It’s raining yarn!

Well, that’s what it feels like lately in what has been a massive bit of productivity. So without further ado, the beginning of the FOs:

Slip Stitch Heel Basic Socks by Wendy Johnson, aka the Rainbow Socks. (NB - it is really not easy to take pictures of your own feet!)

Yarn: Regia Hand-dye Effect, in what I think is the Sodalith colorway (ball band has vanished on me)

Needles: US 1 – 2.25mm; 40” fixed circular from Knit Picks. Socks were done two at a time, and this length needle is really pushing that with my big feet. I’d recommend the 47”, and think I’ll switch to that for my next socks.

Bind off: Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off (which is delightfully true to its name).

Alterations to the pattern: None really. Wendy's book, Socks from the Toe Up, taught me how to properly measure my feet and then pick the right size pattern/pattern adjustments to make socks fit. A wonderful book that I'll definitely be using again.

Although these socks took me almost 8 months to do, they were so worth the wait. I love the finished product.

I hadn’t intended to reverse the color pattern on these socks – I had tried my best to make twins, but started from the wrong end of one ball of yarn. However, it’s a happy accident because I really like how the color patterning turned out. The best part of these socks? They fit perfectly. For my size 11 feet, that is amazing and one reason why I wanted to start making socks, and really clothing in general.

Yoda hat!

Yarn: Galway

Needles: US 11 Susan Bates 36” circular (I love me some magic loop)

This was my first experience purposely felting something. We shall not speak of the lovely Irish merino wool sweater that is in the back of my closet (darn Irish combo washer/dryers!). I’m happy that more of my friends are starting to have children, because it gives me the perfect excuse to play around making fun things for them. This hat was a breeze to knit, and I finished the basic three parts on about the first day of a short vacation. I also got to do i cord for the first time, and that was a lot more fun and easy than I had expected.

The felting process was a bit more nerve-wracking, and I enlisted my mom’s support (and washing machine). The hat ended up going through a regular wash and dry cycle (while inside a zipped-up pillowcase), and then an additional gentle wash cycle. Then after a bit of air-drying, it was done!

Next, although it’s not a FO, it’s a decision about a project. I decided on a pattern for my fall weddings shawl: Halsduk med estniska spetsmönster (Ravelry link), aka Estonian Lace Scarf. Although the pattern doesn’t call for beads, I’m adding them anyway. During my lunch break one day I sat down with a printout of the pattern block near the edge of the shawl, and I laid out beads in what I hope is going to be a manageable pattern.

Then I transferred that info to the actual pattern and I’m seeing how it goes. So far, about 5 rows in, I think it’s going okay. The yarn is a little thinner than I had imagined, but that’s mostly because this is my first laceweight project.

In the queue of being almost done:

Mystery project, by Jane Doe.

Yarn: Tatamy Tweed, worsted weight

Needles: US 4 Boye DPNs

I’m having a lot of fun with this one, and I wish I could post a picture of the various odd looking parts.

Viking Hat

For the same youngin’ who will be getting the yoda hat. I’m having annoying ladder problems with this hat, and it’s made me set the project aside until I figure out what’s going on. If I hate anything about knitting, it’s ladders. They are why I avoided using DPNs for so long.

In the queue of waiting to be started:

DNA scarf, for my scientist friend. Hopefully it’ll keep her warm in lab.

Vinnland socks.

This is already getting a bit long, so I’ll save the fun of the Fiber Festival - and the things that followed me home - for later.

I want!

It's dangerous to be on WEBS's mailing list, because now I want all of this (Madelinetosh Prairie) yarn. Actually, anything in the Madelinetosh line, and any of the colors. I would knit happily for the rest of my life.

Experimentation

How often is crafting an experiment? Often you don’t know quite how a project will turn out, because it’s always a new combination of variables. If it’s something you’re knitting/crocheting, there’s always a unique combination of needle/hook, yarn, and pattern. Even if those three are constants from another project, there’s always the intangible amount of tension – how is the humidity affecting the movement of yarn through your fingers? How is the rough day at work making you knit tighter than before? Or the really good day making the yarn loose and quick around the needles? It’s always an adventure, and hopefully a fun one.

Then you get into the completely new projects, and it all becomes an experiment. My task this time, if I chose to accept it, was to turn these perfectly lovely but very purple sandals (worn for the wedding in Texas, and quite spotted by the rain we had) into perfectly lovely black sandals.

Anyone who’s had to get dyeable shoes knows they’re crazy expensive for what you’re getting - often oddly stiff, uncomfortable, one-time wear shoes. In order to beat the system I wanted to make these a bit more color friendly, so I could use them again for another wedding and possibly more regularly after that. So the next challenge – how to make them black.

Helpful fact – fabric covers all parts of these sandals but the soles. Any kind of fabric dye, or something that permanently stains fabric should work. I contemplated using Rit dye and some sort of applicator – a small brush, cotton ball, something like that. Problems? Messy, and no great way to set the dye. Next thought, at the suggestion of my mom, was shoe polish. She had some liquid shoe polish, in a bottle with a dauber-like applicator, which just might do the trick. And did it ever.

The dauber helped control the mess, although I still wish I had a glove for the hand holding the shoe. Wrapping my hand in a plastic bag just wasn’t quite as easy.

I still had to keep paper towels handy to wipe off the inner soles of the sandals, and the inside of the straps. A couple of q-tips helped get the inside of the bows, and around the fiddly bits of the straps. I can still tell where there are purple spots peeking through the black (which, pre-second coat still looks a bit on the navy side).

Overall, though, a success! Even my supervisor approves . . .

Yarn yearning

Yarn yearning – I’ve got a bad case of it. I ended up taking a bit of a break with knitting, right around the time it started getting hot. Yet now that we’ve been in the 90s for what seems like way too long, all of a sudden I just want to do nothing more than play with yarn.

Projects on the needles right now:
Rainbow socks – about 85% done. I pretty much just need to figure out how tall they need to be, do the cuff, and these puppies are done. I cannot wait to wear them.
Wrap sweater – about 25% done (I think). This is almost to the armpits, and I got stalled out. Too hot, the concept of an adult-sized sweater is still a bit daunting, and other projects distracted me.Like this finished project! Turkish bed socks (Sorry, this post is Ravelry-link heavy, and picture light). Yarn: Mini Solid from Crystal Palace Yarns in a brilliant, bright purple. Needle size: 3. Alterations to pattern: Added an extra 5 rows on the foot (so had 29 instead of 24, and in the end I think I could have added at least 3 more) to account for my big, size 11 feet.

Other than a big problem with this yarn laddering (I had problems adjusting my tension properly to avoid that), I love these and think they will come in very handy this fall. I think I’ve even got a solution to the laddering, but it needs a bit of testing – I’m going to try and weave through a contrasting color of yarn to add a bit of a stripe. We’ll see how it goes. Plus, I have quite a bit of yarn left, which I know just what to do with . . . that’ll be some future post.

Projects I want to do:
Yoda hat
Viking baby hat
Mug jacket
and one (or more) of these stoles:
Tudor stole
Autumn Arbor
Juno Regina
Tibetan Clouds

Whichever stole wins out – and each has parts that I like and other parts that I don’t – I’d like to try to mix in a bit of beading. Coming up this fall I’ll have three weddings to attend in four weeks, and I’ll be a bridesmaid in one of those. So I’m looking for something that can be a bit dressier, but can also go with a variety of dresses/outfits. Color will probably be something in the cream/oatmeal/brown range, with maybe a bit of metallic, depending on what yarn grabs my attention.

I see a happy, fibery future in store!

Books Make a Difference

If you're like me, books are your friends. The sight of a familiar spine sends an entire storyline straight to your brain. You can flip through a few pages and remember everything in a rush. This year I'm challenging myself to keep track of what I read, and to read what's ready and waiting for me on my giant to-be-read pile (now approaching its own bookcase). So far I'm at 42 books, or 12,095 pages. The last two months have been slow, if you can believe it - I can only imagine what the summer will bring.

Growing up, I was blessed with books. My parents started reading to us immediately, and every night before bed, we were read to or snuck a book under the covers and read to ourselves. I learned to read fairly young and never looked back. Summer reading programs and Book-It lead to thousands of books, and an English degree (and more) later I cannot imagine what my life would have been without libraries and that exposure to books early in life.

Yet many do not have that world available. Cities are shutting down libraries due to budget cuts (Philadelphia, I'm looking at you, and you won't be the last); and families need to buy food and secure housing before such luxuries as books can come into play. So I'm supporting the Books Make a Difference campaign, and by spreading the word I'm donating a book.

Happy reading everyone, and enjoy all of the wonderful worlds available.

Odd reactions to stress

Have you ever been waiting for news about something, and then when you finally hear – hopefully good results – the sense of relief is just exhausting? What usually gets me is that I didn’t realize I was so worried. It’s just boom, the elephant is gone, and I feel like I fizzle out for a bit.

In various points in my life I’ve been tested for skin cancer. Even with pretty much every major risk factor (light hair, eyes, and skin; freckles; a history of bad, i.e., 2nd degree sunburns; and then the whopper – family history), I don’t have a sense of doom. I don’t have a feeling that at some point in my life I’m going to be screwed. It’s just another step I have to take in caring for myself and I’m okay with talking about it, especially in a venue like this, because I think everyone should have that level of self-awareness. You should be comfortable with the health history that you know about, if you’re lucky enough to know the health issues in your family, and then take steps to keep yourself healthy.

So, sunscreen is my best friend, and I use it liberally – even my chapstick and foundation have some level of SPF in them (actually, that’s pretty easy to find now). I take my vitamins, I try to eat right and also exercise regularly, and I just keep an eye on what my body is trying to tell me. Questionable spots get taken out and tested, and I may get to sport stitches for a time. Friday morning I got some stitches taken out and the latest results – clear, again. And then the sense of exhaustion hit – more intense relief than I’ve had for awhile, and I’m not quite sure why it hit me so hard this time.

I’m guessing it’s just the crazy round of things that have been happening lately with my car, the trip to Texas, my tooth (a crazy sequence of redoing a root canal and getting a new crown – I’m at the temp crown stage right now, yippy skippy). For whatever reason, I’m just extra relieved and now very tired. And very happy to have those stitches out! Now I’ve got nifty steri-strips, but I think I’ll be far less likely to bump those on every surface I pass, and they don’t catch on or get tweaked by jeans.

Oh, and fun fact for any other redheads out there – it’s not in your head that your reaction (in pain levels) to some medical/dental procedures is stronger than the rest of the population. We’re genetic mutants :) No, no Wolverines or Jean Greys here (but how cool would that be!), but instead there is a shift in our MC1R receptor. Things affected? When you need to be numbed at the dentist, going under general anesthesia as well as local anesthetics at the doctor’s or a hospital, and everyone’s favorite – pap smears (neither one of these articles mentions that, but the NP who took out my stitches Friday morning did).

At least with all of the crazy stuff going on lately, I really am knitting! With soft, squishy, happy yarn, which will eventually turn into a sweater for me. It's the Emerald pattern (I think) I linked last time. The picture doesn’t give a great sense of the color, unfortunately. It’s a soft, heathery sort of green, with some silver and a bit of brown mixed in. Working with a bulky yarn is great, because it knits up so quickly. This project is taking me a bit longer because I’m tackling an adult sized sweater for the first time, and figuring out how to do the waist and neckline shaping at the same time (even though the pattern lays it out very nicely) is mentally throwing me for a loop right now. Plus, getting to work on it in spurts during lunch is cutting down the productivity. But I'm finally knitting more at home now (got some cleaning and rearranging done) I can’t wait to finish the sweater!

To wrap up, another beautiful view of Spring, which I am absolutely loving!

Crazy train

So, I’ve been productive lately. No, really, I have—just not on here. Last week I got the proverbial kick in the behind, when a not so mini maelstrom of craziness hit my life.

First, my car stalled when I was going 70+ mph down the highway, trying to get home from Easter at my parents’. Somehow I managed to muscle the steering wheel to the right (dead engine means no power steering, yay!) and I coasted to the side of the highway, where my car turned into nothing more than a big hunk of metal. I called my parents, and my dad became the rescuing hero of the day, saying he would come down to help. Although we tried to jump the car and even to replace the battery, the car was toast. Trying to figure out anything else at the side of the highway was dangerous (heck, what we were already doing was dangerous, and not a little scary). So my dad got out his tow rope, hooked my back bumper to his front one, and off we went – going backwards, up an exit ramp, to the parking lot of a gas station. I was in my car attempting to steer and break as needed, and have never been quite so unnerved in my life. My dad tried a few more things as we took a closer look at the engine. Who am I kidding – I know cars run, and the basics of an engine, but beyond that I’m stumped. My dad, too, was bewildered. Once they started putting computers in cars, fixing engines became exponentially more complicated. I know dad gets frustrated not being able to say exactly what the problem may be, since problem A doesn’t necessarily lead to solution A anymore. We called up my brothers for some advice, thinking by now that something was wrong in the fuel system. After the odd suggestion of thumping on the fuel tank came from both of them (thinking I had at some point gotten skunky gas, or there was a buildup of sediment or whatnot on the fuel filter), we tried that . . . and it worked. But I got barely a half mile back down the highway and the car was once again a pretty hunk of ornamental steel. After an expensive tow back to my mechanic, I finally got home to my apartment more than six hours after my car first died. When I finally talked to the mechanic late on Monday, he told me the final verdict: a dead fuel pump and filter . . . and because they were shorthanded that week, I wouldn’t get my car back until Friday.

Let me tell you, I have some awesome friends and coworkers. The moral support alone was amazing and kept me going through the week. There were also immediate volunteers to take me in to work and back home, and other offers to take me for any needed groceries or other supplies. I only missed two half-days of work, as I was able to work from home part of Monday while I was waiting for news, and then on Friday as I was waiting the “it’s done!” call and a handful of other calls.

Some of those other calls? They had to do with the other madness that was going on that week. This coming weekend, an old friend is getting married in Texas. We haven’t been able to see each other in years, but have been keeping up on Facebook and in a fantasy hockey league and I can’t wait to see her again. Originally, I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to make the wedding. Things worked out to find a flight, though, so the trip seemed meant to be. My friend had asked if I could do a reading during the ceremony, and now I could actually say yes. Finding that flight turned out to be extraordinary good luck because about a month before the wedding one of her bridesmaids had to unfortunately step down, and I was asked if I’d be willing to step in. There was a flurry of details to think about–not the least was trying to find a dress and shoes and see if they could even arrive in time. Luck was with me, and the shoes were a snap. I was able to find a dress immediately and order it, and it was supposed to come in just before Easter. Well, yeah. That didn’t happen. So while I was waiting anxiously for news about my car, I was just as nervous about the dress. The calls about both came within half an hour of each other. So Friday was definitely starting to look up.

A definite bonus was additional good news from on the wedding front. Another good friend had also been trying to get to the wedding, but life and car troubles were fighting her too. Going into Friday, it seemed like something might just work out for her to make it to Texas. Finally on Saturday everything was settled and we found out we would be flying down and back together! I can’t wait for the trip, it will be great to have a mini vacation, and a great reason to celebrate.

Plus? I get to escape any more weird calls about bills. Both Charter and Sprint (who I dropped at the end of last year in favor of Verizon) have had major problems with their computer systems and think I owe them money. With Charter I was immediately able to prove that they screwed up, but they still couldn’t tell me how it happened or promise that it wouldn’t happen again. With Sprint, who had the nerve to send a collection agency after me, the waters are a bit muddier. Somehow, although the agency managed to get my address right the first time, Sprint somehow never got the message that I moved – even though I changed my address with them! Their two reminder notices about my last bill somehow magically got lost in the mail – neither was forwarded to me nor sent back to them as undeliverable. At the very least, at least that’s settled now, although Heaven help Sprint if that affects my credit rating in the future.

To end that long and rambling tale of craziness, some happy crafting news: my rainbow-like socks are almost done! They’ve stalled out for the moment, as I needed some soft and fuzzy yarn last week for anti-stress related fiber therapy. But that means I’m working on my first ever adult-sized sweater! I had been going to try for the Anthropologie knockoff, but that seemed a bit complicated for my first sweater. So I’m trying for the much simpler Emerald Sweater, in a heathery green yarn. It has a bit of detailing, with cables at the shoulder, but it’s still a basic cardigan. Spring time appears to finally be here, so I may have to wait awhile to wear the finished project, but I don’t mind that a bit.

I’ve also been doing some sewing, knocking out a pair of pj pants from my favorite pattern. I have another set all cut out and ready to sew too. In the interest of deconstructing in order to construct something new, I’ve begun to sort out some old t-shirts to make a rag rug or something. Due to the heft of the “yarn” I may crochet this rather than knit, but either way something fun is in store. Depending on the range of colors I end up with, I may make a couple of trips to Goodwill to flesh out certain tones. That, however, is a step for the future.

There’s nothing better to end with than a few shots of a recent beautiful sunset, the cats in a rare moment of cuddling, and Spring!!