FO: Glynis

Last week we had to drive from my MIL's house in southeastern Vermont to my parents' new abode in southeastern Maine. As anyone who has ever tried to drive from Vermont to Maine knows, yuh can't get theah from heah.

Well, you can get there, it just takes 5 hours. Or forever, depending on how many children you have in the car with you. The good news is that, even after driving part of the way, I still had time to finish up some socks.

Pattern: Glynis by Cookie A, from Sock Innovation
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art Forest, 70% wool, 30% Tencel, 400 yds/100 gr
Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm (do I knit socks with anything else? Apparently not)
Gauge: Close enough to the required gauge so as not to have to make any alterations
Comments/mods: Again, a very fast knit from Cookie A. Although, to be fair, I did knit 6 pattern repeats on the leg instead of 9, and the socks are plenty long enough. There is a slight caveat to the leg chart: at the end of row 5 you have to shift the start of the row to the right by one stitch. I managed to notice this before I'd done too much damage, but some others weren't so lucky...

I didn't change anything on the heel flap/gusset/foot at all. There was a small error in my version of the foot chart in row 8, but it was pretty straightforward to figure out (k2tog instead of k3tog). There are some errata for the book available, so for future installments I will check the errata before starting off.

I did change the toe, as promised. Instead of decreasing every other row 12 times, I decreased every third row three times, every other row four times and every row five times. I realize that the mathematicians out there will have noticed that this is more decreases then called for in the pattern. But I've recently taken to reading all grafting instructions as "Decrease to a small number of stitches, cut off your yarn, thread through the remaining stitches and pull tight". This has been necessitated by the fact that a) I have maybe three darning needles left out of some ludicrous number (like 15) and I don't know where they are and b) I cannot remember how to graft to save my life. This is much easier.

The yarn: I liked this yarn less then the yarn I used for the Pomatomuseseses. It felt a bit harsh in my hands, and was a bit stiff to work with, unlike the Forest which was wonderfully supple (and ended up really soft after blocking). I will admit that I have not yet blocked these at all, so they may soften up quite a bit, but in the future I'll stick to the mohair version of GMS sock yarn.

You may have realized that finishing these socks* meant I could start my obsession. Which I did. But that will have to wait for another post...

* Two FO posts in a row with socks? What is the world coming to?

FO: Mermaid Socks*

Now that these have been presented to their new owner, they can be shared with y'all.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art Meadow, 50/50 wool/mohair, 400 yds/100 gr
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Gauge: 9 sts/12 rows per inch in stockinette
Start/finish: 7/21 - 8/5/2009
Comments/mods: After several months of doing my own sock patterns, it was a relief to get to follow someone else's directions for a change. These socks were so speedy, in part I think because the lace pattern is so intriguing. I kept knitting to see how it was going to come out next!

The yarn is awesome - it has a similar toothy feel to Araucania Ranco (which I talked about with these socks), and the yarn feels really sturdy. The colors were perfect for Mermaid socks, although it wasn't until I was done that I really noticed all the yellowy-green in there. In any event, the colorway was perfect for sea-type fish-scaly socks. It's tightly plied as well, so the twisted stitches really pop.

The only mod I made was to only do 2 repeats on the leg instead of 3. I always have yarn panic when I do top down socks from one skein of yarn, so I opted for fewer repeats. Turns out I have a whack-load of yarn left, so three repeats would have been just fine. However, the legs would have been really long. I'm not so in to really high socks myself, so I tend not to make them at all. This long leg seems to be a trend, because Glynis (now underway - squee!**) calls for 9 repeats of an 8 row pattern plus an inch of ribbing before the heel flap. I might get 7 repeats if I force myself.

The other mod that I didn't do for these socks but will do for future Cookie socks is to change the toe decreases. These came out really really pointy. They look fine on the foot, but silly otherwise. So I'll switch that up in the future.

In conclusion, really well written pattern, amazing stitch pattern, lovely yarn (wish I could justify getting more!), speedy knit and (hopefully) a happy Mermaid with toast warm tail fins this winter. Win all around.

* What is the plural of Pomatomus anyway?
** Glynis is also speeding along in the same "Wow, this is a cool stitch pattern!" way, thanks to a viewing of GI Jane and Mulan (all in one day!).

(Mostly) FO: Haiku

It seems that all I needed was a leetle bit of encouragement to get this baby done. A carrot on the end of a stick as it were. Just posting my dilemma encouraged me to sit down and whack out the last little bit of garter stitch that was left on the body. One viewing of Batman and some down time with the girls, and there she was...

Boo's Haiku in all it's boxy glory.
Yarn: Lion Brand FIsherman's Wool that I dyed, oh...four years ago? using Wiltons cake dyes. One of my first ever dyeing experiments. I went overboard on the colors a bit - five was too many - and it's been sitting in my stash ever since. I used about 1.5 skeins.
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm straights
Start/finish: 7/7-8/9/09
Gauge: 4.5 stitches/9 rows per inch in garter stitch
Comments/mods: I whizzed through the start of this baby in no time flat, and stalled out with 3 inches of garter stitch left on the body. I guess my need for mindless knitting passed fairly quickly! But I was dying to start the next socks, so I got back on the horse and finished up in just a couple of days. Once the knitting was done, I paused briefly to wind the yarn for the next sock project, and then sewed up the seams and set in the sleeves. I have not yet put any buttons on, but that should be easy to accomplish before it gets cold.

I actually like how the pooling turned out on this, splitting into yellow/brown and pink/orange sections with the green bleeding over into each. Unfortunately, novice dyer that I was, I didn't quite rinse the yarn enough, and after each session with this stuff my fingers were a lovely fuschia color. That might also have contributed to the lack of progress for a while.

I was curious to see if I could get the sleeves to match, so I started at the beginning of an orange section for the cast-on edge on both and managed to get them pretty close. The next big debate was whether to have the pink/orange side or the yellow/brown side face forward. I like pink and orange better, so that's what faces to the front. The nice thing about this pattern is that the pieces are reversible, so if you don't like the color combo on the "RS" of the sleeve, you can flip it inside out, designate that the right side, and carry on your merry way.

I showed this to Boo when it was done and her response was...minimal, to say the least. She looked at it, looked at me, and wandered off to look for her animules. Hopefully she'll actually wear it this fall, and there's enough yarn left for a hat and mittens if she's really lucky.

Right. Lucky. Lucky in that she's short and her mother dresses her funny.

FF: Thrive

One of the wonderful things about Ravelry is the ability to see what other people do with the same materials you have, and draw inspiration from that. The Hello Yarn Fiber Club - Finished Yarns thread made me realize that this fiber (which I somehow neglected to ever photograph - woops!) needed to be a two ply. And soon!

I started spinning the week before we left for France, and managed to fill up one bobbin and get through half of the second before we had to leave. Finished up the last of it the two days after we got back and immediately plied.

Despite what it looks like in that picture, the bobbins did not end up matching all that well when I was done. Plying took a couple of nights, and it was done.

I split the 4 oz in half and spun/plied at 12:1, double drafting from the fold. No attempt was made to match up the colors but they ended up melding really nicely.

For whatever reason I was bound and determined to get the entire 4+ oz on to one bobbin. And I had dramatic evidence of the difference between woolen and worsted spinning styles.

Worsted:

Woolen:

That's approximately the same amount of fiber (~4 oz), one spun worsted and navajo plied, one spun semi-woolen and 2-plied. I'm amazed my wheel didn't give me the finger and go on strike.

Final stats: 4.3 ox/121 gr, 500 yds, 14-18 wpi. Somewhat overplied (or underspun - I had trouble with singles drifting apart) in spots but not too bad. Finished with a hot/cold fulling wash.

And almost enough for a large Aestlight. The problem with that however will be addressed next week (otherwise known as bribing myself to finish some UFOs before I cast on anything new!).

WIPs and a 2 hr FO

I seem to be on a bit of a straight needle kick recently. Usually I prefer circulars for everything that aren't socks (DPNs all the way for those), but my two active WIPs are both on straights. What's up with that?

Haiku, in Wiltons dyed Lion Brand Fishermans Wool, for Boo

Rivulet, in some handspun yarn that will show up in the blog on Friday

Last night apparently, I was in need of instant gratification. One skein of superwash BFL handspun, bulky weight, some size 10 circulars and DPNs, and one viewing of Pan's Labyrinth later, I had a new hat.

Technically I suppose, it's not quite a finished object, since it still needs a button, but how can you miss with a hat that takes one movie to finish?

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer
Yarn: one skein (of two) of Superwash BFL handspun (blogged about here), less then 120 yds. The skein was 122 yds, and I've got a good bit left.
Needles: US size 10/6 mm circulars/DPNs
Comments/mods: a lovely, quick pattern that is perfect for handspun. I had a bit of a neuronal misfiring (aka brain cramp) with part of the directions, but in the end decided to trust the designer and follow the directions (sometimes I over think more then a little bit!). It turned out beautifully, and the yarn is so soft that I suspect I will wear this every day I can over the winter.

Now I need to find a good button. Think there are any button stores in London?