Knitting Content!

It's been a loooooong time since I published any knitting content on the blog. I scrolled back looking for anything knitting related, and the blog is all dogs, dogs, dogs. Humans and geese are interspersed here and there, but it's mostly dogs. No apologies for all-dogs-all-the-time, but knitting content is long overdue.

So, what have I been knitting? Socks. 95% of my knitting is socks. Pretty boring, I admit, so I'm lumping all of the socks that I finished over the weekend into one photo.


Nine pair! Count 'em...nine pair! Of course, when I say I "finished" them over the weekend, it just means I finally got around to tackling the basket where I throw all of the socks that are done except for the weaving in of all of the loose ends. Can you tell that weaving ends is not my favorite part of sock knitting? Detailed information will be on my projects page on Ravelry in the near future, for all who care.

So, if 95% of my knitting has been socks, what about the other 5%? Over the winter I worked on Wendy Johnson's Order to Chaos Shawl. Big project. Scary-big for someone who has never attempted a lace project that large, but I kept plugging along, and I am so happy with the results. The most fun had to be the blocking. OK, it was a tiny bit tedious, but what a transformation! Here is a shot of it before pinning:


And here is a shot after pinning!


What a difference, right? I should have included tape measures in the photos, 'cause this sucker is huge! Here a detail shot of the center. That neat little hole in the center makes me so happy!

Detail shot of the edging. So cool!

Here is a shot of it draped over a bench at work.


I did the blocking on the floor of the museum. I spread a tablecloth out over the carpet, dampened the shawl, and stretched and pinned the heck out of that sucker. I left it like that for a few days. This was when we were closed to visitors, of course. Although I guess I could have just put up barriers and labeled the whole thing as an art installation... Just a thought...

I know some of you might be wondering why I didn't do the blocking at home. Well, there are three certain somebodies at home who would LOVE to be helpers in blocking a lace shawl, but that kind of help I don't need. I can just picture these little hooligans walking all over the lace, digging at the knitting, eating the pins...horrors! I certainly wouldn't point fingers or name names, you understand...



Then again, maybe I would.

Making a list...checking things off.

It is now 4:00pm...do you know where your day went? Ever notice how quickly a day goes by when you're off, and how sloooooowly it goes by when you're at work? Why is that? I had big plans for getting lots of stuff done today, but haven't even made it through half of my list.

One thing on my list was to upload snow pictures from the camera. Here is a shot of the back deck last Sunday morning.
This is my sister using the snow thrower. See that big lump of snow in the left of the picture? That's my car. Completely covered with snow. It's a Big Ol' Snowman of a Prius!

There hasn't been much melting, since the temps have been quite chilly all week. It is supposed to be in the 40s this weekend, so here's hoping for lots of melting!

Another thing on my to-do list was to finish up the Brown Bag Sock Yarn choices. I never did November or December, so I tried to talk Emma into choosing which yarn should go with which month.
Emma says "Who cares? There are only two to choose from, and you're going to knit both of them, so what does it matter?" I have to admit there is a certain amount of logic in her argument, but it would still have been nice of her to play along. I finally gave up and unwrapped both skeins, and look at the colors!!!

Red and green, I kid you not! How funny that the last two skeins of sock yarn are Christmas colors! I'll have to think of something special to knit with them, seeing as I am so full of Christmas spirit this year, thanks to Sue. Notice the tree? Yes, I did put up a tree this year. No ornaments, yet, but I think the sock yarn looks pretty good on it. Maybe I'll just decorate it with sock yarn!

Socks Experiment

People have often asked me how long a pair of hand knit socks will last. I've always said I have no idea. Now I know! Back in March of 2007 (while we were all going through a rough time during sweet Melanie's final weeks of life), I made this pair of Jaywalkers as a little experiment.

Back then, there was some discussion at the online sock knitting forum www.socknitters.com regarding using reinforcing thread in the heels and toes of your socks. I mentioned that I use sewing thread to kind of beef up the heels and toes. One of the knitters mentioned that she heard that sewing thread can actually increase the wear and tear on the socks because of the rubbing of the thread against the yarn.

In the interest of scientific experimentation, I knit up this pair of socks using Grumperina's Jaywalker pattern and Knit Picks' Simple Stripes yarn and included plain old cotton-wrapped polyester sewing thread reinforcing the heel and toe of one sock, and one sock without. I've been wearing these socks, summer and winter (my feet are always cold!) for 33 months now, waiting and waiting and waiting for a hole to develop. While I was folding laundry this weekend, guess what I found? A hole! Jackpot!!!
On closer examination, you can see that this hole developed non-reinforced sock, so I guess the thread helped! For this pair, anyway. In the interest of full disclosure, though, I should add that the reinforced sock shows wear, also.
Maybe I should darn the hole and continue to wear the socks so I could keep track of how many additional wearings it takes until a hole develops in the reinforced sock!

Maybe I should continue to knit every pair of socks with reinforcing thread in one sock only and track the wear of socks made with different yarn content or types of reinforcing thread.

Maybe I should have my findings published in the Journal of Sock Knitting and earn a Nobel Peace Prize in Sock Knitting! If either existed, that is.

Maybe I should get a life...

Knitting Catch-Up

It's been a loooong time since I did a knitting post, so tonight is all about catching up. All links below are to Ravelry sites, so if you want more information and aren't on Ravelry, leave me a comment and I'll find a non-Ravelry link.

A couple people have asked about the doggie hat in my last post, and I finished it today so here it is. First, here is a shot of it all finished except for the final point.


And here it is in all its glory. Well, maybe not "in all its glory" - it's really just sitting on a table at work, but it'll look great on top of a Christmas tree this year!


Pattern: Celestine by Norah Gaughan.

Next up, socks, socks, and more socks.


Pattern: Dead Simple Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson of WendyKnits

Pattern: On Hold socks by Wendy Johnson, again.

Pattern: Nanners socks by Wendy again.

Pattern: Diamond Gansey socks by Wendy, yet again.

Pattern: Lacy Ribs socks, by guess who...Wendy Johnson again! After mom gave me Wendy's "Socks from the Toe Up" book for my birthday, I can't stop knitting toe-up socks. I have three more pair on the needles. I'm hooked!

Dogs on Thursday

Thursday already? Really? It's not possible. I'm off from work this week, and it's amazing how quickly the days go by when you're on vacation.

Not that it's a real vacation vacation. So far we have spent a couple of mornings covering up some old fake tile in the bathroom with wainscoting. I say "fake" tile, because the floor and up to about 4' on the walls is concrete that they scored to give it a tile-like look. Ugh. This is the bathroom in the old part of the house, circa 1915. I guess that was the thing to do back then? Who knows? If we ever get a tornado in southern New Jersey, we're safe. That bathroom is like a concrete bunker.

We've also had to have the repair man out to fix the door on the dishwasher earlier this week. Somehow, the door broke, and when you would go to open the dishwasher, you had to brace yourself so the door didn't rip your arm right out of its socket. Luckily, it was still under warranty. Still, I wish I knew how the door broke. Hey, wait, you don't think it could have been this?

No. No, certainly not.

Anyway, today we are going out to Lancaster County, PA with mom and dad, so I'm posting this Dogs on Thursday post extra early in the morning. Since it is almost August, you know what that means... Time for the dogs to choose another Brown Bag Sock Yarn! Yippee! You can see how excited they are about it from this video:



Maybe they're not really all that excited. How hard is it to show a little enthusiasm? Seriously, I don't ask much from these dogs, the least they can do is pick some darn sock yarn once a month!

Just kidding! The love they give me every day is more than I could ever ask for, and certainly more than I deserve.

FYI, here is August's sock yarn.


Love it!

Knitting, finally!

I was scrolling back to see how long it's been since I posted a finished pair of socks, and it was back in April. Some knitting blog, right? So this is a catch-up post. (The links are to Ravelry, and if you are a knitter or crocheter, and haven't signed up for Ravelry yet, what's keeping you???)

First the Bavarian Cable Socks from the book "Socks from the Toe Up" by Wendy Johnson.


I used Judy's Magic Cast On for the first time, and it truly is magic. Love it, love it, love it. This pattern was a lot of fun, and very easy to memorize. I had a bit of trouble with the bind-off, but after a couple of tries, it's great.

Next up is Lacy Ribs socks, also from the book "Socks from the Toe Up" by Wendy Johnson. Seeing a pattern here? Mom gave me Wendy's book for my birthday last month, and I love it. I highly recommend it for all sock knitters, even die hard top down sock knitters like I was.

I joined the SFTTU KAL (Socks From The Toe Up Knit Along) on Ravelry, and each month you have a choice of two of Wendy's patterns to knit, one from her book, and one free pattern from her website. If you get the socks finished within the given time frame, you are entered into a prize drawing, and who can resist a prize drawing? Lacy Ribs is the June pattern from Wendy's book, and the June pattern from Wendy's website is Sprucey Lucy.

So the next pair of socks is...you guessed it...Sprucey Lucy!

I wasn't sure if I would get these finished by the end of the month, but it helped that I had them with me this past week while mom was having MOHS surgery for a large area of cancer on her face. Fortunately they got it all, but not until they did five excisions. We were there for ten hours, so I got a lot of knitting done! Mom is doing great...a little swollen, actually a lot swollen...but we are all so happy that the cancer is gone.

Weekend Knitting

Not much has been going on around Britknitterville, other than an afternoon of fishing off of the beach at Fortescue, and another Brittany transport. Details and pictures of the transport will be coming on this week's post for Dogs on Thursday. As far as the fishing goes, nothing was caught, not even a bite! Chalk one up for the fishes!!!

All of that has added up to quite a bit of knitting time this weekend, so I have another pair of finished socks:

These are made from the April yarn that Emma selected from the Brown Bag Sock Yarn stash. The pattern is Charade, again, and I'm still loving it. I really like how you can see the stitch definition when it's make from a solid color of yarn.
I've also been swatching / experimenting with some sock yarn, but not for socks. :gasp: Sock yarn, but no socks?

Yep. Chan mentioned a Tofutsies Tee that she would like to make, so I followed her link, and I love it! I just might make myself a sweater! Woo Hoo - my first sweater! I even ordered the yarn for it, so either I'll be making myself a sweater or I'll be making a whole lot of socks out of Plymouth Sockotta sock yarn. Not Tofutsie's? Nope. (Don't get me started on my opinion of Tofutsies.) My sweater, my choice of yarn.

Knitting Report

Yes, there has been knitting around here. Although my wrist/hand wasn't fractured, it still hurts to pick up anything heavy, but knitting is OK, finally. I've been making up for lost knitting time with, what else, socks. Surprise, surprise!

These are the March Brown Bag Sock Club socks. The yarn is Opal, and the pattern is Charade.


Love that pattern. It's so easy to knit - it's like knitting on auto-pilot. These next socks I had started in my plain-old-go-to sock pattern, but ripped them out and started over in the Charade pattern. I couldn't help myself. I love it.

In case anyone is counting, that's four pair in a row in that pattern. Some might say I'm stuck in a rut, but I prefer to think of it as perfecting my skills in this particular pattern. Nope, that isn't it. I'm stuck in a rut, but I'm happy here, so who cares.

Finally, here are some premie hats knit for Nichole's little grand-niece Emma's NICU. The pattern is Mock Cable and Eyelet Rib.

I hope you come home soon, little Emma!

It's April 1st...

...and you know what that means. Time to choose another bag from the Brown Bag Sock Yarn stash! In the interest of fairness, I asked Emma to kindly take a back seat this month, as she got to choose January, February and March's bags. She graciously allowed Cooper and Tara to inspect the bags...



...but quickly nudged Cooper aside and took over.

Emma says "They were too slow! I had to help out!"

Just to make sure her bag would be this month's choice, she tore into that bag like a terrier with a pork chop.

I give you April's Brown Bag Sock Yarn choice: Knit Picks' Risata in Woodland Sage. Oooohh, pretty!

In case anyone is keeping track, no, I haven't finished March's sock yarn selection. I'm working on it...

In other news, I have been tagged by Steph from Not Just a Knitwit. Steph is a new blogger so go on over and check out her scrapbooking\papercrafting and knitting. You've got to see the cute little labels she made for chocolates - adorable!

Anyway, here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Share 7 things people may not know about you.
3. Tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged.

So, here are my Seven Things:

1. My first car was a 1967 Mercury Cougar, and I loved it. It was red with a white roof. I had to sell it when I needed a root canal.
2. Emma sleeps in the bed with me, and in the winter she is under the covers.
3. Even before I was a vegetarian, I would rarely order meat from a restaurant.
4. Spring is my favorite season, but April is my least favorite month.
5. My high school reunion committee has me listed as "missing" and that's the way I like it.
6. I have to be medicated to get on an airplane. Heavily medicated.
7. I have never been overseas (see #6) but as soon as they build a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean, I am going to pack the dogs in the car and head to the United Kingdom!

There you have it! If you're still reading this post, consider yourself tagged!

Choosing March's Brown Bag Sock Yarn

Emma kindly offered to choose this month's selection from the Brown Bag Sock Yarn grab basket. In an effort to, well, have something to write about for this week's Dogs on Thursday post, I decided to document the process in photos.

1. Emma makes an initial overview of the offerings. This process is aided by Tara. Cooper, however, is a firm believer that "discretion is the better part of valor," decides that he is not needed in this process, and should leave it up to the girls.


2. Emma makes her initial selection.


3. Emma goes back to the basket, burrowing to the bottom to make sure she has reviewed each and every bag.


4. She then turns her full attention to "the chosen one" and rips into it like a monkey with a banana. 5. There is a brief period of "buyers remorse," in which she turns back to the basket and tries to get another bag out of the basket before it is swooped up by the big meanie (a.k.a. Mommy).

6. And here you have it - March's selection for the Brown Bag Sock Club, courtesy of Emma.

* no skeins of sock yarn were harmed in the making of this blog post *

More Bessie, and finally some knitting!

First, the boring stuff - knitting. This is the Hearts and Stars Blanket from the book "Adorable Knits for Tots" by Zoe Mellor. (Ravelry link) It was an easy knit, but you have to keep referring to the chart for almost every row, so not a "mindless" knit. It's for a woman at work who is having her first baby--due next month.

A detail shot:

And a pair of socks. This was the first time I used this pattern, and I think I'm in love! The pattern is Charade by Sandra Park of the "I May Be Knitting A Ranch House" blog. (Another Ravelry link...if you're not already on Ravelry, what's keeping you?)
It's just a two row repeat, so it definitely qualifies as a mindless knit. For this pair, I went by the instructions as written, but I'll made a few modifications next time. When will that be? I already have two more socks in this pattern on the needles! Love this pattern---really, really love it!

Now, for everyone who hung in there through talk of baby blankets and socks, Here are some pictures of Mom and Dad's new kitty, Miss Bessie. It's been a long time since there has been a kitten in the family, and you forget how adorable they are, and how much energy they have!

Case in point - do you see that barrier in this picture?
Dad made that so that Bessie would be confined to the kitchen until she learned how to use the litter pan. Yes, I know that cats automatically just know where they should do their business, but try telling Dad... He wanted to make extra certain that she would know where she was supposed to attend to any and all bodily functions, so he even put her name on the litter box.Gotta love him, right? Anyway, Dad made a very nice barrier to span the extra-long doorway, and even put a nifty handle on it to make it easier to move around. It's, I don't know, a foot tall? Maybe 18 inches? I tried to gently suggest that perhaps an energetic kitten might not be confined by this barrier. I might have gone so far as to say "there ain't no freakin' way" and rolled on the floor laughing. Sure enough, the next day Bessie was over that thing like it wasn't even there.Bessie says "Daddy, next time try to make something a little more challenging for me to climb."

Pleading the Fifth

For this week's Dogs on Thursday post, I have one question. Whooo Diidd Thiiiisssss???????

I give you Exhibit A:

The object in question is one sock, containing the perfect shade of brown to go with a pair of pants owned by the wearer of the sock. Some may look on this item as merely a garment to cover the foot, but closer inspection reveals that this is a hand-knit sock in a very pleasing combination of colors. It was knit on size 0 (2mm) double pointed needles, 80 stitches to a round, and the heel is formed using Balbriggan Heel shaping technique as seen in the "St. Peter Port Stripes" (Ravelry link) pattern from Nancy Bush's excellent volume entitled "Folk Socks".

A witness states that Exhibit A was whole and in good condition when it was placed in the clothes hamper at precisely 6:35 am on Wednesday, February 11, 2009. This same witness next saw this item as she was preparing to leave her domicile (a.k.a. Britknitterville) to go to her place of employment at 7:45 am on the same day. At that time, Exhibit A was no longer in the hamper, but was found on top of a doggie bed known to be frequented by Miss Tara Britknitter, a member of the Britknitterville household.

It is with great regret that we report that Exhibit A was found with a large hole in the heel, rendering it unusable for its intended purpose as a foot covering. Our CSI team reports that the hole was made by the gnashing of teeth. The presence of a multitude of doggie saliva further corroborates this theory. We do not wish to be indelicate, but the team suggests that the missing fabric will likely...umm..."make an appearance" in the backyard within 24 hours, if you know what we mean.

The three doggie residents of Britknitterville were immediately taken into custody for questioning. Miss Emma Britknitter (a.k.a. Emmy McMemmy, Mimi, Lickey-Face-Girl) and Mr. Cooper Britknitter (a.k.a. Cooper No, Cooper Get Down, Cooper Drop It) both state that they never saw Exhibit A, they have no knowledge of Exhibit A, and "What's an Exhibit A"?

However, when questioning Ms. Tara Britknitter (a.k.a. Tattoo, Tatty McTatters, Rat-a-tat-tat) she merely invoked the fifth amendment by stating, "On advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. Constitution".
Until such a time as the culprit of this heinous act has been found and brought to justice, there will be no more watching the Peanut Corporation of America hearings on MSNBC.