The Thing About These Socks... (Ironically)

Hello:

The thing about the Round 4 Socks for Sock Madness is that they are just so fiddly.

The pattern is Shakertown Fences by Lorain Pettit.  You start with the cable section knitting flat,

join the cable in the round, and pick up stitches to knit up the leg.  Fiddly. but I do like the cable.

The leg pattern is a simple k4 p4 ribbing, but you alternate colors, so that is fairly fiddly, too. And, although I knit the legs with size 2 (2.75 mm) needles rather than my usual size 0 (2 mm), they just did not grow!  I felt like I was knitting forever.

Then you have to bind off the tops in a special way, which is supposed to make the tops look like fence posts, but took forever. Super fiddly. I started binding off last night, but just got too tired.

I had to work today, but luckily, I had a 45 min lunch break, so I was able to get the fence posts all bound off.  I finished the heel flaps and one of the turns tonight, so will try to post a photo tomorrow. 

I brought a second pair of socks to the school where I was subbing today, because I knew I would need a break from these after binding off.

I am working on a pair of socks for the Doc.  I usually try to make him 2 pair every year, but this year I haven't made him any.  I bought that gorgeous YOTH Sock yarn (Little Brother) at the Eastside Knitters Guild Meeting, and knew I had to use it for Doc's socks.

I worked out a pattern when I was making my brother some socks this winter, but for his socks I used worsted weight yarn so they would be really warm.  I'm taking that pattern, and rewriting it for sock yarn.

I love love love these socks.  The yarn is lovely and amazingly soft.  Although I am using a size 0 needle (I like my sock fabric dense and I am a loose knitter), they are moving right along.  I am almost to the heel flaps, and that is saying something because the Doc like 8 in. legs.

I worked on these in between the four French classes that I taught today.  Kids are so funny.  The first thing I do in a class is call roll.  Of course, most of the kids say, "Here," but there are always a few kids who have to say something different.

Today, one boy answered, "Swag."

What?? I stopped and asked him to repeat it.  "Swag."  Yes, I had heard it correctly.

Another student explained, "He is a hipster, and that is the cool way to say, 'here.'"

Kids.  I had to ask if he was saying it ironically.  Crickets.  No one seemed to get that joke so I went on with the roll.  Now that one student had gotten some notice for saying, "Swag," two more students, also wanting to be hip, I guess, answered with "Swag."

I told the first boy, "I guess you can't use that word any more since it has now become popular."

Crickets again.  No one got my ironic humor.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with unironic socks.

 

Finished Round 3

Happy Easter (a day late)

I almost finished my Round 3 socks for Sock Madness yesterday.  After the actual socks are finished,

you have to go back and knit a row of icords in the 7 contrast colors for the button band.  This was very fiddly, and mine are not super even, but, I don't care, they are finished.  Also, there are about 1 gazillion ends to weave in.

There are all the ends for the cuffs, and for the heels, though I wove those in when I finished the heels.  Then, at the bottom of the foot, near the toes, there is another set of rainbow stripes.  These are not done in linen stitch, just stockinette, but there are ends for every color.

Before I knit the icord button bands, I wanted to get the weaving in finished.  THEN, after the band is knit, you have to sew on the buttons.  There are only two button holes, but you put buttons on the inside AND the outside so the cuffs can be worn either up or folded down.

I finished third in the Tenacious Tadpoles bracket.  25 finishers in each bracket will move on to the next round, so I am guaranteed to move on.  I should have 1 - 2 weeks to work on other things while I wait for the next round to start.

Not sure how much I like these.  I love the heels.  The stripes on the feet are nice, too. Not really a fan of the "pipes" (the icord).  I might use these heels, or a variation of them, on a design of my own.  They are really pretty.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with rainbow icords.

Stoichiometry

Hello:

I substituted today for a Chemistry teacher at Skeinherder's school.  I am a Math and English teacher.  I can probably make it through Physics, but ... Chemistry?  I really don't remember any of the one semester of Chemistry I had in college.  Yet, I have either tutored, or subbed in Chemistry 3 different times in the last 4 weeks.  It is not easy.

The funny thing is that each time, I was teaching Stoichiometry.  Stoichiometry is the calculation of relative amounts of reactants and products in chemical reactions.  Luckily for me, it's mostly math.  The two important things are to take the reactants and break them down to their elements and to make sure the equation is balanced.

This got me to thinking about the socks I have been knitting for Round 2 in Sock Madness, the Rainbow Pipes and Linen Stitch socks by Aurelie Colas.

I always knit my socks 2 at a time.  Otherwise, they never come out the same size.  I can't explain it, it might be tension, it might be that I can't count rows.  Whatever the reason, I need to knit socks together if I hope to get the same size socks.

This was a bit of a problem with these socks because of all of the colors.  And this was especially true when I was knitting the heel flaps.

Each heel flap used three of the seven contrast colors.

I had all 6 colors of yarn twisting and tangling with the black main color strands.  It was a bit confusing for a while, but I managed to keep it all together and finish the flaps together.

The next part of the heels, the heel turn, used the seventh color.

I just love these heels.  The flaps use the linen stitch.  The different colored bottoms really set them off.  And everything stands out so starkly against the black main color.  You can really see each element of the socks.  (See how I tied that back to the chemistry...)

I've finished the gussets, too.  But, since I just finished them, there won't be photos until tomorrow.  I feel like I am always posting photos the next day.  I need to knit at least 3 inches of the feet tomorrow, and then knit the final design element.  I think I am in pretty good shape to finish everything on Easter Sunday.  I hope so. I checked the finishers spreadsheet for my team, Tenacious Tadpoles, and no one has finished yet.  I should be in the top 5 again. 

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with balanced socks.

Got the taxes out, well...

We had clear skies pretty much all week, but not last night for the Lunar Eclipse!  I took these photos on the 13th, the day before the eclipse.

You can just see the sunset reflecting on the Cascades at the bottom of the photo.

Ok, my godkids are gone, and the house seems so quiet without them.  We had an absolutely wonderful visit.  I hope they come back to visit again, soon.

Between getting the taxes finished and mailed out (ok, we had to file an extension, but not because I didn't finish... It's complicated), and starting back to tutoring at BC, I knit on and off today on my Sock Madness Round 2 socks.

I am too tired now to have a good discussion about the pattern, but at least you can see what I have accomplished so far:

This is what the rainbow linen stitch looks like.  And here are the two socks together:

I thought I would finish the cuffs and make it to the legs be the end of the night, but I still have about 1/2 inch to go.  I am finished with the colors, though, and am now just knitting black linen stitch.  It should go faster tomorrow morning, if I don't get called in to a substitute job.

Stay healthy, teachers on the Eastside!  I need to knit socks tomorrow.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a rainbow.

Better Photos

Hello:

We have already broken the record for rain in March, and the month is not over.

I wanted to post some better photos of the Round 1 Sock Madness socks, Diamond Shreddies.

I just love the cable detail.

It is knit at both sides of the sock, and again at the top of the instep.

The heels are an Eye of Partridge pattern,

but the designer, Carrie Van Kessel, carried the ribbing from the cables down into the sides of the heel flaps.  It makes them that more interesting.

I am really happy with them.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in yellow silk/merino cabled socks.

Sock Madness 2014 Round 1

Hello:

I am still in Southern California, helping at my brother's house. 

Since it is March, it is time for Sock Madness, the speed sock knitting competition that is based on the NCAA Basketball tournament, March Madness.  I knew there was a good chance that the first stage would begin while I was down here, well I knew it would begin, not just a good chance.  Before I left, the specs for this first sock were posted in the Sock Madness group.  That means that the pattern would be available within 48 hours. 

I brought some Regia Yarn down in a lovely cranberry red.

I bought this yarn last summer when I decided that I wanted to test knit some Regia.  I have heard this yarn mentioned as a good sock yarn and I wanted to see if it measured up.  It is not expensive, though I have forgotten what this cost.  I do love the color.

The pattern is called "Brucie" after the shark in the animated movie, Finding Nemo.  I have two weeks to finish the pair if I want to be placed on a team.  The yarn is a pretty fine gauge of fingering, so I am using size 0 US needles to get a decent fabric.  I hope I can finish in time.

So far I have the ribbing

and have almost finished the first pattern, which is Shark Attack!

This photo shows the first repeat.

When I was half-way through this pattern, disaster struck.

The needle broke off the cable.  These are or well, were, my size 0 Chiao Goo Red Cable Lace Needles.  I bought them last year at Madrona.  I have knit just about every pair of socks since then with these needles. 

I am so glad that I bought another size 0 at Madrona this year.  You might remember that I had to wrestle Franklin Habit for them.  Thank goodness I won.  I brought both needles down with me just in case the pattern was not a good match with knitting 2-at-a-time.  I will need to contact ChaioGoo when I get home and see if they will replace my broken needle.  I dropped one side of all the stitches on both socks, but I think I picked them all up correctly, and have knitted on.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with shark socks.

Fiber Friday with Prizes

Hello!

The Fiber Friday group from Eastside Stitchers met today at Crossroads for some yarny fun, because we just don't see each other enough.

BlueBerryMary is almost finished with her baby blanket.

I just love how the lavender border picks up the lavender flecks in the yarn.

CathieC was weaving in the 1000000000000000000000000 bits of yarn on her beautiful knitted afghan.  This is a great project for social knitting, because chatting while you weave helps with the potential bordeom.

WireKnitter was working on a new colorwork shawl.  I realized that I am often very lazy during Fiber Fridays and I don't seem to take many notes, so of course I have no idea what the name of this shawl is.

Winterpromise31 has begun a new hat.

And begun it again, and again.  Then bought some new smaller needles with a smaller cable and begun it again.  Sometimes knitting just doesn't want to work.

Skeinherder was working on something very mysterious.  And drinking tea.

VanesaPolo arrived later, as there is something about Yoga in her Friday morning schedule these days.  And of course, I didn't take a photo of her knitting.  Isn't that just like me?

I was working on Round 5 Sock Madness, Zip.

I was preparing the zippers so I can knit them into the legs of the socks.  So far I have finished both cuffs, and am done with one zipper prep.

After Fiber Friday, I drove over to Tea Cozy Yarns in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.  I had won one of the daily drawings during the 2013 North Puget Sound LYS Tour, and I needed to pick up my prize.  I had no idea what it was. 

YAYAYAYAY!  I am so so happy with what I got.  Of course, anything free and a prize is always great, but this had some stuff that I was planning on buying! so it was just a perfect prize for me.

First of all, I got an official LYS Tour bag.  (hahahaha, no that wasn't one of the things I had planned to buy, but another knit bag always comes in handy.)

Then I looked inside my new bag, and there was Extreme Double-Knitting: new adventures in reversible colorwork by Alasdair Post-Quinn.  I heard the author/designer interviewed a while ago on some podcast (not sure which one, sorry), and was totally intrigued.  As I haven't really done any regular colorwork, I was hesitant to try reversible colorwork, but still, I love learning new techniques, and I wanted to check out his book for future projects.  Now I OWN  it.  This was my biggest squeee.

I also received the new issue of Knitter's Magazine, with a free 1 year subscription!

On top of that, was a skein of Eweneek Exquisite, 50% Merino 50% Silk laceweight yarn from Knot Just Yarn, who also was a part of the 2013 LYS Tour.  The color is Tidepool, and I just love it.  That shop was the site of one of my few (this year) impulse buys on the tour.  I bought a skein of their sock yarn (of course!) in a beautiful green.

The last part of my major award was a bottle of Crafters Cream. from Apple Yarns.  It feels lovely on my work roughened hands.

Lucky me!

Ok, I am leaving really early tomorrow morning to fly down to California to help out at my brother's house for a week.  My sister-in-law has to do another 11 days of military ... something... somewhere.  These are always tough, as my brother can't be left alone anymore, and of course, someone has to be there to help out with the kids.  There is a great network of neighbors, friends and family, who take turns when the family needs help, but it is just too hard to cover that many nights.  I am lucky that the Doc, Himes, and Pookie, can handle themselves without me for a week.

I will really try to post regularly.  After all, I am working on Sock Madness, and tomorrow Tour de Sock Begins!  As well, as a new month of HPKCHC classes.  The internet at my brother's house is horribly slow, but I will do my best to get something up regularly.

I should be able to knit more than I usually do because I won't be working, just being THERE for the family, and doing regular "mom" stuff.  My brother and sisters (and nephews and nieces for that matter) don't always understand the importance of  an "International Sock Knitting Competition Based on March Madness,"  and I am not sure that I can explain Tour de Sock and even worse Harry Potter Knitting Crochet House Cup to such non-stitching Muggles.  But, they have become accustomed to seeing me with some type of fiber in my hands at all times.

I am the aunt/sister who... KNITS.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a new knitting book that is a PRIZE!