knitting in the dark

I ordered yarn for the Henry scarf in the new Knitty – a half-pound cone of Louet Gems Fingering in Indigo.

It is a gorgeous blue the color of a twilight sky and I’ve spent almost a week now swatching it.

I don’t generally spend a lot of time with swatches so who’d have guessed that I’d spend a week swatching for a scarf!?! The thing is: Louet doesn’t have a lot of stretch and I want to make sure I find the proper balance of being close to the pattern gauge (it’s knit from side to side and therefore you cast on A LOT of stitches) and creating a dense, sturdy-looking fabric – it is a scarf for a boy after all (and no mom, not a boyfriend).

I think I’ve found the proper needle sizes (3.25 and 4mm, which feel giant compared to my 2mm sock needles), but I have to go buy longer circular needles in those sizes as I’ve been testing on straights and now find I don’t have circulars in the desired sizes.

I hope to be done by the end of the month as I plan on giving it as a birthday present November 7^th; good thing I’m mostly done with Christmas presents already…!

I first started these mittens in February when my mother came to visit - it was cold and we wanted new mittens. So instead of buying new mittens like a normal person, we bought yarn for new mittens!

pattern: Lucy Neatby’s Fiesta Mittens (ravelry: Fiesta Mittens)

size: medium-ish

yarn: KPM and KPPPM in lavender and a purple/brown variegated

needles: as always, 2mm INOX dpns

started: 8 February

finished: photos taken 10 September (though they could still use a light blocking)

notes: I used a provisional cast on and started with the main part of the mitten instead of the cuff. When finished with the main part of both mittens I then went back and did K1tbl, P1 ribbing until the cuffs were close to the desired length and finished them off with a few rows of the contrast yarn. Also, I used an afterthought thumb as I didn’t like the way the pattern thumb rotated the “seam” on the mitten to the back of my hand.

It really very difficult to take pictures of one’s self wearing mittens - so no action shots this time. I think I may have taken more pictures and posted about this project more times than any other in the last year; past posts and photos: here and here and here. And with this post they have been put away in the drawer of winter accessories to wait for colder weather…

Welcome Socktober! And exactly one year since I started this here little knitting blog - but I’m planning on celebrating some different (and later) milestone (100 posts, perhaps?) because I’m too busy with work to think about it right now. Without further ado, I present:

pattern: Jaywalkers (again)

yarn: Trekking Pro Natura in… um… blue? (sorry for the ravelry link)

needles: 2mm INOX dpns

started: perhaps towards the end of August?

finished: the pictures were taken 10 September

This pair is a bit tight going over my heel while taking them on and off, but they’ll loosen up a bit like the last pair of Jaywalkers I made. I think I’m done with this pattern after two pairs. I can see why so many people are addicted to it, but there are lots of great sock patterns out there and if I don’t find one I like for a particular yarn, I should just make another up!

I liked knitting the Pro Natura; it was a bit splitty at times, but it has a nice sheen. I’m a little concerned about the wear because I tend to be a little tough on my knit socks and there’s no nylon-type content, but the bamboo fibers should help.

As a side note: I frequently say that I’m hard on my hand-knit socks, but I’m not sure that’s actually true. I wear them as I wear normal socks (in shoes, etc) but perhaps more frequently, machine wash on the delicate cycle in cold water, and hang to dry. And yesterday the Yarn Pirate admitted to machine washing and drying her hand-knit socks (as does my mother and my friends for whom I knit socks). Does anyone actually hand wash?

My box from The Loopy Ewe turned up a few days after I posted about my missing packages! In it was two skeins of the Regia Kaffe Fassett collection in the Landscape Storm colorway… and it is even better in person than on the screen! I’m not one to order yarn off the internets without seeing it (and mostly touching it) in person first, but I sure am glad I made an exception:

I have a few ideas for this yarn - it’ll probably end up as Rainbow Socks, but there’s a lot of catching up to do before I can start a new project.

I am just so so glad the box showed up as I have more yarn on the way as we speak…!

I think there is a mail thief in my new building, which is so depressing to me. I live in a small (only 16 small studio units) apartment building in a decent neighborhood. Since I moved in at the beginning of August I have had two packages delivered via USPS go missing. The first was just after I moved in so I chalked it up to change of address post office confusion. But I ordered something exciting from The Loopy Ewe exactly one week ago and it shipped two days later and the tracking information indicates that it was delivered the 15th at 2:55pm. It is now the 18th. I checked with some neighbors and my super to see if anyone knew anything, but it’s nowhere to be found. Seriously, folks - really? When Mr Mail Thief opened the package did he (or she, I suppose) say - “Oh goodie! Regia Kaffe Fassett Landscape in the Storm colorway!” That’s what I would have said… but they probably actually said - “Yarn? Bummer.” And then what? Why not just tape the box back shut and put it in front of my door? I would be glad to have it…

I think what the US Postal Service does on a daily basis is pretty amazing… but the lady I spoke to this morning about my missing package was significantly less than friendly. She took my information and told me someone would call me back tomorrow. So after that I called my local branch and asked them not to leave packages at the building anymore. The man I spoke to was very nice and he took my building address and said he’d speak to the carrier and the truck driver and advise them to leave package notices instead of the actual packages. I guess it will be sort of a pain to have to make the trip to the post office whenever I have a package, but it’s far better than never receiving it because it was stolen off my doorstep!

Despite the recent cooling of temperatures here in NYC, it is still officially summer for another week… we still have a little humidity, but we’re down to the mid-70s during the day and pleasantly cool low-60s overnight. I almost need to put a blanket on the bed, but not quite. But the impending autumn weather makes me look a little less crazy for knitting wool socks (and let’s face it, sometimes I need a little help looking sane). Earlier in the summer (maybe July?) Stitch Therapy in the northern end of Park Slope had a super deal on their sale corner (but they always have good stuff in the sale corner) and I picked up three lovely skeins of sock yarn at 40% off each. I got two different colors (my favorites - blue and grey) in the Trekking Pro Natura, which I hadn’t knit before:

And I’ve already knit up the blue - FO pictures to come shortly (just as soon as I fix Photoshop). I also picked up this lovely skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, in colorway “Steelhead”:

I <3 Bearfoot. The first time I knit with it I was concerned about the mohair-itchiness factor on my feet, but after a few wearings and washings my Bearfoot Hedera’s are as soft as soft can be and super warm. Now to find a pattern for this yarn - Bellatrix socks, perhaps? I think it may work well with the amount of color variegation… thoughts for other patterns? I will have to consult Knitting Sutra’s “no pool” sock pattern list for other ideas…

Yay! A new knitty for fall inspiration!

Must knit the very masculine Henry immediately… for myself and possibly as a throw instead of scarf unless a man appears in my life sometime soon (ha!).

I wish the designer had a blog to follow because I want to see more…

Um. Am I the only one? I think I might be. I received my invite to Ravelry weeks ago and, while I think it’s a cool idea (I was really excited about it when I first read about it on her blog way back in the middle of April) and I think that it’s quite well designed and well made and that they’re doing an amazing job handling the demand of the masses (who knew there were SO MANY knitters online?), I’m just not sure that it has a place in my life except as a research tool. I very well may change my mind about this later but: I really like my blog here and I do understand that Ravelry only gets better the more its users participate, but right now I don’t know that I can justify the time it would require to double-post both here and there. Had Ravelry existed before I started blogging last year I may have just gone that route as I was merely looking for a place to catalog my knitting, but now it’s too late for that!

There are a few things I really like about the site: searching for a pattern I think I might want to try to see it done in other yarns by other knitters, and… well… I like the “UGHs!” Sometimes it’s just more satisfying to see things that didn’t work out right! ‘Cause I have a couple of those hanging around (but well hidden for the time being)…

And here’s my major complaint: Flickr. I’m already hosting all my own photos - so why can’t I just link to them? Maybe it would take a lot more programming to allow that… I don’t know how that works well enough to guess, but I do know that I don’t particularly want to upload all my photos to Flickr just to play along. Apparently this will be changed before they actually officially “open” to the public and maybe I will revisit how I feel at that point.

Please understand that this post is really not intended to be a criticism of Ravelry itself (as I said, the site is really well done) but merely how I feel about where the site fits into my online life at this point. Maybe there are others who feel the same…?

It rained so hard this morning - with lots of nearby lightning and thunder. The girl next to me in line didn’t bring an umbrella, so I shared my tiny fold-up and we laughed and swore about the whole thing. While we were waiting the Whole Foods employees came around and explained how the bag purchase was set up inside the store and what the process would be. He said something like: “Please do not ask for a plastic bag to put your bag in - that’s the whole point of these bags.” And then with the rain they automatically gave out plastic bags for the “I’m not a plastic bag.” Ridiculous. I had with me the fold-up tote that I take everywhere, so mine went in that:

I could not wait to get home and open mine up (and take a nap - I woke up at 4 to get in line!), but I had other errands to do first. I knitted while standing in line because I picked a new Tour de France knit along project the other day after completing the unfinished object that I thought would never end. And then I came home and watched Stage 10 (this morning) of the race off the DVR since I missed it live while I was standing in line. May I present the progress on my Fiesta Mittens, first started in February:

I think this was the third time I ripped the first mitten back to before the thumb. I didn’t like the thumb gusset as written in the pattern, so it took me a few tries to come up with something I liked better and to make it fit well. So the yarn in the first mitten needs a good soak and block to smooth the palm out to match the second of the pair:

All that’s left now, though, is to knit the ribbed cuffs. weave in the ends, and block the little buggers. Just what I need - mittens in July in NYC.

And in other news, I found an apartment that should work at least for the next year! So so so excited about that… I just have to pack, which I hate doing. I think that comes from moving every year while in high school (boarding school dormitories) and college and then every two years since I’ve finished my BFA. And did I mention I’m going out of town until the 27th - leaving just four days when I return until the end of the month to pack? What was I thinking? But I’m really happy about my mini-vacation; I’m visiting my parents in the Seattle area and my buddy in Portland… well, and the yarn and fabric stores in those two towns.

I had a chance to sit down and watch part of the live coverage of the Tour de France yesterday and today and thanks to that TV time I have now finished the pair of socks I had been struggling with (my tour de france knit along project). I started these about two and a half months ago; it’s so unlike me to have a sock project take that long! I did rip and restart at least twice though…

They’re baggy in the ankles and way too long in the leg and foot for me, but they should fit my father just right…

pattern: my own (braided cables - what was I thinking?)
yarn: Brown Sheep Company Wildfoote in “Jungle”
needles: my trusty INOX 2mm metal dpns
started: beginning of May?
finished: today - 11 July 2007

notes: Well, I learned a lot about cables on socks and will likely be passing on cabled projects for a while. But the real note is that this yarn is too splitty for cabling, not that many other people knit cables with tweedy yarn. I’m not a huge sock yarn snob - I prefer sock yarn with nylon content to help with the wear and tear (handknit socks are my and my father’s favorite things to wear during cooler weather), but this yarn is quite synthetic feeling (maybe it will do better after a wash?). I definitely prefer Fortissima Socka and Regia for the price range…

Now, what do I work on for the next two weeks of le tour?