7:05 pm - December 29, 2013 - AngelaH

Holiday socks

For the last three years (basically since I started knitting) I’ve taken the holiday break to knit myself socks. Two years ago (the first year) those socks were only the second pair I’d ever knit and I still wear them (you can see them here). Last year, I knit these, and after they stretched in the wash I gave them to L, who wears them quite happily.

The stripes look off in this picture, but they’re actually a perfect match until the tips of the toes.

For me, holidays socks needs to be a couple of things: They need to be good for social knitting, since I spend a lot of knitting time with family and friends; they need to be at least a bit interesting – I haven’t knit plain socks since that first holiday pair, and even they had surprise toes for interest; and, perhaps most importantly, the knitting needs to last about a week. I always pack a back-up project, but in general I like my holiday socks to last for just about the whole time I’m away, which tends to be about a week. The combination of social knitting and not-too-quick can be a little tricky, but Jaywalker fits those requirements nicely.

Jaywalkers have a nice two-row repeat that is easy to memorize and, once you’re a few rows in, requires no counting. Because of their structure, though, they need way more stitches than a normal pair of socks (I’d normally cast on 64 or 68 stitches for plain socks; for Jaywalkers I use the 84-stitch size), which means they take longer to knit. As a bonus, when using self-striping yarn the pattern looks very dramatic.

I’m very pleased about this heel.

And can we just talk about the yarn for a minute? I was all geared up to use stash yarn for my holiday socks, but then I was on Etsy and this Gynx yarn caught my eye. It’s Gynx Strong Sock in the Christmas Bells colourway and it was a total pleasure to knit with. I used almost the entire skein, with just one repeat of red leftover. The yarn is soft and squishy, and the stripes blend so seamlessly between colours that there’s no jogging or obvious break points anywhere. I loved this yarn so much that I’ve been keeping an eye on the Etsy shop just to see if more self-striping yarns will be added.

I would have loved these socks anyway, but somehow the drama of losing them and then getting them back and still finishing them on time (on the plane home, with hours to spare until my self-imposed deadline) makes them that much better.

Details
Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Needles: 2.25mm Addis – I knit these entirely with a magic loop, not my preferred method, but so much better for travelling.
Yarn: Gynx Strong Sock in Christmas Bells
Mods: None really. I cast on for the small size and knit the ribbing and then increased evenly up to the next size for the rest. The next time I knit this pattern I’ll probably go up a needle size, as these are a bit tight to pull on over my heels. I’m really happy about how matchy they are, and I’m especially pleased about the heels. I’d pretty much resigned myself to having the heels mess up the stripe sequence, so when they totally didn’t, I was thrilled. They’re ravelled here.

I know I should be annoyed about that little red toe, but I kind of like it instead.

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: socks

6:14 pm - December 28, 2013 - AngelaH

What I knit this Christmas

Now that all my knits are gifted, I can post photos and details of the finished items!

I really love how this turned out.

The first gift I finished was not the first one I started. This is the Riverbank cowl (by Melissa Thomson) I knit for my sister Jenny. I knit it up in SweetGeorgia Superwash Worsted in the colour China Doll. This was the perfect match of yarn and pattern, and the finished cowl is squishy and drapey, with just enough structure to support all the texture. I especially love that she can wear it as a cowl or a caplet.

Even with all the cabling, I have almost half a skein of the main colour left.

My sister Connie requested a pair of socks, so I knit her Saltburn by Rachel Coopey. I used Jill Draper Makes Stuff Splendor Sock (sadly discontinued) in Cobalt and Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in Natural. Connie is a huge fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, so knitting her socks in their colours was an obvious choice. The cables meant the socks aren’t very stretchy, though, so they are a bit snug. So snug in fact that she couldn’t get them on until she soaked them and stretched them wet over her heels (and she does not have big feet). I think they’ll be wearable, but I said I knit her another pair of plain socks in the same colours, since I have yarn left over.

My mum requested a shawl ages ago. Just something small she could wrap around her neck to fight a draught and look nice. I looked at a lot of patterns before settling on Charm, which turned out to be perfect. I knit it up in Hand Maiden Casbah in the Ruby colourway. She wore it all Christmas day, so I’m declaring it a hit.

Dad socks.

Both my dad and L got socks. For my dad, I went with something fairly plain, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear exciting socks (and by exciting, I mean other than white socks with jeans or black socks with suits). There’s nothing wrong with a great pair of plain socks, though, especially when they’re a perfect fit, as these turned out to be. I knit them up in two shades of Zitron Unisono, which I intend to stock up on, because it is such a pleasure to knit with and really nice to wear (I knit myself a pair of socks in it almost a year ago).

I have not managed to get a proper shot of these since finishing them, but oh well.

I went a little fancier for L and went with Charade in Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in Mushroom Hunting B Side. I wrote a fair bit about these socks as I was working on them, but suffice to say, L has been wearing them and says they’re a good fit.

The last gift I knit was a hat for my Uncle Michael. I forgot to get a photo of it before I mailed it off, but I knit it using some Jill Draper Makes Stuff Hudson I had in my stash. This yarn is some of the nicest I’ve knit with in a long time. It’s super soft, springy, and takes Jill’s dyes beautifully. I knit the hat in Chestnut, which is a really warm brown, almost the colour of a cup of hot chocolate. I was worried it wouldn’t arrive in time, but my Uncle e-mailed to say it got there just before Christmas, which is perfect.

How did your Christmas knitting go? I got back from Switzerland on Boxing Day, so there’s a proper post-holidays post coming about pretty yarns and mountain views – I just need to re-acclimate to this time zone first.

Categories: finished, Knitting, Uncategorized Tags: Christmas, gift knits

3:38 pm - December 24, 2013 - AngelaH

A Swissmas miracle

Thank you all for your crossed fingers and sympathy! I’m never sure whether to post about bad news, but sometimes you just need to talk to people who understand. Anyway, this is a story with a happy ending: I got my knitting back!

Holiday socks!

The day after it went missing, my dad, Jenny (my youngest sister) and I went to skiing at Verbier. We left early, so I didn’t have a chance to go into the village and look for my knitting. I was pretty sure all was lost (I’m optimistic by nature, but sometimes it’s best to prepare for the worst), so on the way home, we searched around for a knitting shop where I could at least get another set of needles. It took a while, but we managed to get to a Migros, which is sort of like a Swiss Walmart, and they had needles! The selection was limited, but I wasn’t in a position to be fussy, so I snapped up a set of grey 2.5 mm dpns.

When we got back, though, my mum and Connie (middle sister) had big smiles. They’d been into the village to make some inquiries. Their first stop was the ski outfitter, where I was sure my knitting had fallen out of my bag, and it was there! Apparently, when they owner had arrived in the morning, my little knitting bag was sitting on the windowsill. They were apparently totally baffled by magic loop, but thought the self-striping yarn was cheating!

I finished the first sock this morning and am a couple of inches into the second one. I won’t have a new pair of socks to wear tomorrow, but I suspect I’ll finish them before my flight lands in Toronto on Thursday.

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope your holidays are wonderful (and wooly)!

The view from the refuge (at about 3,000 metres) where we took a coffee break yesterday. (Photo taken by my sister Jenny)

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: Christmas, socks, Switzerland, travel

5:55 pm - December 21, 2013 - AngelaH

A major snag

You know how sometimes, when things seem to be going really well, despite all kinds of barely-avoided pitfalls? Well, it seems the other shoe has dropped. Today, after finishing the gusset decreases on my sock and getting over half-way through the foot, I lost my little knitting bag. In it was my yarn, needles, tape measure, and mostly-knit sock.

The view from the apartment early this morning. (Standing in the same place and turning 90 degrees to the right would give me the view from yesterday’s photo.)

I know it’s a small thing. I know that it isn’t a make-or-break the holidays thing. I know I’m in Switzerland with my family. I know all of this, but still, I’m upset. You know how knitting is soothing and can helps manage stress? Well, I love my family, but sometimes when we’re all together I really need to knit, if you know what I mean. I knit during long car rides on impossibly winding roads, and while we’re sitting around together in the evenings, and especially on long transatlantic flights.

We were already on the road to Geneva to meet my sister’s flight as the sun was just starting to break over the top of the mountains.

I was, in fact, so concerned that I might get through my knitting early (and, at the rate I was going, probably would have had a pair of socks by Christmas) that I packed extra yarn. The rub? I didn’t pack extra needles. So now I’m here, with my knitting lost, extra yarn, and no needles. I’ve been doing some Googling and it looks like this is the closest knitting store, and it’s an hour away. I e-mailed the owner and I am super hoping it isn’t closed for the holidays. I have a long return flight alone, and without something to knit, that time is stretching out before me in a very daunting way.

I’m not without hope, though. I’m pretty sure I know where the knitting fell out of the car. We went back there tonight and no one had handed it in, but I was quick, so maybe they just hadn’t had time. I mean, who wants to hold onto someone else’s knitting, right? And any knitter would turn it in to the nearest shop or tourist office, right? (Right!?) I’m going skiing tomorrow and I’m going to spend the day believing in the goodness of people. Tomorrow evening, I’m going to make another round of inquiries with my fingers crossed.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Same mountains as the first photo, but taken from the road farther down the mountains and looking back north.

(Since I can’t show you pictures of what I’ve lost, I thought maybe a selection of mountains would be in order.)

Category: Out and about Tags: Christmas, disaster, Switzerland, travel

11:49 am - December 20, 2013 - AngelaH

The view from here

On Monday, I finished all my gift knitting. I can’t believe it took me this long to say it. I think, as crazy as this will sound, that I was worried that saying it out loud/in writing on the Internet would be the trigger to realize I’d forgotten about people and leave me scrambling. But that didn’t happen (yet) and now it’s too late – I’m in Switzerland.

The view off over the village. It’s like a Christmas card over here.

Surprise! Yesterday, I left Toronto in huge scrambled hurry: not only did my sister realize her passport was expired – thank goodness we’re dual British citizens! – but it turned out my flight was not at 10:15 p.m. as I thought but instead at 5:30! Yeah, we’re disasters all around. But, it all worked out (holiday miracle!) and this morning/the middle of last night (depending on your point of view) we landed in Geneva. Tomorrow my other sister joins us and all five of us – my parents, my two sisters, and I – will all be together for the first time since last Christmas. Very exciting.

We dawdled on the way from the city to the little town where we’re staying, and the market in Lausanne had yarn for sale at the first booth, which I take as a good sign (I didn’t buy any, because I didn’t have any Swiss francs. Sigh) It got dark about an hour after we arrived at the apartment, but I’ll have more photos soon.

It’s late in the day so the light is kind of crappy. The green isn’t actually quite that dark, but you get the idea.

In the meantime, check out the progress on these Christmas socks! The striping is just perfect, if I do say so myself – they look just like the vintage Christmas balls that (I’m guessing) inspired the colourway.

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: Christmas, socks, Switzerland, travel

11:09 am - December 13, 2013 - AngelaH

On the mend

It has been really cold in Toronto. So cold, that on Monday I’m going to buy a parka (I’m not going sooner because it’s two weeks before Christmas and I cannot handle shopping in the weekend throng.) The upside to this cold is that both L and I are wrapping ourselves up in handknit warmth.

Thank goodness this wool is so sticky. L hadn’t even noticed the hole, so who knows how long it was like this.

Last weekend, after getting home from taking his sister to brunch, I noticed a hole in one of his moose gloves. When I looked more closely, I realized it wasn’t a hole exactly, it was more of a run – I used Harrisville Designs Shetland for these, which doesn’t have the high twist of a sock yarn, but is more rustic and warm. It’s a trade off. Anyway, I wanted to deal with the hole/run before it got any worse, so despite the terrible light I got down to work and thought I’d explain the process.

To start with, you’ll need a few things in addition to the object being repaired. I knit these using 3.25mm needles, but for repair purposes, I pulled out my 2.25mm dpns (these ones are Signatures and I love them). I also grabbed a darning needle (I like the ones with angled tips, but any will do), a leftover skein of the same red yarn I used, my darning egg (which I didn’t end up using), a locking stitch marker (not pictured, but used to secure the last stitch until I was ready to pick it up), and the other glove, to use as a reference point.

Click to embiggen. On the left is the hole before building the “rungs”; on the right is after.

After assessing the situation, I decided that straight-up darning* wasn’t really the best option. What I’m guessing happened here is that one of the red stitches snapped (confirmed by an inspection on the wrong-side) and slowly the line of red stitched pulled themselves out. Nothing at all happened to the stitches to either side (which makes Harrisville my top choice for anything needing a steek!) so I wasn’t too worried about the hole getting wider so much as taller.

On the inside, I found the two ends of the broken yarn and tied them (yes, knots, I know) to grey floats to keep them from moving around. Then, using a decent length of new red yarn (maybe 8 inches, leaving a tail of 3 inches) I stitched back and forth across the gap, from bottom to top, using the grey purl-bumps to anchor the yarn on either side. You know how when you drop a stitch you can ladder it back up using the horizontal bars left in its wake? Well, what I wanted to do was recreate those horizontal bars. (Don’t cut the yarn when you’re done.)

You can just see the ned red rungs through the gap. On the needle, the bottom stitch is the one that was left at the the bottom of the gap, and the top stitch is a new rung picked up through the gap. From here to the top, it’s just like laddering up a dropped stitch.

That way, when I flipped the mitten back to the right side, using that last little stitch, I could ladder the stitches right back up, using the fresh and well-secured “rung” I’d built on the inside. (This is where the other mitten came in handy – I needed to know how many stitches were missing so I added the right number). Once I got to the top, I pulled the top tail of new yarn through to the right side and then through the top stitch. To seal it, I used that tail to duplicate stitch to next couple of stitches in the row before pushing the tail back through the wrong side to weave it in.

A little wobbly, but not too bad.

At the bottom, I used the tail to duplicate stitch from a couple of stitches before the new ones through the first couple of new ones (five stitches) and then wove in the ends on the wrong side.

Duplicate stitch looks a little clumsy initially, but L has been wearing these all week and now you can’t even tell.

The whole process took about a half hour, which gave me time to duplicate-stitch a couple of other spots that were looking a bit thin. It’s not totally perfect, but I doubt many people would be able to tell repairs were done (from the right side, anyway).

Ta-da! (Also, I just noticed that grey stitch in the border. Sigh. I’ll have to go back and duplicate stitch that.)

What do you think? Have you had to make similar repairs before?

*There is a great tutorial in the latest Twist Collective about straight-up darning, covering four methods, with photos. If you have socks or other sweater elbows or other garments in need of darning, head over there.

Category: Knitting Tags: moose gloves, repairs

10:51 am - December 10, 2013 - AngelaH

Now is not the time for complicated

For a while there, I thought I was crazy for leaving a pair of men’s socks to the end of my planned holiday knitting, but there was a method to that madness, and I’m remembering it now. Plain stockinette is really relaxing. I’m just close enough to my deadline (Dec. 19), with just enough to do between now and then, that I’m a touch distracted. Not very distracted, but the kind of distracted that could, for example, lead you you to forget a yarn-over, or get off-course in slightly irregular ribbing.

Just an inch from dividing for the heel on sock #2. What do you think of my heel stripe?

It’s not the kind of distracted that leads to big mistakes, it’s the kind that leads you to think that you’re find until you realize your stitch count is off without providing an obvious answer as to why (little mistakes are often so much harder to find). The answer to this is plain stockinette, which allows your mind to wander without any potentially frustrating mistakes.

That being said, of course, I got off by one stitch in the heel of the first sock and there’s a line. I didn’t notice until I was picking up the gussets (clearly I should look down at my hands once in a while) and decided not to rip back. I might try to match it on the second sock so it looks intentional, or I might leave it as a handmade reminder. I’m torn between annoyance and being slightly charmed – what do you think?

This isn’t quite my last holiday knitting, but the last thing on my needles before the holidays is very hush-hush, so you’ll just have to wait for that reveal. A little secrecy at this time of year just makes it more fun!

Surprise! (Are you tired of looking at the same projects all the time? I am a bit.) I have big plain-stockinette-socks plans for after the holidays. This Koigu features prominently.

Unrelated, gratuitous yarn photo! (Are you tired of looking at the same projects all the time? I am a bit.) I have big plain-stockinette-socks plans for after the holidays. This Koigu features prominently.

(Ps. Thanks for all your commiseration on my last post! My new computer is working out quite nicely and not at all the reason I haven’t blogged since.)

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: gift knitting, socks

7:27 pm - December 1, 2013 - AngelaH

Peace out November

Let me just say, I am not sorry to see the back of November. It wasn’t an awful month, but it was an annoying one: On Nov. 2 I lost my transit pass (worth $128, and necessary to replace) and that just started the month off for disaster, which ultimately struck last week when the pipe to our bathroom sink’s hot water faucet broke and (unrelatedly, but on the same day) my laptop died. Basically, this was the most expensive month possible for boring and annoying reasons.

I knit two rows past this point, decided they were too big, and ripped. I’m almost back to that point and feeling much better.

BUT, now it’s December, and I’m starting fresh. I finished both L’s socks (on the day I posted about them) and my mum’s shawl (last night) in November, so now I’m working away on my dad’s socks, which are the last big holiday project. I did have to rip them out (I cast on last night and should clearly have known better), but I restarted on a smaller needle and everything is ticking along.

All of which is to say, I have a good feeling about December. I have 17 knitting days left before I need to be done, and right now that feels totally doable. How are you feeling?

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: gift knitting, socks

10:37 am - November 26, 2013 - AngelaH

The benefits of one-on-one attention

I think it’s safe to say we all know one-on-one time is important in relationships, but as a not-very-monogamous knitter I sometimes forget that the same can apply to my knitting.

I’m hoping to finish both the holiday projects currently on my needles by the end of the month, which is also the end of the week. I can never be sure how much knitting time I’ll get during the week, but I figure if I get one thing done now, I can buckle down on the other over the weekend.

I am still so in love with this colourway.

I just started the toe decreases for the second of L’s socks, so I think it’s safe to say that they’ll be finished by the end of the week (possibly the end of the day, but I don’t want to jinx myself).

I never thought I’d be so enchanted by ruffles.

The shawl is another matter. My plan is to double the number of edging repeats in the body. I want this to be easy to wear, which means it needs to be long enough to comfortable drape over both shoulders without needing a lot of readjusting. My Oaklet ended up being 49 inches long, and I think that’s the shortest I’d want to go. This does have a slightly curved shape, which tends to fit a bit better than a straight-across triangle, but still. I’ll probably gain a couple of inches in blocking, but I don’t want to count on that to make the minimum. So, repeat, repeat, repeat until I hit the 20g mark, which is when I’ll have to start decreasing. Each row is about the same as a round on a sock, so unless the weekend becomes insanely busy, I think I’ll be okay.

That’s the game plan, anyway. Do work out little schedules and deadlines for yourself? Do you ever manage to stick to this timelines?

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: gift knitting, shawl, socks

10:26 am - November 22, 2013 - AngelaH

Notions

I was all set to do a progress post, since things are moving right along. I’m a little over half-way through charm, and the ruffling along the edge is quite fetching. I’m also finished the gusset decreases in L’s socks, so it’s a straight shot to the toe now, which means (I hope) this last part will fly by. Unfortunately, the light today is terrible, so instead of posting bad photos I thought I’d pull out this post I’ve had in my back pocket for a little while.

There have been some great notions-related posts in the last little while, and even though knitters seem to carry around all the same stuff, I’m always fascinated to see what bits and bobs other people use: do we use the same stitch markers? Is there some little thing I don’t know about that’s going to change the way I knit? etc.

I can’t be the only notions nerd out there right?

I got my notions pouch at City of Craft, a bi-annual craft show featuring local artisans that is seriously the shopping/inspiration highlight of both spring and winter (the Christmas one is coming up and I cannot wait!). This is from Bookhou (she also has an Etsy. Ahem.) and made with some of their linen off-cuts. I love it.

Also, it holds way more than it has any right to.

Click to embiggen, if you like.

Starting at the top, left-to-right, we have: A baby sock that holds a little ball of waste yarn; nail scissors (perfect for yarn and small enough to carry on airplanes); large stitch holders; Post-Its for making notes and then sticking them to patterns; a circular stitch holder (by Clover), which is the best discover I’ve made in ages; a random button; a safety pin; Dragonfly Wings solid hand lotion, from Dragonfly Fibers; a crochet hook; a stitch counter; an array of stitch markers, explained below; a highlighter and pens; my knitting thimble (technically a Coin Thimble); a fancy stitch marker; plastic cable needles; metal cable needles; a hair elastic; darning needles; and an emergency tampon (zero relation to knitting, obviously).

I do also have a needle gauge/ruler (this one, actually), but it’s a bit too big to fit in there, so I keep it in my needle roll or in a project bag, depending on what I need it for.

I have a love-hate relationship with stitch markers because, while I won’t dispute their usefulness, I always find they get in the way. I find the stitches on either side of the markers tend to be looser than the others (double so when purling), so I prefer small markers to large ones. The little triangles are perfect for anything on a sock-sized needle (up to about 3.5mm) and the small flexible rings are what I use for anything larger (up to 4.5mm). The larger flexible ones don’t see much action, but they’re good to have around. The locking stitch markers are by far the most versatile and were the first ones I bought. I use them when casting on a million stitches (to mark increments), to mark the right side of the work when knitting garter stitch, to catch the occasional dropped stitch, and on and on – I usually have on clipped to the drawstring of my project bag too, just in case.

While I would very much like to switch to a no-cable-needle method of cabling, I haven’t made myself learn it yet, so I still use cable needles. The plastic ones (the white one in particular) got me through Burrard and it really wasn’t until the all-over cables of Saltburn that I started to get fed up. None of the plastic ones were small enough, using an extra dpn works, but it also gets in the way, and I was at the point of using a darning needle (seriously) when I discovered the metal Addi cable needles. These were more expensive than the plastic ones, but definitely worth it. They’re easy to use, come as a pair (2.5mm and 4.5mm) and don’t get in the way. I’m still going to teach myself no-needle cabling, but in the meantime, I’ll use the Addis.

And that’s more or less it. Except, well, the sock. The baby sock (using the yarn that would have been the toe of these socks) holds a little ball of waste yarn. I used to keep my waste yarn balled up and loose in my notions pouch, but of course it unwound itself and tangled around everything. This way, it stays tidy and out of the way, and it’s a good way to use a baby sock prototype.

So, what do you consider essential notions? How do you organize them?

Dramatic update photos early next week, I promise!

Categories: Knitting, Uncategorized Tags: notions