Sound of One Hand...

Knittingwise, it wasn't an exciting week. After the lace socks, I couldn't decide on which pattern to knit, so I pulled out another pair of Knit Picks Parade and started vanilla socks again. Boring, but I need a sock project all the time for the commute, long phone calls and a round or two between a bite to eat. That kind of knitting requires mindless projects, and vanilla socks are good for that.

Moll is not progressing well. I feel like I'm avoiding it.

On the other hand, Knit Night Friday was exciting.
Naomi finished weaving in ends of her socks --



And the prize activity was to knit with one hand.
It was Erin's idea, but she regrets it.

Huguette won.



Liz also had exciting news. She signed on the house -- a whirlwind closure that only took nine days!! Amazing.

Harry Potter meets Cinderella. How exciting.

I might be the only one that didn't have any exciting news. Sigh.

Been away for too long!

Hello,

Yes, it's me. I know, I've been away for too long. Thankfully Tamami has kept up with posting about her knitting progress. For the past 5 weeks, I've been trying to keep up with life as my husband is working out of town for the entire week and only home on weekends. Between the baseball practice, games, basketball practice, games, my school, my homework, my kids' homework, cleaning the house, making dinner, and taking care of other people's kids there has been no time for blogging.

We had a wonderful Knit Night on Friday where Tamami made us knit with only one hand! Everyone received a prize, but Huguette was the true winner. Here's is my latest finished project which now is residing in FlourChylde Bakery in downtown Novato:

Huguette also did a pumpkin but hers has a green stem on it. Both turned out quite nice. I want to knit more for next fall. Also, a friend of mine said that she loved it which means that I might have to make her one too!

Other projects on the needles:
The blue feather and fan shawl is about half way done. It has been put aside in order to work on next project.

Triangular shawl that I'm knitting on a whim for my grandmother. I'm not using a pattern, so we'll have to see how it turns out. Hopefully it will work.

A sock - yes, I've started a sock but the sock knitting thing doesn't have a hold on me so my ADD keeps dragging me away from it. I do want to have a pair of socks that I have knit, but the desire isn't enough to force me to pick it up again.

We had a wonderful weekend of helping at the Bakery during safe trick-or-treating downtown on Saturday. It was great to see the variety of costumes. Today we did some projects around the house, some shopping, and a trip to the ER with my oldest son who injured his finger while playing basketball Thursday. We kept thinking that his finger would show signs of improvement, but after no change we decided to get an x-ray. Yep, it's fractured. No more basketball for 3 to 4 weeks.

Thankfully it will heal without problem or medical intervention, and thankfully it wasn't on the hand of a knitter! (Ok, groan if you want to)

Third Sock?

I finished my lace socks.


I wore them last night, and I love the way they feel on my sole. The last four pairs were done in sport weight, and although I love the warmth and how fast they knit up, I almost feel the stitch definitions on my sole when I walk on the hardwood floor. This one, knitted in fingering weight, I don't.



Punky really likes the socks too.

After producing the pair, I still have a chunk of ball left. It's still retaining the ball shape. That's a first...


According to Charlie's new digital gadget, the knitted socks weigh 61 grams, and the leftover ball weighs 32 grams, without the ball band. I've recently discovered, after Charlie's gadget acquisition, that total weight of the yarn listed on the ball band includes the weight of the ball band. So, 93 grams of yarn in knitted and unknitted, a gram of ball band, the rest is scrap yarn?






























Doesn't add up.

But, it at least means that I have enough yarn left to do the third sock. I wonder if that's a good idea, in case I lose a sock? Wouldn't it be a tragedy to be left with just one lace sock? Or shall I do a pair for Mitch? Honestly, I'm not looking forward to do socks with size 1 needles right now. My needles are warped after all that K2togs. They need a rest.


Maybe I pair this up with another fingering weight? A solid color should be good, a bright yellow to tone it up. I don't have any solid color fingerin weight in my stash. That means, a trip to a yarn store. Hmmm....

Huguette finished her pumpkin at Knit Night Friday. Erin's done with hers too. Failing grade on me on the pumpkin project. I'll shoot for the Halloween 2007, unless the alpaca yarn turns into something else.... Poof.




We had a great weather over the weekend. The problem is that the weekend was too short.

Good Stash

When Charlie bought my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel for me for my birthday, the seller Carolina Homespun in San Francisco sent me a huge ball of beautiful Corriedale wool as a gift. I span 4 bobbins already, but the ball still weighs 1 pound and 8 ounces. Soft, clean and long fiber -- I'm sure this is too good for my skills right now, but it sure makes learning fun.

I didn't spin for a week after the two hunks of the cheap felting wool. I took out my wheel and the Corriedale, and I was amazed at how easy it felt. Look how nice and even! I am so pleased. Spinning is so wonderful -- once you get started, it's hard to stop.

Anyway, the generosity of Carolina Homespun has made a loyal customer in Novato. I ordered some bobbins, wheel parts, and a pound of.... Alpaca.
This is just about the softest thing I've ever touched.


There's no guard hair. Phew -- I was a bit worried because the price is so good.
And, no, I'm not spinning this yet. I have lots of practice to do before I'd even think about it.

I have more than a pound of Corriedale, 0.5 pound of beautifully dyed wool that I bought at Sebastopol Apple Fair, and a hunk of another dyed wool that came from Carolina Home Spun. I have acquired a nice stash.

I have to start thinking about using the spun yarn...

Here's my progress on Moll. About a skein worth (100g) of Knit Picks Sierra.


I have made an error -- but I am not going to frog this. I won't know if the error would be devastating or not until I construct the sweater. I don't even want to explain what I did (or didn't do) for a while. But, isn't it pretty?


My lace sock is progressing well, thanks to the terrible commute in the morning. I hope the Smart Train measure passes. Can't wait for the day that I get to knit on the train and complain that I only got 4 rounds done!


Naomi says that she really enjoyed the Knit Night, and she finished that sock over the weekend! Now she's on the search for the next project. Liz too has an exciting news, and this one is not related to knitting. Can't wait to hear more about it on the next Knit Night!!

Beware of Knitters Inside

Halloween is coming.

Our house is full of pumpkins, bats and spiders (organic and inorganic). Some ghosts too.

I cannot believe that I forgot to give out the goodie bags. But otherwise it was a fun Knit Night again. It was a debut night for Naomi, who dug up her UFO (unfinished object) socks from three years ago to join us.

Unfortunately Liz couldn't be with us because of a new development with her venture -- house hunting. Good luck, Liz. Don't get stressed out!

I made an error in yesterday's post. The pattern I started is called Moll, not Molly. It's my very first pattern with cables. The pattern is not easy to read, and I got through the first stumble with the help from Huguette, but I made several errors anyway, which of course I discovered 5 rows later. Huguette and Erin reminded me the "drop a stitch and dig up your crochet hook" fix that Yarn Harlot was describing on her blog. It's a bulky weight, and would be a good one to try the trick on. I'm just very cross that I didn't take the pictures of the before and after! Worked like a charm.

I found a blog by a gentleman who beautifully knitted Moll. He says that this was his first cable project too.

We went pumpkin patching today in Petaluma. Mitch ran into his best friend at the preschool, and they had a great time together, darting all around the patch. Exhausting to try to keep up with a couple of three-year olds.

After leaving the pumpkin patch, we headed to ... Downtown Petaluma for some yarn shopping. I got some nice buttons at Knitterly for my hooded shawl.

I love this store. Today, the place was full of the gorgeous Alchemy yarn. So beautiful, but so $$$. For now I just adore how they feel on my palm, and daydream...

I'm so proud that I didn't buy any yarn today. Just great sets of buttons. I haven't decided which ones to use on my shawl. I'm so lucky that Charlie and Mitch are so yarn-shopping friendly. Thank you, boys.

Tomorrow I'll get serious about the Halloween costume. Worst case we'll just run to Erin's!

Molly, Cow Cat, Yarn Balls and Mitch

I've cast on Molly from Rowan Cork Collection. This is designed by Kim Hargreaves. I don't like doing sleeves, so this may be a good pattern for me. But it's my first real cable pattern.

Cork is a discontinued yarn. I got Knitpicks Sierra for the substitution, but I already know that I've made a mistake -- I didn't get enough! I have a bad habit of just looking at the total weight, not the yardage. Agh. I'll be putting an order together for Knitpicks soon, ladies. Need anything?

The yarn is very soft and cushy -- great to knit. It comes in skein, so I wound it today using my umbrella swift I got this summer on ebay. I don't have a yarn winder, so I just made a non-center pull, traditional ball.

Winding yarn always reminds me of my childhood days, helping my mom wind balls of yarn. Holding the skein on my wrists while my mom made perfectly round balls. We'd switch roles, and wind up a pile of skeins together.

Maybe because of this memory, I love the round yarn balls. They make me feel nostalgic. The center-pull balls the yarn winder makes never look this pretty -- so I never considered buying one, until I read this post on Polly's blog (read "Traditions"). I will try not to knit at a train station or busy roadside, with my non-center-pull-balls.

I think about my mom often lately. Funny thing, somehow Mitch must sense what I'm feeling, and talks about Grandma a lot. This morning, he said something about "Cow Cat." After several questions and answers, we figured out that he was talking about "Moo Cat," the black and white cat his Grandma has. Oh yeah. He does look like a small cow!

The short summer trip to Grandma's house must have left a deep impression on him. The other day he suddenly went to the front door with his hat and shoes in his hands -- I'm going to Grandma's. Wish it was that easy, kid.

Here's the state of my 5th pair. Love this one. I carry this around so I can knit when I'm in line waiting, or being on hold on the phone. I now rarely feel like I'm wasting time.

Knit Night Friday is coming!

Bonus Knit Night and Angels

Erin was off to Reno last Friday night, and the rest of the Designated Knitters had a bonus knit night at Erin's. We all felt like teenagers having a party while parents were away! Fun, busy night was had by all, working on projects (Huguette - Jay Walker Socks, Liz -- blanket and hat) and contemplating on the next ones. So many nice things to knit, so little time. And I of course showed off my newly-spun yarn.

The kids did a dress rehersal for Halloween. I actually have a great movie of the umpire running, but it doesn't look like I can post a movie file here. Too bad -- it's hilarious. Oh yeah, Halloween is coming -- I should make something for Mitch... and the time is ticking.

On Sunday, we went to the City to watch Blue Angels. It was a perfect day for the Angels to fly. I think Mitch enjoyed it, but I don't think he quite understands how marvelous their flying skill is. Getting out of the City was a crawl. I knitted happily while Charlie drove and Mitch napped. Knitting makes everything better.

Back to knitting stuff -- I am about to start the toe decrease on the lace sock. I haven't broken any needles. I'm done adding the trims on the shawl. All I need are the buttons and the button holes.

We have a regularly scheduled Knit Night this Friday -- Knit Night every week is wonderful.

"Whackeded It'ed"

Very very early this morning, before three o'clock, I walked back into the bedroom in the dark and ran into the corner of the bed with my knee. Hard. I felt my knee buckled. It doesn't look swollen now or even badly bruised, but I'm limping around. According to Mitch's newly discovered English, I've "whackeded it'ed."


I've starteded a new sock. And it's not vanilla.
Don't zoom in on the photo -- or you'll see the numerous errors. The yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit, one of the skeins I got as my birthday present from the Designated Knitters. I really like the way the stripes zig zag in this pattern. I didn't realize that until I went several stripes with this yarn, as the pattern in the book was done in a solid color.

This is a fingering weight, and this is the first time I knitteded socks with this weight. The last four pairs were in sport weight. I do feel the difference in speed... and the effect of the thinner needles. Doing K2tog with size 1 hurts. I hope I won't break any needles before I finish this pair.

Oh my knee hurts. (Today is Charlie's birthday -- Mitch sang the happy birthday song perfectly by himself. Good job baby!)

Wheel is Turning

The Knit Night Friday was a blast again. The highlight was the Door Prize activity -- Knit a story. Whenever the story being read says "knit," you knit one stitch, "purl," you purl. "Back" and "Frog," you undo the last stitch. At the end of the story you will "read" your story and see if you got it right. Hats off to Erin's creativity (Erin, please post the whole story here) -- it made us laugh so hard! How often you knit while you cry (because you are laughing hysterically)? And great door prize -- orange and green skeins of beautiful wool/alpaca blend yarn, for knitting pumpkins on Knitty.com. Thank you Liz! But, felting alpaca? Hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm brave enough.

I am done with the hooded shawl, but I've since decided that I need to put some trimming around the edge. Although the pattern doesn't call for the trims, without them the edges roll. So, a few more hours on it, then it'll be ready for the blog appearance.

Huguette shows off her "a pair of socks in one go" magic. How cool. The socks have some intricate cable patterns too. I'm just very impressed with her meticulous and detailed work. She'd never allow herself to leave the mistakes I'd just choose to ignore.

I have some great pictures of the kids at Knit Night, but since the big boy has objected his photo being on the blog, so I'll keep them on my camera -- I will use them someday to blackmail!

I finished up spinning the cheap felting wool, and I plied them over the weekend. It was short fiber and not carded, so it was nobby/slubby/easy to break. But I love the way it turned out.





I used pinkish and blue wool, and randomly joined them while drafting. While plying them, I confirmed what I suspected the last time I plied -- plying yarn is an ultimate display of "Murphy's Law." While spinning, I unwillingly slip a large slub (okay, a lump) on my yarn. I hope that when I ply, the other yarn that meets the lumpy part is relatively thin so it'll even out. NOPE. The lumpy part is destined to meet up and plied with a lumpy counter part. At the exact place. So the result is double-lumpy. The scary-thin parts are the same way. It will meet up and plied with another two-fiber thin yarn. I am convinced. Murphy's Law in action.



This is not a high-quality wool, so I can't knit anything that comes next to my skin. Maybe a purse? A pillow? I think I have about 100 grams.

Mitch has met R2D2 at Sharper Image. Now he's a big fan of Star Wars. We should've known....

The fall is here -- it's been cool. Better hurry up and knit up some warm stuff! Meaning, we need more Knit Night Fridays!

Again.

Late afternoon, my cell phone rings. It's never a good sign. A teacher from Mitch's preschool. Not good. Mitch had a hard fall again in the playyard, tripping on the lip that holds the tanbarks in place, and hit his face on the concrete. De ja vu from a month ago. And last week.

It looks worse in person. Will you stop doing this to us, kid? Sure you are a boy and it's your job to get scratched up time to time. But I'm not used to this. I'll never be.

As I arrived, the teacher was holding him down so he could put some ice on Mitch's cheek. Mitch was trying to get free so he could play some more. This evening he looks into the mirror in the bathroom, and says "cool."

OK, enough about the ouchies. Last weekend, I got some cheap felting wool from a local yarn shop. It's not easy to spin -- short fiber, not uniform, lots of nobby debris. But it was fun to spin. So I needed to empty my first three bobbins..... So, as scary was it was, I decided to ply my second and third bobbins.

A spinning book I have says that "learning how to ply is a snap, compared to leaning how to spin." Un huh. It's not easy. So it looks uneven --
some places it's tightly plied, some places it's just two parrarell strings. But I got two skeins, about 80 grams each, and they do look like two skeins of yarn. It feels good.
















Knit Night Friday is coming! I'm going to look for a new sock pattern -- the last four pair were done in the same, vanilla design -- and I look forward to finishing the hooded shawl so I can start a sleeveless sweater. And meanwhile I will mull over what to knit with these 160g yarn.

I'm Back

It was a loaded trip. Businesswise (no knitting related findings. Bummer). I had no dinner meetings, and hotels and their locations were not good. The hotel in Montreal kindly gave me a wake-up call, at 3:20 in the morning. I specifically requested NOT to call me. Especially an hour and forty minutes before I actually had to get up. Gee, thanks.

I missed the flight from Toronto to Montreal, and had to wait in a long, long line to get the next flight available. Even with the commuter flights like this, most everyone needs to check in the luggage because of the newly restricted items on the plane. That makes the check-in line awfully long.


I got a flight an hour later, and there's an hour to go. I drunk beer at the airport and worked on my sock. Beer and knitting make all better. It really does.


This is the state of the socks at the hotel in Toronto.

I left SFO when I was just below the green line of the second sock, so that's a lot of work done in the flight.

And this is Honey Boy, from Future Bakery in Toronto. It's about 1/3 the size of regular Ginger Bread Man. Cute, eh?

I met no other knitters on the trip. No one asked what I was knitting (could have been too obvious), and saw no one working on his/her project. How sad.

One thing I noticed about Telemark from Knitpicks is that for both skein I found a very noticeable yarn joint. I don't see this often with other yarn. The first sock I just didn't do anything and knitted that joint, but after it's knitted the joint is still very noticeable and "pickable."

I ran into another joint as I was starting the toe decrease on the second sock on the Montreal - SFO flight. This time I picked on the joint part, just a little, and it came apart easily. Good thing I had a yarn needle. I did a Russian Join and kept going. But now I'm worried about my first sock getting unraveled. That wouldn't be good.

Here's the joint part on my first sock (the one I didn't do anything). Can you see?

Here's another view in darker color short. This is much closer to the actual color.

I'm really worried about it now. Does anyone know if I should reinforce this part? And how?
I'd recommend anyone using Telemark to watch out for this. Otherwise it's a nice yarn to knit, and it knits up quickly. Oh, also, if you are using Telemark for socks, you may want to get three balls or make the sock shorter than you'd normally do.

This is my fourth pair of socks. One thing about knitting on the road is that I'm more prone to errors -- I didn't make any big errors (aside not doing anything about the dangerous yarn joint), but I did some backwards decreases (like doing SSK on where I should be doing k2tog). I don't usually fix these errors unless I catch it right away. To me socks are socks -- you wear them on your feet and be useful. No point trying to make them perfect. I will work on weaving in ends, and they will be off to Japan to my mom. Hope she'll like them, and also will consider the imperfection as a flavor of handmade socks.

From Toronto

I never thought I'd be blogging while I'm on a business trip! But the hotel charges $10 for the internet connection per day, so I feel like I should use it.

The flight was nice -- it was not full, and that has not happened to me for the last three years. I knit, knit, knit while I watched "Inside Man" for the second time. A good movie -- and my favorite actor is in it.

I keep thinking about Mitch and his big bump on the forehead. Yesterday at Erin's, he was so happy to be running around in the backyard, he tropped and fell forward, gonking his head on the concrete pad. Why is that kids never do that on a soft lawn? It has to be on a concrete. Always.


Mitch cried hard for about a minute, and sat on Daddy's lap with ice on his head for two minutes. Then he was ready to play some more. We were not.

He had done the same at his preschool just a few weeks ago. Can't you get enough, kid? Are you just going to keep torturing us?



OK. That's all for today.
I may post a picture of my second sock tomorrow, if I get a free internet connection in Montreal...


Oh, by the way, there is a great new bookstore at SFO. I went in to look for the Fall Issue of Interweave Knits, being excited with the idea of reading it all the way -- No such luck. Oh well, I guess the knitting community is still small. It means no yarn shop at the airport. Darn.

Knit Night. No Pictures.

I don't know what I was thinking. First Knit Night at our house, and I forgot to take pictures.
I think I was way too excited -- and so were my family. Mitch was bouncing around chanting "Knit Night Friday, Knit Night Fridaaaay!" all day.

The family awaits (anxiously) for the Knitters' arrival.


Liz brought Nicole, and the kids watched Harry Potter -- for Charlie and Mitch, it's probably the 47th time. Mitch still enjoys it, but I'm not sure about Charlie.

The Knitters all dove into talking about the last Saturday's outing. No one else knew that the owner of the Full Thread Ahead left a comment to our post! Howard said why we didn't come in and knit in the shop -- rather than in the car! -- We did think about that, but your shop was full. What a great event it was though -- so well organized, and very pleasant all around. Thank you again, and yes, we'd definitely show up if you plan for another event.


Erin was sick all week, but still didn't miss our Knit Night. Good going. Hope you are feeling much better today. She worked on her beautiful shawl. Liz was on the soft yellow baby blanket -- with Berrocco yarn. Oh So Soft. Huguette was working on the magical two-socks-at-the-same-time. I can't believe I didn't take pictures.

The door prize activity was Knitters' Haiku.

Yarn is my passion
Lie, steal or embezzle
I do it for yarn!
-- Erin

Alpaca Erin
Tamami, Lotus girl
Oh Liz, what great yarn!
-- Huguette

It took only two minutes for them to come up with these. They both received a prize.

I worked on the hooded shawl from the Japanese pattern book titled "Design Knit."
The yarn is called "Fashion Trend" -- 51% wool, 49% acrylic. I didn't realize that it was so -- variegated. Stripy. I'm not sure if I like this, but I'm going to go on and see how it's going to turn out. I love the feel though -- very light and soft. Here's what this should look like at the end... Cute, huh?












Charlie joined the crowd for the last hour, demonstrating weaving on his inkle loom.
Mitch and Nicole had a wonderful time together, and Mitch stayed up until midnight -- this is a first.











Today, we had a real slow, lazy day around the house. Mitch helped me plant some flowers.










Next week I will be on a business trip to Toronto and Montreal. Unfortunately I don't have any room in my schedule to make a stop at Lettuce Knit -- or at Stephanie's house! Sorry, fellow knitters, there will be no souvenir yarn, unless I find some at the airport. Come to think of it, why don't they sell yarn and needles at the airport? Wouldn't it make traveling so much calmer and enjoyable? Waiting in line would be less stressful. Flight delay? No problem.
Ladies, a business opportunity?

Thanks Tamami!

Tamami just hosted a wonderful Knit Night Friday. I find it interesting that our children seem to be just as excited about Knit Night as we are! Tamami and Liz's kids are excited to be part of the activities and my kids are excited by the possibility of getting mom out of the house for the night! I'm sure that Tamami will post for us, but I just wanted to post first to say "Thanks! It was wonderful!"

As I type this a moth flew past me, possibly on its way to my wool stash. Must go now and protect the yarn...

Have your headphones ready....

Somebody Stop Me!

Tamami just keeps posting, and posting, and...

I'm running out of the batteries. I'm on my new laptop, but I didn't bring the power supply (the one from the old laptop doesn't work). I have about 60% of the battery left. My digital camera's battery just ran out, so I'm charging that one. I need to download the photos from the camera before the laptop dies. (Insert Jeopardy's theme)


Another suspense. I am about to finish the first sock for the pair I'm knitting for my mom. She doesn't have an access to internet (I know, I know) so there's no risk of ruining the surprise. Anyway, I'm using Telemark, one of the new yarns from Knitpicks. I've found out in the hard way that it's not enough to do a pair, unless you go very short and small. Do you think I have enough, or do I have to buy another ball to make a pair? (Jeopardy again) Place your bet at the comment link.









As promised earlier -- my spinning photos. Here's my first and second bobbins, and the third in progress.














See the improvement?

And lastly, here's the DeStash link I was talking about at the last Knit Night Friday. There are some bargains there right now. And now that we are the proud blog owners, we can post there too!

OK, that's all for now :-) Good night!