Next up

I had the gumption yesterday afternoon to do up a quick swatch for my next colour work project.

It isn't the original project I thought of for this yarn but it's  a good second choice. 

The first project was simpler but relied upon more subtle colour changes than the yarn I brought back from my vacation.  This very nice Briggs and Little Sport will shine as Ysolda Teague's Thriepmuir.  It's  an interesting design, an Icelandic style sweater at a small gauge, fingering weight. 

My yarn is a bit bigger and that's ok.  I have to do figuring out all the way along.  This is just one more step in the game.  I will figure percentage wise to lead me to the correct size to start with and then try it on as I go.

Wish me luck.  But first Hun.  Almost ready for her again.

Random Mutterings in the Afternoon

I completely forgot that I had a free afternoon today.  Marcus had an eye appointment, much as he hates them, and he and I met momma in town and then I could come home.  I am goofing off but I also thought I would get a post up about something I have been pondering lately.

Back to the early 60s and slightly earlier, women in farm communities were thrilled when the Sears and Eatons catalogues came out each season.  Spring came out in the darkest days of winter, and you could shop to your heart's content without spending a penny.  Many towns had general stores or dry goods stores selling fabric and shoes and clothing ready made, and you would buy from them if you could, but if not the catalogue was a lifesaver.  If you were a handy sort, after all that inspiration, you could buy fabric from both places and sew it up into whatever you dreamed or needed. Even though we lived only a hour from the city, mom only got to the city a couple times a year.  

As small town shops and stores closed that catalogue became a sort of bible to the Canadian prairie housewife.  No more the fabric store in Meacham, SK,  one time mecca for farm women in central Saskatchewan.  No more Weibe's Dry Goods store in town (remember the time they had those sweaters we all loved and everybody had one? Remember old fashioned plimsoles and boys high top sneakers?)  Eventually, people did drive more often and would drive farther for shopping.  An hour drive today is much, much less a drive than it was in the early 60s.  Eventually our changing ways led to the demise of Eatons and Sears though Sears would have lived if the people at the top, had been interested in the business and not just pillaged it of every asset, leaving only a bare a shell behind.   

I look at myself now and feel as if I have gone right around this cycle.  I started with all my needs being met by catalogue and now meet the vast majority of my needs online.  

There is just so little that I really need.  When I do need something, I hit the computer rather than trying to arrange a shopping trip to the city.  It seems such a waste of time.  This was happening before I moved out here to rural Alberta, but I am certainly upping my game.  Even shoes.  My usual source for sneakers no longer carries any wide widths, so off to the internet I went.  I needed some specific fabric that I could not get in the city much less locally?  Off to the internet. Books?  Internet. (I know, I ought to support my local library but I love reading a book much more than once. )   

I try to buy in my small town or down the road in Vegreville, even when it can cost a bit more.  I do what I can to support it, but I loved my catalogue shopping as much as I love internet shopping now.

More and more, it feels like what goes around comes around. 

ughh

I had a bit of a felting accident the other day.

This was a nice, double layered hat that was warm as all get out. It was the hat I kept in the car for emergencies and extreme cold has been used many times this winter. At some point, unbeknownst to me, it came into the house and ended up on a pile of kitchen laundry.  It was a wee surprise for me, when I moved the washed load to the dryer. 

On the upside, it felted really nicely.  It would be a really nice tea cozy for a small 2 cup type teapot.  It's not quite long enough for a regular pot.  I might deconstruct it and make it into a trivet for a teapot or possibly some oven mitts.  Time will tell.

Elizabeth Zimmermann said to knit small things in summer.  Mittens and hats were the perfect summer knitting faire.  Maybe this is a sign of the impending end of winter?  No matter.  I must think on knitting a new hat.

Mission Accomplished

It's always surprising after the kids come to stay at grandma's house, when grandma finds all the things the kids were doing. 

That was my face too,when I saw the results of this photo shoot!

I finished up the quick slippers I was making.  These didn't even get a project listing on Ravelry yet and I really do want to get them listed there.  I need to keep some notes.

These are a basic slipper in Drops Big Fabel.  They are almost perfect.  Almost because they are a little long.  I did 19 garter ridges after dividing for the ankle and I would have been better off with 16.  I think I miscalculated because I did not take into account the back of the foot.  I really ought to have just thought of it like a sock and started the back section about an inch shy of the full length.  Still, good enough for schlepping around the house. My feet are warm.  Mission accomplished.

I worked on my Libra Sawl yesterday but did not get as far as I hoped.  It was just too darn chilly in the house.  I keep temps during the day at 18 degrees.  I did that at my wee house too and I did that at our house when I wasn't working.  If you are doing housework and a lot of moving about, 18 C is a fine temperature.  When you are sitting and knitting it does feel a bit cool.  When it is -35C out and you are sitting and knitting, 18C just cannot quite keep the cold at bay and my hands get a bit stiff.  Normally I pop on another layer at about 1 p.m. , a vest or shawl usually, but yesterday that was not enough.  I chickened out at about 3 in the afternoon and cranked the heat up to 20C.      

Still the day had it good parts.  It was lovely and sunny much of the afternoon and my bright bay window in the kitchen called my name.  I really could use a chair there to sit in all that free warm sunlight.  As it was, I sat and had a cup of tea at the table and searched through cookbooks for some supper ideas, bathed in the cozy warm rays.  And I discovered a really funny show on Britbox called Rev.  

I am off to do more knitting on my shawl but first there is some bread to bake, some laundry to do, and  few things to tuck away after the kids played.  

More socks this weekend.  The kids came to stay while mommy and daddy were at a wedding away from home and overnight. This morning I managed to get both socks to the same place, the middle of the short row heel.   

I am going to get to the end of the heels before I put these down for the day so that they are ready for my upcoming work days.  And for anyone who is interested in the saga of the Strathcona County Library, the company says they will be done and out of the building by the end of  March.  I am not 100 percent sure how long that means for my daughter in laws work days, but I know we are on the down side of things now.

I see round me a trove of winter plans undone.  I am trying not to think of things that way because who is to say I would have gotten them all done anyway.  Or any of them.  Life happens and I have been incredibly lucky to spend more time with Cassie and Marcus than usual.  But, I do want to prioritize a few things that simply must be done and make some progress on the big projects.  I have fleeces to card.  I still have some to wash.  I have a loom that needs to be warped if I ever plan to make the towels, and I do plan to make the towels.  And dishcloths.  I am in need of dishcloths. Again.  And spinning.  I have so much fibre to spin and I was just on the verge of learning some very very cool things.     

But mostly, I had some plans for projects to knit that have not been started.  I did have Kate Davies Myrtle in mind for some of the wool  that came home with me from last summer's adventures.  I have the pattern in hand and really just need to do a bit of maths and swatching before I begin.

And that long list of dreamy things to knit in yarns I adore just waiting in the wings.   Right now, I am trying to be good and finish some of the WIPs I have on hand because if I am truthful, there is no room in my three spacious Bosnas storage footstools for anything else. 

To that end, once the sock heels are done, I am going to see if I can't get the First Point of Libra Shawl finished today.  There are just a few rows of garter stitch to complete and it would be so lovely to wear flung carelessly about my neck.  I have visions of me standing, shawl wrapped around me, with my hair flowing carelessly in the soft breeze as I look off into the uncharted distance.  Come on.  Admit it.  We all do this.  Right?  ...

Okay, maybe it is just me, but the silliness of it makes me smile and that is not a sorry way for a vision to clash with reality at all.

Cassie and I made this banana bread from her school reader, where a boy and his grandmother made it.  We did not use the nuts in the recipe because her daddy gets hives from the nuts and her school is nut free and she wanted to take some to school for everyone in her class.  I also found that I needed to add about half a cup of water to the mix.  It was too thick to mix.  Had our bananas been riper it may have made a bit of difference to that.  Overall, a good very banana full bread!

Big days

I tried writing early this morning, but just wasn't saying what I wanted to say, so I let it perk a while.  I'm tired and this is a special day.  It's Brian's birthday today.  In the past we have tried to get together at his favourite restaurant but with the kids being a bit bigger and his favourite place being an old fashioned pub style place it is harder. It is a nice place but it isn't family friendly.  Still, beginnings are much more important to celebrate then endings and ice cream cake at home is the order of the day.

There was a lot of knitting yesterday.  Simple very plain knitting.  I finished off the top of that pretty as springtime sock of mine first and immediately cast on for the toe of sock two. 

I know.  It isn't that exciting if you are a muggle but if you are a sock knitter, you will practically trip over your feet with how pretty these are.  I want to show you something I did a little differently than on my regular short row heel.

I wear out heels right at the start of the short row section.  It is almost always in exactly the same place.  I could map it out really.  It is why I don't always and only knit short row heels.  After thought heels are easy to replace but a hole right where the short rows join the plain knitting are just irritating.  Finally, after more than 10 years of knitting and wearing socks, it struck me that it might be smart to knit the last few rows of the foot section as garter stitch too to see if I could extend the life of the sock before repair was needed.  Time to give it a shot anyway.  

Toe two of that pair was putting me to sleep and I had lots of kid picking up at precise times to do. I needed to stay awake the whole day.  I picked up the other sock which was just a few rows up the foot section and worked on it

and did pretty well.  I did the first two rows of the heel and decided that children and their dinner were not a good mix with a short row heel.  Besides, it was time to head home and sleep.

And that is what I did.  I hope to get the heel done on this last sock today.  That way I have two socks for knitting when the kids are around. 

It's only sock knitting, a small thing for such a big day around our house. It is possible that there should be balloons and huge cards and silly presents, but this is really is how it ought to be.  His physical self might not be here, but he remains part of our ordinary lives as he ever was.      

 

It's quiet now.  Marcus and Cassie both have school this morning.  Marcus just does a half day but what that means is I have lots of time to knit on something like this.  

It might 've more commonly known as the First Point of Libra shawl and it is so close to done.  It will have to wait though.

There is this to finish a cuff on and to quickly knit sock two.

This may well be the prettiest socks ever.  It completely banished any thought from my head of winter blahs.  It is the perfect spring sock.  I don't  feel that winter's  back is broken yet but these socks proclaim I do NOT care.

Bedroom Knitting

I usually go to my room early in the evening and listen to books or work through a course of some kind or other.  When I do, I try to make sure I have something to knit so that I don't end up playing games or falling asleep too early.

I have been working on a shawl for Amy's mom but I made the wrong increases a few rows back and needed to fix it.  While my knitting was on its time out I started something else.

I realized a long time ago that I liked having slippers.  I had my old pair for so long but when it finally wore out The paid I made was done with some Kathmandu Chunky I had left.  It isn't  machine washable though ideally a slipper would be superwash yarns. 

I did have the right yarn on hand and it literally fell out of the cabinet when I was looking for something to knit.  Warm feet.  I feel warm feet coming on.

The yarn is Drops Big Fabel now sadly discontinued.  It was my favourite thing and made wonderful mittens, socks and sweaters.  It is perfect for slippers too.

What you see here is just a few hours knitting.  So I shall soon have a second pair to wear when the Kathmandu pair are in the wash.  

Knitting the Bowl

After a good start to the weekend, I did not feel like knitting things that required any brain power at all.  I seem to have opted for whatever else I did not have to think about.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Indeed, knitting without thinking is one of the best things about knitting.  There are things to knit when I need stimulation and things to knit when I need to park my brain.

I finished the socks I found and I am wearing right now.  It's  very different heel than my usual heel.  Worth trying out though I doubt it would ever replace my regular afterthought heel. So two socks pairs completed for this year.  I am light years ahead of my late summer push for socks from last year.

I picked up Emmett's scarf for a bit but I wasn't really into it.  It is almost half done though,which is nice.

Then I dug out my pretty blue yarn bowl.  I tuck it under a tabletop when the kids are coming.  It's a quick way to hide things.  Several interesting things hiding in there.  

There is a sweater in there.

I knit about an inch on it and then set it aside.  I was thinking that I ought to knit on it more often, not in long spurts though.  To knit a lot on that teal, no matter how pretty the colour is, is deadly in fingering weight stockinette. It will kill any will I have to finish it.     But more often for shorter periods of time?  No problem.

Then I picked up and worked on the other project that was in the bowl.  Last year I was working on a pick up project that just made me feel good.  I fell in love with the way these colours looked together.

   
I made a set of little wrist warmers from the squares, and was not ready to stop knitting the colours so I started a hat and I picked it up again on the weekend.

Originally it ws going to be striped all the way up till the yarn was almost gone and then closed off into a hat.  But I got bored by the stripes.  I wondered how I would like it as a Wurm styled hat.

The farther I get up the hat, the more I like it.  There is a different colour on each of the purled sections and I love the way it collapses into a very pretty pile of colours.

I've almost got this white section finished this morning and after I work on my dress repair for Cassie, I will reward myself with some more knitting.

Odd days

Odd days continue.  yesterday felt unusual and it just kept feeling that day.  I did a bit of knitting but none at all on what I thought I would be knitting on.  Nope.  I was knitting on socks.

 It was weird but in a good way.

I started doing a tidy in my room and catching up with laundry nd sweater washing.  Once I had that underway, I just kept digging and unearthed things that were begun last fall but that were set down and not moved again when the babysitting thing came up.  

My warm long sleeved shirts.  Sigh.  I really could have used these this winter.  Washed, ready for pressing and then to cut out the shirts and sew.  The fabric was in a messy pile in  bin since it was washed.  Under that fabric, I found

   

My bag, waiting for the lining to be sewn.  Not too far away, I found the lining fabric ready and waiting.

And then, the most intriguing find of all.

A nicely in progress pair of Vanilla is the New Black socks.  I had completely forgotten about these.  I did a fair bit of knitting on these through the day because I really can't wait to see how this heel fits me.  It feels weird that after a week where I was a bit sick of socks, that I had such a very entertaining time knitting a simple sock.  I guess even when I am tired of socks, I should never count them out.

So these things are now ready to proceed and I still have no time to proceed.  It is going to take all my time and effort to get the house back into shape and to get all the laundry pile done.  If I do anything else, it is going to be to attack the even older stuff sitting by my sewing machine and if the truth be known, that is the goal for this weekend, not so much the knitting.

I have super hero girl panties to make. I have a dress to repair for Cassie. they have been waiting much too long.  

  

Do you know where your grandmother is?

So it was 9 a.m. and where was grandma?

This grandma was getting out of her car and rushing in to her own wee home to make her coffee and pick up her knitting. Because it was the last night of my daughter in law's night shift cycle where she stays up and grandma generally gets to go home so early.   Usually Marcus is around and we play a while, but today was a school day so my tiny partner in crime was out with his big sister.  They were well fortified with cookies and kisses from grandma.  And grandma gets an almost regular day.

There is going to be lots of knitting today but first

this.  I am knitting a scarf far ahead of when he needs it for my other special bundle, Emmett.  So he has it when he needs it.  

It is made of the same Bernat Pop that I did Cassie's scarf with in a colourway that is warm blues and browns.  Very nice really.  Its been a nice knit between socks.  

But today the Hun sweater, and good coffee.  Which is ready now. And some put my feet up do my own things days till Tuesday next week when the baby sitting starts all over again.

Just socking along today.  Possibly been knitting socks a little too long because for the first time ever my brain is feeling that my socks are just a tad boring.  I was just at the perfect spot for a heel when I first had that thought so I ran a little I interference and did a heel.  

It sèemed to help me focus and the sock is now ready for its simple cuff.  

What I really want to be knitting is Hun.  I have today and tomorrow morning here and then a whole lovely weekend to knit before it starts all over over again.  This week and next plus the one after that are the heaviest in the cycle and it gets better after that.  But pretty soon there wiĺl me just me and my knitting .  EVEN THIS shall come to an end.  Till then I will make socks and be glad of them when they are done.

The Shawls

Sometimes I look at my WIPs and wonder why are these not finished?  They each have a reason, some of them hosts of reasons, some of them thousands of days of reasons, but they do each have a reason they are not being worked on.  Still, I want them all to be done as much as I want to do some things with some lovely stash yarns.  Like Isager Wool 1 and Jamieson's Ultra and Einband.  To say nothing of the Briggs and Little Sport, a very different yrn but just as stunning in it's own way.  And Kauni...

Sorry, I could so easily go off track and tal about the yarn I have waiting.  What I wanted to show you was the yarns I already have in use for shawls.  Just shawls.

Like this lovely thing.

This is my Bridgewater shawl In Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace, a project which I dearly love and wanted to finish a very long time ago.  I started it in November of 2012 and then had a problem with a join of new yarn and had to pull the lace back and then couldn't get going again. And then there was that whole part where life sucked and well, it just hasn't made it to the top of the list since.  Right now it is back at the start of the lace.  This really deserves to be worked on. It is the oldest of all my works in progress and I do mean to finish. 

Or this.

which is one of a series of shawls I wanted to knit for my sisters. It is the Lilac Leaf Shawl from Nancy Bush in Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud. It has looked exactly like this since March of 2017. and sits right there in the same place as when I abandoned it all those months ago.

Such lovely things. so little time.

I was thinking about these because I decided to pick up another project that has been around for a while, my first Point of Libra Shawl. I'm using a gradients from Sweet Georgia and Hatrick Semi-Solid from River City Yarns for the solid. Lots of progress on this stunner.  The last time you saw it it looked like this.  

Since then I finished the colours and finished part one of the final border section.  It looks pretty good right there, but it looks even better now with the strong grey setting up against the glorious red.  

Fourteen more garter stitch ridges and a bind off and it will be complete.  Not too shabby for this one.  I only started it in January of 2018, so just over a year it has been sitting on needles.  At least it was worked on steadily.

I do have two other shawls on needles right now.  I might as well mention them here too and give all the shawls some coverage.

The Brush Creek Shawl which I started in June last year.  The yarn is Shilasdair from a friend

 

 Which is such a lovely thing to work with.

And The Study Hall Shawl in Comfort Chunky.

which I started in November last year.

Sadly, I won't be taking any of these with me while I am working.  It is just too close to the end to allow the dog a chance to wreck the First Point and the other are too complicated for stopping and starting or are too new to take yet.  So socks it is.  It's not a bad thing.  I do need socks and I am working up to a heel day in the near future.  Another pair done will fill two days knitting quite nicely.  

I needed a bit of a break from Hun, a mental break more than anything.  Colourwork isn't stressful, but it is intense.  

 

Gridiron!

As much fun as I have knitting on Hun, and as much as I really want to finish it with every possible bit of speed I can muster, I took a break from it yesterday.  Recall the great no knittig winter of 2017-2018? I didn't want to go there again.  If my hand feels tired, I rest it.  That doesn't mean I did not knit. 

Instead of a heavy sweater that requires thinking, I opted for socks.

I finished the Gridiron Socks!  Look at those strong green lines running all the way up.  Cute, isn't it?  It was a lot of fun to knit and clever to boot.  It was just an all around enjoyable knit.

And lots of yarn left over.

From midway through sock one, my goal has been to knit a pair of wrist warmers in the same sort of design, that are something mom might wear.  It is such a lovely soft yarn, one I would use it for baby things and it will certainly be fine enough for moms hands.    

I did talk with RCY to see if they had a wrist warmer pattern upcoming, and they are working on it, but the yarn presents some difficulty.  And I understand why.  A wrist warmer has either a gusset for a thumb or a slit, and both of those things will change what the yarn is going to do dramatically.  I do see some flaws in my plan but I still have an out.  If I can't figure out something for a wrist warmer, there is lots here for a sock yarn hat. Ribbing of solid green and body of the hat with a variation on the theme for the hat?  Maybe even a pompon?

And in other knitting news, with the cold, I haven't been out for a few days. The landlord picked up the mail and brought me yarn for Emmett's scarf and knitting it has commenced. It also brought a little bit of sock yarn, but we won't talk about that to much because I already had enough sock yarn.  But still.     

Old ways of thinking

From day one of my knitting career, though perhaps calling it a vocation is more correct, my goal has been sweaters.  I love sweaters.  I think I always have.  In the early days of my knitting, I couldn't imagine wearing a pullover sweater.  That style has always had to be too big on top in order to fit my hips.  

Yes, even as a young woman, I had these hips and the short span from small waist to what in  heavens name hips.  The ratio really hasn't changed, only the general overall size.  I never so much as looked at pullovers and so, I became a cardigan sort of person.

All my early sweater knits were cardigans. Everything was meant to be worn with a collared garment underneath or at the very least a t shirt.  It is just the way I had been for so long that it was part of how I went forward into clothing myself everyday. Now that I know how to knit my sweaters to fit, and particularly since I am not working anymore, I am trying to change my thinking and to become a pullover person.  

It's harder than you would think.  Take this sweater, 

my take on the Laekur sweater from Knitty.com.  I love this thing.  I never did get around to putting buttons on it, because I always had on a something underneath and the low cut placket didn't matter.  But since I started wearing the turtleneck and the grey green sweater, I started looking at other things I have knit and could I and should I wear them without something else under them.

Yesterday, I pulled Laekur on first thing in the morning because my usual garb, the Easy Bulky One

 Photo so you know which one I am talking about

is in need of a wash.  When I grabbed it, I just pulled it on over my pjs. I've never worn it without something substantial under it before and it is really comfortable and snuggly.  I knit this cardigan to be a pullover because I always keep my sweaters closed anyway, but I never left the idea of wearing a shirt under it behind.  

I will never think of it that way again.

Wearing it sans other shirt does mean I had to actually finish it with buttons bought so long ago during the giant button thing of 2018.  As a wear alone garment, as cold as it has been this past week, the open placket was just wrong. 

My job, first thing this morning, was to find buttons and to sew them on.  

Mission accomplished.  It is perfect and completely right for wearing as is.  Even though I was  actively trying to change the kinds of sweaters I would consider knitting,  I was stuck at the old way of thinking about what I already had knit.  

It's funny how difficult it is to change your idea of what things are, how things should be done, what stuff means in our small individual worlds.  Our brains get stuck on a way of being and thinking and it can be beastly hard to change.  Not just about sweaters, but about everything.  This sweater story is a kind of parable of how our brains hold fast to the path it knows and to our fundamental expectations of where we are in time and space.  With everything that has been talked about in the fibre world this past couple months, with everything that goes on politically and socially the last few years, it is something we need to understand about our human condition.  Long held beliefs and ideas about the way things are, are devilishly hard to get out of our heads when they need to change.

     

The first step is to recognize the rut our minds have kept us in, in the little ways and in the big.  The next step is to keep searching, to be actively aware of the subtle ways we hold to old, and to always stay open to change.

Utterly absorbing

Yesterday was the first day I was at home since Friday.  I made a pot of tea and then I had a nap.  I did dishes.  I washed a couple sweaters.  Ordinary tasks for an ordinary day, but not a lot of knitting.  I was just happy to be home and to have my own routine.  A few more weeks of this major gig, I hope. For now I am free till Monday.

Back to work on Hun today.    

It feels like I haven't knit on this at all.  It feels like it is just zipping along.  Reality says that each section is taking me a day, even the plain green sections bordered by the rust.  It feels fast because like all stripes, there is something to look forward to in just a few rows.

I am nicely below the underarm

and am working my way through the green section.  This is such an easy sweater to modify because of all the green sections. 

All the increases in rows can happen there and if you were taller than average or short between bust and hip as I am, you would add or subtract rows in the green sections and that is what I am doing.  I've kept to the pattern so far for how long each green section is, but the remaining green sections will get just a little longer.    Hun, by design is short for what I prefer, so each green section will be a little longer, but not horrendously so.  My plan is to keep adding rows as is done right from the top so that by the very bottom of the sweater, I am at 12 or possibly 15 rows of green.  

If I can't get the length I want by doing that, then I will have to find another slightly larger Icelandic style motif to make another band of colourwork.  I have lots of yarn so that isn't a concern.  It does mean quite a bit more work on my part though. 

So on it goes, one step at a time, this lovely utterly absorbing knit. I am just tickled pink that I get to play with her today!

Cold

It is brutally cold this morning.  -43 when I got up.  It has risen to a balmy -32 C now.  Ha. It has only been this cold a handful of times in my life.  It is ŕare.  I hope it remains so.

On the upside I am a wool   person and I have swathed me in it today. And I am continuing to work on keeping me cozy and warm.  Sock knitting continues.

 I've knit on all 4 socks that I have with me.  I suppose it would havd made more sense to work on only one.  I would have been close to finished a sock if I had.  There always seems to be a reason to have more than one on the go though.  

For instance, first thing in the morning and a fuzzy head?  Plain knitting is required.  

Most of the work on these was early morning.  There was a bit done on the blue one yesterday after lunch when I normally have a nap.  The bright colours contrasting with dark green and blue helped keep me alert and awake.

The Gridiron socks are coming along wonderfully. 

Not too much more knitting before I get to do the patterning right around the foot.  And then just a bit more to the ribbing.  Once the sock is completed to match sock One, I will move on and make mom's wristwarmers.  Once that is done I think I will make the socks a bit longer.  If dad wears them or my brother, the longest possible cuff will please them.  I am positive that is one of the reasons this splendid sock yarn comes in its very generous hanks.  

I got a fair bit done on my other slip stitch pattern socks too.  

I really am enjoying the Geek socks again.  This isn't  quite the perfect colourway for Geek socks.  The red is a bit long and the turquoise line in the softer blue zone isn't  ling enough.  Still I am really enjoying the pretty knit.

One way or another, my sock output for early this year is going to beat the sock out put from early last year for sure.  One sock  beats that total so it's not much of a contest. 

For now my services are in demand.  Grandma is needed to fill the Ice cream cones. 

 It looks like Marcus is saying bleach but in all seriousness he is taking a very big lick of his yarn cone.  Bleh comes later 

Socks Are the Thing

Socks are the thing this week.  It started on the weekend.  I was visiting and babysitting for my grandkids in Devon.  Packing was just easier with socks. So 7n went 2 pair.

Sunday morning, my car was really sluggish.  It didn't want to start easily with the -30 C temps we are having. I thought about my upcoming work week.  It occured to me that if the car was reluctant to start in the daytime at -30, it was even less likely to want to start at whatever fresh h e double toothpicks temperature would be at 5 a.m.  I gathered stuff and headed off to my other grandkids.

This is my work for the next few days.  Socks and more socks.

Playing Turtle, a turtleneck sweater

Yesterday's knitting went along very well.  I'm below the arms now and was just starting the second round of the third colourwork pattern when the cable on my needle unglued.  When I have had something happen to  Knit Picks cable before, it has snapped at the join, but this one just unglued.  It isn't really surprising.  I have had these needles now for at least eight years.  A little epoxy or other should repair it nicely. 

What wasn't so nice is that as I was picking up stitches, I missed one and am now in the process of taking out the two colourwork rows.  It gives me a chance to do a better job on the tension of the lost cable row and it is just 2 rows.  Easy peasy. 

Today I will show you my turtleneck.  I am so in love with this garment.

I have worn it several times here at home and while babysitting my kiddies, and I cannot imagine how I got along without it.  

Seriously.

You can see a bit how I do all the massive number of increases I need.  You can also make out how very little space there is between bust line, sadly, going lower as I age and my hipline. You can see that I place a set at the side of where I join at the underams and there is a corresponding set at the back of the under arm.  You can also see that in the critical area, I sneak in another set of increases at the center of the underarm.  But putting increases in several places, my sweater sits better, with no flare out the side seam.  It just drapes naturally around my body.

It struck me as I was wearing it the other day, that it reminds me a lot of my much worn and many times washed Custom Woollen Mills sweaters.  Surprisingly so, for they are very different creatures.  Both yarns have such a deep intense kind of warmth.  You put them on and you know you will be warm.  But not over warm.  They are just right.  

This is only the second sweater I have knit where I planned it for next to the skin wear.  The green gray sweater was the first.  I need more of these, and that send me back to look at my stash.  

The first yarn I think of is the Custom Woollen Mills Mule Spinner Two ply I purchased in the fall.  It may change my plans for that yarn a bit.  I planned some soft colourwork for the yarn but it means I may very well change the neckline and shoulders for a closer fit. Crew neck for sure.  Maybe more.  My stock of dark green  Mission Falls 1824 Wool will be great for a project like this too. Mission Falls will be really nice to wear close and it has  lovely drape.  Plus, I have lots if I want to do some cables.  And there is that lovely cotton  and wool blend fingering weight, Duett from Sandnesgarn.  I had been making a pair of baby monster pants for Emmett with it but I changed out the yarn.  I have colours enough to make me a Sock Arm sweater and I could easily set the fit for close to the body wear.

There are other things to knit first though.  I am itching to get started on my Briggs and Little Sport sweater with the gold and teal and seafoam.  I've searched and looked and debated about the design, but I know what I will do now.  I don't know why it took me so long to sort it out because it was right there, staring me in the face.  And I really want to work on a couple of shawls for spring and summer to say nothing of a summer top or two.  It may well be summer till I get there.   

But that is ok.  I have this lovely sweater and so many other good ones in the sweater cabinet.  I'm warm and toasty and that is always what I was aiming for.