two knits of ivory

I've been wasting considerable time reading doggedknit's archive and found a meme I kinda like, so I am poaching it. 4 jobs you have had in your life Telemarketer MASSPIRG door-to-door donations campaigner Assistant Property Manager Data Analyst 4 movies you could watch over and over The Village Garden State Million Dollar Baby Overboard 4 places you have lived* The Adirondacks, NY The Bronx, NY, NY Long Island, NY Boston, MA *I don't get around much, do I? 4 TV shows you love to watch Battlestar Galactica The Closer CSI: Las Vegas House 4 places you have been on vacation San Diego, CA Key West, FL Toronto, CA Wells, ME 4 websites you visit daily * Salon boston.com Crazy Aunt Purl and you know what else *I don't visit any website daily, but if I'm on the web I read these sites 4 of your favorite foods hamburger and french fries chocolate texas style BBQ baby back ribs new york style cheesecake 4 places you would rather be right now anyplace in the British Isles ho...

Math is not my worst subject. Really. But it didn't look that way two nights ago when I was about to start the second cake of yarn for the body of my EZ yoke sweater . Before starting the new yarn cake I thought I should catch up on my notetaking for the project. I did a (re)count of the # of stitches on my needle. My first count, 396 stitches. My second count, 396. My intended count, 300. I cast on over 96 extra stitches. 96. Extra. Stitches. How is that possible? All this has to go bye bye. Wah!

I finished my first Firestarter sock in the Madelinetosh yarn about two weeks ago. I'm not impressed with the yarn, neither the wool nor the colorway. The latter is entitled Violas but a much better name would be Watermelon don't you think? When the colors pool in the toe and in a small portion of the heel the colors look solid and vibrant. When the pinks and tans pool in the main sections of the sock the inconsistencies of the hand painted yarn scream out. I'm blaming this bleh feeling about the yarn on why it took so long to cast on for sock #2, which I finally did last night. Yet my unhappiness with the colorway will probably change. I surmise this because I really disliked the colorway of my Sweet Tarts socks as I knit them up. So much so I felt no one else would like them either and so I kept them rather than give them away. Now they are my F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. socks in the world. Imagine that. The very garishness I hated as I knit transformed into a source of love when I...

It's been a rollercoaster month at work. My perceptions on things have shifted so dramatically I was left winded, and more than a pinch wounded. I'm still trying to get my bearings. I count myself lucky I drive to work since for the six years I walked I found it impossible to give myself an adequate pep talk without arousing notice. In the hermetic atmosphere of one's car much is possible and a little pep talk every few days did wonders. But more than a little self love was needed overall and before I could stop myself I found myself awake on Thanksgiving at 4:30 in the morning and winding the last three skeins of my Socks that Rock stash. That small bit of communion with my stash did wonders, I was fortified for days. As I wound the yarn I couldn't help but be conscious all the while of my musings on wound yarn just a couple of weeks ago. Yet, in the end, comfort won out over common sense. Who could blame me? Eh, what's a life if it's not a smidge inco...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not but my husband and I scoured Rhinebeck for sock blockers. All we found were vendors selling the teal colored poly variety. I was a bit dejected, but only for a spell since the money set aside for the blockers was soon diverted to a yarn purchase. :-P. It was only natural that I would have to succumb to the dreaded Internet to find the polished oak type I covet. After seeing countless blog references I headed over to the site of reputed ebay vendor, Chappywoman, and picked up a pair. They came in the mail Saturday and they are quite lovely. It would be easy to make these haphazardly and sell them but the Chappys do a beautiful job. They are as perfect as you would hope them to be. The vendor even snuck in a little bit of swag in the way of this pretty little stitch holder.

About two weeks ago I spent a little time reading the discussion over at Ravelry about LYS etiquette on whether it is a store's obligation to wind yarn for customers or not. I totally got the feeling there is an urban east coast/rest of the US divide on this tradition. Another issue surfaced in the discussion and that was whether or not it is appropriate to store wound yarn for any length of time. I think the consensus was that tightly wound yarn cakes may alter the yarn and cause gauge problems when used later down the road; the longer the yarn is in tightly wound cake form, the greater the damage may be. Well, you see, I'm still a novice ball winder and sometimes my yarn cakes come out a little too tight. The slightest notion that my tightly wound cakes are destroying the beautiful yarn their made of ignited a flame in the quiet little corner of my mind where cast on projects are born. Let me add that this quiet little corner is kept quiet by constant vigilance. Slowly but s...

I can't believe how addicted I am to the Firestarter pattern. Before I knew it I cast on for a second pair Saturday using the Madelinetosh Sock yarn I had stashed for the Last Minute Knitted Gifts Chevron Scarf. I've never used this yarn before and did not anticipate it being designed to have the pinks and greens pool separately, with the the evergreen and lime striping as they pool. So before I had knit enough rows to see the pattern emerge I tried to nip it in the bud with some stitch increases, three on each side of the sock. After about 15 or so rows it was obvious the pooling was intended, so I frogged back to remove the increases. I can't help myself, I just have to brag that I haven't looked at the pattern once since starting this second pair. On the other hand maybe I shoud be embarrased at the pattern details being burnt into my memory as it is a testament to how much diffulty I had the first time around. La! Either way, I'm enjoying knitting this soc...

It's been on my mind for some time that the lack of stockinette in my knitting diet has left me a wee bit high strung. I really need the comfort and mindlessness of stockinette in my life and fast. To this end, right after finishing my Firestarters last week I cast on my first EZ yoke sweater. Ever since I started knitting top-down sweaters years ago it's been in my mind to try it the other way up and my recent acquisition of some Elizabeth Zimmerman titles has given me a bit of courage to finally try it out. It didn't take long to fall in love with EPS ( Elizabeth's percentage system .) Already I think I'll have some modifying to do, but I love the simplicity and the no nonsense approach EZ has to knitting. I've even taken to knitting while I walk the dogs in the afternoon. I can knit about six to 10 rows on a walk. It dawned on me right quick that I'd finish up the sleeves too fast if I knit these at home and while walking so I cast on the main body to wo...

Just the other day, when I was outside photographing my Firestarter socks to no end, I finally had the opportunity to get a snapshot of Ripley in the sweater I knit on the Rhinebeck road trip. The tight knit means it is a great outdoor sweater since it's snugness will reduce the amount of snagging that is bound to occur when he goes traipsing off into the woods. The good news, I now have photographic proof of my effort for all posterity. The bad news, just a few hours later this sweater, knit in the most luscious malabrigo merino yarn, was transformed into this: Can you see that wide black scorch mark? It's a desecration and of my own making. I nuked it in the microwave with a cotton bandanna. Who knew cotton bandanna's combust in the microwave? Well you can thank a crazy knitter in the blogosphere for clearing up that little housekeeping mystery. You may be wondering to yourself why someone would nuke a knitted item. Really, I have a good excuse but before I get to it, a ...

Oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes, my Firestarter socks are finished! After struggling so miserably, and inelegantly, I might add, with the syntax of the pattern, I am very excited to present this fabulous FO. I absolutely love this colorway from Socks That Rock. Very American southwest, which is perfect because that is where they will spend the rest of their days, or so I expect. I hope to send them off to my sister as a belated birthday gift (her b'day was yesterday!) Yarn: I started out with two skeins of Lorna's Laces in the Gold Hill colorway. I abandoned the Lorna's Laces midway. I next tried Socks That Rock in the medium weight Jonagold colorway. Needles: Initially, with the Lorna's Laces, I knitted up the first toe on size US1/2.25mm bamboo and rosewood dpns. I found working the traveling stitches in the confines of the toe daunting with the blunt edges of my dpns so I started a second sock using size US2/2.75 bamboo dpns. After finishing the toe I used Cat Bordhi...

I am of the opinon that a good indication of how I'm doing can be divined by a quick look into my knitting basket. This morning my basket looks like this: It's messy and filled with considerable project detritus made worse this past week when I tested out a couple of new projects. I'm letting prior work like the prefrogged Firestarter sock and the twining vine leaf motif swatch clog up my bin. This is a tangible representation of the intangible, my clouded mind. Last weekend I wanted to knit so badly but I really didn't have the time, or more importantly, the mental energy, to face knitting issues which had become irrationally monolithic. So Sunday I whipped out my Mason Dixon Knitting book and tried to create one of their felted garter stitch boxes. I looked over the pattern and found it easy to redesign for a much smaller, test version, so that I could in turn test a lid pattern for the box, as their pattern is lidless. Here it is pre-felting. I used Manos del Urugua...