…it was worth it! I bound off Hemp Skirt last night and started the i-cord. It’s not blocked or anything yet, but I tried it on with a little cream colored tank top and it looked pretty damn good!! OMG!!

I’m going to try to block it tonight, but still have to figure out what to pin it down on. I don’t have a blocking board or anything fancy like that. I need something super firm that won’t bend. The hemp knits up to a very sturdy fabric. Pinning and stretching it will be interesting.

I had previously hoped to wear this skirt to the grooms dinner when we go to the Rock Star’s cousin’s wedding in California. But now it may be upgraded to my going to the weddin’ attire. I need sandals…

I’m knitting the Lovely Lace Skirt in allhemp6 Licorice.

Cute, huh? The lovely Wendy knit it in Pumpkin and inspired me. I couldn’t picture it not sagging in the ‘tocks area. According to Wendy and the designer, though, this skirt wears really well. And I was super curious about knitting with hemp.

I love the idea of a knitted fabric that feels good in both warm and cold weather. Especially something that would be comfortable to wear in summer. I just bake in the summer. My body temp is such that I always feel hot, hot, hot. After July 1st, I am unable to bear the feel of sleeves on my arms and anything other than shorts or skirts on my legs. So the idea of a skirt that was cute, and I could actually wear all year round is very appealing.

I’ve been knitting socks in buttery soft yarn for so many months now…allhemp6 was an unpleasant (at first) change. There is no give or bounce or stretch to this yarn at all. The pattern suggests 3.0 mm needles. That seemed very small with what felt like a bulky and stiff yarn to me. I knit a swatch. As difficult as it was to get used to this yarn, I really liked the fabric it was producing. I gave my swatch a soak in water and some hair conditioner and laid it out to dry. That really softened up the fabric and the gauge was right on, so I cast on. 216 stitches and 4 rounds of garter st later, I thought my hands were going to fall off. I developed a dry, cracked, sore spot on my middle finger where the yarn runs over as I throw stitches. I was feeling kinda miserable about the project.

An aside to describe an aspect of my knitting personality/principles/practices: I’m cheap, so I absolutely have to use all the yarn I buy. This yarn/pattern cost over $50. That’s a reasonable price, but fuck if I’m gonna quit knitting it because of some paltry bleeding on my hands. It’s black, the blood won’t show, right?

I sent an email to kPixie and to the allhemp6 people asking for advice. I asked if it would work to soak the skanks in hair conditioner or fabric softener and let them dry before winding up for knitting. kPixie wrote back to say she puts hers in dryer and that softens it up. allhemp6 wrote back to say soaking in a softener would work fine and also to try beating the yarn agains a rock while it was wet. I’m far to lazy for that so I combined both advices. I hogtied a skank, soaked it in water with a lot of fabric softener, then put it in the dryer. It felt much, much better after that. I also started putting lotion on my hands before picking up the project. I’ve never been a “put the lotion on your skin” girl before, but it was advice from allhemp6, and I was willing to try anything.

As I’m writing this I hear the first cicada of the season outside!

Holy shit. I have to go. I need to actually get some work done before I go see my therapist this afternoon. I guess I’ll leave the rest of the hemp skirt story for another post. Don’t worry. I’m sure it will have a happy ending!!

Has it really been nearly a month? Wowsa!! I’d like to say I have a lot to tell you, but I really don’t. It’s not like nothing has been happening, quite the contrary, in fact. It’s just that very little of it is really bloggable. How’s about a few headlines? OK? Cool. (oh and no pictures. I’m far too lazy to do all that. Next post, I promise.)

Honey I Shrunk the To-Do List!! — I didn’t stick to the plan as well as I wanted to but I did enough to get my to-do list under control. The house is mostly clean, my business paperwork is mostly caught up, and we are starting to consider adding exercise to our lives. We’ve already started trying to cut back on portions and resist most desserts (damn Girl Scout Cookies taunting me). There’s a lot of room for improvement in my sticking to the plan, but overall, I feel good about it so far and my stress level has lowered measurably. I feel good enough about what I’ve gotten done, that I rarely feel guilty about spending the evening knitting. And speaking of knitting…

Holy Finished Objects, Batman!!! — The pink sox are done. I actually wore them for a couple of days. I couldn’t wait to weave in the ends, block and photograph them. Uh-unh, no way. They went onto my feet as they came off the needles. I love them. So perfectly comfortable and so pink and cheery!!! One teensy little complaint, it seems like the yarn kind of pills up with wear. On the plus side, the gaps around the heel don’t show up much at all and certainly don’t affect the comfort. And the Boy’s Weasley Sweater is DONE!!! As in seamed, ends woven in and blocked. I just finished it about a half an hour ago (10:00 pm CST). I can’t wait to try it on him tomorrow. I already know it’ll be way to big for him, but that’s what I planned. It’ll be perfect for him next winter. It turned out so good and I love, love, love it!! This project taught me so many things and gave me a ton of confidance to take on more sweater projects. Turns out I don’t mind doing Mattress Stitch seaming. A lot of people kind of groan over doing the finishing, but I gotta tell you pulling those stitches tight and watching the two pieces come together….and the line is invisible…WOW! It’s so cool!! I get a little thrill every time I look at it!! The duplicate stitch Z on the front turned out great and I didn’t mind that part either. I’ve always loved needlework, so it was kinda fun for me. All in all, I loved this pattern and can see myself repeating it. Maybe matching sweaters for the Rock Star and me? Next up are socks in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport. I’m going to try the Zig-Zag sockulater at the Knitting Fiend to make a Jaywalker like sock. None of my stash of sock yarn matches the Jaywalker pattern’s gauge and I don’t really know how to modify it. I’ll be trying to do it 2 socks on 2 circs, top down. Wish me luck.

We Didn’t Win the Lottery. — More’s the pity. I could really use the money as I consider what my next project will be. I want to knit Clapotis from Knitty. I looked into the Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb 50/50 wool and silk, but holy crapoly that stuff is expensive. I can hardly justify $85 for a shawl/scarf I may not even wear. I’m not really a shawl wearer…I just think its a cool looking pattern and might wear a shawl more if I had one I really loved. I’m looking at another yarn now that’ll be half that price. It’s from Brooks Farm and I’m torn between the Muted Varsity, Mission Red, Black, and Intense. I wish I could feel it before I buy it. I should try to find out if anyone around here has it. I’ve seen a picture of Clapotis done with this yarn and it is quite beautiful.

The Wave of the Future — Podcasts. I’m crazy for Podcasts. I listen on my iRiver while I’m driving, walking, knitting, cleaning and any other time I can. I listen to several knitting podcasts. I listen to a history podcast. I listen to Dawn and Drew and Quirky Nomads, who defy categorization. I love being able to listen to what I want, when I want. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to radio.

Like Sands Through the Hour Glass — the Boy turn 18 months old on 3/10. So much to say about that, I’ll leave it for another post. I turn 42 or 43 (can’t ever remember my age) on 3/30.

Fucking Weather — There’s only so much knee deep snow I can slog through before I stop thinking, “Oh, how pretty!?”. Tomorrow I’ll take pictures of my world in white. Yesterday and today, I just couldn’t stand it. Too many dogs to walk, cats to visit and driving for the winter wonderland we are living in to be all that wonderful.

Guess that’s about it for now. I’ll post pics soon.

The Boy is sick today. I canceled my walkies so I could stay home with him. He needs his Boppy close right now. Poor little red eyed puffy faced boy.

Here’s what I’ve gotten done so far:

Wound two balls of the Weasley Sweater yarn on my noste, tested out the duplicate stitch on my swatch and cast on for the front of the sweater. I think the duplicate stitch looks ok for the letter on the sweater. I’ve been dreading the two color knitting and all those ends to weave in. I have 7 inches to knit before I have to decide for sure. I’ll see what the Rock Star thinks and maybe practice the dupe stitch a bit more. It looks pretty good though. Feel free to leave an opinion.

I finished the back on the Weasley Sweater I’m knitting the Boy. Time to cast on for the front.

But first a break to work on the pink socks. I’m almost to the gusset increases. I really love this two socks on two circs thing!! I’m searching the internet for a pattern with a turned heel (not the short row), that’s written for toe up, two socks on two circs. No luck so far. I may have to resort to removing one from needles while I do the heel, then putting it back on. I’m hoping to avoid that. Everything else about this sock is turning beautifully!!

I ordered some Lorna’s Laces yarn from Ebay. Two skeins each of Shepherd Sport and Shepherd Sock. I’ve been hovering over the mailbox ever since. I won’t be able to start them yet, but that won’t stop me from fondling them. Yarn pervert, that’s me.

I got the Aran Knitting book from the library. It’s loverly. I wrote to Interweave Press to ask if they ever planned on reprinting it, and they promptly replied to say that Alice Starmore owns all the rights, and there was some small possiblility she was considering a revision. That would be pretty cool. It’s a shame that this beautiful work is out of the financial reach of many of us. I’d pay the author $35 – $50, but not $230 on Ebay.

I had my heart set on St Brigid, but the Rock Star said he doesn’t like it. He likes all the detail, but the fit of the sweater looks like a flour sack, he said. I’m bummed. If he doesn’t like it, it takes some of the fun out of it for me. I’m well aware that I can knit and wear any damn thing I like, but I like to have him like what I’m wearing. If I’m gonna put that much money, work and time into a garment, I really want him to like it, too. I like St Ciaran a lot. I can imagine myself cozied up on the couch wrapped in that. And the cables and celtic design is just as gorgeous as St Brigid.

Just 3 more inches til I start shaping for the arms. I knit every where, and every when. I knit in line at Ikea. I knit while the baby is napping in the car. If I could figure out how to walk the dogs and knit, I’d do it. I love the tweediness of this yarn. It’s a tiny bit scratchy, but I love the look. I wonder if it softens in the wash at all?

This is the pink sock after it was frogged. It looks like some tasty dessert doesn’t it?

Here’s what it looks like now:

As you can see I’ve figured out how to do two socks, toe up on 2 circs. I’m pretty pleased with it so far. I am just a bit worried that it might be too big. Got kind of crazy with the increases…

Last night I knit up a little swatch and blocked it. This morning I checked it and was happy to find that I got exactly 6 st per inch with my #5 Addi’s.

So I cast on:
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After one false start I dug into the project and got this much done by Midnight:
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Cast-On is perfect listening while knitting!

*starts counting pennies*

On a whim, I checked the website for the local library. Our wonderful library possess two, not one but TWO, copies of Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, and one of them was sitting in a library across town apparently just waiting for me to find it!! Our library system has a fantastic transportation system and will actually bring it over to a library closer to me so I won’t have to go more than a couple blocks to pick it up. How fantastic is that!?! I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this book. Yippeeeeee!! Maybe St Brigid is in my future after all?

I kind of thought tearing out the heel last night would save this sock. But it doesn’t look anymore hopeful to me today. I’m most likely going to frog it and start over.

I was trying a bunch of different stuff here:

1. First time using Two Circs. That went pretty good, although I’m not sure it’s any faster than my DPNs. It does have the advantage of being able to do 2 socks at once. That’s the reason I’ll try it again.

2. Toe up. I’ve done one toe up sock before and like it. I like not having to worry about if I’ll have enuf yarn for the length of leg I want. Just knit til I’m almost out of yarn. I used the Turned Toe from Socks Soar on Two Circs by Cat Bordhi. I really liked this toe. It was a bit of work, but it turned out very nicely.

3. Gaugeless, percentage based sock pattern. I like this idea very much. I’m tired of wanting to knit with a great yarn from my stash, finding a cool pattern only to have it call for a different guage. On this sock for instance, I really like the fabric I get from using size 2’s. I ended up with 8 stitches per inch after I settled into the foot, but it was nice not worrying about it when I started. I want to use the is idea again.

4. Adapted a stitch pattern from somewhere else into all of this. I like this too. I think my mistake was using a stitch pattern that starts with a purl and that caused ladders. I tryed moving a knit stitch over to start with and that made the sock look twisted, didn’t fix the ladder much and just generally wonked it out. It’s likely that all would have been fixed in the blocking, but it was just too much to take after the heel disaster.

5. Short row Garter Stitch Heel. I like the concept but it’s just do damn much fiddling and worry about those gaps. I like the look of turned heels and I enjoy doing them, so why bother with this?

Well, back to the drawing board I guess. *sighs*

This yarn says, “When I grow up I want to be a HP Sweater for the Boy.” and I’m just the knitter to help it. With the demise of my pink sock (see other knitting entry), it was a real cheerer upper to get this package from YarnMarket so quickly!!! Hopefully I can knit up a swatch or two tonight.

Gack!! My pink sock…

Garter Stitch short row heel. The gaps when I started knitting around again where huge. I unknit and tried again. One side was ok, the other was huge. Unknit. Then I decided it’s the whole heel…so I tore it out. Now I’m back down to before I started the heel, and I’ve noticed several mistakes and things I don’t like. I’m seriously contemplating frogging the whole thing and starting over. I hate to do it. It’s bad enough the last two days of work are basically gone, but to lose the whole thing. On the other hand, the mistakes will always bug me…Gack! I’ll decide tomorrow. I’m too tired and cranky to decide now.

I’ve seen links to a the St. Brigid Knit along all over the internet. That is a beautiful sweater, and since I was hoping to do an aran sweater for myself at some point, I thought I’d look into acquiring the pattern for this one. It’s in a book called Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting. hmmmm, sounds good I say, Googled it and was astonished to find the book sells for $229.00 to $900.00. Holy crap. I think I’ll just have to settle for another Aran Sweater pattern. That is way, way, way outta my league!!! Fantastic sweater, though. And the book looks great. Just more than I could ever pay for it. Maybe the Library has it?

Well, it’s not really a saga yet. Last night I spent the evening working on the Pink Sock heel. I tried out the Garter Stitch Short Row heel found here. I’m not sure yet if I’ll like the garter stitchiness of it. But I definately don’t like the huge gap that happened after I started knitting around. I spent part of today unknitting back to the gap and am going to try to fix it. I think the problem came when the pattern says to “When you are back up to the original 50% of stitches devoted to the heel, knit two extra rows, wrapping the first and last stich of the instep. This will help avoid gaps when you begin working in rounds again.”. I’ll unknit those two rows and try it again and see how it goes. Even though I’m not sure I like the look of the garter stitch heel, it seems very cushy. Prolly very comfortable. No picture.