A Lot of Moving Parts

The Deadline Setter commented once when I used that phrase in an article, so it must be one of the phrases I like/use frequently. Have you ever noticed that? There are things you say frequently and you don't realize it until someone points it out?
Anyway (and, yes, I do realize I say that frequently.)
I'm through the heel increases on one Girlfriends Cable Socks sock. :-D I think the Cuban Heel is working out very nicely with this pattern. It is centered under the back center twist and the purl columns split nicely down the either side. Now I'll double back and catch the other sock up before I turn the heels. That way how many rows I've worked, etc., is still fresh in my mind.
I started working on both of them so I could keep track of my yarn usage. I shouldn't have to worry about running out.
In other knitting news, I felted Wine Cozy V this morning. It ended up skinnier and taller than I expected. It is interesting to see how the direction of the stitches seem to effect how they react when felted. I haven't measured it to see whether it adhered to my predicted shrinkage. Still it fits the bottle nicely. I think I like it a bit better then the first one, size wise. I would definitely scale the horizontal version down if I made another one.
And, I think that's about it for now. I shall leave you with a puppy action shot.

Yippee!

Oh my gosh! It's sooo cool. I went and checked my just now and there was some mysterious looking message about a pending purchase. But something must have clicked in the back of my mind because I opened it and it was a message from PayPal that someone had bought my Eyelet and Feather Scarf pattern on Ravelry!
phew! deep breath.
So I had to go into PayPal and figure out how to accept the payment and upgrade to a premier account so the fees would be less. I considered staying a personal account, but I am hoping to put more patterns in my Ravelry store so you never know I might have more than 5 transactions and it looks like it's free to be a premier account so what the heck, right?
Oh, it's bad to get this wired up right before bed time.
So now I have $3.48 in my PayPal account, after they took the fees. It's not really the first pattern I've ever sold. There were all the Rainbow Swirl Socks for the sock club, but they were good faith purchases. And my scarf sold really well while it was the special of the month in the store. And I know several of the people who bought it. That was cool, because people kept asking about it while the sample was out on the counter while it was being test knit and going through the design process.
But this is like the first random purchase by someone who just saw it and liked it.
Of course I totally had to go scope out her profile and projects. She's got a lot of nice stuff queued. I'm in good company. giggle.
Ok, phew, I have to go get ready for bed now.
But first. I've worked 40 rows on each Girlfriends Cable Sock. I think 8 to 10 more rows will bring it to 6 inches and I can start the heel.
I still have to felt the other wine cozy.
Goodnight!

Go Yankees!

Ok, even though Hubby has admitted he doesn't read my blog unless I happen to leave it open on the desktop...I thought I'd be a good Yankee Fan Wife and add the All Star voting widget in an attempt to get Jason Giambi on the roster. (I don't care about the NL player, so I went local and chose the guy from the Mets.)
Um, I didn't expect the widget to be so very huge. And I think it could be a little more obvious that I support Giambi. Well, voting closes tomorrow at 5, so I won't have to put up with it for very long. sniff.


In Knitting News
I did finish the body of Felted Wine Cozy V on the ride home yesterday. At home I seamed it by purling the last row to the cast on edge and binding off as I went along. And I knit the bottom before I went to bed. It did end up much smaller than Felted Wine Cozy H, which is probably why it worked up so quickly. Even Hubby was surprised. I should be able to felt it tonight.
And I took a hard look at my socks. My row count is correct. I think the first sock just looks fluffier, which is why the twists look different.

Ok, off to mess with the MLB widget size and eat some lunch.

To The Point

As I was charting the ribbing decreases last night, it occurred to me that since I wanted to go from 6 stitches (K2P2K2) to 3 stitches (K1P1K1) the fastest and easiest thing to do would be decreasing a stitch in each column.
So I did.
It is, perhaps, a more abrupt decrease than I would normally use, but I didn't see the point in fading the ribbing.
As for the ribbing on the back of the leg, there wasn't a graceful way to convert it to a 4 stitch cable to match the other cables. It would not have been balanced with P2 on either side and then K2 beyond that. I would have ended up with K1 columns or some other, unbalanced pattern. I briefly toyed with the idea of eliminating 2 stitches from the back as well, but dismissed it.
What I did do is change the center back K2 column into a 2 stitch cable with the twist on the same rows as the bigger cables.
Since I didn't want to start from scratch, I just dropped the two stitches in question and reknit them the way I wanted them. It was a little fiddly but I have to imagine faster than going back to Row 1.

Double the Pleasure
Now the pattern is written for what looks like ankle socks using 2 skeins. So I bought a third skein so I could make them taller.
Before I made my changes I was scoped out other Girlfriend's Cable Socks on Ravelry to see whether anyone else had modified them (especially to make them smaller). One person used the 2 skeins and said she had just barely enough to finish. She also mentioned that she altered the heel, but didn't go into detail about how.
This made me glad that I had bought a third skein and was going to make the smaller anyway, because I shouldn't run out of yarn. Still, it made me nervous. After I finished messing with the first sock I turned around and cast on for the second sock. Having multiple pairs of dpns in the same size comes in handy. I was able to work through Row 8. I didn't wind all three skeins when I bought it and then I forgot the yarn at home on Saturday so I actually had to wind it by hand, which was a bit of a delay.
Although I stopped knitting because it was bed time, I probably would have stopped at that point anyway. The 2 st cable on Sock 2 doesn't look the same as on Sock 1. I'm thinking it is because the former is being worked from scratch and the latter is a little distorted from being dropped in after the fact. Still, I'm taking a hard look at my row counter and wondering if I was advancing it properly. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out this evening in some better lighting.

Possible Tactical Error
Felted Wine Cozy V is working up much quicker than Felted Wine Cozy H did. I have about 15 more rows to go to finish the body. I did scale V down a little based on the shrinkage of H and more rigorous bottle measurements. But it wasn't by that much, so I'm still surprised. I don't know if the difference is because I'm working this one flat and the other in the round; or whether it is a perception thing because I'm working V during the commute in chunks, while H was a marathon over the weekend.
Regardless, I was working on it while doing to online reading/research and realized if I kept going I might not have anything to knit on the ride home. I didn't bring my socks or a back up project because H took so long. The real flaw in the plan however was that I didn't bring my US 10 dpns so I could work on the base. If I had those I'd be all set. But then I wasn't expecting to need those today.
In the mean time, I've stopped working on it for now to preserve it for the ride home. Since the wine cozy is so close to being done, I might skip the socks tonight so I can finish the cozy instead.

Willy Nilly

sos08 Alchemy Girlfriend Cable Socks
Originally uploaded by TravelingAnn
Most of the holiday weekend was spent working on the felted wine cozy prototype. I cast on for it Thursday night. Spent Friday on the couch knitting on it and watching the Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi channel. Then finished it off Sunday afternoon. I did take a picture of it, but the picture is at home and I'm at work (lunch break!) and I haven't been able to figure out how to get flickr to allow me to blog two photos in the same post.
Oh, well, duh that's what the url box in blogger is for and the link to this pic html that Flickr provides. Still, it always seems to end up a weird size the few times I've tried it. This is the thumbnail size because when I used one of the other sizes for my first sock the other day it came out huge. I can't seem to win.
Anyway, the wine cozy was making me pretty cranky by the time I finished, namely because it took longer than I expected, I know I won't truly receive a price that will cover my time, and yet I was putting pressure on myself to finish it so I didn't work on any other projects. In the end I think it took a little more than 8 hours.
But then I felted the bugger. Felting is so fun and it ended up so cute (although bigger than I was expecting/planning) that I was all energized and cast on for the version with vertical stripes. It also felted much quicker than I was expecting. Not even one cycle. But I was basing the time and shrinkage on my Felted Ravelry Bag, which was much larger and a different color.

What was I talking about?
Ok, well, since I've buried the lead already, I might as well go with my original story. (I had been composing this blog post in my head and then thought, don't start with this story, get to the point. But after that wine cozy digression, what have I got to loose besides your attention?)
I was so young when I learned to crochet that I don't remember learning. I remember my grandmother teaching me and my younger cousin the double crochet stitch. We were sitting next to her making chains and blocks composed of chains. She was like ok that will be nice and warm but you will never finish anything. And she showed us the double crochet stitch. How I originally learned to hold the hook and chain, couldn't tell you. Double crochet was the only stitch I knew and used for years and I happily started blankets, made clothes for my stuffed animals and scarves for myself.
Then one day, I think I was in college already, my cousin found a pattern for an adorable stuffed cow. I wanted to make it badly enough that I got books from the library and figured out how to crochet in the round and other stitches. After that I was unstoppable and designed several adorable (if I do say so myself) stuffed toys. Finally, in 2001 or 2002 I took the plunge into crocheting sweaters.
My first one was the "Big Easy" from Lion Brand. In some lovely multi-colored blue based Homespun. I finished it in a weekend (and now I can't wear it because it feels squeaky).
Of course making clothes turned me into a yarn snob overnight.
But around the time all this was happening, I cornered my mother-in-law and got her to teach me how to knit.

The opening image
Coming back to the original point of this post, I don't know how much the age at which I learned these crafts has to do with it, but I've found that I follow crochet patterns to the letter and don't deviate at all. But I change knitting patterns willy nilly and sometimes on the fly.
The first sweater I knit was another free Lion Brand one out of Wool-Ease. It was supposed to be a striped crew neck in reverse stockinette stitch with ribbing on the hems. Well, there was a nice cream skein with little flecks of color on sale, so I ditched the stripes. As a new knitter (and without anyone to consult) I misunderstood the ribbing directions and discovered seed stitch. And I worked the sweater in normal stockinette stitch since I hadn't waited all those years to learn to knit to do a sweater in this weird lumpy stitch.
So I guess I was changing knitting patterns to some degree from the word go.
I'm about to unleash this tendency on my poor Alchemy Girlfriend's Cable Socks. My second pair for Summer of Socks 08 and the purple knitting pictured at the top of this post.
The pattern is written for one size at 6.5 sts per inch and I've suspected all along they might be too big, and in deed it looks like that is going to be the case. Which is why I hesitate to buy sock patterns unless they are written for multiple sizes (and actual alternate sizes, not just change your needle size adjustment. I tried that once, the socks are baggy. At least that pattern was free. [Didn't know enough about sock knitting at the time to adjust them down.])
I mean, sure the socks will fit as written, but they are going to be baggy and that will be annoying. Even if I do reserve them for house/bed socks.
Anyway, I worked through the first pattern repeat last night--20 rows--and tried the little bit on. It fits up where the cuff should go ok, but I'm really really certain it will be baggy at the ankle and on my foot. So I busted out the calculator.
My first calculation indicated I needed to ditch around 13 stitches! So from 58 to 45 based on the target gauge and how I like my socks to fit. That was not only ridiculous but would probably make it impossible to maintain the pattern. So I decided to meet it half way and just ditch 6 stitches bringing me down to 52 sts. Which should be a better fit, although not as snug as I usually like.
The easy thing to do would be to drop them out of the back ribbing, but that might pull the design oddly, so I'm thinking I'll ditch 3 from each side over the ankle and go from 2/2 ribbing to 1/1. Since I'm changing the sock anyway, I'm thinking I might change the back ribbing to another cable to disguise the fact that the ribbings don't match. I'll be on a roll at that point, so I'm thinking I might change the called for short row heel to my newly beloved Cuban Heel. Like the short row heel the Cuban Heel shouldn't interrupt the pattern.
Now I just have to chart out the ribbing decreases. Since the sock does fit well at the top, I've decided not to start over from scratch. Of course that will mean laddering the back of the sock down to alter the ribbing to cable. Depending on how fussy that is, I might end up starting over from the cast on.
In the mean time, I brought the felted wine cozy V (for vertical stripe) as my commuter knitting. It's mindless and fast and has to be done. And my lovely sock will be at home knitting. Hey I used to finish a pair of socks in 2 weeks just working on them at home before, why should things be different now?

Hooray Sock Stash!

I've been trying to be good by concentrating on using the yarn I already own rather than buying new yarn. Especially in light of the central air situation.

But a girl can only be strong for so long. I snapped when I was working the other weekend. I was able to rationalize because I had finally invoiced Cynthia for the sock club pattern and had "found money." (I ignored the fact the money could go to other things, such as gas, or the new condenser.)

First I bought this lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway. This skein came into the store shortly after I bought that purple skein (Florentina colorway as it turns out) with the intent of making socks and using the leftovers in combination with the leftover blue I already had. (So buying the purple didn't really count since I needed it to use what I had.)

At the time I said "where was this when I needed it?" The colors are just so happy! But I was strong and didn't get it. However it's been hanging around the store, taunting me, for like a month. After my trip to Las Vegas, which meant I was out of the store for like two weeks, I told myself that if the Mardi Gras was still there then I was meant to have it.

Then I bought this skein of Sockina Cotton by Schoeller and Stahl. It sounds like this yarn came in when I was out of town so a lot of the colors had already been bought. When I first saw it I was excited about it being 55 percent cotton, but none of the colors really grabbed me. There was actually one that was a mix of orange and greens which totally reminded me of my Sol Joy yarn so I definitely couldn't get that one. I think I'm going to have to let go of my desire not to have duplicate colors in my sock yarns. After all, there are only so many color combinations available and if I really intend to fill my life with handknit socks, there is going to be some over lap. (wow, that's a long sentence, our copy editor would have a field day with it.) So the next day I bought this blue and white skein. I figure I should buy cotton sock yarn to encourage the manufacturers to keep making it and this colorway should be good with jeans.

I also bought three skeins of Cascade 220 in what I hope are sophisticated Christmas colors. I've already started what will be a felted wine cozy gift bag thing. It is part of building my knitting empire so right now the financial outlay doesn't count since I might potentially get it back. Since I'm hoping to sell the finished item, despite the fact that there are probably plenty of wine bag patterns available (in fact I'm fairly certain I remember seeing one on Knitty.com) I'm making up the pattern as I go along to avoid any infringement issues. Knitting this is, of course, cutting into my sock knitting time. So it's a good thing I'm not gunning for the next bi-weekly raffle. Really, I probably should have been making the wine cozy last week instead of my socks, but I don't technically have a deadline, so I was slacking.

Ok, speaking of slacking, time to go see if Hubby is making my big weekend breakfast yet.