Diagonal DONE

I feel like I’ve been knitting these socks forever.  My notes say I started on May 9, so I guess they did take about 7 weeks.  One of the curiosities of summertime library work is that there are far fewer meetings, which results in less office knitting.  I modified the pattern slightly.  Instead of beginning the heel with K20 as directed, I worked 6 more stitches in pattern and then rearranged the stitches so there were 31 on the heel needle and 34 on the instep needle (I work on 2 circs). This centers the pattern on the instep and frames it with a single purl stitch on each side.  Much better, I think!I really wanted to like this yarn, but it disappointed.  I ordered it because I swatched with Wool of the Andes in Tidepool Heather for my Must Have Cardigan and liked it a lot. I ended up using another color, but Tidepool Heather haunted me. When I saw that Stroll came in it, too, I bought it. But it let me down. This particular yarn had an acrylic-y hand that wasn’t nice to knit with. I’m not sure why. It should have been fine, just the usual 75% superwash wool 25% nylon blend.

Still, this is a serviceable pair of socks for winter.  What next?

Fiber Fun in Bedford

This past weekend, Sweetie and I had a no-kids weekend in Bedford, PA.  Bedford – in western PA not far from the MD line – got on my radar when Anne blogged about the antique spinning wheel exhibit at the National Museum of the American Coverlet.  We went there partly for that, partly for the hiking trails in Blue Knob State Park (second highest point in the state, Steven!), and partly for the peace and quiet.  It was a great choice for a weekend getaway, less than 2 hours from Gettysburg.

We got there about lunchtime, so commenced walking around downtown looking for a good place to eat.  On the way to a delightful meal at The Green Harvest Company (the kind of place that has more vegetarian options than non – a rare gem in the rural landscape), we spotted a place called Backstage Alpaca Shop.  I had a lovely chat with the owner, who also raises alpaca.  The store stocked some handspun yarn and many things made of alpaca.  We bought some short summery socks in an alpaca nylon blend (think SmartWools, but alpaca and a summer weight).  The owner also gave us some tips for dinner. 

Next we headed to FireSong Handweaving Studio.  I remembered seeing a fullpage ad for this place in the MDSW 2010 catalog and noting that it was in Bedford.  It turns out that it’s new, and only open on the weekends, which was no problem for us.  We got to chatting with the owner and she seemed so familiar to me.  Finally I noticed that some of the tags on her yarn said “Cooksville, MD.”  A-ha!  I asked her name (Diane Kelly) and remembered that she taught my 2-day intermediate spinning class at MDSW 2009.  She and her husband still spend the work week at the farm, but they are planning to retire to Bedford and run the studio fulltime.  The shop is in the old county jail, and it’s such a neat building: I didn’t take any photos inside (drat!), but it was an exquisite little shop, full of handspun and handwoven and handknit things.  Even some of the iron hooks were handmade (her husband blacksmiths).  I found the shop’s vibe to be very inspirational.  If I lived in Bedford, I’d be tempted to take a weaving class with Diane!  I bought some fiber there – this is 4 oz of 75% BFL 25% mohair roving, hand-dyed by Diane.  Pretty… After this stop, we went to the National Museum of the American Coverlet, which is a new museum (just opened in 2007).  Like FireSong, this museum is in an interesting old building: a school opened in 1859.  We got a personal tour given by the Director/Curator, Melinda Zongor. At the end, I commented how lucky we were to get such a tour, and she replied “oh, we pretty much insist upon it!”  There is some signage in the museum, but a personal guide imparts so much more information.  It was truly a pleasure to hear about coverlets and weaving from her.  Here’s one picture of an interesting wheel – it has a little trolley-like car that slides back and forth horizontally.  I’m not exactly sure how it works (oh, to have Judith MacKenzie McCuin around to explain!) but it sure looked cool: If you want to see more photos about Bedford, check out my Flickr set (doubleclick to open the full version and see all the captions).

I also came away from this museum with two more books for my to-read list:

1. Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age
2. Big Cotton: How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and Put America on the Map

I know this is a fiber-y blog, but I’ve got to leave you with one last iconic photo from Bedford:This is one of those great Route 30 Lincoln Highway roadside attractions, so many of which were built in the early 20th century.  This one was built in 1927 and was meant to beckon travelers to the adjacent gas station.  This thing has so much more character than a Sheetz sign (which is ubiquitous along route 30 today).  I just loved it and insisted that we do a big U-turn so that I could photograph it.  I googled a little and found out that Bedford isn’t the only place to have a roadside coffee pot – there are so many more to explore!  These will have to wait for another fun getaway weekend, though.

[Steven, note the Roadside America app for iPhone – looks kinda up your alley.]

Spinning Seminar 2010

I have been remiss in reporting on the lovely time Kris and I had at the 2010 Spinning Seminar at '>The Mannings back on June 12.  This is an annual event that we just discovered last year.  I’m sure the word “spinning” scared me off in earlier years.  The format is this: many demonstration/exhibition tables set up on the grass outside the shop, a lunch/snack booth run by the local church ladies, some animals on display, some local 4H groups practicing for Sheep to Shawl contests, and free time for spinning or knitting.  There is no charge (unless you buy pie, which we usually do – though this year we went with some good looking chocolate chip cookies, instead).

Here’s my Flickr slideshow of the day.  Double click to open it bigger and see the captions, too.  Enjoy!

Just in case you don’t watch all the way to the end, I want to show off Kris’s version of the Night Gulls sock.  She’s knitting this in a perfectly lovely Cascade Heritage handpaint that is such a great match for the pattern.  Doesn’t it look good so far? Now, who wants to knit dog hair?

I could use a fjord right now…

The Fjordland socks are done!  Stranded wool socks, completed just in time for steamy 90+ degree weather here in the mid-Atlantic…  Wait, if wool uniforms were good enough for the Civil War soldiers (and the reenactors who gather in my fair town), then it’s good enough for my kid’s feet, too.  Bring on the wool socks!
The name “Fjordland” makes me feel ever so slightly cooler…

I really enjoyed knitting these, and I think I might be betting better and 2-color knitting.  I’m hoping to improve my technique even more in September when I take a class called New Ways to Knit at Knitters’ Day Out.  Here is the class description:

Curious about some of those intriguing ways you see other knitters moving their fingers or flinging their yarn? In this class we will cover the basics of Continental knitting, Portuguese purling and backwards knitting. Get your hands to do things you didn't know were possible and potentially speed up your knitting in the process. $5 materials fee.

I have plenty of yarn left over, so I might consider using some of there colors in my next stranded sock project.  I’d really like to make the Bohus-Style Knee-Highs, by Chrissy Gardiner (below).  Maybe some of these colors will reappear in that fetching cuff detail.  What do you think?

I entered these socks in the Simply Socks Yarn Company's Summer of Color Contest.  Check out this line of solid sock yarn - it's really nice.  It has a 4-ply structure, so it's round and has great stitch definition.  It's bouncy and lively.  And it has a bit of nylon, which is a great thing in a sock yarn.  I got the colorcards and the colors are gorgeous.

Fjordland 1!

I finished the first sock of the Fjordland pair.  This colorwork business sure leaves a lot of ends to weave in:

But here is what you get as a reward:

I am very pleased with the way the short row heel came out – it’s my best to date.  However, a short row heel just isn’t as roomy as a flap heel, and that can be an issue for the feet in my family.  My stranded knitting is kind of tight (I’m still getting the hang of it), which makes the main fabric of these socks not so stretchy… which means the not-so-roomy heel does not help with fit.

It’ll be interesting to see if Sock #2 comes out the same size as Sock #1, or if my tension will change.

I’m anxious to cast on for #2, but that will have to wait until tomorrow…

Fjordland

When Chrissy Gardiner’s book, Toe-Up!, toured the blogs earlier this year, I was enchanted by the pattern called Fjordland.  Here’s the photo from the book:

I’ve been meaning to try some colorwork in socks for a long time now and just haven’t made the leap.  Until now, that is. 

I got the new Simply Sock Yarn color cards and started plotting.  It was so hard to decide on three colors of yarn for these.  I tried to narrow it down some by picking a light, a dark, and a medium.  In the end, here is what I got: From the left, that’s Deep Sea (really a very dark greenish-blue), Chartreuse, and Turquoise.  I thought the chartreuse looked more green when I was only looking at a small bit of yarn.  When it sits next to the turquoise, though, it looks a lot more yellow.  Maybe I should have picked Lime instead.  Oh, well!  Here’s how it’s going so far:

This sock is meant for Boy 2.  It’s smallish, but it still has 56 stitches around, and with knitting and purling in 2 different colors, it’s not a very fast knit.  My continental knitting is pretty rough – and don’t get me started on continental purling!  This is a 22-round repeat, and some of the rounds have both knitting and purling with both colors.  This is definitely a challenging pattern for me.

FO – Retro Rib Socks

Whew!  I’m not sure why this pair took me so long to finish, but finish I finally did.  These were started waaayyyy back on April 4.  All done and they will have to go into a drawer to wait until next fall to wear.  The toasty wool/mohair blend means they are far too warm to wear now.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like this fiber blend in Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn.  It is a joy to work with.

I ran into a few knots in this skein.  None were big huge knots – just a knot in one of the plies – but they were enough to make me cut the yarn and start over.  A little irritating but worth it in the end.

I modified the pattern slightly to center the pattern on the foot better – details here.

This pattern is in Favorite Socks.  I just realized that I may have knit more socks from this book than any other:

• Retro Rib Socks
• Uptown Boot Socks – twice
• Merino Lace Socks
• Padded Footlets – twice
• Mock Wave Cable Socks
• Undulating Rib Socks - twice

What’s next on the home needles?  Not sure yet.  Stay tuned.