Socks!

Okay, so the green socks I made over the holiday? They will always have a special place in my heart - your first always does. But now? I am beyond them. I have entered a higher plane of sockmaking existance. I've now got needles from 0-2 in plenty, resting lovingly atop balls of yarn that thy are destined one day to conquer. Right now, though, I'm making the Friday Harbor socks from Folk Socks for sweetie out of that Senso Cotton from Hobby Lobby. It's about as cheap, per pair of socks, as Magic Stripes, and I like the feel of it better. Plus, being a solid color, I can actually play around with, you know, interesting patterns that aren't Jaywalker. Self-striping is nice, but there's definitely something to be said for a well-made sock with texture. I hope to finish this pair by Monday (yeah right!) so that his boss-who-likes-me may be suitably impressed.

More Socks

Okay, so the green Kathmandu socks turned out very well indeed :) They were knit on 2.5mm needles, at 7 stitches to the inch, with short-row heels and toes, and they are marvelous. Obviously, the next step is to try Magic Stripes on 2.0mm needles, and see how they turn out. I picked up 3 skeins over at Hancock's, the first one I'm trying is colorway 206 (for myself - obviously, I have to try MY socks before I can do any for my sweetie. Right? Right? XD) I found a cool online retailer of patterns, and a cheap fix for Regia, so here's the listing:

Regia 50% off:
Regia!

Patterns:
Heel and Toes Gazette!

Christmas means Nose Rings!

Well, it's christmas time again. Time for all the christian folks in this country to remember the birth of their founder, and give toys to children. Since I'm neither christian nor a child, however, things are a little different out here. To whit, christmas this year means knitting for family, and painful face holes for me. That's right, my aunt is keeping her word from thanksgiving, and taking me to get my nose pierced the monday after christmas. At a piercing parlor. With a needle. Into my nose.

I expect to get a lot of prime knitting done during my convalescence.

"Random" in the sense that it isn't.

Okay, so my plan? Was to make socks with random crazy-stripes, different widths, different placement, etc. etc. I finished one, just changed colors whenever I thought it could use a good bit of changing, and it turned out really nice. So, I go to start the next one, again, just chaning colors when I thought it could use it, and not even LOOKING at the other sock (which was in my purse).

The end result? The same. damn. stipe. pattern. Only not exact enough that the socks are actually, you know, a pair.

To frog or not to frog? This is the question.

Oh. My. God.

I just ordered so many books on interlibrary loan. ALL of 'em for knitting!

Simply socks : 45 traditional Turkish patterns to knit
Folk socks : the history & techniques of handknitted footwear (worth buying!)
Knitting on the road : sock patterns for the traveling knitter (worth buying)
>Knitting vintage socks : new twists on classic patterns (worth buying!)
Socks, socks, socks (worth buying!)
Sensational knitted socks
Latvian mittens : traditional designs & techniques
The twisted sisters sock workbook
Heirloom knitting
Folk knitting in Estonia
Enchanted knitting : charted motifs for hand and machine knitting (By the Hennapage lady!)
Yarns to dye for : creating self-patterning yarns for knitting


Can you tell I've caught the sock knitting bug? I've only finished one of my pair, and already I'm in love!

Ferrets and House Pie

So, this sure was an exciting finals season at the old Casa del Pen Name. I was working on my ten page final paper (over how Helene Deutsch's Psychology of Women is biological deterministic patriarchy-affirming craptasms), and it actually got cold enough that College Station actually froze over!

So, me and K. are sitting and knitting and watching Buffy and most studiously not-doing-homework and we hear a little bell from outside. Thinking that it's Maggie, an adorable indoor/outdoor Calico who roams the apartment complex, we go open the door to let her in out of the cold.

And a ferret comes in.

He's got a little collar with a bell, seems friendly, so we put him in the cat carrier, stick a sign on our door, shrug, and continue with the Buffy. K. goes back to her own place, where half an hour later she hears someone shaking the bushes and crying. She peeks her head out, and it's the owner of the ferret! She directs said owner to our place, they are reunited, and all is well with the world again.

I now totally want to knit a ferret.

So, post-finals weekend sweetie and I went to his sister's house. Things basically ran down like this:

Sister: Okay, I'm off to work, be back soon! Enjoy the third season of the Dead Zone! *exits*

Me: *knitknitknit*

Sweetie: Hmm, I'm hungry. Oh look, pumkin pie! And it's only missing one slice! *eats two slices of pie*

Sister: *comes home many hours later, sees pie crusts* Oh.... oh, no. You didn't eat that pie we've got in the fridge, did you? Oh god, that.... we got that when we moved in! That pie's three months old!

Me: HAHAHA! YOU ATE HOUSE PIE!

The irony here? He eats house pie, but I get sick.

Pac-Man Hat (With Ghosts!)

So, for PrimaryBrother I'm making a christmas hat. It'll have Pacman himself on the front, a few ghosts on the back. Here's my directions:

Materials:
Paton's Classic Merino wool, Black, 1 skein
Paton's Canadiana, Grey (opt: 1 skein yellow, 1 skein blue, 1 skein white)
Gague: 5 sts per inch

Hats should be made to the circumference of your head, minus 2". My head is 22" around, and I have to assume my brother's is as well.

CO 100 stitches (20 inches) and work K2P2 ribbing for 4".

Work stockinette stitch for 5".

Begin the decreases as follows:

Row 1: *K8, k2tog; repeat from *
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14: Knit.
Row 3: *K7, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 5: *K6, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 7: *K5, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 9: *K4, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 11: *K3, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 13: *K2, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 15: *K1, k2tog; repeat from *
Row 16 and all subsequent rows: K2tog

Continue knitting two together all around until 5 stitches remain. Thread the end of the yarn through these 5 stitches, pull through to the inside of the hat, knot and cut. With a seperate yarn of the same weight, duplicate stitch Pacman in the color of your choice from the following chart:



These were charted off the sprites I found here, which were converted from Namco's game Pacman. I obviously don't own Namco, or Pacman, but I do now have a very warm hat.

I Love My Breasts...

...but goddamn. I put the Circular Shrug on some circular needles (to join them post-armholes) and knit a few inches, until the whole thing was of a pretty good size, and I figured a few inches of lace would then do me quite nicely.

I put it on. I was wrong. There is still a nice, big, 19 inch gap in the front, while at the same time, the collar? Yeah, already beginning to flip itself over.

Time for emergency procedures..... time for short rows. I figure all I want, lacewise, is probably a simple little rib with some eyelets, maybe 4 inches worth. (the less lace I do, the less inches I have to work with twice the number of stitches, the more yarn I save. Smart, eh?) So that leaves me with, what, 9 inches more of work to do on the front?

So now I go and look up short rows. I swear, this will be done, and it will be good. And if it isn't, well... the new Knitty is up, you know.


Side note: PrimaryBrother's hat is doing very well. 4" of 2x2 rib, 5" stockinette, decreases, and done. Then to duplicate-stitch Pacman and his beloved dot, and I'm good to go.

[edit] Damnit, that Tubey from knitty keeps looking better and better. If this doesn't work out, I'm totally making that.