Fidget

This is another comfy hat for my friend CG who is on the home stretch for her chemotherapy. Some ladies at church hosted a lovely tea party for her last week and everybody wore hats and brought hats to give to C.

I got this yarn from the bargain bin at Ben Franklin, more than a year ago I think. I’d been working on this scarf since before Christmas, it was my fill-in project for when I was between more significant things. I like it. It came out nice and long, even though I only had 1 skein of the main yarn. More info at Ravelry.

My friend CG found out earlier this year that she has breast cancer. She’s in her second week of chemo, now, and about a month ago she asked me to make her a hat or two. She wanted something with a brim to frame the face, and she wears mostly primary colors and neutrals. She’s very pleased with this hat, especially the detachable flower - I’m going to make her a few more in different colors.

I’m going to make one of these hats for myself next!

The working of these socks is a long, complicated story. In previous socks I’d knitted, cuff-down, I was plagued by either running out of yarn right at the end, or, with so much left over that I wished I had made the leg longer. So, I wanted to try a toe-up pair. I started out with a pattern I found on Knitty.com, with a lovely traveling-vine type of lace pattern and a short-row heel. Once I had a few inches of foot, I decided they were going to be very baggy. So I ripped out and reworked the lace pattern to have more stitches per repeat. As I tried them on, they seemed to fit sleekly and looked lovely. However, a few inches up the leg, I discovered the whole thing was too small and I couldn’t even pull the sock over my heel. At this point, I took a long break from working on this project!

Looking through a library book, I found a lovely, simple, feather-and-fan lace sock. I decided to completely rip out the vine-socks rather than ripping out to just before the heel to try a different heel style since that would have been most of the sock anyway, and I wasn’t totally happy with how the varigated yarn was working anyway.

I worked the socks as shown in the pattern, except from the toe up. This worked out fine, and I like the garter-stitch rows at the ankle and cuff.

I really like the feather-and-fan stitch design. It’s enough detail to look pretty but the yarn is a bit busy so the two don’t fight. Also it goes quickly because only every 4th row is pattern, the rest is all knit.

I did have some sizing issues with these socks as I was working them. I worked the heel-flap twice because the gauge seemed looser once I switched to knitting back and forth as opposed to in-the-round, and I wanted the bottom of the heel to be tight and smooth and durable! So I ripped back and re-knit with size 0’s.

Then, when I was a few inches up the leg, I was horrified to see that again it was going to be difficult to get the sock on my foot, but I didn’t panic - I ripped back to those garter stitch rows and started the leg using size 2’s.

The whole reason that I knit these toe-up was so that I could use all of the yarn. It was looking like that was going to mean knee socks, which I was delighted with, since knee socks are my stay-warm-in-a-cold-house strategy and I wear knee socks every day from October to April. But, the socks weren’t going to go over my calves. I was toying with the idea of adding stitches to each of 4 pattern repeats, but wasn’t sure how to do it gradually and was afraid it would be too many additional stitches. Luckily, it was Monday and I was at the Knit Night at Market of Choice. Several experts there advised me to insert a new repeat at the center back, adding stitches gradually. This totally worked! I added 2 sts on every “round 3″ of the pattern, and worked the “round 1″ pattern as new number of stitches allowed. Saved!

I’m quite relieved to have this project done! It’s been a long time coming.

I started the new year out with a new client. They are a start-up company, with all the fast-and-loose workday scheduling that implies. I have been learning a lot about how to set boundaries and keep my role as a remote contractor; not trying to pretend I’m right there in the office able to switch gears at any moment. (the to-do priorities seem to change about that often.) And the whole 8-hour workday thing… it just doesn’t happen when one works at home. But! I have managed to keep mostly on top of my workout regimen. I do wait for the sun to be well up, if it’s going to be, and I don’t go running if it’s pouring down rain. But, the coldest times in Eugene are when it’s sunny anyway… Luckily I have my newly hand-knitted hat and gloves to keep the chill off until I get warmed up ‘n sweaty on my way up hill to home. Also notice my lovely 2 layers of performance fabric: a “wicking” poly-thermal layer and a streamlined fleece on top. These are courtesy of M.I.L C A-P. But I picked them out, and yes, I did make sure they matched my new handknits. Jog On!

A note about knitting-related posts: I started logging my knitting projects on a really fun site called Ravelry. If you click on a project name below, you can see more details about the project including what yarn I used and more pictures, etc. I also started using Flickr for all of my blog photos; if you click on a photo you can see a larger version.

I had a lot of fun with making gifts this year. In addition to the rugs mentioned in a previous post, I made:

a fair-isle earflap hat for BN.

a crocheted flower scarf for sister HN.

A cabled scarf for sister in law SW; long fingerless mitts for sister GC.

and, character-themed iPod cozies for sister MA and brother RC. Cute!

I also made Chai Tea “kits” with hand-sewn teabags; one with tea and one with whole spices.

During the Fall term I took a Weaving workshop at the Craft Center. It was a great class - the teacher, JN, managed to transmit a lot of information about weaving in just 5 class sessions, and I found her presentation inspiring and not at all intimidating, even though I had very little previous experience with weaving (remember those little square potholder looms?! that was it.) The class project was a small rug, woven on a table loom, from industrial waste from a wool mill here in Oregon. It was the icing on the cake that we were able to make such a beautiful, functional item from scraps. In raw form, our materials consisted of long strips of cut (and frayed) woven wool. As you can see in the top left image, the rug is very “hairy” right after completion. Then, you give it a whirl in the washer and dryer, and what comes out is a fluffy, “felted” or “napped” rug (seen at lower right.) They’re soft, cozy, especially to bare feet, reversible, machine washable, and durable - JN said “these rugs will outlast us.”

The main thing you learn about weaving once you try it is that it takes a lot of “loom dressing” before the actual weaving begins. You have to figure out how many warp (vertical) threads you need, and then wind & cut those using a special frame or rack. Then you have to thread each warp end through several loom structures and wind the warp onto the back “spool.” This process took up 3 out of our 5 sessions! As JN said, it’s a perfect craft for people (like me) who have excess nervous energy and are just a teensy bit “OCD.” Once I’d invested all that time to carefully threading and counting, it was so exciting to finally start to weave the rug - it goes quickly with such a coarse weft. It only takes 2 or 3 “shots” or rows of that woolly stuff to get an inch of rug.

Once the class was over, I still had access to the looms for the rest of the quarter. JN had a little show-and-tell tea party at her house, and after showing us many of her amazing projects, we picked out more materials from the stash she had leftover from the class (we bought it from her by the pound, just as she had obtained it from the mill.) I decided to make 3 more rugs for Christmas gifts. The top right image is the red-black-white rug I made for SS & NS. They just bought a house really close to my parents, and it has all hardwood floors. The block motif was created by carefully lining up the areas of color that were woven into the raw materials. The lower left image is of the rug I gave to JA & MA. They also just bought a house, and I hope this rug will help keep them cozy in their new home! My mom got the rug shown in the lower right. It’s white with green-multi stripes.

It’s been truly fall here for a couple of weeks now… patchy clouds, periods of rain, and the temps took a noticeable dip awhile back. The forecast high for today is 62, tomorrow it’s 58. It’s been a bit sudden… summer gave no warning that it was leaving for good.

I’ve busted out my sewing machine recently - I’m working on the pants pattern from SEW U / Built by Wendy. Finally - fashionable pants from a home-sewing pattern. GC has had good success with her attempts at this same pattern, and she inspired me to buy the book/patterns and have a go as well. The book is worth the money for the patterns, the wonderful array of customization/embellishment ideas, and some good tips and tricks, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a beginner. I would be a bit lost in the instructions for the pants if I didn’t have as much experience with sewing as I do.

I’m taking a weaving class at the Craft Center this term. I had my first class last night and it looks like it’s going to be fun. We’re making rugs out of scraps from a wool mill.

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and today I’m feeling worse. Yuck. I hate being sick!

I love crafts. My friend GC was throwing a baby shower for another friend at church, who’s expecting a baby boy. G asked me to help out with the invitations, so we got together and brainstormed. We decided on yellow, and a hand-carved rubber stamp, to print on the cards with acrylic paint… GC is even more crafty than me (we are the types who tend to hoard craft supplies) and she had some textile medium to mix with the paint to make it fabric-friendly. So, we made all kinds of matching goodies. I printed muslin patches and sewed them onto a gingham/fleece blankie with satin edging; and printed onto some newborn onesies. I’d been meaning to try knitting baby socks, and I managed to finish a pair in time for the shower - with stranded-colorwork checker designs on the cuffs… which are hemmed with a knit-in facing to cover the loose strands on the back. No snagging on tiny toes!

Loosely based on Bad Penny from Knitty.com, by Stephanie Japel

Yarn: Patons Grace, 100% mercerized cotton

I started this little knitted top ages ago, like several years, and I’m glad to have finally finished it. If I’d known that it was going to turn out so cute and well-fitting, I would have worked to finish it sooner! I’m very pleased with the fit, and pleased with the process to arrive at the fit - It’s knitted in one piece, in the round, from the neck down. So, I could try it on as I went, and also it’s seamless so I didn’t have to sew a single seam. The finishing consisted of picking up stitches for the neckband and armbands, and also turning under and tacking down the ends of my spiral-stripe magic trick - there is no messy join where I had to change colors, I just knitted around in a spiral, one color at a time, one row per color. Pretty sweet!