What Housework?

What's wrong with this picture?

Hint: It's not the sock. The sock is fine. In fact, the sock is great, considering I did it toe up with a provisional cast on and short-row toe and heel--without looking at any instructions.

The problem is that there is another finished sock that goes with it (yes, my second complete pair in January!) that has evaporated from our house. My daughter wore them all night (slept in 'em) and all day this Sunday and now one is gone. It shall return, I'm sure.

In a totally unexpected move, I've cast on for another pair of socks, another plain pair like those above, but for myself. I fear that I am going to become one of those crazy sock knitters you read about who crank out socks like Pez dispensers pop out candy. Since some of those people also read this blog, I won't say any more...

Speaking of people who read this blog, apparently I Made Someone's Day, a few times over.

 

I was honored with this title by all of these kind bloggers:

• Strickerin
• Chronic Knitting Syndrome
• Knitting in the Valley
• Knitting in the Shadows
• Sknitty
• Eat. Knit. Sleep.

It's wonderful to feel appreciated, but the prize comes with the burden of choosing 10 other bloggers who make MY day. Sheesh. I confess I subscribe to well over 100 blogs (close to 200, truth be told), to the point that I have resisted to subscribing to any more, even ones I really want to read, because I can't keep up with the ones I already have. So which 10 get my vote? I just don't know. Let me get back to you on that.

For someone who supposedly Makes People's Day with her fun blog posts, mine are pretty damn boring lately. Let's see...We were given a rooster last week who disappeared after one night, missing, presumed dead, but he showed up at roost time last night, having survived a week in the cold without getting eaten or succumbing to the weather or starvation. Cool. (No photo, you notice.)

Our rescue pig Sassy might actually be preggers. We'll keep you posted.

The shop is going to be updated. Someday. Look for Colonial Superwash sock yarn, a bit of Panda Superwash yarn, and even some BFL top (yum).

The turkeys are around. Notice that red Lars is the Big Dawg around here now, and old gray Roy, after a bloody battle of the beaks and feet, has been demoted to sidekick.

They remain friends.

Victory is mine

When we last met our heroine, she was being driven slowly to insanity by a simple lace sock pattern. The 60-stitch sock had only 59 stitches, but through her perseverence, the intrepid knitter was able to finish with a whopping 61 stitches! Go figure.

The final product:

Apparently knitters, especially sock knitters, like stats, so here goes.
Pattern: Anastasia socks by pepperknit
Yarn: A Piece of Vermont Colonial superwash fingering, hand-dyed by me in the Plum Forgot colorway
Needles: Size 1 Addi circulars
Method: Toe up, provisional cast-on, short-row toes and heels

My final opinion: These could have been more snug. I am a loose knitter and I haven't decided whether I'm unhappy with the gauge or the number of stitches. I'm not keen on dropping down to 0's, so my next pair will be on fewer stitches. As for the yarn, I should only rave about it since I sell it, but I have to say that I prefer my socks made with Real Vermonter yarn, even though they are not as soft and, being hand-wash only, are kind of felted. I think I prefer the more organic feel of the all-natural fiber. That said, I go through heels really fast so maybe the nylon content is a better choice for me. We'll see.

As for a sock-a-month, well it looks like my name didn't get included on the S-A-M-5 club list, so rather than investigate I'll just continue on my own. Because guess what else I've done?

Yup, started a second pair. These are from a mystery yarn, which looks superwash judging by the non-blending of the colors. They are thicker than the Colonial superwash and on size 1's make a dense fabric I really like. (I like heavy socks, what can I say?) They were hand-dyed by my rainbow-loving 8yo and so will be a pair of socks for her.

Interesting how differently the colors are showing on each sock.

In the interested of skill-building, I am using the same method as the last pair and can proudly say I didn't need to refer to any instructions for either the toes or the heels. I'm annoyed that I'm working from each end of one skein of yarn, but I forgot to divide it before I started.

Time frame? Well, the Anastasia socks took over 3 weeks. I'm 3 days into these. Yeah, much better.Also:

• I also picked up some GORGEOUS light-blue heathered yarn for a Ms. Marigold (looking ahead to spring, dontcha know) although I didn't photograph it.
• I bought a copy of Aran Sweater Design, by Janet Szabo, so you can guess where my mind is going for next fall. What a wonderful book (and I don't say that often).
• And (sob) I have not been spinning for NaNoSpiMoMo. Too sock-obsessed.
• As for A Piece of Vermont, I have been sidetracked by tax-season obligations for my husband's business and am up to my eyeballs in W-2s, 1099s, 941s, 940s, state withholding and quarterly unemployment reports and--surprise!--an annual insurance audit Friday of which I was not notified until yesterday. Good times. If I make it till Friday I'm going to knit up a storm this weekend.

The purple socks = My white whale

These...

...are killing me.

My great sock plan for 2008 involved knitting a pair of socks per month. I didn't plan on one pair taking over 3 weeks to finish. The pattern is simple, a YO, K2Tog, YO, K2Tog line of eyelets that spirals up around the leg. But these have become the impossible challenge for me because apparently I can't count. I have knit and ripped and knit and ripped over and over. (I'm on top of it now, but I'm still grouchy.)

The problem? Each repeat is 15 stitches long, and there are four of them, and I counted 15 stitches in each repeat, which should have meant 60 stitches total. But when I counted all the stitches on the needles, there were only 59. Over and over and over.

Because I was busy fighting with these socks are cursing anyone who has ever knit a pair and cheerfully posted the results on their blog, as if some of us weren't hating on socks, I haven't got much else done. So I will turn to New Knitter Jenn and blogless Shelagh to fill the space where my own knitting should go.

As you may recall, Jenn started knitting in December. Since then she has finished a scarf (half of it from her own handspun):

two cell phone covers, part of a capelet-type thingy (from her own handspun, and much closer to done than this photo shows):

and a stockinette hairband for her daughter, made from her own handspun (using one ply of random color scrap fiber and one ply of pure alpaca):

Now she's making her first swatch, for a vest. She hasn't slept in 34 days, but she's very relaxed....

In her spare time, she continues to spin, turning this Real Vermonter roving (part of a shop update about to happen)

into this:

Then my friend/designer Shelagh stopped by. In the spring, we are teaming up for a sock-club project. I will be dyeing up a gazillion skeins of yarn in a certain colorway for yarn4socks.com, and Shelagh is designing a sock pattern that will go with the yarn. I have seen her pattern, and it's very cool, but it's a secret. Anyway, Shelagh is one of those people who spins and knits and has no hangups like getting stuck with 59 stitches when she knows that 15 x 4 = 60.

I caught her in this sweater the other day, her own pattern (or non-pattern, as she self-deprecatingly put it) made from her own handspun:

I bow before her.

In other news, there has been a shop update at A Piece of Vermont (more Colonial superwash sock yarn). Most of these are still available:

 
Milo continues to be a pain. Here he is in a typical pose:

And here is what my hand usually looks like. ("He's just playing," my husband assures me.)

The young chickens have started laying, even though the short days are typically not good for egg production. But lax quality control means that uniform egg sizing is not in place. Behold:

Two of those are bigger than jumbo. Check this out:

And last, we have discovered another reason (besides Ravelry) that the Internet is cool. Wednesday night we got to watch a live webcast of my stepson's college wrestling meet:

This is amazing to me. (Then again, I can't count to 60, so what do I know?)

I apologize for such a lag between blog posts, but it seems like I have nothing to post for a long time and then suddenly I have a lot to post but no time to do it. And we were away for the first part of this weekend because, according to our 8yo, we are "the best parents ever." That's what you get labeled when you pick your daughter up at school on a Friday afternoon and surprise here with a trip to the Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Water Park, an expensive but fun-filled cabin-fever fighter.

She's happy, we're exhausted.

2008 and the Sock Issue

Scroll down for a shop update. First I need to talk socks.

For someone who sells sock yarn, I knit painfully few socks. Last year I finished one pair. I know there are a lot of you out there doing better than that (like Carole, who knit more than her goal of 20 pairs in 2007. This is impressive.) I've decided that the reason I don't knit more socks is that I haven't knit enough of them to get through heels and toes really easily. Once I get into a groove and get more comfortable with various techniques, I think I'll sail through socks more smoothly.

So I've decided that I am going to kick off by knitting 3 pairs of socks all the same way. I started, randomly, with the Anastasia socks. I have already discovered that I've been knitting the chart backwards (well, the numbers are on the left side and it threw me), which means all my decreases between the eyelets are backwards. But I don't care.

I also realized that because I am a loose knitter, size 1s are not small enough, at least for this pattern. This is depressing. There are 60 stitches on the needle and it calls for negative ease to make the eyelet spirals show up well. Not happening.

However, I'm doing this as it is written, using Magic Loop, toe-up, short-row heel. And I'm going to do two more pairs the same way until I get the hang of the short row toes and heels without having to concentrate so hard. I really think I'm more of a cuff-down, heel-flap, dpn kind of girl, but I'm open to whatever.

I also joined the SAM5, a sock-a-month knitalong that goes through July. 7 pairs. I can do this. (Sign-ups are open, info here.)

In other news, I finished the last piece of Christmas knitting, a reverse (white on black) Jackyll & Hyde for a friend of mine. She loves it! Here's my husband modeling:

Here it is when rolled up (picture taken just after the stomach virus from hell, excuse the peakedness):

And to give you an idea of how perfect this hat is for this particular friend, when I gave it to her I explained that it folded up so she could wear it in public. She said, "What makes you think I wouldn't wear it in public the other way?" :-)

Perhaps you are wondering whatever happened to Opus 2007? The fleece to sweater project I started over a year ago is finally going strong. I have unofficially joined NaSpiMoMo, I believe started by Margene and Carole to encourage people to spin more in the month of January. (I just realized it was a group on Ravelry two minutes ago, and I've hastily joined.)

So I've been spinning:


(The white fleece is our own J.J.'s.) I've got a very chunky two-ply going on, but it's surprisingly light, which I think is because J.J.'s fleece is so spongy. I like it. (But I'm going to overdye it a medium blue.)

Then there's a shop update. More sock yarn, including Guilty Pleasure:

Bright Lights, Big City:

Hot Cocoa:

Plum Forgot (same as my sock, above):

Good to Go:

And a whopper (6.4 ounces), Aquamarine:

Some of these may already be sold out, since I sent out the shop update email last night.

As for the next Real Vermonter yarn, it's coming together. Based on your much-appreciated feedback, it appears that mohair is Not On. The consensus is pretty much a wool/alpaca blend. After talking to David at Green Mountain Spinnery, I have learned that a sock-weight yarn is not possible with these fibers. So we're talking a two-ply at 900, 1200, or 1500 yards per pound. I've decided to go with two different-color strands for a slightly ragg effect. And I will probably overdye them in a kettle to get solids, rather than handpaint for variegated. The ragg will provide plenty of interest. Any input on this?

And last, how about some animals? Here are the cows and pigs outside in the snow (which is long gone, after the 60+ degree temps lately).

The calves are petrified of the piglets, so it cracks me up that they didn't see this one coming up for a sniff. They took off in a panic as soon as they noticed.

And last, a public service announcement: Have you gone to Pandora yet? It's a fantastic way to check out new music based on music you already like and get streaming audio based on your musical tastes.

Not just another New Year's Eve

Unlike our typical New Year's Eve, when we go to bed well before midnight or, at best, go hang out with friends and wish we could go to bed well before midnight, this year was different. For one brief, terrifying, and possibly embarrassing moment, I was a star!

Little did my blog readers--or most of the people in town--know, but during the month of December I was learning to tap dance for this show! Our local theater, which is undergoing massive renovations, holds a black-tie New Year's Eve dinner/dance/entertainment fund raiser event every year, and this year the show theme was "Dancing with the Local Stars." According to the theater director at least (because I write a humor column), I'm a star! What do you want? It's a small town.

A total of 7 local "celebrities" got paired up with 7 local dancers and put on various numbers, including tap, swing, tango, waltz, and so on. Other stars incuded a Vermont state senator, the head of our United Way, the owner/editor of the paper I write for, even a co-captain from the high school football team. My partner Rob is one talented and very patient dancer, let me tell you.

I loved the idea. I was terrified of the performance (the ever popular Shim Sham Shimmy). For most of our 3-minute dance, I looked more like I was dancing at gunpoint than dancing for fun (it was not put on as a competition, just a show, thank God):

Well, it was great fun and I am so glad it's over. You can hardly tell from the pictures that I had spent the better part of the morning trying to corral two sheep and three goats who had found an open gate.

We got to stay for the rest of the very hoity-toity New Year's Eve party, and my husband shelled out big dollars to buy invitations for both my stepsons and their girlfriends. I'm glad they came so they could see that I'm not just that grouchy woman who buys milk and puts the new roll of toilet paper on the spindle. :-) Really it has been great fun to have the boys both home and to have them and their girlfriends hanging out with us. All four are great kids people.

The rest of the last week or so was relatively uneventful, and I mean that in the best of ways. Just a nice, peaceful, snowy holiday with the family. Random pictures:

Trooper escaped a couple of times by herself and made a beeline for the chicken coop:

As for knitting, Jenn continues to crank out the FOs, including two cell phone holders in two days. Almost finished:

Finished:

The woman's new passion for knitting blows me away every day. Buttonhole? No problem. Seaming? No problem. She's got the mind of a knitter and soon she'll have the stash of one.

I found myself at loose ends, knitting-wise, after Christmas. I started two projects, but only photographed one. The non-photographes work-in-progress is a Sunkist cardigan. But here's my main project, a pair of Anastasia socks:

This is a big step for me as I realize I haven't knit a pair of socks in 10 months. Pretty sad since I sell hand-dyed sock yarn, don't you think? (The colorway above will be available as soon as I recover from the holidays and all.) I tend to lose my focus on socks so I joined a Ravelry group with the goal of knitting a pair a month through July. Wish me luck. I have done socks all different ways and just can't get jazzed about any one method. These are toe-up, short-row heel, Magic Loop, and I'm doing one at a time. Lately, I've been preferring my dpns. I think once I find a method that works for me, I'll knit more socks.

Milo liked this photo shoot:


I had to go retrieve my sock and needles from under my husband's desk, risking slashing claws the whole time.

But he loves my stepson and his girlfriend:

Until he's had enough:

So the holidays are over, and I'm exhausted. In the past 48 hours I have written not one but two columns; performed in terror in front of a large audience; stayed up past midnight (which alone requires days to recover from); gone sledding; cooked soup with homemade noodles, homemade bread and homemade gingerbread pudding cake; and tried to keep up with a household of 7 instead of the normal 3.

I'm ready for a nap.