The Knitting Pirate

Not a single stitch. I was having too much fun visiting family, eating a ridiculous amount of food, joining good conversations, and, well, having no need to hide in a corner with yarn.

However, I did discover that my cousin Sara knits, and we had a good laugh over our matching Stripey Striped Scarves. Seems that we used at least two of the same colorways, which is pretty funny. I got to show off the Fleep-Tops, too, because it was cold enough to require gloves at night.

But now that I’m home, and I have the whole day ahead of me to spend as I wish, I think I will spend at least some of it with yarn.

I’ve been holding off on knitting my handspun socks for a while, because I want to bring them to New York for Thanksgiving. They’re all stockinette with the exception of the heel and cuff, which means I will barely have to think about working on them while I’m visiting with the family. And besides, if I’m going to show off my knitting, I might as well show off my yarn-spinning skills while I’m at it! No one else in the family (besides Mom) knits, that I know of. Perhaps they will think I’m a little strange for futzing with yarn and needles during our visit, but I’m okay with that.

I don’t have a recent picture, but the first sock is completed and the second sock is just past the toe increases. I have plenty of foot to knit, and I doubt that I’ll have enough time to get up to the heel turn. Knitting goes a lot more slowly when there are twenty people to talk with at the same time, but that’s all right. I just need something to do with my hands so I don’t fidget too much.

One problem with having so many projects going on at the same time is that it seems as if I will never finish any of them. I know that it will feel that way for a while, and then I will suddenly have several finished projects all at once, which will feel pretty awesome indeed. I’m making progress, slowly but surely, five rows here and five rows there.

Most commercial sock yarns are the same. Opal, Regia, Lang Jawoll, Lane Cervinia, Online… I’ll get about 36 stitches to four inches on US #1 needles. Without even thinking about it, I know that I should make a 64-stitch stockinette sock for myself with these yarns. I know that with Trekking XXL, I get 45 stitches to four inches on US #0 needles.

But now here is a new yarn, Cascade Heritage. It looks to be about the same thickness as the ‘standard’ commercial sock yarn. I know I have to make these socks slightly larger, ’cause they’re not for me. But swatching? Pfft. I’ll just start the sock with 72 stitches, I say to myself. The cuff can be the swatch… and oh, man, that’s large. After twenty rounds of cuff and five rounds of sock leg, I stretched the cuff out around a tape measure, and there would be no negative ease in these socks at all. Okay, well, twenty-five rounds isn’t much to rip out and start over.

Second try, 2×2 ribbing over 68 stitches, and I realized that while the socks are a much better size, I don’t really like the way that 2×2 ribbing will flow into 3×1 ribbing on the sock leg… so I ripped it out again, only six rounds this time, and started over with a 1×1 twisted rib on the cuff. Since there will be 3×1 ribbing all the way down the leg and top of the foot, I’m not relying on the cuff to hold up the whole sock. I like the look of the twisted rib, and it will fit nicely into the body of the sock.

I really like the yarn so far. It’s very smooth on my hands, and slides nicely across the needles, and what little I’ve knitted up felt pleasantly squooshy. I can’t tell yet if the colors will pool, flash, or distribute evenly. I’m hoping for the latter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does something funky across the gusset.

Last night, I went out with Pirate-Husband and a bunch of his now-former co-workers to celebrate his last day at his job. He is moving on from being “Field Services Manager” at a construction engineering firm, to being “Vice President of Business Development” at the marketing arm of a company selling energy management services. It is a big, exciting step up!

Anyway, because it was his celebration, I volunteered to be the designated driver, but I got a little restless after I had switched from beer to water and everyone else was still drinking. Fortunately, I had the Sibling Sock in my purse. (Why yes, I did choose that purse specifically because it has a compartment which is perfectly sized for a 100g ball of sock yarn and the in-progress sock!) I thought about it for a while. After all, you never know how people will react to knitting, and–

Then I came to a conclusion: Who cares?

I knit about an inch of sock while we sat and talked, and at first everyone was interested – ooh, what’s that? I can only knit scarves. I never learned to knit but wow, that looks great! After about five minutes, my knitting just sort of faded into the background, and became a non-issue. It was perfect.

There should have been pictures, but it’s been raining. Obviously I need a piece of white posterboard and all the lights in the house, so I can take pics even if the sun isn’t out. Meanwhile…

I have eight more stripes to go in the first of the Stripey Striped Socks, and I’m hating it. The Kureyon Sock yarn is almost as harsh on my hands as knitting with cotton. Working from both sides of the ball at once has gotten everything all twisted. The thick bits are too thick for my needles, the thin bits too thin. I can’t just knit comfortably without thinking about it. I’m so glad I didn’t buy more of this stuff when I was tempted to. (grump grump. grump.)

On the pro side, when I drop a stitch, it doesn’t fall. And there’s no vegetable matter in this yarn like there is in regular Kureyon. And, the real kicker… the colors are gorgeous and vivid and wonderful, and I love how the stripes come out, and I’ve heard that this yarn softens up amazingly in the wash.

Maybe I’ll put the project aside when I’ve finished the first sock. Take a break from it, work with yarn I like more. Knit the second sock some other time.

Since I seem to have forgotten to put it in my last post, the yarn that Michael bought for me is Cascade Heritage Paints, in colorway 9922. It is squishy-soft and I’ve put it on my desk to motivate me to finish some of the socks currently on the needles, so I can get to knit with this stuff! It might stripe or it might spiral, or the colors might be evenly distributed. I only hope they match, and that they don’t flash too badly over the gusset. I’ll be working up a very simple pattern, probably a 3×1 rib over 72 stitches (gotta check those numbers!), which should go fairly quickly once I get started.

A visit from my swornsister the Knitting Ninja would not have been complete without a trip to at least one yarn store. We, along with our brother Michael, decided to check out the new Needles in the Haymarket. They’ve recently moved from the third floor of their building to a much larger store on the first floor. It’s quite nice already, and looks as if there’s even more yarn to come!

I told both sibs that I was on a yarn diet and would not be buying anything. Then this jumped into my hands. “These look like your colors,” I said to Michael, and maybe also “I would knit you another pair of socks,” and perhaps I might have added “One little skein won’t hurt, right?”

Said Michael, “If you’re going to knit socks for me, then I should buy the yarn for you.” And he did, thus absolving me of sin for having broken the yarn diet. (Isn’t it lovely and so subtle in the colors? I can’t wait to see how it knits up!)

Ten observations about plying yarn:

1. It takes forever.
2. It is a heck of a leg workout.
3. I can totally see why people get jumbo flyers and bobbins for it.
4. I love watching the colors of the two singles come together.
5. The floodlight over my spinning wheel sure does put off a lot of heat.
6. It sure would be nice if I could farm this job out.
7. I think this yarn is going to be lovely when it’s finished.
8. If it’s ever finished.
9. No matter how carefully I split the fiber, the bobbins will never play out evenly.
10. Andean plying is a really neat trick.

Plying is certainly easier with the brake switched to the opposite side, but… it’s still a lot less fun than spinning singles. I’m working on the merino-silk stuff, and it’s frustrating – partly because it seems that I have to treadle with much more force to go counter-clockwise, partly because I didn’t spin the singles as evenly as I wanted to and so the plied yarn is lumpier than I want it to be, partly because it feels as though I’ve been plying for hours, the bobbin is getting full, and it looks like the bobbins of singles have just as much on them as when I began!

I’ll take pictures when it’s done and washed. Now that it gets dark so early (silly time change!) I don’t always have the chance to take pictures after work. Maybe one of my winter projects will be putting together a cheap and easy lightbox setup so that I can take good pictures even without natural sunlight.

I haven’t knit much in the past couple of weeks. There always seems to be something else to do, people visiting, places to go.

Half of the blues and greens Falkland is spun into singles that should ply into a striping heavy fingering weight yarn, and I’ve split the other half to be the same. I took a pair of pliers to my spinning wheel to open up the eyehooks just enough to let me switch the brake band around so that it will work better for plying. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before watching the New Voyager video that recommended it – of course a spring-tensioned brake won’t work if the bobbin is turning towards the spring!

My friend for whom I’m making Napramach asked me again about it last night. I haven’t touched it in weeks, but now I’m reminded that I need to get back to it. It takes a lot of concentration and unbroken blocks of time, which seem to be in short supply lately.

I cast on for the second handspun BFL sock, and am through the toe increases and into the foot. It will probably be my Thanksgiving knitting, as it’s stockinette all the way up. That makes it perfect for knitting while talking.