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.

Becoming Well Heeled

Saturday was day 2 of Charlene Schurch's visit to Knitting Central. She combined two workshops for us to make an all heel all day extravaganza. Ok, maybe I exaggerate, we didn't get rowdy at all (everyone was too focused on learning and knitting), but we did learn a bunch about heels.
(I believe the pink sock on the far left is just what I had in mind for my Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks. If I remember correctly the stitch used is even one of the ones I had picked out when going through my stitch dictionaries. Of course, in the book it is already translated to in the round. So I must get my hands on the pattern to confirm!)
We started with the Cuban Heel, which Charlene called a "sexy heel" which of course was the name we all had to use the rest of the time. I had not worked it before, but I think I saw the name in a contemporary pattern for stockings and it sounds similar to what the Tsock Tsarina calls the upside down wineglass heel on her Vintage Socks (which are way cool and I would love to make, if I was familiar with the yarn to be sure it wouldn't make me itch and knew the finished sock would actual fit my little foot. But I digress.). Anyway, the sexy heel was very neat and I think I will definitely be using it against my Sol Joy socks when I get around to making them. During the class I did the increases by knitting into the front and back of the stitch just to move along faster, but I think in practice I'll do a Make 1 increase by lifting the bar so I get the nice increase line for definition. (As we went from one heel to the next, it ended up looking like a little puppet mouth. Mine is the pink one on the right. Pam's is the multicolor one on the left.)
Then we worked a short row heel, with which I'm familiar but not fond since I always get holes along the miter line. But it was helpful to review picking up the wraps. When I groused about the holes, she had a chance to dis my Zara again. I actually don't think she was familiar with Zara because she seemed surprised to hear it was 100% wool. But it sounds like her tastes run more toward the rustic yarns, and she even admitted to liking pedestrian yarns. But, again, I was only using the Zara because we wanted a worsted weight or there abouts yarn for the class so you could actually see progress.
We also did a traditional heel flap sock. Of course, there was also discussion of structure and uses and stuff, that is—sadly—starting to fade a bit (unless that's just because I'm on my lunch break again and don't have my class notes or samples with me). Part of the heel flap discussion was on the practicality of continuing the sock design onto a heel flap and when you would want to do that (for clog wearers. I need to find a pair of comfortable clogs. So far all the ones I've tried on just don't cut it.).
I liked that she discussed what other designers have written about as well. She referenced Cat Bordhi's new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, a few times and compared Bordhi's Strong Heel to the Cuban Heel we learned. Although I was a little late to class due to staying up late because of the prom, so I missed a good part of that discussion. And before anyone becomes annoyed, I want to point out she always gave credit where credit was due.
In the afternoon we covered color work on heels. She discussed Fair Isle heels and a variety of ways to do striping. We worked a two color eye of partridge heel, which was stressing some of us out when we realized the pattern came out pink over pink sometimes instead of pink over purple all the time (in my case at least, those were the colors I was using). She pointed out that A) we were using big yarn so it was more obvious, and B) there is a bit of an optical illusion factor where your eyes will see the checkerboard pattern anyway.
We worked a pinstripe heel, which I did on my Yankee's Socks, but I don't remember if the execution was the same. I think the one we did in class was a heel stitch pinstripe so some of the stitches were slipped, where for my socks I did a two color heel working every stitch.
We finished off trying a Fair Isle pattern, which was fun. I'm planning a pair of striped and Fair Isle socks. I was going to do an afterthought bulls eye style heel, but I might have to reconsider and see whether the pattern would fit on the heel nicely.
The class wrapped up with a quick discussion of Elizabeth Zimmerman's fitted arch sole, which is wicked cool looking and I was very excited to try when I realized we'd be learning it. (You can see it on the pink and blue sock second from the left.) But by then it was almost 4 and after a whole day of learning stuff, my little brain was fried. To the point that, despite reading the pattern myself (M1, K1, M1) and having Charlene read it to me, I just couldn't understand why I had a yellow stitch in between my red stitches where it didn't belong. I finally ripped back and handed her my knitting and said "show me!" which I think the others appreciated. The problem, as it turned out, was that I was doing a KF&B increase when I should have been doing a M1 increase. sigh, which goes back to me being tired. The KF&B maintained/increased the stitches that were already there and actually moved me to far along, so my K1 was a yellow stitch. While the M1 increased between the stitches, so the K1 was a red stitch, as it should be. The "click" was almost audible.
We packed up after that and went home. I think I only knitting I did that night was on my Rainbow Swirl Socks. Something relatively mindless. :-) But I must return to that fancy sole sometime soon to test it out.

You'll poke your eye out kid

Actually, the duplicate stitch on my Ravelry ID bag is moving along much faster than I expected. This is about 2 hours of work, one hour on each of two nights. Wow, maybe I'm not doing as well as I thought.
Anyway, I just have to get the rest of the way around the ball and then do the lettering. My two concerns are that the ends will work out as it felts, so I'm trying to leave long ends. And that it will look like heck once it's felted. Some of the columns are coming out nice and dense, but others the white is peeking through. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently, since it's one column to the next in the same session, but I'm afraid the white will show after it's felted. I suppose I'll be able to go over it again with more unfelted black. I wonder if I can just color it in with a Sharpie....
Goals are Good
Or so I hear. In honor of that, and since my knitting has felt a little scattered lately, I've decided that I want to have my Ravelry bag done and felted and my Nell sweater done by the time I have to go to a conference in Las Vegas in June. Then I can take them with me. Hopefully that will keep me focused on those two projects and I'll actually get them done.
Of course one landmine is the conference hotel is the Hilton, where the Star Trek Experience is located. I want to do the rides, but I'm not sure I'll have time. At a minimum I'll eat in Quark's Bar and hit the shop. I have a brilliant idea for a present for Hubby.
Of course all those thoughts of Star Trek led me to think it might be cool to have socks with the emblem of the Klingon Empire on them. (The Star Fleet emblem would be too fiddly with all those little stars.) I don't know if I would to a varigated background with a solid logo, or vice versa, or both solid. I emailed Hubby, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.
With that in mind, I checked Ravelry. No other socks. But someone did a cool felted bag. I sent her a message asking if she'd share the chart she made, so I don't have to figure it out. Her version might be too big for socks, but I won't know until I get my hands on it.
Scattered, but focused
I actually haven't been terrible with my knitting.
I finished the Stars and Stripes sweater a few weeks ago. When it had its office premier Boss Man said I looked like a superhero because I had a big star on my chest. Hadn't thought of that. But people thought it was cute. Now it has to be washed because it has two muddy paw prints on the belly. Gee, I wonder how that happened.
And I finished the Cat's Pajamas Socks over the weekend. We were up at the in laws on Catholic Easter weekend and I had time to just sit and knit. They are lovely. Cynthia said she would consider the pattern for the store, so I just have to work up additional sizes. I have to start designing socks that either have more stretch or can be resized by switching needle size. Oh well.
But she also really liked the pattern stitch in general and wanted me to work it up in a scarf version for the store. I threw some figures out before we went UpState and she was going to work on it over that weekend. I'm working at Knitting Central this weekend, so I'll be able to see what she came up with. That should be easy enough to write up.
So I have been finishing projects, just not the projects already in progress.
Oh, and another Raveler asked about my Yankee's Socks. I took another look at the pattern and it is more comprehensible than I thought. I might run those by Cynthia, too. Of course, the Yankee's logo is a trademark and I wouldn't be able to sell it, so it would have to be something funky like people buy the base sock pattern and get the logo as a gift.
Ok, there is duplicate stitching to be done and Hubby is going to start thinking about dinner soon.
The blog is a vicious circle. I don't update often because it takes so long since I write such long posts. But I write long posts because I don't write often. I have to learn to do sudden impact entries!

Green Eyed Monster

I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment. I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment.
At the beginning of the year I heard about a call for submission for a sock book using handpainted yarn. So I sent off two ideas. The deadline was Jan 31 and I haven't heard anything.
But last night I found out someone I know had a pattern accepted. While I haven't been officially rejected, I have to think it's a bad sign.
I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment.
I even had to run out and check the mail just to be sure (bunch of stupid bills). I haven't congratulated her, yet, as I don't think I could actually muster any sincerity. But I'm happy for her. Really.
I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment.
Still, I have to wonder...were my patterns not unique or interesting enough? Should I not have used Koigu for the swatches? Were my explanations not eloquent enough? I may never know.
Then I remind myself, technically I have stuff published all the time, just not patterns. Because, really, my ambition when I was younger was to be a writer--which I am--not a knit or crochet designer--which I apparently am not.
I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment.
Ah well, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. And there is that other Raveler who asked for the pattern for the Yankees Socks I made for Hubby. And a random person favored those on Flickr as well.
And Samson really enjoyed wrecking the Guinness I made him and the pups are still playing with the fabric (skin?).
I knit and crochet for my own enjoyment.
So I should get over myself already, I don't do this to build an empire.
Although it doesn't bode well for the top down mitts I submitted to a different book. That deadline was Feb 14. Is it too soon to worry?