Another only semi-productive week

Although you wouldn't know it from the state of my "work space." I really need to organize myself better.

That photo of the pretty green socks is what I'm hoping to achieve with small needles and charts. Charts!

I did start working on the complicated sock that's knitted on teeny size 1 needles. But I'm also trying to finish another sock, so I really didn't get too far. I now know how to knit through the back loop though, so I've got that going for me.

I don't know how clear it is, but the one on the left is using much smaller needles than the one on the right.

The best part of my weekend, though, was heading down to Biago Fine Chocolate for their monthly chocolate tasting. I picked up some really interesting stuff, including some tasty super-dark chocolate, a chocolate toffee (which is already history), and a bar from Dubai made with camel milk that's really quite interesting. I love me some Biagio.

That's $56 worth of chocolate right there. I don't mess around.

It can be dangerous when I stay in town for the weekend

Especially after having survived SIX migraines in the past week. I felt like I deserved to treat myself! So off I trotted to my LYS (reminder: it is a 7-minute walk from my home...hence the danger).

I bought a huge hank of orange sock yarn for a complicated chart-involved sock that I will be attempting (on size 1 dpns!), and some cotton-linen blend yarn for a sweater that I'm going to try to make with my double-ended crochet hooks. I tried doing a swatch and failed miserably ... hopefully I will be more successful on my next attempt.

People who know me should be impressed that I stepped out of my color comfort zone.

I didn't accomplish much craft-wise this week (six migraines will put the kibosh on crafting right quick), but I did start another sock ... the colorway should indicate that this one is for me.

There's something about the construction of a sock heel that's deeply satisfying, whether it's knit or crochet.

Deconstruction

Many, MANY years ago I stole a sweater from my father, a sweater he'd owned for a million years before I nabbed it.

I think the tag illustrates just how old this sweater is.

I haven't worn it for about 15 years. Now, I am a strong adherent of the Toss It If You Haven't Worn It For a Year school of thought when it comes to cleaning out the closet. But I could never bring myself to take that sweater to Goodwill.

So this year, when I cleaned out my closet, I thought I'd actually DO something with that sweater. I spent crazy amounts of time unraveling it this weekend, after spending even crazier amounts of time undoing all the seams. And also: sweater dust is really unpleasant to breathe in. My weekend was filled with epic sneezing fits.

Here it is after a thousand hours of cutting seams.

I learned that there are two ways sweaters are made: (1) like they've been handknit, so that each piece will unravel in one nice long strand of yarn, or (2) knit across and then cut, knit across and then cut, etc. etc.

Naturally, this sweater was made using option 2. So after unraveling I had five huge balls of yarn that I'd painstakingly knotted together.That biggest one on the right is the back, which took a solid hour to unravel and tie together.

Then I wound them into hanks, washed, rinsed, hung to dry while weighted to get the kinks out, and wound them into five huge skeins.

A nice soak in hot water with a drop of dishwashing detergent (left), followed by a rinse in cold water (right). Appetizing!

Drying, West Virginia style.

The finished product.

Now comes the hard part: what do I do with this yarn? Ideally I'd like to make something for my father for his birthday. I could knit, crochet, or weave something, but it would have to take into account that I have thousands of individual pieces of yarn, each between 8 and 18 inches long. Any ideas would be most welcome!!!

Slow week in crafty land

The knitting thing is getting a little easier. This week I started and finished another sock, this time for The Husband. It's made out of a really lovely sport weight yarn, Knit Picks Felici Sport. It's thicker than your usual sock yarn, which I thought would work to make a man's sock with the same pattern I used for my socks, and I was right. Just a little length added to the cuff and foot, but otherwise all the stitches remained the same. Another benefit of this yarn is that the stripes worked up at just about an inch apiece, so I didn't have to do much measuring. And I finally conquered kitchener stitch, which is used to close up the toe. I mangled it badly on both of my socks.

Word to the wise though: if you get this yarn to make yourself a pair of socks, get two balls of yarn per pair of socks. I had some yarn left over after making a man's sock, but not much. I suppose you might be able to eke out two ankle socks, but with yarn this soft and yummy you want full coverage.

On a recent episode of Knitting Daily they were talking about other uses for sock yarn, which appealed to me because I have lots of odds and ends from my various sock attempts. The Husband was all over the blanket  they showed made out of sock yarn, and decided he wanted one of his own, so I started making granny squares from my leftovers. They are really very nice and soft and have great drape, and I think that once they're all blocked it'll be a very comfortable blanket. I just don't think it'll be too easy on the eyes. But he doesn't care, so I'll just grit my teeth.

Dull, dull weekend

What a boring weekend I had. But having nothing to do at least allowed me to finish my other sock.

And I busted out my smallest Weavette loom and started puttering around on a project that I've had festering in the back of my mind for some time now. Not sure whether it will work out as planned, so that's all I'll say about it now.

I also got a fresh supply of yarn in the mail from KnitPicks. Yay!!

And along with the yarn I got a sock book.

I may be getting a little ahead of myself on this whole knitted sock thing though. This book contains many charts like this one:

Yeeeesh!!

I have conquered the knitted sock

And no one even had to die in the process.

Here we have the lovely heel flap.

Followed by the Turning of the Heel, which really wasn't as terrifying as I'd been led to believe it would be.

The first fitting. Like a glove!

And the final product. That's a damn fine-looking sock if I do say so myself.

Of course, I did not manage this without help. The book that this sock pattern is found in (Hip to Knit) assumes that you already know how to knit a sock. BUT! We live in the future, and the future contains the Internet, and the Internet has Youtube. And Youtube has this really informative series of six short videos that laid it all out in a way that was extremely easy to understand.  I highly recommend it.

In other news, I figured out a way to warp my rigid heddle loom without having to walk across my entire living room. I attached my broom to a chair with vise grips, and it held really well. Now I can have a warp of whatever length I want. Hooray!!

Some things I learned this past week

1. Although crochet is incredibly forgiving, if you use a wildly different yarn and hook size than your pattern calls for, your end product will not be right. The original pattern I was using for my dino hat called for some kind of cotton yarn and a size B hook, but I had a worsted weight yarn and an H hook. At some point along the way I put the thing on my head and it was WAY too big. I have a gigantic head, so I knew this would never work for a baby. So I frogged it, found a more appropriate pattern, and voila:

I think it turned out well!

I made it in the 6- to 12-month size. The baby I gave it to is a whopping 8 pounds at 2 months old, so he's got a while before he grows into it.

2. Knitting is just stupid and is nowhere near as forgiving as crochet. It turns out that you can go the wrong way around while you knit, even though you're still moving the needles from right to left. I thought once I was done with the ribbing I'd start to see some lovely smooth knitting, but instead what was appearing was ugly, bumpy purls. After consulting with my sister, we determined that the reason my knitting was showing the purl side was that I was holding all the needles to the front instead of the back. I remedied that, but where I turned the needles from front to back there was suddenly a large gap that would not close up, a phenomenon I still don't quite grasp. So I said some bad words, frogged it, and started all over again.

I apologize for the terrible photo quality. The giant hole and ugly purls should be apparent though.

Things are going better the second time around.

2(a). Sock yarn is blatantly made for knitters. If I were crocheting this sock the stripes wouldn't look nearly that nice. I really don't understand the anti-crochet bias in the craft world.

2(c). Knitting makes me tense. Crochet is relaxing.

3. This is a kick-ass brownie recipe that should be tried by all and sundry.

Super Bowl sale at my LYS

I trooped on down to Looped yesterday to check out their Super Bowl sale. I got two skeins of sock yarn at 40% off and three skeins of really interesting recycled yarn for 20% off. Woo!

I started making the dinosaur hat that I posted last week. I'm using the wrong size yarn for the pattern though so I might need to find a different hat pattern and start over. It's seeming a little large.

Because I haven't knitted anything in about 10 years I thought it would be a good idea to try knitting a sock on teeny needles. If only I could remember how to purl ...

And because I was bored and project-less last week I cranked out another pair of crocheted socks. I do love this pattern.

I may have found my next project

From this site. What a cute little dino-hat!

Tunic: done but not blocked

My tunic turned out well! It even nearly fits, and I'm confident that once I block it it'll fit just right. It came together fairly quickly, and was super easy (each motif took about 10 minutes...I'm sure some would say that's hardly quick, but in the world of thread that's practically light speed). The best part: it was a join-as-you-go project, which means NO SEWING. My favorite kind of project. I'm sure this will get more wear than a shawl would have, which was the original purpose of this yarn.

The down side: I'm now project-less.  Uh oh.

All done except the weaving in of the last row's pesky ends.

This pattern called for a "box pleat" in the middle of the neckline, which involved gathering the middle five motifs all together and sewing them together at the top so it looks like there's only one. OK, so there was a TINY bit of sewing.

Then one more motif was put in the gap created by the box pleat, and a couple of rows of double crochet went around the arm holes.

This will definitely fit better post-blocking.

 

I really dig the back.

Super long warp becomes super long scarf

Not sure what all those bumps are ... I should probably check that out. And I haven't wet finished it. I'm sort of afraid to. But I like it! My first rigid heddle project that's fit for human consumption.

Change of plans

So I joined a crochet-along before Christmas to make a really lovely shawl from some fine mohair yarn. But I sort of hated how it was turning out. Maybe the yarn was wrong, maybe my gauge was wrong, I don't know. So I frogged it and started making a "tunic" from my Crochet So Fine book.  I'm liking it a lot better and I'm sure I'll like it even more once it's been blocked and is more flat and even. I really do like the yarn.

This is the back, about two-thirds done

Close-up. Pretty, yes?

Done and done

I finished most of the projects I started before Christmas. It turns out they were mostly socks.

Obviously this is not socks. This is a cowl, laid out flat.

Figuring out this rigid heddle

I figured out a way to warp the rigid heddle in my living room, but the warp is LONG. I need to figure out a way to get the peg into the middle of the room and then I'll be set. I can't be making 12-foot-long warps for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll try to attach my mop to a chair ... that might work. Anyway, here are the results of my super-early-morning attempt to warp the loom, before a day spent making Christmas cookies. I wove nearly the whole length yesterday and will post the finished product later on.

The view from the back of the loom aaaaall the way across the room to the peg

Looking the other way

I got this brilliant idea from a woman who posted a video on Youtube ... it's a way to maintain tension while winding the warp on, and you don't even need a husband to help! Yay for hammers!