Knitting molecules together
Presenting the felting blockbuster of the year, the French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi!
Starring:
Patons Classic Wool Merino, in charcoal grey, one skein!
A small bit of Patons in black, for the sole!
Size 15 needles!
Assorted vintage red glass buttons!
And a cameo by the fabulous Marlene!
You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll have very warm feet! Knit them today!
Rated SC for seriously cute
‘Tis a sentiment universally expressed in my last blog post’s comments that you guys were kind of worried about me. Okay, maybe not universally, but I did hear it a lot. So I want to say two things to that: Awww, thanks! and Gosh, sorry! I really didn’t mean to make anyone worry. I am fine. Granted, life was giving me the old one-two for a bit there, but I think I’ve slapped it back into submission. Life is now my bitch. Well, sort of. The point is that everything’s okey-dokey. I hope it stays that way.
Buuuuut, I know it probably won’t. Quoi, you ask? Well, I’m in grad school, right? And I’m getting a PhD, right? Right. And the time has come, the adviser said, to talk of many things. Of papers and theses and finishing, and whether my ass has wings. I’m looking down the barrel of my as-of-yet unwritten thesis right now. And I’m smelling gunpowder. It’s about to go off.
So yeah, I don’t have much time for knitting OR blogging these days, cuz I’m rite buzy. Plus I’m also doing a lot of freelancing. (Have another book review in Science coming up here.) Oh and, you know, looking for a job. I’ll be around a bit, but not too much. Sad? Sad.
Okay, enough of that crap. Let’s talk more Christmas knits! Er, I mean, rammin’ speed with ye Christmas knits, ya horn swogglin’ scurvy cur!
Aye. That be more like it.
Slippaaaaaaarrrrrs (rav it!)
Pattern: Ye Oldde Felted Moccasins by that buxom wench Bev Galeskas, from Felted Knits
Yaaaaaaarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino
Needle: US 11
Started: Dec 3
Finished: Dec 20
For: that scurvy scallywag me blub
Mods: I Davy Jonesed em up, like
Yeah so, these were a bit of a pain in the arse to knit. The directions were clear, but it wasn’t clear what the hell you were doing until you did it. Ya know? For example: mine are actually inside out. Heh. Whups!
So they’re supposed to have this little ridgy thing around the toe to make them look like real moccasins, see? And the directions say, and I quote, “Vamp has no RS or WS.” Okay, so mine does, but I thought I was taking that into account. But apparently, I’m an idiot. I guess. Because you attach the vamp, which is the top part where my Jolly Roger is, to the rest of the slipper by knitting it together on a circular needle. And so I did, with it facing the wrong way, because of this next little bit:
“Note: you will be working with the inside of the slipper facing.”
To me, that means that the inside of the slipper is facing out, and is hence working inside out. Does it mean that to you? I’m not being totally stupid here, am I? Because you then knit a little ridge after you attach the vamp, which is the ridgy thing around the toe. And I do remember thinking, “why the hell is this knit on the inside? Hm, maybe when you felt it, it all goes right.” Because that sure wasn’t how the picture looked. Anyway, I bravely knit on. Here’s what they looked like when I finished:
And then of course I felted them, and they looked like this:
Yeah, that’s not right.
You know what though? I thought they looked okay anyway. So they got wrapped and presented to the blub.
(Notice my use of yarn for ribbon? Yeah, I am all green and shit.)
He hearts them. And he says they fit better the way they are than turned inside out. (Which would be the right way. Confusing? Yes.) I don’t know if he actually thinks that or is just being sweet and nice. But anyway, yay win!
I ripped the all-weather soles off his old pair of slippers to put on these, because we both wear our slippies outside sometimes. To get the mail and bring in wood and chase cats and crap like that.
I haven’t attached them yet, because a) I haven’t gotten around to it; b) he’s been wearing them and likes them just fine; and c) I’m considering just painting them with that rug-stop stuff like knottygnome did with her very nice slippies. Plus I’m kind of daunted by all that hand-sewing. Urgh.
Oh! I used the pirate chart from hello yarn’s We Call Them Pirates hat for ye vamp top. I don’t remember why I decided to make Nels pirate slippers. But I did, so um. There you are.
Sorry. I mean, there you aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Matey.
Hi! Hi! Member me? I’m the one who writes this blog!
Anyway.
It was just Christmas! (Did you know?) So I knit some Christmas presents. I’m not going to to into the presents started to presents finished ratio right now. Shall we just say that it was not good? But here are two that I DID finish and that the recipients love love loved. Which are always the best kind of recipients.
I present: the thrummed mittens.
I really really wish I had better pictures. Because these mittens? Were awesomeness incarnate. And I do not use those words lightly. But everything was so rush rush rush this year that I just never got a chance. Sigh.
Anyways. Deets.
Sea Cucumber Mittens (aka Thrummed mittens #1, blue and green pair) (rav it!)
Pattern: yes
Yarn: Brown Sheep Shepherd’s Shades in wild indigo for the cuffs, Malabrigo Worsted for the hands. Eh, some.
Needle: US 7 and 8
Started and finished: December…something. Done around the 21st.
For: Eric the blond, nephew extraordinaire
You know about sea cucumbers, right? As a self-defense mechanism, they spew out part of their intestines at predators. Really. So then whatever is bothering them sits down to eat their regurgitated guts, and the sea cucumber swims off, (mostly) unscathed. Neat, eh? Here’s a video. Only slightly gross.
I called these the sea cucumber mittens because it was so fun to turn them inside out and expose their guts! Plus I thought they look sort of like a regular cucumber. Er, if you squint. And take some acid.
For both of these pairs of mittens, I used this mitten pattern, and hello yarn’s thrummed mitten tutorial. Easy! Fun! Cures depression! Does your taxes! For these mittens in particular, I used the Shepherd’s Shades for the cuff and cast on for a small on the 8’s. Then I increased to the large size, switched to the Malabrigo, and switched to 7’s. All purely winged, by the way. No sissy swatches for me. (Bloody hell, am I glad it worked.)
I used 2 oz of roving for the thrums, just like hello yarn suggests. I totally should have listened to her when I stared, though. Because I thought, “Two ounces, for a kid’s mitten? No way! One ounce is fine!” Ha! Ha ha! I only had slightly over one ounce of the green roving. Aaaand I ran out. After the first mitten. I tried desperately to find more roving of the same color, for about a day. Then I thought screw it, the kid is seven! He’ll never notice. So I got a slightly different green for the second mitten. And no, he didn’t notice. But he did heart them.
He’s totally at the stage where he can’t sit still for two seconds together. Can you tell?
Pretty Fluffy Mittens, aka Thrummed mittens #2 (rav it!)
Pattern: same as above
Yarn: Brown Sheep Shepherd’s Shades, weathered teal, one skein
Needle: US 8
Started and finished: Dec something
For: Elizabeth of the golden ringlets
Seriously, can you believe this girl’s hair? I think maybe if she’s weren’t my sweet niece, and not 9, I might hate her just a tiny bit.
For her mittens, I also cast on for a small and increased to a large after the cuff. They turned out a bit on the big side. They fit me! I have pretty small hands, though. And they fit her well enough. For the thrums, I used some Gale’s Art roving I got a very long time ago. Autumn Fire.
I was reluctant to use it at first. But it looked so pretty with the teal. So what the hell, I thought. The nice thing is that I only used half of what I have. So I have enough left for mittens for me, hooray!
The mittens were a bit hit with everybody, really. It was a Merry Christmas.
More Christmas knits to come. And I will blog about them! Soon.
Oh, this sweater. We have a long history, it and I. And I’m sorry to say that history hasn’t always been good. But now? Now we’re cool.
Back when the earth was young, I bought the yarn for…the blub. (It was before written records, but after yarn stores.) Yup. I was going to knit him a sweater with it. And I did begin to knit him a sweater with it. It was a drop-shoulder roll neck pullover, from The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Simple Knits. (Before written records, but after knitting books too. Those don’t count.) The pattern is knit in large blocky pieces, then seamed up.
I got through one piece before I wanted to stab my eyes out. So, I did what any sensible knitter would do. I tried to finish in on my knitting machine.
Ah yes, that was a disaster as well. I won’t go into details, but the finished pieces got rammed into a bag and thoroughly cursed. True to his nature, the blub mostly forgot about this sweater. There were a few frightening moments for me when he said something like, “Hey whatever happened to that sweater you were knitting…for…m?” Then his eyes would glaze over and he would stop talking. (How I love online shopping. Useful information, straight to your door.) Anyway, I did knit him a replacement sweater, which he likes very much. Later I ripped the original satanic piece of hell out and stashed the yarn.
Yay, then I started a sweater for me, yay! It was fun for awhile but then it got boring, boo! I’m not going to go all into the details of that. The important thing is, it’s done now. And I love it, yay!
Serendipity sweater (rav link)
Pattern: #77 Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan by SweaterBabe
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed in dusk, I have no idea how many skeins
Needle: US 10.5 (6.5 mm)
Started: August 22, 2008 (at least that’s what my rav notes say, cripes!)
Completed with much relief: September 13, 2009
So this pattern is actually written for a bulky weight yarn. But I thought it would look nicer in a lighter weight. Plus, I had a whole hell of a lot of aran weight hanging around.
Here’s how, at least in part, this sweater got its nickname: I did not swatch for this project. I just started knitting. Since I knew my gauge would be a lot smaller, I just thought “Eh, knitting the largest size should work okay.” And it did.
(Okay, I realize I’m putting this up on the internet and all, but I have to say this: do not tell anyone about this! It’s a secret! If this gets out, my knitting luck will be doomed, DOOMED forever! I will never be able to knit a fitting sweater again! Although, maybe this is comeuppance for that Hourglass sweater that I knit so long ago. That one where I swatched so carefully and it LIED to me. Fucker.)
Other mods: um. I made it fit? Yes, I realize that that’s not very specific. But it was a top-down sweater, so I tried it on as I went along. Plus I knew my row gauge was way off (I think the pattern called for Lamb’s Pride Bulky), so I winged it.
Oh! I remember one! The way I did the increases on the raglan line. I didn’t like the ones in the pattern, which I believe were just M1s. I don’t like how those leave holes. But for some reason that I don’t remember, I couldn’t make the numbers work for a central stitch between the increases. So I M1L and M1R into the same stitch. Sounds a bit weird, but um…it worked out really well.
I also made the sleeve ribbing quite a bit longer. This was a result of me not paying attention, and I started the ribbing after x rows like the pattern said. Which was dumb of me because…hey doofus! Your row gauge is way off! I don’t know why I paid attention in some places but not in others. So yeah, that means my sleeve ribbing is about 7 inches long. But you know what? I like it. I think it looks nice.
I know I also did something very small on the collar differently than the pattern, but I can’t remember what.
Oh! I remember now. She suggested putting the increases to make it flare out in the back, and I put them in the front. Like that, too. But the bestestestest part of this sweater? The pockets. You know how I heart pockets in sweaters.
I know a lot of people who knit this sweater did not bother with the pockets. After putting mine on, I think that is a big mistake, for two reasons. One–pockets on sweaters are awesome. Two–the way these are sewn on is really cool.
You do it with duplicate stitch.
Well, the bottom anyway. But isn’t that ficking ingenious? It was really really fun, too. I was kind of sad I had only two pockets to sew on when I was done. I made them kind of poofy by pulling down a bit after the bottom was attached. Then I just sewed on the sides like a sewing machine would. Easy.
What was not easy was trying to figure out how to size the pocket up. That cute little pleat thing made it kind of hard to just scale up. (By kind of hard, I mean I tried that and it looked like a pile of vomit and it was really annoying.) So in the end, I just added two stitches to each side. Which worked fabulously.
The buttons were yet another issue. I went everywhere and I couldn’t find anything I liked. I kind of wanted colored buttons, but I couldn’t find the right ones. Finally at Joann’s I found some blue plastic toggles that exactly matched the blue tweedy flecks. But, problem: I needed 9. They had? 6. I did ask a very sweet and patient lady behind the cutting counter if they maybe had any more in back. “No,” she spat out, and turned her back on me before the entire question was even out of my mouth. Friendly, eh? I bought the six anyway. Then I did what any independent, intelligent woman of the world would do.
I called my mom.
My mom lives near Chicago, where they have a wealth of strip malls and therefore, Joann’s Fabrics stores. The first store she tried–no good. But the second? Yes! They had them! She bought enough for me to have two extras. Yay for mommies!
I think they look quite faboo.
I heart this sweater. It was a pain in the ass at times, and a slog at other times. But I finished it and it’s soft and fantastic and fits perfectly. It looks good on me, too.
…which you’re going to have to take my word for. Don’t quite have the hang of that self-timer thing yet. And I don’t like my auto-focus lens. (Hey, the blub wasn’t home, what could I do?)
But anyway. Over a year in the making. But overall? It was worf it.
LOVE the animation, LOVE the song. Love They Might Be Giants. Though I thought chalk was CaCO3 (Calcuim carbonate), not CaSO4 (Calcium sulfate). Anyway, this is still the stuff of awesome.
Guess what–I finished a sweater! An old one! Really! Hopefully, pics and actual blog post to follow. Until then, keep humming along.
This blog post is brought to you by other people. No, really. I didn’t knit anything I’m about to show you. Neat trick, eh?
To begin the story, we must hearken back. To…um. When the hell are we hearkening back to? Not sure. Let’s start with July, at least I remember that one.
My in-laws, who have been married 50 years come December, had a party this past July. (So people, especially the grandkids, could come during their vacations.) It was a lovely time, but the most lovely thing was that I learned something Very Nice. My FIL’s sister, Tanta Renata, knits. A lot. I hadn’t known this before, and my MIL told her that I knit. So as you maybe can imagine, we had much to discuss.
I found out she loves Nancy Bush. With a very unholy passion. (Can you blame her?) We talked about TONS of stuff: stashing, socks, nupps, Estonian knitting, just to name a few. This last thing is also very important to Renata. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but my FIL is German. But he was actually born in Tartu, Estonia. I’m not sure if Renata was born there too, but she was certainly loves those Estonian knits. So much so that she knit my FIL a pair of socks, “sometime a long time ago,” she said. “He never wore them. He probably threw them away.” I kind of doubted it, and I told her so. Nels got his pack-rattage tendencies from somewhere, after all. But Renata didn’t agree. “He didn’t appreciate them. Be grateful you have someone who appreciates your knitting,” she said, smiling at Nels. He had already pulled up his pant leg to show her the handknitted wool socks he was wearing in the July heat.
Renata left the next day, unfortunately. I wish we had had more time to talk. She lives in Albuquerque too, so I don’t see her often. But she did mention how happy she was to have someone to inherit all her knitting supplies. (She’s around 80, and seems not squeamish about such things.)
About a week after she left, I decided I needed to know what happened to these socks. So I asked my MIL if she remembered them. “Oh yes!” she said. “Peter still has them! Do you want to see?” And she ran upstairs to get them.
Hell, I thought, that was easy.
And then she gave them to me. Yes, really.
My FIL never wears them, she said. His feet get too hot. But goldang, they are in beautiful condition. I wonder if he wore them even once.
I’m sorry I don’t know what the pattern is. Renata said they were an Estonian pattern, and I think she knit them while she was still living in Germany, many years ago. They are certainly not superwash wool. But I love the details. Especially the twisted stitches down the heel flap, and the broken ribbing that runs along the sides of the foot.
The little purl ridge after the ribbing is also a nice touch.
I’m not too familiar with Estonian knitting, so I don’t know how traditional the fair-isle pattern is. It’s pretty, though.
And since I’m curious like that, I flipped the sock inside out to see the floats. I’m a bit ashamed of this, because it always feels a bit like I’m peering into the knitter’s underwear drawer. But look at this underwear!
Dang!
She finished the sock off with a star toe.
Just lovely. And the best thing? They fit Nels!
He didn’t want to take them off after I took this picture. But I made him. I’m so afraid he’s going to wear them out! I’m thinking of weaving some nylon thread into the heel, so it lasts a bit longer. It’s just knit plain, no slipped stitches or ribbing or anything. Anyway, he pouted. I told him they had to be hand-washed, but he didn’t care. Watch him chuck them into the washing machine. Gaa.
I haven’t told Renata yet that we found the socks. I think I’ll just send her a copy of that last picture. That would be a nice surprise, yes? Blast from the socky past. Yay.
So there’s that.
The next thing is not old, but it IS also Estonian. My FIL is a retired professor, but he still does these speaking tours from time to time. This past spring, he and my MIL went to Estonia to give a lecture or two because his very famous book had been translated into Estonian. (I don’t know how many languages that it’s been translated into now. I think it’s around 20 or so.) This is what they brought back for me.
240 grams of light fingering/heavy lace weight yarn. In Estonia’s national colors. It’s kind of scratchy but smells very sheepy so I like it. I don’t know how many yards it is. A lot. Enough for a nice stole. For Renata, maybe? I think she would like that.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that wasn’t the only thing they brought back from Estonia for me. I got the other on my birthday.
A handknitted stole! For me! My MIL said she got both yarn and stole at this outdoor market thingie in Tartu. Pretty! But kind of hard to capture on camera.
That’s the general idea. It shifts colors, kind of like Noro. But it’s not. This yarn is also very sheepy and kind of scratchy. But I will wear it anyway. It’s nice to know that that quality extends beyond my own knits. I think a bath in some wool wash will do it some good.
So yay, I had a happy birthday despite the auspicious beginning. Thanks to everyone for all the nice birthday wishes! And I would also like to say a very special thank you for this last thing, which was a package I received shortly after my birthday. It wasn’t really a birthday present. It was more like a “hey cheer the hell up” present. And it didn’t cheer me up so much as made me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants. That’s cheerful, yes?
Anyhoodle, it was sent to me by the lovely and most wonderous Weeza. The things inside the package are a bit beyond description, but for simplicity’s sake I will call them “socks.” She suggested that I use them to make some sock monsters, and they will make the most kick assingly awesome sock monsters on the face of the planet. I couldn’t think of a better way to thank her than to make a happy sock dance video. Which I accidentally filmed upside down. I thought I could flip it over later, but it seems I can’t. I’ve decided this adds to its charm. So here you go, Weez. A very happy thank you video, very charming and containing cat for scale.
(Sorry for craptastic quality. I need to turn up the resolution on my phone camera thingy.)
Okay. I swear I’m not putting this up just to get attention. But it’s my birthday today. And I’m pretty grumpy.
Why? Ah, just crap. The same work crap. The blub quit his job (long story, but I think he’ll get another one that pays better and has benefits really soon). He also has to get some fairly serious dental work done, which is going to be expensive. My brother is in Iraq, and I’m worried about him (and my SIL, who is at home with 3 kids under 5). Our refrigerator is crapping out on us, which cheated me out of birthday pancakes this morning because I refuse to eat the eggs and milk in there even though Nels insists they’re fine. Dude, they were at 50 F overnight. They are not fine.
All in all, things are not THAT bad. We’re coping. And we’re all healthy–things could be a lot worse. But I’ve decided to lift myself out of funk by posting some things that I like.
Thing One: Sarah Haskins and Target Women. Here’s the one from this week. Timely, no?
Thing Two: Sockington. Are you on Twitter? You need to follow this cat. Especially watch this video.
Thing Three: Sundara Yarn. (Well, duh. Who doesn’t?) I got myself some sock yarn from Year in Color: July. Toasted orange over pistachio, it’s all the way at the bottom. But I won’t get it until midway through September, yaarg! (BTW: what the hell is a toasted orange?)
Thing Four: My new phone. I got this one and I heart it. It flips open sideways. Nifty. (Thanks, Dad!)
Thing Five: That my fall blooming lilies have been open since July.
Thing Six: Cupcakes. Specifically chocolate peanut butter cupcakes that my coworker made for me today. I will go eat one right now.
Yum and bye.
This summer has been so fricking nice.
So much so that I’ve wanted to do little else but sit on my porch and watch the creek flow by, the hummingbirds dive-bomb each other, and my beer glass slowly grow empty. There has been some knitting. A bit. A smidge. But all mindless. And honestly, not really that much of it. Two pairs of socks in the past, er, couple of months. One pair for Nels, and one for me.
The blub pair:
Dude’s Funky Socks, Also with Dutch Heel
Pattern: Gentleman’s Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel, by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks (rav)
Yarn: Schoeller + Stahl Limbo Superwash #2539 (rainbowy bits) and Cascade 220 Superwash (solid teal bits)
Needle: US 3 and 4
Start to finish: July 5 to 12
Not much to say about these, really. They are awesome, I think that about sums it up.
I made them not match on purpose, cuz I felt like it.
I added some random stripies, but the stripies the yarn did by itself were pretty nice.
I did make the heels match, and I did do the Dutch heel. It was interesting to step away from my heel flap heel for once. Refreshing, even.
I finished knitting these super-fast. (Well. The fact that the yarn is worsted weight kinda helped.) It was totally unintentional, but they were finished on the blub’s birthday so I wrapped him up and gave them to him. Bonus birthday present. He was quite pleased. So much so that he wore them that day. Worsted weight socks. In July. Mild summer or not, that’s pretty hard-core. I guess he just loves me. Or loves handknit socks. Either. Both.
Pair two: the me pair!
Gettin’ lucky socks
Pattern: Um. Gentleman’s Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel, by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks (rav)
Yarn: Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop, 2 skeins of Say a Little Prayer
Needle: US 3
Start to finish: July 13 to 31
Yes, these are the same pattern as the ones I knit for Nels. I guess I just liked knitting them. Called the gettin’ lucky socks because the color reminds me of Good Luck Bear.
(BTW, while playing with Care Bears with my best friend Stacey was the first time I used the word ‘dick’ in a sentence.* We were seven. We laughed and laughed! Ah, childhood.)
Is there anything else to say here? The awesome was screaming to continue. I let it.
Didn’t do the Dutch heel here (I guess I can only take so much refreshing at once) but that was about the only difference.
And. Um. Yeah, that’s it. About the only other thing I’ve been doing (besides working and wishing I was home on my porch) is gardeny type stuff. And taking lots of pictures of gardeny type stuff. Lots.
Yep. Lots!
Sigh. My porch is so nice. I wish you all could come over and sit with me and knit. But speaking of that, I have to go now. I have to go sit on a porch (not mine) and drink martinis and knit with The Best Knitting Group Ever (TM). Wanna come?
.
.
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*For the curious: Stacey was playing with Wish Bear, who was a girl bear, and she made her say, “I have to go powder my nose.” So I felt I should make my bear go to the bathroom, too. The trouble was, I was playing with Love-A-Lot bear, who was a boy bear. My seven-year-old mind worked feverishly. What the heck did boys say when they had to go to the bathroom? Coming up with nothing, I blurted out, “I have to go polish my dick!” And then, as you might imagine, hilarity ensued.
I would have ROCKED a girl group like this one. Er, except I’m not that flexible.
Make sure you watch the whole thing. The best part is the end.
(And thanks Claire, for letting us know that such things exist. How did I get on before this?)
Kelpie died quietly on Thursday night. We buried her beneath the apple tree.
I miss her a lot.
