I thought the Thanksgiving weekend was supposed to be the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Did any of you happen to go out yesterday? We decided to hit the local electronics store because of a popular item that was on sale. This item is so popular, in fact, that it seemed altogether more prudent to go out yesterday than to wait until today and risk it having been sold out.
It was more like a kamikaze run than a shopping trip. The parking lot was full of people who had nowhere to park, so they were just circling endlessly. Shark parking at its finest. Periodically someone would break for a space opening up somewhere in the lot and God help you if you got between them and that space and about half the time the space would be claimed by someone who hadn’t been circling nearly as long but who just had the confounded luck to be in a better position. You could hear the agonized wailing and gnashing of teeth from the former and the smug chuckles of the latter. Human drama unfolding…
Ugh… We made a solemn vow that weekend shopping was out until after the holidays. If this weekend was nuts, I can’t begin to imagine what next weekend is going to be like. There are going to be hostage situations in the parking lots, I’m sure.
Dad’s socks - finished!
I got Dad’s socks finished and brought them over to him yesterday morning. He seemed pleased and pronounced the color perfect. I hope he enjoys them and that they keep his feet warm. I told him he could chuck them in the washing machine without any problem (Woolease - 80% acrylic, 20% washable wool). Then he mentioned that he did all his washing in hot water.
All of it.
I’m not sure a hot wash would do it - maybe they’ll be fine. He doesn’t have a dryer and that’s probably a good thing as he’d probably have that on the “inferno” setting too. I’ll keep you posted but I may have met the man who could kill an acrylic sock.
Sigh…
As I mentioned Friday, I frogged the scarf one last time and cast on to size 8 (US) needles. Of course I couldn’t resist futzing with the pattern again but it seems to be working out nicely this time.
Masculine enough?
Over 33 stitches, the pattern evolved into squares of stockinette framed by rows of seed and columns of Tweed mock-rib and, finally, the yarn seems to agree with my choice of pattern and needles! I think it looks decidedly manly (I hope) and will be appropriate for one of the two guys on my list.
There is, however, a small issue. This particular deep, evergreen shade is crocking onto my hands and my birch needles. I don’t really care if the needles are stained with dark green dye - but I don’t want it coming off on any other yarn I may wish to use these needle with. The dye does wash off my hands easily with soap and warm water - but how would I clean the needles? Can it be done without risking the possibility of them warping into pretzels? Of course I’m also going to have to wash the scarf before I can make a gift of it and I can just imagine what the water’s going to look like. That’s not really a problem though - at least I don’t think it is. Mostly I’m concerned with my beloved birches.
Has this happened to any of you good folks? Any advice you’d care to share?
Birth of a red, cabled mitt
A pair of cabled mitts for the gift list. I was thinking about this particular woman the other night and realized that she always wears (and looks smashing in) strong, clear colors. The choice of color for the mitts then became perfectly obvious. I’m particularly enjoying working on these as the shade is especially rich and luscious :)
Ever notice how often we use food terms and descriptions to talk about our yarns?
Reflection
I kinda thought that the cup, reflecting the light from the flash, said it all - Hah!
Happy Monday folks!
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murphy’s oil soap will take care of stains on wood needles without any problem- i’ve used it on bamboo, birch, and rosewood with good results-
your dad’s socks look great and i hope he enjoys wearing them- the scarf is definitely a ‘manly’ pattern- interesting but not fussy-
i won’t even think about holiday shopping yet- will wait until the 24th when i panic and find parking lots and store shelves both empty!! my dilly-dally personality extends to shopping too and we would probably go without if it wasn’t for the blessings of shopping online and ordering from catalogues-
stay happy-
Barb - Oh my - thanks for the MOS mention; I hadn’t even thought of that. I will definitely pick some up the next time I’m out - which will be soon as I’m almost out of coffee filters. Horrors!
hehe, running out of coffee filters can lead to some all time ingenuous substitutions which can in turn lead to some very interesting chewy cups of coffee, can’t it?
i’m working with some denim yarn that is transferring its color onto everything, so i am going to have to take my own advice when i finish it- i hope i can set the color in the finished product before giving it away as it is going to be useless otherwise- yeah, yeah, yeah, i know about making a swatch and washing it, but that speaks to forethought- not my strong suit at all-
um, what heel did you use on your dad’s sock? it looks good and roomy and i am doing the boys socks and they do not have ‘delicate’ feet-
Barb - Not too up on sock terminology yet, but I believe it;s what they call a Dutch heel. I was using this pattern as a guide and pretty much used that heel as written. Hope it’s useful to you :)
Thanks for posting your pattern for the cabled fingerless mitt. I loved the pattern and it was a painless introduction to cabling for a first-timer like me. I made a pair for myself to wear in my air-conditioned office. They fit and look great, keep my hands warm and I can still type! Now I think I need more pairs in different colours to co-ordinate with my work wardrobe. But this time I’ll get wool that is less scratchy! Thanks again. Thanks also for sharing your blog, I read it every day!
Definitely a manly scarf - good pattern choice. I can’t wait to hear how the sock saga turns out!
Erin - I’m glad you like the mitts - more in new different colors sounds like a fine idea. Actually, I’ve been thinking about that myself :)
I’m glad you enjoy the blog!
Bron - I’ll keep you posted. If he does succeed in killing them, I post a picture of their limp, lifeless little acrylic bodies :)
Hi,
The socks look great, but I feel obligated to tell you something that you might not want to know. :( I knit my mom a pair of Wool-Ease socks and unfortunately they are sitting in my work basket waiting to be darned. Granted, my mom liked these socks and wore them a lot around the house without shoes on, but the soles and heels wore through pretty quickly. I just wanted to let you know now, in case there’s some way you can reinforce them. (I don’t know any techniques myself; that was the first pair of socks I ever knitted.)
Mary - Thanks for letting me know. I did realize that was a possibility but decided to take the chance anyway just to have a sort of benchmark. If this pair wears out quickly, then I’ll know to do something else in the future. For now, it was what I had and so was what got used.
I don’t know squat about darning either :)
Ah, well, hopefully they’ll last a little longer for your dad. I’ve made other stuff out of wool-ease and been really happy with it.
And as far as darning socks is concerned, I didn’t know anything either until I found this site:
http://www.hjsstudio.com/darn.html
Happy Thanksgiving early…
Mary - I figure if they get him through this winter that’ll be fine. I can always make another pair (or couple of pairs) for him for next winter.
Thanks, BTW, for the darning site. That could be very useful information and I shall bookmark it immediately :)
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too!
hmmm - have washed socks in the w machine (cold water) for years and then put them in the dryer without incident, and so has my mum - sounds like the same yarn composition (80% wool, 20% nylon/polyamide)
hope this puts some of your worries to bed
Cheers
nat
Nat - Thanks for citing your experience. That is reassuring. I’m just worried that he’ll throw them into a hot wash because, you know, he’s a guy and guys are weird about laundry :)
