The Knitting Pirate

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.

Today I actually left the office on my lunch break, which almost never happens. I decided to walk over to Home Goods to buy bread pans, and because it was cold outside I put on my beloved Fleep-Tops. I was fleeping the tops over when the man riding the elevator with me commented, “Those are really clever!”

“Thank you, I made them myself!” said I, and demonstrated how they fleeped. “I figure that no matter what you’re doing, you really only need three fingertips, right?”

He looked impressed and said “You have the best of both worlds with those!” Had it been a longer elevator ride, he might have asked me to make him a pair. As it was, we got down to the lobby, I grinned and wished him a nice day, and we went in opposite directions.

Totally made my day, I tell you.

2009 was a slow knitting year for me; I only completed three projects. (Of course, if I’d been able to keep to one sock at a time, I’d probably have three more pairs to show…)

Pomatomus are the most complex socks I’ve ever knitted. Although they’re rated as difficult, I found that the stitch pattern made a lot of sense and was actually quite easy to follow once I got the hang of it. On the other hand, they’re definitely not a mindless sock that I’d feel comfortable knitting on without the pattern in front of me, checking off rounds as I finish them. I love them, but unlike some other patterns (*cough*Jaywalker*cough*) I’m not tempted to knit another pair. Pomatomus were my introduction to Cookie A.’s designs; this free pattern came from the Winter 2005 Knitty.

I wear my Fleep-Tops more than any other piece of knitting I’ve finished, I think. They are amazingly warm and incredibly comfortable, and not quite like anything I’ve ever seen in a store. I used a combination of Knitty’s Cigar pattern and Sarkasmo’s Gnomittens, with added miniature fleep-top thumb caps. They were a good quick project, finished in only a month. It’s unfortunate that the yarn is discontinued; I would love to make a backup pair, or perhaps some as gifts for people I especially like. Perhaps some medium- or heavyweight Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts would be a good substitution.

The thoroughly misnamed Quick Toe Up Socks weren’t quick at all, not after I found a knot in the first skein of yarn and had to do some serious futzing to make the stripes line up from one sock to the other. I used Wendy Johnson’s Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern, substituting a figure-eight toe, and made the sock 64 stitches around. It pleases me that they match so perfectly, even if I had to be ridiculously perfectionist about getting them that way! I like when my striped socks match up, especially wide stripes.

While it wasn’t knitting, I did do an overhaul of this site in 2009 to change the look and feel, and I added a Twitter account. I bought a new spinning wheel, a Kromski Sonata in walnut, on which I spun several skeins of yarn, including this BFL two-ply which is rapidly becoming my first pair of handspun socks. I’m considering selling the Ashford Traditional; while I love the way it looks, it doesn’t fit me quite right and I don’t spin on it. Perhaps I’ll give it one last try before I make a decision. Pirate-Husband says that it matches the house, and if I want to keep it around as a decoration, he’d be fine with that… but I think it’s sad to have a working wheel that isn’t ever used.

Also in 2009: I read 26 books, which took up some knitting time, and I finally learned to drive a car with a manual transmission so that I could trade in my old beat-up Cutlass for a new shiny Mazda3.

I am excited about 2010! I have plans to finish up the projects on my needles and start some new ones, to publish a design or two, and to improve my spinning skills. My parents bought a KitchenAid stand mixer for Pirate-Husband and me for our combined birthday and Chanukah gifts, so there will be fresh bread to go along with the yarn. Things just keep getting better and better!

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.

These gloves were a quick fun project. I started out using Sarkasmo’s Gnomittens pattern, but had to make a few adjustments. I saw that she had taken a lot of inspiration from Knitty’s Cigar’s sizing notes, so I went there for the body of the gloves, and back to Gnomittens for the flip-top section, and I figured out how to do the thumb caps on my own.

I had to modify the pattern a bit to fit my hands and fingers, which are long in proportion to the width of my hands. My wrists are narrow too, so I started with 32 stitches and made extra long ribbed cuffs, then increased up to the medium size of the Cigar pattern, adding rows where appropriate for length and making notes so that the second glove would match the first. Of course this made the second glove go a lot faster than the first, since I wasn’t constantly stopping to try them on and take measurements.

When I started, I had no idea how to make the thumb caps. After making two mitten tops, I had the general concept down. The hardest part turned out to be getting the caps evenly matched on each thumb, and even that wasn’t so hard after all! They may not be 100% perfectly matched, but they’re close enough that I can’t tell the difference when I’m wearing them. With the tops on, the gloves are really warm! I am looking forward to testing them outside next week at the Stew Cook-Off. That’ll be the real test.

The mitten tops seem to stay well along the backs of my hands. If I find that they’re getting in the way, I can add a little loop to the top and a button to the cuff to hold them back, but for now I think I’m going to leave them as they are. I wonder how many people will ask me to make them a pair? When that happens I feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Anyway, things like this are why I took up knitting. There is no way I’d ever find a pair of gloves like this, perfectly my size, in a store.

The snow began on Tuesday morning, and I made a poor decision to go in to the office, thinking that it wouldn’t be that bad. It wasn’t long before they sent me home. Pirate-Husband had to hike down to the bottom of the mountain with tire chains for me, and I held my breath while we navigated our way up to the house.

I have never been so glad to be a knitter! There is so much warm wool knitwear in the house, that I have no fear of freezing. Pirate-Husband and I have both been working from home, which has been very nice. I’m halfway through the second mitten-top, and have only to figure out how to make thumb-caps. Those will probably be completed tonight.

Because Tuesday was so full of fluster, I ended up skipping the spinning I’d meant to do. Perhaps this coming weekend I will be able to sit down at the wheel for a while.

All of the fingers on both gloves are knit, and I have only eight ends left to weave in. I find it easier to do that in daylight because the yarn is so dark, so I’ll take care of them on our next sunny day. The mittens and thumb-caps shouldn’t take long, and then I will have a pair of fleep-top gloves! I am quite pleased with the way the gloves have turned out. They fit my hands like… well, like gloves. Ugh, that was terrible, but it’s true – the modifications I made to the pattern were just right. I’ve gained confidence while working on this project, for sure. The next time a pattern needs to be changed, I will have more faith in myself that I can get it right.

Putting the gloves aside, I went back to the socks and began the heel on Sock #2. With some pauses for conversation and to wander the internet, I had it finished in two hours. This means that the socks are portable again! I plan to work alternately on whichever sock is shorter until they’re both finished. Pirate-Husband and I are going to visit my parents this afternoon for my birthday celebration, and I expect to put a few inches on one sock leg or another while we’re at their house.

Although yesterday was Wednesday, and therefore not necessarily a Spinning Day, I couldn’t keep my hands off the new spindle. I’m starting to get the hang of getting it going at high speeds without introducing a wobble, and for the most part I’m drafting while the spindle is still spinning. If the yarn breaks, I have to do a park-and-rejoin sort of trick.

Today, however, I must get back to knitting. My plan is to first get through the heel of the second Toe-Up sock, so that the project becomes portable again. After that, I’ll put fingers onto the Fleep-Tops. I should be able to finish both the gloves and the socks before Winterlude. Not only does that mean I’ll have a new pair of warm wool socks to wear in the winter cold, it means that I’ll be casting on a new project with which to travel!

Actually, there’s a distinct probability that I’ll be casting on two new projects. Part of my travels are by air, which calls for a sock – small, portable, fits in my usual purse – and part will be a road trip, which calls for something bigger than a sock, because I can only knit on a sock for about an hour in the car before getting a headache.

It took an unsurprisingly long time to decide what socks I’d be working on. First I thought I would do another pair of toe-up stockinette socks. After all, I can practically knit those in my sleep! Then I thought no, I want to do something with a little more patterning to it. Nothing too complex, so I could still work on it and talk at the same time. Finally I settled on the Thermal Socks, which use the stitch pattern from the Thermal Sweater from Knitty. I’m going to use Noro Kureyon Sock yarn for them, but I still haven’t decided if I’ll work them top-down or toe-up. Given Kureyon’s propensity for knots, I will definitely be re-winding the yarn into two even portions before I begin.

For the bigger project, I am considering this Wavy Razor Shell Scarf in Noro Silk Garden. I have three skeins of it in beautiful soft blues, grays and purples. The only change I plan to make is that I will knit the scarf with five points, not four, because I agree with Grumperina that four is just not a good number. I don’t know why odd numbers of points look better to me. Anyway, I will be re-winding this yarn into balls as well, not only to check for knots, but because the scarf is knit in two parts, from the middle out. Two of the balls I have are from one dye lot, and the third is from another. I’ll start the middle of the scarf in the middle of that third ball of yarn, and no one will ever know!

This afternoon I finished the hand section of the second Fleep-Top glove. Still to do: four fingers and a thumb, two mittens and two thumb-caps, and weaving in almost thirty ends. I am thrilled with the way the gloves are coming out, and so excited that they’ll be done in time for Winterlude!

Yesterday, Pirate-Husband and I attended an SCA event about an hour from our house. We had a good time, but for me the highlight was purchasing a half-ounce drop spindle in ebony and rosewood from The Spanish Peacock. I’ve been admiring friend Janis’s laceweight spindle-spinning, and when I saw this mini-spindle, I just couldn’t resist! I’ll be testing it out with a half-ounce merino sampler from Sheepish Creations.

I brought the Quick Toe-Up Socks with me to the event and knit the second one until it was very close to the heel turn. They were very blatantly not medieval, unfortunately, but I wasn’t about to start another project just for a one-day event. I’ve sometimes been tempted by the Eleanor of Toledo socks, but those are more than I really want to knit… and I doubt I’d be able to work on them and hold a conversation at the same time! No one complained; actually I got compliments on the evenness of my gauge and on the striping of the yarn, as well as on the non-medieval Kureyon Booga Bag which I was carrying.

This Friday will be my 31st birthday! I’ve already made plans for my birthday money; most of it will be going to build a new desktop computer for myself. My old one died, and now I don’t have a good machine to do graphics work on. As I’m a graphic/web designer in real life, this is kinda important! I’m also going to buy a pro account on Flickr, and probably a bit of spinning fiber as well. I love birthdays and think they should be celebrated with as much awesomeness as possible. How convenient that mine will kick off a three-day weekend!

I started the Gnomittens pattern and quickly realized that it wasn’t going to fit as written. The more I looked at modifications, the more I thought, “Why not just knit Cigar, off which Gnomittens is based, and then add the flip-tops from Gnomittens?”

So that’s what I’m doing. I had to modify the Cigar pattern a little bit, because my hands are proportionately longer than the pattern, but that went smoothly and I even remembered to take detailed notes so that the second glove comes out the same as the first. On Sunday evening, I finished the glove part of the first glove, and last night I cast on for the cuff of the second. I’ll knit both gloves first, then add both mitten tops.

I also plan to add a little flip-top cap for my thumbs, because when I showed the first glove to Pirate-Husband his comment was, “They’re really nice, and they fit you perfectly, but what’s going to keep your thumbs warm?” He’s a smart one, he is. I think I’ll keep him around for a while.