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!

FO: Pile-able Pups

The pups are done!  I like them way better now that they’re finished.  The cuteness factor grows exponentially in the final minutes of knitting.I used the tutorials on the Mochimochi Land website to sew on the arms and legs at an angle.  Look how perky those tails are: I bought two 50 gram balls of each color yarn, and I needed both – but not much of the second ball.  I got the entire body plus 2 legs out of the first ball.  So if you have more than one but less than two balls, you might have enough.

By the way, this is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Avocado, Papaya Heather, and Chestnut. 

I’ll incorporate the leftovers in my Fabulous Fair Isle Felted Fun Bag, which has grown a bit since this last photo.  I’ll share it again soon!

Socks and “awwww”

The reading nook has someone reading in it!  And look closely: Now, closer…

Boy 1 has another new pair of plain vanilla socks.  I acquired this yarn just recently and had in mind that Boy 2 would love it.  But Boy 2 has become a bit fickle and while he liked the yarn well enough, he didn’t express much interest in the resulting socks.  I cross-examined him after turning the heel and discovered that he didn’t really care if these were his or not.  But his brother loved them, so I made them long enough to fit Boy 1’s feet.  (Their ankles are similar so I use the same CO number – 48 – for both right now.)

I only had one 50 g ball of this yarn, which would have been fine for Boy 2.  I cut it very close with Boy 1.  I had about 12 inches of yarn left.  There will be no Deck the Ball from this yarn – it’s gone!  Even if I cared about making socks identical, I wouldn’t have been able to.  I rather like the fraternal look, though.

Boy 1 is such a good sock recipient right now.  Every time he has a fitting, he says “they’re so WARM!”  And after this morning’s photo, he asked if he could wear them all day.  Of course!  It’s perfect wool sock weather here – 25 when we left for school and it shouldn’t break 32 all day.

And guess what else he has been up to?

(This is the “awwww” of the post!)

Baaaaaaad superwash merino

You’ve heard me diss 100% merino sock yarn before (especially the superwash stuff).  It just doesn’t hold up.  Merino is a short-stapled, very fine fiber.  It’s heavenly soft and takes dye beautifully, but it doesn’t withstand the rigors we put our socks through (friction, moisture, stretching over our heels).

Once I understood this more clearly, I stopped stashing superwash merino sock yarn.  But I had plenty of socks already knit from it.  So, I learned to darn – and I darn with a different yarn than the weak one from which the socks were knit.  Still, there is only so much that darning can handle.  Here are some sad socks that are bound for the Great Sock Drawer in the Sky: I darned the sock on the left – and the darned part held up – but the yarn right next to the darned section broke through (as did the other sock).  I knew it was a losing battle.Below is a pair of commercial socks, the popular SmartWool brand.  I really like SmartWool socks, but the ones that aren’t true hiking socks don’t hold up nearly as well as the hikers.  This is one such pair:See the white spots near the ball of the foot?  That is nothing but nylon.  The blue, wooly part has worn completely away.  I can feel the floor through my socks when I wear these (which is why they, too, are soon bound for the Great Sock Drawer in the Sky).

My socks normally wear most at the heel and the toe tip.  It’s unusual for a sock to wear this much on the ball of the foot.  But these did, because they aren’t reinforced there.  See how the fabric changes?  The heels and toes of these socks are made much more strongly than the ball part.  On the SmartWool hikers, the balls are much sturdier.  That’ll teach me to steer clear of non-hikers in the future, I guess.

There’s a reason that those workhorse German sock yarns like Regia and Opal contain nylon or polyamid.  If you’re anti-synthetic, try a yarn with mohair in it – I’ve heard mohair referred to as “nature’s nylon.”  It has a really long staple, is non-springy, and is very strong.

I’m sad to say goodbye to these socks – Steven and I dyed the yarn together using Kool-Aid, and they were very attractive.  I bought that bare sock yarn before I imposed the “no 100% merino sock yarn” rule. 

RIP, Kool-Aid Socks.

Puppies, Tree

Long time no post.  I’ve been dutifully cranking out puppy parts.  Here are the bodies (in the back) plus piles of feet (not quite finished):

These stockinette projects can be a little tricky.  I don’t like how the fabric rolls so dramatically.  I tried to block the bodies so they would be easier to seam, but it didn’t work so well.

Right now I’m at the point where the knitting is done, but the finishing looms.  The dogs’ faces are on and the bodies have been seamed and stuffed: Now I have to sew on legs, ears, and tails.

I’m getting a little tired of these dogs.  I’m remembering why I don’t knit toys very often.  They are Fiddly with a capital F.  I’m not afraid of seaming, but I don’t love the way these look stuffed with polyfill.  They are awfully lumpy.  I think if I had to do them again, I would buy big rectangular sponges and design the dog body to fit the sponge.  Then it would be firm and rectangular.

You may have noticed that behind the puppies is a Christmas tree!  We went to our favorite tree farm yesterday and selected a lovely Turkish fir.  We also got the StandStrait tree stand and I’m told it’s worth every penny of the $29.99 charged.  Easy breezy.Doesn’t Boy 2 look like Elmer Fudd in this hat?  I love it.

Boy, knitting toys really makes me want to knit a sweater.  Soon, my Cerisara, soon….

Progress report

I haven’t posted lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting.  Home life is a little hectic due to kitchen renovations and the impending holiday, but knitting always goes on.

I finished a super basic, plain vanilla pair of socks for Boy 1.  These were done mostly at work out of a Regia self-patterning yarn that has been in my stash FOREVER.  He loves them!  He’s been wearing them to bed every night since they were completed, and today he wore them all day.  Mama can’t argue with that. When I last bemoaned the state of my Tangled Garden socks (the pink and green ones for Pam), I mused about possible skill-building projects to do before returning to those socks.  I started one: a stranded colorwork felted bag made from leftover scrap/stash yarn.  I was inspired by this bag: This is an OLD issue of Spin-Off from before I was a subscriber – it came my way from someone whose husband brought it home from an auction (with some other stuff, I think).  This bag is cast on at the bottom (168 stitches) and worked up in the round as a straight tube until the handles are shaped.  Then stitches are picked up again at the cast-on edge and worked inward to create the bottom.  I decided that 168 was a great number, being divisible by 12, 8, 6, and 4, so I cast on 168.  I gathered all my feltable stash yarn in one place… …grabbed my copy of Color by Kristin (which has a colorwork dictionary in the back with patterns organized by number of stitches/repeat), and went for it: My two-handed knitting IS improving, and these color patterns are kind of fun.  I like how quickly they move on a 10.5 needle (of course, I’m knitting loosely because this will be felted).  I like using stash yarn.  I like how unplanned this is.  It works for me right now.

I also decided to knit those adorable Pile-able Pups that I saw at Cloverhill Yarn Shop a few weeks ago.  These will be a Christmas gift for my niece Allie, who is three-and-a-half.  I ordered some WotA (Wool of the Andes) from Knit Picks and have started the first pup.  It hasn’t escaped me that I will be able to use any puppy leftovers in the stashy bag!

I have another pair of plain vanilla socks on the needles for office knitting, but I don’t even have a photo of them right now.  Another day.

FO: Calorimetry

My friend Cinda expressed interest in having a knitted headband, and you know what that means…  pattern links were sent, a pattern was chosen, yarn was bought… and Calorimetry was born.  This free Knitty.com pattern is shaped with short rows and secured with a button.  Don’t you love how this is shaped like a set of big juicy lips?  If it was knit in red instead of charcoal grey, it would be even smoochier! The designer urges knitters to choose a springy yarn that will bounce back after being stretched.  This yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, a blend of merino, microfibre, and cashmere.  It is deliciously soft, very smooth (it would look sooooo great in cables), and super sproingy.  See?

I hope Cinda likes this – I’ll try to get a photo of her wearing it.  If I make this again (for S1, perhaps), I’ll probably make it narrower.  It’s a bit bonnet-y at its current size.