Sweater, Sweater, Sock, Sock, Now I've Got The Knitting Shot

I have been dreaming of knitting sweaters, especially sweaters for me. The problem I've encountered is that my weight has been all over the place because of the mystery GI problems. In the last 8 months I've lost 20 pounds (9kg), but managed to gain back almost 5 (2kg). This has left me a little unsure as to where I'll ultimately land, so making an especially fitted sweater is out. I have, however, been eyeing the Iceland pattern from Rowan 42. I even started it once way back in 2010. (That yarn turned into the Fireside Sweater instead, which fit my wrong in the shoulders and now belongs to my Mum.) The only problem is that it either looks good on you or it doesn't. I checked out many different projects on ravelry, and I'm hoping that if I can make the waist hit higher, it will look flattering on me.

Meanwhile, since Connor is remaining the same size (and also I love him), I've also been wanting to make him a sweater. Wei Siew generously gifted me 5 balls of Mythral I needed when I was in New Zealand last. I wanted to do my best to honor her by not letting the yarn sit in stash for too long. I had envisioned a Walter Mitty style sweater, but something kept me from recreating it. I just didn't like how there were cables on the arms, but none on the body. It just seemed unbalanced. But recently Christina Danaee made a sweater that looked much more like what I wanted to make. And what do you know, she was also inspired by Walter Mitty.

I very conveniently own the same magazine that she used to make the sweater

As I agonize over sweater decisions, I have been plodding along on my socks. The Concrete and Tulip socks have gone pretty well so far, but still have some decisions attached to them. I got to the top of the cuff of the first sock and realized that I might want to make the ribbing a bit longer. Also, I've never done a tubular bind off, but that might be more appropriate for these socks since they are knee-high. I haven't quite worked out what I want to do, so I went ahead and started the second sock. I think I'll knit the second sock with the adjustments I want to make. If it doesn't work out, then I only have to rip out one sock to make them match... in theory.

The Hieroglyphic Socks are also being knit at a good pace. I find doing two handed color makes my hands sore after a certain number of rounds, so I just make sure to put a few rounds into them every day. They will get done slowly and steadily.

Veteran's Day

Today the neighbor kids are home and they have been making cookies. I could hear their laughter and I started to wonder if they knew why they had the day off from school. Then I started to think about my cousin, a veteran, and how I could maybe brighten his day. I felt a little silly sending a card. "Is it even worthwhile?" I wondered. I called up my Mum and she told me that no one has ever hated being told that they are appreciated. So I sat down, painted a flag on a thank-you card, and wrote what I admired about him and his commitment to our country.

It is only a small thing to do, but if you have a veteran in your life, I hope you all might be inspired to let them know that they are valued.

Pumpkin Farm, Haystack Maze, and The Ill Advised Haunted House

I hadn't really been more than 15 minutes from our apartment for nearly a month. My buddy Jackie had asked us way back in May if we wanted to go to her favorite pumpkin patch when the time came. I still wasn't feeling great, but I was also getting a bit stir crazy from being homebound for so long. So two days before Halloween, we drove over to the farm.

I'd never been to a pumpkin farm before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It turns out that this farm had a bunch of things to do. There was a haunted house... which I got talked into. I'll admit that at the first sign of a spooky person saying they would "come and get" us, I told them that they could have Jackie. There was also a corn maze. When Connor saw that he announced decisively, "I want to do the maze." It was a really good one, too. They had six entrances to get in and more than one worked. There were also false doors, which would influence the correct path to the end.

We made it out alive, which was good, since we still needed to pick out our pumpkins.

Jackie told us that she had always wanted to carve Burt and Ernie from Sesame Street into a pair of pumpkins, but never had. I was all for it, so we searched for the correct Burt and Ernie shaped pumpkins.

Jackie decided she also wanted an Oscar the Grouch pumpkin. Finding the right pumpkin took some serious thought.

We were so tired from all the fun we had that we didn't carve our pumpkins until the next day. We drew our own renditions of each character. I think they came out pretty great. 

Left to right: Oscar the Grouch, Ernie, and Burt

Jackie took her pumpkin home while Connor and I took ours to my parents' house. The trick-or-treaters really got a kick out of our pumpkins. I'm glad Jackie shared her fun idea with us.

Analyzing Creative Paralysis

I know that everyone gets creatively paralyzed from time to time. For me, the biggest creative suck has been being unwell.... or so I thought. (For those who are curious about my health status... I've left the details at the bottom of the post.)

The other day I had a chat with a good friend who is also dealing with an as of yet undiagnosed long term illness. She said she started asking the question, "What would be different if I was well?" I realized that other than having a bit more energy and less pain, things might not be that much different for me. As I started to wrestle with the question of what really was sucking my creativity away, I came across this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. She is the author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, among other titles. I really loved her insight on how creativity used to be looked at differently. Creativity was once seen as something from beyond, but after the Renaissance, it started being seen as something that came from oneself. I'd hate to spoil the talk, but I'd like to encourage all you creatives to sit down and have a listen.


The latest health update: I'm still undiagnosed, but each test and procedure I've done has come up clean, which is good. After having a colonoscopy, I've learned that I have an enviable colon. He didn't even biopsy me, I was that good. I'm now gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, (and fun free)... and eating as many anti-inflammatory things a person can eat (bone broth, bone broth, bone broth). My mental clarity is fantastic and for some reason my hearing has also become amazing, but the weird gut/nerve/not sure what they are spasms continue. I'm hoping it is just a nerve that got irritated and just needs a long time to not be inflamed.

Also, as I was doing the colonoscopy prep, I came across two really good accounts relating to it. This one made me laugh. And this one had some great tips I wish I had known about beforehand, like having a supply of Vaseline. Luckily we had Desitin on hand. I left a good dose of that on my bum after the colonoscopy and I was good as new the next day.

I Got 99 Problems and My Socks Are One

I've got two different socks on the needles at the moment, and frustratingly, I've gotten a little stuck on both. The Concrete and Tulip sock that I'm working from the toe-up is going to probably end up as a knee-high if I want to use up every bit of yarn, so now I need to decide how to go about doing the calf shaping. Meanwhile the Hieroglyphic Socks, which I am working from the cuff-down, has some heel decisions. I think most knitters in this situation would start a new project. I am tempted, but I also want to wear these socks.

To figure out my socks problems, I've reached into my library to see how others have dealt with the issue. No need to reinvent the wheel. For the Concrete and Tulip socks, I'm looking at the Welsh Country Stockings in Nancy Bush's Folk Socks as an example on how to do calf shaping. (You can see them in the upper left corner of the book.) Those socks are worked top-down, so it isn't a complete match. But now I have an idea on what kind of spacing I'll need for each set of increases.

The Hieroglyphic Socks have a heel problem because I made it one. I didn't care for the recommended heel, but I did like the way stickfia on ravelry worked her Hieroglyphic Socks. Originally I thought I would turn the heel like she did, but I really want all the stripes to match. I realized that I had tackled this problem before, so I broke out Lit Knits to see what I had done. I think I am going to use the dutch heel that was used in Behind The Garden Wall.

What kinds of sock problems have you all encountered? And do you have any favorite books you reference to remedy said problems?

Knit Myself Into A Corner

I started a new vanilla sock the other day because my Hieroglyphic Socks were too complicated for car knitting. I got this skein of Caterpillar Green Yarns in the Concrete and Tulips color way a while back and I have been hoarding it ever since.

So pretty

I want to use every bit of it, so I decided to do toe up socks. These aren't my first toe up socks, but since my last pair, I've been converted to using a heel flap. "No problem," I thought to myself. "It's just like knitting my usual top down pair in reverse. I'll just replace the decreases with increases." That was going well until I got to the heel turn. Going top down, decreases help shape the turn. Toe up.... I had no idea.

What Now?

So I searched through as many tutorials as I could manage until I found one that matched close enough. I'm using Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks Recipe (MUMTU Socks) by Zhenya Lavy, but making a few edits so that it accommodates what I've already knitted. Fingers crossed that this works and I don't have to visit the frog pond.

The Baby Is Always The Triforce Of Power

My good friend Elaine is going to have a baby soon, so the call that many a knitter feel: I had to make her something. What started off as a simple baby hat idea quickly grew. She and her husband are big fans of The Legend of Zelda, so I knew that I needed to make the baby an Elven Hero hat. Then it seemed like Elaine would need one too. Of course if Elaine had one, so would Caleb. (I think new dads get a little left out in the baby hub hub, so I wanted to make sure he was included.) And all of a sudden there were three hats.

Connor had been talking about knitting a pair of socks as his fourth project, so I talked him into knitting a pair of baby socks for our friends. He worked really hard. He hardly needed any help at all. I was impressed.

This is Elaine and Caleb's first, so in keeping with the Legend of Zelda theme, we packaged everything to match the different parts of the Triforce. It seems appropriate since the three of them are essentially going to become a Triforce.

 This baby is going to be loved, and now it is also going to be cozy.