Simply Gloating

I am down a pants size! I'm not telling from what to what, but it's very satisfying progress. Also, this means I don't need to buy new jeans because I can wear the ones I didn't fit in before. My current pairs are getting quite holey – not appropriate for the Montessori Mommie set, and I don't want M.M. to be an outcast because of my eccentricity quite yet.

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RPM socks

I love the short row heel, I really do. I love not making a heel flap, I love avoiding all those tedious decreases when the heel is done already, let's get on with it, and I love the way it looks when it's done.

I need help though. I can't make it work, I've knit the whole thing twice now and ripped it out with no clear idea how to fix the problems. To wit:

• the yarn overs: when beginning the right side rows - the pattern instructs me to bring the yarn between the needles to the front of the work, over the right needle to the back of the work, and then purl the next stitch. Purling doesn't seem right. It's awkward, and it's a knit row.

However, I do seem to get holes by not purling. Hmm.

• I can't make the counting come out right. I'm really concentrating, really. Really. And I'm not winding up with the right number of stitches at the end of the increases. Then there's the gaping hole when I start working in the round again.

I'm going to try again. But I'm feeling flummoxed.

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Woohoo

I finished the blanket! Ok, the ends are not woven in. It's not technically blocked. But it's all knitted! Pictures tomorrow, maybe.

wind and water blanket

wind and water blanket
Originally uploaded by mariamaroo

Behold, in progress. Nearly done. Except for all those @$(*% ends.
I'm not thinking about those.

Blanket Statement

Hehe, I'm such a Merry Punster. Oops, there I go again. My Pastaza blanket, one of the many things I haven't been blogging about, is nearly done. Like, about 3 more pattern repeats and weaving in of ends and that's it.

Not to be daunted by mere details, M.M. and I have been lounging under it already, needles and all.

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Long Time No See

Well, I've joined Ravelry. I put myself on the waiting list at some point over the summer and got my invitation today. I suspect it will end up being another thing (like this blog, and my other one) that sucks computer time, which I long listlessly to cut down anyway, and about which I feel guilty and inadequate. But all those organizational tools are completely irresistable.

My user name is mariamaroo. Say hi.

test for Jes

Moving On…

Tragic, really. By the time I finished M.M.'s second sock, only a week or two after the first one, she had outgrown them. She's been in the middle of a massive growth spurt, and I swear the first one fit when I finished it. I'm going to try blocking and stretching them out, I guess, but I think they're destined to be a giveaway. Sadly, Blogger is not showing me my preview, so I'm not sure whether these pictures are in the right order.



Now I'm working on a blanket. Wrong time of year. But I'm slow, it'll (I hope) be ready for wintertime, and the yarn was on sale at Webs. I'm using exactly the yarn and needles called for in the pattern, and I confess I haven't actually measured a swatch, but it's waaaay too loose, whatever the gauge is, or is supposed to be. Since taking this photo I've aquired a smaller needle - size 11 instead of 13 (why, please, why is there a size 10 1/2 needle but no size 12? What kind of crazy system is this??) – and cast on yet again (4th time for this project so far…) with a larger number of stitches to compensate for any width lost because of the smaller needle. I'm hopeful that I'll get closer to the fabric I was looking for with this substitution.

There is always the possibility that when I get into the patterned sections I'll discover that there was a reason for the big needles, that what is way too loose in garter stitch and for the first few rows of the pattern is tight and unmanageable on the smaller needle when the pattern is established… stay tuned for new developments.



Oh, and I got some really really beautiful STR in a colourway that I can't be bothered to go look at the name of remember at the moment. Once this blanket is well underway I'll be starting some RPM socks with that. I already can't wait.

Short-Row Heels

I finally got my act together and photographed some of the recent sock projects. Pink toe-up, check:



One and a half little kid socks in Claudia's Handpainted, check:



And a touching duet to finish off:



And coming up, we have the Opal Gems from MD S & W, destined possibly to be toys from World of Knitted Toys:



And Cascade Pastaza for a blanket from a pattern given me for Christmas (the card with the pattern is visible on the right). The color on the right is actually a plummy eggplanty purple, not the navyish royalish blue it appears. I'm going to use that purple for the darker stripes on the pattern and alternate the green (really more seafoamy) and blue, hopefully to produce a watery wavy oceanish effect that will also coordinate with my purple couch:

MD Sheep & Wool

I was determined to get to MD Sheep and Wool this year, now that I actually live in Maryland (and considering that I'm not sure how long that will last). So although I was on the fence about going as late as 9am this morning, I finally did get in gear and with a great burst of motivation get myself and M.M. as well as my cousin Laura and her mom Bernadette in the car and out to Howard County Fairgrounds.

The weather could not have been more perfect: chilly in the shade or when the breeze kicked up, perfectly warm in the sun, sunny and dry. First was FOOD. Lamb kebabs and burgers all around, and then straight to the sheepdog demo. M.M. loved watching the dogs control the sheep and watched the full half hour demonstration in rapt attention – and wanted more. I'll definitely have to seek out some local sheepdog trials and take her to see them. I was even a little choked up at the perfection of the dogs for the work and their intensity and obvious joy in their jobs.

The wander around the exhibition halls and vendors was eye-popping and a bit overwhelming, and frustrating because paying attention to M.M.'s whereabouts and safety didn't allow for much yarn shopping. It was still fun to stroll around and gaze at colors and textures and fleeces and wool paraphernalia. We did stop and watch some spinning for a while, and M.M. would actually have been happy to watch longer, but I was impatient. I am not allowed to get interested in spinning because I already don't have enough time to pursue my knitting jones habit hobby. Although I am going to start dyeing yarn this spring. (What slope? I see nothing slippery anywhere near me.)

I had vague but grand notions of shopping before I got there, but two things interfered: 1) it is impossible to shop in such an overstimulating environment while in charge of a 3 year old; 2) it is nearly impossible for me to shop in such an overstimulating environment, period. Three year old or no, I get overwhelmed and fall prey to Squashy Head Syndrome when faced with such an array of goods, not knowing what even better delight might be around the next corner, with all the people and excitement and noise everywhere. I sometimes wonder where on the autism spectrum I might be were I a child nowadays.

Despite these handicaps I was able to purchase a nice Lantern Moon needle roll, with pockets for both straights and circs and a nice zippered pocket and a big flap that folds over to keep everything from falling out. I also got some sock yarn. I had gone with the express desire for some solid sock yarn to use in some lacy sock patterns. All I've been using is beautiful variegated yarns, and I'm in the mood for something that shows the stitches a bit more. So I got some, Gems Opal, in a nice French Blue and another kind of seafoam-aquaey color. They're nice.

But I have this problem. Every time I buy sock yarn I get into some kind of weird fugue state and I forget to buy enough. I always buy one skein. I get so focused on the color (or something) and I think of it like software (or something): If I buy it, it's like I'm buying the color and I can make as many socks as I want. After all, once you buy the license to Word you can make as many documents as you want. It makes no sense and shows you, really, why I am such a sucky yarn shopper. So that's what I did. One skein each of blue and aqua. Enough to make probably one and a half socks of each color. Or three striped socks, but the whole point was to make solid colored socks.

I'm debating between ordering another skein of each color and taking my chances with the dye lots, and saving these for kid socks and ordering some entirely other solid sock yarn in the proper quantities for grown up socks (online I am a perfectly fine yarn shopper, thankyouverymuch). We'll see.

I have no batteries for my camera, so I have no photos of my purchases or of actual knitting. But what the heck, I'll throw this in:

M.M.'s ballet recital is coming up in a few weeks. They're doing Alice In Wonderland, and her class is playing oysters. Cute and somewhat baffling to us non-Disney-ites.

Seasonally Disfunctional

I still have no pictures of the pink striped toe-up socks. I just haven't managed to get them and the camera in operation at the same time. I have been wearing them, though, and they're nice and comfy. I loved doing the short row heel, and I like how it looks. I'm going to incorporate it into future socks, for sure. The cast off is not stretchy enough though. The first one is way too tight, almost impossible to get the sock over my heel (though it's comfortable enough when it's on). The second is a bit looser, but still completely unelastic (?) and a bit difficult.

Is there an elastic cast off technique that I don't know? I looked in my Knitter's Handbook and found nothing helpful.

I've since started on a pair of socks for M.M. (ridiculous really, since the weather is changing fast and the chances that she'll need these socks before she's too big for them are slim at best). They're in a nice bright purple/blue/pink colorway from Claudia Hand Painted Yarns (maybe 'Twilight'? Not sure anymore…). I started with too many stitches (68) and got about 3 or 4 inches down the leg before conceding to reality and ripped out. I've now started again with 60 and am hoping for the best. I've got a scant inch of ribbing and another of straight stockinette done so far and it looks more reasonable for a M.M.-sized calf, but I'm still a little nervous. Maybe I need to go down to 56? Or something? The nice thing is that reducing the number of stitches makes for faster progress on future iterations.

I also got a whole big freakin' bunch of yarn from Webs for a blanket (again, what the hell am I doing? Starting a blanket at the beginning of summer on the Eastern Shore? Certifiable, absolutely). I got a gifty box of blanket patterns on laminated cards for Christmas, and just happened to notice that one of them called for Cascade Pastaza. Which just happened to be on sale at Webs. And I guess I might have been in kind of a retail therapy mood or something, because next thing I knew I was ordering 12 skeins of the stuff. It's verrrrry nice, llama/wool, and if I actually get through the blanket, it oughta be lovely and cozy for cuddling on the couch. In, you know, like eight months.

I thought I'd be working on a tricky lace shawl this summer. Who knew it'd be utterly seasonally inappropriate items all around. And don't talk to me about my aunt's sweater. I'm not going to forget it.

Here is what my living room looked like the other day. You may extrapolate what you will about the rest of the house from this picture. This morning M.M. woke up and said "Mama today I want to get out all my toys again." Luckily the weather was finally beautiful enough to be outside all day picking flowers and mixing them up with mud, potting soil, sand from the driveway, and rocks and sticks to make "dessert".

Depressed

I finished the pink socks today. Well, except for weaving in the ends. Maybe that's why I'm depressed tonight? Anticlimax? No new project exciting me on deck? I don't know.

Pictures when I have the emotional wherewithal to get out the camera. I guess.

Finally…

I got an answer to one of these things that I actually like:

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Courtesy of Jes.

Whoops

I seem to have inadvertently ordered another knitting book . I don't quite know how it happened. One minute it was in my shopping cart where I save books I like to ogle and dream about ordering some day, and the next minute I was getting an order confirmation email. It's not that I don't remember placing the order, but I was clearly in the throes of some late-night yarn intoxication and not entirely responsible for my actions.

I've been looking for a new project anyway. I am guiltily ignoring my aunt's sweater, which I really need to rip out and redo because I knit about 3 inches in the wrong direction (purled instead of knit) while sitting in a dark movie theatre. And there's the linen hand towel courtesy of Mason-Dixon Knitting that I started last summer and didn't finish. And the coordinating color of linen yarn for another one. Those suckers take forever.

And M.M.'s socks
And something out of that Noro Silk Garden that I ordered a while back.
And my friend Ming asked me to make finger covers to go inside her mittens because her fingertips were frostbitten when she was a kid and now are hard to keep warm. (I do have until next winter for those, but they have to be of a verrrry fine gauge and are going to take a long time).

But I've been fantasizing about a big delicate lacy shawl for kind of a long time…

Meanwhile, did I show you the pink sock I finished?



Sippy cup is to show scale, and the real color is between the two shown here. This was taken a couple of weeks ago before winter reasserted its icy grip.

(No) Proof of Toe-Up Sock

One is finished. I bound off too tightly and have to decide whether I'm going to take it out and fix it or let it be. I do have pictures, but it doesn't appear that Blogger is going to allow me to upload them (have I previously said "fie on Blogger!"?). I'm getting the famous eternal "Loading" window.

The second sock is on the needles. I'm hoping to be done with it in the next few days, and then I have a few knitting quandaries ahead. First, STR heavyweight in the Farmhouse colorway. I know what I want to make with it: RPM from Spring 2006 Knitty. But the pattern calls for STR mediumweight, and I don't know if I'm clever enough to translate. Seems stupid, I know…leave me alone.

Anyway, BMFA doesn't even have any mediumweight in stock, so no help there. Speaking of which, I have to agree with Sknitty about their web store setup. I love the yarn, and my limited customer service experiences with them have been great, and you know, I'm always up for supporting the small independant business, especially when they're oppressed by The Man, but I'd love it if they had a little bit easier system for viewing yarns and colors.

Signs of Spring

It's freaking me out: last year I lived in a place where spring is still a good month or so away. This year, we've got flowering trees all over town, daffodils are almost already gone by, and the leaves are getting bigger hourly. It's lovely, but totally disorienting.

Complete Satisfaction

Ok, so that might be a little strongly worded, but I am very happy with these:



it feels fabuloso to have them done and off the needles and looking (if I may say so myself) damn good. I wore them immediately for a day of hard tramping around our nation's capitol, and they did very well. Fit was great, comfort was good, and they didn't unravel. Hip hip hooray!

Now on to the next thing. We did some very bucolic outdoor yarn winding the next day so I could start on the new project, which is a sock kit I got for Christmas. It's in self-striping bright pink yarn that is very nice to work with, and it's a toe-up pattern, which I've never done before. The start was really a pain: I had to cast on 4 or 5 times because I had such a hard time getting the increases right when there were only a few stitches on the needles. I finally got it though and am now in the groove, just about ready to start the gusset increases. It's relatively thick yarn and big needles (size 5s after the previous pair was on 1s), so it feels like they're just flying off the needles.



Not sure what I'm going to do next. Summer's coming, so it doesn't seem appropriate to work on warm thick wintry hats and things, but nothing summery is springing to mind. I've been feeling a slight urge to tackle a bigger project for a change, so maybe I'll try a fall sweater for M.M. or something and see if I can finish it before next winter. I hate being such a slow knitter. The process is bigger for me than the product, but it's not everything. And it's hard to appreciate the process if it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress. (hehe)

Finally, the Hat

Well, Blogger has apparently repaired the photo upload feature. It's about time. Here's the hat, already on its way to North Carolina. The yarn is a deliciously soft and highly springy alpaca. It's very drapey, and I'm worried that it won't hold its shape enough as a hat, particularly with a cuff (brim?). But I tried it on and it seemed to work. I basically winged (wung?) the pattern, using the barest of guidelines for measurements and decreases from a cabled beanie hat pattern, origin unknown at this precise moment. I had a vision of a moss stitch cuff, and I just did four simple four-stitch wide ribs of knit against background of purls, and I think it came out quite nicely, thank you very much. It looks better on a head than it does all kind of wilted as in this picture.

I'm a little concerned that the moss stitch might be just a slight tad bit feminine for my brother, but he's not insecure so I think he can take it. And if he can't, he can pull it off. Get it?

WTF?

Blogger is not allowing me to upload the photos of my finished hat! Fie on Blogger! Well rest assured, it is finished, it is lovely and soft and I believe it will fit the intended recipient. Unfortunately it's at least a month too late, as it was almost 80˚ today.

M.M. has mono (which doesn't stop her from looking super-cute), and while at the drugstore earlier this week to pick up a prescription for her, I bought a book to keep myself occupied while she sits on my lap and recovers (which is all she wants to do these days. It is the most boring book ever in the history of the world, and I really mean it!

I was so happy when I got a package from amazon today. Even if this book only lives up to its tepid reviews, it's such a relief to escape from the dreck of the other one that I'll probably love it.

My level of intellectualism has been steadily dropping ever since I gave birth. By the time she's in high school, I'll probably be at least as dull and plebeian as my parents were when I was 18.