Indigo cones

I had set as my goal this year to write at least once a week, mainly so I could keep things updated and moving along. February has been a real struggle for me this year. I'm not sure if it was SAD, full on depression, the super cold winter, or some combination. I wasn't really feeling right with no energy not really wanting to get out of bed, not really wanting to move much after that and feeling like every day I was pushing myself really hard just for the basics. I know that I have a very supportive network of friends and family who would do so much for me to help. But honestly, I didn't know what help to ask for, so I just pushed on telling myself that if I still felt this bad in March, I'd go see someone. I'm gradually feeling better. Every day I feel a tiny bit more like myself, which is good.

We also had a huge chunk of time where for one reason or another (PD day, President's day wind chill day and wind chill delay) where the children were home and yet I had to work. This is so rare, the children did not even know how to deal with it--so the feeling like running through quicksand got ramped up 10 notches.

Because I really suspect that a huge part of this was the unseasonable cold we are having (really--the average high for today is 27F, the record low (set in 2003--how did I not remember that--I was hugely pregnant) was -4F and today is forecasted to be 14F Also side note, I mentioned this was the coldest February I could remember and someone tried to argue that LAST February was even colder. Whatever. We are 6 heating degree days higher than we were at this point last year so pbbbbt.), I decided to start knitting for spring. Specifically, I started knitting Indigo Cones in white Creative focus linen. Although I bought it at a much higher price before it was discontinued. The goal is to have this done by April so I can wear one of my springier dresses to my husband's annual work dinner. Because every year about a week before I think--MAN if I only had a shrug or something I could wear this sleeveless dress but it is WAY too cold to go without.

It may actually take that long to make it.

I started with a swatch, which is a good way to start with anything you'd like to actually fit. The gauge section says that the suggested needle size (which is where I usually start on my swatch) is a US 9 for the stockinet and pattern, and a US 6 for the rib. So, I did a big swatch and washed it and I'm really close on the stockinette and a little loose on the pattern but WAY off on the rib.

So I redid a smaller swatch on a US size 4 and it was STILLL too big. Then I swatched it on a US 3 and I am STILL too loose. However, I'm pretty close. Close enough that I feel like it will work. So, I have cast on, and started the first row (and then miscounted, ripped out and started again). Hopefully it can start to move along from here and I'll have more pictures to show off later.

sock dilemma

I didn't realize it had been nearly a month since I updated. I spent a lot of theta time dithering about what to knit next. (And I made some mango jam, for my future self)

I decided fairly early on that I wanted to make some sort of sock, that had been sitting in my queue for a while. So, I pulled out my book with the waving lace socks, and some brand new Modesock yarn in one of the 221b colors that I think has been discontinued and started swatching.

Oh my is that pretty yarn. And I got a good fabric, but I wasn't quite reaching gauge for the project. Then I realized the finished size for those socks in a good inch smaller than what I usually aim for (2 inches smaller than my foot). It was starting to feel like an Algebra problem. And I wondered if I would have to publicly apologize to my freshman algebra teacher for dissing her notion that we "use Algebra every day".
As a side note, I liked math very much. I was very good at math. I hated word problems, until I got the hang of them (although why anyone would shove 50 watermelons in their car to travel 50km an hour east is beyond me), but I still enjoy math. However, I do not enjoy this kind of math. I just want to have someone say to me, yes, you are supposed to get 9 stitches to the inch, but you are getting 8.5, but you need the sock to be an inch bigger (I don't know--do I need this bigger with my 9 inch round foot?) so go for it.

In the end, I thought I'd try a different yarn. And I did and I think I am closer to gauge, but I still am worried about the sizing issue. Cue pretty yarn picture:

I know the swatches aren't big enough, but hey I swatched!

In the end, I decided to make a plain sock with the Modesock yarn because I love love love it. But I kept feeling like it was needing a little something. A cable maybe, but just something little. I started my toe up and had about 3 inches knit when the knitty surprises came out. I think I am in love with neldoreth. In fact, I think it will be perfect for this yarn. I am having trouble making the commitment and ripping. I am too lazy to try to figure out how to convert that pattern to a toe up. In essence, I am stuck. I should get over it, remind myself that my 3 inch sock is a true gauge swatch and even though it isn't washed (that swatch above is) I can probably still derive useful information out of my work.

What would you do? Would you rip the sock? Would you put the sock on a holder and start on the other end, to see if you liked the knitty pattern? Would you continue making a beautiful but plain sock? Tell me in the comments!

summer knitting

Jam update for posterity: 3 batches of strawberry, 1 batch of sour cherry, blueberry to be determined. Peaches just coming in.

sock update: I'm tired of making plain socks

Back in April, when my LYS had it's annual sale, I picked up seven skeins of Rowen summer tweed in denim, thinking that I would make a summer short sleeved tee. Then summer actually hit and the thought of wearing yarn, even cotton/silk yarn, repulsed me.

Before that happened though, I picked a copy of Summer 2011 Knitscene, because it had several top down raglan style Tee patterns.

A few days ago, I threw down the sock I was knitting because my goodness was I bored and I started contemplating something different. A sweater maybe. I dug out all my stuff from the dollar and a half cardigan and decided that would be too hard. I need something simple but not mindless. So I dug out the summer tweed and started envisioning a shrug. I have a pattern I want to make someday, but twice now I've gone into it with yarn, swatched and missed gauge by enough that I don't dare attempt it. But something funny happened while I was swatching, I started seeing not lace, but a raglan style shirt/cardigan something.

And so, last night instead of reading before bed, I flipped through Knitscene looking at all the patterns, looking for one with the gauge I had and the amount of yarn I had (because sale =none left I'm sure). I'm reasonably close on both gauge and amounts on the Lodi Cardigan . I'm only 75 yards short--surely that's the difference between 3/4 length sleeves and short ones?

Please somebody get ready to say I told you so, in a month when I complain about being too short to finish.

starting over

When I worked at the yarn store, I used to hear people say--they were "afraid" to make different projects. Sometimes I see that on ravelry or Knitting Daily. I never really understood it--after all knitting is just string and some sticks making knots-- what's to be afraid of? Then I started swatching for the dollar and a half cardigan.

I should probably back up and say that usually when I start a project I thoroughly investigate it on ravelry. I look to see what other people have used to make a project, I search to see who else has used the yarn I'm considering. I look carefully at the finished projects, check the needles sizes etc, so I can get a good idea for what I think works. This also helps me to see if there are any problems with the pattern or tips that other have for working the pattern.
In doing this investigation on the dollar and half cardigan, I discovered that there are a few "things" going on. First, it appears that even though the pattern doesn't say it, you really need to use two sizes of needles--one for the lacework and one for the plain sections. If you do not, your piece will pucker. This was borne out by my swatch (which I washed and accidently dried and ugh ugh ugh it puckered). The second is that there is a trick to decreasing (for the armholes) in the lace that there is an entire tutorial about.
Because of how my first swatch worked out--and it wasn't even not really on guage--I really need to swatch again, using two different needles. But I don't want to.

Oh I still want the sweater. I still want to knit this even though it will probably be a pain, but yet I feel this tiny bit of... I don't even know. I'd call it fear but that's not quite right. Perhaps this is really what people mean when they say they are afraid of a project. It isn't so much a fear as much as a bit of something that says I don't want to put in a ton of work on something that won't turn out the way I want it too. And I do think that if I start this project now it has the potential to end up badly.
It has taken me several tiny little knitting projects--smaller even than socks (and they may end up being gifted so I'm not showing them off) to come to the conclusion that I need to set the dollar and a half cardigan aside and start on the next big project.

So I'm back to swatch land, this time I'll be swatching for the Central park hoodie

quilting, jam, and socks oh my!

When I started this blog I envisioned it to be about knitting. Particularly some of my knitting problems (hence the name disasters with yarn). Then the first few things I had to write about were baby quilts. Then I wrote about jam. And of course I threw in some knitting too. Well today I have all three!
First the baby quilt.
My cousin recently had her second baby, a boy. And since she doesn't read this blog I can tell you about her baby quilt. I decided that I needed something splashy as she is an art teacher and the quilt I made for her first baby was WOW. So I picked finally to do a blue kaleidoscope from M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts. I have never had so much trouble with a quilt. I could not for the life of me get the triangles to lay flat when they were sewn into the hexagons. Fortunately my MIL is a much better piecer than I am and she put all the blocks together for me. I did everything but that. Now it just needs borders.



And needs them quick because we are turning my "quilt studio" into a craft/play room and the new carpet is scheduled to come in in about a week or so. We still need to pick up my sewing things (which is now down to my sewing table and ironing board) and rip up the existing carpet and mop the tile underneath. Whew. I've decided that I'll be putting a border on this afternoon and moving everything after that, I'll get it ready to quilt while we clean that space and quilt it after we move back in.

Hmmmm there don't seem to be any pictures of the jam I made last week. Since we love strawberry so much I should probably only make that, but I like to play. So this year, I decided to make sour cherry jam. Now, sour cherries are not beautiful like sweet cherries are. They are small and squishy and well... gross. In fact so gross that not only did I not photograph them, I also couldn't bear to taste the jam until several days after I made it. The insides are yellow and so I was pleasantly surprised that after I blended them--and I did blend more than I usually like to with fruit jam, I like my jam chunky--that the resulting jam is reddish. ALso, I was surprised to find it tastes like cherry pie filling. The verdict from the family is that aside from the skins that it is good good good jam.

But perhaps most exciting is the knitting that got done this week. And by got done I mean:


These are Lace and Cable socks (size small!) from Socks from the toe up. The yarn is a knit picks bare that I dyed. I took them on vacation and nearly finished the first sock--the second one I took along everywhere for the last three weeks (swimming lessons, playgroup and tv knitting). And for what--socks that are too warm to wear until September! I got so warm posing in the socks that I didn't wait until I got a great picture--just an "ok you can see the socks and tell what color they are" picture.

I also finally got the lace pattern in the dollar and half cardigan sorted out and knit a swatch. The gauge for the pattern is in the lace pattern but I think I may have to go up a needle size for the lace, but I like the look of the reverse stockinette. I'm washing it first though, in case it grows. Ravelry tells me that many people use two different needle sizes so I'm guessing I'm not the first to look at the swatch and decide that. I do need to invest in a circular needle size US 4. I have a denise set and it only goes to size 5 and if the lace gets gauge at a size 6 I may want to bring the reverse stockinette down to a 4. Doesn't make for a whole lot of exciting knitting though.
So for now I have the tongue twister "sweater swatch" that I keep wandering around saying. Try it--say it five times fast.

swatch land

I'm feeling a bit discontented.
I finished my socks that were on the needles (toe up basic pattern, knit picks Felici, k7p1 pattern on leg as suggested by Cinnamonamon)

And I was really hot (as in warm) during the photo shoot. So that kind of put me off the idea of starting new socks immediately. Then there was the idea that these were the second pair of socks I'd made almost exactly the same, I decided the next socks were going to have a pattern.


So at the library I found a copy of Socks from the Toe up By Wendy Johnson, and I love love love almost all the socks, but I'm suspecting it is because I love the colors. A lot of her patterns don't work too well with wild stripes or handpaints, which is what makes up the majority of my sock yarn collection. BUT, a quick search on ravelry shows that my Harry Potter sock yarn makes a good version of probably the one sock I didn't like in Wendy's book. (also shows that Jaywalker socks look pretty cool) But both give grave warnings about swatching (which is something I don't often do for socks--and it probably shows given about half my socks come out too big).

The other project I had wanted to start was the dollar and a half cardigan.

What ties these two together? swatching.
I'm deep in swatching land. My dollar and half swatch has showed me, that I need to pay attention to the lace pattern AND I probably need to use a size 6 needle, but I'll swatch that just to be sure--just as soon as I have the energy for the lace pattern--which really shouldn't be tricky after the swallowtail shawl, but it doesn't go row 1-7 it goes 1, 2, 3-6, then flips back to row 2, then something else then row 7. I get lost easily. My sock swatch looks like it could be a barbie minidress and I am not loving the texture. I really want to knit something up with my new handpainted yarn (the skein because I'm not up to the rainbow socks) but I have no idea what it would be.
I'm tired of swatching, I just want to knit something already. If I only knew what.