The last few weeks, in pictures

Bayerische, finished

Girlyman in concert

My birthday – my favorite present

The very-close-second-best present

I’ve been knitting! See?

Twisted Flower closeup

I still exist

(Life update first, Sock Madness update below.)

I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, really! I was just in Maine at my brother’s house with no Internet access. On Friday I had to run as soon as I finished those Painted Madness socks, to pick him up at work and bring him to our grandmother’s house for our (very non-traditional) Seder. It was fun – our Seders mostly consist of us running through the essentials, like the Plagues and the Wicked Son (always read by my brother, of course), laughing at my mother for getting drunk off a thimbleful of Manischewitz, and eating vast quantities of food.

On Saturday, the brother and I went shopping, and I found pants! No more ranting necessary, at least until these wear out and I need more. I got three pairs of jeans, only one of which is perfect, but the other two will do, and a pair of very nice black slacks that fit perfectly from waist to feet… and then about six inches beyond. So, not perfect, but they’ll be very nice if I ever get around to hemming them.

I went dancing with my parents Saturday night, and ran into a guy I haven’t seen since he was a freshman in high school – it was a bit of a shock. He came over and said “hi,” and then said, “You have no idea who I am, do you?” I was, of course, obliged to say that no, I didn’t have a clue. In my defense, he’s now a foot taller, muscular, much more outgoing, and actually not unattractive! He was cool about it, and we chatted for a while, and danced together a bit, but it was a very weird feeling – this is the first time that I’ve run into someone I had a very definite mental image of and had it just completely not jibe, at all.

Sunday I pretty much just hung out with my brother all day, then stopped by to see Mr. P on the way home.  I think it’s getting to be about time to give him a new pseudonym.

A very good weekend.

And now, a bit more about the Painted Madness socks! At first, I thought it was a cute pattern but really not something I’d ever wear. I still think they’re not really “me,” but I really like them – I think the cuff is a great way to show off the beautiful variegated yarn without doing a plain stockinette sock, and the garter stitch edging is… well, “cute,” and “adorable” are not words that generally describe any of my wardrobe, so I’m going to go with “twee.” And I’m still a huge fan of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, especially worked on the smaller needles I used for this pattern – so soft and cushy and dense and warm and lovely.

I do feel a little bad about knocking Julie out of the competition – look at what she was dealing with! Such an intrepid knitter doesn’t deserve to lose a competition just because I had lights and disdained sleep. But I’ve been emailing back and forth with her, so I don’t feel too bad – she’s not upset, and is looking forward to making the rest of the patterns calmly and without pressure, while I keep giving up sleep.

No word yet on when the next round starts. I suspect that it’ll be somewhere in the vicinity of next weekend, though, and I think I’m toast. I’m going to a concert Friday night with Mr. P, and probably staying with him through at least most of Saturday, and then my Renaissance music group has a concert Sunday afternoon. Not much knitting time in there – while Mr. P knows I’m an insane knitter, and he knows about this competition, I think he would (rightly) question my priorities if I spent my weekend knitting frantically and ignoring him. Maybe I’ll teach him to knit.

Oh yeah, and remember last Monday when I mentioned that I was very close to finishing Bayerische? I finished it that day, on a conference call – just haven’t had time to post pictures. That might come tomorrow, if I’m still alive at the end of rehearsal.

Three heels

That’s how many I’ve turned since the last time I posted. I seem fated to do each section of Pomatomus twice… I had to rip and redo the entire leg, then I knit the flap and heel turn as directed in the pattern, but didn’t like how they came out. So I ripped, and reknit using a short row heel – I really do just like short rows better. I’m afraid I didn’t take a picture of the flap heel, but here’s how Pomatomus currently stands:

And a close-up of the heel:

I think I’m getting a little better at this photography thing, and I’m starting to figure out some of the settings on my camera. I love that you can see the slight mohair halo in this picture. Although it’s still coming out a little too blue, with not enough of the purple coming through.

Anyway, that heel is my standard short row heel, wrapped but not picked up, except that to fit with the rest of the sock pattern all of the stitches are knit (or purled) through the back loop. It’s an interesting effect – it does bias the fabric slightly, but it’s stretchy, and on the foot it straightens right out.

Here’s the same heel in a solid color, and with no halo:

Yup, that’s Bayerische. I’m afraid the heel shot is all I’m posting today – all of the full-sock shots came out lousy, and I’m too lazy to take more right now.

Anyway, these socks are trucking right along, and I still love them both. I think it’s kind of interesting how I keep doing a section of one, then the corresponding section of the other – I don’t seem to be focusing on one or the other, the way I thought I would. Well, I guess that just means that two FO posts should be coming up pretty soon!

The Frater is visiting this weekend, so I don’t know how much more knitting I’ll get done. We’ll see.

Progress!

The thing about insomnia? It sure does help me make progress on my knitting!

Thanks to everyone who gave input on what I should make next. There wasn’t much consensus on the patterns, but everyone seemed to agree that I should use the Anne. So, this:

… with the help of a cooperative roommate-swift and my trusty pen-nostepinde, became this:

… which, last night, started to become this:

Yup, I’ve started a Pomatomus. That picture is a bit dark, but the lighter ones came out really bright blue, and I wanted to bring across the deep purple that’s the base color of the yarn. I love it! The yarn is super-soft, and the pattern is gorgeous and works really well with the subtle variegations of the yarn. It’s light and airy, and even though it looks like a complicated pattern and a crazy chart (the above picture, my current status, is exactly one pattern repeat above the ribbing), it’s surprisingly easy to get into a rhythm with it. I started it on DPNs as suggested in the pattern, thinking that it might make it easier to keep track of the pattern repeats, but they’re so easy to see that I switched to my usual ML. Nothing against DPNs – I just have a tendency to drop them and lose them… can’t lose one end of a single long circular.

I know I like this pattern in this yarn, but I’m a little worried that it’s going to be too small. It’s super stretchy, so it’ll fit, it’s just that I don’t know if I want it to look as stretched out as it will have to be on my wide feet. I’m going to let it sit a little longer before I decide whether or not to rip it and start over, modifying the pattern to make it a little bigger. I do know how I’d modify it – the question is just whether or not I want to.

Also, as much as I love the Pomatomus, it’s just not satisfying my cable cravings. So when I woke up at 4:30 in the morning…

It couldn’t be helped. Really.

And this way, I’ve satisfied both the Pomatomus and the Bayerische advocates. Monkey comes next, I think – maybe with more of the Anne yarn. I do love that yarn – I think it really is worth the expense. The mohair and nylon in it should make it wear really well, and it works up so easily and beautifully.  I do tend towards solid or mostly-solid yarns, though – I should look into it.  Their colorways vary a lot, as I recall – I could probably find more that I would like.

For the curious, my Bayerische is in Knitpicks Essential, “Grass.” I think it’ll go nicely with the “Pine” one I made a few months ago.

I think it’s an interesting coincidence that both of these patterns are based on twisted ribbing – with all of the knit stitches worked through the back loop. I love twisted ribbing. I also love how both patterns flow so beautifully and organically out of the top ribbing of the sock. I have to give Eunny so much credit for making that happen! There are three different kinds of increases used in the setup row after the ribbing, and they work SO well!

So yes. Sock love.

And here’s what else I’ve been up to:

It has body! Well, some body, anyway. I’m guessing (and remember that this is my first sweater, and I haven’t done any actual calculations to back this up) that the body part is 1/3, the sleeves together will be 1/3, and the yoke will be 1/3. Which means that as I think I’m about half done with the body, the sweater itself is about 1/6 done! This is my mindless knitting – for conference calls and rehearsal downtime, and hanging out with friends. I have no idea how steadily I’ll be working on it – but my vague goal is to have it finished before Sock Madness, which (I just looked up) is tentatively starting on March 13… so that should be plenty of time. I think.

So yes, I have been busy.