Wandless Knitting

Because these are probably all wrong...

2012-01-13T01:28:00.004-05:00

Because these are probably all wrong for the 18th century, but I have them, I am putting washed-out pictures of them here. In case, you know, someone who knows says "Oh, no, that's not too bad. You could use it, you know. If you promise to only wear it in the dark. And only to places we do not go. And not to speak to us or act like you know us while you wear it..." You know, encouraging stuff... I have something for a first pair of breeches for the other person, and he has a shirt already that I am not even terribly ashamed of, even if the buttonholes do look like filly-be-damned (I have no idea what that means - my grandma used to say it.) So I am wondering about a dark red cotton I have for a waistcoat... that, or poor fellow will be stuck with Osnaburg cotton. But that is for another post.

This has been fulled. I have enough of it for maybe a bedgown or something of that ilk. But I am not sure about the stripes.

One shot of the Ikea Duvet cover fabric. I know it is not exactly right, but is it close enough for... something?

Another shot of the Ikea fabric.

This was also cheap - five dollars for a several yards piece, maybe? - and wool, so I figured I would pick it up. Probably not right for anything, but if it looks like there is hope for some 18th century use, great. If not, I can always find some 21st century thing to do with it - not a big investment there to worry about. None of them were, in fact. This one is not yet fulled, if that makes a difference.

The things we do for love...

2011-12-04T01:30:00.003-05:00

This is the view from the front. Note the slight resemblance to a shrunken chef's hat.

The view from the side, showing the wingie thingies about which I have some doubt, as well as the pleating of the cap which lookes to me like it can't be right. I am pretty certain it is not the only thing about this which can't be right. Is that enough poofage over the back of the head? Is it too much? Did the band go to the correct place on the side? Does the thing cover too much of the head, or not enough, or...

And why am I posting a little head schmatta on my knitting blog? Because, of course, if I get it right I will be slapping it on my 20th Century head and wearing it while fulfilling whatever obligations I have as a member of the 18th century Militia unit I have just joined. I do not think that these obligations include, should the place be threatened, beating off terrorists with the distaff from my shabby little repro colonial spinning wheel, but they might, and if they do, I will end up in the news, and if I end up in the news, of course, I want my cap to be right. A girl can't be too careful about these things.

Why on earth has she-who-cannot-finish-anything taken one one more thing? Really, it is not my fault.

OK, yes, I have always wanted 18th century clothing. I first wanted to do reenacting back in my early teens. However, I have managed to live MANY, MANY years without addressing either of these whims.

However, someone I love very much needs things to do. And this person would like to get dressed up in Colonial Clothing and Tell People Things. (Well, actually, this person might indeed be content to just sit there in old sweatpants and tell people things, but the days of the General Store and the Cracker Barrel being over, one must find ways to merchandise oneself, must one not?)

So this person and I will be doing these things together, and therefore you faithful blog followers of mine (Google says I have one, and, of course, Google would never lie...)will have to see pictures of said items, if for no other reason than that I am not good at this yet, and therefore need to post them so wiser heads than mine can come here and read and say things like "Abigail Adams is rolling in her grave like a log in a log-rolling contest at the idea that anyone she knew would have put that thing on her head." And then, you know, kindly offer advice. Or go off and drink heavily at the very thought of me in their community. Whichever, you know, makes more sense to them at the time.

Sew, Mama, Sew!

2011-01-12T18:39:00.004-05:00

OK, never being the first to be first at anything trendy, it has taken me a few years both to get back to any sewing of note, and also to find the Sew, Mama, Sew site. They sell fabric over there, but they also have a fantastic blog and they provide lots of links and tutorials. I am especially fond of the Handmade Holidays and Fat Quarter months, But they frequently have themes and it it really good to go over there, search, and find interesting things to make, or to at least think about making.

They've asked the following questions of a number of people in the sewing scene, and we can answer one or more for the opportunity to win stuff. You can see links to the experts' answers on their blog over at SewMamaSew.com

Looking back on the sewing scene of 2010, what trends stand out in your mind?

None. Trust me, I am not the one to ask about trends.

What were some of your favorite things? (Trends, fabric collections, patterns, blogs? Whatever you really loved.)

I know I am supposed to have very specific favs here, but I basically look up individual things, because I just do not read a bunch of blogs every day. SewMamaSew.com is probably my favorite right now because there is so much I can access from it. In that sense, Ravelry has really spoiled me - I want a sort of one stop shopping site for ideas I can then pursue through links. Rav is amazing for knitting and crochet, and there is really nothing equivalent in sewing for a number of reasons, but I am piecing together a few places to go.

What was your very favorite fabric collection or print? (If not listed above.)

I don't really have one. I have a sort of love/hate affair with fashion, textiles, etc. I love real ingenuity, and I love beautiful things. On the other hand, I have never been in a position to afford much. Encouraging a passion for beautiful fabric would be fiscally imprudent.

I also despise with a burning, searing, itching passion to which words cannot do justice paying postage - particularly shipping and handling that is more than the item. You can't just go anywhere and see all this stuff, touch it, and then just pick a few fat quarters - there is a lot of taking chances and waiting and all that. I do not let myself lust after beautiful prints.

What I do like is making the most of a little bit of a limited fabric. This is nothing new, and I am probably way behind the times in liking things mixed with natural linen/linen look/cheap rough cotton fabric.

What was the best thing you made in 2010? (Be sure to share a photo!)

I didn't make anything amazing in 2010. That I ever finish anything at all is amazing enough, and I made something like 30 sewn gifts for Christmas, so even if they weren't fantastic, they were done and I was thrilled. Nothing I made is really worth a photo...

What is one of the best things you saw that was made by someone else?

I can't say I keep track of these things. Maybe it is because I am not a Quilter. I can see where, if you are, this is a really meaningful question. I do more making little things - tea wallets, coin purses, cowls, notebook covers - honestly, how overwhelmingly awesome is something like that going to be able to be? Nice is good enough. I remember the nice ideas, and I have made the most of the Tea Wallets. My favorite project was probably the Travel Organizer. You can find both by searching over at the blog at Sew, Mama, Sew.

What do you think 2011 has in store? (Again, trends, fabric, patterns, etc.)

I really don't know. I am not a driving force here, so it probably doesn't matter, either.

Anything you’re ready for the sewing world to get over?

Exploiting cute children and one's relationship with them. I realize the entire sewing universe is populated with adorable little girls who like to make things with mama and wear pretty clothes. I do not have a daughter, and I have no interest in telling the world what my children are doing, never mind putting up their pictures. I feel more protective of them than that, and frankly, if I edited our life together down to what most people would like to see on a blog it would be cruelly misleading. So I would like very much for everyone to get over how cute kids are, since they have been cute since the year dot, and show more interesting stuff for adults who need to live and get things done.

I am also totally totally ready to hear the last of "simplicity." Trust me, I would have to ratchet my life up a few notches to need the "Simple answers" I see to problems so different from those in my life as to be from Mars. I do not want to destash, simplify, edit, reflect - I would just like to live.

Finally, gag me with the "Green" already. Frugality, using what you need and no more, is as old as poverty. No one invented it recently and no one should act as if they did. I am equally opposed to greenwashing and the trend to make ugly things because they "respect the earth." How about we make a few nice things, reuse what we have, and understand that rushing out to buy green, or several new tops made from some cutting technique that leaves fewer scraps, is just another form of consumerism. Wear the ugly old t-shirt till you can't stand it, consign it to a car-wash rag, and then figure out what you want to replace it with. One nicely cut blouse is still going to have less impact than five new ones, no matter how you cut them, and if you make the blouse yourself you can use the scraps for something else. In truth, probably the greenest answer to clothing oneself at the moment, after wearing what you already own, is simply buying at a thrift store. The most green creativity would involve the least complicated reuse of what you can keep out of the waste stream locally.

I am not saying people have to go that way. I am saying I don't want to hear about Green Green Green and then Buy Buy Buy in the same entry.

What’s on your sewing agenda for 2011? What are you excited about? What would you like to learn more about?

I would like to make myself clothes that are actually useful in my lifestyle. That is a huge challenge. And would like to make them look nice, and use the stuff I have around. It is not a matter of upcycling. I am really going to be using old clothes as if they were yardage sometimes, and while I don't think I am going to be reinventing the wheel, I feel it will be challenging to me personally.

I am really excited about Spoonflower. I love surface pattern design - as I mentioned earlier, I can't afford much nice new yardage, but that does not mean I don't like looking at it. What I would like to do is make some of my own designs and get them from there. That would be a challenge and a lot of fun. Maybe if I start now I can have stuff for next Christmas.

I have read in this thread people both praising Japanese companies and calling for people not to be so cheap. Well, frankly, a good part of our printing capacity went to Japan years ago because people are cheap. (short explanation of a lot of stuff.) And I like a lot of the designs, but I do have mixed feelings. However, if you are willing to pay 13 dollars a yard for quality quilting cotton, 18 a yard from Spoonflower for something you design yourself or a bit more for something designed and printed here is a very viable deal, I think. I would buy from there first, if I had the money and a choice.

There it is folks - the blog post no one will care to read, but I did answer the questions...

Does anyone really use these, and what I made for Christmas.

2010-12-29T20:52:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I am mystified by the things that are suggested we make for gifts.

Every single everywhere, for example, has a pattern - knitted, crocheted, sewed, whatever - for an eye pillow. I took a little survey. It turns out:

I don't know anyone who uses one.

I don't know anyone who has EVER used one.

None of them knew anyone who used one, either.

Now why do we need 75 gajillion patterns for something no one seems to need or use?

Even more places have patterns for tissue pack covers. Now I will say I have, in my lifetime, known one or two people who use these. However, compared to the number of people I know with noses, this is a very small number. I have never used them myself. I have no anticipation of ever using one myself. I own several. If I am ever stuck in a grab-bag situation with people I don't particularly care for, I suppose I am all set. Other than that, pointless.

I think I am going to keep a running list of things that I find patterns for which no one uses. But I am not going to mass-produce these things for gifting.

I have, I will admit, just done a pretty much handmade Christmas.

I started out with a plan for myself and the older son which was about as large as the Library of Congress, but scaled back continually over the 60 or so working hours that included all the sewing time I got. Travel organizers made way for tea wallets and little purses, hand painted pictures made way for patches sewn on tote bags. New ideas were born out of thin air. (I know how to free motion embroider? Apparently, I do, at least on a primitive level. I discovered this by accident. Go figure...)

What did I make?

Fleece cowls. Fleece cowls with embroidered patches on them. Last, desperate fleece cowl sewn, none too neatly, by hand.

Tea Wallets. Tea wallets in Osnaberg and a black linen blend, with a Zen aesthetic. Tea Wallets made from Orientalist print fat quarters. Tea wallets made with a sort of polka dot fabric in brilliantly bright colors against black. Tea wallets cut on the straight of the printed pattern, rather than the straight of the grain, since it was one or the other and the pattern was geometric. Tea wallets I can't even remember...

Little purses. Little purses with three pockets for folding money or various cards, and a velcro closing, that simple. And even so, I sewed one semi-inside out. Surprise, that worked too... Last little purse sewn by hand, including the velcro...

ONE travel organizer. I would have liked for it to have been three. Maybe more. But frankly, that one took a lot longer than I expected, and there just was not the time. Maybe if I start now, for next year...

Tote bags... The bags were premade, but had to be cut open along the side seams so I could sew on the postage stamp like machine embroidered panels, then sewn back together. I used my fake serging stitch and my overcasting foot. I broke a needle or two, forgetting to change needle position correctly, but these are the breaks...

A Hat. This hat matched a cowl I made. I made the tube longer and sewed up the top, straight across. Then I turned it inside out and met the two corners of the seam, and sewed them together. It is very warm. He does not like it. He doesn't like much, though, so...

All of these were nice things, I would have been happy to have gotten any of them. They were all useful. The tea wallets intrigued some of the recipients who decided they would put little notepaper and a golf pencil in there, or a cell phone, and may have mystified one, but I had one full I showed them, and I explained that It could also take instant coffee packets, the energy drinks in the long packs, etc. I decided to let the 21 year old find out for herself what else that comes in foil packets will fit in there...

No tissue holders. No eye pillows. Anything else you think it is likely my audience was happy I spared them???

A little story for our Reducio Mum...

2010-06-21T09:01:00.005-04:00

Killjoys... I took a little writing class where I had to invent a magical animal with its own properties and write 500 words that included the animal. I "invented" Killjoys, although I have to say I was heavily influenced by a children's cartoon. These animals have the power to make people cheerful, but they have to choose to do it. Mum was mentioning making a nativity shepherd into Hagrid, and I thought this would amuse her...

Hagrid and a friend sit and mull over the miseries of life...

"Five o' them, ye say?" The large, bushy-haired man put his enormous tankard to his lips and sipped. "Five?" His voice echoed in the almost-empty tavern.

"Five," agreed the mournful pile of unkempt hair and tattered clothing that sat and drank with him, "an' if ye can believe it, Hagrid, I only paid for three. How I got the other two I couldn't say." He, too, took a drink absentmindedly. The beer spilled from the heavy cup, splashing his filthy clothes further, but he seemed ot find it funny. "There ye go, mate. I just put on these robes this mornin' for the firs'time, and they're broken in already." His laugh was rusty, but a laugh, all the same.

"Do they play cards like that fer folks? Ye ough' ter make a few knuts lettin' folks watch." Hagrid observed the small, sheeplike animals sitting cross-legged on the floor near the fire. "They'r real convincin' like."

The largest of the small animals looked up at Hagrid and growled. The ferocity of the sound, combined with the adorable mop of curls on top of it's placid, sheep-like head got a smile out of the large man.

"No," Dung continued mournfully, "They won't perform in public.. Although Eunice in the corner there'll knit."

"Really? Well, thats sumpin' like. Don' see too many sheep as can knit."

"No, ye don't, do ye. There's no market for knittin' sheep in these times, Hagrid. I've wasted my money." Mundungus seemed resigned. "Free to a good home. Ye've got the room."

"But they're a bit dull, ain't they. No breathin' fire or bitin' or spinning rope?" he asked with a faint hope in his voice.

"Not a bit of it. Still, sort of amusin', watchin 'em when they think ye ain't lookin. Billy was playin' drums on the oatmeal box this mornin'"

Hagrid burst out then with a deep belly-laugh. "OATmeal, Dung? I'd a never picked ye fer oatmeal in the mornin'."

”Oatmeal goes very nice with a bit o' fire whiskey in the mornin'. An ye know, I don' think they're sheep. I think they might be KillJoys."

"Ye don' say. But they're supposed to be extinct!" This was more interesting to Hagrid.

"I have it on good authority," Mundungus responded, in a low voice, "That there's odder thin's in New Jersey than that."

"Maybe. Maybe, Dung. I can' take em, though, anyways. Too much to be doing right now, what with..."

"Well, mebbe Fred and George, then. they're use' to bad knitting anyway..." He stood up and whistled. "On yer feet, lads." Obediently, they stood on their hind legs. "March."

The little wooly animals sashayed out the door of the Leaky Cauldron. "Then again, Hagrid, mebbe I'll keep 'em meself. There's sumthin' about them I je' can' put my finger on, but their cheerful, like."

"Well, if ye like that, then. Good day, Mundungus." Hagrid, sat down again at the table, remembering to be bereft, while happiness on the hoof marched itself out the door.

Small enough for a House Elf.

2010-03-16T00:12:00.005-04:00

So recently I got myself a very Reducio'd machien on ebay. Actually, I got two machines - the listing said one should be able to make one functioning machine out of the two and have lots of spare parts left over. Well, I had a feeling the first one was actually running, and I was right. Here is the photo. Note that the cup is a regular size cup, not a supersize one, and that the little bag was actually sewn with the machine.

Now in case that did not convince you that the machine is small, here is another shot, this one with a coin for reference.

Note that he is a bit dirty, and lacking a proper spindle for the thread to hang out on, and that he is there all by his lonesome, without the foot control that is almost as large as he is, or the little briefcase they come in, or any of the bunch of accessories they used to throw in with a machine.

{Now a days you are lucky if they throw in a presser foot and a few needles, but back in the day they came with hemming feet, quilting line guides, tuckers, rufflers, and various implements of construction that can baffle even the brightest of modern minds. This machine came with a decent, middle of the road set - we just did not put it in the pictures (which are, as usual, thanks to Lava. Thanks, Lava!)}

He weighs in at less than four pounds all by himself - with the case, accessories and foot thinger he has been clocked in by others at about 9.5 and I am willing to take their word for it. But he is a real sewing machine, not a toy, with very convincing innards and very credible moving parts. I sewed the little bag and in the future I will show more.

Does he have a downside, other than being smaller than some beetles? Well, there is a marked smell of ozone with the motor running, the easiest way to pull up the thread is actually to just stick the bobbin thread through the needle plate before replacing it on the machine and the bobbins hold a very very small amount of thread. However, I can live with all that. His biggest limitation is that he only straight stitches. Then again, the Featherweight only straight stitches, and goes for easily ten times what I paid for the two of these together, and more frequently for 20 times as much. I'd still like a little Kenmore, but for now this one is small, and light, and fun, and I can use it on the desk, which was the idea, after all...

I will have to make a Reducio project for next round on this one.

Lucius Malfoy's sewing machine

2010-03-11T10:48:00.003-05:00

Ok, I know that Lucius Malfoy didn't do his own sewing. He was way too aristocratic. He had house elves for that sort of thing. House elves, and quite possibly sweatshops full of Muggles purchased on the black market who sew T-shirts and fetish gear to keep The vault at Gringotts full and the powers that be quivering in anticipation of their payoffs.

But what if Lucius Malfoy's secret, dirty, passion is....

Quilting.

What if there is a secret room at Malfoy Manor full of fat quarters? What if there is a torture device down there which is actually a disguised quilting frame? What if Lucius Malfoy's boggart is Voldemort finding him with a needle in one hand?

So maybe, maybe this is Lucius's machine.

How to use the row counter....

2010-03-04T09:18:00.002-05:00

This would be SOOOO much better with piccies, but as I pointed out, I am notoriously bad with getting pictures up, especially since the camera with the easy software had a bad accident...

Anyway, so here is what you got, and how it works.

There is a long chain. It has a bird at one end, (your namesake), a lobster claw at the other end (No relation that I know of) and in between a little flock of small flying things.

If you lay it out on the table, you will see that there are plain rings between the birds. They are not huge, because this was made for sock knitting.

What you do is put your needle, on your first pattern round, through the first circle (jump ring), the one closest to the bigger bird, and then knit around till you come to it again. When you do, take the needle on the right, insert it in the next jump ring down, the one after that next bird, and drop the first jump ring of the left needle.

You have now counted one row.

There are at least 12 jump rings there, and depending how you count possibly 13 or 14. You don't have to count a dozen every time. Let us say you have a 6 row pattern. Take that lobster claw and bring it up to attach in the SEVENTH jump ring. Now use the row counter, and when you get to the jump ring with the lobster claw attached, you know you go back to round one. Just stick the right needle back in that very first jump ring.

Now if you have to do something spiffy, like cross cables, on one of the rows, you can attach a crochet stitch marker/earingtype stitch marker in the appropriate jump ring, so when you get to it you can say "Oh! Time to cable!"

And if none of this makes any sense you can just use it as a bracelet or attach it to your waistcoat with the lobster claw and stick the bird in your watch pocket...

As I said, I made it for socks, so the jump rings are small. If that is a problem you can get bigger jump rings, or mail it back and I will replace them with larger.

And if this still makes no sense, let me know and I will get Kim to take pictures...

Reducio 9

2010-02-26T10:25:00.003-05:00

I am notoriously bad at posting pictures, but Lavander Ackerly took this with her cell phone and sent it to me so everyone could see how lovely my Reducio 9 package was. (All the things are still lovely, but they are no longer in the package...)

When you can see the lights of the oncoming train at the end of the tunnel...

2010-01-01T18:35:00.002-05:00

In certain categories, and perhaps only in those categories, I have been around the block enough times to recognize the lights of the oncoming train at the end of the tunnel.

I think the sewing project I am about to commence is made up of those lights.

It starts out by advertising on the package that instructions are enclosed.

I bought it

I read the instructions.

Let us just say...that I am rather glad indeed that I know enough to know that when it not exactly crashes and burns, but, rather, does not meet expectations, it will not be my fault, but the fault of a faulty plan based on simplicity at the expense of do-ability.

The parts of the instructions that should be there, but aren't, I can figure out for myself, or at least make a decision on myself. When there are four ways to do something and the way most likely to end you up with a bunchy, squunchy seam is the one provided, well, you can decide to go with that least common denominator, or you can substitute, here and there, for the inferior technique. And when you actually know there are four ways to do it you don't have to blame yourself if, doing it their way, you get the mess that could logically have been expected.

I would feel that new sewers should be warned, except that in my experience newbies don't actually notice how horribly things turn out, so long as they stay stuck together.

Warning - garments printed on a piece of cloth to be cut out and sewn are unlikely to be of couture quality...

Figgy Christmas

2009-12-29T10:27:00.001-05:00

Author’s note: This occurs during the Christmas during Half-Blood Prince, six months before Dumbledore dies, and seven months before the events in my story Dust.

“Well, Mr. Tibbles, I’m back and not a bit too soon. That Muggle bus was wheezing and belching and will be lucky to make it another block or two, I say. For all I know, it hasn’t. It stops down by the market; I’ve walked the rest of the way. Well, the devil may be in the details, but I’ve settled his hash tonight, and no mistake – three delivered in time for the holiday, and the house that much quieter.” The old coat, hung in the cupboard, sagged on its hanger: the wet carpet slippers, changed to the ones only worn in the house, sulked on the mat. Mr. Tibbles circled them cautiously, sniffing out the story. It matched what the old woman said.

“Here’s a nice can of tuna for you. The human kind, no less, for a bit of a holiday treat. I’ll have a toddy and turn in early then.” It was silly to miss them, the kneazels, they were never meant for keeping, and she had not been particularly fond of them, anyway. Well, the little one, with the half pink nose, perhaps….but she and Mr. Tibbles and Wigglesworth and Tamsin and the few others about now would be fine, and it was a few fewer mouths to feed.

Slapping down the uncarpeted hallway to the kitchen she paused at the glass door. Silly thing – you can’t see anything through it, and yet, you feel exposed peering from behind it when you’re trying to see if the mail has fallen through the slot onto the mat. Silly Muggle house entirely. I wouldn’t have chosen it. Well, you don’t chose your life, it chooses you , she thought, the words running down a groove in her mind worn deep by repetition. It chooses you.

She didn’t bother putting on the light in the kitchen, just navigated by habit over to the counter next to the sink and filled the electric kettle. I don’t like water hanging about in these. It should be fresh every time. Not too much then. A waste to pay the rates to heat water I won’t be using.

These were the careful economies of a woman with no family, no safety net. Oh, she knew people. The cards from Muriel and Bernice and Esme sat next to each other on the mantel in the adjoining lounge. They didn’t know her from Gryffindor’s cat, really, but they might notice if she took to her bed and died there and never came back to the beauty parlor when Petunia was having her weekly do, or the church, where she chatted with Esme and kept an eye on the three people in a forward pew sitting properly and paying absolutely no attention to the service, or the market where she got her cans of cat food and picked up news of the children by surreptitiously eavesdropping on them as they picked out sweets, Mark Evans complaining to James Jeffries and Chelsea Daniels about that cousin of Harry’s while she pretended to care intimately about the ingredients in the dry soup mixes.

The kettle came to boil and she shut it instantly, pouring the water into the cup she had taken from the nearly empty cupboard over the teabag of moderately priced tea which had no scent and no particular flavor but did come in a box with lovely little prizes - something to look forward to. She’d had one that morning – another sheep. It was about an inch and a quarter long, and you could only tell it was a sheep by comparing it carefully to the pictures on the box, and yet she should have left it for tomorrow morning. It would have been a bit of a celebration.

I ought to have bought myself something. That’s what they say in the Muggle magazines, isn’t it – to be good to yourself. I ought to have gotten myself – a new scarf. A silk one. Pink, I think, with embroidery. Perhaps, peachy pink, with peonies.

She bent over and reached under the sink for the whiskey. When had Dumbledore brought it by - that first New Years with Harry at Hogwarts? It never got empty. She knew because that fleabag of an excuse for a sack of sodden laundry had drunken from it more than once, and it was always just as full when she went to have a dram of it herself. Well, the thought of him dressed as a witch was worth a small smile, at least.

The bell rang, and she hit her head standing up while still halfway under the sink. Bottle in one had, she crept to the glass door, and looked through it. Probably a neighbor, she half prayed, probably a neighbor and not a Death Eater come to finish me off as a Christmas present for the That One. Everyone else could call him “He who ..,” but she didn’t dignify the old monster. He was just “That one” here, even if she was fairly certain she needed to change herself at the thought that they might be outside her door.

Mr Tibbles was curling around her ankles. That was odd. It couldn’t be Death Eaters, then.

Still, she kept the bottle in her right hand as she moved cautiously toward the door. Much good it would do her if Tibbles was wrong. She’d go down swinging, though. “Whoever you are,” she called out with false courage a few feet from the door, “go away and don’t come back. I’m not buying anything at this hour.”

But Tibbles was sniffing at the mail slot, and mewing oddly that he knew this one. She cautiously touched the knob, turned it, and pulled the door in towards herself with a sense of dread, unsure of what she would find, even if Mr. Tibbles was satisfied.

Mundungus Fletcher was leaning brazenly against her doorframe, several sheets to the wind. He opened his mouth to speak, and she revised that. He was under full sail.

“Allo, Figgy. ‘appy Chrishmush. ‘Appy Chrishmush. Ah jes’ come by ter wish yer an ‘Appy one.” He leered at her, beyond normal expression, and, overbalenced by leaning in her direction began falling toward her, his long tatty locks and the many scarves and bits of overcoat he seemed to have about him waving in the wind on his way down.

She put her shoulder into it and caught him as he headed for her foyer tiles. “Tanks, Figg. No’qui’myshelf, preciselike”

“How you can get a word out of that mouth of yours…well, come in, come in, no need to display you to the neighbors. They’ve got another six months of needing to think I’m balmy but harmless, and you don’t enhance my standing in the community, not in this state.”

She glared at him, or, rather, she glared, but her eye was being ground into his chest as she wrestled with his nearly dead weight and chivvied him into her lounge through the hallway door, rather than the kitchen, because it was closer and he weighed more than she would have thought. She was doing her best not to inhale, which did not simplify matters.

“There!” Breathless, she had dumped him on the sofa, and he had managed not to roll off of it. “What in Merlin’s name brings you here? Dumbledore can’t be wanting me, can he, you moronic excuse for a regurgitating toilet?”

“Can’ a lad show up jes ter be frenly, like, Figg?” he mumbled. At least, she thought that was what he mumbled. He was face down. Well, she thought he was face down. Between all that matted hair, and all that shabby greatcoat, it was hard to tell which end of him was up, really.

“s Chrishmush. Want comperney, like.”

Her face was sour. “You want company, or you’re daft enough to think I did? Because if I were looking for company, it wouldn’t be a drunken sneak thief I’d pick, first off.”

She got no response. Sighing, she assessed him from a distance. “Well, he’s slept on this couch before,” she said to Mr. Tibbles, who was observing her from the hearth rug. “The only way he’s ever on time is if he shows up early and sleeps it off where he was supposed to end up, and he did that a few times this last summer, before Dumbledore took Harry away to the Weasleys.” Mr. Tibbles, who knew this already, having witnessed it himself, made no comment.

The question was, how likely was he to be sick, and how should she arrange him so that he was least likely to choke to death on his own sick, like some sort of has-been Rock musician, the kind she used to read about in the tabloids years ago, when she worked in that Muggle insurance office and had to take trains to get there..

“On his side, I think, Mr. Tibbles. That ought to keep him from choking – or drowning in it once it’s up. Still, you’d better keep an eye for me. Come get me if has trouble in the night.”

She took her cup of tea upstairs, and lay down to sleep. She’d been too rattled to fix herself a hot water bottle, and yet, she was not quite as cold as usual. It is a sad, sad situation when having the likes of Mundungus Fletcher sleeping on my couch IMPROVES my night, she muttered to herself as she fell asleep.

She made her way down to breakfast the next morning, warm and clean from her shower and dressed in her pale yellow sweater set. The color washed her out, but it was much the nicest thing she owned for this time of year, and it was Christmas. She’d repeated that over and over to herself as she put it on, and her best skirt with it, and the newer pair of slippers that she usually only wore up in her bedroom, because when she was feeling very cold she would wear them straight into bed, and if she wore them downstairs they tended to pick up tracked in dirt which she did not want on her sheets.

A faintly foul odor met her as she opened the kitchen door, where Dung was more or less vertical, and fussing over her tea kettle. “Mornin’ Figgy. ‘Appy Chirstmas.” He looked up, his mournful, bloodshot eyes almost focusing, and made a grimace he might have thought was a smile. “Got yer tea reddy, jes’ like you like.”

“Pummeling Pixies, man, is that TEA? It smells like you’ve been washing your clothes in the water and then pouring it in the cups!” She looked at the proffered cup with horror where it sat on the counter – he was too smart, this morning, to try to actually carry it anywhere, it seemed.

“Lapsang Souchong. Very fancy. Jes’ the thing for a celebration breakfast.” He looked at her, bloodshot eyes peering up from under his wild and unkempt brows, perhaps a bit uncertain.

I could tell him he’s been celebrating enough already, but he already knows it. It’s Christmas, after all, even if the old sod knows I can’t refuse him on Christmas, and knows I know it. she thought, wondering vaguely how half a pound of sliced ham, a can of soup and twenty three tins of cat food could yield a Christmas dinner she could put on the table.

“I got a goose. Transfigured it myself. It’s pretty fresh, I think. Well, they didn’t teach us how to do spoiled ones,” he said, answering her unasked question. Of course, he must have been into her refrigerator, seen how - neat - it really was.

“All right, then,” she said, after a moment spent staring at a spot just over his shoulder and beyond him, on the cabinet. “All right then, but mind you stay in the lounge while I cook it, and be off with you when we’ve eaten.”

*****
With the front door safely shut behind him after dinner she turned to shut the lounge door – how had that gotten open? - and stuck her head in to reassure herself that he hadn’t made off with the furniture. The tree sat in its corner, the electric lights blinking oddly up to the point in the string where they stopped working altogether. The afghan she’d drawn over him the night before was folded tidily on one end of the sofa. All looked remarkably commonplace until she turned at the mantel, and saw…

She advanced on it. A once-white sock that had seen better days and a few barely adequate scourgifying spells was hung from a nail in the mantel, with a paper bag hanging partway out of it. On the bag was scrawled “Figgy.” She reached out with a trembling hand to take it. If he’d given her some stolen…

But no, what slid out first, when she put her hand in the bag, was a very ordinary receipt from Marks and Spencer, and with it a small box. She opened it, and a little enameled Christmas tree pin looked up at her. It was the sort of thing an eight year old boy might buy for his mother.

Turning over the receipt, she saw he had written on it. “Honestly bought” it said.

As if anything he has isn’t ill gotten, she thought. But after all, he’d made an effort. Pinning the little brooch to her sweater, she did not know quite what to do for the moment. She sighed, then, and went to clean the kitchen, Mr. Tibbles following her wordlessly, and getting a second can of tuna in two days, for reasons he did not entirely understand.

Still, when she slept in her clothes that night, she was wearing the little Christmas tree, and the receipt was in her desk, an old grocery list of her mother’s, found in an old purse long after that death, on one side of it, and the letter explaining why she was not being accepted to Hogwarts on the other.

Pretty girl!

2009-11-30T18:41:00.004-05:00

Here is the very fuzzy picture that I got off of Craig's list of my new sewing machine.

In teh top picture you have the machine itself, in the bottom picture, it's the one on the right, which shows that it is a little smaller than the one on the left. I can't really take it out of that wooden thing, which makes it not really smaller by much...I have not mentioned this to DH, who does not like old stuff and who has been being really really nice about this..

Anyone who knows what company manufactured this, please come forth!

Finally begun

2009-08-20T20:48:00.001-04:00

So, I have cast on and am halfway through the garter stitch section of the February Baby sweater. I cast on in the kettle dyed gold Knitpicks and I had to transfer the cast on to the other needle to start with a knit row on the right side. I am about halfway through that part, I guess. It seems a tiny bit rough but I felt the swatch I washes, which is softer - I think it will be ok.

I am using Elann Sock it to me in whatever they call their burgundy color.

EZ would be so proud...

2009-08-13T19:11:00.002-04:00

I have been wanting to make the EZ February baby sweater at least since Ellen of my spinning group made one for my now-4year old, maybe before.

"One ball of wool, quick project, they're great," says Ellen. I am willing to believe her. However, I can't seem to decide which particular yarn to use for this baby, who is the product of a Gryffindor father and a Ravenclaw mother who writes. I keep rehearsing yarns in my mind and in reality, but as of yet, not feeling the love.

So I check out teh Rav.

3199 projects of this sweater. They don't all look alike. Some are made from acrylic worsted, some are made from baby wool, a lot are Dream in Color Smooshy, a yarn I have to buy and knit socks from eventually if only because I have a friend who will SWOON at the thought of having SMOOSHY socks. (She's not a knitter, but she knows a good word when she sees one.) Anyway - in less than 20 of the 128 pages of pictures they have of these things, I found another one made in Paton's KRoy and asked said maker if it was soft enough. Tactless? Maybe. But this is what you get when you put up a project and picture but leave no useable notes.

The son-child is thinking that some nice Gryffindor indie-dyed sock yarn that I have would be a good idea. I have Caron Naturally Country in Grey and in Periwinkle blue. The baby lives down south, so very airy, or else made of not all wool, are probably good ideas...

What do y'all think???

Why am I so delusional?

2009-06-09T19:12:00.003-04:00

Why am I so delusional that I can't even figure out what the reigning delusion is?

For example, let us take the socks I am currently slogging my way through...

I like the pattern. Even though I wrote the pattern, I like it and the way it is coming out.

I like the yarn. It is not perfect yarn, but it is not PITA yarn, either, and it is really a good color for these socks.

I like the person I am knitting them for. We have been in several swaps, and while I have never had her for a spoiler or spoilee, we have been in the same house and she is a very nice person.

Clearly, then, the major reasons things take longer than you could possibly believe are not in force here. I am not reluctant to finish this pair of socks because I don't like them, or the yarn, or the person, or even the person who wrote the pattern.

So I must be suffering under some delusion. The socks must be coming out about as fast as I should have thought they would. I must simply be delusional about something, and here are my possibilities...

1. Did I suddenly think I would be getting enough sleep?
When the nurse told me she would be gone for a week and a half, did I think this would not affect my sleep?

2. When I realized I would be trying to finish these socks at an athletic event with 1500 athletes, one of which was my son, while living in a dorm and eating under a tent, did I think that somehow this would make it easier to knit? With very small needles? On darkish yarn?

3. Did I think I could knit at night? I know I thought this. I know I thought I could knit when I was tired and could barely see. Why did I think that my pretty pathetic eyes would work better than they do? Just because the girl who knitted me socks last swap is legally blind and got hers done on time?

4. I know I thought I would be able to knit in the car. I was able to knit in the car. I was able to make a mistake that took me an hour fix is what I was able to do. Why did I think knitting in the car was a good idea?

5.Why did I not foresee that the little online school I am currently headmistress of would have a drama attack as I reached the painful point of realizing I was already over one week late, and make me even later? (Why are there nearly adult humans who can refer to the character of Severus Snape as "Sevvy-Poo" and expect other people to treat them as if they are sane?)

6. And lastly, Why did I not realize that the only way for me to ever be on time is to be early? Since even then I can't manage it half the time? Why?

No idea which is the controlling delusion, but I think that I should probably remember this all in case there is ever a next time...

Ok - I thought worsted was bigger than sport...

2009-05-26T00:00:00.005-04:00

I don't expect a lot out of the world, really. It should keep turning on is axis, and certain established and totally inconsequential items should keep on making sense. You know, the things that I already understand, and which are so unimportant as to really pose neither threat nor opportunity to the world at large - those are the things that I prefer remain the way I have always known them. I figure it would be nice if something did, and this seems to me as if it would not be skin off anyone's nose...

The world violates this continually - as far as I can tell, it is still turning, but the fact that I needed to dial one plus my area code to call across the street was predictive of bad times for established and inconsequential items. I don't really care that you needn't be president or famous or even dead to get your face on a stamp now, but the messing around with yarn terminology is bothering the hell out of me.

I've noticed that Knit Picks does this a lot, and I am wondering if anyone can explain this to me in a way I can understand...

As far as I ever knew, you had, roughly

Fingering - very small, for socks.

Sport - about 6 stitches to the inch.

DK - 5.5 stitches to the inch

Worsted - 5 stitches to the inch and

Aran 4.5 stitches to the inch.

After Aran, the names start sounding like they describe MacDonald's meal sizes and I don't bother with them, but up to Aran, they seem useful.

What I do not understand it sportweight that knits up to 20 stitches to the inch and DK which knits up smaller than said sportweight.

In this case, the perp is Knit Picks and I will give you solid examples in the hope that someone can straighten it, or me, out.

I downloaded two free patterns from Knitpicks for pretty one skein projects.

One Pattern, the Cathedral Purse, calls for Knit Picks Shine Sport.
Shine Sport is 110 yards to the 50 grams.
An awful lot of DK weight yarn is 116 yards to the 50 grams. I know, because I bought a lot of it at one time... Different brands, different yarns, but all cotton, and all about the same length to weight. Ok, maybe Modal is heavy. Very heavy.

So then I look at the gauage, and it calls for 20 stitches to four inches. That is five stitches to the inch.

I looked back at the bag, which did not look loosely knit at all. If anything, it looks quite firmly knit. And why would you knit a bag loosely, anyway - you want it to hold it's shape and you want it to not have stitches so loose that stuff falls out. (Especially when it is not a market bag and you will not be putting large items that can take care of themselves, like Cantaloups and whole chickens, in there.)

I did not buy the assigned yarn because I have numerous balls of sportweight cotton lying around here. I am now looking with interest at various worsted weights and wondering how they will look as a bag...

The second pattern is for the Victorian Lace Headband Pattern Now frankly, I have a feeling you can use DK, which it calls for, or Worsted, which would give you a marginally wider band... (It is designed as 2.5 inches wide. that means what, about 14 Stitches? [for soem reason they call for 18, but ok...] Well, if you have 17 stitches in Worsted Weight it comes up to just over three inches. This is presuming you can't get the lace to block a little narrower and longer, which frankly seems unlikely to me.)

Or, you could probably use a real sport weight, and at 6 stitches to the inch you'd get..(.exactly 3 inches with the 18 stitches you actually are asked to cast on. So wouldn't that mean in DK it would be at least 3 inches? But they say it is 2.5)

I know my math skilz are lacking a bit here and there. I just didn't know theirs were too.

That, or these useful yarn names have gone the way of the 7 digit phone number, stamps you had to lick and car ignition keys that are actually metal and actually physically unlock something...

My dumb luck...

All this and the H1N1 Too.

2009-05-19T14:45:00.002-04:00

Butts with building permits and abdomens with their own zip codes - this is what it comes down to as we approach 50? Who says this is so great? May I strangle them, please? I assure you, I have been wearing clothes that don't match whenever I want to since my salad days, so don't think you're luring me with that one, world...

Anyway, I did think you knittin gfolks would be interested in some of the rest of the yarn I remembered having...

Like the Brilliance I bought for the Wren that never got longer than an inch

And the Zen I bought which has yet to even be swatched

And something else I have 19 or 20 balls each of a beige and a pale yellow, for that cabled Berroco sweater...

And then, of course, the 48 or so little balls of some kind of cotton boucle in chartreuse.

Three or four large men's cotton sweaters I have frogged for the yarn...

A bag and a half of jade green cotton somewhere around worsted weight.

Enough of this linneny thing mixed with wool or something that I bought years and years ago to make a summer top out of only it never got made and is probably all still in there.

Oh, yeah - the brown stuff that I started a shrug with, only Chris made the shrug and it wasn't worth it so I stopped...

And I think I have a sort of dark pink with darker pink, also dk...

We are not counting the sweater I knit in like 1995 which is all done except for being put together, and except for that I lost the sleeves...

But now onto the flu...

As you may or may not realize, where I live is under seige to at least some small degree. Schools are being closed. An assistant principal has died. The mayor is making at least daily public statements. There is news truck out at the county jail where the union is complaining about it...

And here I sit with one kid under six and one with what they like to call "An underlying medical condition" wondering if I should leave town, or stay put.

Why am I even contemplating this

2009-05-17T11:17:00.002-04:00

Ok - if you have known me for six years, like Bets and Eileen and Benne, then you might know that I started out my online knitting life weighing 190 lbs at five foot two and not that thrilled about it. I did make myself one sweater at that size, true. And I loved it. But I can't say it had a slenderizing effect.

Then, I got pregnant and I couldn't knit for months and months because I got carpal tunnel.

After that I did lose some weight and got down to 140, which is where Bets and Daryl got to meet me. And I was thinking of making myself a sweater.

And now I am back up to 173 or so, look like an oil drum with a little head on it, and have decided to knit myself a summer sweater in a better size. If I get thin again, fine. If not, at least I will have a pretty sweater.

This does not make a lot of sense as I have friends who are a bit more portly than I am and I think they look fine, but I despise my shape, I always have, even when I was 110 pounds, and I just refuse to knit myself a tent. It just is not worth it.

So, I went to Smiley's yesterday and bought enough yarn for five summer sweaters, because, of course, when you feel lousy about yourself spending money is always good, right? Actually, since each bag of yarn was only 12 dollars it was really a steal - tell me the last time you saw Rowan Cashcotton at 1.20 USD a ball. (They only had two colors, but one is ok on me...) Or Nashua Ribbon. you get the drift... And trust me, I left a lot of good stuff behind - Rowan Biggy Print, some fantastic looking boucle, and a sort of airy thing in my favorite periwinkle. Besides all the worsted weight wool I did not get at 1.99 for a skein of 100 grams because - well, because I have enough balls of that wool, that very very same wool, to make not one, not two, but at LEAST three cabled sweaters, and if I could only find the two bags I bought years ago, I would have more... And I have enough 100 percent wool worsted weight from other brands to make, I dunno, off hand, another seven sweaters, most of them cabled. This is only worsted...so it is not like I am going to run out of stuff to knit any time soon..but I digress... The point was, I limited myself to five bags for sweaters and one for socks. (regia with silk for 1.20 a ball.)

So, I was thinking - just what do I have in terms of summer sweater stuff, and what can I make from it?

I have - enough - of a red cotton/acrylic blend for one of those pinwheel sweaters. Maybe something else as well.

I have enough of a very pretty blend with a multi strand for a shell or tee.

I have enough acrylic boucle for something.
(in Two colors So really, two somethings.)

I have a red slubby yarn - one shell or tee

I have this funny sort of ribbony tapey God knows what yarn in a peach variegated - enough for more than one thing...

I have WAY MORE than enough of a cotton/acrylic mix in orange, green and who knows what to make a shell, a sweater - whatever I think I can stand, really,

I have enough of a pink yarn in cotton

Green and black yarn in cotton

white yarn (not my best color) in cotton/acrylic

variegated that Betsy gave me - maybe a little short, but the kind of variegation where you could probably find one of the colors in a solid that would work for say, straps or whatever...

Enough Lion Brand Ribbon for a racer back tank.

Enough Cotton from brown Sheep - you know the stuff - it has Merino in it - for a tank, far as I can tell - maybe a tee. Or maybe a tank and the rest can be straps for the variegated...

This is what I can find offhand...
There is supposed to be more, which is probably in there somewhere...

And it does not count what I bought yesterday.

I also have access to Ravelry - not every knitting pattern ever invented by knitter kind, but close. Available on my screen, 24 hours a day, with wonderful sorting mechanisms...

So why can I not decide one flipping thing to start???????????????

I am usually the last on the boat.

2009-01-29T17:13:00.002-05:00

Really. As any given boat is pulling away from the dock, I am running, and they are screaming, "jump, jump," and then some burly guy picks me up and tosses me across the water and there I am in the very nick of time.

Ok, well, maybe not the burly guy part. Anyhoo, seriously, I figure if I know about something, EVERYONE else, I mean, in the UNIVERSE, must know about it already. However, today I happen across two peoples, Bevin and Kims, who don't know about this pattern for a crocheted acorn project bag, so here, without further ado, is the pattern for the Acorn Project Bag

It says it is for little projects. I think if I was putting a really small sock project in there, or a beading project, or anything of that ilk, I would maybe want to line it first, as my crocheting seemed to leave holes that needles could find their way out of.

But I LURVE this acorn, I really, really, do, and I can think of lots of things besides knitting projects to put in here. Like hows about you stick a little grommet somewhere on the lid, or else a sort of piece of straw in the part of the lit that turns into the little stem, and use it just for the ball of yarn for the project?

OR for a little snack. I would put the snack in a little ziploc bag, maybe, to keep the thing clean, but a half a tuna fish sandwhich and a few oreos could go in there with room for a clementine and maybe a few pickle chips, you know?

OR for those of you who put your fruit in cozies - you know who you are, you pervs - maybe your fruit could be more modestly housed in this acorn.

OR if you had really really big earrings, you could keep them in here when you travelled. I have seen earrings that would just barely fit in here, and not just in National Geographic, either.

OR you could cleverly fit some clean undies and a toothbrush and any necessary precautions in there, you know, in case you run into a really really cute guy on the elevator on the way out of work.

OR you could use it for your gambling stuff - you know, the dice, or the chips, or the cards, or the lotto tickets.

OR, if your car is really stinky, you could fill it up with baking soda, or maybe potpouri, or dead fish, or anything which smells a little less bad than the car, and hang it from the rearview mirror.

OR you could, you know, totally confuse the uiverse by throwing a set of really large Rosary beads into a nut which is sacred to some pagan god, I forget which one, but I'm with the rosary crew, so maybe it does not matter so much in my case.

You can even be sort of, dunno, maybe cannabalistic, or something, and put one of the pattern writer's other Amirigumi things in there - like one of the little owls, or tree frogs,or maybe the toad...

Anyway, it is too cute to live, it really is. Took me longer than 3 hours to crochet, but I am no speed crocheter- your mileage or trip time may differ.

What I am up to...besides general procrastination

2009-01-26T00:45:00.002-05:00

What I am up to, besides general procrastination, is trying to remember to breathe when I think of all the things I really should be doing at any given minute, as opposed to all the things I tend to actually do with those minutes.

Maybe I should knit the stuff for Reducio 4 already. It is all small stuff, it does not take long, and yet, I am always just about the last one mailing, and in a panic. And then DH wants to know why I do these swaps, since they are just so stressful, and it would not be nice to say "Because then I end up with nicer stuff than anyone I know offline actually gives me for gifts" since after all he is one of those people I know offline...so I should knit this stuff.

And My mother is turning 70 in the fall, so shouldn't I really make her shawl, which I have allegedly been working on for over three years now and which was supposed to be a 65th birthday gift, but which is a grand total of, let me see, three inches long? As in 69 to go? And that is assuming I do not run out of wool even though I have made it wider than it was supposed to be because I had to because I could not get gauge and she knew how wide she wanted it and so I added stitches to the edging and now I suppose I am very likely to run out of yarn and ought to get me some more of that,

Please picture me running around in little circles, pulling my hair out.

And please also recall that I have two children and a husband, all of whom seem to think I owe them some attention in between my knitting and spinning and writing and general socializing, etc...

Ok, so, that is what I am up to.

So what have I done so far this evening? I have started frogging a thrift store sweater and read half of the posts on Ravelry.

And why have I started frogging this sweater? Because, of course, I need the wool for yet another project I intend to start, the little amigurumi acorn yarn bag that is so adorable...

I think I finally have it figured out.

2008-12-14T12:17:00.005-05:00

After a year and a half, at least, of having a specific knitting blog, as opposed to a knittingandwhatever blog largely read by non-knitters, I think I have finally figured out what knit bloggers blog about.

They blog about their knitting.

I mean, obviously, but they blog about the KNITTING part, not just the finished-object-please-look part.

So here is some bloggery about my current knitting project. Pull your bifocals down to the perfect spot and pretend the post starts here:

Amy March's Slippers...

I read the I Hate to Cook Book long before I realized how much I really do hate to cook, just because it is funny. And one of the ways it is funny is that the author will do things like write "seven happiness food-thing" and start off with a list like

1. Has only four ingredients
2. If you substitute three of them, it still works
3. You don't need a knife...

You know, the sort of things that when you have the flu, and you hated to cook to begin with, and four children under the age of six are wailing for food, really matter, as opposed to seven ways in which it is delicious.

Well, I took one look at this pattern and thought it was the "Some number of happiness slipper pattern" for the following reasons:

1. Takes only about 100 yards of yarn

2. Knits up on size ten needles and from the commentary seems like she finished a pair plus in one day

3. No binding off (Not that I hate binding off so very much, but saves time)

4. You can tart it up with fancy ribbons if you have more money than time

5. They are cute

6. They are not weird, so your most conservative and boring relatives would like them, but see #4 regarding what you can do with dismembered Barbie doll parts for your more interesting folks...

7. The pattern is free.

The pattern is also written in a funny style, so a fun read.

Now they did a knit along on Ravelry with these, and it certainly seemed from the forum that people were ending up with wearable slippers that looked like the pictures, but as usual I have, with very little effort, found ways to complicate this simple, fast fun pattern and turn it into, if not a death march, still not exactly a stroll down lover's lane as it certainly looked like it ought to be.

Now I am not using the right yarn, of course, because I do not buy Rowan yarn. I do not even look at Rowan yarn. Not even on Elann.com. No, I have some nice...well, I forget what you call it, but it is really soft and furry and I got it on sale at Smiley's and when I triple stranded it and knit it up on size 8's instead of size ten's, I got stitch gauge.

Row gauge must be off though. I did exactly the number of rows required, and instead of coming halfway up the foot, it sort of covers the toes. Cute. Very fuzzy. I am practically breaking my arms knitting it up (Probably only needed two strands) but I am getting stitch guage. The row guage, though, seems to be off by a factor of either 2 or one half. I never get math terms straight. Anyway, the front is half as long as it should be.

Ignoring the fact that this surely must mean it is also taking much, much more yarn than I thought, I leave that slipper in medias res and cast on with a different yarn, Lion Brand Wool-ease Gargantua, or whatever they call it. It is supposed to yield, I dunno, 10 or eleven or nine or something like that stitches to four inches instead of twelve, but that seems to me to be a simple matter of mind and needle size over the matter. I like things you put on your feet knitted firmly anyway, so that you are really walking on slipper, rather than holes in stitches.

Sure enough, same problem again. The yarn is too big. If anything, the stitches should be bigger in one direction or the other. Nope. Shorter.

Now I realize that I can just do twice as many rows to get up to the point on the foot where the front is supposed to end, but this is already violating happiness number one and the all important happiness number two, which implies that this knit will not be a never ending pain in the Aspirin. And I am not entirely sure where we are on five and six.

I knew I was on the slippery slope away from "quick simple and you barely need to think about 'em" when I found out recipient had wood floors and that I would be buying and applying for the first time the dippit made famous by Vamanta, knitting over in Edith's house there, but I thought I was only partly down the slope. I am currently at the bottom, heels over teacup, feeling like a Beatrix Potter Character that is not quite getting the best of the situation.

Is it just me?

I went to Stitch and Pitch

2008-10-04T22:31:00.002-04:00

I went to Stitch and Pitch and it was a lot of fun even though it rained and I got to shake hands with Nicky Epstein and that is all I have time to write but I may come back and edit this...

Gryffindor Quiz

2008-08-25T14:58:00.005-04:00

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Gryffindor House Quiz 1

1. What is a Niffler, and what are the pros and cons of owning one?

A Niffler is a rooting animal that likes to dig up/root out/find and collect items made from precious metals/of considerable value.

The pro would be that if you lost an earring, the Niffler could find it. Or, if you were a Mundungussy sort, you might get it to do some dirty work for you.

The con would be that the Niffler would not necessarily give you/give you back what it found. Also, when someone comes in to another's abode and is instantly attacked by a small furry creature after their wedding ring, silver eyeglass frames and gold teeth, that someone might particularly enjoy this experience, and there could be repercussions.
(Lee Jordan airlifts a couple of Nifflers into Umbridge's office in Order of the Phoenix, with disasterous results...but that is for NEXT swap...)

2. What department of the Ministry of Magic would be alerted if you were found flying around on a Magic Carpet?

That would be the Mis-use of Muggle Artifacts Office, where you would probably find yourself explaining to Arthur Weasley or the one man who worked with him why you had charmed a proscribed article, as well as how, which I am sure would have interested him.
3. Of the three tasks of the Tri-Wizard tournament do you think you would have been best at completing and why?

Probably the first. After all my years of teaching I am pretty sure I could have bored the dragon to sleep and then taken the egg...

4. Of the three tasks of the Tri-Wizard tournament would you have been least successful and why?

Oh, definately the Lake. I am, and always have been, a lousy swimmer. I could have wrestled a Horace Slughorn into the proper position to save him from drowning, but I could not have made headway in any particular direction once I had. On the other hand, I react very strongly and without panic to threat of life, so I might have found a way. I would not have put my money on me, though...

5. In Potions if you were asked to take out your ground scarab beetle, cut up ginger root, and armadillo bile, what potion would you be making?

A wit-sharpening potion. Do you think Snape thought it might help Harry in the final task if they made some and he used it??
6.What is Veritaserum and what is its purpose?

Veritaserum is an odorless, colorless potion which forces one to answer questions truthfully. A drop or two and there would be no secrets left to you.

In a sense it is a real shame Snape didn't use it on Potter. If he had gotten the answers to whatever questions he had about Harry, he might have viewed him differently.

Veritaserum also reappears in the next book, and one could make the arguement that shis scene serves the purpose of letting us in on it in advance.

7.What Dragon did Harry face in the first trial?

The Hungarian Horntail, which was the one he got a really good look at a number of wizards trying to subdue while he was out with Hagrid.

8. Please describe the badges everyone wore after Harry was named the 4th contestant in the Tri-Wizard tournament.

These badges flashed from "Potter Stinks" in green luminescent writing to "Support Cedric Diggory, the Real Hogwarts Champion" in glowing red when pressed.

Picture Scavenger hunt: paste a link or insert the picture into your post.

Dean Thomas

Seamus Finnegan

Harry and a Dragon together

Hagrid

Hermione and Viktor Krum together

The freedom of imperfection

2008-08-18T11:24:00.002-04:00

I cannot say I am a perfect knitter, (or a perfect anything else, for that matter, although that is fuel for a different fire...)but I do like to make my projects as perfect as possible. Considering how far from perfect they end up, this is probably a very good thing.

However, I am currently knitting a pair of socks on the fly, and the joy of imperfection are pressing themselves upon me.

The socks are for my mother. She really liked a skein of yarn I dyed. I was going for Burgundy but ended up with an almost neon red variegated. Very pretty, but not what I needed, so it was lying around when she admired it. Aha - use for the useless yarn - pleasure number one.

Then, my mother is not a perfectionist. In fact, my perfectionism in my knitting drives her absolutely up a wall. That level of attention to detail makes her skin crawl - especially in things where, as far as she can see, imperfection does not affect useability. So, I gave myself permission to knit them the way she would knit them for herself, if she ever knit socks - the QDD, "Done is Good" standard - as opposed to my own ripping back of what was probably 3000 stitches in one sock...

I have to say, imperfection is a certain amount of fun, but I don't think it would be if it were not that I know she will love them better this way.

The knitting is moving right along. I realized I was six rows past a missed eyelet in a whole row of my lace pattern, and kept moving. I am not even questioning the improprieties in gusset decreasing - a grey area, where I will fudge for myself but feel funny fudging for, say, swap partners.

The result is that she will have these socks to wear before I need to touch up my dye job, an unheard-of feat. And I am moving in some direction, although I am not sure which...

But sometimes doing a half-assed job is...kinda fun.

Quidditch

2008-07-19T00:44:00.003-04:00

1. When Hagrid returns to Hogwarts after being sent to see the giants with Madame Maxime, Professor Umbridge questions him on his late return to school. She suspects that Hagrid had been to the mountains, but where does he tell her he has been?

d. South of France

2. Professor Umbridge comes to Hagrid's Hut and searches his cabin one evening (as she believes Harry, Ron and Hermione are there visiting him at night when they are not supposed to). When she walks past the place where Harry, Ron and Hermione are hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry holds his breath. True or false?
a. True

3. A stately-looking witch in an emerald green shawl is one of the members of the Advance Guard who rescues Harry from Privet Drive. What is her name?
a. Emmeline Vance

4. What is the name of the witch who was killed two weeks after the photo of the original Order of the Phoenix was taken?
b. Marlene McKinnon

5. Which two fifth year Ravenclaw students does Dumbledore choose to be prefects?
d. Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil

6. Which house was Rose Zeller sorted into?

d. Hufflepuff

7. What is the color of Murtlap's essence?

c. Yellow

8. Name the Ravenclaw girl who became prefect in Harry's fifth year.
b. Padma Patil

9. According to a healer's portrait at St. Mungo's hospital, which disease was Ron suffering from?
d. Spattergroit

10. Which book did Harry give Hermione for Christmas?
"
d. "Moste Potente Potions"

Padma Patil

Hannah Abbott

Percy Weasley

Dumbledore's Army

Cedric Diggory

And the extra five points - the movie in which "Cedric" will be appearing as Edward this fall will be Twilight.

Inter-house Unity knit-along

2008-07-09T22:39:00.003-04:00

I have looked at a few, not all, of the scarves, and they are all lying politely flat, crossed section very fluid and relaxed, more or less exactly like the pattern. Mine, however, looks like this:

There is a lot of texture there, beyond what comes with the thick and thin yarn I am using. The knitting is sort of pulling up into cuplike sections. I can't say I don't like it, and I can't say I haven't thought of possible "fixes" - using a much larger needle, for example, or blocking. I am not sure I will do either, however. For one, I kind of like the way it looks, and for another, well, it seems very me to have knitted a really simple pattern that just - isn't like the rest, even though the rest are very very nice.

THE BOX

2008-07-03T12:31:00.007-04:00

So, I finally, this term, got around to joining the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap, and if I were into bitter regret, I would be bitterly regretting the four terms I've missed. The friendliness and society is superb, and what luck - one of the busiest knitters and posters turns out to live 15 mintues from me and be awesome in real life as well. Sometimes you hit an experience that makes up for a whole lot of traffic tickets and stolen parking spaces and nights you had to knit by yourself, and this is one of those. And that is all before the kit itself.

But what a kit.

I sort of knew I was in for a marvelous ride opening this when I found out my spoiler, Cassandra Puddlemere, was a prizewinner last time around. Cassandra is a prefect and one of the most prolific posters, so I've gotten to know her fairly well already, and there are weeks of this swap left to go. But no one could really have expected this.

First of all, there was too much swag to fit in one container, so she had to send two:

Which I carefully excavated, much like an archealogical dig.

there were delicious treats:

The resident house elf had ripped open the box of Bertie Bott's before I could so much as read the letter! It was forcibly retrieved and placed out of his reach. The lemon drops remind me of Dumbledore, and the rootbeer is a touch of home here in the castle...

Gryffinly paper goods included red bugs (Whose animagus is that? They are way too sweet to be related to Rita Skeeter!)a Trio bookmark, Gryffindor gold notepaper emblazoned with a G, magical roses which can stick on to metal and hold sheets of paper on as well, the snitch keychain I was slobbering over on the net the other day and two textbooks! I have been dieing to read Fantastic Beasts and now I can!

The tyvek bag was astounding. It had two hand made owls; a Baby Brother owl for my little one, and Big Brother owl for my older son, along with another toy for each - a tiny Thomas the Tank Engine for the baby, which is not in the picture because said baby would not let it out of his grubby little paw, and a planet sun catcher for my older son. The note that explains these choices is priceless, and I thank you for that especially, Cass.

Approaching the sock itself, I show you one of the Hiya Hiya 000 needles Cass sent, displaying the gorgeous stitch markers. I specifically needed this size, and I was thrilled beyond belief with the needles and with how pretty the stitch markers are. Do you think the discerning will notice if I wear two as earrings while displaying the rest on my needeles?

>

(There was also a CD of knitting patterns, which you can see in the final picture)

And now, we get down to the heart of the matter...the nitty gritty guts of a sock kit: Fiber. Yarn. Bag.

I was very surprised to find this roll of roving, hand painted by Tempted Hand Painted Yarns - 4 oz of Blue Faced Leicester. Is it any surprise that this colorway is called Godric? I am wondering if it is going to become socks, or a shawl. It is SOOO soft! There are a ton of options as to how I can spin it up - just deciding between them is delectable!

Then, there is sock yarn! 435 yards of machine-washable goodness in this colorway, which the Painted Sheep is calling Tulips. Well, I guess they want people who don't know or don't care that it is the perfect Gryffindor colorway to buy it, too? This is a five and a quarter ounce skein, so despite the impressive yardage we are talking a hefty, substantial sock yarn. This may become a pair of my Eight Great Gryffindors sock - pattern available soon...I have to see how it works up with the patterning. If not, I'll be trying Inukshuk71's Minerva's Lucky Quidditch socks. Audrey was my spoiler in HSS2 and I have a pair of those in my drawer already, and they are superb! We will have to see what the yarn wants to be. Although I should warn it - I think there might be enough for a nice coffee cup sling, or at least cuff, after the socks are done...

and now, the piece de resistance... the ne plus ultra...the moment you have been waiting for...

A teaser look at that bag. I call this photo "The Heart of the Matter" and I think I may be making prints to put on cards...

And now...drumroll... the bag, THE bag, the bag that has my mother WILD with Envy, and she a woman who does not have a jealous bone in her body...(A little jealous cartilidge, maybe, but not a bone...)

Is. This. Not. FANTASTIC???????????????????????

I love it. I love the color. I love the sheen of the fiber. I love the pattern, which I have contemplated making numerous times but never gotten around to. I love the button. I love the handle. I love the lining, carefully machine stitched for strength and then even more carefully hand-stitched in. Teh only possible way to improve this bag is to fill it up with sock knitting and enjoy it.

Which is exactly what I am about to do!

Thanks, Cassandra. MARVELOUS job!

2008-06-28T13:59:00.003-04:00

Hello Gryffindors. Here's a little fun quiz for you. Hope you enjoy it!

Who is your favorite member of the Order of the Phoenix?

Probably Mad-Eye. He and I have a lot in common.

Favorite person at Hogwarts?

Hagrid. Wait, he's also in the Order of the Phoenix! Well, since Mad-Eye is not at Hogwarts, we will let them each take one and no one's feelings get hurt.

Favorite spell or charm to use?

Does Apparating count?

Best and worst classes at Hogwarts?

Best is History of Magic. Worst is Potions.

Favorite flower?

Iris

What is your beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, latte, soda/pop?

Recently, Seltzer

Favorite muggle music?

Not one favorite kind. I like Gregorian Chant, I like Led Zeppelin, I like singing old Civil War Songs... I am not much into hipping and hopping, though.

How many family members do you have?

Family of Origin had five before people started getting married. Family where I am the mother has four.

What do you do on your summer vacation?

Well, I'm not in school so it is not really a summer vacation. I keep on doing what I usually do, and then here or there we may go away for a few days. We like to go to County fairs, and last year we went to Lancaster PA and Gettysburg. Once we went to Cooperstown, and that was SOOO cool because it is not just baseball.

What is your Favorite vacation ever taken?

Probably my honeymoon. We stayed at West Point and at the Mohonk Mountain house.

What is your favorite subject at Hogwarts? Why?

I like History of Magic because I already understand how to understand History. All the others are very difficult for me. Potions is darned near impossible.

How many pairs of shoes (footwear)do you have?

I have not counted recently, and I am not going to go count now, because I do not want to know.

Which are your favorite pair? Right now probably the strappy red high heeled sandals.

How many projects do you have OTN (on the needles)?

I have needles with projects on them since 1991. Do you really want me to go count them all?????

I am actively working or thinking of working on at least 3 pair of socks, a shawl, a blanket square, and probably a few other things I am not registering in my mind at the moment.
What is the oldest project you're working on and when did you cast it on?

An Avocado green sweater I cast on After I was married, but Before my son was born. That was probably around 1990 or 1991.

Favorite food(s)?

Rare Roast beef, my mom's salad with blue cheese and walnuts, my mom's veal marsala, peaches, string beans, certain varieties of apples, chocolate croissants, cranberry and orange muffins like they used to have at Balducci's in the 80's, real thin Italian pizza, Brooklyn Pizza (no, these are not exactly the same) dark chocolate, I could go on for days and days and years....

This assignment is due by Monday night 9pm ET. AND thanks Ophelia B for coming up with much of it!

Quidditch!

2008-06-21T13:01:00.003-04:00

1. At the beginning of the year feast, who is the only person who rudely interrupts Dumbledore during his speech?

b. Professor Umbridge (and everyone is SHOCKED, as no one EVER interrupts Dumbledore!)

2. Off what street is the alley where Harry first met Sirius?

c. Magnolia Crescent

3. Tonks’ mother had two sisters, both pure-bloods, and both left on the Black Family Tree. What are their names?

c. Narcissa and Bellatrix

4. What spell are the students studying in McGonalgall’s class when Umbrdige is doing her inspection?

d. The Vanishing Spell

5. Who comes to warn Harry and the rest of Dumbledore’s Army that Umbridge and her group of followers are coming to break up their meeting?

Answer: __Dobby_____________________ (five letters)

6. Who are the members of the Order that met Harry Potter in the Dursely’s house during the summer before his fifth year?

c. Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Remus Lupin, Emmeline Vance, Sturgis Podmore, Hestia Jones

7. Moody used the Disillusionment Charm on Harry.

a. Yes

8. Which of these Death Eaters is Sirius related to?

d. All of these (And many others. All the pure Bloods seem to be related to some degree - it is just a matter of what degree...)

9. At what age did Sirius leave his home?

Answer: ________16. ___________ (Number)(he stayed with the Potters until he came of age, at which point money from his Uncle Alphard was available and he got a place of his own.

10. How many of the original Order members were killed (don’t include those who disappeared)?

b. 8

This includes members in the picture Moody showed Harry, but did not include their family members. Caradoc Dearborn is the one they never found.

Picture Scavenger

Post these pictures to your blog. They must either be posted or linked to from your blog in order to receive points.

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Bellatrix Lestrange

Nymphadora Tonks (with Movie!Moody. I could not resist. Even though he does not look like MY Moody, still...)

Remus Lupin

Socks you may want to see.

2008-06-14T23:54:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd post all my Potter Socks for people in the current swap to see. They still are not up on Ravelry.

This first sock was knitted for a Hufflepuff, and is inspired by the three challenges in Goblet of Fire. The top is false flame stitch, for dragons; the middle is bubble stitch, for the lake, and the foot is the maze pattern, a mosaic. I designed this sock.

This next sock was knitted for a Gryffindor whose favorite character was Hermione. I also designed this one. The ribbing is hourglass ribbing - for her time turner, and for the points she was always getting for the Gryffindor points hourglass. The first colored section at the top depicts the canaries she sicced on Ron... The middle section represents both the coins she charmed for the DA and the SPEW badges. The foot is as close as I could get to little beaded handbags. You do need a bit of imagination there, but now that you know it, can't you see it?

I did NOT design this sock, which is called "King's Cross" after the station, but I felt King's Cross did fit the Potterverse so well. I got the pattern from the blog of a Raveler called "wollehun" although I am probably spelling that incorrectly. I will try to edit with a direct link tomorrow - I love this pattern so much I have already knit it twice and will be doing it again.

I would love comments. I am writing up the patterns for the two I designed and wonder what people think.

Second Gryffindor Quiz

2008-06-05T08:42:00.000-04:00

1. onihexp__phoenix______________
2. nro____ron____________
3. mayr__army______________
4. seelway___weasley_____________
5. hrigda__hagrid______________
6. ifdynrrgof___gryffindor_____________
7. dawn___wand_____________
8. oshawrgt___hogwarts_____________
9. busnim___nimbus_____________
10. bdulodeerm__dumbledore______________
11. bydob____dobby____________
12. bugmrdie___umbridge_____________
13. emionehr___hermione_____________
14. rhayr___harry_____________
15. arkreech__kreacher______________
16. riissu___sirius_____________
17. dootvlemr___voldemort_____________
18. ptrote____potter____________
19. hwgedi__hedwig______________
20. ebtahlkclso____shacklebolt____________

Obviously most of these are proper names and would normally be capitalized, but I kept it to exactly what we were given.

2008-05-29T10:58:00.004-04:00

1. Which of Arabella Figg's cats ran out from under the car?

a. Tibbles

2. Which of the following is NOT one of Albus Dumbledore's middle names?

a. Ignatius (It is, however, Percy Weasley's middle name.)

3. Which educational decree introduced a High Inquisitor to Hogwarts?

23

4. Apart from Harry, Ron and Hermione, who was the first person to enter the Hog's Head that showed an interest in Harry's Defence Against the Dark Arts classes

b. Neville Longbottom was the first person to enter, but Anthony Goldstein was the first person to express verbal support, by calling out "Hear, hear!" while Hermione was talking about the idea

5. In the first Quidditch match of the year which player attempted to score first?

a. Angelina Johnson

6. What kind of bush does Harry hide behind to listen to the news

b. A hydrangea bush

7. Why is Mundungus Fletcher disguised as a woman when he witnesses the DA (Dumbledore's Army) meeting in the Hog's Head pub?

b. He was banned from the Hog’s Head pub 20 years ago

8. When Harry and Cho go on their first date to Madam Puddifoot's in Hogsmeade, what is it decorated with for Valentine's Day?

c. Golden cherubs and pink confetti

9. How old is Sturgis Podmore and where does he live?

a. 38 and number 2 Laburnum Gardens Clapham

10. What did Fred and George Weasley do to Montague?

d. Forced him down a toilet in the girl’s bathroom on the fourth floor.

I will be back with pictures!

Picture Scavenger Hunt

Fred and George Weasley (together)

Hog's Head Pub

Sirius Black

Mr. Weasley and Harry (together)

Draco Malfoy

Major Errors, and Quills...

2008-05-25T19:19:00.002-04:00

No! No! I don't need 00 needles. I need 000 needles. Merlin knows where my head was when I posted that!!!! size 1.5mm, 000 in US Sizing.

(yes, I've got three sets of aluminum, but they BEND....which is fine if you are knitting really fine yarn, but if you are using them to get regular sock yarn really dense, oooh, what a mess you can end up with! {Ask me how I know.})

I got a lovely response from Ophelia Ballycastle about my sadly thwarted attempts to post on parchment. She wanted to know where I got my quills.

In fact, I used two quills. The blue words were written with a a fountain pen from an "as seen on TV" offer - I did not pay full price, however. I found the set for about a third of it's original price, and of course no postage, at Big Lots, a Muggle Salvage store.

The Red words were written with a steel nib and a red nib holder, which I purchased in a box at a Muggle Book store in their bargain section. It seems Hermione and Mad-Eye (I HAVE mentioned that Mad-Eye is not dead, haven't I? I thought I had...anyway...) cleverly packaged a concealed writing kit under the guise of a Muggle love letter kit! Apparantly the Muggles were not too loving around Valentines Day 2007, because this year these showed up for less than a Starbuck's Latte in January, and I cleverly snapped a few up.

However, that does not tell Ophelia where she can get one, and so I thought I'd expand a bit.

Metal Quills, in fountain pen or dip varieties, are often encountered in any of several parts of US Muggle Bookstores. Generally, the fancier Calligraphy kits will have them, usually as fountain pens, and these might be either in the art area or the bargain area. Be careful - the less expensive kits often have markers, which are easier to use, but I am sure you all already know where to buy markers. The other place is the gift section. The Chain Barns and No Bells seems to always have an array of the metal nibs, some attached to feathers, some in straight wooden or metal holders, and also glass pens which are lovely but not the same thing at all.

Other places fountain pens can be encountered are office supply stores - not all, but many, and art supply stores - the better ones, not necessarily the art supply section of the nearest chain crafts store.

They can also be ordered from http://nostalgicimpressions.com This site does actually metion Harry Potter himself when you click on Quills, so perhaps they are accustomed to outfitting Witches and Wizards. They offer steel nibs and also real feather quills.

Now I have not made an extensive study of magical pen technology, but I do know that when made by Muggles, quill pen points are only good for a few pages at most. Just one of Professor Snapes assignments of "three feet of parchment" on some potion ingredient would have necessitated recutting the nib.

Bearing this in mind, I went and found two other sources which tell you how to process and cut your own pens from the plain old feathers which one can often find at craft retailers. (These are often sold so that little children can make imaginative and entirely innacurate renderings of American Indian garb, if that helps you find them...) I found the first website thorough, but a tiny bit confusing. I found the pictures on the second website to be a great help, but not enough on their own to easily yield one a really superior pen.

http://www.flick.com/~liralen/quills/quills.html
http://www.regia.org/quill2.html

The second website, by the way, seems to be run by Muggles who take their history very seriously indeed. American Civil War re-enactors would find them kindred souls as to accuracy, I think.

I hope that any of you who have been finding it difficult to get your homework done because you did not get enough quills at Scrivenshafts and were hoping your people would send from home, instead of making you spend your Hogsmeade weekend allowance on them, may now be able to owl this information to the appropriate parental or other units and have this miscalculation taken care of. (Because most certainly, no student would willingly leave for school without enough equipment to get their homework done...)

Gryff assignment

2008-05-24T10:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, you still can't read it, so much for all my efforts...I will type it out for you...

Molly and Arthur Weasley have ____ children. Name three.

They have seven children. Percy, Ron and Ginny are three of these children.

2. What is the full name of Gryffindor Ghost Nearly Headless Nick?

His full name is Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington.

3. Which Ravencalw sports a hat with a Gryffindor-like life-sized lion's head which roars in Order of the Phoenix?

Luna Lovegood wears this hat to support Gryffindor at a Quidditch match.

4. Name five members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Alastor Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin and Molly Weasley are five members of the Order.

5. What is the profession of Hermione Granger's parents?

Their profession is dentistry.

6. What is your favorite thing to knit or crochet?

I think that for a while my favorite thing has been socks.

7. What is Professor Minerva McGonagall's animagus?

Her animagus is a cat.

8. What size needles(DPN's, circular or loop) do you prefer for knitting socks?

I strongly prefer DPN's. I use from size 0000 up to about a US. 1.5, and I am always loosing them. Right now I am in particular need of Steel 00 needles.

9. Where are the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?

The HQ of the Order is number 12 Grimmauld Place.

11. What is the name of the last book you read.

Assuming that listening to an audio book counts, Eragon. Assuming you had to actually hold it in your hands, That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis.

12. Which Gryffindor used to play "Charlie's Angels" and was always Bosley?

That was Lizzie Wychwood.

I really really really hope spelling does not count. I am wonderinf if Mimsy has an e....

A meme....

2008-05-23T14:56:00.004-04:00

Girlwithneedles tagged me for this and when I thought about it I realized my classmates here don't know all these things about me, so I figured I would fill it in for you all...

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I had not yet heard of Hogwarts, I believe. I was living where I am now - Same husband, same older son, baby not born yet. I was spinning a lot more, working a weekend job as well as at night, teaching HS students English and Adults ESL

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?

1. Answer Audrey's email

2. put answer to Gryffindor Quiz up

3. Write the perfect questionaires for ascertaining my partner's likes in scarves and bags and maybe even socks.

4. See if the store I am wondering about has nice fabric

5. eating some more chocolate.

There are other, Muggle sorts of things on the list, but I don't CARE about those...

3. Snacks I enjoy...

Dark Chocolate

Spinach Pie

strawberries

ice cream

(Although really, a nice big rare roast beef sandwhich on a roll with butter and salt and some potatoe salad and a kosher dill pickle would be nice just about now...as a snack...I have an appetite like Ron Weasley)

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire....

Go back to Italy

Visit my online friends all over the world.

Buy a Vita-Mix

Endow scholarships

Buy the family homes in Brooklyn

Buy my parents a house in Rockaway for weekends

Try to start business that would provide jobs to all sorts of people

Find a way to lose weight

Get a dog

5. Places I've lived

Brooklyn, NY

Hudson River Valley

Syracuse, NY (3.5 years, College)

Florence, Italy, one semester

Manhatten

Watertown, NY

Queens, NY

6. Jobs I've had.

Babysitting

Counselor at Cub Scout Day Camp
Nature Director at Cub Schout Day Camp
Arts and Crafts Director at Cub Scout Day Camp

Dining Hall in College (This is the job where I got to make salad for 700 and also pull other people's cigarette butts out of their mashed potatoes)

Meal Card Checker in Dining Hall

Box Office Help at Community Live Theater

Assistant to Family Service Dept at Salvation Army

Secretary at IBM (2 summers)

Temp at Minolta Corp.

Office help/Library at Program Abroad

Secretary in Japanese Company in Suburban NJ

Admin. Asst., Library, Major University

Teacher of English 7-12, Upstate

Teacher of English, 9-12 Summer school

Teacher of English/ESL various posts in NYC BoE

Teacher of English/Esl/Tutor/ various nickel and dime operations.

Clerk at Fabric/Craft Store

I even did piece work for the Garment District.....

7. Peeps I want to know more about...

I do not like putting people on the spot, so the following are invited to respond if they care to..

Cassandra Puddlemere

Morgana Black

Clidonia Acromantula

Emerald

Lizzie Wychwood

Now I have to go post on their blogs...

Mystery Solved

2008-05-21T11:17:00.002-04:00

The mystery of why it was the Slytherin table his big brother's spell finally sucked my baby out from under has been solved - it seems they may have been slipping him cookies under there! So the unkind muttered suggestions that they were considering holding him for ransome were just that. But they do not know what they have let themselves in for - he'll be expecting cookies all the time, now, and woe to them when the House Elves serve a dinner without them!

And that Gryffinitter! Showing off about her needle sizes! She should have mentioned that she is a very loose knitter, and needs persnicketily small needles just to get 8 or 9 stitches to the inch on a sock. It's not like she is Althea Merbeck or anything. Ms. Merbeck is one presumed non-magical person who has learned how to work a magic of her own!

I did brew my first simple potion without killing anyone. It turned the color of mud and had to be dug out of the cauldron with a spoon to sample it, but at least the kids got a kick out of it. Really, I need to keep a sense of humor - being bested at almost everything by eleven year olds will quickly get to me if I don't!

I am going to get my revenge one of these days, though. From the looks on people's faces when hobbies come up in conversation, there are no spinning witches in Britain. Wait till I bring my Lendrum down to the courtyard one of these sunny, mild days...

And I must say, Canadians do not get the credit they deserve...

2008-05-20T12:58:00.006-04:00

While Belladonna is at class, I am taking over this blog to let everyone see what wonderful stuff I got in my Hogwarts Sock Swap Three box.

First, ha ha, you can tell my spoiler was a Slytherin - pleasantly crafty!. She oh so off-handedly mentioned that she had gone shopping in Diagon Alley and did I like the Harry Potter Colorways that some indie dyers have...without mentioning, of course, that she is one herself! So these socks were knit from "Fawkes" Faery Fiber

The socks are marvelous and fit like a dream, a really deluxe pair, even among hand-knitted socks. Thank you, Cassandra!

But of course, there was much more than these terrific socks (Which went immediately upon my feet and will probably only come off to be alternated with socks from the last two swaps...) A skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, in a burgundy shade that just screams Gryffindor, stickers of Harry catching the snitch, an authentic Harry Potter journal with Hedwig of blessed memory on the front, a copy of Judy Sumner's "Taking Flight" socks which calls for the very sockweight the Cherry Tree Hill happens to be...(you can see Cassandra thougth this all out very carefully!)the remains of the skein my socks came from, for repair, and the very needles I have been searching for - 1.75 MM, steel. Bless you, Cassandra, I was going crazy over finding these!

What you don't see in this picture, because I didn't find it till after the picture was taken, is the second set of needles she sent me - size zero, Rosewood! This was entirely above and beyond the call of swapping and I am stunned - they are not only gorgeous, but have nice sharp points. The next pair of socks I cast on for myself has to be a pair I can use these on.

Lastly, there are edibles - and this is where Canadians are seriously underestimated. I have never found a terrific local chocolate or confection of any kind I can put in a swap box and have had to resort to nice chocolate, but nothing my partners couldn't find, probably, in their own neighborhoods. I keep getting boxes from Canada, however, filled with incredible local candies. This one features a candy bar labelled "A Taste from Alberta" - Roger's milk chocolate. I ate the whole thing. In one sitting. I was a pig and didn't share, either - if my sons want candies this tasty let them make their own international friends! There is also a box of Cupper's Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans, absolutely perfect, and a bag of Maynards original Gummies, "Objects in here are chewier than they appear." We expect amazing chocolates and goodies from Europe, but I think we have to add Canada to that map - between the lavender hard candies from my last box, and these coffee beans and chocolate bar, the next time I go up there I am going to have a budget line for incredible edibles.

I hear Belladonna in the hall - she is going to want the blog back! Bye for now - I will try to post my Reducio Sock tomorrow!

Spent the Morning at St. Mungo's

2008-05-20T01:07:00.002-04:00

Well, I spent the morning at St. Mungo's with my fifth-year. I got absolutely no knitting done, but at least he did admit to me that the yarn I bought to make socks for him with did not please him one bit. Better now than after I spend hours on the socks!!!

This potions professor - still a bit of a mystery to me, actually. I am not that entranced with light-haired men. Then again, I maybe be being so hare-brained myself as to be mixing them up and be talking about the wrong person!

The feast was marvelous tonight! I don't usually go down to the Great Hall because the House Elves will bring the food up so families can eat together for the few of us who are adult students with families, but since it was the feast, down we went. The baby ran under every single house table, and I was utterly mortified. There were people at the Gryffindor table muttering about two students named Fred and George who used to go here, and chuckling, while my older son wanted, probably, to disappear. He was very good, though. Accio'd his baby brother and brought him back to us, and then used a temporary sticking charm to keep him on the bench where he belonged. He promised he'd teach me that one when no one is looking.

It has been slightly embarrassing that he could do all this magic and I could not, up till now - it is one of the reasons we finally came. My husband does not love his commute by international portkey, but one look at what would have been his department here was enough. My son could never teach me because of the ban on using magic out of school when you aren't 17 yet. He whispered to me as he went his way, however, that he would come by on Sunday and help me out.

Anyway, there is this Black Bean Pumpkin soup...

Got my pals, and Slytherins, take note!

2008-05-15T11:46:00.004-04:00

I got my pals. I am being spoiled by Cassandra Puddlemere, a former Gryffindor (or maybe just one on hiatus - she's in Slytherin this time around) who apparantly really knows how to spoil one. I am spoiling a Hufflepuff, Clidonia Acromantula. She's a second year also, which means she really knows what's going on - I had better get everything right!

Now the Slytherins should take note because I am designing a sock called "The Sevenfold Severusbane Sock" It is "Bane" more in the sense of things being the bane of one's existence, rather than being like wolf'sbane, except that Nagini is going to be an option. I'm going to need a test knitter sometime soon, if anyone is interested.

Actually, since most of the Banes of Snape's existence were Gryffindors, it should also work well in Red and Gold, for any Gryffs who think it sounds interesting.

Potions has yet to go down the tubes for me (Speaking of Hogwart's most famous Potions Master)but that may only be because I haven't had to actually brew anything yet. I am sending for some Mise en place dishes, however. I need all the help I can get.

I didn't kill anything in Herbology, though. That's something...

Got my pals, and Slytherins, take note!

2008-05-15T11:46:00.001-04:00

2008-05-13T16:43:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure I like this...

What Harry Potter Wand Are You? Your Result: 12.5" Yew, Dragon Heartstring Your wand is longer than average, with a flexible and long-lasting wood. Dragon Heartstring is a common Ollivander core. Your wand is ideal for jinxes and hexes.
11.5" Yew, Unicorn Hair
11" Mahogany, Unicorn Hair
9" Willow, Phoenix Feather
10.5" Ash, Phoenix Feather
14" Holly, Veela Hair
11" Ash, Hippogriff Talon
8.5" Mahogany, Dragon Heartstring
What Harry Potter Wand Are You? See All Our Quizzes

Hexes and jinxes? Well, if that's true - and it doesn't seem to be Mister Olivander who wrote the quiz - if that's true, maybe it will help me out. I suspect I am not the hexy jinxy type, so at least one of the two of us will have an aptitude that way. Something to even things out a bit.

I have my class schedule and it is enough to make my hair stand on end. I'm not eleven. I do know a few things about myself. I stunk at Muggle Chemistry, I'm not much of a cook - and I have to make potions? Really? What are they thinking?!? I come by my inablities totally honestly. My mother's college chem class nearly poisoned themselves by not using the hood. She got in trouble for bleeding on the floor when she used one of the tools improperly - and that was plain, old, relatively inert Muggle stuff. Can you imagine what I, who only got through HS chem by cleaning up after the two kids in my lab group who could actually do the work, did it, am going to do in a potions classroom? I've been asking around and apparantly one of the ways you can go wrong is by melting your cauldron. I've already sent an owl to Diagon Alley to see if I can get some sort of quantity discount on them.

Then there's Transfiguration. I have serious scruples about Transfiguration. When you change an inanimate object to a living thing, are you actually making it live? And if you turn a turtle into a soup bowl, are you killing it? The whole thing makes me very uncomfortable. I can just see the discussion with the Professor, too. They never really want to hear things like this, not even in office hours. Still, I had better go address the issue before I am standing there, asked to turn a porcupine into a shoe brush and surprise her by refusing, and then insult her by explaining that I think her entire subject is unethical...

On the other hand, they could have given me Ancient Runes. I already read a little Founder's Era English. I already know Muggle Runes - more than one kind. I'd fit right in to Ancient Runes. But I did not complain. The Transfigurations thing is bad enough.

One thing I am not worried about is that DADA teacher. First, he looks young enough to be my kid, so no real thrill there. Then, well, after you've taught the muddled Muggle Students I had for 20 years...piece of cake.

I am very very happy with my quills. And my parchment! *dies and goes to neorxnewanga* Everything an old Muggle Medieval Studies Major could ask...

Oh, I hope the other students like me!

Hurray!!!!

2008-05-04T19:20:00.002-04:00

I remember seeing the HSKS the first time, about a year ago, and I had just signed up for the Hogwarts sock swap. That was my first sock and I guess I thought two was too many? I am now an experienced swapper, and a Gryffindor again!!!!

So, for the next few months this blog will be written by a witch named Belladonna Boomslang, a first year adult student at Hogwarts. Sorted into Gryffindor, I am looking forward to all the events that surround a Hogwarts first year - shopping in Diagon Alley for my wand, riding on the Hogwarts express (I think I am bringing a very fancy basket lunch - not quite as pretentious as Slughorn's, but something besides candy, and enough to share with whomever is in the railway carriage with me. My son told me years ago that if you bring food, people will like you, and I see no reason to argue with that logic.) and being taken across the lake in a little boat by Hagrid. My DH better watch it, because that horrible LIE that Mad-Eye died when he fell off his broom is just that, and who knows, I might get to meet him. (Belladonna <3's Mad-Eye like craaaaazy. Of course, so does his wife. You didn't know he was married? It was in the Quibbler...)

Of course the Gryffinitter herself may guest blog from time to time, but mostly it will be me, BB, adult witch from a family of lost witches and wizards, recently re-discovered...

We all have days like this...

2008-04-14T11:50:00.002-04:00

This morning I had a 50 foot tree from the front of the house cut down. It needed it. It has been losing branches for 7 years, and not only was it shaggy looking, we were starting to worry about it deciding to come down of it's own accord - probably on someone else's car, or house, or self, even. The men were done by 8:45. I am blaming it on this.

Anyway, after the men, and a number of people who just had to either call or show up at the door, or call back, or forget to call back, and cleaning the couch from the creative efforts of the two year old who has started making a habit of this, I decided to call Patternworks and ask about a sock yarn I've been eying in their catalog. It is the Kertzer On Your Toes, color 3812.

It is in the same box with color 3817 ,which is shown knitted up into a pair of socks, and very clearly the socks have strong stirpes of Hot Pink about 3 inches wide, with stripes of multicolor in between. I was discussing this with customer service, and went on to explain that This was not my favorite look, although I do like the color pink, and anyway, if they are too bright,

"All you have to do is pull your pants down."

I probably should have included the word "cuffs."

We had a good laugh, though. You'd hope that would distract from your socks, wouldn't you?

See, knitting CAN cure anything. Even a crazy day...

Cast your bread upon the waters...

2008-04-07T17:53:00.004-04:00

As the woman who wrote the I Hate to Cook Book pointed out, sometimes when you cast your bread upon the waters, it comes back nicely buttered.

I got my bread back toasted, buttered, and with a dollop of something delicious on top from my Hogwarts Sock Swap Two Partner, Daisy Hippogryff.

Look at this wonderful package! All it had to include was the following:

Socks in my house colors
A sock pattern
An HP bookmark (Which you can see better in the next foto)
Yarn for a pair of socks

Hmmm...yep, I think that was all, but look what she picked out for me!

First, there is a pile of edible goodness - Petite Ecolier Cookies, which are even more delicious than any I have had here, Cocoa sent to me by Remus Lupin, an Easter Egg that Dobby made me, and a box of lavender candies that are just - OOOH! I can clearly see I am going to have to start ordering them for myself - I have been very carefully eating them one at a time, as a special treat.

The major part of the gift, what she really concentrated on, was the yarn, and I think she totally outdid herself. Observe:

Two Skeins of Elann's Sock-it-to-Me sock yarn in Gryffindor burgundy.

Two skeins of Bergere de France Lima in machine washable wool and alpaca - I had never even heard of such a thing! - in a terrific green to make my son a pair of socks. I have no idea how she knew, but it is almost exactly the color of his eyes.

The leftover yarn from my socks, for repair, and

Effiloche, which is sea wool dyed locally in brazil wood. This is also machine washable, and a perfect color for me. I was stunned, actually. I kept holding it as if it were very fragile, almost afraid it would disappear from my hands.

The other items in the box were all also very special, and some of them were specifically sent to me by members of the Hogwarts staff and extended family. I think you can see in the photo:

A scarf woven by Hermione hanging up over the back of the box.

A bottle of honeysuckle scented bath and shower gel brewed for me by Madame Pomfrey

Minerva McGonagall came up with the lovely little notebook - there was a whole story about it in the letter which came with the package.

The little yellow rat you can just see on the top of the skein of Gryffindor yarn is the bookmark - Petter Pettigrew, hiding out as Scabbers.

There is a lapel pin of Hedwig, and a black and red pendant which relates to my pal's screen name.

The black circle you can see is actually the round top of a little skein holder I can put sock yarn in to keep it neat in my project bags.

The bracelet is a row counter bracelet, which she made for me herself! I have only been wanting one of these since the first time I saw something like it in a catalog...

There are three Cd's - a movie she thought I would like, and two sock patterns because she liked them both and could not decide between them!

And dear, busy, Molly Weasley out did herself! That is the bit you can see of a felted oven mitt she made me, there in a corner. (I had a whole picture of it, but Blogger was very mingy about how many pictures it would let me post... : - ( )

But you have been waiting to see the socks, haven't you? I have to warn you they are a tiny bit dusty, from being put on my feet the minute I got them and not taken off for quite some time... Here is one on my right foot...

And here is a photo that shows how much attention to detail Daisy put into them. The little hole that almost ALWAYS shows up at the side of the gusset? GONE!

You may have noticed that this was a bit more lavish than the average sock swap package. Daisy and I got to know each other very well. I think the swap mom paired us very carefully, possibly partly because we had each designed our own sock pattern for the first round. You can see her pattern here, along with the pattern for the socks she made me - Daisy is a very generous knitter who offers her patterns free on her website, and they are all worth knitting. Right beneath the pattern for my socks is the pattern for a baby bunting, and below that, her showcase of what I sent her.

We actually opened our boxes at the same time, while hanging out together on Yahoo messenger. It just took me a while to get this post together... (Very red face here...)

We took our time with this, by mutual consent. The packages were due at the end of October, but we did not mail till March, for various reasons. We corresponded throughout the whole time, however, and got to know each other fairly well. At this point she is a friend, not just a swap partner who did a great job, and we continue to correspond. So, not my bread came back not just buttered, but toasted, buttered, and layered with little delicious bits. Occassionally, things do turn out much better than one could ever have expected.

A WIP I can show

2008-03-13T22:32:00.003-04:00

No one at the HSS3 seems all that excited about showing pictures this time - I have no idea why. Maybe they are all on Ravelry looking at other stuff. Anyway, I am happy to report that I am working on King's Cross Socks. I am doing them in Lane Cervinia Calzetteria in a color to go with my pal's Hogwart's House. I Ravelled the designer and she did name them after the station, so I figure that is a good connection - they really do look like train tracks. I'm going to try to get a 9 3/4 in there...

These socks are a breeze so far. Well, the part I have knit twice and am about to start a third time is a breeze. 12 rows of 2 by 2 rib, and then you do a little massive cabling for one round, and then another 12 rows of rib. Moreover, the cabling manages to look like you did it twice, when actually you only did it once. Very clever!

I think I have isolated the problem - the cables cross over 4 stitches, and virtually the whole row is cabled at once, so instead of going way down in needles size as one might normally do for rib, one uses a larger needle than could be believed. At least, this one here seems to need to. In my case this is a whomping US size 2 - I normally use nothing bigger than a zero for sock ribbing, and have been known to use much smaller. Well, alas and alack! I am up to the size mentioned in the pattern! This usually only happens when it is like, size 13. But this is hardly the pattern's fault; it is a very nice pattern, and I love the designer's ravatar. Little feathery t-rex there...

When there is more of this to show, it shall be shown. I could not be bothered to photograph the wool. Especially since I should probably make it black and white so if my partner happens to be scanning blogs and trying desperately to figure out who I am, she will not guess... But when there is actually something to show that seems like it will fit...

I am working on the Toddler Moc-A-Socs for a three-soon year old boy. I am also using Calzetteria for that. The first one of that ALSO came too small - I think stress is getting to me and making me knit tighter or something. Well, and the child does take after his mother an have wide feet... This is a pattern you pay for and I think I got my money's worth - it is very clear, and the one question I had was answered by the designer within 24 hours of my sending her a Ravelry message. Can't ask for better service than that! There were one or two spots I got momentarily stuck on and then unstuck myself from with no major to-do. I am planning the cuff part in some nice green Kroy I have had marinating in my stash for a while.

Something else I am thinking about... The spring pattern book Make it Modern has a cute, cute sweater called Feather and Fan Cardigan. I may use the yarn I frogged from the two dollar sweater to knit it up in- a wool single, just a bit tweedy, in a green. I can wear it over my burgundy Henley and look like Gryffindor and Slytherin are fighting it out on my person.

I may be stuck thinking of colors in terms of Hogwarts Houses for life, people. I still think of SU every time I see International Orange, and it has been over 25 years since I had to wash that color acrylic paint out of my hair...

Misfit Cocoa Swap

2008-03-06T08:12:00.004-05:00

A little while ago Grace, of Lovincomfortknits.blogspot.com , ran a small swap for people who had missed out on the cocoa swap. It was only ten people. I think they were all regular posters of Grace's, and, well, Grace is one of my favoritest people, so I threw my hat in the ring. Even though I was still knitting furiously on my Hogwarts sock, I figured that since I didn't have to actually knit anything for this one, I could fit it in too.

Well, my terrifically sweet swap partner, Alana, ( stringsandpurls.blogspot.com ) has already long since posted what I sent her, but I have been sitting on the pictures of what she sent me, which is totally unfair, since she sent me one of the best swap boxes ever. So here it is, finally, in almost all its glory.

First, everything in it came beautifully wrapped. I did not have the patience to grab the camera before I started wildly unwrapping everything. This may give you some idea of the pretty paper, and the frenzy...

Of course, the paper was covering terrific stuff. As a whole, it looked like a page from some upscale giftshop catalog - this would clearly have been the deluxe box, suitable for CEO's and VERY important clients...

It included some very terrific knitting goodies, some of which I had specifically asked for - like the fantastic pin-and-needle cushion. I use a lot of multiple zero needles, and I need a place to park them - replacing them is starting to run into serious numbers! I have lusted after one of these since the first time I saw one in the Patternworks catalog - back when Patternworks was in NY. Can't be much more than ten or twelve years that I was slobbering, but now I have one!

My measuring tapes run for the same black hole everyone else's do, so I really appreciated the fancy covered one (She did that herself too, folks,) and she also made the stitch markers. You can't appreciate how gorgeous they are. I have slipped them on earwires and worn them as earrings already. I tried to take a picture of them on my ears, but it turns out my ear and neck did not do them justice, and, well, what if any of you had been eating when you saw the picture...I want to be kind to my friends, after all. So you will have to take my word on how nicely they look on my ears until I get a better photographer than I to minimize the neck and maximize the sparkly goodness.

The needles - I have been aching to try those Harmony double points, and they did not disappoint. I am not a huge fan of wood needles, or bamboo needles - they are not usually quick enough for me. These, however? Just as perfect as everyone says. I am planning to get them in a few other sizes...

And the little cardboard tubes...you have no idea how I heart the little cardboard tubes. I was WANTING them, precioussss. They work exactly the way it says they do in the catalog, and have already been useful. They make the sock sitting around on its needles look very well-dressed, too - note illustration sock in photo.

Of course, it was a cocoa swap, so there was plenty of edible goodness. The Dove bar wrapper looks a little funny because...well... we all know what happens to good chocolate when a knitter's box is opened, right? Do I really need to explain? But there were also chocolate covered potato chips, which vanished in a FLASH. Yum. Not even the box was left. And there were FOUR kinds of hot cocoa! Yummy warmness till spring! (I am mean, and do not share! : - ) )

But, of course, it was KNITTERS swapping cocoa - and what is sending anything to a knitter without the yarn? Alana is clearly psychic. I adore SWS and am always almost buying myself enough to do something. Almost, because I am very very cheap with myself over these things. I keep waiting for the day I will have 7 Michaels coupons and seven friends in the van with me, which is probably unrealistic as I don't think I have seven friends in this half of the state. I did, however, once buy myself the one very most gorgeous color, and make a pair of fingerless mitts from it. Guess which color it was?

That's right - the same color as the three skeins she sent me! *Faintsplat!*

And the sock yarn is all the very best colors for me! If I planned an entire wardrobe around the colors in this yarn I would be looking happy and healthy every single day till it all wore out and fell apart. In fact, maybe I should do that...

So, Although it has taken me a while to post it, I have to say that my swap partner did an amazing job! And she is fun to correspond with. In fact, I have to go send her some pics of something else right now.

Thanks, Grace!!!! You ran a fantastic swap!!!!

Do you know these people?

2008-02-26T16:54:00.003-05:00

If you are an Elannite, or, as Betsy calls us, an Elannimal, you probably know these people:

Baby has not knitted anything yet, but I maintain this is just because she's been too busy eating, pooping, and sleeping.

LYS goes to hell

2008-02-19T21:02:00.002-05:00

This is actually only partly about the LYS. It is also about my own stupidity, and also about that I have a user pic! Finally!

That is a Gryffin holding a ball of yarn. If you do not think it looks like a ball of yarn, then I invite you to argue with the Gryffin. Personally, if something with toenails like that tells me he is holding a ball of yarn I will believe it, even if that "Ball of Yarn" smells like Limburger cheese, but hey, your results may vary...

(Copyright free clipart by the way - I am totally pure on this one.)

Now about my own stupidity...I must remember that no matter how many times you walk past the sock yarn display in the local yarn store, New Yarn Will Not Appear Now if I were the sort of person who could multiply loaves and fishes, ok, maybe, but I am not. I am lucky if I can find what was there to begin with.

I must say that what was there to begin with was more than they had when I started knitting. There was some Regia Stretch, and some Trekking, and some Step, and one skein of Adirondack, and a bunch of Colinette...except that the Colinette, the salesgirl was honest enough to tell me, is really only enough to make a pair of socks if you make them short. Otherwise you need two balls. Well, it wasn't for me and I did not want to take chances.

I had intended to dye my own for this sock exigency, in fact, and dye I did. I had a partial skein of KP essentials BARE and I dyed it with purple Koolaide, and it almost worked...I should have used a little more water. I should not have added the turquoise. Well, I can always try to overdye it.

So then I put 8 packets of cherry in the water, and put a four ounce skein of yarn in. In the past, when there has been a lot of cherry and not so much yarn I have gotten a sort of burgundy. In this case, apparantly, I needed more than 8 packets. I got very nice red yarn. Electric red. NEON red, if there is such a thing. The person this yarn is for does not like bright colors. This is why I was in Smiley's yesterday. This is why I was in LYS today. I was seeking the perfect answer to a simple question.

It is far too late for the simple answer, which would have been to have ordered the yarn from my friend's favorite dyer.

Well, eventually I will make a decision. But I can tell you right now, the decision was not in favor of the Colinette.

I have to say, though, that this LYS is going to the dogs. Very Upscale store, very upscale clientele, for the most part, and very pricey yarns. Why are they letting them hang from hooks in the walls with strands hanging down from them? Why are they piling yarn in plastic bags here and there, instead of using the shelves I know used to be there? Why did it seem so DARK?

When I feel that something is messy people, believe me, it is long past time to do something about it...

Back at the spinning group.

2008-01-17T14:19:00.000-05:00

This is National Spin More Month at Ravelry and perhaps elsewhere. I joined. This was easy, as I have had very little spinning the past few years and almost any spinning is MORE than I've been doing, so...

The meeting last night was really nice, and Many Wonderful Things were said about the shawl my mother made for me last spring. They all liked her taste in yarn, thought it was terrific and it is making my group's newsletter. WTG, Marmee!!!!

The much discussed Hermione socks are so much closer to seeing the light of day that if I really wanted to I could probably figure out exactly how many stitches I have left to do...Only I don't want to.

But I do want to go knit on them now!

So I am

And so it is New Year's Eve...

2007-12-31T23:15:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve, and I thought I ought to share a thought or two....

I had no knitting resolutions last year, so I had none to break.

This year, I resolve to

put up one of my sock patterns here, which means I have to write it down,

and to

Put in Steady Progress on Mama Lorraine's shawl. I am sure she thinks she will never see it done. I would SOOO like to prove her wrong, in a nice way!

Best of luck to all of you,
Whatever you resolve to do.

Veteran's Day, observed

2007-11-12T10:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was 11/11, the anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War One. (Which came beore World War Two, for all those of you who might not have been sure..., so,almost 100 years ago, but not quite.)It is a day on which we celebrate Veterans of all wars, and, to me, (I'm not exactly sure how the wording of the offical paperwork goes) of all times of "peace."

Because it fell on a Sunday, we are observing the holiday today, which, in America, of course means department store sales and sleeping late.

However, I would like to take this space and this moment to thank all Veterans, knitters and non-knitters alike, for their service.

I don't care if you did paperwork or crawled on the front line. I don't care if you were drafted and couldn't get to the border fast enough or enlisted of your own free will. And I am not the least bit surprised if you want to tell me that you hope there is never a need for another war again.

Veterans, after all, are not people who went out and caused a war. They are people who faught a war our country was already in, or served in peacetime as part of the military force which presumably and hopefully keeps other countries from looking at us as easy pickings. Either way, they served us.

Today is not hero's day, is not celebrities day, is not success day. Today is not just for people we traditionally think of, although they are certainly included.

Today is a day to honor all veterans, living and dead, wartime or peacetime, charming or obnoxious. It is a day for all veterans, whether they carried or carry Flintlocks or M-16's, horse reins or flight clipboards, walked a picket line or a deck, held a clipboard or a pen or a stethoscope or a purchase order.

So today, to all veterans, but if especially to any then especially to my knitting veteran friends, a salute from this civilian, and I hope from all who read this, and a deep and sincere thank you, from the bottom of my woolly little heart.

I think I may have made up my mind...sorta

2007-10-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I am designing this Hermione sock for my terrific sock pal. And of course I want it to be the very best pair of socks EVER MADE so that she will MELT with pleasure every single time she looks at them, never mind wears them.

I thought I had decided on the stitch patterns. I did! I did! And I got input from someone who likes Hermione so much it is part of her screen name, and someone who adores Ron and should know what Hermione would like sort of by reflection, and Socker, and....

Well, I hadn't. But Now I have, and life is sweet because I can knit on them all the way to Rhinebeck, and all the way back, and...and...

Well, life is just sweet!

No pictures cause I don't want to tip her off!

Many are the joys of a really good yarn sale - Slight Deathly Hallows Spoiler

2007-10-06T09:45:00.000-04:00

Many are the joys of a super yarn sale. I have tighter foul lines for what meets that criteria than most would, perhaps. Twenty-five percent, or even 40 percent off the normal price of a yarn does not constitute a great sale – it merely constitutes the first price at which I am seriously likely to purchase something.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course. I have paid full price if I needed a particular color desperately, or if I am getting something for someone else, but generally, buying full retail does not entrance me. Blame it on my background if you’d like, but I can’t get really excited till I see them practically giving stuff away – and it has to be really nice stuff.

Then, however, I am a goner.

Yesterday I went to another Smiley’s sale and did a little stash enhancing. It was thoughtful purchasing. In one or two spots it probably stopped short, actually, of where it should have gone. Read, and tell me if you could have been any more restrained.

The first thing that went into the Laundry basket shopping basket was two bags of Calzetteria sock yarn, 70 % shrink resistant wool, 30 percent nylon, in a heathery tan. My excuse? A vest in Knitters I have wanted to make since 96 or 98, and which I will probably enter in the State Fair if I do. Cost? One dollar a ball.

This sock yarn is on the slightly thicker side of fingering – 165 yards to 50 grams, and I wanted to be absolutely certain I had enough. Twenty balls. Well, I do also knit socks, and this WOULD work for Ravenclaw bronze if it had to… which made it a possible match for the 17 or so balls of blue Kroy I got there at 1.50 a ball maybe 7 years ago… I also threw in a bag of red, because Socker loves red.

Not every color was on sale at this price. They didn’t have pale grey/silver, and if one prefers movie Ravenclaw colors (For some reason I seem to have a lot of Ravenclaw friends) or if one wants to knit a sock for Severus, one is going to need a silver grey. I got three of those at the Smiley’s normal in-store price of 2.99 a ball.

There is a Moda Dea yarn they have in textured multicolored wool. I thought another ball of this for some secret knitting, especially since I was able to find a ball of Filatura Lanarota 100% Wool Worsted at 1.99 that was a PERFECT match for one of the colors. How often does that happen? I think it’s the second time I’ve ever managed to match a color in a multi myself, but I’ve only been knitting seriously for about 13 years… I bought two other balls in a color to match a friend’s coat, totally forgetting that she is a tall person and might want a longer scarf than stumpy here would. Ah, well, thin scarves were in at some point…

I went to town with that Worsted at 1.99 a ball for 100 grams. I already have a sweater’s worth in the rust heather, but I keep having to forcibly restrain myself from knitting a pair of socks in it, so I got the six balls of that color sitting there, just in case they were the last six in creation. I also got three of the teal heather, because I have one already and a vest pattern in Fitted Knits that I want to make out of it. The three balls of burgundy with bits of lovage carded in should end up as felted slippers for my mother. (And here I digress to note that if Bellatrix Lestrange had ever dared throw an unforgivable at me, there would have been no duel. My mother would not have wasted a “You Beach!” on her, either. One shot, just to the side of the sternum (Her left, Mom’s right) and my parent would have been neatly dusting off her wand and asking quietly “Would anyone else like to try cursing my child?” This is why Mom gets a call to ask which of the burgundies she would prefer, right there from the sale aisle. When you have a parent like that, you should at least TRY to treat them right...and I still owe her the shawl.)

I was in an expansive enough mood to buy two balls of grey yarn for socks for DH, who normally gets nothing because he does not like hand-knit sweaters and wears through socks till they are cuffs and then expects me to fix them. I will have some black left from what I bought at the last sale to do a pattern on the leg…

The one thing I bought that I did not enjoy the spend? A booklet I have put off buying for several years. It was 7.95 and had four patterns, three of which are ugly and useless, one of which I really wanted. I finally gave in and just got it.

Oh – there was VIBE on sale for one dollar a ball as well. I was wavering over the colors and the fact that I would have to buy two whole bags…and the two bags of a different super bulky at home that I need to knit up first. I was advised to knit that other stuff first…

No, you really don’t have to add up everything I spent and tell me what it cost. I know what it cost. I cost less than the three bags of sock yarn at their regular price for everything I got - never mind any original MSRP’s. I am content…

I Should Have Been Sleeping...

2007-10-04T10:52:00.000-04:00

Well, between looking for patterns for my pal on the web, and looking for the box of spinning/knitting books that I can’t find (and that box includes Alden Amos’s spinning book as well as an old Mon Tricot Stitch directory and a sock book that currently lists as out of print and $290 in the used book trade, so if any of you have any influence with the universe I would be most appreciative if you could influence it towards sending me to the correct part of the basement or garage, but…) and looking at Favorite Socks by Interweave press, I thought I would do a little bit of an inventory of sock patterns that I happen to have around in various books, magazines and so forth last night, when I was a little too tired, probably, to knit.

This does not include any free patterns I have downloaded from the web, any individual patterns I have purchased, or any sock patterns from any magazines other than IWK and one from Spin-Off. It does not include any patterns from books I know I own but can’t find, or from half the books I do have lying around, because I have not gotten to them yet. It does not include anything I have designed and knitted myself or with Socker’s help.

So far I am at 213.

Even considering that there must be at least half a dozen patterns in there for your basic top-down sock that is still a LOT of sock patterns.

I thought I would use this information for the good of all sock-knitting kind, so today’s post will be one of a few to come here that attempt to inform in some meaningful way on the topic of sock patterns.

Sock Patterns in Interweave Knits.

Going through my copies of Interweave Knits, I came to the following two conclusions: I seem to own all but six issues out of the first eleven and a half years of publication of this magazine, and I seem to have every single issue between 96 and 2002. You can consider this, then, a fairly inclusive list. I will note issues I am missing – if you happen to have those issues, would you look in them, see if there is a sock pattern, and, if so, let me know in a comment? I will then update this list.

(Under the category “pattern” I have left out the word “Socks” if it is included in the pattern name.)

Issue Sock Pattern Designer Page(s)

Fa 96 no patterns

Sp 97 Meida’s Nancy Bush 70

Su 97 No socks

F 97 Evening of Falling Stars Roxanna Bartlett 22

W 97 Eesti Trail Hiking Nancy Bush 50

Sp 98 Mayan Jean Moss 26

Su 98 No socks

F 98 No socks

W 98 No socks

Sp 99 No socks

Su 99 No socks

F 99 Ute Nancy Bush 73

W 99/01 No socks

Sp 00 No socks

Su 00 Traveler’s stockings Nancy Bush 80

Up-down Spiral Sandy Cushman 84

F 00 Priscilla’s Dream* Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 76

W 00/01 Austrian Candace Eisner-Strick 66

Sp 01 Ilga’s 72

Su 01 Boudoir 44 , 48

F 01 Better Mousetrap Debbie New 98

W 01/02 No socks

S 02 Don’t have issue

Su 02 Don’t have issue

F 02 No socks

W 02 Don’t have issue

Sp 03 Dresser Scarf Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 94

Su 03 Merino Lace Anne Woodbury 74

F 03 Love Stamp Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 94

W 03 Eastern European Footlets Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 72

Uptown Boot Jennifer L. Appleby 100

S 04 Waving Lace Evelyn A. Clark 82

Su 04 No socks

F 04 No socks

W 04 Lace Knee-Highs Kristin Spurkland 100

Retro-Rib Evelyn A. Clark 110

S 05 Cable Rib Erica Alexander 92

Su 05 Padded Footlets Mary Snyder 44

Go With the Flow Evelyn A. Clark 96

Baby Socks 100

F 05 Don’t have issue

W 05 Embossed Leaves Mona Schmidt 96

S 06 Simply Lovely Lace Karen Baumer 64

Su 06 No socks

W 06 Cowgirl Slipper Ann Budd 132

S 07 Roza’s Grumperina 120

Su 07 Working toe-up* Ann Budd 24

On-Your-Toes Ann Budd 30

Spiral Boot Veronik Avery 48, 116

F 07 Tyrolean Ann Budd 41 and 78

Snowflake Chrissy Gardiner 56 And 124

* a basic way to make socks, including multi-size chart.

Have I reached any conclusions after this exhaustive little survey? Yes, and they follow, in no particular order:

1. What were they thinking, Summer 98 –Summer 99?

2. What was I thinking in 2002?

3. None of these are terribly complicated socks.

Most of the ones with stranding do not strand the whole sock.

One is a mosaic pattern

One is a cabled-Austrian sort of thing

Many are a simple one color stitch pattern

There are numerous ways to skin a sock represented, from direction to heel type

When compared against the table of contents for IWK’s Favorite Socks:

17 of the 25 are listed here.

One of the 25 is available as a free download on Knitting Daily (Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks by Ann Budd)

One of the 25 is in the Summer 02 Spin Off, which I also have (Two-yarn Resoleable Socks)

Therefore, there is no need for me to buy this book. Granted, I would have them all in one spot, but I would be making a working copy to avoid carrying the book around (Permissable under fair use) and I might as well just make that copy from the magazines.

If, however, you did not have the foresight or cash to start buying Knits in 96, you might want the book. At least 17 of the patterns seem to be from the magazine, so if you don’t own back copies there are a lot of patterns you don’t have. Still, like all pattern collections, look first to see how you like the individual offerings.

Today is Tuesday

2007-10-02T19:36:00.000-04:00

Tuesday is named after the Nrose God Tyr, who put his hand in the wolf Fenrir's mouth and got it bitten off for his troubles.

This may or may not have affected his knitting. He was a god, after all.

And knitting had not been invented.

Anyway...

I have lots of stuff but need to mess around with pictures, and I have not had the energy. But these few things you can appreciate without pictures.

1. I have to frog 90 stitches to a row by about 35 rows on a sock. This is over 3,000 stitches. I am not going to cry!

2. Smiley's has another sale, starting Thursday...

two more confessions...

2007-09-25T08:18:00.000-04:00

First - the yarn I got three bags of two posts ago was Filatura Lanarota, not Filatura di Crosa. Sorry - I am always getting confused about that. So we can turn the accomplishment down a notch in everyone's mind...

Second - I got your comment Lisa W. My ultimate evil plan is to eventually have ALL my knitting friends living within driving distance of Smiley's, and therefore driving distance of ME. MWAHAHAHA!!!!

(Well, except for Benne and SK maybe. Not that I wouldn't want them here but getting our woodland knitting goddesses out of the trees would probably be about as successful as trying to get the Pope out of Rome... sometimes one just has to admit failure and move on...)

Not that I am knocking where any of you live! No, this is all about me. I am smirking evilly.

Canada, by the way, is within driving distance for those who are only very slightly deranged, so you Canucks cannot consider yourselves safe from this plan - you may wake up and find yourselves in Montreal some day.

*Trots off to brew tea and plan the overthrow of, well, something!*

Confessions...

2007-09-24T21:56:00.000-04:00

I went to the Long Island sale, too. I bought two bags of Lana because...well, because it was 100 grams of 100 percent wool each, at less than two dollars a ball. they had it in black, I wear black, I intend to make some felted slipper things in black, case closed. I got two bags. That is 2,604 yards of Worsted Weight wool for twenty bucks. Even though this is not quite as good as the already-knit intarsia wool sweater that had maybe been worn once before I bought it at the Salvation Army on Saturday for four dollars, it is close. And even though the wool may not be Rowan, it is easily good enough for felting, and what do I buy in the store anyway?
When I buy new it is acrylic off the rack in K-Mart, hopefully marked down to "an additional 70 percent off our already low sale price..." Two balls of Patons Classic Wool on sale in ACMoore today would have cost me eight dollars. So...if I use five balls out of the twelve I come out ahead, even if moths get the other seven.

(even though some days I am the windshield, those moths never seem to be the bug, you know?)

I also bought 18 balls of Moda-Dea Cartwheel, which is a thick and thin sort of variegated hot pink. I had bougth one ball in the store last week that I playes with and liked, so I figured why not - they told me three bags would be enough for a sweater.

It was really nice that while I was chatting with the store manager he mentioned all the years I have been shopping there - all the years and all the wool. Our sons are about the same age, and I think they were three when I started - mine is 15 now. Wow.

Anyway, for those who do not know, Smiley's is a yarn store under an Elevated rail line in Queens. The store is very plain, and very full of yarn. They have an extensive selection of a range of things. They carry alpaca, they carry some Reynolds yarns, they carry closeouts and they carry a bit of everything. And, in a city where many yarn stores can get snooty about people who are not willing to spend an exhorbitant amount of money on EACH of 27 balls of yarn for a sweater, they are not snotty. If you go in and buy a 79 cent ball of acrylic, they thank you. If you spend 150 on a huge pile of yarn that you have to carry out in two black plastic trashbags, they thank you. I can vouch for this because I have done both. The shopping baskets are the larger size laundry baskets, and on sale days it is not unheard of to need two.

What exactly they carry has changed somewhat over the dozen years I've been shopping there. It does not carry everything, it does not worry about what is being featured in this month's magazines, and on a non-sale day it may not be terribly exciting. I love it, though, on any day of the week.

Sweater Weather

2007-09-18T08:07:00.000-04:00

There are two ways to know fall is coming in this neck of the woods. It gets cold, and Smiley's starts having sales again.

This year these two coincided. Saturday was the last day of the September store sale and the first really chilly day I've noticed. I don't leave the house much so I might have missed one, but it still would have been last week.

Yes, I went to the sale, and the yarn fairies were with me. I got a second bag of the yellow yarn I bought last spring, in the same dye lot. This virtually ensures tha the first bag, which should have been exactly enough for the sweater planned, WILL be wexactly enough, and I will have a bag of yarn left over - uh, I mean, for another project. And I do already have a pattern in mind...

I got two other bags of the same yarn, in, um, dark beige? Light Taupe? Whatever. It is an acrylic/rayon blend from Filatura di Crosa, and seems to knit up nicely from the swatching I did. Two bags ought to be enough for a sweater with sleeves, if I want one.

I also got some more or less miscellaneous sock yarn - Three balls of Plymouth Encore DK - two burgundy, one gold, for Gryffindor socks; three balls of Calzetteria in a very dark charcoal grey and two of a brown multi for socks; one random ball of worsted because I am considering buying a sweater's worth in that color and wanted to test it out on me, and two balls of something mysterious for a secret project/purpose.

All of this set me back...well, I got change from sixty dollars, for 39 balls of yarn. Unless I forgot something... Can't complain... I do think I may got to the sale on Long Island, though. I forgot to get a bag of wool yarn for ten dollars, and I might want to make a black sweater...

Hogwarts-sock-swap-two contest entry

2007-09-04T15:12:00.000-04:00

What type of pet do you choose as your companion at Hogwarts?
An owl, obviously! Do you have ANY idea how much money this would have saved me in college?
While shopping in Hogsmeade you stop by Honeydukes for some sweets. What treats do you purchase for yourself?
Dark chocolate. I might pick up a few chocolate frog cards, because I would probably have been collecting the cards since I was about seven, but other than that, Dark Chocolate and possibly some confection they have never described in the books that might somehow resemble a cross between Rugglach, Chocolate Croissants, Baklava and Biscotti.
A potion you are preparing needs an ingredient available only at muggle shops. You don't want to stand out in your wizards robes, so you resort to traditional muggle clothing. Describe your outfit in detail. This would really depend on what Muggle shops I have to go into. If we are talking the used-bookstore/hardwarestore/ethnic neighborhood foodstores then I would be wearing black jeans, leather shoes, a jewel-neck very thin knitted top in black, brown or green with a rust colored cabled sweater over it and carrying some huge, canvas-type bag. If it were an office supply/u[sacale stationer's store then I might get to wear a trim little Lois-Lane type suite with a small but excentric had, leather gloves and and a pair of pumps with indecently hight heels. However, most of the Muggle shopping I actually do is at Costco, the supermarket and the dollar store, and recent outfits have included a pair of lavender-blue fake crocs (2.99 at the dollar store) a green pink and white cotton print dress with an elasticized smocked top and tiered skirt that goes down past my knees, and a little black nylon bag I can just cram my little wallet, cellphone and camera into with difficulty and some compromise. I am usually wearing hanging earrings, rings on both hands, a charm bracelet, and frequently a pin, sometimes a crazy pin, and less often a necklace, which is way more jewelry than people in some parts of North America but much less than Professor Trelawney. I would not say I "Accessorize"with anything much except pins, although I do wear shawls pretty much when I want to and whether or not anyone else thinks they would go with my particular outfit.

What is your favorite subject to study at Hogwarts and why? Most favorite would probably be Ancient Runes, although I would probably also be fond of History of Magic, which I would probably cope with by doing all the reading, writing something totally unrelated while class was going on, and asking questions afterwards if I could get Binns to pay attention.

Likewise, what subject is your least favorite and why? I would not like Potions because I would stink at it, although I might very well like Snape as a professor - I tended to like the difficult ones. I have severe moral doubts about Transfiguration of/to living objects and so would probably butt heads with MacGonagall a lot.

Back to the potion you were shopping for ingredients for, what type of potion are you making, what color is it, what are the ingredients, and precisely what does the potion do? The potion I am making is striped a lime green, pink and teal, includes Osprey feathers, Wrackspurt scales and the reed from a clarinet among many many other ingredients. It enables one to dance, although not simply walk, upon the surface of the sea and certain large lakes. Used upon land, it turns one into a virtual Fred Astaire or Ginger Rodgers. (Tonks took some for her wedding and managed not to knock anything over all day...)

God has a sense of humor

2007-09-02T23:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm here, and that's proof, but that is not the only proof that God has a sense of humor.

I have been busy, among other things, swatching like a little madwoman for the pattern for my pal's socks for the Hogwarts Sock Swap 2. Normally I put things off forever, but this time I have been very proactive and, like many good deeds, it has not gone unpunished...

I ordered a possible Gryffindor red yarn to go with yellow-verging-toward-gold yarn that I already have, and it arrived pronto. Except that I am not convinced it is the perfect color. I did try tea-dying it, and that seemed better, but I can hear my mother whispering "Rolled Cookies" in my ear. This is our code expressions for things that seems like a good idea at the time, but are going to leave you with a hell of a clean-up situation and three edible cookies after an exhausting day's work. Is mom right? Who knows.

It did seem, however, prudent to order the color yarn from Knit Picks that is used in the Charmed Knits book. This way, even if it turns out that people (What people? Who will ever be sure WHAT color these things are, given the delicacy of color repro at the best of times, never mind on a million different monitors? But I digress)think I used the wrong color, I will at least have the consolation that SOMEONE thought it was the right color.

This left me with three balls of red (They were on sale and I could not resist) and a ball of yellow in pretty-much-the-same-sockweight and two balls of burgundy in pretty much the same weight. But the yellow was not EXACTLY gold. So I took advantage of the trip to the Mannings that I made on my vacation and bought a single ball of Dale Baby Ull in gold - the color used in Charmed Knits. Why did I not buy two? Because I am an idiot, that is why. I will almost but not exactly certainly need two. Unless I re-think gold toes and heels. I could re-think gold toes and heels. But we do want these to be nice and Gryffy, not just burgundy socks.

Of course I am torturing myself over this fiber anyway. Some of my friends do not like the brands of some of these skeins I have. I lay awake at night pondering this profoundly. For which of my sins is this mental torture punishment? I would like to be able to cross it off the list of things I still have to do penance for... My normal procedure of waiting til the eleventh hour and paddling like mad is starting to look like it actually makes sense.

Meanwhile, in a knitter's home far far away, similar perfectionism is torturing my pal. I know this because we have confessed our perfectionism to each other. She is on her third version of the pattern she is writing for my socks, and I have swatched and rejected no fewer than five stitch patterns. Now that I am down to the ones I think I might use I question the entire premise of the sock. Maybe an entirely different approach?

My pal and I were discussing that Rebecca, who is running the swap, must have matched us very carefully. Clearly, as knitters, we are both perfectionists, not only with what we are making, but with the goodies we are sending. Thanks to her careful and considerate questioning she now knows more about what I would like in a present than most of my close family members. Thanks to my careful questioning, I have a few ideas and hope they are somewhere close.

They might be, though. The latest hilarity concerns the sock patterns we are supposed to send each other. We have been carefully circling each other with veiled queries which will hopefully leave a surprise, right? The surprise is on us. She got me a copy of Cookie A's Twisted Flower Socks pattern. Not having any idea of this, I, seeing this pattern and deciding it was gorgeous, challenging, and looked like fun bought her one. In fact, I liked it so much I bought her one, and me one. Between the two of us we now have three copies of this pattern.

I am laughing at myself here, but somewhere in heaven I think God is laughing so hard he is peeing his pants.

I love it when a plan comes together

2007-07-26T10:47:00.000-04:00

A little while ago (Alright, it was probably months, I am bad at keeping track of these things...) bets, over at the Elann chat center asked us what patterns we had made that worked well, were not too complex, and that we would make again and again - our standbys.

Well, I finally found one, and I am mucho proud, because I have a FINISHED OJECT! (Aside from socks, when was the last time I finished something? And the aforementioned bets has made, like, a dozen sweaters and seventeen accessories since then?)

Can you possibly guess what pattern this is?

If you guessed Wisp (Which can be found in the summer 07 issue of Knitty.com but which for some reason refused repeatedly to be a workable link) congratulations!

Of course it looks very different in Knitty. There, it is made with one ball of laceweight mohair, and it is ethereal to the max. However, I had very little time to do this, and made it for a friend who was going in for surgery. I wanted her to have a Woobie, one she could use as a teddy bear, or a pillow, or a shawl, as she happened to see fit at any moment. I wanted one her family could not felt in the washing machine. And we all know I have a deep, deep fear of blocking, so it had to be at least acceptable right off the needles.

Benne told me years ago that she had made a number of shawls from Lion Brand Homespun and that they had survived the wars, so to speak, and it comes in a plethora of interesting colors, available very conveniently in the nearest AC Moore, with coupon. (I have a ton of this in my very own basement, but Feltdemort could not bear the thought of my cracking open the stash and letting God alone knows what OUT, so he told me to just buy some more...Well, ok, Break MY arm...)

I must now extole the virtues of this combination, and they are many...

I cast on 48 stitches. Somewhere along the line I lost two. I kept going on 46. You can't tell.

I had numerous times during the very quick-time-pressured knitting of this shawl where I found myself one or two short or over, and I made it up by adding one or two where I thought it wouldn't be noticeable, or leaving out a knit two together, or I threw in a yarn over where I thought it wouldn't hurt - between the end four stitches and the lace part on the first row of a lace section. You can't tell.

The pattern is incredibly simple, memorized in about 22 seconds, so you don't need to carry it with you. To make it even simpler, I left out the buttonholes on the sides, figuring if I dedided to add buttons I could also add some way to button them, later. I did not add buttons.

This dark blue shawl was all over the couch, the floor, the car, my son, etc. while being knit. You can't tell.

It was not prohibitively expensive to knit. I used less than two skeins. With a coupon or two, this is less than ten dollars.

It does not look cheesy. It looks very pretty.

It can be almost any length. I stopped when I ran out of time, and it is long enough to wear with a shawl pin. I could have kept going with the yarn in the second skein, which I used less than half of, and had a luxuriously long shawl. If I had reduced the number of stitches I cast on, I could have made it shorter, with buttons, like the original.

I did not try killing it, because I did not have time to test a swatch and see whether I liked it that way or not, but I am planning such an experiment for the future.

I think my friend liked it. She is the sort of person who gives handmade gifts, so she was likely to, and she seemed to. I was not going to be able to visit her in the hospital, so I felt like I was sending a hug along. And I was able to avoid the post office.

Win, Win, Win, Win, Win. I will be making this again, and in other yarns.

PS. It is reported that all went well.

I have the coolest Mom ever

2007-07-15T22:19:00.001-04:00

I got a call from my mother today - the same mother I have lured over to the dark side. (MWAHAHAHA - see earlier post on this topic)

It is not at all surprising to get a call from my mother. It happens several times a day. Usually, though, the topics are, well, the usual. How am I, what she has eaten so far today, her plans for her vacation/Christmas shopping/painting/artshow - stuff like that. Today she surprised me, however. (She has always been able to surprise me, so this is not really a trend, more a constantly recurring state of affairs.)

"Which Harry Potter character do you think I would be?" she asked without preamble.

There is more than one way to answer the question, of course. Which character do I think she would most like to be is one way, and which character I think she is most like is the obvious second. There is a slight problem in that my mother is totally different from anyone else I have ever met in my life, and has never fit into a pigeon-hole. I gave her the best answer I could.

"Well, if you are being your working self, then MacGonagall, but if you are being your Mama-Bear self, then Molly Weasley. Although Molly can be a little petty and you aren't ever."

Apparantly her first thought had been Minerva as well, but she was surprised by Molly. I hastened to add, "and she is an excellent cook, less in the first book but very much so in the later ones. And Very protective of her children."

I wouldn't say either one of these two is exactly like my mom: most pressingly, she would have told Harry about Voldemort's plans, or, rather, she would have gone into Dumbledores office and explained to him with great fervor why it was necessary for him to do it. My mother is not one for keeping kids in the dark about possible dangers. The books would have had a lot less drama if she were in them. I know this because while my life has had its share of stupidity, none of it has been ridiculously easily avoidable drama.

Hmmm...she's better at being Molly than Molly is. If I ever meet Mrs. Weasley I will have to rub that in a little. Sometimes she gets on my nerves...

And why is this on my knitting blog? Because with the Hogwarts sock swaps, my knitting and my Pottering are intertwined.

And, oh, I may have forgotten to tell you...Mom is a Gryffindor. I was not sure whether she'd sort Claw, but she was adament. No, she is a Gryff. And now it is out here for the world to know. Godric, wherever you are, take it as a compliment. She is not, and never has been, much of a joiner!

I knit, I sent, and I received...

2007-07-13T14:28:00.000-04:00

I finally finished the Hogwarts socks I have been torturing for the last few months and sent them off to my poor victim with a few other goodies.

I am very proud of these socks. My pal is obviously a Hufflepuff, and I decided to go with two themes - Goblet of Fire, which is the book the Huffs appear in best and most (Remember Cedric Diggory....) and flowers, because Professor Sprout is, after all, their Head of House. The socks are strictly GoF...the top pattern is false flame stitch, representing the Dragon task. The stitches around the ankle looked like bubbles to me, although Barbara Walker mistakenly thought they looked like something else, and I put them in for the lake challenge - Diggory used the BubbleHead charm, after all... and the foot is a mosaic pattern, also BW, called Maze. I'm sure you know why I chose that one.

Knitting it became a little complicated. As it turned out, I got almost identical guages on the upper half of the sock using two entirely different sizes of knitting needles. I got confused. On the first sock I used size 000, on the second, slightly smallish size 0's. I pulled really tightly on the second sock, and you can only see any difference at all if you inspect them with a gimlet eye. I think one ended up about a 32nd of an inch longer. But trust me, I had to LOOK.

The maze portion took a lot of ripping, because the mosaic portion contracts in length, and so to have the top and the bottom of the sock, which was just striped, the smae length, I had to use size 00 on the bottom and size 1 on the top. At least I think it was size one. I would recognize the needles if I saw them again...

Why did this seem to me to be easier, simpler, than just putting the mosaic pattern all the way around? Beats me entirely.

If I did it again I would use an even larger needle on the mosaic, or more stitches, and I would forget the stripes and put it all the way around.

I am tryng to write up this pattern and post it here so that others in the second HSS will be able to use it if they want to. Quite likely no one will be crazy enough, but it was really a simple pattern excpet for the changing needles, and I won't try that again... well, unless there is no other way to do it!

I put a knitted purse with a flower on it in the box, along with a pin, the hematite stitch markers you all gave me advice about, two sets of double points, a special stitch holder that has wooden cups at both ends and an elastic connecting them - you make all your needles parallel, and then slip the cups over the ends. Voila - nothing will poke out your bag, and no stitches get lost! I figured out how to make it from things I've seen, and I am so proud of myself! I threw in some yellow sock shaped point protectors was well, in case she likes those better. I also threw in a yellow plastic easter egg with a little bit of yarn for darning...there was not much of the yellow left - and a needle. I wanted it to be super terrific and I don't think I equalled some of the boxes I've seen here, but I hope I did not embarrass myself either, or disappoint my pal. I agree with others here - that would be the worst!

I also got my box from my pal! She is Terri of Terriknits.blogspot.com, and does she know how to pack a swap box!

First, the socks! They are hand-dyed yarn in Gryffindor's colorway, with a lightning bolt of purl stitches down the middle of the front between two rows of what I am pretty sure are horseshoe cables. She designed these herself, and they are perfect - The lightning bolt is Harry's scar, so that covers Book 7, and the horseshoe cables? Well, those are the footprints of the centaurs or the Thestrals, and work perfectly for the movie. Two, two, two perfections in one, if I may murder the old Doublemint gum commercials... These socks went on vacation with her, and I would like to point out a lovely example of interhouse unity - the camel on the postcard from the vacation location is wearing Ravenclaw colors...

I prefer metal needles, and so she sent me the terrific just-about-every-smaller-size-of-needle-you-could-possibly-want set from Susan Bates. There are four sets of needles in there! The package also included a tin of hand cream, a tinned candle, the rest of the wool from my socks, so I can darn them and great stitch markers that she made herself.

The most amazing "Extra", however, is the skein of sock yarn. It is hand dyed by a lady in Wales named Dee, who runs Posh Yarns, and the colorway, which she calls "Deep Water" is exactly what I would have chosen for myself. It is a cashmere blend and way, way softer than you can even imagine I will have to search long and hard before I find a pattern deserving of being knit up in this!

All in all, I have to say that my first swap feels like a great success to me, and I only hope the person who will soon be in receipt of the box I sent feels the same way!

Second Hogwarts Sock Swap!!!

2007-07-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

I have finished torturing the Goblet of Fire Socks - photos when I get them uploaded. There is a downside to having a one Gig memory card in the camera - when you get around to uploading, it takes FOREVER...

But, in the meantime, I am going to answer my questionaire for the second swap... I invite you to join us! (Don't worry, you won't get stuck with me - I'm going to be a "Second Year!" *preens and struts*

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire
Second Years

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?

Gryffindor!!!

2. Shoe size? Foot length? Foot circumference?

Technically, I am an 8 and 1/2 triple E. This is a very hard
size to get, so usually I just buy a nine, sigh, and feel sorry for
my pinkie toes.

My feet are 9 and 3/4 inches long (like the platform) and 9 and 3/4 inches
around (Also like the platform. In fact, sometimes when I look down at them
they look almost as big as a train platform, or I wish they were on a train
platform, or....)

I have to say I like my socks with some negative ease in the width. They
can be as long as my feet, but if they are as wide, then they feel loose and
sloppy and I feel like I am running around in public wearing pajamas
with no underoos... This is probably just a personal quirk and I assure the
universe that you are all free to like your socks loose. I just like mine
snug.

3. List your three favorite sock yarns.

I am pretty sure some of these are not
made anymore, and I have not tried tons, but I will list three anway...

a. Socka

b. Silja

c. Socka Cotton

4. Would you like to try a new brand of sock yarn? If so, which brand?

Hmmm...yes, I might, and I think it would be nice if it was very soft and
fairly tightly spun, like Koigu, but I know from experience it had better
be superwash... from sad, sad, experience...

5. Do you prefer variegated or solid sock yarn?

I prefer solids. I might like a variegated, but I
DO NOT like self-patterning.

6. What colors would you like to add to your sock yarn stash?

Vivid, pretty ones! Purples, pinks, blues, greens (But not Kelly/Saint
Patrick's day green)reds, or vivid autumn colors like rusts, purples, deep
greens...

7. What kind of sock patterns do you gravitate toward? Lace? Ribbed? Fair Isle?
I gravitate towards really interesting patterns, as most simple ones I can
figure out for myself. I like lace, some Fair Isle, and more complicated
cables.

8. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, animals, etc.)

I am allergic to smoke, but as far as I know I am not allergic to pet
animals or fibers.

9. Will your socks be exposed to cigarette smoke or animals as you knit them?

No, not at all. We have no pets and no one smokes here. I don't take my
knitting anywhere where people smoke either, now that I think of it.

10. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?

Yes!

News of my abduction has been greatly exagerrated...

2007-06-25T12:46:00.000-04:00

*coughs*

More than one person has kinly pointed out that I have not posted in - yikes! - over a month. And there are reasons. I have noticed that most knitting blogs always include a picture or two, and I have not had pictures to post because...

Well, I have been torturing those Hufflepuff socks to death, and that has been my main knitting occupation. The second one is down to the heel and has been for several days now - I forgot which set of needles I knitted it on and am currently on my fourth size trying to get the same guage as the first sock. Note to self - TAKE NOTES NEXT TIME!!!!

I'm also working on a little purse from a book by family got me, also in Hufflepuff colors, and figured out a way to make really cool point protectors for Double points.
I haven't wanted to post those because I want people to see them when my pal gets her package and hopefully be wowed...

There are several other little items I am working on, but I don't know if they will be done in time to get them into the package and don't want to disappoint anyone.

I am also mentally torturing myself trying to design a sock or two for next round. This is my first swap ever and I think it has been a really good one by and large - everyone who has posted a package has had really nice things to show, and many people seem really really excited and creative about what they are doing. There are one or two others I have looked at and decided to pass on, for various reasons.

The ones with particular dollar amounts, for example, make me nervous. I understand the idea behind the state amounts of course - it is only fair that people have an idea of what is expected. The thing is that all my life my family had taken gift budgets as creative starting points, and therefore I am very accustomed to putting together something that if I bought each part would be worth a lot more, but I was able to do it because I shopped really carefully and made things. I could easily see myself having sleepless nights over questions like "If I make a pair of earrings and I know identical earrings sell for ten dollars, can I figure that is ten dollars, or do I have to add up what the beads cost me five years ago and use that figure..." Ridiculous, of course, because no one would even know I made them unless I told, but I can have attacks of scrupulosity that get in my way.

Which reminds me, I should make a pair of earrings to throw in...

I hope to have a picture of the finished socks very soon, and maybe some of the other things. I just noticed people putting postcards in their packages, and slapped my forehead - yes, there are things around here people would want postcards of!

Off to knit so there will be something to show you...

And yes, there is another installment of that Dumbledore knitting fic coming. It is a little dark, though, and I am not sure how people will take it. Well, at least it is not the kind of fan fic that makes people cover their children's eyes in horror, saying "Dobby would NEVER do that!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh, and there will be photos of knitterly birthday swag as soon as a certain mule gets here. I don't think my friend paid extra for the arthritic one - I think that was just luck of the draw!!!!!

Hogwarts-sock-swap Hufflepuff socks!

2007-05-25T08:20:00.000-04:00

This is the sock I am working on for my pal. Obviously, she is a Hufflepuff, and I chose a few themes for her package - one in the Goblet of Fire, which I think is the book where, because of Cedric, we really see the most of Hufflepuff, and the other is flowers, because Professor Sprout is the Head of House.

I designed this sock around the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The False Flame stitch at the top represents the Dragons. The Blister stitch, which looks like bubbles, represents the challenge in the lake - from the bubbles in Harry's bath, to the bubbles air breathers make underwater, to the Bubblehead Charm Cedric used. The Maze represents the maze. They are all from Barbara Walker (The second book). I am knitting it in Elann's Sock it to Me Collection sock yarn - Elann does not have any right now and I don't now if they are going to carry it in the future, but it is nice, not splitty, 230 yards to 50 grams 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamide. I've also used it for Fair Isle socks.

Technical notes:

I wanted the design to flow better and I tried several ways to get the bubbles to fit into the false flame stitch, obviously without success, although I am sure it can be done. I 'm fairly happy with the way the maze picks up from the bubbles, but I have questioned whether it might not look better with a contrasting purl row in black between each section.

The first two patterns are slip stitch, and had to be worked on a very small needle - 000 - in order to get guage. They are very elastic, and that is much better for a sock than being restricted by the floats in Fair Isle the way I make them. I am certain that people who are more experienced at Fair Isle than I am can control the tension of their floats better, but I still think the slip stitch is more elastic by nature. In these patterns you work one color per row, and the other color is carried up or down by dip stitches or by slipping.

The third pattern is a mosaic pattern. It is much tighter than slip stitch and I had to use a needle two sizes larger, and perhaps should have used one Three sizes larger to perfectly match guage, although it is pretty close. It is also very much less elastic, although still elastic enough for a sock, perhaps in part because I patterned the top,but the bottom is just plain stockinette stripes. I am a little concerned about the line where I am carrying the colors up, on the bottom of the foot, but I am probably being paranoid. I plan to carry this pattern down to the toe shaping. I looked for a mosaic or slip stitch pattern that would look like the cup itself but did not find one. I'm not sure how to design one and I want these socks to be done in one lifetime, so I decided to do without the cup. (Besides which, it was not a happy thing for Cedric, that cup...)

On a symbolic level I am quite happy. On an artistic level I am not quite sure - when it is further along I will be able to judge better. It was a nice stretch trying to design a pattern to go with the book, though. I have ideas for patterns for some of the other books as well, and a great idea for a Slytherin House sock...

Dumbledore always wanted socks.

2007-05-23T10:58:00.000-04:00

You may or may not know that I am quite serious about my fan fiction writing. I was thinking about Dumbledore, and those socks he wanted... Here is the first part of a short story involving Dumbledore's socks.

It looked almost like a wizarding shop. Small, cozy, there was a small round wooden table at the window where two women in shawls were sitting with paper cups of tea, probably, laughing. A table over – there were only the two tables – three woman sat, focusing intently on the work in their hands--socks, he could see, heels about to be turned.

It was not a wizard shop. The spinning wheel which took up the other half of the window, the one to the left of the door, was not spinning of its own accord. If he had a wool shop with a spinning wheel it would spin all the time. The clippings in the window would be from the daily prophet, the knitters in them would be waving to passers by, and he would have the exterior painted a prettier color than medium-old-dirty-beige. “I should have – purple, I think. And pretty china teacups, with roses, and the roses would be blooming and going back to buds while they drank. I do like those heart’s ease in the window box, though.” No one noticed that as he passed them, and put his hand to the door handle, the plants perked up and suddenly looked like the examples in a gardening magazine, thicker, fuller, and greener than they had moments before, the faces on the flowers giving the odd impression of winking.

She had seen this man before – he came in from time to time. He always looked a bit formal, in his narrow lapelled suit and wing tip shoes, his long beard hanging down in front of his tie, if he was wearing one, a flat visored cap perched incongruously on his thick white hair. If Santa lost a great deal of weight… she always thought when she saw him. He’s just a bit old-fashioned, though. To him the forty years ago that he bought that suit must seem like yesterday. Takes his tea with several lumps of sugar, I recall.

He came up to her, as he always did, smiling kindly. “Good morning,” he said. “I hope you are faring well today?” His eyes really did twinkle – she had not seen too many twinkling eyes in her day. I wonder if it’s the way he smiles that does that, or something in his eyes themselves? Well, no matter.

“Well enough, thank you,” she replied, smiling.

“And business, has it been good?” he asked, politely, looking directly at her.

“Fair enough. The first few years are always a bit difficult, but I should be rounding the bend any day now,” she said, surprising herself. The precarious nature of her income and outgo, and the number of nights she had breakfast cereal for dinner, were closely guarded secrets.

“I do think there is a great resurgence coming in knitting. It may be a few years, but I do sense that things will pick up. They move in cycles, you know. Now that is a lovely yarn I did not see last time.” He was nodding his head toward a very forward looking hank of thick and thin yarn, hand dyed in purples and mauves. She smiled at him.

“You have marvelous taste. That’s hand-dyed in Whales. She’s going to go far, that one. Would you like to see it? I always think you really have to touch the yarn to appreciate it.” She was taking the yarn down from the hook behind her as she spoke, and placing it into his hands. “It always seems like magic to me, the way these dyers can blend the colors, and the results! This makes a lovely scarf or hat. It’s quite dear, but you can mix it with another yarn for a sweater and if this is in the yoke it will draw the eye right up to the face.”

“Quite lovely, I agree. Alas, I know of no one to whom I could give such a sweater. But today I am on a mission,” he confided, twinkling at her again. She tilted her head as a sign that she was listening, and he went on. “I have been wanting nice thick socks for many years now, nice thick socks to wear in a drafty old place for the winter. People will insist on giving me books instead. It does occur to me that there is more than one way to get one’s heart desire, however. I would like to knit myself some socks. I have enquired and been told no one does this any longer, and yet I see several ladies knitting them over at your table. I had thought you might succeed where others had failed.”

It was a warm feeling, that vote of confidence, a warm feeling and a vindication. They thought she was crazy, the lot of them, and yet here was this man wanting to knit his own socks, and he never had, and he nearer a hundred than fifty. It was going to be the people no one expected who took it up again – this was just the latest sign. “I have some nice wools here – these are all machine wash, and we’ve got needles and patterns. Did you have a price range in mind?” I’ll give him the yarn if he can’t afford it. Nice old man, and it’ll be worth it just to see him doing it.

“I believe I can manage. Your very clearly posted prices make that clear to me. Do you know that some shops require one to enquire for each price?” He seemed a bit chagrined.

“Yes, I’ve never liked that myself. Embarrassing, and then you feel you have to buy something, even if you can’t afford any of it. Here I’ve got it all laid out, and we have a small selection of bargain yarns in the back for people who need real indestructibility,” she responded.

“Oh, I believe I will be able to repair them. It is just knowing how to knit them myself. My mother did, you know, but I never learned.”

“Well, we will have you speeding along in no time.”

*****

“She sat me down with several young ladies, Fawkes, and showed me how to hold the needles for plain knitting. It’s not like holding a wand, I recalled that, but the temptation was great. I did persist, however, and I have this to show for it. I am trapped between amusement and amazement each time I cast my eyes upon it.”

It was a more or less square bit of wool, about six inches square. Dumbledore regarded it fondly. “Holes here and there where there should not be, Fawkes, and it is not quite square, but it will do for under the teapot. I have discovered my mistakes and shall do better on this next one. We shall have you leave it in Professor Mac Gonagal’s room, and see if she notices…” His eyes were twinkling again.

The surface of the desk was warm from the sun in that corner, and he ran his fingers over it lovingly. It was smooth from years of wear, mellowed with age, very very pleasant to the touch. “I am learning a great deal, Fawkes. Silk, for example, is not necessarily as soft as silk, not in a knitting yarn at least, and cotton, sometimes cotton is. But we will be knitting with wool. Wool with something else mixed in. And we will be using five needles at one time. I will admit I am impressed with myself. One must never stop learning, Fawkes. It keeps the mind alert, active, and in this case, it will keep the feet warm as well. But I shall prepare properly for my lesson.

****Next – Dumbledore enters the Penseive…****

I should have kept my mouth shut....

2007-05-21T01:01:00.000-04:00

I should have kept my nouth shut about Feltdemort and my secret plans to provide the boy and me with unfeltable yarn, although really, the deed might already have been done when I wrote that. No, maybe not. Whatever. When I came downstairs this morning laundry was in train, and what did I see?

The last pair of hand knit socks, felted.

I leave you to imagine the carnage.

After which it was time for the trip to Smileys I had already planned, for the acrylic sock yarn I had already decided to buy.

Most people only know Smiley's from the internet yarn sales. I know Smiley's from about 1994 or 95. I know it from back before there were so many places selling discount yarn. I know it from when you could occasionally get a bag of 100% wool knitting yarn for five dollars.

There is a lot to love about Smileys, and none of it has anything to do with the candyshop boutique yarnstores you find all over today. It is a real NY experience. It is on a street under an elevated rail line, with the sun filtered through the tracks. It is a door or two down from a laundromat. The walls are white and the shelves are a mixed bag of wooden cubbies and those wire grid boxes. Oaktag signs hand down on sale days announcing prices. There are no mysterious bins of yarns you are not sure you can afford - everything is marked. The cubbies go up to the ceiling, and the ceiling is high. On sale days there are cardboard boxes in the aisles with additional merchandise. It reminds me of shopping in the garment district 20 years ago.

You can buy afghan yarn in Smileys. You can buy acrylic baby yarn. You get amazing deals on things of which they may only have a few colors - a Paton's yarn was available only in Grey today - at 59 cents a skein. You can also buy yarn that was very expensive to begin with. They have all the novelties that have been popular these past few years, but they also have 100 percent wool worsted weight in a lot of colors. They have a bunch of Reynolds yarns. And they have an amazing clientele.

Of all the places I go, the one where I am most likely to run into someone is Smileys. It happens all the time. A guy from a guild I used to belong to who has been published in Knitters, the wife of the amateur lawyer who helped keep us from getting evicted in from our first apartment, a woman today from my spinning guild which meets a good 60 miles and numerous LYS's away... I forget who all I have run into in there over the years.

Today I met the woman who taught me how to cast on for socks ten or twelve years ago. Raymond, the manager had made the connection for us then - she was in the store and could answer my question. Not only did she remember me, and Socker, and teaching me, but she also recalled exactly how old my son was that one time I saw her, a decade ago. And she had a great tip about gussets I am still trying to absorb.

At Smileys you do not carry your purchases around in your arms, and you do not get a whimpy little produce basket. No, they have LAUNDRY baskets piled up by the door, and it is entirely Kosher, especially on sale days, to need more than one. I have been going there so long the supply of Laundry baskets has been augmented and replaced several times already. While you shop you have random conversations with all sorts of knitters and crocheters, the sort of people who subscribe to Vogue Knitting but also the sort who don't subscribe to anything, who can't figure out how much RHSS they need for an afghan, who are trying their first sweater project, who are....fill in the blank. Very real people, most of them - people who really love knitting, who are not living boutique lives... people of numerous ethnicities and backgrounds, people from all sorts of neighborhoods, and in there, you talk to whoever is buying yarn next to you.

This is the only store where my son has ever been helped by a sales clerk. One helped him buy me skein of yarn as a surprise once. I love the people there.

What was my haul?

Skein after skein of Bernat's Hot Sox in multicolors, one in red, and one in blue. A Wendy 100 percent Acrylic sportweight in a variegated blue and a multi. Patons Canadiana, two or three skeins of mulitcolor (Are we sensing a theme yet?) Wool sock yarn in black and in three balls of Ravenclaw colors, why I cannot tell you when I have 20 balls of blue Kroy in the basement and belong to Gryffindor, ( I was thinking vaguely of swaps) I got six balls of a ribbon yarn to make a sweater I am almost done making in cotton, and a bag, for ten dollars, of rayon and synthetic to make myself a Berrocco top I have been eyeing. (IT is EXACTLY enough, and I am wondering if that means I might run out and whether or not I should run back for another bag.) I also got three balls of EncoreDK, two of which are cream colored, for dying. I have seen on Grace's blog that you can dye Encore, and I am very hopeful that despite its 25 % wool content, the Master of the House will not be able to felt it. I got two sets of dpn's for my spoilee.

For two summer sweaters, two pair of wool socks, four or five pair of thick acrylic socks, at least six but probably many more thin acrylic socks, a dye project and the black I need to make a second pair of Hufflepuff socks just because I designed them and now have to make them, (I already had the yellow in that weight)AND two sets of Doublepoints I paid 80 dollars. To a store I love. Where people I adore work. And they threw in a bunch of free patterns to all their mailing list customers.

I am too tired to take a picture.

Sigh. Very satisfying day.

I Have Brought My Mother Over to the Dark Side....

2007-05-19T15:58:00.000-04:00

MWAHAHAHA....

As those of you who have known me for a while know, I have a marvelous and hertofore somewhat knitting impaired mother. I do not hold this against her. She is a wiz at about a million things, most of which, quite frankly, I suck at, so if knitting was not her thing: if knitting was something she did one sweater's worth of per grandchild, and that reluctantly, and if crochet followed closely after, well, that was ok.

Over the past - oh, year or so, we have seen some creeping, however. There was a scarf... there were a bunch of yarmulkes crocheted for a friend's grandson's Bar Mitzvah. There were plans to do some yarmulkes for my niece's Bat Mitzvah, as well. This is all acrylic we are talking about here, or cheap acrylic/cotton blend - the sort of financial commitment you are prepared to make when knitting/crocheting is not a huge part of your life.

(And I stop here to say that sometimes RHSS is the very best yarn you could dream of for a particular project and then you knit with it for that reason, and make no apologies. I am hatching a plan currently to get some Bernat Hot Socks for Socker, so I can make some socks Feltdemort can't felt.)

However, the infection was spreading, unbeknownst to us all.

A few weeks ago she told me she was making me a present for my birthday and that I MUST tell her if I did not like it. She told me this several times, in fact, and then arrived the other day for the weekly visit with this in hand...

Ok, for whatever bizarre reason, blogger will not take my photo right now. However, trust me when I say it is a beautiful crocheted shawl made from Lion Suede. Gorgeous colors, a melange of purple, rust, gold and green...and so so soft...It has become my new Woobie. I wore it that day, in fact, and it perfectly finished off my outfit of Linen top and Black slacks with the jazzy vintage handbag from Little Aunt Mary and my cute black flats from Rainbow.

Some people are snotty about all Lion Brand products but they actually have some nice things, including chenilles. I can't stop touching this thing. I have been wearing it around the house for warmth. In between, I just look at it.

I did not, however, expect her to take me seriously when I told her to look in the yarn aisle at ACMoore when she went up to get her paintings framed the other day. She did. I had made inroads. And while she was there, she saw a pattern book from Coats and Clark that she liked, with a very nice crochet cardigan on the front, made in their yarn, Aztec. How do I know this? Because I got the phone call. THE phone call. The phone call every fiber-us daughter of a fiber-free mother waits for. Short form?

"I need to know what weight this yarn is."

Those were not her exact words, but what she wanted to know. She could not find the yarn called for and needed to substitute.

Ah, the joy! The discussion of the style of the jacket - assymetrical opening on a symetrical jacket with a slightly scooped neck and large buttons. Sitting at my screen and calling up the pattern booklet, Yarndex, and the websites of several companies I thought might have suitable yarn. Kvelling over the beauties of a piece that would change its look entirely with a simple change of buttons. Revelling in how much use one would get out of a light jacket that could be outerwear during transitional weather and innerwear during the winter months. And the realization, after pricing it out for her, that my mother felt perfectly fine about spending 40 dollars on the yarn for this.

That, my friends, is no longer a dabbler. My mother is good with her money. 40 dollars represented the jump to hyper-space.

No, it didn't, she told me. "I already did that with your shawl."

I am dying of the bliss.

For Lily, my pal

2007-05-16T22:44:00.000-04:00

I am supposed to be blogging more often, so that Lily, my Hogwarts-sock-swap spoiler can get a better idea of me.

So, here is some random information that was not included on the Hogwarts-sock-swap questionaire that she might find useful. None of this information is to be construed as a request or demand for anything - just random things, except for the chocolate. Chocolate is not random info because it is important in the Potterverse - you really have to know where one stands on Chocolate! (You don't have to send them any - you should just know where they stand...)

1. Dark Chocolate. The Darker the better.

2. Good Snape, not Evil Snape.

3. I have my own theory about the last Horcrux, which I will not reveal in public but might tell you personally if you ask...

4. I have a not-so-secret belief that a new sack, bag, thing-into-which-other-things-can-be-put can save the world. From what, I am not sure, but save it, certainly, and wonder why there are not more sacks in the Potterverse. And why the ones there are are always breaking and getting the owner in trouble...

5. I really actually like the Gryffindor colors. But I also like green. I like snakes, in fact - knew people who kept them as a hobby when I was a kid. I like blue, but I have to wear warm blues, because many blues make me look like the undertaker got called away before he was quite finished...

6. I do not finish everything I start. The smaller the project, the greater the likelihood of getting it done... And I start WAY too many things...

7. I am irked every time someone at Hogwarts talks about studying Ancient Runes. There are runic alphabets, it should take about a day to memorize one, what is Hermione's problem? Obviously they must be teaching either the runes and stuff written with the runes, but what, exactly? TELL US ALREADY. Ok, rant over. It wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't want to take the course...

Anyone here who figures there is something my pal must know about me in order to do justice to my feet is invited to comment...

Tweakin it Tuesday

2007-05-15T10:42:00.000-04:00

Amy asked how long the little tie bag I posted last week took to make. I did not time myself. However, I have kept the question in mind as I have been working on the little Tie bags from Last Minute Fabric Gifts, and while I do not have pictures (You do not want to see the carnage) I have figured some things out.

The picture they show, which is on page 29, shows a plaid fabric, probably a wool or wool blend. It is one of those ties that has a bit of body to begin with . You lop off the end of the tie, sew that bottom shut and attach two bits of tape and half a hook and eye. How long could this take?

There is a little flaw in the pattern, if you want to look at it that way - tiea are interfaced, but, from the ties I am looking at, they are only interfaced in the front. The back of the Tie, which becomes the front of the bag, has therefore got less body, and if you put lumpy things in there the lumps will show. Also, some of the ties are lined, but the lining does not extend down the full 7 or 8 inches of the bag. Therefore you can sort of "lose" a little thing up in between the lining and the bag fabric.

Now all of this is really nit-picking. If you are making these bags to put a handkerchief in, or even an MP3 player, it makes no difference. You aren't going to be putting coins in them because the closure won't keep the coins in. If you are, however, constituted in such a way that you cannot help but "improve" on things you find imperfect, well, then, better a bag pattern than the in-laws, right?

What I have tried:

Interfacing with felt. Too bulky, not recommended.

Interfacing with iron-on - got a little stiff. It also required the fabric being flat, not a tie-end. (See Below)

Lining totally with cotton. - I did not do this with a complete tie. When you cut off that 8 or 9 inches, you have quite a bit of tie left, and so I made a new point on my what-was-left bit, interfaced it, lined it with cotton also cut on the bias, and am now searching around for the two-yards-one-and-one-half-feet of tape I had left from the first bag...(Have I ever mentioned I have trouble keeping track of things?)

I think Either the lining Or the interfacing might work better than both, so next time that is what I am going to do.

I spent a good hour torturing that leftover bit of tie in one way and another before I ended up ready to do the original bit of sewing on the loop and eye and little handle. I had tiny bits of felt and interfacing and oddly cut parts of tie all over my kitchen (Have I ever mentioned that not matter what I do I wreck a High Mass with every single project and it takes Herculean efforts to clean up after myself.? Feltdemort is willing to testify before the Wizengamot on this...)

Conclusion? If you are a normal person, not me, and do the project as described in the book, it is a very quick thing. Quarter of an hour, maybe? Half, if you have trouble finding the thread and needle? If, on the other hand, you try to "fix" it, it will take several times longer. At least for the first one. But they are fun.

I have two more ties I will be torturing. Follow up to follow.

Way-it-was Wednesday

2007-05-08T23:42:00.000-04:00

I believe I have mentioned before that I have knit a few socks over the years for Socker. Socker likes color patterns better than texture or solid stockinette, and I try to accomodate when I have time, patience, and thin enough yarn.

These socks were something of an experiment.

I knitted them in slip stitch patterns because I figured they would be thinner and fit under shoes better than stranded knitting. That worked.

I knitted on with triangular patterns and one, I think, with square patterns. That worked.

I used two yarns which were both sparkly and very close in value. That did not work so well. It is very hard, even in good light, in person, with your reading glasses on, to really appreciate the pattern.

Failure? Success? They were never Socker's favorites, but I learned a few things. You decide.

Tweakin'it Tuesday...

2007-05-08T19:28:00.000-04:00

Not sure exactly what I am tweaking. The details of how to make this little bag from Last-Mintue Fabric Gifts, maybe. I wrote about it yesterday, and here is a picture. It is about five inches long, to give you a sense of scale.

I am also working on tweaking the pattern for the Pinwheel Sweater at Elann.com. Recall, I said my yarn was lieing. It is. This would make a lovely washcloth, and guess what my mother will be getting along with whatever else for Mama's day thi year? It just happens to be her color, too. If the drape were what we want it for the sweater, it would be less satisfactory to scrub with. Here's hoping the next swatch is washcloth - useless...

Made-it-myself-Monday

2007-05-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

How did it get to be a week and a half since my last post? Spring Fever? Whatever. I have been swatching and so forth and, so, forthly...

I swatched the perle cotton Elann had on sale on size zero needles using the butterfly pattern from the camisoles in the summer "02 Interweave Knits. It came out quite nice, but at almost 9 stitches to the inch, instead of 8. I like the fabric, so I would have to adjust the size I suppose. This is the unwashed swatch.

I have also been toying with various other things to make as little prezzies for my spoil-ee. I have made a very preliminary model of a pin to hand stitch markers on. I am NOT satisfied with the design and this is not the pin I would be sending, but you get the general idea, I think. In the long run I think it will actually end up beign something much simpler. However, just so's you can laugh at my design evolution...

I have been considering a little bag like one of the ones I made for the HUGe, the tie bag from "Last minute Fabric Gifts," (Amy QOY is a genius and I should just go buy any book she suggests without worrying my little head over it - I always like the stuff she picks.)I have been looking for an appropriate tie, and finally today I just got a Gryff colored one from the dollar store (Yes, Virginia, in my neighborhood you can buy a tie in the dollar store. This week. It is a small, independently owned dollar store and they have different stuff all the time, so maybe not next week, but this week they had them, and, considering that they only cost a dollar, they really weren't bad. I mean, they were not hideously ugly.) I do not have a finished picture of that, though.

I have gotten nowhere on Wren, swatched a washcloth's worth for the Lara Pinwheel sweater only to discover that my yarn is lying through it's little French teeth about being sportweight and that I will have to mess with the pattern, and bought a brand new pair of flip flops for the knitted shoes on Floofle that Les pointed us to.(IF I can make this pattern work for me, the world will be my oyster. I don't eat oysters, but they might make good, undemanding pets...) and made a sock blocker for one of Squash's sock out of a placemat. Warning, placemats are getting cheaper and nastier, as if that were possible. Just thought I'd let you all know....

Sockerly, Potterly questions....

2007-04-25T11:29:00.000-04:00

I sort of ran away with myself yesterday and made sample stitch markers. They are for my Hufflepuff Hogwarts-sock-swap secret pal, and my original intention was to make a bunch to decide which one I liked best, and then go back and make 5 more of that one. I made twelve total, six from Hematite beads, which have a metallic sheen, and six from black stone.

Here are the ones from Hematite. You can't really see the color - it is a silvery/gunmetal/black metallic.

And here are the ones from Black stone:

So, now, the questions.

1. They are hanging on a size one needle. The metal loops are big enough for up to about a size 5 needle, making them basically for socks to DK weight sweaters. Is that big enough, or would people really prefer larger ones?

2. If I were just going to choose one of these twelve and make five more to go with it, which one would you say I should pick to replicate?

3. If I am going to give one of these two sets, as a set of coordinating rather than perfectly matching markers, which set do you think is the nicest?

On to the Swatches...

Here are some slip-stitch patterns I swatched. I am thinking of picking three of these to combine (They tell a story.)

Here is a lace pattern that reminded me of the moving staircases at Hogwarts.

All of these are from Barbara Walkers Second Treasury. I have a few more questions...

4. Have you ever made a sock where you knit the top of the foot first, then knit the bottom, attaching as you go with K2tog at that end of each row?

5. If you did, did you find the place where the "Seam" occurs irritating?

6. Which do you think is the preferable sock - one with color patterns, or one with lace?

I thank you folks for any and all answers to these troubling questions...(Horror movie chord, sound of Voldemort's henchmen using the reductor curse on the door, scream....)

Quick post answering questions

2007-04-22T11:38:00.000-04:00

People asked a bunch of nice questions, so I want to respond...

LISA - Thanks! I don't know if any of these will be a Wren Closure for two reasons. One is that they are the sorts of shapes that catch on things, and I am the sort of person who has run-ins with her local environs, so that if there is something that CAN get caught, it will. The other is that my Wren is made of the Brilliant, which has a snaggable nylon element that is going to show wear, I think, so I am going to proceed cautiously there. When it gets big enough to actually try something out on I may do that though! And I have one or two other designs which are more likely candidates...

GRACE - you are so sweet! I am not ready to set up bookeeping just yet, and have to develop my own designs more - these are from books and therefore mine to use for self and gifts but not to sell - same as knitting patterns. However, you will be among the very first to know if and when I get that far. Oh, and I dreamed about your scarf last night. I was somewhere and there were a bunch knitted up, in a pale pale green similar to the perle cotton green we had last week, but wool. Oh, and Harry Potter was there. That scarf is getting around!

SMARIEK...yeah, I am busy - and totally ADD. See how little Wren is! The price I pay for messing around with too many things at once, LOL!

LES and all other Wrenners - I think I MAY have some understanding of why the bottom is flipping.

First of all, I think it may have something to do with decreasing from the ribbing in the last row there. That pulls in, and may be giving that hem area naughty ideas.

Next, I think it may have to do with how tightly the yarn is being knitted up. Getting guage on the Brilliant, which is supposed to knit at that guage, yields a very soft and drapable fabric. (I would say "floppy" but that does not sound nice) I am wondering if it flips up more on yarns that are being knit more firmly? I am going to do a little experiment with my zodiac when I get a chance. I will report back....

and JOAN HA! Now I know who will be getting the plaintive e-mails wailing "How do I..." It is a very expnsive hobby - I did some in HS but never owned the tools myself, especially a soldering set up. Back there we had everything, including a mill to make our sheet metal thinner... and here I have a few pair of cheap pliers, a hammer and a bench block I had to order from some place that will also sell you your own smelting equipment, which would be handy if I had a silver mine on the property but which, as things stand, I am quite certain I will never need!

So far I am practicing with copper wire and beads I had around from the LAST time I tried to sell jewelry, and so it has not been a major investment yet, but clearly, if I want to be able to anneal and re-work, or start needing a real bench and stakes to hammer with, this is going to quickly spiral right out of control. I am intrigued by the idea of making spoons, but it is really the expense of the equipment which has stopped me. That and only having one mouth. How many spoons can I use at once....

Fiddlesticks Friday!

2007-04-21T09:08:00.000-04:00

People liked the last pins I posted, so here are a few more.
This one here is just another version of the one with the blue bead. I think I may redo the top part, which looks a little - open. What say you folks?

These three I made from the same pattern. For the one with the dangle, I ran out of wire, so the pin is smaller but if you look carefully you can see what part of the design I did use.

For the one with the beads, well, I put beads as I bent the wire. The original in the book had beads. They were different beads, and it looked much better than this. Ah well, you have to try to learn.

This one follows the pattern pretty well, except that the pattern had some beads on it, which this does not, and this one has been textured with the hammer, which the original had not.

I bent all of these on a jig. What I did was take my jig, which is cheap and plastic and from the local craft store, and put a paper with the traced design over it. Then I tried to put pins in at appropriate places to make the bends. I could only get close, but still, they're OK.

This actually relates to my Hogwarts sock project as well. We have to send stitch markers with the sock. I was thinking...look at the one with the dangle. Is that dangle not, pretty much, a stitch marker? Couldn't I make a pin like this, and hang the stitch markers from it, so that she could either use them as decoration or just whip them off the pin and use them while she was knitting? Patternworks sold a pin like that years ago, but much simpler...rings on a big safety pin idea...

And this is Fiddlesticks Friday because it is actually yesterday's post. The camera software was being strange and not letting me find things, and other junk. This is not to be confused with Shawl Saturday, which will be up later...

Oh - picture of my Wren -- also on Junior Godess's blog...

Think-About-It Thursday

2007-04-19T14:10:00.000-04:00

I will admit that unless you are willing to draw a long and circuitous line from the socks found in the tomb of Eleanor de Toledo and this post, it is entirely off topic. However, reading won't take but a minute, and if you decided to help that will cost you nothing and also take but a minute, so here I am in my bully pulpit, asking you to help get some people back in the ground. I have checked all this out with the woman running effort, actually speaking to her on the phone, so we know it is not a garbled internet story.

I am asking you all to take a moment and write a brief letter stating your support for the re-internment of human remains currently being held in storage in Brooklyn, NY.

The remains come from the cemetery of the former Quarantine Hospital on Staten Island used for immigrants as well as administering to anyone in the NYC metropolitan area with an infectious disease. The burials are from 1799-1858. At some point this cemetary had been paved over as a parking lot. In 2006, it was torn up and the bodies removed to a storage facility,

There is a cemetery which is willing to take these bodies, but the position of NYS is that "No one cares." Therefore they are doing nothing.

We have seen in recent years that when people do express support for the dignified treatment of human remains, the state is eventually forced to respond in some way. I ask that you do as I have done - just send a brief letter of support to the Staten Island Cemetery, email address SICemetery@aol.com, stating that you support the reinternment of these remains in a proper burial ground.

Staten Island Cemetery was once a burial ground of the Native American people, first recorded burial 1802. There are hundreds of veteran's from the Revolutionary war through WW1 interred at this historic location.

I have checked the facts with the woman who is chairing this effort, and have been assured that they are correct. The local genealogical community has been called upon to send letters of support, and we have. The more people who do so, not just locally but nationally and internationally, the more likely we are to get these people decently reburied.

I hope you will send a letter of support to SICemetery@aol.com, and thank you for your support of this effort. Regular mail address: Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries, Inc. S.I., 115 Lathrop Avenue, Staten Island, New York 10301, phone #917-545-3309

Way-it-Was Wednesday

2007-04-18T08:43:00.000-04:00

I made these socks from that same book, after I made the pair from last Wednesday. This was one of those projects where I used what I had in the house, and some of it is doubled sport weight. There is Lamb's Pride worsted in there along with some Patons and who knows what else.

Socker liked these too, but not as much as last week's.

Mad-It-Myself Monday, in which I discourse of various FO's

2007-04-16T12:44:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about other nice things I can put in with my secret pal's socks...(Why do I keep thinking of this knitter as my victim?) I also make jewelry as one of my hobbies.

Grumperina (No idea what her URL is, followed a link) gave a little prezzie of a nice shawl pin to whoever posted the 700th pair of Jaywalker socks. I liked the pin, and have been working with things like that, so between that pin, and the latest volume of a magazine I get every now and then, I made up the following pins. This first one did not photograph very well. I am pretty happy with it, but next time I would use slightly thicker wire, and hammer it more.

This next piece is based loosely on the one in the magazine. I did not have the right guage of wire, and I think I did hammer it too much on the left side there, but I like the way it looks in general, and will probably work on variations of this.

The very last one is actually the same design pin you just saw, made with a different bead. The second wire did not fit through the hole, so I just made the top part. It is actually kind of cute all on its own...

What do people think? So far I think the one in the middle with the green bead is nicest, so I am going to work with variations of that design for now... especially since I think with a bead that has a slightly larger hole, and just slightly larger wire, that one will work nicely, whereas for the other wire may have to be gotten from I am not sure where...

Hogwarts-sock-swap progress

2007-04-14T10:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I got an e-mail from my secret pal, and have to e-mail her back. She got specially dyed yarn for my socks, and is talking about casting on already.

Yikes!

I have been dithering because first, I wanted to find out some things about what my person would like. I am probably over-thinking this, because I have never been in a sock swap before and of course want to make the most marvelous socks EVER for this gal, the socks that will just make her swoon with delight. Now I don't particularly like eating my own cooking because I am always sure everyone else's is better, but even I will take socks knitted by me - any old pair, even the RHSS ones. So I am pretty sure this woman will like whatever nice pair of socks I send. If I just get variegated yarn and make one of the pretty patterns that other people have posted links to, and which they are probably using...But NO, I feel I ought to transcend all former socks and create - the socks of all socks! The socks de resistance! The mastersocks!!!

So, someone save me from myself. Is combining cables in a particularly meaningful Hogwarts shape, a panel of lace with a contrasting solid panel behind it, and some color work too much for one sock to take?

*wanders off muttering "must check stitch dictionary, must check stitch dictionary, must check...

2007-04-14T01:07:00.000-04:00

So I am supposed to be Wrenning, but, instead, I am whining and Luna-ing.

First, the Whine...

Why do companies make their expensive yarns in so many ridiculous guages? Are they figuring "no one else out there will have 16 and 24 37ths of a stitch to four inches, they will have to buy our fifteen dollar a ball #%$@ MWAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

I never use the yarn called for. It does not allow for creativity, for dash, for verve, for having a really good reason to curse when your calculations changing from the old guage to the new turn out to have been incorrect - it seems spiritually incorrect. And I am cheap. I am so used to being cheap that even when the yarn called for is cheap I am looking for something cheaper. Hmmm maybe I should have waited till I knew you all better to say that. Well, I was spoiled by Smileys early on in my knitting career.

And if I DID buy the same yarn - I actually do have some yarn sitting in the basement, waiting to be knitted up into a sweater from a book calling for that very same yarn, but I got it on sale - anyway, even if I do, I still have to get out the calculator. I am short. There is simply not as much of me between my nipples and my neck as the designers account for, even as the nipples start to sag... And there is also more of me between my nipples and waist than we were counting on, but not in a good way. So I can never jsut knit something. I have to adjust it and then hope it is not like the lovely linen bridesmaids outfit I made for my friend's wedding. My belly button was showing. In, I think, every picture I'm in.

Whine, whine, whine, etc.

Now part of the problem with Wren is that sweaters make me nervous, so it is easier to knit on the shawl in the really pretty yarn and let that sort of slide. Because for Wren, I have to take measurements. It has waist shaping. But I will force myself. I already bought two skirts to go with it...

Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose.

2007-04-12T12:56:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while you have an experiment that reminds you of the experimental nature of, well, experiments.

There is such a wide range of usable outcomes in fiber work that this is easy to forget. So you didn't get periwinkle - the lavender was just as good, in the long run. So, the yarn was lousy for socks - it made up into a fantastic shawl. As long as we end up with some usable object, I think most of us are pretty forgiving of the process.

Well, yesterday was one of those days when you just have to say "Negative research is still research" and go from there.

A year and a half ago a friend gave me a lovely ball of yarn she dyed with kool-aid in her microwave. It was, it turns out, Lion Brand Woolease, and I was amazed at how much color it had, considering that only 20 percent of the fibers were wool and could take the dye. I kept saying to myself that I had to try that sometime.

Well, last week, after He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Allowed-Near-Wool (Also known as Lord Feltdemort) did his best on two pair of socks that had each been worn once or twice, I decided the time was now. I got a skein of Woolease in that creamy white color they have, and soaked it in water with a squirt of dish liquid (not lemon).

Next we poured on red dye and yellow dye. This was supposed to be for Worsted Weight Horcrux socks, so we were going for Scarlet and Gold, the Gryffindor colors. What we actually had was not nearly dark enough, it was not even as dark a what you see here, and I should have stopped at the first DROP that poured out and said "We need to get more dye." But you know, there was no more dye in the house, and I could not go out, so I forged on...

And this sad result, hanging on my porch, is the final product. I think that, on top of everything, my microwave is too strong for acrylic yarn on full strength - the texture seems off.

I am not sure any of the worthy yarn charities I know of would really want it, stringy and pale and lifeless as it is. It actually looks better in this post than in person. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Way-It-Was Wednesday

2007-04-11T17:48:00.000-04:00

We've been chatting, my knitting firends and I, about the oldest pieces of knitting we have. I thought I'd share, on Wednesdays, pictures of some of the things I've knit in the past.

These socks were made in February 2000 from yarn I picked up in many places, from a yarn store that was going out of business to Smileys yarns to who knows what. They are mostly wool, with a few blends for colors. The recipient wanted bright colors. Said creature needs a name. We shall call it Socker. Socker really liked these socks, but has grown. I have no idea where the other one is.

The pattern was from a book of Turkish sock patterns, and when I find it I will give the particulars. I do recall that it was reprinted later with a different title. If you have that book, and I am sure you know which one it is if you have it, you can find the pattern easily - it is called hook or the hook.

The ribbing is synthetic. The dark blue at the top there is Shetland, I think, from a sweater I pulled apart. The gold is from the defuncto place, which had had it since '75, at least, or maybe '55 , for that matter. You had to see the lables. The bright orange was handspun and dyed with powdered drink mix, the blue, pink, and black are, I think, synthetic blends. None of it was regulation sock yarn. The pattern called for the afterthought heels.

The now-lost mate used all the same colors, but not in any of the same places, and that was deliberate. We wanted the socks to be as interesting as possible - at least, I did. Socker did go through a phase of wanting things to match, but it might have been before this. I've been wearing whatever two socks I can find clean since college, so fraternal twin socks don't bother me at all.

Hmmm...I bet Socker would like a larger pair now.

My questionair for the Hogwarts-sock-swap

2007-04-10T18:10:00.001-04:00

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

I'm
a Gryffindor!

I was told we’d get more points if I responded “with enthusiasm” and linked to the sock swap site. Well, here is the link: http://Hogwarts-sock-swap.blogspot.com

Or maybe they meant I should link there. Hmmmm. Well, maybe someone will tell me if I got it wrong. There is a link there already to take you here, although earlier today it was not working, but then, earlier that that I couldn’t get there at all. Mysterious place, cyber space.

And now for the enthusiasm…. I was thinking about Harry’s trip to Ollivander’s , and the various measurements the tape took, including between his nostrils, so I took a few extra measurements of my own.

What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?

Gryffindor! (Can’t you hear the Sorting Hat shouting?)

1. Shoe size?

Well, I am really an eight and a half triple E, but you almost never find that, so I just buy nines.

2. Foot Length?

The left foot is ten inches, and the right foot is – drumroll – Nine and Three Quarters! Like the Platform!

3. Foot Circumference?

Again, Nine and three quarters! Which would seem somehow to indicate that I have one square foot in there somewhere, but it really just looks like any old foot, but wider.

Now for the extra, possibly-useful-but-not-called-for-so-I-guess-it-is-totally-within-the-rules-to-ignore-them measurements….

Ankle circumference – eight and half on one leg, eight and three quarters on the other.

Circumference of leg nine inches up from ground – thirteen and a half inches.

Circumference of middle toe on left foot – two and one-eighth inches…

Don’t let these measurements scare you, because I like my socks to fit snugly, so if they are at least an inch smaller than my foot circumference, and possibly a little more, that is probably just fine.

4. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.

This is a little embarrassing, because I usually knit with whatever I get at the rummage sales and so forth, but ones I have used and liked are:
a. Boye aluminum, seven inches, size one
b. Inox steel, 8 inches, for sizes below zero. I’m not sure I have them in zero itself. I wish they were an inch or two shorter, but that is how they come. (I have 0000, 000,00… when you get to one I think they are a little heavy)
c. I used to have one set of Addi grey coated needles in size 1.5 (It is the millimeter size between what we normally call one and what we normally call two.) Those were nice. I don’t like the bluntness on the single point Addis at all, though.

5. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length? I would like to try the Knit picks needles. They are six inches long, and I could use a set of size one’s. I don’t normally like knitting with bamboo, wood or plastic, so I would really prefer metal ones.

6. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

7. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Yes.

I hope this is appropriate enthusiasm! I am busy thinking about what kind of socks I can make…

Some recent FO's

2007-04-10T00:02:00.000-04:00

Since this is a new blog, I thought I would start with some recent FO's. These socks were knitted to fit the feet you see them on from wool custom dyed for the project by the person wearing them. The socks with green legs and heels were made from what was leftover. What did I start with? A full skein of Patons Classic Wool Merino and some Wilton's food dyes. Obviously, these are socks for little feet. Does anyone know if you can get a pair for an adult out of just 220 yards of worsted? The socks don't look quite like this anymore, however. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Allowed-Near-Wool led them into a close encounter of the felting kind in the presence of the washer and dryer. Are probably even warmer, and still do fit, but only because I stretched them with a wooden spoon and the recipient is highly forgiving. The ones that have no green have not yet been felted. I am keeping an eagle eye on them.

I Sort of Saw This Coming

2007-04-09T19:55:00.000-04:00

I am very happy with my LJ. However, if I want to webring with my Elann.com chat pals, and stick buttons up and stuff like that, LJ really won't do it for me, so here is the new, the different, Gryffinitter Knit Blog! And it will probably keep looking different everytime you get here until I am totally happy with it. My first venture on this new space is to join the Hogwarts Sock Swap.