Parked Brain Syndrome

I spent a lot of time knitting this weekend.  I had kiddies over during the day as their mommy and daddy did some things that you couldn't do with kiddies around, so spray park and knitting, lunch and knitting, watching kids shows and knitting.  I was doing really well too.

I knit a nice little gusset from the Pepita pattern for fit

  

And then, well it just went sort of odd. I have knit this pants shaping three times before, but I put my brain in park and knit on.

It looks fine, but this leg is wider than on Marcus' pants and the those pant legs look huge on him. This is supposed to be for a baby.  I know what I did, and I am sitting here just shaking my head at my stupidity.  I added the gusset stitches to the leg width.  Parked brain syndrome, indeed.

So, the pretty stripes have to come out and a little bit of the gray, but soon enough it will be resolved.  Once that is done, I am going to keep working on the legs.  I am going to narrow them up significantly so they fit more closely.  That will work better for a moving, crawling baby.

The planning continues for the Epic Journey.  I have packages to pick up at the post office, and need bug spray and a small folding table to put my stove on for cooking (in case there are no tables where I stop).  I have the window covers to install today and then sort out a box for all the bits and pieces of the kitchen and gear and something for clothes.  Then, I have bedding to install and shortly after that, the Epic journey begins. Some of these things will take more than a day, but by the end of next week, I ought to be ready to go.  The Epic Journey might not start for a few more days after that, but we will play it by ear. My gear will be ready well before my planned start, but we shall see if I am ready to start before my planned start.

I look very forward to this week.  It seems our current heat wave has broken and by this afternoon, it should be cooling off again, thanks to rain in our forecast.  

Discomfitted but

The word discomfitted used to mean to defeat your enemy in battle, but it has slid into meaning  'to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment'.  As ever, I am my own worst enemy and have done both.

I knit the sleeve to the point where I had to put in the bottom tuck stitches but the sleeve seemed too wide. I took a count and laid the two sleeves out together.

I had to pull back a fair ways.  I needed 6 fewer stitches than what was on my needles before starting the tucks.  Sigh.  

And then if you recall the very very cute Das Monster baby pants?  Same same. It might even be worse.  

Yes this is not what you saw before.

Instead of being able to work with the utterly divine Mini Duett,  I have switched it out for some much more plebeian sock yarn, mostly Phildar Phil Folk 50.  The Mini Duett did not pass the first part of it's washability test, the washing machine. I didn't even want to know what would happen to it, if I put it in the dryer.  It couldn't be machine washed AT ALL.  So, not suitable for baby things, not for this mom anyway.  The Phil Folk 50 will be a much better wash and wear alternative.  I have used some for my socks and it is a fine commercial blend, sturdy as you like.

All stash yarns too, which is always a good thing.

But that left me with the question of what would I knit with these small quantities of yarns?  2 and 3 balls doesn't go very far. 

And then as I was waking from my semi regular nap, as it sometimes does, a flash of brilliance.   Sock Arms! Sock Arms and her designer, Stephanie Lotven.

Copyright Fruity Knitting Podcast

Which reminds me, if you haven't watched the Fruity Knitting Podcast, you should.  They have some great interviews and lots of fun knitting things!

I do have lots of black and lots of the red.  Either of those colours would be great for the main body of the sweater and my small quantity colours, possibly interspersed with just the smallest bit of red and black, à la my version of the Lakeur Sweater,?

Oh YES.  

The colours certainly suit my mood for colour combinations these days. I did look through my sock yarns a few times and just wasn't inspired by any of the stuff I had for sweater sleeves in combination with possible yarns for the body section. But the Mini Duett quantities will be perfect for the main body and for the arms. It can't get better than that.   

I first came across this sweater via the Knitmore girls podcast and ever since, the question of what yarns will I use, floats around in my head poking out at odd moments.  One of those odd moments was as I was waking from my nap.  Yay nap time!

So what may have been a kind of dismal day, full of perplexity and defeat turned into success.  And that leads me to my morning work and setting down to watch some podcasts, Fruity Knitting is the podcast of the day, naturally, and my favourite new thing.

Exactly how I feel today.

Mills

I was so certain that I was going to get tons done yesterday.  How is it that I did not?  I do not know.  I can only surmise that the heat plays a part in it.  I do not do really well at 30 C.

I did get some pretty cool stuff organized and I did get to the last decrease but one on the sweater, but that was about it for knitting.

Most of my day was spent on the computer doing research for my trip.  One of the things I really want to do is stop at some of the woollen mills we have.  Big ones, little ones, and one for sure that might not quite be ready by the time I get there, but I think I will stop and just let them know I am looking forward to their products and that I wish them well.   Some of the big ones are favourites like Briggs and Little and long familiar like Spinrite but many are new to me, like Macauslands, which I have known about for a long time, but I am not familiar with their yarns or goods at all, or Lemieux Spinning, where I have known about Quebecoise  from many hours spent on the Schoolhouse Press website, and knew it was Canadian, but never knew from where.I want to see what we make, not just what we dye from commercial bases spun overseas.

I am so excited to go and see.  But for now, I have to go and see a man about some tires for my car.  No tires, no trip as my sons say.  

What else?

I mentioned at the end of yesterdays post, that I had picked up some fabric to line Amy's sweater.  While she would love the warmth of wool, she is a hot body and wool usually makes her sweat and sweat makes her feel the prickle factor of fibres.  So, her sweater in Cascade Peruvian Tones will be lined to take away the 'wool is prickly' factor so she can enjoy the sweater while she is camping and out doors, and on chilly winter evenings hunkering down watching movies with her boys (Amy has all boys and she has one of my all boys.  I feel for her and want to support her in any way I can.)

I found some really soft lightweight knit fabric in a very soft neutral gray for it. They did have a blue that hinted at purple, but I didn't think it was close enough a match not to compete with the yarn.    While I was getting the fabric cut, I did spy something I just had to have.

 

I love this.  I could see pants or a skirt or a nice flowing dress.  It is fairly light weight, so I bought a bit more of the gray than I needed for the sweater and will use that to line this, should I need this.  

And because I am ever attracted to good deals, I checked out the remnants bin.  You never know what you can find there.  I came away with three pieces of fabric, all cotton blends,

that will make great tops.  These are hitting the wash as we speak.  There might not be enough for an entire top on each of these pieces, but there is all kinds of stuff I can use for coordinating fabric for the backs of tops.

I have an entire shelf of dark fabrics, green, several navys, black in a variety of fibres and weaves to choose from.

Though it may not be apparent to anyone but me, these things are all part of preparing for my trip.  I have two sets of clothes, the kind I wear out of the house and painter clothes.  After putting my finger through the fabric of one of my best shirts the other day, I thought it might be time to reassess clothing.  There really wasn't much in the out of the house category.  I've known that this day was coming, but I just didn't think it was so urgent.  I was wrong.  It seems it will be a very good idea to do a spot of sewing before I head out on my travels plus there are a few things that need hemming before they are ready for wear.

It might be really nice, liberating to have a few airy summer dresses and tops in fabrics that don't crush and that dry quickly.  Or in fabrics that are even better when they are crushed and wrinkly like linen.

So this week is sewing week, I guess. It is just kind of happening.  I have got just a little to go on the Pole sweater and then blocking will commence.  And once blocking is underway, I can lay out the fabric for lining it.  I am not a hundred percent sure just how the lining will be made, but I have a couple of ideas.  

Time to go shut all the windows now to keep out this beastly heat.  And time to knit.  And coffee.  Always time for coffee.

Button, Button, Who Has the Button.

Remember that game?  I have got to remember to show that to my grandkids.  I am not sure their dads will remember without a nudge.

That is what I was up to today.  Buttons.

I have always had a button box.  Somewhere back in time, it was a jar and the buttons came off kids clothes that were used up and worn out.  I saved the buttons for the next stuff I would sew.  When we were in Calgary, I picked up a bag of buttons because I was looking for some for a project one of the boys was working on.  I used a lot of those buttons over the years and continued to use them here and there.  They were getting really picked over and it was hard to make a set of anything.  

Last winter, I bought some buttons for a couple upcoming projects and was seriously appalled at the price.  I bought simple buttons, plain ordinary ones and each card was more than five dollars. 30 dollars for buttons for two sweaters.  That is a lot of button money.  I thought there had to be a better way.

Last week, I bought a small bag of buttons at Michael's for ten dollars.  When I got them home, I was really pleased with my haul, so pleased, that I went back today while I was in town, to see if there were any other colours I might like.

I was hoping for a few more buttons in a certain size range, something that would be better for heavier yarns.  I am thinking winter is going to be big yarn knitting here at Chez Needles, so I bought two bags of each of two other colours of buttons.

From the first two bags, I found six different kinds of buttons in large groupings, ie, more than one sweaters worth of that type of button.  I picked another 2 or three significant buttons of the same size and style and was left with these.  I could have made more groups, but I thought for my sweater purposes, I had what I wanted sorted and just tossed all the little ones in the box loose.

Each bag had a couple of truly beautiful buttons.

I was really getting into it by this time.  When I sorted the darkest of the buttons, I just kept going till there were none left to sort into tidy piles to tie together.

If you look at the loose ones, you can see several other groups I could have made but seriously, even I know when it is time to call uncle.

So yes I did spend 40 dollars on buttons, (Actually 35.  I had a coupon.) but this time instead of getting two sets of buttons, I got 16 groups of buttons.  I stopped taking the tied ones out of the box at 16 .  Even more, many of the buttons had enough to use on two or more garments, and there were even more options if I am not picky about matching.  I also have oodles of a particularly nice little button that won't work to close a sweater but will make a great backing button for the larger ones.

I am very pleased with the button haul.  Next up, I have to find a couple nice buttons to make a sweater closure for Amy's Pole (which is kind of how the search for good buttons got started.).  I have been dawdling but sleeve two is half done, in spite of me. I picked up some nice stretchy lining fabric today too, so time to get a move on it. So close I can taste it.

The moral of todays story is, if you need buttons, call me.  Who has the buttons?  Me, that's who.

  

Wash Swatch.

There are times when whatever I am working on isn't enough.  Sometimes, it starts with a project, but sometimes it starts with a yarn.

I was putting away a batch of yarns that was in my car for a very long time and I kept moving small skeins of a yarn called Mini Duett from Sandnesgarn around and out of the way of my organizing.  Mini Duett is a wool cotton blend in a fingering weight and I just love it.  I have several quantities for sweaters and a few odds and ends of colours that I always thought would be great for kids things.  

Particularly, these pants. Because who doesn't need a pair of baby pants with a monster bun?  Seriously.  All my other grandkids were knit for so seldom by this grandma, that I mean to flood my new sweet little boy with all the things they never had.  Well, all the really cute stuff anyway. 

And so I cast on some monster baby pants for my little Emmett.  These have been my bedroom knitting for a couple days now.  I sit and listen to a book before I go to sleep and I knit something different.

But that led me to sit in front of my yarn closet, looking for the red that I  have in this same yarn.  That monster mouth on the bum is coming up very quickly.  I took a quick gander yesterday but didn't see it in there, so I am going to have to do a bigger better search today.   

Each time I go in to play in the yarn, I am overcome by how much lovely, lovely yarn I have.  I am overwhelmed by the beauty of it and for a moment, I wondered how on earth I was ever going to travel without packing the whole entire thing in case I needed something from it in the middle of nowhere.

I want to knit it all right now, every single inch of it.  There isn't a yarn in there that doesn't call my name.  Digging in the yarn excites my imagination.  Colours, fibres and twist all combining, waiting for me to create something interesting and perhaps, useful.   Yarn energises me and I can't wait to have it on my needles.

How am I ever going to decide what to take along to work on while I am traveling?  I do know that one sweater will come with me, if I don't get it done before I leave, but it is fingering weight yarn and doesn't really take much space.  And sock yarn.  I want to pack 2 different yarns and patterns for travel knitting, but I intend to be gone for 6 weeks and no matter where I am, there will need to be more than sock knitting and fingering weight yarns.  I know one other small project that I would like to have with me, but it too is small, luscious, but small.  

Well, time to think about that later.  I have to knit a bit of a swatch.  I didn't because I knew fairly closely how the yarn would knit up from endless numbers of socks, plus with a baby garment, well, they will grow into it.  This yarn needs a wash test badly though, so I can tell Wee Emmett's mommy how it washes.  The package says 40 C, but Ravelry says 30 C on a wool wash.  I know mommy mostly washes in cold water, but even so, 

Wash swatch it is. 

Miscellaneous and the Big Stuff

Life feels oddly miscellaneous today.  I think that is because I made some decisions yesterday that changed what I am going to be up to, but the short term effect is, I am feeling a bit unsettled and it shows.

First thing I picked up was that sock heel I turned Wednesday while mulling repairs.  When I looked at it last thing yesterday evening, I found to my chagrin, that the foot was too short.  And it was such a nice heel turn too.  A pull back of the turn is in order. 

And done.  That's better. Stash Dash is having a serious impact on the state of sock completion around here.

I knit on the sleeve of Pole.  It is actually coming along quite nicely now and is about a three quarter length as it stands.

I'm debating what to do next. My yarn is going to be close and Pole has these interesting long sleeves with tucks at the end of them.

Copyright Joji Locatelli

I really want to knit the cuffs this way, but I worry about running out of yarn. When do I not though.  I think I am going to put this sleeve on waste yarn, just in case and knit the other sleeve to this same length so that I can assess how much yarn remains.  I'd like to do this technique but not if it means I have to buy another hank of yarn.

I took the time to finish plying the Big Ball of Fibre singles.  This is the skein I plyed on the the Vic.  I am really pleased with it. 

The second bobbin was plyed on the S51 and it needs a little work.  I am going to run it through again and give it more ply twist.

It is the background skein here.  Looks good from afar, yes?  But trust me, it needs work.  Still, I was pretty pleased.  For a first go with a new to me wheel, I think it is good enough. 

But I wasn't ready to stop spinning.  I looked at other knitting projects and couldn't settle to them, so I tried the wheel out on it's own, spinning singles.  I have this very large bag of alpaca fibres that the previous owner included in the deal.  I wanted to see what I could get out of that too. So I did this.

Spun long draw from a very large single batt.  Once it was pre-drafted, things went along nicely, but I think I am going to give this fibre a turn on my carder to see if I can give it a bit more loft to the batt and to see if I can then spin it more finely. To knit it as is, it would make nice sport weight mittens, but the spinning is a bit firm. It is a very large bag of fibre, and if I am going to spend the time to spin it all up,  I think, particularly for this fibre, that I want a loftier end yarn.  It's just not quite what I am looking for out if it yet. If I can't get that with what few skills I have, then the fibre, lovely though it is, will go to a new home.  

But I didn't ever feel like I settled on a single thing yesterday.  I did laundry, I cleaned floors, I swept but not in any sensible fashion and not in a way that led to a completed anything. I did make one small firm decision that led to another firm decision.

All winter I thought about getting to some of the Alberta fibre festivals.  The Edmonton Fibre Frolic was out because it happened while I was babysitting.  I needed sleep more than the adventure or the yarn. So I looked forward to Olds Fibre Week. I really, really wanted to go to the market there today and to soak in the atmosphere but yesterday, through all of the above dithering, I decided not to go.  Because this:

I made a firm decision to have a different adventure. Mr. Needles and I planned way back in 2008 or 2009, and driving all the way to the Maritimes.  It didn't happen then because of work and wanting to take at least 6 weeks to do it right.  But also, he wanted something different from a relaxing vacation.  He wanted warm in winter.  He was the guy who loved sunny beach travel. I enjoyed it because he enjoyed it. As a real vacation, a get away, I much preferred the drives to high mountain camping or camping in weird little parks and places by prairie lakes.  I enjoyed breathing in the air and seeing how the land lay, what the skies looked like, watching for wildlife (which I never spotted first).  I loved driving down the open road with my windows open and  sitting in the evenings hearing the wind and the birds.  

And then there is that thing about stuff you dream of when you are young and how that dream remains a thing all your life?  I love the history in my country, the story of many peoples who came from far, long ago, voyaging from their homes into uncharted territory.  I want to be the places where the first nations formed alliances and struggled with early French and British settlers,  to see where Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail survived and thrived, to see the places that featured in all the stories I read as a girl of who we are. And I always wanted to go to L'Anse aux Meadows where Europeans first touched our shores (that we know of to date.) 

I still want that vacation.

I've been waffling about my plans, feeling maybe I am not quite ready, but honestly, if I don't go now, I will never go. And if I wait any longer, my car will be too old to safely go so far from home.  So, I am going now.  I am car camping to make it as affordable a dream as I can make it, even if I end up not liking car camping.  I trust that I will learn to like it by the end of 6  or 8 weeks. If not, well...

So, if by chance you are reading this blog, and you live somewhere off Highway 1 and know of cool stuff to see and do within a two to three hours drive off that general route, drop me a line.  The route stays Canadian because I don't have a passport at the moment.  I'm generally avoiding really big cities except for historic site stops and museum stops (maybe I am not avoiding big cities at all). Or if any of the lovely people who used to pop in and read this blog still read, and you wouldn't mind a visit from a far off friend, drop me a line.  Canadianneedles at yahoo. ca

And yarn stops.  There will be yarn stops. Lots and lots of yarn stops.  Have car, will travel.  Have yarn, will knit. This summer's motto. 

The good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good:  I was plying yesterday and was really starting to get a feel for the wheel and the yarn.  It was looking good, except that the longer I worked, the harder it was to treadle. 

The Bad:  And then this happened.

I did not want to wait for the repair part, though it is on order.  I was in the groove and I don't want to stop now.  What to do?

The Ugly:  In the old days, leather was used to connect footman to treadle and I do just so happen to have some leather.

It isn't a good stiff leather.  It was recovered from a coat and the plan is to use it for a bag and possibly for slipper bottoms.  I hoped it might work to roll a small piece up and use that roll to mimic the more modern silicone piece.  

It seemed to connect everything okay.

It treadled just fine.  Today I am going to see how it actually works.  With a bit of luck, it will be just fine till the part arrives.

I did get about half done a sleeve on the sweater and in my anxious thinking about what to do turned a heel on a sock and I do hope for much more knitting today between chores and catching up all the things that needed catching up while I wasn't at home.

6.5 MM Double Points!

Yesterday was the first time I went spinning in a month.  We met a few times, with my sidekick at the library's Enchanted Forest area for small children, but spinning there never seemed a good idea so we knit instead.  Just the idea of getting back to it, was exciting! It took a bit of thinking to decide what to spin next but eventually I came up with this.  

It is a beautiful polwarth top hand dyed by the people from Colour Adventures.  I started out with two matching braids.  One was spun last winter, or possibly even before last winter.  By the time I was finished it, I was sort of sick of the brilliant rich reds and wanted something else.  I put the single on storage bobbins and they remain waiting for plying. Now, with plying being something new and interesting to me on my new to me S51, I decided spinning the rest of this up and plying all of it at once was a great idea.

I am going to put the tag in there so that I have a record of  who, what, where, why, when, since the blog is the only fully functional memory I seem to have.

After spinning I took care of my needle problem.  6.5 mm needles ought to do it just right!

I am now set for knitting for the day.  Back to the sweater! You can also see that I decided to beef up my button box!

For now, a good cup of coffee in my sweet new kitty cup made in Ukraine,  knitting sleeves, and completing Amy's sweater.  I can't wait to see her in it! I am almost looking forward to that long back graft!

Now, where was I again?

I've been home since Friday night but the kids and their dad were here on Saturday.  My first real day  just for me, was yesterday and I spent it, doing absolutely nothing other than a very little bit of knitting.  It was wonderful.

But this morning, my first thought was 'what on earth am I going to do today?'  If it wouldn't be for the blog, I wouldn't remember what I was doing back at the beginning of May at all.  I know there are things I was in the middle of, and there are things that I now need to do to accomplish what I thought up while I was away, done, but my goodness, where to start?

Before the beginning of May I picked up a couple things that still need doing.

Hang the clock.  I have always had a clock in my study, and it has irked me ever since I left my house, that I did not hear a clock ticking at night.  It is such a nice meditative sound. It also irks me that I can't see the time without starting up a device or my computer.  So, job 1, hang clock.

 

Same time as the clock arrived, I picked up a small garbage unit for in my bathroom.  I have a huge ensuite but the layout is a bit odd.  There is no good place for a garbage can to stand.  This, tucked in the giant empty cabinet under the sink is going to be perfect. So job 2, install garbage can unit.

According to this blog, I was washing sweaters, prepping them for summer storage.  

Ah yes.  The washed ones.  Job 3, put these away in proper storage bags.  There are a few more to wash as well, so that would be job 4.

And then this.  

At the beginning of May, I was prepping for my garage sale, and doing some extra special babysitting while my wee pumpkin was born. I barely had a chance to set it in my living room before I was needed to babysit again while my little sweetie went under the jaundice lights.

Bonus photo of my little sweetie from the weekend, via his mommy.  He looks a lot like his Papa Jim and his Great Grandpa Ian Morrice.

So, job 5 must be to put my new spinning wheel to use.

And in other news, at my other grandchildren's house, mommy's home!

Little people and mom are reunited.  No happier little people possible!  

So, my tasks are lined up, indeed some are already begun and soon enough I will feel normal again.  Or I would if I ever knew normal in the first place.

Back up and running

I am home again and my pillows are on my bed.  Note to self:  Always take your pillows when you travel.  It is just so much better.

There was knitting this morning!  All sorts of knitting actually.  First up to finish my brother's socks.

I have just enough left to do some darning when they need it down the road.  This is the first pair of socks I completed this year.  For the first time in ten years of sock knitting, I went halfway through the year with none completed, a thoroughly disgusting statistics.  However, there are many on the needles, most of them well into the first sock.  Order in the rank of socks will reign in sock knitting shortly.

And then it was time to look at what else I ought to knit today.  When last I worked on Amy's sweater, I was in want of bigger needles.  5s are just not cutting it.  A quick review of the dpns shows that there is nothing between 5 mm and 7 mm, and I am certain the 7s are just too big.  So, even though I was sure I had all the needles in the world, I need more. Ah well, there it is.  I will need 6 or 6.5 mm soon enough.  I have loads of yarns that will need that gauge for the right kind of fabric. So no sleeves today.

I pulled out the last of the sweaters I want to finish for Stash Dash, my version of  Joji Locatelli's Granito.  Last time I even looked at this really great sweater was last October.  And that is just such a shame.  It's a nice yearn and a really adaptable and interesting pattern.  Not at all the sort of thing you can park your brain for, unless you can remember the slipped stitch rows.  I can't so it keeps my brain very engaged.

When I picked it up this morning, I had to stop to admire how nice it is again.  I knit a round and as I knit counted stitches so I could see where I was.  I have a few more increases to do (Hips yanno.  A-lined body type) to get it to where the fit is what I am looking for.  I really hope that the drape works with this yarn for the changes I am making for fit.  From this point, the rest of the increases will happen in the back to help that happen.  

Cross your fingers.

I am certain now that there will be no pockets on my sweater.  I think I always hoped there would be, but pockets would not help how it will work for me, and that is that.  It's a shame that I didn't get back to this sooner. It would be the perfect thing to wear on a day like today.  Cool after a big storm lowered yesterdays hot hot morning but not cool enough to shut the windows.  

It will be done.  There isn't really that much too knit on it.  Sleeves, but the shoulders drop a bit and the sleeves by design are slim fitting. In both cases that means there are many fewer stitches to go.  For now, onward with the body.  Time to measure how long it is and then to just knit till I get it right.  

One last day in this long stretch of me and Marcus.  Cassie has school today so it is quiet.  Today we are cleaning the toy room, with the object of making it impossible to mess so badly that dad can't order it again before mom comes home. Bahahaha

I'm going to park this blog till tomorrow or perhaps even Sunday.  Just till I get my feet back under me.

One more say

I have one more day here, and if I'm honest, I am a little worried I won't make it through.  I've been in situations like this before, and I know that on foot in front of the other, and it will all happen, but gosh, I'm tired.  

I'm voting that nobody does a month again.  Unless they can't help it.

So, 5mm.

I had to go back to my home yesterday so I made sure to grab my 5mm needles.  Only to get back to the kids house to find that even with my 5mm needles, I am still knitting as if I have 4mm needles.  Arghhh.  This sweater is a fairly loose knit and changing gauge(which I could certainly do) would be too much for the sleeves and would look odd.

Sleeves are out for the remainder of my stay here. 

I have two pair of socks and a shawl to work on and they shall suffice.  It's only two more days and my time will be my own again.

This whole last month I've been with my grandkids and as much as I love being with them, I am tired and I miss my home and my things and my routine that involves coffee rather than getting somebody else off to school.  But my daughter in law's stepfather died and her mom needed her.  When this adventure began and Ilya was nearing death, we felt the sickroom was no place for small children.  I came to stay to make all this possible. I have been in Ludmila's shoes and it is all I can do to help.  I have done it and though some days are hard, it has been a task of love and care.

But it is time for this grandma to go back home into her hidey hole from whence she came, and to sit and play with yarns she adores.  Till then, this grandma is planning on knitting socks. 

Those are 4.5's

I was cruising along on the Pole sweater and did not plan to let a small thing like a very long graft slow me down.  I took all the stuff I would need with me.  Except the 5 mm needles I grabbed aren't 5's, they are 4.5, that I knit like 4mm needles when I am working in the round.  Sort of put a stop to sweater knitting for a bit.

Luckily, I prepare for such things.  I picked up a pair of socks and got busy.

I was working on these socks last week in my normal spinning time, but dropped a stitch and so, set them aside for a time when I could sort it out.  It took only a minute to fix and on I went.

The nice flat sock has another 2 cable twists before I drop that sock and get number one complete up to the same point.  Then when both socks are at the same place, I will assess what yarn remains.  This hank nly had 360 m in it, plenty for socks but if I want to used all the yarn up, then I have to keep checking what is left.  It would have been much easier to split the yarn before I started, but at that point in January, I did not have a scale.  

And thus this dance of socks go on.  This way of knitting socks does have some merit.  When I finish sock two, a whole pair will be complete.  There won't be any lag time while I knit a sock two.  While finishing a pair of socks is never a problem for me, this is a kind of interesting feeling.  

Saving Things for Later

There is only so much that a person can do in a day.  Grafting with small kids wandering around, cats and dogs demanding things, fighting, grandma can you help me-ing.  Grafting is not for times like this.

 I have come to the end of the lovely main body of this sweater and all that remains is the sleeves.  My chore today is to read the pattern and to review what people have said about sleeves (too long, too tight, etc.)  and it will be begun.

For all that this is a big sweater with its extra super sized collar, it feels like it is going fast to me.  


   

German Short Rows

I'm getting really close to finishing the body.  I am just two short row sections from completing the body of this sweater, which is utterly thrilling.  This is where I started the day and I now have just eight little stitches to knit on to the back rectangle.

If by chance you are looking for a new short row technique, do consider German Short rows. For my style of knitting, it is a perfect match.

The last stitch on a row with work already turned, ready to slip to the right hand needle to do the turning stitch and ready to purl with the yarn in my usual in front of the knitting purl set up.

First, I slip the stitch and I take the working yarn and pull it to the back over the top of the needle and give it a good firm tug.  It lifts the bottom of the stitch up so that both legs of the turning stitch show on the needle.

I pull the yarn back to the purl side and enter stitch number two, ready to pick and purl. The turned stitch, from this vantage point looks as if there is only a single leg now, but the second leg is just pulled a bit on the needle and is out of sight at the moment. The yarn, ready to purl is between the turned stitch and the next to stitch.

When I have finished purling a few more stitches, I've turned tthe work to show you what it looks like from the knit side of the work.  You can easily see the two short row turned stitches, with the double leg over the needle, as well as the single stitch I am leaving between each turning point in the row. That extra stitch isn't required, it just give a bit gentler slope to the short row wedge.

When it comes time to knit that turned stitch, I just knit it in the regular knitted way.

Every other technique I tried for short rows left me with weird stitches, long loops or stitches I had to turn or mangle to get them to present the way they were supposed to.  I know that presentation of the stitches problem is because of the way I knit, but for every style of knitting, there is a way to approach everything to make your knitting wonderfully problem free. German short rows simply work for me.  No weirdness, no wonky too loose no matter what I seem to do.  It always works just so and leaves to back of the work nice and smooth.  Yes, you do see that something else happened there, that did not happen on plain knit and purl rows, but there is no weird and it is lovely.

German short rows.  Life changing.

Just a little note:  Pole is a great project to learn short rows on the purl side.  If anything, German short rows on the knit side of the work is even easier.  You just need a different project to see it and try it!

Two

Two is one more than one.  This morning, I am thrilled to say that there are two armholes.

 The side was joined to the front/back yesterday afternoon.  I had to be really careful measuring the underarm length to the correct side of the opposing armhole.  It was easy to pick the wrong part among the swath of fabric but I caught myself before there was a problem and moved along smoothly.  

Two is also more than one in my bed, where I was till 5:17 a.m when a certain gentleman came knocking at my door and where he is currently enjoying the company of his pups on my phone.



His pups means the show Paw Patrol and I consider myself lucky that his actual pups stuffies - there are many- are still sleeping in his bed.  I asked why he wasn't sleeping in his bed too and he looked at me kind of witheringly and said he had to find his glasses and that he needed me to clean them.  At 5:30.  Before 5:30.   Arghhhhhh.  Grandchildren.  But I love them always and forever anyway.

I love my kiddies, but 5:30 is grandma's alone time. Mommy will be home in nine days, not two, sadly and grandma is going to have to tough it out!