Knits

 
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.

Hello! Well still busy here. I was meant to go back to the UK yesterday, but I’ve extended my stay for two more weeks and may extend it further. I’m anxious to go back to the UK and finish moving and start my new job, but obviously I’m also anxious about leaving.

While it’s been sunny, it’s not actually been very warm especially when that strong breeze comes up. It’s been coming up pretty early in the day too so by the time I’ve done all the little things around the house and the morning fog has burned off, the breeze is up and it’s too cold to sit outside. Can’t win. We got a teeny, tiny bit of rain as evidenced by the raindrops on the tulip above.

I’m so restless that I’ve not done as much knitting as one would hope with all the sitting around I’ve been doing — waiting for phone calls, waiting for my sister to come out of appointments, etc. I did however knit a Kittyville hat for her oncologist who is about to give birth to child number two. It came out kinda big, toddler-sized, which I think is actually nicer since newborn hats don’t fit for long. So why a Kittyville? Well the oncologist and nurses always like the hats she comes in wearing and the cat one is pure sister — everyone loves that one. I thought it would be a nice memory for the doctor to have a hat knit by me for her baby that is part of my sister too. It came out really cute with the patches of calico colour. Yarn is Di’ve Butterfly.

Not much else to report. Time to go have a shower, finish up the laundry, make a couple of calls, and then go visit my sister (she got admitted to the hospital w/ mild pneumonia on Sunday). Hope you’re all well. At some point I should catch up a bit w/ blog reading… I’m sort of scared to look at my feed as it’s gonna have a ton of unread posts.

Hello! Well, I’ve been in bright and sunny California for a week now. It’s actually been pretty nice — generally it’s really foggy for half the day and it’s not been bad really. I’ve sat outside a few times and knit and enjoyed the warmth. I even had to go out and buy a tank top (vest) and shorts today because I didn’t bring anything suitable for lounging in the sun.

Things are going as well as they can. The first few days were really hard — very emotional. Now it’s just hard because I can’t really leave her on her own for too long (mostly because I have to keep my eye on her so she doesn’t fall or something and make sure she takes her meds on time). I’ve completely changed my body clock although about 3 or 4 I feel like I need a nap and then I get tired and ready for bed by 10 or so which is early for me.

So anyway - several things to show you. The first picture is only a fraction of the amazing gift Jillian sent me. It includes a nice grass bag, two skeins of Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields, a set of Rosewood DPNs, some hand lotion and chapstick, and that cool “blooming” tea. She also sent the Kittyville hat she knit for my sister (which she has worn most days since it arrived last Wednesday) and a thing of coffee and biscuits. Mmmm.

 
Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields

I’m so impressed not only with the generosity of knitters, but people in general, whether you know them or not, whether you’ve talked to them every week or only exchange Christmas cards. I’m generally pretty grumpy about people, but it’s good to know that most people are kind and have heart; I need to remember that more often, not only when there are bad times.

I also started the Neighbourhood Tunnels sock from the Socktopus sock club so I could knit it on the airplane. I’ve just started the heel flap (I actually haven’t done much knitting since the plane ride). The picture shows the yarn a bit brighter than it is. To me the pattern seems to be obscured by the yarn, but maybe that’s down to my technique. My yarn overs don’t seem to be creating very large holes (and I’m not knitting through the back loop). I think maybe I’ve changed how I do yarn overs although I can’t figure out how they might be different. I was going to follow the pattern as written, but because I was in a rush to get these started to take on the plane, I didn’t do the toe as stated so it’s probably going to be a bit wonky.

Oh the Laburnum socks are still going (starting the cuff on sock two) and I saw other people also had problems with them biasing so it’s something with the way the pattern pulls.

Time to go do some more knitting and relaxing before bed… I’ll be back soon with an actual finished object.

Everything is packed — the movers will be here any minute, actually. Trigger has gone off to her luxury accommodation. After they’ve come and gone I will head to a friend’s house to stay the night and head off to California in the morning. I took some pictures of everything packed up, but I didn’t want to dig out the cable to download the pictures…

It’s all very odd to have had to rush through this process. It’s been good for keeping my mind off of what’s waiting at home, even if this has been stressful and exhausting. There were plans to have a meal out with my work colleagues next week. And at the weekend I was going to get together with my friends for drinks and food. Of course all of that has been scrapped. When I return I will have to return to Oxford to collect some stuff I’m storing with a friend and Trigger. I might stay a couple days and have a meal or something w/ anyone who’s available.

I’m looking forward to my new life in the north and all the extra knitting time I’m going to get since I’ll be commuting (but not the actual commuting since it’s inactive and I’ve become quite used to and happy with me making the wheels spin on my mode of transport). Maybe I’ll get more than one finished object a month. ;)

Thanks again to all those who have sent through thoughts and prayers. See you in California.

Thank you to Jillian who volunteered her time to make the modified-Kittyville hat for my sister. I’m so lucky to have “met” so many kind people via the knitting world. My sister will be really pleased.

I’m having trouble getting motivated to finish up the packing. I mean I obviously have to do it, but for the most part, the big stuff has been done and it’s down to the minutiae which means just chucking stuff into various boxes. The biggest thing I’ve got left to do is wrap up all my framed artwork and pack up the pots and pans (I don’t have many).

I just can’t get myself up and doing everything else right now. I’m not really tired today, just feeling lazy. I suspect that as usual I will have spurts of doing stuff for 30 minutes or so, I’ll sit down knit a few rows, get up and do something else, and then tonight is when I’ll get the motivation to do a bunch of stuff.

Last night I turned the heel on the second Laburnum sock and this morning I started picking up the stitches w/ the Harmony DPNs. I think I might have to start another sock even though I don’t really want to do this. The Harmony’s are pointy, but not quite enough to do the k3tog. I mean they probably are, but I’m not really interested in it taking me a minute to do one stitch because I can’t get the needle quite in there without tearing at the stitches or feeling like the needle will snap. Shame as I could’ve probably made quite a lot of progress on the 10-plus hour flight. I’ll try again and maybe get a rhythm going and it will be okay.

I just read the terms of the removal and storage people. They won’t accept wine/spirits. I wonder why. I understand the hazardous materials although maybe they aren’t meaning normal household quantities of cleaning agents. Hmm, predicament…

My life has been incredibly crazy the last week. Not the usual too much work sort of crazy, but having to do everything I was going to have to do over the next six weeks got compressed into a week or less.

I’ve let many people know already, but there’s a few out there who don’t know why my life has become a Ricky Martin song (except his song is about fun crazy times and my life is not about fun crazy times right now).

Five and a half years ago at the age of 25 my sister was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. It’s been a big battle the last five and a half years. Much of why I took up knitting was to provide her with an assortment of hats to cover her head. My initial efforts were pretty awful — too big, too small, came undone — but she wore them anyway and a few of them she has worn constantly and gets compliments. In fact the modified Kittyville hat I made her was complimented on by a woman who sells knitted items at the weekly farmer’s market. My sister replied that I made it for her and the woman refused to believe it. She insisted that it was machine made. Cow. I’ve improved and provided her with more hats over the last couple of years.

Anyway, she’s losing the battle now. She is terminally ill and I am returning to the US to be with her for a couple of weeks or longer. It’s been a very tough week dealing with this news and having to also get the following done:

• Retrieve my passport from the Home Office which was sent off the same day I found out I needed to return home (stupid time zones)
• Barring the above didn’t happen, I prepared to go to London to the US Embassy to get an emergency passport
• Pack my entire flat (note I am usually incredibly anal retentive about packing making lists of box contents and carefully labelling and numbering boxes)
• Arrange for my items to be moved into storage and then, at some point, moved north
• Oh yeah, find a place to live up north
• Get quotes and hope the movers could do the job ASAP
• Try and not leave my work totally in the lurch as they are an amazing group of people — I am so fortunate to have landed where I have in my employment
• Arrange for my cat to be taken care of while I’m gone
• Book airline tickets
• Gather a variety of paperwork proving I have a life here in the UK should I have to leave on an emergency passport (they’ll get you out of some place, but not necessarily back in)
• Get more boxes in
• Letting the estate agents come and show off the flat to prospective renters (I had tidied it all up for the first viewing and then got the news so it then turned into a box warehouse)

I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve forgotten. The first few days (and even a bit now) I was forgetting to actually fully take of myself - I wasn’t eating enough even when I could feel the hunger pains because there was just too much to do.

This is one of those times in life where I’ve got so much on my plate right now and somehow I am managing to get it done. I’ll look back at this time both as one of complete sadness at what is happening in my family right now and with awe at how well I’m actually handling things. When life throws you this much shit at once, you just have to suck it up and get it done.

So that’s where I am right now. Even though I have suddenly had to shell out an enormous amount of money in a very short amount of time, I did order some a single set of those ugly ass Harmony DPNs since I don’t have any wooden needles in the size I need for the airplane. I wish they’d make a non-ugly set because I do like the length and pointiness of the KP DPNs.

I have one request from all of you. Okay actually I have two. First if you can spare any strength for me and my family, I’d appreciate if you sent it our way; this is really, really tough. The second is, is there someone out there willing to knit my sister a Kittyville hat minus the ear muffs/tassles (so essentially a stockinette cap w/ ears) in either a grey or lime green colour? She asked me for one, but I don’t have the yarn to do it. It feels like cheating, but I know she’d love one.

* I am not actually listening to Ricky Martin nor have I heard him in dogs years although I am not opposed to listening to that song although Shake your Bon Bon or whatever it was is just too much.