Arranging and Organizing

I started my new job last week, working a couple days a week part-time at the LYS nearby.  I think it will be a good change of pace.  Whether or not I will get to teach remains to be seen, but right now I can take things one at a time.  I have also been busy doing other non-knitting things that aren’t all that interesting. As for knitting; I finished the Peacock socks and in true Nana fashion started another pair of socks almost immediately as well as my “November” Personal Sock club selection.  I’m still slogging away on the Pi Shawl, I have one more section before the final increase and I believe there are only 4 rounds or so after that.  (I erred in the last post thinking I only had 16 rounds to go as I hadn't read thoroughly or far enough ahead in the pattern to realize there was another 30 round section coming up) It’s still not very photogenic.  The Watershed vest is coming along, but I set it aside this weekend to work on the socks and the shawl. I may have a few other stealth projects started as well.  Since I'm not planning on ruining any secrets, here’s a quick look at what’s happening in Nana-socka-palooza:

Finished:

Peacock Socks by Janel Laidman

Yarn: Mini Mochi in Neptune (color 108)

Magic Loop / size 2.25 mm needles

I liked this pattern.  I’m so-so on the yarn, I love all the colorways, but this is a soft single ply and doesn’t always play nice in the thick/thin department.  Also as all soft yarns are prone to being splitty and easy to break I can get a little frustrated if I have to rip or tink, which who am I kidding, happens more than I care to divulge when I knit. But overall, my only disappointment was in not being able to control the colors to get the really nice effect of peacock feathers that Janel did with her hand-dyed yarn.  Hmmm I do have a set of sock blanks that I got for my birthday.

Started:

(November PSC) Narragansett Bay Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in African Violet

Size 2.25 mm needles

Modified pattern from 64 to 60 stitches

Fall Stripey socks

Pattern: my standard 60 stitch sock / 2 row alternated stripes

Yarn Mini-mochi in color 304 and 108 (leftover from peacock)

Beyond that, I spent the better part of last weekend arranging my pattern binders, computer files/folders and Ravelry queue to get my sock patterns in order because sometime soon I plan to set up my Personal Sock Club bags for next year.  I can tell you I surprised myself with how well I’ve been doing in actually queuing patterns that I have on hand, but I still have a bunch that aren’t queued.  Oh well, the PSC helps weed them out and if I do bonus pairs each month that cuts it down even more.

Later on, I’ll have to do the same with the rest of the patterns, etc which I have collected for other things.  Everything is stashed somewhat neatly in binders, but needs to be matched with my queue at some point.  I did at least set up the other binders so that the tabs match the categories in my Rav queue and made sure that all of the binders are set up in the same order (about 2 hours worth of effort).  It’s nice to take a little time out to get more organized once in a while.

Since I doubt I’ll get a chance to blog tomorrow, I wish you all a Happy and healthy Thanksgiving.  I hope you have enough blessings in your life to feel as fortunate as I do.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

I Love a Parade!

Today was interesting. A lot of the towns and villages in our area have festivals this time of year to celebrate various meaningful events. These festivals usually include a parade or other kick-off extravaganza. So Linda signed the shop up to participate in one of the towns nearby where a lot of our customers are based. Since I don’t normally work on Saturday, she asked if I minded helping out, and since I actually hadn’t made any other plans for the weekend, I said sure! Why not, parades can be fun. So if you ever get asked to be in one, go for it. By my rough count, this makes about the 10th or so parade that I’ve been in. It was fun.

(I apologize for the quality, we all forgot our cameras and had to use my cell phone to take this. That's me on the left in my new Cardinals cap that DH sent for my birthday)

The hardest part was that we were one of the last entries, so by the time it got around to our turn to march, I had gotten past the heel turn on the sock I was knitting and was ready to pick up stitches for the gusset. This as I discovered is not really that easy to do while walking. So I just went with smiling at the crowd and waving my sock… I did the harlot proud! So, I know I promised a knitting post and this one is meant to be it. I’ll get back to the parade sock eventually. I finished the Monkey socks that I knitted on at every opportunity during TNNA. So without further ado, I present the Mixed Up Monkeys Pattern: Monkey Socks, by Cookie A. Yarn: Claudia Hand Paint Fingering in Desert Dusk, dye lots 8030.01. 009 and 015 Needles: Size 0, magic loop I’ve also made reasonable progress on the Blue Simplicity socks, but they are just shy of being finished (but apparantly didn't take a picture). I started the second Diamond Delight Vest which I am calling Lakeshore, because the colors remind me of (wait for it) taking a walk along a lake shore (hee, hee). This is for a class / KAL that I am teaching at the shop. I’m knitting it in Rowan Pima cotton, seven different colors:

I also cast on for the Christmas Stocking that will be my July sock class, since we are doing a “Christmas in July” promotion at the shop. It’s not very interesting yet, so, no picture. Then there are the parade socks; just a simple striped anklet in Panda Cotton, in colors Baby Blues and Deep Water. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but when it was taken before the parade I was just starting on the first dark stripe.... as I said, we had enough wait time for me to turn the heel before we actually started down the parade route. Even though I tried to pick up stitches during the times we had to stop for the cheerleaders in front of us, I ended up ripping out most of them. But, as you can see, I fixed it, picked up the stitches and started the gusset after I got home. This sock will go on the back burner while I get serious on the Christmas Stocking and vest projects. But maybe I’ll try to finish the blue sock during the solstice party I’m going to tonight (it’s a knitting party!).

And one last thing: the front of the shirts we wore in the parade had our shop logo (same as sign), the back says:

Hope you have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!

Nana

Knitting And Not Knitting

I have been busy! Some knitting has been done, but mostly I’ve been finalizing the details for the North Suburban Knit Out this Saturday. Wow, I can’t believe it’s finally happening. I’m really excited about the schedule we put together and hope that we have a great turn-out. If you’re curious about it, go here. If you live in the area, come and join us! As far as the knitting goes, I needed to do up a few quick baby things; so far I finished another Blanket Buddy (pattern from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders) / Velvet Touch Yarn.

and a Last-Minute Sweater (my pattern - this is actually the "test knit" and it's a good thing I kept my original notes, because I found a few errors in the pattern I had typed up!) Knitpicks Shine Worsted in Grass. These are both for members of my church who are due very soon. I’m working on one more Last-Minute Sweater for a knitting friend. I need to finish it soon, because I’ll miss one of the May meet-ups and she may have her little one before the other one!

Before I started those, I finished the Falling Leaves socks!

They turned out pretty well. I decided to try the afterthought heels after all. I guess they didn’t turn out too bad for my first go at it. I’m not sure that I love the technique, but having done it at least I understand how it works now. I can also see why it could be useful in some patterns. Here they are: Falling Leaves Socks by Angela Kreutser an exclusive pattern from A Swell Yarn Shop, done in XXL Duet Sock Yarn. The pattern and yarn was a gift from a swap I did last year. The only pattern modification I mad was to the length of the leg. DD#2 wanted the shorter leg (thankfully) and not the knee-sock length the pattern is written for.

I’m also still plugging away on the Delve front and should hopefully get into the lace pattern today or tonight.

Oh, My Goodness!

It’s March…. and this is what greeted me when I looked outside this Morning:(there was some across town yesterday, but none here) oh, and it’s also 18 degrees out…. I had to put my boots on to get the newspaper for goodness sake! BTW, that mound at the end of the driveway has been there since Christmas. It's much smaller now, but still there! I am officially complaining once I figure out who is responsible for this. (“Miss Golightly… I must protest!”- Mr. Yunioshi) Sigh… weather rant over.

Since the last post, I have knit, frogged and re-knit the same section of sock #2 of the Celtic Knotkin socks twice. A couple of factors came into play. In comparison to the second sock I realized that the cuff on the first one was sort of a disaster and the leg was too long. Then I made a mistake on the pattern in the second sock, so I decided since I was going to end up re-knitting sock one anyway, that I wanted to tinker with the pattern a little bit. I had one of those flashbulb moments at knitting group on Thursday and so I ripped it back to the cuff and started over with my revised pattern. Well, I ended up going back to the original pattern because although I liked the result of my experiment with the pattern modification, the leg was coming out too tight and rather than waste more time tinkering and trying to resolve that problem, I decided to just get the pair knit. So, I ripped back to the cuff and started over a third time. I have turned the heel and am halfway down the foot, so I feel like some progress is being made.

I plan to revisit the ‘new” pattern variation at some point; I kept good notes and have a pretty good idea of how to fix it… I just didn’t want to play with it anymore on this pair. Did I mention I really love this yarn? It seems like I didn’t have to play with starting points or any of that other trickery to get a consistent patterning. Maybe I just found a really good pattern / yarn combo, or maybe the stitch count is perfect for the color repeats… whatever it is, I like the way the colors are playing nice. I also forgot to post this:

This is the yarn my DD#1 brought to me when she visited and the potholders her girlfriend sent. They are trying to spoil me! Well, I need to go get ready for work. I hope your March is less snowy than mine!

At the Finish Line and Beyond

In the last week or so I’ve finished a couple of projects: Like these: Sweetheart Socks; Pattern: Color Collision by Chrissy Gardiner from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn in Classic Elite Alpaca, size 2 dpns; I liked the unusual construction, but I would probably change the foot to knit a regular heel and toe if I do this pattern again. Then I whipped up this little guy for the “hatchling” as DD#1 is referring to her baby-to-be. So quick and easy and fun; I used a little bit of this and that from my stash. The pattern is Sheep in Sheep’s Clothing by Frankie Brown. I found the pattern through a ravelry link. Too cute and fun! I can see more of these coming off my needles in the future. I also did these:

These fingerless gloves were my entry for the one skein challenge. They didn’t get the popular vote, but they were very commented over. The pattern is my own and I’ll be making it available for a small fee once I have found a test knitter. (Anyone?) ; Pattern: Fingerless Mitts Plan and Fancy; Yarn Claudia Handpaints Fingering in Begonia, Size 2 DPN. And since that wasn’t enough to chase the grey out of the February days, I cast on for these: I am calling them my Celtic Knotkins; Pattern: Nutkins by Beth LaPensee; Yarn Down Home Art Socks by Knitivity, Size 2 (2.75mm) needles And I cast on for my next sweater I’m calling this Desire; Pattern: Delve from Rowan #43; Yarn Summer Tweed, Needle Size 6. I got gauge with the size 8 needles the pattern called for, but apparently the swatch was not completely forthcoming and when I started the back it was on course to be about 3” too wide (which would have given me an additional 5.5 inches on the circumference with seam allowances). Frogged and restarted, much happier and closer to the actual desired circumference on the size 6. I've only knit about 3 repeats of the plain lace pattern, and it's pretty boring to look at right now. So no picture of this.

And because this project has been sitting in the on-deck circle for a while and winter is still here, I cast on for a pair of Mittens: Pattern Honeycomb mittens from Homespun Handknit by Linda Ligon. This is one of my favorite go-to pattern books. The yarn is Lambs Pride Worsted and Twillys Freedom Spirit. Size 6 dpn.

Seam Deferred

Seam Deferred

By Saucey [With apologies to Mr. Hughes]

What happens to a seam deferred?

Does it unravel

just for fun?

Or gap in odd places--

And then run?

When the cat demands a seat

if the lap time is denied --

can it ever be neat? Maybe it just sits Like a waiting dream

but, it’s just a seam.

Happy Knitting

In case you’re wondering, the reason I was at work on Saturday is because we had the charming and talented Franklin come to our shop for a book signing. The event went well and we had a fun time hosting Franklin. I'm the dorky one in the picture here:My camera died so I only took a couple of pictures, but Linda took some, and hopefully they will be up on the shop’s website soon. It seems wrong to actually call being there work. I’m still surprised when I get paid for hanging out at a yarn shop. Especially on a day when something fun happens such as having an honest-to-goodness knitting celebrity there. Knitting wise - I am actually very pleased with myself.

I finished up a little tuck-in gift to add to the package for my grandson. I think it’s safe to show these off because he doesn’t read my blog (yet); maybe in a couple of years, but not yet.

These are just quick little slippers from a basic pattern I’ve been knitting since my kids were his age (or maybe even younger). The yarn is an unknown acrylic that I had hanging around, but the colors are nice and bright which I’m pretty sure will suit his tastes.

I’ve also squeezed in knitting time for a couple of charity hats and wash cloths for my sister in law. I don’t have pictures, sorry.

I’ve also made good progress on the hoodie I’m knitting for my DD#1. The body is done and blocking.

Up next is the sleeves and then the hood; I can’t remember if she wanted a pocket, so I’ll have to check with her, but that’s the last thing and very quick.

I got this far on the next pair of socks:

The pattern is the Horseshoe Cable socks by Judith Durant from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, Yarn is Lang Jawoll. I’m only going to knit the first sock right now. This pattern is the one we will be doing in my next “Advanced” sock class. I'll knit the second one during class so I can have it on the needles for demonstrations. I’m not crazy about the stitch definition with this yarn, but this is the second pair of socks I’ve used this yarn for and I discovered with the first pair that it does bloom a little after washing so I’m not going to let myself get too hung up on that right now. The next thing I’ll be casting on for is a sweater for my Step-daughter’s Mother-in-Law. I’ll tell you all about that as soon as it’s picture worthy. Since I’ve really done very little Christmas knitting this year, I’ve been able to keep my knitting projects going at a nice pace and haven’t felt stressed or harried about any of them which is a great feeling. I have a good mixture of quick projects and big projects to alternate when I need to and have some take along knitting when I know I might have a little time to fill. I am having fun with it and not feeling like it’s a chore. I’m pretty sure that’s what knitting should be all the time... happy knitting. PS Zelda wants “lol” vote for her at: http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=2864929

How Does this Happen?

Saucey says I can't do any more blogging or knitting until I take care of this. . .
Anyone got a shovel I can borrow?

(Have a nice weekend!)

What did you do before Ravelry? (warning: picture heavy post)

I may be telling you TMI here, but I wanted to talk about how you manage your projects stash, etc. Old School vs. Ravelry. Here’s what I’ve been using up ‘til I got my ravelry invite.

1. Just plain notebook with lined and graph paper (9x6 binder). I prefer a binder style so I can add and remove pages as I need to. Also I have some great little document protectors that I picked up at a craft store that are just the right size for my notebook. This goes everywhere my knitting goes.

2. Blank book for saving labels, small swatches and other notes about finished projects; this one is a composition notebook which is smaller, but gives ample space for pasting labels, etc.

3. Binders or document organizers to keep copies and notes about patterns I’d like to make, patterns I’ve made and other tips and techniques.

I also have several satellites to the 3 general books above. A small spiral notebook that also doubles as my all around list book (which replaced my formal planner after I retired); another 3 ring notebook that houses all of the pattern notes and things from the notebook I carry around with me once a project is complete, this one also has some older projects and pictures of really ancient projects from the BC (before computer) years; and A basket that holds all the magazines with patterns I’m thinking about.

Of course for those of you who have been invited and initiated into the wonderful world of ravelry (WWR), you know that ravelry has all the same features and so much more.

I don't think I'll immediately abandon my notebooks system, because I'm a tactile person and I like to be able to jot notes as I think of them and also sketch things out when I get ideas - also as my family can attest to; I have a slight paper addiction.

So, lest you think I haven't been knitting, here are two project updates:

The felted bag knitting is done, it just needs to go in the wash machine and then finish the closure on the front flap.

the HSS sock is prgressing nicely; I got additional measurements from my pal so I can move confidently forward and hopefully finish it this weekend.

And finally, since this is what goes on around here every day about this time, here are what the cats are up to: (hint think kitchen floor sharks... )

Rough translation: "FEED ME"