One Tree Short Of A Forest

I have some good knitting news and some bad knitting news. Let's start with the good. I finished my Joyeux Noel socks early for next Christmas! Ok... so I didn't finish in time for this past Christmas, but that's ok. They came out great and now I get to look forward to wearing them during the next holiday season.

Stray Cat Socks in Joyeux Noel and a special-ordered contrasting brown

The bad news... well... I made a big boo boo. It might be hard to see in the picture, but last night as I was doing the decreases for the second sock to go from 72 to 64 stitches, I couldn't get the stitch count to come out right. Finally I counted out my stitches... and I already had 64 stitches. I turned a little grey. There are 9 repeats of the tree pattern on the first sock; there are only 8 on the second one. Sigh. I held off ripping until today.

It's probably better not to rip when you are angry

Of course with no knitting to work on, I cheered myself up with casting on something new. I've been meaning to knit my skein of Canon Hand Dyes in "A Rose By Any Other Name" for a while now. Every time I get to it Valentine's Day has passed and I lose my motivation. Not this year though! Maybe with enough of a head start I'll be able to wear these puppies in time for the pinkest holiday of the year.

What kinds of things have you all had to rip out lately? Has anyone else been one tree short of a forest?

Three For Me

I've been a selfish crafter recently. All my knits are for me! I started knitting the Hylestad pattern. I only had to rip once to switch from a grey to a white. The grey didn't give me the contrast I needed. Luckily I still have a pile of whites to choose from after the whole Sheep May Safely Graze debacle.

My Joyeux Noel socks are coming along great too. Have I mentioned recently how much I love Stray Cat Socks' yarn? Yes? Well, I'll say it again. It is vibrant and wonderful to knit with.

This week I also cast on the most anticipated knit of this year, my Arrowhead Cardigan. I've been talking about this one for ages. So much so that Connor started asking when I was going to cast on. It is an oversized cardigan (the smallest size is 49.5 inches/ 126cm) that I am resizing to be a more reasonable size. Rather than have a cardigan that has 14 inches/ 36cm of ease, I'm going for 6 inches/ 15cm of ease. After talking to my friend Carol, who is an excellent tailor, I'm also adding side vents to help me move more freely. I was really inspired by Rachel's version of the cardigan, so I also am also going to add closures to mine. I really hope I can be wearing it by Christmas, but I've never knit a sweater so fast. We shall see.

I'm also proud to show off what should have been the last of this year's gift weaves. Of course now I've thought of more people who need to be covered in wool, so I might make a few more. 

But back to the gifts at hand. These scarves are made out of yarn I've been hoarding for 5 years now. It took me all this time to find a way to show off the yarn in a way to convey the subtle color changes in the ocean around Big Sur. I even had to learn a new-to-me skill! Weaving. The warp is the beautiful yarn from Anna Gratton, but I ended up using yarn from Lost City Knits for the weft. 

Is anyone else making gifts this year? Wha kinds of things are you making?

Must... Stripe... Evenly

Hello friends! Last week I talked all about the socks that were being knit over here. This week I'd like the share the neckwear. I finally finished my last Christmas knit, the Deep Sea Wanderer cowl for my brother.

Connor was kind enough to model it for me, but then he started making sounds about how nice it was and that maybe he'd like to have one at some point. I have a feeling this isn't my last dance with the pattern.

I also finished up weaving a University of Kentucky themed scarf. I used the fibonacci sequence as a starting point, but didn't stick to it 100%.

Meanwhile, I still love socks. I started my Christmas socks...

And promptly abandoned them in favor of finishing my Denature socks. I'm not sure how everyone else decided to get things done, but I check things off the list by what is bothering me the most. The Denature Socks have been on the needles since July and I'm ready to have them finished.

Connor and I watched Stranger Things and I was able to power through much of the leg of the second sock. Just last night I got to the heel and realized that my stripes were not going to match. Mismatched stripes are too much for my little knitter's heart to take, so I ripped back, got some spare grey that I had wound off the ball earlier, and made the grey stripe before the heel longer.

Although.... now that I'm typing this, I'm thinking that I might rip back again and make the green stripe before the final grey stripe a little longer so I can hide how thick the grey stripe is.

Something tells me the saga of this sock is not over. Is anyone else out there as obsessive about their knitting as me? Or you you more of a "No one will see that mistake" kind of knitter?

Sock Fever

I've seen people talking about a thing called "Socktober." I didn't know this existed. It sounds exciting, but honestly I don't need a specific month to motivate me to knit socks. I have a fever and the only thing that will cure it is knitting more socks!
Observe exhibit A. I have finished the socks for my mother-in-law. It's the Primavera Sock pattern knit up in Tosh Sock Shire color way.

Somebody is going to have toasty feet for Christmas

Then there are these beauties hot off the needles. I managed to finish my Halloween socks with time to spare. These are knit up with Stray Cat Socks' amazing Trick Or Treat color way.

I'm still working away on my Denature socks. This is also Stray Cat Socks, but in the Silver Star color way.

Of course getting all these socks off of the needles meant that I could treat myself to new yarn! Just kidding. I bought the yarn before I finished any socks. It may come as a surprise, but I treated myself to some more Stray Cat Socks. Left to right, the color ways are Blue Moon, Sherbet Fizz, and Hipster. Subtly hiding behind hipster is a mini skein of black to be my cuff/heel/toe for the Sherbet Fizz socks. I want them to be my CMYK socks.

Just one question. Now that my Halloween socks are done, is it too soon to work on Christmas socks?

If you guessed that this is Stray Cat Socks, then you would be right. It is the Joyeux Noel color way and a complimentary brown.

The Socks Are Marching One By One, Hurrah, Hurrah

I am getting so close to finishing my Concrete And Tulip socks, I can taste it. I'm about to put the cuff into the second sock. Once that is done, I'm going to rip out the cuff on the first sock and re-knit it with two more stripes included in the ribbing. I'm also thinking that I want to try a tubular cast off for these socks. I've never done one and I'm obsessive about how the stripes land, so it may take a few goes. Does anyone have a favorite tutorial for that style of cast off? I'm partial to step by steps with pictures.

As soon as the knee high socks are done, one of these three balls of Stray Cat Sock yarn will be knit. I'm thinking either knitting a pair of Geek Socks with Kiwi Christmas or perhaps a pair of Vanilla Lattes with Pahutukawa Tree. I might hold off on the Joyeux Noel ball for now.

Left to right: Kiwi Christmas, Pohutukawa Tree, Joyeux Noel

Meanwhile, the poor Hieroglyphic Socks have been in time out. I had to reknit the cuff three times before it matched the gauge on the first sock. Not sure what happened, but I ended up having to go up a needle size. 

And that is all that is on the needles! I have all sorts of yarn sitting out with patterns printed and ready to go, but for some reason, I find it difficult to cast on. Probably because everything I want to make needs a gauge swatch... ugh.

Thou Shalt Buy Yarn

Ahem. I can explain.

I fell down hard. I was swearing up and down that I didn't need any more yarn and that no more yarn was going to enter the stash... but then the holiday themed yarn started to show up. I've been looking for the perfect Halloween self striping yarn and when I visited Wei Siew, I saw her knitting it (see the bottom image), and I broke the 10th commandment. But it was too late, the yarn wasn't on sale anymore. So I waited a year... and forgot about it until it was too late again! (We moved to a different apartment. After moving everything I was convinced that I didn't need to own any more things ever again.) This year the yarn showed up again.

The color formerly known as All Hallows Eve, now known as Trick Or Treat

Unfortunately for my wallet, so did a bunch of its friends. Shipping from New Zealand isn't cheap, so it made sense just to purchase all the yarn I could ever want in one go. And that is just what I did.

Center: Kiwi Christmas. Top center then moving clockwise: Trick Or Treat, Lilah, Joyeux Noel, Pohutukawa Tree, Goth Socks, Dusk

I also bought a complementary color for the Joyeux Noel ball. I want to recreate my Vintage Christmas socks. I still love those socks, but the red moved into the white and they don't look quite like they used to. Since I know how to fix the color better in my socks now, I'm hoping this pair's colors remains crisp. (There is something about our water that makes dye come out of socks. Especially yarns that have been dyed in the Pacific Northwest. I've had different yarn by different dyers all lose their color or bleed badly.) Plus, I've found Stray Cat Socks color stays quite bright after many washings.

I asked Tracy to dye up a good chocolatey brown to go with Joyeux Noel. I also sent her a picture of my Vintage Christmas socks. I think she did a lovely job.

I'm excited to cast on one of my 8 new wooly friends. Which which ball should I knit first?