crooked heel

Sometimes my knitting seems to be a metaphor for life. Take these socks that I'm knitting:

Sock progress

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Nov 25, 2016 at 2:32pm PST

The pattern was part of a Christmas present last year When my wonderful mother in law gifted me with SOCK CLUB!!! It is available for purchase now--it is L'abeille D'or Socks and the yarn--amazingly enough is also from that sock club. It is Modesock in a colorway that doesn't seem to be available anymore. I think it was called heirloom corn? I am too lazy to go get the wrapper.

Anyway, before I start the life metaphor, let me say this. I do love this yarn so so much, it is so squishy to work with. And I loved the sock club. I didn't anticipate that I'd actually use any of the patterns though because I have this love hate relationship with sock patterns. I love making socks. I especially love making toe up socks. But I have narrow feet and a loose knit and so I can never make a 64 stitch sock actually fit me. But I decided to give this a go because it came in a smaller size AND it was toe up.

So here is where I diverge. I have this way of knitting toe up socks on 3 dpn--you have equal numbers on two stitches and double that number on the third. Your start of a round is between the smaller needles. No stitch markers needed. YOu do need to remember if you are doing a pattern, which side you have designated as the "top" so that your pattern is actually on the top of your foot and make the heel on the OTHER side. So, when I started this pattern, I just kind of did that. Usually, I also do a version of a short-row heel that I learned from the fabulous Ann Budd in her article on toe up socks in Interweave knits sometime in 2007 (again--lazy). But this pattern called for a different heel and I thought--oh what the heck, I'll do that kind.

Well, this my friends is where I feel like my life and my socks are at the same place. I'm knitting along thinking I have things under control and then whammo I'm stuck.

In life--I'm just feeling stuck, I'm not really working in the field I trained for, not really doing a job with any upward mobility, really really wanting to do something information science related instead and not really sure what that looks like both locally and what I envision it being.

In knitting--well I understand sort of what the pattern is asking, but because I said "I don't need no stinking stitch markers" I keep feeling like the heel flap is... well crooked. I understand (I think) what the pattern is asking--I'm just not sure in this uncharted territory where to put it.

And in both--well I'm feeling so tired and busy that I'm not sure I have the energy to figure it out.

halloween 15

Ok. So at this time of year, I usually take much needed sewing breaks from my making of halloween costumes to blog about sewing on said costumes. This year? Ok this year was both easier and harder.

It was easier because one girl decided to be sadness from Inside Out. And if you follow that link you'll understand the ease of this. We found some blue leggings at Kohl's for $7 and a fleece blue cowl necked shirt at the thrift store ($3!) and I bought some blue and white face paint and a blue wig. Due to my policy on not showing kids faces on the blog, I may not actually post the finished photo here. In essence this costume is more about the face, than the clothes.

But it was harder because the other girl had trouble making up her mind. First she wanted to be a three headed monster, than a princess, then finally a minion. But not just any minion--A cute minion. She declared a need for goggles, a tutu and overalls. I'd love to say that hey I have all that done and am basking slightly in the glow of the tealights in the pumpkins.

No

I have in fact purchased at thrift store a shirt the right color and was told it a) smelled like old man (Before I washed it--I wanted her to try it on so I could return it! if it didn't fit) and b) had a turtleneck. So I washed it and removed turtleneck. Then she said she wanted to wear her blue leggings so ok. But then she wanted a tutu that "stuck out" and overalls with a Grue symbol.

This is what I have come up with:

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Oct 29, 2015 at 11:11am PDT

I created the overall part, managed a buttonhole! and used fusible web to create a Grue eymbol. She thinks the tutu is too long but eh.

Goggles might be the end of me. I saw a tutorial on Pinterest that used canning lids and wiffle balls, but I thought I'd use very large googly eyes instead. BIG MISTAKE. Those googly eyes are too big for ANYTHING. and nothing I've been able to work out has satisfied her.

So basically I am waiting for her to come home from school and approve the latest incarnation which is a wide mouth canning lid and said eye. She can go as one eye or I can glue a second one on. Maybe. I don't have the rivet tool from the pinterest tutorial I found, and so I bought elmers brand super glue and I'm hoping there is enough surface between two lids to glue.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Oct 29, 2015 at 11:11am PDT

So here I am basically last minute (wearing these to school Friday) throwing stuff together. I hate that feeling! But I have a coffee date planned for after everyone is off and I plan on sleeping that extra hour out over the weekend, and come back with more knitting in November!

meh

I'm just going to come out and say it--I'm still struggling here. For the last few weeks I feel as if I am treading water. There is no energy for anything but keeping my head above water.

It sounds melodramatic. I don't think it is anything really to worry about because I think this time of year (the late January through February) is hard on many people in the northern Hemisphere. It is dark, and cold, and here in Michigan, snowy. We don't have enough to compare to Boston (oh poor Boston), but we had enough last week to give us a snow day and to totally throw all my routines out of whack. I hurt my back shoveling, I didn't sleep well, and as a consequence I feel like I totally lost last week. I didn't run, I barely knit, and every day just feeding my family felt like a monumental effort.

My knitting project has been singularly unexciting. So many little pieces, so many little mistakes that get ripped, re-knit, ripped again, and re-knit. Add many spaces between the steps, as every mistake seems to make me skip any knitting for an evening. Also little mistakes on a simple TOY (which was to be a gift, but now may not even get finished) make me lose confidence to try a bigger project. And then I sit here with yarn for three sweaterish/shrugish projects and a brand new knitting magazine (with a sweater I adore!) and I feel like starting all of them and none of them at the same time.

My husband is wonderful. He says--just make yourself a simple sock with some fun yarn. But even socks make me feel meh. I have so many socks. Socks that need to be darned. I even gave up on TWO pairs. These:

and another pair I don't think I ever photographed! Heck that means they aren't done right? Anyway pictured pair has been darned many times, and keeps sprouting new holes in different places. If I fix the current holes, I will have replaced pretty much the entire sole. The other pair--I've blown out both heels. I could fix them, but realized I don't like them that much (see--no picture, how could I possibly have liked them). And having given up on two pairs means that I still have enough socks to wear a new pair every day and still not run out by laundry day. Maybe I'll do a sock census.

I do know that for me there is only one thing that pulls me out of these moods. Just keep plugging until spring gets here. Just run, and knit and take care of the family. Just let people take care of me. A saving grace for me is that in the middle of all the February-ness there are bright spots: valentine's day, butterfly volunteering, my birthday and my lovely daughters' birthday. So hopefully next time, I'll have pictures and maybe a brighter outlook.

In the meantime, if you too are feeling meh: hang on, it will get better.

brilliant ideas

So, I got this brilliant idea.

You can pause now and laugh if you want.

I started a toe up basic sock from Modesock and then saw neldoreth and could not decide if I should rip that sock out and start over using that pattern (since it is a top down instead of toe up pattern). And then I thought--why can't I just work this pattern from the toe up. I figured the order of the chart and started in. And...

It just didn't look right. And then I turned it inside out and there was the pattern--sort of:

Sorry for the bad pictures, I took them on the ipad before I ripped them out and just started a plain toe up sock.

It looks so pretty, but so plain. Sigh. Anyway, I'd be father along, but here is where I admit a failing. I want to do a specific heel that is in Socks from the Toe up and it includes wrap and turns. I never mastered the wrap and turn. In fact, the last socks I did with this heel, I had to look up how to do wrap and turn, and I suspect I did it wrong. And now, I have to look it up again. I will though. It is just that my knitting time is also my relaxing time and this isn't meshing. Perhaps some night when the children silently drift off to sleep.

In the mean time, I also finished a sewing project.

All because I started a de-cluttering project where I get rid of (at least) two things every day. I have been working on my sewing room and as I have been going along, putting things away, getting rid of things to make room etc, I kept tripping over this more than half completed project, and the other day I decided that if I finished it, I could put the pattern away in the newly cleared out pattern drawer. And I could throw away the scraps. and so, I finished my Ipad carry case.

Details, can be found in this entry. I had to re-do the flap, and found it easier to sew the button on before I had the whole thing together. I think if I make one for a gift, I may use a different type of closure, as I am not a fan of velcro.

I love it and so now am thinking about carrying my ipad everywhere.

gray sweater and jams

Well I certainly didn't mean to take a month break on blogging. I did however, spend most of March really struggling with knitting, in a way that I have not ever done.

I did start the India Print Henley I mentioned in the last entry. I struggled so much with it too. Something about adding stitches at the increases (raglans) and still trying to follow a chart. Sometimes you added stitches on both sides of the chart, and you didn't start at the beginning of the chart, all of which made me confused.

I finally did get it going though, and realizing how to read the simple pattern in such a way that I could figure out where to start pretty easily. And then we went on a trip and I took it along. So I should be showing a you a progress picture with a lot of progress right?

Well, let me tell you about the mid-winter freezer jam I made instead. Although I don't have pictures of that either.
I had a bunch of peaches in the freezer that I put there to make smoothies, Lassis and crips with. However, our Indian food consumption is not what it was last winter (we are trying to eat in more, get the kids to eat what we eat and the Indian take away place has consistency problems that I don't feel like dealing with). Meanwhile, I was running low on jam. So I decided to make peach jam from my frozen peaches. And it worked.... sort of. I generally don't worry about browning in the freezer peaches, so I didn't put anything on them. So they turned a delightful brown. So yeah, I have brown peach jam. Tastes good though.

I also was able to finally find the mangos I like again, and even though I am the only one who appreciated last year's mango jam, I decided to make it again. Wow, when I went back to look I see I made that jam in late April last year and here I thought I was late! I had it in my head that I made that in February. Anyway, I did have the last minute UGH I don't have enough Certo moment when it was time to add it and had to run to an unfamiliar grocery store to get it (baking aisle!)

Ok the reason I wanted a jam interlude is this, when we got to my mom's house on our spring break trip, it was time to "divide body and sleeves" and I discovered that I had done two things a) made an uneven number of increases so my fronts had the right amount of stitches but the sleeves and backs were all 4 off and b) missed the set of instructions that have you NOT increasing at the raglans every RS row all the time, but rather 21 times and THEN every other RS row 3 times or something. So I ...

ripped. it. out.

Yes pause for a moment and consider that. I ripped nearly 200 yards of yarn because I knew the mistake was near the top. And I started over--5 days ago.

The good thing is that this time around I didn't struggle with the lace pattern and it actually looks much much better.

Still no pictures though.

drought

So yeah, I'm having a huge creative block. I really have no idea what I want to knit next. It seems to me that my knitting life is sort of a "when it rains it pours" kind of thing. Usually, if I am excited about a project, I'm also excited about 20 projects and have a serious case of starter-its, followed by.... well a drought.

I have new needles, some spiffy knitters pride Carbonz dpns, in size 1.5 to replace my harmony dpns. And I love them, but....
they are a little off size wise. I mean I get that 1.5 is tricky as it is technically 2.5mm diameter, but these are closer to a US size 2. I don't use size 2 very often, as I like tighter knit socks usually. And I would have gotten straight US size 1 except my LYS was out. I do have birthday money though, so I may go back. And I have US size 1 needles so this in itself isn't holding me back. In fact I even have another set of US 1.5.

It is just I kind of wanted to use those new needles.

Except I don't want to make socks.
I should because I love hand knit socks, I wear hand knit socks 95% of the winter (exceptions being when I run, and when I need to wear my tennis shoes--like this volunteer stint I have caretaking butterflies with my knitting/running friend. That's my hand holding the orchard swallowtail). So you'd THINK I'd always need more socks. And I kind of do, I just don't want to make any right now.

See I'm kind of bummed at some of my socks and how fast they are wearing. I mean I fixed actual HOLES in a sock that I've only had for two years (I checked my ravelry link. Or here's the flickr link ). And I put a lot of work into those socks. And even though I KNOW that was a case where I was blinded by the pretty colors into not noticing that it was essentially knit picks sock yarn (which don't get me wrong, I like, but I don't put that much work into knit picks sock yarn anymore), I just feel all mournful about socks.

I did dig out some stash Lorna's laces and wound up a skein (and tried out my new needles and SWORE at how loose the stitches looked) and I know Lorna's laces last for freaking ever, because the very first socks I ever made were Lorna's laces and while I have repaired them, let's just say it was more than 2 years later and was not nearly that damaged. And I may get back to those because I did walk past it this morning and think "oh pretty. Oh lovely. pretty pretty yarn." (yes, it was as creepy as it sounds)

I also have some really nice yarn. I won some buffalo gold earth lite in red. I intended to make a cowl or something but I wore the skein around my neck for a while (shut UP) and found it to scratchy for my neck. And I dug it out this week because the newest Interweave knits has a pattern for a set of fingerless gloves that I thought would be perfect for this yarn. It was Inlaid lace mitts. But the gauge is wrong. Really wrong. Like I don't think going down a few needle sizes (I think we'd be talking US 00) is going to help.

I also have some nice laceweights hanging around the stash. Some Helen's lace, sea silk and one whose name I can't remember and I'm too lazy to dig it out and look--but trust me same category. But I'm a little burned out on lace. I need a project I can carry around.

And so I thought sweater. I bought some yarn to make a red sweater after seeing a red sweater that I LOVED in Knits that Fit, but before I buy the book, I'd like to look at it again and make sure, and maybe swatch. The library has it, that's where I saw it originally. But it is checked out and not due back for two weeks. I have a hold though so maybe it will come in faster.

I also have yarn to make that pesky dollar and a half cardigan but I'm afraid that if I knit this it will be: a) a pain and b) not a sweater that will magically transform me into the model.

I have a few more chunks of yarn in sweater amounts, but nothing that excites me. I guess I'll just keep thumbing though my books and magazines until something strikes me.

What do you do when you hit a knitting drought?

the reward entry

Yesterday, I managed to accomplish a lot of stuff on my to do list. My treadmill workout seemed easier, I stayed within my calorie allotment despite eating out, I ordered new glasses, figured out how to manage a part of the sock that was driving me nuts (more on that in a minute) and managed to take a "refraction" picture (This is a picture where you can see a picture in a small drop of water--and it can be tricky to pull off):

So today I am rewarding myself by putting aside the gazillion things I *should* be doing, and do something I *want* to do. (which if you haven't guessed is this entry)

So, the socks. Back at Christmas we planned a small car trip (12 hours in the car all told) and I had recently finished a pair of toe up regular socks (the purple stripes last entry) and so I thought that I wanted a portable project, but I didn't want "regular plain socks". Evidently I don't do anything halfway because before I knew it I had packed Sock Innovation, my harmony DPN pack and a skein of cascade Heritage (in purple solid).

I picked out the pattern Rick somewhere along the way and cast on in the car. The ribbing went fine, and soon I had started on the lace. And soon I ripped back to the ribbing. And then I started the lace again. And then I got distracted and pulled a needle out of stitches, couldn't find them again, and ripped back to the ribbing. Then I started the lace again and we reached our destination. By this time I think I had about 2 inches of lace.

So we did our trip thing, got back int he car to go home, and I pulled out the knitting. I was doing well, so well. Then I don't even know what happened but suddenly instead of 60 stitches on the needles I had 59. I tried back tracking, but couldn't find where I had dropped them. I was devastated and not sure what to do--do I rip, do I tink? And then a driver in the next lane pointed out we had a flat tire. After that car knitting just didn't happen. We pulled over at the next town took everything out of the car, changed the tire, loaded everyone back in and by then it was getting dark, we were all wound up and nervous about driving home on the spare (oh and 2 low tires--which we fixed at the next exit).

Back home it was clear, I needed to rip back to the ribbing, and start using lifelines. After the lifelines, I only have had one "swear incident" (as my husband calls them), in which I was getting ready to put in a lifeline and again pulled the needle out of 20 stitches--but 8 rows lost and it didn't take me near the ribbing.

So then I'm knitting away happily, I do the heel and it looks good, then I pick up the gusset stitches and for some reason it is easier than I remembered (probably because the pattern gives no number of stitches to pick up (which is sensible, it really doesn't matter) and then I start across the top of the foot--which continues the lace. For some reason I no longer had the 32 stitches I had put aside when I did the heel, I now had 31. (insert cosmic scream here)

However, while I was waiting for the eye doctor yesterday it clicked for me--it had dropped at one end. Quickly I figured out which end and made my peace with the idea that that row might look a tiny bit funny and suddenly I had a sock again.

Now I'm debating the need for a lifeline in the one lace row (I think I need one) and slowly moving along.

All this work and I still have to do the left sock (yes the socks are mirror image patterns--it is going to be totally cool).