Another sock! I'm so original!

Firstly can I say barium meals, not so nice. Secondly, the after effects of barium meals, possibly worse. Add to the stomach pain a sinus infection and you have one not very happy bunny. However, sitting around for four hours waiting for your digestive system to kick in does have some benefits... Pretty, right? I've never knit a sock that was so long with yarn that was so fine. I thought I wouldn't be able to do it but here I am ready to start the heal flap with a sock that (so far so good) fits my shapely calves perfectly. Nancy Bush yet again shows her genius.

Intervention?

I think I might be knitting too much. Is there even such a phrase known in existence? But after the weekend's endeavours (note, it's still Sunday morning) my back aches and the callouses on my hands are screaming "NO MORE!!". So I guess I'll give the needles a little rest for a while...

sock-a-doodles
Pattern: Oak Ribbed Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. Really, If you are a sock knitter and you don't own this by now there's something wrong with you (note: starting to push my addictions on others....)
Yarn and Needles: Regia 4 Fadig Spirit Color #5725, about one and a half balls on Susan Bates #1s. I love this yarn for it's iron-like composition, however I may be the only person in the world who thinks that there should be less yardage. Instead of ending up with two 1/4 skeins by starting each sock with a new ball, I knitted the second sock with the leftovers from the first and joined the new ball as necessary. Now I have half a ball of sock yarn I don't know what to do with. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting for that hypothetical niec-phew.....
Modifications: How does this keep happening to me? Despite my meticulous note taking, prompt action in beginning the second sock and the keeping of a watchful eye on my tension, the second sock is AGAIN slightly bigger than the first. This is completely the opposite problem to when I first started knitting socks. What happened to me? Why knitting Gods, why? I'm assuming that this discrepancy may come out in the wash (is this why people block socks??) but for now it makes for neater storage of socks when the second one plays big spoon to the the first sock's little spoon. My socks spoon, ha, that looks funny.

titty-hat toe warmers
Pattern: Totally made up on the spur of the moment, however they were probably heavily influenced by subliminally remembered preemie hat patterns.
Yarn and Needles: Left over half-balls of Debbie Bliss Merino DK on 3.5mm Susan Bates dpns. I'm looking forward to my sister's reports as to how this yarn wears because if feels lovely right now and blooms prettily after blocking. I think the boobie may be too big for toe warming purposes but I'm sending it anyway. I'm funny like that.

(What you don't see pictured here is the beginnings of another sock that I cast on at around midnight last night. I'm having a barium meal on Monday and need something to keep me occupied for the three hours the procedure is going to take. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

Why I shouldn't be allowed to knit.

I looked at my yarn.

I looked at yesterday's post.

I looked at my yarn again and laughed solidly for five minutes.

I'd like to blame this on the remnants of drugs in my system but I'm pretty sure they're gone by now.... How on Earth do I explain this?

I KNITTED A BOOB!!

Of course I didn't want this to be a one hit wonder. My sister isn't going to need her toes warmed by mammaries forever. So I knit it in the shape of a hat so any hypothetical niece or nephew will have a ready made tit for it's head. Whenever you're ready sis, whenever you're ready.

The Random Knitting Continues Unabated

Look! I made a yarn cozy! Seeing as though it's about minus a million degrees here today, I couldn't in all good conscience let my poor cotton yarn freeze it's little fibers off. It's summer weight, it can't cope with New York winters.

Ok, so I haven't completely lost the plot (although the drugs they gave me yesterday to knock me out for an endoscopy have me thinking otherwise). This isn't really a yarn cozy but more of a toe cozy. Still not getting it? Well my sister is having her foot broken and realigned today (get well soon, sis!) and she's going to have her foot in a cast for six weeks. While it's not quite so arctic in Manchester as it it currently is here, I can't have her freezing her little toes off so I made what is essentially a giant sock-toe.
The yarn is Debbie Bliss Merino DK (seen in another incarnation here) in a heinous Barbie pink. I cast on 60 stitches on 3.5mm needles, did about an inch of k2 p1 ribbing, switched to plain stockinette and fudged a few deceases in on a spiral until I figured it'd probably fit. I mean, how big is a cast, how much toe will actually be exposed? I have no clue so I hope this will be stretchy enough to cover all that needs covering. If not it'll make a great prosthetic boob which is why I knitted the little i-cord nipple on the top, not for easy taking off or anything. I'm going to knit a second one slightly differently just in case this doesn't stretch enough at the cast on. The next one will have a wider opening and a bunch of eyelets so that a silly, twiddly ribbon can be threaded through to pull it tight. That one will be purple and probably wont have a nipple because, really, no one wants to look at a purple boob.

Knit yourself a curse

Once upon a time I knitted myself a little purple jelly baby and despite other people's beliefs to the contrary, I swore he wasn't a voodoo doll.

And then I stuck a pin in him.

This is my entry into sit 'n knit New York's hand knit name tag contest and a somewhat truer representation of the colour of the ever elusive green scarf. What? You didn't think I'd keep a little remnant of the goodness for myself? It's not the most wildly exciting name badge in the world but in person it's kind of cute. I just hope I didn't just jinx myself by becoming my voodoo doll....

Done and Done

7 days, 430 yards and many hours of clicking later, may I present to you A Green Scarf. It might not look like much in the picture but after a swift steam block the scarf is the same length as my full-sized bed. Google tells me that is 75 inches. 75 inches!! At about 7" wide on 5mm needles and with a gauge of 7 rows and 6 stitches to the inch, that's a lot of knitting!

Go on, have a gratuitous close up of the texture..... Yet again the colour is totally off and since I am a lazy bum who has not yet installed Photoshop on her laptop, I can't alter the pictures. The yarn is more of a grassy, light green olive colour than the sludgy, grey mass up there. It's pretty, I tell you.

In case anyone is interested in the recipe for this scarf, the stitch I used was called "Woven Stitch" and is done as follows:

Cast on 41 st (pattern repeat is multiples of 2 +1)

Row 1: *K1, bring yarn to front, slip stitch as if to knit, bring yarn to back.* Repeat between *, K last stitch. The wrapping of the yarn will produce a horizontal bar across the front of the slipped stitch on the right side of the fabric.

Rows 2 and 4: Purl

Row 3: K2, *bring yarn to front, slip stitch as if to knit, bring yarn to back, K1.* Repeat between *, K last stitch. This makes an alternating pattern of woven bars along the length of the fabric.

Knit on forever and a day, block the bejeebus out of it and weave in the ends.

Ta-dah!

Red Scarf Project is a GO!

All bundled up and ready for delivery :)

Ironic? Maybe in the Alanis Morisette way...

I had a dermatologist appointment today because I've been suffering with truly asshole-ish skin for far too long. Since it was a bit nippy out I wore my hedera socks, some green Fetchings that I never bothered to photograph, my red Irish Hiking Scarf (my God that's a terrible picture!) and finally, my blue Odessa.

The dermatologist and I had a nice chat about my various ailments (the mole isn't as scary as I thought, woo hoo!) and he wrote me a gazillion prescriptions. Finally he handed me an advice sheet. Third on the list of things to avoid with my "condition" was WOOL.

Fat chance.

Hang on a Minute

Every time I tried to upload the knitting photo at the end of this post, this one would appear instead. I figured since blogger really, really wants me to share it with you then I should oblige. These are ceremonial masks from the collection of the Museum of Civilisation in Ottawa. Enjoy.

You know when you're in the first stages of hooking up with a guy when all kinds of bullshit gets passed back and forth.... About a week ago the Boy told me he'd lost his scarf (a synthetic Harry Potter-esque shop bought monstrosity, not that I'm biased against anything un-hand knit or anything) and I told him that I'd knit him another. Strike one for stupidity.

I think it's more a testament to my complete inability to resist the temptation to buy new yarn than my desire for the c-word (commitment- my stomach lurched just typing that), that I arranged my entire Monday MLK holiday around visiting The Point in order to you know, scope out possible yarn for this hypothetical scarf. And then something happened. I found this (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca) in a gorgeous shade called Olive, and well, I just could not help myself. I could barely believe it, Berrocco making a yarn I actually wanted to buy? I mean Berrocco is no Lion Brand but I'd always thought there was something a little too plasticky about it for me. However, this yarn is delicious, more than delicious. I want to buy bushels of the stuff and knit with it forever and ever, amen and at $8 for 215 yards, that is a definite possibility.

Anyway, back to the scarf. I sat down with my luscious yarn and realised two things; that I'd bought a yarn that needed to be knit on fairly small needles (5mm) and that the intended recipient is over 6 foot tall and, therefore, the scarf would need to be very long. Strike 2, 3 and I'm out on the stupid count. I picked up my trusty Knitting Stitches book acquired from one of my many Charity Shop jaunts in the UK, swatched around a bit and finally settled on the "Woven Stitch". And oh!my!God! if I'm not in love all over again!

The colour is way off in this picture and the texture doesn't show up too well, but believe me when I say I want to marry this scarf. The "right side" (shown above) is smooth enough that it retains all the softness of the yarn while still having an interesting texture. The "wrong side" is amazing, like tiny little smocked stitches of goodness. I think I may be tempted to try to design myself a little something in this stitch (although obviously not in this colourway because after a week of dating there's no way in hell that I'm going to be matchy-matchy, not that I ever would anyways but I hope you get my point). I'm thinking a zippered cardigan with maybe the sleeves the "wrong" side and the body the "right"? Oh the possibilities!

Three days later....

... and I have a completed sock (ripped and re-knit) and um, a boyfriend? How the hell did that happen? You'd think these wouldn't necessarily be compatible things unless, of course, one hasn't been getting much sleep this weekend. A-hem.

Crappy picture courtesy of the blanket of fog currently swathing Manhattan.

The production of a sock I can deal with. It's the Oak Ribbed Socks from Nancy's Bushs' Knitting Vintage Socks in Regia 4-Fadig Spirit Colour (purchased from elann.com), knit exactly as written. From the frogging to the weaving in of ends (TWO KNOTS IN ONE SKEIN!!!) this sock took me three days, three obviously slothful, hungover days where I did little else but sit around in my pyjamas watching re-runs of Ten Things I Hate About You, click-click-clicking away. OK, not exactly true since, well, boyfriend.

Personally I'm thinking boyfriend is too strong of a word (spot the commitment-phobe) and I'm not dealing so well with the ramifications having created one of those over the long weekend. He's a sweet kid but I'm just not a very nice person when it comes to relationships, a side effect of being very badly burned a couple of years ago. In fact I've become more of a man-eater than I ever thought possible, and I don't want to chew him up and spit him out like the others. I obviously need to take this project a little bit slower.

Onwards ever Onwards

There's been a bit more than a mere knitting slump chez Pom. I haven't touched my knitting needles for weeks and it hurts me deep down in my little, wooly soul. To beat the funk I cast on for a super simple pair of ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks in my favourite Regia wool. Ahh, much better....
Although (much better word than but, don't you think?) I could pick holes in this sock too, mostly due to the fact that I can't seem to knit untwisted or at a consistent gauge any more. However (again a good but replacement), these socks are for funk breaking not blue ribbon winning, so I'm continuing regardless knowing with smug satisfaction that my other Regia socks shrunk just the perfect, tad-liest amount when I washed them and so all will be forgiven.

Or maybe I might just rip and knit with smaller needles....

Stateside

Ewwwww, I smell. 14 hours of travelling sans deoderant will do that to a girl.

As far as knitting goes, the break was a complete disaster. I finished up the second of my fishtail lace socks only to find that it was gigantic in every dimension even though it was knit with the same needles. I guess the change in gauge serves me right for abandoning the project for so long but right now I haven't got the heart to rip rip rip so the mismatched socks remain.

BUT, the rest of the holiday was great. I sat on my bum, drank wine, hung out with friends, borrowed babies, got projectile vomited on right in my face, hit the sales, met a man about a maggot, hit the sales some more.... oh and did I mention I bought all of it? "All of what?", you might well ask...
My apologies to all other knitters in Manchester who thought they might be able to hit John Lewis at the Trafford Centre and pick up some bargainous yarn. Like I said I bought all of it and honestly, I'm not at all repentant. Mwhahahahahahaa!!! 24 balls of lilac Debbie Bliss 100% cotton at GBP1.25 a ball (about $2.40) and 9 balls of plummy Cathay for GBP1.60! I win! My Christmas shopping was considerably more awesome than yours! So there! And I got the Donegal Tweed pattern book just for good measure. I know how to have a good time. I'm thinking a sweater for the cotton and maybe a Picovili or two, and then there's always babies to be knitting for somewhere.

But right now I need a shower so the gloating will have to wait for later....