Wednesday - Thursday ....

On holiday the days merge, well not merge so much as fuzz into days without names, we get up, we spend the day doing the things one does when there is no requirement to turn up for paid employment or in the case of the cubs ... no formal schooling type lessons. End result is that some days we ask each other what day it is ... and this morning I realized that it was Thursday, here in New Zealand, and I was overdue for a blog post. One of the reasons I was distracted yesterday was mail arrived, two boxes of mail, and you must realize what a treat it is to have mail in the mail box that is not a request for payment, nice mail not bills. So after the unpacking there is more knitting to look forward to, and more spinning to look forward to, a new spin toy, and yet still two wip* projects that I really really want done just so I can start new things.

In one package was 5 skeins of yarn, Briggs Little Sport 1 ply in Fir Green - perfect for, oh, say this. Yes, I splurged and ordered yarn to knit the 'latest' EZ cardigan. I'm being strong, feeling the urge to cast aside my current projects and cast on immediately .. but no, I'm attempting some patience, some calm order rather than urgent action. Wish me luck on that one.

In another package was some of the most beautiful fibre I've had the pleasure of fondling ... silver grey Jacob fleece from Joclyn. I am really looking forward to spinning this, I know she really enjoyed spinning this, and the preparation is beautiful, it looks and feels like it will just flow from my fingers to the wheel. Again I almost can't wait, but I will wait, I have some fibre swap corridale possum on one wheel, and gotland polwarth on another ... and really if I were to fire up a third wheel ... well the wheels might just fall off the tenuous control I have on my hobbies.

When I do start spinning this I have the perfect tool to continue to play with, this prettier than it really should be orifice hook. Another gift, from Suzanne, one that was almost eclipsed by the Signature dpns that they accompanied .. but one that I do appreciate all the same. The copper goes-with the wood of the Wing beautifully.

And knitting, the knitting that stands in the way of my casting on for a new project? My second sock grows, I'm past the rib and well into the leg chart .... and the second time around the chart is even easier to knit to, intuitive even. About the time I cast on with the dpns I wandered into the Remnants area of the Ravelry forums .... a very distracting place, way too distracting to go there often. But whist there I did take heed of a thread on missing dpns, the question being where do lost dpns go, and some answers included to play with all the missing socks lost in the laundry process. Part in reaction to that I dug around in my notions drawer (you know, a notions drawer, a drawer full of the things that 'go with' knitting), and rediscovered these cute little bears. An Addi product these gummy bear like point protectors have been working hard keeping my needles safe and secure. They came in sizes, all colour codes for different numbers and sets of needles.

The other knit project, Whisper grows, again, right now its not the most fun to knit, stocking stitch - flat, for 8 or so inches ... I think I'm about 4 inches in but I'm avoiding measuring it. I've found knitting grows slower if its measured regularly ....

The i-cord edge is turning out, or is that turning under, nicely.

Take care
na Stella



* Wip = Works in progress a simillar term to ONN or on-the-needles.

I am, it seems, a Sock Knitter

This little fact has become apparent to me only in the last few days, I gathered up a list of my knitting for 2009 and found the following facts:

1. I knit 49 items in 2009 (more actually as 23 of those were paired items so that statistic could be inflated artificially yet truthfully to read 72 individual items)
   
2. The most common item knitted were pairs of socks, a whopping 15 Pair of socks (well one is as yet not finished ... but 14.5 sounds far less impressive, and I'm counting cast on items not completed)
   
3. The second most common item knit was Mitts (under which I'm also including wristers and mittens), a warm 8 pair
4. 5 baby things were generated, blankets, booties, and a single lace singlet
5. Hats were less common, I knit only 4, 3 for my Dad (one didn't fit - but it still counts)
6. There were/are 4 proper garments, one Gansey, one steeked Owls, one shrug, and one Whisper (still in progres).

What is clear is that I am now above all other knitterly things a Sock Knitter, plain to see, Fifteen Pairs of socks, 30 single socks in all (ok, ok 29 if we are being totally honest).

Its the first post of 2010 (so Happy New Year to you), and as a tradition at this time of the year its good to review the year in knitting and to think of the year(s) of knitting to come. What will the year bring, well right now the year is looking good, we all have our health (and a little wealth in that the adult bears in this family are still gainfully employed), and that little yet important fact means there is enough. Enough time to knit, to read, to be on line, enough space, enough peace, enough interest and enough love. Some how that last one should be first - but it needs to be last, there is love and friendship and support here and 'out-there' across the world, and it allows that the knitting can happen. By that I don't mean that I am allowed to knit, I mean that because I have family and friends and love and support and interest in what I do that means that I have comfort to knit in, I don't have to steal time, or space or money to knit, and in turn I try enable those around me to do the things that they want to do.

But knitting, and more clearly knitting in 2010 and beyond ....Well, more socks obviously, and at least 2 knit workshops, the annual KSG camp, and a knitters weekend at the end of this month. Beyond the socks, I'm working on submitting a design to somewhere ... its been designed, and knit, and is now mid way thru the test knit of the pattern and should be ready to send at the end of this month. I'm not sure what I want to knit beyond socks, well Toby will need a new jersey - he wears his Gansey daily and is a growing boy, so there will be a jersey for him ... but I know not what sort yet, Poppy has misplaced her Ziggidy-Zaggidy (and we had two name lables in it!) so she will need another warm knit. My Ravelry queue has a few non-sock items in it, a steeked colour work cardigan for me, there are a few queued, chances are I'll modify something to fit the gauge I like to work, beyond that ... well I'm open to finding and wanting to knit things as they are published or I find out about them.

And knitting now?
Well what is left is Whisper, and my not-a-mystery-any more TTL Soctober 2008 sock (Oh and that secret one I'm designing - but I can't let you see that ... yet... if its published I'll let you know and if not I'll offer it up for free - no point in all that work writing a pattern going to waste). Did you suspect at all? That I had another project on the go that was not being Blogged, or Ravelried or Flickr'd? Its been hard keeping it secret, when I solved little tricky problems, when it fitted, when the plan worked and the prototype was done - I so wanted to show you all, but none of the places I'd like to submit will look at a project if it has been made public .. so I can't.


Whisper, Yes I'm still whispering, I cast off the neck of the shrug ribb section using a 2 stitch i-cord, and then worked the back section using Fleegles short row technique. A very nice technique - I will revisit this next I need short rows, it is not invisible, no worse than any other method, but it is symmetrical.


See? Whisper has grown since this photo, the back section is now 3" long, and looking good. I'm not enamored by the rolling edges of the pattern as written, so I've continued with a little fiddle-faddle the i-cord of the cast off onto the edges of the back section. On the purl rows I'm slipping the first and last three stitches, and knitting them on the knit rows. In an effort to reduce the amount of roll that the increases every second row cause, I've cut the increases back, and am working them every 4th row, but perhaps I'll slow them down to every 6th or 8th row.

And the sock, look one sock done, toe grafted ends woven in, done, done, done. Second sock cast on, and one round of the rib worked ... its on its way. In hindsight I could have added a diamond repeat on the instep .. repeated part of the chart ... but I'm happy. This sock looks far more complex and tricky than it is .. honest, go on try it.

Take care
May this and all new years bring good things, heath, and enough, both time and love
May your yarns not be tangled, the knitting interesting when you need a challenge and smooth when you need peace. May your dpns stay as a complete set, and the Wip's not reproach you from the basket. May there be errata that is easy to find and solves the problem that sent you looking for errata. May your stash and skeins have enough yarn to knit the items you cast on, for there is nothing more frustrating than not having enough yarn to finish.

Take care
na Stella

Holiday knitting

There is a part of me that feels perpetually out of sync with the world, at several different levels. There is the part that is a knitter, in what at times seems a world of non-knitters, O-yes there is Ravelry, and the online knit community, and there is the hard-core set of local knitters I've found .. but generally the world is not comprised of knitters. There is the part that likes to do things properly, as in well made, well crafted, well finished, made to last .. in world that seems at times more attuned to the disposable and shortcut solutions. Then there is the 'holiday' blog post, where bloggers post spectacular photos of their knitting in far flung and exotic locations ... not me, I'm posting my holiday knitting from the small and very rural village of Waimate, and its not really holiday knitting, its just the knitting I was going to do anyway .. but this time its on holiday with me. Today - an example of the lengths I can extend to in my extreme geekness to makes cuffs match, as an effort to Sync with the holiday knitting genre .. I've got images of my knitting 'on-holiday', and family friendly bananas. And no, there was no Rodeo, well there was but it was lighlty raining so not being true hard core rodeo fans we stayed in with my Dad, where it was warm and dry.


First Whisper, it grows, and if you recall I knit the first cuff in double knit so it would not roll up ... and trusted that I would find a solution so the other cuff would match. The cardigan is cast on at one sleeve cuff, and knit up the arm, across the shoulder and down the other arm, finishing with a cast off on the other cuff. Problem was that I wanted to cuffs to match and a standard or sewn bind off is not an exact match for a twisted long tail cast on. I knew that I could work cast on the second cuff the same as the first and graft the two together .. but I was hoping to find a simpler solution. Didn't happen, so I knit right up to the second cuff, and set that aside, and cast on the second cuff and worked the 4 rounds in double knitting .. and sat down at the table to graft them together. I warned Bear this was going to be an hour or more, and was tricky and kinda stressful so if he could be a dear and monitor the cubs and take care of any issues ... please? He did.


As I started I wondered what my options were should this fail, I decided my Plan B if it all turned to a tangled mess was to remove both cuffs, and pick up the live stitches and knit them down, and cast them off - identically. Secretly I hoped it would not come to that - but I knew it might. I started with a yarn tail 4 times the circumference of the sleeve ... and wove, carefully and loosely. I figured it was better to weave loosely and to stop and tug it tighter at intervals. Inside I had my fingers, my toes, my knees, and just about everything crossed ...


Every 4 or 5 cm ... which seemed an age I stopped and carefully worked each stitch firmer, being slightly scared of over tightening I keep it all loose. My plans were to work over it again and again if needed pulling, and tugging and gently removing the extra yarn until the grafted stitches matched in size the stitches above and below them.


It took a while, but I got there, I had to work my way carefully around the grafted row at least twice to snug the stitches up to size, and I know there are a few that look twisted .... I grafted them as they lay ... but its seems they may have been twisted on the needles, or just the singles are behaving oddly (my excuse and I'm sticking to it).
The end result is a matching cuff on the second sleeve, and if you look carefully you can maybe spot which side is grafted, maybe. Post blocking the difference should be invisible to all but the most finicky knitter.
The grafting done, I packed Whisper with my other knitting and headed off to visit my Dad, during my time away I picked up the hundreds of stitches and worked the rib band around the body opening ... 3" in 1x1 rib. My Dad has a small collection of vintage Case tractors, this is a 1930's or 1940's one awaiting restoration ... and vintage tractors make for a different display setting for knitting.

My 'other' take along knitting was my new sock, and with it my new favorite sock needles (thanks Suzanne), Signature 2.25 dpn in 6". The pattern looks complex but in reality it has small repeats, the lace is only really 2 rounds (with purl rounds between), and the cable moves over 2 stitches every lace round. This is also one of those patterns that begs the knitter to finish the chart, I could see the cable heading for the central turn .. and I just wanted to knit those extra few rounds to so the cable would turn .. and then of course ... I'd want to knit the next sway of the cable. The prop in this photo is another of Dads vintage Case tractors, a 1939 if I remember correctly (I'm not the enthusiast .. just the relative).


Given how easy the sock is to work on, and how pretty the blue is, I made good progress while away .. and returned ready to turn the heel. I noticed there was instructions for knitters who during the Launch knit-along knit the leg chart as instructed, and missed the errata .... those knitters had knit too far, so the designer had provided alternative instructions so they could complete the heel and foot without frogging. This suited me perfectly as the errata instructions provided easy steps for knitting the leg a teeny bit longer ... keeping in pattern, I do like my socks longer rather than shorter. Perfect! Heel turned, gusset picked up and in the process of decreasing away. If I was to change one thing about the pattern it would be to work a few more rows of the leg chart .... so the cable across the back of the leg ended at the side of the heel flap. The cable does pull in, and I would recommend that knitters working this sock do take time to try it on once a cable repeat is worked - just to check.


One thing that we have been enjoying as a family this year is Bananagrams, a cool banana shaped bag of what look like scrabble letters. I've gifted several of these away to kids during the year, under the guise of Toby or Poppy giving birthday gifts to friends. The feedback we gave on the first gift was so positive, that we kept giving them ... and finally I realized after many many parents commented on how easy and fun the game was I thought that perhaps our family needed a Bananagram. We opened it christmas day, and it is fun, silly fun, the game starts with the command Split, and there are moves like Dump, Peel, the pile of letters is called the Bunch, and the game ends when a player is entitled to shout Bananas! There is a low stress variation called Banana Smoothie, and my favorite is the Cafe Variation - where one plays the game in a restaurant or cafe after placing ones order, and whilst waiting for the food. There is even an i-pod touch or i-phone version available - which is tempting as I did score an i-pod touch for Christmas. I've already got it syncing with my email, it provides snapshots of the weather in the locations I choose (here, Waimate - and CA), I can check the TV listings, I can visit Ravelry with it as long as I'm in range of our wifi, and I've loaded a few wee knit programs, that count rows, provide conversion for needle sizes and measurements, a spin tools kit, and knit gauge tools - and it plays the music and knit podcasts I love. I don't want to gloat .. but this is one seriously fun geek toy to have in ones possession (as long as you have wifi - would be much less fun without wifi).

take care
na Stella

Christmas summer holdiays

- yes, for us here on the 'other side of the world' Christmas is about summer and light and warmth and beach visits and picnics, as well as friends and family and being generous of spirit and time and energy (patience with small children, adults and all visitors falls into this category). Being summer and south of the 42nd parallel the twilight makes some Christmas traditions trickier to pull off. The tree decorated with lights is a good example, you would think that with 160+ years of New Zealand experience and tradition to draw on we might have come up with a tradition more suited for our long twilight light summer nights.
No, we have not, we decorate or trees as if it is winter, and dark, and then wait until at least 10pm or latter to see the effect.
Its worth it, although this year I only woke up the elder cub to view it, the younger one I left sleeping, I did creep into her room and call softly .. but let sleeping cubs sleep should be any sensible parents motto.

Christmas day has passed here, and all is well, it was a quiet day for us, we are away to visit my dad and younger brother tomorrow. There was catching up via the internet and old fashioned phone calls, and long periods of quiet about the house as we all played with our new 'stuff', or explored the new stuff of others.

Me I had fun, watching Poppy play with her toy family, she had them all lined up to make lunch followed by having them dry the dishes, Toby spent the day seemingly knee deep in lego proving true that if lego is your thing .. well lego is your thing, and lego seems to be the thing for which that small boy falls. Bear gathered us all up for a walk around Sullivan's Dam for the afternoon .. it was a grand day, 24 degrees C (75F), sunny with no wind to speak of.

Me... I was spoilt, there were no arguments, no tantrums, and it was an easy day, spoilt totally, new fibre, signature needles, and new yarn ... so I fluffed around on Ravelry finding a suitable pattern to break in my new Signature dpn needles (no real breaking required - I'm hooked - as soon as they do circs in sock sizes I'm in). the sock is TTL Soctober 2008 Mystery Sock, by Kristen Kapur. I'm loving the needles, the yarn is Vintage-Vintage Purls Sock, one of her early editions (the packaging was different).

So much fun, sharp, smooth, stiff, light - luxury, that was just the needles, the yarn is soft and silky and pretty. The pattern interesting and I love the look of the finished sock.
... next the Waimate Rodeo (where every year I threaten to buy a cow-girl hat and wear it).

na Stella