AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Footware in action

Just saying that this week is definitely better than last week.  My homework is nearly done (either tonight or tomorrow morning so I can enjoy this week's wedding with good conscience) and my order from Zappos came in.

Now I have at work shoes I can wear my hand knit socks in.  They are comfy and do not make wearing socks look dorky.  That honor is reserved for the sandals I normally gad about in.

I must say that taking pictures of your own feet at this angle is not an easy task.  I have shaky hands too, so blurry shots are all the rage.

They are Dr. Scholl's "Dance."  And inside are the socks I received in Sockapaloooza 3.  This way I get to wear them, others can admire them and the cat can't try to destroy them.  A beautiful blend.

And because I can't really resist.  An artsy Photofiltre shot. Photofiltre is a PC-based shareware program that can do batch editing and photo manipulation.  Nearly all of my buttons and pictures are at the very least resized in it.  It has a lot of similar features to Photoshop, which I still want for my Mac.

In Sock Saving news, I am nearly done with the first of the Ripple Weave socks.  I'm past the gusset and will be trying to motor (one of the reasons to get my homework done early - if I don't work on it consistently I spend an entire weekend working on it instead of just a few hours).

My sock savior pal is about the same size in the foot as I am, so I was able to try it on in progress and provided I don't run out of yarn I should be able to wash, block and mail the socks without a hitch.  They are a little loose on me, but not by much.  Something that kind of alarmed me, because I was afraid that the pattern wouldn't draw in enough.  I mean, 72 stitches is a lot for socks!  At least narrow footed socks like these.

Out of the ashes of last week's misery (the wedding and brief birthday celebrations were definitely highlights), comes a week like this one.  Everything from class and work to knitting is all coming together in a harmonious whole.

Now just to make sure that I get dinner in reasonable fashion.  Yum, food!  Yeah, Peapod order!  Horray for lovely husbands who sometimes have dinner waiting when you get home.  And huzzah for video games and knitting for the long commute home.

Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!

Earning my education

I miss college.

I'm a non-degree student at UMass, which means in my case that I'm taking classes to keep my fingers in the methods and ways of learning while I try and pay off my old college enough to apply somewhere else.  A bit convoluted, but it works for me.

In my second class at UMass (a much bigger institute than where I started - Wellesley), I am reminded that the intro classes are almost always some of the most attractive, fun classes that a department will offer.  It is not solely because they are easier, though I'm sure that is part of it, but because they are designed to make the experience of learning this new thing (it was as true in my 111 biology class as it was in some of my art classes) as painless and as full of joy as possible.  My first CS class was full of creation and art, making a program that drove you through the computer to make something concrete. 

Now I am taking Data Structures.  It even manages to sound drier.  I've gone from the concrete to the theoretical, from making things that I can show off to anyone on the street to manipulating small pieces of information and hoping that my knowledge suffices to manipulate them in a way that doesn't change the data as much as it organizes and stores the data.  A much less glamorous operation.

All of this makes me love the socks so much more.  I don't have a picture right now, but imagine the ripple weave (last seen less than one full repeat into the cuff) sock with that awkward teenager look of a sock with a gusset.  See the nifty garter edges and a gusset that has absolutely (or abso-smurph-alutely) no holes in that irritating spot near the join for the instep.  Isn't it beautiful?

It is.  And it is keeping me sane while the whirlwind summer of weddings moves into a frantic fall of weddings and homework is done in nooks and crannies of my day.  The sock is likewise built in the brief interstices of my day, but it is beautiful and makes me happy.

ripples...

Repose...

The sock is sitting in the window, waiting for the end of the day when it can go home.  It sits, wondering about its meaning, its purpose.  Everyone has a purpose?

or maybe, it doesn't matter.

These socks are born to keep someone warm.  Saving toes from discomfort in the cold months ahead.

These socks will remind someone that even when everything is bad (as things get from time to time) there are people who care.  That even strangers can care.

These socks are just a little ripple in the pool.

At the end of a long day, these socks can help someone regain that inner peace that is sometimes frittered away against the cares, the work of a day.

These socks will be beautiful and, while admittedly not terribly soft now, comfortable and comforting.

These socks will remind people of spring and of autumn with the fresh growth and heady harvest.  Of grape arbors and the rich smell of grapes ripening in the sun.

These socks right now remind me that even though the days are getting shorter there is always enough sunshine if you can find but a little time to seek it.

Go outside and seek the sun before winter comes to call.

Holding out

The new Knitty came out last week (it might have been earlier, but I noticed it sometime mid-week).

I kept looking at Cherie Amour.  I looked at it on Thursday.  I looked at it on Friday.  I looked at my Ravelry WIPs... all 9 of them.  Dang!  I know I'm inclined to have a lot of things going, but it somehow is less friendly, more rude even, to see them all lined up like that.  So, I told myself that I couldn't start a 10th project.  I couldn't even order the yarn for this Cherie Amour (less than $35 for a sweater!) until I finished something, and even then only if I finished something before the shopping moratorium¹ goes into effect.

That lasted until Saturday.

Saturday, I saw the email from Alison and signed up to be a sock savior.  Socks are pretty, portable, and don't involve a lot of yarn.  Heck, they don't involve a lot of yarn, because I already have a lot of sock yarn.  So, I'm working with some yarn from Dorchester Farms (I think that's where it is from - I bought it at Circles when the spinner was visiting the shop a la trunk show) in a self striping colorway that I've been calling Grape Arbor. 

Sock saving is very cool.  I love making socks for people who really appreciate them.  And for once, even, I'm not doing a cable (or mock cable) pattern.  I'm about 2.5 inches in and they are already gorgeous.  Maybe if class doesn't run too long tonight (I have class and then lab), I'll get to take a dark indoor photo of them.  Wouldn't that be fun?

A photo diary...

Tangled Yoke took me just under a week to knit the body.  Mostly stockinette on circular needles, I could work on it nearly anywhere.  Given I was sick that week, I had a lot of time where I just lay in bed and made the needles go click and clack.

My progress isn't quite as high this week.  Work and class and finicky size 3 double pointed needles (which bother me for some reason than size 0s) have resulted in my time being spent elsewhere. 

Last week's progress might be artificially high for another reason.  My stitch and row gauge are both off.  If it doesn't end up being too big around (I don't have to decide until I'm done both sleeves), then I might continue.  However, I'll probably rip, rip, rip.  It didn't take too long to do the body, so it shouldn't take too long to redo the body.  Right now my body measures 14.5 inches long or about a full inch longer than listed in the pattern for my size (and I didn't actually knit all of the rows of the pattern either... if I had add another inch or so).  I like the softness of the yarn, Sirdar Snuggly DK, but it doesn't feel like it will hold up as well as some of the more workhorse yarns I've used.

In just over a week, I have made quite a bit of progress on the Moderne Baby Blanket.  I'm knitting it entirely of leftover sock and fingering weight yarns.  I've branched out of the written pattern, because I want it to reach the final published size (or close).  Right now it is closer in size to a placemat.

I'm nearly out of a few colors already, so I am going to spend some time this weekend reskeining and re-dying a couple of balls to add in when I finally run out of the dark plum color.  I want to keep things mostly in the color families I started out with.  This limitation makes the project in some ways a more creative endeavor.  I don't want to simply buy more yarn to finish this, so when I run out I'm going to need to delve in my stash and possibly overdye some yarns to be closer matches.  The one color that worries me most is the beige.  Other than a few skeins of light blue yarn, this is the only light colored yarn I have.  I might end up needing to shop for that one, but I'm putting it off as long as possible.  I am going to start weaving in the ends on this one probably sometime this weekend (so I'm not doing them all at once), but this is a great portable project.

Making something new

I don't know what I would do with a garter stitch jacket, but I am enamoured of the basic stitch with its roundness and texture.

I want to make something like Stephanie's garter stitch jacket.  I have about half a skein (Oak Grove, so a large skein, but not enough on its own undoubtedly) of boucle yarn in glorious blues.  I'm wearing my efforts from the first half of the skein, which might be why I'm thinking of it.  I also have a single skein of Colinette something or other that also should knit up fatter than it looks.  I will need more than 2 skeins.  Intellectually I know this.  But my brain, busy while my hands are knitting Tangled Yoke sleeves, wants to create something.  To freeform a coat out of ether.  All I know is that I want to knit it from side to side, like Haiku or W.  Or maybe piece it randomly like the Moderne Baby Blanket.  Or even just make something up.

I probably won't.  The urge for functional knitted (and crocheted) garments is strong enough to focus more on patterns, making of tested items, rather than creating something through trial and error and synergy.  Like my ideas for frankensteining some clothing together, it will probably be left for months in the future.  But right now the joy and color and texture is flashing through my mind filling my veins with energy.  Even if I don't make the project I want to capture the energy, the joy of creation.

In a single week

Tangled Yoke, Week One
Imagine a picture here.  Because I've been a bit sick and thus sitting down (and lying down), there has been knitting but no photographing.  My row gauge was off quite a bit, so I finished the increases and knit a single plain row.  My body is about 1.5 inches longer than it is supposed to be.  Yesterday, I took a little time on my lunch break to get the size 5 double pointed needles.  My gauge with them in the round is huge, so I ripped it back this morning and I am trundling away on my first sleeve.  I probably won't finish the sleeves before the end of the month, but I might get lucky with an influx of knitting time (One of my games isn't meeting for the rest of the month due to a rash of weddings - Congrats people getting married!  I'm even attending two weddings this month!).  I'm not counting on it.  Classwork will come first!

Moderne Baby Blanket
I have motored my way through nearly an entire skein of sock yarn and then some.  One of my colors is nearly done, and I need to reskein one of the yarns I overdyed earlier this year.  I want to use it for this, but I find the colors pretty jarring against what I have in the blanket so far (plum, true blue, beige and a grey/black marled color).  I'm kind of off the charted territory for the blanket as written in the book, because I need to knit quite a few more blocks to get it to the size listed in the pattern.  Silly sock yarn having a completely different weight from Calmer.  It's a great start and stop project, so I'm enjoying it immensely.  I don't really need to take up knitted blankets, really I don't, but the project is very soothing.  I love mostly solids and these work well together (often better than the projects they were originally intended for).  I might need to acquire a bit more yarn for it.  I'd love for this to be just leftovers, but my beige is pretty much my only light color and I'm rapidly running out of it.  You can imagine pictures for this too.  Hopefully I'll have those after tonight.

Home sick

The first cold of the season is always the hardest.  Mixed with ragweed allergies and standard edition stuffiness it is so tempting to just hide under the covers and never return to the light of day.

Yesterday, I went home early, read part of a manual (highly recommended for insomniac times), and slept.  Today, I emailed in sick and sat on the bed and the couch and a couple of chairs.  I've dozed, knitted and consumed monstrous orange pills.  I will move onto green pills later in the evening, because I don't particularly enjoy the drugged sleep. 

But in between the gaps, I am getting little things done, which will make life a little easier tomorrow or maybe tonight after my nap. 

Another day, another class

I had my first CompSci class of the fall semester (I'm non-degree, so I am only taking one class).  Intermediate Data Structures and Algorithms sounds completely riveting, though I would be 100% happier if it was being taught by our professor from CS 110.  The class is late enough that if I feel caught up on the work I can sit in the room for a bit and knit before the class starts, which is good.  I did get to work a bit on the baby blanket before people started to show up - I come straight from work, so I get there about 25 minutes early.

Of course, this class won't be as fun as the first class.  That's often the way.  They either are trying to hook you in the first class, my experience in CS 110, or they are trying to weed out the weak ones, pretty much every intro biology class I took at Wellesley.  I'm crossing my fingers though and trying to not prematurely condemn the class just because the professor I liked is no longer teaching it.

I did get a lovely amount of knitting done today.  I powered through the last of the decrease rounds for the body, and now I am just trying to finish the increase rounds before Saturday.  I'd love to be on the sleeves by the end of the weekend.  I'm knitting like I'm on a deadline, which is kind of silly.  I don't have a definite date that I want to get to wear this on (though I'd love to wear this while in Pennsylvania next month). 

How does everyone else decide that they want something badly enough to knit like a demon?  Normally I just mosey along.

Recapped

Today was the Boston Iron Girl 5-Mile race.  I did pretty well, showing a general marked improvement over the May half
marathon.  I finished (the important thing) with a 9:46 min/mile pace.  I'm psyched to have done so well, and hope to keep up the good work for the BAA half marathon next month.

I love races, because they encourage me to be more on top of my training.  Without them, it is much easier to just get up and knit instead of going for even a short run.

Project Monogamy
The Iron Girl isn't the only race I'm doing.  I started the Tangled Yoke Cardigan September 1st (literally all I did was cast on then, because I couldn't find my stitch markers until the next morning).  I am almost through the ribbing for the bottom and I have a bit more knitting time available today and tomorrow.  I will probably bring it with me to the baseball game tonight (Red Sox v. Toronto Blue Jays), though depending on how complicated it is I may not get very far.

Of course, I have managed to break Project Monogamy from the start.  I wanted something small and easy to bring with me on the train when I went walking with one of my friends on Saturday.  So, I started the Moderne Baby Blanket using leftover sock yarn (and random fingering weight yarn).  If I can't work on the Tangled Yoke at the game, then I plan to pull out the blanket.  Garter stitch is always easy enough to knit.