Socks!

Here they are! I think Bozo would be proud. If I had any sense, I'd have dyed them blue and orange instead of purple and orange and sold the yarn for some unspeakable amount of money to a crazed Auburn fan. Hindsight, eh?

I'm still working on finding a good bind off for toe up. My DFW group have given me a good long list of options to try. I was planning on posting the pattern for these online but I'm not perfectly happy with them. Maybe the next pair will be perfect!

Speaking of options..........I received my Knit Picks needles in the mail this week! They are super-yum! I got the nickle-plated sz 2 circs (40"), and 2 sets of wooden circs, 1's and 0's, for socks. Well, all three are for socks...duh.

The 0's are for these:



The theory is that I'm making a pair of socks for Todd, with a bamboo/wool blend. I had started the first sock on dpns in 1x1 rib, thinking to rib the whole cuff. It felt terrible, all rough and pokey. So I ordered the wooden circ to do them both at once (I have a feeling once will be quite enough, thank you) and am doing toe-up plain stockinette. I worked most of the evening yesterday on these. See how far I got?
Um. These may take a while.
8^0

The Scarf

Well, I finally finished it. Just in time for Spring. Of course.
I have no idea what to call this baby. The only thing I called it while knitting it is not exactly a proper name for a garment, if you know what I mean.


It was knit for my friend Jan who, along with her husband, have thoroughly spoiled us since we moved here. She recently (last week) retired from television and this seems like a good and proper gift, commemorating the fact that she won't be standing out in the cold at 4am doing news reports any more. Yay, Jan!!


It was motivated by the yarn, a 40/60 Alpaca/Merino blend in sport weight from Yarn Treehouse and inspired by that pattern in my Vogue Crochet Scarves book I was telling you about. The knit-crochet pattern looks great, but it is not an easy stitch. You know how when you read a pattern you translate it into words while you knit? You know, you turn K3, P2, K3, YO, into knit 3, purl 2, knit 3, yarn over. Except while you're doing it, it sounds more like kniiiiiiit threeeeee, puuuurrrrllll twooooo, etc, etc. Well, this pattern has a S2K3togP2sso. That's right. Slip 2, Knit 3 together, pass the 2 slipped stitches over. Except when I come to it in my row, in my head it sounds like this, "Two yaaaarn overs, knit one, two yaaaarn overs, biiiiitch stiiiiiiiitch, two yaaarn overs, knit one, two yaaarn overs, biiiiiitch stiiiiiiitch, two yarn overs....." etc.
Totally worth the angst. It really is beautiful and I hope it's not too itchy.

Here's the how-to:

This was knit in 3 pieces. I did the two lace pieces at the same time then knit the middle intending to graft them with a k2tog from the two pieces as I went. It was far too unweildy. I just knit the middle and then grafted them together with a simple whipstitch. (yay for black yarn)

Materials:

Sport Weight Yarn. Mine is Yarn Treehouse(as I said) 100g, 330 yards. I used one ball plus about 50-75 yards of another.

Size US 4 needles. I used Addi Lace Turbo 32"circs. Pointy needles are your friend with this one, folks!

Directions:

The Crochet-Knit Shell Pattern advises you to cast on a multiple of 6 plus 3. I added a border so there are 4 added to that.

CO 37 Stitches (Do everything twice if you intend to do both halves at once, once from the inside of the ball and once from the outside.)

Purl one row.

Row 1: P2, K1*YO, K1* to last 2 stitches, P2

Row 2: P2, Knit across, dropping all YO's from previous row to last 2 sts, P2

Row 3: P2, K3tog *2YO, K1, 2YO, Sl 2, K3tog, P2SSO* end with 2YO, K1, 2YO, K3tog, K1, P2

Row 4: P2, K1 *K1, Kfb of 2YO (knit into both "legs" of the double yarn over)* end with K2, P2

Row 5: P2, K1 *YO, K1* to last 2 stitches, P2

Row 6: P2, Knit across, dropping all YO's from previous row to last 2 sts, P2

Row 7: P2, K1 *K1, 2YO, Sl , K3tog, P2SSO, 2YO* K2, P2

Row 8: P2, K1 *K1, Kfb of 2 YO (same as Row 4)* end with K2, P2

Knit these 8 rows to desired length (about 48-50 inches)

Part 2:

CO 100 stitches.

Knit, slipping first stitch of each row, until piece is the same width as first two pieces.

Graft, checking that two lace pieces have the Right Side facing the same way.

What I would do differently:

I would CO the middle piece using long-tail instead of backward loop. I might also make the lace pieces about 6 stitches (one shell) narrower so I didn't have to dig into the extra ball.

Fiber as Art

I need some help. Some artistic advice. Some artsy, knitterly, fiber junkie advice. Maryland Sheep and Wool is coming up and I fully intend to go. While looking at the site for the event I noticed that there is an art competition attached to this event. Like all good "county fairs" this has categories for your knitting, your handspun, your weaving and, lo and behold, painting! (All entries must be Sheep and/or Wool related.) Hey! I paint! Well, I used to. Before we moved.

I was inspired. A long while back, I painted this reproduction/interpretation of Picasso's Woman in a Red Chair.


I could do this! Ewe in a Red Chair. At first I thought I'd just do sheep parts in place of the people parts, but then I saw all those balls and thought, "Yarn!" The big, squarish bit could be a batt of wool. One of the balls could be roving. The piece at the top looks most like a sheep's head to me, but would that be too gruesome? What other fiber-related things fit the shapes already in the painting?

Throw some ideas at me!



Meanwhile, I really have been knitting. I finished that scarf and have made serious progress on the "Socks of Obnoxiousness". I will post patterns and pics. Really I will.