Last night I started on the heel flap for Pirate-Husband’s second sock; I got seven rows in before a late dinner and early bedtime. Hopefully this afternoon I’ll be able to finish the flap and possibly even the heel turn! He is looking forward to having the socks complete to wear with his brown sneakers. Black socks look so silly with brown shoes!

I’m planning the next sock, to be made with blue Trekking XXL (colorway 71). It’s a gift for someone else, and I’m not sure if I’m going to make it with any stitch pattern or just do ribbing on the cuff and stockinette the rest of the way down. I guess it’s really up to him, since it’s not a surprise sock.

And then there’s Cookie’s sock class that I’m taking in September! I have an idea for a stitch pattern but I need to swatch it out before the class. Since the stitch pattern I have written down is for flat knitting, I’ll have to convert it for in-the-round and then see how it looks, as well as taking gauge measurements. I’m thinking of using either the Tess Super Socks & Baby in amber (450 yards) or the Ellen’s Half Pint Farm in very green (500 yards) for this design. Either way, I plan to weigh the yarn out in advance and wind it into two even balls. I recently got a kitchen scale and I’m thrilled to think that never again will I have to wait until the toe of my second sock to discover that I’ve not got enough yarn.

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, design, meta-knitting, sock | No Comments »

I thought you might like to see a picture of the Jojoland Melody that Pirate-Husband bought for me last week. He asked me if I had a pattern in mind, but I don’t yet - I only know that I want to knit them toe-up so I can make use of every last inch of the yarn. Maybe I’ll finally try the toe-up flap heel with gusset about which I’ve been hearing such good things lately. A complex stitch pattern might not work so well with this yarn. I’m thinking something mostly plain, maybe with a little texture. A fancy rib, perhaps, or a feather & fan variation. I have no doubt that whatever pattern I choose, even if it’s a plain stockinette foot with a ribbed cuff, the socks will be gorgeous - and I will have Pirate-Husband to thank for my warm feet!

To the commenters on my previous post about this - Pirate-Husband says he is available for loan, but I’m not sure cloning would be the best idea… I did tell him about the “hooking and looping” and his reaction was “…pfff, that’s not knitting, that’s crochet.”

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: sock, yarn | 1 Comment »

I had an idea last night for a knitted lace headscarf, the kind you’d wear while zipping along the Oregon coastline in a rented convertible. It would have a long tie that could either go under the chin or around the neck, and the kerchief part would be triangular.

Originally I was thinking that I’d do the long part of it first, then decrease down to a point… but now I’m thinking it might be better to go the other direction: do the kerchief point-up until it’s the right size, then add the tie to it afterwards.

It doesn’t seem as if there are too many kerchief patterns out there. If I’m pleased with this one I’ll put it into pdf format and offer it both here and on Ravelry. If it comes out really nicely, maybe it will be my first pattern for sale rather than for free!

Posted on July 1st, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: design, kerchief, lace, ravelry | No Comments »

Actually, I spent more time in the airports than I did on the airplanes, but I got a good three inches of Pirate-Husband’s second sock done while I was waiting for my delayed flights. I got a couple of comments in the airport:

First, an older woman who said, “That’s lovely wool. Is it wool, or something else? It looks very soft.” I explained that it was 75% wool and 25% nylon, and offered her the ball of yarn, but she declined to pet it. Shortly thereafter she and her husband went in search of someone who could tell them why the flight was so late.

Then, a couple of girls, I’d guess in their late teens or early 20s, who had never seen anyone knitting in real life before. They were amazed that I could make socks from string. So much so, in fact, that when a friend joined them, they pointed him at what I was doing and told him how cool it was.

A lonely thirteen-year-old waiting by herself for an hours-late plane said wistfully, “I wish I had something like that to do while I wait.”

I had no trouble with security or with dropped stitches either - which makes it a good flight, even if it was so late.

Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, sock | No Comments »

Pirate-Husband was working at a job site in Bethesda today. From the top of the roof he surveyed the town. “There’s the Mongolian barbeque,” he said to himself, “I should eat there for lunch. And… I think I remember that there’s a yarn store right across the street.”

So before he went home, Pirate-Husband went over to Knit and Stitch = Bliss and said, “I’m looking for some yarn for my wife.”

“What does she like?”

“She’s bought that really soft stuff from that women’s collection in Uruguay,” he said, and tried to figure out which colors of Manos del Uruguay I have. “If you have internet access, we could look at her stash on Ravelry.” The woman was floored. How great is this guy, that he’s buying yarn for his wife *and* he knows about Ravelry?

“She’s a frantic sock knitter,” offered Pirate-Husband, and was shown over to the sock yarn. “This is so totally Pirate,” he said, picking up two balls of Jojoland Melody in greens and purples, and so he bought them.

The woman at the store told him as she was ringing up his purchase, “You get a gold star for being cool!”

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: LYS, meta-knitting, stash, yarn | 3 Comments »

Last night, just before bedtime, I grafted the toe of Pirate-Husband’s first sock and interrupted his viewing of a Superman movie (I couldn’t tell which one) for him to try it on. It fits almost right, which is good enough for a first try. He seems to be quite pleased with it!

Tonight I’ll take a picture of the first sock and cast on for the second. If I make another pair for him, I will remember to make the heel flap longer to reduce the wrinkling across the top of his ankle. I understand why that happened now, so I can fix it for next time.

I have so many plans and projects lined up; I just have to keep reminding myself to take ‘em one stitch at a time. Eventually they’ll all get done somehow!

Posted on June 24th, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, sock | No Comments »

I’ve been looking for fabric-lined baskets in which I can store my growing stash of roving, but no luck. They’re all the wrong shape or the wrong size or made of the wrong material. Pirate-Husband offered to help me line a basket myself if I found a good unlined one, but even with the wider search parameters I couldn’t find exactly the right basket.

My new plan is to make thick felted bowls. They’ll be the right size and shape, since I’ll make them myself. They won’t need to be lined since they won’t be made of rattan or bamboo. And I get to knit them! I wonder how good my new washing machine is (not new-new, but new to me ’cause it came with the house) at felting.

A couple of felted projects would be a good way for me to practice colorwork as well.

Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: design, fiber, meta-knitting, spinning | No Comments »

On a whim, I slipped Pirate-Husband’s sock in progress over my foot last night. It is definitely too big for me, but it seems to be proportioned well. I really want to get it done, at least the first one, so I know if I’ve got the right size/number of stitches - but it’s been too hot to think about knitting. The heat indexes for the past couple of days have been over 100 degrees (38 C)!

Fortunately, with the air conditioning in my house now working, and the breeze that comes off the mountain, it hasn’t been too terrible. I’ve been keeping up with exercising, even if it does take time away from knitting and spinning.

So there are about five inches left to go on this sock, which means that if I really put my mind to it, it can be done in the next week or so. Yes, I could drop out of life and finish in two days, but that’s not really an option!

Plus, the Pomatomus sock has been glaring at me lately. I’m hiding from it.

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, pomatomus, sock | No Comments »

I had over an hour yesterday to do nothing but sit and knit, with no interruptions, so I powered through the rest of the gusset decreases on Pirate-Husband’s sock and got about an inch past them and into the foot before I had to put the sock down. It seems so big compared to the socks I knit for myself, but then again, his feet are a lot wider than mine!

Now it’s just knit, knit, knit again down to the toe. I’m rotating the work by five stitches every few rows to prevent laddering. I put a safety pin in the work before doing any rotating, so I know where I started. Since there are twenty stitches on each needle, it will be easy to tell if I’ve got the sock properly aligned before I start the toe.

Hope it fits him… *fingers crossed*

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, sock | No Comments »

While Pirate-Husband worked on rebuilding the fish pond yesterday (with help from a friend), I sat on the deck, switched CDs as necessary, made sure they were drinking enough water, and knit on his sock. I am in the middle of the gusset decreases now, and the pond is being filled.

There was a semi-local SnB today that I wanted to go to, but thought it would be better for me to stay here and work on the house. We have guests next weekend, a wedding to attend the weekend after, and Pirate-Husband’s mother and younger brother are coming to visit the weekend after that! Still, I really would have liked to have gotten the chance to meet some of the people who were planning to be there today. Ah well, I know it’ll happen eventually.

Posted on June 1st, 2008 by Pirate
Filed under: brown regia sock, house, sock | No Comments »