Kiss My Knits!

The moment every mother who knits enjoys the most. Em picked these to wear tonight. My child voluntarily chose to wear something I knitted for her.

“I’m going to wear these on Christmas Eve AND on Christmas Day!”

Yes. Totally worth the effort.

Edited to add: It’s the next day, and she’s had the socks on since last night. She’s just gone in to take her bath and folded her socks neatly and put them on her bed. “I’m going to wear my socks again after I take my bath!” I think I may have created a smelly-footed monster.

FO: Holly Jolly socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Bare DK weight superwash merino handdyed by me
Pattern: Made up
Needles: US3/3.25mm
Gauge: 6.5 sts=1″


Notes:

Dyeing this yarn was a test run for my Yarnomatic ™. It’s basically a bunch of lengths of PVC pipe which I can combine in different ways, Tinkertoy style, to drape the yarn around in various configurations. This was one gigantic hank, longer than I am tall, acid dyed using cold pour and then steamed on the stovetop. I’m pleased with how this turned out. The color repeats are about 3 yards long for the red and a bit longer for the green. It striped up just as festively as I hoped. So festive, in fact, that it’s tough to get a good shot of the finished sock that doesn’t blow out the red and make the green look blue. The “in progress” one probably has the most accurate color.


This was knit toe-up starting with 20 stitches and increasing to 44. The heel was an afterthought heel, great for preserving the pattern in self-striping yarn. These took 160 yards. The ball band calls for a size 5 needle but I’m a loose knitter. I think I could have gotten away with knitting them on a 4, but I wanted them to be sturdy.

My daughter is enthralled with Christmas, so my father suggested this would make something nice for her. She agreed. The bad news is that she has big feet for a kid, at 9 inches long and 8.5 inches around. The good news is that she likes ankle socks. These are very thick and I think they’ll be good for sleeping and lazing around the house.

I’m thinking over what else I might like to do with 84 yards of Holly Jolly yarn.

A 24″ circular US3/3.25mm addi turbo knitting needle, sadly bent. I put my knitting down beside my recliner, leapt up, and apparently caught the needle between the footrest and the chair body when it slammed shut. Oops.

Another precious addi bites the dust. I’m hell on needles.

Knitting up my handdyed Holly Jolly yarn as thick socks for my daughter. 48 stitches on size 3, gauge is 6.5=1inch. It’s a bit dense on 3’s – if I were someone else, I’d take it to a 4 or 5. Stripes at this gauge are 6 rows long. I’m loving this and want to dye more ASAP.



It’s Thanksgiving. You can’t go wrong with the back o’ the can Libby’s recipe. ‘Nuff said!

I hope you and yours are having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

ETA: My mom mentioned that my pie crust looked extraordinarily even. She’s right – I used a frozen crust this year! And let me tell you, that crust added nothing to the pie. I won’t be using storebought again. There’s a balance between timesaving and skimping, and this crust crossed over that line!

S’mores socks
Yarn:Knitpicks Memories in colorway “Smores”
Needles: Two circular US 0 / 2mm
Pattern: MUMTU toe-up pattern by Zhenya.
Design: Beaded rib from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.


Comments:
This yarn was a gift from my friend Turtlegirl76 who gave it to me after I ogled it in her stash a while back. It’s been in my stash long enough to be discontinued by Knitpicks. It’s quite soft.

The MUMTU pattern is hands down the best-fitting sock pattern I’ve ever used. This is my second pair of socks with it and I predict many more to come. It’s customizable to any number of stitches and that it’s toe-up, which is my preferred construction. I’m a loose knitter, so I did 70 stitches on size 0 needles, which fit my 8.5″ circumference feet just fine.

The five-stitch two-row repeat pattern was very easy to memorize. Once a few rows had been worked, I didn’t have to pay too much attention to it, so I could read or do something else at the same time, which is always nice.

I had to eke out bits of time here and there to knit these rather than tackling them all at once, so these were knitted mainly in waiting rooms over the course of months. I had jury duty earlier this week and finished up the leg on the second sock while waiting around. Unfortunately, I was so keen to finally be done that I eyeballed the length wrong and bound off the second sock a few rows sooner than I should have. D’oh! Oh well, you can’t really tell when they’re on, and they feel fine, so that’s all that matters. Since the mistake was made while at the courthouse, I may rename these my “Justice is Blind” socks.

I was pleased with how these turned out. I’d use both the MUMTU and the beaded rib patterns again. Onward to the next pair of socks!

Let’s say you’re out and about, and you see someone engaging in the activity pictured at the right. Maybe you haven’t seen someone do that before. Maybe your grandmother used to do this a lot, and you want to talk to me about it (I get this a lot). Maybe you want to learn how but don’t think you’ve got the patience (that comes up a lot too). What’s the first question you ask? If you’re like some idiots, it’s this:

“Did you crochet that whole thing?”

Buh… I… whu…

I don’t mind that they called it crochet. Most people don’t know one needlecraft from another, so that’s not a big deal. It’s the second part. Did I do the whole thing?

No. I did not do the whole thing. In fact, I mail ordered 2/3 of a completed sock and walk around pretending to knit it so that I can impress people. Now that you’ve seen through my cunning ruse, I’ll have to send off for something else. Maybe a half a tapestry.

The other part of that is that it’s a little insulting. I can hear the “all by yourself?” on the end of it. As if somehow it’s beyond human comprehension that little old me could have completed this eighth wonder of the world.

Of course, given the number of people who see me knit the Jayne hat over and over and think I’m working on the EXACT SAME HAT every single time they see me, for months on end, maybe that’s not such a crazy idea.

Of course, I just smile and answer their questions, because anytime you knit in public, you’re like an ambassador from the magical land of Yarnia. You want to put your best foot forward in case someone ever decides to visit. Secretly, of course, you can wish that some people would just stay home.

Can you say “plateau?” I knew you could. Weight loss has slowed to the barest crawl. I thought I’d have more time to exercise when Em was back in school. Instead, I’m running around more than ever, and am more tired. I lack the energy and motivation to exercise as vigorously as I did before, when it was a special treat that I stole time for wherever I could. Hopefully now that the first week is behind us, I’ll be able to slack off on the errands and calm down into a routine.

Also motivating: posting your weight loss or gain for the entire internet to see. Yikes.

Next up on the “just for me” front, which doubles as a stashbusting exercise, are these socks. These probably won’t go too fast, as I have an awful lot of “just for everyone else” knitting to take care of.

This yarn is Knitpicks Memories in the S’Mores colorway. It was a gift at least a year ago from Turtlegirl76’s voluminous stash. Reminder: she’s selling off a buncha stuff. If you’re on Ravelry, check it out. She adds new stuff periodically. I see she’s got some Blue Sky Alpaca Silk up that would make a fantastic scarf. Branching Out, anyone?

Okay, back to the salt mines. The hubby’s off for the night, gone to visit his folks and ride in a bike thingie with his dad. Lest anyone think I’m working too hard, childcare tonight consists of watching Road Runner cartoons and eating pizza with my daughter. Beep beep!

Pattern: Zhenya’s MUMTU sock recipe
Yarn: 225 yds Louet Gems, handdyed by me with acid dyes
Needles: size 1 US
Comments: These had a 60 stitch foot to fit my 9 inch circumference, dropping to 56 for a standard 2×2 rib on the leg. I’m a loose knitter, so I never get a really tight gauge even on smaller needles than would normally be used.

The toe-up gusset method is my new favorite foot construction. These fit me SO much better than a standard short row heel. I’d recommend this pattern. Its ability to plug in whatever numbers you like would be especially helpful for those who don’t care to do sock math.


I dyed this yarn going for a random speckle effect. It was straight blue acid dye, blue mixed with black, and blue mixed with a little red, keeping the same base and varying the shade. I’m pleased with how this turned out.

It’s nice to have a new pair of socks, since Em’s really taken to walking to school. We went up again today, and saw two gray and white housecats, a flock of geese, and a dead Junebug. Also, from Em: “I stepped on an ant. The other ants are going to come and take it back and bury it.” Aw.

Em wants to walk home, too, so I’ll be hoofing it back up to the school this afternoon. It’s about 7/8 of a mile from the house to the school, so it looks like I’ve got a new form of daily exercise.

I’m pretty sure I have to make these. TOO CUTE! They’re from Knitted Sock Sensations. I’ve been weeding my shelves, so I can probably squeeze in one more knitting book.

Later on, I’m planning to up pictures of some of my bookshelves and if you want something for a token fee plus shipping, then let me know. I was going to make this post a very long entry with all of that in it, but it’s still cool out, and my husband is back from his bike ride, so it can wait. This is my opportunity to get out to the Greenway and run. I can clean anytime – I have to seize any opportunity to get out and exercise!

When I dropped Em off this morning I hung around for a few minutes to watch her play. They were doing a pickup game organized by the coach before camp, white shirts versus colored shirts. Em basically wandered around on the field, intently doing her own thing. At one point, someone kicked the ball in her direction, but she wasn’t paying attention. It actually hit her foot and deflected off as she kept walking. Em may be having a good time, but she’s not ready for a team. Of course, I don’t think I would have liked to be on a team at her age. Or, really, ever. But she wanted to try this, and she’s enjoying herself, so in my book it’s still worth it.

Today they do their kiddie version of the World Cup Finals. They’ve been having little games all week. Em’s on Team Argentina, who are getting their tiny butts kicked. Well, it’s not whether you win or lose, right?

I decided that as my next “not for anyone but me” project, I’d knit up some of the handdyed from the dyeing session last month. I’m doing two at a time, toe-up, because I’m not entirely sure I’ve got enough for a long pair of socks and I don’t want to be in the position of being oh-so-close on the second sock and running out of yarn halfway down the foot.

This is a very speckled yarn, so I’m thinking just a straight stockinette would be best, so as not to obscure a pretty pattern in all the variegation. What do you think?

If I dyed this the way I meant, then there won’t be any pooling or flashing. I knew it would give some really short repeats, but this may be a little too high-contrast for short repeats to not look confusing. Eh, I knew it was iffy when I was doing it, but as I say, it’s all about the learning!