Monthly Archives: June 2010

Ok, now I am getting the hang of it.

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Ok, the Roll in the Hay socks are progressing nicely.  I have got the hang of the pattern!  Here is what happens to me a lot in knitting.  What at first seems almost impossibly hard to figure out next becomes very simple.   I guess maybe that’s life in general huh!  So I am just going right along on my sock.  Basically it’s a k2 p2 rib with these triangles thrown in for good measure!

Here is something else I am excited about.  Stitch London teamed up with London’s Science Museum  for this Who am I? project.  Crafters are encouraged to knit, crochet or sew a mini version of themselves.  Once complete, I am supposed to send it to London where it will be part of an exhibit in the museum.  You can read more about it at: http://www.stitchldn.com/stitchyourself.html

So,  I finished mine this morning.  It’s time for her grand unveiling.  I have created “Frazzled Hot Sweating Arkansas Summer Christina”.  She is wearing her standard t-shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks.  Hair styling is an impossibility, so she has made an attempt to pull it back into a ponytail.

Now I have to mail her to London.  This makes me kind of sad.  However,  I bet it is lots lots cooler in London and not as humid.  She’ll probably be very happy that I sent her!

Here she is! (please don’t make fun of her funny left arm.  She’s really sensitive about it.)

Rippppit. Ripppppppit

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Yep.  Frogged ’em.  I still like the feel of bamboo sock yarn, but this yarn is not meant for a pattern where there is so much texture and stitch definition.  So I have begun again.  I had some Knit Picks Gloss in Burgundy in my small stash.   It is 70% wool and 30% silk.  Going to try that.

I had reached a row in my pattern that I could just not figure out.  I was befuddled.  Thank goodness for Ravelry.  I messaged the author of the pattern. (Her name is Gina House, and she is very helpful and friendly!)  She referred me to a forum where they had been discussing errata for the pattern and in particular, this row!  I can imagine it would be really frustrating to see errors in  your pattern after publish.  But thank goodness for ravelry.  Yeah, said that already.

If you knit this pattern, watch out for row 10.  I will be happy to point you to the errata for it.  There is also errata for the transition row.  I am not there yet so I have no idea what it is about.  However, here’s the cool thing that happens in row 10.   You slip 10 stitches and pass the first one over the other 9.  It is not easy to do, but creates that look of a sheaf of wheat.  Cool huh!  That part I was able to figure out, it was the rest of the row that I was having trouble with.

Luckily I am a “process” knitter instead of a “product” knitter.  So starting over again is of no consequence to me.  Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that.   But I really minded a lot less than I thought I might.  It was good to test out the bamboo, and now I’ll see how this knitpicks knits up!

And now to Davey.  He is sick.  He had almost a 103 last night.  Now this morning it is back up to 102.  Poor thing.  He’s watching shows and is tucked into his little fold out sofa thing.  Pillow and little blanket and his “tas” (pacifiers) are all he wants at the moment.

We had some fun family/friend plans for the weekend – more this weekend than usual – but it happens. Here’s Davey a few days ago feeling great!  Here’s  hoping he will be back to this in a day or so!

Friday and my pattern begins to emerge

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We just drove in from Texarkana this morning.  We spent the night there last night with Davey’s Pa.  Davey just loves to play with his Pa, and they had a great time.  We went to Chick Fil-A and played in the play area there.  Later we went to the park, where Davey played with several kids. (They are all friends to him.  There are no children who are strangers to him!)  The highlight (maybe for me the most!) was feeding the ducks.  We fed them an entire loaf of bread.  These ducks were practiced in the art of getting bread.  Many of them could catch every bite you threw to them in mid-air!  We’d look up and see more ducks running to us just as fast as they could waddle.  That was a funny sight!  Davey loved it.

I didn’t knit much on my sock, as I have to concentrate  as I get used to the pattern which is now just beginning to emerge:

I plan to work on it more this afternoon.  Should probably be doing that while Davey is taking his nap.  He fell asleep on the drive home.  Even let me carry him in without really waking up.  I put him on the couch and he is sleeping away.  So much playtime and fun just wore him out!

Davey with his Daddy and Pa.  We were getting ready to leave.  He was pretty tired!

Modified Wheat Pattern

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Modified Wheat Pattern – it’s fun!  The pattern intimidated me a little bit at first.  I have to pay attention, but throughout the row you always settle back to 12 stitches that match up with your k2 p2 rib, so you can always figure out where you are.  There is a chart too, but I am a chart chicken.  I write out my rows on notecards to help me focus on one row at a time.  That helps me immensely.

And bamboo.  I think bamboo is just the coolest.  Literally!  When I pick up a ball of bamboo yarn, it always feels cool to the touch.  It is knitting up so pretty so far, and I don’t have any problems or worries about splitting.

We went walking last night on a trail near our house.  It’s a paved trail in town, but there are sections of it lined with bamboo.  I would love to learn about how it gets from pretty green stalks of bamboo, to the cool yarn with which I knit.

And now a little about Davey.  We got him some new googles to wear to the water park.  He loves them.  The first photo is a little blurry, but I wanted to show how he always wants to hold his mouth as he gets used to his new goggles.  I included a profile pic as well!

Casting On: A Roll in the Hay

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Ok.  I am ready to cast on for my first pair of socks.  From page 28,  “These are so named for their attractive wheat sheaves stitch pattern. ”   My favorite dpns are the Knit Picks Harmony needles.  They are so smooth and pretty, and they just feel good in my hands.  So needles are ready to go.  I chose some yarn in my stash, because if at all possible, I want to use yarn from my stash.  Although I am not sure that I have enough sock yarn to even be throwing around a word like stash, but I do think I have yarn that will work for this.  That would be Kertzer’s On Your Toes Bamboo in a really light green.  I think it is called “Rainforest Dew”.  That does not conjure images of  wheat sheaves, but let’s see how it goes.

I have not tried to knit socks with bamboo before.  I hear it can be splitty, but I did knit a scarf earlier this year from bamboo, and I had no problems with that.

Those are the details.  Now to cast on 68 stitches.  I can handle that.  I always find myself defaulting to the long tail cast on.  I need to challenge myself to use different cast ons, but I figure I have lots of time for that!  I can also deal with the k2p2 rib pattern.   It’s the modified wheat sheaves pattern which follows which may require me to lock myself in a small room with no stimuli so that I can concentrate on this pattern!

I’ll get back to you to share how it goes.  Oh and the yarn!

And now about Davey:  He had a wonderful time in Texarkana yesterday.  He went to to Chuck E Cheese, where he played lots of games with his Pa.  We went to the park, although it was just too hot to stay for too long.  We went to Target and Davey wandered the toy aisles for an hour.  He is really not that interested in actually buying any toys, he just really likes checking them all out and playing there.  We picked out a few things though.   He got “Don’t Spill the Beans”, but he instead plays a game called “Please do Spill the Beans just as Fast as You Can”!

Joy of Sox!

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It’s Tuesday morning, and we are getting ready to go see Pa in Texarkana.  It’s hot here in Arkansas.  Hot and humid.  My hair is just barely long enough for a stubby ponytail.  It’s not glamorous, but it keeps the hair off my neck somewhat!  (except for all the straggly pieces hanging down.)

I am considering a new project.  It might be kind of crazy!  I checked out the knitting book The Joy of Sox by Linda Kopp last week.  I love it.  There are the best sock patterns, and there are such a variety of them.  I am thinking about knitting my way through the book.  I could just learn a ton about all different kinds of socks, and I like nearly every pattern.  The thought of taking some of them on is kind of scaring me, but the challenge would be great!

And no blog post would be complete without mention of Davey.  He’s excited to go to Texarkana.  Chuck E Cheese here we come.  I am taking my knitting!