Sweater Weather

 Brrrr!  It was a little chilly here this morning.  Not enough for me to turn on the heat, although the heat is on at the Big House -- Dave insists on it.  I do program it lower during the night and then have it ramp up starting at 4:00 AM so it's toasty for Dave's shower.  I will now start my morning routine of waking at 4:20 feeling like I'm burning up (yes, I can tell).  But that's not really the point.  I've started wanting to make a new sweater.  I'm reading the Woolen issue of PLY magazine and I'm thinking, "Yessss, that's what I need, a super warm snuggly sweater.  I have to get a fleece so I can prep it myself and make lots of rolags, then spin them all up."  SERIOUSLY?  Does anyone else think like this?  I'm cold now so I'm going to start with a freaking SHEEP for crying out loud.  I'll tell you when I'll get my warm snuggly sweater, July 2022 if I'm lucky!  I need to get. a. grip.  But nevertheless it would be a good thing if being cold motivated me to work on the Big Blue Blanket for awhile.  

I'm reading about all the woolen yarn stuff in PLY and I've been thinking about woolen spinning.  Have you ever done it?  It is truly, truly magical.  The make is like a rubber band between your hands and you're stretching, stretching, stretching and then BAM! it's yarn.  Magic, I tell you.  Go back and watch the Woolen video from the other day.  Ahhhh, divine.

Anyway, I'm still knitting the Frankenstein Socks, and I think I just might get them done to give to Gracie on Sunday when I see her.  Then I have to knit another pair of Halloween socks, then I think I should start thinking about Christmas.  Not sure if I want to commit to any hand made gifts, but I might.

I leave you with my Resident Rooster, who is now crowing away at ~7:00 AM daily.

    

Smokin

 Someone in the next block has purchased a smoker. I've been smelling cooked meat all the way down the block on my way home for two days now. I've narrowed it down to one of the houses at the end of the block based solely on the fact that the scent petered out there and I was walking into the wind. My deductive reasoning powers are amazing.

In knitting news I'm decreasing for the calf on the second Frankenstein Sock. 

Thrilling. I'm so ready to be done with these socks!

Kicking it Old School

 I watched this video today and really liked it. Man, those wheels were rough! 

It's good to see though, how rough it was and the yarn produced by these women who have been doing it for years. It will make you a little less critical of your own yarn. 

And then, of course I had to watch this video which is just the best hand spinning video out there. I made Dave watch it too. 

Color

Color is my day - long obsession, joy, and torment. 

- Claude Monet

 I've been thinking about color this morning.  I love color.  Do you?  I have this quote on a magnet on my storage bins at work where I (used to) see it every day.  Of course in an appropriately colorful and fanciful font.  I have been spurred on in thinking about color because I'm reading the "Color" issue of PLY Magazine (Issue #2).  

There is lots to say about color, but I'm going to focus in on one thing.  I feel like a lot of people are unsure or tentative with color.  They feel like it's "hard".  Wellll, like most things in life it can be, but it doesn't need to be.  If you're not making your living as a colorist, if you're just looking to come up with a good colorway for your next Fairisle sweater, then do you really need an art degree to pick colors?  I'm going to say no.  I'm going to say right here that I've read as much as I can find about color and color theory, but I have no art degree, or any training in art at all.  (I have been told by more than one professional artist that I have a "good eye", though.)  Anyway, if you can match your clothes you have the skills you need to choose colors.  I've said this before, and I'll give an example here.  If you don't understand color theory, and don't necessarily want to, you can still be successful working with color.  Copy someone else (who presumably does have an art degree and has studied color theory extensively).  Let's look at this painting:

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

It's one of my favorites.  I really love Seurat and the whole concept of pointillism, but we're not going to talk about that (although the whole color mixing thing is another great color theory concept).  No, we're going to talk about the colors you see in the painting.  First, notice that ~2/3 of the painting is in the "sunlight".  It's lighter than the other third, which we read as "shadow".  This is a good ratio.  You can go either way -- 2/3 light and 1/3 dark (like here) or 2/3 dark and 1/3 light.  A good example of this is the painting Christ in the Storm on the Lake in Galilee by Rembrandt.  Ok, moving on.  Let's talk about the colors.  Seurat is painting a realistic scene, so the trees are green, the grass is green, and the river is blue, so we recognize them.  But was the grass really those particular shades of green?  Was the river that particular shade of blue?  He had some leeway in choosing colors so he chose the ones that made the picture more pleasing, visually.  Most of the grass is actually yellow-green, and the water is a blue-green.  They're part of what in color theory is called a quadratic color scheme, because look at the clothing the picnickers are wearing.  Lots of reds to red orange (the complements to green and blue green).  Do you think that many people where wearing red on that day?  I doubt it; it was the artist controlling what he could control.  Another color that shows up is blue violet.  In fact all of the clothing anyone is wearing in the painting is either red to red orange or blue violet.  (With the notable exception of the white dress on the girl in the center, but that's just to draw your eye).  

Anyway, you don't need to know that!  All you have to do, if you love these colors is duplicate them.

1 2 3 4 

You can throw in white if you want, but you don't have to.  So...say you're knitting a Fairisle yoke sweater.  The recipient is a red head (like my friend Michelle, my beloved Gracie, or my Older Son) who looks great in green.  So the body of your sweater will be the green, and you will use the other colors as your accent colors in the yoke.  Or say you're a brown haired, brown eyed beauty like myself and blues/purples are your thing.  Well, I'd go with the dark blue violet (#3) for the body and use the other colors for my accent colors.  The combination will be successful and you know it will be successful because you can see it in the painting.  Want to add more colors?  There's white, also the darker green (5) and pale pink (6).  Those seven (I can't show you white here, but it's the background) should give you all the colors you need for the most complex of color palettes.  Let me put them all together here:

1 2 3 4 5 6   

Let's group them light to dark:

6 4 1 2 5 3

You can use them in whatever ratio you want, but most pleasing (as I said) will be ~2/3 to ~1/3.  Mostly dark?  Use more 2 5 3.  Mostly light?  Use more 6 4 1. 

Not thrilled with these colors?  That's ok.  Pick another painting or photo that you really love.  Or better yet, check out Pantone.  There is a whole crew of professional color people choosing what goes together there.  And you're guaranteed a top "fashion" color.  (As an aside, I was visiting my sister and was explaining to her in 2013 what the color for Fall was [Moroccan Blue] and when we were at MDS&W she took great delight in pointing out all the dyers with that color included in their mixes.)

Cock A Doodle Do

 

In this blurry picture you can just barely see our neighborhood rooster. The neighbor who lives at the house attached to the yard he's in says he's not his rooster. He says he just showed up one day. He's quite the crow-er too. We first spotted him a week ago and since then I hear him every morning (and also this evening) crowing away. He sounds young to me - It's not a full fledged crow. My suspicion is that someone got him as a chick at Easter. I hope the free range neighborhood cats don't find him. 

I did a sort row heel on the Frankenstein Socks. I'm not a fan so far, but it's far from perfect.

Frankenstein Socks - The Deets

 I have finally managed to get to the ankle on my Frankenstein knee socks.  Yay!  From here on out it's just a regular sock.  Turns out I was making it way too complicated.  What worked for me was to cast on just a bit less than I needed for the calf (96 sts) then worked the ribbing (18 rows, 3 stripes) then increase ~1" worth of stitches (8 sts) in the first 2 rows.  Work straight for awhile (7 stripes, 42 rows) then decrease 2 sts every 3 rows until I was back to my normal sock number (64 sts).

I did fully fashioned decreases. 

Next time I make a pair I think I'll do a centered double decrease.  I'd carry the center stitch down through the heel.

A review on the Carbonz needles.  Two thumbs down.  Give them a pass.  I decided to try them on this project and I'll stick with them through the second sock, but then they're going to the knitting needle graveyard.  The join between the silver tip and the "carbon fiber" body of the rest of the needle is not smooth.  It catches every time.  On every needle.  Way too aggravating.

New and Improved

 I've come up with a new and improved(!) way of knitting in my ends.  I'm a little embarrassed it took me years to get here, but at least I got here in the end. 

I was thinking about how I knit in the tail of the new yarn, and how fiddly it is and how I have to remember to start knitting it in before I get to it (I never do and I have to tink back to do it) and thinking about a better way.  And lo!  I finally got it.  I start knitting the new end in before I get to the end of the old end.  Duh.

When I'm changing colors for a stripe, that happens at a very predictable place, the end of the round (I'm knitting in the round).  I've found that 8 stitches are are the perfect amount to leave for knitting in the end.  This catches the new yarn 4 times (it takes 2 stitches for a "catch"), which is enough to be stable.

Here are my 8 stitches waiting for the knitting in of my new color.

   

I then lay the new color over the right hand needle.

Then I knit the stitch.  Two stitches "catch" the yarn.

I continue through my 8 stitches, catching down my end as I go. 

Here I've knit my 8 stitches and I'm ready to knit the first stitch with my new color.  But wait!  See my long end there on the right?  I want to pull that in.  So I just...pull.  I pull on the new yarn until I have a tiny end (no need to trim).  It will slide, you might have to go a little slow until you get the hang of it.  Added bonus, it tightens things up a bit.  You want to do it before you knit the first stitch with your new color.  Once you knit that stitch it becomes more difficult to pull the strand.  Not impossible, but more difficult.

Here is my end after I've pulled it closer.  Much better.  I then pick up my new color (what joy, it's just there ready for me!) and knit in my old end as I always do.  

But what if you're adding in a new yarn not at the end of a round/row?  What if your little yarn bit for your Frankenstein Sock has run out before your stripe has the right number of rows?  How to tell when to start working in your new end?  No worries.  You need ~4" of yarn left to knit in the new yarn and then catch down after you switch.  I measured, and on my hand it's from that bottom joint on the back of my hand of my pointer finger to just past my fingertip, more or less.  (Does anyone else measure things against your body parts?  I'm not likely to misplace my finger so it's a good reference.)  I show it here flat, but in reality I just hold it up next to my finger while I'm knitting.  It's really hard to take a picture while you're holding a camera with one hand and measuring against the other.  One might even say impossible. 

Anyway, maybe one of you will try this improved method and find it helpful.  (But if you came up with it before me I don't want to hear it.)

Rip It

 I am trying to make these knee socks.  Well.  My increases and decreases were weird.  I've never knit knee socks (not quite true, I started a pair about 20 years ago and I bet they're still kicking around in a bin of UFOs somewhere in the house).  So I'm trying to figure this out and with most things I do it's alot of trial and error and beating my head against the wall.

There was a weird nipple there off to the left.  So I ripped this out (for like the 4th time) and started again.

The ribbing at least is good.  

I ordered all the digital back issues of PLY magazine today.  I had some (a couple of years of digital that I subscribed to and the first year that I have as physical copies in the house somewhere).  Anyway, I was overcome by a fierce desire to read all the issues in their entirety.  Their digital subscription is weird.  They send a link and you've got to either download immediately, or if you keep the email you can link in from that but you need a password.  Anyway, I wanted to fill in the issues and it ended up being cheaper to get everything than to just get the ones I needed.  I got an email with links to the back issues and none of the links worked.  They sent 8 emails with all the issues linked in the emails...Except for one.  I had to contact them again about that one.  Geez.  But the way they sent them I can only get them for 6 days.  I'm a little freaked.  I downloaded them to my computer, and to my phone and tomorrow I'll put them on the cloud.  Hopefully I'll keep them.  Now I'm reading them and I'm like eh, it's like every other fiber magazine...  Whatever.  I have them and I'll keep reading and see if there's anything new to learn.

Autumnal Equinox

 

I completed my Autumn socks.  I'll call them the Autumn Equinox socks.

I've been working on my Halloween Frankenstein socks for Gracie.  I am cutting apart the color repeats and making regular stripes while I increase and decrease for knee socks.  

I knit my ends in as I go.  Does anyone else do this?  I learned it  years ago from a Kaffe Fassett video.  I took some pictures, let's see if I can relate this coherently.

Here's my knitting ready for me to add in my next stripe color.

I add the new color and wrap it around the old

Then I knit the first stitch.  You can see the old color along the left needle and the new color along the right needle. I lay the yarn over the right needle and knit the next stitch, and I don't pull it through when I knit the stitch.  Then I knit the next stitch, which "catches" the end I'm weaving in.  This is a two-stich process to catch and weave in the end as you're knitting.  I continue that until I use up the end I'm weaving in.

But Laurie, you say, what about the other end?  Well, that end should be woven in the other direction.  It's just a thing, keeping the yarn moving in the direction it would have come from.  I take the end of the piece to be woven in (it's on the right here) and lay it over my right needle.  I can hold the end with the finger on my left hand.  Then I knit the two stitch 

"catch" as for the other direction.  The next time I pick up the strand with my right needle.  I continue this along the end back to where the new color started.

What happens when you mix up your ends?  Well... you get something that looks like this.  I ended up ripping this out, but I would have either closed the hole with some spare yarn or unwoven the ends and rewoven them in the right direction.
  

Thinking About

Maybe it's the staying in that's getting to me, but I find myself with a desire to attend a fiber festival. Since it's impossible to go I find I am gripped by a desire to go to Rhinebeck. I've been thinking about classes too. I've been reading Jillian Moreno's blog and I'd like to take a class with her.  Which is weird, because I really don't care for in person classes.  I've taken a couple, and they're ok.  But I've found they are often just vehicles for people to gush over their fiber idols.  It's a little too clique-y for me.  I also don't really learn best in a classroom environment.  I prefer books or videos that I can take in at my own pace, and repeat as necessary and keep for future reference.

That said, I've checked out Craftsy and I'm not seeing the value there for me right now.  Maybe another time. Anyway, I might consider an annual membership, but the ephemeral nature of a membership gives me pause.  I guess I could do a membership and purchase outright my favorites.  I'm still considering.

 I've set myself a budget of $25 -$30 a week for yarn/fiber stuff.  Currently I'm saving for a kate for my Hanson Mini Spinner.  I should be able to get one in a couple of weeks.  The amount doesn't seem like much, but I don't knit or spin that much yarn/fiber in a week.  It's just a way to keep the stash under control.

I'm decreasing for the toe on my second Autumnal sock.  

Cooking

 I've been cooking. I made my Grandmother's potato salad. Yummy. It's got my own secret family dressing - no mayonnaise here. It's based on Fannie Farmer's Boiled Dressing, but has been tweaked by my grandma and mom over the years (more sugar and butter, less milk).

We're having Grace (and her mom and dad) over for a porch visit tomorrow for lunch. A cookout. Burgers and hot dogs, potato salad and some other snacks. I'll make an apple crisp with ice cream. We should be able to sit on opposite sides of the porch and visit while still maintaining social distance. I even purchased unicorn hot chocolate in case we need warming up. 

I can't wait. 

Still spinning, I've got a good start on bobbin #3. And I knit a bit on my Autumn socks. 

Gaslight

 The lightbulb in my living room sconce is what I call a "gaslight light".  It's an annoying fluorescent light that instead of burning out cleanly just gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.  

It makes me feel like I'm going blind.  You can see the difference here when comparing the "gaslight" on the right with the normal bulb on the left.   My frugality won't let me throw it away until it's almost completely gone. 

In other news, I've completed my second bobbin of singles.  

 

I think they match.

Here is the fiber I have left.  This bag was full when I started spinning.  It's a close call whether this will make another full bobbin or not.  The suspense is killing me.

Absent Minded

 This time I wasn't sick, just absent minded. But I am down on all my projects at the moment. 

Here are my Autumn socks and I'm unhappy with them because I shorted myself a row before the heel on the second sock and now my stripes don't line up exactly. It wasn't obvious before I turned the heel and it doesn't make enough difference for me to rip back and redo (although I did seriously consider it). But it's enough to bug me. This is why I don't like exactly matching socks. 

My spinning project is causing me grief too. At various times this evening I was freaking out because I thought I wouldn't have enough bits to to fill a third bobbin and then that I would have too much for a third bobbin and I would have to spill over onto a fourth. I'm freaking out about the randomness - that I'm going to run out of one or more of the rovings and the single will be all of one thing at the end. And in general just feaking out. Also that I'm getting tired of spinning this.  It's the end of the second bobbin and I keep telling myself that just like the end of the second act this is the point that things always look bleakest. 

With all that angst going on with my other stuff I got another interminably long cabled row done on the Big Blue Blanket. 

Consistently Inconsistent

 I've been spinning, working on filling the second bobbin.  I compared to the first bobbin and I see that

they are close.  Not the same, but what I would call consistently inconsistent.  Just what I was hoping for.  If this continues, I should have a yarn that includes all the colors from all the rovings, all mixed up.  I don't want anything that would stripe, flash, or pool in the final yarn, just show the colors throughout in little blips.  No patterns.  I'm hoping, at least.  

In other news my new waffle iron arrived today and I let the old one go.  So waffles for breakfast tomorrow.  

I went to the grocery store today.  I think I was the only person following the directions for the aisles.  Seriously.  It's super hard for me too.  I always forget to look, and then when I get to the end of the aisle and see the do not enter sign I have a mini panic attack that I'm going the wrong way until I realize it's directed at people entering from that direction.  And navigating to what I need.... Last time I was there some cruel twist of fate forced me to walk down the candy aisle like seven times trying to get what I wanted.  

Finally, the whole cleaning during the pandemic is starting to take hold of me.  Not that I'm going wild about it or anything.  So a sure bet that this whole staying in thing is about to end.  Because you know, when I pick up on a trend it's totally over.

Kettle Corn

 I made some kettle corn today.  It was pretty good, and easy enough to make.

I'm having an existential crisis about my waffle maker.  I've had it for over 20 years.  It still works, in that it heats up.  However the non-stick surface has given up.  So it makes waffles, but I can't remove them from the thing. I shouldn't feel guilty about throwing it away, but I do.  It certainly did its duty for years.  I just have to let it go.  Sing it with me.

One Sock Down

 I finished the first Autumn Sock and started it's mate. 

I also managed to get a little spinning in. 

I also made homemade pizza for lunch then waffles for dinner. Although I was disappointed with the waffles. My waffle iron has got to go. It's become very sticky. I was hoping a good cleaning and then seasoning would work but no luck. It did its  duty in the years when the boys were small so I guess I can't complain too much. I hadn't used it for years until the pandemic had me cooking every meal. Its replacement will be here Tuesday. 

There Was Music and Food

 I knit away while I was working last night on the Autumn socks. 

They are seen here just at that delicious point when reknitting a ripped project that you start knitting with new yarn from the ball again. So satisfying! They are now even further along - at the point of decreasing for the toe - because this:

I took them to the church "social" outside in the parking lot of the church. There was a Mexican food truck and live music. The parking lot was big enough to socially distance and it was nice to see and talk to people. Dave and Dan (Gracie's dad) provided the live music. Here's a better picture of Dave. 

(It's still not great though). 

I Was Sick

 I was feeling very poorly yesterday.  Maybe because of that I decided that both of the socks I was knitting were no good.  I ripped everything out and restarted.

Here are the HalloKnee Socks all ripped out with their individual little blobs of colors.  I also ripped out my Autumn Socks and restarted.  They were too small and I couldn't deny it any longer.

I'm feeling better today, and I went to the doctor who says I'm not sick, but I feel that way...

I feel like I've rounded the bend on working long hours so maybe some spinning this weekend.  Woo hoo!  I'm living la vida loca!

Long Day

 It's been a long day, work-wise.  I'm still logged on and trying to get table updates to run.  Very frustrating.

I got a bit of knitting done on my Halloween Knee Socks during breaks.

Not much progress.  I continue to put together my stripes.  I tried it on and it does fit around my leg just below the knee.  I'm increasing for the calf.  I've got some notes on increases and decreases for the leg.  I have no idea if they'll be good or not.  It's edge of  your seat excitement waiting to find out.

Post It

 I ventured out to the Post Office to mail my knits out today. The lady at the desk said the box would be delivered at the end of the week which is perfect, as my friend's birthday is on the weekend. 

In knitting news I've restarted the Halloween socks as knee socks.

I'm totally cutting up the stripes so that I can get all the stripes to be the same length.  So much for self-striping.

It's My Superpower

 I knit a pair of fingerless gloves this afternoon.  Start to finish.  What can I say?  It's my superpower.  I can knit a pair of mittens/gloves in a day.  I wish it was something more exciting or sexy, but there it is.  Here they are pre-bath, 

and here they are reposing in the their bath.

Maize from Tin Can Knits.  They're blocked and drying under a fan right now.  Hopefully they'll be ready to go to the Post Office tomorrow afternoon.  I decided (at the last minute) to send something to my friend Michelle's twin sister when I send Michelle's gifts.  Actually, it started when I asked where to send the gifts and she gave me her sister's address.  She's been visiting during the pandemic, and they'll be celebrating their birthday together.  So since it's her birthday too I thought I should send a little something along.  

A Light in the Darkness

 

When my mom passed away about 20 years ago my sisters and I were sitting around in the hotel room they were staying in talking about my mom and how much we were going to miss her. My twin sister went out for a smoke and came back in a little shaken. She said she'd been having her smoke and had said out loud "Mom, I just need to know that you're ok. Please, just give me a sign that everything's ok." And just then the light above her had gone out.

Ever since, I think every time I see a street light go on or off that maybe it's my mom looking out for me. I can't tell you how many times I was walking to my car in the dark parking lot at work and the light directly above my car would flick on as I walked to it. Or I'd be driving home thinking about my mom and the streetlight I was driving by would flick off. 

The light pictured here is the street light on the corner I walk past just before I get to my house. For the past two nights it was out and the exact moment I walked under it it turned on.

Weird, right? I don't know that I really think it's my mom (but it is a nice thought that she's looking out for me), but the coincidence is compelling. 

Parade

 It's a parade of projects!

Pumpkin Scoop

And my Pumpkin Nice cowl.

Wrapped once, twice, thrice around my neck.  I like a cowl with options.  

My Start Fighter socks and the Decade socks, both have been washed and are ready to go.  I'll send the Scoop, cowl and Star Fighter socks off to my friend for her birthday.

Almost

 My bobbin is almost full:

And my sock is almost ready for me to turn the heel.  Eye of Partridge heel flap, which is a bit of a departure for me, but I think it looks classy and elegant in this instance.  Perfect for a ladies' sock, which this is.

I was thinking about my spinning today -- I have a daily goal which I've been meeting every day and I'm moving right along.  A noticeable amount of my fiber bits are used, btw.  Maybe if I can keep up my goal (100 bits a day, in increments of 5) I could be done by the end of next weekend.  The suspense is killing me.  Anyway, if you look really, really closely you can probably see a few slubby bits in the singles above.  Maybe some unevenness in the spinning too.  I'm ok with this because:

1. I only need to please myself.  I'm not entering this yarn in the fair or a festival where it will be judged.
2. This yarn is wildly colorful (to state the obvious).  As with anything else with lots going on visually color-wise the texture will be lost in the color play.  (This is why you don't make an Aran sweater out of a variegated yarn.)
3. The final yarn will be a 3-ply.  This also will help even out any unevenness in any of the singles in the final yarn.
4. I am aiming for DONE yarn, not perfect yarn.

Now I'm off to knit on the Big Blue Blanket for awhile.  I'd like to get this done before the end of the year so that I can start on my New Year Sweater with my handspun yarn.

New Socks

 Hey!  Here are my new socks:

Another self striping sock yarn.  The yarn is "Essential Autumn" from the Vesper Sock Club 2008.  Yep.  Digging into the stash.  I especially like the slip stitch detail when the color changes.  Here's a close up.

Although, next time I will stagger the slip stitches every other time so they don't all stack up.  I've got another pair at the other house (I have two houses, but maybe that's a story for another day).  But they are destined for the frog pond tonight.  I've decided I want them to be knee socks, so they'll need a different number of stitches cast on.  I'll cart this sock up there for bedtime knitting/reading until I can figure out the appropriate stitch counts for knee socks.  I may have to get the recipients mom (our God Daughter Gracie is who I'm knitting them for) to measure her legs.

Still spinning the Jungle Yarn.  I hope to finish spinning all my bits before the end of the year.  Then I can start my New Year sweater with the yarn.  Thinking of patterns.