Finished Object: Pawprint Socks

The Specs:
Pattern: Basic toe up socks, using Judy's Magic Cast On from Knitty and a pawprint motif from WendyKnits! (I'd link, but I'm lazy.) Short row heels and twenty rounds of knit two purl two ribbing at the top.
Yarn: Opal Dreamcatcher, Color 1235, 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. I used the majority of a skein, but I could probably get a pair of baby booties out of the rest of it.
Colors: Color #1235, a dark blue, dark gray, white, and bright blue stripping yarn.
Needles: Size US 1s, bamboo.
Start to Finish: Started back in November, I think on the 14th, and completed on April 2nd.
For: My mother
Notes: I hate toe-up socks. Never again. The cast on is way too fiddly and I had major trouble getting the bindoff to be stretchy enough to let human legs wear the socks but firm enough to keep the socks from falling down. I loved the color and enjoyed the pawprint motif, even though I regularly messed up when I forgot where I was, what I was doing, how to knit.. You know, the usual. I am very pleased with how well the pattern matches. I also realized that I need to start writing down my numbers so that all aspects of my socks will match. Like how many stitches to wrap for the heel, for example. That's an AWESOME number to write down, because that's also a hard number to count on a finished sock.



And let us ignore the pasty-whiteness that is my skin color. It gets darker in the summer, but I still have my heat on since I dislike frostbite.

Yarn Harlotry

So, weekend recap:

Friday was spent doing homework, more homework, homework, and more homework. Eventually quit homework in favor of the gym, shower, dinner, and out for a few drinks and then to see a friend's band play.

Saturday morning, Urmila and I left around 8:45am and got to Cleveland a little after 12:30. We grabbed lunch at the bookstore. After waiting FOREVER for the check, I returned to the area that had the highest concentration of knitters to discover all the chairs were gone and I'd have to stand in the back. I ended up right behind this...



...which is the book upon which I will most likely be writing my thesis. I need to read it again and I SO considered buying that copy.

Luckily for me, Steph soon showed up.



Seriously, how many pictures exist of Steph taking pictures of a sock and a crowd? I would argue that the answer is "not nearly enough."

She was everything you'd expect from her blog, and more. (Actually, her voice and manner of speaking reminded me - very strongly - of someone from back home. I just can't think of who, unless Steph and I have known each other in past lives and somehow.. that seems like a bit of a stretch to me.) I pulled out the pawprint sock and knitted away - it seemed fitting to knit a sock while listening to the Yarn Harlot. And currently, after only another 800 lines of Paradise Lost, the sock is less than ten rounds away from completion. I am trying SO HARD to actually Do Homework and not knit. Because if I finish the sock, then I'm going to have to cast on another. And well, that's just a slippery slope that I can go flying down tomorrow, as my three hour long class has been canceled.

Um, so back to the Yarn Harlot. She only said "arse" two or three times. And I am so glad I can knit without looking, or else I would have missed this:


I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO PETS YARN. I feel normal now!

I stood in line for only an hour or so - amazing, I know! - and got my two books signed. I'm so mad that I forgot to bring my copy of Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much - but hey! Just an excuse to go see her again! She 'bout knocked me over when she said that she recognized my blog name - THE YARN HARLOT RECOGNIZED MY BLOG NAME. That means she's BEEN here. And as I stood there, with my sock and my camera, she asked if I wanted a sock picture. That I looked like someone who wanted a sock picture. Of all people, Steph should recognize such a thing.


After that, Urmila and I went to her uncle's house... where I later took this:


That house (and the people who own it...) are going to need a post all of their own. But that is ok, because I met the Yarn Harlot, spoke to her, and didn't fall over dead at the end of it. (Or, if I did, I'm not aware of it so let me stay unaware, s'il vous plait.)

Getting There

Both sleeves for Blaze are completed! I sat down today and finished the right sleeve because Blaze goes with me to class on Wednesdays and I wanted to be sure that I'd have something to do. (Ok, so that sentence doesn't QUITE make sense...) But now one sleeve is attached to Blaze. See?



Right after I took that picture, I realized that I had started in the wrong point of the stitch pattern.. and had to tink my way back to the starting point. I have managed to catch up back to were I was, however. And I am slowly realizing that the rest of this sweater is going to take longer because, dude - there are a LOT of stitches in each round.

However, I am happy to report that one ball of yarn gives you this:


That's right folks. I knit my sleeves a bit longer than called for in the pattern and was wary about the amount of yarn I'd need. I to knit about 5.5" after this point and I have 3 full balls and most of a 4th. I'm fairly certain I'm going to have enough yarn, even with a longer body and sleeves.

The Pawprint socks are also well on their way. This is what happens when one has three hours (or more) of Paradise Lost to read each week:

That, by the way, is my knit/read set up. My laptop is propped up by two stacks of two Altoids tins in the back. I put my stapler on top of the closed laptop lid and then prop my HUGE text book up against that whole contraption. So far, the two socks are matching fairly well. I'll have to check in a little bit if that's still the case up the leg.

I also kinda feel the need to figure out my next big project. I need to finish Sizzle, which only needs a neckband and finishing touches at the sleeves. Branching Out could be finished. I have two pairs of socks on the needles right now, but I also have an empty set of DPNs. Hrm...

I think I shall be signing up for Sockapalooza this year. I figure, free socks in exchange for a pair of socks! I'm hoping that my pal likes the color blue, because then I can use stash sock yarn - which is pretty much the ONLY yarn in my stash.

In other news, I shall be in Lyndhurst, OH this weekend! I'm so excited! If any of the other many knitters planning to be there reads this, will someone say Hi to me that day? I'm guessing that I'm going to be in hermit mode and also, scared witless because I WON'T KNOW ANYONE. And we all know that's how nightmares start. (Well, either that, or you know EVERYONE. And you are in your underwear, for some reason.) The Urmila will visit the bookstore with me, but she doesn't deal with people. I'll post a picture of myself later this week and which ever project I decide to take with me!

Recap

For some reason, my computer does not like to associate with fiber-optic internet service. As a result, it ... doesn't. While at home, I'm forced to either use my father's computer or my sister's computer. My sister's has the disadvantage of being located in HER room. Getting to the computer desk is a feat of balance and flexibility, as there is no walk-way ... just piles of STUFF. My father's computer is not only in a common location of the house, but one doesn't need to warm up before attempting to approach the machine. However, his computer's main language is Swedish. No matter what program you have running - and even if you have an English version of the program - error messages pop up in Swedish. I don't know Swedish. (Neither, for that matter, does my father. That makes tech support quite fun.)

As a result, no blogging. As a result of lots and lots of stuff to do, not quite as much knitting as I would have liked. I did manage to tack on another 5 pattern repeats of Branching Out, for a total of 27, which the pattern calls for. I think I'm going to knit til I run out of yarn, rip back to the end of a full repeat, and finish the thing. Some year. No pictures because it looks like the other pictures, just ... longer.

I finished the one sleeve of Blaze and started the other:



This shouldn't take me too long, as there are only 4 pattern repeats, for a total of 72 rounds. (8 rounds of 72 stitches = 576 stitches. 7 rounds of 74 stitches = 518. 8 rounds of 76 stitches = 608 stitches. And 49 rounds of 78 stitches = 3822 stitches. For a grand total of 5524 stitches for one sleeve. [I'm on round 7 right now, after the 8 rounds of ribbing.] Clearly I'll be done in no time.)

As for my sister's sock,



I also turned the heel, picked up gusset stitches (um, 19 of them, rather than the suggested 16. Not sure what, exactly, I did there), and started the decreasing part. What with the plain stockinette stitch of the bottom, I'm kinda hoping that the foot of the sock goes faster than the leg did. I do have three hours a week to spend on it, though.

Here is Eeyore, modeling the foot of the second pawprint socks.


If they fit her, these socks will go to my mother. These are knit while I'm reading Milton's Paradise Lost.

And then... then I have THIS:



I'm quite sad, even messing around with light balance and color settings, I can't get the real color of this year. There is more green, more blue, more purple. SO PRETTY. That was the awesome part of visiting my mother - she lives in Harrisonburg, VA. So does Claudia, of Claudia's Hand Painted Yarns. As I had hoped, yarn stores round there tend to carry LOTS of Claudia's yarns. I got two skeins, so I'm hoping I might be able to pull off two pairs of footlets. Or maybe this yarn is meant to be a taller sock. Maybe even a toe up pair of socks, so I can knit as much as possible with this yarn. We shall see. I need to finish three pairs of socks before then - pawprint, Bayerische, and this....



The color is very close in this shot, actually. My mother liked the idea of socks with Aloe Vera in them and I can't say I mind the idea of knitting with it. I think I'm going to steal her pair of light cream Opal sock yarn for myself then... This will be her third pair of socks from me.

To completely change the subject, I made the ... mistake? Not sure if that is the correct word... of looking at working student positions for event riding. A found a few that pretty much provide everything I need, plus lessons, horses, coaching at events, a chance to compete.. I wouldn't be able to get one for this summer, but maybe that's what I'll do right out of college. I already know that this isn't the kind of thing that I am going to forget right away, so it can stew in the back of my mind for a while. Until tomorrow, for example.

I'm about to leave for a meeting with a faculty member to discuss the possibility of Holocaust Literature as a thesis option. I'm not sure where his office is, even though I've asked twice. Hrm.

Procrastination, how I love thee

I'm currently at the top of page 4 of a 5 page paper. So I need to come up with another 1.5 pages or so. Clearly it is time for a blog posting.

I spent very little time knitting this weekend, as I'm working next weekend and needed to get ahead to be able to finish everything on time. However, two three-hour-long classes really adds to the knitting time. Reading Milton's Paradise Lost also really helps.

I've been knitting Bayerische during Hist 409Y:

Six inch DPN included for scale

A close up of the pattern:

the actual color is somewhere between the two. For some reason,
this color is very hard to capture with my camera in artificial light.

And Blaze during Eng 497C and watching movies for Fr 497B:


That's actually the third attempt at Blaze. I didn't like how the pattern incorporated the increased stitches - purled until all were added, then a new zig-zag just started up - so I started those stitches in pattern a little early. Given that this will be the bottom of the sleeve, I don't think it will make much of a difference, but I like it. I'm really hoping the sleeves won't take too long, but I'm not holding my breath.



And when I remember, I've been working on the second PawPrint sock while reading Milton at my desk. So far, not too bad. I've finished the toe and have just started the majority of the foot portion, pattern included.



Other than the fact that I could be found at 10pm both Friday and Saturday still doing homework, the weekend was good. I managed to get a decent amount of work done, minus this paper that I have no desire to actually work on, minus the fact that I could then go to bed.

Signs of life

I'm alive. No, really. And now it looks like I might even be alive for a while longer.

I'm still coughing and hacking up nasty stuff, but much less often than before. And the sore throat has retreated enough that I'm off enough drugs to be able to go out for a friend's 21st birthday and not die if I forget and have a drink.

That being said, being sick has been good for the knitting. See?
I suppose knitting in class also helps... I need to finish a repeat and a half of the pattern, then start the sleeves. I'm not in a hurry, because I can't seem to find a set of US 6 DPNs. A friend has a set of 5s that I can borrow for the cuffs and might have a set of 6s. I don't want to tie up her DPNs for the length of time I'd be knitting two sleeves, so I attempted to purchase a set for myself. Wal-Mart and Michael's were both a bust. I could drive to the LYS, but they don't have cheap needles and I'm a broke college student. However, I am in a hurry cause I want to wear the thing while it is still winter.

I also finally got around to starting the other paw-print sock:
I wasn't quite able to perfectly match up the color repeats, but all in all, it is looking pretty good. And it only took me 4 tries to manage Judy's Magic Cast-On, rather than the 6 for the first sock. I do think, however, that these will be my last pair of toe-up socks. I hate attempting to START the sock and I hate FINISHING the sock. So I put those off and that tends to mean that I don't have socks. And that's just not the whole point.


And while watching a movie last night (Serenity, the movie based off of FireFly), I managed 5 rounds of Bayerische socks.
They aren't looking as clean and crisp as Eunny's but that's ok. Blocking shall solve the problem!

Wishful thinking, much?

Last week? Not so good for the knitting.

I did, however, rip-out the sewn cast off of the paw print sock, knit another half inch or so of ribbing and then try a cast-off I saw on Wendy's blog. I like it MUCH better now. I'd take a picture, but really - it looks almost the same. Just better.

So now I can start the second sock. I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt to make the socks match or just go with it. I think I'll end up matching them. I couldn't bring myself to start the second one when I didn't like the first one.

I also got the second skein of yarn for my sister's scarf, so hopefully I'll be able to knock that thing out in a week or two, just to make myself feel better about the number of things on needles right now.

Blaze is moving along... It would make a semi decent tube top right about now, but not so sure about how much I like the idea of a cabled tube top. Or a tube top in general, so I'll just keep knitting. For the most part, I've memorized the pattern. I just have to stop and figure out if I'm knitting/purling each stitch or crossing them on each round. I've just joined the third ball of yarn, too.

Last week, I somehow forgot to cable and/or cabled when I shouldn't have and had to tink back 4-5 rows to find and fix the mistake. That actually took more time than knitting would have, which was rather annoying. But ah, well. At least it is correct now.

Other than that, working for the first time this weekend - stage crew for the Vagina Monologues. I love the show, but not sure how being present for 3 performances is going to pan out. At the very least, I'll be paid.

Other than that, feeling rather ... off. Somewhat feel like I'm forgetting to do something or am behind or something. Things with friends are weird, things in general feel weird. Not bad, just .. different. And I'm not sure I like it.

YAY for 56 hours of weekend

This weekend was very good for knitting. I finished class at 11am on Friday and realized that I was unlikely to see anyone (other than roommates, and they don't count) for another 6 or 7 hours.

So, I finished two books for classes, sent off a few e-mails, and devoted the rest of the day to knitting.

First and formost, I am officially halfway finished with my sister's scarf:

14" straight needle included for scale: all told, that's about three feet of scarf.

That's the first skein of yarn into scarf. I left the other skein at home, without realizing it, so her scarf is going to have to wait til March or whenever she decides that it is cold and she wants a scarf and mails me the other skein. The color in that picture is a bit muted - the colors are actually a little bit brighter.

I've been working on Blaze and am still loving it. I am about halfway done the first repeat. I'm discovering that this pattern is rather hard to pick up and just "read" where you are - I have to jot down what row/round I stopped on. Slightly annoying, but I shall forgive it, as it is so lovely and soft and squishy.

Not sure, however, if that will REALLY fit me. My gauge is a little bit tighter than what the pattern calls for, but I'm knitting the larger size of the two I fall between, so I'm hoping it will work out nicely. And also, the needle fits around my waist and the pattern is stretchy, given that it is a rib. IT SHALL FIT.

After a two hour break for dinner, I returned home and joined Urmila and Ryan for some 3+ hours of Battlestar Galactica. TheBoy showed up to watch the first episode after the miniseries that sets up the whole series. And in that time, I managed a large chunk of this:

I know, I know. I haven't been blogging about this sock. I got to right before the dark strip before the heel (From the toe) around Thanksgiving and hadn't touched it since. In fact, I left that sock at school over break, so I've knit over half a sock in less than a week, as I cast-off last night. I might un-do the EZ sewen cast-off, knit a bit more ribbing, and try a different cast-off. I don't know how I feel about toe up socks. I suck at the various methods for casting-on for a toe up sock and would MUCH rather graft a toe shut than try to find an attractive cast-off that is stretchy enough to work for a sock.

A close-up of the kitty paw-prints that I randomly threw into the mix just for fun:

I am not sure how much I like them, but they are staying. I suppose I like them enough, as I know the second sock will also have paw prints. However, due to the nature of the paw print, I am trying to decide if I should knit the other sock top-down and compare the two or not. Hrm... I shall have to think on that one.

For now, though, I have season 6 of The West Wing and am slightly ahead for classes this week, minus the 2-3 page paper due on Wednesday that I haven't overly considered yet. But we'll ignore that, allowing me to spend the rest of the evening knitting on Blaze

I need a bigger needle

Second, the knitting:

Hat looks like this:



Can you see the big, huge, not cool mistake? How bout now?


I'll go back and fix it with duplicate stitch or not, and see if Ryan ever notices. I'm thinking duplicate stitch.

I like the way my snowflake pattern turned out, even if it does look a bit like a cross. And Ryan's Catholic, so he won't be offended. Now, another band of the first pattern, then I have to create another snowflake pattern. Then... we see who/what it fits. The hat has gotten big enough that Sheldon's beak was one of the reasons it stayed on top of his head, but I imagine that made seeing a little difficult for him. Maybe Eeyore will be a better model next time.

And the sock, you ask?


And on my foot:


Plain, boring sock... jazzed up a bit with cat paw motifs that I keep messing up.

Grrr

 Here's the current state of the sock:


I decided to go with the "Eagle's Flight" pattern, available here. I really like the pattern, and it was easy enough to adapt it to my gauge (of 10 sts per inch. No, seriously. Look:



and I'm only using size 1s, people. And I don't think I knit THAT tightly.)

However, I'm not sure the pattern is really showing up with the dark yarn.


So I think I'm gonna end up frogging this and trying for another lace pattern, maybe
this one but I'm not sure it will work with 80 stitches, rather than 60.

Luckily, I do have a yarn that will work well with the Eagle's Flight pattern. (However, that yarn is supposed to be used for socks for my mother. I guess she'll be getting another pair of patterned socks...)

I might just try to come up with a pattern of my own. Maybe cables? Lace?

If it looks like a duck...

The problem with rechargeable batteries is that you need to recharge them.   My camera turns itself on when you plug it into the computer and I forget to turn it off.  Which wastes a lot of batteries.

Which I never realize til I turn my camera on and see "Change the Batteries" flash on the screen before my camera turns itself off.

I figured out the increasing for Ryan's hat.  I needed 34 stitches on each needle so I just spaced increases between three and four stitches and counted to make sure I'd have the right number.

And then I charted my very first Fair Isle pattern.  It's a snowflake, of a sort, and I don't think it obeys Fair Isle rules since I have stretches of 7-8 stitches of one color only.  But, I don't care.  It looks nice and Ryan didn't hate the pattern.

Here's Sheldon, modeling the hat. Oddly enough, the hat is still too small for a duck stuffed with PVC beads. I'd say this might be a problem, but I'm getting gauge and I have yet to finish four charts. And if it really is too small, I can just add another chart at the bottom. Or rip out a couple of charts, increase a bit more, fiddle around with charts, and so forth. It'll work.

And the sock, modeled by Sheldon:

I think it is a tad too small.  But then, he has big feet.

Ah, yes.  It fits Eeyore and he's quite a bit bigger than Sheldon.  Proof that the duck has big feet and that I'm at least somewhat crazy, since I have my stuffed animals modeling knit projects and so forth.

Perhaps bedtime is in order.

Uh oh

Help me out here.  Pattern for Ryan's hat tells me that with 108 stitches on my needles, to increase as follows: "[(K4, m1) 6 times, k3, m1] around. 136 sts (34 sts on each needle)"  I read that as k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, then k3, m1 the rest of the way around.

That gives you something like 142 stitches.  (4x6 = 24.  108-24 = 84.  So, over the remaining 84 stitches, you increase every three stitches, for a total of 28 increased.   The math, it does not add up.)  And I've sat here, counting off stitches, making notes.  And really, I don't see how this is supposed to work.

Am I supposed to k4, m1 all the way around the hat?  That'll give me 135 stitches.  I need 136, for a repeats of a 17 stitch pattern.  k4, m1 most of the way around, with one or two k3, m1 seems to be my best bet.

I could be reading this completely the wrong way, I'm aware of that.  And as I think of different ways to check my math, I keep coming up with different numbers and so forth.  (And to think, I took calc and advanced linear algebra for FUN.  And did well in those classes!)

Tonight, I shall solve this problem.

Since I don't seem to be able to NOT have a sock on the needles, I cast on in Opal's Dreamcatcher, color 1235, a bunch of blues with short runs of white.  I'm trying toe up socks this time, using Judy's Magic Cast On from Knitty.com.  I started with 20 stitches and then remembered, I have wide feet.  So I ripped it all out and started again with 40 stitches.  Haven't gotten far enough yet to know if that'll work, but that's ok.  This pair of socks is for me, and thus, does not count.

Though, I really need to get a few more sets of DPNs or attempt socks with circular needles.

And since I never managed to post a picture of the finished Lorna's Laces socks, here ya go:

Lesson learned? It is hard to take good pictures of your own feet. But, I am very happy with the socks.

Used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, color 201, Yellowstone.
Made up my own pattern of 2x2 rib, garter stitch shortrow heel, stockinette foot, and normal shortrow toe. They didn't take that long to knit, I know I wore them out the same night I finished them, some Thursday evening, about Oct. 19th.