Finished scarf

Maybe I should lead with the sort of good stuff. I finished something! First, before I get into the picture, or how I feel about it--let me just say that this is HEAVY and WARM and the weather is unseasonably warm for late October and so my plan for wearing this to show school pride on the big crosstown rivalry game is also in question. I'm sure no one sweats to death in the stands at late October football games and I don't want to be the first.

Scarf! Finished but way too heavy

A post shared by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Oct 19, 2017 at 5:33am PDT

This is a scarf that I started as football knitting. I wanted a scarf on school colors but As I said in the last entry, this isn't quite the finished product I was envisioning. Yarn choice was really the downfall. And here's the kicker--I really don't have any desire to make the scarf I was envisioning. I mean I COULD go back to the big box craft store (or another one--we have two) and find more appropriate yarn for the project and crank out another scarf. But I'm feeling very eh about it.

Which brings me to kind of the bad news on the blog front. I haven't started knitting anything since I finished this over the weekend.

Seriously.

I'd like to say that it's because I'm so busy with other things, but the reality is--I don't have anything I want to knit. I mean I do have other things too--halloween costumes, which are going to be a major crunch this year as the costumes were decided upon late and I'm making an extra one for a friend so they can all go as a group. But by in large, I am just feeling very uninspired.

I poked around on ravelry for a bit the other day, but it felt like everything was a shawl or wrap and I just wasn't feeling it. I have a small metric ton of sock yarn I could dive into, but after knitting socks all summer, I'm wanting something different. I have yarn for a sweater that would be perfect to knit if I could focus on it (the infamous dollar and a half cardigan that's been on the to be knit list for nearly a decade). Maybe I need to stash dive. Or maybe I need to go the craft store and get the yarn to make the scarf I want (for next year? for playoffs? For basketball season?)

Or maybe I just need inspiration from you--Tell me about what you are knitting!

2048, shrug and a sock

This week, while waiting at the eye doctor, one of my daughters introduced me to the game 2048 , which should actually serve as a cautionary tale of how you should always have emergency knitting or books because man am I ever addicted to that game. Seriously. As a consequence (a sad consequence), I really didn't get much of anything done this week. It feels like Indigo Cones is going so so slow. I think in part because the rows are SO. FREAKING. LONG.

So, I have completed 3 sections of the chart--you do 5 before starting the sleeves. And I was thinking I might actually get this done in time for the banquet that I THOUGHT might be a month away.

Hear that? The sound of fate laughing at me?

Usually this banquet is towards the end of April, and the weather is warmish, hence the shrug. I didn't look too close at the calendar or I would have realized that when I am anticipating the banquet, my husband (aka the reason we go to the banquet) is out of town. He thought it was the week before--when my mom would be visiting (hey come visit AND babysit). BUT then he got an e-mail and the banquet is actually April 10 instead of the 24 like I was anticipating (or the 17th like he was anticipating). Now I'm realizing 2 things: 1) I'm probably not going to finish this in time. 2) even if I did, it will probably still be too cold.

Oh well--I'll just have to find an excuse to wear it anyway.

Knitting in Public

I know lots of people knit in public, and I tend to occasionally bring a sock here and there. I had two opportunities to knit while "chaperoning" an academic competition my girls were involved in. I toyed with bringing the shrug and then realized that even though the lace pattern is simple enough for TV knitting, that you don't much done if you have to stop, figure out where you are, and then start only to be interrupted 2 or 3 stitches later. So sock it was! The first week, I didn't get the sock out at all--instead ended up chatting with the other chaperones. The second week, I got out the sock and had several middle school girls surrounding me asking about my knitting. And then realizing that I forgot to bring the yarn I was switching to.

The girls were funny though because they all told me about people they knew that knit, asked me what I was knitting, asked who it was for, exclaimed over the yarn. Well, everyone except my children, who seemed to think I was knitting solely to embarrass them.

You see I started a sock out of the two skeins of leftover sock yarn from making socks for my two daughters. I thought I'd do heels and toes from the skein with the least yarn, and the rest from the skein with the most yarn. But then I didn't know if my sock was wide enough, and I didn't want to be THAT chaperone who took off her shoes and tried on her sock. So I stopped, put it away, vowed to work out the issues and then Tuesday when I have to go and sit for a few hours during the final meet, I'll work on it more. My girls will really be mortified if I am sitting in the auditorium (since I shouldn't have to chaperone) knitting.

So, I need to try on the sock, and start the blue. Before Tuesday. Better stop playing 2048. Except I got up to 512 and almost to 1024.

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.

the great caramel post

One of the terrible things about my dropping off the blog map for the month of December (while everyone around me did Holidailies and wrote DAILY) is that I'm not really sure where to start back up. It would be great if I had a finished item to show, but I do not.

I wanted to finish the dahlia cardigan in time for Christmas. And I did, sort of. I am not crazy about the fit, and I have some adjustments to make, but I am also majorly frustrated, so I put it aside and picked up a sock to make it through my post-holiday travels. I have one sock done and the other started, so I'll report on that next time. Let my initial report say, this yarn has silver in it and it is exactly what I have needed to get through the dark days of winter. SPARKLY!

Mostly I wanted to deconstruct, mostly so I'll remember it, my sea salt caramel adventures.

This is the second Christmas I have made a batch of caramels from this recipe I clipped out of the Oprah Magazine. And yes you can mock me if you want. The recipe is here and they are really good. But I have learned some things about this recipe and so I'm putting them all out here so I'll remember them, and maybe you won't make my same mistakes.

Ok, I have made three batches of this stuff and they all had two things in common. First, they take a way bigger pan than you think. My best result came with my second biggest pan. Although I tried it in my biggest pan and that wasn't too shabby either. The reason? I guess all caramels do this, but that cream and sugar just acts like a huge volcano. Second, they all burned to some degree. I think I have a solution for that, which I will get to later.

First the differences:

Batch one did not set right. In fact batch one was more like a caramel spread than wrap up pop in your mouth caramels. And in making batches two and three, as well as reading on the internet, I have discovered why.
Batch one on cookies covered in chocolate--if like gives you gooey caramel, make these puppies (you can sort of see the burnt bits in this)
Have you clicked over to Oprah and seen the recipe yet? Well, if you had, you might have noticed that one of the ingredients it calls for is "one can of evaporated milk." But it turns out that Meijer at least sells 2 different sized cans! (and yes, I saw the comments section on this issue--and they are just WRONG). So this year in preparing to make batch two, I went to Meijer and bought the supplies, which mean that because I do not usually do the shopping, and I easily get overwhelmed at the store when people are pushing me (yes really--today I kicked an old lady's cart because she rammed into me in the checkout line) I bought what I thought was the only size can they made--a 7 oz size. ANd Lo and behold, batch #2 set.

Now, batch number two also was a little bit of a learning thing for me, because when the hot lava of sugar and cream threatened to boil over in my second biggest pan, I TURNED THE HEAT DOWN. Oh yes, this was an epiphany for me. It still had burned bits on the bottom, but not as many as batch one AND ironically as many as batch three. In fact, I was able to isolate the burned bits to one side of my pan and so eatprevent gift recipients from receiving burnt bits in their caramel. And also amazingly, the caramel set to a great texture.

Then we ran low on salted caramel for some reason, and I was implored by my husband to make another batch. And so HE bought the evaporated milk and he came home with the standard 14oz can. Now, I know the Oprah comments say the 14oz is what they meant, and one commenter says she raised the temp and used 12oz, but honestly I really think 7oz probably works better. I did some internet searching on this and found out that it isn't always the temp that effects the texture, but the milk products, which I guess makes sense. So for batch 3 I used 7 oz of evaporated milk. I got the consistency I wanted, but sadly, batch 3 also burned a bit more.

I think though, that the problem with the burning is something I can control. You see every other carmel recipe I've found has two steps, 1) you get your sugar syrup up to close to temp, and 2) you add your warmed but not boiling milk products and get it up to temp. So batch 4, which is coming as soon as I can justify eating so much caramel, perhaps after the dental work I need is complete. And I'll be trying a two step method. Hopefully, I'll remember to report back.

My first (major) knitting project

I have already told the story of how I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was 11 or 12. The headband I made is still in use to hold hair back while washing my face, or applying moisturizer. (You can read the story), but basically due to impatience on both my grandma's and my part, I didn't knit anything again for 20 years.

I wanted to write more about that project,because I felt this sense of connection to my grandma as she taught me to knit. It is kind of hard, though, for me to write much about my grandma in November. Not only did she pass away in November, but I spent much of that last November thinking that she "wouldn't survive the night." In the end, I decided I'd pick up after the 20 year hiatus.

So, almost eleven years ago I found myself 400 miles away from all of my family, with infant twin girls. After a really rough first year of motherhood, my wonderful husband wanted to gift me for my birthday with some sort of "fun get out of the house class type thing." He gave up trying to surprise me, in part because he was kind of stumped as to what I would like. It just so happened that he was looking at quilting classes at a store that also offered "learn to knit." I'm not sure what made me say--This! I want to relearn to knit. Maybe it was remembering that closeness I felt when my grandma tried teaching me a skill that she had. I wanted a skill I could someday teach to my children or grandchildren.

So off I went with a ball of acrylic yarn and US size 8 needles to my first class. Over the next four weeks we learned to knit, to cast on (cable and knit cast ons), to purl, to decrease, to yarn over, and to bind off. We learned how to read patterns. We made dishcloths!

I don't use dishcloths, but I made several of the two patterns we learned. I gave dishcloths to my mom, who did use them. I did keep the first two though.

Where the story gets more interesting is here. I finished the class, knowing all the basic skills and having only made 4 dishcloths (plus the 20 year old headband) and I decided to knit a sweater. Actually two sweaters, one for each of my now toddling daughters. I asked the instructor on the last class if that was even a thing I could do at this point and she gave me wise wise words of advice:

Take the pattern one step at a time.

Sure, there are a whole page of directions but really the first step? Cast on. After that one step at a time.

So I went to the library and browsed patterns from books and found this great Debbie Bliss book. Then I didn't write down the name of the book or the pattern, so it is forgotten through time. I balked at buying *that* much baby cashmerino and so found a cheaper and more washable yarn substitution. Of course not knowing anything about what baby cashmerino felt like, I picked instead a sock yarn in baby colors and then had to go up to size 3 or 4 needles to "get gauge." So yes, I got gauge, but the fabric that it created was much looser and airier than what the original pattern called for. And since I didn't get row gauge (because really how could I--the yarn I picked was so much thinner than baby cashmerino) they ended up a little bigger than I intended. But hey, the longer to fit them in right? Um yeah.

Tip: don't just match the stitch gauge, but attempt to get row gauge too.

Yarn substitution tip: Try to match your yarn to the other characteristics of the original yarn They came out huge. I think I made the 2T size and they look like maybe 4T. Also, even though I was "careful" about the sleeve directions, I ended up with four sleeves that were all different lengths. The funny part? every sleeve was too long. Every single one. In this picture I have lined up the sleeves at the top.

My knitting instructor invited all of us to come in and visit her during the store's holiday open house later that year, and I asked her how to get the sleeves to all come out the same length. Her tip was:

Knit both sleeves at the same time

I have done this and it does really work if you are the kind of person who forgets to decrease when you are supposed to. Although if you are the kind of person who gets yarn tangled up, then it may not work that well for you.

In the end though, learning to knit was about trying to recapture some of that closeness that I felt with my grandma. And perhaps make things that would make my family feel loved and warm. And even though the first sweaters didn't quite come out the way I would have wanted them to, knitting has given me so much. Not just (eventually) warm knitted stuff, but also the closeness I wanted. I don't have pictures of my grandma and I knitting, and I don't have pictures of my daughters and I knitting. But I do have one of my mom and I knitting. And you can tell we are having a blast with it.

Submitted for Knitting Daily's Blog it to win it contest

The Prizes I picked are:
Penny the panda kit

Ashbury knitted mitts kit in hunter

Best of Knitscene

Sockupied one sock two ways firefly kit

2006-2011 Interweave knits Holiday gifts CD collection

I picked the above prizes for various reasons. I have a panda girl, I love knitscene, and it is time to start making holiday gifts.

perfect storm

About a year ago, I got fed up with this shrug I was making. In the picture you might be able to see why:


I had the left front nearly done before I realized that the arm hole decrease was about 1.5 inches shorter than the ones I'd made for the back. And it was lace, and I just couldn't focus enough to rip it back. So I put it away and moved on to other projects.

Until Saturday.

Saturday a perfect storm occurred. The day was sunny and warm, but it wasn't the first sunny warm day. My kids were happy to play outside and didn't seem to need anything. My husband was off at a work function and the dishes were clean.

In the end, I ripped back row by row, backwards counting on my counter. Thankfully, the lace pattern is easy to read and so I realized I was only a row or two off in my rough counting. Soon, I had the yarn wound up and had knitted a few new rows. Since then, I've done most of the sleeve decreases. I'm going to finish this, and in time to wear this summer too.

All my mistakes will become masterpieces

When I started this blog, I titled it Disasters with yarn, because I felt like I was having a streak of knitting disasters. But then I got wimpy and didn't actually write in it until I was past those "disasters". In actuality, they were mistakes and I don't mind mistakes as long as I learn from them. They play a song in my yoga class that has the refrain--All my mistakes have become masterpieces.

I'm not sure if mine have, but I have learned something from most of them, and this one is no exception. You see I had this sweater. I didn't knit it but I really liked it.


It is a nursing sweater so it has a flap in front that buttoned down and holes on the inside. I liked the color, I liked the yarn, and so I wore it even after I didn't need it for nursing Until at least it developed an "extra" hole:


Then a few months ago, I found it when I was cleaning my sewing room--I had put it down there thinking I could somehow repair it. instead I got this really bright idea, why not take it apart and make something else out of it. Something lacy and summery. And so I did--I took off a sleeve and that's when I learned something very very important.

When garments are constructed in factories, they are often surged, by which A tiny bit of material is sliced off and the edges are sewn together all nice and neat--look at any seam in any t-shirt you have and you'll see what this looks like. I even have a serger and I love it. However, when you cut the edge off a piece of knitting.....

So, yes every time I unravelled a row I had a row sized piece of yarn--and not great yarn at that--very loose splitty yarn. So now I think it might be time for plan b. I have no idea what plan B is though. I did learn though that if I ever go "goodwilling" for sweaters to tear apart to look to make sure they aren't serged together.

On the brighter note, I kind of had a small leap out of my knitting blahs and finished a shrug, which is proving impossible to photograph by myself, so I'll have to wait until I can get some help. I also received a gift from my globe trotting mother in law of some yarn from Ireland.


She didn't save the label I think--and all I know is that it is over 50 grams of a mohair boucle--each skein is over 50 grams. I have been dreaming ever since about what I will make with it. I envision something Lacy and scarf-like. Then my mother in law called--she also had gotten me a woven scarf but couldn't find it until she unpacked all the way. It has the same colors and is just gorgeous. Again, impossible to photograph by myself, but I wore it to target today with my white t-shirt and hey librarian sweater because you know when it is nearly 70 you need sweaters and scarves (and raincoats which totally ruined my look).

oops

I don't consider myself a sock knitter. But I knit a lot of socks. I think this is because I like to wear hand-knitted socks and the only person in my life making them for me is, um me.

I also tend to make a lot of plain socks in fun sock yarns. In a way this is because I tend to buy fun sock yarns. Really, I know of few other projects that I would use a lot that take only one or two skeins (I actually have three one skein project books in hopes that someday I might use up all the other one skein things I have bought over the years). So I tend to buy a lot of sock yarn.

I've recently become quite taken with toe up socks. Nothing fancy, just double pointed needs, one at a time, with a heel done the way Ann Budd told me too in Interweave knits (the one issue that is very much used at my house). I think I've knit well I've lost count, I'm sure ravelry would tell me, but lets say more than 6 pairs of socks from this pattern. And always I dutifully follow the directions and designate which stitches are for the heel and which are the instep. Until now.

I've been working on this pair of socks since November. I've stopped along the way and made Christmas gifts and panda sweaters and bee sweaters and olympic projects, but I've always had these socks going. And Wednesday night I finished them. I prepared to wear them to work on Thursday. There's a smart knitter out there who knows where this is headed.



Yep, somehow I managed to knit one of them crooked. So when I put the sock on my heel the toe goes across my foot instead of across my toes. That morning I was convinced I had to rip the entire thing out and start over. Thankfully I had to go to work. After I had woken up a bit--ok after lunch--I remembered that I only had to rip out to just past the heel--I only had to re-work half the sock! I is smart.