"Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth"

Matt posted a great re-cap of the XY Knitters' Trip to Mary Sheep & Wool. Left to myself, I probably would have down-played the farting, but Matt's account does paint an accurate picture. I can only add camera-phone snapshots and these assorted out-of-context nuggets of conversation.

Caution: slow moving wood.

It was an explosion of color. It was nice. (No, Don, you can't write that down; it doesn't count).

Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth.

I don't like to crochet blankets when my colostomy bag is full.

Don't eat the brown guacamole.

SSS: Sleepy Sac Syndrome.

I think a booger just fell down my shirt.

I wanna see a full on throw down over some yarn.

Somebody's nuts smell really good.

Really no fun in making up a song about not farting.

Who just put on the peppermint scented Preparation H?

Next year we call it "Maryland Sex & Wool."

There's more in my journal, but it's best not to get too specific since it involves an unfortunate copy of the Koran, obscure snatches of music from West Side Story, or who was going to "accidentally" surprise whom in the shower. None of this comes close to showing how much fun I had. Thanks for the great weekend, gentlemen. All your blogs just got moved from the "Knitting" folder to the "Friends" folder in my blogroll.

Oh, and just to show that the weekend was not utterly lacking in dignity, here's Seamus posing with my traveling sock:

Impotent rage

As I've said before, what good is a blog if you can't bitch impotently about minor inconveniences?

After years of credit union banking, I have finally decided to switch to a "real" bank, with actual local offices and convenient ATMs. I chose Chase.

Account creation was easy and convenient, and I was prepared to begin the full switch. I logged into my old account, requested a withdrawal in the amount of my last paycheck, and when the check arrived, I used the local ATM to deposit the money into my new account. My Visa Check Card was declined a few hours later at dinner, but I didn't think anything of it since the account was new and I didn't expect the deposit to be immediately available.

Then on Saturday, I got two (2!) letters from Chase telling me they were placing a hold on my deposit for seven (7!) business days. I'm understanding up to a point: it was a new account, created on-line, with a first deposit of any size made through an ATM. But seven business days?! The letters gave me a number to call, where I was told this was at the discretion of local branch managers. I've just gotten back from speaking to the local branch manager, who said it's an SEC regulation, and they won't budge. Oh, if I go to the credit union (office in another town) and get an image of the cleared check and present it to Chase, then they'll lift the hold. But meanwhile, there's nothing I can do. And it will be this way for six months.

So my entire paycheck sits with a lock on it until Monday, May 7. We all know Chase has my money; they get to play with it and squeeze what interest and investment they can out of it, while I have to make do without it. Make do, when I could be spending it this weekend at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

I guess this post can only end one way, with the immortal wisdom of Little Edie reminding us that, "This is the worst thing to happen ever in the history of America."

Voltina, the crow daemon

The Golden Compass movie website has a section where you can get your own daemon, and it even lets you set up a temporary profile to see whether others agree. Mine is supposedly Voltina, a crow, because I'm a responsible leader, but modest, shy, and solitary.



You can visit my daemon profile page and say whether you agree. Hurry, in 12 days my daemon will settle on its final form.

The Golden Jello Calf

Thus saith Cecil B. Demille:

And the people rose up to play and did eat and drink. They were as the children of fools and cast off their clothes. The wicked were like a troubled sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt. They sank from evil to evil and were viler than the earth. And there was rioting and drunkeness for they had become servants of sin. And there was manifest of all manner of ungodliness and works of the flesh, even adultery and lasciviousness, uncleanness, idolatry and rioting, vanity and wrath. And they were filled with iniquity and vile affections.

Or, well, you know, there was a lot of laughing. And a Golden Calf rendered in Jello, courtesy of our visiting friend Juliana. We didn't indulge in the full Ten Commandments Experience -- only viewing some of our selected, favorite scenes and the very funny 10 Things I Hate About Commandments. But a good and tasty time was had by all.

What is the job, exactly?

As Congress and the only president we've got head to a showdown over supplemental war funding, I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the war-monger rhetoric:

• We can't win the war in six months, but we can lose it in six months.
• The troops have a job to do, and we shouldn't leave until the job is done.
• Setting a time table for withdrawal would insure defeat.

I'm sick of these manipulative arguments that are emotional and unreasonable. Exactly what is "the job?" There's a lot of talk about "defeat" because it pushes buttons, but no one has explained what victory looks like.

I suspect it's because they can't. If they try to set clear objectives, then any idiot can see that they're not achievable, that "victory" so defined is impossible.

And this just leads me to the conclusion that the "War on Terror" is one that the architects have no interest in winning; it's just the fighting that they care about, and the fighting never stops.

Working the new pattern

Not much excitement around here. Work, eat, knit, watch TV, read, sleep, repeat. But I have been testing out the new sock formula, and I'm pleased. These green ones will be for me when they're finished, but I've set them aside to finish gifts.



The blue ones are for Debbie, who likes her socks shorter. The yarn is "Tiny Toes," a tightly spun merino, much like Koigu. After an evening of knitting, I had a dark line across my index finger where the dye rubbed off the yarn.




The dark yellow/light brown socks are Koigu, the pattern adapted from Knitting Vintage Socks. The lace and variegated yarn are probably a little too busy together, but I think the recipient will be pleased.





I'm also working on a tweedy gray pair of lace socks, using Trekking yarn and the "Feather & Fan" pattern from Socks Socks Socks.

Meanwhile, the gansey has sat untouched for weeks.

"You're Still Putting Me On" Socks

I've found it -- a new perfect sock pattern. Ironically, it's the first sock pattern that I fell in love with and used over and over: Judy Gibson's "You're Putting Me On" Socks.

My new perfect pattern is actually a mash-up of YPMO and Brooke Chenoweth Creel's Widdershins. Widdershins is only for one size, while YPMO is charted to adapt to various circumferences and has a handy guide for when to start the gusset increases. The only problem with YPMO is the ridge that forms beneath the heel, but there is no such ridge in Widdershins. So here is my Widdershins-inspired revision of the "You're Putting Me On" heel. Stitch markers make it very easy. The numbers for [K], [P], and [A] are from the YPMO chart.

Set-up and Turn Heel
After finishing the gussets, knit around to the center of the sole stitches. Place heel markers [K] ____ stitches away on either side of the center to mark the area for the heel.

Row 1: Knit to 2 stitches before heel marker. Lift the stitch below the stitch to the left and knit it, k1, wrap and turn.

Row 2: Purl 3, place turning marker, purl up to 2 stitches before the end of heel stitches. Lift the stitch below the stitch to the left and purl it, p1, wrap and turn.

Row 3: Knit 3, place another turning marker, knit to other turning marker and remove it temporarily. Lift the stitch below the stitch to the left and knit it, k1, wrap and turn.

Row 4: Purl 3, place turning marker, purl to other turning marker and remove it temporarily. Lift the stitch below the stitch to the left and purl it, p1, wrap and turn.

Repeat rows 3 & 4 until you have increased to [P] ____ stitches for the heel (between the heel markers, ignoring the turning markers you use in rows 3 & 4).

Knit one complete round, making sure to knit the wraps with the stitches that they are wrapping.

Heel Flap
Knit to end of heel stitches, combining the last heel stitch with the next stitch using SSK. Turn, slip the first stitch, and purl across heel stitches, combining the last heel stitch with the next stitch using P2tog. Repeat until you are back to your original sock circumference, or [A] ____ stitches.

The YPMO sock pattern doesn't call for it, but if you like the reinforced heel stitch you can work the knit side with a sl1-k1 repeat. I also think it's helpful during your first round after completing the heel flap to pick up stitches on either side of the flap. This closes the gap that forms at the top of the heel flap.

Sock Insomnia

Four nights in the past week, I've lain awake thinking about toe up socks. It's pathological. But I've felt close to a breakthrough on a new perfect sock pattern, one that incorporates all the best ideas, requires minimal pre-planning, and carries a clever elegance for a dash of intellectual delight that will keep me faithful to it for years to come.

Oh, and while I don't mind devoting lots of mental energy to construction and technique, I don't think I should have to work very hard to make it fit. What I'd really like is to find a way to knit fantastically fitting socks just by knowing the recipient's shoe size.

I was thinking that the answer might be some sort of mash-up between Widdershins and Queen Kahuna, with maybe a few dashes of Charlene Schurch, Nancy Bush, and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I expected to draw on the work done by Mel and Tallguy: Mel's work makes the Widdershins instructions more generic than the original, while Tallguy is working out a version that relies more on percentages.

(Mel, I love your adaptation. I just have this feeling that for larger feet, you'd want more gusset increases and that the heel turning instructions would somehow vary depending on gauge and foot size).

There's a chance that someone beat me to it. It seems that K2Karen has been on the same quest I have, following pretty much the same guides. She does the same toe that I do, and she's worked out a chart for adapting the Widdershins heel to different sizes. When I tried it, my sock came out shorter than I expected, the heel somewhat blockier, but I still think there's potential there.

I goofed on the heel flap, but I was so tired of reworking this sock (I've frogged and reknit the heel six times already, trying to make different sets of instructions work), that I tossed it aside and picked up another pair in progress. This one follows Schurch's idea to knit a heel flap for the sole of the foot. Good but not great. I'm generally pleased with these, but this will not be my preferred sock construction method going forward.

Enormous Green Thing

Yesterday we held a staff potluck at work, and the staff wore green. I don't seem to own anything green anymore, except for the enormous green Aran sweater. Even after asking a seamstress to take in the sides, and reknitting the collar into a turtleneck, this sweater is just too big to wear, even as a jacket.

Which is a shame, because it's gorgeous.

So I'm going to ask another seamstress to take another crack at it, removing the moss stitch side panels completely and significantly narrowing and re-shaping the sleeves. I'm thinking something like this...
Tell me if you think this plan won't work. And what about the underarm gussets: bad idea? This is just a sketch; I'm hoping in the actual execution, the sewing done on the inside of the sweater, the gusset diamonds will go flat or stay on the inside.

Queen Kahuna, revisited

When I finally settled down and began reading Queen Kahuna's book, I realized I was going to have to take back some of the snarky things I said in the last post. There's good stuff in there.

First of all, I should say that Mary Ann Beattie does a good job of justifying her style. "Crazy Toes & Heels" is purposefully written for the visual learner. She is deliberately careful to write complete instructions and provide illustrations for every step. And I have to admit, sometimes this was helpful to me. Her "no wrap - no gap" short row method is identical to the Sherman Sock stitch encroachment technique, but the illustrations explain it much better, and I think I'll give this method another try.

The book really is packed with gems to add to your sock-knitting arsenal. I'm particularly taken with her suggestion to knit the first round of the toe with both the working yarn and the cast-on tail, then in the next round working some of those doubled stitches separately to effect a rapid increase. The result is a very attractive, round toe. The next time I do a cuff-down sock, I think I'll try finishing it off with "Cathy's Creation toe," which creates a band across the front.

Last night I began experimenting with the Queen Kahuna techniques using some Interlacements Tiny Toes. I still think Turkish cast-on can't be beat -- what can be easier than wrapping the yarn around your needle? And I like the speed of increasing with yarn-overs rather than the lifted increases Beattie recommends (she makes a good case for them, though).^* I decided to give her fan toe a try, and I like the effect.

I am disappointed that she offers no guesstimating guide for when to start the gusset increases -- like, begin gusset increases when you have knit 60% of the planned sock length -- but I expect that really does depend on gauge and actual foot measurements. (Hmm. Maybe what I need to do is create a website where people I knit for could enter their foot measurements and the results would get emailed to me, like my own version of the Sockulator V.)

In short, reading the Queen Kahuna guide is like taking a class from an affable, experienced teacher, who will patiently explain every step to you while also offering you handy tips for making things a bit easier. Is it really worth $25 plus shipping? Probably not, but in the final analysis, I'm glad to add it to my own knitting library.

^* Update 3/18: Beattie's variation on (and explanation of) lifted increases is the best I've ever seen. I've tried lifted increases before, and never liked them. Her method involves a different way of picking up and manipulating the various stitches, and the effect is very clean.

Backwards and in high heels

My boss asked me to clarify a knitting point that cropped up in the book she's listening to. Three times in a character's life she has made the mistake of turning a heel twice, and each time it portended some life-changing event. Boss wanted to know what "turning a heel twice" meant. I explained, we discussed what a twice-turned heel might look like, and she asked further questions about sock construction.

I told her that while socks usually are knit cuff-to-toe, I prefer knitting them the other way, toe-up. In fact, I said, I tend to be drawn to odd construction techniques, to knitting things the opposite way. Toe-up socks, top-down hats. I convert sweater patterns to the round so I don't have to sew. "I like to do things backwards and in the round," I said. "I am the Ginger Rogers of knitting."

I completed the Lillehammer hat with no fancy adaptations. Just in time for spring to finally begin breaking through. I think of this as my "Robin Hood" hat, since I was watching the new series when I started working on it. The ribbing flares out a bit at the bottom, which makes this particular hat a bit too flapper-ish.

My hopes are still high for Tallguy's toe-up gusset and heel flap breakthrough, but meanwhile I might just make Widdershins socks for Nancy. Based on a comment on Tallguy's blog, I bought the Queen Kahuna Crazy Toes & Heels Sock Book. Good if you like verbose, detailed, step-by-step instructions, but I should've known it wasn't for me.

New Project-itis

I've got three active projects right now. The Camel Gansey is zipping along, and I'm at the point that I need to decide how long the plain area will be (all the way up to the sleeves?) and then chart out the patterned area for the chest. It's a critical part of the project, and I have to be careful not to lose momentum. However, I've already started two new projects.

I snagged some Cider Moon "Glacier" skeins at their trunk show a couple weeks back, and started a pair of socks.

The black toe is in "Johnny Cash" colorway, and the red is "Cayenne." I'm planning to give these to Mike's mom, who will like the bright red (being legally blind, she doesn't see much color) and who has yet to get a decent pair of socks from me. I hope Tallguy posts notes on his new toe-up gusset and heel flap method soon. I'm dying to try it.

Working on these from both ends of the skein has given me an idea for a center-pull ball holder which can make such a task easier. I've sketched out some concepts for everyone's favorite knitting contractor to think about.

At the trunk show, I saw their Lillehammer hat and got a copy of the pattern. I'm not wasting this yarn on a hat, so I picked up some Brown Sheep "Nature Spun" and started working on that last night. The picture isn't great, but I'm digging the ribbing band: K1P1 rib, with the knit stitches in one color and the purls in another. Neat effect.

Heathen

As I indicated last year, I'd love to have a personalized plate. I'm contemplating this one.

What do you think?

Sweater Diary: Camel Gansey

I'm going to try an experiment: create this one post as a placeholder for notes, updating it as I progress. I think this is a better plan than separate posts that no one really cares about or wants to read, but it lets me create a record for myself. See my Camel Gansey Flickr set for pictures.

After my recent happiness using the Zimmerman Percentage System, I wanted to jump right in and do another, possibly one with ribbing like the Leo sweater from Knitty.com. But I bought the yarn a couple years ago specifically because I thought it would make a good gansey/guernsey/jersey, possibly the one by Penny Olman on page 78 of Arans & Celtics.

Yarn: Jo Sharp Luxury 8 ply DK Pure Wool
Shade: Camel (005; dye lot 2)
Gauge: 5.75 st/in on size 6 (4 mm) needles

Chest: 41 + 2 inches ease = 250 stitches
Ribbing: 224 stitches

I want split welts at the bottom, in a double-garter rows (purl rows 1&4, knit rows 2&3). So I cast on 113 stitches (doubling the tail for a stronger edge), knit the welts, then combined them into a circle, overlapping two stitches on each side for a tighter join. Rather than increasing all 30 stitches at once to get the chest measurement, I'm creating a more tapered look by increasing gradually, 4 stitches (a stitch on either side of the side seams) every inch (eight rounds).

Good enough to wear to work

I've been saying that the sweaters I've made are too casual to wear to work. Friends have been telling me I'm stupid. So in their honor, I wore this to work today.


I'm having a hard time getting a good picture of this, but I really like how it looks on. And even with all the fussing I did with it (reworking the bottom, doing the sleeves backwards, starting the yoke over after I'd already knit 3 inches), it ultimately was fairly easy.

I'm not thrilled with the collar. I'm not thrilled with any collar I've ever made on any sweater at all, so I think I need to be on the lookout for one I do like.

Meanwhile, I've knit the gauge square and done some test cables for my next sweater: possibly a gansey, but maybe just another EPS sweater, maybe with vertical ribbing.

The Best Thing about February

This is what February is good for.


Graeter's seasonal flavor for the month: Cherry Chip.

Just in time, too, because I'm running out of these:
Frango chocolates packed with little tiny beads of peppermint candy cane.

My commute

Twenty miles, 30-40 minutes each way.

My day really does feel an hour shorter, but I'm generally enjoying the commute. You'll probably be seeing more audiobooks show up over on the right.

Nancy Pearl came up with the Rule of 50: "...time is short and the world of books is immense. If you're fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up." I've been giving audiobooks the length of one disc to convince me whether I want to spend any more time in this world or with these people. The Fire-Eaters? No. Tenth Power, with people singing magic? I thought so, but 3.5 discs in, I realized I didn't care at all what happened. Just minutes after I ejected it and popped in Acceleration, I knew I made the right choice: smart narrator with a fresh perspective worth listening to (he calls the books in the subway lost-and-found "the library of forgotten books") discovers the diary of a serial killer.

On the knitting front, I got inspired to take this sock...

...and fix it.

I re-knit the whole heel and cuff. Seemed easier than darning and grafting. But ultimately a pointless exercise: the other sock is about to wear through as well, and even this new heel won't hold up. Lesson learned: Jaeger Matchmaker merino isn't good for socks.

Meanwhile, sweater has new bottom, and I'm ready to start sleeves.

Knitting in the Fifth Dimension

I had a student in my first sock-knitting class who said she was a two-dimensional knitter: she followed directions step-by-step, following each instruction in turn until her work was done. That made me realize that I'm a three- or four-dimensional knitter: I like to have a vague sense of how what I'm doing at the moment fits into the whole, of where I'm going and how I expect to get there. It's why I made the rainbow sock, to show where you begin (in white), and the order of the sections you knit as you construct the sock (in spectrum order: red, orange, yellow, etc.).

Last night, I may have broken through into the Fifth Dimension, going back in time to change the future.

As I pondered how to start the sleeves of my sweater, I was troubled by something: I didn't like the ribbing at the bottom. My favorite sweaters don't have ribbing; they have a straight silhouette, much like Brooklyn Tweed's seamless hybrid (and the sweater Matt is working on). I'm too far along to just start over, so I decided to alter the past.

I ran a circular needle through the stitches back down near the ribbing, just above a round of accent color. I then pulled out the accent yarn stitch by stitch, leaving live stitches on the needle at the bottom of my sweater. Now working in the opposite direction, I purled a round, switched to a contrasting color, and began knitting the cuff that I will hem on the inside.

I'm going to be a lot happier with this. And I think the fact that I skipped backwards to change what had already been done just makes the whole thing that much cooler.

The Gusset Experiment

As I've said before, the main reason I adore Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy is the nearly fool-proof method for making socks that fit. But it's only nearly fool-proof: many people prefer the fit of the standard top-down sock that uses a gusset for shaping, and affords a roomier fit around the top of the instep.

So the Gusset Experiment is based on this hypothesis: the fit of the sock can easily be improved if, at a point roughly one inch (or x rounds) before starting a short-row heel, you begin increasing every other round on both sides of the sock. Complete the short-row heel, and then begin decreasing on subsequent rounds until you've returned to your desired circumference. I also propose that x is generally equal to 20% of the number of circumference stitches, the same number as the width of the toe or the point of the heel in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' formulation.

My first pass at this was with some gray Trekking XXL, which knits up 8 sts/in for me on 2.25 mm needles (size 1). For my foot, that means 72 stitches for the circumference. I cast on 14 stitches (20%) for the toe, and began knitting the typical toe-up version of a banded toe.

After several inches into the foot, I checked my vertical gauge. 14 rows was a little over an inch, so about an inch before reaching my desired length, I began adding stitches on either side of the instep, increasing every other round for 14 rounds. (M1R, knit across instep, M1L). I then knit the short row heel over 36 stitches (50% of the original circumference count).

I learned that I prefer decreases at the opposite side of the gusset from my increases. So since I increased on the instep side, I would decrease on the heel side. (Knit gusset stitch together with first heel-side stitch, knit heel stitches, join last heel-side stitch with gusset stitch using SSK). When all the additional gusset stitches have been decreased away, I've reached the point where PGR recommends beginning the ankle ribbing.

These socks were feeling a bit snug -- they never would've fit properly if I hadn't put in the gusset increases. In the picture to the left, you can see how the gusset makes the sock wider at the point it needs to be. To keep the sock from pulling too tightly at the ankle, I didn't decrease all the additional stitches, and worked the ankle over 76 stitches instead of the original circumference of 72. (The back of the ankle is simple K2P2 ribbing; creates a better fit for me than continuing the dragon scale pattern all the way around).


Wider Wyvern Scales
Early in the year, a listsib mentioned the Wyvern Sock pattern. I glanced at it, thought it was interesting, but probably not for me. But then I began a pair of socks in gray Trekking XXL for my gusset experiment, and once I had completed the toe, the yarn said, "Make me into dragon scales."

Because the Trekking has a smaller gauge than the pattern calls for, I needed to widen the scale pattern; my scales are worked over 32 stitches instead of the 26 in the original pattern. My chart is below.


One sock down. One to go.

Amazing Week

This has been a fantastic week. I'll try to avoid writing endlessly about my new job. Suffice to say, it's wonderful. I love the place, and I adore my new colleagues. I'm exhausted, but I'm thrilled.

And The Stitch Stops Here is two blocks away. I dropped in after work on my first day and blew my raise on sock yarn and another Addi Turbo.


Koigu, Colinette, Tiny Toes, and Strapaz Cotton Effekt. I've already made socks in that color Strapaz Cotton before. I like it better than Fortissima.

My "Wider-Scale Wyvern" socks with the gusset experiment are coming along nicely (pictures and pattern to be posted soon), and the lower body is nearly done on the tweed sweater. It's time to cast on for the sleeves, but I haven't yet decided how I want to handle the stripes of color on the sleeves. Options include:

1. Don't worry about making the colors match.
2. Do ridiculous amounts of math to calculate sleeve length and the placement of the stripes.
   
3. Continue the body, learning to do steeks at the arm holes, pick up the sleeves at that point and knit them down to the wrist, matching colors from the body.
   
4. Cast on the sleeves provisionally at the upper arm, knit the chest (I'm in love with the look of the seamless hybrid), and then knit the sleeves downward.

I'm leaning toward option 4. What do you all recommend?

Revered for being acerbic?

You are Shetland Wool.
You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.

Take this quiz!

Tinking Time

I've been thinking for some time that Listsib JoVE is right, and I can make better-fitting socks by adding some stitches for a gusset. So I decided to experiment with the current sock project: a pair made from some gray and taupe Trekking XXL adapted from the Wyvern Socks pattern.

All was great for the increases. Almost an inch before I was ready to knit the heel, I began adding stitches on either side of the instep, increasing every other round for 14 rounds. I could tell by slipping it on that the fit was greatly improved. I made the heel, and then began decreasing. That's where things went wrong.


The red lines are there to highlight what I don't like. The ridge created by the increases suddenly angles to the left. And notice how the stitches to the left of the increase/decrease ridge seem to curve around, forming an arch? Yuck.

I think I'll be happier if I decrease someplace other than the point where I increased, maybe seven stitches over, on the "heel" side rather than the "instep" side. But getting back there is going to be painful, slowly un-knitting (or tinking) back to before the decreases I dislike.

Clogalicious

Before...


After...


For Mike, to replace his old pair, the first felted clogs I ever made. These are made with single strands of Lamb's Pride Bulky.

Comics and PBJ's

Normally when I get a cold, it starts as a weird feeling in my sinuses, progresses to a sore throat, adds some sneezing and other features, and works its way out as a cough. So when I developed a cough on Saturday, I figured it wasn't a cold. I was wrong; it's just working through my body backwards. So at least part of my week off is going to be spent trying to get over it before I start the new job.

I'm enjoying the sick day though. I got the first two volumes of Rising Stars from Amazon yesterday, and finished them both today while munching on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I feel like an 8-year-old and I'm loving it. Next I'm going to get some soup started, pick up some knitting, and watch some more episodes of Supernatural.

Game? What game?

I cast on for these during the OSU-Michigan game in November. It would be a better story to say that I finished them last night during the BCS Championship Game, but the socks were finished last week. And in defiance of a number of local ordinances, I didn't watch the game.

They're Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in variegated scarlet and gray. I hated it. The yarn was soul-crushingly thin. The colors were muddy. Luckily, I hit upon the idea of knitting it up double-stranded. The resulting socks, while butt ugly, are nevertheless strong and thick, and will please the heart of the OSU fan who gets them. (Technically, these were initially part of the "Socks for Co-Workers" project, but since the recipient had left for another job, his socks got a lower priority than the others).

If I ever make scarlet and gray socks again, I'd probably try to snag some Cider Moon Buckeye Blast. They've done a lot of work to make the colors keep their integrity.

Deadlines met

Yesterday was my last day at work. I'm uninsured for a week, and then I start at the new job.

As I mentioned before, my only serious Christmas knitting was for the people I worked with, but two projects were unfinished. I got them finished in time for my last day.

First, the socks made from Mountain Colors merino:

And second, the fingerless mittens, which Karl calls "programmers mittens."

Made from "Tundra" by Katia, half wool, half acrylic and rayon. These are kind of a mash-up, mostly inspired by Michael's "Medallion Mitts" but constructed using instructions from Pop Up Paws (although I'd think any mitten pattern with a thumb gusset would do). I think the wrists aren't long enough and the ribbing is off-center (see the close-up picture), but Karl likes them. So let's think of them as pre-release beta tests.

Knitting Along

Our Wednesday night knitting circle now has a name, "Sharing Needles," and a project: a sweater knit-along using Elizabeth's Percentage System. A couple people on the group haven't made sweaters, and I need to get over my sweater antipathy, so it's a great project to start the new year.

I'm making mine out of some Donegal Tweed generously provided by the Stash Fairy. I thought I would try to make the yoke interesting by adding some cables, but the yarn had other ideas: little stripes of accent color throughout the body.

Speedy progress initially, but now I need to set this aside and finish up the last of my Christmas knitting.

2006 in review

Knitting
Scanning through the pictures on my hard drive, it looks like I finished about 2 dozen pairs of socks this year, plus seven hats, six scarves, one clapotis, three pair of felted clogs (one pair a disaster), and one sweater. Most of which I've already talked about endlessly here (in the 89 blog posts I made in 2006).

Books
I read fewer books in 2006 than in any of the years I've been keeping track. In fact, I only read one book between the end of March and the beginning of September. Knitting did cut into my reading time, as did sudoku and kakuro -- I got in the habit of doing number puzzles rather than reading before falling asleep. I started off the year as usual, with lots of new books lined up on my shelf to be read, but I found it difficult to get into any of them. I just wasn't enjoying them, and I'd had such high hopes, so I put them down and hoped I would be in a more receptive mood later.

In September, I put the LibraryThing sidebar on my blog, on the theory that public exposure would cure my aliteracy. Since 60% of this year's reading was done since September, that might have worked.

Notables:

• Totally Joe. Not spectacular, but a plausible coming out story for teens in a post-Will & Grace world.
• Big Over Easy and Fourth Bear. Dumb jokes in an endless succession. I loved it. Chapter epigraphs are like Onion stories.
• Two series came to satisfying ends: Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy and Westerfield's Midnighters.
• The 2006 Best American Science & Nature Writing was the best I've read since 2003.
• Anansi Boys. This was one I had trouble getting into at the beginning of the year. But the audiobook was amazing. With a 30-40 minute commute to and from work, I predict 2007 will be the Year of Audiobooks for me.

Movies
Mike and I only made it out to see movies in theaters about 20 times last year. Favorites:

• Munich
• A Prairie Home Companion
• The Illusionist
• Little Miss Sunshine
  
• The Queen

I'd watch any of those again. And of the movies I saw for the first time on DVD this year, my favorite was probably 40-Year-Old Virgin.

The Magician

Noticed this on Matty's sidebar. I am ridiculously fond of on-line tests that offer identity assessments. Check it out: a half-naked man with wings. And what a package.

I am the Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

More Magnetic Poetry

Found the serial killer poem made from the children's set:

I saw and
I told my friend and
my dog where she is
  eating mud and
  dreaming of red
so if you fly
they will follow
              (1997 - children's set)

The word "will" is made from "wing+I+I." Some would say that's cheating, but I liked making words out of other words, and I'd let myself do it once per poem.

I also found this poem, which I'd forgotten about:

"Golem"

whisper hands
say the heart and
tell the mud in to man

cry inside
  silently

imagine that god
asks the sky to follow
the stars and moon down
  in dark rain
              (1997 - children's set)

"God" is made from "go+ed." I really like the line "tell the mud into man."

Magnetic Poetry

I'm starting to pack up my office, and this means taking down the various magnetic poems I have stuck around. (My tendency is to make poems out of the various kits and leave them in place).

These first two were poems I wrote with the words that came with a metal mug. The mug would get too hot to hold, so I moved the poems onto a filing cabinet.

"On the metal cup"
my head is void
my language iron
& bitter ice
morning's gift
is the dream of magic
and the elaborate
whisper of caffeine
            (Feb 1998)

"On the metal cup II"
I like my
winter brewed
black with freshly
ground desire and
poured steaming
into sweet dry
vision
             (Feb 1999)

This one was made using an abbreviated children's set. I was inspired by the juxtaposition of the words before you separate them, and I've hyphenated the words that are stuck together.

"A Leave-'em-Together Experiment"
the-turtle-friend
never-
laugh s
or whispers funny dream-candy
and if you-ask me
I have-want ed only [on+fly]
elephant-hat-magic
when we are together
              (1998)

Year's ago, S. and I were challenging ourselves to write disturbing poems using the children's set. Mine was about a serial killer; S.'s was about identity theft and ennui. I'll have to hunt for those.

Some Christmas Knitting

Actually, there was one command Christmas gift for family. Mom wanted felted clogs for Logan. I made him a pretend pair two years ago as a novelty gift (they matched the ones I made for his mom). But it's time for him to have a real pair of his own.

I was trying to adapt the adult size pattern, when it occurred to me: maybe someone had already done the work to create a kid's version. Huzzah. And the result:


I put the compact disc case in there for scale. Aren't they adorable? They knit up quickly, and felted very fast. The upper is some Lopi I bought at Halcyon, the bottom is "lilla lovikka (Alafoss Lopi)" -- which looks like someone found a warehouse full of Lopi and stuck a different label on it.

No Christmas Knitting

Granny Mary said she marked "CHRISTMAS KNITTING BEGINS NOW" over the first week in June on next year's calendar. Lots of other knitting bloggers are scrambling to complete projects. I don't really do lots of gift knitting for Christmas. Last year, I did try to save up socks, not giving them to the recipient until Christmas, but I didn't get a lot of joy out of that -- I mostly forgot which socks I intended for which person. I prefer to knit things, and then I give them to people when I've finished. So sorry, family, this year you're only getting (as David Sedaris says) "things of real value."

But I did plan to knit socks for my co-workers this year. I figured that my time with them was coming to an end soon, and I wanted to let them know how much I appreciated their support during the 10 months I was the agency's Interim Director (and to wish the new boss the best of luck). Things started off well: I sent them an email in late July asking for shoe sizes, and knocked off two pair pretty quickly. But then Sock Wars got in the way, one colleague left for a new job, and my attention got drawn into other projects (and into identifying my own next job).

Our Christmas party was Thursday. Three people got completed pairs of socks, the other two got yarn and a promise.

Not many pictures, alas. Vince got the green Opal socks, Bobbi the Widdershins that gave me math anxiety. Stephen got a pair of fibonnaci socks (like these, but in shades of green and shorter because I ran out of yarn). Karl isn't getting socks, but a pair of fingerless mittens adapted from the "Medallion Mitts" pattern in Knitting with Balls (I'd nearly finished one, but it was knitting up too small, so I'm going to try an adaptation that includes a gusset for the thumb).

Joel will get these -- made from Mountain Colors merino that I got from Stash Fairy. I added ribbing across the top of the foot because they were knitting up a bit too big. And I decided to try the slip stitch technique, normally used on the heel flap of top-down socks, to reinforce my usual short-row heel. I'm not pleased with the result. Not unhappy enough to rip back and do it over, but I probably won't do this again. Nice experiment to try, though.

This is likely to be my last post this weekend, so merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and happy long weekend to those who don't.

Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in

Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.

This mindfulness moment is brought to you by Thich Nhat Hanh, and I offer it as an explanation for why I've been so quiet. Like Ken said yesterday, it's been busy lately. I've had some interviews for a few new jobs, and while this is exciting, it's also scary. I've done a pretty good job not freaking out about it, but this involves doing nothing in my life that feels like stress. Even some knitting has felt like stress, because I feel pressure to Get These Things Done On Time. I hadn't even done any holiday shopping until today, the point at which continuing to not do any shopping was more stressful than hitting the mall.

So therefore I have nothing to write about.

Interviews are done. Both jobs seem great. I'm worried about how I'll choose between them if forced to. But meanwhile, I'll keep breathing and deal with that if only if I have to.

More untrue things I believe

If you sit on the lap of someone dressed as Santa Claus and ask for something, you'll get it.

I realize that I held this unexamined belief around 12 years ago. I was a children's librarian, and it was the day of the library's Santa Visit. One of our maintenance guys was Santa, and they were testing the camera by taking pictures with the staff on Santa's lap. When Santa asked what I wanted, I was about to reel off my standard joking answer -- "Three bedroom house with attached two car garage" -- when it hit me that the only way I was going to get one of those was if a relative died, and I was struck dumb, suddenly afraid of uttering the selfish curse that would kill off a loved one.

When I was a teenager, I knew prayer didn't work. And I knew long before that that there was no magic. I've known practically all my life that the men dressed up as Santa weren't the real Santa. But somehow, I'd kept believing that the universe will give you what you want if you ask a Santa for it.

Untrue things I believe

My dad makes it snow for my birthday.

Last shots fired

Sock Wars ended the Friday after Thanksgiving. A newbie assassin and slow post to Australia kept me alive to the end of the game. The survivors are supposed to be finishing the socks we're working on, so maybe I'll end up with Socks of Doom eventually. Here is the pair I finished for Taffy, my fourth and final victim.


Sock Wars had its moments. If it happens again, I probably won't join, but I'm glad I was part of it this year. If nothing else, I gained an appreciation for K3P3/K1P1 ribbing, and got lots of practice with traditional top-down construction. Now it's back to my toe-up ways.

Kristin Chenoweth

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.

Kristin Chenoweth is going to play the Madeleine Kahn role in a stage musical adaptation of Young Frankenstein. And this spring, there will be a sitcom pilot with Chenoweth and Nathan Lane playing sitcom hosts à la Regis and Kelly. (Please please PLEASE let it not suck).

More about Chenoweth's current life and career is in the "New York Times" today.

Yeah, my love of Kristin Chenoweth turns me into a shrieking queen. (So does the impending opening of Dreamgirls, by the way; I'm pretty sure it's not going to live up to expectation). OK, if I were a real fan, I suppose that I wouldn't have stopped watching "West Wing" in its last season, and that I wouldn't prefer to have my eyes gouged out than go see "Deck the Halls."

Out of touch

Each morning this week, I have had to start the day with a search for the meaning of a word. This morning, it was an acronym in an email message proposing a small group meeting at a conference. "Typical BOF format," the message said. Wikipedia to the rescue:

A BoF session, an informal meet-up at conferences, where the attendees group together based on a shared interest and carry out discussions without any pre-planned agenda.

OK, that makes sense, and I sort of picked up on that meaning from the context. But there were no contextual clues for yesterday's vocabulary word.

This is the central panel from Sunday's Unshelved comic. I had to keep staring at it. What is the verb in that sentence? "It's not a word," an IM buddy said. "It's 'pwns.'" So I googled. OK, a gamer thing, so no wonder I didn't recognize it. It seems unlikely to me that a cataloger (a knitting cataloger) would know and use this word casually, but I suppose that's the joke. Still, I found it disconcerting how far I had to go to get a joke written by and largely for members of my profession.

I'm glad I did, though. The Wikipedia entry on pwn is extremely interesting, especially (for me) the bit about pronunciation. It dredged up old graduate school interests* about how Internet communication is in this weird space between the spoken and written word.

* It floors me that crap I wrote on Usenet 14 years ago is out there to be found so easily.

Rings

Very early one morning in November 2001, Mike and I went outside to see the Leonid meteor shower. It was cold, and I was just about to head back in when Mike told me to wait, dashed back into the house, and came out with my birthday present: a silver ring with a Tree of Life design from the Abacus galleries in Maine. I'd loved these rings since the first time saw them, and it obviously meant a lot getting one from Mike (not just buying it for myself). For Christmas, I bought him one of the My Beloved rings in Hebrew that he liked in the "Signals" catalog.

One weekend this summer, when I got home from some outing I don't even remember, I took the ring off and stepped into the shower. I never saw it again.

I don't know if it fell down the bathroom sink, or got brushed into the trash while one of us was tidying the kitchen. I don't even remember where I took it off and set it down -- only that it wasn't on the nightstand where it normally is when I'm not wearing it. I knew it was missing within a day, but it was at least week before I could tell anyone except Mike that I thought it was gone. I felt its loss every morning when it wasn't there to put on when I got dressed.

It wasn't just something I could replace. A new ring would just remind me that I'd lost the old one. And besides, the artist had stopped making them (that's why the link above is to the pendant version of the design -- I can't find a picture of the ring). I'd thought maybe I would get a ring to match Mike's, but Mike came up with a better idea. When we were in Maine last week, we found a few remaining rings in the Abacus store in Portland's Old Port. They actually fit us (better than our old rings, in fact) and Mike suggested we replace mine and get a matching one for him.

He is a wonderful, wonderful man. He turned what could have been just a sad reminder of what a careless idiot I am into a joyous new symbol of why I love him.

Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair

The OSU Theater Department was performing Hair this past week. The production was pretty good, but the show, as you might expect, hasn't aged well. Meredith Lark (Sheila -- "Easy to Be Hard") and Jessica Podewell (Jeanie -- "Let the Sunshine In") were fantastic. But overall, rather than it being this groundbreaking, almost dangerous expression of youth identity and rebellion, it was more like some fairly engaging kids dressing up in their grandparents' clothes and playing hippie.

My biggest problem were the wigs. When people are celebrating their hair, they shouldn't be so obviously worried that it will fall off if they move too wildly. Most of the guys looked really uncomfortable.

You know what would work better? Not making it a period piece. Originally, "Hair" was like being in the presence of people "freaking out in the Village -- with music" (critic Leigh Carey wrote in "Rolling Stone"). I'd like to see college students making "Hair" their own, with their own hair. The themes are still relevant: racism, crushing inhibitions, the hypocrisy of euphemism, free but nevertheless unrequited love, the search (perhaps pharmaceutically-fueled) for meaning and spirit, and the very real threat of being sent to die for the society you're trying to reject. I'd like to see the students celebrating who they think they are, rather than celebrating with ironic distance who a previous generation thought they were.

(I should mention the lighting design. It was Jason "Scotty" Banks' MFA project, and it was stunning.)

Chain Reaction

There are times that I think the only reason we have cable is for GSN. We watched nearly every episode of What's My Line and got hooked on Lingo (we still miss Stacey and haven't accepted Shandi into our hearts). Now our DVR is set to record every episode of Chain Reaction.

The "Battle of the Sexes" format is odd, and occasionally the players have too much personality, but the game is fun to watch and play. And host Dylan Lane is a cutie pie.

You can play along with GSN shows while they're on the air, but I am perfectly content never watching TV shows at the time they're broadcast. WordLab (download or play online) is similar to Lingo, and I just discovered that GSN has a Shockwave version of Chain Reaction.

The Problem with Sock Wars

I got the Socks-of-Doom-in-Progress for my next victim, and have discovered yet another troubling fact of Sock Wars -- it's hard to knit like another person.

I received in the mail one completed sock, and a few inches of its mate. Tension was really loose on the completed sock (looser than the pattern calls for), and I had to go up three needle sizes to try to match. Nevertheless, when I was complete, this was the result:

My sock, the one on the left, is clearly smaller than the original sock.

I'm not sure what to do. This is a sloppy kill, and I think it would be bad form to just send these on and call myself the victor. I think I should try to knit a third sock, maybe unraveling the first sock to create a better fit? [Update from later in the evening: that's what I've done, begun working on a third sock out of this yarn so that my victim will get two socks of the same size.]

The yarn, by the way, is Lion Brand Magic Stripes, superwash wool and nylon, doubled. It horrified me when I first saw it, but it ultimately wasn't too bad. I had to do some fiddling, however, to try and make the self-striping do its work. In this picture you can see several places where I had to adjust one strand to get the color to match up on the other strand.

Morning Project

Woke up early this morning, the night's post-nasal drip threatening to make me cough and wake up Mike, so I decided to walk to Starbucks and get some coffee. And because I need to get exercise, I took the long way around, getting in a short 1.33 mile hike.

Nifty little map, huh? I made it at CommunityWalk. I've linked the picture to the map, where I might experiment with adding notes you don't care about, like exactly where the Starbucks is, where I cut through a Self-Storage parking lot because the road doesn't really go where the map indicates, and where the AOL people won't let me walk through their parking lot around the picturesque lake, making me have to walk in the wet grass in front of their building or try to dash across Henderson Road to stay on the sidewalk.

Cool Kids

One day last year, I got an instant message from one of the young luminaries of the library world. I felt very much as if the leader of the cool kids had just smiled and said "Hi" to me in the hall. I've just had that feeling again: Franklin liked my socks.

I like being liked. I may say that popularity doesn't matter much to me, but that's self-delusion. I crave being part of a group, and I thrive on the approval of others. Like Eve says, "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights and wrapping you up. To know, every night, that different hundreds of people love you. They smile, and their eyes shine. You've pleased them. They want you. You belong. Just that alone is worth anything."

Belong. What a powerful word. Belong not to a person ("Belong to you? That sounds medieval, something out of an old melodrama."), but to a group ("She has had one wish, one prayer, one dream -- to belong to us.")

That's me: Yves Harrington.

Hiking

My doctor has told me something I already know: I should exercise more. This is what I prefer to do, but it's tough to squeeze this in 4 times a week.

What is it? The output from S.'s GPS on the 4.5 mile hike we took today in John Bryan State Park near Yellow Springs.

I will always choose to live in a city or suburbs, but I really do miss having woods to walk through in my backyard.

Toe-up Sock Patterns

Bibliography of Toe-Up Sock Patterns

Wendy Johnson's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern

Uses short-row heels and toes, like my pattern. A similar, but more detailed pattern, the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula, was created by Amy Swenson for Knitty.com.

Kim Salazar's Sock Patterns

Salazar's method creates a toe that is more like the one you see in top-down socks. Many people prefer it, because there are no loops on the inside.

Judy Gibson's "You're Putting Me On" Socks

This was the first toe-up sock pattern I ever encountered, and it's a good one. Its one flaw is that you pick up stitches under the heel, and you can feel that ridge when wearing them. But the gussets help improve the fit for some people.

Brook Chenoweth Creel's Widdershins Socks

Very similar to Gibson's pattern. Heel is better, but trickier. To see how much trickier, check out Creel's blog. I recommend Mel Vassey's generic version of Widdershins since it's adaptable to different sizing options

Kelly Petkun's Two at Once, Toe-Up Sock

This sock uses an "Afterthought Heel," which is extremely easy and very attractive with self-patterning sock yarns. However, I think the heel cup in these instructions is too shallow. Dawn Brocco's adaption fits much better.

Mary Lycan's Sherman Sock

Another short row heel method, using stitch "encroachment." I don’t care for the final product, but it's worth trying for yourself. As with Widdershins, I recommend Mel Vassey's Sherman Sock Pictorial.

Strong Heel Socks
Published in Knitter's (72, Fall 2003). A toe-up variation is used in these patterns:

• Lollipop Socks
  
• Amy's Socks
  

Short Rows
There are many methods for closing the gaps that form when you knit short rows. Véronik Avery wrote a great article for Interweave Knits (Winter 2004, p96) that describes them in detail. I thought the Japanese Method -- using a safety pin to mark the turning yarn -- looked the best, but all those pins hanging there make it cumbersome to do. Some online instructions:

• nonaKnits
  
• Ask Athena
  
• Purlwise

Other Toes

• Patch Toe from Duffy's blog
• Star Toe from my blog

Thanks to Gerry for suggesting that I take this section of my class handout and post it separately.

Revised May 20, 2007