sock on hold!

Well, sock number 2 is on hold right now. Remember the blue baby blanket I was doing? Well, I discovered that the increased size I had done it from the original design was not such a good idea. One of the larger stitches snagged, creating a huge loop, pulling the other stitches in the row tighter. Hmm. Baby blanket. Huge loop. Good idea? Not so much. That, and I also discovered I'd also managed to drop a stitch and had a nice long run, meant that I decided to rip it, and do another design for the baby. Said baby being due in about a week.

I settled on the Garter and Rib Pattern from the Afghan, using the light and dark blue yarns together and size 13 needles, and a garter stitch border round it.

I love the principles that this pattern shows. You've got twisted ribbing (right-side ribs are knitted and purled in back of stitch), and garter stitch. And you see those long ribs that snake from the top all the way to the bottom, between the sections of ribbing and garter? Those stitches are all the same number of stitches in. There are no increases or decreases in the pattern; that line of stitches is pulled out of alignment because the ribbing pulls together (especially with the twists), and the garter happily stretches out. It's a fine example of how different types of stitch produce different gauges.

The new blanket using this pattern is knitting up pretty quickly. I did a lot as I watched about 4 hours of documentaries and supplemental materials from my The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Extended Edition) DVD.

I can't find it!

My wife and I have noticed that if ever we are looking for something important, frequently, we are unable to find it. However, in those situations, inevitably we will find something else that we had previously looked for, in exactly the same place that we had looked, and been unable to find.

However, if you deliberately look for something else, in order to trick the universe into letting you find the thing that you really want to find, the universe laughs at your attempt, and you still don't find it.

Anyone else get that?

Boardgames!

Now, you may have noticed at the top of my blog, it mentions I'm a boardgamer. Yes, I have more hobbies than just knitting! Shocking, I know!

On Thursday, Karyn and I went to Rob's place, to meet with him and several others to play some games. We played TransAmerica first. This is a train themed game. Each player is randomly and secretly assigned one city from each of the coloured regions. Once you've seen where your cities are, you place your start marker, then each turn you can add track to any track that connects to your marker. If you connect to track someone else built, then you can connect track later to any of that connected track, and they can connect to yours. Eventually, everyone's track will connect up. Once someone conencts all five of their cities, that round is over, and everyone scores the number of track pieces it would take to connect up any remaining cities they've not yet connected. Repeat that for a couple of times, and the player with the lowest score wins. I think Mark won that game.

Then we played Cloud 9. You're in the basket of a hot air balloon. The pilot rolls special dice (each with 2 blanks, and one each of red, yellow, green, and purple balloons on each side). Do you think that the pilot has cards in their hand enough to match the dice? If so, stay in the balloon, in the hope of moving up to the next level to score more points. If not, jump out, and score the current level. If they pilot can play the right cards, they do, and you move on up. If not, the balloon crashes, goes back to the start, and the players still in the balloon score nothing, and everyone gets another card. Then the next player is the pilot. However, the higher up you are, the more dice you have to throw, and the harder it is to make it. I forget who won the first time, though I came painfully last. The second time, I'm pretty sure Rob won.

Lastly we played Metro. Set in the Paris Metro, you have to connect track up to make the longest possible line for your train to get to a destination station, playing tiles to achieve this aim. While you do that, you also want to try and prevent others from getting long lines, possibly by completing their lines for them. Karyn won this by a long way.

Oh, and if you're in the Saint Louis area, and you like playing board games, feel free to join us at the Saint Louis Board Game Meetup. Don't worry if you don't know the games, we'll be happy to help you learn!

Baby blanket decision.

Thanks for the ideas for baby blankets. In the end, we looked at the Harmony Guide I have, and Karyn chose a fabric pattern there, which is also replicated on knitting.about.com. The pattern she chose is Embossed Diamonds. She then knit up a swatch of two pattern repeats to get a gauge (using two strands, one each of white and pale green, of worsted weight yarn). From that we made up a pattern - 93 stitches, 5 rows garter, 5 sts of garter, 8*10+3 of pattern, 5 sts garter. Work that until it's "big enough", then 5 rows of garter to finish off. The baby is due in May so she has plenty of time... though there are other babies she needs to knit some things for too :)

Left Twist Problems

Because my previous photo didn't really show the problem, I've taken another picture. If you click on the pic, you'll see a larger image, along with a description of what seems to be the problem. I've also included the three LT methods that I know. It's really frustrating me. Suggestions on how to solve this very welcome.

time waster

Someone directed me to this game and I just wasted an hour playing. It's addictive. Try it :D

One down, one to go, and another afghan square!

I've got a completed sock! But let's see the progress first.

Here I've turned the heel of the sock. Picking up the stitches wasn't so hard. But with that in mind, I'm intrigued by the pattern that Jacquelynn is using, where you put in a row of waste yarn where the heel will go, knit to the toe, then go back remove the yarn and knit the heel in.

Toe shaped, ready for the Kitchener stitching to close up (using the lovely instructions on knitty.com).

And here it is! Here's the first completed sock. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I even got my wife to model the sock, and it certainly looks sockish!

I've produced a new page with all my Sockapalooza stuff on it to make it easy to find. Well, almost all. I still have a few resource links to add.

I've completed another Afghan square. This one is Twisted Lattice. I've had some difficulty with this. While my right twists are nice and tight and even, my left twists aren't. I've tried three different methods to get the left twists to work and I just can't seem to get them nice and even. Any suggestions?

Letter to My Sockapalooza Pal

Dear Sockapalooza Pal,

I'm writing this here, as I'm not able to send you an email, as I don't know who you are! You could, of course, set up a free email account on Yahoo or Hotmail. I've looked through all the beginner Sockapalooza blogs, and I have no idea who you are. I think I've managed to rule out a few people (or at least, I hope I have, or I'll getting some socks that won't really suit me!).

It's pretty cold here today, so I'm thinking of nice warm socks - but having said that, it will be hot in the summer, so then I think light socks would be nice. I do quite a bit of walking, in particular Geocaching, which is lots of fun, so on balance, thicker socks for walking would be nice.

I've got a number of projects going on right now - One sock for my pal is complete, I'm nearly done with a baby blanket, I just finished another scarf that I was asked to make, I'm thinking of knitting some hats that match other scarves I've made, and my ongoing Afghan project is going well. I do have some updates on these to post, which I will soon. Promise.

What else would you like to know about me? Do get in touch and let me know you are out there!

Sockapaloozer blogs

Well, I've been looking at other sockapaloozer blogs to see how everyone else is doing. Some of them are great, some of them haven't started yet (but they still have a couple of months to get done).

I'll admit it, I've been looking to see if any of the socks are ones I might like, in the hope that the ones I like best are being made by my Paloozer Pal.

I'm now halfway done. First sock complete. Pictures soon.

Heel meet again...

I have a heel! Now to work on the gussets...

That's MUCH better!

The new yarn I got yesterday is very nice and is working up nicely. I have my ribbing done on the first sock now, and it's got a nice feel and stretch to it. So far so good.

In other news, I'm knitting another scarf, this one for someone who specifically requested one :)

Aaaargh

Well, having knit my k1-p1 rounds, I've found that the cotton just doesn't have enough give. In fact, I've knit that part several times, casting on looser each time, and there's still not enough give. So I did some research and discovered that vegetable fibres typically don't have as much give as animal fibres do. Well, I think I'd worked that out for myself!

So I went to a LYS, taking the pattern with me, and we picked out a wool/acrylic blend. Photo will probably be here tomorrow.

So, I guess, arguably, I start on my sock for the fifth time tomorrow.

In the mean time, any suggestions on what projects would work well with worsted weight cotton yarn in denim-blue variagated colour would be welcome.

What it is to learn, eh?

I've started on the first sock!

Well, I got some yarn - it's cotton, which means people can say to my recipient "bless her cotton socks!" when she gets them. It feels quite soft. Yes, I know it's a lot - my wife wants me to knit her some too :) I really like the colour.


I've also got the first round completed! It wasn't too fiddly, and I swapped the first and last cast-on stitches before knitting the first round - a tip I've read a couple of times in different places. My first thought when the instructions said to do some k1-p1 ribbing was that I had to remember which row I was to make sure I started the right way... but then I remembered that I don't, as I'm knitting in the round!

Wish me luck! Actually, wish my recipient luck - she's going to need it!

Baby Afghans

My wife would like to make a fairly simple baby afghan for a friend, but without it being tediously simple. We've looked at some patterns we googled, and she's seeing 180 stitches per row and thinking "I'll only be able to knit one row in a sitting!" So far she's only knit scarves.

So, we're looking for pattern suggestions. In particular, using larger needles (US 13, 15 or 17) with multiple strand worsted weight would go down well.

If you have any suggestions that would be great. In the mean time, I'm going to look up some fabric patterns in the book I have.

Crochet

I've not tried crochet yet, and after seeing this Cathartic doodle and then this one, I'm not sure I want to :)

Beginner Sock Help!

Well, I've joined the Sockapalooza and I've got the details of my sockapaloozee. I've been looking at some sock patterns and I want to do something pretty easy, especially as I'm a beginner sockapaloozer.

I saw Joan's Socks which seem to be fit the bill, and they are worked in double-strand worsted weight yarn. The pattern mentions length, and I have my 'paloozee's foot length, so I can figure that bit, but I also have a circumference, and I have no idea what to do with it!

I've been reading Socks 101 and the concept seems fairly simple.

Something I've been considering is getting an anonymous-ish email from Yahoo or Hotmail, so I can email my 'paloozee and we can get to know each other and talk (being careful, of course, to keep my identity secret). Maybe other 'paloozers could do the same. I'd hate to be the only one, and have that in and of itself identify me!

It seems all I have to decide is what natural fibre yarn to get, without breaking the bank, and what the heck to do with that circumference measurement. Ideas and suggestions welcome!

Masculine projects.

You ladies get it so easy. If you want to knit something for yourself, there are all sorts of things you can do. As far as I can see, for knitting for myself, as a man, my options are much more limited. I mean, for example, I love the Clapotis - I think it's really elegant, and depending on how you wear it, can be scarf-ish or shawl-ish. But it's not something I could wear.

If you have some ideas for masculine accessories that aren't boring, I'd love to hear of them :) Suggestions welcome.

Surprises

This weekend, we travelled to Chicago, to surprise Karyn's Great Aunt Shirley, for her 75th birthday. We, along with lots of other family, were there in good time at about 3, and we did indeed surprise her when she arrived an hour later. She's the one in the front row with the white top and the blue "prize ribbon". And I can now reveal that she was the recipient of the red/black scarf.

Our original plan had been to visit some friends who live maybe an hour and a half away, as I wouldn't really know many of the people at the party, and Karyn hadn't seen many of them since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, so we figured we would be somewhat out of place. However, for various reasons that plan fell through, so our next plan was to stay until 7 or so, and then travel back home, with an estimated arrival time of about 12:30 am. 11 hours driving in one day, even between us, would have been quite exhausting. I know, we've done more than that before. Certain members of the family (you know who you are - thank you!) decided that we shouldn't travel back, and they found a couch for us to stay on (which was very comfy I might add) so we could get some rest and stay the night. That meant we were able to stay up a lot later and actually get to know some of the family better.

I'm glad we did - it worked out really well, and I felt really accepted into the family. I had some very interesting conversations (about websites, blogs, jobs, Beijing, the Green Bay Packers (and I think I'll say no more on that topic for a while <grump>), Beethoven, churches, knitting, digital cameras, Scott Joplin, to name but a few), and made some new friends. It will be nice to keep in touch with said friends and develop those relationships.

So, to the friends that felt bad about letting us down with the initial plans, I have a heartfelt thank you, because we would have really missed out on making these new friends. We'll see you some other time, and I look forward to it.

I've got another knitting project on the go, a baby blanket for a friend. This is very simple, all in garter stitch. I'm changing colours every two rows, and changing needle sizes (using sizes US 17 and US 6) every 7 rows, to get the different texture. Also, with the same number of stitches, the smaller gauge obviously is narrower, so the larger gauge will gather, as you can see in the detail pic The rows changing needles have to be done carefully; going from larger to smaller is harder as you have to keep the tension high enough for the stitches not to be too loose. It might be an idea for the smaller needles at least, if not both, to use circular needles, as the ends of the needles can get tangled in the larger holes of the blanket if you're not careful.

Knitting Question

OK, I have a question.

My mother-in-law has a pattern for a really simple hat, that uses doubled worsted yarn, so would go really well with some of the scarves I've made recently. My only niggle is that it's not knit on circular needles, and therefore the pattern calls for a seam once the knitting has been done. Part of the reason for the simplicity is that she works in a school, and teaches some of the children to knit.

My question is, once I've got to the end, instead of binding off and seaming, could I carefully unpick the cast-on row, and then use kitchener stitch to graft those two edges together, thus making a seamless join?

Would that work?

What do you think?

Oh, and while I think of it, I'm thinking of setting up a "men who knit" web/blog ring. If you know of any Men who knit (or, indeed, you are one), direct them here and I'll get the ring set up.

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National De-Lurk Day?

I heard it's national de-lurk day. So, given I've got a friendlier comment thingy, come on out and de-lurk. Give me a comment.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Yeah, I know, it's late. But I didn't get the (real) picture back for a while (I'd forgotten my digital camera), and then I had to get it scanned in, and then I had to remember to upload it.

For Hallowe'en, we went to the neighbourhood of some good friends, and joined them and their children for Trick-or-Treating. We dressed up for the occasion.

Other than that, I managed to complete another Afghan square. This time it was Square 29: Leaning Stripes. This is a very interesting fabric. Each stripe appears on the surface to be a single stitch wide, but in fact with the Right Twists that make the stripes lean, there are actually 3 stitches for each pair of stripes (so effectively 1.5 stitches per stripe). The extra stitches are invisible as they are at the back of the twist. This causes the fabric to be quite dense. It would be a good fabric for really warm clothing.

Oh, and Jen (of Catharsis fame) enjoyed her scarves (the green and blue ones). She'd like to think she's getting both, but I'll make sure Jared, her husband gets one!

Comment Friendlier!

I've managed to hack a few things so that my posts are comment friendlier :)

Unfortunately, access to comments only appear on the main blog page or the archive indexes, due to a small quirk in how I publish my blog.

It's going to take a more wholesale change in my blog publishing to get it as I would really like it, but I can live with it as it is for now.

Old comments are no longer showing. If I can dig them out of the internal workings of the old system, I may do, but there wasn't much substantial there anyway, partly, I think, because of the unfriendliness of the comment system.

Birthdays and Afghans and Scarves (oh my!)

Yesterday was Karyn's birthday. After church, we went to a photographic exhibit of a friend, Elena, which was excellent. Then in the evening, I managed to take Karyn, blindfolded, to a local Red Lobster. There we were met by a number of friends for dinner. She was reasonably surprised, but she thinks too much and draws too many conclusions from the small things I say. Ah well. We all enjoyed ourselves though.

My afghan progresses. I recently completed Square 23:Honeycomb. This is a simple pattern and shows that dropping stitches need not be the end of the world. The slightly diagonal stitches are dropped, other stitches worked, then you pick up the dropped stitches again.

I've also recently completed three scarves, all using the same pattern as before, using doubled yarn, in 2 colours. One in red and black, one in two shades of blue and one in two shades of green. They've really come out well. These are imminent gifts,and I look forward to reporting the recipients in due course.

I received something excellent in the mail today. My mum sent me The Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches. It's a great book, with all sorts of fabric patterns in it. I like it a lot! I was most amused by a small box that reads "For North American Readers" which gave some terminology translations.

I also have an interesting project - or I will have soon. Alison (of The Blue Blog) is organizing a Sockapalooza Knit-along. This will be my first pair of socks I've knit, and my first KAL. First step, I have to submit my measurements and what I might like in a sock (apart from my foot, ha ha!) and I will shortly after receive information on the person I will be knitting for. The thing is, we don't know who will be knitting our socks, we just know whose socks we will be knitting.

Lastly, I've been doing some Perl programming to make my picture archive more useful by making it easy for me to provide descriptions for the larger images when you click on the thumbnails. I've started with the first four squares of the Afghan and will update others as time permits.