Well, kind of.

I’m blogging again (at least, I hope it’s not just a one time performance), but I’ve moved.

Come see!

I am astounded that it has been over a month since I’ve written. It shouldn’t, as time seems to be flying by but still it does. This has been a shitty year. No other way to describe it, and I can not WAIT for it to be over, so I’m not going to complain about time moving fast. I’m just going to try to catch up, and I keep asking myself as the new year approaches “Are we there yet?”

In knitting news, I have some stuff to share.

First up — I started, finished, and gifted a project within the 6 weeks I’ve been gone that I never blogged about. It was a pair of socks for my best friend. He lives far away (Michigan, of all places!), and I neglected to get a photo of the socks before I gave them to him. Luckily, he took one that he told me I could use.

• Pattern: Loosely based on Thuja from Knitty
• Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in Charcoal
• Needles: US size 4 DPNs
• Notes: Because my yarn was a significantly different weight (therefore giving me a significantly different gauge), I fiddled with the numbers. I cast on 64 stitches, and after the gusset only decreased back to 66 stitches, based on the measurements of the recipient. Other than adjusting the numbers to fit my gauge and his foot, I completed the pattern as written.

Friend is thrilled with them; he wears them, from what I understand, much as my husband wears his socks — for around the house lounging around. This makes me incredibly happy.

In other sock news, I never did the second sock from my toe up pair. I plan to run the first sock (cotton/elastic blend) through the wash and drier and see if it will shrink a bit; as it is, I really really don’t like the fit. That’s on my to do list. Also on my to do list is two pair of socks for two more friends, the first pair in this lovely LL Shepherd Sock in the Jeans colorway:

Haven’t decided what pattern I’m going to use for this yet; still looking for the perfect thing!

In the “joyous news” category, I completed the knitting on Mother’s candy-cane bag (Via Diagonale)! I still have a lot of finishing to do (i-cord trim, handles, lining …..) but I am so thrilled to be done with main body that I can hardly contain it.

The red fabric will be used for the lining, whenever I get that far. I haven’t even gotten as far as WASHING the lining fabric. Why has this bag been such a chore for me??? At least the end is in sight.

In the last of my knitting news, the only holiday knitting I’m doing is a request from my sister for a “pink scarf.” I picked up some Cascade 220 and started the Lace Leaf Scarf from the Holiday 2006 issue of knitsimple. So far it’s going well:

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I plan to knit as far as two balls of the yarn will take me, which means I’ve got quite a bit to go. I’m hoping (very much) that I can finish, or at least make a whole lot of progress, in the car on the way to Mississippi tomorrow. The lace pattern is very easy and logical, and it’s moving very fast, so I do have hope.

(By the way, my apologies for the quality of photos in the post. This house has very very little good light, and these were taken on a very gray day — but sometimes we have to take what we can get.)

I still have Icarus on the needles, but she’s been pushed aside (much to my disappointment) to work on these other projects. I can’t wait to get back to her, as soon as sister’s scarf is finished! I also need to start on the shrug for other sister’s wedding at the end of February, but I’m having some hesitation with that — in the last six months or so I’ve lost 30 pounds, and it’s still coming off quite steadily. I’d hate to start knitting the thing now and have it not fit come wedding time. But I don’t want to not get it finished either! I’m planning to start shortly after the New Year and just cross my fingers that any fit issues are easily remedied.

In non-knitting news, I am still struggling with my health a great deal. I have in this past week changed antidepressant medications, and am hopeful that I will see more improvement very soon. I’m having a hard time with day-to-day at this point, and blogging tends to fall by the wayside.

My family is leaving to spend Christmas in Mississippi tomorrow. I hope to come back with a lot more new knitting to share, and I will keep counting the days until this damned year is over.

I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday.

• I am a bad blogger. I understand this. I am trying to be better. I am also trying to come to grips with it — I don’t have to be fabulous at everything I do! If I can only manage one post a month, then that is okay. Disappointing . . . but okay.
• I am, as of Saturday, the mother of a four-year-old. This is astonishing to me. It does not seem truly possible that it has been four years since my boy came to join me. I am very, very hopeful that the four-year-old year will be easier for all of us than the three-year-old year was.
• I am once again struggling with depression and on antidepressants. Prozac and I made very good friends about eight years ago, and I thought I had truly beaten a lifelong battle with depression. As it turns out, I wasn’t completely done with that battle. It has been a very bad year, and with my inborn tendency toward a chemical imbalance in my brain, I was pulled under and now I’m just struggling to keep my head above water. I have been very, very withdrawn for months now, but with the help of this medication and I am working very hard to climb out of this hole. I’m not looking for sympathy, but offering an explanation for why I have been (and may continue to be) less than pleasant on this blog. Bear with me, and it should (should) get better.
• I am the proud owner of a completed pair of Hederas! I am so so proud of them, and so utterly thrilled to finally have a pair of handknit socks for myself. I finished them ages ago (during Socktober, yay for me!) but did not manage to blog about them until now.
  
  
  
  
  • Pattern: Hedera from Knitty
  • Yarn: Fortissima Socka, 75% superwash wool/25% Polyamide
  • Needles: US size 2
  • Notes: I did not knit the heel as written in the pattern; I tried it twice and could not get it to look decent. It was much longer on one side than the other, and just not working out for me. I substituted a plain knit heel and am very happy with that modificaiton. I love, love, love the fit of these. They’re perfect. I did make an error in the lace pattern, but I repeated it in the second sock so that it looks more like a “feature.” It is a small error and it does not bother me at all. I am very, very, very happy with these socks. Yay for me!
• I am not sure I like the way my very first ever toe-up sock fits me. I finished it a little late for Socktoberfest, but I did accomplish my Socktoberfest goal — to experiment with a new way of making socks. Toe ups, short row toes and heels, picot bind off — definitely all new stuff! But — I just don’t know that I like it. They are simple, plain stockinette socks in a very pretty comfortable yarn — but the fit is just . . . . off. I’m just not sure that the short row heel works for me. It’s a cute sock (though there’s terrible laddering — what is that all about??) and I love the colors — but the truth is I’m not sure I’m going to make the second sock. I may rip this one out and try something different. For right now, I am reserving judgement. Toe up was fun, but I think from here on out I’ll probably be sticking with the top down, heel flap construction. (My apologies for the following photos. Yucky weather leads to indoor crappy flash photos, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to blog about these!)


Click here to see how my four-year-old wanted to help with the photo shoot!



I’m proud of the fact that I’m ghostly white; I’m trying hard to avoid skin cancer!

• I am working on Mother’s bag again! Still achingly slow progress, but I am feeling less like a terrible daughter. When she was here for Nate’s birthday party, she noticed her purse in my knitting bag and got very excited. “Am I go to have my candy cane bag for Christmas?” Well, Mama, I’m going to try! If I can just buckle down and do this, it shouldn’t take THAT much longer to finish. I have about 4 inches of length left to go. That doesn’t sound like much, but WOW this is going so slowly, and so boringly. I’ll have more photos when there’s progress worth showing!
• I am playing single mother this week. My husband is traveling for work, to North Dakota. I’m such a horrible wife that I am getting a great deal of amusement out of this fact — and I’m SO very glad that I’m not him. He’s experiencing real winter, and our high today will be in the 70s. Much better him than me. My son is now paging me to come watch a movie with him, so I’m going to go work on that Mom thing. I hope I’m back with more to say before long. Y’all have a good week.

and a little of that…

I finished my ugly dishcloth:

It’s so awful it’s funny. It makes me grin every time I see it, and I have been using it mercilessly ever since I completed it. I love it, even though it’s hideously ugly and even though I fucked up completely on the last pattern repeat (don’t know exactly what I did, don’t really care — it’s just a dishcloth! How — freeing!). What makes it even better is that I showed a photo of it to my best friend (who tolerates my knitting babble, much like my husband, with patient affection) and he said “It looks like the American flag dipped in hydrofluoric acid.” I cracked up. (I love that I know people who even know what hydrofluoric acid is.) It gives me even more reason to smile every time I see the thing.

In other news (unfortunately with no photos), I have finished the gusset decreases on my second Hedera and will shortly be racing along the rest of the foot — it moves so fast after this point! So my Socktoberfest “celebration” is well underway. I have loved knitting these socks. I think I’ll have two new pair on the needles very quickly — Embossed Leaves, for my friend Lily, and I may try my first pair of toe-ups (most likely for another friend). I already have the yarn for the toe-ups (I’m going to use some stash Elann Sock It to Me in lovely shades of brown), but I don’t know what I’m going to do for the yarn for Lily’s. I may try some of the KnitPicks sock yarn.

A little progress has been made on Icarus — I’ve made it halfway through the fourth repeat of chart one. It’s looking delightful. It’s so easy and brainless right now — but still fun because I just flat-out love knitting with lace-weight yarn. Still, I’m looking forward to getting on to the “real” lace charts. It’s going to be a while, though, particularly given that for a little extra size I’m going to be doing an extra repeat of chart one.

No progress on Mother’s bag (picture red-faced embarrassed daughter here). But I am going to leave this afternoon to visit my family (including Mother) in Orange, and I plan to take only my Hedera (I just can’t abandon it so close to the finish) and the bag. I should have a lot of time to knit, because there will be plenty of folks ready and willing to entertain the boy-child, so maybe I will make some real progress. Maybe even get finished with the body of the thing — what an appealing thought!

I think that’s all the babble I have for today. I’m on my way to pack and I hope I’ll be back with some pictures of finished socks on Tuesday!

Okay, so I’m a little late. But Lolly was interested in our sock knitting history for Socktoberfest, and I thought I’d put up my answers. I don’t have much of a sock knitting history (or really much of a knitting history at all — I’m just about to come up on two years!), but here’s what I’ve got!

1. When did you start making socks?

I started making socks pretty shortly after I started knitting, but I had a roadbump in my learning curve — my first sock was disastrously small! It was made from Wildfoote sock yarn, and I was very very happy with the way it was turning out — until it didn’t fit! I made it past the turning of the heel, and about two inches into the foot, before I finally tried it on. Dumbass!


2. Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

I taught myself. I got the basic instructions from Sally Melville’s The Knitting Experience: The Purl Stitch.

3. What was your first pair?

The first pair I finished was a pair of Retro Ribs, from the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits. I did them in Elann’s Sock It To Me cotton/elastic blend — in bright red — for my mother.


4. How have they “held up” over time?

I don’t actually know. I’ve not seen them since I gave them to her — but I don’t get to visit her very often, so that’s not surprising. (Knowing Mother, she probably doesn’t actually wear them, so they’re most likely in great shape.)

5. What would you have done differently?

I’d have been more careful with my math so that the first sock actually fit!

6. What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

I haven’t used many yarns. I really liked the Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport that I used for my husband’s “around the house” socks, though. Very yummy.

7. Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

Knit, on DPNs. I actually really enjoy using DPNs. I’ve never tried magic loop, but I tried two circs once for about three minutes before thinking I’d lose my mind. I still get minor laddering sometimes with DPNS, but not enough to bother me.

8. Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)

I’ve only ever tried a flap heel. I’m going to be using Socktoberfest as an excuse to experiment with short-row heels, and with toe-up socks.

9. How many pairs have you made?

Three, almost four. One pair for Mother, one pair for hubby, one pair for my son, and I’m currently almost finished with the cuff on the second of a pair for me. So, not very many!

All my photos of my sock knitting projects can be found here.

My addition to eye candy friday:

Tequila. This is a pure “indulgence” photo - and one I’d really like to partake of more times than is probably wise.

As far as not eye candy — I am working on the worlds ugliest dischcloth. I had some Peaches & Creme stashed from waaaaaaay back, in color “pink lilacs” — a combination of pinks, purples, and white. Everything I’m really working on is on little needles with little yarn, so I wanted something mindless and quick to work on when my brain wants to disengage. So I decided to try out a dischcloth — worsted weight yarn on US size 7 needles — just what the doctor ordered. I’m working it in a feather and fan pattern (which I’ve never done before, and yes, I realize is not going to give me an actual SQUARE dischcloth). It’s fun, and I’m enjoying it.

But my gods what an UGLY creation. The colors, alone, are hideous — enought to make me thing “what in the FUCK were you thnking, Carrie?” — and then there’s the pooling on top of that. Hideous personified. But. But. It makes me grin every time I pick it up to work on it. And it’s going so FAST! So I’m pretty happy with it. And, after all, it’s going to be used for menial labor — how pretty does it have to be? It’s more than enough that I’ll get a kick out of it every time I see it.

Progress so far:

Icarus is growing, slowly. Mother’s bag is . . . .well, thinking about growing. Even more slowly. Hedera is pretty much being saved for “out” knitting — which means not getting much time.

In other news, I joined Lolly’s Socktoberfest.

I just really like the idea, and I’m pretty sure I’m never again going to be without a pair of socks on the needles, so it seemed like a good fit for me. I’m hoping to have the second Hedera done within the first couple of days of October, and at least one other pair (for Lily) compeleted by the end of the month.

We’ll see how that works out!

back again . . .

It seems this blog is often more about absence than presence. I’m working on accepting that, as it seems to be the best I can do.

As usual, the good news is that even though I’m not blogging, I am still knitting. I’ve got a couple of new projects, in addition to the old ones, and even one finished object!

Boring update first — Mother’s bag. This is such slow progress. It feels like I can knit forever on it and it just doesn’t grow. At all. That makes me want to tear my hair out. So this seems to be, again and again, shoved to the bottom of the WIP basket. However, I have finally reached the end of the first balls of yarn — and it all had to go somewhere, right? So that must mean that, despite what it feels like, progress is being made.

I doubt that this looks any different at all than the last progress photo of this candy-cane bag, but for the record here it is:

I’m thinking of making this my “at computer” knitting project rather than my socks. It is pretty mindless knitting, and maybe if I’m otherwise engaged while knitting it I won’t get so frustrated at its lack of apparent progress. I WILL have this finished by Christmas. Sigh.

I am also still working on the second Hedera sock. Progress so far looks like this:

That’s nine repeats of the lace pattern done on the leg. This one is not moving nearly as quickly as the first did, but I am still having great fun knitting it. Nate has begun Spanish classes, and I took Hedera with me to the second class (I thought I’d be having to participate, which is why I didn’t take it to the first class). The other mothers in the class were a little taken aback by my knitting at first, but once they realized that I would still be participating in the conversation, it didn’t seem to bother them, which is good. That will give me a 45-minute solid block to work on these at least once a week, so hopefully I will be done with the second sock soon. I find myself surprisingly tickled with the fact that these are for me, that soon I will be wearing my own handknit socks. I can not wait!

I think my next-up socks (for Lily, for real this time!) will be the Embossed Leaves pattern from one of the relatively recent issues of Interweave Knits (I don’t remember precisely which issue).

Okay, next in line — a finished object! These are for another friend of mine — Fetching handwarmers from Knitty, knit in leftover Kathmandu Aran yarn from Rogue.

I like these so much that I started another pair, out of a yummy soft green yarn that I had one skein of in my stash. It’s a DK weight, so they have a completely different feel than these do. I’ve finished one, and will be starting the second very soon. Pictures when they’re done.

Finally, my big new project:

Even the little details look just yummy, as far as I’m concerned. This is the Icarus pattern, by Miriam Felton, from the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the pattern and the name (in fact, I’m not sure that the name isn’t the majority of my attraction to it, but I’m weird like that). When I started seeing finished shawls pop up in blogs, and saw how lovely they were, I knew I neeeeeeeeeeeded to knit this. I was craving serious lace anyway, but I think I may have been soured forever on Kiri. So I cast on for Icarus about a week ago, using Misti Alpaca Lace yarn in color 7120, a lovely subdued blue-green color, and US size 4 needle. (Much as I love my Denise’s, when I was swatching for this I was desperately craving some of these!)

I have, so far, completed 3 repeats of Chart 1.

This part of the shawl is pretty much brainless knitting — I’m finding the pattern so easy to read it’s almost impossible to screw up. I did have one error which I *gasp* didn’t go back to fix — I would have had to tink two long rows, and I was able to fudge a fix that I think is almost completely unnoticeable (hubby couldn’t pick it out, either). Other than that, the only issue I’ve had is forgetting to put in a yo, and that’s easy to fix on the next row — no ripping or tinking required. So I’m very much enjoying this knitting.

I think that’s all I’ve got on the needles right now. I just ordered the yarn to make my shrug for my little sister’s wedding in February. I decided on the Knitpicks Andean Silk in Pitch. I’ll have a look at it when it gets here and decide if I like it enough to use it for that purpose. This is the first purchase I’ve made from KP, so I’m anxious to see how I like the experience.

I bought Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush earlier in the month and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I haven’t decided which pattern I want to make first, but there are a few I plan on making. When I purchased it, I had a nice chat with the lady in line behind me at Border’s. She told me she had made several of the patterns from it, and really enjoyed them, so we talked a bit about knitting. She was somewhat surprised at how recently I started knitting, and gave me a card — apparently she does private lessons, and will also meet with you to help you “fix” your knitting. It was pleasant, and for some reason, surprising. I just don’t know many knitters in real life, so running into one in such a random manner was quite unexpected.

I hope to be back with finished socks soon!

My Gramps, my last remaining grandparent, died exactly a week ago.

I have been traveling (to Mississippi) and dealing. There has been some knitting done, but I’m not up to sharing it right now — I’m still pretty emotionally wiped out.

Just wanted to update on where I’ve been.

I started a pair of socks that I mentioned in my last real post for my friend Lily, in Canada. I picked the Hedera socks from Knitty, and I am loving knitting them. As I mentioned, I am just having a blast with the actual knitting of the pattern. I’m using Fortissima sock yarn in a dark blue-gray color, and I just love the lace.

You knew there was a “but” coming from the title of the post didn’t you? I have size 7 feet, and they are narrow. Not really narrow, but relatively so. I have a really high arch, but other than that my feet are pretty average. Lily wears (according to her husband, since she was being difficult and didn’t want to provide me with any info) a size 9-10 shoe, and she is a good six inches taller than I am. Well. The problem is that this sock barely makes into onto my foot. Once I get it on, it’s fine — but getting it on is a hassle. I made the large size, but it still feels pretty tight around my foot. So I was already a little worried about it. Then I made a stupid mistake on one of the lace repeats that I didn’t notice until two repeats later. Not to mention that when I put them on and really looked at them, I decided that the leg was a little bit short — even on me.

Bah.

When I really, really think about it, though — maybe a lace sock wasn’t the best choice anyway. I think probably a textured sock would be better for Lily — I think I picked the lace for selfish reasons (and it makes me a little ashamed to admit it). So rather than continue in the charade that these socks were a good choice for Lily, and working out well, I decided that I was working on my first pair of socks for me, and I will come up with something better (more suited and better executed) for Lily.

So. I have one complete Hedera sock. For me. And that frustrates me (even though it seems like it should be something to celebrate!).

Contortionist modeled shot!

Close up where you can see both my mistake in the lace pattern and my electric blue toenail polish!

The first time around, I tried to do the heel as written, but it really really didn’t work for me. I could not keep my edge stitches tight on one side, so that side grew quite a bit larger than the other side. After the second try, without seeing an obvious solution, I decided to try the sock with just a plain knit heel flap, and I was quite happy with how it turned out — it fits my foot very well. I do have a pretty significant hole where I picked up stitches for the gusset on one side, but I’m choosing not to obsess about that. It doesn’t look horrid, since the pattern has holes in it anyway. I’m trying VERY hard to let go of a few (not many, but a few) of my perfectionist tendencies.

I feel like this sock flat-out FLEW off my needles, and I’m very pleased with that. If I can decide on a pattern and get yarn for Lily’s socks before I finish the second of these, then I will abandon Hedera in favor of doing Lily’s — but if the second sock is completed anywhere near as quickly as the first was, I don’t think that will be an issue.

In other knitting news, I am still plugging away on Mother’s bag a few rows at a time (How can I knit SO much and see SO little progress? Talk about frustrating!) and I also started a pair of Fetching handwarmers for a different friend in Canada. They are fun, and talk about a quick knit! I’m using leftover yarn from Rogue (Kathmandu Aran), and I just love this yarn so it’s really a pleasure to knit these. (I will probably make a pair for myself as well once I’m done with these.) Photos coming soon!