Finish All The Things!

It's funny how every autumn, everyone gets really busy, including me! After getting the books, it was just event after event. I barely have had a chance to catch my breath. Anyways, I was thinking about what to write and I realized that I haven't talked much about what I've knit, much less what I've finished in quite some time. So without further ado, here is a parade of FOs starting with one from (gasp) August. I made the Free Bees pattern in 2011, but it wasn't until this year that I knit myself a pair. So here is August's FO. Free Bees knit with Tosh Sock in the Gilded color way.

In September I knit up my third pair of Velomeisters from the yarn I got during the epic yarn crawl of '13. This was the closest match of yarn I could find to match my crazy bike shoes. The orange is so loud in both the shoes and socks that there was no way to get the camera sensor to capture them correctly. Just know that it's hard to miss me when I bike by. The yarn is Alchemy Juniper in the Blue Jay Way and Tangerine color ways.

In October I knit up both a Deep Sea Wanderer, seen in an earlier post, and this Watch Cap. The hat was for a friend's birthday. He was thrilled. I had a hard time giving it up though, it fit me pretty well. The yarn is  Plymouth Worsted Superwash Merino in the Dark Gray color way. 

Then there is the Pomatomus socks. It took me from September to November to make these. And considering that I knit on them nearly everyday, that is far longer than they should have taken. Previous posts explain the multiple problems I had (because of me, not the pattern.) The socks are awesome though. The yarn is Socks That Rock Medium Weight in the Tlingit color way that Alicia destashed on me. Thanks Alicia! The socks truly rock.

So what am I left with? Well, I'm knitting my father a birthday sweater. I started in September, but I completely ignored it in favor of finishing the Pomatomus socks. However, as soon as the socks were done, I realized that I had less than a month to finish the sweater. So I have been completely monogamous with this project. It is my only WIP at the moment. That's right. I have nothing else on the needles. I have so many things I want to cast on, but I know I won't finish this on time if I do.
It is Brownstone out of Naturally Mainlander Aran in color 862. Dad was with me when I bought the yarn in New Zealand in 2010. He said, "Maybe you could make me a sweater." I laughed at him. I'd never made a sweater before and I certainly wasn't ever going to make a dad-sized sweater. I suppose the joke is on me. (The picture below isn't current. I've only got 2.25 inches left of the collar, then it is just all the finishing work.)

I don't even know what to cast on next. Everything seems exciting at this point.
What are you guys working on these days? Or are you about to have a bout of start-itus like me?

It's Here!

It's here! We picked up Lit Knits from the printer on Friday and it came out wonderfully.

We ended up using two cars to pick up all the boxes. Dad and I unloaded one of the cars while Mum talked to a neighbor. When she came in she said, "Wow, that doesn't look too bad." Dad had to tell her, "The other half of the boxes are in the study." "Oh." 

These are just half the boxes. 

We spent Saturday evening packing up all the books in mailers. They will be sent off this week. So if you preordered a book, keep a weather eye out for your package. And if you missed out on the preorder, the books are now available to order. (Or if you live near A Verb For Keeping Warm, they have some copies as well.)

Knitting Lab = Mojo Restoration

After dealing with the sock that refused to be knit, I lost my knitting and blogging mojo. I was starting to think that I'd never feel better until Tyler and I went to Interweave Knitting Lab in San Mateo. And then this happened. 

Canon Hand Dyes is one of my new favorite yarns and when I found out Amy of CHD was going to be at KnitLab, I was beside myself. And then Pigeonroof was there.... and Knitwit. Here is the evidence of my lack of self control.
The top row is: Freia Ombre Worsted in Denim, and two skeins of Pigeonroof SUPER Sock in Malachite (top) and Dragon Days (bottom)
The bottom row is all the Canon Hand Dyes (L-R): In the William base we have a brown heel toe skein, Vintage Christmas, We're All Mad Here, Etude No.18, and I Desire Nothing But The Reward Of A Villian. The next two skeins are the Charles base in The Prince Of Darkness Is A Gentleman and Days Of Wine And Roses.
The truth is, I wanted more. So much more. I satisfied myself a bit by enabling everyone at the yarn shop later on.

I also talked to Esther who treated me to some stitch markers. I'm super stoked about the Little Prince and Star. We had talked about the Celestarium. It was #1 in her queue and I had the original with me. So naturally one thing led to another and now I have some lovely stitch markers.

I did finally manage to finish the stubborn socks this past week. I'll talk about them soon. Unfortunately I'm not diving into anything new because I'm trying to finish the epic Dad Sweater in time for his birthday. I have less than 4 weeks to do it. I think I can, but I'm currently in the vast wastes of the stockinette body.... and the sock yarn is calling to me.

Blocking With Nemo

I finished up knitting my Deep Sea Wanderer a few days ago, but I didn't get to blocking it until just yesterday. It's amazing what a good blocking can do to a project. Stitches relax and the project becomes what it was meant to be. To prove it, here is a blocked and unblocked Deep Sea Wanderer. 

There are different blocking methods for different projects. But for this one, I just soaked it in the sink, pushed the water back out, then lay it outside. Sometimes I'll pin the project, but for this one I just smoothed out the infinity scarf with my hands. I've found that I'll often end up with a crease in my projects. What I do to prevent it is to rotate the project periodically while it is drying. A quarter to half turn will do it.

Tada! A finished infinity scarf. It's hard to believe that the first picture in this post is of the same two scarves.

I just have to wait for it to get cold enough to wear it. 

Año Nuevo

On Wednesday Mum and I decided to get out of the house and go to Año Nuevo State Park. It was a beautiful day. One of the docents told us that every day she had been out there, since April, had been cold and windy. I like to think that good weather follows me. I hope I'm not jinxing myself.

There is a large colony of Elephant Seals that live at the park. It's a bit of a trek through the sand dunes to get to the area where the seals are, but it is worth it. (It's also worth doing the walk in sandals, unless of course you enjoy pouring half the beach out of your shoes when you are done.)
While we were watching these guys, there were a whole bunch of them flipping sand onto themselves.

I also noticed a pattern in how they itched themselves. Every time any of them had an itch, they would first lift their flipper into the air, where it would stand for a little while. Then they would do the Queen's wave, followed by a good scratch.

But my favorite bit was seeing their tracks. It kind of looked like giant lizard tracks.

Right now there are only juvenile seals out there. But come winter, the large males (with giant, silly noses) will be out there battling for a harem of ladies. I'm hoping we can go out and watch.
Bonus: Elephant Seals fast while they are on land, so they don't foul up their living area. They smell a-ok. The California Seal Lions are another story....

The Sock That Refused To Be Knit

So I've been working on the same sock since Sept 22nd. I've knit on it nearly every day and it still isn't a sock. The saga of the Pomatomus sock began innocently enough. I saw that Alicia was destashing yarn, so I got a skein of Socks That Rock Medium Weight in Tlingit from her. I've desired this color for some time and I liked Elfielori's project that I'd seen done with it. The sock was 72 stitches, and I already knew I'd be modifying it down to a 60 stitch. No problem. But then I got fancy...
I decided to do 2.5 repeats of the pattern down the leg. Once I got to the foot, I'd figure how to proceed. Except I couldn't figure it out. I puzzled and puzzled... and then I noticed a different problem. My decreases had been k2tog. They SHOULD have been k2tog tbl. Three little letters I didn't read. It bothered me, so I ripped back to the cuff. (Note, in the picture there is no heel. I had put the heel in and most of the gusset before discovering the additional tbl problem.)

Try #2. I decided not to get fancy, so I did the 3 full repeats of the pattern down the leg, turned the heel, started the gusset... and it was too tight. So I ripped out the gusset, extended the heel, put in the gusset again.... and although the gusset now fit, I realized that the rest of the sock was a little tight. And by "a little tight" I mean that I was nearly ripping the sock in order to get my foot in it. Once it was in, it fit. I then decided that the sock was too tall and I didn't really like how the yarn pooled.... so RIP.

Try #3. I went up a needle size and I'm only doing two repeats of the pattern down the leg. I like how the colors are lining up now.

Mum called me a bulldog for continuing on with this sock. I'm hoping that means that I'm persistent. Anyways, this sock is a prime example of why I don't do 2-at-a-time socks. Hopefully I'll have at least one sock to show for Soctober.

How To Make Bobbles More Bobble-y

The KAL for the Deep Sea Wanderer is moving along quite well, so I thought it would be a good time to explain how to make the bobbles that show up in the pattern look more bobble-y. First off, here is what the bobbles look like as knitted. (And unblocked) The bobbles can be seen, but they are nearly flush to the rest of the fabric.

The first way of fixing a bobble is the Yank Method. Slide your needle behind the whole bobble and give a good yank forward. It certainly helps, and it pretty quick to perform, but the bobbles can still slide back.

The problem is that when making the bobble, the stitch that was knitted just before making the bobble becomes loose. (The stitch is to the immediate right of the bobble.) You can see how loose this stitch is in the picture. As a result, the bobble can move to the back of the project rather than lay nicely on the top of the project. There is a solution, although it is a little tedious.

Note: For this project, bobbles are made in three rows. This will be referred to in the following method.

The second method is the Redistribution Method. Rather than just yank the bobble forward, the yarn in the loose stitch is redistributed into the bobble. First I give the bottom right stitch of the bobble a good yank. The goal is to have that loose stitch to the right of the bobble be the same size as the stitches surrounding it.

Next I pull the excess yarn all the way across the first row of the bobble. Once this is done, you'll have a large loop of yarn on the bottom left of the bobble. And where does all that excess yarn go? I like to distribute it all along the second row in the bobble. I slowly pull the yarn into each of the stitches of the second row of the bobble, which makes the stitches in the second row a bit bigger. If I'm having trouble getting the stitches in the second row to look nice, I might pull some of the excess yarn into the first stitch of the third row.

This takes some time since there are quite a few bobbles in this infinity scarf. But I really like the result. The bobble remains on the front side of the scarf and looks "bobble-y"

Here is a comparison of each technique:

1. The Redistribution Method

2. The Yank Method

3. Left As Knitted

I hope that helps you guys on your bobble adventures. If anyone has another method that you find helpful, feel free to share it in the comments.