Front And Center

I've got this professor I really enjoy who has admired my knitting. (I knit in class.) I not-so-subtly asked what color she likes to wear. The answer: red. She told me not to make anything, but I have just the skein for this project. It's a skein of Wollemeise that didn't have quite the spring I like in my sock yarn, but Herzblut is the perfect red color. The scarf is going to be largely plain weave, but I'm putting leno lace at both ends. 

Last week I had hardly started my latest sweater, my Arrowhead Cardigan. I initially thoughts that there wasn't any chance of me wearing the sweater before Christmas, but I might have changed my mind. I'm already at the armholes! I will admit that I've been sweating about where the diamond motif might land. Unfortunately the center of the diamond looks like it is at exactly bust level. (Not good) But there will be a four inch (5cm) button band on that will be put in after the sweater has been steeked. I'm hopeful that even if the diamond motif is at bust level, it will be closer to the armpits rather than "front and center."

I finished knitting my Denature socks earlier month, but it took me a while to get around to weaving in ends and blocking them. I'm pleased. The stripes line up and I only had to cut the yarn and splice it in three times to do it :)

Stray Cat Socks in Silver Star

I've been doing my best to take things off of my crafting list so I can remain relaxed and happy. The scarf is going well enough that I might try to weave one last scarf before Christmas. We shall see.

Daily Creative Practices

I was feeling a little down this week. I've been wanting to find time to do little paintings, but it seems like I keep running out of time once some of my more mandatory projects have been attended to. (School work, getting groceries, etc.) I thought about how I could "make time" when I realized that I have quite a few daily creative practices already. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had reasons to celebrate.

The daily comic has been updating daily for a few months now, but behind the scenes, I'm still catching up on the backlog. This week, however, I finally finish editing Book 2. Hurray! I'm on to editing Book 3 and it feels like a big hurdle has been crossed because I am still drawing in Book 3. I'm looking forward to being entirely caught up, although to get there, I know I have to continue to make it a daily practice.

Related to editing the daily comic, I make it a practice to draw the daily comic daily. The goal is to never have a backlog. I finally found that I if I drew the comic while eating breakfast, I had more success. Now it just feels wrong not to draw it in the morning.

Another thing Connor and I have been keeping up on is writing with our non-dominant hand. We started in July as a way to prove that there is no such thing as talent. The idea was that talent is just a culmination of practice. Well, I'm not sure if either of us has seen much improvement in our non-dominate handwriting, but both of us have noticed that our left hands have felt much stronger. The experiment continues.

These three daily practices have required making a habit, but my last daily practice is one that I just can't help myself: knitting. Just about every day I've got knitting in my hands and a few more rounds find their way onto my current project. And let's face it, my current project is probably socks.

Does anyone else have a daily creative practice? Or is there something you'd like to make a daily creative practice?

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?

Christmas Knitting Starts Early

Classes are still going well. An unexpected perk at school is that I'm getting a lot of knitting done. There are many spare moments in the day when I've been able to pick up the needles and continue knitting. I've not quite finished anything yet, but I'm closing in on finishing the Primavera Socks for my mother-in-law. She kindly sent me an outline of her foot, so I was able to confirm how long the foot needed to be.

My Denature and Trick or Treat vanilla socks both have their heels put in. These are both first socks, but the hard part of getting the stripes to line up in the heel is done, so it should be smooth sailing from now on. Incidentally, both socks are Stray Cat Socks yarn. It was unplanned, but with such wonderful yarn, who could complain?

I've also been working on the loom again. I used Little Wool Company's 4-ply in Tamarillo for the warp and Malabrigo Sock in Chocolate Amargo for the weft of the scarf. It only took me a week and a half to finish. The scarf wove up really fast once Connor and I started a new show, Medici: Masters of Florence. The show is interesting, but most of the Italian main parts are played by English actors, which seems a little odd. I'm pretty sure everyone in Italy didn't have blue eyes at this time. We did enjoy seeing that the actor who played Rob Stark in Game of Thrones' has a father-in-law who just happens to be played the same actor who was Walden Frey in Game of Thrones. I wonder if the casting director did that on purpose.

Connor has also been hard at work on a scarf. We are both working on our Christmas gifts and every night we both try to hit our quota. It's going well so far.

Meanwhile, in the little bits of time we have together, I've also been showing Connor how to watercolor. Basically after I learn something in class, I show him how to do it. We started out with fruit, so Connor tried his hand at it. Maybe I'll have him try the classic bowl of fruit next.

After all, I just finished up my bowl of fruit.

There are some things I would do differently now that I understand more about watercolor, but overall I'm happy with it.

Accounting For Knitting Time

Whew, it's been a wild two weeks since I last wrote. I started school last week and it has taken some time to adjust to the change in the amount of time I have to myself. One of those classes is Accounting, which I've found has a steep learning curve, but I'm enjoying none the less. The other class I'm taking is beginning watercolor. I've tried to watercolor for years and I just never felt like I had a good command of what I was doing. I'm really enjoying myself already. Partially because the teacher is so kind and partially because I haven't mentioned that I have any painting experience, so I don't feel like I need to create masterpieces. It's been freeing.

I think the plums came out the best

Meanwhile, I've managed to finish my Cider House socks. I realize that I never mentioned them here on the blog, but they have been mentioned on my instagram. I adjusted the Primavera Sock pattern to accommodate my sport weight handspun.

It took me four tries to get contrast yarn I liked to match my handspun. This seems to be a trend when I need yarn to match my handspun. In the end I bought a skein of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in sport weight in the Fedora color way.

And because I got something off of the needles, I rewarded myself with casting on something new. I bought this ball of Stray Cat Socks last year just after Halloween. I've been looking forward to the "I must have Halloween socks" bug to bite me and it has. With the way classes are I thought I ought to start now to guarantee that I finish in time for Halloween.

The Mother-In-Law Primavera Socks have also gone pretty well. I am mostly done with the foot of the first sock, but have had to put it aside until I can verify the foot length it needs to be. My original measurements seemed a little off and I'd like to get this one right. The Denature sock hasn't gone quite a smoothly. I was just about at the heel when I realized that the leg of the sock was quite a bit longer than I usually knit for myself and it wasn't going to fit up my calf. (Usually I knit a length that doesn't require a gusset for my calf.) So rip, rip, rip. I've had to do some extra work to make the pattern shorter and still have it line up correctly on the heel flap. Sigh.

Despite being able to fit in some knitting time, I'm still a little worried about how long that will last. Accounting is pretty tough and I'll be starting a second accounting class in the second week of October. I'd better knit as much as I can for now!

Logjam or Time

While Connor and I were hiking the other day we had a great conversation about the different projects were were interested in. I've got a million ideas, like usual, and felt frustrated about how I couldn't ever get to all of them. Connor lamented the lack of time he has for his projects. We then realized that there are really only two reasons a project isn't finished: Either you have a logjam or there is a time problem.

The Logjam: Mum uses this word when there is something in the way of completing a project. For example, if the house isn't clean, the logjam might be something big like you don't know where to start, or something small like you ran out of bleach. I think that with creative projects, it is more often that you don't know how to move forward rather than you don't have the right tool. One of the biggest reasons (although not the only reason) that I spent years not putting my daily comic online was because I had no idea how to create the website I wanted for it. I feel that most of these issues can be resolved by breaking project down into smaller bites, doing research, or enlisting some help. In the case of the comic website, I realized that I was never going to be able to get the calendar to work the way I wanted it to. It was beyond me. I enlisted Connor and my father to figure it out, which they did quite successfully.

Time: Connor told me that the reason he has not worked on his project because he hasn't scheduled the time for it. We realized that most people figure there will be time for a project eventually. The good old, "I'll get to it one day." I know this to not be true. If I don't chip a little bit away at a project each day, it never gets done. I've started to multitask to get some particularly boring bits of the comic project done. In the morning when I'm eating breakfast, I've started to edit my comics rather than browse the internet. I usually get an extra page edited per day if I do that.

So what have I done in order to get some of my projects to the finish line? Well, today I finally got around to taking pictures of the Peeta Socks for my Dad.

Not everyone I showed was convinced that these looked like Dad socks, but my Dad was thrilled. Proper amounts of ooing and ahhing were done.

I've turned the heel of the Primavera sock. I just need to schedule some time to sit down and pick up the stitches for the gusset. The Denature socks are getting the odd round done when I'm in the car.

Connor's Dude Sweater is getting closer and closer to being done. I successfully stepped the sweater, but realized that the facing I was planning for it wasn't going to work because it wasn't compatible with the collar. The sweater sat for a few days as I tried to move past my logjam and work out how to proceed. I think I've got an idea of what to do now. Although it won't be as perfect as I had envisioned, I think it will still look quite nice when I am done.

So what prevents all of you from completing projects? Is it a logjam, time, or are there more reasons out there?

67 Yards Of Disappointment

Earlier in July I posted a blog about how I felt that talent could be acquired through persistence rather than randomly bestowed ability. José left a compelling comment pointing out that there are more actions that are needed when creating than just practice. In José's own words, "But how about an eye for detail, and for colour? And how about originality? I wonder if lots of practice alone is enough to come up with original ideas?" Those words tumbled around in my mind for the last two weeks. It's really hard to quantify practice vs. talent because even with practice, people are going to have different original ideas. I can only speak from my own experience, but I still think that practice is what leads to creativity.

I remember a day about 15 years ago when I decided I wanted to be better at drawing and I was going to do that by first observing everything around me. When I would go on walks, I would do my best to pay attention to the details surrounding me: the way a leaf created shadow on the ground, how different people's noses curved differently. Then I'd go and try to draw it all. I remember the great disappointment that my hand just wouldn't draw what my mind had thought up. I suspect most artists, even those advanced in their careers, have days when their brain and hand doesn't match up.

The other thing I observed is that the more work I created, the more ideas I had. There was just something about practicing that lead to more original ideas. Although the ideas sometimes came in cycles. When I was working on practicing a technique, the ideas slowed down, but when I started to master a technique, then the original ideas came. What kinds of experiences have you all had in regards to creativity and originality?

Meanwhile, in my own creative pursuits, I've had a bit of a failure. I decided I wasn't happy with the way the color of my current cuff/heel/toe looked against my Cider House socks, so I decided to spin a different colored 3-ply yarn. I was going for a DK and ended up with an Aran weight yarn. I knit up a cuff with this yarn and it was clear I wasn't going to be able to get away with the thicker yarn. It's pretty disappointing because I don't have anymore dark brown to try with.

67 yards of disappointment

Luckily that was the only spinning disaster I had. The second skein I was working on for Tour de Fleece came out beautifully. I spun up both braids of my Wonderland Dyeworks 80/20 Merino/Tussah Silk roving in the Coral Reef color way and came out with 360 yards of a 2 ply DK weight yarn.

I've also made great progress with Connor's Dude Sweater. After reading a bunch on steeks, I decided to go with a crochet reinforced steek rather than a sewn one. Connor asked to have a zipper rather than the buttons recommended in the pattern. I've decided that I'm going to use a combination of Tech Knitter's faced steek and Kate Davies's Steel Sandwich tutorials to complete the sweater. But first I'm waiting on a shipment from Knitpicks to arrive so I have the right tool to install the zipper.

So with all my other knits in limbo, I've cast on two different socks to make up the difference in my knitting time. On the left is the Denature Socks in my ball of Stray Cat Socks' Silver Star color way. I've carried this ball on many of my vacations, including Florida and Hawaii, but haven't cast on until now. I also have cast on another Primavera sock. I liked how the Cider House socks looked and thought that it would look good in the skein of Madelinetosh Sock in the Shire color way I got while visiting Black Mountain Yarns.

Here's to another week of creating!

Denature

Goal #4: Knit a pair of sock with my own hand spun yarn. Check that one off of the annual goal list.

This was one of the goals I wasn't really sure I would have time for this year. But I'm really happy I did it. Plus, I'd been wanting to knit the Denature pattern for nearly two years now. My weird gauge and lack of sock knowledge had kept me from them... until now.

I had divided the braid in half when I spun up the yarn. But one skein ended up being a little thinner than the other, so I had to take out lengths of yarn to keep the stripes matching. Usually I use a Russian join when joining yarn, but since this isn't a superwash wool, I went ahead and did a spit splice for the first time ever. (I used water, not spit) It might be my new favorite kind of join.

The official info:
100% Polwarth Top from Woolgatherings. The braid was split in half for the first ply, then was Navajo plied. It ended up around a heavy fingering weight. The size small sock called for 70+ stitches to be cast on. I did some editing and cast on 52 stitches instead.
Ravelry Project Page

(Thanks for modeling the socks Mum)

Slow Sock Progress

I had this great plan. I was going to have my wisdom teeth out, then I was going to sit on the couch and knit for a week. It was foolproof. Teeth out = knitting time. I was going to be done with a pair of socks. 

What actually happened is that I didn't have enough energy to even touch the needles until last night. So I've only knit 30 rounds of my second Denature sock. Ah well.

Still Knitting All The Things

My first Denature handspun sock is steadily growing. And although I really like the pattern and the yarn, I'm a bit on the ropes on whether or not they compliment each other as well as I was hoping. A  solid color would doubtlessly show off the pattern the best, but I suspect a good blocking will make the pattern stand out much better. I plan on continuing on since I spun this yarn with the intention of knitting this pattern. Starting over would only result in me never knitting the pattern or using the yarn for anything else. 

It should be noted that the heel flap is a little tough going and should be knitted in one sitting. 

The second Druid mitten grew a whole repeat last night. I've been feeling guilty about letting this sit on my needles for so long. (I cast on near the beginning of January this year.) Plus, I have finally worked out all the fitting issues I had with the pattern, so now I just have to knit.

Today's big project was to learn how to double knit. I have a pattern idea, and finally decided that double knitting would be the solution to the construction problem I was having. (A big thank-you to fernknits. Her botanical caplet is what inspired me to even look at double knitting as a solution.)

Learning this technique was much easier than it was the last time I tried. Partially because there are many more tutorials on the internet. (The one that made things click for me was from Knit Picks.) And partially because I now use both hands when doing stranded knitting, which helped immensely with keeping my tension even. Although I had to go down several needle sizes because, surprise surprise, it turns out my double knitting tension is looser than any other knitting I do.

Electric Prince

Now that we are in the last third of the year, I thought it might be a good time to see how I was doing on my annual goal list. #4 on the list is to "Knit a pair of sock with my own hand spun yarn." I had spun up this yarn with the intention of making socks, and now it is finally happening. I think I'm in love with the way this yarn works with the Denature pattern. I had to subtract a bunch of stitches out of the pattern to accommodate my weird gauge. Hopefully I' haven't taken too many stitches out.

Last post I said I would cast on two new things. That didn't quite happen. As I was swatching with the Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine, I decided it wasn't quite what I had in mind for the Antarctic shawl. It's a nice yarn, but I'm just not as in love with it as I was when I bought it a year or two ago. This year I've decided that I'm not going to knit with yarn that I don't love. Life is too short to do that. So instead I'm going to use the two skeins of RedFish Dyeworks Silk Sock that I bought this year at Stitches West. And I'm liking this swatch much, much better. The yarn is thicker than what the pattern calls for, but I've decided I don't care.

Of course before going wild with the yarn, I did finish my Velomeisters. I have named them Electric Prince since the yarns are Madelinetosh in Edison Bulb (the electric part) and Koigu in Prince (self explanatory).

I'm looking forward to wearing them on my next bike ride.

And a little bit of news about The Book. I'm re-graphing everything now that I've learned how to do a much better job aligning things in Illustrator. The bonus is that it is taking a tenth of the time it took to originally make some of the graphs and it looks so much better. I'm using video tutorials from Marnie MacLean for anyone who is curious. It's also giving me an opportunity to recheck graphs as I fix them all up. I'm also starting to edit the patterns to make sure the graphs and the written portions match. 

On a related note, as I was drawing up my charts, I found that there is no standardization for chart symbols. I pulled out copies of Vogue knitting, Interweave Knitting, Rowan, Coastal Knits, Little Red in the City, and looked at the Craft Yarn Council's Yarn Standards Charting Symbols. To make matters worse, some symbols in certain publications mean something completely different in another publication. And older copies of some publications sometimes have different symbols to more recently released copies. So I am doing a bit of a mixture from each publication. But I'm doing my best to build charts in a way where you only have to glance over to see what part you are on rather than stare at the chart key to figure out what the stitch is suppose to be. It should be intuitive.