Kiss My Knits!

Me: Look, Emily! What do you think?
Her: It’s nice. It’s soooo pretty.
Me: Thanks! You know, anytime you want me to knit you some socks, you can just tell me. We can pick out the yarn together.
Her: Aren’t you knitting me a shirt?
Me: … yes. Yes, I am.

Busted! Okay, back to the sweater. I’ve already had to lengthen the torso once to accomodate Tall Girl, I’d better finish it up if it’s going to get any wear this Autumn before she outgrows it. The original design is pictured left. The front is pictured right. Eh, close enough. I’ve just bound off a few stitches for the armholes, now it’s upward for another 40 rows. Besides, I have to finish this one off so I can make my dad’s Charlie Brown sweater. I’ll leave any “widen the torso” jokes until I can razz him on the phone. Love you, Dad!

This half of a bobbin of the blue wool that I dyed. The half on the left was spun at Simucon. The half on the right was spun at home. As you can see, I’m still not ready to spin evenly with a lot of distractions. At Simucon, I chose conversation over consistency, and it was the right choice.



This is the sock I was working on at Simucon. The picture was taken on the banks of the mighty Susquehanna. Knitting needles are permitted on planes, but if the screener chooses, he or she can deny them. I decided to put the sock on bamboo DPNs, which seemed less threatening than two long metal circular needles. I also put in a lifeline and brought a self-addressed envelope and book of stamps, in case I had to mail it back to myself. You can see that the lifeline is halfway down the foot. I got as far as turning the heel on the trip. Good progress! I also listened to Harry Potter on audio, finishing it just after returning home.



Table Rock, with Mother.
We were hoping for some nice cool weather. It was not to be. Instead it was 90 degrees. On the river, however, there was shade and a fresh breeze. We stopped as we walked through town to take in the air and be in the moment. Very calming. Here’s a view of Towanda from Table Rock taken in 1899. We would be about where that bridge crossed into town. There are more phone lines now, but the town is not really much larger, to my eye.

Next time, hopefully a post with actual events.

Yarn: SWTC Tofutsies
Colorway: 722 Stand on Your Own Two Feet
Needles: Two circs in size 0 US (2mm)
Gauge: 9.5 stitches per inch.

These were toe up with a short row heel, my preferred method. Straight stockinette with a k2p2 rib for the leg. My flipper-like feet are 10 inches around, but my ankles are 8 inches around. Because of this, the body of the foot was 72 stitches wide, but I decreased to 64 for the leg. I could probably have done 68 for the foot and still been okay – these are almost too roomy. I still have about half a skein of Tofutsies left over, so I could easily make a pair of ankle socks from the remainder.

I’ve only worn them one day, but so far they seem durable and soft. I’d use this yarn again.

I’m part of sock_kit_swap, a group of LJ users who were, as the name implies, swapping kits for knitting socks. Packages are supposed to go out in the month of June. Well, today, I got a package from Canada.

Eeeeee! My kit arrived! Pics and details under cut!

It occurred to me that since I’m now part of , I should probably put up some actual sock knitting content. I’ve been working on a pair of socks from Tofutsies. I haven’t bothered to remove the lifelines from the first sock. I think it’ll make it easier for me to match up the socks if I use that as my gauge of exactly when to turn the heel on the second one.

These socks are just plain stockinette with a short row heel and 2×2 rib leg. The yarn in these is so busy that working a complex pattern seemed pointless. These socks are taking forever because I only work on them intermittently. That’s fine, it’s not a race. Maybe by Autumn it’ll be done.

In the meantime, it’s Jayne hats and knitting kits nonstop. I updated the reviews page, which is now way too long, so I might have to cut some, much as it pains me. Oh, and a client asked for a “making of” on the Jayne hats, so I sent him some pics and such for his prop replica site. Here it is. Neat, eh?

Had a good time in Dragonrealms this morning. We’re trying to show Plat some extra love this month, so I was there running an event. Very fun! You meet the nicest people in Plat. I think I’ll make an extra effort to run another session this month. It’s very energizing. Or maybe that’s the orange mocha I picked up this morning to be sure I was awake enough for this. I guess if I crash in an hour or so, we’ll know!

Knitted up some of the cuff on the Tofutsies sock. Now I think I’ll have to put it aside – again – because there are things I need to make for other people. Sweaters, slippers, and of course, paid orders.

After looking again at the waistline on Emily’s sweater, I think I may just scratch the hills and make it a straight green/blue delineation. I’m undecided. Either way, the green does need to be higher. Of course, since she hasn’t asked about it or mentioned it at all, maybe I can put that off a little longer. Not too long, though. This kid ain’t getting any shorter.


I have a couple of purses for a lady in Huntersville in my queue. I am really not looking forward to these. I have to make tons of i-cord and sew plastic pony beads around the flap. Neither is what I’d choose to do, given my druthers. However, I told her I’d do it, so I will. Apparently the original purse was knit by a little old lady in Davidson who has since passed on who sold these at craft fairs. My client bought one, and her sisters have been admiring it ever since. She decided to get some for her sisters, so they could all have them. It was a nice story, and looking at the purse I could see it wasn’t rocket science, so I agreed to recreate it. Since I initially took this commission last summer (she ordered several, she picks them up every now and then) I’ve gotten more firm about saying no to commissions I don’t think will be enjoyable.

I made another teeny tiny project, this one weaving instead of knitting. It’s pretty cute. I can’t show it to you yet because it’s about to be stuffed into the jar o’ joy. Why was this jar so hard for me to fill? I am terribly late in getting this out, so today will be devoted partially to mailing things!

Well, it’s official. Drive has been cancelled after only four episodes. I had read that producer Tim Minear had plotted out a 13-episode story arc on the theory that his shows tend to get cancelled so he should probably find a way to wrap it up for the fans, just in case. And then he didn’t even get his 13 episodes. He’s quite talented, he just needs a better outlet for his talent than the FOX network. And of course, I feel for Nathan Fillion, who has the talent, looks, and charisma to be a huge star, but seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I’m still hoping he gets his big mainstream break.

Emily had a dentist appointment yesterday. One cavity. This time it’s not because of poor brushing, but because of weak enamel on a tooth. I choose to view this as a step in the right direction, as it means that we have the brushing under better control now. Emily has a baby tooth in front that could fall out any day, and she was paranoid that the dentist was going to pull it or knock it out. No worries, it’s still hanging in there – barely.

In my last entry, I mentioned I was under the weather. My husband took Emily to school by himself that day (normally we both do). Apparently Emily told him that when she got home, she would also feel sick in her tummy. That afternoon, sure enough, she ran into the bathroom. When she came back out, she said, “Oh no! I have spots!” As you can see in the pic, she had taken a ball point pen and given herself chicken pox. Then she went to bed and made her pouty “sick face” to really sell it. Heh. You’ll be relieved to know that a washcloth and some water cured the chicken pox later that night.


I finally got around to ripping back the heel of the Tofutsies sock and turning it again. It looks much better now. It just needed a few less rows in the body of the foot. For the leg, I’m thinking probably just a simple k2p2 rib. The yarn is so busy that any elaborate stitch pattern would be lost in the color.

Emily was out sick yesterday, so I’m a day behind on kit orders. I’ll be sending those out today. Also up today, hopefully finding out whether my co-leader will be well enough to join us on this Saturday’s Brownie Outdoor Skills Day. Yikes!

Hats up for: CA, NC, Ireland.

Every five or so Jayne hats I have to knit something non-Jayne or else I go insane. I’m sorry, but I defy anyone to make the same hat, no matter how cool, 400 times in a row without getting a little “All work and no beer makes Homer something something.” And so, I turned the heel on my Tofutsies sock. Unfortunately, it looks like I knit it a little too long. It’s doing this weird squared-off thing at the back of my heel that it really shouldn’t be doing. Fortunately, I put in a lifeline just before I started the heel, so it’ll be no trouble to rip it back, un-knit a couple of rows, and do it again. Then I need to bring it in by about eight stitches. That’s because while my feet are 10 inches around, my ankles are more like eight and a half. Thanks for the wide feet, Mom!

I actually am doing Jayne hats and kits while working on the sock, but all work is going more slowly than usual this week due to Spring break. My daughter’s home, and surprisingly, my eight-year-old doesn’t want me to spend all my time knitting. Go figure. Today we went to Discovery Place, a local science museum, and looked at the fish and watched a puppet show. Emily loves puppet shows. And live theater. When the show was over, she immediately said, “let’s hear it again!” Sorry, sweetie, it was the last show of the day. I promised her we’d go again another time.

It was insanely crowded. I had accounted for it being Spring break, but I hadn’t also thought that since it was Good Friday, a lot of parents would be off work, and want something to do with their child. Add to that that the “Candy Unwrapped” exhibit is visiting Discovery Place, and that the weather was a little cool, and all the factors combined into the perfect storm. This is why we usually go to the Charlotte Nature Museum instead. Much less crowded, and they do have puppet shows. Well, we still had fun. Any day that you get to pet an iguana is a good day.

Tomorrow I go with on a road trip to Odd Broads, which is getting out of the yarn business and so has everything on sale for 40% off. I doubt I’ll pick anything up, what with the 50% off sale this coming Tuesday, but you never know. 40% off reasonably priced yarn may be a better deal than 50% off of Stitch’s generally overpriced stock.

I’m up too late again. Signing off and going to bed. G’night!

I had two “duh” knitting moments today. First, I had been puzzling over whether to purchase some Dale Baby Ull to make my dad’s Charlie Brown sweater. It’s on sale at Stitch Fine Yarns’ closing sale for $4.80 a ball, and they have 36 balls of a good Charlie Brown yellow. (**ETA: Because my sweet dad is concerned about the cost of this, I rush to assure him that it would not take anywhere near 36 balls of yarn to make a sweater.) However, I wasn’t sure about knitting an entire adult-sized sweater on #3 needles. To get a feel for its thinness, it’s the same yarn I knitted Emily’s doll from, as well as the tiny Charlie Brown sweater at left. But duh, I could just hold it double. So now I just need to figure out if it’s still such a great deal if I’m using twice as much as I thought. The Dale Baby Ull has great reviews, but I might be better off just getting some Cascade 220 superwash. It has good reviews, too.

Secondly, it occurred to me that I had a very easy way to see if I liked that sock better plain or patterned. Just turn it upside down so the plain sole was on the top. Duh.

Patterned…. and plain.

I showed them both to my husband, who said he liked plain better, and that there was so little distinction to the patterned side that it just looked “dirty.” I tend to agree. Plain looks just fine. Also, I think these may be a little bit snug. Not very, but just a little. Since I’ll be ripping them out anyway, I may do a swatch on my #2 needles. I do have two of those. Tonight, though, more Jayne hats.


Tonight while we were putting Emily to bed, she was playing around and kind of slipped off the bed. My husband moved to catch her, and instead knocked the underside of her jaw by accident. She had a tooth on the top that was already a little loose. We looked in the mirror and it was more loose, and also bloody. It doesn’t seem to be bothering her, though. She took it in stride.

As I was telling her a bedtime story, she kept having to stop and ask “what?” That’s because she was concentrating so hard on that top front tooth. She even told me, “I’m using my tongue to wiggle my tooth.” Her big concern? “I don’t want my tooth to fall on my Groovy Girls.” She seems to think it’ll come out tomorrow night. If she keeps wiggling it like she is, I don’t think it’ll last that long. I’ll alert the tooth fairy to reserve another Susan B. Anthony dollar.

Crab socks and Emily stuff.