FO Friday: Toe-Up Socks!

I finally finished my toe-up socks! YAAAYYY!!


(they go halfway up my calf, which I've decided is a little too high for comfort on me)


(the stitch pattern is called Laburnum, which my google-fu tells me is a kind of tree that grows chains of yellow flowers - sounds pretty, and I can see the chain in my pattern)

If I were to do this pattern over again, I wouldn't use a striping yarn so that the pattern would show up better. I'm finding myself moving away from striping yarns, to be honest. And that's okay

Technique Tuesday: Tweed

I'm on square seventeen of my Barbara Walker Learn to Knit Afghan. Tweed. This is pretty cool.

For mosaic knitting, I would slip the stitch, holding the yarn on the wrong side of the square (so as to keep it from showing). But for tweed, I slip the stitch on the right side of the square, leading to little strands of the yarn showing:


(sorry the picture is so dark - I need to remember that I actually have a camera, and use it, as opposed to only taking cell phone pics)

Super-easy, and super-cute! I really love tweeds. So, now I'm thinking a cute tweedy scarf for the upcoming winter, as, though it is the end of May now, in Wisconsin it's always in the back of my mind that Winter Is Coming.

Anyway. If anyone wants to try this square at home, grab two colors of yarn, on the right side, K1, slip the next stitch with yarn in front, repeat, knitting the last stitch of the row. Purl the next row in the same color as row one.

Switch colors, K2, *slip the next with yarn in front, K1* repeat between stars, knitting the last stitch of the row. Purl the next row, return to the first color and knit as above.

Easy as pie, and neato.

FO Friday: Cute little kitty toys

Last weekend, I pulled out a ball (well, skein... well, giant thingie) of mystery yarn that I had lost the label to and made three mousies for my three cats.


(so, that times three - I wanted to get a picture of all three of them together, but the kitties went crazy over them and the first two were covered in cat fur and saliva by the time I finished the third)

I found the pattern on Ravelry, and it is right here. The yarn was probably cheap old Red Heart, navy blue, and I knitted them on size two DPNs. It was a little tough, knitting such thick (relatively - it's probably worsted) yarn on such teeny little needles, and it made my hands hurt, but fortunately it really wasn't all that much knitting. The only difficult part was knitting the k2togs for the nose area.

I actually enjoyed the sewing up part, which bodes well for when I have to sew my afghan together, or if I make any sweaters or anything like that. I stuffed the mousie with scrap yarn (because, hey, it's Red Heart) and a few pinches of catnip purchased at Mounds.

And the cats went crazy.

WIP Wednesday: First Toe-Up Socks

I'm on the home stretch of my second of the two socks, having turned the heel last weekend. I am not really enjoying the toe-up process. I think I'll try a different way of doing it, but all the wraps and placing of markers... ugh!

However, it IS nice to just be able to knit and knit (and knit) the leg of the sock and then bind off and be done.

Speaking of binding off, my bind-off on my first sock is too tight to really be comfortable that far up my leg. I wasn't really anticipating making the sock go so high, but I was really trying to use up all of my 50 gram ball of yarn (and didn't, blah). I was thinking I would just give my socks to my mother as a Mothers' Day present, but she really prefers anklet socks, so I guess I'll be fixing the bind-off instead, once I'm done with the other sock.

Fortunately, I have a plan: Sister Erin clued me in to this super-stretchy bind-off published in the online knitting magazine Knitty, and I'll try that on my current sock. And, if it works, un-bind-off the first sock and re-bind-off, and cat's a million, it's done!

Musing Monday: Knitting as Medicine

Three years ago, I was REALLY battling depression. I mean, this is a battle that never seems to end, but I was really having a rough time of it. And the worst part about depression is that I couldn't concentrate on ANYTHING that might be able to cheer me up. I'd watch maybe fifteen minutes of a movie and then get bored and have to do something else, or lie in bed and read two pages in my book and end up falling asleep for the rest of the afternoon.

I think part of this may be because computers are wrecking everyone's concentration. Even as I write this, I have nine browser windows open, and keep switching between them instead of buckling down and just writing this entry. I know, that's kind of sad.

Anyway. Three years ago, my older sister taught me how to knit. It took awhile for me to get used to it, and even longer for me to really want to knit, but once I did start wanting to knit, I never wanted to stop.

There's something meditative about it, performing monotonous movements and creating something beautiful one stitch at a time.

And when you cast off, even if it is "just" a garter stitch scarf, you can look it over, see that you performed the same action correctly hundreds (or thousands) of times and it resulted in something beautiful.

So, the act of knitting is soothing, and the end result can really make you proud. Like, "I MADE THIS ISN'T IT AWESOME!!"

So often, these days, people don't really create anything. Sure, they may write text messages and watch TV and read magazines, but what do they really create? There is no pride in accomplishment if you don't make something durable and tangible!

And, as for being squirmy and unable to concentrate: knitting seems to take the "edge off" my squirmies, and enables me to sit and watch a movie (while knitting) or listen to an audiobook (while knitting), and has calmed my busy brain down enough to allow me to read again. And I was starting to miss reading, as it has been a huge part of my life always.

Also, I swear, knitting lowers my blood pressure. If I had to sit and wait in the waiting room and I got my knitting out, my BP is far lower at the doctor than if I'm just sitting there twitching. Or reading. Or looking at magazines.

FO Friday: Wisp

So, I just finished making this Wisp pattern from knitty.com, out of Suri Dream yarn from Knitpicks.com, in "grass".

I got the yarn on my last knitpicks order (for a bunch of REALLY expensive cashmere yarn for a scarf) to get me up over $50, which means, of course, free shipping. I saw it marked as "super bulky" and thought, "Hey, I could make a hat out of that really easy!" and then when it got here, the yarn was this laceweight fuzzy stuff... so yeah.

I browsed patterns on Ravelry until I found the Wisp, and decided to go for it, except of course at that point I had to buy another ball of yarn. Yeah.

Anyway. I thought it turned out pretty nice:

(being knit)


(blocking)


(close-up)

But how does one wear such a thing, you ask. Well, I'll answer, you can just wear it as a scarf, or you can add buttons and then you can creatively button it and wear it in all bunches of ways! Here are two that I came up with:

(awkward self-portrait is awkward cowl)


(nifty poncho is nifty)

My buttons are made out of shell, to be very lightweight, and to tinkle together melodiously when not buttoned. I'm not entirely sold on them, though. For one thing, I kind of did a half-assed job putting them on... Also, my buttonholes are too big! And I can't exactly just get bigger buttons, as those buttons are too big already! Ugh.

I'm also not sure about how much they stand out against the green. I wish I could have found some, I don't know, green shell buttons? I don't want anything too heavy...

Well, I guess this is sort of a work in progress finished object, because I may be changing the buttons, or taking them off altogether.

It's still a pretty green, though.

Musing Monday: Needlecraft

I have always found crafting to be soothing. When I was very young (i.e. middle school) I used to do cross-stitch. Not a lot of it, as I always got bored about halfway through (this was before I discovered how to craft WHILE watching TV or listening to podcasts or audiobooks - audiobooks, especially, are a crafter's DREAM).

Then, in high school, I took a quilting class, and it was so much fun! Being able to create these beautiful useful objects, play with color and patterns... Yeah. Fun. I still have a quilt top that I need to add the backing and batting to, though, as the finishing is somewhat less fun.

And now, I knit. A lot.

I have been experimenting a little with a few different crafty things over the past week.

First, I made a Dorset button: instructions here. I messed up the first part of winding in the middle, weaving the wrong way, but it's still kind of adorable. And very customizable. AND a good way to use up waste yarn and make matching buttons when I can't find any buttons that I like.

And then I learned to tat. Well, needle tat. There are two main techniques of tatting, one in which you use a small shuttle and one in which you use a really long needle, and I learned the latter, since it seems more straightforward. It is basically a technique to make lace, and doesn't really have any use beyond that, but it's kind of cute. I'm thinking I may tat a pair of earrings for myself out of metallic thread, so that they look all filigree metal but are actually lightweight yarn. Sounds pretty, right?

Or maybe I'll get really ambitious and start making doilies to put everywhere, but that goes against my rather modernist anti-clutter (wishful thinking, generally) decorating ideal.

Mostly, I am drawn to the artistic craft, but with a purpose. I don't see myself making art for art's sake, if for no other reason than I am just not that good of an artist.


(from left: tatted bookmark, Dorset button, tatted joined rings)