random threads

I have not been knitting any major projects in January and February–just the plethora of hats, in preemie and adult sizes. Another charity project I’m supporting is 6″ squares which we will join into blankets at the Baskets of Yarn retreat (in 9 days!).  I have two swatch squares finished, and one more on the needles. I’m using up leftovers I had of dishcloth cottons.

The stitch patterns are a basic knit-purl checkerboard:

The same Honeycomb Cable as used in my Honeycomb Beret pattern:

And the one on the needles now is the Bee Stitch Cloth from Knitting Pattern Central.com :

Yeah, I know it is Friday, and Friday is when I’m supposed to blog about things I’ve Finished.  Well, nothing has been finished lately.  It’s all about work in progress.  Since I missed posting on WIP Wednesday, let’s just pretend today is Wednesday, and here is my latest new WIP.

I mentioned I’m going to teach my Toe-Up sock class, (Toe-Up, Two-at-a-Time) at the Winter Retreat held by my LYS, Baskets of Yarn in March at Applachian State in Boone, NC. Well, in this format, the class will be two two-hour sessions over a 3 day period.  Normally I teach this class in two sessions separated by two weeks.  That gives the students enough time to finish the toe and knit the foot and gusset so they come to class ready to learn how to turn the heel and knit the heel flap.  Then I do a demo on the stretchy bind off I use.

Well, at the retreat, the students won’t have that much spare time to knit two socks up to the heel in fingering weight yarn.  So Betsey suggested either have them knit a baby sock or a worsted weight sock plus they will get the pattern and yarn for knitting a pair out of fingering weight sock yarn. I decided a worsted-weight sock would be more useful for people–what if they don’t have a need for baby socks for friends or family?

So I am experimenting with some worsted weight yarns and tinkering with my basic toe-up pattern to determine the right stitch counts/pattern numbers etc.  My first sample socks are being knit with Berroco Geode, which is a new yarn from Berroco this fall,  It is 50% wool and 50% acrylic, and while it is listed as a ‘plied’ yarn, I’d say it is VERY loosely plied, such that it resembles a single ply yarn.  It is pretty fuzzy, and you know, I am really developing a dis-taste for fuzzy yarns.  I’ve had to frog several times and those hairs cling to each other, fighting the frogging.

I’m knitting these on size US 6 Addi Lace needles, and getting 5 stitches per inch (the gauge on the ball band, despite the recommended needle size being 7 to 9 US sizes.  If I were to use this yarn again, I’d go down at least a needle size to get a tighter gauge for socks.

I fear this yarn won’t wear well in a sock.  I do love the tweediness and the long color repeats of the yarn.  100 gms (2 balls) of this yarn will make 2 socks, snuggly fitting my size 9 ladies’ feet. So I think I’ll move onto my next yarn candidate for the worsted-weight socks, which is 100% wool and a usual plied yarn. More on that in the future.

For the stitch pattern in these socks, I did a slipped rib pattern with k3,p2 repeat row alternated with slip 1, k1, slip 1, p2 on every other row. It looks OK when spread out over a foot.  Can’t see it very well without the foot to stretch it out.

Here’s the link to my Ravelry project page:

Tiger’s Eye Socks

Still being worked on actively, my Rainbow Socks knit from hand-dyed by me sock blank, and the Two Musketeers Sweater–both front and back have been blocked, and dried (took about 3 days each!) so next step is to finish the shoulder seams with a 3-needle bindoff.  Also, I need to block the sleeves and sew on the neck band to the front/back so I can knit the center medallion.

This week, I’ve been concentrating my knitting efforts on getting socks to the right stages so I can demonstrate turning the heel and binding off for my Toe Up, Two-at-a-Time class at Baskets of Yarn on October 4th and 18th. So, I have my Roman Rib socks all the way to the 1 inch of plain ribbing at the top, ready to be bound off. I do like this stitch pattern quite well. Easy to do and very cushy!

My Chain Rib socks in hot Regia Crazy Colors are now ready for the heel–the foot gusset is done. This stitch pattern is a bit different: every 4th row you knit in the stitch 3 rows below and drop all the subsequent stitches. It condenses the fabric, such that the sole of the foot is now longer than the top of the foot, even tho’ they have the same number of rows. I think it will fit and wear fine, tho’.
Next, I have been knitting a bit more on my dyed sock blank socks, which I am calling my Rainbow Socks.  This stitch pattern is an alternating 1×1 rib, which I don’t like as well as the Roman Rib. No cush-factor, and the 1×1 rib doesn’t pull in/stretch out very much in width. The colors are pretty and it is interesting to see how the flat color design is represented when knit circularly. First at the toe, there were a lot of green and purple stripes, and now it is mostly orange/yellow with a stripe of purple here or there. Next color section should transition into mostly blues and greens.

Lastly, I have started blocking the Two Musketeers sweater (Athos/Aramis by Norah Gaughan). I always get to this point in garment construction where I need an extra push to complete the garment because I am afraid my work will all be wasted due to poor fit. We’ll see. After soaking and spreading out to block it, the sweater front seems shorter in length and not quite as wide as I thought it would be. I did compare the width to a tank that fits me and the size looks good there, but I do believe I will regret not adding more length. Of course, if the linen/rayon yarn (Berroco Linen Jeans) droops the way cotton does, it may ‘grow’ in wearing to the length I want. Cleo is watching the blocking carefully for any unexpected movements. Smart girl, she knows not to sit on the knitting when it is damp! I removed the temptation from her today while it finishes drying while I am at work and she is unsupervised…

Much progress has been made on the Two Musketeers sweater–I finished the front on Sunday! I have been knitting the neck edging (it is knit as a separate strip and then SEWN! to the neckline.  Not exactly sure how to do that–whip stitch on the wrong side, mattress stitch or ?  I think have sufficient length of the edging (26″) to go around the neck, so the next step is blocking the front and back so I can three-needle bind off the shoulder seams before I sew on the edging.  Then the medallion in the center front is knit. No pics of the finished front yet–it has been raining for two days and a sweater front is too big to photograph in the house. However, I was able to photograph the edging for you. It is similar, but a bit narrower than the sleeves’ edging.

Meanwhile, I am teaching Toe Up socks-two-at-a-time in October again at Baskets of Yarn, so I need to get some sock samples to certain stages for class demos.  I picked up my Roman Rib socks again and began knitting on the leg.  I need to get these to the bind off stage for the second class on October 18th. I do like this stitch pattern–very cushy feel to the knitted fabric, and the 8 row pattern is easy to memorize–half of the rows are all knit!

And, since the Two Musketeers sweaters is near completion, it is time to cast on for the socks made from the rainbow sock blank I dyed ten days ago. I hope to do that tonight. Just have to decide what size needles with this sock yarn and what stitch pattern–maybe US 1’s. I’ll use my usual toe-up pattern.

Before Wednesday slips into Thursday, I’ll post my latest photos of the WIP that is getting the majority of my attention this week–the Two Musketeers Sweater.  So-called because it is a combination of Norah Gaughan’s designs Athos and Aramis.  Basic design is Athos, but I swapped in the elbow-length sleeves from Aramis instead of the small cap sleeves Athos calls for.

I finished the back (lots of mindless stockinette knitting, with just a bit of waist shaping) on Friday, and started on the sleeves on Saturday–I couldn’t face more stockinette for the the front yet.  The Aramis sleeves have an interesting knit band at the bottom of the sleeve.  You knit a strip of 9 stitches wide in a lacey pattern for about 11″, then bind off and pick up 52 stitches along one of the long edges.  Then you knit up to the cap of the sleeve from there.

The sleeves worked up quickly, once I determined ‘large’ needles for my gauge in this pattern is US size 7s not the 9s called for in the pattern.  A bit of ripping and I was underway again.  I finished the first sleeve on Saturday night and the second sleeve on Monday. I started on the front yesterday and have about 3″ knit so far. 5″ needed before I begin the waist decreases.  I also need to wind up the rest of the Berroco Linen Jeans yarn I have–I think I may need to buy more–I think I had 17 or 18 of the 50 gram skeins to begin with, but I am making the longer sleeves and have added a bit to the length.  Hopefully Betsey can order me the same dyelot if she doesn’t have 2 or 3 more skeins in the shop.

I’m hoping to finish this in time to get some wear out of it before the weather turns cold. It is still in the high 80 degrees (Farenheit) around here, so there is hope.

It being Wednesday, time to update you on the knitting in progress.  My passion for small, quick knits continues, and the larger sweater projects are languishing in the knitting bag (my Two musketeers’ sweater Athos/Aremis did a few rows done last Saturday).

With a brief interruption for a dishcloth for my mom (more on that on Friday FO day), I have been knitting bibs, more specifically the Petal Bib from Leigh Radford’s One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit or Crochet book. I had a stash of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK I bought for an afghan project but then rejected as not suitable, so it was just sitting there, awaiting a purpose.  So far I have knit up five of these bibs in the past week, and have picked out another 2 or 3 colors to knit yet more. The yarn is machine washable and quite soft to the touch.

What is it that is so appealing about this project? First, it can be completed in about 2 evenings of my knitting time.  It has sufficient challenge in the knitting itself to keep me entertained rather than bored: increases, short rows, decreasing, i-cord and attached i-cord.  On the negative side, there is a lot of counting in the short rows, and the petals have a tendency to curl up.  Hopefully, once I block the bibs, they’ll lay flatter. I do like the bright solid colors more than the pastel multi-color I made last week.

With seven Ravelympic projects ( 3 wips and 4 new projects) on my plate, you know I’m falling behind, even though 1 new project and 1 wip have been completed. Yesterday, you heard about the current state of Ziggies (in ‘time-out’).

Today, it being WIP Wednesday, I’ll report on what I have been monogamously knitting on since Saturday, my Noro Striped Ribbed Scarf (Ravelry link). This is a very satifiying knit. The pattern was documented by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed here, and is a simple 1×1 rib with edges slipped. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden, two skeins of 201, a skein of 221 and a skein of 244. The colors are teals and purples, greens, blues, maroon, black, grey and brown. The colors I am knitting with now are maroon, heading into the rust-orange and then olive-green/grey. Such subtle color shifting with the two shades playing against each other. Yummm, very delish!

Since it is a simple knit, I can get about 5″ knit in a couple of hours, and plan to knit until the yarn runs out. That will likely mean about 7 to 8 feet of scarf? This photo was taken Tuesday, just after I passed the halfway point:

Of course, this has lead to more stashing of other colors of Silk Garden to make more scarves. Just one addiction after another, here at Casa Randomthreads.

Last Friday evening, I joined the ladies at The Peace of Yarn, a LYS near to me in Matthews NC for the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies. The shop stayed open later than usual for a Friday, with 15% discount on “Olympic” knitting yarn (tell them the project you are knitting during the Olympics, and the yarn for that project is 15% off–kewl!), but the knitting athletes started gathering around 5:30pm. Mostly regulars from their Thursday night knitting group were in attendance, but they made me feel welcome! I bought 4 more skeins of Noro Silk Garden to use for my Noro Striped Ribbed Scarf (ravelry link), a la Brooklyn Tweed’s Jared Flood. I had already acquired the elusive colorway 201, which is black/grey/a touch of purple and brown. It offers a good foil to the other colorways as a neutral backdrop.

While waiting I knit on my Two Musketeers (ravelry link) sweater (Athos by Norah Gaughan), that I had cast on during a break at work that morning. At 7:30pm we moved next door to the Beantown Tavern (run by ex-New Englanders and rabid Red Sox/Patriots fans) to have dinner and watch the opening ceremonies on their large flat panel TVs in the back room. After a bit of negotiating/wrangling by Cindy, the LYSO, the ’80s music was turned down, the volume on the TVs was cranked up and we cast on our projects (for me the Noro scarf) at 8:00 pm promptly. I enjoyed knitting, chatting, and eating the evening away. We broke up about 10 pm, and I did get home in time to see the US athletes march into the stadium (and what a stadium that is!), and see the lighting of the cauldron. That was pretty fantastic.

I knit about 5 inches on my scarf, but I need to figure out a better way to slip the first stitch while carrying the yarn up the side. I did this on my Chevron scarf, but I think the ribbing is making it less tolerable or I’m not doing exactly the right thing yet. Must.research.technique.

I have been a big Olympics fan all my life but much more so since I actually went to the 1996 games in Atlanta (not the opening ceremony tho’–too much $$ for that ticket!). My friend Dee and I attended the 3-day eventing/dressage (horse stuff), track and field and gymnastics (no, the day after the Kerrie-Strug-broken-leg-perfomance…).

I did manage to cast on Friday during a break while working remotely at the car dealers…my Kureyon Sock Ziggies from Knitty’s Summer 2008 issue, Meg Meredith’s Ziggy Socks pattern. I’d previously wound my single skein of Kureyon color S102 into two mostly-equal cakes, and cast on using the Judy Becker Magic Cast on as taught by Cat Bordhi. I like Cat’s method because it does not result in twisted stitches, all stitches are mounted in the right direction.

Since Friday morning, I have been able to squeeze in a little knitting time on this sock (one-at-a-time knitting, I’m afraid!), so have a toe, and last night, I started on the stranding. More photos on Wednesday I hope.

Yes, I am participating in the 2008 Ravelympics. If you haven’t heard about this, there are over 4700 Ravelry members signed up to participate. As described by Kimberli, our fearless leader, this is for “any knitter or crocheter on Ravelry ready to challenge themselves to complete a project (or projects) within 17 days during the Summer Olympics.” The concept is to “cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics (Aug. 8th ) and finish before the Olympic flame goes out (Aug. 24th ).” Kimberli has been very creative in setting up events, the Ravelympic Village and teams galore.

I joined Team Hopelessly Overcommitted (sometimes known as ‘Team HO’), since the team charter invites all to join who meet the following requirements:

1. Love yarn
2. Love patterns
3. Never have enough needles or hooks
4. Feel a prickle of excitement at the words “cast on”
5. Aways looking for the perfect bag to tote our many projects everywhere we go
6. Can knit amazingly fast and furiously in our dreams with FOs that just leap off our needles as fast as we can envision it!
7. Must love chocolate and cake. Even if you don’t, you can still join-just watch for flying bars of chocolate and cake!
8. Project polygamist…but admires all those monogamists!

I’ve signed up for the following events, in the true ‘Hopelessly Overcommitted’ fashion:

WIP Wrestling: My Clapotis, finishing stuffing and sewing up the various knitted Silken Braid catnip mice, and finishing my Boomerang Socks (Red Dwarf pattern from Turtlegirl76).

Sweater Sprint: Two Musketeers Sweater: Norah Gaughan’s Athos sweater from the Norah Gaughan Volume 2 booklet, knit in Berroco Linen Jeans in ‘unbleached muslin’, with Artemis sleeves (3/4 length). This is ambitious to say I’ll finish this while doing everything else.

Sock Put: Knitty’s Ziggy stranded socks by Meg Meredith in Noro Kureyon Sock. This will be my first time knitting with Kureyon Sock.

Wish me luck! In the 2006 Knitting Olympics sponsored by the Yarn Harlot, I almost but not quite finished my one project– felted bag (Market Squares)–by the deadline. No medal for me that year.

(PS, new camera arrived today, I’m charging up batteries! Will have photos of the Ravelympics cast on tomorrow.)