periscope knits

3(x + 2y) = happiness.

The subject heading is the equation I used to dye my yarn last night (I heart chemistry) with various red-toned Kool-Aids and very, very little sleep.  Despite my careful math, the yarn came out far more varied than I had planned.  If I had to guess, I think it has something to do with how very acidic Kool-Aid is.  The dye uptake is very quick, even with careful wetting and stirring.  I hadn't planned on a solid colour, luckily.  The finished result is something like what you see if you pile all your Valentine's candy together and cross your eyes.  You know, kind of like this:

The blue and yellow and green yarn is the VERY FIRST ONE that I dyed.

and a close-up:

Yes, I hear your cries for pictures!  Soon, chickens, soon. How about now for pictures!  Instant photo gratification!

I've planned out a few patterns for stockings and knee-highs.  This may seem a little ambitious as I've knit only one pair of socks, but really it's quite logical.  I have very large calves and (in proportion) small ankles.  Shapely?  Yes, but a complete impossibility when it comes to patterns.  Any length between knee-high and ankle slouches unbecomingly (one can only defy gravity and physics for so long).  I have A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker at my side.  Such excellent guidance and a good grasp of knitter's math should see me through just fine. 

Besides, who's afraid of a little frogging?  Not me!! (Pay no attention to the post about the shooting stockings.) With socks knit for myself, with no impatiently excited recipient keeping time, I have no compunction frogging until the cows come home.

Tonight and tomorrow:  The Madrona Fiber Arts Festival!  If you're there, I'll be seein' ya.  If you're not, I promise to tell you alllllllll about it. 

Desert knitting! In wool colour.

Last night’s knit circle was quite fun. Though I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the shootin’ stockings, I did show off the photos I’d taken in while on holiday.  I was gifted with a hug bag of raw wool yarn, and a nearly-finished sweater and needles to finish the project.  So excellent!  I don't know if I'll finish the sweater as-is or frog it to make something else.  It's thick and heavy, and I tend to run hot.  The yarn is lovely, however - nubbly and the colour of antique ivory.

About that holiday:  Tucson has very few yarn stores despite the size of the city. In fact, there are four total in the phone book– two locations of Purls, one bead and yarn store (which is mostly beads) and one that looked like someone’s house. My mother was suspicious of the house. She loves garage sales with the passion of a thrifty farmer’s daughter, but yarn? Hand-dyed? In someone’s house? And so far out from town! Probably poor quality and expensive.

(Need I mention that my mother is not a knitter? She crafts and sews and cooks and decorates and gardens, but fiber arts are no longer her realm.)

In hot pursuit of absolutely local yarn, I struck a deal: I’d go out to garage sales (and haul myself out of bed at six a.m. on a Saturday) in exchange for a knitter’s field trip. So it was that I found myself on the northwest side of Tucson, knocking on the door of Kathy Withers' house.

Did I say house? I mean farmhouse, for Kathy does everything for her fiber from soup to nuts. Take a look:

http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com/

The buildings on the lower right-hand corner of the picture are the house and shop. Everything else is farm – sheep pens, pasture, chicken coop, a large rabbit hutch, sheds and Holly the dairy goat’s little house. There’s a flock of guard geese and an aggressive male llama named Philip, and a half-wild farmcat named Charcoal. Heaven!

I ran back to the car and got my parents so we could take a guided tour of the place.

I fed Marble the lamb his daily bottle:

and gave the llama girls their oats (Emmy is the white one):

and conversed with Holly, the very pregnant dairy goat:  ( I know about the pictures - they'll come later!  I can only do so much at work).

The shop was filled with piles and piles of fiber in all states of doneness. I spent a happy hour or so browsing, and my dad marveled at the displays of handicraft. Look! You put the fiber in and the machine combs it for you! And then you put it in the wheel and yarn comes out! Can you do that? Um, no, Dad – I don’t have an electronic drum carder or a spinning wheel, or a farm. But yes! I will use my drop spindle to make yarn from the roving I bought. Then I’ll overdye them, and after that there will be something for you. Promise. And you too, Mom. Even my picky and formerly suspicious mother had fun and found something she liked. Good times were had by all.

I'm off now, in search of the elusive winter 2007 knit 1 magazine.  My next project is the fishnet stockings (I've dyed the yarn already), but the pattern is AWOL.  Wish me luck.

New Year, new blog.

With a finished object to start out with, even.

Voila! The Western Gentleman Gotta Do Some Shootin’ Stockings:

Beautiful, aren’t they?

Click on the pictures for a larger version.

They’re as yet unblocked, and I left the ends on the second sock unwoven so everyone could see what an excellent job my cat does of cutting the yarn for me. Right in the middle of the leg! She’s so helpful – and such sharp teeth!

What? You can’t see them? Hmm. Well, I’m going to knit circle tonight, and hopefully will have the use of a digital camera. Until then, you’ll have to believe me – fraternal twins as they may be, they’re quite lovely.   Pictures galore!  Thank you, Jazlan!

Pattern: Gentleman’s Shooting Stockings from Knitting Vintage Socks

Yarn: Sundara Yarn’s Somewhat Solid superwash sport merino in Grey over Petal.

Yardage: Roughly 400 yards, although application of a scale might tell me otherwise.

Needles: US 2, 2.75 mm Clover Bamboo DPNs, set of 5

Gauge: 26 stitches per 4” over stocking stitch in the round.

Finished dimensions (some of them, anyway): 10.25” from heel to toe, and 11” from top of cuff to bottom of heel flap.

Modifications: Plenty. Aside from adjusting the pattern to fit the yarn I used, I had to take into account my dad’s thin legs and huge feet. So, the ankles are tiny and the feet look like flippers when not worn. There’s a few purl lines in the basic 3x3 ribbing to set the eye up for the patterning (and because I liked it). I changed the decreases down the back of the leg for a more pleasing line. And, of course, there’s a good chance I’ll have to add some thin elastic to the top of the cuffs.

And next time? Hmm. Well, despite the changes I made to the leg decreases, I’m still not entirely satisfied with how the pattern melds. I’d like the disappearing pattern repeats to become a single line of knit stitches that then make their way into the finalized ankle pattern. This shouldn’t be too hard to do, and I look forward to knitting this pattern for myself.

I finished the first sock while in Tucson, and had my dad try it on. Such a perfect fit! Oh the joy! Oh the excitement! And will the next sock be finished before you go home? Well…hmm. The first sock flew merrily along, with a minimum of frogging. The second sock? Apparently it’s knit to a tighter row gauge, since there are more pattern repeats down the instep despite the fact the socks are identical in length. I also completely messed with the gusset and didn’t realize until partway through the toe decreases. I’d already frogged the toe three times (due to complete spaciness on my part), so eh. I grafted the toe and called it a day. As my father is extremely excited for his shootin’ stockings, I’ll send them off just as they are and fix anything that needs fixing when I go back to Arizona in March. Usually I’m more discerning about these things, but – hey! It’s my first pair of socks! And they’re awesome! And Dad is quite anxious to wear them, and he promised to take pictures for my knitter’s brag book blog.

I've got a few (heh) projects on the needles, and more yarn coming from Sundara.  Seriously, it's like crack only lovelier.  The Shifting Sands scarf (from Grumperina) is just over halfway finished, and I dyed some sock yarn last night with three different sorts of Kool-Aid.  And yes - I promise pictures.  Later.