Why Knitting is Better Than a Broken Washing Machine

You know how when you come home from a long day to find that your ancient-of-ancients came-with-the-house-but-no-manual-7-years-ago washing machine has spewed water all over the floor for the second time in as many weeks, and since your husband of 17 years has decided to split, you grab your handy-dandy copy of Any Idiot Can Fix a Major Home Appliance With No Prior Experience Whatsoever - For Dummies, only to find that not one single reference work on the planet internet can tell you how to remove the top of your particular washing machine* to get at the part you have oh-so cleverly self diagnosed**, so you have to call him anyway and it makes you feel like a big, helpless girly girl-baby?

Yeah, that's frustrating.

Anyway, at least we have knitting! Here are, at long long last, Anne's Lacy Diamante Socks:




I'm calling them Anne's because they were supposed to be my project for the long-finished Anne of Green Gables Knit & Read Along. Remember how Anne thought diamonds were purple? Right.

The yarn: Bare by KnitPicks, dyed by Celena, received in a swap. Most excellent dye job, Celena!
The original pattern: Diamante by Deb Barnhill via Knitty.
Modifications: Used a figure-8 cast on. Did yarn-overs instead of make1s for a lacier look. I like that they are just a little lacy.

The other major modification (I'm still geekin' out about it! - Syndrome) was knitting them with 5 dpns instead of two circulars. Experience-free as I am, even I can see where 2 circs would be easier for this pattern, but it worked out.

And since these took me so long (which is in NO WAY the fault of the designer - they knit up pretty quickly when I actually worked on them), I have decided to try something new:


Yikes! But then, maybe I'm just being a big girly girl-baby.

* Speed Queen AA4410W, unknown vintage. I'd guess 1980s.
** Probably a blocked drain. (I was wrong.)
*** Have you noticed an upswing in the amount of footnotes in blogs lately? No? Ok, just me then.

FOto Saturday - April 5, 2008

"FOto Saturday?" Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you want to see pictures or not?

Earth Hour 2008

An hour spent technology free led to getting these done:

Candy Sox


Candy Stripe Socks a.k.a. Candy Socks a.k.a. Candy Sox - either way, they're done! My daughter put them on and said, "They fit right now." Thankfully, I have some of this yarn left over and knit them top down, so if they are too small next year, I can (ideally) unravel them from the toes back and add some length. We'll see if that actually happens. Anyway, yarn is Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in #6946 "Crush." Size 2 (US) dpns. Basic top down instructions from Knitting Rules. These turned out ok, maybe a little ladder-y. The only thing I am really disappointed about is that they could have matched. I was afraid of running out of yarn, so I didn't try to match them and it turned out the pattern was only about 1/2 inch off. Bummer. What's our motto for this year? Say it with me now:

Fearless Knitting.

Hey, I'm trying!

My MMR&SE swap scarf is winging its way to Manitoba as we speak, so no photos until it's safely in Feralmama's hands. I already outed myself as her "secret" swap knitter, so no harm done there. But she really should be the first to see it, dontcha think?

I cast on for another Vogue Knitting scarf from their 25th anniversary issue, the Flounce Scarf by Laura Bryant using Lion Brand Incredible in Purple Party. I'm not sure if I love it, tho. I'm guessing the yarn they used in the original may have had a little more "body" to it - mine looks a tad droopy. But nice colors!

The Diamante Socks are still stalled at the second sock's wrap & turn, but since they are the ONLY socks I have OTN, I think I may be remastering (ha!) the W&T this evening.

Baby's J's quilt is machine quilted, just needs the binding to be made and attached.

The next big project is my Green Tomato. Remember, fearless!

Roadblock

The journey to Fearless Knitting has hit a roadblock.



Turns out, the Diamante socks have a short-row heel. Yep, wrap and turn, a technique I am completely unfamiliar with.

So it's off to Knitty for instructions.

Confession: One of the reasons I'm doing YOs in this pattern instead of M1s is not because of wanting lacy socks (although I did). It's because I don't like doing M1s! If I had realized Diamante had a short-row heel, I probably wouldn't have started it in the first place. So I'm really glad I am embracing this whole "fearless" thing.

Recognize the roadblock. Then go around.

See you on the other side.

(Celena, find yourself a toe-up cast on that makes sense to you and go for it!!)

Fearless Knitters

I loved the recent Knitting Daily posts (here and here) about fearless knitting. Sandi asked four questions she thinks all knitters should ask themselves:

"Was the knitting I did the kind of knitting I REALLY wanted to do? Was I happy with the finished projects? Did the knitting end up looking as good as I'd hoped it would? Did I, in fact, Knit Fearlessly?"

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the projects I completed last year. I even tackled some new techniques like socks and mittens on dpns. But did I really knit fearlessly? Can I do better this year?

I can. Item one: Toe-up socks.

The first toe-up sock pattern (that I might actually finish) is a modified Diamante, with yarn-overs instead of M1 increases. (I wanted lacy socks.) I've long wanted to just knit and knit and knit a sock until I get to the end of the yarn, instead of stopping short out of fear of running out. But how to cast on? What happens when I get to the gusset? Here's a hint - you can find instructions for any technique if you really want to try something new.

Item two: Sweater in the round.

The long awaited Jimmy Neutron sweater is done, minus its duplicate-stitch atom motif. This sweater is version 2, in fact. The cheap acrylic I used on the first one betrayed me in a viscious manner after knitting the entire body. Frogged. Redone in Wool-Ease. (Yes, cheap wool/acrylic blend, but this time I matched the dye lot!) The whole thing is in the round and the bound-off edge can be undone and reknit as Boy1 grows. (That's the idea anyway.) I'll post more detail on what I did when it's finished.

Item three: Dyeing yarn.

Celena dyed the yarn for my Diamante socks. But I want to dye yarn like that. Time to step up to real dyes.

Item four: New camera.

Hubs bought me a new camera for our recent anniversary, so I have lots of bells and whistles to figure out, starting with installing the software so I can actually show you some of this stuff.

How are you being fearless this year?