Back! (Adriana)

Sorry for the hiatus in blogging. I've been quite sick for the past three weeks. At first the doctor thought it was a throat infection and put me on antibiotics which didn't do anything. Then she thought it was mono since one of my classmates has mono and I had all the same symptoms, but the tests came back negative. Finally she decided that I had an anonymous viral infection that mimics mono. The good news is that I'm now definitely on the mend. The bad news is that I've been sick for most of the last month of school so it's been hard to keep up. I am now in the last week of school and I am done everything except for my major paper (which I have barely started and which is due in less than a week. I'm going to ask for an extension).

Unfortunately for much of the time I was sick I was too tired to knit. I did manage to do a little knitting this past week but it's just a stockinette sock so not very interesting. I do have some pictures of my knitting to show off, though.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that one of my favourite people to knit for is my wonderful Granny, who is celebrating her 91st birthday today (Happy Birthday Granny!). This past weekend the whole family gathered to celebrate her birthday and just to be together (it's kind of sickening how much we love each other). Even though Granny had told everyone that she didn't want any presents I wanted to give her something anyways. I decided to give her the River Shawl I'd knit this winter for two reasons: 1) because it's too dark to go with my wardrobe, and 2) because when I showed it to her last month she couldn't stop petting it. Also 3) because I love my Granny and want to keep her warm in luxury fibres.


Here she is looking happy after I wrapped it around her


Here she is admiring how fine it is


And here she is proudly telling my relatives about it

Time for me to stop playing on the internet and get down to some serious work. I can't wait to be done school (soon, so very very soon!).

Granny's Socks Photos (Adriana)

I finally got the pictures from Granny's party so I can prove to all y'all* that her socks do miraculously fit.


Perfectly fitting socks!
(Specs on socks found here)


Close up of the calf increases


Happy grandmother and granddaughter


Granny dances for joy (if you look closely you can see that even in the heat of May Granny wears her socks)


This proves that I will knit everywhere, even at a big family party.



*I have on the best authority (a music prof from Texas) that the plural of y'all is all y'all.

Granny's Socks (Adriana)

When I visited Heather in mid-January, naturally we had to go on a yarn crawl (we are self-respecting knitters after all). I was a girl on a mission: to find suitably luxurious sock yarn for Granny's 90th birthday. When I found Regia Silk in the Venezia colourway I knew I was set. Granny has always collected masks and together we picked out a stunning gold and silver Venice-inspired mask on our trip to England when I was 16. This sock yarn evoked the same emotions in me as did the mask.

Granny adores the socks I knit for her. She wears them year round. It took my mom a week after Christmas to pry them off her feet for a washing. Since I know how much she loves them I am happy to go to any amount of trouble to make sure that her socks fit perfectly. This means doing a top-down sock since she has specific requirements of the toe. Unfortunately, her other request was that these be tall socks and to make best use of the yarn would usually involve a toe-up sock. To manage this I did a provisional cast on and knit the foot, and then picked up the stitches and knit the leg. I increased from 64 stitches to 92 to accommodate her shapely calves. Many thanks to the Keyboard Biologist's excellent tutorial.
To give these socks the stretchiest cast-off possible, I braved the formerly scary "sewn off". It was waaaay easier than I had thought and gave a super stretchy edge.
These socks took from the end of January to the end of April though, in my defense, very little time was spent on them. It's amazing how long it takes to knit something when you don't work on it ;)

Ok, enough talking. Time for the pictures!

The sun was setting so the colour isn't quite right. Look at how little yarn I had left over!


This picture shows off the increases. I kept forgetting to M1R since my default is M1L but Granny's not going to be able to tell.

I promise to get pictures of the birthday girl modelling her socks in a few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that they will fit!

Grafting Socks for fun and profit (Adriana)

There are two things wrong with that title. First of all, none of the socks I am working on are for sale and second of all, I don't actually like to graft. For several years I refused to do anything but toe-up socks because I hated the Kitchener stitch. Luckily, Heather taught me how to do it properly (don't ever put the grafting needle up the middle of the toe) which has opened up my horizons and allowed me to be able to do top-down socks. Unfortunately I still don't like doing it but it's good at least to know how. I grafted four socks today which is definitely a new record for me.

First up, the completed Monkey socks!


Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. This was my first time doing one of her patterns and I am definitely a fan. I'm looking forward to our Pomatomus KAL happening sometime this summer.
Yarn: Koigu in purple from Ramwools.
Needles: 2.5mm
Date Started: April 10, 2007
Date Finished: April 22, 2007

I also made some progress with Granny's Birthday socks.

I finally completed both feet which means it is time to undo my provisional cast on and start knitting the leg. It's going to be an interesting experience for me since I'll be knitting both at the same time to make sure that they're identical. I need to figure out how to increase from 8inches to 13 at the top. Luckily the Keyboard Biologist put together an excellent tutorial on how to do just that.
I have less than a month to complete these socks and I need to get knitting because I will soon have some very distracting packages arriving :)

Sock Stuff (Adriana)

I'm really liking this whole team-blog thing. It's great to have someone to pick up the slack when you're not able to knit, or when your knitting is boring to photograph. Although I've been knitting every day I don't feel like I have much to show for it. I've been working on socks which are slow going. I finished the first Monkey sock last night so I finally have something to show off!


Unfortunately this is a difficult sock to photograph.
Here are some other attempts:


I will try to get some better pictures when the pair is done. Maybe then I'll get someone else to photograph them rather than throwing my leg up on the dining room table in an attempt to catch the last of the natural light.

I also decided to model the first foot of the Granny socks.

The Regia silk is so dreamy to wear. According to Heather the solid colour is actually softer which just feeds my desire for more of this yummy yarn. I do have a birthday coming up...

Curious about the state of the mates?

Yeah, I have some knitting to do.
I don't really have a deadline besides the May long weekend (Granny's birthday) but I might have put in three (3) orders for yarn last week which should be showing up soon and I'd like to have as lot done on these socks before I get seduced by my new precious.

On a less happy sock note, when I went to put on my Dragon socks this weekend I made a worrying discovery:


Eeek! Holes! I have barely worn these socks so they can't be from wear. It looks like the yarn was cut in two places. I inspected my other handknit socks but none of them show any damage. Just to be on the safe side I tossed all the socks into the freezer. Moths seem to most logical explanation for holes in knitting but I just can't figure out how they got into my sock drawer. I live in an high-rise and we haven't opened our windows since last fall.

More Little Things (Adriana)

It was a busy long weekend for me too. I helped my parents find a new house! It's absolutely perfect for them and there's a room for me too. While I was gone I was able to gain some headway on Granny's socks.

The first foot is done (the toe just needs grafting) and look at how much yarn is left to do the rest of the leg. I've started the second foot next because I want to knit the legs together so I get the increases right.

I think I've finally gotten the desire to knit baby things out of my system but not before I made this:

It's a baby vest made with Mission Falls 1824 wool left over from Tubey.
The pattern is loosely based on Debbie Bliss' Argyll Slip-Over

I also whipped out a One Skein Wonder in purple Warani

This is such a clever knit and it only uses 150m of yarn! I will be making more in the future.

Now it's time to return to the monkey.

A good day for knitting (Adriana)

I woke up this morning filled with plans for the day... until I looked out the window.

When you can barely see the building across the courtyard, you know it's a good day for knitting!

I have been a busy knitter lately. I finished my Manos hat! I got rid of the Cotton Fleece lining which was uncomfortable and I knit an additional 4 inches of the Manos to give it a nice brim.


I also finished my gauntlets:

The pattern is from The Purl Stitch and the yarn is my own handdyed.


Here is my gauntlet in action petting Cleo. She seems to be enjoying it :)

I also made a little headway with Granny's birthday socks:

I measured her calves and I'll have to do some increases as I go up to ensure that they fit properly. For a 89.5 year old woman, she has shapely legs.

Remember my disaster with the Trekking socks? Heather, being the brilliant lady that she is, suggested that instead of ripping back the heel and redoing it, I should just rip out the toe. I did it and now the sock actually fits! Plus I was able to fiddle with the colours making my sock less green than before.

This is Trekking XXl 100. Isn't it strange how different the two socks look from each other? That's part of the fun of Trekking.




These are such photogenic socks!

Remember how I said that Katy was going to be my next project?

I lied!
Meet Audrey, from Rowan 35, knit in Rowan Calmer, the Calmer colourway. I picked up this yarn on sale and had been intending to knit it after Katy since it is more of a summer sweater. I wanted to have it done in time for Granny's big party in May. After swatching (and even washing the swatch) for Katy, I found that all I could think of was Audrey. A little encouragement from my mom and I was off in a new direction. This sweater for me represents my family, both because I want to wear it to a family gathering and because it shares its name with my cousin. I've been homesick lately and I think that knitting this will help.

Lately I have been choosing my knitting projects for emotional reasons. Knitting Birch was a cathartic experience to help me work through something personal, and now I chose Audrey to feel closer to my family. Has anyone else picked knitting projects for this reason?

While I was gone... (Adriana)

I'm back! My computer has been returned to me fully functioning (or so it seems). It's such a relief to be able to do all the interneting I want! My beloved knitting blogs have been neglected for the past two weeks. I can't wait to catch up on everything.

Although there has been much drama lately, mostly to do with the computer problems, I've still managed to get in a fair amount of knitting. I finished Odessa, pictures to follow in a later post, but trust me, it looks awesome (think olive green yarn with amber beads)!

I finished the mystery project and am starting another one (I love secret knitting!). You can get a peek at it here. My hands are so cold now that winter has hit so I've started a pair of gauntlets from Sally Melville's The Purl Stitch. I'm making them at the same time on two circs out of some of my hand-dyed yarn.

It looks darker here than in real life. The yarn has lots of pinks and purples in it.

I wanted to knit my Granny a pair of socks for her 90th birthday this spring but I was faced with a bit of a challenge. In order to do the feet the way she likes I need to knit them top-down however she also requested really long socks so ordinarily I would have knit them toe-up and just continue until I ran out. I came up with a rather clever solution, if I do say so myself:

I did a provisional cast on so that I can do the feet as she wants and then knit the leg until the yarn runs out! This is Regia Silk in the Venice colourway.

The big project which has been occupying most of my knitting time these days is Birch! I was inspired by Heather's lovely version in Silky Wool (by the way, are we ever going to see pictures of that?). I am using Rowanspun 4ply in Midnight doubled. I cast on two less repeats and am almost 70% of the way through. I have a feeling that I will run out of yarn so I've been trying to think up things to do with another bag of this stuff. But enough rambling about yarn. Time for pictures!


Spread out on the table in all its unblocked glory


For once the flash actually helped to show off the motif


The obligatory close-up

What's next for this knitter, you might ask? When I look in my crystal ball I see Katy knit from Mission Falls and a shrug present for a summer birthday (not you Heather!). Also, I'm anxious to get my hands on the new Lace Style. Anyone else have ambitious future knitting plans?