Yarmando: A Glimpse at Don

Mastermind Resized

2011-03-26T10:14:00.003-04:00

If you or your loved ones are not fortunate enough to have medium-sized men's feet, you can now rejoice, because Mastermind Sizing Variations are now available.

Please let me know if you discover errors in the expanded pattern.

Presenting "Mastermind"

2011-03-12T09:30:00.000-05:00

All of these changes in the way I make toes, gussets, and heels add up to a new basic sock pattern. I call it Mastermind.

Mastermind walks you through making a medium-sized men's sock. I'm working on padding out the pattern so that you can make larger and smaller socks, but I'm struggling to make those instructions clear and uncluttered. (It's the heel turn; doing that is complicated enough without having to make it work for 5 different sizes).

Anyway, thanks for reading along. I hope you give "Mastermind" a try. Let me know if you run into problems.

Evil Genius Evolves: The Heel

2011-03-06T09:30:00.003-05:00

What makes the Evil Genius pattern "mine?"

The general plan came from Widdershins, the toe from Queen Kahuna, the gussets from New Pathways, and the overall fit from Stitch Stud. I just put it all together and stirred in a bit of personality. But I also added stitch markers in the middle of the heel, marking the place in your short rows where you stop, make one, knit one, then wrap and turn. That's it. That's my only real claim to "genius."

And I'm about to throw it away for something better. And easier.

It's the wraps. Everyone hates them, but they seem to be a necessary evil: something needs to be done to close the holes left by the short rows. And then it hit me: what if I used the make one to close the gap?

It's so simple! Instead of adding stitches near the end of each short row, just work short rows and skip the wrapping. In your transition round, where you normally work the wraps together with the wrapped stitch, just pick up a new stitch in the gap.

Before and after shots:

The first time I tried it, I couldn't believe it. It was beautiful, smooth, easy, and nearly flawless. I say "nearly" because, as you can see in the picture above right (embiggen), a little hole tends to form at the right-side edge of the heel. It's not unexpected -- a similar hole is a hazard in every sock pattern I've ever encountered -- but I've yet to find an elegant, non-fussy method for avoiding or eliminating it. Any suggestions?

Shoulders of Giants
In my previous post on gussets, I mentioned the role Ted Myatt played in getting me to think about gusset placement and fit. I have to credit Stephen Houghton for pointing me in that direction (as well as so many other fruitful directions). This latest epiphany about the heel was inspired by Tallguy. He patiently explained his ideas to me in email, but it took me nearly 4 years to really get it. Thanks, guys, you are the real geniuses; I'm just an appreciative fan.

Evil Genius Evolves: Gussets

2011-03-03T06:30:00.002-05:00

The challenge to toe-up socks is figuring out where to start expanding for the gussets. I used to think the answer was to count rows, and I remain a die-hard row counter -- it's how you make one sock the same size as the other. Still, I get how lots of math turns people off. And that's how I came up with my new lab assistant, Gus.

Gus first made his appearance in the Evil Genius lab during the Arch-Villain project. Rather than issuing complicated instructions to calculate how many rounds long your sock should be and then subtract the gusset and heel rounds, I said:

When your sock is about 4 inches long, measure the distance of 26 rows (or rounds). It's probably between 2 - 2.5 inches. This is your gusset length -- let's call it "Gus." Continue working until your sock is "Gus" inches shorter than the total length of the foot.

Simple. Direct. Effective. And whimsical enough to be non-threatening. I've thought for some time that Gus could be put to more frequent use around the lab, particularly since I can specify whatever I want for the distance. For my own socks, Gus is usually 51 rows, or around 4 inches.

Gus, it turns out, can help me solve a persistent problem: frequently, my socks are a wee bit too long. So if I give Gus some elbow room, round him up by ¼-½ inch, that removes the extra length.

The great Cat Bordhi discovered that gusset increases, when worked 2 increases per 3 rows, could be placed anywhere around the sock. The standard Evil Genius pattern puts them in a fairly conventional line up along the instep, but Ted Myatt argues convincingly that they should be moved away from there. I've grown fond of placing them along the sole, at the width of the heel base, because that provides a nice set up when it comes time to turn the heel.

Evil Genius Evolves: The Toe

2011-03-01T09:10:00.006-05:00

Changes are afoot in the lab. I've been conducting some sock-knitting experiments lately, and they're producing some very pleasing results. To begin, I've settled on a new standard pattern for my toes. It's very round at the beginning, increases rapidly but smoothly at the start, then transitions into more gradual increases for a slightly longer toe and (in my opinion) a better fit.

With desirable, fingering weight sock yarn and a 32 inch, size 1.5 (2.5mm) circular needle:

Cast on 14 stitches using Turkish cast-on and knit 1.5 rounds. (If you prefer Judy's Magic Cast-On, cast on 14 stitches on each needle and knit 1 round).

Begin to think of the first 14 stitches as the sole (bottom) of the foot, and the other 14 stitches as the instep (top).

I use a couple different increase methods in my toe because they produce subtly different effects. For the first increase round, I use KLL and KRL, or what Cat Bordhi calls LLinc (La-Link) and LRinc (La-Rink). This increase pulls the stitches together, reducing the tendency for increases to create corners at the tip.

Knit 1, KRL, knit until 1 st remains on the sole, KLL, knit 1. Repeat for instep.

Now I begin using my preferred increases -- yarnovers, which I twist in the next round so they don't leave a hole. For a left-leaning increase, I knit the yarnover stitch through the back loop. For right-leaning, I work what I call a k-twist.

k-twist: Slip next stitch knitwise onto the right needle, changing its mount. Slip the stitch back to the left needle purlwise; the front leg of the stitch now lies in back of the needle while the back leg of the stitch comes down the front of the needle. Knit the back leg like it's a normal stitch, which further twists it to the right.

Knit 2, YO, knit until 2 sts remain on the sole, YO, knit 2. Repeat for instep.
Knit 2, k1tbl, knit until 3 sts remain on the sole, k-twist, knit 2. Repeat for instep.

Repeat the last two rounds until there are 26 stitches per side, 52 stitches total.

Knit 2, YO, knit until 2 sts remain on the sole, YO, knit 2. Repeat for instep.
Knit round, twisting the yarnovers as established.
Knit round plain.

Repeat these three rounds until your sock is the desired circumference. Usually, that's 32-36 stitches per side, or 64-72 stitches total.

More notes:

My old Just Start Knitting toe never quite worked for me. It tended to twist on my toes, and sometimes I could feel a ridge created by the round of doubled stitches. Also, it just didn't look as good; I prefer stitches smoothly flowing from instep to sole over the tip of the toe. Anatomically correct toes helped with the twist, but I dislike checking whether my socks are on the right feet.

I'm most pleased with the effect of doing the first increase 1 stitch in from the edge, then moving subsequent increases another stitch in. It makes a smooth transition from the cast-edge into the increase lines.

I've been using these toes exclusively since I put all this together last summer. I hope you like it.

Gloves

2011-02-26T09:34:00.002-05:00

Look! A blog post. Must be a blue moon.

These are my gloves. Their purpose was to make my hands less cold when jogging, but instead I've been using them as winter wear. They are inadequate. Also, I don't jog when the temp is below 50°F.

These will be my new gloves.

The fiber is a blend of yak and alpaca. One skein was all I could afford, and I've been laboring to find a project worthy of it. The gloves aren't visually very impressive, but I love how they feel.

Ages ago, I ran across this intriguing and easy method for working fingers, and constructing gloves from the fingertip down. Predictable that Toe-Up Sock Man would be into these gloves, right? Oddly enough, I think I prefer working gloves from the cuff. I've used a pattern called "Pop Up Paws" by Mary O'Keefe-Dockman a couple times, and I love how they fit. I'd link to the pattern for you to buy, but I can't find it for sale anywhere on-line.

I wonder if gloves/mittens will become a new thing with me? I'm dying to make mittens out of silk mawata, and these gloves look like too much fun.

Ebook Lemonade

2010-10-23T07:59:00.005-04:00

Last week, the UK-based Publishers Association announced guidelines for ebook lending, including a requirement that libraries can only provide ebooks to patrons who are physically at a library branch. My friend Laura tweeted, "I think Overdrive can kiss more than half of its library business goodbye after this." I agree. On top of all the other crap we have to put up with to offer Overdrive-managed ebooks to library patrons, this further restriction would be too much.

But then I began to think: this idea could be workable. I could accept those terms--patrons can only download a library's ebooks if they came to the library --if some of the other requirements were lifted:

No waiting. If the library owns the ebook, it is available when you come in to download it, no matter how many other people have also downloaded it.
No DRM, or a loan period so long that DRM doesn't really matter. I'd say at least 6 months; a year would be better.
Costs must be reasonable. Libraries should expect to pay more for ebook distribution rights than they would for a single copy of a hardback book, but costs should be in line with libraries' current expenses. (I think I'll explore what this means in a future post).

If the only barrier to the service is that you have to go to the library, I could accept that, because we could find interesting ways to make that work. Oz knows that we could be doing a better job with download customer service; face-to-face help in the library would be a fantastic improvement. We could explore partnerships in the community to provide E-branches in coffee shops, airports, or other WiFi hotspots. We could develop Ebook Kiosks for malls, community colleges, parks, etc.

We've already given up so much in our pathetic attempts to be at the ebook table. I see some potential here to win back some power.

Wash's Sweater Revisited -- The Body

2010-07-16T08:30:00.001-04:00

When I was first trying to make Wash's Sweater, I would watch the scenes where the sweater appeared over and over, freezing the picture and trying to count the stitches. I worked hard to make my pattern come as close as possible to replicating the original costume piece.

That's one of the reasons why my pattern doesn't have good sizing notes, saying only, "For alternate sizes, add or subtract stitches from the sweater's Double Moss Stitch panels. Body and sleeves can be knit longer or shorter as desired."

As I said in the last post, for my Fisherman's Wool version I need to add 46 stitches to the circumference of the sweater. I put purl stitches on either side of the cable charts, and then dumped the rest of the stitches into the double moss panels. Ultimately, to make the double moss look like I wanted, I added a couple more stitches, bringing my total up to 232.

So in the last round of ribbing, I distributed 24 increases around the sweater, then started working the body pattern like this:

Work Double Moss Stitch over 62 sts; p1; work Rope Cable (Chart A) over the next 10 sts; p2; work Serenity Cable (Chart B) over the next 28 sts; p2; repeat Rope Cable over the next 10 sts; p1. Repeat to complete round.

And this is where I am now, 10 inches past the ribbing, working up the body. I'm not really very happy with it. The decorative cable panel is just too narrow, and too much of the sweater is now the double moss filler. I'll need more repeats of the cable in order to reach the correct length.

I'm convinced that the sweater needs to be made on a bulkier yarn than Fisherman's Wool -- maybe something like Cascade's Eco Wool, which is the second most popular choice for the sweater on Ravelry. But I started out trying to make the sweater work for people who wanted to use the thinner yarn. I think my next step is to try revising the cable.

Rather than completely frog my work, I gave it to knittingbrow, who might make it into a vest.

Wash's Sweater Revisited -- Gauge

2010-07-03T17:55:00.001-04:00

In 2008, I recreated a sweater worn by the character Wash in two episodes of the TV series Firefly, and then worked out patterns so that other knitters could make their own. My prototype used a bulky handspun yarn, so my patterns called for a similar heavy worsted wool. But yarn like that is not easy to find, and I noticed many knitters were using a finer yarn, like Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, to make their sweaters.

But Fisherman's Wool doesn't make a good fabric at the gauge my pattern called for -- it's too loose and open. So when I recently decided I wanted to make another of these, I thought I'd try the popular choice, and suggest some ways to revise the pattern for thinner yarns. (Also, I want to suss out a way to work the sleeves and chest together seamlessly).

So the first step is gauge. My original pattern called for 16 stitches to 4 inches in stockinette fabric, or 15 stitches to 4 inches of double moss stitch. I swatched the Fisherman's Wool on both size 7 and size 8 needles, which gave me 20 and 19 stitches per inch respectively in stockinette. After washing the swatch, I preferred the look of the fabric from the 8's.

I wanted this sweater to be 45 inches around at the chest, and at 4.75 stitches per inch, that's 214 stitches. Back in 2008, I calculated that I need to add about 16 stitches to make up for the cables. So my "key" number for the sweater is 230. I cast on 90% (208 stitches), and began knitting the 1x1 twisted rib that makes up the bottom of this sweater.

After 3 inches of ribbing, it was time to increase up to my key number for the body of the sweater. But before doing that, I would need to figure out where I was going to put the additional 46 stitches, because my original pattern is 184 stitches around, and this sweater would need to be 230. My solution is coming up in the next post.

Genius Footprint -- The Heel

2010-06-26T07:39:00.004-04:00

Just as during the gusset section when we had to plan to make all the gusset increases within a certain distance, for the heel we have to bring our sock to a close in the remaining inches of the foot. This takes some creativity, and again, rounds per inch is your friend.

I've knit 7.5 inches of my 10 inch foot, so I need to finish the heel in 2.5 inches. At 13 rounds per inch, I've got a little over 32 rows to complete the foot, to reduce my 98 stitches down to about 24 (which I can graft together or join in 3 needle bind-off). I could decrease at 4 points every other round. I could consult Personal Footprints, where Bordhi devotes 7 pages to mapping out different rates of decreasing at 6 points. But I thought I'd try a reverse Hat Heel, decreasing at 8 points every 4th round 8 times until my sock is the right length, then quickly decreasing on alternate rounds to close up the hole.

Here is a pic of the bottom of my sock so far -- a closed tube that is the same length as my foot, with increases that follow the shape of my toes and an arch expansion targeted to my size. On the reverse of the tube, I've marked stitches where I will open up the sock to knit the ankle and calf.

Genius Footprint -- Mark the Leg

2010-06-20T14:45:00.002-04:00

Using science (that is, gauge and actual measurements of your foot), we've knit to our measurements and should be near the center of the ankle when we've completed the gusset increases. If you want, you can check this using the method Bordhi outlines in Personal Footprints: draw a line down the middle of your leg, try on your sock, and see if it reaches. You might need to add a few rows to make up for foot expansion. Now it's time to mark where your leg will be.

(You might have figured out that the point of this series was to explore whether I could successfully make socks like those in Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters, but without everything I dislike about those socks: the round toe, the "footprint" that doesn't adapt well to different gauges, and especially the annoying trial-and-error process. But the steps that deal with opening up the leg are the parts that I really, really like about the book.)

Sock patterns are usually written with the assumption that people's ankles are about the same circumference as the ball of their foot. For most of my family, it's pretty close, but here is where you can customize. The base of my ankle is just a bit bigger around than the base of my foot, so I'm going to plan for 72 stitches in circumference rather than the 68 stitches I had at the ball.

So what I do now is run a lifeline through the stitches where I will later put the leg of the sock. If my ankle will be 72 stitches, then I need to run a lifeline through 36 stitches, centered on the top. Following Bordhi's instructions, I knit another round, marking a stitch that I will later cut and unravel for the leg opening. Then I knit the next round and run another lifeline through the 36 stitches above my first life line.

I experimented with a more familiar method -- knitting my leg stitches with a bit of waste yarn, which I later removed to knit the leg -- but the end result isn't as nice. And in this instance, I recommend following Bordhi's instructions exactly. If you can't get your hands on a copy of Personal Footprints, you can get the general idea from the Houdini Sock pattern and from Bordhi's YouTube videos.

Genius Footprint -- The Gusset Increases

2010-06-15T06:30:00.007-04:00

In New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Cat Bordhi demonstrated that gusset increases can be located anywhere you want on the sock -- top, bottom, sides; neatly stacked on top of each other or randomly spaced. Where do they work best on your foot? I'm still experimenting, but I think my increases work better on the top...

...or the sides.

My theory is that if the increases follow the lines where my foot gets bigger, then the stitches won't be distorted by the changing shape of my foot -- they'll flow in more or less straight lines from the toe to the heel.

Genius Footprint -- The Plan

2010-06-13T08:55:00.008-04:00

The Genius Footprint is based on measurements and gauge. The toe is your gauge swatch; now you need these key measurements:

Circumference around the ball of the foot
Circumference at the widest part of the foot: around the heel and instep (see picture at right for illustration)
Length of foot (Best way: put a ruler on the floor, extending out from a wall; stand on the ruler, back of the heel pressed against the wall)
Length from the tip of the longest toe to the center of the ankle (see this blog post for advice).

We've already calculated how the sock will fit around the ball of the foot: gauge x circumference x 88% for negative ease. Now calculate how many stitches the sock will need to be at its widest. My foot is 9 inches at the ball, 13 at the heel/instep, or 68 stitches at the ball and 98 at the widest point. I will need to increase 30 stitches over the gusset section.

Gusset sections begin about halfway along the foot. My foot is 10 inches long, so I will start my gussets when the sock is about 5 inches. I can safely continue knitting for a few inches, give myself some more fabric so I can accurately check row gauge. My sock is 13 rows (or rounds) per inch, so I'll want to start my gussets near round 65.

The increases need to be completed before the center of the ankle. For me, that's at 7.5 inches, or round 98. Isn't that handy? I'll need to make 30 gusset increases, and I've got just over 30 rows to do it.

I can knit plain up to row 68, and ponder what I want to do with the gusset section.

Genius Footprint -- The Toe

2010-06-12T10:27:00.009-04:00

The Genius Footprint begins with an anatomically correct toe.

[Gauge = 8.5 stitches per inch]

Turkish Cast-On

Hold your circular needle so that both ends are together, pointed to the right.
Pull the bottom needle to the right, so your top needle is held together with the bottom cord.
Start your yarn in back of the needles, leaving a 12" tail hanging.
Wrap the yarn over toward you, down across the front and up the back of the needles.
Wrap until you have 7 loops.

Rounded Toe

Knit across the stitches on the "top" needle. Be sure to keep your stitches snug on the "bottom" needle.
Hold working yarn and tail together, and work 1 round. (This doubles the number of loops on each side -- 14 per side, 28 total.)
Drop the tail, and knit one round, working one stitch in each loop.

Begin to think of the first 14 stitches as the sole (bottom) of the foot, and the other 14 stitches as the instep (top).

Toe Increases

Knit 2, YO, knit until 2 stitches remain of sole stitches, YO, knit 2. Repeat for the instep.
Knit round, working the first yarnover on each side through the back loop, and the second yarnover as k-twist*.

Repeat these two rounds until you have 48 stitches, 24 stitches per side (or until your sock is about an inch long). Then continue knitting but stop increasing on one of the ends. For example:

Left Foot

Knit until 2 stitches remain of sole stitches, YO, knit 2. On instep side, knit 2, YO, knit to end of round.
Knit round, working the yarnover at the end of the sole stitches as k-twist, and the yarnover at the beginning of the instep stitches through the back loop.

Right Foot

Knit 2, YO, knit to end of sole stitches. On instep, knit until 2 stitches remain, YO, knit 2.
Knit round, working the yarnover at the beginning of the round through the back loop, and the yarnover at the end of the round as k-twist.

Repeat until your sock is desired circumference. For me, that's 68 stitches. For you, it's gauge x circumference around ball of foot x negative ease. (8.5 spi x 9 inch ball x 88% negative ease = 67.32, or 68 stitches).

* k-twist: Slip next stitch knitwise onto the right needle, changing its mount. Slip the stitch back to the left needle purlwise; the front leg of the stitch now lies in back of the needle while the back leg of the stitch comes down the front of the needle. Knit the back leg like it's a normal stitch, which further twists it to the right.

I Used to Be a Folklorist

2010-03-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

Progress cleaning the basement has been slow. I bought 5 cheap bookcases, and while I was setting them up, I discovered that mildew had flourished beneath a stack of board games. That took me a while to clean up, but the smell and stains are gone.

The biggest purge I've made so far is my folklore stuff. I took my books to the Friends of the Library, keeping only my heavily annotated copy of More Man Than You'll Ever Be. I looked through all of my graduate school notebooks and tossed everything except papers and journals. And then there was this box:

This box was what was left from previous grad school purges.

It contained the course packets I made my students buy for the composition and the folklore classes I taught. There were some of the articles that I'd copied for my general exams and my dissertation research, and the floppy disks with my data. It even had the tape recorder and cassettes I used for my Masters thesis and for my very first fieldwork project: an interview with my office mate Tom Burns (now director of the Perkins Observatory), who told me the story of the Denney Hall Elevator Ghost.

A professor was in his office on the 5th floor of Denney Hall one night, waiting for a student who never showed up for her appointment. He walked down to the 4th floor for a cup of coffee before going home, and just as he pushed the down button for the elevator, he heard screams from the floor above. When the elevator arrived, he pushed the button for the first floor and left the building. The next day, the body of his student was discovered in front of the professor's office. The professor was wracked with remorse, retired immediately, and died a few months later, a broken man. But ever since, when you're on the 4th floor of Denney Hall and you summon the elevator, the elevator always goes up to the 5th floor before opening on the 4th.

Tom is a great story teller, and his version was much better than mine, with an actual appearance of the ghost in the elevator to tell his own story to a grad student.

It wasn't as hard to toss all this as I thought it might be. For all of grad school, I was Mr. Folklore (or "Captain Folklore," I told people, "like a superhero, with a cape and tights.") It was harder getting over the lingering sense of failure after I'd abandoned my dissertation and my academic career. But I'm happy where I've ended up, and I don't feel much guilt and shame over that "road not taken." (Besides, occasionally Rose asks me a question about folklore and the Internet, and I get to feel smart, and convince myself that I could have succeeded on the tenure track, I just chose not to).

CleanQuest 2010: Return to the Basement

2010-02-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, I took a week of vacation to do some serious cleaning in the house, a practice I mean to repeat annually as long as it doesn't do permanent damage to Mike's love for me. But this year's cleaning sabbatical was preempted by my mom's knee replacement surgery: I needed to spend that week helping to keep her spirits up and doing what I could to speed her recovery.

I thought there would be no cleaning this year, as things are too busy at work to take off much more time right now. But then Wednesday night, we heard a scary sound of electricity arcing and a loud "zap." The circuit that carries our dishwasher and refrigerator had fried. I began to realize that things were about to get very bad in our basement.

Access to the circuit box was impeded by a large shelving structure made up of long boards held up by two ladders (something like this, but less neat). I knew I needed to get it out of the way so workers could fix the circuit. With the ladders down, this is what our basement looks like.

Please don't put us on Hoarders.

I'm going to make it better, and this blog will help. I'm not a compulsive hoarder; I keep things because they mean something to me, remind me of pieces of my life and identity that I can't bear to toss away and forget. I think my best strategy for getting the basement under control is to blog about the things I find. If I take a picture and tell the story, the enchantments that tie these things to my life will be lifted. Rather than throwing away pieces of myself, I will celebrate and preserve them here...before tossing them in the dumpster.

It will be solipsistic, I'm sure, but you know, the blog is called "A Glimpse at Don." I think I'll enjoy it. Hopefully you won't find it intolerable.

The Dark Side

2010-01-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

I'm learning to spin. It's WonderMike's fault. He just looked so cool, so happy, standing there at Sock Summit, roving draped around his neck, making beautiful yarn. It wasn't a chore; it was an enjoyable pasttime, something to do with his hands while he chatted and laughed with passers-by.

I've actively resisted spinning. Yes, the spindles were pretty. Yes, the handspun was beautiful. But no, I didn't need to do it myself. I am perfectly happy letting others raise the sheep, sheer the wool, clean it, dye it, spin it. I like being further up this food chain: buying the yarn and knitting it into something nice.

But stupid WonderMike had to open the door, and Abby Franquemont slipped in, with her engaging and witty Ravelry persona and her terrific Intro to Spinning video on YouTube. Her simple explanation -- spinning is just pulling apart fiber and twisting it so it holds together; use a stick to hold the yarn and make things go faster -- was irresistible to me. And her book! Oh my god, her book. I love a funny, smart woman talking to me about the physics of yarn. And she blew my mind by pointing out that spindles are responsible for nearly all human textile production up until about 400 years ago.

So a week ago, I took a class.

I'm not very good, but I don't expect to be. Abby (and others) argue that learning to spin involves developing muscle memory, and that if I keep practicing a little each day, I'll get it in about a month or two.

The result so far:

That's what became of the roving I got in class. Now I'm getting serious with some dyed combed top that I bought at a local store.

So I'll give it a couple months, working at it every day. If it doesn't click by spring, I'll drop it. And if it does click, I'll probably still drop it: I like to knit things, not make yarn. I'm not interested in owning a wheel. (If I'm buying equipment, I'd rather it was a circular sock machine).

But meanwhile, I think I'm learning a lot about yarn. And I've got an excuse now to look at the spindles at the wool festivals.

Mishap

2009-12-06T15:38:00.003-05:00

Just finished knitting up the front and joining those front panels to the back on this sweater.

It wasn't until I put the photo on my computer and rotated it 90° that I noticed the problem. It's rather more visible in the photo than it is in real life, but yeah, it's definitely there.

What do you think? Live with it? Or unpick the shoulder seam and rip back?

Hail, Yarnissima

2009-11-15T15:09:00.000-05:00

The last two posts have been about sock patterns that have failed to capture my heart, but now I want to spread some love.

Yarnissima first came to my attention in a discussion on Ravelry about Cookie A's book Sock Innovation and it's exclusive cuff-down designs. Pinneguri put forth the idea that Cookie is a designer of patterns rather than architecture, contrasting her with Yarnissima, "a sock- architect, she makes socks differently, she builds them up." I made a note to check out this Yarnissima person, and I'm very happy that I did.

The pattern is called "brainless" and it highlights two very simple and very cool features that show up in Yarnissima's designs: a cable embellishment running along the sides of the foot, and a gusset triangle which is bordered by twisted stitches and emphasized with a purl background.

Isn't that cool? What a brilliant stroke of creativity to turn the gusset section into fixture of the sock design, rather than trying to hide it.

Yarnissima's designs are available from her website, and I encourage you to check them out. There are more designs that were exclusive to sock clubs, and I hope those eventually see the light of day.

Frontiers of Sock Construction 2: Personal Footprints

2009-11-14T13:15:00.002-05:00

I was vaguely looking forward to Cat Bordhi's latest book Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters, but when I saw the video overview she posted on YouTube, I got obsessed. I couldn't wait for my copy to arrive from Amazon; the week the book was launched, I called every yarn shop and bookstore in town, hoping they had a copy in.

So perhaps my expectations were a little too elevated.

The Personal Footprint sock is another of those simple and genius discoveries that Bordhi has become relatively famous for: socks on 2 circs, the Moebius cast-on, and the elegant math and "No Rules" gussets of the New Pathways sock. In "Personal Footprints," Bordhi presents us with the "afterthought cuff." As I said in my last post, this is a brilliant departure from common sense -- knitting the foot of the sock as a closed tube which is then cut open to knit the ankle portion of the sock.

This innovation let's Bordhi focus on customizing the fit of the sock to the individual owner. In a nutshell here's what you do:

Cut out a tracing of the foot to serve as your guide. This is the eponymous "footprint."
Knit a toe-up sock, trying it on as you go and increasing as needed to fit the wearer's foot. Along the way, make notes on your footprint (toe/heel length, arch increases, ankle point, etc.)
After marking on your knitting where the leg will be, close off your tube by knitting a round heel.
Thread needles through your knitting at the cuff point, snip the yarn, unravel, and proceed with your cuff.

Intriguing sock construction philosophy, but I’m not a convert.

My biggest problem is that you have to keep trying on the sock -- over and over and over and over. Inevitably, this means you have to keep ripping back and adjusting, because until knitted fabric has about an inch extra to give the stitches some integrity, you can't reliably check the fit.

I prefer to plan ahead: know my gauge, know my targets for making the sock fit.

So I turned to science; I measured my foot and marked the intervals where the circumference is 3/4 inch bigger (6 sts in my gauge), planning my increases for those points. That alleviated the need to keep ripping when I would later discover that I needed to increase an inch or so back.

In the end, round toes and heels don’t fit my foot well, and I wasn't happy enough with my Discovery Sock to finish it and make more. Maybe over the holidays I'll get some members of my family drunk, put pen marks all over their feet, and try making Personal Footprints for them. But ultimately I don't see this ever becoming more than a novelty side trip in my sock knitting career.

The book is a good production. The instructions are clear, and Bordhi's videos supplement the book well. There's a nice assortment of specific sock patterns included, although only a couple of them really grabbed my attention. Personally, I would have been much happier if the book had dispensed with the patterns altogether, focused on the technique, included better notes to improve fit, and retailed for half the price. But I'm glad I have it, and I expect I'll return to the technique a couple times when looking for departure from the routine.

Frontiers of Sock Construction 1: The Hat Heel

2009-11-09T09:43:00.001-05:00

In September, two new frontiers opened up in the sock knitting world: Hat Heel and Personal Footprints. I'm certain that, for two months, you've been dying to know what I think of them.

Naturally, I was intrigued by both. Creative construction has always fascinated me. Mom taught me to knit so I could make a ski band, but a simple, wide loop would not do -- I wanted something with character and shape, something that got wider and narrower as needed. And duh: no sewing allowed.

These two sock-making methods are right up my alley. "Hat Heel" starts with the heel and builds the sock outwards from unusual gusset constructions. "Personal Footprints" is a brilliant departure from common sense, instructing you to knit the foot of the sock as a closed tube which is then cut and opened to knit the cuff.

I've tried both, and my world is unchanged. Probably. There may be something to "Personal Footprints," but more on that later. First up: the Hat Heel.

The pattern is wicked clever, and it starts off fun: you knit a round cup-shape for the heel, then make long, wing-like triangles that will wrap around your foot and join at the top. That's where things began to go badly for me. I had trouble making a smooth join with so few stitches at the points of the triangles. But then the next step was a nightmare. Picking up stitches isn't usually a deal-breaker for me, but it’s not my favorite knitting activity, and this requires you to be pretty good at it, picking up all around both sides of the loop you've made. I made a dog’s breakfast out of it.

In the end, I won the battle but surrendered the campaign (the war goes on). No matter how skilled you might be at neatly picking up stitches, you're creating inflexible seams in your sock, right at the point that your foot needs the most flexibility. A lot of hard, messy work for a sock you're destined to hate wearing.

Tomorrow: Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters.

PS: Click the picture to embiggen, and check out that gorgeous yarn. It's "Tesla" from Gaslight Dyeworks.

We interrupt this hiatus with a post

2009-11-08T11:16:00.002-05:00

So, yeah, I haven't posted anything in 3 months. I can't even say that there's been nothing to write about: in socks alone there was Sock Summit, a funky new sock-construction method on Knitty, my new-found adoration for Yarnissima, a big "Ah Ha" moment I had about my Evil Genius numbers, and a new Cat Bordhi book. I'm doing another Stopwatch Sock project to test how long it takes me to knit a pair, and I think I'm rekindling my love for the PGR short-row heel. Plus, I've knit a shawl, I'm thinking about knitting another one, and I've got a sweater project going.

I haven't written about any of this because I'm lazy. So maybe this is a sign that you'll be hearing more from me here. Or maybe it's not.

Arch-Villain Pattern

2009-08-02T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know: there's no way you could follow the mess I posted the past couple months and make a sock. But I appreciate those of you who slogged through and made comments.

I finally took my blogorrheic ramblings and shaped them into an actual pattern. Please let me know if you discover errors, omissions, or other lapses of genius.

Arch-Villain Knit-Along: Gusset and Heel

2009-07-10T12:20:00.000-04:00

All right, I've put this off for as long as I can. You've indulged me enough, and I thank you for your patience.

The thing is, I'm still not sure what the best heel for these socks should be. For my experiments, I've been using an Evil Genius heel, but I've been thinking that Fleegle's heel would generally work much better.

Regardless of what heel you pick, the process is the same:

Calculate your rounds/rows-per-inch, and multiply that by the length of your foot to get total number of rows.
Figure out how many rounds/rows your gusset and heel require.
Subtract gusset & heel rounds from the total. You now know how long to knit before starting the gusset section.

When you're ready for the gussets, stop decreasing, but keep working the increases, like this:

Continue until gussets are complete and you're ready to make the heel.

Fleegle Option

For the Fleegle heel, your gussets equal 2 less than the circumference of your sock ÷ 2. For example...

(60 ÷ 2) - 2 = 28
(64 ÷ 2) - 2 = 30
(68 ÷ 2) - 2 = 32
(72 ÷ 2) - 2 = 34

My prototype sock is 68 stitches. I'm getting 12 rounds-per-inch, and at a target length of 9.5 inches, I'm shooting for 114 rows for this sock. For the Fleegle option, my gusset and heel section is 32 rounds, so my sock will be 82 rounds before beginning gusset shaping. On round 83, I'll stop decreasing and continue with my increases every other round until my sock is 100 sts in circumference. Then I knit the heel (my instructions are here in the "Turning the Heel" section).

Here's What I Did Instead.

For a 68 st sock, the Evil Genius formula calls for 12 gusset increases on each side. Since I'm increasing on alternate rounds, that's 24 rounds. The formula adds 10 short rows to turn the heel. So my gusset and heel section is 34 rows, and I should knit 80 rounds before starting the gussets.

However, on round 71, my decrease lines and increase lines bumped into each other. I meant to do that. It happened sooner than I'd hoped, but it wasn't a problem. I just started my gussets a few rounds early, and knit 8 rounds plain before turning the heel. (As kippahandcollar said, it's probably better to knit a few rounds plain after the toe before starting the arches. My lines wouldn't have bumped into each other so early).

I turned the heel on 20 stitches for the heel base. That's why I placed my decreases 10 stitches out on either side of the center bottom: so that they would slide into the increase lines, which would then line up with the heel. The experiment wasn't completely successful, but the socks aren't an utter failure.

A couple rounds plain, 6 or 7 inches of ribbing, a loose bind-off, and we're done.

What Do You Think?

Gussets on these are very different from the cuff-down versions of arch-shaped socks. Do you think the socks could be improved by placing them somewhere else? Maybe they would hug the heel better if they followed Cat Bordhi's "Riverbed" architecture, coming out from the bottom of the foot to surround the heel?

Slight Delay

2009-06-23T10:10:00.002-04:00

There will be a short delay before the next Arch-Villain sock post. I apologize for the interruption. I'm participating in this month's Sock Innovation knit-along, so I'm under a deadline to finish the pair.

I like the book; lots of beautiful stitch patterns, and Cookie A's notes about design are worth reading. While the stitches are innovative, the architectures are not, and like others, I'm disappointed in the decidedly non-innovative parade of standard cuff-down constructions. But like Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, many of these patterns can be flipped and constructed ~~correctly~~ toe-up. But you'll want to pay close attention to the "give" of the fabric; the designs are beautiful, but many are not very elastic, and you could discover too late that the sock won't stretch to be pulled on over the ankle and heel.

I should finish these socks in a couple days, and I'll have time to write up my notes on the gusset section of the Arch-Villain socks.

Arch-Villain Knit-Along: Arch Shaping

2009-06-13T08:10:00.000-04:00

As I said before, the theory of arch-shaped socks is pretty straightforward: increases on the top of the sock are paired with decreases on the bottom.

After finishing the toe, work to the center of the sole, either 1/4 or 3/4 round. Adjust magic loop (or whatever inferior tools you may be using -- I'm looking at you, Knittingbrow) so that this is the beginning of your round, and the midpoint bisects the instep. In this section, you knit the right side of your sock, then knit the left.

For the right side, you'll work some set number of stitches, make a left-leaning decrease, work to your first marker (more about this in a second), make a left-leaning increase, and work to your midpoint. On the left side, work to just before your next marker, make a right-leaning increase, work until some set number before the end of your round, make a right-leaning decrease, and work to end of round.

See? We're decreasing at fixed points so the decreases always stay on the bottom of the sock, but by making increases immediately after the first marker and immediately before the second, we push the line of increases away from the top and down toward the bottom. Here's how I do it:

Set-up

You'll now work alternating shaping and non-shaping rounds. Shaping rounds are like this:

See KnittingHelp.com for M1L & M1R instructions. Depending on how the yarn behaves, I sometimes do my usual yarnover increases with ktbl and k-twist in the next row.

Variations

I like the increases to begin from a midpoint, which is why I have that kfb in my set-up round. But there's nothing keeping you from starting your increases at points offset from the center.
Similarly, your decreases don't have to be 2 sts out from the center bottom. It might reduce some of the foot-hugging qualities of the sock, but I'm making mine 9 stitches out. I'll talk about why I picked this number when we get into the heel.

When your sock is 4 or 5 inches long, you'll want to stop to do some figuring for the gusset and heel section.

Arch-Villain Knit-Along: Toe

2009-06-07T08:01:00.007-04:00

I'm going to call these socks "Arch-Villains," unless someone has a better idea. That's the whole point of this exercise: putting my plans to the test, and improving them with input of others.

How This Will Work
I will lay out the instructions here, starting with a general description of what's to be done, followed by specific details of what I did and why I made those choices. Comments are open for any henchfolk working along to ask questions, offer opinions, report on progress, etc.

Step One: Make a Toe

I haven't settled on a recommended toe style for these socks yet. You're free to begin however you like. But there is something to keep in mind: in experiments so far, the fabric of this sock tends to pull the toe up the instep slightly. So the "typical" toe looks crooked, the line of increases slanting from the top front of the toes to the bottom back. One of the toes I posted about last week might work better.

I'm trying something along the lines of Cat Bordhi's "Pontoon Toe." It's similar to Queen Kahuna's "Fan Toe," with elements of FiberQat's Patch Toe. Here's how I made mine.

Turkish cast-on 10 loops, and knit one round. Instead of starting the second round, purl back across the 10 stitches you just knit on that side. (Actually, slip the first stitch and purl 9). Work back and forth on these stitches, repeating * knit 1 row, purl 1 row * 3x, slipping the first stitch of each row. Turn and knit 1 last row.

At the end of this last row of knits, pick up 4 stitches in the edge of your rectangle. The first 2 stitches will be part of your instep, the second 2 will be on the sole side. Knit across the 10 sole stitches, then pickup 4 stitches on the other side (the first 2 on the sole, the next 2 on the instep).

Bordhi and Kahuna both have you place markers to tell you where to increase. I think markers get in the way when you have so few stitches on your needles.

k2, yo, k10, yo, k2; repeat for other side (16 sts total)
k2, k-twist*, k10, ktbl, k2; repeat.
k3, yo, k10, yo, k3; repeat.
k3, k-twist, k10, ktbl, k3; repeat
k4, yo, k10, yo, k4
knit round, twisting the yarnovers as established

Continue in this way, increasing on either side of your 10 center stitches, until your toe is the right size. (That's 68 sts on the sock I'm making).

It took me 8 tries to come up with something half decent. Here's hoping you have better luck.

Arch-Shaped Socks

2009-06-06T08:55:00.001-04:00

Are arch-shaped socks the Next Big Thing in sock knitting? QueerJoe just finished a pair. I've been fascinated with them since knitting my "Francie" socks last year. There's a class at Sock Summit that I thought about taking, but with so many other Sock Summit choices, I decided I could skip the class and buy some patterns.

All the patterns I've seen are cuff-down, and the theory is pretty straightforward: shape the fabric around the foot by increasing at fixed points on the bottom of the sock while simultaneously working decreases that travel up the sides and meet at the top. Flipping this around to to create a toe-up version is easy -- just work decreases at fixed points on the bottom, and increases that start at the top and travel down the sides.

I've been working on more detailed instructions in my lab, and while the work isn't finished, I think it may be at a point that I can start sharing it with my henchmen. Anyone up for a knit-along? If so, grab some sock yarn and needles, and we'll get started in a couple days.

Antepenultimate Toe

2009-05-31T08:30:00.003-04:00

Recent experiments in the Evil Genius lab have caused me to contemplate sock toes. My "Go To" toe remains the Just Start Knitting toe, but it's less than ideal in some situations.

I recently encountered the Knitting Swede's Rounded Toe. This is a great method; because the increases aren't stacked on top of one another, it eliminates the visible band, producing a smoother fabric. Because the increase rate is faster than usual -- 8 increases in 3 rounds instead of 4 -- the resulting toe is shorter than most. If you have short toes, you might prefer that.

I wanted something a little longer, so borrowing the Knitting Swede's method of offsetting the increases, I started working from an earlier experiment that produces a toe-up version of the Francie sock. This is the result:

While working on this, I knew it wouldn't be the "Ultimate Toe." I was thinking of it as the "Penultimate Toe," but I still think it falls somewhat short of the mark. Here, then, are the instructions for the...

ANTEPENULTIMATE SOCK TOE

Turkish Cast-on 8. Knit 1.5 rounds (16 sts total).

Begin toe increases:

k1, yo, k6, yo, k1; repeat for top of sock (20 sts total)
k1, ktbl, k1, yo, k4, yo, k1, k-twist*, k1; repeat (24 sts total)
k1, yo, k2, ktbl, k4, k-twist, k2, yo, k1; repeat (28 sts total)
k1, ktbl, k1, yo, k8, yo, k1, k-twist, k1; repeat (32 sts total)
k3, ktbl, k8, k-twist, k3; repeat (32 sts total)

Begin alternate increase rows.

k1, yo, k14, yo, k1; repeat for top of sock (36 sts)
[and all even rounds] knit, twisting the yarnovers as established
k3, yo, k12, yo, k3; repeat (40 sts)
k5, yo, k10, yo, k5; repeat (44 sts)
k7. yo, k8, yo, k7; repeat (48 sts)
k9, yo, k6, yo, k9; repeat (52 sts)
k11, yo, k4, yo, k11; repeat (56 sts)
k13, yo, k2, yo, k13; repeat (60 sts)

I wasn't quite up to my desired circumference at this point, so I continued adding increases to the sides of the sock, as the Knitting Swede does.

k1, yo, k28, yo, k1 (64 sts)
k3, yo, k26, yo, k3 (68 sts)

Kindling

2009-05-30T08:15:00.000-04:00

I like ebooks. I was so blown-away by CLEVNET's pioneering work into this field, I helped get them an award for their innovation. It was revolutionary: sitting in my office 140 miles from Cleveland hours before the library opened, I could check out a book and download it to my PocketPC.

It was a joy to read books on my first PocketPC, the HP Jornada. When held in the palm of my right hand, it had a little rocker switch just below my middle finger which activated the page turn.

I did have some problems. There was a learning curve to set up all the necessary programs and get the content and digital license transferred to my device. And once on a trip when I changed timezones on my PDA, I was locked out of my book, even after I changed the time back.

My next PocketPC wasn't as ebook-friendly. The Compaq iPaq didn't have the nicely placed rocker switch, and my hand would cramp trying to hold the device so that my thumb could operate the little pad that changed pages. New formats were coming out, sparking more technical issues with installations and updates. It seemed like every time I checked out an ebook, I was starting from scratch, as if it were my first time. (This, by the way, is what I was referring to in a Columbus Dispatch story about ebooks -- the reporter quotes me saying "digital-content arms race," when what I said was "digital rights management arms race.")

Since then, most of my ebook battles have been with digital audiobooks. I long ago reached the conclusion that it is significantly easier to steal digital content than it is to borrow it legally, a fact that will always make it nearly impossible for public libraries to matter very much in the ebook world. And even though my library offers the de riguer access to an ebook collection, little of it works with my iPhone, and I end up using iTunes or the iPhone's Kindle App.

A month ago, I came home from a long, late day at work to discover an Amazon Kindle on pillow. The sweetest man in the world bought it for me with his income tax refund. I plugged it in, entered my Amazon i.d., and in seconds the book I was reading on my iPhone was synced to the Kindle (it even got me directly to the last page I'd been reading).

What do I think of it? I pretty much agree with everything Charles McGrath said in the NY Times this week. I love it, but it has some flaws. My three favorite things about the Kindle?

I can buy a book (or just download a sample) at 10:30 p.m. when I'm settling into bed to read before sleeping.
I can prop the Kindle on a cushion and read while knitting, turning pages with the push of a button.
The Kindle, as others have pointed out, is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

You just can't call it a bus

2009-05-27T06:18:00.003-04:00

I'm having a hard time getting worked up over the California Supreme Court upholding Prop 8. I try to be sympathetic: there is a rejection here, a refusal to recognize the legitimacy of our love. But the whole "separate but equal" posturing just doesn't cut it with me.

The NY Times cites Loyola law professor Karl M. Manheim's argument that, by claiming the word "marriage" is only symbolic, the decision "is like telling black people that sitting in the back of the bus is not important as long as the front and the back of the bus arrive at the same time." No, it's like telling black people that they can sit anywhere on the large, motor vehicle public transport system; they just can't call it a bus.

May I remind my brothers and sisters in California that in Ohio we are not allowed on this metaphorical public transport at all. Not just buses, but anything that approximates "the design, qualities, significance or effect of" buses is barred to us. The long game must be to make sure that anyone can ride. And when that happens, people will tire of saying "large, motor vehicle public transportation system" and call it "bus" for simplicity.

I don't mean to minimize the blow to those for whom the "M" word means something beyond the sets of legal rights, but maybe those rights are more important than what we call them? Marriage schmarriage: let Mike make medical decisions for me and inherit my stuff.

Sock Genius Fail

2009-05-03T07:56:00.008-04:00

If I don't shape up, I'm going to be forced to relinquish my claim as the Evil Sock Genius. I keep knitting beautiful socks that don't fit human feet.

EXHIBIT A: These socks were to be a Mother's Day present. I called them "Enelram," a toe-up adaptation of Cookie A's Marlene socks. They seemed fantastic until I finished the first one and discovered that it was an inch too long in the foot -- or would be, if you could pull the tight thing on in the first place.

EXHIBIT B: Figuring the problem was with my heel strategy, I decided to suck it up and follow the pattern. It made no difference. Only with much tugging and swearing could these socks be pulled on.

The problem, of course, is gauge. The pattern clearly specifies 24 stitches to 4 inches. (I would argue, however, that "6 stitches per inch" is more clear). I didn't notice that these socks need thicker yarn and bigger needles than usual. In my defense, a 68-72 stitch circumference normally indicates the yarn and needles I was using.

EXHIBITS C-F: These are prototypes for a pattern I'm working on (more about this later). I have ripped back and reknit the heels repeatedly, trying 4 different heel strategies. During this process, I had to admit that my numbers for the Evil Genius Sock are just wrong. Maybe they work on a plain stockinette sock, but like Exhibit A above, with a patterned instep they produce a sock that is both too long and too tight across the arch and heel. The 4th attempt finally produced something acceptable, but even that falls short of perfect.

The Evil Sock Genius pattern will have to undergo some serious revision. But first, I need to figure out what I'm going to do for Mother's Day.

Again and again

2009-04-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

I can't stop knitting these bears.

It bears repeating: I hate to sew

2009-04-05T11:32:00.004-04:00

This probably falls into the category of "crappy, homemade gift" rather than "lovely, hand-crafted gift." But as soon as I saw this pattern, I knew I had to make one.

Fun to knit up; hateful to sew. I had particular trouble around the head, so his face came out squashy and oddly crunched on one side. But by putting his face on crooked (embroidery = more stupid sewing) I managed to make him look like his head is cocked sideways in a curious attitude.

The designer put out a somewhat simpler pattern for a smaller version, and I might try that. It lacks the silly toes, and maybe the head will come out a better shape.

Thinking Thin

2009-03-06T05:51:00.002-05:00

I used to be too skinny. When I started college, I was a shade over 6 feet tall and weighed a shade under 125 pounds. That has gradually ticked upward, until 25 years later, my BMI flirts at the upper edge of the recommended range.

I had started to enumerate the reasons why I think this is so, but it boils down to this: I eat too much, and I exercise too little. Why I do (or do not) these things is irrelevant.

So I checked this book out of the library. It's largely made up of motivational fluff, but it's peppered with a bit of science, some pseudo-science, and this very sound advice: eat what you want when you're hungry; slow down and mindfully enjoy what you eat; stop eating when you think you're full. The book includes a CD with a half-hour hypnotic induction session in which McKenna growls in your ears, urging you to visualize yourself thinner, happier, healthier. (Seriously, McKenna's voice is very, very deep, and at times it's like he's croaking. But it's also kind sexy).

I'll give it a couple weeks, and we'll see how it goes. If nothing else, I believe that mindful attention to what I'm doing is always a good thing.

Dodger, 1995-2009

2009-02-20T06:53:00.007-05:00

Evil Genius Heel Replacement

2009-02-15T11:22:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned, my aunt had worn through the heel bottom of her favorite pair of socks. I got inspired yesterday to try fixing them: although the original socks were knit cuff-down, I figured I could fix them using the heel turn method from my toe-up Evil Genius Socks.

I ran a circular needle through the stitches along one side of the heel flap, across the bottom, then up the other side of the flap. I purled back across those stitches with my replacement yarn, and then followed the Evil Genius Lessons to turn a new heel and work a new flap.

I had to modify the instructions slightly, since I couldn't work the complete sock round to pick up up my wraps (I just left the wraps in place). I grafted the top of the new flap to the bottom of the old cuff, then cut and unraveled the old heel.

It's not perfect. Obviously, the pretty, pale blue sock now has a drab, gray flap stuck on the back of it. (Still, it coordinates better than all the other options I considered at the yarn shop). I'm sure it won't be as comfortable as before.

Both socks began to unravel in unexpected places once I was finished, so I had to do some emergency suturing to keep things together. I expect that there are other areas where the old yarn will work loose from the new heel.

Still, it was worth a try. I'm really rather proud to have figured this out, and amazed that it worked as well as it did. It's probably not permanent (and I hope my family doesn't expect me to make a habit of such repair jobs), but I think it will squeeze a little more life out of these socks.

Mike's new blog

2009-02-09T06:23:00.003-05:00

While I barely post often enough to sustain this blog, Mike has three: Moviepalace, Mixed Media Playroom, and now Twitterface. When I set up "Michael's MoviePalace" back in 2001 as a class project for liberry skool, I never dreamed it would stay so strong or that he'd branch out.

Twitterface is Mike's first random blog: all the stuff he wants to say that he can't fit on Twitter or a Facebook status update, and which doesn't fit the topic foci on his other two blogs. His latest post is about the chicken tikka masala we had for dinner last night:

My only complaint is that the smell of curry powder stays in the house for days. But there are never leftovers. Of course, Don & I rarely leave leftovers of anything. We had a mediocre Gewürztraminer with dinner; it's hard to find a really good one these days.

Good meal, bad wine, and after a cup of coffee I fell asleep watching Animal Crackers (and slept for more than 9 hours last night). Pretty nice life.

On the popularity of knitted fandom

2009-02-07T08:00:00.003-05:00

I may be knitting the most gorgeous pair of socks I've ever made.

They're for my aunt. Her favorite pair of socks developed a nasty hole in one heel. So I thought I'd knit her a new pair of lacy socks, and experiment with a heel flap on the bottom to see if she liked that. The instep lace pattern is a design from the now defunct Socktopia.net. It's called Kaylee, after the character on Firefly/Serenity because the central lace motif looks a bit like fireflies.

The designer created many sock patterns inspired by and named after characters with fan-followings (Firefly, Harry Potter, etc.). I can see how that it is an attention grabber -- last month, Wash's Sweater had 15,446 page views. I've gotten email inquiries about finding a knitter-for-hire to make one, and about including the pattern in a proposed book of Whedon-inspired knitting designs.

It got me thinking: what if I miniaturized the big cable from the Wash Sweater to make it sock sized? People might actually buy it!

Early experiments have been mixed. At left, you see a sample of the latest plan, which uses a single line of traveling slipped stitches to sketch out the cable motif. It's not bad, but the fabric it creates seems a little stiff. The advantage is that it requires no purling. I want to try some experiments with traveling twisted stitches over a purl background, and see if that makes something people are more likely to want to wear.

CleanQuest 2009

2009-01-23T15:48:00.003-05:00

Last year, I took a week's vacation and called it a Cleaning Sabbatical. It was grueling but immensely satisfying. I had some small hope that my work would propel us into a generally more ordered existence, but old habits die hard. A year later, there's still a storage container crammed with stuff to go to Goodwill, and clutter has once again claimed the perimeters of our home and begun to creep across the floors and up the bookcases.

My goals this year are more modest: at the end of the week, I would like to have the carpet steam-cleaned. But before strangers are allowed in (indeed, before anyone but our dearest friends can come in) everything needs to be picked up from the floor of every carpeted room.

This won't be a complete sabbatical. This a crucial time for a few projects at work, and I expect I'll have to go in for a few meetings. But I'm determined to do something productive every day.

So welcome, readers, to CleanQuest 2009.

One hour hence

2009-01-20T10:58:00.003-05:00

Variation on a Theme by Rilke
by Denise Levertov

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.

My Pinky

2009-01-12T16:33:00.004-05:00

There's a discussion on the Ravelry Men Who Knit group about knitting too tightly, with guys talking about whether they wrap the working yarn through their fingers. I wrap the working yarn around my pinky, as you can tell in this detail from my Halloween costume:

Here's what the black rubber gloves are hiding: my pinky is actually quite misshapen.

I noticed my crooked pinky when I was about 10. I had trouble spreading my hand beyond an octave in piano lessons, and I had trouble pressing the keys on my saxophone that would let me hit the lowest notes. Beyond that, it's never really bothered me. It doesn't hurt (although I do remember a couple occasions when it has been mysteriously numb), and with the rest of my fingers relaxed and curled, it's not really noticable. I think it might even help with my typing (as long as I don't have one of those nasty "ergonomic" keyboards).

My mom's parents both had gnarled fingers, my grandmother from arthritis and my grandfather from a childhood accident that crippled his hands. In some ways, my grandfather's hands are how my family came to be. As capable as he was, his hands kept him out of the war (he tried to conceal them when volunteering, but they were discovered, and he was declared 4F). He stayed home then, and married my grandmother; my mother is from that small generation of Americans born during World War II. Even though my grandfather's hands were shaped as if his middle fingers were glued to his palms, Grandma used to say there was nothing he couldn't do with them. He could fix anything, work with tangles of electric wire, even tie flies.

When I was a baby, he used to sit with me out in the kitchen, telling me that I'd have a private rocketship to take my dates up to the moon, and that he would buy my condoms. He died when I was only 10 months old, when he was younger than I am now, so I don't have any memories of him. But I have his name, probably his hair, and possibly his little finger...

...which is perfectly shaped for adjusting the tension of your yarn when knitting.

Shoe Protest

2008-12-16T06:26:00.002-05:00

The Maliki government in Iraq said that the throwing of shoes at President Bush was a "shameful, savage act." Certainly Muntader al-Zaidi should suffer some minor penalty for his attempted assault. But "savage?" The NY Times reports:

Mr. Zaidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’s security detail, who hauled him out of the room in his white socks. Mr. Zaidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room as the news conference continued. [emphasis added]

Not his "shouts" or his "protests" -- his "cries." So who's the savage in this story?

Sweater = Sloth

2008-12-15T09:25:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned that I'm the laziest man alive? I've got some good ideas for blog essays -- commentary about on-line identity creation, for example, or musings about how magical our apartment would seem if described by someone from the Middle Ages (lightning harnessed in the walls, levers that bring water of any temperature into three different rooms) -- but when faced with the choice of either putting these thoughts into words or doing nothing, I choose sloth.

Here's evidence of how lazy I am:

Some of you are thinking, "You knit a whole sweater in 19 days!? You call that lazy?" Yep, 19 days of sitting on my butt. That's the dirty secret of gorgeous, prolific knitting: it's tangible evidence that the maker has done little else. (Still, win-win for me; I indulge my slothful ways, and wind up with a beautiful sweater).

It was super-easy, too. It's my third seamless hybrid sweater, so I've pretty much got this pattern down. Time for a challenge. When I finished knitting and writing up Wash's Sweater, I was eager to find a new fanboy knitting project. This week, Pushing Daisies came through for me with two sweater possibilities:

I'll have to wait until the series comes out on DVD to grab good pictures of the sweaters, but it looks like a great project for long, snowy weekends.

Grow up, old man

2008-12-02T05:43:00.009-05:00

Yesterday, I finished listening to Maze of Bones, the first installment in Scholastic's The 39 Clues series, which the publisher hopes will help keep sales up now that the Harry Potter series has concluded.

It's not bad, certainly better than author Rick Riordan's other series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I found ghastly and unreadable. To be fair, I started it after working through all of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books, which I loved. Riordan oversees the story arc, but he is only one of the writers that Scholastic is using to churn out the 10 book series in 2 years.

Time magazine described the series thusly: "If you forcibly interbred Lemony Snicket and National Treasure and chose the most viable of their mutant offspring, you might come up with something like The 39 Clues." Orphans Dan and Amy Cahill discover at their grandmother's funeral that their family is old and powerful, including seemingly all of the major figures of history. The will sends them off on a dangerous worldwide quest to track down the 39 Clues and find the Cahill Treasure, the secret of the family's power.

I found it interesting enough to create an account on The 39 Clues website. I felt a bit creepy scrolling all the way down to 1964 to select my birth year, but the site doesn't seem to be judging me. It asked me a series of questions to determine which ~~Hogwarts house~~ branch of the Cahill family I belong to.

I'm guessing it was a close call between this scientific branch and the Janus branch of artists and performers.

The second book in the series comes out today.

Look what I got

2008-11-29T14:25:00.004-05:00

New license plates arrived today:

But that's not the exciting news. The picture of this license plate was taken and sent with my new iPhone!

Idiot forgets knitting, makes do

2008-11-20T11:01:00.002-05:00

Is anyone else thrown off by the timing of Thanksgiving this year? I intended to spend the week of Thanksgiving with my sister in Maine. Instead, I booked my flight for the week before. I have continued to confuse dates (when rescheduling a haircut, when signing out for the week on my work intranet, etc.)

I can't blame my date confusion for this blunder though: I left on vacation without my messenger bag. This means I brought no knitting with me on the trip (or books, but I had an extra book in my suitcase). I don't think I've flown without a knitting project since 2000. So a trip to the knitting shops was called for, and long story short:

The yarn is Halcyon's Botanica, a line I've never noticed before. It has beautiful stitch definition and an attractive pallet. My plan is to knit a mostly plain, olive-colored sweater, with a few maize-colored stripes for accent.

Downeast Maine is lovely this week: cold but sunny. The cold gives me an excuse to wear thick, handknit sweaters, and I'm looking forward to being able to wear sweaters like this one in progress on days like today.

Sock Updates

2008-11-14T08:54:00.004-05:00

No posts since Halloween? Clearly, I'm too lazy and boring to sustain a blog.

Here's the current sock in progress:

Standard fare, following my own Lesser Evil sock instructions and adding a simple but elegant twist on the usual cuff ribbing.

After finishing my Francie socks, I hunkered down for a bit in my secret lab to figure out how to clone that pattern from the toe-up. Turns out that it's not too hard:

But that experiment lies abandoned because, while the Francie sock looks cool, the truth is you can feel the ridges on the soles of your feet, which I know will drive most of my loved ones crazy. I even suspect that in this particular yarn I'm using, the socks will quickly leave blisters. I'm evil because my sock genius will overpower you, not because I actually want to inflict physical, sock-based harm.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T13:21:00.004-04:00

Yes. That's a sock I'm working on -- my genius adaptation of Francie to toe-up construction.

One Down, One Up

2008-10-12T09:46:00.002-04:00

This summer, I joined my first sock yarn club. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept: you pay a yarn company some set price up front, and for a certain span of time at regular intervals they will send you yarn and a pattern. The Unique Sheep company created such a club, the "Ram Club," specifically for men's socks; the skeins are bigger than most so there will be enough for men's larger feet, and the colorways are designed more-or-less for men's tastes.

I've really liked the first two shipments of yarn. The first contained two different, thin yarns with instructions to hold them together. The pattern was a toe-up design, but I only followed a portion of it -- the gusset and heel construction, using my own preferred toe method. I also didn't follow the stitch pattern, recognizing that these yarns would look good in a garter rib pattern.

I was initially disappointed in the second shipment because the color was so similar to the first. But I quickly fell in love with the texture of the tightly spun, sport weight merino in the second sock. Again, I glanced at and abandoned the accompanying pattern, deciding to try a popular sock pattern called Francie. I had tried Francie before, but I disliked both the yarn I used and the ribbing pattern on the cuff, so I abandoned it. Plus, Francie is made top down, and by now you know how I feel about that.

Still, in the Ram Club yarn with a more sedate and reliable 2x2 ribbing, a churned out a sock that I like very much.

Here's a shot of the bottom of the sock, which give you an idea how the ribbing flows around the foot.

I'm pretty happy with this, but I know it could be a better sock if it were constructed toe-up. I decided to try knitting the second sock backwards, seeing if I can make an identical sock with the stitches running the opposite way.

Bookmobile Adventure 2008

2008-10-10T08:50:00.001-04:00

I've been remiss about posting tedious updates about my knitting or tedious updates about exercising because work has been interesting.

Remember when I made two baby surprise jackets this summer? Well, both the mommies are still out on maternity leave, which produces an 80-hour-per-week staffing hole. The rest of the staff have been amazing about filling in, but they were getting tired, so I decided to step up and help: I offered to spend two weeks working on the bookmobile.

This has been a blast. Our service isn't actually a traditional bookmobile; instead, staff use wheeled bookcases to bring the materials into the places we visit. We set up a little mini-library in the lobbies, hallways, or activity rooms of various daycares, senior centers, or apartment complexes. We call it the WOW Mobile, "WOW" standing for "Words on Wheels." After grounds maintenance, it's the most physically demanding job of our library (those carts are heavy).

The first day, two of our stops were at the north end of our county service area, and the third was at the south end. I began to wonder if we needed to change the groupings. But it became clear as the days progressed that the Outreach Department does a good job of balancing the scheduling needs of their customers with the logistics of getting around the county. Still, I decided to keep adding the places I visit to the map:

View Larger Map

Because of meetings, I've had to cancel 3 of the 10 days that I'd planned to be out on the WOW, but I'm looking forward to making them up later this year.

Unbalanced

2008-09-20T06:49:00.003-04:00

When I got the Wii, I knew I should also get the Wii Fit. I figured it would make a good Xmas present, so I put it on my wishlist. About a week ago, I realized that that was just a lame excuse to put off exercising until the end of the year.

The Wii Fit wonders why I don't fall down when I walk. I'm not kidding.

It calculates your Wii age based on your actual age, your BMI, and (at least in my case) your score in a couple balance tests. I'm terrible at the balance tests. I can't stop over-correcting when my balance indicator shifts out of the target position the game wants it to be. Yesterday I got lucky, and the random tests didn't ask me to shift my weight: only to stand perfectly still and to walk in place. My Wii age is 25, but I know it will spring back up to the mid-40's when I test it again.

Others have complained that the Fit's principle measurement of success is weight. My weight is pretty good; my BMI score is a click or two above ideal, but still within normal. Fit suggests I drop 15 pounds to get my BMI down to 22. After a couple days of resisting, I started actually trying, cutting out desserts, snacks, extra carbs.

Actual conversation that just happened: Mike walked into the room and said he was going to go pick up some donuts. "Do you want anything?"

"No, thanks. Well, maybe I should eat something."

"I'm going to Donut Kitchen."

"Oh, well, then nothing, thanks."

"Want me to stop at Krogers?"

"No."

"Tim Horton's?"

"No!"

"Dodger," Mike says, addressing the cat who is waiting for his morning dose of butter, "Daddy's being cranky."

Weightloss and domestic tranquility: it's going to be a tough balancing act.

Wash's Sweater Pattern

2008-09-06T10:10:00.000-04:00

It's been quiet here because I've spent the weeks since the Olympics creating the pattern for Wash's Sweater.

Initially, I used Excel to create my adaptations of the cable pattern originally drafted by Maggs. I found great instructions for charting cables by Marnie MacLean. Results were satisfactory, but I wanted something better. I played with a few knitting fonts, and then shelled out the money for Knit Visualizer.

This program is awesome. Every stitch I needed was right there in the library. It took me almost no time at all to translate my work into Knit Visualizer. And the program can automatically generate a chart legend and text translation of each row.

I made my prototype sweater in the round, because that's what I do. But I could tell from screen caps that the actual sweater in the Firefly episodes was knit flat and seamed together, like Aran sweaters traditionally are. So working from my copy of Aran Knitting, I started drafting the pattern in Alice Starmore style, later revising toward a more Knitty.com style. Jeremy told me I should write up the pattern exactly as I did it, so when I was done with the flat version, I worked on a circular version. It's not exactly what I did: more like what I would do if I did it again.

I've spent the last week hammering away at the layout. This morning, I used PDF Online to convert my documents, and slapped together a quick homepage for the patterns.

I'd love to know what you think. Any suggestions for improving the instructions, charts, and layout, or offers to improve the graphics I've slapped together for the pattern and website are welcome.

Real Olympics

2008-08-22T11:15:00.002-04:00

I've made good progress on the sweater this morning, so I thought I'd pause and offer these thoughts on the Real Olympics. I know we call them "the Olympic Games," but by and large "games" do not belong in the Olympic contests. I say these events must go:

Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Fencing
Football
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Volleyball
Water Polo
Wrestling

Anything that is a direct match-up between two people or two teams is something other than the Olympics. (I know: you're going to fight me on Wrestling since it has tradition behind it. I don't care; it meets the "match-up" criteria, so it goes).

I also say we ditch "Equestrian" for a species violation. And we should lose Rhythmic Gymnastics because its stupid.

Final Rounds

2008-08-22T07:16:00.004-04:00

The Olympic Torch will be doused at noon, Eastern Daylight Time, on Sunday. Coincidentally, I have to start work at that time, but I'm off today and tomorrow, which (barring accidents) should be plenty of time to finish my Ravelympics project.

What remains is to shape the front of the neck, join the shoulders, lengthen and attach the sleeves, and knit the collar. The first of these remaining tasks will be the trickiest for me. No pattern; just working from screen caps.

It probably would be bad luck at this time to say, "I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar."

Ravelympic Moment

2008-08-18T22:50:00.003-04:00

[fanfare] DA-da-da DA-da-da DA-da DA-dl-aaaaa! [/fanfare]

Yarmando has performed strongly so far during the Ravelympics, rapidly progressing through the qualifying rounds of his event, "Work In Progress Wrestling." But he made a fatal error in judgment this evening which, even more than costing him the gold, could place him out of medal contention entirely.

Fans will know that Yarmando began training with Team Browncoat in early March. His commitment was spotty, but he seized the chance to enter Ravelympics and emerge a champion, with the Wash Sweater finally finished.

When the torch was lit, the body was already complete to the underarms, and the sleeves had barely begun. Yarmando chose to work the sleeves with a high degree of difficulty: knitting both sleeves at once. This would slow progress, but also insure that the sleeves were identical in construction, the rates of increase perfectly synchronized.

For extra style points, Yarmando had chosen to knit the sweater seamlessly in the round. Some of the judges are likely to subtract points from the authenticity of the finished object, but others will appreciate the adherence to traditions set by the great Elizabeth Zimmerman.

Sadly, Yarmando discovered that, for this particular design, Zimmerman's ingenious method of combining the sleeves with the upper body would clash with the established cables. Though it might appear to observers that he was showing strong progress, he was losing his form. After some soul-searching, he forfeited the latest round (the latest 8 rounds, in fact), losing an entire day's work.

Hope is not lost. Yarmando performed well in this event in the past, and so his fans and coaches know he has it in him. But is there time for him to change design direction before the Olympic torch is extinguished?

License Plate Time Again

2008-08-06T16:31:00.006-04:00

Any day now, I should be getting my renewal notice from the DMV. We know that TOE UP is out of the question. My favorite contenders are these:

I'm most partial to MUWAHAA. I'd rather have MWAHAHA, but it wasn't available. BWAHAHA is available, but sounds more like I'm erupting in a guffaw than chuckling evilly.

Get Mii

2008-08-02T09:41:00.010-04:00

During my vacation in Maine last month, I was continually rewarded by spontaneity. One of us would suggest something random, we'd decide to do it, and it was great. So that's why, after a couple pomegranate martinis at dinner, I said, "Let's go to Target; I bet they have Wiis in stock." They did, and I bought one. At left is sort of what my Mii looks like, created using My Avatar Editor.

Mike tolerates the new toy, but I'm really enjoying it. My back and shoulders have a pleasant exercise-related ache. Bizarrely, I seem most to be enjoying the golf game. I really don't like golf (it's a "good walk spoiled," as Mark Twain probably never said.) In a week, I managed to get up to pro status.

Amazon wish list has become padded with Wii-lated loot. I'm ridiculously excited about Clone Wars for the Wii: light saber dueling!

Copycat Spiral Yoke

2008-07-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Last year, I was out in Maine when BrooklynTweed posted photos of Cobblestone on his blog. I should have started knitting it immediately. Instead, I started knitting something else that I just had to frog in favor of the Cobblestone. His Spiral Yoke sweater looks intriguing, but I have my doubts. Still, I've learned my lesson:

Obey the Tweed.

I made my sister drive me to yarn stores in search of some worsted merino. I hit the jackpot at Purl Diva. Loki the shop dog was hopped up on dog treats and kept barking at me, but Ellen was great. She looked up the sweater on Ravelry, suggested good alternative yarns, and I found ample amounts.

I've started the project three times, trying to get the tubular cast-on right. Finally, I found TECHknitter's instructions. Easy to follow, quick, and with a beautiful result. I was so turned on by this cast-on that I....

Well, I better just stop there.

Thanks, Gerald, for the bit of Blimey that not only completed Mike's socks but provided a bright contrasting tail for the tubular cast-on.

I'll work on this until the Olympics start. I've joined Team Browncoat in Ravelympics, hoping to complete the Wash Sweater before the Olympic flame goes out on August 24.

Vacation Tweets

2008-07-19T08:40:00.003-04:00

I don't use Twitter with my phone. If I did, this is probably what I would've tweeted in the past few days:

Landed only 20 min late. Resolution: only carbs on this trip will be alcohol, breakfast, or frozen.
11:00 AM July 16, 2008 from txt

Maine International Film Festival. http://asenseofwonderfilm.com
06:30 PM July 16, 2008 from txt

If I had iPhone, I would look up voice actors for WALL-E.
01:30 PM July 17, 2008 from txt

Buying handspun from Pine Tree Yarns in Damariscotta. Next: sit on rocks @ Pemaquid until I forget my name.
11:00 AM July 18, 2008 from txt

Fresh mussels with linguini and house marinara @ Scarlet Begonia. Brownie batter & pnut butter cup @ Gelato Fiasco.
06:00 PM July 18, 2008 from txt

LOL http://drhorrible.com -- "The hammer is my penis."
08:00 AM July 19, 2008 from txt

I hate sewing

2008-07-13T08:45:00.000-04:00

Two of my staff are having baby girls this summer (one could be giving birth at this very minute). I got a late start on knitting them some gifts, but managed to crank out two Baby Surprise Jackets pretty quickly -- at least the knitting part.

See, this is why I like socks: you bind off the cuff or graft the toe, and *poof*, you're done. These jackets require minimal sewing, but still required 10 inches of seam and 5 buttons each.

Nevertheless, they're done, and they are cute, aren't they?

Anti-Social Follow-Up

2008-07-06T07:39:00.003-04:00

My last post doesn't make this clear: I'm not categorically against the social web. One of the things I love most about the Internet is how it creates communities of common interest. I'm also a fan of innovation and dabbling:

I joined LibraryThing in November 2005, but it wasn't until I discovered the blog widget nearly a year later that I really started using it.
I first tried Twitter in April 2007, but it was annoying and useless. This spring, after more people I actually know had joined, I reanimated my account, and have found that I've enjoyed the random messages from friends during the day.
I created my del.icio.us account in December 2005. Intellectually, I know it's a good and useful service, but I'm still struggling to integrate it into my daily life.

And that last point is the one I seem to be struggling to make: judging these services based on whether they supplement or augment my life and enrich the pursuit of the interests I already have, rather than add random activities and on-line responsibilities. It's actually kind of cool that so many people I already know are on Facebook, and that when I joined, my network of these "friends" grew so rapidly. But Facebook doesn't integrate neatly into my life; instead it presents me with something else to do. That "something else" is certainly fun, but I feel somehow that I'm doing what Facebook wants me to do, not what I want to do.

Anti-Social

2008-07-05T08:18:00.003-04:00

On June 25, I was criticized for not being on Facebook. So the next day I joined. And then the next day, I opened a FriendFeed account. And now I've got people pestering me to be on Plurk.

Enough already.

Initially, Facebook filled me with Third Grade anxieties -- "What if so-and-so won't be my friend?" Then came the Ninth Grade anxieties -- "Should I join groups? Are groups un-cool? What about flair? Is that cool? I don't want to be un-cool." Then it just settled down into lots of invitations to play games. I suck at Scramble. I hold my own at WordTwist. I dominate at Sudoku.

I have a blog because it was the easiest way to create a web-presence, and occasionally I do have something I want to say. I have LibraryThing and Ravelry because I like to keep track of what I read and knit. That seems to be about it.

So I'm instituting a new rule: no more social networking applications without a clear purpose and direct relevance to my life -- my first life, and its relevant on-line tools and extensions. I have no need to create a Second Life.

Blimey

2008-06-20T09:02:00.005-04:00

Why do I keep forgetting that one skein of Glacier is not enough to knit a pair of men's socks?

Oh well. It's my last skein of the stuff. I won't have this particular problem again.

I made these using the heel method from Fleegle's pattern. I love this heel. It's beautiful and it's easy. I want to experiment to see if the fit is ruined by making the heel base a tad wider -- it's a little too pointy for my taste, but that's a minor quibble.

Not professional

2008-06-18T16:03:00.002-04:00

Got very helpful response from XRX. They understand that it's a fuzzy definition and people can be confused. And they drew what is, in my opinion, a very clear and reasonable line:

A simple rule (that we think is fair) is that if you haven’t made more than $500 (a prize amount for aspecific amateur category in the Think Outside The SOX contest) then you are still an amateur. If you teach the occasional class here and there, you may or may not be considered an amateur – but that would really depend on how much you teach and how much money you've made from teaching. In most cases, we find that knitting and crochet instructors – paid to teach others – really are professionals; at least in the eyes of their students. Again… we try to use the $500 rule here as well.

I haven't made anywhere near $500. So I'm free to enter as an amateur.

Soon you will all tremble before the awesome spectacle of my evil sock designs.

Professional?

2008-06-17T08:03:00.002-04:00

XRX is having a sock design context, Think Outside the SOX. I'm intrigued by a couple of the contest categories: Bearfoot's "Not Cuff Down," and Universal Yarn's "Most Masculine." (Shut up. My knitting is very butch.)

The hitch is that it's an amateur contest. The rules say, "If you are paid to knit or crochet, teach knitting or crochet, design knit or crochet garments, or sell yarn, you are defined as a professional." While I can't get into TNNA because I've never published a design, and in most cases I haven't earned enough money to pay for the gas I use driving to class, the truth is I have been paid to teach.

At the risk of sounding Clintonian, whether I'm a professional might depend on what your definitions of "are" are. On occasion, I have been paid to teach knitting, but this is an irregular thing; I do not think that I am paid to teach knitting.

What do you think? I accept that I'm an evil sock genius, but am I a professional evil sock genius?

Memed

2008-06-09T07:53:00.003-04:00

Cat tagged me; I'm It.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

In 1998, my Ph.D. exams expired, and even if I'd wanted to write my dissertation, I would have had to retake the exams. I was even now on my second job since abandoning academia, working as the GHPL Technology Coordinator. It was the first summer reading club since 1992 that I hadn't created. Ten years ago this month Mike and I moved into our current place.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Take webinar on library uses for Flickr and Twitter
Meet with Friends of the Library about book sale planning
Be Dewey D. Chipmunk at summer reading kick-off in Powell
Print syllabus for sock class that starts tomorrow
Finish this model sock

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Wavy Lays
Pretzel Nuggets
Ice Cream
Popcorn with Parmesan cheese

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Hire staff, especially financial manager
Erase all debt in family (family defined broadly)
Buy a home. Or two. A place in Manhattan, perhaps.
Probably what others say they would do: establish foundation

5. Places I have lived:

Ohio (Mt. Vernon, Kent, Columbus, Upper Arlington)
Mérida

6. Peeps I want to know more about:

Sorry, this seed fell upon the rock, sprung up, and withered away because it has no moisture. But if the wind picks it up and finds root in your good ground, have at it.

Center-pull Ball Holder

2008-06-02T19:03:00.004-04:00

I decided that I better work both sleeves of the Wash Sweater at once. That way, if I stall out again, I won't have to figure out how to make the second sleeve match the first: each decision I make I will make for both sleeves simultaneously so they'll match without any extra pain and effort.

I also decided to work from the inside and outside of a center-pull ball, so that the inconsistent dye jobs on the yarn will at least match sleeve to sleeve. But my yarn was tangling. After a couple attempts to mangle a wire hanger into shape, I came up with this:

Something heavier would probably work better to keep the whole thing place, but this does seem to be doing the job: the ball doesn't flip around, and I can keep the strands from winding around each other.

Wash Sweater, back on track?

2008-06-01T09:45:00.001-04:00

I worked on the Wash Sweater for about a month, then stalled out two months ago, when it came time to plan the sleeves. Not that the sleeves will be hard, but some decisions are required, and whenever I tried to summon up the energy to make these decisions, I was struck by this stark fact:

I don't have enough yarn to finish.

I got the yarn from Mary who was stash-busting. She got it from Handpaintedyarn.com. When I started the project, there was no more to be found in this color ("Sea Foam," which you might
think would be green but actually is the dirty beige color that real sea foam tends to be). I thought I might try to find something close, then dye whole garment when it was finished. But even better: when I went to the site this morning, there were three skeins to be had.

So. Back at it. I've been keeping my planning notes in a Google document, which I just made public today, so you can follow along if you want.

Meanwhile, Dodger reminds me that, if I decide not to finish, he'd be perfectly happy to make use of the work-in-progress.

Andersson Heel

2008-05-31T17:10:00.002-04:00

I have revised and moved my bibliography of toe-up sock construction methods, adding some patterns I've run across in the past year. As I was adding the Andersson Heel, I realized that because the instructions are so brief, I need to do some complicated figuring in order to adapt it when I make socks. I would find it easier to work from a chart, and so with Knitman's permission, I offer my version. (BTW: Knitman gave his permission, but not his endorsement. He was unable to make sense of my directions. It's very possible that I've got it wrong. So do check out his instructions here and here.)

Toe-Up Socks using the Andersson Heel

Start the socks using your favorite toe-up starting method, such as my Tornado Toe. Make your toe and begin knitting the foot.

After a few inches, count how many rows (or rounds) work out to an inch. Multiply that by two inches less the length of the foot this sock is meant to fit. Example, if your foot is 9 inches long, then you want 7 inches, and if you're getting 11 rounds per inch, then we're talking 77 rounds. Got it?

Now find your sock's stitch circumference on the chart below (column A). Subtract the number of designated gusset rounds from your total number of rounds (column C is a standard gusset; column D is for a longer, more tapered gusset). You now know how many rounds to knit before starting the gussets.

Sock Circumference (A)	Gusset Stitches (B)	Standard Gusset - increase alternate rounds (C)	Longer Gusset - increase every 3rd round (D)
28	6	12	18
32	6	12	18
36	7	14	21
40	8	16	24
44	8	16	24
48	9	18	27
52	10	20	30
56	10	20	30
60	11	22	33
64	12	24	36
68	12	24	36
72	13	26	38
76	14	28	42
80	14	28	42

Back to the example: if your sock is 60 stitches in circumference, your target is 77 rounds, and you want the longer, more tapered gusset, you would subtract 33 from 77: you'll knit 44 rounds from your cast-on point before starting the gussets.

Decide which side of your sock is the sole and which is the instep or top. When you reach the round where your gussets begin, increase on either side of sole: knit 1, make 1, knit across sole until 1 stitch remains, make 1, knit 1.

Knit one or two plain rounds after the increase round, depending on whether you chose the standard or longer gusset numbers from the chart.

Repeat increase and plain rounds until you have added on each side of the sole the number of gusset stitches designated for your circumference (column B in the chart).

The Heel

Knit across the sole, stopping B+1 stitches before the end. (If you added 11 gusset stitches to each side of the sole, you will knit across the sole until 12 stitches remain). SSK, and turn.

Sl1, then purl across sole until B+1 stitches remain. P2tog. Turn.

Sl1, then knit until 1 stitch before the gap. SSK. Turn.

Sl1, then purl until 1 stitch before the gap. P2tog. Turn.

Repeat these last two rows until 2 stitches remain beyond the gap. After the SSK that leaves one stitch, do not turn. Resume knitting in the round, across the instep. When you return to the sole (now "back of heel") side, K1, K2tog, and resume knitting plain.

Knit the leg using whatever ribbing or pattern you choose, and bind-off loosely at the top.

Yarmando.com debuts

2008-05-27T18:50:00.002-04:00

As a Xmas present to myself a while back, I bought yarmando.com. I couldn't find a way to easily make it the home for this blog, so I've just let it be. Until now.

The Evil Genius Sock Pattern is ready to be unleashed on the world. I was going to put the files up where I normally do (the bit of space afforded me by my ISP), but thought I'd have a go at finally putting some content up on my own domain. After a bit of tinkering Monday morning, I had a basic site built (using Google Page Creator) and my new sock pattern uploaded.

I'll gradually add more content, and periodically get inspired to make the whole thing look better. But meanwhile, you're welcome to click on over to Yarmando's Laboratory, Lair of the Evil Sock Genius. And let me know what you think of the Evil Genius Lessons.

Koolhaas for M

2008-05-17T10:12:00.003-04:00

A friend has begun losing her hair during chemotherapy, so I decided it was time to put aside my obsession with evil and use my knitting powers for good.

Presenting Jared Flood's Koolhaas Hat in Rowan All Season Cotton. I loved it when I saw it on Jared's blog, but since I'd just knit three things after seeing him knit them first, I decided I needed to stop being a copycat. But when I found out M. needed a hat, this immediately leaped to mind. And it's even library-related, based on the windows at the Seattle Public Library.

Today is Columbus's Komen Race for the Cure. Maybe next year I'll be in shape for it. But meanwhile, I'll make a donation and encourage everyone to do the same.

Random bizarre thought: cancer drug companies should underwrite free mammograms since they create demand for their product.

Evil takes new direction

2008-05-10T09:12:00.002-04:00

Big thanks to the underlings who voted in my poll.

8% said it was better for smaller socks to be looser, relative to bigger socks
16% said the opposite was true, and smaller socks should be relatively tighter.
76% picked the obviously correct answer, which is that "tightness" is a variable that doesn't correlate with size.

But while you were distracted with these trivialities, I have put my genius to work and discovered new resources of sock-based evil.

The question, minions, is not how much bigger must you make a sock to accommodate the heel. Imagine that you begin with the knowledge of the circumference of heel and instep, and from there calculate how much smaller the sock should be to fit the foot and toes?

Muwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!

Jane Chord

2008-05-07T06:34:00.004-04:00

From Slog, I learned this week about the Jane Chord: combine the first and last words of a book into a two-word sentence which just might reveal something interesting about the book. One description of the method says to skip articles when constructing the chord.

The book I'm currently reading, Declare by Tim Powers: "Young Day." (Or "Telephone River" if you skip the prologue and afterword).

The new Jim Butcher book on my bedside shelf: "Winter too."

Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy: "Socks repertoire."

The Golden Compass: "Lyra sky."

The Great Gatsby: "In past."

Last year, I noticed a trend among librarians to designate in their email signatures what they're currently reading. I've started doing that in my work account. I've noticed that it causes me to leave my signature block in place, rather than deleting it and signing with my initials, as I normally do for internal/informal mail. Give it a try. And go read this inspiring, passionate essay about the wonders and importance of reading.

Design opinions needed

2008-05-01T19:19:00.003-04:00

The Evil Sock Genius pattern is nearly complete. (They all laughed at me, but soon...soon...I will have my revenge).

I need one more element before I begin to unleash my weapon on an unsuspecting world: the world's opinion. So I've put a poll up on the blog -------------------------------->

It's really all about stitch circumference. Do you think it's better for socks with a smaller stitch circumference to be a bit looser or a bit tighter, relative to socks with a larger stitch circumference?

My general rule is that all socks should err on the side of "tighter." But see, I'm building a reference chart that is the base of my pattern, and the references I'm consulting -- while they agree on the fit of socks in the mid-range (48 - 60 stitches around), one reference makes socks with less than 48 stitches slightly looser, and one makes it slightly tighter.

Which do you think is best? Take my poll. (And seal your doom).

It's like my body is crying

2008-04-17T08:59:00.005-04:00

Because I worked a 13-hour day yesterday and have a program tonight, I took this morning off. I decided a little exercise would make me feel better about myself. (I saw myself on TV last week. The camera adds 15 pounds. Being next to Anietra Hamper adds at least another 15). I have a DVD from Netflix of 10-minute fitness ball workouts, so I thought I'd give one of those a try.

Pathetic.

Back at the computer, I ran across today's Penny Arcade cartoon which was funny and timely.

Evil Sock Genius at work; updates later

2008-04-08T17:50:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. I've got a huge thing gearing up at work. When I'm not at work, I'm striving to make the rest of my life as relaxing and uninteresting as possible.

Not much blog-worthy going on with the knitting. Working on an adorable pair of socks, but I can't post a photo because it's a gift. In fact, I've entered Spring Birthday Season, so there are a couple gift socks in progress. Still in search of the Perfect Sock Pattern, I bought a copy of Stitch Stud's Design Your Own Toe Up Sock tutorial. It involves a lot of math up front to determine circumference, gusset increases, heel base, ankle panels, etc. I'm eager to see if it works.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a new pattern of my own: the Evil Genius Socks. It's the next evolutionary stage of the Yarmando Mash-Up Sock, incorporating the Just Start Knitting toe, the improved You're Putting Me On heel, and some intriguing ideas about calculating the sock length.

Finally, the Wash Sweater is languishing at the point that all my sweaters get stuck at: the body is finished up to the armpits, and it's time to start the sleeves. I hate knitting sleeves. It's like you're knitting socks but without the interesting parts.

Green for St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T11:02:00.002-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In celebration, I'm wearing the Enormous Green Thing to work (with a baseball jersey underneath, because the Green Thing is itchy).

I am a leaf on the wind

2008-03-08T09:20:00.001-05:00

There's a Ravelry group for Firefly/Serenity fans, and of course I belong to it. It's longest thread is "The real Firefly knitting challenge," a discussion about a particular Aran sweater worn by my favorite character in a couple episodes.

Ravelers KnottyLa and Maggs have done some amazing pioneering work to replicate the cables. I was dying to get started on this, especially now that the tweed pullover is done, so I grabbed yarn and needles and tried my hand at cable design.

This was some serious fun. I love cables. Mom taught me how to cross stitches for a cable before she taught me how to purl.

I've done lots of cables, but I'd never tried to replicate something from pictures, building the design stitch-by-stitch, row-by-row. I was pretty proud of myself, then Maggs put out her charts, and I realized that I'd made the cables too thin -- they should be three stitches wide instead of the two I used.

I decided it was time to jump in. I've got gauge (4 sts/in) and I've got a general idea where I'm going. So I cast-on and started the ribbing.

And because the outside looks like this today, I've got plenty of time to make some progress.

(Note: ordinarily, there would be a street in this picture).

Tweed Pullover

2008-03-01T18:48:00.003-05:00

I finished the tweed pullover.

The bottom is a little wrinkly from the drive to where the photoshoot took place. Special thanks to JKLsemi for the pictures. (Portraits aren't really her thing; check out the pictures she took today that are more typical of her work).

I want to reblock the sweater. As expected, the ribbing pulled it in pretty snuggly, so I had to stretch it out, but now the bottom flairs more than I'd like. It's also just a tad too short. But I'm picking at it; friends have told me they think it's the best I've done so far.

I bought feet

2008-02-24T09:00:00.002-05:00

In the excitement of all the cleaning, I forgot to mention these:

Yep, I bought feet. Lately, all the socks I've been making have looked misshapen when photographed on flat sock blockers, so I decided I needed a mannequin foot. Eventually, I discovered that the correct term is "hosiery form," and I found an eBay store that carried them. I bought the women's form (on the left) first, and then decided to get I needed the men's form as well.

Here's the form in action, displaying my current sock in progress: "Fountain Foxglove" from New Pathways, with an eye-of-partridge heel.

These were promised to my boss at Christmas, so I need to get cranking on them. But I've been distracted by progress on the tweed pullover. I finished the second sleeve and connected the sleeves to the body yesterday.

My plan is to continue that stripe of ribbing up the sleeves and over the shoulder. I'm pretty sure I'll have to block the ribbing out flat or the sweater will be too tight, but it's going to be sharp when it's done.

February New Gadget Lust

2008-02-23T07:26:00.007-05:00

There seems to be something about this season that makes me want new electronics. I'm guessing it has something to do with Christmas toys losing their shininess, and with income tax refunds waiving at me from my checking account.

I should be focused on buying a schmancy TV and an up-converting DVD player, but what I really want is a new phone. I want something iPhone-like, perhaps even an actual iPhone.

I want ubiquitous, convenient, handheld web access. I want to check my email from my phone; in particular, I would like to be able to use mobile Gmail, but the app doesn't run on Verizon devices. That just makes me want to abandon Verizon, but to do that, I would also have to move Mike and Nancy.

Someone send me the answer, please. Thanks.

Cleaning Sabbatical - The Wrap Up

2008-02-17T09:35:00.001-05:00

"Sabbatical" implies rest, a sabbath. Clearly, last week wasn't restful. I thought of it more like the sabbaticals afforded to professors: a break from the usual work to work on something else.

Though not restful, my cleaning sabbatical was satisfying. The study and basement in particular feel less oppressive now that floor space has been cleared of junk.

The cleaning project really isn't finished, but I think I managed to start something and get some momentum that will carry us through what is usually called "spring cleaning." I intend to keep a bookcase devoted to discards; I am fond of systematic approaches to problems, and while there are systems in place for getting books and media into our home, we haven't to this point had a systematic way of getting them out.

So, to my readers, thanks for putting up with the tiresome details of this little adventure. And thanks especially to Mike, who only got visibly cranky with me twice during all of this. That's monumental. The first time he was ever really mad at me was when I moved his stuff, and I expected this last week to be a living hell of domestic strife. But I worked hard to keep the disruption to a minimum : every day, an hour before Mike got off work, I stopped what I was doing and began putting things away. Mike put up with it all, and I'm grateful.

Now, honey, could you sort through the remaining video cassettes and clean out the mess under your side of the desk?

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day Six

2008-02-13T19:42:00.010-05:00

A lot more progress in the basement, but if I only did 1/3 Tuesday, I don' t know how I thought I could make up the other 2/3 on Wednesday.

I should drop it. Be satisfied with what I've done, and either give myself a day of rest or see what I can do on the unfinished side of the basement. But the work I've done these past two days feels less like cleaning and more like reclaiming an extra room in the house, so I'm going to keep plugging away.

Today I moved out of my way all the books and media that yesterday we decided to get rid of. (Most of it is packed into my car, or lining the stairs up to the main floor awaiting transport). That cleared off the new bookcase. I assembled the second bookcase, and moved them both into a corner beneath the stairs, where they currently hold the VHS collection, now ready for a deep weeding.

I cleaned out the antique post office desk that I inherited from my grandmother, and I sorted and stored my yarn stash. (Enough with the sock yarn, Donald).

My biggest accomplishment of the day was dealing with the remains of Mike's last job: adjunct writing instructor for Capital University. When he was unceremoniously booted from his position, he cleared out his office spaces and dropped it all in a corner of the basement. It was terribly painful for him, so I understood why he packed quickly and couldn't face sorting through it. I tossed the trash, consolidated the office supplies (none stolen; all purchased by Mike), and organized the rest for Mike's easy judgment.

That freed up some wall-adjacent floor space, so I shifted bookcases into a better arrangement, filled them with stuff, and reorganized our game shelves. Counting various Trivial Pursuit supplements, we have 47 games, including 7 types of "Scene It." Next month's Game Night is at our house; I'm excited that, for the first time ever, I can let guests into the basement to see the full game collection.

Like hope, but different

2008-02-13T07:56:00.002-05:00

My inner cynic has been disgusted by how moved I am by will.i.am's Obama song and video. "Dude," says the cynic, "have you no defenses against cheap sentimentality anymore?"

Apparently not.

So I set off looking for parodies. This one cracked me up. More homage than parody, picking on McCain instead of Obama, but it's funny. Check it out.

I'm loving this Viral Video Chart site.

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day Five

2008-02-12T21:55:00.003-05:00

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
(Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," The New York Times, August 7, 1991)

Our basement poses some particular challenges. Cleaning it involves sorting through books and movies that we no longer want. Plus, Mike is part of that "we," and he is on record as an official conscientious objector to my War on Clutter. Actually, he's been swell this whole week, but if I want his cooperation, I need to make it easy on him.

I have long maintained that we have plenty of bookcases. A quick count of individual shelves, not counting the ones devoted to holding CD's, and mentally averaging out long and short shelves:

33 shelves upstairs
15 shelves on the main floor
64 shelves in the basement

We have a bookcase and a half double-shelved with VHS tapes. This is why I say we don't need more shelves; we just need to get rid of the extra stuff.

But I needed to start somewhere, and this idea occurred to me: a new bookcase would provide a staging area to help us get rid of stuff. So I tooled up to Big Lots, bought two bookcases, drilled one together and filled it with the books and VHS tapes. I stuck a note on it, saying, "Keep anything, but move it to book cart." (I have an old, wooden library shelving cart because I'm a geek and because a previous employer, inexplicably, wanted to sell it cheap. It's much older and junkier -- but more authentic-looking -- than the one pictured here).

I stacked every homemade VHS tape on the floor for Mike's review, and I put every taped movie that we also own on DVD into bags for the library book sale. I alphabetized all the DVD's that are downstairs, then did the trick that Mike and I have found works well for cooperative weeding: I push in everything I want to keep. He will push in everything he wants to keep. What's left sticking out is given to a library.

All this got me about a third finished with this room, so I decided to suspend my rules. I know I said each room gets only a day; but with another day, I can make some fantastic progress in the basement.

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day Four

2008-02-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

I found it enormously satisfying to unplug the computer, wrestle it out from under the desk, pop the cover, and blow three years of dust out. Best of all, when I put it all back together and turned it on, it worked. And it's quiet.

There were a lot of dead and out-dated electronics hanging around in the study, which was the target of Day Four. At the end of a very long day, the dead things have been pitched, the salvageable things have been given to people who can use them, and the useful things have been stowed. Old diskettes have been tossed, old financial records shredded, old clothes and small appliances donated to Goodwill.

Beneath the desk, I found a matted but unframed print (pictured left) that Mike bought at the Arts Festival a few years back. Since all this cleaning is upsetting his world (not to mention kicking allergens into the air), I brought it to the neighborhood frame store as a peace offering.

I told Mike I'd hang it if he would sort through some books and clean up two of the places where he's been piling stuff.

Friends, I am beat. I should start tackling the basement on Day Five, but I'm not sure I'm up to it.

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day Three

2008-02-10T16:20:00.000-05:00

I'm losing steam. To say that I "worked" in the living room is to stretch the definition of "work." I moved dirty mugs to the dish washer. I threw socks into the laundry. There were a few Christmas decorations that I think Mike was hoping would become permanent decorative fixtures. I put them away, as I did with a few straggling holiday CD's that were sitting out. I made a half-hearted pass with a Swiffer duster and ran the vacuum cleaner.

In short, I redd up the room. Still, these efforts made a more visible impact than the work I did yesterday in the bedroom.

There was one achievement, however. Tucked between "my" side of the couch and the wall are my knitting tools and works in progress. I pulled all that out of there and sorted it. When it was all untangled, I found three projects (a pair of socks, a scarf, and a toy) about 80% done.

Hope makes me cry

2008-02-10T08:53:00.001-05:00

Just in case, like me, you haven't yet contributed to the 4 million times this has been watched.

"There has never been anything false about hope."

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day Two

2008-02-09T18:00:00.000-05:00

JoVE asked, "Is someone's mother coming to visit?"

Ha! No. Most of the areas I'm targeting are not visitor areas -- bedroom, basement, study. Even so, Mike's mom is blind, so she couldn't tell. My mom probably regrets instilling in me the carpe diem attitude that makes me choose to live my life rather than spend it cleaning.

Yes, sitting on my ass watching game shows qualifies as "living my life." Shut up.

One way of looking at all this effort: I'm cleaning so that Mike and I can find space to put more shit.

Day Two: The Bedroom.

This didn't take too long; in fact, I took a long break in the afternoon to go see a movie. Cleaning the bedroom mostly involved dusting. I pulled about a hundred books that we'll donate to our libraries, then spent the rest of my time dusting the book cases and the remaining books. I wiped dust off the walls and doors, off the vertical blinds, off the ceiling fan. I vacuumed behind dressers and under the futon. We sleep with a fan running, and I took that outside with a can of compressed air to blow the dust from that as well.

It's no wonder that all of us -- me, Mike and Dodger -- have sinus problems.

I'm very excited because while re-folding the sweaters stacked on top my dresser, I found my missing watch.

Cleaning Sabbatical - Day One

2008-02-08T17:35:00.000-05:00

As a couple, Mike and I can most politely be described as "untidy." Our home is dusty and cluttered. It's not dangerously unsanitary, and there are no ominous smells, but if cleanliness is next to godliness, it's pretty clear that we're infidels.

So I have taken a week off work, starting today, to clean. Each day is devoted to one room, so not all rooms will get attention. And some rooms (like the two in the basement) need more than a day, but one day is all they'll get.

For the first day, I decided to stretch the definition of "room" to include my car. It's time for the 60,000 mile service, plus vacuuming, dusting, polishing the windows, and cleaning out the trunk.

Oops, I suddenly remembered that I forgot to vacuum the trunk (there are pine needles in there; I'm not quite sure how that happened). Will have to get to that on Saturday.

Partisan, political message

2008-02-06T07:10:00.000-05:00

I'm going all liberal for a moment. International and conservative readers and those of you who have already voted or caucused should just move along.

In the general election, I will doubtlessly be supporting Dolores, but for the primary, I seem to be following demographic expectations and supporting Obama.

I like Senator Clinton; I always have. But I fear that she is unelectable as a Presidential candidate. Conservatives of all varieties loathe her. I never understood this Clinton-hating until I experienced similar feelings for our current President.

Think about that: much of the country hates Hillary Clinton as much as you hate George W. Bush. They will put aside their differences and unite behind any candidate that is not her, leaving us another Republican President to make Supreme Court appointments.

What's weird to me is, if I know this, why doesn't she? She's smarter than I am.

Look, policy-wise, there's very little discernible difference between Clinton and Obama.* Therefore, we need to nominate the candidate who can win. And speaking from my blue household in a red precinct of a blue city in a red state, I'm telling you that winner is not Clinton.

* In truth, I score highest with Clinton on Candidate Match.

Score!

2008-02-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

Hey, yesterday was my blogiversary! My very first real blog post was about a scarf I was making from Blithe baby camel yarn, but I didn't tell the story of finding that yarn.

I was in Salem, Mass. for a work thing, and I had the afternoon free. I fired up my laptop, connected to my hotel's free wireless, searched for yarn shops in town, discovered Arbella Yarns, and looked up directions to walk there from my hotel. The shop didn't disappoint. I'm easily attracted to funky fibers, and yarn made from baby camels? Gotta get me some of that.

Expensive stuff, and a total pain to wind into balls, but it made a gorgeous scarf.

Today, while picking through the carcass of the late and lamented "Stitch Stops Here" yarn shop, I found a box of the Blithe baby camel yarn at 60% off. It's mine now.

Fourteen skeins, in colorways brown (5 skeins), straw (7), and cinnamon (2). Anyone have any good suggestions what I can make out of it?

Frazz

2008-01-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

February 1990 was a very frustrating part of my life. My wheels were spinning. My Master's thesis was overdue but stalled, and it was blocking me from moving on in my studies. Although I lived with two other grad school guys, I felt lonelier than when I lived alone (loneliness without solitude). I was certainly on the point of admitting I was gay, but I had no idea how to begin to come out. And it was February in Ohio. Bleah.

Late in the month, an otherwise unremarkable "Calvin & Hobbes" cartoon was published with a panel that spoke directly to me. I cut it out and stuck it to my monitor. I've carried from job to job an enlarged but abridged version: "Why do things have to be this way? Why can't things be different?"

Periodically, I have a pang of grief over how much I miss "Calvin & Hobbes." When this happens, I might re-read all the books, troll the web for news and nostalgia, or change my IM avatar to that little picture of Calvin throwing an existential temper tantrum.

On one such occasion, I read that a comic called Frazz had a similar visual style, and I've been reading it ever since. I encourage you to check it out. I really liked today's comic. It's smart, and expects a lot out of the reader, referencing this classic Charles Addams piece.

My contributions to the bacterial apocalypse

2008-01-24T18:05:00.000-05:00

Exactly two weeks ago, I came down with a cold. Sore throat, headache, cough. So that I wouldn't keep Mike awake, I slept on the couch. I took Friday off sick from work. Better Saturday, but worse Sunday. I tried to go into work on Monday, but went home after half a day. Feeling worse, I took Tuesday off too.

Wednesday I went to UrgentCare for them to confirm that it really was just a cold. Doctor said it probably was, but if I wasn't getting better in a few days, get a Z-Pak prescription filled. Also, here's some cough syrup with codeine. Increasingly miserable, I slept in the bed and Mike gallantly took the couch.

Thursday morning my eyelid was matted shut with pus from conjunctivitis. I took another day off.

Friday morning, I had an appointment to get blood drawn at my doctor's office. As soon as that was done, I passed out. (Well...almost. It was touch and go). After the dizziness and nausea passed, I elected to take yet another day off work. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, and started taking the antibiotics. That night, I finally began feeling better.

Did I need the antibiotics? Probably not. The whole thing was probably viral, and I've just helped create more drug-resistant bacteria.

The coda to this tale of antibiotic abuse: this week, I took Dodger to the vet because he has recurring upper respiratory infections. His doctor has put him on antibiotics too, probably long term.

A few things I learned over the course of this:

Even though DayQuil, TheraFlu, and such medicines no longer have pseudoephedrine in theme, you can easily replicate the effects by taking the old active ingredients directly: Sudafed, Tylenol, Robitussin DM. At night, add some Benadryl.
Robitussin started to make me sick, so I switched to vodka, which worked better.
It's enormously comforting to pop in a DVD of a television series and just select "Play All." In this way, I've watch two seasons of Arrested Development and reacquainted myself with Firefly and Wonderfalls.

New Years Knitting

2008-01-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

I began 2007 by casting on for a New Year Sweater, which I think makes a great tradition. Here's the 2008 New Year Sweater in progress:

It's another seamless hybrid pullover. I'm using Plymouth Tweed yarn. Once again, inspired by Brooklyn Tweed, I'm adding some accent ribbing on the sides. I think I'll rib the top of the sleeves too.

In sock news, the theme for January is pink, a color my mom had specifically requested. I had some pink/blue/purple striped cotton Sockotta in my stash, so I cranked out these.

I decided to try following the Queen Kahuna method to the letter. Pretty good results. Mom likes them, but they're not sufficiently pink, so she bought me a skein of Sea Wool, a blend of merino and Seacell.

I'm using the Coriolis pattern from New Pathways, and it's going very well. Love the yarn, love the needles (a new set of KnitPicks), love the pattern. The trick for me is to remember that both Queen Kahuna and Cat Bordhi socks will get 50% bigger, so I need to plan for that and start them a bit smaller than I would for Simple Socks with short-row heels.

Staple Free

2008-01-05T07:55:00.000-05:00

Back in 1990, I stumbled upon a fun store in San Francisco that specialized in products for the newly revitalized ecology movement. (Remember 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth?) I bought a reusable linen coffee filter -- for years, I drank coffee that tasted like a t-shirt -- and a set of paper stencils and glow-in-the-dark paint to put an astronomically accurate map of the night sky on my ceiling. The store also had a really cool paper fastener, which punched and folded tabs on your papers to hold them together without staples. I was a grad student and the stencil was setting me back $25, so I didn't buy one. But then later, when I had money, I couldn't find one.

Then last weekend, I found this as in impulse item while waiting in line at the Container Store. I bought two. It only fastens 5 sheets of paper, but it's just so cool. It punches a little tab and slit in your paper, folds the tab back, and tucks it into the slit. Other models are available at the manufacturer, Made By Humans.

2007 in review

2008-01-01T06:15:00.000-05:00

Knitting
My best guess is that I knit 17 pairs of socks in 2007 (and the 3 single socks pictured here which probably will not get mates). While that's fewer than in 2006, they show a lot of experimentation. I figured out how to add gussets to improve the fit of short-row socks, and I worked out a modification that I really like for Judy Gibson's You're Putting Me On socks. I find myself turning more and more often to Bordhi and Beattie's books for inspiration. And ever since Mel wrote those bang-up instructions for the Sherman Heel, my devotion to the Priscilla Gibson-Roberts method has ebbed.

More notably, I made two successful sweaters: the red, seamless hybrid EPS and the green Cobblestone. And this is the year that I finally began to build a stash. (Damn you, Knitters' Market).

Books
I read 48 books last year, a 65% improvement over last year. That's still far from my high point in 1999, when I recorded 92 books for the year (I learned to knit Thanksgiving 1999; the drop-off in reading has a clear explanation). The combination of working around books again and the continued presence of the LibraryThing widget shaming me from over there on the right keeps my numbers high. Still, they'd be higher if it weren't for knitting, Sudoku/Kakuro, and the Nintendo DS.

Notables:

Two delightful novels from Michael Chabon. My affection for Yiddish Policemen's Union has faded over the months, but that only means I'll enjoy re-reading sometime.
A close second for the best book I read last year is The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M. T. Anderson.
A few fantastic graphic novels: Pride of Baghdad, American Born Chinese, and The Plot. All three of these I re-read immediately upon finishing them.
Best audiobook I listened to this year was Acceleration, although right now I'm listening to The Book Thief, and it's even better.
A good pairing: I read Hero at the same time I was listening to Evil Genius.
Some things I gave 4 stars to in my LibraryThing ratings are among my favorites from the year: Arthur Phillips' Angelica, Reza Aslan's No god but God, and Kenneth Oppel's Skybreaker. Skybreaker is one of several good sequels/series entries I caught this year.

Movies
I saw 23 movies in theaters last year. My favorites were:

Breach. I love me some Laura Linney.
Grindhouse. Mike and I argued for weeks. He said the Quentin Tarantino half was better; I argued that there is no such thing as "half." But he was right.
Ratatouille. I love Brad Bird's work. Iron Giant is one of my favorite films. Bird's themes tread a thin path through Ayn Rand territory, but he makes it work for me.
No Country for Old Men. The story arc is flawed and unsatisfying, but the Coen brothers are at that the top of their game. They play the tension in a scene like it's a piece of music. It's just a shame that that tension has nowhere to go.
I saw one movie in a theater twice: The Simpsons Movie.

My best theater experiences of the year were for the Vamp and Camp Double Feature of "Cobra Woman" and "She Done Him Wrong," and for the documentary ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway. The double feature was held in the crowded Ohio Theater, while "ShowBusiness" was shown at the Frontier Cafe, in a small, digital theater that my sister and I had all to ourselves.

New Shoes

2007-12-22T14:08:00.000-05:00

This morning, I learned that Converse is making clear Chuck Taylors. So while picking up a few last items at the mall today, I ducked into Journeys and snagged me a pair.

Still playing with my lacing strategy, trying to obscure as little of the sock as possible. But clearly [sic] I have found an excuse to knit more socks for me me me.

If you've got a heart, then Gumby's a part of you

2007-12-16T07:55:00.000-05:00

For two days this week, I actually listened to something on the radio besides NPR. A local station was broadcasting TV show theme songs.

It was amazing. Avengers, Dark Shadows, Facts of Life, Peter Gunn, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Davy Crockett, Soap, Hawaiian Eye. There were songs I completely didn't recognize, songs I knew every note of but couldn't place, but mostly there were songs that were instantly familiar from the first note or two.

It was incredible. I couldn't turn it off. I first tuned in Wednesday afternoon on my drive home from work, and wanted to sit in my car listening. Thursday morning, I found the station streaming on the web, but eventually I had to switch off because I couldn't concentrate on work.

These songs are perfect little gems of culture. Listening to them one after the other, you become aware of just how much talent and energy goes into them. A minute's worth of music to accomplish so much: to invoke mood, to explain a premise, to establish expectations.

I happened to be tuned in Thursday while driving to lunch. At noon, the theme from The Rockford Files abruptly cut off, a new station was identified, and Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio" began playing.

So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

I know the TV theme songs were just a stunt, a silly placeholder designed to lure a broad demographic to the frequency. I know that it wouldn't be long before I would tire of the nostalgia and the culture-critic impulses such nostalgia always raises in me. Still, since Thursday afternoon, I've felt a sting of disappointment and loss every time I get in my car and face the same choices I have every day. Another modern rock station is just a tired variation on everything else, but for a few days, we were listening to something rare and new.