It Might Be Cursed

I’m starting to wonder if this particular yarn is cursed.

Cascade 220

Looks perfectly innocent, doesn’t it?  Nice orange Cascade 220 all skeined up, waiting to be knit into a cute toy for Little Miss.  My plan was a carrot from Amigurumi Knits for my daughter’s play kitchen.  I popped the yarn onto my swift, wound it up into a ball, cast on, and happily knit away for several rows before realizing that I had miscounted somewhere along the line.

Off to the Frog Pond with the carrot.  Maybe I should try something else.  So, I cast on The Deadliest Crab and knit merrily away for several rounds, all the way through the first set of bobbles, and then I noticed that something was wrong.

Miscount.  Again.  A really big one this time, and I could not for life of me figure out what happened where.

Ripping out stitches can be so satisfying.

Is This Yarn Cursed?

I’m hoping the third time is a charm in this case.  If this one goes all wonky, I’m afraid this skein will be in need of a time-out, and I’ll just have to comfort myself with stringing another couple hundred beads for Entomology.

The Beading Continues

Ready, Set, Wait

I’m all set to get started on Miss Honeychurch (which I keep calling Miss Honeydew – perhaps I need more fruit in my diet), except for one thing.

Just Add Yarn

My yarn is somewhere between Ohio and California. My copy of A Room with a View is also somewhere between a shipping center and my house, but I expect it to arrive today. (A year of Amazon Prime is one of the best holiday gifts I’ve gotten. It is, indeed, the gift that keeps on giving.)

But I have my pattern and a short circular needle for swatching. My plan is to read the book and knit the sweater over the course of July and August.  The sweater should will be done by Labor Day, which is still quite warm in this part of the country.

It’s not like I don’t have anything to knit in the meantime.  The Chicago Illusion Blankie is coming along slowly:

Chicago Illusion Blankie

Each charted row is actually four rows of knitting (two in each color). It’s going a little quicker now that I’ve marked every 10 columns on the chart for easier counting. And it only took ripping out two rows to get me to do it!

And my beloved blue skein of Wollmeise informed me that it didn’t really want to be socks (after I started a cabled sock not once but twice!). It wants to be the Entomology shawl. How could I argue?

The Beginnings of Entomology

250 beads down, 955 to go.

Hey, Look, Knitting!

In my long blog silence, there has been knitting. Last night, I finished off a blankie for Little Miss.

Alphabet Blanket

Specs:
Pattern: Alphabet Blanket
Designer: Debbie Bliss
Source: The Baby Knits Book, courtesy of my library system
Yarn: Patons Grace, hot pink, 9 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace, sizes US 2 & 3
Comments: Bliss suggests her own (now discontinued) Wool/Cotton Blend for this pattern.  I had this Patons Grace (originally intended for a pair of matching Reid sweaters for my niece and Little Miss) in my stash. Of course, using mercerized cotton for a lace blanket was not the best idea I ever had, but I think it turned out rather pretty, and I’m sure the various joints in my hands will stop aching really soon. I used Russian joins throughout, which are a little bit bulky in the DK weight cotton, but not noticeable unless you’re really looking for them. And since the Patons Grace had at least one knot in almost every skein, I did a LOT of joining.

I really need to make a second blocking board. I had to block the blanket folded in half.

Clearly, I Need A Bigger Blocking Board

I left it overnight and took it off this morning, spreading it over our coffee table, still slightly damp.

To celebrate completing the blanket, I cast on a new blankie, this time an illusion-knit one in Sanguine Gryphon Traveller. I’ve never done illusion knitting before.

Speaking of new-to-me techniques and finished objects, my most recent contribution to Knit Picks was in the May catalog.

Bibs for Knit Picks

The Fruity Bibs were my first go at intarsia in cotton. The Knit Picks Comfy, by the way, is incredibly soft. Just lovely, lovely stuff. The buttons are sweet little shell buttons I bought at Unwind, my fantastic LYS.

And speaking of Knit Picks, I ordered a batch of CotLin for Miss Honeychurch, about which I’ll have more to say on Monday.

New Knitty, New Post… New KAL?

The new issue of Knitty went up today, and it is full of cute things.

When I say cute, I mean really cute, too. Just look at The Deadliest Crab, who looks awfully cuddly for such a scary, scary name. I’m planning to knit one up for Little Miss just as soon as my orange Cascade 220 (which I ordered to make some other amigurumi knits) arrives. I’m going to embroider on the eyes, though.

Other items that made it into my queue include Annette, a sweet little short-sleeved lace cardigan that would be perfect to layer at the library, and Entomology, a beaded lace shawl in fingering weight yarn that drew me largely because of my butterfly/moth obsession.

Then, of course, there are the socks:

  • Mermaid’s Lagoon: a fairly basic lace-patterned sock
  • Outside In: a diagonal-ribbed sock with eyelets down the front that’s knitted inside out
  • Treetop: a cabled knee sock that’s one of the projects suggested for knitting in advance of winter

I almost missed Franklin Habit’s Lace Sampler Scarf, since I jump straight to the patterns and come back to the feature articles later. I really need to remember to check out the articles, especially since I love Franklin’s writing style.

And, finally, there’s Miss Honeychurch, a lovely A-line pullover with cable detailing down the sides, knitted in hemp yarn. The name comes from Forster’s A Room with a View, which I’ve never read. (I’ve never seen the movie, either.) I think this pattern is crying out for a Knit-a-long plus Read-a-long, don’t you? Are you interested? Drop me a comment!

Pomatomus in Progress

On Ravelry, there’s a group called Sock Knitters Anonymous, and they’re now in the second year of a challenge known as Sockdown. Every month, there is a theme, and for each pair of qualifying socks completed (cast on during the month and finished by the end of the following month), you get an entry in a drawing for prizes. This month’s theme is (a) knit any pattern in a yarn that is at least 75% orange or (b) knit any Cookie A. pattern in any yarn or (c) knit a mystery sock pattern given to the group over the course of 4 weeks in a yarn that’s at least 75% orange.

This has led to a whole lot of discussion about various yarns and whether they are Orange Enough. A search through my own stash revealed that I have no orange yarn. So, I cast on Pomatomus instead:

Pomatomus in Progress

The yarn is called Monarch, in a colorway called Blue Grass. It’s beautiful. I love it. But it’s pretty much an entire sock in 1×1 twisted rib, with a pattern that I can’t quite make stick in my head, so I have to keep a close eye on the chart. The payoff, though, is a really gorgeous sock.

One Sock and a New Skein

I finished up the first ‘Vog On sock the other night during Palin’s speech. Yes, in this house, we watch both party conventions, although our politics are firmly left of center.

'Vog On

That picot bind-off gave me something else to focus on, at least. I’m not in love with the way it folds down at the top, but I think the sock itself is very pretty. I’m already into the gusset increases on the second sock. I like this lace pattern a lot, and I love Judy’s magic cast-on, now that I seem to have gotten the hang of it.

A couple of days ago, my second skein of Wollmeise appeared in the mail (thanks, Sandy!).

Wollmeise Fluffy

That’s the Fluffy in Wilder Mohn. The picture doesn’t quite capture the rich reds, but it was the best I could do before heading out the door this morning.

I’ve been keeping both skeins of Wollmeise (along with my 2 new skeins of Numma Numma – never fear, I will get to that entry!) on my desk where I can look at them. And pet them. And maybe squish them a little.

‘Vog On!

It seems that y’all need a little time to ponder the Wollmeise project.  I understand.  I feel the same way.  But I think it’s going to be the Estonian socks.  Unless I cave and buy a copy of Ornette, but I think that one might look better in a solid color.

In the meantime, I started a new sock with this lovely yarn:

BMFA Silkie

It’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR Silkie in an unknown colorway. (It was payment for a test knit of a sock pattern.) While knitting, the strand makes me think of chocolate and raspberries. Knitted up, it looks like fall leaves. I’m doing the toe-up version of ‘Vog On. I’m nearly done with the first one already – socks knit up FAST at 7 spi. And the lace pattern is easily memorized, so I actually have a project that can travel around with me.  It was too gray this morning to get a picture before leaving for work, but I’ll get one soon.

Ceci n’est pas une sock

Ceci n'est pas une sock

(Yes, I know that “sock” is not the French word for sock.)

That sad loop of yarn was once almost half of a beautiful skein of Tempted Hand Painted Bad Grrl in the Clover colorway. After that, it was a gorgeous Embossed Leaves sock that was, sadly, too big for my foot, and a little too loose-knit in the gussets.

So, I ripped. And ripped. And ripped. It takes surprisingly little time to rip out an entire adult-size lace sock. I wrapped the yarn around the lid of Little Miss’s block box, and then wrapped it again around the back of a chair, tied it in a couple of places, dunked it in the sink, and hung it to dry.

It was when I tried to rewind it into a ball that things went really sour.

I don’t know what happened. I put the hank on my swift and started winding, and I ended up with one ginormous tangle. I spent 4 hours detangling until the yarn snapped. Twice.

At the moment, I have one lovely (properly-sized) Embossed Leaves sock, one sock about 2/3 of the way through the leg and already on the second remnant of yarn, and three more small balls made out of the frogged sock. I am going to have a lot of ends to weave in. K has already renamed this project The Sock of a Thousand Tears.

But I love this pattern, and I love this yarn, and I am going to finish this pair of socks.

I mean, look at this:

Embossed Leaf Sock v1.5

How could I not give it a mate?

Now with Even Less Knitting!

The last several months have been interesting around here. We decided to try to sell our house and move a couple of miles eastward. We found a house we liked, and we had an offer on our house, and then one day into the escrow, the buyer pulled out. Our contract with our realtor expired, we waited a while, and then we went back on the market with a new realtor. We found a house we liked, and we got an offer on our house with a promise that there would be no problem finishing the escrow in 30 days.

Sixty-four days later, we closed the sale. Week after week, we thought we’d be moving in another week or two.  My knitting stuff was among the first stuff packed up (in an effort to keep myself from procrastinating on packing up the rest of the stuff, you see).

Since then, just about the only knitting I’ve been doing has been a sample knit for Knit Picks, which I can’t share until it appears in their catalog.

And, since it’s high summer, what else would I be thinking about but Christmas?  Last week, I started work on another cross-stitch stocking, this time one for me.  It’s a little more complicated than the one I did for Little Miss, with metallic threads and beads and something called couching that I may have done once before… in junior high Home Ec class.

A while back, I signed up for Summer of Socks.  Have I done any socks this summer?  No.  I started one, but I haven’t made much progress.

Soon to come: pictures of that cross-stitch and maybe some progress on the sock.

WiP Wednesday: Baby Tart

I have a new method of tackling my stash. I’m working alphabetically. You see, Ravelry displays my stash alphabetically, so I decided to just start working at the beginning.

Except I’m not, really, since the first yarn listed is Austermann Step, and I keep changing my mind about what to do with it. Instead, I cast on the Berroco Cotton Twist for a Baby Tart.

 

Baby Tart

 

The color in that picture is not at all true. The yarn is shiny, and the “crust” is a nice golden color, while the “filling” is a bluish-purple shade. It’s turning out to be really cute, but those bobble decreases are tough. I’m nervous about the Denises, since I broke the join the last time I tried to work cotton yarn on them. For most of the K3TOGs, I’m using a separate DPN with a nice sharp tip, and I’m having a lot of trouble pulling the loop through without splitting it. I have some of the golden yarn left, and I was thinking of trying to make the smallest size for a gift stash, but I don’t think so. I think I’ll use it for sock puppet hair or something instead.