The Knitting Pirate

There are two occasions when it is necessary for me to work on a traveling sock at home – turning the heel and grafting the toe. Now that the heel is turned on this one, it’s gone back in the bag to await the next bit of travel – which is Thursday, so it won’t have to wait too long. I think I’m going to finish this pair before going back and knitting the second Pomatomus. Then I have so many ideas and plans for socks… good thing I have a whole set of aluminum sock needles in addition to these trusty bamboo size 1s!

This scarf, on the other hand, is always going to be a project which I’ll only work on at home. The further I get, the faster and easier it goes… but I wouldn’t want to mess this one up when I’m not in a place that I could just put it down and calmly walk away from it. I still don’t know how long to make it, or how to wear it, but I like how it looks so far!

I ordered these shoes last week from a store in the mall, and I am so thrilled that they fit! They are just perfect for showing off handknit socks (shown – last year’s toe-up Plain Old Socks, Regia Canadian Colour 4743). They are also suitable for wearing to an office, when I find a job. Too cool.

This Stripy Striped Scarf alternates two colors of Noro Kureyon (147 and 158) in a 1×1 rib over 49 stitches on size 8 needles. I like to have a project going that doesn’t require a lot of concentration. I can take it to the Stitch ‘n Bitch, or watch TV, or have a conversation while I’m working. From this blog entry at BrooklynTweed I got the idea of slipping the first and last stitches on every second row to make a nice neat edge. It’s working quite well! One thing that had really frustrated me when I was working on the So-Called Scarf is that when I was alternating between balls of yarn (in that case, to keep from wild color changes between skeins), the yarn that was carried up the side didn’t look right. Slipping the first and last stitches on the second rows keeps everything tightly together, which looks a lot better to me.

The traveling sock traveled up to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit family, and began looking stripy too. I like the reactions that I get from different people when they see me working on a sock. It’s everything from “How long does it take you to knit a pair of socks?” to “Wow, I’d never have the patience to do something like that – but I do like counted cross-stitch,” to “How hard is that to learn? I need a new hobby.” Since I’m back home, the traveling sock has been returned to its resting place, awaiting Thursday’s airplane ride.

I got my Ravelry invite today, and as a result had to set up a Flickr account. There probably won’t be much there that isn’t here anyway, but feel free to check it out! Ravelry looks like it’s going to be a very cool community. When the site goes live, I hope there’s a personal page for me to link to.

Though I’ve knit two pair of simple toe-up, short-row heel, ribbed-leg socks, I decided it was time for something a little more complicated for my third pair – Grumperina’s Jaywalker, from the September 2005 issue of Magknits. The Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (colorway ‘Java’) came from a Socktober sale at Red Bird Knits, and it was time to get it out of the stash! I got a double discount on that order – once for the sale, and the other from the exchange rate. Buying yarn from Canadian websites has some perks!

Here’s one from the back. When I first started knitting socks, I was all about the short-row heel, especially for striped socks. Now I see what the flap heel is all about, and how well it fits. Picking up stitches for the gusset isn’t as difficult as I’d thought it might be. I do like toe-up socks because it’s harder to run out of yarn before you’re done with your sock. Towards the end of Jaywalker Two, I was panicking that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish the toe! I started knitting faster, as if that would get me to the grafting before the yarn ran out. It must have worked, because I finished the second sock with just twelve yards of yarn left over.

I just love how the yarn striped across the tops of my feet and that the colors are aligned from one sock to the next. That wasn’t planned, honest! My next socks (after Pomatomus) will be another pair of Jaywalkers in a self-striping yarn which will show off the pattern better… and which have more yardage to the ball than the CTH, so I can avoid the fear of a toe-less second sock! I really love the pattern, and could see myself making quite a few pair.