Pagewood Squiggle Socks

This is a test knit. It is only a test. If it were an actual knit, ummm...I'd make the second sock?

This is a great pattern. Ravelry link. I finally found something to use this yarn for, and it's the third, I think, pattern I've tried. The yarn is MAX sock yarn, a German yarn I bought off of eBay a while ago. I've had four skeins of it forever and just haven't found something that looks right for any of them. This sock, with this yarn, looks smashing. The yarn is thin too, so the fact that there's more stitches in this one than I usually use is a good thing. I knit the pattern as written to test it, but I usually make some changes to socks. So, I'm going to rip and reknit to fit my foot better. I just can't bear to do it yet.

Changes I will make:
1. Shorter cuff: .5" instead of 1.5", because I like shorter cuffs (or even no cuff) when the design itself is ribbed.
2. Longer leg: I like my legs to be 6" before the heel flap; this one is 5". I might not have enough yarn though, since it's an 88 st pattern, so I may leave it at 5".
3. Longer heel: I like my heels to be a bit longer to fit me better, so I'll be changing that.

Love the pattern, and I love how the squiggles are positioned at either side of the foot instead of just blindly placing the heel flap. The little things like that make me happy.

Christmas in...March?

Here it is, finally, an FO post for my evil Santa Hanger. It has been finished for awhile now, but I hadn't taken any pictures of the finished piece until just recently.

This project angered me quite a bit. Twice, two color symbols for shades of the same basic color were switched in the key, once with greens, once with beiges. The kit did not come with enough of two different colors, white and green-ish, three, if you count the fact that they expected you to have another full length of the red to tie up the tassel with. Then, I had to go and get some felt to finish the back and sew it up. Took forever! But, it is finally finished, and very much lovely. Or something. I think I shall bring it in to work to dress up my desk for the holidays. I need to buy some magnetic hooks, big ones so I can hang my coat and umbrella on the side of my bookcase, and small ones for things like the Santa hanger for on the cubicle divider.

Ta da!

Kit: Random Santa Hanger kit I bought from eBay
Materials: Everything in the kit plus some white and green-ish thread, and a piece of felt for the backing.
Timeframe: I don't even know. Years? I bought it...oh, freshman year of college? Sophomore year? No idea. It's been in the works for at least a couple of years though.
Mods: None, followed the kit instructions exactly.
Problems: Lots! Dirty linen, messed up color chart, not enough thread, not wanting to pull out the thread to fix the chart errors, and then tension errors on my sewing machine once I got that up and running.

I like the tassel on the hat. I hate the big tassel at the bottom, but I think if I get it wet and let it hang dry, it will look better.

Tales from the Crypt

Or Kitchen, rather. I think I've mentioned before that the flour here is...odd. At first I thought it was the humidity, but that just can't be the problem. Everything, and I mean everything, requires a whole heck of a lot more flour than in the recipe. Sometimes nearly double. So now, I've just been liberal in my use of flour. A little bit too liberal, if these last cookies are any indication:


I wanted chocolate chip cookie dough. So, I made some, had a little, then went to bake them into, well, cookies. Due to time, lack of desire, and lack of clean utensils, it took a couple of days before I went back to try to bake the cookies. The dough felt a little strange, but tasted fine. Now, however, the dough is a solid mass of very dry...stuff. Since there's no water or milk in this recipe, I did not want to add either of those. The internet said egg whites are a good moisturizing component to add if necessary, so I added a whole egg. It did the trick! I baked the dough, and, well, it looked more like muffin tops than chocolate chip cookies. And they tasted more like flour than like sweet cookies. This was a problem. This was a problem I could attempt to solve.


I made delicious frosting to cover the cookies. A bit decadent, frosted chocolate chip cookies, but they needed some sweet to make them more palatable, and who doesn't like frosting? I made a variation on my grandmother's frosting recipe, which is pretty much the Decorator's Frosting from Joy of Cooking. 1/2 cup of shortening to 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 - 4 Tb of milk and 1/2 tsp of flavor. The powdered sugar here comes in packets of just over 2 cups, so I used an entire package, put in 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of shortening, to make it a bit richer, creamier, and more flavorful than straight shortening, and 1/4 tsp of vanilla with 1/4 tsp of almond. Or is it 1 tsp of flavor, so 1/2 tsp of each? Either way, I used the recommended total amount in Joy of Cooking, half of each flavor. Hmm...I use half of the recommended powdered sugar and shortening/butter, but all of the flavor...it tastes great! I used 2 Tb of milk, just enough to make it spreadable, then left the cookies out for the frosting to harden so it didn't get everywhere when I packed them. The cookies themselves are based on the Joy of Cooking recipe, with some extra flour and another egg.

Everyone at the office loved them, and I almost wish I had kept them for myself, or made more! They were very, very good with the frosting. The cookie was not sweet but was very...dense and airy, if you know what I mean, so made an excellent base for the frosting, and the frosting was just heavenly. Lee doesn't eat such things, so it is much better that I can bring them in to work because if I didn't, I would eat it all, and that would not be a good thing!

AHHHHHHHH! Socks

I've had the fodder for this post since, oh I posted last. I just haven't sat down to write the stupid thing.

Hourglass socks. These are the most fiddly pattern I've ever knit, because of all of the purling and twisted cabling. I started these in November, to have socks to knit on during my walk to work. It got cold and the twisted cabling turned out to not be a good knit to work on when not fully paying attention to it. These socks have taken a lot of time and concentration.

I made a bunch of modifications, because by now I know what I like in a good fitting sock. I like a 6" cuff with a longer heel, so my sock legs are about 8.5" from top of cuff to bottom of heel. I like about 1" of cuff, depending on the design, and I love it when the different aspects of a design can flow into each other, like the leg to foot row of twisted stitches along the edge. As such, I changed the cuff to a cast on of 70 sts instead of 68 so I didn't have to increase later, and did a 1x1 twisted rib cuff, so that the twisted ribbing can flow into the twisted cables in the pattern. I kept the heel flap over 35 sts instead of decreasing to 34, and went back to a total of 70 sts down the foot.

I printed out a copy of the pattern to have in my purse, with all of my changes and taking out some unnecessary (for me) explanation to shorten the printout length. At least, I thought I put all the changes onto the printout...


All but the length of the heel flap, that is! For the first sock, I did it right. The second sock, however, was knit as per instructions. I thought it was a fairly short heel flap, but figured that since that was on the page, that was what it was supposed to be, instead of double checking it against the other sock or the numbers on Hedera, which is what I use for my heel flaps. When I finished the gusset decreases, I thought, "My, that took no time at all. Either that's wrong or I got a heck of a lot faster at this. Must have just been faster!"

That's two major warning bells, and not once until I had finished weaving in the end after Kitchenering did I check it against the first sock. I am still in shock over what I found and have not yet had the heart to rip it out back to the heel flap and re-knit it all. I do really, really want more work socks, so I'll have to get around to it sooner rather than later, but damn, to think I was finally, really, truly done with such a project and then to find out that no, I have to rip out all that hard work and re-do it...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Bibs!

The baby should be around shortly, and I think the package is with the mother. Maybe. I sent it late. Anyway, here are the gorgeous little bibs I made for my cousin's baby:


All of them were knit using the following:

Pattern: Modern Cabled Baby Bib

Yarn: Bernat Naturals Cotton - 3 colors, about .4 skeins per bib, in white, brown, and blue (tidepool, I think)

Timeframe: December 27 - January 25. Each one only took a couple of hours actual knitting time.

Mods: I slipped the first stitch of every row and used a crochet cast on to start for a more uniform edge.

Problems: None!

I loved these. Amazingly quick knit, add a cute button, and it's good to go. I'll probably make myself a million of these when I have kids (not anytime soon!). It's a nice interesting yet simple design, and of course, is made from machine washable cotton. Now I just hope I secured the buttons on tight enough!

Today's Conundrum

I am nearly down to single digits in projects. That's a big goal of mine - to get down to under 10 projects and keep it there. While I've nearly got it (about 2 more inches on a sock to go) I have a couple of test knits that will be started before I can finish anything else. Which means I will be back up to double digits.

The question: Finish the sock and enjoy the two minutes of reaching the goal only to have my joy come crashing down as I start something else, or start something else before I finish the sock so that I am down to single digits only when it can stay that way?

Ah, decisions, decisions.

Why I Hate Swatching

2 reasons - One is that most of the time, it's a waste. I don't make a whole lot of things that require sizing to be perfect. The few sweaters I make are better served starting the sleeve as the swatch. After all, by the time you've finished the swatch, you could be 1/4 of the way up a sleeve instead if you're right, and I've typically been right when I pick my yarn and needles. I also tend to knit a lot of socks, which don't require gauge, and other things like bags and blankets and wraps, which don't really require gauge either.

The other reason is that swatches lie, or I make the swatch perfectly but for some other reason it doesn't actually help with the making of the item. Take this swatch for example:


It's for my mother in law's cardigan. She wants a sexy, curve-skimming cardigan that can be worn with or without layers underneath. Something with, say 1/2" of ease and a ribbed mock-turtleneck type neck. Originally, when I was planning to finish it before coming to Japan, I swatched with three different needle sizes in the round, as I was going to knit it in the round and steek the front open to toss in the zipper. Now that I don't have the person who it's for here to try it on, I'm going to be knitting it in pieces and seaming it, so that if it doesn't fit for some reason, I can take it apart and fix it. You cannot fix a steeked sweater very easily, if at all.


It's so sad. I even carried the yarn 'round the back to make it all knit the same way I would be knitting it, using much yarn in the process. I blocked it too! Knit and blocked and done the right way, only to be wrong. Oh well. I must make another. I am not using a pattern on this one, else I wouldn't bother, but I shall do it right this time, so help me Bob!