Copy Cat!

I've been trying, since Saturday to download "Elmont" from the Brooklyn Tweed web site. They've responded to my emails with a temporary password that should get me in but so far, no luck.

Meanwhile I've got a washed, blocked swatch with a lovely, light fabric bang on the yarn's recommended gauge of 26st/4" and an almost manic desire to cast on already!

I've also got a rising sense of panic as Cottage Opening approaches yet I've no project to enjoy during the multiple hour drive there and back, an evening by the fire and a Sunday morning pot of coffee lakeside.

Sooooo what's a knitter to do? Be a "Copy Cat"! (Remember, in grade 2 or so, when being accused of copying was among the worst of possible accusations? Funny how, once grown up, doing just that morphs in the "uber" positive label of "being on-trend"!)

But I digress...

Yesterday, during subway rides downtown and back - knitting in my head if not my hands - I hatched Plan "B" wherein I embrace Copy Catting for all I'm worth...

After a virtual visit at Steven Self's blog this morning revisiting his 2x4's I've dug out remnant sock yarn from these...

                                                 

in preparation for casting on what I will refer to as "Self Socks". After noting down the details Steven so kindly and clearly includes in his post I plan to shamelessly copy them - right down to the Eye of Partridge heel I've been meaning to use for years. They will serve as an insurance project in case my second copied idea flounders (don't want to waver on my year of project monogamy!) and may well stay at the cottage in the unlikely event I arrive there some time without knitting or finish something ahead of schedule while I'm there.

As for "Elmont" - I'm going to copy the ideas therein but work it without benefit of having the pattern. Its very similar to what I've just finished with the repurposed yarn and will give me a chance to work EZ's bottom up raglan decreases just now on the heels of working her yoke neck instructions.

I've used the eyelet detail before on this cowl...

                                                 

And I'll work it again here in remnant cream yarn from my late mother's stash. This blanket...

                                                 

...didn't come close to using it up. The creamy white will be of minimal contrast, like the version pictured in the pattern which, after looking at the other projects on Ravelry, is most appealing to me.

Kind of like this fellow...

Most appealing! Now I'm off to get this guy walked with a happy and now relaxed knitter's head atop my Copy Catter's body! Thanks for dropping by!

Glen Check Socks FO

Pattern: Country Socks by Nancy Bush (Cuff pattern only)

Yarn: 2 Balls Patons North America Kroy Socks 4 Ply

Colour: Glen Check

Needles: 3mm dpn

Start: June 28 Finish: September 18, 2014

A very basic 74 stitch ribbed sock for My Beloved, the best part of which is the yarn.

Its such a great value, the end product from it feels sturdy and yet also very luxe! The 25% nylon content is utterly undetectable in the big cushy ribs but will make these a good weekend sock for years to come.

This is the 7th pair of socks I've knit for him and the first time I've successfully tackled the issue of fit at his ankle and over his very high instep.

My first go at the problem this time yielded the weird result pictured above. It fit but by the time I'd decreased away the gusset made with a long heel flap to match his high instep. the top of the sock wrapped around under the ball of his foot.

So next I worked a shorter-than-normal heel flap after a 1" decrease below the calf leaving 68 sts for the second heel and the remainder of the sock down to the toe. (The decreases can be seen below but he's got the socks on akimbo - the decrease really is at the centre of the heel!)

So the decreases and shorter heel worked to give us a good result although I may add just a few more rows to the heel on the next pair to guard against wear.

And there's enough yarn to work another pair. Of course he'd happily have another just the same. Of course there's be little amusement in that for me!

I'm thinking 1x1 ribbed cuff, then stockinette with a little cable running down the outside of each leg and splitting at the heel. I'd like to see how the "Glen Check" yarn looks in stocking stitch. I'll use the same stitch count and look forward to only working 2 socks rather than almost three in order to yield a pair! 

Behaving

My resolve to eat and knit responsibly yesterday held firm.

Running errands over the 3:00 o'clockish time I'd usually stray toward forbidden snacks and only bringing my current sock project down to the city from the cottage so I had no choice but to work on them this week was key.

Sock one, 'expected the ribbed fabric/going down a needle size would give a nice fit 'round the ankle, without decreases below the calf.

Mistake.

(And the thing just looks plain weird too!)

Sock two - 4 stitch decrease and shorter heel flap for less gusset, more ribbing/more (hopefully enough) "grip" over the instep.

Snore.

I do love the Paton's yarn - both the feel and colour and the beefy-for-socks 3mm needles make things fairly sail along but honestly,

Snore.

But snoring while behaving!

Go Me! ;)

Sporty Striped Peds by Purl Soho FO

 Pattern: Sporty Striped Peds
Source Purl Soho Blog

Size: One Size

Yarn: Koigu KPM

Colour: Main1010 Lot: 17 Contrast: Remnant Sheldridge Farm Sock "Cornflower"

Needles: 2.75 dpn's

Start: August Finish: August 2013

Modifications: None

These weren't the first of my summertime FO's but the first and only summer-style knits to come off my needles this year so I thought I'd kick off my "what I knit this summer" posts with them.

This pattern is super fun and super quick with a very satisfying end result.They're are cute and the fit is perfect. Just like the last piece I made using a free Purl pattern. And you certainly can't beat the price!

These work up with 6 rounds of ribbing then three knit rounds and just like that you're on to the heel!

Speaking of the heel, I tried something fun - I put the carry overs on the right side rather than across the back. With the ever so slight variation in the colouration of the Koigu it reminds me of blue and white gingham. Talk about summery!

I knit these as a break after a concerted push to restart Deco and get it back to the shoulders. (I will not be posting about that thing until its finally done!) What a change to go from woolley wool to the round, fuzz-free Koigu! It felt like I was working with cotton string!

Once again, as I've done a few times recently I used the colourway shown in the pattern. I'm not sure why I'm starting to do that more but at least I changed up the colour of the stripes - in this case using just one instead of five colours.

I bet I make more of these in the future. As usual I knit these for myself they'd make a great quick knit gift!

Thanks for dropping by!

Tyrolean Stockings by Ann Budd FO

Pattern: Tyrolean Stockings by Anne Budd

Source: Interweave Knits Fall 2007

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca

Source: Eweknit Toronto

Colour: 62178 Lot: 1102

Needles: 3.25 dpns

Start: May 19 Finish: June 8, 2013

Modifcations: None

Fabulous Pattern! The handsome cable down the shin seems the show stopper the real brilliance is the back!

The decreases look good when the sock is without a calf but put them on and the structure really pops.

I particularly love how the tight twisted and 4-stitch cable motifs keep their shape as the surrounding ribbing provides all the "give". (The photos with the pattern present a bird-like leg and positive ease...my hefty calves fill things out!)

The way the leg design morphs into the ribbing on the instep lends nice fit and feel.

The slipped stitch heel matches the heel's visual scale to the rest of the sock.

Then there's the yarn. This 50/50 Alpaca/Wool blend is really nice to work with, carries the dye so as to allow a wonderful depth of colour and of course, feels great.

It has nothing of the rustic look of the pattern photos instead offering a cozy factor that's as much visual as it is tactile.

 Lots and lots of halo

While maintaining stitch definition

Up close the colour seems almost neon but then miraculously it softens from a distance albeit to a still surprising-for-the-pattern shade of salmon.

I've used this yarn once before and I liked it even more this time than last. I'll be using it again. As for the socks these were my first attempt at knee highs. They won't be my last!

Thanks for dropping by to check these out!

Father's Day Socks

Resoleable Two-Yarn Socks from Interweave Favorite Socks

Two

As I finished toe two on the Tyroleans (they're currently in their pre "debut" bath) I indulged in vicarious casting on to the point where I couldn't settle on just one project to start.

So during the final new episode of Foyle's War last evening, arms aching from two big days in the garden pruning shrubs I cast on for two...

#1 The planned twined mitts to match my newly finished Zen Hat.

#2 Pair two of Resoleable Socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks. (The book attributes the pattern to two adaptations of EZ's Moccasin Socks by Wayne Pfeffer adapted by Anne Merrow for the book.)

I like the characterization of "adapting" better than "inspired by". To me it assigns the original design idea to the one who came up with it rather than someone who tweeks details and releases it as their own. Do you notice how often that kind of stuff pops up on Ravelry? It seems the original designers don't make any objection at all.

Anyway so I now have two new projects. Two times the Cast Ons for two times the fun this week.

Happy Monday! Thanks for dropping by!

No Knitting Night Knit Night

I went. We shopped. We did not join the knitting circle, instead heading back out into the rainy night in search of "beverages".

I bought the specified colour of Koigu for the "Sporty Striped Peds" sockettes (I've never before found a specific colourway of Koigu!) I haven't a plan for the stripes just yet. I'll have to let you know.

The cream linen Louet Euroflax yarn sold out in 10 days but more will be in next week. We'll see if I make it down there again to pick some up. I may have to send a minion! We'll also have to "see" if we ever have summer weather that might justify a white linen shirt!

Tonight, having yesterday dispatched a Tyrolean leg and heel my plan is homemade pizza, a glass of wine and mindless knitting of a Tyrolean foot watching PVR'd TV and enjoying that magical feeling of getting ready to cast on something new!

Have a great weekend!

With Eweknit Night in the Crosshairs

'Pushing Tyrolean Stocking #2 to the heel so I can work it mindlessly at Eweknit's knit night tomorrow evening.

I'm not big on LYS knit nights. 'Tried it at my local yarn shop so travel time wasn't an obstacle but still couldn't get into it.

I kept thinking the staff rep assigned to babysit the group in the store had been working all day or part thereof and was likely more than ready to just get home. Also the unspoken idea the shop's accommodations on such evenings are to drive sales and so the expectation is to to make purchases. I hate feeling "incentivized" and I am not good at buying yarn on impluse.  The whole thing was just uncomfortable.

Why go to Eweknitnight then? To visit with a friend who suggested we go and to support the relatively "new kid" on the block and because I'll have knitting borne of yarn purchased there last month. Beyond that the store blog has a great post on linen yarn complete with pattern recommendations and while checking that out last week I fell in love with the idea of having one of these for my very own. The shop also has a good selection of Koigu always in stock and I'm also recently enamoured of these.So I have potential purchases "ready" to justify taking advantage of the "shophospitality".

There's also a recently added room of fabric that should be more than fun to peek at. (I'm good at buying fabric on impluse!)

So I'm mentally prepared and after two more repeats of the Tyrolean chart I'll be all ready to go tomorrow. Maybe I'll be brave and take my camera - you'll be 'first to know if I do! Thanks for dropping by!

Trim

Last week I had my little wake up moment when I realized I would have to rip and re-knit Deco a couple of sizes larger.

I didn't want to do it right away, however, because the pattern calls for facing the button bands with ribbon and I wanted to purchase that trim with visual reference in hand for an informed decision. (At least the thing, as knit, was useful for something!)

As part of a larger yarn crawling day I stopped in at Mokuba on Queen West last Wednesday. The best store for ribbons in the city (as far as I know). Mokuba's across the street, roughly midway between Romni and Americo.

Its visually clean and uncluttered, impeccably organized and the staff are blessedly detached (in my opinion) leaving one to browse without interruption. They make no effort to engage or gush. "Clinical" would be an apt description. Faced with thousands of options, clinical allows me to keep a cool head - important as I considered...

• Polka Dots to give visual relief to the strong linear elements of the cardigan's design? Nah to busy.
• Plaids to nod to the Scottish Designer Kate Davies? The colours were wrong.
• Floral prints to accomplish both of the above? Too girly for me.
• Velvets and brocades? Too heavy.
• Muted shades? No, they brought out the olive component in the yarn to the point of making it drab.
• Kitchy, funky graphic patterns in ideal colour combinations? 'Didn't suit the sweater.

After considering all these options (and more - how about stretchy ribbon?) I happily chose this...

It enlivens the springtime green of the yarn (even more than I can capture in a picture - this yarn wants to photograph "grey".) I love how the sheen of the ribbon offsets the haze of the knit's wooliness. Picking up this trim was a bright spot of fun amid the storminess of now needing to frog.

In happy sock news though, I'm closing in on the heel!

Thanks for dropping by!

"Swift"!

The "model" of swift I use at the cottage most often is called the "Darling Daughter" 'Nice of her to make her  pedicure match my yarn don't you think? ;)

But "swift" isn't something often association with knitting knee highs! These are Anne Budd's Tyrolean Stockings from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 

The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Worsted (50/50 Wool and Alpaca) Purchased midway through last week on a trip to EweKnit. They have 9 or 10 different Berroco yarns on offer and in the case of this beautiful stuff this was one of the four orangy-red colourways on display.

Can you see the orange, fuscia and golden yellow in there? The colours meld to a softer combined shade than any of the individual parts. The Alpaca, lovely and soft with the wool maintaining reassuring elasticity.

I love the thick, stretchy edge from the "Old Norweigian" long tail cast on.

On the feet these loungy things will be unabashedly softsquishy. The eyes will get the halo of the alpaca for the requisite rustic quality of the pattern but the colour? Pure playfulness compared to what an undyed wool yarn could convey.

With all this going for them I'm thinking these knee highs will, in fact swiftly make it to the FO pile!

Thanks for dropping by!

Eye Candy Friday

If cream wool kilt hose aren't the best kind of Knitter's Blog Eye Candy I can' imagine what is.

These are not my creations. They are a collaborative effort between an inspired knitter/master crochet artist and a gifted and exacting knitter. My Number One Son is the lucky, lucky recipient but until he has the kilt to go with them I will be the careful custodian/guardian and I will probably always insist on remaining the one to launder them!

They are knit in Austermann Step Classic with ribbed rather than shaped construction and surprisingly (to me) the same number of stitches on the cuff as down the leg!

Look at all those little cable crosses!

 Have a great weekend! Thanks for dropping by!

 

Puerto Rico?

Yup. Despite My Beloved's globe trotting business these decades I've never gone along...until last week!

I knew the trip held many solitary hours for me as business would draw My Beloved's attention most of the days. Hence as we worked our way out the door to the airport in the very, very wee hours of the morning we left I was seized by that oft-reported knitter's fear...
"What if the knit project I packed gets finished and I'm left without knitting?!? I'd better take another project along just in case!"
Feigning a need to visit the washroom one last time  (My Beloved's blood pressure couldn't take the true reason for my delay ;) )I instead dashed to the sock yarn basket, grabbed a ball, wheeled around to snatch a pack of sock needles and I was off.

After my whining post the week before about yearning to work with natural, woolly yarn it made me smile a while later that same morning as we taxied to the runway and I was, instead of working on my planned and prepped easy-travel-woolly-wool knitting project, casting on with this...

 for this lurid pair of socks...

...I was no doubt seized by tropical fever before even leaving the chilly north!

Whatever my motivation I was smitten with knitting on that thing until, poolside, I put the first toe on holders to await grafting once its mate is complete. Back home, I recognize it may be the next southerly trip, before I'm drawn to that yarn and project again but it was a great little foreign fling while it lasted!

Its fitting really because the whole trip was a bit of a "fling". No prep or research ahead of time, just decisions made on the fly once I was there as to what I would do with my time in this (for me) most unlikely of destinations.

San Juan is working toward becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site and from what I saw, most deservedly so. By North American standards it is an ancient city evidenced by its lovely blue cobbles. They are about 12" long down into the ground! (Once ballast from European ships)

To its battlements...

Its Spanish Colonial architecture

A onetime Charmelite Convent this building was rescued by the heir to the Woolworth  fortune and now functions as a luxury hotel.

And omnipresent references to "The Church"

There are modern day issues with the rats, iguana and feral cats that were introduced by the Europeans

These trees can hold huge colonies of Rats. Hence most have been taken down within Old San Juan.

'Don't know what I like more about this photo, the iguana or the half suspended tourist!

See the kitty's right ear tip is missing? The feral cats are cared for (spayed/neutered, innoculated and left loose to control the rats) The ears are then clipped to indicate a cat who is actively in the program.

While the island is a Commonwealth Territory of the U.S. it doesn't feel like being in the states at all. Rather its very Spanish with a little bit of Caribbean flavour. Surprisingly to me, the food is hearty rather than typically tropical light and, well,  brown. Yup. Brown. No vibrant salads or starfruit or even an emphasis on seafood. Rather chicken and pork with long, slow cooked plantain and pumpkin. And baked desserts! Lots of them. Traditional Puerto Rican - also largely brown - bread pudding, custards, cakes, tarts. Yum!

And speaking of "Yum" the Pina Colada was invented in San Juan! We dutifully visited its birthplace one evening to try one from the source.  I probably haven't had one in 25 years or so. Wow! That first whiff of coconut rum took me right back to the 80's!

So all in all it was a great little break from reality.

Reluctant traveller that I am, possibly the best part of the trip though, is, in retrospect, knowing we first dodged "Sandy" as it moved north over Jamaica while we prepared to leave San Juan then, that we passed through New York before she could catch up and close all the airports on that portion of the eastern seaboard!

Phew! I had a nice little break but it felt great to get back home! Thanks for dropping by!