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Glass

All right. My mitt pattern has been going like gangbusters which makes me very happy. My Rhinebeck budget thanks you all sincerely, and would you all please put pictures up in Ravelry already so I can see what everyone’s come up with? Thank you.

In the meantime, I have finished a pair of socks that owe their existence to the crazy Battlestar Galactica Viper Pilot socks of doom. Viper Pilots were a crash course on twisted stitches and complicated cables, and I learned from them that I enjoy gnarly charts and watching the cables grow off the needles. So I printed out the pattern and dove in.

JADE SLIPPERS SOCKS
Glass Slippers Socks
Pattern: Glass Slippers, by Caitlin Meyer, available in the Fall 2009 issue of Knotions
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Good Luck Jade
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: Oh boy. Let me state this first: This is an amazingly beautiful pattern. The concept is clever and the finished socks are a delight to wear. I enjoyed the vast majority of the knitting of these socks. And these socks got to do quite a bit of traveling. In addition to attending the Steuben Parade, they met Paula Deen:

Traveling Sock Meets Paula Deen

(She’s in the front, under the Book Revue sign, in lavender. Yes, it was very crowded. Yes, I took advantage of the fierce-looking DPNS to get myself some breathing space. Knitting ninja, that’s me.) Anyway! I have some pretty cultured footwear.

But. Somewhere along the line something happened to this patten and got things twisted around, and when you’re dealing with this many cables, extra twists are really not good news.

The biggest problem I encountered was the mislabeling of Charts A and B, which left me utterly bewildered for quite some time while knitting the first sock. It’s a pretty predictable cable, so once I figured out that I hadn’t done anything wrong, I just went on ahead and did what the cables told me they wanted to do, and they led me right into the foot chart like they were supposed to. The second time I kept an eye on the charts and if you use B where it said A and A where it said B it worked out just right. The foot chart, happily was just fine.

Glass Slippers Socks

I also found the given instructions for the heel chart to be curiously short — so I just went ahead and did my usual heel flap of 36 rows, instead of the 20 called for. And on a more personal-quirk level, I found the charts in general difficult to read on my hard copy. Personally, I find it a lot easier on the eyes if things like cables and decreases that stretch over more then one cell don’t have the cell border dividing them in half; sadly, these charts didn’t do that, and I had a really difficult time getting comfortable with them.

The toes on these socks were specifically written to not need grafting, but I went ahead and grafted them anyway. I enjoy a good grafted toe, and I am that odd duck knitter who actually enjoys the act of grafting.

I’m not sure if the issues I had with this pattern are things that tech editing would have helped with, or things got turned around in preparing it for the web, or what the story is. I do know Knotions had already corrected a few errors before I printed out the pattern, but never marked them as errata. (I was a little surprised by that, to be honest.) But the personal lesson I’m taking away from these socks, aside from extra practice in some hard-core cabling, is that I need to give patterns a much closer-read over before I start. Encountering things like this in mid-cable is really not the best time.

And one more personal quirk, if I might? I really wish Knotions would combine everything for printing, instead of making the directions and charts two separate documents, especially when the header information prints out on each one.

Glass Slippers Socks

So, having gotten all that out of the way, I think these socks are worth a knit if you’re into cables, because they look just spectacular, don’t they? You should just be prepared to double-check that you are working off the right chart, and read carefully, so you don’t end up like me, sitting on a friend’s couch at two in the morning, drinking wine like a fish in the hopes that maybe it will make you understand where you screwed up, while your friend laughs at you, and her dogs try to shed on your yarn. (It’s how dogs help.) Trust me, it’s not a pretty picture. I go through these things so you don’t have to.

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Heu heu heu!

Yesterday my mom and I took the train into the city to watch the Steuben Day Parade. (It’s named for Baron von Steuben, a German general who worked with Washington during the Revolutionary War, so they have adopted his name for the celebration of German heritage in the States.) We saw lots of stuff:


Steuben Photomosaic

It was a perfect September day, sunny and cool, and the Traveling Sock was very happy to attend the Oktoberfest in Central Park afterwards.

Traveling Sock Goes To Oktoberfest

There really isn’t much better than a good Oktoberfest, especially when it’s somewhere as lovely as Central Park. Tips for a good party: order your beer by the pitcher so you spend less time on line and more time drinking, and make sure you know all the words to “Ein Prosit.” (It’s very easy to learn.) Find a folk band to sit next to, and bonus points if they’re in lederhosen. Of course, if you’re in your own lederhosen or Tracht, well then you don’t need any advice from me!

It’s definitely fall now, and I couldn’t be more pleased about that.

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Crisis averted

Um. I owe an apology to those of you reading this on RSS readers, because I just spammed you over the last hour. Please ignore the repeat posts? Thanks. I know better than to think I will avoid mocking.

Long story short: I hit a wrong button by mistake. I deleted the archive. I was not thinking clearly and took a few minutes (a lot of minutes) to figure out that there was a button that would fix it. I hit the fix-it button.

All better now. I will stop messing with the technical things, I promise.

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Autumnal

Autumn’s my favorite time of year, and as the summer ends my anticipation grows, breaking out my orange and maroon clothes to get into the mood and checking the sugar maple trees by my house multiple times a day to catch the first leaves turning.

So none of you will be surprised to learn that autumn’s started to infect my knitting. I am very pleased to present my first design, the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts.

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

Pattern: October Leaves Fingerless Mitts, available for sale on Ravelry
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingeringweight in Pumpkin (which color they are naturally discontinuing), approx. 200 yards (1 skein)
Needles: US1/2.25mm

I love projects with leaf motifs, and over the summer the idea of a leafy thumb gusset leapt into my head and would not go away. I tried to ignore it, I tried to knit lace and socks instead, but in the end I had to sit down and start drawing charts. It took some trial and error (as well as some excellent advice on cable placement from my sister) before I replicated what I’d initially envisioned, but by George I think I’ve got it!

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

Huge thank-yous to Melissa and Kel for test-knitting, and Glenna for looking everything over. I’m still new to this designing game so I want to make sure I get it right. Melissa also let me take advantage of her spectacular photography skills (all the pictures in this entry are hers), which I’m very excited about — it’s hard to take pictures of your own hands. Try it sometime. Thanks to her I have shots far more spectacular than anything I could get on my own. (She had me model her finished socks in return. It’s surprisingly tricky to stand that still!)

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

You can find the pattern for the October Leaves Mitts for sale on Ravelry, where I will also eagerly be checking to see who else knits it and what yarns they pick. And if you’d like to see my Mitts in person, find me at Rhinebeck, where I will most certainly have them on in honor of the season!

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Vintage

My parents have a fondness for antiquing. They like to go poke around shops and shows for treasures. My mother hunts for dishes and silver (she has two collections she is working on finishing, piece by piece) and my father just looks for whatever catches his eye.

Well. I must have trained him well. They came home today from two days spent enjoying the Brimfield Antique Show with this:

Antique Show Treasure Trove

That’s three cones of various amounts of wool, eight skeins of wool, two of tussah silk (labeled for weaving, actually), three of “irish lace”, and two and change of a cotton/linen blend.

All that for two dollars.

I know. My dad’s awesome, isn’t he? I have already determined that he shall receive a Christmas present constructed from some of this haul.

Let’s get some close ups:

Antique Show Treasure TroveAntique Show Treasure Trove
Antique Show Treasure TroveAntique Show Treasure Trove

And tucked in with all of this was this label, ripped of what appeared to be butcher paper — maybe wrapping from a package?
Antique Show Treasure Trove

It’s a little clue about this stash — perhaps this Mrs. Olmstead was the owner? Or maybe the owner bought something from her. There’s really no way to tell, but it’s so intriguing to wonder.

Everything smells musty, like the cardboard box it came in, and there’s a faint whiff of mothballs to it, so my first order of business is going to be reskeining everything in order to give it a proper soak. After it’s all clean and ready to move in with the rest of my stash (which is starting to outgrow its home) then we can truly get down to business.

When I told my dad that I was going to blog his find and it would make him the most popular father-of-a-knitter ever, he laughed. I don’t think he quite believed me.

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August Wrap Up

August was a slow month. I had lots of things on the needles, and then a ridiculous heat wave hit and all I wanted to do was move to the Yukon. (Summer is colder in the Yukon; you can still knit.) Since I am writing this post instead, you may safely assume I am still here.

SWALLOWTAIL SHAWL
Swallowtail
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Pagoda, 1 skein
Needles: US4/3.5 mm
The Swallowtail is written up here.

FLOWER POWER SOCKS

Pattern: Thuja socks by Bobby Ziegler
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Flower Power, a destash from a friend
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Story of the socks is here.

And now we’re into September. I have a sweater on the needles, and some socks that are so beautiful I can hardly stand it, and there’s yarn coming my way that will be turned into Christmas presents. And, I am making a valiant effort at keeping my excitement over the upcoming fiber festival season down to manageable levels. It might not be an entirely successful effort, but it’s an attempt. I think that should absolutely count, right?

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Largesse

My friends have been incredibly generous lately. There was that birthday goodness, including the surprise Wollmeise, and plans are afoot to attend Rhinebeck and 90% set to check out Vermont’s sheep & wool festival too! But I had another delightful surprise yesterday when I went to my knit night:

Sock Swag

Rebecca planned wisely and went to Sock Summit at the beginning of August. (I won’t tell you how much yarn she brought home, but let’s just say it’s enough to make even my jaw drop in envy.) She offered to play personal shopper for those of us who weren’t attending. Rebecca has impeccable taste, so when I asked her if she would bring me back something, I told her to let her imagination run wild.

I couldn’t be more tickled. My entire knit group has picked up on my affection for greens (not surprisingly, the socks I cast on last night? Green) and Rebecca came back with some lovely yellow-green yarn from Holiday Yarns that I think really wants to be something with a leaf motif. (It’s actually called Gecko, but I don’t care. It’s a leafy color.) And that bag is full of FIBER.

IMG_6945

It’s a spinning sampler! from A Verb For Keeping Warm, which is possibly the most charmingly named business ever to engage in knitterly commerce. The bag is labeled simply “exotics.” I have no idea (some guesses, though) of what any of these are, but every one is soft and inviting in a different way. I’m getting better and better with my little drop spindles, enough so that I think it rates a post one of these days, so this is a very welcome addition indeed to my fledgling fiber stash.

I’m still sad that I wasn’t able to go to Sock Summit, but between the news that there’s going to be another one (shh still sekrit apparently) and this delightful Summit Stash, I think I will bear up under the disappointment quite well, thank you. And thanks, Rebecca, for hauling these beauties cross-country for me!

And — it’s September now and the air in the last few days has become crisp and cool and all the yarn that’s languished in the heat of August suddenly looks inviting again. Autumn is my favorite time of year and it’s finally on its way!