Knits

I didn’t exactly hit “mark all posts as read” since I am a bit too nosy and didn’t want to feel out of the loop. Instead I scanned posts and looked at pictures to see what everyone’s been working on. Of course I found a number of things that I went “oooooooh I want that” so they are now favorited in Ravelry.

It is moving into Sunday evening and I have been exceedingly lazy this weekend. I know that’s what weekends are for, but the weather has been nice enough (albeit windy) that I should have got out of the house and into nature. There’s always tomorrow (although considering the recent events in my life, I can’t really say this now as it doesn’t sit well).

So that’s Cascade Pastaza Paints in the fetching name of 9824. I bought it the day after my sister died to make something in her memory. She always loved greens, more the lime and grassy greens, but if something came in a five shades and one was green, she’d pick the green one. I have to say I’m the same way. It reminds me of Lion & Lamb minus that fishy smell since it has no silk.

I certainly didn’t need either of these sock yarns. The one on the left is Lucy Neatby Celestial Sock Merino in Honey Pot (mine looks totally different to the knitted/wound example). It is the colour of the grape vines in the autumn — purples, golds, yellows — gorgeous. I kept picking it up and putting it down and finally said “F it, I don’t need, but it’s beautiful and today is about me” because it was. It was a hard day exactly one week after Kristal died and I was getting my hair cut, buying some clothes, doing the things I normally did when I’d go home for a visit, but I was also taking in some donations to the breast care centre and seeing friends who knew my sister and felt her loss too.

The other is Misti Alpaca Handpainted Sock Yarn (Ravelry link as it’s not on the Misti site yet) in another clever name… 04. It’s a blend of alpaca, merino, silk, and nylon. This is completely out of normal choice of yarns in terms of colour, but something about it just appealed to me. I think I might actually be knitting a plain pair of socks to let the yarn shine. I bought this the same day as the Cascade above. We (me and my mom) needed an escape from the weirdness of going to the Crematorium to sign the papers so we went for some food in the north end of Santa Cruz which of course was next to the yarn store — The Swift Stitch.

The rest of the stash enhancement really is dead boring. I got two skeins of Euroflax Linen in Grape and Willow. And then, amazingly, I managed to buy two skeins of Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6 in nearly identical shades as the Tahki Cotton I bought last year. Hmmm I thought it seemed a familiar combination… Green and Blue. Oh well.

Well, hello. I’m finding it hard to get back into my routine of posting here and reading other blogs. I’m slowly getting there. I’m afraid I’ve mostly had to turn a blind eye and hit “Mark all as read” in my feed aggregator as there were well over 300 posts plus the posts that dropped off due to some bloggers setting limits to how many posts get kept on a feed.

I bought a MacBook (basic) when I was in the US. I am not adapting well. I don’t like the one button mouse and all the various combinations of keys that need pressing because you can’t right click. Also, having to hit two keys for forward delete (something I use a lot) is annoying. I don’t know if I will adapt to this since for work I have to use a PC and have, for the most part, always used a PC. Oh well…

So here’s what’s going on with the knitting…

1. I have finished one of the Neighbourhood Tunnels socks and am halfway through the other. I wish I could say I’d finish it up this weekend since it’s a 3-day weekend, but I know me and how slow I knit. Fingers crossed though.
2. I have a lot of new stash to show you. Things I have bought/received over the last two months even though I didn’t need a single bit of it.
3. I am going to have to have a serious think about clearing out some of this stash as it is overwhelming. That is all that stuff you buy as a new knitter not really knowing what you’ll do with it (although this is still common for me) and of course you never actually buy enough to do anything with it…
4. I went to a knitting meet up in the pub the other day. We are planning on having twice monthly meetups — the 1st Thursday and 3rd Saturday of the month. Plan is for the venue to change sometimes. If you’re in the North East and want more details, get in touch.
5. While it is of course getting on to summer, it is a strange request, but a way to make my stash go down… suggestions for reversible scarf patterns, please as I have a lot of yarn I’ve bought for this purpose.

This post needs some pictures so we’ll start with the two sock clubs.

My Zen Yarn Garden Harmony semi-sold sock club (hahaha that is a serious mouthful) went walkabouts. It did finally turn up, but no idea why it got lost. It’s a colour called Sun Kiss which is a orangey pinky blushy colour. It is pretty, but I don’t know if it’s for me although I am certainly able to be swayed. I think really I’m just overwhelmed with all the yarn in my possession these days. The yarn is a 50/50 superwash merino and tencel yarn. My subscription to this is over as I signed up for 3 months.

Next up is the third instalment of the Socktopus sock club. The yarn is amazing. The colours are soooooooooooooooooo rich and beautiful, but again, not wowed by an entrelac sock pattern. Not sure what sort of pattern I’ll make as it seems a shame to do heels/toes in the contrast yarn since it is so divine. The yarns are from Middlearthknitter and are Chaorite (purple) and Azurite (blue, duh).

I also did a trade before I went to the US with Amy of MadelineTosh yarns. OMG I am so glad I went with my gut and selected the Ginger colourway. It is not normally my type of colour, but I am definitely warming to these warm orangey/yellow colours (hence perhaps warming to the Zen Garden colourway). It is so rich and beautiful. I thought it was pretty in the photos, but in person… *gush*.

That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of new stash. I’ll update again before the weekend is out. Now, seeing it’s just about to become 1pm, I think it’s probably a good idea to have a shower and get out of my pyjamas. I have a good excuse though, I was ordered to go back to bed by the physiotherapist, but I also admit that I am being very lazy.

I’m back in the UK and have been for almost two weeks. However, I’ve only just got phone service (they lost my order despite calling me about it) and have to wait 48 hours to even order internet access and then of course it’s another 7 days or something ridiculous. I’m at the library and thought I’d just pop in to say hi.

My flat has turned out to be totally crap. It’s in a great location albeit a bit noisy as it actually looks onto a major-ish road (didn’t expect this) and it has absolutely zero storage space. The rooms are a funky shape so it’s hard to put things in. Needless to say, I won’t be staying beyond my 6-month let which is sort of a shame since I hate moving. I guess the upside is that I can take my time a bit more in finding a place to live.

Trigger is fine although her cancer is showing more. She’s settled right in and is enjoying the sunny apartment. The sink is giving her a bit of trouble as it’s all modern and stupid so it’s difficult for her to get in and get her drinks.

I hired a car and drove myself and Trigger up. Having the car let me run a few errands, but I didn’t need it as long as I booked it for and it ended up causing a bit of anxiety for me since my flat has no parking. It’s gone now and I’m awaiting my car club package to come through so that if and when I need a car, I can hire it by the hour and not have to worry about all the trials and tribulations of car ownership.

I start my new job on Wednesday and am looking forward to it although as I’m sure I’ve said before, I’m not looking forward to commuting to work. Blah.

Anyway, I went up the coast a bit, sat on the beach, ate an ice cream, and knit. No knitting to show although I do have a lot of yarn that has come into my possession in the last couple of months. As soon as I get my own connection I’ll bore you with those highlights. Hope you’re all well. I’m as good as can be expected…

It’s almost 1130pm. I leave tomorrow afternoon back to the UK. The time here has both zoomed by and moved in slow motion. All that has happened and all that I have done has not really sunk in.

Today I had my haircut, bought a lot of new clothes and some chocolate, and stopped to see the sea otters in Moss Landing on my way home. There are always dozens of sea otters hanging out in the harbor there, but these otters seem to like to lounge on the beach like the seals and sea lions and I’ve never seen them do that before.

I’ll miss this little piece of California like I always do. I hope my new life in the north of England is good. I may take myself to Edinburgh at the end of May for a weekend since it’s so much closer to me now.

Thanks for sticking with me and I suspect once I’m back on British soil and settled, you’ll see some knitting content again.

We held a small memorial to Kristal in Big Sur. We spent a lot of time in Big Sur as children when we’d come up to visit family here in Monterey and once we relocated here, we went often. We had a picnic and afterwards my mom and I went and scattered some ashes in one of her favourite spots — a bench where she’d go and read. Don’t tell ’cause we aren’t supposed to be scattering them…

I’ve continued to be busy with family stuff and arrangements and now cleaning up Kristal’s room so my mom won’t have to deal with it. I am leaving on Wednesday and have so much stuff to coordinate. I won’t be returning to work until mid-May as I need some time to decompress, get organised, and get over the jet lag. It hasn’t really hit me completely that my sister is gone because I’ve been so busy. I know once I return to the UK and get resettled and back into a routine, it will hit me… hard.

Thanks for all the messages in the last post.

Below are some views from the bench…

The pictures were taken a couple days before scattering the ashes. We wanted to scope out the location since we’d never been there.

I even caught myself a little alligator lizard.

 
Kristal after visiting the glass beach in Fort Bragg in January 2005 and getting caught in a rain storm.

Kristal passed away peacefully with our mom and myself by her side along with her little cat Ushi. She was an amazing person and touched a lot of lives. She will be missed by more people than I know.

She’s left a huge void in many lives, but she was also an inspiration with her strength and courage, wit and wisdom. We know the grief will come in waves, but right now we’re still smiling and laughing and are relieved she’s no longer suffering.

That’s my sister’s beautiful cat Ushi. Ushi has taken to me in a big way. She comes and sits with me at night for a bit and purrs, seeks me out and has taken a few afternoon naps with me. She doesn’t behave this way with my mom. The cats are due for their annual shots so we’re going to start Ushi on the road of preparing to move abroad. If she doesn’t settle or my mom decides taking care of two cats is too much, she’ll come in the autumn and bring Ushi.

Ushi is the cat that never grew up. She’s almost 6.5 years old and all of 6 pounds (maybe). She’s so cute and wee.

The damage. As you can see the stitch definition has diminished and the ladders have felted together pretty well — shrunk lengthwise and stuck together. I haven’t taken any measurements, but it is definitely smaller and stiffer. I think it’s going to be a table runner for my coffee table… so long as I can get the fishy smell out!

Maybe Lornas will send me some sock yarn to compensate. ;)

Finally, something done! I’m mixed about these… glad they are done, not so happy with the pattern as it biased for me (and looking at Ravelry it’s definitely not my technique as a good portion of the other finished ones also biased). Looking at the sole of the sock, maybe I should’ve done a plain ol’ stockinette sock (I’ve yet to do one of those) because both the colourway and the pattern seem lost in this sock. And, no, I’m not that heartbroken about it that I’ll rip and re-knit.

The yarn is Claudia Handpainted in Eat Your Veggies. There was only one knot and it was very close to the end of the second skein. I thought I might get away with not having to even worry about it, but you know where it was? Within the very last row before bind off! Argh. So I tinked back a round and added in the new piece which was only a few yards long. The two skeins were slightly different lengths, but not markedly so.

A few things I learned with this sock…

1. While I think I’ve got the right number of stitches down to cast on to do a toe up sock so it’s neither too pointy nor too baggy, I need to not start the pattern once I reach the total number of stitches needed. As you can see in the first and third pictures above (as well as the main picture) the toe is really, really short and I think this is causing the sock to twist a bit on my foot. I’m not bothered that it looks a bit funny since my toes are generally in my shoes, but it seems to make a difference to how socks stay on the feet.
2. I’ve still got a bit of work to do to figure out the right proportions for a toe up heel flap and the heel cup. The second sock came out a little better and again I knit more stockinette on the back of the second sock once I reduced down since I think perhaps the pattern is more likely to break down with rubbing on the shoe.
3. And probably the biggest thing… depending on the yarn and pattern, it may just be that I need to keep far more stitches for around the ankle than reducing back down to the original number or stitches. For this sock I had 64 stitches around the foot and ended up having 90 around the ankle and then reducing down to 72 for the remainder of the cuff. The sock fits well barring the minor problems caused by 1 & 2.

FYI the pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks and is in the 5-stitch repeat section.

Ooops, I felted the Clapotis.

I knew it was a risk, but I was still a bit surprised it happened. The Lion and Lamb does not want to lose it’s fishy smell so I took the drastic step of putting it in the front loading washer on the gentlest cycle with some woolite and started it up. I had put it in a mesh bag and it was the only thing in the washing machine.

As I pulled it out I could tell it felted. It’s not completely felted, but the dropped stitches matted together and there’s just not as much movement. And the annoying thing? It still smells fishy!! I want my money back.

I should be finishing up an object tonight or tomorrow morning (just looked at the time) so I’ll hopefully show you that soon.