Be it ever so humble...

My knitting is determined to keep me humble. It seems obvious now, but sitting in the waiting room at the dermatologist's office I decided it was time to start decreasing for the second toe. I was a little surprised that I was that far along, but started my decreasing. I was making great progress, and was working on what else I would wear with my wonderful socks for casual Friday's, because I would certainly finish tonight. Everyone would be so impressed with my amazing socks. The wait was really long, so I finished all the toe decreases, then needed to compare with the first sock to see if I had knit another round after finishing the decreases, before grafting the toes.


"That's odd," I thought. "The pattern isn't the same!" The lightbulb went on, and I swore softly - it was a doctor's office. I had just knit a sock for a partial-foot amputee. Ripped back to the gray line which marked where the decreases started. I had time to put everything back together while sitting there, paper gown on, opening to the back, before the exam. No need to go into how thorough the skin cancer check is - even spots never exposed to the sun. I guess I'll wear regular socks tomorrow.

No second sock syndrome here 

Evil sewing machine

Cotton towels - eventually to be hemmed. I basted the ends before removing from the loom, then tried to zigzag along the edge so I can turn the ends under and hem, and not worry about the warp threads. Well, the sewing machine decided to create knots rather than seams, and now I'm not sure what to do. At least, with the towels. Next on the loom is the 8/2 black tencel, for a scarf, or two. There are several possibilities for the weft - the chinchilla yarn from Lamb's, or possibly some mohair. It should be prettier than the towels.


March WIP

Second, and third, times a charm

I've taken the plunge, and started knitting a sock. Well, hopefully a pair of socks. First there was the practice sock. Then, I started a real sock. Did the swatch on the DPNs, to make sure they didn't affect the gauge. Everything looked good, so I got started. Put my little sock in my new Jordana Paige bag, and knit while waiting for the bus with Taylor, knit while waiting for Jackie to get out of play practice, knit at the youth group dessert eating meeting. Made great progress. Got the the heel flap, and tried it on. Just a bit huge. If there was any chance of Jeff wearing these socks, I would have kept going. But not these colors. So, ripped it out, all six inches of sock, and started over with an inch less of circumference. I'll try it on soon, and see how it goes.

Practice and real socks

Along with the Jordana Paige bag, I received my cotton yarn - a nice off-white, and the wrong pattern! Very funky, one-shoulder sleeveless tops and dresses, that Jackie and I would never wear. WEBS is great, and sent out the correct one, while we've mailed back the wrong one. Hopefully that will arrive soon, so I can have the sweater and sock for my trip to Lafayette, Indiana. If I have to spend all that time traveling, I want to knit on the way.

Time for more projects

Well, the camera is AWOL, so no updates on current projects. I made a practice sock, from the knitty.com web site instructions, and it actually turned out like the picture:















It's now a dog toy, courtesy of Kiffy, not unexpected since we tried the baby sock on her front paw.

Next FO is the cotton/linen scarf. Since last time, I discovered that it was too wide, and thus too short. The new version is one repeat of the rib, instead of two, and is just long enough. It's currently in the drying stage of blocking. Note to self: insert picture here.

WIP - One towel complete on the loom, and the second is 1/3 complete.

On to new projects - a real pair of socks, using Sockotta in a white/purple/dark green/dark pink colorway. Casting on in just minutes.

Big shopping spree at WEBS:
They haven't yet sold out of the Jordana Paige knitter's purse, so I ordered that in red:














And this pattern and the yarn for it:


























Last but not least, some 8/2 Tencel in black for the loom. It's time to move on from the cotton dishtowels. I don't know what to use as weft, but it's the first step.

Felting is easy?

Lots of post-Olympic activity, now that all available free time hasn't been sucked up into the KO scarf and RPMS scarf.

The big excitement for the day was trying to felt the swatch for the red mohair. I'm not thrilled with the pattern yet, but figured it was good to test on. It felted far more quickly and solidly than expected - yielding a slightly obscene felted "thing". We put the swatch in a net bag, and threw it in the washing machine with 2 pairs of jeans. Ended up using the kitchen tongs to fish the bag out of the soapy water. We didn't check closely enough after 5 minutes, and let it go for a little longer. I'm anxious to try again, but don't want to sacrifice the mohair to be a drink coaster.

Before:














After:












It took several tries, but I finally decided how to knit up the cotton/linen I picked up at the Lamb's Yarn Shop last day in business sale. Lacy patterns didn't show at all, so I picked a design from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge.












Jackie finished the scarf for Emily, who is delighted with it. She tried to get it while still on the needles; Jackie had to explain "unintentional frogging" to her.


Last but not least, the Rigid Heddle Loom is all warped for another try at kitchen towels. Given the thickness of the Peaches 'n' Cream yarn, it is set up for 8 EPI on the 10-dent heddle; I skipped one dent out of every five. This time I'll weave half an inch of #10 crochet yarn to give me something to hem, then start with the white and alternate with the variegated.