Finished Sock!

I finished my first sock in over 30 years last night.  I can't remember how long ago I bought the yarn.  As a matter of fact, I didn't even know I had enough yarn to knit a pair of knee socks.  It was a couple years before The Periwinkle Sheep closed in Albany.  It took me a couple months to decide to spend my birthday money on sock yarn and patterns.  In addition to buying four skeins of yarn (in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn in Hawaii and Lake Tahoe, I think) I bought one book and a pattern.  I ended up buying two patterns but I was disenchanted with them.  The design was from the cuff down and made for someone with very skinny legs, unlike mine.  Either that or the designer thought socks need to be very tight to stay up.  So the struggle to create socks to fit me correctly was on.

 (You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the photo.  It's from the web cam since the digital cameras are broken and I haven't been able to buy another.) 


The first part was the toe.  Work was very stressful and I find that affects how well I understand some knitting patterns.  The only one that made sense was the figure 8 toe up.  It looks like I used the seam-free rounded toe by Lynne Ashton.  My first attempt was on New Year's Day and it amused my cats greatly.  It's very tricky to start and I remember dropping the dpns a lot.  I didn't get anywhere with this until I knitted a heart ornament from a pattern I found on Ravelry later on.  The beginning was the same, only the stitches were kept on the two needles and you knit around them for two rows.  I decided I could start my toe that way, and it worked!  I've seen sock patterns recently that incorporate this.

I had the foot knit for a few years.  I'm not sure how many times I've said at the knitting group that I might turn the heel on my sock.  A couple years ago I tried to turn the heel using the wrapped short row heel.  The heel just turned around the same set of stitches.  I'm not sure what I did wrong.  Unfortunately the women in the knitting group don't knit that heel.  I let it sit for a while.  Recently I decided to attempt it again and I used the wrapless short row heel from Lifestyle Toe Up Socks.  There are a few steps in the video that the creator missed.  She should have said to knit the made stitch and that it then becomes an active stitch to be used the next time.  I had to shut off the video and think it through myself.  I think it was a good thing I knit a few simple lace shawls in the meantime.  I managed to make it work out, but I like the way the wrapped short rows look, so I might try that again. 

After struggling with the heel for so long, the leg was a piece of cake.  I used the shaping from the Basic Knee High Toe Up Sock from Simple Stitch Knit on Wordpress.com.  However, I moved the gussets to either side of the sock.  I don't know about other people's calves, but mine are definitely rounded on the side.  Since the shin is relatively flat, it seemed to me it would work better. The only hitch was that I forgot to use a smaller size needle to knit the K 2, P 2 ribbing at the top.  (I read somewhere that this ribbing is stretchier than K 1, P 1.)  Then I used the stretchy bind-off for the top. 

Of course I've tried the sock on.  The foot might be better a little bit shorter, but on the whole it seems to fit great.  I haven't washed the sock yet, so I'm reserving judgment. 

A funny story (at least to me):  Way back I took the foot of the sock to knit at the laundry mat and the attendant told me he had never seen anyone knit a sock before.  This past week I took the almost-finished sock to show him.  This time he said he'd never seen anything like that.  Considering it was a turquoise, green, purple and white striped and zigzagged knee sock, I'd be surprised if he had.

Progress Thus Far

A few weeks ago I finished the red cardinal ornament.  It came out well.  I gave it to my friend and she loved it.

I finished the front on the pullover below.  Because I shortened the v-neck a little, I have to lay the back and the front together to see what length contrast band I really need in the back.  Once I have that, I  can go on to the sleeves.

I'm using different yarn, Park Avenue by Lily Chin.

For contrast color I'm using Great Adirondack Caribou doubled in Blossoms.  It was discontinued by the company and out of all stores online.  Fortunately it was on Ebay.  It looks very nice together.  The original contrast color was a textured  yarn with mohair.  Since I want to wear this top without a shirt underneath sometimes I couldn't use a yarn with mohair.  My knitting friends think the sock yarn will help keep the rest of the sweater from stretching out as well.

I have been struggling with a vest.  I'm knitting it out of a random dyed yarn by Tekapo.  I bought it because of the colors:  teal, royal and lavender.  I had knitted it partway in a different pattern but when I found the Short Length Vest by Mari Lynn Patrick in Knit Simple Magazine, Holiday 2010, I tinked it and started the vest in this.  Because of the variegation I've had to alternate balls of yarn throughout. 

I'm knitting the two fronts together and alternating four balls of yarn because of the pooling.  It was working well before I discovered that I was missing a stitch in width.  I tinked it back to the beginning of the increases and discovered that one front was one stitch short.  I worked in one extra increase on one size, completely forgot about it and confused myself when I started to knit it again.  I tinked it and got a wonderful mess of yarn.  I straightened it out yesterday, started knitting again in group and knit about 3 inches.  The color is pooling just on one side.  *Sigh*  I'm not happy with it and I know what I'm going to do, again.  It feels like this vest will never get done.  Is it any wonder that I'm losing my enthusiasm for yarn dyed in variegation right now?

Right now I'd really like to knit without problems.  Yesterday a friend gave me two beautiful skeins of dark turquoise bulky merino yarn from the Periwinkle Sheep.  I'm trying to make the 220 yards go as far as they can.  I'm going to try to knit the Autumn Leaves Shawl by Susanne Visch.  It might work.  Working from the end gives me as much control as I can have in working this.

Christmas Cardinal Follow-Up

I am still working on the cardinal Christmas ornament.  As I worked on it, other matters came up.  One was the fluid leak under the car and a lengthy trip to the garage.  I was very glad the car could be fixed right away.

I was also trying to memorize three stories to tell.  I can't remember how long ago it was that I tried to do something like this.  I can't memorize a story and follow knitting instructions at the same time.  After telling the stories, I had to work on my mother's Christmas present, the beginning of her genealogy scrapbook.  I couldn't work on that at the same time I was learning stories because it was like another story and I couldn't fit another in my head.  I finished enough of the scrapbook for Christmas and Mom liked it very much.

I encountered a problem with the bird.  I didn't knit a shape that let itself to a  bird-like silhouette.  I had to knit another and change the last several rows to knit or purl 2 together to get a nice, rounded bottom as I saw one knitter on Ravelry make.  This body looked much better.  I sewed it up with the mattress stitch, stuffing it as I went.  I knitted the black mask and sewed that on all right.  When I sewed the wings on, I got them  lop-sided.  I decided to take one off.  Unfortunately in removing it, I cut a stitch in the body!  I managed to darn it and I don't think my friend will notice.  However, the ends on the wing I took off are too short so I have to knit another wing.  At that point I needed a little break from the birdie.  I really would like to finish it this week. 

Cat Sweater

I've decided I'm going to knit a sweater for Molly.  Here she is when she crawled into an unfinished sweater vest to take a nap.

She's always trying to steal her sister's heated cat bed in the winter, and she doesn't have much of an undercoat, so I think she has a problem staying warm in the winter. She might like the sweater.  I've seen that at least a few cats do. 

Most pet sweaters on Ravelry are for dogs.  Chihuahuas and Yorkies are smaller.  (Dogs smaller than my cats have always amused me.)  She's also not proportioned the same.  Although you can tell from her face that she has Siamese ancestry, she certainly does not have the Siamese physique.  She's a full-bodied kitty and her body tapers differently than a healthy dog.

I did find a sweater pattern for her sweater.  It is the The Perfect Fit Dog and Cat Sweater Pattern Generator from Travelling Tree Designs.  I have an extra skein of purple worsted that I can use for it.  I'm not sure if she'll like the idea of pulling a sweater over her head, but that will be faster than trying to button a sweater on a cat trying to get away from the sweater on her.

New Tradition?

Today for Christmas my mother and I watched videos of cats interacting with Christmas trees  Neither one of us have a decorated tree this year and we're both cat lovers.  After watching these vidoes, we realized our cats were relatively good in the past. I don't think my artificial tree is big enough or full-bodied enough to be enticing.

 

In the video below I think Shorty and Kodi get the prize for being the most "helpful."

 

 

This is one of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy, Joy

A little while ago I wrote about knitted birds for Christmas.  A friend of mine especially likes cardinals and I wanted to knit her one.  I even bought the pattern.  However, I was not very happy that it seemed like I had to buy an entire hank of gold yarn to knit a little, bitty gold beak.  Then I noticed a drawing and did some investigation.  Cardinals' beaks are red! I don't have to buy gold yarn.

Best piece of news I've had in a while.  Now all I have to worry about is attaching the eye, without the little white felt circle since the bird obviously doesn't have that either. 

Cat Agility

Several years ago my mother moved into a very nice senior citizens' apartment complex, Bethany Village Apartments.  Unfortunately she's allowed only one cat.  Understandably her cat Susie is a little tubby and a little bored.  I've mentioned cat agility exercises to my mother before, but she doesn't seem interested.  I wonder if someone else would.

Here is a wonderful video demonstrating what cats can do:

I have one cat who goes into crazy zooming mode and runs from one end of the apartment to another and does what I call circuits around the living room. If she ate treats that were good for her, besides catnip, she might enjoy this.

Here's a photo from the web site from International Cat Agility Tournaments with some upscale equipment.  The young man in the video made his own equipment, so it can be low cost.

Here I was just thinking it would be a good thing for high energy or tubby cats who are bored and need something to do.  You know what it's like when a high energy cat is bored. They either bother you for attention, get into something they shouldn't or keep you up at night.  Put the cat through the agility course a couple times and s/he should leave you alone for a while.