The Knitting Pirate

Saturday night, Pomatomus and I stayed up pretty late together. I made some real progress – until I came to a point in Row 13 of Chart B that made no sense. For half an hour, I tried to figure out where I had gone wrong. Then I wondered if perhaps there were corrections to the pattern, which I printed out a while ago, and spent another hour Googling for variations on “Pomatomus Row 13″. When that turned up nothing, I gave up and went to bed.

Sunday morning I realized what had happened – I had missed a yarnover. No wonder my stitch count was off! I picked it up and merrily began work again.

Late Sunday night, I lost my place. Was I on Row 15? Row 16? Something didn’t look right. I un-knit a round. It looked better. I re-knit the round. I noticed that I’d gone wrong three rounds before. Yes, it was Row 13, come back to haunt me. I resolved to un-knit again on Monday, and that I would never work on this sock again unless I was 100% awake and alert. I did try to take a picture, but I couldn’t get one that showed the problem spot very well. It looked like a close-up of a tangle of stitches – and I suppose that’s what it is, but that doesn’t make for good pictures.

Today after work (and a doctor’s appointment, and probably a nap) I will start the un-knitting. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to find my place in the pattern again.

So, that part in the Pomatomus pattern where it says there will be one extra stitch, and I didn’t know where to put it? Yeah. It’s right there in the chart. Had I looked at the chart first, instead of just reading the words, I wouldn’t have had that moment of “oh crap I don’t understand this!” I’m okay now! Really! Stitches have been picked up around the heel flap, and I’m six rounds into the gusset decreases. There will be pictures when there’s something to show.

I really like this pattern.

I just love how the stitches of the pattern flow into the stitches of the heel flap. The flap itself was easy enough, once I remembered to purl through the back loop on the wrong side of it, but turning the heel took three tries for some reason! Usually I’m not that dim-witted about following a pattern, but the first time I miscounted stitches so the heel was off-center. I ripped back. The second time, I got started and lost my place. I ripped back. The third time, I turned everything else off – music, both computers, and phone – and concentrated very hard on getting it right – and here it is.

There’s one thing about this pattern that I don’t understand. After the gusset stitches are picked up, and you start knitting the pattern on the top of the foot, with the decreases, and stockinette stitch on the sole, there’s a comment that says Note: On Rows 17-22 of Chart B, there will be one extra st on Needle 3 (37 sts). What do I do with that extra stitch? Right now, it’s pretty confusing, but maybe it will make more sense when I get up to that point.

The colors are starting to pattern up a little, but that’s all right; I kinda like when it does that. The scallopy lacy stitches hide the color patterning fairly well, but the bottom of the sole will be in stockinette stitch so I think it will show. It will be like a hidden secret color patterning that no one will see unless I show them the bottom of my foot! Pirate-Husband seems quite impressed with this sock. It’s too early to tell, but maybe he’s thinking about how nice it would be to have his own pair of hand-knit socks…

Pomatomus marches on! Here it is, about halfway through the third pattern repeat. There are only nine rounds to go until I start the heel.

I decided not to make the socks any taller than the pattern calls for, so I’ll have enough of the yarn left over to make matching fingerless gloves. The yarn felt so nice on my arm when I tried it on to take the picture. Warm, but not too scratchy. It may be a little too loose for my skinny little arms, so I’ll have to remember to go down a needle size for the gloves.

It amuses me that I come up with new projects to work on faster than I can finish the ones already on the needles.

I found a local Stitch ‘n Bitch through Meetup, and tonight I went for the second time. It’s a relatively new group, but it has a lot of potential. We had about a dozen people there, both two weeks ago and tonight. Ages ranged from high school to grandmother, and the skill range was from total beginner to wow, look at that lace! I’m excited to be able to knit with other people once in a while, instead of sitting at my computer and occasionally typing to a friend with one finger while holding the ends of DPNs in my mouth.

[friend] hey, what’s goin’ on tonight?
[me] am knitting. cant type. bbl.

Either the conversation goes slowly, or the knitting does.

The So-Called Scarf is now five or six inches longer. I’m at the end of the second ball of yarn, which means I’m two-thirds done… and now, of course, the scarf is totally out of season. I’m working with Manos del Uruguay in a dark green, which I bought in cold, snowy Ottawa in cold, snowy February. Although we are supposed to get snow showers here on Friday night, I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to finish the scarf in time for Saturday. I will just have to keep working on it and have it ready for next winter.

Pomatomus is progressing, slowly but surely. I’m almost done with the second pattern repeat. These are the most complicated socks I’ve ever done, and I’m loving how they are coming out! The Plymouth Sockotta (color 14) is not as bad to work with as I had thought. I’m not generally fond of cotton, but this does have a part wool content… and they are going to be summer socks. I can’t decide if I’m going to make them taller than the pattern calls for. I do have twice as much yarn as necessary, so I could theoretically make them pretty tall socks. They’re stretchy enough that I wouldn’t need calf shaping, I don’t think. Here’s a more artsy shot which shows how awesome the yarn is. I think the color is just perfect for the pattern, and I love the white mixed with the color. It hasn’t pooled at all yet, but I’m wondering if I won’t get a little on the foot. Time will tell!

The third WIP on the needles is Blu, from the Winter 2005 issue of Knitty. I’m into the seat shaping of the first leg, and haven’t got any pictures yet. I picked up some Sugar ‘n Cream in a horrific orange color for the seams, but I’m a whole leg away from that point. The baby – my niece! – is not due for another six weeks, so I have some time left.