Sock Virgin - NO MORE!

Why in the world would someone knit socks?

You know all of us have said that at least one time in our lives BEFORE we casted on, ribbed ribbed ribbed, create the heal flap, did a turn, picked up stitches, decreased, knitted in the round, decreased a toe.... if you dig deep down inside you know this to be true.... BUT once you have gone thru the motions of creating a perfect little sock, even part way thru the motions, you are IN LOVE, like never before.

A SOCK!! Who knew?? All this time, the perfect "to knit" item was out there.... just waiting to be discovered. I mean sure, I have plenty of sock yarn, and needles to match, and books, but did I ever really intend to knit a sock? I think maybe not, sure I love to see all the finished socks of my sock knitter friends, but I thought that sock knitting was out of my range, and deep down, I asked myself ... WHY KNIT A SOCK when I can buy them for 5.00 at Walgreens? Call me silling, I just never really knew.... what I was missing!!!!!

Well, last night, for the first time, I started a sock. It was like magic, a religous experience! Erin as my tutor she gently guided me thru figuring out how many to cast on.. how long was my ribbing.. and then the heel, and the turn and the picking up of stitches... she just knew what to do... she even showed me a great way to SSK which was not at all as awkward as I had been doing in the past...

I AM OFFICIALLY IN LOVE!!!! I didn't want to put it down, now I know why sock knitters, knit socks. The first thought I had this morning was my sock. And then I thought of my second sock.. and the next pair I would make, what yarn would I use... I am obsessed by knitted socks.

Of course, it helps to know that Nicole LOVES her new sock. She is so excited for it. This morning I made her try it on and she said it felt PERFECT!! My heart sang. I am officially a knitter, in one second I became a knitter, a sock knitter. Sure, there are plenty of things about my perfect little sock which technically does not make it perfect, but I could care less. It is perfect in my eyes.

Erin, THANK YOU for taking the time to show me how to knit a sock. You gave me GREAT advise, start with Worsted Weight yarn, size 6 needles, start small (cast on 36) rib about two inches before starting the heel flap. I can't remember the details of the turn, so I am going to need help on sock #2, but who cares... and of course, when it comes time to decrease at the toe, I will need to make a call to Dr. Erin, the knitted sock Dr.!

I am hooked ladies, and I am off to finish sock #1 ... now my thoughts are on all the sock yarn I have in my stash and what wonderful socks I can make!!! Happy Sunday!!

Here are the details of my sock:

Childs ankle sock (Nicole wears a size 11, the sock fits perfectly)

Cascase 220 Superwash, color 839(got it on sale over a year ago!)

Needles sz 6 (plastic flexible white ones, I inherited from an older lady who passed away, the pack was never opened, I guess knitters are stasher as all ages!)

Cast on 36, k1p1 rib about 2 inches, 1 inch heal flap and the rest was a bit of a mystery, picked up stitches, decreased so I had 18 stitches on two needles and then I am back into knitting in the round.. so much for a pattern! ;-) but nevertheless a sock is formed!

Need Rose-colored Glasses

... because of this.

This is the final result of the apple bark dye on corriedale.

Although it's way better than the first trial, it's still not the shade of pink I was expecting. Charlie says that it's not pink at all. I guess I need rose-colored glasses -- and they may just help brighten the situation with my day job too!

One of my WIP is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Rib Warmer. It's brilliant -- it's done in garter stitches, and I'm a bit tired of them (I love purling!), but the design and all those short rows keep me interested and motivated. And I'm using my handspun yarn. I am close to finishing the first piece -- another to go. Photos next time.

I have to go to Montreal again next week. Oh yes. It'll be freakin' cold. I may have to spin some tomorrow, as I always get the urge to do so before a business trip!

Nicest Mittens

I just came home from the Knit Night at FlourChylde Bakery in Downtown Novato, and am still pretty excited -- Erin had her latest FO on. Pretty handknit mittens.

They are cute, and they are soft. And they are knitted with my handspun yarn I gave her! I just couldn't stop fondling them.

I'm so in love.

Thank you for knitting them Erin! I hope you'll enjoy them for a long time.

I've been spinning for a year and a half, but these are only second knitted objects with my yarn. The first one was my socks, which I am crazy about. I've been trying to find some good patterns to knit with my yarn, but I usually don't have enough of one kind to do much...

By the way, Novato knitters -- FlourChylde is open late on Friday evenings! It's a great place to knit. Wine, amazing torts and cookies, yarn and friends.... what more can we ask for?

Knitting is Dangerous

(http://www.xkcd.com/369/)

Charlie found it on the web.

As the one who has experienced the first one and the bottom two, I must say that they are all addicting!

Apple Dye Update

So, the apple bark has been soaking in the garage since 12/27. For those who aren't interested in dyeing or natural dyeing, this may be a boring topic and the picture may look weird. Even disgusting. Sorry about that.

I see pink. Do you? This may be a good sign.

I simmered the water with the bark still in for about ten minutes. You are not supposed to boil it -- too much tannin will get out in the dye and dull the color, my book says.

I didn't weigh the bark before I soaked it, but my guess is about 200 g. I am using about 50 g of corriedale. The dye stuff - fiber ratio is supposed to be 1 - 1, but I'm being conservative. I really want some pink this time.

Here's what the white wool looks like in the dye bath. From my (limited) experience, the dye bath and the wool should look much darker. Not a good sign. It's now simmering on the stove, and I will keep it in the dye bath overnight and see what happens.

One of the reasons I am fascinated by natural dyeing is that with it we can become less dependent on the chemicals. I don't use any harsh or toxic mordant or afterbath; only thing I'd use is alum and vinegar. Using things like chrome and copper, although they might produce beautiful shades, defeats the purpose of natural dyeing, in my opinion.

The more I learn, the more I gravitate towards organics -- fibers included. This gets me more motivated about attending the Summer Intensive at Golden Gate Fiber Institute. Judith McKenzie McCuin are famous as a organic fiber advocate.

Summer Camp Plans

It's been cold here. I saw some fascinating ice patterns on the windshield Monday morning. It was all over the window glass, and I almost hated for it to melt away. It was beautiful.

Back to spinning alpaca. Decided to make thin rolags using a knitting needle -- kind of making a cotton candy off the hand carder. The looser the roll is, the easier to draft.

It reminds me of the cat hairballs! Unfortunate association for the beautiful alpaca.

Lots of carding and picking the second cuts, so the spinning is slow going, but I'm enjoying it. I'm waiting for it to speak to me so I can decide what to knit with it...

I've been contemplating on attending the Summer Intensive at Golden Gate Fiber Institute. It's close, and it's this summer when I should be on sabbatical. I really wanted to attend SOAR in the fall but it's in Pennsylvania this year, and it really isn't very convenient.

I think this is the first such event for the Golden Gate Fiber Institute (which is a fairly new organization), so I don't know what this is going to be like -- how big will a class be? How many attendees? Would I be too much of a newbie for such events? And the biggest question is -- would I really enjoy it?

See, I know that the Designated Knitters and other friends of mine would laugh, but in fact I am an introvert, to the extreme. I am terrible at socializing and making a small talk. I'd hate to end up sitting all by myself.

So, I'm hoping that someone who's also considering would find me through a Google search or something, and contact me -- Anyone?

The teachers for the intensive are amazing. Sara Lamb, Judith Mackenzie McCuin, Nancy Bush, Darlene Hayes, etc -- the only thing that seemed a bit disappointing is the lodging. If I were to take a plunge and enroll in such a course, I'd love to stay at a nice, relaxing retreat-like setting, not at a YMCA camp with bunk beds!

But -- what a treat it would be!

Awakening

Here in Northern California, we've been hit by the storm of the season. It came early Friday morning, and I woke up to find a huge limb of the palm tree fallen down on my persimmon tree! We all knew about this storm was coming, so I got up early, took shower, got dressed and fed the family before we lost the power -- and as soon as I finished my first cup of coffee, at 8:52 am, the power went out.

We've lived in this house for ten years, and we were informed when we moved in that we were on the same power grid as the fire station, so our power should never be out for more than a few minutes. It had been right, until this time.

We thought we were prepared. Sure, we had lots of batteries, flashlights, a radio, food and water. But I never thought keeping ourselves warm and illuminated in the middle of the winter was this difficult. The small fireplace was not enough to warm up the house. We had no lanterns, and it turns out that Charlie's allergic to whatever the burning candles put out in the air, so that didn't help either -- in the process of surviving the storm and the long power outage, I realized how vulnerable we really are, and how totally dependent we are on the electricity. When we lose the power of "there will be light when we flip switches," we are lost.

Another finding was how quickly I switch myself into the "survival mode." I dress in warm layers in the most comfortable and practical way possible, no colors in consideration! I put no makeups (because I may not be able to take them off). We went to the mall today to keep ourselves warm, and I sure didn't want to be seen by our coworkers!

Well into the second night with no power, we were bracing ourselves into another cold night and Sunday, then it came back -- Mitch just went running around all over the house screaming "We have power! We have power!!" for five minutes. As soon as the heater started running, we felt much warmer, although there was no change in the temperature yet. It's all in our heads, I know.

Mitch fared the ordeal much better than we could have ever imagined, and we all found some fun in all this -- Mitch's favorite was called "Aflac," making a duck shadow with hands with the flashlight, with quack-quack of course. I came to appreciate almost two full nights of no TV, sitting by the fireplace, just talking and enjoying each others' company. Charlie and I talked that maybe we should do this once a month -- turn off all the lights and pretend that we had no power. (But, with the heat on)

As soon as our lives return normal, we are going to look into better preparing ourselves for events like this. As much as I am heartbroken, if the only damage is my persimmon tree (that Charlie got for me in September), we should consider ourselves fortunate. There are families that have to survive the whole winter without homes -- imagine how difficult it must be. We only lost power for a day and a half, and it was plenty hard.

I hope that you are OK, and that those who were affected by this storm will recover soon. Well, I'm back to my vacation -- my last day. I am going to knit!!

Happy New Year (and the last-minute struggles)

Happy New 2008! Can't believe it's already 8 years into the "new millennium!" I still remember the Y2K craze (in so many ways -- I'm in the "hi-tech" industry) like yesterday.

We've been off since the 22nd, but not doing much every day and sitting around the house has caught up with us -- well, with me, at least. I felt like we needed to go somewhere, do something, before the Christmas break ends. This is the only time of the year we all get the time off for so long, without running around to make everyone's schedule match. I really wanted to take advantage of it -- so, I made a reservation of a motel just night before and left to a short two-day trip to the Gold Country, Grass Valley, hoping to see some snow. Our 4 1/2 yo son had never seen the snow.

I knew (from various fiber related blogs) that it snowed on the Christmas day in Grass Valley, but of course there's nothing left in town. And being Sunday, the yarn store is closed (bad planning!). Yarn store in Nevada City had been converted to a flower shop, unless we were not reading the address right. Mitch was bouncing off everything so going into antique stores was not very safe. So nothing was accomplished on the shopping side.

Next day we went up Rt 49 for just few miles (as we were told the night before at Swiss House Restaurant -- great food!), the forest ground we could see from the road was still white. It really wasn't much, but enough to declare an instant snowball fight!

The only time the mittens from the last winter get worn this year, I'm sure, with much appreciation.

Mitch just didn't want to leave, and at the end we had to carry him into the car. "Can I bring some snow home?" Now it looks like we need to make another trip to see the real new snow, not this icy leftover from a week ago.

The vest is done, but I'm not sure how much use this is going to get.

The main solid gray part is knitted with a chunky wool 100% yarn I brought from Japan when I moved to the US, and it's at least 22 years old. It's almost an antique. The front panels in white/gray are done with a strand of Rowan Cocoon (white) and a strand of Natural Shetland from Elemental Affects (gray) held together. It's hard to see, but the panels have cable patterns.

(still hard to see)

For one thing, I thought I sized it so he would wear it for at least two winters. From the rate he's been growing, it'll be too small in three months. And he's not going to wear it unless I force him to; he's always been a cotton shirt boy, and he wears nothing else, no matter how cold. In the worst of our winter, he would wear a short-sleeve T over a long-sleeve T, that's it. I had to use the secret weapon ("I will not take you to Erin's house if you don't wear this for me" tactics) to have him pose in it.



I still have to put the zipper in the front, but at this point I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. Sigh. Okay, this may be the last piece I'd ever knit for you, unappreciative son of mine.

This is pretty much all I did, other than some Alpaca spinning, during this break. I should get ready to go back to my "normal" routine, including some knitting and spinning for myself.


Happy New Year everyone -- I hope the new year is filled with peace, good health, and beautiful fibers!

Santa Came, Santa Left

The night before Christmas Mitch proclaimed just before going to bed; "I'm going to get up and wait for Santa." I wonder how many more years he's going to want to bake cookies for Santa Claus?

He received an inexpensive, yet very capable electric keyboard (he calls it piano) from Santa, and was very excited, but so far his parents are enjoying it more than he is.

I received a Christmas house from Mitch and Charlie -- A hardware store, of course. There weren't any yarn stores. So now I have an ACE Hardware Store, right next to Rosie's Restaurant. Charlie also gave me a "Fiber of the Month" club -- his own last-minute creation, but I'm seeing a business opportunity here.

The gift tag Mitch made for me; they are reindeer.

M's hooded vest, nearly done; I now have to sew the sides, knit the arm ribbings, and sew on the zipper.

I sat by the fire tonight and peeled the bark off the apple tree branches. Yup, after the defeat from the first attempt, I am trying the apple bark dye. It's a lot of work. I must be crazy to be doing this. It's so easy to buy a beautifully dyed pink fiber!

The natural dye book I'm using for a reference says to strip off the outer bark and use only the inner bark for brighter color. Not as easy as it may sound. Can't really tell what inner bark is -- especially from a branch that has a crust of old, brittle bark. That's the kind I used for my first attempt. So this time I avoided those, and peeled off the thin, light brownish part with a pocket knife. I am going out to get a jug of distilled water to soak the bark in -- then the wait begins (I'm supposed to soak it for about a week). If it fails this time, I am not touching the apple bark ever again!

Long Awaited

Finally, we are on the long-awaited Christmas break. This year all three of us are off from work and school at the same time, until January 2nd. Usually by December 15th or so my work slows down, but it just wasn't the case this year -- I ran around until the last moment, and even with that I felt like not much was accomplished -- thus sadly, no Holiday cards made this year. Shame on me.

Mitch was down with a cold again (second time this winter), and he was slightly asthmatic. When he got better, I was down for the second time as well. I think I am getting over quickly, thanks to the mega-load of Vitamin C at the beginning. All that didn't help with getting things accomplished, of course. Knitting included.

I did finish the socks for my friend and sent them off to her in Japan.

She lives in a snow country in Japan, and very much appreciated the socks I knitted for her last year, so I hope this pair will be a welcome addition.

I am still working on Mitch's hooded vest. I'm on the hood part right now, and with five balls of yarn to maneuver, it's been a lot of work. Not sure if I can finish it by Christmas, but I'm not going to sweat it. I am using a Japanese knitting pattern, and I've been enjoying reading the graphic pattern again.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to spinning alpaca Erin brought back from Oregon, but I wanted to get some natural brown sheep wool to ply it with. I'm not brave enough to knit something with 100% alpaca handspun that may not retain shape -- alpaca has no or very little elasticity. So I called up Nancy, my spinning teacher -- I headed to her house this morning, only to find out that she was too down with a cold. So the local sheep ranch visit was postponed, once again. One of these days, I will get to visit her and post some pictures of her sheep! For now, we'll tame our fantasy with my Christmas sheep figurines.

Erin and her family is north-bound, off to see her parents in Vancouver. She's planning a visit to a local yarn shop to look for some Fleece Artist's spinning tops (hard to get in the US) for me, among other fine Canadian yarn for herself, while she's there! I will post the colorway I am looking for by the time for her yarn shop visit.

Happy Holidays!

Peace on Earth.

Winding Down

I'm done traveling for the year, and I'm getting ready for the Christmas vacation. I am going to clean up the house, dye and spin, and of course knit, during the break!

Here's the front piece of Mitch's hooded vest.

It's hard to see, but the left side is the front, and it has a cable pattern. St. James Church, down town Toronto, 7 in the evening. Brrrrrr. That was pretty much the only street I walked on this trip, on King East, back and forth between the office and the hotel.

The flight home was very smooth and beautiful -- it flew right over the City. It was breathtaking.

Home Sweet Home.

$100 Parka Saves My Life

I'm not kidding. It's that cold in Toronto. Today was minus 12 degrees, Celsius, during the day. I don't even want to know what it is in Fahrenheit.

Living in California, I didn't even have a decent coat for the last few years. We just don't need it -- maybe a good rain jacket, but not a snow parka (and I don't ski). I've been going to Montreal and Toronto during the winter for the three winters in a row, so finally I've broken down and bought a parka that is supposed to withstand -20 F. It's not even close to a Kanuk, but still it's an $100 investment that I wouldn't have made in a normal situation.

Oh yeah. It works.
The color matches my Crosspatch too.

I braved going out tonight alone, in search of an ATM that accepts my card (it's a long, boring story), and got on a subway for the first time in this city. I saw a knitter on the subway!

That's pretty much it for the report. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting tomorrow. Will try to post the front piece of M's vest too.

I Love Hats

I love knitting hats, but unfortunately I don't look good in them. I love seeing little kids with cute knitted hats, and I have a son who looks very cute wearing them. I've knitted hats for him every winter, and thought that I'd continue as long as he enjoys wearing them.

Then it hit me.

It's been pretty cold in the morning, and I put his favorite hat that I knitted for him last winter before leaving to school. Then he said:

"But what if my friends see it?"

Oh gosh. His cute knitted hats days are over. Already. Not even the Gryffindor hat didn't sway him.

Bye bye Mitch's favorite green hat (sniff).

My last business trip of the year is next week, to Toronto, and the only things I'm looking forward to about this trip are to wear my Crosspatch hat and have a long knitting time on the flight. It was a crazy week, and I had very little knitting done, so I need to accelerate my Christmas knitting. And whether I look good or bad in it, I do need to wear a warm hat there. No one's going to comment on how bad I look in it, but they'll comment how warm my hat looks. I'm hoping.

It's already been a week, but on last Friday at the Knit Night at Erin's, I had a double-take on Huguette's latest FO.

It's another Crosspatch!

It turned out that Huguette was working on her Crosspatch at the exact same time I was on mine. It does look much smoother than mine, which is lumpy and bumpy -- I'm still not sure if it's because mine is with a handspun or not....Huguette used Cascade. I love the colors too.

I might find a (grown) man's hat pattern and knit one for Charlie -- he has to go to Montreal in January. He's going to need it. Brrrrrrrrr!

I Gave a Goat Today

'Tis the season of giving. And I gave a goat today to someone, who will nourish her hungry children with its milk.

I never imagined that being a parent would make me so sensitive to a child's suffering. And among so many painful, sad stories associated with children suffering around us, near, far, all around the world, giving a goat or sheep might make a tiny part of it a little better. And the gift will be long lasting, offering a hand to free from the grip of poverty.

So, my choice of the charity this year is Heifer Project International. There's a Knitting Basket gift we could give to a family to produce an income from the spun/knitted items too!

Thanksgiving Half Over

It's rare that we get four days straight off from work. One of the reasons why I love Thanksgiving. Going into the break, I was really engaged into knitting a hooded vest for my son, but the eve of Thanksgiving as I was finishing the back piece, I realized that I was going to run out of the yarn if I just went straight to the front pieces. It has cable center borders on the front that continue to the hood, so I could knit that part in a contrasting yarn. But of course the yarn store would be closed for Thanksgiving. So on the Turkey Day I spun the last hunk of Lisa Souza's silk/merino roving, instead of knitting, while the turkey cooks in the oven. I will have about 1,000 meters of sport-weight yarn by the time I finish plying this.

Oh yeah, I blocked the Column of Leaves scarf, finally.

I threaded a nylon string on the long edges and pinned them onto the ironing board.

What a difference blocking makes on a lace scarf!


I wore it to the trip to Knitterly today, but it was too warm, actually for a knitted scarf. It was 75 degrees outside, and ladies were walking in tanktops!

After lunch, we shopped at a bookstore. I bought a copy of Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop for $7.50! What a great day to walk around the town. No Black Friday at department stores for this household.

We are off to Erin's house for Knit Night in 40 minutes! Gotta decide. Wheel or Yarn?

Spinnable

My son was watching the TV today, cuddling his stuffed animal on his lap. He pulled a small fur from his "puppy," and examined it closely.

"Mommy, look. Spinnables!"

My son. Good boy.

Ready for Winter

I'm done with Crosspatch, and I'm ready for Winter.
I didn't run out of the handspun yarn -- I have just a small handful left. The pattern by Elizabeth Morrison calls for a ball each of 100-meter yarn, but my estimate is about 60 meters each for MC (gray in my version) and CC (brown), in case any spinners want to knit this with shorter-than-100-meters yarn. I used US 9 needles.

This is only my second FO with my handspun yarn! And since it was something I actually needed, I'm really proud.

This is called mosaic knitting, and this was the first time I ever tried. Mine looks more bumpy, compared to Elizabeth's smooth mosaic pattern, and I'm not sure if it's my lack of technique or my unevenly spun yarn. But I still like it.

My Column of Leaves scarf remains unblocked. I hope I'll get my act together on it soon.

I've also started on a new pair of socks -- the first pair as Christmas gifts. I'm using the Knitpicks Options metal DPNs for the first time. It's fast -- but I have to pay attentions so they don't slip off the stitches. Something I never needed to worry using my bamboo DPNs.

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving next week! Winter's in full swing.

What a Week

Last Friday Mitch started coughing. By the evening it was a full-blown croup, and he was barking like a little lost seal. Of course it had to be a Friday evening. Of we went to the After Hour Pediatric Clinic.

He had a high fever, and the cough was awful. Hard to see a little kid go through this. The first night he woke me up six times, crying. It's rare.

His regular pediatrician is on vacation (the timing was perfect), and we got an appointment with another doctor on Tuesday. By then I was having a bad feeling -- may be pneumonia. Oh yeah. I was right. On a strong antibiotic, he's rapidly recovering -- what a relief.

Staying home with him and trying to work at the same time is pretty tough. I feel sluggish.

But I've finally finished Brooke's Column of Leaves scarf!

I used 2.3 hanks of Blue Sky Alpaca Sport. The picture is before blocking, which is essential to this pattern. I hope to get to it later this week...

I've also started on Crosspatch with my handspun.

I'm worried that I might run out of the yarn... It's always a problem with knitting with handspun; at least for me it has been. I love the pattern though. I also am in love with the yarn -- very lofty and light. The gray yarn has the handful of mohair I got at the Apple Fair blended in it. I wanted to knit a warm hat for my winter trips to Toronto/Montreal. I was going to go to Toronto next week, but with Mitch being sick and all, I've decided to cancel it.

Maybe tomorrow Mitch will be well enough to go take a walk with me. It's been beautiful outside, but we've been cooped up!

Bye Bye Pumpchins

So Halloween is over, and the time has come to take down the bats and spiders. My son has enjoyed trick-or-treating, but he enjoyed treating the kids that came to our door even more.

Mitch gingerly went into the scariest house on the block.

Um, Mom.... Um, can you ding-dong for me?

As soon as the resident of the haunted house appears, Mitch waved to him, backing off, apologizing. "Eh, um, sorry, I just wanted some candies, but it's okay, I don't want it anymore." I was doubling over, laughing.

By the way, my son wanted to be Harry Potter again. What a good boy.

Oh, yes. I've been spinning a lot. Last Friday evening, Huguette, Erin and I went to the bakery to have our first FlourChylde Knit Night. I spun. It was quite interesting to see people stopping to look at what I as doing. If you live in Novato, the bakery will be open Friday evenings, and they serve wine. Come out and knit (or spin) with us!

A week worth of spinning. From left to right -- blend of mohair (from the Apple Fair) and a merino/alpaca roving (from Lambtown), dark-brown merino/alpaca (from Lambtown), green romney (from California Wool and Fiber Festival). The left two hunks are the result of my trying to spin thicker than my regular spinning. I'm planning to knit Crosspatch. I'm not sure if I have enough yardage.

Blending the mohair and the merino/alpaca was fun -- I am a fan of mohair now. It makes the fiber so lustrous and soft.

OK, can I have an angora goat in the back yard? Just one?