Major Knitter

Snow and Socks and Socks and Snow

That seems to sum up my life this January.  Snow. Snow. Snow. Socks.  

This is what has me awake at night these days:

See that gigantic icicle in the corner?  I'm terrified of ice dams and damage especially with the forecast for this week's storm.  Yesterday, we shoveled off the upstairs porch - all 600 cubic feet - which apparently equals 10,000 to 12,000 lbs of snow!  

When I'm not shoveling or worrying about shoveling I've been knitting the Tesserae socks.  I'm on the feet of both socks - so the end is in sight.  I'm quite pleased about this accomplishment.

The next storm starts tonight sometime after midnight.  I'm going to head out to do some grocery shopping and then I'll be prepared for the next round of shoveling and knitting.  I am prepared.

Do A Good Turn Daily

Secundogeniture and I put on our snow boots, grabbed our shovels and headed out into our neighborhood this afternoon to do a good deed - dig out some fire hydrants.

When we got to the two nearest fire hydrants, we discovered the fire department had already been through and done our good deed.

It's the thought that counts, right?

At any rate, we're ready for this week's storm.  We both agreed we would get out earlier and get the job done.  

Riddle Me This, Batman

What has four legs but cannot walk?

A chair?

A table?

No.

Two pair of socks started this week, of course.

First up is the Lorna's Laces pooling or striping socks that you've all helped me with the pooling

Knit on US Size 0 needles (or 2.0 mm), these are progressing extremely slowly as I can only work on them in short intervals before my body begs for a break.

And here's the lightning fast socks knit on ginormous US Size 1 needles (2.5mm) - well - at least as compared to the US Size 0s they feel ginormous.  Oddly enough, plain stockinette socks in self striping yarn happen to be my favorite socks of all.  I'm going to go back through my patterns and look for a short row heel for this pair to show off the self-striping yarn in a more attractive light than a heel flap design.

I like socks.  What's not to like.  Now to finish them up so these legs can walk.

Snow Day --- Again

It's really quite unbelievable.  We're covered in 12 18 inches of snow --- again.  No school.  No activities.  We bought bread, milk and eggs (because it seems that everyone MUST buy bread, milk and eggs before a snow storm).  Now we are sitting quietly wondering when we should start shoveling.

It's a good day to stay inside and knit.

It most certainly doesn't look like we'll be grilling anytime soon.  Although, as a child, my mother always insisted that a path be shoveled out to the grill for year-round BBQs.  I might have to implement that rule this year.  I think it's a good one.

How about you?  How are you handling the neverending snow in the Northeast?

Collective Problem Solving

I think I love you. All of my readers and invisible friends have been so very helpful.  You gave me such great ideas and I listened to you.  

My predicament started with some major pooling with the Lorna's Laces yesterday when I had only knit the cuff.  Many of you recommended trying to knit the pattern of the sock to see if that altered the pooling because sometimes it does, depending on the pattern.  I decided to try this solution first as it seemed the easiest one to attempt.

Unfortunately after just another inch, it was quite apparent that the pooling was as bad as ever.  On to the next solution.  You recommended obvious things like changing needle sizes or patterns.  Since I didn't want to change patterns, I opted, with much reluctance to go down to a US Size 0. YIKES.

Voila!  Problem solved in two easy steps.  I like the striping on this sock and while I know the heel flap will have some pooling, I'm totally fine with that.  The US Size 0 needles will be an issue.  They'll cause me to knit these socks slowly with lots of other projects thrown in the mix.  I can only knit on needles that small for short spurts, otherwise I'll wreak havoc with my body.  But I'm happy as a clam thanks to all of you and your collective wisdom and problem solving.  What would I do without my readers?  Thank you!

 

What Would EZ Do?

I need your help.  I finally picked a pattern for my niece's socks.  I've been wanting to knit one of Anne Hanson's designs for awhile, but hadn't committed to anything yet.  Then I found her Tesserae Sock and knew it was the winner.  So why do I need your help?  Let me show you my predicament:

I decided to add a K2, P2 cuff to these socks and I already have the beautiful Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn - Color 92 River - pooling.  This yarn is so beautiful and I'm crushed already.  I hate pooling.  Is there something I can do?  Do I just live with it and get over my dislike of pooling?  Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

What I Did This Weekend

Well knitters, I know I've been silent for the last several days.  My family will tell you that my silence is a rare thing indeed.  So there must have been a reason for such a quiet blog.  Fear not.  All was well.  I was busy getting ready for our Boy Scout District Klondike at our beloved summer camp.  We had over 2 feet of snow - plus the 8-10 inches of fresh snow that came down Friday morning making for a wonderful winter wonderland.  It's the first Klondike in recent memory that actually involved snow... and ice.

Two of the dads spent the entire day making a very impressive igloo.

The sledding competition was different this year.  Everyone had to build it on-site in 60 minutes using pre-assembled pieces of wood (limit 10 pieces) and up to 100 feet of rope (not including the pulling rope) for testing knot tying skills.  Adults were not allowed to help assemble the sleds - only supervise.  It was hilarious.  Almost all the sleds fell apart at some time - or lost half their sled dogs (aka Scouts).  Laughter was high on the list of fun.  But there were some great sleds and great effort on everyone's part.

We also had a big Krazy Klondike Kap Kompetition - asking everyone to wear their craziest hat.  Our Klondike had a Cool Runnings theme (the story of the Jamaican bobsled team at the Winter Olympics) so there were lots of rastafarian hats.  

Here I am in the center with my dreadlocks and Jamaican hat with other adult volunteers from my Troop.

My friend John had the best adult hat (IMHO) for the weekend.

Here's the fish hat (which actually did quite well in the judging competition, even though it did not place)

Wendy came in 2nd place with her Crew Bobsled Beanie Baby hat.  She pasted pictures of her Crew members on the heads of the beanie babies and placed them in a bobsled on a snow covered mountain.  A+ for effort Wendy!

Everyone had lots of fun with the Krazy Kaps - and the top prize winners were pretty excited with their great gifts - a Jet Boil, a GSI Halulite Minimalist Cookset, and a pocket knife/multi-tool set.  After the prizes and awards were handed out, everyone pretty much headed home.

We stayed the night in a cabin and one of the Scouts in our Troop baked home-made pizzas for dinner.

And at bedtime, a few of us crazy souls pitched our tents on one of the coldest nights of the year in order to earn our "Year Round Camper" patch.

That blur is me trying to quickly set up my tent for the night.

Here's a self-portrait just before going to bed.  It hit the ZERO degree mark at night.  hehehehe.  And I'm smiling, too!  That's just scary.

It was a wonderful weekend and I can't thank enough - all the volunteers from our Troop and from the District who worked so hard to make this event happen.  We had a near-record turnout for the event and couldn't be happier.

Let's Get Together and Sled All Right!

Wilma's World

I did something today that I never, ever do.  I went to my knitting group with a project and no needles.  Oh.  But that's not what I was really thinking about when I wrote that intro.  Here's what really happened.  It's somewhat terrifying just to think about it.  I left the house and let Wilma free range.  Seriously, the entire house - to - her - self.  What was I thinking?  When I realized the error of my ways, I came home expecting to see damage and destruction.  But my girly girl was enjoying her new found independence.

Here's a picture from this weekend of Wilma, sleeping on the sofa (YIKES!) in a fleece, with her eyes closed, head lifted (how does she sleep that way?), and... her tongue in. 

I'm thinking she was sleeping on the sofas while I was gone today, too.  No damage.  No destruction.  Only a few telltale signs of doggy activity.  Maybe my little girly girl is growing up?

By MLK Day, All Christmas Ornaments Should Be Down

I generally try to take them all down the first week of January - and definitely by the Ephiphany aka "Little Christmas".  But there's no excuse to have them up past MLK Day.  Afterall, it's a long weekend and plenty of time to get things done, right?

Wrong.  I can't seem to let go of Christmas.  99% of my decorations are down, but then I decided to knit up some extra sets for the whole family (three sets total - one for Primogeniture, one for Secundogeniture; and a final set to be shared by BF and me).  How can I reach my personal goal of everything down by MLK Day with interruptions like this?

Here's the double thick striped socks design.

Compare that to the single stripe design.  Candy Canes anyone?

Of course, there's the Red Sox ornaments (which coincidentally are very Christmasy)

Here's the venerable set of Vintage Boy Scout Socks for the set.

Here's a vertical stripe design that is a little bit tricky, but I feel gives a great overall effect of holiday cheer.  I'm still working out the kinks in this design (you can see it in the heel gusset) - but I think I finally got it.

The final design is the red with green accent sock.  Very cheery, don't you think?

How about you?  Do you start knitting for next year in January?

 

It's Time For Some Socks

My niece Julie asked for a pair of hand-knit socks.  She likes reds and blues - so I picked out some yarns from the stash and lined them up for her to choose.  I sent her this picture and she liked the first one from the left and the fourth one from the left.

• Red/Pink/Purple - Happy Feet Color 19
• Sky Blue, Purple and Aqua Marine - Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn Color River

Two very good colors, so how to choose?  I researched people's opinions of both yarns (since I have only knit with the Lorna's Laces) and the clear winner for durability and quality was, of course, the Lorna's Laces.  

So now I need to find the perfect pattern.  I think I'll need to cast on 68 sts to get the best gauge -- possibly 72.  Any suggestions of a great design for this multi-colored yarn?