zealot

Today has been one of those days when nothing gets done, despite my best intentions.  The university makes me tense: so many people, nowhere to sit, too much coffee.  All that German, opportunities to make a complete fool of myself lurk around every corner.  And this morning I almost missed the bus because I was buying yarn.

On a cheerier note, I’ve been knitting socks with all of the zeal of the converted.  Turns out the magic loop in combination with a 3.25mm needle (really, I should loosen up) makes me an unstoppable, addicted sock knitter.

One Monkey:

regia silk (054)

And one Jaywalker in progress:

regia africa color (4051)

I was up way too late working on the Jaywalker (Doh.  Remember, time management.).  Now I think I need a nap.

some progress

Here’s my Monkey, just flying along:

The heel is turned and all appears well. Of course, I managed to pick up one extra stitch on each side of the gusset, but I am resigned to the fact that I will probably never ever ever manage to pick up the correct number of stitches, no matter the situation. The heel flap looks a bit long to me (I really *did* knit the correct number of rows, eventually) but since I don’t usually 1) knit socks or 2) knit socks with heel flaps I’m reserving judgment. Since they’re a gift, I’ll just have to wait and see.

If I make another pair of Monkeys, though, I think I’ll use a more substantial flap (see Cara’s, for instance), as I don’t see the plain stockinette wearing well.  All in all, I’m very pleased with the progress on the socks, not to mention the lovely pattern itself. I had to fix a few minor errors (counting is hard); rather, errors that would have been minor had I recognized them, say, 30 rows earlier. Lots of laddering.

I did also pick up just a teeny-tiny bit of yarn.

I know, what was I thinking? Well, actually, something like this.

And that’s all I have to say for myself. It’s one of those cold, grey, cloudy days around here where staying inside seems like the best idea. So I have.

more hats

I finally finished EZ’s very warm hat the third.  This one seemed to take a bit longer, something about work to do, blah, blah, blah.

dark earth

pearl

Pattern details here.  In a side note, according to Ravelry, the pattern is to be found in EZ’s Knitting Around, not Knitting Workshop.  So I might be wrong there.

I also started my first Monkey last night.

Regia Silk (color 054), 3.25 mm  KnitPicks circs

I was initially intimidated by the pattern, but once I started knitting it was all quite intuitive and easy to follow.  They’re fun to knit and the Regia Silk is great to work with.  I’m going to have to find a way to loosen up my tension, though.  My hands hurt after just the cuff and one and a half pattern repeats.

Now it is time to find some coffee.

is this thing on?

snore.

A comparatively busy day around here at chez do-nothing-and-worry-a-lot.  I finally updated my stash over at Ravelry — which necessitated many pictures and reading of labels.  And that’s only for my German stash.  But now I feel very organized.

I also took some progress pictures of the very warm hat #3.  After having fixed a minor snafu without ripping back, just laddering some stitches and exchanging colors, I was feeling pretty happy with my progress.

yep, my stranded knitting still needs some improvement

So was Alice.  This is how the photo session ended.

no, really, there’s a hat under all that fur

And speaking of the feline princess, I met the cat sitter today.  Wow.  I cannot speak German anymore.  I really need to meet some people and talk to them.  CSI is great — don’t get me wrong — but it’s in English.  Not so helpful.

Sure, I can read German with some proficiency (although that is also a bit shakier than it used to be) but everyday communication — especially on topics having to do with the care and feeding of finicky feline companions, not to mention regular old social niceties — is tough.  I really hate feeling incoherent and inarticulate.  Despite my discomfiture, it seems that all pressing cat-sitting issues were addressed.  And Alice didn’t hide under the bed, even if I almost did …

all about hats.

First off, thanks so much for all of the lovely sock comments.  It’s so nice to hear what people think!  (Especially when they’re saying complimentary things.)  The second sock is still only a twinkle in my eye, but I have been working on some very warm hats.

Number one is finished:

frost gray

black

pattern: EZ very warm hat (available in The Opinionated Knitter and Knitting Workshop)
yarn: malabrigo worsted, black and frost gray
needles: #9 US circs. (magic loop)

I just hope it isn’t too small. 

When working with the frost gray I hadn’t realized just how used to the variegation I had become; the black was a bit of a shock: it looked so flat somehow.   Overall, though, I think the two colors work together well.  (Not that one can really go wrong with gray and black.)   And I’m still overly proud of my self-designed motif (Wow.  Circles.  Who would have thought of that?!) even if the placement is way too high on the hat.  Oh well.  My stranded knitting technique does not bear up to prolonged scrutiny, anyway.  This way it is difficult to see, so high up on the crown. 

Number two is underway:

pretty.

For this hat I’m using more malabrigo worsted in dark earth (140) and pearl (36) in addition to an actual charted motif, found here (through Ashley).  Again, the stranded knitting is not so delicious.  This is the second attempt; I decided to frog the entire motif after I discovered two lone out-of-place stitches.  Since it’s a gift, I wanted it to look as nice as possible.  And while I can’t improve my technique overnight, I can at least knit the chart correctly.

I do apologize for an extremely boring post, but it’s all hats around here.

I did, however, find out about a knitting evening/course at the local yarn store.  Every other Thursday.  I’m going to see about picking up continental knitting.  And better German knitting vocabulary.   

snow?!

It’s snowing here today.  I’ve never experienced snow in November.  That I remember, anyway.  The flurries aren’t sticking, but they are definitely being blown horizontal by the wind.  I have revised my plans for taking a walk downtown. 

Snow is certainly good for the knitting mojo.  All I can think of is wooly, toasty socks, hats, scarves, gloves, sweaters …

But especially, very warm hats.

half of a very warm hat.  merely a warm hat.

The progress has kind of sneaked up on me.   I charted out the motif myself (of which I am inordinently proud considering its relative simplicity) after discovering — much to my dismay and consternation — that the original EZ motif (seen here) requires an eight-stitch repeat, not seven-stitch, as memory dictated.  Oh well.  After much over-tired sketching and a disastrous first design, I eventually came up with this after a good night’s sleep.

Look what else I’ve got:

no, they’re not upside down.  book spines just read the other way here.

Every once in a while, I again prove to myself that I really *am* dorky enough to be in graduate school.  C’mon!  dtv-Atlases rule!  As do Schnellkurse … with pictures!

Look at this:

okay, the ubiquitous blurry obviates *actual* looking

It’s a graph/schemata/data thing about Hölderlin!  Crazy!

Don’t even get me started on visual dictionaries.

single sock, M, seeks mate for LTR.

Here’s sock, the first:

yarn: Lana Grossa Mega Boots Stretch (507)
needles: KnitPicks classic circs (3mm)
pattern: universal toe-up sock formula with 2×2 ribbing on foot and leg; used Judy’s magic cast-on and Misocrafty’s short row heel
final weight: 42g (56g remain); needles weigh: ~6g

For extra stretchiness and finish (they are a gift, after all) I attempted a tubular bind off.  An inch or so of 1×1 ribbing at the top and voila!:

There appear to be lots of tutorials available; I followed this one by Savannahchick: lots of pictures, easy to follow.  This was my first attempt at a tubular bind off and my version isn’t all that pretty and definitely not perfect, but overall I’m happy with the results.  The bind off is very elastic and looks great (if not on this sock, then in an abstract kind of way); after I got the hang of the pattern, it wasn’t hard to remember.  More practice is definitely called for, though.  Good thing I have another sock to knit.

But instead of casting on for that, I started something a bit more mindless:

An EZ very warm hat in yummy soft malabrigo, a lovely color called pearl gray (606).  It’s been a while since I’ve used malabrigo (Sockapalooza, to be exact) and it is so everything I think a yarn should be.  Soft and warm, beautiful to knit and more beautiful to look at.  The hat is coming along quite quickly, though I do foresee a bit of a hiatus while I try and figure out the colorwork pattern I want to use.  But that should be fun, non?

Socktober in November

Some progress?

a heel!

After four — yes, four — tries, I finally got an acceptable heel.  I don’t know what happened.  It just didn’t work out.  But now I have a lovely short row heel without holes thanks to misocrafy.  I’m glad I didn’t frog the whole thing after all.

a leg!

The sock is coming right along.  I’m even starting to contemplate binding off methods. 

I’ve been weighing both the sock and the skein (and the needles, of course) with maniac frequency and, yes, I will have enough yarn.  Also, in odd news, my other skein of Lana Gross Mega Boots Stretch (in brown) is 150g, not 100g.  I think I paid the same amount for both skeins, despite the 50g difference — or, rather the 45g difference (thank you Mr. Kitchen Scale).

And that’s all I have to report.  Going to the library definitely interferes with my knitting time.

the 39 steps

(Just another Hitchcock movie I haven’t watched, but it fits so well.)

Never have 39 rows of knitting made me so happy.

no longer the hairy scourge of my stash

Two pattern repeats, three increase rows, no disasters.  I am beginning to believe that this might actually turn into a sweater.  Natch, a wrap sweater with eyelets.  Ravelry was really what brought me around to the idea that this pattern might not actually be cursed: just look at the evidence.  Many people have made a wearable and attractive garment using this pattern, even this yarn.  Anna’s version got me thinking that I would make another attempt (the fourth, perhaps? — way back in May), ravelry pushed me over the edge.

In not-so-great news, I frogged another heel.  This time, I managed to lose a stitch somehow, somewhere in the picking-up process.

why is this so difficult?

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with this proto-sock.  Maybe the third time really is the charm. 

Alice didn’t have any trouble deciding: