Well, Hello There!… again…

It’s been a long time coming, this post. I’ve been distracted by a number of things, most especially the need to address a health crisis of my mom’s – she is 88, and we’ve come to a point where she just can’t live all alone in the home she loves, but where none of her kids are nearby.

Yeah, I suppose it could be argued that it’s partly our fault – we followed our lives to places hundreds, even thousands of miles away, but they are our lives, and that’s where they are. We’ve been suggesting strongly for several years that it would be great for Mom to live nearer to one of us, but y’know, ya can’t tell ‘em anything. Wanted to have her close by before it became impossible for her to live alone…

Well, it came to that point at the end of October, and it took till just before Christmas to find her a place near me that would take her kitty, too. This group-home, residential-care-world is a whole new thing to me; amazing how many there are, amazing how regulated and yet still so different, amazing the range of abilities/disabilities/attitudes of the residents… I know for certain that I could never, ever run one, but I do have some opinions about the ones I’ve seen so far, which I’ll save for another day. Along with the story of transporting a 14-pound cat in an airline-approved carrier far better suited to a gerbil-sized pet. (He appears to have forgiven me.)

So Mom is here now, about 7 miles away instead of 800. There are definite advantages in this, but there are also some extra constraints on my ability to blog, to knit, to just contemplate projects, or my navel, or whatever… I wake up in the middle of the night and fret about things like when is the new supplemental medical insurance going to kick in, have we done the right thing, what if, how come… And still, it’s great to know that I’m going to take her to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit tomorrow – I’m going to find her a place to get a pedicure and take her there soon – we can take her out to dinner once a week – I can go with her to her medical appointments and be her advocate – there are things we can do now that she’s so close that we just can’t do when it means a 12-hour drive or getting on an airplane.

I just wish she’d stop saying she’s going home next month. But she’s determined… And ya can’t tell ‘em anything.

On the knitting front, Christmas has come and gone. Photos of the things I made for Christmas:

A manly pose for some manly mitts for my nephew… (“Hulk LIKE puny human’s baby alpaca Aire mitts! SOFT!”) (I think Devyn is a natural hand model, don’t you?)

And the lovely mitts for my nephew’s lovely lady… And yes, the single stripe was intentional. Mostly.

Love this infinity scarf, and the niece who received it. Here modeled by my darling daughter.

Lovely blend of silk, merino, and cotton – fiddly to work with, but great drape. And the scarf is very long for my lovely tall great-niece!

It’s kinda subtle – do you see it? There’s one on each end of the scarf. Grafting. Ick.

I do love knitting things for other people. I love the whole process of deciding what they might like, of making something especially for a certain person based on something about them. I love the feeling of thinking about them, of wishing happiness for them (maybe it’s even like a prayer) with every stitch. Especially for those who may have been having a rough time, I hope they somehow feel all the love that is knitted into their scarves, mitts, hats, etc. It’s my way of sending a hug, a pat on the back, an encouraging smile. I hope they “get it.”

The blue scarf’s subtle pattern is adapted from Knitty for Dr. Who’s dishcloth pattern. The other two scarves were my own creations – the infinity scarf did seem to take infinity to complete, but almost every knitting project has those moments – the mitts I love because hey, NO THUMBS! I also did some mittens for my mom in the baby alpaca Aire – so soft, so warm! But I forgot to take a photo… And I whipped out four pairs of (thumbed) mitts for my niece, her husband, son, and sister-in-law – also forgot to take photos, but they were remarkable mostly because they didn’t get them till January 21. For my great-niece, I made a slightly different pair, based on a character she uses in her animation:

Harley’s giraffe mitts!

And for my cousin Karen, who has gone so far above and beyond for me and my mom and the rest of the family, I made a Hitchhiker that I hope perfectly matches her coloring and her suede jacket… Each stitch of this beauty (I’m pretty proud of this scarf, actually) represents a thank you and a blessing. And I’m not one to throw blessings around willy-nilly.

Sadly, there’s no way to crop out my baby-blue camo pj’s and still see the lovely 42 teeth…

Finally, my niece who is an actor was in “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” at Madison Square Garden this Christmas season (cool!!!). While I was doing mitts, I was inspired by her costume and made her these:

Mitts a la Trixie Who…

Currently, I’m working on my first pair of toe-up, two-at-a-time socks. Got them about halfway done and realized they were gonna be way too big for a human, and I also probably wouldn’t have enough yarn to get past turning the heel… Pulled them out and started over. Upside of that is that I think I really know the Judy Becker magic cast on now. Brilliant! Love the yarn, it’s the stuff I bought from Fishknits back at Lambtown (seems so long ago!) – the color is Forest Creek, Strong Heart 2-ply fingering weight.

Love self-striping yarn! Love the YO-K2TOG little holes, too!

My daughter is coveting them, which makes me happy… and will probably eventually make her happy, too, when I give them to her. Because that’s what moms do.

The problem with blogging while knitting for Christmas…

So I’m pretty sure that the people I might be knitting gifts for don’t actually read my blog, but one can’t be too careful. So that means that I can’t discuss what’s occupying my mind.

I decided at the outset to avoid politics, so that part of my brain consumed by the election will not appear here. That leaves family stuff, which for the most part is private (though I’ll never miss an opportunity to link to my daughter’s blog, Good Day Howard), and (mostly) what I’m knitting, or planning to knit, or worrying about knitting… And since from now to Christmas I probably won’t knit anything for myself (poor Kate!), that means I have, basically, nothing to talk about.

Unless I do this:

I’ve actually finished _______’s _______, except for weaving in the ends. I hate weaving in ends, but there are only ____, so I guess I’ll do that in the next couple of days.

Started ________’s _______, had some design issues and now need twice the amount of yarn that I bought and also, coincidentally, that is available on the face of the earth. Checked Ravelry to see if anyone has some in their stash that they want to trade or sell. Guess what? LOTS of people have it in their stash, and not ONE. SINGLE. ONE. wants to get rid of it. This yarn is SO pretty, people buy it just to keep it around and pet it. So yeah, I picked a great yarn. Go, ME!

________, somehow sensing that I’ve already purchased yarn for the _________, has suddenly completely changed ___ hair color. Not a little. A LOT. I’ve decided it’s going to be okay.

That’s about as specific as I can get.

In other news, that isn’t all that new, because it was a month ago, I got to take a day off from the Cafe and go to Lambtown! This fiber fair takes place in Dixon, CA, this time each year. Last year I only got to be there for under 2 hours, at the end of the day. Not much fun. This year, I was there from 10 a.m. to almost 3 p.m. – got to circle the main exhibit hall three times, and saw different things each time!

Got to see the “Sheep to Shawl” competition outside pretty much from beginning to end, though I don’t know which group “won” – seems to me getting to participate in such a great group effort would be enough of a win. Three teams, each consisting of one carder, 4 spinners, one plyer, one weaver = Three Beautiful Shawls. Love the name of one of the groups – “Weft to Our Own Devices” – Hahahaha!

“Weft to Our Own Devices” – hahahaha! They do beautiful work!

Bought one little new toy – a punch needle. Kind of a miniature rug needle, or giant Russian embroidery (igolochkoy) needle – great for stash-busting, using ends of skeins, and making a beautiful, strong fabric suitable for purses, seat cushions, coasters, and a really stunning, unique vest. Una Walker, of WoolyWalkers, was very helpful!

Punch Needle – I have yet to try mine, but this nice lady sat down and gave it a whirl. This is the back of the work.

The red vest is AMAZING – and all the rest of the stuff is pretty fantastic, too!

Got to play with a loom for a little while. I actually hope I’ve staved off my yearning for a loom for just a little while longer – really want to get to at least “proficient beginner” on my spinning wheel before I take on anything else (except aforementioned punch needle). Here’s a picture of the nice lady (Robyn) who let me weave a while on the loom in the photo. She’s from Meridian Jacobs, who apparently do, well, everything.

Fighting the urge to get a loom – not sure how much longer I can hold it off…! This is Robin from Meridian Jacobs.

Spoke to some spinners, but not in any detail. They always look so peaceful, I hate to interrupt their reverie. Plus, I feel guilty about that baby alpaca that’s been languishing on my wheel for so long. If you’re learning to spin, don’t start with baby alpaca fleece.

Ran into several fiber friends, including one of my idols, Joan McGowan-Michael, of White Lies Designs, in her booth. We hatched a plot for a knitting group, which I need to follow up on. Upon which I need to follow. Follow up upon which I need to… !!!!!   I gotta do something about it.

Knitting idol Joan McGowan-Michael and dear friends Leigh and Cecile. Knitting makes people happy!

Towards the end of the day, I finally stopped at the booth with the REALLY bright yarn – it actually took my friend Leigh to make me look and see how really great the Fishknits colors were. And the young man in the booth was a great salesman, standing there knitting the best pair of toe-up two-at-a-time self-striping socks and telling us about the yarns and some of their names. My favorite was the sock yarn in shades of pink, grey and black – “Baby’s Got a Dark Side.” They have an Etsy shop, be sure to check it out!

Leigh and the wonderful Billy from Fishknits! LOOK AT THOSE SOCKS!!!

Bought some of that yarn, and some other yarn,…

Shaggy Bear Farms, in Scio, OR – more stock on the farm than people in the town. Sounds like my kind of place…

and a beautiful pattern (Little Sparrow Shawl, from Kira K Designs) for which I will now need to buy more yarn, and then there was some more yarn… Oh, and I got some yarn. You know, each skein doesn’t really weigh very much, but by the end of the day, my big ol’ knitting bag with the incendiary political statement on it was REALLY HEAVY. I really need to learn how to tell myself “No.” Someday.

Lambtown celebrates everything about sheep – sadly, this includes how darn tasty they can be. I kinda hate to admit it, but I LOVE to eat lamb. Vegans, close your eyes. Herewith, a photo of a pretty tasty lamb kabob. Poor little lamb… yum.

So yummy…

LYS – your Local Yarn Store

I love the feeling of walking into a good yarn store – it’s like a big “ahhhhhh” that flows all through your mind and body. Something about the colors, the fiber, the general zen-ness of it all. Maybe it’s lanolin hanging in the air – maybe it’s the mellowed-out knitters, the camaraderie – maybe it’s the sense of possibilities, of creativity, like the big 64-color crayon boxes of my youth.

Can’t say I get that feeling entering a chain hobby store that carries yarn. It’s just not the same. The good independent local yarn store has something they just don’t carry – it’s called “passion.” It means that the person at the register actually knows something about knitting and fibers and can help you with a problem – and is willing to do so. It means carrying natural fibers, in colors someone would actually want to wear.

It means that there are classes, knitting groups, a sense of community – not just yarn and needles and patterns and books, but a real resource for encouraging your passion and improving your abilities.

I like to see organization in a yarn store, too, particularly when it comes to displayed samples – I might fall in love with some little sweater or scarf that’s hanging up in the store, but that’s no help if it’s not labelled to identify the yarn that was used, and maybe even the pattern or the source of the pattern. But I’ll overlook the lack of a label if there’s a store employee who can and will answer my questions!

My problem when I get into LYS nirvana is that I can be completely overwhelmed by the possibilities. I go “tharn” a la Watership Down - (omigaw, I go yarn tharn!) and have to force myself into action. This can lead to impulsive choices that seem okay at the time, and then days later (when I view them in the cold light of my home) seem absolutely insane. Or dull. Or just “what was I thinking?” – Any of these can then lead to yarn buyer’s remorse. And an ever-growing stash of skeins that may or may not ever be knitted up… Of course, none of this is the fault of the yarn store.

Here are a few LYS’s that I know and love:

Babetta’s Yarn and Gifts: It’s a bit of a drive, cuz it’s in a part of town that just doesn’t seem close to anywhere else I go in town, but it’s worth it. Babetta herself is very nice, the place is packed with beautiful yarns, notions, buttons, books, patterns, and TWO comfy areas in which to just sit and knit. I say this, but I have yet to actually go there and “just sit and knit” – cuz I’m a little shy (no, really!). But I’ve made a promise to myself to actually do that within the next six weeks. There’s a coffee/latte/tea shop IN the store! There’s also a little area for kids to play. And Babetta does a newsletter, Gustine and Maya do classes,… Knitter happy!

Rumpelstiltskin: Right in Midtown, so it’s really easy to get to, and in a nice location next to a couple of art galleries and a tea shop (all kinds of English goodies – yum!). Everything is labelled, type of yarn, pattern, cost to make… Linda is very organized! It’s a tiny shop, crammed with yarn, roving, books, patterns, notions. And I love the name!

Had to stifle my burbling devotion all through class – it’s the honest-to-god Yarn Harlot!

A Verb for Keeping Warm: Okay, I will admit I don’t get the name of this shop, but it is a beautiful place to be. Wonderful people, a great little shop doggie, and it is where I got to meet and take a class (and a photo!, above) with my knitting idol, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot)! They have lots of classes here: sewing, quilting, dyeing, knitting – probably more. It’s a $56, 98-minute train ride for me, which may limit the number of times I can go there, but will NOT eliminate it from my list of favorites. Kristine blogs, and tweets, and the larger scope of the store doesn’t take away from the luscious yarns they carry. And if you look at their website, you’ll find they’re into all kinds of lovely natural fibers, dyeing, spinning, and they even have their own dye garden in back where they grow the plants to produce the natural colors… (And there’s a wonderful “hipster” cafe right next door, where I got the best brownie I’ve had in my life – and I am pretty old, so that’s compared to a lot of brownies…). I flatter myself to think that A Verb for Keeping Warm is like the store I might have had if I’d actually studied textiles in the Bay Area in the 70′s like I wanted to before my second divorce… coulda woulda shoulda. I’m glad Kristine followed through!

Yes, I did take a bite out of the brownie before the delicious sandwich. I’m a grownup, I can do what I want…

Tempe Yarn and Fiber: Oh, what nice people! This shop is in my home town in Arizona, so I only get to go there when I visit my mom. But I manage to fit it in every time, because it’s just such a pleasant, relaxing place to be. They have classes, and a big table where you can sit and knit – I fear this will never happen for me at this store, since it’s pretty much impossible to go somewhere else to knit if Mom is sitting at home waiting for me… They also have looms, and weaving classes, and, God help me, I can feel myself sliding in that direction. I have to get better at spinning before I do anything else, though……  TYF is also a very charitable store. They were the organizers of a project I’ve mentioned before, the DanDoh Hugs for Japan, for the tsunami victims. And they also promote and provide Knitted Knockers for breast cancer patients.  And finally, this store is where one of my favorite “small (knitting) world” stories happened – I was there, buying too much Marina (why? I don’t know – yarn tharn?) and they asked if I wanted to be on the store mailing list. Well, I usually don’t, but this time, I decided I would. They handed me the sign-up sheet, and there was just one other customer name on the page – it was someone I went to high school with – 40 years ago!  I said, “I know this woman! I went to high school with her!”  And they said, “Well, you can say hi, she’s sitting right over there!” What are the odds? Neither of us actually live in Tempe anymore. Very cool – interrupted her class, hugs all around, knitters all smiling… So, another reason to really like Tempe Yarn & Fiber.

AND, just yesterday, at the end of a wonderful lunch with my daughter and her godmother Jamey, I discovered a new friend, The Tin Thimble. Not right in town, but in a great location in a converted fruit packing shed that is now a great restaurant, a nursery, candle shop, gift shop(s), art gallery, and, most importantly, fiber heaven… The Tin Thimble is a self-described “little creative sewing shop” – beautiful fiber for spinning, felting, etc., great fabrics, buttons, vintage sewing patterns, new sewing patterns, sewing and felting classes, jewelry, silk scarves for dyeing, dyes, and on, and on,… They have an Etsy presence. They blog. Large area for classes, a super creative vibe, and really welcoming. Although the emphasis is definitely on other fiber arts and crafts rather than knitting, I’ll be going back there… intrigued by the dyeing of silk…

The Tin Thimble – delicious!

Should I mention an LYS that I sorta liked, but didn’t really love, and now they have closed? Not that MY feelings about them killed their business – but maybe my experiences were shared by others… Not naming names, but the store was run by a woman who, while a very sweet person, didn’t actually KNIT. She had a knitting machine. She was a crocheter (is that a word?). Okay, maybe I’m a bit of a knitting snob, but I think a yarn store owner should be able to KNIT. And maybe if she’d been a knitter, she’d have known that she needed to stock all the sizes of needles, and display them so you could find what you needed. Seemed to have a lot of trouble with technology – debit cards, email group lists… And I got the feeling that she started the business on a shoestring (haha), since the store was teeny-teeny-tiny, had no place to sit, hardly enough room to turn around, really, and no bathroom. Definitely not a spot to hang out. And now it’s, well, gone.

Here’s hoping you find or have found your own knitting nirvana spot in which to revel, commune, commiserate, or just sit and knit… Where it’s cool in summer, cozy in winter… There are refreshments available, help if you need it, new things to explore, and beautiful, natural, inspiring fiber…

And if you find one with a wine bar, I’d really like to know about it…

Waiting – Yay!

Most people really don’t like it when they have to wait for something; when the doctor is running late, or they have to go to the DMV, or they have to get to the airport 2 hours ahead of their flight. Knitters, on the other hand, love a nice wait. It’s a perfect excuse for knitting right in the middle of everything!

Of course, it’s best if it’s a seated wait, but if we’ve planned ahead, we’ll have something that can be worked on even while standing (another reason to love socks!).

Anyway, how wonderful to have a period of time where you’re clearly making the best of things by knitting – great on a plane or a bus, doctor/dentist/optometrist’s office, kids’ sporting events, hospital waiting rooms (I wouldn’t actually wish anyone I love to be in a hospital or having surgery, but knitting through it is very therapeutic). I consider knitting to be my “non-prescription Valium.”

It keeps the hands and (part of) the mind occupied and produces something of value – very important when you have so much to do and someone is “wasting your time.” My mom, who doesn’t knit, gets pretty bent out of shape every time she goes to the doctor and they leave her in the examination room for “forty minutes!”. A: I don’t think it’s really 40 minutes, and B: If she had knitting with her, she might even be a little sad when he finally shows up.

I’ve taken to carrying my knitting with me when I leave the house. I have several different sized bags – the huge one which also happens to have an incendiary political statement stenciled on the side; the medium one that is very low key, but still big enough to stuff a scarf or even a lace shawl into; and the small one I made myself (felted), which can easily hold a sock, yarn, etc., and besides, it’s so cute!

My little felted knitting bag. Love the magnetic closures – hated sewing them in.

So I do need to take a moment when I leave the house to decide how long I might be gone, so I know which project, in which bag, to carry with me. There was that one time I thought I had a simple nonstop red-eye flight home from New York – had just a small project with me, a little DanDoh scarf that was to be sent to Japan as a gesture following the tsunami. (I bought the yarn in a yarn shop in NYC – but that’s another story…). Anyway, nothing else to knit. Well, I was planning to sleep a bit, so it seemed like that would be plenty. NOPE. Six hours delay at the gate, but we were on the plane. SIX HOURS. And I had nothing else with me to knit. NOTHING. And this was before I had a smart phone, too, so I couldn’t even browse Ravelry (which I can happily do for hours…). They let us off the plane for about 20 minutes at some point – WHY isn’t there a yarn store in every airport??? I finished the scarf. Then I had nothing else to do but sit there and try to stifle my silent screams of anguish throughout the flight. ALL THAT WASTED KNITTING TIME!!!

So now I tend to put more yarn than I will ever need into my bag. And extra needles. And the instructions for the next project I’m considering… Just in case. Here’s a little list of other things you might want to keep in your bag:

• Scissors (I carry small kitty-nail-clippers, just in case I have to go through security – photo below)
• Tape Measure
• Crochet hook (to pick up dropped stitches. I know, I never do either, hahaha)
• Waste yarn (something bright, and enough to put your project onto in case of emergency, like a broken needle, or a TSA agent who doesn’t know you can take your needles on the plane…*)
• Nail file
• Row counter (in case you might get interrupted and have to jam it all in the bag…)
• Instructions for your current project (and the next one…)
• Stitch markers (regular and locking)
• Small notebook to note any changes you make in your project
• Chocolate (shouldn’t there always be chocolate?) (I leave it to you on how to keep it all from becoming chocolate knitting…)

Pretty sure I got these at a big chain pet store

That’s it for today. Oops, here’s a shot of the completed socks from last time:

Working on another pair now – LOVE these.

Next post: The all-important LYS….

* Incidentally, it’s never happened to me, but I did once hear a lady say she had to take her project off the needles because an agent said she couldn’t have them on the plane. So I ALWAYS print out the TSA info online that says knitting needles are okay – I print this when I print my boarding pass, so it has a current date on it. Just In Case.)

Matching Self-Patterning Socks…

I really like sock yarn, for a number of reasons.

One, it’s generally pretty affordable. A couple skeins of sock yarn isn’t going to break you.

Two, it’s an excellent choice for “souvenir yarn”, that yarn you buy because you’re visiting somewhere and you must visit the LYS (Local Yarn Store), or you won’t have any idea what the place you’re visiting is really like. You wouldn’t want to buy a “large project” amount of yarn, since you can’t easily go back to buy more (if you run out), or to return the extra skeins you buy (so you don’t run out). So, a couple of skeins of sock yarn are good for something you can knit up pretty quickly (before you forget where you got them – maybe even while you’re still on the trip!) and then you’ll have a useful souvenir of your visit.

Three, it’s usually available in some pretty interesting colorways and patterns. Now, here is where we get into a tricky part about sock yarn. I’ve used some self-patterning yarn in the past, with varying degrees of success. Here is a little project I did that I would call less than successful:

Photographing knitting projects is an art… sometimes it’s just a LIE…

I had several skeins (looks like it might have been at least 3, probably 4) of this great kind-of-ugly self-patterning sock yarn. I wasn’t knitting socks at the time, just wanted to see how it was to work in that weight and scale (smaller needles). One thing led to another, and I just started the mindless, long, long, loooong, zone-out kind of knitting. Ended up with a scarf (tie? muffler? noose?) about 6 inches wide and 7 feet long.

Sadly, the sock yarn doesn’t have enough body to make this scarf practical. It’s too narrow, and since it’s primarily stockinette, it also tends to roll itself into a seven-foot-long 2″ tube. Yes, I did work garter stitch on each edge, but it was clearly not enough to keep it from tubing itself. Most unsatisfying. What’s really incredible about this (scarf?) is that the pattern actually appears to have come out just about right so that the ends actually match. I have NO IDEA how that happened. Obviously, the pattern wasn’t meant for a scarf – it should have been knit up as socks, then it would probably look more uniform. I am seriously considering frogging the thing and actually making socks out of it. What a concept.

I am ambivalent about self-patterning yarn – when it works, it looks like you’ve really accomplished something, when all you’ve done is go round and round. No special counting, no charts, no joining, no keeping track of every row and stitch, and no massive amounts of ends to weave in. It’s ingenious – and kinda sneaky. I love the convenience, I respect the planning that goes into the making of the yarn, and there’s no way I would actually knit a pattern in socks that would require that much end-weaving-in. Or any, if I could get away with it. But I do feel just a little guilty about the whole self-patterning thing.

On the other hand - it can be pretty difficult to get TWO socks to come out THE SAME. Well, for me, anyway…

I knitted this sock.

Incidentally, knitting in the late summer at a coffeehouse with your daughter and a lovely cool cider – Priceless!

[I haven't finished the toe yet - same issue as last pair, I'm just not confident that I have enough yarn to get all the way to the end of the second toe, so this time I'm planning to use some wildly unorthodox color for the toes. My daughter, Good Day Howard, suggests orange. I'm not sure...]

So now, I needed to find that same place in the yarn pattern to start the second sock. I determined this by closely inspecting the previous and following colors and combinations of colors at the beginning of the sock and in the remaining yarn. I noted that there were 12 distinct colors/combination changes in the pattern, and the celery appeared twice. I noted that the pattern from the top of the sock went celery-grey/celery-grey/white-pea-moss-white-celery-pea-etc., ending in white-grey/white. I looked at the yarn before the celery color at the top of the sock in the long-tail remnant and determined that it was a grey/white combination, then looked for a grey/white, then celery portion in the remaining yarn. Bingo! There it was!

Celery – grey/white, meet celery – grey/white!

Now, I thought the hard part was over. HA!

I checked and re-checked, and checked again. Once I made absolutely certain that I had the right spot to start my second sock, I moved the first one onto a piece of waste yarn (still need to pick a color and do the toe), and picked up my needle to cast on the second one. But, WAIT! Where do I start my Long Tail cast on in order to make sure the celery stripe is four rows long; not 3, not 5, but four rows long? Otherwise, the stripes will not really match, don’tcha know!?

Oh, crapski!

I do love the Long Tail cast on for socks – stretchy, simple, and with ribbing, the top just looks very pretty. But how would I know where to start the thing to match the length of that first stripe?

It took quite a while. I love Downton Abbey, but I watch it with subtitles because sometimes I need them, even though everybody is speaking English – so working out a knitting problem challenge while watching is probably not the best idea… did it anyway. I tried trial and error, which was mostly error. Time-consuming error, because casting on 64 stitches may sound fast but it really isn’t, especially if Mary or Sybil or Bates are having a difficult time of it, and you miss the dialogue and/or lose count and have to rewind, or start over, or recount. And if you do it enough times, you begin to lose your sense of humor about the whole thing.

So then I checked the Internet to see if I was missing something about figuring out how long the Long Tail should be. Huh. Nobody seems to have a very clear idea. Of course, they’re not trying to hit a particular teeny-tiny spot in the yarn (I tied a knot in it where my first stitch had to be) at the end of the 64 stitches to be cast on. Because they aren’t crazy.

Crazy? Heeeyyyy, maybe Math is the answer! I cast on 20 stitches, pinched the end (beginning?) between my fingers, pulled the stitches off, then measured the amount of yarn it took to make those 20 stitches. It was 22 inches! So I divided 22 into 20, which is .91. So that’s the ratio of stitches to inches. For me. On these particular needles. With this particular yarn. Last night.

Multiplied .91 times 64 stitches, and it would seem I needed approximately 58.24 inches of yarn to make 64 Long Tail cast on stitches. Gets a little tricky to say here: Take the 58.24 and divide by two, for 29.12 inches. I measured from the little knot to a point 29.12(ish) inches down the yarn, and made that the very starting point of my Long Tail cast on (the place between your thumb and forefinger where you first place your needle). And darned if it didn’t actually work. None too soon, either. I was out of Downton Abbey episodes.

Okay, then. Here’s the best part. If we plan this ahead of time, we won’t have to do the math or spend the evening casting on repeatedly to hit one tiny particular spot! Here’s what we’ll do: Wind the self-patterning yarn into two 50g balls. Look at the first skein of yarn, figure out where we are in the pattern – then find the corresponding spot in the second skein. Then, use whatever cast on we prefer, but somehow MARK the starting point on both pieces of yarn. On my next pair, I plan to cast on both socks immediately and set the second sock aside.

I can’t begin to express how happy this makes me…

Perhaps I will frog the weird scarf/noose thing and that will be my next pair of socks…

Socks… specifically, Toes

I don’t know about you, but my toes are not symmetrical. My feet are not shaped like most socks, or even like most sock-knitting patterns. I have a left foot, and a right foot. Like shoes. Huh.

So I was thinking the other day, why don’t socks follow the curve of my toes? Is it because then we’d have to look first before we put them on? Is it because it would mess up the evil plan of all those folks who suggest that you only buy one color of socks, so you won’t have to match them at all when you take them out of the wash? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I got to the toe section of that sock I was knitting in my head* at work last week (when things at the cafe get stressful or too hot or slammed, I imagine I’m sitting somewhere knitting; last week it was the sock). Anyway, when I was really knitting it at home (you may recall, the sock for which there was almost enough yarn in one skein – did I do a swatch I don’t remember? not likely), after I changed to the purple and charcoal yarns held together, and started the toe, I decided to do a little research on why sock toes don’t look like people toes.

One of the rules in my house has always been “There’s always money in the budget for books.” So I have a nice little library of knitting books. I didn’t look in every. single. one., but I checked a few that talk about socks. I looked at a lot of sock toes. They were all symmetrical, except for the toesies (you know, the ones like gloves for your feet). I haven’t graduated from fingerless mitts to gloves yet, and I’m certainly not ready to try that action on something as non-standard as my pinky toes.

So I sat and gazed at my feet for a while. I observed that, at least on my own feet, the big toe is reasonably straight up from the foot, while the tops of the other toes form a slanted, somewhat curved line from the little toe up to the full height (or length) of the big toe. Well, here, it’s kinda like this:

Better or worse than the real thing? You’ll never know…

Forgive the graphic – it’s a bit crude, but not as crude as actually putting a photo of my toes on the Internet. My daughter (Good Day Howard) made me promise I wouldn’t do that.

So anyway, given that description and that graphic, why would we routinely make toes that symmetrically reduce on both sides? Round toes, star toes, origami toes, wedge toes… every one I looked at did that! To my mind, that would mean there’d be a big empty space over the last couple of toes to form a lump in your shoe, or there’d be a too-tight area on the big toe – and maybe both of those things would happen. Well, I decided that this sock would be different.

Elizabeth Zimmermann (Knitting Idol) “unvented” stitches, techniques, etc., with the thought that probably many, many other knitters had come up with them before her. I’m sure that people must have made socks that follow the contour of the toes more closely. Seems to me that back in the days before pantyhose we had stockings with feet that looked more foot-like. (Yes, I do remember the days before pantyhose. Or should I say “tights” now?)

So – with my 32 stitches on each needle (I like to use the Magic Loop for socks, and anything else circular), I did a regular Classic Toe (usually: K1, ssk, knit to last 3 sts on needle, k2tog, k1), but only decreased on one side of the foot, until I was about halfway up the big toe. I also eliminated the 2nd row of plain “Knit” usually called for in the Classic Toe, to allow the decreases to be more definite and follow my own foot more closely. (I tried a couple of double decreases on one of the socks – it was too much and caused a lump, which has mellowed after washing and some vigorous tugging, but it wasn’t really necessary, so I don’t recommend it.) You might find it helpful to put a locking stitch marker on the “decrease/little toe” side, just to keep it in mind – I need that kind of reminder, myself. And PLEASE – make sure you’re not making two right socks, or two left socks. I don’t want any nasty emails.

Once I was halfway up the big toe, I started doing the decreases on both sides of the foot, but alternated decrease rows with “Knit” rows only on the big toe, to allow it to decrease more gradually. I tried the sock on about a million times while knitting it, to keep it as close to the contour of my toes as possible. Last few rows, decrease on both sides, every row. Gauge how much decrease you need as you go. Good reason to knit barefoot. And if you’re knitting for someone else, how about a picture of their toes? Or, sit with them and drive them crazy trying the sock on repeatedly. Whatever they’ll put up with…

Keep going till you have only 16 stitches, 8 on each of the needles. Graft, weave in ends, and enjoy your custom socks!

And now -

Voila! Absolutely individual, custom-fit socks!

Next time, because I’ve started another pair of socks today, I’ll be exploring the joys of trying to make two socks with self-patterning yarn that actually look alike…

* Knitting in my head – I tweeted about it. I don’t think anyone saw it. Oh well. @uptownknitting

Knitting Idols

Listing “idols” can get you in trouble – not only with readers, but with yourself. Let’s just say that today, these are my top three idols in the world of Knitting, for a number of reasons.

First, the immortal and beloved Elizabeth Zimmermann, the Mother of Modern Knitting, the Goddess who came up with the Baby Surprise Jacket and the Pi Shawl, who made knitting logical and enjoyable, a veritable Julia Child of Knitting. I am in awe of her vision, her contributions to knitting, fiber, and publishing, and her empowerment of knitters, all while apparently retaining a wonderful humility. “Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises.” – EZ

Second, Joan McGowan-Michael, author of Knitting Lingerie Style and contributor to My Grandmother’s Knitting, owner of White Lies Designs. Joan has done what we all want to do, and then some – she knits for a living! What could be better! She designs, she teaches, she is published – and she’s a real live person who I actually know, who comes to our Cafe with her lovely family. Her designs are lovely – feminine, flattering, scrumptious things. Okay, I’ll probably never knit myself a bra and panties (because honey, the world just isn’t ready for that), but Joan made me realize that if I want to, I can. Those, and lacy camisoles, and bed jackets, and all tailored to fit me. She understands the female body (used to design for Fredericks of Hollywood, no less), and she also understands that not all knitters look like fashion models. Go figure (ha ha). So she teaches classes in how to fit your knitting to you. Yay, Joanie!

And last, because she deserves the emphasis, I am in complete awe of the Yarn Harlot. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, big-K Knitter, blogger, author, philanthropist, and kick-ass bicyclist. She’s kept me up late at night laughing at her spot-on depictions of the knitter’s life. Her comic timing, in print no less, is impeccable. I have rationed her books, not allowing myself to buy all of them at once (the last will arrive sometime this week – joy tinged with anxiety). The Blog is like going to a knitting group and having wine and laughs and empathy with oh, hundreds of people all over the world. I even love her Tweets. I was disappointed when I found she isn’t actually on Facebook – yet – but kind of glad because really, how many hours can she have available for that?

Recently Steph (may I call her Steph? I feel like I may) completed a 600k bike ride (Americans, that’s about 372 miles) from Toronto to Montreal (Friends for Life Bike Rally) – to raise money to help people living with Aids/HIV. She and her team did a phenomenal job of raising donations, and Steph kept the Blog involved all through her training, falling, worrying, figuring out how to take knitting on the bike, the ride itself, and after… The Blog responded by donating beyond all expectations, and Steph raised over $52,000, her team totaling over $162,000. Wow. She also started Knitters Without Borders, which raises money for Doctors Without Borders. Knitters Without Borders has raised $1,102,556 to date, since it was started in response to the tsunami disaster in December of 2004. Wow.

She makes knitting seem not only cool, which it is, but normal, which some people might try to tell you it’s not. She validates my feeling that really, all I want to do is knit, and why is all this other stuff getting in the way – but by doing so, she makes me realize that yeah, I guess the other stuff needs to get done, too. Let’s just not go overboard with the dusting, okay?

AND – she put the greatest little sock “pattern” (instructions, really, that I can memorize and use forever) in her book, Knitting Rules. And here is my little sock:

“Little blue sock, little blue sock,…”

My little blue sock, for which there is apparently not enough yarn in this ball… Oops. Which means there’s probably not enough in the other ball for the other sock. So last night, I decided that I will make the toes a different color. I wonder if that isn’t why some socks have different colored toes, anyway… Regardless, this pair of blue/charcoal socks will have purple/charcoal toes, because they’re my socks, and as the Yarn Harlot says, “There are no knitting police”!