Rings and Rings

Right now at the Illinois State Museum, there is a display of Civil War era quilts and other textiles.  In one of the cases are several socks, mittens and doilies that have been knitted and crocheted.  My friend, Jane, brought it to my attention and she had the idea of seeing if they will let us try to reproduce the socks after the show is over. 

We had a discussion about one of the pairs of socks that has a mixture of patterns, one of which looks very much like tatting:

It had been a while since I'd seen them so I went last week to see if I could get some better photos like the one here.  See the little circles?  I knew I'd seen this pattern before and found it in the "Victorian Lace Today" book by Jane Sowerby.  It was from an 1860s shawl pattern from Mlle. de le Branchardiere's book, "The Abergeldie Winter Book."

I know that in all the patterns and books Jane and I have studied, this was the only time I'd seen this type of spider pattern.  The only thing we're going to have to figure out is how to intersperse the rings with the triangles (although I do have an idea about that).

It's a pretty tricky pattern and after 4-5 goes with black lace weight wool yarn, I decided I would try it with size 8 perle cotton.  Besides I have a new house that needs some curtains.  What better way to test it out!

I think this is going to do us very well with the sock pattern and I think it's going to be a very pretty curtain valance, don't you?  Although I think I've got the rhythm of it now, I did have to rip out about 3 times on the 2nd and 3rd rows.  But I still have to pay VERY close attention.  So if you hear someone walking around Springfield muttering, "ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...One, two..." that'll be me.

And So I Do

I predicted in the last post that, since I loved the singles and wasn't so crazy about the skeined yarn, that I would love the knitted product.  It's been really difficult to get a picture that really shows the color in the socks.  For some reason, the striping showed much more definitely in the picture than in real life but here goes:

The first two photos were outside and the third inside.  The last shows the colors a little better but makes the poor little sock look deformed because it's propped up against the skein.  Anyway, you get the idea.

This was an unusual yarn for me to use for socks, being a little bit thicker than I would normally use and being a littel more tightly spun than I've used in the past.  The colors remind me of the beautiful colors in the Lion Brand Homespun yarns, the one every beginner buys because the colors are so rich and beautiful and which every knitter who's ever worked with it curses because it's so splitty and hard to knit with.  It has those same rich colors that blend so wonderfully.

Fortunately it's much better to work with.  I was worried at first that I wouldn't have enough for a whole pair of socks.  Now, I know there are ways to split the yarn out so you work all you've got for one and have the same amount for the second.  Too fiddly.  And you can knit them from the toe up, two at a time, and know you're going to have enough.  I don't like knitting toe up socks. 

I began by making the cuff really short thinking that I could always add to the top, if needed.  But someone at knit night commented she thought they were too short (and I agreed, although I didn't admit it at the time).  But as soon as I got home, I ripped out what I'd done on the heel (fortunately just the heel flap) and made the cuff a little longer.  As someone else said that night, you can always make the toes a different color and who will know. 

Now I"m at the stage, having finished the heel in the second sock, that I think I'm going to have plenty of yarn.  But I know enough about life to know that by the time I get to the middle of the foot that I'm going to start monitoring my remaining yarn and be convinced that I'll never be able to finish.  So I choose to live in the denial of the moment and believe that I'll have plenty of yarn left over.

In fact, maybe I'll have enough for mittens!

Bluegrass Weekend

I hadn't planned to spend the weekend with bluegrass pickers but I did and boy did I have a ball.  The Friday night concert was fabulous.  I love bluegrass music but I don't really know any of the bands or many of the players.  There are some that I knew about from living in Nashville but I know a few of the names now.  The band that knocked my socks off was Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper.  I can still barely breathe thinking about them.  I also saw the mandolin of my dreams.  Natural wood, with rounded edges, beautiful tone.  Fortunately it was almost $300 so the temptation only went so far!

In fact the concerts were so exciting that I finished a pair of socks, one Friday night and one Saturday night.  Of course, the concerts went from about 7pm to after 11:30 and the pattern was plain Jane but I will still pretty amazed at how quickly they came off the needles.

This was wool yarn I'd bought at 365 Days on a Farm in IA over the summer.  I bought it particularly to make socks but I cast on about 4 times before I got something I liked.  (That was totally on me because the yarn is gorgeous and soft and wonderful.)  I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the yarn but I do know it's yarn made in the US because that's all 365 Days carries.  I knit them on size 2 needles and even though it really is a fingering/dk weight, it's so lightly spun that I could have used a size 1 needle and not worried.

I've even got a spinning project going.  This was 4 oz of blue-faced leicester fiber I bought at Bishophill particularly to spin for sock yarn but once I got the singles spun, I wasn't sure I wanted to lose my yardage.  The colors are so amazing that I really wished I had enough for a sweater.  Here's the bobbins of singles:

How beautiful is that?  But, as you can see, I decided to go for the 3-ply after all.  It will be very interesting to see how the various colors play together.  Of course, I could have kept the color bands but the changes would be too short and I didn't want to do a Navajo ply for the socks.  I wanted a true 3-ply and I think it's going to be very interesting.  The singles were spun with about an 8:1 ratio and I'm plying using the 12:1 ratio whorl to see if I can reproduce my recent experimentation results.  I'll let you know when I get this washed.

Life Questions

Among the many important questions one asks about life and being, a new one occurred to me tonight.

Can one have too many handknit socks?
(P.S. This is about 15 pairs and certainly not nearly all of them.)

The other big question I've faced the past couple of years is when to get a loom and, getting a loom, what kind should I get.  I have weavers on every side of me all telling me that I should add weaving to my skillsets.  Most of them are pretty intimidating weavers (because they do such beautiful stuff, not because they're mean!).  But I've finally taken the step and decided this was the year to learn to weave.  My Christmas present to myself was a 24" Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom.  There are so many considerations as to what to get which I'll get into another day but I'm certainly very happy with my purchase and I'm learning a lot about warping it and choosing yarns for it.

And here's one of my first projects:

It's a loose, plain weave scarf using some zephyr/silk yarn that I had left over from a project several years ago.  The scarf is now completed and ready to wear.  The reason I started with this is, no matter what kind of job I'd done, it would be gorgeous because the yarn is beyond gorgeous.  It's like air.  And soft.  And a beautiful color.  Watch out, weaving.  Here I come!

A time for finishing

I guess it fits in with the time of year but I spent a lot of the weekend trying to finish things that had been on the needle for quite a while and to do a project I've been meaning to do for a long time.

I've had several socks on the needles and have been wanting to get them finished so I can wear them.  The red pair are made with my favorite sock yarn - Berroco Sox.  I love the colors, I love knitting with it and I love how they wear.

The blue pair was started one night sitting at an auction waiting for a spinning wheel to come up.  I don't remember what the sock yarn is but it was an experiment of cables.  I almost didn't cast on enough stitches but I think it will be better after washing.  There is a large main cable running through and then a smaller, more widely spaced cable running between.  Fortunately I had finished the second cuff before the socks got put away because I don't know if I would ever figure out what I was doing again!

Finally, the purse.  I finished the main section of this purse was competed probably 2 years ago (using Noro Silk Garden).  The plan was to felt it and do a beaded section at the top but I finally decided it looked well with these handles.  I like the size and the blend of colors and the handles fit it.

One of the few blogs I follow is The Yarn Harlot - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  She showed a picture of Fiber Trends felted clogs she'd knitted and how many giggles she got from looking at them pre-felting.  I made a pair of these about 7 years ago and wore them literally until the bottoms wore out and I'd been meaning to make another pair since those were retired.  Here are mine (with a shoe between to show the scale).

Hehehehehe.  I never get tired of it!

Very Folk

Sometime late last year my friend, Karen, and I started going to some meetings at the Three Sisters Park up in Chillicothe, IL, where a group was working hard to establish a Folk Art School in the midwest. I've enjoyed this group so much.  It's made up of really talented artists in all sorts of genres from quilting to wood carving to doll making to knitting to jewelry making to goard carving to weaving to just about anything you can imagine.  There are people who grow things and cook.  A really talented, fun group.

They've already had a series of classes and have some more coming up that you should really check into.  There's a mountain dulicmer weekend coming up later this month and then a weekend of classes on April 23-25.  The class list will be posted soon on the Three Sisters Folk Art School home page pretty soon but here's a preview list of classes:

• Beginning Tapestry Weaving
• Hand Building Clay
• Beginning Spinning
• Sculpt a Garden Statue
• Quilting
• Copper Jewelry
• Dogwood Flower Relief Carving
• Autoharp
• Create a Native American Flute
• Gourd Decorating

I've got my eye on several of them, in fact!

One of the things we talked about yesterday was developing a group project that all of us could contribute to.  What we talked about developing was a representation of the school with rooms that contain miniatures of the various things that each of us do.  As we were talking about it, I remembered that a recent issue of PieceWork magazine was dedicated to miniature textiles.  I had a look at it last night and, sure enough, there are several patterns for a variety of textiles in miniature. 

I got so excited about it that I got it cast on this evening.

Doesn't look like much, does it?  It's actually 70 stitches around, 16 rounds completed (a third of the way) but made with 0000 needles and size 80 cotton.  The pattern calls for 000000 needles and size 100 silk but I think this will still work!

And we all love socks, right?  This sock represents the beginning of a master plan.  I bought one skein each of blue, white and wine.  I can't find my ball bands so have no idea what the yarn is but there's a little over 200 yards in the skein.  That's enough for me to make a pair of socks with each skein.  So here's the plan.  With these 3 skeins of yarn, I'm going to make 3 pairs of socks, each with a different base color and a little something different with the color accents for each one.  We'll see how that one works for me.

You can always count on socks

I love knitting socks.  Plain socks, lacy socks, any socks.  I love knitting socks.  I love them because they're so easy to take with you anywhere, they're useful, they're pretty.  Just when you're discouraged because it seems like nothing is getting finished, not afghans or tablecloths or cotton spinning or lace spinning, they will allow themselves to be finished.

I'll get the pattern posted at some point but the down and dirty pattern is this:
I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in an oatmeal color.  I cast on 64 stitches using US size 2 double pointed needles.  Do K2/P2 ribbing for 2.5 inches then start the pattern as follows:

Round 1: *K4, P1, K2, P1* repeat around.
Round 2: *Yarn over (yo), knit 2 together (K2tog), K2, P1, 2 stitch cable, P1* repeat around.
Round 3: Repeat round 1.
Round 4: *K1, yo, K2tog, K1, P1, 2 stitch cable, P1* repeat around
Round 5: Repeat round 1.
Round 6: *K2, yo, K2tog, P1, 2 stitch cable, P1* repeat around
Round 7: Repeat round 1.

Rounds 2-7 make up the stitch pattern.  Make the cuff as long as you want it to be - mine was 8 pattern repeats.  Work heel.  I worked 9 more repeats for the foot (17 repeats in total from top) but I've got a small foot.  I worked the toe decreases kniting the whole thing in stockinette.

If you've never worked a heel or toe, grab any pattern because it's basically the same for all of them.

I've spun the fiber of 109 seeds.  Here's a gratuitous shot of my cotton bobbin:

Back to Socks

Like most knitters, I usually have a pair of socks on the needle.  Easy to carry around, you can work them whenever you find yourself waiting around.  For the most part, I knit to my basic sock pattern but after having knit the 1900 sock pattern I wanted to knit something patterned.

Somewhere in my travels I picked up a skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in a pretty oatmeal color called "Steel Cut Oats."  This yarn is 50% wool, 30% alpaca & 20% nylon so I thought it might be a very nice sock yarn.  I've used the Ultra Alpaca yarn, which was very nice to knit with, but this is a bit splitty.

Here's the pattern I've used:

With size 1 needles, I cast on 64 stitches.  I knit about 2 inches of knit 2/purl 2 and then started the pattern.  The pattern is 4 stitches of a traveling yarn over, purl 1, cable 2, purl 1.  The traveling yarn over pattern is pretty basic: 
Row 1: Yarn over, knit 2 together, knit 2
Every other row is knit plain.
Row 3: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit 1
Row 5: Knit 2, yarn over, knit 2 together

The cuff is worked for about 7 inches before starting the heel.

I should be able to get a pair out of 1 skein (433 yards).

I like the texture of the 2-stitch cable and it's very easy to work without having to use a cable needle.

Center Diamond Afghan progress:
I don't have a new picture yet but I've finished the 2 short sides of the afghan and have finally picked up for the first long side - 254 stitches.

Ask me what I did this weekend

Remember I was working on spinning some mohair and was wondering if it would work to ply it with the turquoise merino? Well, here are the results:

I love the way the solid colored merino toned down and grounded the colors of the mohair. I've got a couple more ounces of the mohair to spin and I'm waiting for more merino to come so I can finish. This skein turned out what I would call heavy lace weight, makeing about 320 yards (72 grams) so doing the rest of it should give me about 600 yards. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what the pretty yarn wants to be!

I had to do some traveling last week for my job. Actually, I should say I got to travel because it was the perfect opportunity to do some exploring. Of course, any trip requires the project search. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to take with me because I didn't really have a good project going to take. So I quickly grabbed this black wool that my friend Cindy gave me and the leftover yarn from some recent socks and started to experiment with it. I've been wanting to do some other projects using the Brioche stitch in preparation for our Heritage Knitting Retreat next June. I thought it would be cool to have the electric colors of the sock yarn against the black. The gauntlet is reminiscent of what you might have seen in the latter half of the 19th century.

The second thing I grabbed was some Fortissima Socka in white and the pattern for "Evening Stockings for a Young Lady to Knit." It's a sock pattern in the Nov/Dec 2009 Piecework Magazine, adapted by Nancy Bush from a Weldon's pattern. As you can see, it's a long sock and the lacy pattern is so lacy and so easy, you wouldn't believe. The shaping for the leg is done along the back of the leg so you have a seam running up the back and the pretty lace everywhere else. I know this looks like a sock to fit a child but that's only because it's not blocked yet and I have pretty small feet anyway.

I thought I would make this with the white yarn because it's the only sock yarn I had 3 skeins of (bought it for something else that I ended up not making) and I wanted to be sure I had enough. The thought was to make them with the white and then dye them but I like them so much that I've decided to keep them as is. I would definitely recommend these for sock lovers. Easy with a huge payoff!

A Victorian Garden

I finished 4 ounces of the Blue-faced Leicester fiber in the colorway, Victorian Garden. Although I originally thought I would do a 4-ply, in the end I decided to do a 3-ply using the Navajo plying technique because I wanted to keep the colorway. I'm so glad I decided to do it this way. The stips of color were still long enough to not be too stripey but it just sort of intensified the colors that were there. Here's the skein - 270 yards or thereabouts.

After I got this spun up, I was so anxious to see how it knitted up that I couldn't wait to start. Plus I had to take my car to have it serviced Saturday morning so what better time?! This is knit on size 2 needles using my basic sock pattern because I didn't want anything to get in the way of the colors.

My first socks with my very own handspun sock yarn! So proud.

What a Trip!

Nothing like a last minute trip over about 1,600 miles to renew, redo and redecorate! What a wonderful trip and what a wonderful time with my parents! I’m so glad I went, we had a great time.

This was the first trip to Texas for Robert the Bear and he enjoyed it as well. Here’s a shot of him relaxing after a long day of driving. I ended up having pretty good weather for most of the time with just a little bit of sprinkling and clouds.

If you want to see what Oklahoma looks like, it's a variation of this all over the place (there are lots of casinos).

Here's the family story about Oklahoma. The story, I'm told, is real but the names have been changed to protect everyone. OK, here goes. Relative A and Relative B are driving through Oklahoma. There are signs along the road that say, "Don't drive into the smoke." (I saw these, too, which are what made me think of this.) Relative B asks Relative A what this means. Relative A says, with a straight face, that this is Native American country. They send smoke signals so if you drive through the smoke, you mess up the message. Relative B thinks for a minute and nods. That makes sense.

I did even have a day of 83 degrees and slept under the fan. Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything but I did. Just what the doctor ordered!

But just because you spend 4 days driving doesn’t mean you can’t knit (not WHILE driving, mind).

I made a pair of slippers (still to be felted) from the Fiber Trends pattern.


I almost finished my ‘body warmer,’ based on a pattern I found in an 1880’s pattern book, made from some Malabrigo that I’ve had in stash forever. It’s sort of a stole but it fits tightly around the body with bands that wrap around the waist. You can see the band at the lower right side. I’ve really only got to finish the bands and decide exactly how I want to do the connection (snaps, buttons, other). The body of it is a brioche stitch (which was extremely popular in the patterns of Godey’s Ladies magazine). The ends and bands are done in seed stitch to make them more stable.

I’ve finished my latest socks (made with Berrocco Sox – color 1425). Just basic sock recipe but I absolutely love the colorway on this sock yarn. In fact, I love it so much, I bought 2 more colorways!

I really thought that I would get up this morning and just be ready to get home but I really just wanted to keep driving and driving. Sigh.... It was a wonderful trip!

There's a new sock in town

I knit a lot of socks. Not as many as some, but I do my part. Mostly lately I've been doing pretty plain vanilla socks, things I can do in meetings and don't take much thought. In fact, I've gone a pretty good way towards using up my sock stash. Granted it was never very large but it was large enough that I haven't been buying it lately.


I did, however, go to Enticements in Decatur on Saturday and saw this Berroco Sox yarn. I've stated before and will again that I'm not usually a big fan of the variagated yarn but this is self-striping - a very different animal altogether. The colors really struck me on this (color #1425) so I bought it and got started on a sock. What about these colors, huh? All my really favorite, really saturated colors. I love it. And looking at the link above, I really, really, (no, really) love the colorways. I think I'm going to have to get me some more of this.



I've decided I must be a Berroco girl because I've been doing tons with it lately and am loving every Berroco yarn I'm getting my hands on. My goodness. You might like to know that they have a Berroco newsletter that's a lot of fun and has links for free patterns and lots of great info. You can sign up from their web site (see the link above). You can also find the link for their blogs from that page. Good stuff, Maynard!

This is what I call a productive meeting...

I spent a great deal of the week sitting in on meetings. The good thing is that, since I wasn’t an active participant, I was able to spend the time knitting. Here’s what I got done:

Now, I did have 1 of the striped socks already done but I knitted the second one during the meetings and I finished the second purple one tonight. That’s more than a pair of socks in 3 days of meetings. I like that. That’s the way every meeting should be, don’t you think!

The purple socks are Knit Picks Gloss in the Cosmos colorway which is 70% wool and 30% silk. They’re just my basic sock recipe but that’s what I was working for. I just want some basic socks for everyday wear. I made a pair out of Gloss in black last year and it’s a yarn that definitely gets softer with wear and washing. I was amazed, though, that, even though I made the cuff longer than I normally do, I was still able to make the whole pair out of 1skein of yarn. I probably had about 20 yards left over but I certainly didn’t skimp. That’s not bad to have a pair of handmade wool and silk socks for $3.99.

The striped socks are made out of, as best as I can remember, a Brown Sheep sock yarn. I can’t remember exactly because I bought 3 skeins of different sock yarn at the Sticks and Stones over in Jacksonville and I’ve lost the tag. But I think that’s what it was. I really liked it because it was more subdued colors but I’m not sure I really like the colors now that they’re worked up. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to do some dying so I’m thinking I may overdye it with a blue dye but I’m not sure yet. I may try to live with them a bit and see if they grow on me. The one thing I did like, however, was the way the yarn looked on the slip stitch heel. Have a look and see what you think.

Now I wish I had made the whole socks like this. I would have had enough yarn and I really like the almost Fair Isle look of them. Live and learn, my friends. Live and learn.

Mark it off...

Finished the Collinette socks...

Opens things up for the next pair. Here's what I'm going to use. I dyed it with the Jacquard Acid Yarn Dyes in sapphire. I did 2 skeins with the sapphire in a pot. There was still dye left in the pot so I added another skein which came out a great jean color. Definitely good value for money!

I was going to use my braided cable pattern but the yarn told me tonight that it wants to be more of a lacy sock so I'll have to give it a think.

I forgot to add this project to the list of on-goings the other day. I'm testing the larger size of my Baby Sailor Suit pattern. The navy one was the original but it's definitely a preemie size. I wanted to test the pattern with the larger size and this jean color yarn. I'm going to need to do some work on the sleeves as well because I wasn't too crazy about how they came out on the original. I think I'll try to finish this on the weekend.

Fini

I've finished the Dalek and I'm loving it! It's amazing how when you get things like this stuffed, they take on a life of their own. Many, many years ago I had a pattern for a crocheted dinosaur which I used to make for the older sibling when a friend had a baby. I was okay to give it away until it started getting stuffed. The personality just popped out and if I hadn't seen how much the kids loved them, I would never have given them away!! One even got named Diannasaurus. Look at me - got an extinct animal named after me! I hate that I've misplaced that pattern - it was so, so cute.

Also, just to prove that I really did finish them, here are the stripey socks. They're knit with Regia Silk and Silk Color and they are the softest socks I've ever made or owned.

Progress Report

Today is report on progress day.

Life has been happening so I haven’t been doing too much lately but here’s what’s going on.

Collette Socks: Got this on my UK trip and I love the colors but I wasn’t sure how the yardage would work so I’ve done shortie socks. I’ll wait until I get the second one done and if I have leftover yardage, the plan is to then go back and work the tops up. Anyway, it’s just a basic sock.

Dalek Central: This is a pattern from a fellow Whovian – she did a great job on it, too, even though it was only like the second thing she’d ever knit. Pattern is fun and easy but, alas, due to ‘licensing’ is no longer available generally though I think there is a way to get it from one of the Dr. Who groups on Ravelry. It’s done except for the base and the stuffing and I think it’s so cute! I’m dead pleased with it. For the purl rows, since purling the entire round is awkward for me on double points, I started practicing with the Portuguese-style purling and it’s working great. I haven’t got my pin done but, since this is perle cotton and therefore not so heavy, I just used a coil-less pin on my left shoulder which worked great. It’s been great practice and it’s solved my dp purling challenges!

Saltire and Thistle Shawl: I finally got back to this on my trip home last week. In fact, I got carried away and knit the first half of the middle way, way, way too far (Danish sweater too far). I sat and ripped as my mother groaned just watching me. In fact, I’m still knitting off the overflow! Way too far. Anyway, it’s on track now and I really like the cross. If you’ve seen the entries from the ‘test’ version, the cross was one of the things I needed to improve. I just have a little bit more before I pick up for the thistle border. Of course, being lace, it doesn’t look like much yet but just you wait!

New Thistle Design “Balmoral” Dinner Cloth: I said I wasn’t going to start a new knitted lace doily but this dinner cloth totally drew me in. It’s from the “Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting” from Marianne Kinzel and it has been staring at me since I got it several weeks ago. I think I’m going to try to go whole hog on this and do the full dinner cloth but we’ll have to see how that goes. It’s one of those patterns that you can stop at different points.

And that’s it. A little bit of everything as usual! I think I’m going to try to get the socks finished this weekend because I have some other sock yarn that I want to get started with next and I think it will be with a little fancier pattern. I have a pattern I did a couple of years ago with some braided cables that I just got written up so I think I’ll use this new sapphire blue yarn to test that pattern with.

Plans

I had plans for today. I had quite a few plans for today.

Did you ever go to the store with a list in your head of 4 things you needed? Did you ever come out of the store with those things? My guess is you came out with 25 things and when you get home you realize that you never got those original 4 things. That’s sort of what my day was like.

This little purse started life in the night before leaving for my UK trip. It was going to be a money belt. Unfortunately it only got about 12 rounds before I had to pack and leave. I’d gotten this Maggi’s Knits Linen because I wanted to see how it worked up. It laid on the arm of my chair for all the time since I’d been home but all of a sudden last night I decided I wanted to do something with it. After having a little look through some of my stitch dictionaries, I found this one in the Sheila McGregor book, Traditional Scandinavian Knitting which I really liked. This was done on 60 stitches but I think I will write the pattern on 72 stitches so the pattern will be better situated. But I really love the look this linen yarn gives although it’s certainly not the easiest stuff to work with, particularly for color work. That’s probably because I carry both colors in my left hand and it kept slipping out of my hand.

My other accomplishment, although this picture isn’t of the finished variety, it will be finished any minute now – are my new socks. These are the Regia Silk and Silk Color in yellow and Tasmania in stripes of 7 rounds each – just my regular sock recipe but the colors give it a little something, don’t you think?

Grab Bag

I’ve kind of let things go since the big push to finish the Danish sweater. But I haven’t been idle. Here’s a pair of socks that I started quite a while ago and just picked up again. For some reason, I thought I’d made the sock too small and was going to have to rip out and start over. After a little investigation, however, I discovered that applied to a pair I was making with the Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn, not these. These are made using Regia Silk – the first time I’ve ever used it. It’s been pretty nice to work with and is definitely very soft. I’m using solid yellow (color 022) and the variegated “Earth” colorway (color 0190), making stripes of 7 rounds alternating the colors (using my basic sock recipe). This is using size 1 needles (I think) and casting on 64 stitches. I’m carrying the yarn between each color, though I’m not sure I’d do that again. It was, I’m sure, an attempt to save working in the ends of the yarn but I’ll have to wait and see if it’s successful.

On the first one, I didn’t have the jogless jog down too well on the cuff but I think I started getting the hang of it once I got to the foot. In case you’ve never seen the jogless jog, it’s a way of changing colors when working in the round where the new color doesn’t ‘jump’ at the beginning of the round. It’s fairly simple, really, which is why it only took me most of a sock to master! When you knit the first round in the new color, go all the way around until you are back to the first stitch of the round. Instead of knitting the first stitch as it is, pull the stitch from the round below (the old color) up onto the needle. Now knit both the old color and first stitch of the new color together. This will draw the stitch down so that that jog is almost invisible.

The other thing I’ve been working on is something harking back to a blog entry before I went on my UK trip talking about elements of designing a purse around an object. I found a nice piece of coral in my local bead shop and then I found some linen yarn in a celery color and a red color that matched the coral. At that time, I was thinking about the shape of the purse and how to use the piece of coral.

Here’s a big tip. Sometimes you can sit and work out something that pleases you but often, starting with an idea and then letting it marinate in the background can throw up some interesting things you never thought of to begin with. I’ve had the stuff for this purse laying around since the end of January when I started on this quest. I would notice it from time to time and just let my mind play over both the task and the characteristics of the yarn, the needles, the various things that I could do and then I would go on with what I was doing. The advantage, when you have the luxury of time to do this, is that sometimes it will just end up telling you what it wants to be.

The shape of the purse is going to be a basic shape I’ve used before (see the linen and beaded purse on the right hand bar here) and I’m going to use this same sort of technique of making the body out of the linen with knitted bead flap and the bracelet handle. This is much smaller than the one shown but I think it will work great as a little bag to carry the basics. I will probably just use the linen for the beaded section as it’s a very small gauge and will probably take the beads with no problem. I have some 10/0 beads that I think will work fine. They are an olive color but translucent so I think they’ll be fine with this color scheme. The only concern is whether I will need to line the purse part so it’s rigid enough to handle the weight of the coral. I’ll have to try that out later.

I’m also starting a new knitted doily from the books I got the other day from Schoolhouse Press. This one is knit using size 0 needles and size 30 crochet cotton. It has a tulip sort of pattern on it that I’m really digging. The tulip pattern looks like the art nouveau that you see on glass work and furniture.

To fill up my spare time, I’ve started doing some work with polymer clay, playing with the milifiore type of beads and buttons. I am fascinated by the play of colors in some of these and I would like to see how they would stand up worked into a shawl pin of some sort.

I will be starting back into the watercolor class for the spring session at the Hogeland Center for the Arts. I took the class a couple of times last year but life stepped in and I’m just now getting ready to go back at it. This will mean, for eight weeks, focusing a little more on the painting than the knitting (yea, right – ha!). I loved this class last year and I’m looking forward to stepping into this again. We’ll see how I get on!