Sunset socks

Working on socks for Jessamy. The yarn I'm working with is Araucania, kettle dyed, I got it from the LYS in York.

I usually only make things for myself in shades of blue or grey, and I probably wouldn't have chosen this color myself, but I am warming up to it.
The pattern is Pomatomus, a classic pattern from Knitty.

Hyperbolic Reef is in town

The hyperbolic reef by Institute for Figuring is going to be at
The Track 16 Gallery at
Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica.
http://www.track16.com/
until this Saturday.
It’s very cool, and when I saw the exhibit in London dad was listed as one of the contributors!

Grand day out

We had a lovely day at the York Viking Festival yesterday.

We arrived in York at 10:30. The first thing we did was have tea, hot chocolate, a fat rascal (big scone), and an egg benedict at Betty's, a York institution. Jessamy and I shared these things of course. I can eat a lot, but not that much.


Then on to York Minster. We decided to fork over a lot of money to do the do everything tour, starting off with the free tour which was very informational, then saw the undercroft, treasury, and crypt.

And climbed the 275 steps to the top of the tower.
Then back into the Minster.
We bought yarn for my next project - socks for Jessamy - at York's LYS, Sheepish. Bought pork pies and a Turkish wrap from the continental market.

Then on to the Evening Battle: Light and Sound Spectacular where the entertainment included the amusing Horn Dancers (4 guys carrying elk horns, one guy with a bow, and another with a wooden deer head dancing and doing little formations). It would have been more exciting had the horns been on fire, but really this picture is of the firedancers who were pretty good.
The battle was entertaining, but strange. There was maybe 50 guys, dressed in chain mails and with wooden shields. Occasionally chaos ensued, chips of wood went flying, and it did seem at times like they were actually trying to hurt each other. But half of the time the sides were just staring at each other trying to figure out who to attack.


The show ended with dramatic and well timed fireworks set to Flight of the Valkyries.

Then it was back to Betty's, which was the only place we could find that served coffee after 7. I had a yummy Wensleydale soup, a very chocolaty hot chocolate (felt a bit sugar overdosed after drinking it) and cheesecake. Jessamy had a latte latino (the actual name) and a yummy ginger sponge cake.

We managed to hop on the train back home with less than 10 seconds to spare.

I can see you clearly

New glasses! I lost my old pair : ( But I paid way too much for these and got a second pair for free. So now I can plan on loosing one.

Now I also know how to make Jessamy laugh so hard her stomach hurts- have her to take my picture for the blog. I'm that unphotogenic. I'm also started to look my age, which is freaking me out a bit.

I like this picture. It's blurry, even though I have glasses on : )

Cabled socks anyone?

Gauge:
26 stitches over 4 inches
40 rows over 4 inches.

Yarn:
Happy Feet by Plymouth (2 skeins)

Cuff
Cast on 68 stitches with size 1 needles
Add stitch marker, join in round

*k2, p2* repeat until end.
Repeat the 2X2 ribbing for 10 more rows

Leg
Change to size 2 needles
Decrease rounds:
Round 1: k3, k2tog, p3, k4, p2, k4 *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 2 more times, p2, k4, p3, ssk, k3 = 66 stiches
Round 2: k4, p1, p2tog, k4, p2, k4, *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 2 more times, p2, k4, p1, p2tog, k4 = 64 sts

Setting up the cables:
Round 1: k4, *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 3 more times, p2, k4, p2, k4
Start cables:
Round 2: k4, *p2, c2f, p2, k4*, repeat 3 more times, p2, c2f, p2, k4

Regular rounds:
Round 1: k4, *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 3 more times, p2, k4, p2, k4
Round 2: Repeat round 1
Round 3: Repeat round 1
Start cables:
Round 4: k4, *p2, c2f, p2, k4*, repeat 3 more times, p2, c2f, p2, k4

Repeat rows 1-4 until desired length of leg (minus half an inch). End with a round 4. My sock leg is a total of 5.5 inches, and there was plenty of yarn left over.

Decrease rounds:
Round 1: k2, k2tog, *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 3 more times, p2, k4, p2, ssk, k2 = 62 sts

Round 2: k1, k2tog, p2tog, k4, p2, k4, *p2, k4 * repeat 4 more times, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2tog, ssk, k1 = 58

Round 3: k2tog, p1, k4, p2, k2, k2tog, *p2, k4 * repeat 4 more times, p2, k2, k2tog, p2, k4, p1, ssk= 54

Round 4: k1, p1, c2f, p2, k1, k2tog, *p2, c2f, p2, k4* repeat 1 more time, p2, c2f, p2, k2tog, k1, p2, c2f, p1, k1 = 52 stitches

Round 5: k1, p1, k4, p2, k2tog, *p2, k4, p2, k4* repeat 1 more time, p2, k4, p2, k2tog, p2, k4, p1, k1=50 sts


Heel flap
Row1: Knit 9, turn
With a new needle: Row 2: purl 18, turn
Row 3: *slip 1, knit 1* repeat until end (18 stitches)
Row 4: Slip 1, purl to end
Repeat rows 3 and 4 13 more times for a total of 26 rows

FYI, you should have 18sts in your heel flap, and 32 in instep = 50 stitches

Turn Heel
Row 1: Knit 11, k2tog, k1, turn
Row 2: sl1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn
Row 3: sl1, knit to stitch before gap, k2tog, k1, turn
Row 4: sl1, p to stitch before gap, p2tog, p1

Pick up 14 stitches along each side of the heel flap with new needles.
Divide the heel as you normally do.

Needle 1: Knit to last three stitches, k2tog, k1
Needle 2: Knit even (working cable pattern throughout)
Needle 3: K1, ssk, knit to end of needle

Work until you have 17 stitches on needles 1 and 3.

Work straight until you are 2 inches away from desired length

I used a slightly rounder toe than normal, taken from knitty.
1 decrease round, 3 even.
1 decrease round, 2 even – twice.
1 decrease round, 1 even – three times.
Decrease every round until you have 16 stitches.
Kitchener it up, and viola.


Notes:
1. If you only have a size 2 needle with you, you could instead cast on 60 stitches. The majority of the leg would be knit in k2, *p2, k4, p2, k4*, repeat 4 times, p2, k4, p2, k2

2. You can also do one sock with a left twist cable, the other with a right twist cable (hold the cable needle in back).

3. Yes, There are a lot less stitches in the heel than expected, but it fits me.

c2f = Slip 2 stitches p-wise onto a cable needle, keep cable needle in the front, knit two stitches, knit the two stitches from the cable needle.

Another dimension?

Work made everyone leave 3 hours early because of possible transportation issues due to the snow! What dimension am I living in?

It was a clear day when I walked to work this morning, but it started snowing almost immediately after I arrived. On my way back though, from the bus stop to home, it was lovely. There was a layer of white on the ground, on cars, on houses, very light snow falling, and the comforting sound of freshly fallen snow under my feet.

What shall I do with my now 2 hours of extra leisure time?!
Finish the socks, for one. Then who knows!
Really, all I have to do with the socks is redo one toe. As you can see in this poorly taken photograph (it looked ok in the viewfinder, really), the right sock is done in the usual decrease every other row toe. Usually I'm fine with it, but it just wasn't cutting it this time, so I went online to search for pictures, and decided on the simple round toe from knitty. I'm much happier with the whole project now. I'm hoping to have the whole pattern on the blog in the next 2 days...

Robin's Egg Red Hat

Jessamy's hat is finished. Here she is wearing it at a jaunty slant. It took us at least 15 minutes to find the right button.
I used the crown shaping found at The Knitting Fiend.

It is a bit exaggerated for the photo. Too bad I was never able to figure out what I did with that cat/devil hat. Now that was a nice crown.

I had quite a few modifications. I thought the seed stitch border looked a bit big in the original picture, so I started on a row 2 (1 row less than called for). I m1, k1 instead of k1, kf/b and did ssk instead of k2tog because I tried to memorize the pattern instead of just printing it out …
I've figured out a good solution to this though, save the pattern onto the "portable reader system" which was Jessamy's mom gave to us because she had received it as a gift and but never used because prefered to read actual books instead of digital words.
And I BO 4 instead of the 12 (purposefully) for the flap.
And that's about it.

Not snowed in yet

It's been the coldest week in 18 years here in the UK. Newcastle survived relatively unsnowed. We did get enough on Monday to warrant a slight panic about buses, and another little flurry Friday and today. But in the end it was nothing compared to the rest of England, or really to the rest of the county, with several people at work who live outside the city limits calling in to work on Monday saying they were snowed in.

A little closer now

Jessamy has been invited to her first post-graduate interview. The museum is in Massachusetts. Brrrr.

Looking ahead

Hi.

I know this is a sad day, but instead of dwelling on it I thought I should look to the future and show my next project on the list, it should be a quick one at that, http://racheliufer.blogspot.com/2007/10/robins-egg-blue-hat.html

Closing this month

I'm assuming most of you get our newsletter and have already heard, but we're closing our doors in just a few days, word on the street is that the last day is January 31st.

It's sad, I know, but we've been holding out too long, and I've said my goodbyes too many times, and now it's time to give up and move on.

We will however be selling yarn online starting in March, I've been figuring out the logistics for weeks now, and I'm excited about it.

I'm going to keep our ravelry (my name is fibrous, we also have a group), twitter (thatyarnstore), myspace http://www.myspace.com/thatyarnstore, and facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/That-Yarn-Store/25781369442
accounts up, and will be posting with updates on the online store.

Thought it would be simple

Always do (think it would be simple, that is).
Basic cable socks, no pattern of course, but who needs one, they're socks.
Only problem is that I need to get from 38 stitches around the leg to 19 for the heel flap. One sock is done (a bit too long, but it won't take that long to reknit that part) because I figured I should stop being a perfectionist, leaving the funky bunching alone and just be happy content with a much nicer looking second sock. Except, the second sock is definately not looking nicer.
Each time I've ripped out I've ripped a little higher and started the decreases a little sooner.
Assuming I get it to look okay and finish it (unlike the 2nd generation of pirate socks which I don't even want to look at) I'll post the pattern. Other than the grumble grumble decreases I like the look of the sock, itty cables are cute after all.

tack-oes

I've been trying to not post anything about work for reasons you probably know, and I don't want to embarrass anyone or anything like that. But ... yesterday someone was telling me about his trip to Florida. We had been talking about food and alcohol and the differences between the two countries. He had been disappointing in the size of steaks as they seem to be huge whenever cowboys eat steak in the movies, I commented that at least cheap meat here in the UK is much better than in America. I've gone to some cheap Chinese food places here, and generally in America if I go to a cheap Chinese place I'll get vegies, maybe sometimes a sweet and sour pork or chicken, but when I order it it's with the full expectation that the meat will be rubbery and gross. But the meat cheap Chinese food here has been surprisingly decent, the beef isn't all gristle, nothing wrong with the chicken, or at least nothing that I can tell with my unsophisticated meat palate. Anyway, the guy from work said how he ate, and liked, the Mexican food there in Florida (they consider tapas to be Mexican food here, and when you can find a burrito, which is really hard to find, it's like 9 pounds, so like $15). He had fajitas, some other dish, and tacos, pronounced as tack-oes. He said, almost a direct quote, he got the tacos with chili, as he could choose whether he could get ones with or without, so he got the tack-oes with chili, in fact, the restaurant was named Chili's. Yes, Chili's. And yes, I was picturing a small, non-chain, "real" Mexican restaurant. Jessamy laughed a long, long time when I relayed this to her, but I managed to just smile, and stopped myself from ruining his memories. And then Jessamy and I ate at a cheap Chinese

Not much going on

Jessamy has four papers due next week, so she has been frantically doing that. I've been reading mostly, The Concise Pepys. I have two socks in the works, one needs to be ripped out and started again, and another I'm not sure what I'm doing with.

I was finally was able to get to the computer for an extended period yesterday, as in two hours, and found some hat patterns for Jessamy to choose from, so I might start that tonight, assuming I don't delete the internet (a favorite saying of mine) before Jessamy can actually choose one.

I've also spent the last few evenings looking up cities I want to visit in England, there's a long list. Haven't yet attepted a list of places in the continent. Jessamy has a break the weekend after next, and then spring break, otherwise known as easter break here, then I think we might try to stay and travel after she graduates.

Merry Christmas!

Ok, so I'm a little late, but I was too busy knitting my mom's shawl (forgot to take a picture) to think about anything else.

Mom liked the shawl, and Frannie liked her bag, which is based on the free pattern from U-Handbag. It was my second sewing project after the crooked that I made. The purse came out a little crooked too, could have probably have fixed it but I finished the sewing machine part of it on my last day in the UK before coming over here. And the foot pedal broke, so it was a bit diffucult to stop when I wanted to actually stop. The sewing machine was cheap, so I expected it to break quickly, though I had hoped it would last more than 5 or so uses. There is a one year warrantt, but I need to call them between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday, So I'm not actually sure when that's going to happen.

I had a nice Christmas, we played board games, opened presents. I got a pair of scissors for sewing and a book about writing.

Yesterday mom brought me and Noah to Burlington Coat factory to buy coats. It was huge, and we actually had to ask where the coats were located (bottom floor). I ended up buying (well, mom bought them as a Christmas present) two coats, one of which was a normal looking black short coat, the other was long and red, and will hopefully keep me very warm in my half hour walk to work. The red one has no hood, but I figure the head warmth factor can be easily solved by just wearing a hat, though of course I'm not just going to buy one, I have to make it, which means my head might be cold for a while.

I have been wearing my wimple everywhere, I'm considering knitting my hair into it so it becomes a permanent fixture. Though lately I've been wearing it like a huge headband, which the siblings claim looks rather Rasta.

Sock Ornament pattern

You can use any yarn and appropriate needles. The bigger the yarn, the bigger the ornament will be. I used fingering.

CO 16

Join in round

Work 4 rows rib, then 8 rows st stitch

Heel flap:

Row 1: K10 stitches

Row 2: sl 1, p9

Row 3: sl 1, k9

Repeat rows 2 and 3.

Turn heel:

Row 1: sl 1, p4, p2tog tbl, p1

Row 2: sl 1, k1, k2tog, k1

Row 3: sl1, p2, p2tog tbl, p1

Row 4: sl1, k3, k2tog, k1

PU 5 stitches with a new needle.

Knit 6 stitches with a new needle

PU5 stitches with a new needle, and knit 3 stitches

Row 1: Work 1 row even.

Row 2:

Needle 1: K 5, k2 tog, k1,

Needle 2: Knit

Needle 3: k1, ssk, k5

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you have 16 stitches remaining.

K3 rows even.

Row 1:

Needle 1: K 2, k2 tog, k1,

Needle 2: k1, ssk, k2 tog, k1

Needle 3: k1, ssk, k2

Row 3: Work 1 row even

Row 4:

Needle 1: K 1, k2 tog, k1,

Needle 2: ssk, k2 tog

Needle 3: k1, ssk, k1

With same needle, needle 3, knit 2

Move the last stitch on needle 3 onto needle 2, and the remaining stitch from needle 1 also onto needle 2. You should have 4 stitches on 2 needles.

And now you’re ready to do the kitchner stitch and finish your sock!

I bought a stollen cake

Jessamy and I have been showing our Christmas spirit this week by eating lots of seasonal desserts. Today we had half a treacle pie (it was a small pie, it was also way more than half), and last week I spent over an hour's worth of my wages to buy a stollen cake.


It has nuts, raisins, little bits of cherries, and a marzipan center.

This weekend I was also on a mini sock ornament kick.

Here's the action shot:Unless the internet refuses to work I'll try to post the pattern for the sock ornaments tomorrow.

Warm Chin

Wore the smoke ring today to work. It kept slipping off my head since I had my hood on too, so I'm not sure if it's actually keeping my head warm, but it was keeping my chin warm. I probably looked strange to paserbys.

Last night I started on a sock-shaped ornament for a friend in the peacecorp. I was working on it for less than 2 hours and I'm almost done with it. I think the next one will go faster, I'm also thinking of making it smaller.

Wimpled

Today was a nice day. Most of the ice was melted so I only nearly slipped once on the way to the market.

I finished the smoke ring/wimple yesterday, it's being blocked as I type this.

The picture is a bit weird, but I look better wearing it in person, really.
Last night after I finished the wimple (does not seem like a proper word for an accessory, but perhaps a curse word or a body part) I tried to start on a Christmas project, but it turns out that bulky yarn with size 13 needles and a lace pattern do not mix well. If anyone is on Ravelry I'll post what I frogged on there.

Also brought out the sewing machine. Bought it last month, but I wanted to finish the twist and shout sweater before I started anything else. That never happened (still have a sleeve to do), but since I started on the wimple and the muff I figured I should do something I'll enjoy instead of setting myself limits.

Don't actually remember the last time I used a sewing machine, I might have never used one, but I was glad I was around the shop during the sewing classes so I knew to iron the hem before I tried to sew it and I was glad Jessamy was there as I got really confused with the lower bobbin, turned out it was working right I just didn't understand the concept. So my PJs are now a proper length. Yay! Next it's curtains, then a purse for a Christmas present. There will be a picture of that of course, but probably not until closer to Christmas as I don't know who's reading this...

Snow 2

This morning I stepped outside to go to work and was greeted by this sight:

No, it's not that my car was stolen (not that I have a car), but it's snow!

I had a nice leisurely weekend. Started on a smoke ring with Claudia Hand Painted yarn on Saturday and I'm half way through.

On Friday we saw Skellig which is a new opera by a US composer based on a children's novel by a Northumbria author. Sadly the singers did not have Geordie accents.

Jessamy and I had Thanksgiving dinner at a Chinese buffet. No pumpkin pie, but we did have tiramisu.