Christmas Cheer

Longish-time readers will recall that I got pretty excited about the Deck the Balls ornament pattern in late 2008.I got the pattern for Christmas, laid in a supply of plastic balls (on sale, of course!), and started knitting them in January 2009.  My plan was to knit them throughout the year and have enough to give as gifts (coworkers, friends) for Christmas 2009.  Which I did.

For 2010, I pledged to knit a Deck the Ball with leftover sock yarn after each pair of socks I completed.  This plan sort of worked… for a few months.  Then I just got tired of balls and stopped.  But I have a half dozen balls to show for it:What was it with me and greyish socks in early 2010? 

In other news, did you enter the Ready Set Knit 200th episode contest?  I love this podcast and listen to it every week.  Steve and Kathy Elkins (owners of WEBS, America’s Yarn Store in Northhampton, MA) talk about yarn yarn yarn.  I can’t remember how I found out about it, but I’ve been listening for years.  It was one of the first knitting podcasts I followed, and it’s still going strong.  They had a huge giveaway to celebrate their 200th, and I won a 2011 Interweave Knits calendar!I’ve had the Spin-Off wall calendar before (and it’s gorgeous), but never the Knits one. The inspiration wall-style photos are so inspiring.  Just peek at the colorwork on the January page: And February goes all cable-y:A beautiful calendar is a gift that keeps on giving all year long. 

If you’re not already a Ready Set Knit listener, here’s why you should start tuning in (or download some back episodes over the holiday break):

1. Steve talks about new yarns.  This is a great way to keep up with, well, new yarns!  The yarns may or may not be available at your LYS, but at least you know they’re out there.  He covers so many that it’s easy to identify trends.
2. Steve talks about closeout yarns.  These are discontinued lines, or discontinued colors, and they are all discounted.  Find ‘em on the WEBS website!
3. Kathy interviews tons of designers, authors, and other fiber-y people.  I really enjoy listening to these segments and getting to know the knitting celebrities a bit better.
4. There are also Knitalongs.  I haven’t done one of these (yet), but I still enjoy listening to discussions about technique.  I frequently learn something that improves my knitting.
5. Let’s not forget to mention Valley Yarns, WEBS’ own line.  I’ve knit with a couple of them and they’re great!  On the last podcast, they introduced the latest one: Charlemont.  It is a fingering weight blend of superwash merino, silk, and polyamid.  At $12.99 for a 100 gram hank, Charlemont is a great deal for a pair of luxury socks.  And look at the range of colors.  I can’t wait to try Whipple Blue – dreamy.  Deep Sea is also right up my alley.

Thanks so much, Steve and Kathy, for the calendar AND the podcast!  See you at Sock Summit 2011!

Progress report: needs work

I don’t know how grades were reported where you went to school, but my junior high and high school years were divided into six 6-week marking periods.  We also got progress reports sent home in the middle of each 6-week unit if we weren’t doing so well.  I feel like if I were in knitting school, I’d be getting one of those reports this term.

On the one hand, my office sock is zooming along okay.  I finished the first one in a week: I just put a stitch dictionary stitch pattern on my standard sock to get this.  It worked great.  I even adjusted the slip stitch pattern on the heel flap to flow more seamlessly out of the cuff pattern (I did slip-slip-knit rather than slip-knit):These will be comfortable socks that will go with a lot of things.

Once I stopped bringing this project home to work on in the evenings, though, things went south.  I purposely left it at work because I wanted to get started on another home sock.  And it’s not like I had to think really hard about what to knit next.  I had 8 more projects lined up in my personal sock club basket.  first, I grabbed the Cauchy pattern by Cookie A and some beautiful semisolid yellow BFL sock yarn I got at Sock Summit.

Two issues arose:

1. This sock has a picot edge, though the pattern encourages the knitter to substitute a 1x1 or 2x2 rib for a different look.  I asked S1 which she preferred, sure that she wouldn’t want the picot (it is a bit girly).  But she said “Have you ever done a picot cuff before? No? Then do that!”  Okay.  But that edge begins with a provisional cast-on that I haven’t done before, and I couldn’t get it started while watching a subtitled movie.  I put it off a few days.  When I finally was ready, I still couldn’t figure out the cast-on – even when I turned the TV off.  Foiled!  I guess I need to check YouTube for help.
2. So I switched to 2x2 rib just to get out of the starting gate.  But… I’m certain this sock will be too narrow.  It calls for only 60 stitches to be cast-on.  Normally that’s fine.  60, 64, something like that… but this BFL base just seems a bit skinnier than other sock yarn.  I stopped about 3 rounds in.

The next day, I was determined to begin another sock.  I went back to the basket to see which yarn was wound (only 4 or 5 yarns are wound up at this point).  I decided to work on Nancy Bush’s Little Child’s Sock in my Toots LeBlanc Jacob/Alpaca/Mohair.  A serious yarn and a serious pattern.  This time, I had the opposite issue.  Nancy’s sock calls for 72 stitches to be cast on over a doubled strand of yarn (you break the second strand after the cast-on and continue with just one).  Even though I knit on a 2.0mm needle, this sock looks WAY WAY too big.  I slipped it on over my ankle, which was shod in a thick sock already, and it was still too big.  Rrrrrrrrrip.  I need to look at the pattern more closely to see if I can size it down from 72 stitches to something more like 64.

Here are the 3 yarns together:The top yarn is the charcoal merino that I’m using with great success for the Yum Yum Waffle Socks.  The yellow is the skinny BFL.  The bottom is the Toots blend, which seems a little heftier than typical sock yarn.  Maybe it’s just the weight.  It is a heavy yarn – 450 yards in 7 oz (normally I would expect that yardage in about 4 oz).

And then I found a glob of some sticky sap-like substance in the bottom of my knitting bag.  It didn’t befoul any yarn, but it was close.  I spent quite a bit of time cleaning that up.  How in the world did it get in there? 

So that’s my story.

I finished the Night Gulls socks a while back but haven’t gotten good photos yet.  I’ll report back.

Did you get your WEBS 36th Anniversary Sale mailing?  I have my eye on the Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and Classic Elite Alpaca Sock, perhaps in some solids/heathers for some colorwork socks.  Maybe.  Sale begins April 1.

I have registered for some classes at MDSW but am not yet sure which ones I got into.  The registration is pretty retro.  You snail mail in a form with a separate check written for each class.  Then they mail the checks back to you for classes you didn’t get into.

This is long enough!  If you have suggestions to get me out of my knitting hole, do send them along.

Color by Kristin – book review

This beautiful book was a birthday gift from Kristina.  The cover art immediately pulled me in, and there’s more of this gorgeous swatch board on the endpapers.  (Can you tell I have a thing for endpapers?  I guess I’ve always liked them, but when a reader made a big deal out of them at a children’s storytime at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, I was hooked.  I always talk about endpapers when I read with children now.  They are so worthy of being talked about!)

One thing that this book really has going for it is that it’s more than a pattern book.  In the introduction, “A Life in Color,” Kristin talks about her background in art, craft, and fashion and describes the path that let to her current life, Getting Stitched on the Farm.  Then she launches into a color primer, complete with a color wheel made of fun pom poms.  All her color lessons are illustrated with full color swatches that jump off the page.  A chapter about Fair Isle includes a brief historical overview as well as technical instruction about how to hold/twist/carry yarn, work in the round, read charts, and steek.  She includes a practice project at the end of this section. Finally, she offers a chapter about how to design Fair Isle stitch patterns.  I read these first 33 pages with great interest and felt empowered to chart a new, nearly patternless course upon completing them!

But wait, don’t chuck all your patterns yet, because Kristin has 22 of them in the book.  As expected, these gloves, hats, blankets, sweaters, and scarves are a riot of color – no project calls for less than 4 colors.  The gorgeous photographs pulled me in right away.  I found myself focusing in turn on color combinations, edge treatments, and embroidery embellishments, thinking toward mixing and matching some of the things I saw pictured.  I guess I got where Kristin was going with the book, because following the pattern section is a great reference called “Designer Sourcebook” which encourages you to customize patterns by substituting edges and chart patterns.  She even includes basic information about seaming (so you don’t have to pull another reference book off your shelf) and embroidery stitches (which you may not have in your knitting library).

Everything in the book is knit from Kristin’s own yarn line, Julia.  Julia is a blend of 50% wool, 25% alpaca, and 25% mohair, and it comes in a rich palette of 33 solid colors.  This is a special yarn, and Kristin knits with nothing else.  I used it for a hat once and can vouch that it has incredible drape and luster, and rich, saturated color.  I wish I had the yarn budget to make this my basic worsted yarn for all projects!  My LYS, The Mannings, started carrying Julia a year or so ago, so I have the luxury of seeing it before buying.  Reading this book reminds me that I would like to knit with Julia again.  Hmmm, what will my next Julia project be?

If your LYS doesn’t stock Julia, you can turn to WEBS (America’s Yarn Store!).  They just began carrying it.  Hear an interview with Kristin on a recent episode of the WEBS podcast, Ready Set Knit.  If I had gotten this post out in a more timely manner, I would have directed you to a contest to win a copy of this book and some enough Julia to knit a project, but I didn’t.  Alas.  Maybe you can just cross your fingers and hope that I win!