A Feeling of Accomplishment

Today I finally got around to washing all the hand knitted stuff. I was a job and a half, but when I was done everything smelled so good and I could see a lot of the stuff I knit in the last few years. It was kind of satisfying!


Oh, and I turned the heel...

I was babbling away to Wendy yesterday that I would never really change the way I make a sock (the one I can do from memory without a pattern), but I have to say that this one works pretty well. It almost makes you wonder why it is made the other way. And it has the benefit of continuing the pattern if you are using yarn that has color changes because the only back and forth is on the bottom of the heel. So you don't get the abrupt change when you knit the foot after the heel. But I don't know...your first sock is kind of seared into your memory and it will always be the "way I make a sock". Sorry to get all philosophical...

Knitting in Australia

Good Morning everyone. Australia is amazing! I've got some hand dyed alpaca wool, and will hopefully get some more of something special while I'm here.
This morning, like every morning, the birds woke me up. The kookaburra's start arguing promptly at sunrise and they are loud. Then of course everyone else starts in too. So I was up getting a glass of water looking down on my friend Julie's back yard, and a wallaby hopped slowly across the grass! I made a cup of coffee, bundled up, and went outside and worked out the heal of our socks on the back porch. I was hoping to see more wild life - but just the birds were around. And yeah, I didn't understand the instruction either - so I just wung it, and they look okay.
Cheers! - Tara

Starting the Gusset

After a bit of frogging and tinking- I think I have the gusset figured out. My tip: cross out all the K1's and p1's that you don't need in the instructions so that you can see what you have to do. It is very confusing otherwise. My other wish: pointier needles to pick up all those yarnovers. But other than that, I really like these socks and I am excited to try a new heel.

Free Library Find

I popped into the Free Library bookstore on Friday and as usual made a dash directly to the arts and crafts books. They had a few new knitting books -- one on knitting tips and the other, The Urban Knitter. I couldn't really get enthused about either one and was on my way out when, nearly around the corner, I spotted this little book sitting on top of the others. The spine was really boring -- scientific, almost. I'm not sure what made me pause to pick it up. Maybe its size -- it's small, about 4" x 6".

Look at the cover. Dull, right?


What language is this, anyway:


Once I looked inside it was clear what it was/is. A knitting book of patterns, in Czech as I found out (published in Prague, 1972), composed entirely of knit and purl patterns. No increases. No decreases. No yarn overs or ssp's. Just knits and purls.



Yes, you're seeing this correctly -- OVER 200 DIFFERENT PATTERNS of k/p straight up. Amazing.

The photographs aren't very good, but see the charts below the illustrations? (Clicking to a close-up helps a lot.) I've no idea what they are. An internet translator tells me that "Poznamka," up at the top, means note. And then the actual note says something about the reverse side for #240. "Rub obrace" in #232 means reverse turns. Hmmm.

Of course, I'm interested in what else Zdenka Pudilova has written, and whether this is part of a series of books of knitting patterns. Or whether the poor Czechs thought they only had knits and purls to work with.

It's missing one signature (some 45! patterns) but for $3.50 it's quite a bargain.

Embarrassment of Yarn Riches

I'm still knitting along on my (Pat) Herringbone socks, using two colors for the heel flaps, too. Turning the heel has been a bit tricky, but I finally got the first one on the fourth try. Hopefully heel number two will be easier.

I've also received more yarn from across the Atlantic. I know, I know, I don't need any more yarn. It came from High Weald Fibre Factory in the UK. They've been great to order from and the yarn gets here in record time -- within the week. And look what else: they included two really nice stitch markers for free!!



On the left, more Zauberball to make a pair of (Pat) Herringbone gloves. I think they'll be nice and challenging, esp. since the pattern is Japanese. Plenty of people on Ravelry have blogged about them, plus there's a rough translation online, so should be interesting.



High Weald also has a great selection of Trekking XXL, so I figured I might as well order a ball to knit a pair of Christmas socks for my brother. Never too early to think about gifts.



So, I'm happy to have a number of relatively small knitting projects in the line-up. And I haven't forgotten about our summer sock knit-along. I'll be looking at my stash for that yarn.

(Pat) Herringbone

Talking about herringbone makes me think of Pat Harrington, remember him? Schneider from "One Day at a Time"? I used to love that show. I thought Valerie Bertinelli was the prettiest girl ever. And when she married Eddie VanHalen it was almost too good to be true. (By the way, I'm happy to see that PH is still alive. Wikipedia also tells me that he won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the janitor with a heart of gold.)

But I digress. . . These herringbone socks are the most enjoyable project I've worked on in a long time. I have plenty of yarn and might make these into knee socks, but that would require me to do some shaping, I believe. And I don't know if I'm up for that.



Also, the colorwork really does a number on my hands. Something about the way I end up holding the needles and the yarn cramps up my fingers the next day. This morning my joints are a little swollen and my wrists ache. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our craft. . .

Ballsy

When I was in upstate NY this past weekend (4th of July), I stopped by the Fingerlakes Fibers yarn shop in beautiful Watkins Glen.

My excuse for going yarn shopping (because I really need No More Yarn), was that the daughter of one of my mother's friends is having a baby. I suggested that we could make a joint gift -- she could buy the yarn and I'd knit some booties and a hat. After some serious deliberations we chose some hand-dyed superwash merino ("Sophisticate") from Brooklyn Handspun. This stuff is nice.

I also came across another BH colorway that I couldn't resist, called "Feverish." I thought I could use it to make the herringbone socks I've been wanting to do, that are from "Sockn aus aller Welt."

So instead of coming home with no skeins of yarn (restraint), or one skein of yarn (for baby boots), I came away with three skeins of yarn, now all nicely wound into balls. Behold:
So the pink, on the left, will be for the baby boots. The yarn is a tiny bit thinner than regular sock yarn so I'll be doubling it to make larger sizes, hence the two balls. In the middle is the other skein of Brooklyn Handspun, which I'll be using in conjunction with the brown on the right, Smooshy from Dream in Color, for my herringbone socks.

Guess those argyles will have to wait. . .