Molecular Knitting

I have five FOs, everyone! FIVE! See…

Clockwise from lower left: Peak Island Hood, Nubby Cardigan, Glace vest, Delicato mitts and gift socks.

But this has been the weather for days and days and days…

Soggy Weather

Therefore, it’s been nigh impossible to take photos of the FOs with me wearing them. The mitts are a gift, and the cardigan and vest fit just fine, so I am pleased. The Peak Island Hood may not be long for this world, but I’ll save that and modeled shots of all the FOs for posts in the new year.

In three days we leave for the frozen Midwest to visit family, but no worries, M’s grandma’s socks (brown was requested) are done!

So what to take to knit for the 12 days we’ll be gone? Well, the purple-grey stripey yarn I got for my birthday is going, and this sock I’ve started with STR mediumweight in Faulty Dyer is going:

I’ve just started Rivolo by Anne of Knitspot in LL Shepherd Sock in Mixed Berries:

And using the shaping of Frost Diamonds by Stefanie Japel (the lace would be too hard for travel knitting) from the Winter Knitty, I’ve started a small version with fleck stitch instead of the lace. The yarn is Fleece Artist Casbah in Seashore (10% cashmere–very nice).

M and I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and if you are traveling we wish you good roads, connections and a safe journey!
Merry Christmas! See you in 2010.

Last week Tuesday, November 10, was my 46th birthday. It was a wonderful day thanks to M especially and all my friends and family! It was an odd birthday, in that it is the only one I can remember in which I didn’t receive a single book (parents are retired literature teachers). I made up for this by ordering The Knitter’s Book of Wool by Clara Parkes that evening. But I did get some sock yarn for presents. I also got a 50 mm lens for our new camera that I can use at f/1.4 if I need to. I thought Santa Claus was going to bring that lens, but M worked it out with Santa so I wouldn’t have to wait. They’re both great guys in my book. But lets look at the yarn photographed with my new lens.

From my friend ELC, I got two skeins of sock yarn:

Berroco Sox in a purple-pink-grey stripey combo. I am so in the mood for stripey socks!
And to match a spring sweater I own that is bright green, she gave me a skein of Tofutsies, as she knows I like it for warmer weather socks. I am thinking of knitting the Insidious socks by limedragon with this yarn (Rav link).

When my SIL, Teresa, asked what I would like, I suggested a skein of STR lightweight in whichever multicolor wave colorway she chose. That way I’d get a skein of STR lightweight, which I haven’t had (crazy, I know!), but the color would be a surprise. She chose Sea Mar which has some lovely, soft colors.

Now I’ve told myself that if I knit for 30 min on some Christmas gift socks for M’s grandmother, I can then cast on the Berroco stripey socks. It will mean that some single socks may wait a little longer for a mate, but the stipes can’t wait!

After about six months of discussion and dithering, M and I bought a digital SLR camera last week. Long ago I’d had a film SLR camera, and I missed what it could do that even my fancy point-and-shoot couldn’t. So we are now owners of a Canon Rebel T1i, and we are enjoying it immensely and learning how to make it do what we want.

Sunday we took it on a walk along the American River in Sacramento on the Jedidiah Smith Loop Trail.

The Trail
Since it was a loop trail and the American River is long, we had to cross the river on a bridge. As a general rule, I am not fond of crossing bridges, but I was brave.

I wasn’t supposed to block the sun with the bridge beam’s shadow, however. M had to do some Aperture magic to make me have any face at all. But the view from the Guy West Pedestrian Bridge was lovely.

At home, I even managed to get a photo, albeit blurry, of our shy neighbor, Oliver.

“I am not here. You cannot see me. I am a plant not an orange kitty.” Oliver.
Before I could get another shot, he was over the fence.

And then, the camera seems to take lovely shots of yarn.

Handmaiden Casbah in Seashore

I’ve had very little time or energy for knitting in the past few weeks, but I did manage to finish my Embossed Leaves socks. My favorites!

What a pretty sock this pattern makes! I especially like the star toe completing the shape of the final leaves. I did a few mods, mostly based upon mods Weezalana does. She knits wonderful socks (among other things); if you don’t follow her blog and you love to knit socks, you are missing out! For mods, I did a long-tailed, not tubular, cast-on, as I couldn’t make the picture in the book and the written directions mean the same thing, and I wasn’t in the mood to fuss. I didn’t break the yarn at the heel–I couldn’t see why that was a good idea (weaving in ends is fun?). I decreased the purl stitches between repeats and at the edge of the instep so my sock foot was 60 not 64 stitches, so when I got to the toe, I didn’t decrease in the first decrease round, just purled for P2tog. I also knit the first three repeats of the leg on size 2 needles, the second three on size 1.5 needles and then switched to size 1 for the remainder.

Best of all the Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose matches my new shoes, whose color is listed on the box as Vampire Red. My feet are trying to go Goth.

I really love the Smooshy yarn. The color saturation is wonderful, and the twist is superb. It is very soft, yet it makes a very firm fabric at 8 spi, and it doesn’t look too thin at a looser gauge in the leg. I am hoping this bodes well for the longevity of these socks.

Perhaps soon we will have weather cool enough for me to wear them!

I do not have a true LYS. We had two: one run by a wonderful lady and one run by a different lady. The wonderful lady got pregnant with triplets and closed. I bought a lot of yarn in her store. The other lady closed her store for reasons unknown, and I didn’t buy anything at her deep discount, going out of business sale. I think you get the picture. About a month ago I found out that Vacaville (only 20 miles away) had a yarn store, called Spin A Yarn. This past weekend I checked it out. Not knowing anything about the store, I didn’t take my camera, but you can get a good idea by clicking the link above. Parri, the owner, was very friendly and welcoming and happy to let me browse. There was a nice selection of yarn, and I picked out a few goodies to buy:

Parri said many of her customers just had to have Mini Mochi to knit a diagonal scarf, and I think I will do something similar. It is very soft and pretty–the color saturation is fantastic, but I’m not sure the single ply would make good socks. But I know my other purchase will make great socks:

This is my beloved CTH Supersock in a “lottery” color. The skein looked a wee bit bedraggled, but it was very clean, and I liked this Easter-colored mix. I am not in general a pastel fan, but these colors were clear and soft without being cutesy. I’ll be shopping at Parri’s shop again!
After I got home, Kitty No. 34 stopped by and sat on my lap. She does this when she wants her chin scritched (and when I am wearing both dark and light colored clothes so maximum shedding shows). She is a purring machine.

Of course, I purr magnificently! How could such a wonderful cat like myself do anything less splendid?

Later, there was a gorgeous sunset.

I’d like a sock yarn with all those colors!

Here are the last six pairs of socks I’ve knit for myself:

They are nice socks and they fit well. Two thirds of them are blue. And rather the same blue at that.
Many of my readers know that I tend to knit socks non-sequentially. I’ll knit two separate single socks before knitting either second. So here’s two of my single socks:

Apparently, my personal sock “color story” is blue with some green. Blue is not my favorite color. I like blue well enough; it’s nice and versatile. But  I’m in a blue rut, and now I’m digging my way out:

Embossed Leaves–what a wonderful pattern! DIC Smooshy in Gothic Rose–what a wonderful non-blue color! Second sock is already OTN–in fact I’m through the gusset decreases, contrary to the photo.


Vesper Sock Club Yarn from Knitterly Things in Damsel. Turquoise (which a shopkeeper in London told me to pronounce tur-kwaaaahhhzz) doesn’t count as blue. It’s fun! It’s stripey! No blue! The pattern is chevron welt from Sensational Knitted Socks.


Toe Jamz by Happy Hands Yarn in Eleanor Rigby. That’s purple–not blue! I’m serious. NOT BLUE.  Another pair of Monkey socks. Nice yarn. Good dye job–intense color and good transitions.

I’m going to have to knit the second navy tweed sock some day. But not today.

Thank you for all your kind exclamations to my spectacular hunting prowess and overall magnificence! I am always pleased to hear from humans with the good sense to recognize I am a force of nature. Brenda told me to try for a little modesty in this post. I think I’ve done that superbly!

Yes, well, perhaps the least said the better concerning Kitty No. 34’s modesty. Let’s talk buttons! The Nubby Cardi sleeves and fronts are blocking. You may remember I was at a bit of a loss for buttons for periwinkle yarn. You had many good ideas, but I went bold. I went contrast. I got Shelby of Heartstone Ceramics to make me some killer buttons!

Do you know how hard it is to photograph periwinkle knitting with lime green + aqua buttons?! The buttons should be greener (less yellow) and the yarn purpler and bluer, but after several exposures with different color balance options, this is as good as it gets today.

But the buttons are perfect for the casual, fun look I want. Shelby was fantastic! Very cheerful and interested and pleased as punch to do a custom order. This is her Jonah button, and it isn’t what I originally convo’d her about. I wanted her make a pastel version of the periwinkle in a different style. She was cool with that, but she asked me to look at a couple of her color washes to see what effect I would like best, and that is when I found the lime green with aqua Jonah buttons and had to have them.

I hope to have this project done soon, and I am trying not to think about the 179 st x 10 inch collar. That should go fast, shouldn’t it?

Hello, I’m Kitty No. 34. I’m here to distract you from the fact that Brenda doesn’t have any real knitting progress to show you. Something about hot, dry August weather, blah, blah. blah. Now back to me. No, No. 34 isn’t my real name. I just live at unit 34. My people there got me to rid them of some mice. I killed 7 mice and 1 rat the first day I was there! Then they named me Cissy. Really, people? Cissy? 7 mice and 1 rat in 24 hours. Cissy. Sheesh!

Yes, I am very pretty with my tabby stripes, white bib, socks and mittens. I visit Brenda and M at their place, which is No. 30, because their grill makes it easy for me to get on the roof. They also live next to Unit No. 29, which has a nectarine tree and a peach tree. It also has college student tenants who don’t know to pick the fruit and let it fall to the ground. Rats like that. I like rats.

I killed a young rat during one of Brenda and M’s dinner parties (M had trapped the mother the day before). They and their guests were enjoying coffee and dessert out on the patio. They wondered why I ignored them and was so intent on the corner of their deck. Humans are stupid. I heard a rat, and I waited for it to come out from under the deck. When it did, in less time then it takes to say “one hippopotamus” I had killed it. One pounce and a little squeal from the rat and it was all over–for the rat that is. I trotted to the fence with my treat, jumped it (It’s over a 5 foot jump, and I’m about a 10 inches at the shoulder. Yes, I am spectacular.) and was over the top. I heard applause as I went over. I deserved them, of course.

Well, I’m outta here. I have vermin to kill. I’m Kitty No. 34, and that’s my story.

Before:

After:

Solids:

Variegated:

Finishing:

Starting:

And M says I write a lot when I blog!

Happy Knitting!

Every mid-summer I seem to go through a knitting lag. It seems like it will always be hot and dusty, and the weather will never be cool enough to wear wool socks or sweaters. I have finished the first sleeve on my Nubby Cardigan, and I’m half way up the left front, but I’ve got ennui like Mayhem. However, I can always turn to my first love: reading.

First, I know some of my readers have Celiac’s Disease or know people who do. The August issue of Scientific American has an excellent article on  the most recent research into the causes of CD, and new avenues for medication. The online the article doesn’t have the great figures that Scientific American is known for, but the text is all there. I think most libraries carry SA.

Second, I can be found on LibraryThing and on Goodreads. If you are at either, come by and friend me! I have M’s and my complete library (except for one bookcase–the ennnui thing) on LibraryThing, so I use it as a big catalog of our entire library. However, I find certain things awkward on LT, although the ability to use a barcode scanner to entire books is a real plus, that I don’t use it for keeping track of my current reading. For that I use Goodreads. I have always kept track of what I’ve read each year from birthday to birthday, so only the books I’ve read this past year are on Goodreads on shelf 45. On my next birthday, I’ll start a shelf 46. I’m really behind on the number of books I’ve read so far this “year.” But I’ve been doing a lot of reading that isn’t a complete book. For example I have a lot of sock knitting books, which I don’t read cover to cover:

However, perusing them lately I’ve realized that I haven’t knit a single pair of socks from some of them! I plan on redressing that issue. So, I sit by my sock yarn stash paging through the patterns and looking for the right sock yarn. Hopefully, as soon as I recover from my ennui, I’ll get more socks knit from these books.

I also have some yarn that I just can’t seem to find the right sweater pattern for, so I’ve gotten out these books and am studying the chapters on sweater fit and design.

Any other suggestion of other books on this topic, are welcome. However, I don’t need more sock books at this time!

Finally, I’ve been paging through these books for the perfect recipes:

The Spice Cookbook is my favorite. My mom has a copy that she received as a wedding gift back in 1962. I kept emailing for more recipes from that book, so she and my brother found me a used copy online and gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. Cookies may seem a simple thing to bake, but they’re my favorite sweet, and I like to bake the tastiest cookies possible.

So, what do you like to read? Do you have summer knitting ennui? A favorite sweet or cookie? Take a second to leave a comment.