Due to cable problems that began late Thursday morning, I have been out of touch most of the weekend.  The situation is finally resolved though and things are back to semi-normal :)  Sorry I missed you all on Friday; hope everyone had great weekends!

I finished the socks!!!!

  Myria hazarded the opinion that I would probably promptly make another half dozen pairs.  Well, “promptly” is not too likely, but the rest of it’s about right.  I had been hoping that with a short cuff, I could get the pair out of one ball of Woolease.  It didn’t work out that way :(  I had to join the second ball shortly after I turned the heel on the second sock.  But, I guess that’s still not too bad.  We’ll see how well they wear before I decide whether this experiment has been entirely successful. 

But they fit and they feel good - snuggly and warm - very different than the cotton sports socks I’ve been wearing for the last 10 years and more like the knee-socks I wore in school.  Remember knee socks?  I’ve been thinking about learning to handle toe-up construction.  Then I could just get the two balls of Woolease and make a sock out of each one without having to worry about joining, splicing, etc.  Unless there’s a knot in the ball - grrrrr!!! - but that happens very seldom with Woolease.

As I move on with the afghan, I find that I’m using up all the bright bits first - because they’re the most fun to play with, natch :)  But I’m beginning to hit a point where I’m going to be doing more and more darks because that’s the bulk of the color and because that’s what I have left :)  A square really doesn’t take any time to whip up though so I’m hoping this will be ready to sew (and won’t that) be a fun job) by, say, Thanksgiving?  Something to shoot for anyway.

The shawl is drawing to a close though a re-count last night showed me that I have more rows to complete than I had thought.  Crapple!  I hate it when I do that.  Even so, it’s not that big an amount and I hope to get it finished this week.  We started Prince of Persia last night (fabulously beautiful - stunning graphics) and it will be the perfect thing to knit to.

I am absolutely dying to get to work on the poncho.  I pick up the shawl to work on and find myself fighting off White Buffalo Demons tempting me with the earthy scent of lanolin and the promise of thick warmth and comfort.  Not to mention their little Waterspun sidekicks, dancing around and promising mosaic delights.  I know I will be a better person for persevering and finishing the shawl (Ha!) - but the poncho is calling.  Calling….

I can’t decide whether she’s telling me she wants to learn how to use the thing, or simply thinks she’s keeping me from filling my lap with it - and thus taking up space that rightfully belongs to her.  Perhaps she just sitting in the sun - silly girl :)

Hope your Mondays are hopeful and promising!

I didn’t get any knitting done yesterday.  None.

But I got my hair cut, ate Chinese food and waded in the ocean.

Courtesy of Myria:

See you tomorrow :)

Jade and I danced all last night…urrrgh…  She was determined to sleep on me or as close to me as she could get.  Since I was having a restless night to begin with, this was somewhat problematic.  It got to the point where I’d toss (nudge, push, boot, etc…) her off and then wait 30 seconds for her to return and try it again.  And the funniest thing is that during the day, she’d be so insulted that you didn’t want to bask in her glorious presence that the first nudge would have been plenty; you wouldn’t have seen her again for hours.  Apparently there are “day” rules and “night” rules - as a good and loyal subject, I should make more effort to learn what they are!  Bah!

Mumble, grumble, moan, whine, yawn…

On the other hand, she and Goldie are definitely tolerating one another better these days.  Depending on what flavor of Friskies they get in the morning, and if the wind is just right and the stars are agreeable, they can sometimes be seen sharing the food bowl!

The problem with sticking to a few projects is that I worry that the blog gets boring :(  On the other hand, it means I actually finish things, so I hope you can deal with a little tedium.

The heel is turned and the decreases are done and it’s straight down the foot at this point.  As today is a “running around” day, I don’t know how much I’ll get done on this (or anything else) today, but it’s nearing completion and I’m hoping to be able to wear my very own first, knitted pair of socks by the weekend.

And, speaking of socks, barb-in-east-texas has kindly acquainted me with a couple of terrific links which I pass on to all of you sock (and potential sock) knitters.  First there’s this from The Knitting Zone.  There are tons of lovely patterns here, all wrapped up in a large .pdf file.  Second, there are the Porthole Socks.  I like these so much they’ll probably be the next pair I make.  I think these are just the rat’s behind :)

I’m working the last section of the Landscape Shawl and am still quite pleased with it.  The chevrons of contrasting texture are just gorgeous to both the eye and the hand.  I will probably do it differently next time though.  I’ve had a little trouble keeping the eyelets tidy, especially around the stockinette section.  Fact is, I’m not overjoyed with eyelets in the first place so on the next iteration I’ll probably replace them with an M1 and see how that works.  I may keep the edge eyelets, just for contrast.  Also, when I saw the picots along the edges of the shawl, I thought they’d be a pain in the butt to do - but they’re not!  They’re simple and don’t take any time to execute.  I’ll keep those too :)

And to round off yesterday’s festivities, I got another three squares crocheted for the afghan.  Once the above two projects are complete, it will be the poncho and the afghan for a while, in an attempt to get them both finished before the truly cold weather arrives.  Well, maybe a couple of brief time-outs for a couple pairs of slippers.  But that’s all! 

Heheh…right!

I have not worked on the poncho, much as I have wanted to because I swore I’d get the socks and the shawl done first.  However, I did succumb to this last night…

I reduced a cake of the White Buffalo to these three big balls of yarn.  I had worried about dividing those six strands into three sections.  I was afraid I’d wind up tangling things up to hell and gone and be left with pink, wooly spaghetti!  But it turned out not to be a problem.  There were no tangles at all and only one strand broke.  Because of the simplicity of splicing this stuff, that wasn’t any big deal.  So when the socks and the shawl are done, I’m ready to get on with the poncho - but not until then :)

But it was awfully nice to get my hands back on that wool, that lovely, sheepy smelling, warm, pretty fiber.  Maybe I’ll have to wind another few balls tonight!

For those of you who were worried about it (heheh…), I present the second sock…well, at least part of it anyway.  I finally succeeded in casting on for the thing and managed to get a decent start on it before I was completely waylaid :)

There was this swatch, see.  I just wanted to see if the colors would work and if the design would show up well. 

I was using the deep pink in a double strand when I started and you can see pretty clearly - about halfway up - where I decided to see if a single strand would work better.  I feel that it did.  Also, the light pink yarn has been reduced to two strands instead of three (the yarn, as it comes in its cake, is composed of 6 strands).  This makes it around aran/heavy worsted weight.  Things worked up well on size 8 (US) needles.

The only problem now was that I don’t have a size 8 circular needle long enough to accommodate 176 stitches of moderately stiff yarn.  But, having been completely and utterly seduced while working the swatch, I couldn’t just leave it alone.  I had to cast on.  So I decided that the poncho could be made in four panels of 89 stitches each and sewn together at the end.  This also gives me the option of having a front opening so I don’t have to take it on and off over my head which is do-able but not preferable.

So this happened:

This would be one front or back side panel and I would reverse the direction of the pattern elements on the other side.  I’m pleased with how well it came out and how nice and flat it is.  I realize I could probably get a neater looking design if I worked this in stockinette, but I want the flat bottom on the fabric pieces.  I will switch to stockinette for the main body, but haven’t decided what to do - if anything - with the top edges.  Plenty of time to figure it out, though :).

Now that I have worked out the pattern, the stitch count and the gauge, I can finish my sock and my shawl before coming back to work on this.  At least that’s what I hope for.  I want to finish the Landscape Shawl and I really want to finish the socks.  The seductive, siren song of the poncho can go stifle itself (imagine Archie Bunker voice) until I’m done with these projects :)

Are you buying any of this?  Didn’t think so…

Goldie seems rather thoughtful this morning.  Perhaps he is unaware that it’s a holiday and he doesn’t have to go to work :)  I’ll give him a treat in a little while - that always seems to make him happy.

Finally, a major upgrade was done on the blog software this weekend.  Everything seems to be working nicely, but I would appreciate it if you let me know of any new problems.  Also, there appears to be a strange link out there somewhere to the “Open Cable Scarf” that led to the blog software attempting to load the entire blog!  For the time being, this has been circumvented; if you hit that link you’ll wind up at the most recent blog post.  If you are looking for the scarf pattern, just click on “Main” and then go to “Patterns” on the sidebar.  Click on “Open Cable Scarf” and you’re there :)

Happy Monday holiday!

I did work on the shawl yesterday but not enough to present you with a picture of anything much that you haven’t seen before.  I also tried to cast on for the second sock last night.  Those of you who’ve been with me for a while will remember that casting onto DPNs is something I have trouble doing twice in a row.  The effort came a cropper - as I should have known - and so was dispensed with.  So today I’ll take you on the walk through the park that I went on yesterday afternoon.  It was…

...beautiful - quiet and refreshing.  It’s an odd thing too because the park lies off the very busy main street, though it is tiny and tucked into a little pocket you wouldn’t even see if you didn’t already know it was there.  It’s location is Methuen, MA, just a little south of the New Hampshire border and sits in the middle of a very old mill complex.

I have been seeing quite a few “sky” pictures on other blogs, so I contribute this - taken at about 12:45 PM yesterday afternoon.  I love the moon when it stays up all day :)

It was interesting to notice that the trees that stand in shade most of the time are still lush and green while the trees that get the sun are beginning to acquire brighter hues.  There hasn’t been a lot of color turning yet.  However, there are occasional splashes as in these piebald maple leaves…

And this anonymous plant which was quite close to the ground:

The Spickett River isn’t anything grand as rivers go but it served to help power the mills as far back as the 1700’s when it was first dammed.  Damming rivers always makes me think of breaking horses and training them to harness and bridle.  It may not be a necessarily damaging process and much good may come of it - but neither the river nor the horse is the same afterwards.

It’s a little like walking back in time.  The mill complex dates back 300 years and, looking down the river, you can almost imagine yourself there.  However, just beyond the trees in the far distance of the above picture is a quite modern office building.  Still, if you squint a little, you can pretend it doesn’t exist :)

The river is shallow, at least in the vicinity of the park - varying between one and two feet in depth.  It does move right along, however, mainly due to the impetus of the falls below the dam.  I didn’t see any fish, but I am poor at spotting such things.  Myria has a much keener eye than I for that sort of exercise.

For example:

Myria had been chasing a woodpecker who was determined not to sit for a portrait, when she saw this about 30 feet up, glittering like an early Christmas decoration.  I imagine the fact that it was so high up is what kept it in such pristine condition.  I never would have seen it, nor would my camera have been capable of capturing it.  Nice to have a friend along :)

For all the green trees though, it is definitely fall and things are definitely winding down.

And the true owners of the area survey their domain with equanimity and, almost it seems, boredom born, probably, of seeing many people and many seasons come and go…

What is it about pigeons that makes them all seem to be female?  Now blue jays - those are definitely male!

At the end of the park is the falls.  There is something incredible about water pouring over stone.  As I stood watching this I remembered the saying about the river you observed yesterday not being the river you observe today.  As applied to life - my life in particular - this is comforting only if I remember not to attach myself to things and, literally, to go with the flow. 

Then, it is exhilarating!

The Library dropped me an e-mail that walker’s Mosaic Knitting was in so I went and fetched it yesterday afternoon.  My goodness, the possibilities are endless!  All kinds of fascinating abstract designs, which I had expected, but even a few representative ones (like stylized eagles and dogs) which I hadn’t expected at all.  But there are also limitations that I hadn’t thought about.

The funny thing is, I had sort of an idea of what design I wanted to use - a symbol actually.  I had been playing with it for a couple of days, trying to figure out how I would chart it for mosaic knitting.  This is it (without the banner):

Artistically, it has the same interwoven basis as many Celtic and Scandinavian designs (and turned on its narrow end, might make an interesting cable) but this symbol is Buddhist and represents, among other things, the relationship between wisdom and compassion at the time of enlightenment.

Well, guess what?  The book already had this symbol rendered into a mosaic motif.  The symbol has been tipped 45 degrees to accommodate the knitting but it’s the same symbol.  And, it turns out that it isn’t difficult at all to knit.

But there is a problem in that the design is 40 rows high.  If I were working this in worsted weight yarn, that might not be an issue, but the weight of the White Buffalo (this would be for the poncho) - even split in half - is such that the design would cover a great deal more of the surface of the poncho than I want it to.  For one thing, I’m not sure I have enough of the Waterspun left to adequately cover the design.  I may try to arrange things differently.  Instead of running the design around the entire inside of the rectangle, I could just run it across the bottom of the front and back pieces.  It would still be large, but perhaps not overwhelmingly so.

An interesting aside:  the yarns I used in the swatch are so close in tone that, viewing the knitted piece, my eye has a hard time seeing the pattern.  However, the pattern shows up quite clearly in the photograph - an amazing (to me) example of the camera seeing things differently than the eye does!  Presumably, using more contrasting colors (the very light pink of the White Buffalo and the very intense pink of the Waterspun) the design will be more apparent to the eye.

I also finished the sock yesterday.

This fits perfectly (yes!) and feels really nice in my clogs.  I’ll be making the mate over the weekend - hopefully.  These are based on Dawn Adcock’s Stout and Short Woolease Socks and were worked with size 3 needles; the leg was shortened and the foot was lengthened.

Got a bit of work done on the Landscape shawl - a couple more repeats and I can start the reverse stocking stitch section, which is the last section of the shawl.  The size isn’t quite what I had expected, but I’m a big girl and perhaps that’s enough to mess up the perspective.  It’s also difficult to get an accurate read when the thing is all bunched up on a circular needle.  Perhaps I should put it on a string so I can stretch it out and see what the width is really like.  I did that with the sock to make sure that ribbing was really going to make it around my fat ankle - but that was only 48 tiny stitches :)

I hoping to get out a little later to take some nice fall photographs.  It’s a beautiful day - perfect for picture taking!

Oh, and to make things even better, I went out to the kitchen a little while ago, and who do you think was sitting in the tree right outside the window?  A tiny downy woodpecker!  I couldn’t determine sex because this was a juvenile, but (s)he stayed for several minutes, moving up and down the bare branches and hammering away - looking for bugs, I’m guessing.  It was so cool to watch!

Of course as autumn progresses and temperature drops, I find my thoughts turning more and more to socks and slippers.  I am determined that this is the year I’m going to make both of us pairs of wool slippers - I just have to decide on what pattern.  The socks are a more immediate fascination and yesterday, I succumbed again.

Have you all seen this list from Socknitters?  Just about every type, style and material you could possibly want.  I’m still pretty rough around the edges as a sock knitter, but with resources like this I could probably knit a sock for Paul Bunyan if necessary.

I have tentatively decided to go with Woolease as a sock yarn,  Yes, I know the wear will probably not be the same as with some of the legitimate sock yarns - but I can’t afford to pay $12 for the privilege of using them.  They are lovely, bright and colorful and almost entirely out of my “reasonable” range. The above list had patterns for many socks made with Woolease which is inexpensive and easy to find (and of which I also had an acceptable color in the stash) so Woolease it was :)

Note: This stuff amazes me.  I’m using an old stash of Woolease for the Landscape shawl and am getting 4 sts/inch on size 10 needles.  On the size 3s I’m using for the socks, I’m getting 7 sts/inch and both materials look lovely.  The sock fabric is, of course, a bit denser than the shawl’s :)

I have made stockinette-leg socks and have finally decided that I don’t care for them.  I like my socks to be ribbed over all of the leg length (ribbed for my pleasure?) rather than just at the top, so that was something I played with.  The sock starts with the standard K2 P2 ribbing over 48 stitches.  Good enough for the top couple of inches but too boring for the rest of the leg so I switched over to K6 P2 ribbing after the cuff.  I hadn’t gone very far before I decided that was pretty dull too, so I added a bobble in the center of each rib, every 6 rows to make things more interesting - a little awkward on DPNs but do-able so long as I only had to worry about it every 6 rows :)

Then came the heel flap and the heel turn.  They went just fine but I never go through this part of a sock without experiencing a feeling, almost, of awe of the person (or, over time, persons) who figured out how to do this in the first place - bend the tube at a right angle).  My head knows how the knitting works - but my heart thinks it’s magic :)

I worked on this most of yesterday and I’m sorry it isn’t finished - I really wanted to get it done so you could see the whole thing today.  But it was getting late and I was getting tired and I was…

This is a weird thing to me.  I’m not a tight knitter by any means.  If I have to adjust needle size to get gauge, it’s usually to go down.  But, apparently, put fine DPNs in my hands and I turn into cramp-knitter.  I find myself knitting so tightly that the yarn practically bleeds.  And of course my fingers, wrists and shoulders all complain, sometimes quite loudly, as well.  I guess I just need more practice knitting socks - so I can relax.  That’s probably exactly it too - I know I can successfully cast on to DPNs and I know I can turn a heel; I’ve done both things before.  But both those things also give me trouble from time to time so I never think about “socking” without worrying…a little anyway.

And yet, it’s fun.  I just need to relax about it :)

Goldie has the right idea about relaxing, but I would never fit on the back of the recliner :)