.  Instead of the written toe and heel I worked my usual short row heels and toes ala Priscilla Gibson Roberts.  I do wish I had made the cuffs longer.  I have this thing about thinking I am going to run out of yarn.  A really stupid thing considering my hobbit sized feet, I always have a ton of yarn leftover. 

Thirty-two.  Let the finished object parade begin!