Blather – Page 6 – Rush Hour Knitting

Wednesday, 18 March, 2009

Owl Treats

I will confess, to you few dear readers, of a shameful period in my past. A dark time, when I… was a devoted fan …of Harry Potter.

Yeah, I know, old news, me and six billion other people, except the ones who think it’s a work of Satan, and Harold Bloom, but he only likes litra-chur, we hear. Anyway, I was all into it for a while and I pretty much overdid it, and by the time the last book came out all I could think was Thank god, I can find out how it ends and move on. (For the record, I quite enjoyed the last book, but the epilogue I shall pretend I didn’t see.)

As a consequence to that overdoing, I generally avoid all the Potter-branded media that has been flooding the market for years now. I kept the few interesting things, and my books, and that was that. So I wasn’t terribly excited when Opal came out with Harry Potter themed sock yarn. Especially not when the colors were released. (Attn Opal designers: In what universe does Remus Lupin wear pink? Seriously.) I looked them all over, shrugged, moved on.

And then I got a second look at the Hedwig colorway.

HEDWIG SOCKS

Pattern: Basic Stockinette Sock with heel flap
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Hedwig
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: Teehee. These turned out lovely, didn’t they? So well, that I am actually considering getting more of this yarn (the Ron colorway, perhaps?) because having a good mindless stockinette project is one of the best stress relievers I can think of.
I simply cast on 62 stitches, did some ribbing, and then just went to town. I know everybody goes on about short-row heels to “maintain the integrity of the stripe pattern” or some such, but honestly? I wasn’t that invested in the stripe pattern, and I much prefer how a flap heel fits. So I did one of those, and I’m quite happy with the results.

I really love the colors in this: varying shades of grey, nothing flashy, nothing complicated. Unlike some of the colorways in this line, which left me wondering what they were thinking, these socks absolutely evoke a sense of Hedwig the Snowy Owl.

As you might have guessed, I’m generally in the fraternal school of sock striping — you can see where the colorways meet up, and on one sock it’s the toe and on one it’s the center of the foot, and that’s…just fine with me.

Having a nice easy project was magnificent, since in the little bit I’ve also been test knitting these:

This would be Glenna C’s marvelous Viper Pilots pattern. Continuing that fine melding of genre fiction and yarn, Glenna designed a pattern inspired by the viper pilots from Battlestar Galactica, which airs its final episode, uh, Friday. It’s all twisted stitches and cables and insanity, and all of those things are entirely appropriate for the theme. I’m into my second sock now and loving every second of it. Go buy it, knit it, tell your friends, tell the whole Colonial Fleet!

Friday, 17 October, 2008Monday, 2 February, 2009

Stories about socks.

Knitting’s like a virus. You catch it, it incubates, all of a sudden you start presenting all of these symptoms ( staying up all night working on a project, stashing, explaining the virtues of merino to complete strangers on the train) and then — THEN you start to infect other people.

Lately I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office with one of those non-urgent but annoying issues that leaves you with lots of time to sit in a waiting room cooling your jets. So last time I went, like any good knitter, I brought a sock, and I sat in the waiting room and knit. I had other patients stopping me with questions, and then one of the receptionists demanded to see how I was turning the heel and asked me what the pattern was and proceed to pick my brain for good websites. Then they sent me into a room to wait, and the doctor came in, saw me knitting, and proceeded to exclaim over it for quite some time.

Well, today I was sitting in that same exam room, knitting while I waited for her to come in, and when she did, she pointed her finger at me. “You!” Me? I wondered if I’d bounced a check or something, when she starts laughing and waving her hand at my sock. “You’re the one. You came in with your knitting, and then I went and learned how and now I have no more free time and I never get anything done! Show me how you knit, I want to see how you make the stitches.” She wouldn’t let me leave until I’d spilled my guts about things like Knitpicks and Knitty and Ravelry, and promised to bring in some FOs for her to look over when I go back next.

I think I might bring her some yarn. Just to keep her symptoms from getting too out of control.

The socks in question:

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks, by Evelyn A. Clark. Published in Favorite Socks. (This is the pattern on the cover, even.)
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock Multi in Watercolor
Needles: Bamboo DPNs, size 1
Notes: These are the first socks I’ve made with Lorna’s, and oh boy I think I’m in love. I wore them for the first time a few days ago, and they fit comfortably and smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised by the hand (foot?) of the fabric, and when they were on my feet I forgot there were socks there at all. More of this yarn, please.
The pattern was a lot of fun, and I’ll be repeating it at some point. The lace is easy to memorize and fun to watch coming off the needles, and it is solid and simple enough to stand up to a busy colorway like this one. I figured I’d take a chance and see how they two went together, and I’m glad they did. One thing for next time: I will be careful to read the first chart (for the scalloped edging) the right way – not backwards, making upside down un-scalloped edging. By the time I realized I was having some chart issues, I was halfway through the first sock, and the only solution was to repeat the mistake on the second one and call it a feature.

On a more solemn note, I dubbed these the “Grandmommy Socks” on Ravelry. My grandmother passed recently, and this sock was the last thing I’d knit in her presence. She actually examined the first finished sock the night before she died, was unimpressed with the colors — in her defense, the lighting in the hospital made the whole thing look like a rather muddy brown — and asked me how I made such tiny stitches. It took a while before I could pick them up, after that, but they are finally finished now, and every time I pick them up I think of her, and I expect I always will.

And if you check the Yarn Harlot’s blog post from her Brooklyn reading the other day, you’ll see me! I certainly got plenty of chances to see Stephanie:

She did a great reading, and then proceeded to honor my good buddy and fellow stitchenbitcher Rebecca and her Eye of Jupiter sock with a moment of Internet Fame that I think is richly deserved. I got to watch Rebecca conceive and wrestle that sock into being, and I’m just tickled she made such an impression with it. Made an already enjoyable night even more awesome.

Sunday, 27 April, 2008

So despite my pledge to post once a week or so, I obviously have not been, although there’s been plenty of knitting going on. As always happens in the midst of the semester, I am suffering from a massive bout of Startitis. I have, currently, on the needles:

A sweater (Frontier Blues Jacket, from latest Knitscene, in Cotton-Ease)
a scarf (My So-Called, in Manos Silk Blend in Violets…mmm)
Anemoi mittens (still, I know, I know…it’s hard to do homework and deal with the chart, so it’s been hibernating)
a stocking (Gansey Stocking from Interweave’s Christmas Stockings – starting Christmas early)
socks (Broadripple, as anklets, in KP Dancing)
other socks (Jaywalkers, in KP Felici in Clay, which are all done but one toe)

…and I also cast off on a sekrit project last week, about which I will only say damn, Blue Moon, your yarn is awesome. Pictures of all these things will come, I swear.

Other things I am working on include, well, work, and schoolwork (including two major projects, one for each class), and doing my best to avoid pollen. That is not going so well.

HOWEVER. Next week I am going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, so there will be lots of pictures from that. I am very excited, because it’s a festival and it’s full of YARN.

Monday, 3 March, 2008Monday, 3 March, 2008

***kicking socks

I had to be at work extremely early today, which required taking a much earlier train on this, the first work week after the fair increase kicked in. My early train encountered switch problems, which then led to the engineer using a lead foot on the throttle, resulting in a station stop where we overshot the platform by three cars.

Awesome.

But I’m OK with all that, because I’m wearing asskicking socks today. Bring it on, Monday, my toes are toasty warm in my Monkey socks:

Saturday, 2 February, 2008Saturday, 2 February, 2008

Departures

I promised myself at New Year’s that this year I would start a proper knitting blog. Since it’s now February and a twelfth of the year has slipped by…well, no time like the present.

For Christmas, Santa did not give me enough time to knit, but I finished everything anyway — albeit at the last minute. Have an assortment:

Then I immediately dove into post-Christmas recovery, started working on presents for upcoming baby showers:

…knit a hat, cast on a Clapotis, cast on the Lady Eleanor stole from Scarf Style, and now it’s February and I still haven’t finished the mate to my lonely Whitby sock. He’s my train knitting at the moment, and trying to cable without a needle over the Jamaica Shuffle… well, it’s taking a while. But soon. Soon there will be more socks. And posts. Perhaps, even… posts about socks. Fancy that.