Molecular Knitting

This has not been the easiest summer. Just when I thought things might ease up a bit at work, I needed to rapidly get some data done to help a labmate get a paper ready for publication. And just as I was getting started with that, I found out my younger grandmother (only 96), Grandma Adeline, was in the hospital with pneumonia and kidney failure. She only survived a day in the hospital, where all they could do was make her comfortable. So, we hurried back to the Midwest for her funeral.  She had planned her funeral, and a deacon of her church, who was a close friend, led the service with great love and sincerity. She was very smart, was a wonderful story teller, and had a great sense of humor, so she will be missed.

Then it was back to California to all those experiments to do and all the housework and laundry to catch up on. When I am under stress, I have trouble focusing. And since I am normally able to focus bizarrely well, a lack of focus is all the more upsetting. I must have at least 6 books started. I have so many socks started, that I can’t knit any second socks until I finish another first. Even though I have a third of a sweater done, I’ve swatched for several other garments and large projects. I have two FOs to weave in ends and block. It’s all a little too much right now.

I finally downloaded a whole raft of pictures from the small point-and-shoot camera I carry in my purse, and I’ve chosen some of my favorite images that cheer and calm:
A neighbor’s tree in bloom

Kitty #34 looking disgruntled; she’s probably wondering where M, her true love, is.

Kitty #34 wondering why M, her true love, won’t let her up into his lap (he’s allergic).

A neighborhood view during an evening walk (I love the light).

Another view of our neighborhood.

Roses at the university arboretum.

M making cocktails.

Oy! M and I have been under the gun at work: papers to get ready to submit and data for grants to acquire. Oy! I didn’t mean to be away for so long, but I’m still catching my breath. At least these were all good things to be doing as a research biochemist, but it did make me a veg every evening. But while vegging I got a little done in the knitting department (there’s a FO to block and another to photo, but not today). Let’s look at some sock stuff. I’ve finished the first Amethyst Roger sock:

And I’ve also finished the first Rose Quartz Calcareous sock (don’t the gusset decreases on the top of the foot flatter the cable pattern):

Because I’m not one to knit two matching socks one right after the other, I started this little ribbed sock in some BFL from Huckleberry Knits; the color is Winesap:

And I started another sock, where I plan to do the gusset decreases on the bottom of the foot, as I’ve heard that makes for a nice fitting heel. This is STR in Waterlilies, and I really like the colors:

And just for some flowery beauty, at the Sacramento farmers’ market, I bought some pink gerbera daisies and chartreuse spider mums. I just couldn’t resist; they were so fresh and pretty:

Happy knitting!

Before we discuss red, May and jam, I want to tell you that Friday is M’s Birthday! Yay! I won’t tell you his age, except to say that the number is the answer to what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything. If you are inclined, you should wish him a happy day in the comments; it will embarrass him greatly, and that’s a lot of fun. He says his favorite hobby is picking on me, so this is quite fair.

I thought I would take part in Project Spectrum this year, which Lolly is running from May through November. The colors for May are red and orange. I tried knitting a red shawlette in some Madelinetosh Sock in Tart. I got this far and completely lost interest. I think I’ll make red socks instead. So that’s that.

But May was not a red washout, because the strawberries finally came into season here! We have had a very cold and wet spring for Northern California, so the strawberries are a bit late. But they were worth waiting for!

I decided to make two kinds of strawberry jam: strawberry marmalade* and balsamic strawberry jam#. The marmalade has oranges and orange peel (without the bitter pith) and the balsamic jam used balsamic vinegar in addition to lemon juice for the acid. Fresh out of the canner, the jars didn’t look very red.

So I took some up to my “photo studio” and tried to backlight them. Not very red.

Because I’m a scientist, I do experiments, so I put the backlight light source right behind the left jar in the middle row. I took the picture, even though I had come to the conclusion that jam is rather opaque in a jar.

You can see in the lighter jars, which are the marmalade, that I have a floating fruit issue. Since I’m not entering my jam in the county fair, I decided I can live with floating fruit, especially since I had done all the “tips” to keep floating fruit from happening. Anyway, my opaque jam photos prompted me to make some toast and to spread on the jams. Up front is the strawberry marmalade and in the back in the balsamic strawberry jam. At last they look red!

Once I downloaded the photos, I decided that the I should have used a higher f-stop to get greater depth of field. If I had done that, the balsamic strawberry jam toast would also be in focus, and it might have liked that. But I had already eaten the toast and jam. It was delicious. So that is all.

* The Strawberry Marmalade recipe is from 175 best Jams, Jellies, Marmalades and Other Soft Spreads by Linda J. Amendt.

# The Balsamic Strawberry Jam is a variation on the standard strawberry jam recipe in Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine.

Happy Birthday, M!!

Before we tour my bead room, a note to new commenters to the blog. I love everyone’s comments, except for all the spam I have been getting. Therefore, if you haven’t commented here before, your comment will require my approval before it goes up. If you want anyone else to see your comment, I suggest it not read like this: “Youre the ones with the brains here. Im whaticng for your posts” or “I thank you humbly for snaharig your wisdom.” Weirdest spam, but M said these were “entry” comments to see if I was paying attention. Bad spam was sure to follow.

Let’s tour the Bead Room! a.k.a. my craft room. Last weekend I got it all reorganized and cleaned. I call it the bead room, because when we first moved here, I did beading and no knitting. Now I do 90% knitting and 5% beading/jewelry making and 5% other (sometimes referred to as playing solitaire on one’s iPad). From the door:

My knitting books with a yoga bolster in the corner so I can pretend to work on my posture while perusing patterns:

Red leather chair for knitting and reading (when I’ve given up on having good posture):

Counter-height work space that I use as a standing computer desk, because standing is healthier than sitting (I’m currently typing this while sitting in the red leather chair (with bad posture)):

Low work area for when sitting is necessary for fine motor skill tasks (or I’m too lazy to stand). And I absolutely deny that the white chest of drawers is full of sock yarn. No comment on whether it is 2/3 full:

Massive shelving storage for beads and beading books (and M’s woodworking and gardening books–orchid growing requires lots of books), a place to stack small project bags that isn’t called a floor, ditto for the camera backpack.

The cool thing is, M helped me get the supplies and make the set up so that shelving storage becomes a small photo studio. I did this set up today in less than 5 min, which included forgetting and then remembering how to set up the light stands so that they wouldn’t fall over.

With repositioning the lights and the camera a bit, I can then snap photos of yarn (or cocktails if one is trying to make M happy) that come out like this (with minimal tinkering):



Top: Dream in Color Everlasting 8 ply sock yarn in Passion
Middle: String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn Caper Sock in Shale
Bottom: Crafts Meow Gelato in Campfire Marshmallow

Mannequin heads kind of creep me out. I learned this about myself while browsing the 100s upon 100s of mannequin heads available on ebay last week. But I wanted a head to model hats. Originally I thought I wanted a glass head, but they were super creepy, and no one listed the head circumference. Most creepy were the flesh-colored bald heads without any facial features. I decided on a painted head with a neck and shoulders suitable for draping scarves. Meet Harriet!

Harriet is a little fond of make-up, but she doesn’t look scary in a zombie sort of way like the blank mannequin heads. I named her Harriet after Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. My Harriet is gaudy in a different way than the meaning of Gaudy Night, which is sort of like a homecoming celebration, but that’s OK. She wears scarves and hats quite well, almost like she was designed to do so!

Here she is wearing Dryad scarf by Jared Flood knit in Blackstone Tweed and Norie by Gudrun Johnston’s book The Shetland Trader Book One. I knit Norie out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport in Corvid that I had leftover from my Frost Diamonds shawl I knit last summer.

Norie is a slouchy beanie, and I have been wearing it since December, and I have received many compliments. Apparently, slouchy beanie is the style for me. The lace pattern is the Shetland cat’s paw lace, which I enjoyed working.

Gudrun writes patterns quite clearly, and her book is beautifully photographed, produced and printed. I was quite impressed. The patterns are also lovely, and you shall be seeing more of them on my needles in the future. I also have enough of the Corvid BFL Sport left over to make a cowl, which I think can be knit like the hat without the crown but with two brims.

Yes, I think Harriet will be very useful here. She sits so still and never complains while I fiddle with my camera and lights!

I thought I’d let my sock WIPs do the talking here. Warning: they’re a little disgruntled.

Hi! I’m the sock on the left. Aren’t I just a multi-colored dream?! I’m knit out of Handmaiden Casbah in Dandelion, so I’m soft too with 10% cashmere. I’m divine, but I’m a single sock! What’s the problem you ask? Well, she couldn’t decide whether to knit me up as Pablo Deep, as I am, or Cookie A’s Monkey, so now she is considering knitting my mate in the Monkey pattern. She can’t decide. How lame is that?
Sock on the right here! Do you know why I am only one sock? Because my cuff ribbing doesn’t line up well with my lace pattern (see below). Whose fault is that? She did K2,P2 rib without even thinking, when employing just one extra neuron would have told her that K2,P3,K2,P1 ribbing would have been perfect. She didn’t notice until she grafted the toe shut. That’s the opposite end of the sock! Now she wants to knit my mate in a different pattern. But–she can’t remember which pattern. How dumb is she? I mean, seriously.


Aren’t I knitting up beautifully? On the outside that is. On the inside I’m evil:

Bwaa-ha-ha! My yarn ran into some serious integrity issues, and now she doesn’t know how durable I’ll be! But, I am beautiful on the outside!

We are Socks that Rock socks. I, on the left, am mediumweight in Puck’s Mischief knit in the stitch pattern Gentleman’s Fancy Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I am STR and I am NOT pooling! I am for knitting when she is too inebriated for knitting anything more complicated. She needs to drink more, so I and my mate can be completed.
I, on the right, am lightweight STR in Bejewelled; she started me in Anne Hanson’s Chicklets Sock pattern on a bad day when she needed cheering up. I’m very cheerful! She needs to be depressed more, so she finishes me and my mate.

Hi, I’m also being knit from STR lightweight in Rose Quartz. I’m Calcareous by Hunter Hammersen. Aren’t I turning out well?! I would be much farther along, except she can’t cable, especially at the end of needles, when she has had a cocktail. She needs to stop drinking and finish me and knit my mate.

Thanks for listening to all our sock stories! Perhaps you can whip (hee-hee) her into shape for us!
–The Sock WIPs

This past weekend M went to his first baby shower! He was not sanguine going in. He had heard horror stories of games involving diapers and smushed up candy bars, but I assured him that that would not happen at a co-ed shower, especially one for Meghan and Ben. And I was right. He got to chat with a lot of fun people, eat a kielbasa sausage sandwich (we both skipped the cupcakes with Peeps on top), and he helped direct me in painting a honey bee on a yellow onesie (he suggested the flight trail dots and did two little yellow eyes himself).

Meghan got her PhD in the lab we work in, and in the autumn will be starting a science writing program. Ben is finishing up his PhD thesis. She’ll be leaving lab when the baby comes, and I will miss our political and scientific conversations. I took this candid picture of the two of them, and I like it for several reasons: one, her sister Leah in the background (wearing the shades) is grinning at the camera, even though Meghan and Ben are oblivious to it; two, Meghan looks like she is concentrating on movement by the baby with her hand raised over her abdomen; and three, you can see that Ben wore pink shorts and a blue shirt showing that girl or boy he’s happy to be becoming a dad.

I had never knit a baby blanket before, but I figured it couldn’t be too terribly hard if I made it a rectangle. Meghan really likes bright colors, and with the sex of the baby not known, I decided bright colors and lots of them was the way to go.

I used Anne Hanson’s Obstacles Wrap pattern, with 6 repeats going across and 13.5 repeats long. I think it was a good stitch pattern for the busy colors and it blocked well in this Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Swirl yarn. More details on my Ravelry page.


I think Meghan and Ben liked it. Hopefully the baby will too!

Did you know that of the 7000+ colors the human eye can see over 3000 of them are greens? We can see more shades and tones of green than any other color because the wavelengths of greens are in the middle of the “visible” spectrum. I put the visible in quotes, because many insects and birds would find our color spectrum pretty wimpy.

I love greens, especially the bright, fresh greens of Spring, which in this part of northern California is almost over! John Muir described the California Central Valley as having two seasons: summer and spring. Spring starts in November with the rains, when the indigenous grasses start to grow and the world greens up. Those grasses have already put their seed heads out, and so by mid-May will have turned golden brown (creating the golden hills of California). However, the field of winter wheat next to our place, isn’t quite so far along, but it is beautiful.

By mid-June, this wheat will be harvested and the field will be left as bare dirt until November. So, I really appreciate these few months of verdant green. I can see it out of our bedroom window, and in mid-January that vividness is about the only thing that gets me out of bed (and M’s homemade lattes).

This love of green can explain why I had to have a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in Happy Forest. Didn’t it make a happy looking pair of socks?

The stitch pattern is Ringwood from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. She used them in a pattern for gentleman’s socks, but these babies are for me!

I used 60 stitches for the leg, and then toward the heel I did two rounds of “ankle-shaping” decreases to get me to 56 st. I also used a garter-edged eye-of-partridge heel flap, as I am addicted to that combo.

I probably won’t want to wear these wool beauties while the field is so desolate of green, as that would be when the daily average temperature is over 90 degrees, but they’ll be a happy addition to my sock drawer.

My sporadic blogging means I have been wearing FOs out and about without ever blogging them. Very bad form, I know. But let me show you one of my favorite FOs of the more recent past, the Milkweed Shawl designed by Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits! I wore it on a blustery day this past week to take my knitting and work friend Elsie out to lunch to celebrate her birthday.

Elsie is wearing a sweater she knit herself in some Madeline Tosh worsted. I don’t remember the pattern, but one skein of the lot was much lighter than the others, so she made that the ribbing throughout the pattern. I think that worked out really well.

Then on Saturday, it was still blustery, and by that I mean gale force winds and heavy rain, so I wore it again on a shopping trip to Sacramento (otherwise short hair means a cold neck). I was eating a french fry when the below photo was snapped. I thought only M’s ice cream was in the frame.

When trying to buy lunch a three o’clock in the afternoon, there aren’t many options that aren’t fast food, but ice cream is almost always available. That’s M’s “Mountain of Ice Cream.” He chose spumoni and pistachio. I hate spumoni, so he gets that when we are out. My small vanilla ice cream with raspberries is so small in comparison to his mountain that you can’t see it sitting right behind. I did also have french fries. I love salty fries along side ice cream (not in the same bite). The ice cream place is Leatherby’s in Sacramento, and they make their own ice cream, and it is delicious.

But as for the Milkweed Shawl, I love how it turned out! It stays around my neck really well, and the slightly scalloped shape looks interesting and hangs well. I didn’t think I would like knitting all that garter stitch, but there was just enough else going on, and the look was so great, I didn’t miss purling.


The Handmaiden Casbah yarn in Stardust was absolutely fabulous. It is such a pleasure to knit and wear! And the soft grey-blues of the Stardust colorway allows me to wear it with a lot of other colors. The colors remind me of faded denim. They aren’t quite as bright as the shot on the back of the red sofa, but the colors do change with the amount and color of the ambient light.

I have another skein of Casbah, and I would like many, many more. This has to be a top 10 yarn for me. But with the one I have, in Rose Garden, I see another Milkweed. The pattern is great and the shawl is very wearable.

And I can’t resist a shot of M with his ice cream (he is also soaking wet from the rain). That really is a mountain of ice cream. I guess they gave him the two cookies, in case the ice cream was not enough.

I just cast-off a top-secret knitting project, which I can’t as yet show you. So, I thought I’d share some photos I’ve taken with the small Canon ELPH camera that I keep in my purse. I bought it with some birthday money last fall, when I realized that out-and-about I often wanted to take a snapshot but hadn’t brought my super-duper DSLR camer with me.

Outside the parking garage at work, crows come to roost in the trees after dark from autumn through spring. This is early in the roosting, as only the top branches are taken. During these months, it is best to park in the garage and not in the lots with trees in them.

We ate one night at a Moroccan restaurant, where in addition to eating with our fingers, we watched this woman belly-dance, shimmying with a brass bowl balanced on her head. Her posture and balance were amazing.

Outside our lab building the pink magnolia tree put on an amazing show before a rain storm beat all the flowers off the tree.

M bought me a lovely white moth orchid, which I keep by my desk at work. He did this well after Valentine’s Day in place of flowers on that holiday, when the prices shoot up and the quality goes down.

This is our 7-foot tall ficus tree, which had just been returned outdoors from a winter indoors (which it hates–it sheds half its leaves inside). We got a winter storm that blew it over. The pot is cracked, so now we have to replant it. That will be a project.

This is M this morning after righting the ficus tree. He’s pretending he’s enjoying the billionth day of rain and wind we’ve had here. This March has been terrible.

I enjoy having the little camera with me to catch things on the fly, and I hope to share more of these in the future. M uses it too sometimes, and you may thank me that I did not show you any of his mouse dissection photos from the lab. Quite gruesome. Magnolias and orchids are much better!