The Knitting Pirate

Pirate-Husband has a brown outfit which looks really good on him: a dark brown shirt with white pinstripes, tan slacks with a brown belt, and brown shoes. The other day he wore this outfit and, in spite of it being July, his new brown socks. He came home from work and told me that he’d shown everyone in his office the socks, and that they perfectly complete his outfit.

I couldn’t be more pleased! “I’m so glad you like them,” I said to him.

“How could I not?” he kvelled. “They’re awesome!”

“Maybe what I should say,” I said, “is that I’m glad they fit you so well. I was a little worried about that. If they didn’t fit you, you wouldn’t like them so much. There are some tweaks I’d make if I knit you another pair–”

He interrupted, “If? IF you knit me another pair?”

“Yeah, IF,” I laughed, “after the Bloo Socks, the colorwork bag, the sweater for myself, the sweater for you, all the other socks I have queued up, the other swiffer cover, the hats, the baby blanket… IF I feel like knitting anything after that, I MIGHT make you another pair of socks.” (Of course I’ll make him another pair eventually, but now that I know his measurements it can be a surprise!)

Then we started talking about the yarn he owns, with which he’d planned to knit himself a hat. I asked if he was going to bring it on vacation but he said no, he’s waiting until one of those winter days when we’re snowed in, and then we can sit together on the couch, light a fire for warmth, and I can show him how. He says he doesn’t see himself ever being a crazy addicted all-the-time knitter like I am, but he does want to knit his own hat just to prove that he can. I think that’s fantastic.

I had some extra time yesterday while waiting to resume my vacation, so I started spinning. Actually, I think I spent most of the time pre-drafting; the spinning itself went pretty quickly. Here is one quarter of the Cloverleaf Farms BFL that I got at MD Sheep and Wool this year. I had done a two-ply with the first half of it, which came out somewhere between DK and worsted weight, so I was aiming to duplicate that, but I think I spun this stuff a little thinner. We’ll see when it’s plied, of course. I got halfway through the last quarter before bed; I’ll spin that up this afternoon, let the two bobbins sit while I’m away, and ply when I get home.

This was what the roving looked like originally. It’s wonderful stuff, practically drafts itself as I’m spinning. I find myself treadling faster and faster as I go, and I think I might be overspinning just a little bit. Some of that should come out in the plying, I hope, but I’m thinking of buying a cheap metronome so I can regulate my treadling a bit more. This might be where a double treadle wheel would come in handy. Not that I don’t love the Traditional, but I am still drooling over the Kromski Symphony, and one day I might want a more portable wheel as well.

I really, really want to get to the point where I can spin my own sock yarn. Thicker yarn is okay, and it’s really coming out beautifully, but I don’t know what to do with 4 ounces of DK weight yarn. It’s too thick for gloves or socks. Maybe I’ll throw it up on Etsy and see if it sells. Oooh, maybe I’ll do a giveaway right here on the blog! I wonder if I have enough readers yet, or if there would be enough interest.

This weekend is the beginning of vacation! Pirate-Husband and I are going to an annual medieval-style camping event. We’re going up to the site this weekend just to get our land and tent set up, and then coming back, working for a few more days, and going back to site Wednesday of next week. We plan to stay for a week and a half.

Last night I started the baby blanket just to see what the yarn looked like knit up (lovely) and I plan for that to be my car knitting. It’s a 4.5 hour drive up to the campground. The expectant mother will be at this event, so I don’t want to work on it where she might see… but since we’re driving to and from site twice, I’ll have a good chunk of time to work on the project.

I’m bringing the Bloo Socks and the yarn I bought for the Swiffer cover commission with me, as well as my drop spindle and some roving. I could only find one TP roll onto which I can wind the singles, but someone on Ravelry suggested sliding the cop onto a straw – what a great idea! Also, there’s a “silk spinning on a drop spindle” class I want to take, and I’d like to have my own spindle for that. The ones they give out tend to be unbalanced.

Posts may be scarce until August 11; I’m not bringing my laptop on vacation with me. There is internet access on site, but it’s slow and costs $6/hour! Be seeing you… :)

My first thought for the baby blanket I’m about to knit was that a feather and fan pattern would look lovely with the variegations in this yarn. I already know the pattern, it’s easy and memorizable, and it will look complex even though it’s not really. But then I started thinking… lace. Acrylic yarn. No blocking. Lace needs blocking, doesn’t it? There’s no blocking acrylic. The best you can do is “kill” it, which involves steaming it very carefully so as not to melt it, and stretching it to the shape you want, but that’s not really the same as blocking a piece knit from animal fiber. (Dear Canadian Sister, I typed “fibre” the first time I wrote that. You’re rubbing off on me!)

Ravelry to the rescue! I did a pattern search for feather and fan baby blankets, and turned up this lovely piece: Feather and Fan Rainbow Blanket. It’s knit in acrylic and the lace looks good! The ripples are all rippley and the yarnovers show the way they ought to. While I’m not going to use this pattern exactly, at least now I have some evidence that the stitch will work with the yarn I’ve chosen.

I ordered lace needles in size 8.

As for the Bloo Sock, Janis rightly pointed out that a k2, p2 ribbing doesn’t flow smoothly into a k3, p1 ribbing. I showed the beginnings of the sock to Pirate-Husband, who suggested that a k6, p2 ribbing for the body of the sock would flow nicely. I think it will also look better considering how many stitches there are, so that’s what I’m going to do. Flow problem solved!

Last week I was admiring this gorgeous roving from FreckleFaceFibers on Etsy, 4.4 ounces of BFL. I emailed a link to Pirate-Husband just to say how beautiful it was, and added that I was tempted to break my yarn & fiber diet for it. (As if it’s not broken enough!) Then I emailed the link to a number of other people. I couldn’t decide if I should buy this one-of-a-kind piece of art, or come back after my diet for another of her lovely colorways. I kept going back to Etsy to look at it… and then someone else bought it.

“Ah well,” I sighed, and consoled myself with the idea of buying some roving dyed with herbs and stuff at Pennsic this year. I got some green wool there last year that totally matches my eyes, and it’s all carded now and ready to go, but I want to be more confident with my ability to spin laceweight before I go near it. I’m also thinking that a half-dozen more bobbins might be convenient to own, and perhaps the jumbo flyer arrangement to make plying easier?

But then… Pirate-Husband came home last night with a package, a not-very-heavy paper envelope. “Open this,” he said as nonchalantly as he could (which isn’t very). “But it’s addressed to you!” I protested, and he answered, “That’s okay, my hands are full. Open it!” At that point I started to have a sneaking suspicion… and I was right! Pirate-Husband bought me the beautiful roving! See a full-size image of the beauty here, for all the texturey goodness. I am so grateful to Pirate-Husband; he bought this for me “just because.” He’s just that awesome.

I did not take the picture of my new roving; I yoinked it from the product page on Etsy, and I am posting it here with the permission of FreckleFaceFibers.

After finishing Pirate-Husband’s socks, I was at a loss. What to do now? It was too dark to work on the Ostrich Plumes scarf, I wasn’t really feeling the Pomatomuses, too late to spin, not in the mood for cotton… so I started a swatch for the next pair of socks.

Michael’s Bloo Socks are going to be knit in Trekking XXL, colorway 71, which is a subtle series of blues. I’m going to work with Elizabeth Bennett’s Perl Sock Program but fudge the numbers a little bit to get 10% negative ease. My plan is to put two or three inches of k2, p2 ribbing at the top, then work in k3, p1 ribbing the rest of the way down. Originally I’d planned to use the pattern for Mr. Pitt’s Socks but that’s written for 80 stitches, and I think I’ll need 96. Rather than do all the recalculating by myself, I turned to an automated calculator that’s gotten good reviews.

9.375″ around foot, times 11.25 stitches/inch, is 106 stitches, minus 10% is 95, add one to get something divisible by 4 = 96 stitches. I cast on and got seven rounds done before bed last night. Hooray for new projects!

It took just over two months for me to knit this pair of socks for Pirate-Husband, though I did work on several other projects at the same time. He had requested socks just after crashing his motorcycle last fall, and how could I say no to a man with broken ribs and a totalled bike, sitting miserably in a hospital gown waiting for x-rays? Of course I couldn’t, not when he was complimenting me with “you’ve gotten so fast with your knitting!” and “I’m so impressed with the socks you knit.”

They fit him fairly well, though I think next time I’ll measure and make the heel flap higher to avoid some of that rippling over his ankle. I didn’t consider that his feet are not just proportionately bigger than mine; they’re actually shaped differently as well! They’ll go down in the book as experimental socks. Now that I know his size, I can start playing around with different stitch patterns. (I do have lots of other socks in my queue, so it may be a while before he gets a second pair… but you never know!)

I’m going to keep these (size 1) needles free until the sock class I’m taking with Cookie A. in September. They’re holding up pretty well; one of them is starting to curve but it’s not significant enough to warrant replacement just yet. So that leaves me with the Pomatomus and the Ostrich Plumes scarf in progress, a commission for another Swiffer mop cover, and a simple pair of socks in Trekking XXL on size 0 needles coming up as my vacation knitting for which I’ve yet to swatch. I have to remember to print out some notes and instructions before I go, or I’ll forget which side of the gusset gets which kind of decrease again. You’d think I’d remember that by now!

No kidding, there I was, picking out another two balls of Sugar and Cream in Michael’s with Pirate-Husband so that I can make a Swiffer cover for an online friend who commissioned one in yellow and blue. Those selected, I commented that I still didn’t know what to knit for my friend Asa, who is expecting her second baby this fall.

“Why don’t you knit a blanket?” suggested Pirate-Husband.

“I suppose I could,” I said, “but… I don’t know. They take a long time, and they’re big and boring, and I’m not so sure about blankets after the last one.”

He held up a ball of Red Heart and said, “This is a good neutral color. I think you’ll probably need three. Here.”

And that’s how I was suckered into left the store with five balls of yarn when I meant to buy none until next year’s Sheep and Wool festival. I’m thinking perhaps a feather and fan blanket, since the pattern’s already in my head from the Ostrich Plumes scarf, and it’s easy but not boring. Besides, what baby doesn’t need a washable blanket? And it was an excuse to order another set of Addi Lace Turbo needles, in size 8 this time. As I didn’t have the right length circular needles in size 8, I don’t feel any guilt about this at all. (I do have a set of 16″ long size 8 circs for hat-making, but there is no way I can make a baby blanket on 16″ needles.)

A few weeks ago, in the Virginia forum on Ravelry, I ‘met’ someone who lives in my neighborhood. She was having a bunch of people over and invited me and Pirate-Husband to join in the fun, so last night we headed down the mountain to her house. We had a great time. It’s so good to have local friends. I love the internet! We probably never would have met if not for Ravelry.

So I didn’t get a lot of knitting done last night, but I do have to say that I love my new lace needles and I will never use anything else for lace again. They are worth every penny I spent on them.

Today, maybe spinning or maybe knitting. I haven’t yet decided.

My new Addi turbo lace needles arrived yesterday, before I even got the tracking number for the package. Turbo shipping for turbo needles, I guess! …okay, that was a bad joke. Anyway, I had time to do a couple of rows on the Ostrich Plumes scarf, and already I’m in love with these needles. When I get home from work I’ll try a pattern row!

Pirate-Husband’s socks are coming along as well. I’m a couple of inches past the gusset decreases and can knit in the car again since I don’t have to look so closely. I’d like to have them done before I go on vacation next weekend.

And, someone on an IRC channel I frequent has commissioned me to make a Swiffer cover for her! That seems like it will be good vacation knitting along with the next sock.