purlsandmurmers

Just in Time for Winter

Boot-liners or leg-warmers, whatever you want to call 'em they're done.

I've been wearing them all day, just in time for slipping, sliding, shoveling, and tramping about in a mixture of ice and snow and rain.

Geesh, I love winter. (not) Or at least I don't love this part of it.  I love it when the world is transformed by snow, in those precious moments when time seems to stand still and the world is a vision.  That part of winter hasn't happened yet.

Anyway, these are a little longer for this particular pair of boots.  I was hoping to share them between a few pairs, including the tall boots I wear out when it is REALLY yucky.  

On the other hand I just found the perfect yarn for another pair.  But not right away.  I must get back to my sweater.  I wanted to wear it yesterday.

Bird of Paradise Socks

I lost interest in fiber-related pursuits for a short time there.  Partly this was just because life got in the way, and partly because I felt myself to be on hold.  I didn't want to start anything new and I didn't have the time or patience to work on finishing Passel or other projects that are awaiting final assembly.  But I didn't even work on simple projects like my socks or another baby hat. 

Even knitting seemed like too much trouble, and it is rare that I fall into that void.

Luckily it did not last long, although I haven't started the next sweater yet.

The Bird of Paradise socks are done and I love them:

The next project is started, another small one.  And I am thinking about knitting again so a sweater will follow shortly.

Escape with sock

We played hooky from routine today and took a drive up to the Berkshires.  G drove and I knitted on the Bird of Paradise sock.  I am still entranced with  the colors and patterns as I knit although I am not yet convinced that this is a pair of socks I would have chosen to wear had they not arrived in th mail. That is the joy of joining; sometimes you get unexpected surprises.

This is also my first pair of ribbed socks and they feel a little loose and bulky on the foot.  I assume this is due the stretchy nature of the sock.  I think they will be perfect with my gardening boots, which is very appropriate as the colors seem to speak to me of the garden.  They are happy garden socks.

They actually remind me of those trays of cut up vegetables that surround bowls of dip at parties, but "crudité"  does not sound like a good name for socks so I have decided to stick with the official moniker of "bird of paradise".

As we drove I noticed that they actually reflect many of the colors of the leaves this fall.  There are many yellows and oranges, and there is still a good bit of green in the trees, but the socks are really too bright to call them "autumn in the Berkshires" besides which, in a normal year, one where there is perhaps more rainfall, there is much more red in the autumn colors.

The first sock was finished as we pulled we made a pit stop at a small town gas station.  I wove in the ends as G pumped the gas.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to honor the occasion with a photograph:

They do coordinate nicely with the car, don't they? 

The socks have resurfaced

I finished knitting the final sleeve of Passel Wednesday very late Wednesday night.  I refused to go to bed until it was done even though my head was falling back on my chair between stitches on the bind-off row, luckily my stitches stayed on the needles, the needles remained firmly in my hands, only my head rolled around willy-nilly. 

Of course that determination meant that I had nothing to knit at knitting group/class Thursday night.  And since I didn't start looking for a project until about 5 minutes before departure, the odds of my successfully gathering the necessary tools to start something proved to be quite low.  I had a few plans.  There was yarn that I didn't feel like winding.  There was a pattern for which I needed to buy yarn.  I bought the yarn and discovered I had the wrong needle.  Bummer.

Luckily there was a sock languishing in the bowels of my knitting bag.  Summer is not sock knitting time for me, but now that there is a promise of crispness in the air, socks seem like a possibility again.  At first I was reluctant, but now I am happily knitting away...hauling that sock around town today, sneaking a stitch here and there.

Still, I think I really need to make an effort to get those sleeves on the blocking board tomorrow....there are still ruffles to knit after all.  Then, done with white, I can truly delve into color.

Blue Sock Two

In my normal distracted, scatter-brained, and bordering on chaotic life, I find that linen does not make for the most portable of knitting projects, no matter how much I enjoy the wearing of the resulting finished garments, either sewn or knitted.  Linen yarn seems to resist all my attempts to remain wrapped in a ball, and it possess a powerful self-attraction, not being able to resist the urge to grab itself and form complex tangles and knots.

It seemed wise therefore, for the Thursday's spell of sitting-and-waiting, that I bring along those tiny size 0000 needles and start the second blue sock.  I actually do enjoy knitting it, aside for the two difficult rows, first the yo, k2tog row where I create the picot edge, and later the row where the initial cast on is knit with the live stitches on the needle to form the hem at the top of the sock.  These, try the patience on such small needles, but they were accomplished without incident.

I even continued knitting the sock into Thursday night.  The darling husband was entertaining himself in front of the TV and I decided to join him.  It was not long however before I was dangerously close to the point of bored desperation.  Luckily G decided to go look something up in some other corner of the house and I was left in control of the remote for a few minutes.  I figured that even a few minutes of mindless entertainment bliss would be welcome so I switched the channels.  G is a charming sweetheart, but how anyone can sit and watch the weather channel for hours continues to confound and amaze me.  I know he is not unique.  I know several highly intelligent scientific types, renowned in their fields who also drive their wives to distraction with their affection for "local on the 8S".

But I digress.

As I flipped the channels I was thrilled and amazed to watch a wall of sea water pouring through the streets of Manhattan.  I picked up the needles and knit in absolute fascination, the needles clicking furiously as the citizens of New York climbed over cars trying to escape the wall of water. 

Have I mentioned that my knitting movie standards aren't always particularly high?  I don't want a movie I actually have to think about when I am knitting, and certainly The Day After Tomorrow was obliging on that point.  I think it is a movie that would not stand up to much scrutiny, but it was more than adequate for background entertainment value.  I might even be able to watch it again and actually see the beginning.   Even G was easily sucked into watching (maybe it was that giant weather vortex that got him) even though I offered to let him change back to the land of endless weather maps.   So we watched through to the end and I got easily got through another inch of sock-knitting:

One Sock

You might not recall that I had started a sock o these many months ago.  Indeed I myself had almost forgotten.  But wanting to knit last night, but desperate to knit anythng if it did not require picking up stitches around the neck of the rice stitch cardigan, I happened upon the blue sock.   And so, dear reader, I finished it.

I admit I am very happy with this sock.  The fit is fabulous.

The top is a little short, I could have knit it longer, but I seem to recall that I was afraid of running out of yarn.  There was plenty left so this was obviously not a worry.  It is a fabulous sock.  I would wear it today because it seems like fall has once agan returned to the Hudson Valley, or perhaps early spring, but alas I cannot because I have only one sock, and I have not cast on the for the second.

I shall cast on, but not until I finish the rice stitch cardigan.  Perhaps I will finish the second sock by the time sock season returns again, if it ever leaves that is.  Sock knitting on size 0000 needles is proving not to be my favorite form of entertainment.  I might like it better if someone would make shorter needles in a size 0000, but alas, it does not seem to be so.  The final rows of a toe on four teeny tiny eight inch long pieces of metal is an exercise in frustration which is not recommended for the faint of heart, or those who have had a glass of wine with dinner.

Blue Socks

Well I finished the pink and blue bombolo sweater last Thursday and I STILL haven't gotten it sewn together.  As a result I will not allow myself to start on the lovely dark brown cashmere, because once that luscious yarn starts to run through my fingers I am a gonner I'll tell you, a gonner. 

Actually knitting has only been done in snippets or on trains.  Seaming is not an appropriate train activity. Large volumes of cashmere might not be an appropriate train activity either as the Metro North Hudson Line trains leave much to be desired; they are a trial to be endured rather than a welcome sanctuary at the end of a long day.  There are times when I can definitely understand why the majority of my friends would rather drive to NYC than take the train, and there have been times when I would agree with them.

So I have been working on the socks, the ultimately portable project, and I have been enjoying the knitting, except for one tense period when I discovered I had dropped a stitch I could barely see 5 rows back and had to attempt to pick it up.  Mission accomplished and progress continues, albeit slowly.  AT 9 stitches and 15 rows per inch, this is not my fastest project.  But it is calming even in snippets.

I just love it when the sock finally is done beyond the heel and it looks like a sock:

I tried a different technique with the wraps on the short row heels and I am not sure I like the look of the line they created.  But then I couldn't see to do my normal method so that wasn't going to happen.  Remember "perfect is the enemy of good" and all in all I am happy with the sock so far.  I love the way the self striping yarn worked so perfectly in the heel, almost as if I had planned it.

Meanwhile, I am hoping for a quiet evening at home and a chance to sew up the sweater and start something new.

Laughter fills the house

When I came home and showed G my new pedicure and my new pedicure socks, he burst out in uproarious laughter, it rolled through the house like a wave and brought a smile to my face.  After all, I understand that he doesn't understand why I would paint my toes in the winter-time, so why should he, a mere man, understand the point of toeless pedicure socks. 

Glamorous they are not; but they are warm and fun, bringing a smile on my face as I hurry through the sharp winter wind.

The socks were knitted using Artful Yarns Reality in color 2391.  Each sock took a little under one skein, probably not enough less than a skein that I could finish a sock (with toes) with one skein, but it may be close as the ribbing takes up extra yarn. 

The pattern is the pedicure socks pattern from Knitty, loosely followed, and I like them very much.  I like them so much in fact that I might consider knitting a pair of real socks out of this yarn.  The finished sock is about the same weight as the double-knitted wool socks that I purchased to wear with my work boots and these are so much more fun.  Every girl needs pretty stripey socks to wear with her steel-toed boots don't you think?

This is probably the last project for 2006.  I have packed knitting projects for the trip to Tennessee, and even though I packed two projects, I don't really believe I will finish one.  I had also hoped to finish up the two UFOs from earlier in the year before leaving, but I spent too much of the weekend saying yes to last minute requests by various family members and friends, both near and far, so that I was driven to distraction doing things I didn't really want to do and had no time for my own projects.  I must learn to say "no".

The two UFOs will become 2007 projects just by virtue of having been sitting around and loafing much of 2006, much like their creator. 

Have a very merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a great week if you don't celebrate, and may everyone have a happy New Year, just in case I don't post before then.

Quick Winter Treat

I can't make up my mind which of my large needle projects I wish to begin next, the one I will take with me to work on in the car and during our visit with grandson Owen. 

In the meantime, I think I can finish this quick project:

A warm cushy pair of pedicure socks out of a new yarn by Artful Yarns called Reality.  I was really just inspired by the color, and the cushy feel of the skein. 

They would probably be done had I taken with me to NYC on Tuesday.  But I was determined not to lug around a heavy tote during the holiday crush that seems to grip midtown and so I took the hydrangea socks instead; if I am lucky I might have gotten another inch knitted on those lovely size 000 needles.

Blue-Violet

Remember the hydrangea sock yarn I wound a few weeks ago and left languishing in my knitting bag?  It came out of hiding this weekend.

I needed a project to work on while we watched a movie on Saturday.  We were watching Amarcord, which neither one of had seen and we both felt we SHOULD see it.  And so I thought that socks would be the perfect accompaniment. 

I was wrong on more than one count. 

First of all, although we both expected heavy symbolism and lack of plot, we both had trouble with Amarcord.  I suspect that I must blame my distinctly non-intellectual, sappy romantic leanings for my disappointment.  Although the film showed love for the characters, as a whole, I found it incomprehensible.  But then again, all the people who recommended it to me were young men (back when I too was young) and perhaps it taps into some kind of male adolescent angst to which I am completely oblivious.

But the sock, the sock, what about the sock?

I intended to knit the pattern that came with the sock yarn, hydrangea sock but found that the pattern was difficult to perform on those tiny size 000 needles, what with the yarn overs and knit two togethers.  This was especially true while watching and Italian Movie with English subtitles.  What may have been marginally incomprehensible completely lost me if I looked down at my knitting.

So basic stockinette was the order the of the day, and I am quite happy with the way the socks are turning out:

It is difficult to capture the colors on film, those purples and violets are so elusive.

I am knitting from the ball.  If you recall I had trouble winding this skein into a center-pull ball, got the yarn all twisted and generally made a mess of it.  When I started knitting I generally got all wrapped in yarns and twists and general mayhem, so I actually spent most of the movie rewinding the yarn from the center-pull ball into a nice round, hand-wound ball, from which I am knitting quite easily.

I expect the second skein will go better, since Theresa wound that one and she was much more clever at speaking the yarn's language.

Most of the sock knitting accomplished so far was actually done on Monday night, while I watched the new season premier of The Closer.   The story was a bit of a stretch, the writers seem to be trying awfully hard to find new story lines, but it was entertaining and rare is the program today to which I actually have to pay attention.  Simple stockinette socks were the perfect project.