A deadline

It's that time of year when crafty spinning/knitting mothers the world over start to think about presents for their children's teachers. Actually, most have probably already taken care of this issue - it's just us procrastinating ones that are suddenly realizing that time is running out.

So my kids have 6 teachers between them - Devil has a main teacher (Mrs. A), a teaching assistant (Miss. B) and a reading teacher (Miss. M). Boo has two main teachers (Miss A and Miss B)(hunh...conservation of initals?) and then Miss I, who she spends the afternoons with and who also sometimes babysits for us. I'm looking for quick knits that won't bore me silly but that I can finish in the next 3.5 weeks. Add to this the fact that Mrs. A is preggers with her first wee one, so I need to do a baby present too.

Baby first: I considered a number of different sweater options before I realized that 1) I don't know what type of sprog she's popping out, and 2) I don't know what kind of colors she likes. So I'm taking the easy road out - it's Dragon time. I got some cotton/acrylic blend at the store yesterday and cast on last night.

My row gauge is seriously off, so I'm having to just figure out how many inches are needed between drecitons and work that number of rows. It took me all of "New Moon" to get this far three times. Good thing it's a horrible movie and I didn't really want to pay any attention.

So...for the teachers. I'm thinking Branching Out or something similar, particularly with some handspun. One of Boo's teachers actual knits, so I'm thinking she'd appreciate some handspun in her gift. I'm also drawn to Annis, from the new Knitty, which I might cast on in this, and see whom it seems to suit best. But I think the girls and I might be having a big dye party this week end to get some appropriate yarn for these babies.

So...the last day of school is July 7. That gives me just under four weeks. Ready, set, go!

Drummossie

So a few years ago, I knit a pair of entrelac socks. This pair, in fact, in some hideous Trekking XXL colorway that included black, grey, chartreuse, yellow and kelly green. They were something else - fun to knit, definitely challenging, but they ended up too small for me. Entrelac definitely does not have the side-to-side stretch of stockinette, so I gave them to my Mom. But I wanted to knit a pair that would fit me, and I wanted socks with entrelac on the top and stockinette on the sole.

After a bit of mucking around, I came up with these.

They ended up being for Himself - Trekking XXL for the entrelac, and a bit of Knit Picks Essential to finish off the heels and soles. I wrote the pattern up and submitted it to Knitty, but it didn't fit for them. Then last summer, I saw a call for sock designs for Sock Madness IV (which I've mentioned a bit before), and sent in the pattern for these. They liked it, and yesterday it was released as the final round pattern for this year's Madness.

The construction is either ingenious or diabolical, depending on your mood. You start with the toe, and then put half the stitches on a holder. The other half are worked as a flat entrelac panel for instep up to the ankle. Then you provisionally cast on the rest of the stitches for the leg, and knit entrelac in the round up to the cuff. The heel flap and sole are worked down from the provisional cast on, and are attached to the instep flap at either side.

So far there are six or seven pairs underway, including the four finalists. It's been a bit over 24 hours, and I'm thinking someone is going to be finished pretty darn soon. Which is amazing, since entrelac is not exactly a fast way to knit anything.

If you're on Ravelry and want to watch the contest wind down, the group board is here. I will be releasing the pattern in three sizes in the near future, so keep an eye out for it here and on Rav.

Fiber Friday: The end is in sight

A few days ago, I snapped. Really snapped. I couldn't face the prospect of anything more having to do with purple cabled yarn. So I turned on "Gladiator" and spent the next couple of hours turning this

into this.

That's the top that Devil dyed over Easter break. I'm calling it Mermaid yarn, in an attempt to get her more excited about it, and I'm planning a mini-Tappan Zee, maybe with a fish scaley lace pattern to complement the yarn.

But just to prove that the purple yarn is being finished up:

I've got four skeins finished, two more bobbins full, and 2.5 bobbins of 2-ply left. I can bang out a full bobbin of the cabled yarn in less then an evening, so I'm hoping to have it done by the middle of next week. And maybe the Mermaid yarn will be done as well!

Lions and tigers and cashmere, oh my!

In the midst of plying a bobbin a night, I've been getting some work done on the Knit Love Club May socks.

Halfway through repeat #1:

Halfway through repeat #2:

The leg calls for 2.5 repeats, but I think I might call it good at 2. I didn't swatch and I'm a bit concerned that my gauge is a little too big with the needles I'm using, and I don't want to run out of yarn.

And I must say that, sadly for my budget, I may not ever be able to knit with yarn that does not contain cashmere again. Oh dear!

FO: Nice GAMs!

Pattern: GAMs by Taya Schram, for Sock Madness IV
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Irving Park, 1.6 skeins (~350 yards)
Needles: US 0/2.0 mm
Start/finish: 30 April - 25 May 2010.
Gauge: 10 stitches/14 rows per inch
Finished size: 7.5 inches from cuff to bottom of heel flap, 8 inches foot circumference (unstretched)
Comments/mods: The third pattern for Sock Madness. I've had this yarn sitting in the stash for more then 5 years, and it was high time to move it along. I was very entertained by the way the yarn pooled into stripes on the leg and foot.

It broke up a bit around the heel, but came back together nicely. I knit the 77 stitch version of this sock to try and make sure they would fit my size 10 (US) feet, and the stretchiness of the stitch pattern meant that I had no problems getting them on.

The heel design is called a strong heel: there's no heel flap, but you increase two stitches on the sole/back of leg stitches as you go down, making a kind of reverse gusset. This makes it easy to carry the stitch pattern all the way down the back of the heel.

This was a really fun pattern to knit, with an easily memorized repeat, and I'm happy with the way it works with the fairly variegated yarn. I was a bit worried that the stitch pattern would get lost, but that wasn't the case.

These got finished just in the nick of time, because guess what arrived today?

May's Knit Love Club package. Some gorgeous yarn (Spirit Trail Fiberworks Sunna in "In Dreams"), a beading needle and a week package of purple beads. What you can't see from this shot is the rest of the fiber content: 75% SW merino, 15% cashmere, 10% bombyx silk. Excuse me while I swoon...