Oops, then.

Moments after our last update, our intrepid knitter tries on the toes of the Grasshopper, and realizes it's a damn good thing a) these are toes-up and b) there was only about an inch done.



To the frog pond we go (I realized I've completely absorbed knit-speak. "To the Frog Pond" meaning, the knitting was frogged. "Frogged" being what happens when you muck up knitting - or quilting, for that matter - and "rip-it, rip-it").

The other comments about this pattern and yarn REALLY relaxing were spot-on. I was stitching up the "medium" width, going with the idea that my feet, though short, are exceptionally wide. Well, this sock is exceptionally stretchy. Small size it is.

After ripping and picking it all back up at the toe, I realized I hadn't ripped far enough by one row, so I have a couple to tink, too. But I'll be back where I was by bedtime.

Change is as good as a break?

Hmm... been home sick for a couple of days (though I worked half a day from home today, too). I don't know if it's the virus, the Magic Loop, the guilt over neglecting my sock clubs, or the weather, but these:



... just totally lost the love today. Strange given that I got really determined about them just this week. These are Fleece Artist Nova socks, pattern from the ball band (Tilting Blocks), colour Parrot. Parrot Puree as it knit up. You saw it in the ball a few posts back. If you look at it up close:



It still has all those crazy-brights that captivated me when it was wound up in a skein. I should have taken a picture then. But the overall effect is just muddied out on me, somehow. I think, looking at my colour wheel, that the colours confuse too many of the colour-wheel geometries at once and because of the short repeat they randomize when stitched and just all wash into muddle. The Blue-Orange direct complement caught my eye, but the Blue-Yellow is 2/3 of a triad and the yellow-green is half a tetrad. All at once. Meh.

So, I haven't gone to frog pond with it yet, but I did blow the surprise for the intended recipient and sent a photo to ask what she thought. If she likes - they will get finished. If not - froggy it is, and I'll maybe make a plain sock on a different needle to see if I get something more harmonious.

So, taking the edge off that disappointment:


I finally started the Rockin' Sock Club April sock. We likes this, we does - colour and yarn and all. Silkie Socks That Rock is even nicer than Socks That Rock. And even though you lose the colour a bit in the lace, I'm liking the way this blends. Note that I'm back on DPNs. Magic looping got me this:



A wee cutie of a Trellis from the PickUpSticks April kit, but I only did one at a time as I was experimenting. Given that I had Parrot Puree on a magic loop, both at once, and now I'm shy of it, I didn't want to start Grasshopper both at once in case I get it wrong (given what I've read, the pattern really stretches) and then have to frog another pair at once. I didn't dislike the ML, I'm just feeling faster on dpns, for one thing, and maybe ML will be nice when I do want to zip of a pair together, but I think I'd save it for things I've already tried once.

So, one Grasshopper at a time, much trying on as I go.

Inevitable

The Blue Cat, aka Blue and formerly Bluey, while not in the feline intellectual ranks of my departed Lenny or Panda, is probably the smartest of the quadrupeds in my current assortment. She's definitely curious and a bit mischievious.

This photo is my stash closet:



It's generally stuffed and with the exception of WsIP (Works in Progress) and a box of Blue Moon I haven't put away yet, the stash lives here and is contained. I often don't close the door, because Blue Cat can open it anyway, and the other two follow her. Generally this is not a problem because the ground level of the stash shelving contains old towels, intended for some eventual make-do quilt batting for practice, and the cats generally sleep on those. All quilt stash is in sealed bins. Yarn stash is mostly in ziplocs.

Note the gap there on the left of the shelf. My bin of quilt cotton charms is out, because I was sorting the last of my charms into my colour-grouped, ziplocked packets, and it's a bit of a task. I didn't think much of it when, just before going out to the store, I saw Blue eyeing the empty shelf space. She could hop up there, but there's not too many places to go, and the bin on the right there is full of yarn but most of it is in plastic and there's only an inch between top of bin and next shelf up, so what could she do?

I went out and came back, and returned to the 9-patch squares for the quilt-in-progress. I then heard a rustle behind me that sounded like something caught in a plastic bag. Since I have some stray plastic bags hanging on my doorknob, I thought one of the cats was playing. Turned around. Saw nothing. Turned back. Heard rustling. Turned around. Still saw nothing. Said "Blue?" and got an answering Siamese mumble.... from the depths of the stash closet.

I looked in at the bottom shelves, thinking maybe a bag got dragged in with the towels. No Blue. Looked behind door. No Blue. Then she grumbled again, and the noise was much closer to my height than one usually finds Blue. I looked in that little 1-inch gap between the top of the yarn bin and the top shelf. Well.



Cat in the Stash. I suppose it had to happen.

Happy Birthday, Waterloo!

Apparently my city is having a Sesquicentennial Party. A parade is going by outside my windows.

Started off with a marching band striking up the Maple Leaf Forever, and one of the classic/antique vehicles that went by was a barrel buggy from Joseph Seagram and Sons. Considering I live in the Seagram Lofts, one of the older properties in the center city and formerly the barrel warehouse for Joseph Seagram and Sons - that was kinda fun.

I think the drums are freaking out the cats, though. Maui just ran away.

Meeting Stephanie

So, last night I did something I've never done before - I went to a "fan" event of a sort, and actually asked someone for their autograph. Yep, bought Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book, had her sign it, and got to say hello. I told her who I was, referencing the emails we had exchanged when I sent her a tip about tickets for the Police concert, and she yelled across the store to her husband, Joe, "Hey! Joe, this lady's the reason you're going to see the Police!". He smiled and waved.

It was a crazy crowded night. As the knitters might have guessed - not enough chairs. Indigo staff seemed a little befuddled, but very nice, and pleasant about having to do crowd control. The drive there was nearly two hours, then I had to park and run a block to the store to get there barely in time - and I was stuck at the back behind a post. This also meant I was nearly last in line to get my book signed. By the time I got up to the table to say hi, I was feeling shy-ish, realizing how much of the crowd seemed to be in-group that I didn't feel I was - so I didn't get my picture with the Travelling sock or anything. But Stephanie is as nice as her writing makes her out to be, a VERY funny speaker, funnier than alot of comediennes I've heard, and she stayed probably an hour or more later than originally intended to make sure she met everyone who wanted to meet her. It's nice to know a public personality is still so genuine, I'm sure many Famous-with-a-Capital-F Famous authors would have just said sorry and cut the line off.

And she said my hat was nice and thanked me for donating it. It didn't look like much next to some of the offerings, but it's very nice to have it acknowledged.

Funniest line of the night (so many, it's hard to pick): "Yarn? What yarn? These are my KITTENS!" If you were there, you know.

Hat In A Hurry, Hey!

A cat, and a Hat!



How 'bout that? Hat completed in ~ 48 hrs. Pretty much improvised after reviewing Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "Knitting Rules" hat basics. Despite the fact that it looks like a mold-striped souffle in that picture, it's nature is somewhat more toque-like when on a head. Since I have not mastered the art of the self-portrait in a dim room with a cel phone camera, it is being modelled by a small mostly cube-shaped computer speaker above. But, having tried it on, it is a wearable hat and I would not be humiliated to be seen in it. In colder weather than today, anyway.

Check out the top. I'm kinda proud of the way that worked out.



This looks more like I meant to do that.

The yarn is a Regia 6-ply "Crazy Color" #5264 that I dug out of the bargain bin at the back of the LYS for about $3/ball. It took 1 50 gm ball plus about a metre of the second (so I can still probably make kid socks of the 2nd ball). Pattern, like I mentioned, was improvised around the Yarn Harlot's hat structure outline.

If anyone cares, here's the basics:

I tested gauge, sort-of, my test was wrong but I recalculated from there, and started.

Cast on a multiple of 4, which at my gauge was 108 st, and knit about 2 inches of K2P2 rib.

Knit a round of stockinette, increasing ONE stitch to 109 st.

I then knit K3P1 all the way around. The one odd stitch meant that the 4-st repeat moved by 1 stitch each row, and the sides of the hat actually have a spirally mini-rib from that.

Kept going until a tiny bit less than hand-height as it seemed like enough.

Purled one complete row, DEcreasing one stitch back to 108 stitches. I like the little turning ridge this makes between sides and crown.

Began a Knit X, Knit 2tog decrease pattern, starting with X=10, and subtracting 1 from X each decrease round. Stephanie explains it better, go read her book. Knit 2 stockinette rounds between decrease rounds for X = 10 to about 7, then knit 1 stockinette between decrease rounds. Once I was down to 18 stitches in a round, I just did K2tog all the way around until I had 2 left, and threaded the tail through and wove it in.

Voila! Inexpensive and quick but thoughtful (I think, anyway!) warm hat for someone who might otherwise not have one.

Off to cast my Trellis baby sock back on again, so I might be identified as a Pick-Up-Sticks'er at tomorrow night's book night.

Life's a Beach, and then you Knit!

Happy Squish in the mail today:



This is my second month of the Pick Up Sticks sock club. Niiiiice. A wavy, lacy cabley pattern called Beach and a custom colour of Seacoast's "Panda" merino-bamboo blend called Seaside. I'm still workin' out getting something done with last month's installment, Trellis in the Spring Garden yarn, but this one looks quite jump-innable. I'm very happy to find I like the feel of the yarn, too. Hearing the world "bamboo" associated with textiles doesn't make most folks think of something silky-soft to cuddle up to, but this really is. Since sustainable/renewable resources are important to me, bamboo yarn is something I really WANTED to like, so very nice to find I do!

But first, must finish this:



Looks like a strange, green striped yarn jelly fish right now (Blue seems to think so, by her glare) but I hope it's going to be a hat. The Yarn Harlot, who has been traversing the US rallying knitters to good fun and good causes, finally has a Canadian book-talk date in Toronto on Friday and I'd like to go (waiting for colleagues to step up and help with the pager). A cause she has taken on for this book tour is to gather and donate hats to the needy and homeless of the communities she visits. Knitters are invited - never required - to contribute a handknit hat, which are then distributed through grassroots street aid groups. Toronto's donations are going out through StreetKnit.

So, if I get enough time (like maybe not blogging so much!) to finish this, I hope it turns into a warm if ugly winter hat for someone.

Off to laundry, and of course, knit!

Phew - recovered, for now

So I was going to blog the completed and now delivered parental socks, but I got home to discover Tourmaline (that's my home PC) gone all boot-loopy. That would be the 3rd time for that since this zarking Shuttle motherboard met Windows XP. No start, no safe mode, no "last good configuration" and not even recovery console would work.

This time, better than the last two, however, did not require a complete re-install, the "repair" install worked. After the recovery console failed, mind you, and it took two restarts of the repair install.

Tourmaline's days may be numbered. As I've got all the yarn and quilting projects I need for a while, and replaced my walking shoes... next item to save for is a MAC!

Happy Holiday weekend

Today, I'm off work, and just enjoying the day. The spousal euphemism and I are off to a wedding reception later this afternoon. The wedding is actually at two, but the euphemism couldn't get the day off even though I had booked it (before the wedding). This is what happens when friends have surprise weddings they announce 3 weeks in advance via email, scheduled to happen at 2pm Friday afternoons. You end up with more than a few guests who just come later to the dinner reception, crude as Miss Manners might find that to be.

Since I wasn't even sure until this week if we were going at all, I spent part of this morning trying to look presentable at the last minute. Manicure and a hair wash/style. Luckily, I live a short walk away from numerous salons and on a Friday morning of a holiday weekend, most people are heading up to cottages or camping, so they could take walk-ins.

Now I'm stuck here for a couple of hours and can't do too much with a fresh french manicure on - I wreck manicures nearly instantly, or at least by bedtime of the day they are done. So, while knitting seems OK, I'm a bit slower as I don't want to scrape my nails on the needle, and housework and gardening are out.

Speaking of gardening, our just-retired superintendent complimented me today on the clean-up of my little patio-yard. I have zero gardening experience, and just a few vague ideas about what I want, so I did pay someone to do the hard work of digging out old crap, re-soiling the beds and drawing out a plan for me. Here's some of my progress:



That is my little Pixie cutleaf red Japanese maple. I hope she's doing OK. She's a clump-form tree, with 6 branches grafted onto the root ball, and 4 of them are leafing up lovely. The other two have lost every leaf they had and are looking a little twiggy. I'm going to wait it out for a bit, maybe she just got too cold as I bought her a teeny bit early in the season, but Grobe Garden Centre does provide a 1-year guarantee so long as I follow their planting instructions, and I did.

This one:



is a wee cute Blue Star Juniper who has lived her longer than we have. She was in the opposite corner of the patio and I had the gardener who cleaned up the back move her over. So she and Pixie are sharing a patch.

Along the other patch, I've planted a hedge of miniature spirea, a couple clumps of ornamental grass, and a few of these:



I know, doesn't look like much now, but look at those teeny little green and red points - those are going to be gladiolas! I love glads, and since I couldn't afford the total outlay for two banks of designer perennials at once, I picked up 3 inexpensive daylilies and an armload of gladiola bulbs, as you can buy mix-and-match for about $0.25 each. I don't even remember all of what I bought or where I put them, but as long as they grow I'm sure I'll see them again.

Yay! I have a garden.

Is it 5 yet?

Blogging from work again (so no pics in this one).

Slow and quiet today, which always makes me nervous around here that someone's going to phone me at 4:45 pm with a doozy of downed system or something. I have in the meantime been making myself busy going through case logs and mailing contacts who are ignoring me - I have to mail them 3 times and be ignored before I can close their service tickets.

Spent sometime reading other blogs. YarnHarlot and the Blue Moon RockinSockClub community blog are the regulars, and Sissy's band-mate Angela sometimes reads and comments on mine - so I got caught up on hers. (Reciprocal blog-watching is good for hit counts!).

I am currently two club-socks behind on starting, with the May PickUpSticks sock in the mail this week. Not that I don't want to knit them, and not that I'm not knitting (still on the Monsoons the Second), but I'm pondering what would be BEST to do with the exclusive and pricey Socks That Rock Silkie April club kit. I really wanted the knee-highs but keep reading how they're too loose and fall down. I've asked for some input from the other Rockin' Sockers and a few have provided their tips.

While pondering that, the Fleece Artist Parrot colour from the last post has been cast on to a two-at-once Magic Loop with an Addi Turbo Lace I picked up. I then decided I needed a smaller needle, but the Lace needles only come in 2.5 mm - so I now have a regular Addi Turbo to try. I'm not sure if I like the loop better than dpns or not. I have to untangle it. But I don't drop needles. We'll see. I've decided the colour, which looked so bright and happy in the skein, is a Pureed Parrot in the wound and knit forms. Looks a bit busy. Those will be for crazy-sock days.

Oh, and apparently, the Yarn Harlot has finally got a Canadian stop on the Casts Off tour, and will be speaking next Friday night. I'm trying to get back-up on the team pager so I can go. Anyone want to join and go see if Stephanie Pearl-MacPhee is real? We're supposed to knit a hat for the homeless if we can. I might be able to do that.

Small weekend accomplishments again....

Finished!


Sunsets V.2.2 are done, modeled here on my feet for convenience. Should be off to their new home sometime soon.

In Progress:



Monsoons the Second, from my traded extra ball of STR Monsoon. I won't do the full cable on these, might modify to just do one cable at the sides of the ankle.

And this:



Which looks like a muddly placemat full of holes, is the beginnings of the Stormwater Shawl. I set myself the loose goal of doing 4 rows/night and an extra 4 on the weekend, which means I get one full pattern repeat done a week. I don't know when this will get finished, and it's in a timeout right now because my stitch markers keep snagging the yarn. I'm making new stitch markers.

The soon-to-be-started lineup:



On the left is a Fleece Artist Merino in "Parrot" which after I wound it, I have renamed Parrot In A Blender. Middle is the Silkie Socks That Rock from the April Rockin' Sock Club, from which I've started and ripped out a toe, twice. You see, problem there is I'm waiting for two more of it to do the Knee High version of Knee High to a Grasshopper. I ordered two extra from the club-exclusives in case the dye lot differed from the first, so this actual club skein that came is destined for something else. Don't know what, but something. On the right is the Spring Garden exclusive from the Pick Up Sticks April sock club, which I think I will make some little-girl sockies out of once I re-engineer the pattern for small feet. And the little raspberry-red thing on top is one of a lot of 11 Koigu I won on Ebay, this one destined to be a whole bunch of test swatches since Koigu is a little too pricey to mess up. Since thanks to Ebay I've acquired a bit in some colours I'm not totally enamoured with I figured I could sacrifice this one to some swatching.

Going to replace the stitch markers on Stormwater, have tea, do laundry, and go to bed now.

Meme of the Moment....

Today's distraction.



I'm
a Ravenclaw!

Travelling Sock, Pedestrian Style

Well, the yoga moment thing kinda ran down, I guess. There were more of them, just didn't get them blogged before I ran out of steam. That's OK - if anyone really cares about my mundane little yoga insights, just ask.

Here's the heap of slowly-in-progress artsy pursuits:



Hard to tell, but there is progress. The quilt is being reassembled into ever-smaller pieces. The Sunset Socks V.2.2 are both past their heel turns now. And the longer one:



Which you can see on the bottom, has made most of that cuff progress just today, during 2.5 hours of walking. Yep, it's spring again, and I decided to boot it to work for the first time this year. 50 or 55 minutes one way. And for kicks, I decided to walk the sock.

To give credit where it is due, Travelling Sock (tm) belongs to the revered Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot - she has truly elevated her travelling sock to cult status. It's a jetsetter. It hangs out with stars (or at least, Toronto Club musicians and choreographers). It flies across the continent regularly. My sock is not nearly so well travelled.

However, to steal a little credit back, I came up with the idea of carrying one of my socks around in my pocket, and later a little case perfectly sized for a one-ball yarn project, independently, before I began reading the Yarn Harlot all the time. Indeed, one of my reasons for choosing socks is that they are portable. My quilting habit kept me busy enough, but you can't take the Janome along to stand in line at the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing office and stitch up a few squares, eh? So focusing on small knitting projects seemed perfect.

Despite the tendency for the Sunsets V2.2 to fall into the knitting "black hole" with their thousands of tiny stitches, we made about an inch of progress while dodging bicycles, construction equipment, and Crackberry enabled RIM executives on the Laurel Trail. I manage to see enough scenery at the same time, too, and I can still pay better attention than most pedestrians seem to. I bet the guy I passed who had the Crackberry in one hand and iPod in the other had no idea he walked past someone knitting a sock despite the fact that he'd have trampled me if I hadn't dodged onto the grass out of his way.

So hopefully I can add a day or two of the sneaker commute to my week, having the sock in a beltable pack and having re-ordered my purse into a backpack again for the nicer weather. I might get the darned things done before Christmas after all.

Yoga Moment 4: City Yoga

Toronto People Are Different And Unique People

Part of my Yoga weekend was spent on some streetcars and city wandering. Yoga practice has an aspect of finding a way to "be". I was observing the city with this in mind, given how I'm often not at ease in big cities. People watching in Toronto can be strange. While wandering about, I saw the following:

A young woman dressed on the top half like the Mennonite girls I see around Waterloo, and from the waist-down like a punk.

A scrappy little Asian shop-owner trying to take on some big bruiser in Kensington Market over what he thought was a shoplifting incident, while a couple of women wearing dreadlocks tried to intervene and explain about the other character they saw run down the street.

A pair of what looked like glam-goth Morris Dancers wandering Chinatown

On my way back out to Union station, I passed a busker playing mellow spanish guitar on a beat-up old steel string. Wearing a paper bag on his head.

Toronto people definitely work out their own way to be.