My doggerel goes from bad to worse,
So here is another wretched verse :)
There’s virtual snacks and drinks passed ‘round :)
Come and chat!  There are friends to be found!

Just a few lines this morning before I dash out to head up to Maine with dad.

The first blanket panel is finished; pictures to come :)

I pulled a needle out of the mitt last night which will necessitate the ripping of 5 or 6 rounds - I hate when I do stupid things…

Neither of the cats seems to like Special Kitty Tuna Dinner.  Well, now we know!

Have a great weekend, all!  Enjoy and take care :)

Roses are red, violets are blue -
Chatters tonight!  I’ll be there - will you?

...are sometimes not well planned at all :) Take the sock...please!

When I started this I was full of optimism about how nice and rather Victorian it would look, not to mention thrilled with the idea of inserting a design element into the purl troughs of the ribbing.  I was a little wary of the odd number of stitches in both the ribs (seven) and the troughs (five) but I thought I could make it work.

As it turns out, they weren’t the problem.

Since I was making this sock for myself, I went with numbers I knew had worked in the past.  On size 1 (US) needles, somewhere around 70 stitches would be about right for me.  One rib and one trough added up to 12 stitches so 6 repeats of them would give me 72 stitches. Perfect!  On this I based my cast on and worked merrily along, even achieving the elusive (for me anyway) 9 stitches/inch figure! But I had completely forgotten one very salient fact.

Since I last made a sock in fingering weight yarn on size 1 needles, I have lost 50 lbs.

The sock was going to be too big.  Not falling down huge or anything, but sloppy.  I like my socks to be, well, not tight - but snug.  I want them to lie along the leg and foot closely with no rumples or wrinkles.  I don’t want to take a step and feel the sock shift around my foot in my shoe.  Yes, I did wear and adore my slouch socks back in the day but that was then.  This is now :)

Well, shit fire and save matches :(

I couldn’t bring myself to tear out all the gingerbread - even realizing that 60 stitches on size 2 needles would probably be perfect - so I evolved another plan.  I will make mitts - lovely, soft, merino mitts.  It’s okay if they’re a little loose - they shouldn’t be too snug anyway.  They will be one of the most feminine things I own and I will love them.  I’m also imagining how they would look (come colder weather, of course!) over a pair of darker pink or even violet gloves.  Could be pretty cool :)

I have started the thumb gusset and, thanks to Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, I know approximately how many stitches to increase (and when, and where) and how many rows this will likely comprise.  I have even made a little chart on which to mark off the rows as I complete them.  Yes, we’re still working in rounds here but it’s easier for me to think of the gusset stitches as rows.  The patterns stitches are rounds.  No, it doesn’t make sense :)

I did get hung up for an hour or so trying to find/make/discover a stitch marker that would work efficiently.  My usual stitch markers went around the size 1 needle like a hula-hoop around a pencil.  Eventually I remembered something and, digging through my bead stash, found a little bag of silver jump rings.  They are just a little larger in diameter than the needle and work perfectly.  They are also truly in the above photo (in the oval with the gusset stitches) but the flash has obliterated any trace of their presence :)

I feel ambivalent about this.  One the one hand I feel like a real stoopnagle for not realizing or even considering that my calves and feet aren’t the diameter they used to be - duh!  On the other hand, I’m pleased to have figured out a way to salvage the work already done and to be able to proceed on what I know will be something I’ll both use and enjoy.

But I still want a pair of pretty, feminine socks.  Guess I’d better start figuring out what measurements are appropriate, hunh?

Good morning :)

This is what I’ve been doing this weekend -

I finally got the mohair blanket under way.  I had been waiting for the stitch pattern to be uploaded to the Sampler Knit Along group.  This is the second pattern.  The first was for an initial and you know, I’m really not an initial kind of girl :) The second pattern was a snowdrop rib and I really didn’t want ribbing in the blanket so I went with the more traditional Snowdrop pattern.

I went through lots of needles, trying to find what worked best with the mohair.  I had been certain my Addis would be perfect for the task but it turns out they were too sticky - believe it or not!  Finally, in desperation, I tried some size 10.5 bamboo DPNs that I had purchased for hat-making.  Bingo!  Granted they make big lace (moose lace?) but I’d be afraid that with anything smaller, the hairiness of the mohair would obscure the pattern.  I put point protectors on two of the needles and use them as short straights.  When I’m done knitting, I take the point protector off the free needle and put it on the other end of the needle holding the stitches.  That keeps the stitches safe and in place until the next time I pick up the project.

I did wind up washing the bright russet yarn and it did help quite a bit.  It had been quite coarse and stiff and looked pretty bad knitted up - I must have knit and frogged a dozen swatches before deciding that my dissatisfaction with the results wasn’t entirely my fault.  Washing the yarn made a huge difference.  I did notice that the wet yarn had a very pronounced chemical odor - solvent?  And that made me think that if my hair had been treated thusly, it would probably be stiff and coarse too!  So I used a combination shampoo/conditioner on it and that seemed to help quite a bit.  I’m still undecided about whether the solvent smell is more acceptable than, say, the smell of wet angora goat :)

This panel is 23 stitches wide (about 8.5 inches, unblocked).

The eggplant colored yarn was much softer ( and a little finer, I think) and didn’t need to be washed to knit up nicely and not make me feel as though I was scouring my hands with a wire brush.  Apparently they are not identical, as I had originally thought.  Some are rough, some are soft and there seems to be a slight variation in thickness as well.  No matter, they will all work up nicely though some will need a little attention before they are suitable (to me, anyway) to knit with.

I’m using the snowdrop stitch pattern from Martha Waterman’s Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls and when I changed colors, I did so at the beginning of the pattern repeat.

You can see, highlighted (I hope!) inside the yellow rectangle, that the very tip of the showdrops are in the new color.  That’s the way the stitch pattern is set up.  This is what the pattern chart looks like:





The first row of eggplant is the first row of the pattern repeat.  I’m not going to frog this, but it is mildly unsatisfactory.  Should I change colors again in this panel (likely), I will work through the point of the design before changing yarns.  And that’s definitely something to pay attention to as I proceed with other panels and stitch patterns as periodic color changes are part of the plan :)

On the whole, I’m very happy with how this is turning out and am greatly looking forward to incorporating new stitch patterns (one stitch pattern, two or three colors per panel) into the project.

We will not discuss the possible insanity of working with mohair in July :)

First, let me apologize to those who made it to Knitting Chatter last night and even more to those who may have tried but couldn’t get anywhere.  There were some server problems early on, which was bad enough. That seemed to lead to my computer deciding to shut down all network functions.  It was past 9:00 PM before things got straightened out.

Second, thank you for the warm reception to The Dye PotIt’s an on-going process - both the dyeing itself and the blog - and your encouragement is appreciated.

Third,Expect to see a new and improved Yarnpath sometime this summer.  Working on The Dye Pot has made me realize that the regular blog looks a bit shabby and quite a bit cluttered.  Definitely time to sweep and dust :)

Progress report

I had hoped to have the lacy sock ready to show you today - worked, at least, through the turning of the heel.  Didn’t happen because I dropped a stitch last night that went down through a complicated-enough pattern that I couldn’t just grab it and work it back up with a crochet hook.  Out came many rounds ( with some cursing but not a lot - sometimes things just happen) , stitches were laboriously returned to the needles and the pulled out rounds restored.  I am, however, on the last pattern repeat now so I hope to be getting to the heel any time now :)

I’m finding the mohair to be a bit difficult to work with - it seems stiff.  I think I’m going to try washing a bit of it to see if things soften up any.  I like this stuff and I really want to use it, but some of it is so coarse, it’s almost like knitting with barbed wire - on porcupine quills!

I haven’t made any irreversible decisions, but I’m seriously thinking about the Come Sail Away for a pair of Fuzzy Feet.  I remember how wistfully I looked at this pattern when it was first published and how firmly I believed at the time that I would never had the necessary understanding or dexterity for sock-making.  Since it turns out that I can make socks after all, and since I have some lovely, feltable yarn - why not give it a shot?  A possibility :)

And, as if I didn’t have enough to knit already, My mind is casting about for another shawl idea.  I know it’s doing this because I stop to stare at all kinds of things, always thinking - How would I do that in yarn? and Wouldn’t that pattern make a great shawl? I’ve begun to look more closely a colors (and I didn’t know that was possible!) wondering what shades would go best together and what bright stranger would be the most appealing as a bit of contrast here and there.  I put oranges and rusts together with a deep brown-purple and a cream - and wonder if a turquoise accent wouldn’t be pretty spiffy… and then am immediately distracted by fuschias, pinks and purples with an accent of, say, olive green.  And them I am immediately amused by the warm reds with the cool blue-green on one side and the cool red/violets with the warm green/yellow on the other.  My mind is a very entertaining and colorful place these days :)

Okay, I’m going to go work on the sock some more :)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Sorry folks, I’m a busy pup -
Forgot to put the banner up!
But come on in and sit and stay
And knitter-chat the night away!