I felt the need for pretty this past week, so out of the bazillion WIPs I have, these two got the most attention.
Tudor Grace pattern from Knitspot, which I’m knitting in the scrumptious Silk Sock from Yarn Lust in Currant. It’s 70% merino/30% silk, soft and strong, warm but not wooly, and it has a little sheen to it. Did I mention it’s soft? Babies weep that their bottoms aren’t this soft. And of course, the Tudor Grace pattern is a dream. It’s very easy, but still fun to knit. There are 3 “lace” rows to the 10-stitch, 6-row repeat, and one row has a double YO, one has a right twist and the other changes the order of the left and right slanting decreases. So, it mixes things up a little. Easy but not monotonous. And it is pretty!
On a rainy day last week, I thought about starting the Flicker sock, but I had this wonderful pink and green sock yarn that look so cheerful and springlike that I couldn’t resist. I did stick with a Cookie A. pattern however.
I finally got around to trying the Monkey sock. I know they are called a “lace” sock, and I haven’t been one to knit lace socks, although I’ve made an “official” decision to get over that in 2009 (hence the Flicker sock). However, the Monkey sock is lace? Really, people? That’s like saying YO increases along a raglan edge are lace. These socks have “decorative increases” paired with directional decreases. That’s my take on it. It is knitting up very pretty in this yarn I bought from a local dyer at our Farmer’s Market last October. Here it is stretched out on my sock blockers:
When talking with the dyer, she promised me there would be no pooling as she did very short color repeats. There is no pooling and her color repeats are short. The base yarn is identical to Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, which knits up very nicely.
The Monkey sock may become my “go to” pattern for highly variegated yarn if these socks fit me well. Because we like the pretty handknits when it’s rainy and grey outside.
Posted in Knitspot, WIPs, etsy purchases, scarves | 18 Comments »
The Hibernation Basket: where naughty and/or disappointing WIPs go to await judgement. Shall we be brave and look at what is inside?
Part of a February Lady Sweater. Lovely pattern. Lovely yarn color. The garter yoke fits. The yarn is NOT NICE. Not nice at all. It deplies itself, and it BREAKS. I’ve never had a knit stitch just break in the middle as I inserted the right needle into the loop. But this yarn did it at no apparent flaw. I had to tink back all the way to the broken stitch, and then back past it to create an end long enough to work in (>200 stitches all told). Not fun. The yarn (discontinued Bryspun Kin ‘n’ Ewe) is also scratchy, and I don’t think Cascade 220 or Wool of the Andes are the least bit scratchy. As far as this sweater in this yarn is concerned, the Hibernation Basket may be more of a hospice basket.
A sock that makes my foot look like a lizard foot. My original plan was to do the cuff in this very narrow, long basketweave stitch pattern (Stanfield 10), and then do a standard slip stitch heel and a stockinette foot. I thought it would look veggie-like and organic. Somewhere along the line, I kept the heel flap in the pattern stitch and even did the pattern stitch on the gussets (do not try this; it is a mistake; it makes one’s foot look very fat). Very nasty all round. Going to the frog pond. I thought this Eat Your Veggies from Claudia’s Hand Painted would be brighter knit up.
Kiri! How sad! I’ve become allergic to the Suri alpaca! Baby alpaca and suri alpaca make my hands itch and my eyes water. I can’t stand to touch it. I so love the color of this yarn, a bright, true Christmas red, and I really liked how Kiri was turning out. But I can’t have it around at all. In fact, if any reader would like Kiri and it’s yarn, email me or leave a comment. It’s Frog Tree 100% brushed suri. I had 1000 meters (5 skeins), and Kiri so far is about one skein (7-9 repeats done–I really don’t want to handle it and count), so there are 800 meters untouched.
Dainty Bess in Malabrigo laceweight! How did this end up at the bottom of the Hibernation Basket?! I like this project (even if it’s a little dull to knit) and I love the yarn and color. Out of the Hibernation Basket! Into a WIP basket! I hesitated in confronting my hibernating projects, but I’m glad I did, as I had completely forgotten about this little gem. I guess I should scroll down my projects page on Rav more often.
Posted in Dainty Bess Scarf, February Lady Sweater, WIPs, socks | 16 Comments »
I am confident that if you asked just about anyone who knows me in person if I am courteous and polite, the overwhelming response would be yes. However, I have noticed that my courtesy does not extend to my handknits. They can be quite rude, as evidenced by this conversation I heard while photographing these two single socks. (The blue-green sock is knit from Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Nodding Violets, and the red-blue sock is knit in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Champlain Sunset).
Blue Sock: She’s knitting us as practice socks to correct for “protocol drift” that was leading to socks not fitting her as well as she liked. Since I am the second practice sock, I am better than you.
Red Sock: Well, while your 3/8-inch longer heel flap fits her better, in the Eye of the Patridge pattern, there were so many rows that your gusset is a bit, shall we say “baggy.” My gussets are sleek without being stretched too far. And I fit just fine, so there!
Blue Sock: I fit just fine too, you plain stockinette hussy!
Red Sock: Like 3×1 ribbing in the cuff is such a big deal!
Well, that’s enough of that. On both socks, I finally, finally got the toe grafting done to my satisfaction.
I had been using the directions from Knitty, but I kept getting a bump at the beginning, and I had a very hard time getting the stitches tightened up properly. I decided I needed different directions, as I was clearly missing something. I tried Sally Melville’s directions from her book, The Purl Stitch, and that worked like a charm. I have no idea how I kept from getting a bump at the beginning, but she recommends putting the sock on your hand like a puppet to tighten all the grafting, which for me was pure genius. I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t thought of that myself.
Both these socks fit fine, as I finally managed to knit the foot long enough, but I do think that if I want to do an EoP heel flap, I should use a larger needle to try to keep the row number down. I also knit both of these with a larger needle for the leg than for the foot due to my “cankles.” I have a question though for all of you. I noticed that in stockinette stitch the CTH gives me little uniform Vs, but on the STR, one side of the stitch is much more vertical. See–
Why is that? I’ve noticed this in other people’s knitting too. It seems to be yarn based not knitter based. I do love both these yarns though, which is good as I have more of each in my stash.
Now I need to knit the second sock for each of these, which is not filling me with joyous anticipation–in addition to being rude, they are a little dull. You see, I’ve bought Cookie A’s Flicker pattern and Knottygnome’s Coin Toss pattern. I have Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose and Blue Lagoon. The only reason I haven’t cast on for these is that I can’t decide which sock to knit in which color.
Feel free to voice an opinion.
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
Earlier this past week, while M and I ate dinner one night, I looked over at an “extension” of our bar and sighed. The extension was an old TV cart made of contact paper covered particle board from my graduate school, single days. Liquor bottles covered the top (which could swivel!), a black plastic tool box holding M’s mandoline (for slicing not music) occupied the “VCR shelf,” and the small cabinet below was full of containers of loose tea. The cart was ugly, and both cart and all the bottles needed to be dusted before we hosted a dinner party on Saturday. If only I had a cabinet that I could put all the bottles in. Then I thought, I could buy a new cabinet. The next three evenings found M and me at three different stores, and Friday we hit pay dirt. We bought it, M assembled it, and I filled it. Neatness abounds.
It holds a lot of stuff (the Ficus tree next to it is about 7 ft high):
So now even the Original Bar is not so crowded (although there are still more liquor bottles in other containment elsewhere–we are well stocked):
Containment is a good thing! Even for knitting projects. The funny thing is that for my three “large” WIPs, I have a matching project bag. Containment and Coordination!
On top is an Amish basket given to me by my only aunt (the Amish person is her neighbor in northern Wisconsin); it’s sitting on my Grandma Frances’s old picnic basket. To the right is a cherry blossom bag I got for my birthday; it’s from Janine King Designs. I keep my pink mohair cardi project in there, as the cherry blossoms have the same pink in their detailing. In front, the Totally Autumn throw is kept in a bag with apples on it that one of the millions of my mother’s former English students made and sold. And my newest project, Career Check (Ravelry link), a basket weave jacket by Kathy Zimmerman matches my newest bag, a Christmas gift, handmade by my friend Nancy.
I feel very matchy-matchy. I only hope that if I start to knit a blue sweater, I’ll be able to refrain from purchasing a matching blue project bag or basket.
With all this coordination and containment going on, M and I hope that next weekend we will have time to sit down, have a cocktail and write a blog post. Until then, it’s sobriety and knitting around here.
Posted in WIPs, cocktails, etsy purchases | 5 Comments »
I’ve always liked Bugs Bunny’s pronunciation of strategy as strah-TEE-gee much more than the “correct” version. I like it so much more that professionally when talking about “cloning strategies” or “purification strategies,” I have to pay attention not to say it like Bugs. But when considering strategies (so much nicer than resolutions) for leisure time for 2009, it’s stra-TEE-gy all the way. So, what will an ideal 2009 look like here at Molecular Knitting? Here’s the plan:
1. Blog at least 4 times per month, which doesn’t seem like all that much, but I didn’t do that in 2008. I primarily want to stick with knitting, but I may add a bit more about reading, cooking, photography, cocktails and the like (M and I want to post at least once a month to Cocktails with M–we have lots of photos currently, but we’re going to have to remake and taste again several cocktails in order to write about them–yeah, it’s going to be rough). I have rules about blogging, which actually make the blog a form of therapy. You see, I want the blog to be upbeat, cheerful, funny and HONEST. With the mental torture my brain can put me through that becomes a challenge, but a sanity-saving challenge. This is probably my most important leisure strategy (remember to say it like Bugs!) for the year, although keeping up with the knitting will make it easier to blog.
2. Knit up one of my three stash albatross yarns into something I like and will be useful. I have 2000+ yards of Lamb’s Pride worsted in periwinkle, 1500+ yards of Lamb’s Pride bulky in raspberry and 1400 yards of Bryspun Kid ‘n’ Ewe in dark red-violet. These three yarns were all purchased in 2001-2002 when I first learned to knit. I thought the February Lady Sweater would be great in the Kid ‘n’ Ewe, but the yarn is terrible in my hands. It “deplies” and breaks. The FLS is in hibernation while I consider whether the whole thing, if I finish it, will simply fall apart when I block it (my current imagined outcome). However, Friday I found a project for the Lamb’s Pride bulky (YAY!), and after starting out, I think it will work out great (Double YAY!). Since I didn’t really want a sweater in a bulky yarn, I was at a loss until I thought of a throw. I may have thought of the throw because our living room temperature was 62 °F. Ravelry led me to Anne Hanson’s Totally Autumn from Knitty (Fall 2007). Anne’s patterns always totally rock, so I cast on faster than you can say 7.0 mm needle. I’ve just started, but I’m pleased.
It even matches the new throw pillow I just bought on clearance.
3. If 2008 knitting taught me anything, it is that I really appreciate having coordinated hand knits to wear. I also learned that with very short hair and an aversion to turtlenecks, scarves are good even indoors for staying toasty. Therefore, I’ll be trying to knit scarves and socks that coordinate with the sweaters I’ll knit and the clothes I have. My first foray into this consists in knitting a mohair cabled cardi that I’ve knit before, but is now too big. M really loves the first version of this sweater on me, but it has always been huge (row gauge matters when knitting sleeves!) especially now that I am not so huge, so he offered to buy me more yarn to knit it again. Mohair isn’t my favorite yarn to knit–it slows me way down, but it is so warm yet lightweight, that I couldn’t resist. This time round, I chose the Pomegranate shade of La Gran.
BTW there is nothing reminiscent about pomegranates in that lovely pinky-coral color. Their flowers are orange, their foliage green, and their fruit purply-red. Anyway, the coordinating scarf is a narrow version of the Upstairs Wrap (Ravelry link) by Wollschnegge, which I’m knitting in some CTH Supersock in “Foxy Lady.” I’ll have two more hand knits that can be worn together. I’m practically giddy at the thought.
Finally, I hope not to fret too much in 2009 about WIP number. For example, I love red. I started a pair of socks in a multi-colored, mostly red sock yarn. Of the only 6 pairs of hand knit socks I have that fit me well, two are mostly red, and one has quite a bit of red. So this pair is hibernating while I knit some other colored socks that won’t clash with all my pink and berry colored clothing. Coordinating! I hope it will be a good thing.
P.S. If anyone has a brilliant idea of what I can knit with 2000+ yards of Lamb’s Pride worsted in periwinkle, I demand you leave a comment and tell me. Pretty please!
Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with peace and good cheer! M and I spent two weeks in Illinois and Wisconsin visiting family and friends. All our flights went smoothly with no delays, and we had a good time. We even got to experience quite a bit of snow in Wisconsin. Among many wonderful gifts, I received some knitting books, the Harlot’s 365-day calendar and a whole lot of yarn–my entire Webs wishlist in fact; but all that must wait for another post, as I must post about my final four 2008 FOs before any more of 2009 goes by. So without further ado…
Socks knit in Seacoast Merino/Tencel in the Baltic colorway:
I made up the pattern using a yarn-over “cable” and a beaded rib, which I deem so-so. I also made the heel flap a little short for my instep and the sock circumference a little small for me by accident. However, these will fit my MIL very well, I think, and they are colors she loves. Voila!–one pair of socks for Christmas 2009 done. The yarn and colors are superb.
But I did end up with hand knits for me! The grey tweed pullover has worked out very well. It’s roomy, but I got the sleeve length perfect, and I modified the rolled neck of the pattern to stockinette with purl ridges to better match the detailing on the sleeves and body. I’ve worn this sweater A LOT.
I also knit myself a hat with leftover yarn with the same rolled edge with purl ridges. I like this hat! I usually hate hats.
You can see the machinations I go through to photograph myself. Glare is not kind. But you can see my final FO–the Malabrigo cabled brioche scarf. Wow! So soft! So cushy! So warm! This might be my favorite hand knit so far. It was wonderful in Wisconsin. I didn’t block it as it looked good and was the perfect width for my short neck without blocking. I went beyond the neckwarmer I originally planned, and I was glad for the extra warmth. It’s about 42 inches long, as seen on the couch-o-meter:
Well, that’s it for 2008 FOs. 17 in all. A goodly number. Onward!
Posted in FOs, Grey Tweed Pullover, hats, scarves | 12 Comments »
Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes concerning my sciatica. I start PT on December 5, which was the earliest possible date: Ain’t American health care grand! At least it is not painful, just numb and sluggish.
Meanwhile, I have finished the second attempt at a dark green skiing hat for my SIL. From my previous post, you may remember that the first was too small. This time I made the pattern up based upon a knit-in-the-round gauge swatch. Her head is 22″ around, and the hat should be 19.5″ around unstretched. I blocked it over a 21″ inch around bowl (the ribbing hung past the edge and wasn’t really stretched), and it is not tight on my 23.5″ head (yes, I have a strangely large head, and no, it didn’t make me smarter). I believe my exact words to M were, “This one is going to be too *(&$^% big!” He disagrees, and he says she will love it (he is not a stupid man). We’ll see. As he pointed out, she does have “curly, big” hair, and I have “straight, small” hair.
I was quite pleased with myself for doing the decreases every other round as P2tog to continue the detail of the seed stitch stripes. And the Wool of the Andes had only one knot in 1.3 skeins, and I was happy to knit with it. I also liked the subtle monochromatic color changes from the kettle dying.
I do hope it fits! That was the last of my Christmas knitting and my 13th FO of 2008. Of those 13 FOs, 5 were for me and 8 for other people. I think this may explain why I don’t have a hat, scarf (that matches my new, smaller coat), and not even a week’s worth of handknit socks. I’m knitting for me for a while! I am almost done with the seaming on MY grey tweed pullover. I finished the knitting and the neckband and then completely forgot about it for 3 or so weeks. And my Malabrigo neckwarmer has become a scarf; it was too confining at neckwarmer length, so since I hadn’t even finished the first of two balls of yarn, I decided to knit it long enough for a scarf.
The sock knitting hasn’t been going very well, but I am retrenching and will discuss that in a later post. But to end on a happy note, I did find this very pretty sock yarn at our local farmer’s market from Fiber Confections. The lady was very nice to talk to. She had several different yarns, the base of this one seems identical to Lorna’s Laces. I don’t think it is from her sheep.
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Bad News: I turned 45 on Monday the 10th. It’s hard to call that early 40s anymore.
Good News: I had a birthday! M took me out for a great dinner at a local Greek restaurant, and I got some great stuff too, like a pretty quartz and pyrite mineral from Transylvania to add to my mineral collection. It’s more sparkly in the sun.
Bad News: I have a pinched sciatic nerve in my left leg that is causing numbness and weakness.
Good News: I have very little actual pain with it, and the doctor thinks physical therapy is all that is needed, plus I can continue yoga.
Bad News: Good golly my hamstrings are sore!
Good News: I started yoga again after an eight year hiatus. I found a great teacher who is fun and smart, and I’m still scarily flexible.
Bad News: The Lucky 7 Hat I knit as a Christmas gift for my SIL will be too small for her.
Good News: The hat turned out well, and it fits Meghan, a grad student in lab who is petite. The hat was not knit in vain; it has a head!
Bad News: I have to knit another hat. I hate knitting hats. I especially hate 16-inch circular needles.
Good News: I have 8″-long dpns. I can make up a simple hat pattern good for skiing (must have fold over brim). I knit a gauge swatch and found out the head measurement of my SIL. 96-st around will work fine.
Bad News: I didn’t have enough dark green yarn left over to make a second hat. The green matches SIL’s ski jacket.
Good News: I can buy yarn online! Above is Wool of the Andes in Ivy Kettle Hand-dyed. To get free shipping, I “had” to buy enough yarn to knit a sweater for me. Below is Wool of the Andes in Fern.
Bad News: Some knitters complain that their Wool of the Andes is scratchy and the skeins full of knots.
Good News: Not scratchy to me. One knot in the first skein. Colors seem very good.
Bad News: I could go on and on with this Bad News-Good News thing.
Good News: I’m stopping now.
Posted in FOs, WIPs, hats | 19 Comments »
Malabrigo worsted weight. Brioche stitch. Cables. Neckwarmer. Need I say more?
That’s Glacier Malabrigo, which I got from Karen. It’s very soft and pretty. When knit in brioche stitch, it’s downright sqooshy. The cables are just an added bonus. The pattern is Brioche Moebius from Janet Szabo’s Winter 2006 Twists and Turns. However, I am making a narrower version (3 not 5 cables wide), and I won’t be making the moebius. Janet designed it as a moebius scarf to drape over the head in lieu of a hat–the fabric is entirely reversible. I want a neckwarmer. So, I’ve decided to knit it long enough to cross and then button in front. This means I have to learn how to make button loops at the end of the scarf (crochet a chain?), and I’ll have to find buttons. With just a small JoAnns, that could be a tough job. Any advice on button loops and online button resources I’d be happy to receive!
Brioche stitch is a blast to knit, and I love how the cables curve the edge of the scarf. This baby is thick too.
I’ll be toasty warm when back in Wisconsin and Illinois for the holidays. Maybe we’ll even get down to freezing here one early morning in December or January, and I’ll be able to wear it with a sweater outside. I know, that’s just unnecessary bragging.
Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments »
Before I get to the socks, many people wanted me to keep them updated about my family’s cat Rip. Well, in very early October, Rip needed to be put down. He really was not doing well. My family misses him of course, but they are glad he is no longer suffering. They appreciated all of your wonderful comments.
While knitting the first pair of Christmas socks in a 4×4 rib, I realized that if I didn’t get any sock blockers, I was going to have awful photos. The socks were too narrow for my feet, so I asked Cristi, the turtlegirl, if she’d make me a pair of blockers. Cristi usually puts rulers on the blockers, but I didn’t need that, so she asked if I wanted anything else. Well, I had a ladybug tape measure and a beehive pincushion (see below), so I thought something keeping with the “good bugs” theme would be cool. Cristi did dragonflies, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
So, the first pair of Christmas socks, which I finished in August, can now have their FO pic on the blog.
The yarn is Fleece Artist Merino in Lily Pond. I knit on 2.25 mm (size 1) needles, which with my tension the FA yarn made for a very durable fabric. I don’t think I’ll do that again. Plus, on size 1 needles, the Eye of Partridge heel took 42 rows for 21 picked up stitches. I’m somewhat surprised that the gussets worked out as well as they did. But they are DONE!
I also finished the second pair of Christmas socks in a K3,P1,K1,P1 rib for the leg and a stockinette foot. These turned out nice in Fleece Artist Seawool in Burgundy.
I wasn’t enthralled with the Seawool; it felt a little artificial, but the knit fabric turned out very nice. So that’s IT on the Christmas socks. I have one hat to knit for a gift. I already knit a hat, but it is too small for the recipient, so I ordered new yarn. The too small hat should fit a grad student in lab who is a size 0 and grew up in Phoenix, so she finds northern California cold. She’s agreed to a photoshoot if the hat fits, and then she can keep it.
I have to show you my bottle cap pin cushion (the support is a bottle cap from a 2 liter soda bottle) made by Very Big Jen, which I bought at her etsy shop, Schmaltzy Craftsy. It is so cute! (and I’m usually pretty immune to cute) I haven’t been able to stick any pins in it yet. So it currently functions as a objet d’art. With the dragonfly sock blockers and my ladybug tape measure, the trio makes quite a nice little “good bugs” grouping. Good bugs, of course, are those bugs that eat the bad bugs that bite me (or provide the world with food by pollinating plants and eating crop pests–I suppose that’s almost as important as eating the bugs that bite me).
As for bugs biting me, let’s just say that when asked what sort of insect repellent he uses, M says, “I stand next to my wife, and they are too busy biting her to bite me.” Nice.
Posted in FOs, socks | 15 Comments »
