FO: February's socks

Pattern: Paul Attwell by Emily Johnson
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare, dyed by me
Needles: started with US 1.5/2.5 mm, but sock was waaaaay big, so the final version was knit with US 1/2.25 mm double points. I knit the 72 stitch version, to fit a men's US size 9 foot.
Start/finish: 1 February - 24 February 2011
Gauge: 9.5 stitches/inch in stockinette, 13 stitches/1.5 inches in pattern stitch.
Comments/mods: A total and shameless mimic of the Yarn Harlot, this pattern is fantastic. The stitch pattern is a 4 row repeat, with every other row being plain (i.e. straight stockinette or seed stitch). The pattern is really well done - great pictures, clear instructions (although no charts, but they aren't necessary). Since splitting the sock up by repeats worked so well for me last week, I did the same with this - with a four row repeat, it didn't lend itself quite as well to that technique, but I settled on five repeats a day. They languished a bit with the dyeing/starting of next month's sweater, but I got a lot done on the bus to and from Geneva over the half term.

I'm really pleased with how the dyeing came out. These are a birthday present for Ironman, and he liked the color of the yarn in the original pattern, so I tried to replicate that. I added a tiny bit of burnt orange to golden yellow, with a small bit of black to tone it down. Some of the orange ended up on the yarn in small flecks, which add a nice varigation (IMHO). I did my best to tie the skein loosely enough that there weren't any white areas, but there are still some spots that are quite light. But no matter - I like how it ended up in the knitted fabric. And look, they sort of match the Small Ridiculous Dog.

So now I have a breather of a few days to get in some work on Dad's sweater before March hits in full force, with Sock #3. Two months of 2011 down, two pairs of socks produced (plus one not in the club). Still on track, but next month brings the start of Sock Madness, in which I am once again participating (in a fashion). I'm hoping to be able to stay on track through that (I've got another pattern in the competition), but it may get a bit nutty in short order. We'll see, I guess.

The knitting I did on my Spring Vacation

I did this:

First sock is not finished because I lost the directions somewhere and wasn't sure what to do with the toe. So I put it on an extra needle and started #2

And worked on this, for the few moments I could keep my eyes open in the evening:

It's coming along, but oh so slowly! I'm pleased with the way the colors are working out though. So it's all good. Of course, knitting time is about to come to a dramatic halt (with the arrival of the wee dog) or take a large upswing (arrival of the wee dog = "working" from home for a while). We'll see...

I which I have a realization

So, on Monday night I wound up all the handspun for the sweater - it took two freakin' hours. Ugh! And then I cast on - 280 stitches on US 1/2.25 mm needles. And I started knitting the ribbing.

Approximately 45 minutes later I'd finished the first row and started the second. Items of interest:

1. Steeking this puppy will be a no brainer because the yarn is a wee bit sticky (understatement of the year that). This is a good thing generally speaking, but it does make for some slow knitting, as I pause to detach the two colors from each other every few stitches.

2. It is a good thing my professional life is not dependent on basic numerical skills, because I can not repeatedly count *two, one, two, one, four*. Because of this inability, I ended my knitting session last night at the same exact point I ended on Monday, having put in double the knitting time. Trying to tink back 200 stitches to fix the colorwork pattern in the Very. First. Row. is just not on. Riiiiiip, redo cast on, try again.

3. I've realized that I have two choices for this project. I can either drive myself (even more) batshit insane rushing through this thing and trying to get it finished in time for the Big Day, or I can enjoy the process of knitting a beautiful sweater for my Dad with yarn that I made and dyed myself, in celebration of the great milestone that is his seventieth birthday. I think I like the second option better...

I'm liking the second option even more given that, in exactly two weeks time, a large portion of my waking and sleeping hours are going to be taken up by the newest member of our family.

Meet the Wee Dog, a (somewhat crosseyed in this picture, but not in real life) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Girls are way too excited to even be able to articulate their joy, and I go back and forth between glee and pure abject terror. It feels kind of like when I was pregnant with Devil, in fact. My only saving grace is that housebreaking him is going to happen a lot faster then with the real kids.

A big pile of handspun

The River Run yarn, now dyed and ready to be wound up and cast on. I posted the exact dye formulas on Ravelry, but I used jet black, silver gray, gunmetal and navy to get 8 shades (one black, three gray, three blue and one other blue). Now all I've got to do is finish up this:

February's sweater for Devil. Should be done tonight, if I don't spend too much time winding up handspun.

The bonfire and the hamster wheel

Last night I packed up my wheel in the lovely bag my Mom made, got on the Tube, and trekked over to Tricolette for an evening of spinning. When I proposed this excursion to my other half, I said "Guess where I might go with my wheel next week?" His response was "A bonfire?" Ha, ha, bloody ha mate. Just for that, I won't make you any more socks...

The trip on the Tube was actually fine, although I kept waiting for someone to ask me what was in the bag. It helped a great deal that I was going in to town when most people were coming out and the trains were largely empty. I made it there without too many problems, after a trek from the Tube station, and had a lovely evening. A lovely bunch of people, a gorgeous shop (!), and best of all, this is what I was spinning.

I was able to start on the Falklands for my mom because this past weekend, I finished up this:

Six skeins, ~2100 yds, of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands for the River Run pullover (aka March's sweater). I had an interesting experience with this stuff - the first four skeins I spun over the period of about 2 weeks, and they were in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 ypp. The last two, I did in the last week, and when I finished the first one of the two, it came in at 2100 ypp (435 yds/3.4 oz).

Gulp. Whaaaaa? whimpers

So I plied up the next skein and, instead of soaking it in cold water, soaked it in hot water, with a tiny bit of mussing around. It came out at 1847 ypp. Hmmmmmm, said the curious porpoise, perhaps I can utilize the Falklands-puffball effect to fix that darned first skein. Skein skinny got unwound, thrown in some hot water, and jiggled around a bit. After drying:

400 yds/3.4 oz, 1820 ypp. Done.

I checked the schematics for the pattern, and I fully expect to have to spin up some more yarn somewhere along the line, as the intended recepient of the finished item is both skinny and long*. So I will need to do some veeery scientific dyeing to minimize any dye lot issues with future skeins. But I think it's time to get started with the dye jars. Black, white, three shades of grey, three shades of blue and teal.

Now I need to see if I have enough dye...

* Must remember to find out how long the sleeves have to be...