A Change of Plans..... Again!

   It happened while I was swatching yesterday. You see, the day before, while looking for my size 8 circular needle, I came upon some Malabrigo sock yarn, in black. I have four hanks, so there's plenty for whatever I want to do with it.


    So there I was, swatching, and suddenly my thoughts wandered to the Malabrigo. Suddenly I wanted to make the legwarmers out of sock yarn. Then they wouldn't be so heavy, but they would still be warm.


    I then searched out my tiny little circulars. Those I have in 16 inch lengths. I found the one I wanted, size 3, and set to work casting on for a swatch. I figured I'd better swatch because I have no idea how many stitches I will need to go around my foot. It quickly became obvious to me that working with a 16 inch needle was not comfortable. I don't have one in a longer length. Then I remembered that I have a set of size 3 double points that are about 10 inches long. I got those out, stuck point protectors on one end of each one, and voila! I had myself a pair of straight needles of the desired size.


    The last thing at this point is light. I forgot that with black yarn, especially black sock yarn, it's difficult to see the stitches unless you have a bright light source. I will have to turn my work light up to the level of the sun. But it's doable. Excuse me, I need to get back to my swatch. Here are some photos:

First up is the ribbed pink swatch progress:

 Second is the black sock yarn swatch:

 

       Ooooo! I just remembered something that is a great idea, and will totally work with this project!! Like sweater sleeves, I can knit both legwarmers at the same time!! That should eliminate the "second sock syndrome", only with legwarmers.... 

Happy Dance!!

 

 

A knitting disaster and more

   I had one of those yesterday. Remember that sweater I was knitting with Malabrigo sock yarn? "Boxy" it was called. Well. There I was sitting at Karate with my good buds Kim and Jan, knitting away. I stopped to straighten out my knitting.


    You see, it's very curly, and sometimes I think I may have twisted it when I joined it. I was very careful when I joined it, I laid the whole thing our and made sure it was straight before joining.


    Well. It turns out that it wasn't straight. I've been wasting my time, this whole time, knitting away on something that now needs to be completely frogged. Kim was horrified. Me, not so much. I really wasn't in love with it anyway. But now I still have four skeins of black Malarigo sock yarn, and one called Azules.


    I went trolling on Ravelry, looking for sock yarn sweaters. I only got six pages. There were a couple I liked, but I am soooo not in the mood for knitting four flat pieces and sewing all those fracking seams.


    Then I went to Knitting Pattern Central. They also had a couple of interesting looking sweaters. But in order to see each sweater, you have to click on the name of it. As I was looking for sweaters made exclusively with sock yarn, the going was difficult to say the least. I was paying attention to the yarns called for in each pattern.


    I now embark on a mini-rant. WTF is with these designers? Not a single one tells you what weight yarn they used. That's all I want. Oh, and a large range of sizes is good too. That's for my friend Kim, that's her current beef. There was even one sweater that the pattern was only in ONE SIZE, and it was small. I mean, in reality, how many real adult, mature women are a fracking size small??


   In desperation, I went back to Ravelry, and widened my search to all sweaters. I looked at sixty four pages before gving up. Even there, there were patterns written for only one size. To be fair, one was written for an XL. But still.....


    OK, now I feel better, thank you. Well, this changes things. Now I will go back and work on Sara's sweater again, hopefully I will be content with that.

Road trip in the snow

    Today, I was bored. I was knitting and making a little progress on the Boxy sweater, but it's a boring knit. And did I mention that I'm doing it in black? Ultra boring.


    I was text messaging with my friend Kim, and it turned we both needed a break today. I had an itch to go up to Tivoli and visit Fabulous Yarns. By early afternoon, she was ready to join me, and off we went! It was snowing pretty good by then.


    We got there, and the whole place was in total disarray! It seems they are in the process of moving to a store just down the block. After we left, Kim and I went and took a look at their new space. We are both very excited, it looks like it will be a bigger, and even more awesome place! We may have to go back after the move is finished, just to check it out. 


    I bought another skein of Malabrigo sock yarn for my Boxy sweater. I felt the black needed to be interrupted, or I might go Kamikaze on myself. The new yarn will make a nice wide stripe of multi-shaded denimy-blue goodness in the middle of the black hole of Boxy. Woo hoo! So I'm home now, and back to knitting. It's still snowing, and I'm bored again...

making progress

    Well, once the correct size borrowed needle was delivered, I finally got to start casting on all those stitches. After 150, I needed to stop and make lunch, or I would've starved to death. After lunch, I carried on.


    I decided to place a stitch marker every 50 stitches, and double or triple count each section before moving on to the next. I even counted all the stitches again, while doing the first row. It was K1 P1 ribbing, and the first of three rows. Only one section had the wrong stitch count, there were 51 stitches in there. When I got the end of that section, I just K2tog. And that took care of that.

    I knit my way through almost the whole three rows of ribbing, before going to visit Kim and Cherub at Karate late in the afternoon. By evening, my yarn holding finger started to hurt. I am not used to using sock weight yarn. By bedtime I had close to an inch of knitting done on this sweater.

 

    I started with doing the first two rows of ribbing back and forth, rather than in the round. I'm just not comfortable joining the two ends together right away. I usually do two or three rows, then join and continue in the round. Then later I use the yarn tail from the cast on to stitch up the short seam. It works for me.

Knitting news

    For the past few days, I've been in funkytown again. I've not even wanted to knit or anything. My bestest knitting friend Kim suggested I look on Ravelry for something new to work on. As you know, I've been working on the same sweater pattern for a while now. Essentially, I've made the fracking thing almost four times. Well partially, anyway.


    I believe it is indeed time to put it down for a while and start something new. All afternoon yesterday I looked and looked. I couldn't find anything. So I thought I should take a look through my stash for inspiration. The first thing I found was that I had four hanks of Malabrigo sock yarn, in black. So I went back to Ravelry and looked at sweaters made with sock yarn. Then Kim suggested I might want to try Boxy, designed by Joji Locatelli. After looking at it, I decided she was right. So I purchased Boxy from Ravelry.


    Now I just need to explain to my beloved daughter that her sweater was depressing me, and needed to go into solitary for a while. Hopefully she will read this, and understand. Of course, this also means that my second one will also be put aside...


    To top it all off, I don't have the right size needle for this sweater, or I would have cast all those 390 stitches on last night. But once again, Kim is coming to my rescue and loaning me one of hers. Hopefully I can hold out until lunchtime....


    Reading that last paragraph reminded me; I don't think it is correct to use the term "casted on" when referring to knitting. I believe it is correctly called "cast on", even in the past tense. If I'm wrong, please inform me. That term was one of the reasons I stopped following another blogger. Oh, and her insistence on calling it "Raverly". Please re-read yesterdays post. (it seems to be getting worse as I get older...)

   

    

Go Big or Go Home

    I wonder why I was surprised about having to abandon plans A, B and C... I have never liked working on a small scale. Before I started knitting again, my hook of choice was the N size, which is pretty big. Big enough that when you crochet with it, you usually use two strands of worsted weight yarn.


    I like the instant gratification that comes with crocheting with a bigger hook. You can make so much progress in so little time! It's perfect for satisfying that creative urge.


   When I started knitting, I was willing to work with small needles. But it turns out that sock or lace weight yarn is just too darn tiny for me to see the stitches. Especially in black, and in my house. We keep my house kind of dark, since my Hubs works the night shift, and sleeps during the day. Minimum light works best for this.


    A few years ago, I crocheted a shawl, it turned out to be most awesome, and it was HUGE. Of course, I used a bigger hook than recommended. Now, I am fairly tall, at 5' 8". When this shawl was done, and I wore it to Rhinebeck last year, the point actually dragged on the ground.


    I recently gave that shawl away, and made a new one, which turned out smaller. I love it just as much. I haven't yet had an opportunity to wear it out, but I am looking forward to it.  Stay tuned to watch me make a fool out of myself over and over again. It seems that it's inevitable. But I hope it's at least fun!

Change of Plans Due to Epic Fail

    Well, I tried. I really did. I cast on all those 301 stitches, really loosely so it wouldn't be too tight when it was done. I was about halfway through the second row when I realized I was beyond my skill level. So right in the middle of the row,  > gasp < , I put it down.


    You see, it's kind of dark in my house. I figure if only I could knit outside, where it's nice and bright, I might be able to do this project as planned. The dark makes it very hard to see the black yarn stitches, and the fact that the stitches are so small doesn't help matters.


    After thinking about it the rest of the evening, and then again this morning, I have decided on an alternate plan. First, I will wind up the (possibly) Tip it Ewe Lush, and try that for the cob web border. It might be easier to see, and the black can still be used for the body, as it's all stockinette with decreases.
   
    If that doesn't pan out, I do have a plan C. I will forget about the black all together, and use some beautiful natural that I have somewhere, in one of my stashes. I am pretty sure I have more than 1000 yards of it, so it will do.


    A wiser knitter than myself pointed out to me that it was brave to try and use black for this project, it turns out I wasn't brave, but foolish. I remember when I bought it, I was planning on making black socks. I doubt that will ever get done either. I will probably crochet something with it, if this plan B doesn't work out.


   The stitches are still sitting there, glaring at me on the needles. I can't bring myself to frog them yet.

  

In Which I Go Stash Diving!

    Yup. Today I went stash diving. I was looking for something specific, a pair of crocheted pot holders that I had made for my MIL and that we got back when she passed away. I wanted to show them to Kim, my knitting buddy. I couldn't find them. I've looked all over this house and still can't find the stupid things.


    However, while stash diving, I did make a very interesting find! I pulled out a skein of  > gasp <  black Malabrigo sock yarn! Then a second. Then a third! And OMG there was a fourth! I was in sock yarn heaven! Much to my surprise, I also pulled out a skein of AtKnitsEndYarns sock yarn too! I'm not sure which colorway it is, but as it's dark red and black/brown, I think it might be Tip It Ewe Lush. It's probably a skein she rejected as not "perfect", I am the luckiest minion on the planet, to know a dyer who gives you her "failures"!!

    This discovery got me thinking, I could make another Arachno Shawl, by Jennifer Dassau!! A black one! I think I could also work in the Ewe Lush, between the cobweb edging, at the beginning of the main body.


    So I got out my swift and ball winder, and started winding. I did two of the Malabrigos for now. If I can get the edging going without any mistakes, I will wind up the Tip It Ewe Lush. So there I was, casting on 301 stitches of sock yarn on a size 7 circular needle. I put stitch markers every fifty stitches, because hanging around with someone who can't count seems to have rubbed off.

    As you can see in the above photo, one of the little buggers gave me a harn time while I was winding him. That's why the left one is so small, and why I'm using it first.


   I have completed the first row of the cobweb edging. It's a bit difficult working with the black sock yarn, as it's hard to see the stitches because they're so small. This may take a while.

    I love going diving in my stash, I never know what goodies I will find! Somewhere in there are the two big hanks of Lace weight, one natural one back, that I bought at Rhinebeck last fall. And who knows what other goodies I've bought and forgotten about!! It really is like Festivus in July! So watch this space for photos of my progress, if I dont' have to frog and start over....