Knitting vagaries - we all have them :)  I ran smack into a couple of mine yesterday when I was working on a couple of things - both of them in the round.  One was on DPNs and the other on a circular needle.

You know how they tell you to join and place a marker to indicate the beginning of the round?  I never do that.  I use the tail of the cast-on in conjunction with the end of the stitches on the needle over it to show me where the starting point is.  And it’s always worked great…until lately.

I don’t know what happened, but I’ve been obsessing, in a minor, harmless way, over hanging yarn ends.  Suddenly, a few weeks ago, they started driving me bats!  It’s like my knitting is sticking its tongue out at me.  Yarn tails never bothered me before.  I’d do the thing, hat, scarf, whatever and that cast-on tail would just hang there from the bottom of the work until I was done.  The cast-off tail would get woven in and then the cast-on tail - in that order.  It was neat and easy.  Now, I get several rows into the work and find myself waiting until there is enough to the piece to reasonably weave in the cast-on tail.  I will stay up and knit just to be able to get rid of the thing.  Certifiable, I know…

See that red yarn on the left?  That’s the beginning of the round.  I forget all about the fact that I use the tail as a marker and just weave that sucker in as soon as I can.  And it usually hits me about half way through the next round that I don’t know where the end is.  Much cussing and gnashing of teeth ensue as I count back (under some circumstances, tink back - in which case gnashing and cussing are joined by snide and nasty commentary) to the beginning.  Then I lop off a length of some seriously contrasting yarn and loop it through a stitch in a lark’s head knot to be my new point of reference.  You see what I’ve done?  I’ve woven in a hanging piece of yarn and replaced it with two hanging pieces of yarn.  Oy…

I mentioned this Sandal Socks pattern earlier this week.  I have fallen distractedly and besottedly in love with this sock and nothing would do but that I make an attempt.  I really should have waited until I knew what I was doing :)

The author notes that because of the stranded colorwork, the sock should be made a bit larger than you would normally do because the stranding decreases the ability of the fabric to stretch.  Fine, the pattern calls for size 5 DPNs.  I’ll use size 6s - that will open things up a bit.  The pattern says the sock will fit a woman’s small and calls for casting on 40 stitches.  I’m not a woman’s small.  Depending on the shoe, I’m not even small enough to be a women’s large.  Okay, we’ll just up that cast on to 52 stitches.  That should do it!  Right?

That did it alright.  I have a sock, well, a partial, that a family of four could live in harmoniously.  I could put this on over my clogs.  I could use this as a garage…

On the other hand, the color changes are nice and neat and the stranding isn’t too bad either - except for the heel flap.  I may eventually make these socks in colors bright enough to send Bozo the clown screaming into the sunset.  But I will never, never, never strand in flat knitting again.  Not gonna do it.  The checks are tres cool and I love them.  And when I figure out how to do this thing right (I know, find a pattern that works and adapt the colors and patterns) I’ll use them - in the circular sections.  That dad-blamed heel flap is just going to have to live its life as a solid color.

We won’t even discuss pausing to join a new color and being unable to locate the free needle for five minutes because it was behind my ear…

Laurie over at Lorenzo Knits has tagged me for a meme.  Because it’s about music, I can’t resist :) 

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to (I won’t be tagging anyone else, but if you’re inclined to this meme…).

1.  Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture by Felix Mendelssohn.  This was the first piece of classical music that explained itself to me and I love it to pieces.  I know it backwards and forwards but if the radio plays it, I will sit and listen to the whole thing, even if I reached the supermarket 10 minutes ago.  If I’m looking for new audio equipment, this is what I bring for testing purposes.

2.  Strangers Like Me by Phil Collins.  This was from Disney’s Tarzan.  Actually, I like all the music in the show but this, with its echoes of fear and loneliness segueing to rising hope makes me shiver.

3.  You’d be So Nice to Come Home to by Cole Porter.  This is one of the best sweet/sexy songs ever written and my favorite version of it is the rendition Diane Keaton offers up in Radio Days - which is probably also my favorite Woody Allen film.

4.  Shameless, by Billy Joel.  The funny thing is, it’s the Garth Brooks version that does it for me - absolutely electrifying.  I never heard Joel’s own rendition until much later and it seemed flat and insipid in comparison.

5.  Talk  This 1994 album by Yes is a concept album.  All the pieces flow one into another and related to a central theme, in this case, finding what life is meant to be and to hold.  What impresses me most is the blend of rock and classical elements into a harmonious and triumphant whole.  I wouldn’t have believed it could be done until I heard this.

6.  Christmas in Sarajevo  This was Trans Siberian Orchestra’s first album and like the above entry, is a concept piece.  The story is of an angel whom God has sent to find the one thing that best represents the good that has been done in the name of Christmas.  In one part of the story (and the angel encounters many stories), a girl is standing out in the street, in the snow, alone late on Christmas Eve.  Someone tells a bartender about her saying “...on this night of all nights, if one could be home, they’d be already there.”  This is another piece that blends contemporary and classical elements to magnificent effect.

7.  The Last Time I saw Paris by Jerome Kern.  A beautiful, haunting song about memories of a lovely city changed forever by war.

Goldie and I wish you a wonderful weekend.  Romp with your pets :)

Good morning!  I’m feeling so disgustingly perky this morning I’m almost offending myself :) 

Almost…

I’ve been working on a Dobby Hat.

I like it, even the stripes.  I knit it in the round (it is written to be knit flat, but I’m a lazy sod and didn’t want to sew a seam) and I extended the ribbing a bit so that it could be folded up and still be wide enough to cover the ears.

It’s a fine hat but it’s not quite what I wanted.  It’s not…erm…eccentric enough.  So now I’m wondering what would happen if I employed short rows along the length past the top of the head.  Would that make the hat curve in a bizarre but charming fashion?  Only one way to find out :)

At some point over the last week, the Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading and my diet conspired in my unconscious to produce this.  I take no credit and accept no blame; the little buggers are just using my fingers.  However, I will offer profound apologies to Oscar Hammerstein :)  If you know the tune to My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music, you might want to hum along :)

My Favorite Tastes

Sauces on pasta,
And crisp chow mein noodles.
Ice cream with butterscotch,
Oodles and oodles!
When I was young, it was library paste.
These are a few of my favorite tastes.

Bread rich with butter,
And all kinds of cheeses.
Pizza that makes me
Fall down on my kneeses.
Turkey and stuffing, in golden juice bastes.
These are a few of my favorite tastes.

Oreo cookies and pot roast with gravy.
Rich, hearty soup made with ham and beans, navy!
Pastry that adds inches
On to my waist,
These are a few of my favorite tastes!

When the world bites,
And I’m hungry,
Feeling less than cool -
I simply remember my favorite tastes
And then I just drown in drool!

Have a very musical Wednesday :)

and we’re here to help…

Note:  My apologies to those of you on dial-up; this post is rather picture-heavy.

Well, the great stash organization finally got under way yesterday afternoon.  My goodness, I’ve got a lot of crap!

This is just about everything - all the stuff from under the coffee table, and all the stuff from the closet and the cabinets.  The only stuff that isn’t there is the current work.  I piled everything on the bed and, let me tell you, that layer is about 2 feet deep.  As you can see, I tend to group things in bags because it keeps the yarn from getting dusty and snaggy.

At the end of about 4 hours, I was beginning to approach some kind of order :)

Starting at the lower left and moving clockwise, we have the Woolease (worsted and sport weight), crochet cotton, acrylic chenille (anybody know what this stuff’s good for besides making you tear your hair out?), a bit of lace weight, a bunch of novelty stuff and some sock yarn.  These were all assigned their own little bags.

Then came the cottons:

They consist of a great deal of Classic Elite Spotlight, some assorted stuff, a fair amount of both Sirdar Primavera and Paradiso, a bunch of craft cotton and some assorted odds and ends.  Those got split by weight/type.  I also found a bag full of sport weight cotton that I’d entirely forgotten about - that’s it, in front of the bin.  Very nice stuff and, now that I know it’s there, something to think about.

These are the wools.  Except for the White Buffalo (the pink wheels there), I don’t have much of any one thing and, like the cottons, I tend to accumulate a fair amount of Classic Elite stuff because the mill is right here and closeouts are irresistible :)  I was pleased to find that I have more Dulaan wool than I had imagined and am, even now, thinking about trying to find interesting ways to use it.

These are the synthetics and this is only about a fifth of the pile as it spreads out in every direction from here :)  This also doesn’t count the huge bag of Simply Soft off to the side, or the Woolease on the bed.  This pile is 90% Red Heart with a few Bernat items here and there.  This got sorted by color: blacks, pinks, greens, whites and creams, reds and purples/blues.  There is one solitary skein of mustard yellow and there are no oranges at all.

I finally got everything put away by about 8 PM, having started at about 3 PM and having taken an hour for supper (wonderful supper - swordfish and asparagus!).  Of course, going through this largesse made me think about all the things I’d like to do with it :)  And I did take a brief break at one point to look something up.  Remember I was blithering about socks last week?  Have you seen these?  Or these?  Yowza!!!

I finished up the little hat and I think it’s cute as the dickens :)  It should fit anyone from a toddler to an eight-year old and it’s called Blossom.  She is modelled here on the bottom of an empty 2-liter Fresca bottle :)

Blossom

Materials

About 4 oz. light worsted – in two balls, Color A
About 2 oz. light worsted – in two balls, Color B

Crochet hooks size G and K
Double pointed needle or circular, size 10.5
Tapestry needle

Note: Yarn is used double for hat.  The flower is worked with a single strand.

To start, wrap your yarn around your fingers a couple of times.  Working with the K hook, draw the yarn through from behind the loop and sl st to loop. 

Round 1:  Ch3 three (counts as first dc) and then make 11 more dcs in loop being careful not to catch the loop yarn as you work.  Carefully, take the hanging end of the loop yarn and pull gently until all your stitches are arranged around the center point and the hole has been closed up (thanks Barb – that’s an invaluable tip!).  Join with sl st, ch3.  12 stitches.

Round 2:  Dc in same st as ch3, 2 dc in next st and in each st around, join, ch3.  24 stitches.

Round 3:  Dc in same st as ch3, (1 dc in next st, 2 dcs in following st)  around, join, ch3.  36 stitches.

Round 4:  Dc in same st as ch3, (1 dc in each of next two sts, 2 dc in following st) around, join, ch3.  48 stitches.

Remove crochet hook from work and insert your 10.5 knitting needle into the loop.  Pick up and knit 47 more stitches around the circumference of the hat - in other words, one stitch for each dc.

Knit one round.

Switch to K2, P2 ribbing until ribbing measures about 4.5 inches.  Switch to color B and continue in ribbing for another 2 inches.  Bind off in pattern.

Flower

Round 1:  With a single strand of A and the G hook, repeat the beginning procedure to create a ring of 12 dcs, pulling yarn through gently, as above, to close up the hole.  Join last dc to ch3 with sl st.  Switch to color B.

Round 2:  Ch3.  Work 3 dc in same st, ch3 and sl st in same st as dcs.  One petal made.  Sc in next st.  Sl st into next st and work ch3, 3dc, ch3 in this stitch.  Continue around until you have 6 petals.  Break off color B.  Attach flower to center top of hat.  That bump in the middle of the flower in the picture is a French knot - add or not as you please.  Or a little button might be cute.

Of course, if you’re making this hat for a little boy, you could attach a pom-pom or a tassel instead of the flower.  Just don’t tell him the hat is called Blossom :)

Using color B, embroider a chain stitch around the circumference where you picked up the stitches to knit.  Weave in the ends, fold up the brim and you’re good to go :)

She:  How did you sleep?
Me:  Pretty good except I had to get up around 3:30 to take a mammoth pee.
She:  You peed a mammoth?

I was farting around with things last night (yeah, something new) while watching The Legend of Zorro (too long, very slow and with none of the fire of the original film).  I’ve been trying to find a new hat to make - something a little different than the ones I’ve been churning out and had spent part of the day looking at both knitted and crocheted patterns without finding anything that tripped my trigger.

So I picked up a double strand of worsted weight yarn (in this case, Caron Simply Soft) and a size K hook and started playing.

I chained 4 and then worked 11 dcs into the 4th chain from the hook.  12 dcs.  Next round, 2 dcs in each dc around - 24 dcs.  Next round, 2dcs in every second dc, 1 dc in the others - 36 dcs.  And a final round working (2 dcs in next stitch, 2 dc - one in each of the next two stitches) around - 48 stitches total.

Don’t end off, but remove the hook and place a size 10.5 knitting needle in the loop (circular or double points - your preference.  As you can see, I’m using double-points) and, working in the back of the loops, pick up and knit 47 stitches - 48 stitches total.  This worked out nicely for me as I don’t like having too many stitches on one needle so there are 12 stitches on each of the DPNs - perfect!

Then I began K2, P2 ribbing.

I haven’t decided quite how to end this or whether this should have a fold back brim (I am kind of leaning towards that though).  I want there to be some contrasting yarn in there somewhere, but haven’t quite decided where yet - maybe that fold back brim?  And I have to plug that hole in the top somehow - no holes in the hat!

I’ll keep you posted :)

I ran into a couple of things I thought I’d pass along.  The first is Samorost 2.  I mentioned the original game in this post and it is still on the web.  Samorost 2 continues the adventures of the same little guy.  The opening sequence is particularly engaging as the little guy goes off in pursuit of his dog, stolen by aliens to power a fan.  However, that’s all you get on the web, the opening sequence.  Samorost 2 is for sale and not terribly expensive.  I admit I’m considering it as I love the artwork and figuring things out is a lot of fun.

The other site I want to mention is Pandora.  Called “The Musical Genome Project”, it is a music site where you can custom design your own “radio” station to play only the artists you like.  It’s a very cool idea and, presumably, will grow and multiply until it becomes a subscription service.  Ooops - how did that bit of cynicism get in there?  Anyway, it’s still in the early stages and its range is pretty good although it’s still wanting depth.  Entering “Placido Domingo” did indeed get me a performance by that gentleman - of Christmas music, presumably the only thing of Domingo’s they have access too.  One of its coolest features is that, based on the artists you select, it can suggest other artists to you - ones you might enjoy and want to check out.  It’s quite an idea and if you use the internet for music (and I do), you might want to have a look (listen?).

This has become the busiest dish in the kitchen; I’m in it two or three times a day, on average.  And, as of this morning, I have lost 8 pounds!  Whee!

Have a great weekend :)

In Celebrations of Groundhog Day, Grace’s Poppies has issued an invitation to participate and contribute to an on-line virtual poetry reading, poem of your choice to be posted to your blog today, February 2, 2006.

This isn’t much of a contribution but I wanted something fun and this was the best I could come up with.  What can I tell you?  It makes me laugh :)

See you tomorrow!

The Airborne Chibi

We’re big believers in Airborne® around here.  It’s a preparation full of vitamins and herbal supplements which is purported to help ward off colds and flu.  I use it every day when I’m on a ship, not to mention airplanes, waiting rooms and doctor’s offices.  Myria, having had pneumonia a couple of years back, and having had a bad time with it, likes the stuff too.  And, it seems to do a fairly good job.  Thing is, if you take the stuff, eventually you’re going to wind up with an empty container - like this:

Now, if you have a clever partner (which I do!) they might look at this empty tube thoughtfully and ask you if it wouldn’t be a good container for tapestry needles or markers or any other small knitting accessory that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle?

Aha!  Brilliant!

So I appropriated the empty tube, measured it, did a swatch and knitted a little sleeve -

And voila!

At first I thought the whole Chibi would fit inside but it’s just a bit too tall.  No matter.  The tube makes a nice little case with a snug fitting lid and I can find lots of ways to use it.

I know, not a world beater - but fun anyway :)

For the sleeve I used Lionbrand Magic Stripes sock yarn and size 2 DPNs.  Cast on 32 stitches, join and work in K2, P2 ribbing until you reach the length you want and then bind-off in pattern.

Cripes, next I’ll be decorating tissue boxes and toilet paper rolls :)  Not!