Knitting Update

Long overdue update.

Remember the giant snow storm we had two weeks ago?


Most of that snow is gone now. There's still in inch or two in shady places, and where it was piled up after we dug out, but we're starting to see more grass than snow which is great.

I don't know what plant it is called, but along the streams and in the marshy places around here there is a willowy bush/tree/vine thing that turns a vivid magenta when spring is coming. Last year, it was the first sign of color coming back in March when the snow receded and everything looked drab and dead.

There are a few little bulbs poking back up through the dirt right by the front door. They have a dark dark red color. I wonder what they will grow up to be!

The Cider Mill geese have been venturing out more and more too. Spotted them strolling down the street outside the front door a few days ago. They hissed at me for taking pictures of them on such a bad feather day.



I finished the Olympic Sweater a few days late.

Alas. But I do really like it, so I'm pleased. It has a beautiful drape and soft luxurious warmth, despite its relatively open fabric. It's much bigger than the pattern suggests. I blocked it realtively tightly to open up the fabric and to help nudge the arms and hemline a little longer, so that might be part of it, but I'm guessing my gauge was off by a few stitches once I got into the stress of the Olympics. That would account for the arm holes being about an inch or two too big.


Don't misunderstand. I loves me the sweater. Brett thinks it looks good, and it has that funky loose look that so many cardigans have in the stores these days, which is exactly what I was going for. Perfect to wear over a fitted long sleeve shirt or a summer tank top. I'm looking forward to reaching for this on warm summer mornings when I need something I can stuff in my bag and toss on once the sun goes down and it gets a little chilly. Hooray!

I finally finished Brett's Kansas City socks too.

I knew he needed a pair of his own when he kept boggarting my handknit woolies. He needs good wool socks because he does crazy things like run around in the snow to celebrate U of Minnesota victories. He's a crazy person.


After searching the stash, I found I had a great skein of royal blue Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I'd been hoarding since the days of the employee discount at Iris Fine Yarns. (I really miss working at a yarn shop!) Since the color was appropriate, I charted out a little KC design to feature on the cuff and planned a purl bump diamond pattern for the leg and top of the foot. Started out with a few blue and white stripes, jumped right into the colorwork, struggled through a few repeats of the diamonds before abandoning them and then suffered through a men's sized sock worth of dark blue stockinette. I don't know what I was thinking trying to read a purl bump pattern on dark knitting that I usually do in the evenings. As far as eye strain goes, only an eggplant purple or solid black yarn would have been worse.


So I finally finished the first sock and then, of course, second sock syndrome kicked in and the thought of doing another one made me want to take a nap. It took me almost a year to even start the second sock, but it went so much more quickly than the first that I cast on the cuff and kitchenered the toe in 4 days.


Such is the paradox of the sock knitter. You spend weeks, maybe a month on the first sock, the prototype, experimenting with design elements, writing and rewriting the pattern, knitting the damn thing, until you have spent all your creative juices and, now that all the hard work is done, you nothing left to carry you across the flat stockinette finish line. You have hit the Knitters Wall. I have found the same thing to be true of weaving in ends and blocking sweaters and shawls, or the last stretch of most knitting projects, really.

But I find that time is the best remedy. Now that the KC sock monkey is off my back, I feel free to start another pair of socks, this time following a pattern without making many, if any, alterations. Good thing Aunt Karen sent me a copy of Knitted Socks, East and West for my birthday. Beautiful patterns and inspiring photography. I've cast on for Chouwa, a highly textured feather and fan sort of pattern that is producing a lovely surf crashing on rocks sort of feel. It's great. I'm knitting with Christmas yarn too: Happy Feet from Plymouth Yarns in colorway 26 (such a romantic name, right?) which is a really mysterious variegation of charcoal grey, periwinkle purple, and a tiny hint of robins egg blue. From afar the overall effect is purple. I do really like the way the strange color combo is working with the texture, sort of softening and homogenizing the colors.

From now on, I'll remember that sometimes after over analyzing a project, I should try something I don't think will work at all and just see what happens.