Knitting Pharm

The extra day made all the difference

Head-to-toe for February 2008

Head:

• Pomatomus cap in STR lightweight

Neck:

• Branching Out in Alchemy Bamboo
• Strangling Vines in Handmaiden Sea Silk

Kids:

• West Coast Sarah's raglan sweater
• Koigu t-shirt
• Amy's felted tote in Bernat felting
• 2 urchin hats in Joanne Marvel
• Bernat Soy raglan

Feet:

• Bayerische in Knitpicks Risata
• Cables and Corrugations
• Serendipity (Blue Moon club sock for January)
• Sunrise Socks (from New Pathways) in double-stranded Tofutsies

Thank goodness for Leap Year!

First Head to Toe of 2008

January was a great month to get back into the knitting groove.  Since I was on post-surgery physical restrictions, I felt little guilt about curling up in my favourite recliner with far too much coffee and my sticks and string.

Here are the tallies.  They look shocking, even to me.  (For more info, archives can be accessed on the right.)

For the feet:

• Retro Rib in Panda Wool
• Salish Sea in STR medium
• Ian's Trekking socks
• Jason's stripey socks
• David's clogs

Sock tallies:

• 4 pairs so far in 2008
• 67 pairs since the start of the Plunge

For me:

• Thermal!
• Swirly felted bag

For the wee loves of my life:

• Amy's whale tail sweater
• Charlie's letterman sweater
• Tyler's letterman sweater
• Baby B's secret sweater
• Lauren's pink soy sweater

Frogged for now:

• Koigu socks

On the needles at the turn of the month (several to be blogged later):

• Big bag in Bernat Naturals felting wool
• Strangling Vines in Handmaiden Sea Silk
• STR stashbusting hat
• West coast Sarah's Supersock sweater
• Bayerische in Knitpicks Risata
• Blue Moon's January club sock

Off for now to  rest for tonight's festivities:  floor seats at the Michael Buble concert!  Have a great weekend, all.

Sock stats 2007

As promised, the sock stats for the year 2007.

Total pairs completed:  79

Total pairs completed during the 52 pair plunge part of 2007 (April 1 - December 31):  63

Average pairs per month in 2007:  6.5

Average pairs per month during the 52 pair plunge:  7

Fewest pairs completed in a given month:  2 in December

Most pairs completed in a given month:  9 each in June and August

Breakdown by month:

• January - 8
• February - 3
• March - 5
• April - 9
• May - 8
• June - 9
• July - 5
• August - 9
• September - 7
• October - 7
• November - 7
• December - 2

Phew!  Someone needs to take break and knit a sweater!

Head to Toe Catch-up

Now that things are back to reasonably normal, I'm trying to close off 2007 by finishing up my head to toes for the year.

October 2007

For the feet:

• Online socks
• Jeweled Steps in Koigu KPPPM
• Hybrid Bartholomew/Marina Piccolo socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
• Spiraling Coriolis in Natural Dye Studios yarn from KOL swap
• Sea Wool Anklets with mock-cabled gussets
• Undulating Rib in STR lightweight
• Lenore (club sock) in STR lightweight

For little people:

• Silken Slippers in Fleece Artist Merino and Handmaiden Sea Silk

For the head:

• Tiny hat in handspun
• Adult hat in handspun

November 2007:

For the feet:

• Roza's socks in Lorna's Laces
• Anita's Online socks
• Loksins in Fleece Artist Sea Wool
• Loksins in off-white Kroy
• Pomatomus in off-white Kroy
• Skacel Lifestyle socks
• Pomatomus in purple Opal

For the body:

• Harriet's Flower shawl in Knitpicks Shadow
• Helen's shawl in Louet Gems Opal
• Amy's shawl in London-Wul mohair

December 2007:

For the feet:

• Bartholomew's Tantalizing socks in Black Bunny Fibers merino
• Charade socks in Fleece Artist Merino
• Clogs for David P.

Other:

• Swirly felted bag in Patons Classic

I'm now off to do some sock tallies, which I'll post shortly.  Happy 2008, all!

Just this once

Seeing as we're now halfway through November, and I've been on 8 airplanes and spent the lion's share of time sleeping in unfamiliar beds, maybe just this once I can skip the head to toe bragfest.

October archives are here.

A major highlight, of course, was completing the 52 pair plunge.  I'm now back at socks with a vengeance, and will do my best to do a proper post soon.

Soon, my pets.  For now, it's laundry, returning phone calls and playing with the cutest little girls on earth.

September's Head-to-toe

Cheating again, backdating blog posts to hide the fact that I've been such a poor blogger of late.  In an case, September was a big knitting month, and my head-to toe is a pretty decent one.

Feet, feet, always with the damned feet:

• Opal Rainbow socks
• Regia Canadian Jaywalkers
• Blue Moon "Summer of Love" lace anklets
• Mark's very large socks
• Jitterbug socks for submission to Winter Knitty  (since accepted for that issue - yay!)
• Titania's Revenge in Louet Gems merino
• Online socks

Body:

• Sea Lettuce scarf
• Kiri shawl

Head:

• Misti Alpaca hat for magazine submission

Still in progress:  Thermal (post to follow) and Flower Basket Shawls (one since frogged to make socks from my new book, also deserving of its own post).

Frogged:  many, many attempts with various socks.

New yarn stores visited:  six, all in Toronto and area.

Stash enhancements:  multiple.

Plunge total as of September 30, 2007:  48 pairs.

August's Head to Toe

Pardon the backdating of posts.  I am just that far behind, with no end in sight.  In any case, here are August's yummies.

For the feet:

• Waving Lace socks in Sisu
• Amy's Opal knee socks
• Socks for Knitty, details soon
• Regia Sierra socks
• Regia Sierra Socks
• Millie socks in Sockina Colori
• Regia Canadian socks
• Laceless Thelonious in Tofutsies
• Coupling socks in STR lightweight

For others:

• Diamond Fantasy Scarf for BFF Nancy
• Emma's backpack
• SWS backpack
• Pomotamus cap in Knitpicks Mainline

Continuing into September:

• Sea Lettuce
• Poor, neglected Thermal, which won't make it to Toronto tomorrow, but will be done soon after the Plunge has been completed.

Plunge status after 5 months:  41 pairs.  I've set an ambitious deadline for the Plunge, which I'll keep to myself until I deem it remotely achievable.

Real post(s) to follow, in which I squee over an upcoming coffee date and plan an exhaustive yarn crawl.

Hot, hot Head-to-Toe

While I sort through the blogging backlog created by a quick vacation, I'll at least give an update on July.

For the feet:

• Solstice Slip in STR lightweight
• Socks in Fleece Artist mill end
• RPM in STR lightweight
• Embossed Leaves in Fleece Artist mill end
• Heather's socks in Fleece Artist mill end
• Amy's ballet slippers

For the rest of me:

• Flower Basket Shawl in Fleece Artist mill end

For others:

• Backpack for Amelia
• Backpack for Laurel
• Little raglan t-shirt in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock

Still in progress:

• Thermal, which is now just past the divide for the armholes

Twenty minutes into the month of August, a far more important production was completed in our family.  Although I take no credit, I feel as the someday-to-be-favourite aunt I must inform the world of a very important arrival.

 

[Rachel Jean, my beautiful new niece.]

Head to toe, and musings on covering said toes

First off, below are my FOs for the month of June.

Headwear:

• Syncopated cap in Artyarns Ultramerino 4 for shop display

Neckwear:

• Montego Bay Scarf in Handmaiden Sea Silk

Socks:

• Baudelaire in Sweet Georgia Superwash
• Shimmer in STR mediumweight
• Crosshatch Lace in Artyarns Ultramerino 4
• Sweetpea in Tradewind Knits Celestial Merino
• Todd's socks in Opal Mosaik
• Amy-sized Pomatomus in Artyarns Ultramerino 4
• FIL socks in Reynolds Swizzle
• Ribbed-leg socks in Trekking Pro Natura
• Pomatomus in Artyarns Ultramerino 4

Other Footwear:

• 3 pairs of kids' felted clogs in various odds and ends
• 1 pair felted clogs for SIL in Patons Classic

After deciding to take the month of July and rest from socks, I dug back in on the latest BMFA club kit.  I am officially re-energized in my love for socks.

It has turned out to be all about the needle size for me.

I have done 90+ per cent of my socks on 2.5 mm needles, and have always been pleased with the results.  I have some smaller needles stashed away for when I feel like playing with gauge.  I had somehow convinced myself that it took more skill, more discipline and more knitting chops to work with the smaller needles.

Perhaps that's the case, but I have some serious doubts about that.

I have since concluded that my 2.5 mm needles make me happy.  The end result is not inferior.  The fabric is not droopy, lumpy or otherwise unpleasant.  The socks wear well, keep their shape and do their job.  My tension produces a fabric at 2.5 mm that isn't just good enough, it's good.

Last week, I hauled out my 2mm needle and some Louet Gems fingering weight to tackle the Mock Wave Cable Socks in the Interweave Favorite Socks book.  Great pattern, great yarn.  And in that gauge, it looked awful.  The "made" stitches pulled the adjacent purl stitches out of whack.  More importantly, it wasn't fun.  I will re-work the pattern in a larger needle size down the road.

Next instance of this sock mess was with my BMFA kit.  The pattern called for a 2.25 mm needle, which I had stashed away for just such occasion.  Not fun, not pretty and again with the stitches getting all pulled this way and that.  I re-cast on my 2.5 mm needle and am much happier.  Can't imagine this is a Club spoiler, so here are my progress photos:

Yes, that is a short row heel, over my size 11 foot, and yes, it fits.  Very well.  (About as well as JC Briar will fit in my pocket, if she doesn't stop the sock brilliance that is the tech editing of the BMFA club patterns.)  The designer combined a set of increases, forming a mini-gusset, with a short row heel.  The combination of the increased total stitch count leading up to the heel and the resultant increase in the heel's row count make for a great fit.  I will no longer shy away from the short-row heel for my own canoes feet.

Here's a closer peek at the heel region:

Now I think I'll stop pontificating over my socks and go make some more!

Happy Canada Day!

May's Head to Toe and other knitterly goodness

It was a great month, both for the Plunge and otherwise.  I had spells of real sock focus, punctuated by the rebellious need to knit other things.  As always, photos and details can be found in the May archives, and my Plunge Page.

Socks:

• Plunge Pair 11:  BMFA April Club socks
• Plunge Pair 12:  Austermann Step socks
• Plunge Pair 13:  Scrolls socks in CTH Supersock
• Plunge Pair 14:  Cookie A's Flicker in Louet Gems Sage Green
• Plunge Pair 15:  Jaywalkers in KP Simple Stripes, Vineyard
• Plunge Pair 16:  KP Simple Stripes Snapdragon socks
• Plunge Pair 17:  Jaywalkers in KP Simple Stripes, Snapdragon
• Plunge Pair 18:  CTH Supersock socks

Bags:

• French Market Bag in various scraps of worsted
• Felted backpack for a friend's niece

For the wee bodies:

• Monica for Amy
• Monica for Laurel

For the not-so-wee body:

• Modified Isabella for me.  Added cap sleeve, worked in Fleece Artist Merino Sock yarn

For the head:

• Stockinette cap in the 2 strands of Opal I had plied together in April
• Stockinette cap in my Navajo-plied KP Shimmer
• Pomotamus cap in my Navajo-plied KP Shimmer

Here are some photos of the caps in question:

(that Laurel is a walking ray of sunshine, isn't she?)

 

I also started and frogged a pretty ambitious sock project in May.  I've been fascinated by Meg Swansen's Arch-Shaped Stockings since I spied them in last fall's Vogue Knitting.  After much swatching and playing, I found the errata for that issue included the entire pattern and decided to give it one more try.  I was starting to doubt I'd like the thickness and lack of stretch, but solidered on.  My last straw, the one that told me to let it go (what, your last straws don't talk to you?) was this:

See the smaller diamonds at the red arrows?  Yeah, they're not supposed to be smaller.  And while the remainder of the diamond pattern is as written, it's still fugly.  I do, however, like the corrugated rib, which I'll definitely incorporate into future projects.  The solids will become other projects, at least one of them Ariel Barton's Cablenet from last fall's Knitty.

One more fun knitterly event was a contest on the Rockin' Sock Club blog.  We were asked for a creative, fun or other answer to a question.  My answer definitely falls under the "other" category.

Question:  How many knitters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

My answer:  Two, but how on earth do they get in there?

It pays to have a dirty mind, because I was one of 15 winners chosen!

Then the decision.  My prize was a skein light or medium weight, any shade on their website!  It seemed a monumental choice.

I made the right decision.

 

Medium weight in Undertoe.  It had been on my lengthy wish list since they posted their new colourways, and it is the most gorgeous yarn I've ever seen.  In fact, I think I need to go be with it.

Happy a restful Sunday, all!