Batty's Adventures in Spooky Knitting

The Good, The Bad, and The...

2012-01-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

Have you ever bought cheap yarn that looked OK in the skein? Sure you have! I went to Jawoll in Germany, a discount store with all sorts of bobs and ends, from groceries to... well, yarn. And I saw this. Blues, greens, purples, burgundies... looks OK, right? It was cheap. It was self-striping. How bad could it be?

There are questions to which we do not really want to find out the answer. I cast on a pair of Stripe Tease for the SKA unusual construction challenge. I knit. I frogged. Tip: follow the pattern exactly as written, don't try to think. If you try to think for yourself, you'll mess up. Take my word for it, I did.
Anyhow... yes, I'm procrastinating showing you the next picture. Because it's downright pathetic, my poor, poor ugly sock. I hope it looks better when it's finished, because right now... well, see for yourselves.

The combination of unusual construction and unfortunate yarn choice is making the poor sock look like it's been massacred. So let's move on to happier things, like Blathnat.
Koigu KPM in a happy green, pretty lace, it's going well. I can still knit pretty socks! I sure need that reminder.

And yet again, I cast on for the Geodesic Cardigan. Let's hope it works this time around. The stockinette is curling in spite of the garter stitch edges. Maybe a good blocking will help.

I am off to work on my poor misshapen socks. Hope springs eternal. Maybe my ugly ducklings will turn into a beautiful swan...

Startitis

2012-01-13T03:42:00.001-08:00

I have heard much about startitis, the almost pathological urge to cast on new projects, but until the last couple of days, I had never experienced it for myself. Now, I have a bad case of it.
Usually, swatching is a barrier to entry when it comes to sweater knitting. I don't want to do it. The start of a new project is my least favorite part of knitting, if you'll believe it. So you can imagine my surprise when I started swatching. Big swatches, too, not just a scanty inch to figure out if my gauge is anywhere in the ballpark. No, 4+ inches. For multiple projects. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to swatch for another project before work now.

Socks and... Not Socks!

2012-01-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

This is going to be an interesting year in knitting. I have once again signed up for Cookie A's sock club, the rationale being that having some new yarn show up every two months will keep me from buying more at the yarn store. You know how it is. Stash yarn is nice, but every once in a while, you need something new and exciting to knit with.

These were made from stash yarn. See, I am knitting down stash. My feet are small and my ankles are skinny, so I have almost half a skein of the Meilenweit sock yarn left -- I see leftover socks in my future. But these are a simple 2x2 rib, 60 stitches, US 0 needles. Everyday socks that don't need to be washed too carefully because they're superwash.

You may or may not know that I signed up for 11 sweaters in 2011 and finished exactly 0. So I did the only logical thing: signed up to do 12 in 2012. Makes sense, right? Only this time, I want to at least get close. This is a (somewhat blurry) progress pic of my first sweater. It's done except for the sleeves.

That doesn't mean I'm not knitting socks, though. I have a good 5 or 6 sock projects in various states of completion. These are Hex socks, part of the October patterns from Cookie's club. The yarn is String Theory Caper. Love the colors, the stitch definition, the floofy softness. Beautiful yarn.

I have a business trip coming up and expect to have quite a bit of knitting time, so stay tuned for more knitting. Maybe by then blogger will have fixed whatever issue it is that's keeping me from leaving comments on people's blogs. I know I'm not the only one who's knitting away furiously.

Here We Are

2012-01-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

2012. A couple of days in, right after the resolutions. Time to check in and see how it's g oing!

So far, so good. I'm knitting on... 5 pairs of socks? Maybe 6? I have a sock WIP for every occasion. The body of my current sweater project is almost done, and I have two shawls that need finishing -- as in, substantial knitting, not just washing and blocking.
The stash is shrinking. Trouble is, most of these don't come from my bedroom stash, which is supposed to shrink. They're coming from main stash.

It's a dilemma: knit what I want to knit even if it comes from main stash? Or stick with knitting from the bedroom stash even if it's not giving me that "want to knit this right now" feeling? Not sure.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, see you on the other side! Let's hope 2012 is a great one. I know so many people who have had a tough time of it in 2011; for us, it was an OK year, a year of healing and picking ourselves back up and being able to appreciate life again. 2011 is definitely going out on a better note than 2010 -- last year at this time, I was in the ER with an IV in my arm. This year, I have a non-working stovetop that emits carbon monoxide when it's on but does no harm when off. In the grand scheme of things, a non-working stove is very minor. A stove can be fixed or replaced more easily than many things in life.

I'm wishing all of you a wonderful 2012.

Geekery and Resolutions

2011-12-30T05:02:00.000-08:00

Geeky baking! Yay! I bought cookie cutters for... ninjabread men. They kick, they punch, they taste really good. If I ever find myself with extra time on my hands or some kids to entertain, I'm going to build them a gingerbread dojo. That would be fun.

But it's closer to New Year's Eve than Christmas, so it's time to review last year's resolutions. There were only 3:

Zero tolerance yarn diet: went well, except for the Swan Island worsted squishiness that happened yesterday. 2 skeins, soft and squishy. And I had to get some yarn from Sanguine Gryphon before they went out of business. Oops. Almost made it...
Have at least one project in thicker yarn going at all times: well, not at all times, but I've knit several non-sock projects in thicker yarn. I can do better, though.
Colorwork: Tried, the sock didn't fit. Waaaay too tight to make it over my foot. I'll try again.

So, all in all, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse (see yarn diet).

This year's resolution is going to be pretty darn straightforward -- and it's going to be just a single one, though it combines two elements:

Don't buy yarn or fiber and knit enough to get all the freaking yarn out of the bedroom. It's a bedroom, not a secondary stash room. Get the yarn out!

That's it, really. Should be feasible, right?

Racing the Clock

2011-12-27T05:15:00.001-08:00

With only a few days left until 2012, I am trying to get some WIPs out of the way. My wrist was giving me trouble, but now that it's better, I'm knitting away (responsibly, I assure you). And for the first time, I'm caught up on a sock club! This is one of the April offerings from Cookie A's sock club, Orange Pekoe.

Details:
Pattern: Orange Pekoe
Yarn: Hazel Knits sock yarn
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Comments: No changes, knit as written. Love the yarn! Crisp stitch definition, no fuzziness even after I washed it, no bleeding. A dream to work with.

The bad news: the yarn for the last club shipment seems to be MIA -- it hasn't shown up yet. Here's hoping it hasn't gotten lost out there, in the cold, hostile-to-yarn world. Let's hope it had something to do with holiday madness, and that it shows up soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

Cats love Christmas. It's the day they get to play in brand-new boxes, surf on crinkly paper, and generally zoom around the house at high speed.

There are interesting new things to explore, their environment changes, and their humans are happy.

I got some great kitchen stuff, some fabulous librarian swag, a bunch of bat stuff... and I bought myself a gift too. Bat spindle, custom-painted for me by Yorkieslave on etsy. I love her work and her spindles spin like a dream.

Wishing a wonderful Christmas to all who celebrate, and to everyone else, a nice warm weekend!

End of Semester

2011-12-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

I have made it to the end of the semester. Working full-time and taking classes is so much more complicated than being a full-time student. Neither is easy, but working and studying takes some serious changes in perspective -- and the ability to sacrifice free time.

But I did it. The final is turned in, the semester is over, I can get back to knitting and baking and having a social life. Yay!

On a Roll

2011-11-18T15:25:00.001-08:00

I have a paper due tomorrow. So what do I do? Finish a pair of socks, of course! These were originally for my sister, but Mr. Batty pointed out that these colors might not be universally pleasing. So she's getting a different pair of socks and these are mine.

They twist in interesting ways. I had a lot of fun with them. Another great pattern from Cookie A's sock club!

The Details:
Pattern: Slide
Yarn: Opal 4-ply Regenwald in Schlange
Needles: US #1, 2.25 mm
Mods: I had to make steeper gusset decreases because my feet are tiny. Otherwise, knit as written.

And this is my brand new project bag. The colorful thing next to the cat. It has happy colorful kitties on it, which is not as attractive as the black cat. According to the black cat, at least.

Love this bag. Got it from Zoey's Boutique on etsy. Very well-made and lined so the yarn just glides out of it. I'm very happy with it.

Socks, Again

2011-11-09T04:06:00.000-08:00

Guess what? Socks! Again! These are from this year's Cookie A sock club. Sport-weight yarn on US 0/2mm needles, fiddly to work with but goes quickly. I'm really loving these even though pink is not a color I would have picked out in the store. But that's the beauty of a club, right? You get to expand your horizons.

Details:
Pattern: Daphne
Yarn: Metamorphosis A Verb For Keeping Warm
Needles: US #0/2.0 mm

And... I signed up for next year's club!

FO Study Break

2011-11-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a break from paper writing and thought I'd share some FO pictures. Now, I have often talked about yarns that look tomato red in pictures but are not tomato red in reality. This is not one of them. This yarn is a bright tomato, fire engine, bright as all getout red. It looks tame because I took the pictures in the shade, but really, it's poke-your-eyes-out red -- and I love it.

Look at the neat cables. It took a good long time, but the end result was worth the effort.

I love these socks. A lot.

Details:
Yarn: Opal 4 ply sock yarn in the most obnoxious red ever
Pattern: Kells
Needles: #0 US/2.0mm
Size: s
Fun pattern! Lots of cables! Not necessarily takealong knitting but very rewarding. No mods.

FOs After All This Time

2011-10-17T16:39:00.001-07:00

Thanks to work and classes, I haven't had much time to blog. Also thanks to schoolwork and classes, though, I have been knitting for stress relief. Even when not all of said knitting is recognizable. The blob below, for example, is going to be a sweater when it's done. Yeah. I don't entirely believe it yet either, but we shall see.

I also have a couple of FOs! My inner 80's girl is thrilled. I'm usually not a big fan of Inner Child theories, but with these, my inner child is ecstatic. Or rather, my inner teen-ager.

Details:
Pattern: Froglegs
Yarn: Morehouse Merino DK
Needles: US 3

And because it's been such a long time, I'd also like to share the... I think it's the April installment of the Cookie A. sock club. The color is much more intense in person. These were fun to make!

Details:
Pattern: Boysenberry Yo
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Sole Mate
Needles: US #0

Not Dead, Just Busy

2011-10-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have finished knitting waiting to be photographed, works-in-progress waiting to be knit, and nothing is happening. Why? I'm taking a class and have papers due. In addition to work.
What was I so busy with when I was an undergrad, just taking classes, and working no more than 10 hours a week? I have no idea.

Surgery and Vet and Fun

2011-09-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

We've been having a fun time at the Batty House! I had foot surgery, which is healing well but preventing me from modeling the socks I knit. The cat has a UTI or something similar and had to go to the vet, which was not a popular move. It's been a rough two weeks.
On the bright side: lots of knitting got done. I just don't know what happened to my resolution to make more non-sock items. My mojo seems to have run out for everything except socks.

Success and Failure

2011-08-31T16:02:00.001-07:00

It seems to be a time for mixed results. Irish Girlie Knits came out with a great cowl pattern, Summer Wind, and that one is an unqualified success. Easy to make yet so fun, it's addictive. And I loved working with Tosh Sock, lovely drape for a cowl.

Pattern: Summer Wind
Yarn: Tosh Sock, color: Kale
Needles: US #5/3.75mm
Comments: This is the small size, but my gauge was slightly larger because I was using bamboo needles. Such a fun knit! I highly recommend it.

I won't give you the info on the following creation, because, seriously... have you ever seen a less llama-like object? I don't think I'll ever finish this one. There's a reason all these amigurumi are crocheted.

If you try to knit a llama, you might end up with the llamaduck. Not good.

The '80s Are Back

2011-08-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

You can take the girl out of the '80s but you can't entirely take the '80s out of the girl. I think the following are a direct result of two trends I loved when I was at my most impressionable: legwarmers and, shortly thereafter, those awful neon colors -- those awful day-glo shirts and socks and... I had an entire day-glo sweater when I was 14.

I never had leg warmers, though. So now, as I officially approach middle age, I have decided it's time to make up for it. Warmies! For me!

So far, only one is done. Look, I made it extra long, for days when it's really cold out. It scrunches down or it stretches out. Rad!

Something about my color palette at the moment is strange. It's all bright, in-your-face colorful. My first Kells sock from Janel Laidman's sock club last year. She is responsible for the lovely pattern. I'm responsible for the bright tomato red.

Even the heel is cabled.

There is more blocking upstairs and I have to finish a gift. It's been busy around here!

Gray, Icky Day

2011-08-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

My camera has batteries again! It's been a gray, icky day, but I managed to get the new batteries popped in as the sun was coming out. Now the neighbors are going to think I'm weird for taking pictures of handknits on the deck in the heat and humidity. But I don't mind.

I'm too excited about these socks to let that stop me. They're awesome. I love the fit, the colors, the yarn... everything.

The decreases are on top of the foot. Here's a closer look at the side. Pretty neat, huh? And this is officially my favorite sock yarn ever.

The details:
Pattern: Haleakala, February pattern from the Cookie A. sock club
Yarn: String Theory Caper Sock. mmm, has cashmere in it!
Size: s
Needles: US#0/2 mm
Comments: Knit as written, with the exception of one extra decrease I had to hide because I picked up 2 extra stitches at the gusset for my high instep. These fit like a dream and I loooooove the yarn! I bought more in spite of my yarn diet. It's dreamy.

There is more knitting, but I also want to share these... black bottom cupcakes. Chocolate bottom, cream cheese with chocolate bits on top. Very yummy. Very attractive.

Here's the action shot, with a bite missing:

My only complaint is that they don't taste quite as chocolaty as they could. I think it's the cocoa I'm using. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa is higher in fat but has a much milder flavor than Hershey's natural cocoa. I'd make chocolate milk or pudding from the Ghirardelli. It doesn't have quite enough of a punch for baking -- it's not very intense and has no bitterness to it at all. I think there's a reason Hershey's has been the standard for a hundred years or so.
Next time I use the Ghirardelli's, I'll try adding some instant coffee granules. That might help intensify the flavor.

Back From DC

2011-07-31T07:46:00.001-07:00

I hope that you will pardon my absence, my knitterly friends. We spent our summer vacation with Mr. Batty's Dad and his wife, in one of their timeshares in DC. It was great fun. We visited some of the obligatory attractions, like Abe Lincoln, for example. He's huge. Definitely worth seeing.

Across from Abe, you usually see the reflecting pool. Except... there is no reflecting pool! Not sure what's going on there, but they drained it completely. Hypothesis: politicians sending their staff to pick up all the coins people tossed in for good luck in an attempt to balance the national budget. Yeah. I bet that's it.

Because it was not too hot yet, we walked over to the World War II memorial, which is also really neat. I like the more recent memorials; they're not just something you look at, you can walk around, read plaques, watch the water... I like this approach to monuments much better than the old-fashioned 'come and look' -- it's much more participatory, for lack of a better word.

We did a lot of walking, but then, the weather changed... no, it didn't rain, it was 104 F outside, heat index: 117. So we got stuck at the Smithsonian for a couple of days in a row. Every single one of these museums is awesome, and they're free. We had so much time, we'll definitely be back.

Once we returned home, I went on a cleaning spree. Look at my fridge! It's clean! Every shelf, drawer and bottle was removed, washed/scrubbed/dried, then returned. I love my clean fridge. Bonus: we cleaned it before we picked up the cats from their boarding place. It's amazing how quickly you get things done without feline interference.

I was sick for 2 days, so knitting did happen. More on that soon!

Return of the Mojo

2011-07-15T05:24:00.001-07:00

After the AC fiasco (87 degrees! Inside!), my knitting mojo seems to be returning. As does my willingness to make a spectacle of myself in front of the neighbors by contorting myself on the blistering hot deck in order to get a better picture of handknit socks.
The pattern I frogged in the last post was Dawnsinger from Janel Laidman's Illuminations sock club. I've signed up for that and her Art and Sole club this year because both offer pattern-only options. Way to work through some of that stash yarn!

The FO below is Charleston from the Art and Sole club. They took a long time because of all the twisted stitches. Twisted stitches hurt my hands but are so pretty.

The sordid details:
Pattern: Charleston
Yarn: Knitpicks Essentials in colorway Prairie
Needles: US#0
Size: small
Comments: Knit exactly as written. Fun but took forever on account of the twisted stitches.

Next: a whole bunch of new projects. Here's my summer knitting yarn pile.

And some roving that made me think of Jaws. You know... people swimming along, cue the shark music, blood in the water... just the kind of inspiration one needs for summer spinning.

We're not going to the beach this year. Maybe it's better that way.

Tale of Woe

2011-06-26T17:08:00.001-07:00

I finally decided to overcome my fear of colorwork. Things were going well. Sure, I was probably going to run out of yarn (the danger of using leftovers) and I had some twisted stitches (must make sure to wrap the yarn in the right direction when anchoring the main color), but overall, I was very pleased.

Pretty bird design, the colors are working out, everything is reasonably even and likely to get more even with blocking. So I decide to try on the sock.

Yeah. That sock is not going over my heel, ever.

Moral of the story: yes, stranded colorwork is in fact less stretchy than regular knitting. Rrrrrip!

Funky Socks of Awesomeness

2011-06-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

They are colorful, they are funky, they are brightening a gray New England day! Warmups, done and ready to be shipped to Germany. Such a fun knit. Very detailed patter, I'd recommend it for beginners.

Watch out for the yarn consumption, though. I couldn't even match up the stripes because I thought I was going to run out. The pattern calls for 5 "welts" but I made 6. This is what was left of two skeins of Regia Color. I usually have tons of leftover yarn!

As you can see, I like living on the edge.

Details:
Pattern: Warmups
Yarn: Regia Ringel Color in colorway Clown
Needles: US #0/2mm
Size: European 39
Comments: If you add welts, make sure you have enough yarn! These socks slurp up yarn like you wouldn't believe.

I overdid it...

2011-06-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

I seem to have gotten carried away with the sock-knitting, and with twisted stitch patterns in particular. The tendons in my right forearm are complaining, so I'm now on knitting hiatus and trying to keep the typing to a minimum. There was a bit of spinning yesterday. Maybe I can do that for a bit, it doesn't seem to hurt too badly.
There's nothing sadder than unrequited love. I love twisted stitches but they don't love me back.

Single Sock

2011-05-25T03:19:00.001-07:00

You know what my goal was for 2011? 11 sweaters. You know what I've been knitting? Hats and socks. Mostly socks. The moral of the story: when I want to knit sweaters, I should sign up for a sock challenge on rav.

I'm currently at that awkward stage where I have several projects going, and there's one finished sock for all but the pair I'm working 2aat. This is Haleakala, the February shipment of Cookie A's sock club.

It introduced me to Caper Sock, the most luxurious sock yarn I've ever held in my hands. It's soft and squooshy and feels amazing -- I'm knitting slowly because I don't want to run out of this yarn, ever.

The sock is fun to knit. Not particularly difficult, but interesting construction. I've already cast on sock #2. My feet are tiny, so I may be able to get a second pair of short socks out of this skein. If not... well, there's always fingerless mitts.

Cake and the Blob

2011-05-22T10:57:00.001-07:00

It's another gloomy day in New England, not rainy or cold but very sleep-inducing. Also not a good photography day. So what's a knitter to do? Bake, of course!

Meet the Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Smitten Kitchen. Except mine is made with blackberries. This year, Trader Joe's has had some amazing blackberries, and I've been eating them for weeks. Time to try baking with them. This is before...

...and this is after baking.

I've only tried one crumbled-off piece so far, but I think it's going to be very good. Next time, I'll most likely reduce the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup instead of 2/3 because I think it's a bit too sweet. But I often find baked goods too sweet as written, so YMMV.

In terms of knitting, I've been working on a couple of things, including this shawl. I picked it up again after months of inactivity -- fixing a lace row that's over 600 stitches long didn't sound appealing. But it's fixed and I'm working on it again.

See how bleached-out the colors are? Yeah, it's a gloomy day in New England. I'll go eat some cake now, cake makes everything better.

Funky 80's Socks

2011-05-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

My sister likes funky socks. I thought I'd look for the brightest self-striping yarn and found this -- Rebia Ringel Color in glorious 80's colors. Perfect! I knew I had a winner when I found a pattern that also reminded me of the 80's.

Taken in the evening, no flash to show off the structure. The weather is miserable, it's raining the entire week. But these Warmups make me happy!

Only thing you may want to know is that they take up lots of yarn in those welts. I knit 6 instead of 5, and this is how much yarn I have left over from one ball.

Usually, I'd try to match the stripes in the second sock, but with this amount of yarn left over, I'm cutting it close as it is. Whatever color shows up first gets used for the caston.

Dorktastic

2011-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Is there a reason not to take pictures of finished objects early in the morning? Right after you've woken up but before you've had any coffee?

You betcha!

Yes, the picture is dorktastic, but I quite like my Quincy hat. Here's what it looks like. A bit too much light, but you can see the structure.

It was fun to make and took about one skein of Ariosa. Ariosa is soft and squishy and a dream to work with. Just don't use it for a project you intend to frog a lot or pull on, like tight cables. I was sewing the provisional caston with the live stitches on my needles, and the yarn ripped twice. It's loosely spun -- more like roving than yarn, really. But it is very soft.

Guess What?

2011-05-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

I know this is going to come as something of a surprise, but... I've knit more socks! Who'd have thought?
They're portable, in terms of speed they're relatively fast, and they're cheap to ship. Most people love receiving hand-knit socks.

This pair is for my dad. Can't send mom a pair of socks and send him nothing. That would be cruel. I hope the stripes aren't too wild for him.

Details:
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in colorway Aslan (I love this yarn!)
Needles: US 1/2.5 mm
Pattern: Zopfmustersocken
Comments: I tried the short row heel as written, but it was too shallow for my dad's instep. He wears a European 42/43, but his feet are skinny and he has a high instep. So I knit a heel with a flap instead. Eye of partridge heel: sl1 (k1, sl1) to end, k2. ws: sl1, p to end.

And for a preview of what I'm knitting now... yes, you're right. Socks! Socks from Janel Laidman's sock club in knitpicks yarn from stash (toe up! 2aat! taking forever!)

And socks from Cookie A's sock club, in String Theory Caper Sock. The picture doesn't do the yarn justice. The color is a bluish-green-brownish yarn, and it's sooooo soft. One of the nicest yarns I've ever felt.

Now the big question is: am I knitting anything besides more socks? Stay tuned for the answer to that burning question!

Sock Love

2011-05-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

I told you I'd been busy! Here is a pattern I love, and I love the end result even more. Meet Hyacinth, the first installment of last year's Sole Mates sock club. Janel Laidman's designs rock. So much fun to knit! And gorgeous from all sides.

Here's the front

Front and back together

From the side

And a closeup of the back/heel section. Sometimes, I'm a bit skeptical about bobbles, but you have to agree that this is some awesome bobble action!

It took me almost a year to knit these. I started during good times, kept knitting through sad times, and have knit my way all the way into better times. They're for my mom.

Details:
Pattern: Hyacinth
Size: Medium
Yarn: German mystery yarn
Needles: US #0
Comments: Fun knit! Highly recommended. Loved working on this, knit as written.

It's Alive!

2011-04-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Alive and knitting.
March has been a difficult month for many reasons. But there's more to it than that. For one thing, the cat disassembled my keyboard and removed the space key. It didn't work until Mr. Batty put it back in -- my attempts didn't quite work. Typing with a fickle space key is annoying, I tell you!

Apart from that, I have been working out. Long walks, not the slow kind either. I'm slowly getting my strength back. And I'm knitting. This is the first of many -- I've been quite productive and not so good about sharing.

I present to you: Sequoia. You can wear them with the cuffs down.

The gusset decreases are neat. They happen at the center of the top of your foot.

You can wear them with the cuffs up. Also a very attractive look.

There's good pooling and there's bad pooling. This yarn makes the sock look like sunlight shining through the trees, creating golden light and brown shadow on redwood trees.

The prosaic details:
Pattern: Sequoia by Janel Laidman, part of last year's Solemates sock club
Yarn: Paca Peds sock yarn
Needles: US #0/2 mm
Comments: The only change I made is to substitute my regular eye of partridge pattern for the heel flap. RS: sl1, (k1, sl1) to last 2 stitches, k2. WS: sl1, p across

I have also been really bad about catching up with the knitting blogosphere. I'll be coming to visit soon, I promise!

Happy International Women's Day!

2011-03-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

We've come a long way in 100 years. There's still a lot of work left to do, but we should all stop for a second and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.
Now... back to our regularly scheduled activism. And knitting. Because they are not mutually exclusive.

Wow

2011-02-25T03:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a week since I received my box for the knitty holiday swap, and I'm just getting around to posting the pictures... I've been crazy busy at work. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited.

Look -- the first thing I found when I opened the box! It's a bat! A Big Brown, to be exact, and his wings open up. Isn't he the cutest? The wings open up for some fun flapping action!

But wait, there was more. Tea, chocolate, all sorts of of fiber I've never spun before, yarn, handmade cards and a knitting notebook... I'm simply floored by so much generosity.

So a big THANK YOU! Goes out to Spinning my wheels from the knitty board... I love my SP goodies, and the bat makes me smile every time I look at it.

The Hat Formerly Known As Penis Hat

2011-02-12T07:37:00.001-08:00

I finished the infamous penis hat last week, but didn't get around to posting it here. Thanks to input from the designer, it now no longer looks penile -- more brainy. Don't let the pictures fool you, it's black, not blue.

And here it is from the back. Slightly different, you'll notice. This was a fun knit, I really enjoyed it.

Alas, my head is unusually small. Didn't know that about myself until I knit this hat... gauge was spot on, measurements are spot on, but no dice. It now happily lives with my friend Kate.

Details:
Pattern: One Skein Braided Cable Hat
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky, about one skein -- maybe a bit more
Needles: US #9
Comments: Fun knit, but it's really, really important to read the note about how to knit the cables off the cable needles... and do it as written. If you deviate even one little bit, you end up with a Freudian hat!

Another Storm... and a Bit of Madhouse: Secrets

2011-02-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

But we just had a snow storm!

True, we did. Every Wednesday since the new year, in fact. I took this picture on my way to coffee this morning. Snow, snow everywhere. It would have been nice to sit inside and knit, but one of the disadvantages to being able to work from home is having to work from home even when you're snowed in.

Hot chocolate made it OK. This mug-and-cozy is not a handknit, but my sister assured me she picked it out with love. It came with the hot chocolate. Looking at the picture above, it showed up just in time!

I'm supposed to talk about secrets for the Wednesday madhouse post, but honestly, I can't think of much to say. I'm not a secretive person. What you see is what you get. I can keep other people's secrets, and I won't reveal birthday or Christmas gifts before the big day. But other than that... well, I'm sort of transparent. Secrecy is just too much work. It's not how I roll.

Special Socks

2011-02-01T04:42:00.001-08:00

The stash is huge. Cookie A.'s sock club starts up in a couple of weeks. I'm knitting faster. How fast, you ask? 3 FO's in 2 days, baby! Yeah!

First up, the Speshul Snoflake Socks. What makes them special, uh, speshul? They are my first-ever two-at-a-time socks. I started toe-up with 12 stitches, then winged it. Didn't want gusset increases because I wasn't sure my yarn would last. So I did an afterthought heel and kept knitting.

The yarn is leftovers from my SIL's Christmas socks and some other socks I knit a year or two ago. You see, I have very small feet. Every time I knit socks, I end up with lots of leftovers. And the leftover bag is swelling. Hence: leftover socks.

These still aren't that speshul, though, are they? Well, here's the extra speshul element. You see, I'd finished the sock and was about to start the afterthought heel. I started unraveling my waste yarn and picking up stitches... Aaaaah! I'd knit together the top and the bottom of the hole! Panic! The yarn had to be cut, but there was no way I'd be able to weave in those ends. Not enough yarn. What's a knitter to do?

Answer: Use Crazy Glue!

By the time I knit the second sock, it occurred to me that I didn't need the glue. All you have to do is unravel the half-row that's knit together in the middle, pick up the stitches a row below it for your heal, and sew in the ends. Live and learn.

Very exciting, no? In that case, I don't want to leave you hanging with socks only. Here's a preview of some done-and-blocking FO's. Hint: one of them is the hat formerly known as Penis Hat. Except, now it's no longer reminiscent of said appendage. I fixed it.

Got to do work and wait for the snow. We're getting yet another Snowpocalypse. I may be the only person who isn't sick of it yet. I love snow.

Happy Late Birthday To Me!

2011-01-28T16:34:00.001-08:00

Granted, it's very late, but the package my sister and my parents put together for me is well worth waiting for. This isn't all of it, either. There was chocolate, and a really cute mug-with-cozy and tiny warm water bottle thingie... but here are the highlights.

Merlin got really excited as soon as the package arrived. Tape, glorious tape! This cat has a serious glue-sniffing problem. Of course I had to immediately open up the package and dispose of the tape. You know, to keep the cat from poisoning himself.

Inside... well, my sister may not be a knitter, but she sure knows how to pick yarn. This would be some gorgeous Tausendschoen sock yarn. There was even a booklet with patterns. I'm really excited about this. Had I chosen my own colors, I couldn't have done better. I keep ogling the yarn. It's so pretty.

Then, there are these gorgeous socks. They are soft and squooshy, and my sister brought them back for me from her trip to Ecuador! Special socks, indeed. I'll have warm feet all winter long.

And... my parents got me this little guy. They saw a stall with stuffed animals at a Christmas market, and discovered this adorable bat. He's soft and cuddly and has the cutest face. I'm so happy!

I have to go ogle my new sock yarn some more. Today was going to be FO Friday, but... I'm sure you understand.

Madhouse: Shoes

2011-01-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss in my Wednesday posting, but when the topic of shoes came up, I just had to write something.
You see, as a woman, I am supposed to be obsessed with them. Designer shoes -- expensive objects d'art for a lady's feet. Most of them have heels, so if the wearer happens to be an Average Jane rather than a lady who gets out of the limo, walks into the restaurant, then repeats the same process in reverse... I'm sorry. Have some ice for those blisters.
Anyhow, as I was saying, we're supposed to be obsessed with shoes. One pair won't do, mind you. You need shoes to go with different outfits. Shoes in spring colors for spring, shoes to go with your fall wardrobe, sandals for summer, and boots to keep your toes from freezing off in winter. Shoes for work, date shoes, workout shoes, Sunday afternoon but only until 2 pm shoes, but they better not be white unless it's... wait, was that before or after Labor Day?

The rules go on and on. The cost goes up and up. And before you know it, woman has "invested" herself out of her paycheck, whereas the retailer is taking money to the bank. And all of this because I'm not supposed to be wearing white shoes in January. Yeah.
So forgive me if I don't get on the shoe bandwagon. They have to be comfy, they have to show off a pair of hand-knit socks, and they have to last. I'll just learn to live with the idea of being a bad consumer.

Snow... and Goodies!

2011-01-14T18:01:00.001-08:00

You may have heard of it on TV... but we had snow again! This time, it was a real blizzard. Mr. Batty and I both worked from home and took turns shoveling our deck. By the time one half was clear, the other was snowed in again. Talk about Sysiphean labor!

It's gotten warmer now and the snow has begun to melt. But it sure was pretty while it lasted. I was lucky enough to be able to work from home, and even a day or two of staying out of the office tends to spoil a person.

As if I weren't spoiled enough, I got my package from the knitty holiday swap. And I have to say, I was absolutely blown away by my sp's generosity. Fiber -- in gorgeous reds and grays and ALPACA!!! -- one of those fun knit kits with stitch markers, a tape measure, and other useful stuff inside, patters... the list just keeps going. And something tells me those postcards aren't just store-bought, either. Nessa, I knew from your blog that your photography was superb, but they are stunning!

And... then there was the applesauce. The jar made it intact, it was briefly mentioned, then quickly squirreled away in the fridge. I have plans for that applesauce. It involves me, myself, and a spoon.
Thank you so much for your gift and for your kind words. You really made my day.

By Popular Demand

2011-01-08T06:44:00.001-08:00

I present to you: The hat that looks... Freudian. Focus on the cable crossings with the unfortunate-looking purl stitches. Where I messed up. The purl stitches are the "head" and the object itself is shown in its natural position, hanging down.

Yeah. I'm not wearing that in public.

No Hat Today

2011-01-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

I was going to post pictures of this hat I'm knitting. I'm 2/3 done. Or rather, I was, until Mr. Batty took one look at it and said, "This cable looks like a penis!"
I am so not wearing a penis hat.

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

What does a knitter do at the beginning of a new year? Check the stash. What does this knitter do at the beginning of the new year? Realize that she needs to knit more -- and faster. So I joined the 11 Sweaters in 2011 group on rav, because sweaters are bigger than socks and take up more stash yarn. Maybe that would make a real dent in my tubs of yarn.
First sweater project is going to be Slinky Ribs, which I started in 2009 but frogged because I didn't like how the provisional caston made the ribbing not quite match at the shoulders. I think I'm less picky now.

I also realize that I haven't posted any cat pictures in a while. This is Merlin, vegging out next to me on a work-from-home day.

You can't see his paws, but he's also doing the Supercat pose. Not a dignified sleeper or lounger-abouter, this one.

Curse you 2010...

2010-12-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

...don't let the door hit you on the way out.

2010 has been the worst year of my life, and as an appropriate ending to a dreadful year, I have just returned from 6 hours at the ER. I'll be so happy to see this one go, and I have high hopes that 2011 will be better. It simply has to.

The knitting wasn't bad, really. I never showed you my finished Clapotis. Here she is, blocking.

Details:
Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, 3.2 skeins
Colorway: Embers
Needles: US #8
Comments: This is my second Clapotis, all for me! Love the colors. Grays, blacks, reds, with bits of purplish goodness. It's aptly named. And look at how gorgeously it pooled!

Started in the old year, to be finished in the new year: first ever 2 at a time toe up socks. Using leftover yarn because of stashbusting. They were fiddly at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of the method. May use it more often on single color designs. Probably won't make a habit out of knitting multi-colored patterns two at a time. Too much tangling.

So... I'll see you in the new year. May 2011 treat us well, be kinder to us than 2010 was, and bring much joy to everyone.

New Year's Resolutions Old and New

2010-12-29T04:55:00.000-08:00

First, an update on the water heater situation: we have hot water again! Turns out the blizzard had knocked out the pilot light, and it just needed to be relit. I love solutions that don't require us to spend loads of money!

Then, before we get into the serious business of resolutions, let me quickly share a secret FO from the old year, the Christmas stocking for my MIL. Who, by the way, now has 3, so she's all set. They officially have more stockings than people in the house now.

I love this pattern, it's well-written, and the cable detail is fun. I learned something new too: I'd ever done an attached i-cord. It's not hard and makes for a very pretty finish.

Details:
Pattern: Glendalough Stocking, available on rav
Yarn: Classic Elite Renaissance, about 2.5 skeins of it
Needles: US #5
Mods: I did the join for the cable band in the middle of the part facing the wall, not at the middle of the heel. That way, it doesn't show at all when the stocking is hanging.
Comments: So much fun! The only thing to keep in mind: if you put the seam in the middle of the part facing the wall, it's more obvious that a provisional caston and the castoff tend to be offset by one stitch. This would be less obvious if the join were at a folded edge.

And now, without further ado: Resolutions!
I actually did well on the old one. Remember, 0 tolerance yarn diet? Well, only 5 skeins of yarn entered the house in 2010. 1 was souvenir yarn, 4 were for my MIL's stocking. That's it. I did sign up for the Cookie A. sock club, but that yarn won't start coming in until 2011.

New Resolutions:

Zero tolerance yarn diet, again. Turns out it's not enough to not buy yarn, I also have to knit faster. So: only yarn coming in should be the sock club yarn. No other purchases.
Have at least one project in thicker yarn going at all times. You can knit, knit, knit sock or laceweight yarn, and the stash keeps not shrinking. DK weight and bigger works wonders for stash reduction.
Tackle colorwork. I'm still not good at it, but I'm signed up for Janel Laidman's colorwork club and colorwork sock club. The colorwork club has already started, so I need to pick up my needles and plunge into this new adventure. I want to feel confident by the end of the new year -- and actually have produced a garment that fits an actual person, not some critter from the D&D Monstrous Manual!

That's it for this year. I was also going to try to knit a sweater a month, but I'm a pretty slow knitter. Then, work gets busy, and there goes the knitting. Instead of making it a resolution, I'll simply say "I'll try" and we'll see where that goes.

Are you making resolutions this year?

Let it Snow

2010-12-27T05:56:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I checked the forecast, and they predicted snow. Every once in a while, they'll do that and be wrong, not a flake to be seen. But this time? This time, we got a proper blizzard. Look what we woke up to. Note that I had shoveled the deck yesterday, twice!

Closeup, with condensation on windows. I'd get better pictures from outside, but I'm not going. It's warm in here.

Lovely, picturesque, the only downside is that our water heater is now dead. No hot water. I hope we can get it fixed soon, or I'll have to go to the gym to take a shower.

And because this is a knitting blog, here's some knitting. First in the "Formerly Secret Knitting" category: bed socks for my sister-in-law. She says they fit and go with her pyjamas. Yay!

Details:
Pattern: Heelless Sleeping Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: I think this is Wildfoote. Pretty sure, actually. But not 100% because I tossed the ball bands.
Needles: US #1/2.25 mm
Mods: Cast on 68 stitches. Regular flat toe instead of the star-shaped one the pattern calls for.
Comments: These don't go as quickly as you'd think. The pattern is easy to memorize, though, and it's a great takealong project. No heel, just a tube sock with a toe. Ideal if you can't measure the recipient's foot.

Merry Christmas !

2010-12-25T13:40:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ! It's not a holiday typically associated with bats, but at our house, we have a bit of a bat theme. So, without further ado: Christmas bats! Sugar cookies, bats, what's not to like?

A bit more traditional: pumpkin pie.

Best of all, the Christmas knits have pretty much all arrived. I'll finally be able to share them! The season of secret knitting is almost over.

Don't want to jinx it...

2010-12-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

...but for the first time ever, my Christmas knitting may get done before Christmas! Now please excuse me, I have to go knit. There has been lots of activity, but all of it secret. I'll post pictures as soon as I get back to the not-so-secret stuff.

Thanksgiving 2010: The End of Reggie

2010-11-26T04:39:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. You probably knew already, but in case you didn't: We're a little bit nuts around here. Every year, Mr. Batty and I make a full-sized Thanksgiving dinner, just for the two of us. That's 10 hours or so in the kitchen, and another week or so to eat the leftovers. But it's a family tradition, and we're sticking with it.

Another part of the family tradition is watching the American Kennel Club dog show. This year, they were broadcasting the agility challenge, which was lots of fun to watch. Dogs running an obstacle course, looking all happy, it was great. What we didn't expect? The cats were fascinated -- and inspired. This is Morgana, intently staring at the TV, watching the dogs run.

Then, both cats started racing around the apartment, jumping over furniture, chasing each other, and generally behaving very much like the dogs on TV. It was the funniest thing. Not since the infamous Humming Bird Nature Show Incident have I seen them so riled.

In the meantime, Mr. Batty and I cooked dinner. The shopping list this year included "veggie broth" because I wanted to be able to eat some of the food too. Except... you can tell both my parents are in the medical field, I have terrible handwriting. Mr. Batty wanted to know what "Reggie broth" was. So, here he is. Meet Reggie the turkey breast! To slightly paraphrase a particularly silly line from Mystery Men: "Golden and crispy, this bird is history!"

Another part of the tradition: Mount Etna, the amazing erupting apple pie. I mean, look at the eruption! The reason for it is that you put 11 cups of apples into a regular-sized pie crust. No matter what I do, it always explodes. There are just too many apples to be contained. It's a mess every time -- and so much fun to watch.

I'm getting the hang of this, though. This year, my pie crust was all buttery and flaky. Maybe next year, we'll manage good-looking?
On the whole, though, dinner turned out very nice. Had to toss the mashed potatoes (PSA: when salting mashed potatoes, add a little bit of salt at a time, or you'll be sorry), but we had these cute little potatoes in the fridge. They worked just fine.

There is much to be thankful for. I like Thanksgiving because it invites us to think about the good things in our lives, whether a year was particularly good or particularly bad. And of course, there's food.

I hope everybody who celebrates had a great turkey day. I'm going to knit now. It's rainy out, and after last night's feast, I'm not quite ready to move around.

Thanks

2010-11-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It's not a flashy holiday that makes people decorate their homes with elegant displays of lights, glitter, and greenery. It doesn't come with tacky front lawn displays of inflatable reindeer, light-up Santa Clauses, or, I swear I've actually seen this, inflatable Nativities. But I think it's important. And not just because of the food

Sure, I like food. OK, I like food a lot. That's why there are so many cookbooks on my shelf. Food tastes good. But what I like even more is preparing food together with people I love. When I was little, it was often my grandmother and me, with her doing most of the work and me "helping" to the best of my abilities. I was probably more of a hindrance, now that I think of it, but I have very fond memories of grinding nuts or drying the dishes while she stirred the batter and told me stories. It was magical. And at the end of the story, there was often a batter-covered spoon for me to lick -- nobody was concerned about Salmonella back then.

Now, it's Mr. Batty and me standing in the kitchen, preparing enough food to keep us fed for an entire week. It's so much fun, chopping vegetables and talking while the stuffing bakes and the pie crust has yet another accident. It never comes out quite right, but that doesn't matter. Really, none of it has to be perfect. It just has to... feel right.

It's a Phase

2010-11-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

Have you ever taken pictures of your knitting, only to realize that you seem to be going through some kind of phase? Maybe it's all red. Or every piece you've worked on in the past month has moss stitch in it. Or you've only been knitting socks. And the phase wasn't really a conscious choice.

I'm currently obsessed with cables. Everything I'm knitting, from socks to hats to sweaters, has cables in it. It wasn't until I wanted to take pictures of my WIPs that I noticed. Cables don't photograph well with flash -- or if they do, I haven't figured out how, and... it's all cables.

What knitting-related thing have you obsessed over in the past -- or are currently obsessing over? Now that I've noticed it in myself, I wonder what others have found irresistible.

Return to Normalcy

2010-10-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your thoughts. I've found knitting to be immensely therapeutic through the whole grieving process, not to mention the support from Mr. Batty, my parents, professionals, and friends.

I'm moving forward in the healing process. It will take a while until I return to normal, but I'm trying to look forward, not back, and to imagine a future that has beautiful things in it. Knitting helps with that. Knitting for my family helps even more. If I posted everything I've been working on over the past two weeks, this post would be incredibly long, so I'll start out with a few pictures and work my way through the WIP pile.

The Hyacinth socks I'm knitting for my mother are coming along -- look, I'm on sock 2! They were in hibernation for a month or so, and I really wish I'd taken notes on things like foot length while I was working on sock 1. Oh, well, lesson learned. Sticky notes are your friend.

Next, my Dad's socks. Here they are, on my Dad. Having him and my mom here during this difficult time has been a godsend. They both deserve socks, gratitude, and so much more than I could ever give for that one.

Gory Details:
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Tweed 4-ply
Needles: US #1/2.25 mm
Size: European 42/43
Pattern: Ganz viel Struktur
Comments: Knit as written, with a star toe and Boomerang heel. I'm now decent at short rows, but it's taken a good long time -- and I still have to look up how to knit stitches together with their wraps in any given direction.

And so you don't think I've been knitting nothing but socks: my sister's Luscious cowl. It's done, I just need to seam it. It's so soft and squishy, I'm sure it'll be warm.

As I said, there's more. Much more. And... some new fiber happened. I've been really good with my yarn diet (5 skeins of yarn in 2010, 1 souvenir yarn, 4 Christmas gift yarn), but I'm starting to think this will have to include fiber for 2011. The yarn stash is shrinking, but the fiber stash? Oy, she has grown!

Towards the Light

2010-10-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

After a terrible, sad loss, I am moving back towards the light. Knitting is helping me through my grief, but I haven't had the energy to take pictures of any projects yet -- it's surprisingly hard to replace dead batteries and find just the right light for a shot when nothing seems to matter.
I'll be back with lots of pretty things to show you once the pain subsides.

It's October and the Holidays are Approaching

2010-10-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

It's not just the holidays, either. There is at least one birthday between now and December, and let's not forget the... uh... slightly delayed birthday knits that still need to be completed. But on the bright side, it would appear that my knitting mojo is back.

The Dad socks are coming along nicely. This is a German pattern, and my first attempt at a "Bumerang-Ferse" -- whatever you call that in English. Essentially, it's two sets of short rows, first from the outside in to form the heel, two rows of knitting, then more short rows from the inside out to get you out of the heel. It's pretty nifty.

Oh, and if anybody knows a good tutorial for how to fix a dropped wrap & turn, please let me know... I had already knit together the stitch and its wrap on a previous row, but then accidentally dropped it and could not figure out how to fix the unraveled wrap & turn. I fudged it, but I'd like to know how to really fix it.

And... here is my second yarn purchase in 2010: Classic Elite Renaissance. It's time for Christmas knitting, hence the bright, Christmassy color. I actually didn't have any yarn in an appropriate color, hence the purchase; otherwise, I'm sticking with my yarn diet.

And this is the Luscious Cowl by SweaterBabe -- having a great time so far, it's very clearly written, and Ariosa is a soft and squishy yarn to work with. This may take a while, though, because bulky yarn hurts my hands. Oh, and I may run out. I have less than the pattern calls for, so I'm living dangerously.

It's crazy caston month, so stay tuned for more. Baby knits for a friend's daughter (born in August, so I better start knitting if she's supposed to get anything before she gets a driver's license), a birthday sweater, and a cardigan for me.
After months of no knitting, my mojo has returned in full force!

Finally, Knitting

2010-09-25T05:10:00.001-07:00

I have a whole lot of catching up to do, so let's get started with some SP goodies! I received the lovely spinnables -- and bat cookie set -- from AKKnitter a while ago. I've never spun yak before and can't wait for cooler weather so I can give it a whirl. And black is always good. There were also some colorful spider web thingies, but they had to be hidden from the cats.

I ended up having to bow out of the swap because of some medical issues, which is too bad, I always enjoy knitty swaps. Thank you for the lovely fluff, AKKnitter, and thank you whoever took up my slack!

In knitting news, I'm knitting socks for my Dad. The pattern is incredibly stretchy. Here it is on my leg -- nice and symmetrical-looking rectangles of stitches.

Without a foot in it, it looks more like this:

Who said only lace looked weird pre-blocking?

Finally, my Clapotis is done. I have yet to take a good post-blocking picture and some action shots. I can't get the colors right in artificial light and am waiting for just the right conditions outside to show off the lovely red/gray/purple colorway.

I'm so glad I read the reviews for this colorway of Lion & Lamb (#66, Embers) on ravelry -- it bleeds like the dickens. I first gave the shawl a good soak in water with lots of vinegar, then rinsed with clear water, and gave it another soak with Eucalan. It still bled in the Eucalan bath, but not absurdly. The colors are still vibrant. The person on rav wasn't so lucky, hers was a faded mess after she washed it. I'm so grateful she shared her experience, I really love this colorway.

Yikes, it's September!

2010-09-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

How time flies when you're having fun -- or are incredibly busy!
I have barely done any knitting over the past few months. There has been too much going on at work, in my personal life, and it's just been too darn hot outside. But it's beginning to cool down, and I once again feel the lure of the yarn. Stay tuned -- my Clapotis is almost done, my mom's socks are partway there, and I just started a pair for my Dad yesterday. It still needs to cool down a bit more for me to touch my spindles, but it's coming, it's coming!

Long Time No Knit

2010-07-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

For a variety of reasons, I haven't touched my knitting in 2 weeks. Or my spinning. Or much of anything else, really. But I need to get back into it -- there are several close-to-complete WIPs and at least 2 birthday knits that need to get started.
There was a big thunderstorm last night, maybe it's now cool enough to actually pick up the needles.

Surprise... Socks!

2010-06-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Who'd have thought it? I've knit... socks! I'm working on non-sock projects, really I am, but I haven't felt like lugging them around in this heat. The Clapotis is a thick, stifling blanket, and even Geodesic and the lace shawl I'm knitting are too much. So it's socks.

Vampire socks (March '10 Mystery Sock for the SKA on rav, not really called vampire socks). Top of the foot:

Side of the foot (How much you wanna bet yoga was invented by people trying to take pictures of their handknits???)

Both of them together:

And from the back (speaking of contortions...)

I love how these came out. The twisted stitches made my hands hurt, but aren't they pretty?

The boring details:
Yarn: Louet Gems Pearl Fingering in a freakin' bright blood red
Pattern: Belle Vittini
Needles: US #0
Comments: I only did one repeat of the second chart. I love the stitch definition of this yarn, but for some reason can't get gauge with it. My row gauge was off so much, I ended up with an 8" shaft even though I left out 20+ rows of shaft pattern! Still, I love how they look. Lots and lots of twisted stitches, though.

Purple Sock of Awesomeness

2010-06-24T17:41:00.001-07:00

I wanted to get a better shot of these, but somehow, the weather hasn't been cooperating. So, without further ado, I will share my not-so-good shot of the purple sock of awesomeness, AKA Hyacinth by Janel Laidman. It's so pretty. This is the instep.

And this... this is the heel.

Yeah. Genius. And so much fun to knit! I'm usually not a fan of intricate cables you can't memorize, but this was fun. There's a definite learning curve -- the design starts out relatively simple, and new techniques get added as you work your way up to the cuff. As somebody who doesn't knit a lot of toe-up socks, I have to say I learned a lot.

Now I have to finish sock #2. Except... it's too hot to knit. Maybe tomorrow...

Back in the Red

2010-06-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Not financially, more knitting-wise. I think I am experiencing a red phase. I'm spinning red fiber and knitting no less than 3 projects, all red -- with a fourth waiting for caston. But before I share some of my reds, here is what I found in the mail room when I returned from vacation. There have been some thefts, so I'm lucky to have found my stuff still there.

A new spindle and some of the lovely, squishy St. Seraphina Knits roving. Check her out on etsy, I simply adore her fiber, I'm a ... ahem... frequent customer, shall we say.

Then, there is my first-ever Zebisis spindle. I ordered the one on the right -- dark green with lucky bats on it. I also received the 1 oz spindle on the left and... some lovely fiber. A whole order full. Just because she's nice and generous. I've never spun any kind of silk and am not quite sure how to go about it, but it's so pretty, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Now, back to my red phase. Here are the vampire socks... one sock is done, and I'm working on the gusset decreases for the second. This won't take long, I have small feet.

Then, the Geodesic cardigan. It's taking a good long time because I decided to knit the 38" size -- I want this to close properly over my chest and not have the arms-like-overstuffed-sausage-look. I've tried on some cardigans recently, and lemme tell you, it's not a flattering look.

I am knitting the 11th repeat of the straight section on my Clapotis. I love it. Has a bit of a volcanic-island-camouflage thing going, but I really like the effect. Oh, and the Lion & Lamb... it's heavenly to knit with. Shimmery and silky. Mmmmm.

There are more socks, but I don't have good pictures of them. Truth is, twisted stitches require good lighting and no flash, and these socks are too gorgeous to show with bad photography. I'll try again when it's nicer out -- it's getting gray and gloomy.

Nantucket. Part 2

2010-06-12T03:58:00.001-07:00

Before we get to the knitting (because, as I said, there has been knitting), here is more Nantucket. The first couple of days were cool and foggy, a lovely spooky atmosphere. We still managed to walk around the beach barefoot. Then again... maybe that barefoot beach walking in the cold is part of the reason I'm currently on antibiotics.

The town of Nantucket is very pretty, I love the narrow streets, cobblestones, and cozy atmosphere. Words like "quaint" and "charming" come to mind.

The thing about Nantucket real estate, though... it's very expensive. I mean, extremely. You're looking at multi-million dollar cottages here. I'm not kidding. Now, they're very nice, but... that's a lot of money. We saw a shack, a converted garage, more or less... and you can get it for an affordable 1.4 million. Cool, huh? Maybe next year...

So my Nantucket real estate dreams are not going to amount to much. But if I could, I'd buy a house like this one. It's an inn, not a private residence, but doesn't it look wonderfully Victorian and spooky? I love it and want one.

Lastly, I have to show you a picture of this garbage truck. It has two remarkable things about it. One, it's incredibly clean. It's the cleanest freaking garbage truck me or Mr. Batty had ever seen. But the most remarkable thing about it is the sigh in the front. It actually says... wait for it... Optimus Prime. How awesome is that?

I'm still wondering what a garbage truck transformer would look like.

Nantucket Vacation, Part 1

2010-06-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

After a week of no e-mail or Internet, I am back. We spent the week on Nantucket, our first time on the island, and we loved it. As soon as we arrived, I immediately found my natural habitat... the bed at our inn.

Then, there was yarn. Mr. Batty and I walked to Sheep to Shore, a yarn store with a great selection and a very friendly owner. See the skein of Madeline Tosh sock yarn I'm holding? Its big brother, a skein of worsted-weight in the same colorway, came home with me. This is my one and only yarn purchase since December. I'm on a roll.

Unlike other islands I've been to, Nantucket has a lot to offer to vegetarians. The food was excellent wherever we went, but one of the highlights for me was the tofu scramble below, served for breakfast at the Even Keel Cafe. Yes, it's vegan. It's delicious. Yum.

And... a silly hat. I've seen a knitted version of this on rav. Look, the shark is eating my head! Aaaaaah!

There was much beach-walking and knitting, so stay tuned for Part 2. I don't think the pictures would all fit in one post -- it would take forever to load.

Annual Luddite Retreat

2010-06-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my sock! I have started sock #2 and will be posting pictures when it is ready.

In the meantime... it is time for my annual Luddite retreat: a week without computers, internet, all the technology that connects us to people around the globe, but also takes up time that would otherwise be used for knitting, reading, reflecting, and connecting with people directly next to us. So... I'll be off for a week, and I'll see you when I get back online.
Stay tuned for more knitting and spinning. I won't be idle.

Look, More Sock!

2010-05-28T18:13:00.001-07:00

So far, it's only one sock, but the second one is on its way. It's the March mystery sock for the SKA on ravelry. The pattern ended up being called Belle Vitini, but I think of it as my vampire socks. The burgundy, the lace, the holes... very gothicky, vampire-bitten feel.

No, really, look. They're downright creepy.

I'm almost done with the straight sections on my Clapotis, I've been spinning, oh, and knitting more socks. I don't have time to post pictures of it all right now, but stay tuned. More knitting is on its way.

No More Finals!

2010-05-22T04:14:00.001-07:00

Finals are over. They have been for a week, but I needed the extra time to clear my head... and then there was a business trip to scenic Secaucus, NJ. There's nothing much in Secaucus. Its redeeming feature is being a 10 minute train trip from Manhattan.

But now I'm back, and there has been knitting. Not much, but there has been some. Let's start off with the entrelac socks I finally finished. The stripes line up, I couldn't believe it.

This is my first afterthought heel. I thought unraveling the contrasting yarn and picking up the stitches would be a pain, but it was surprisingly quick and painless. I love how the heel doesn't interrupt the stripes at all. I think this one is a keeper. Not for every sock, but definitely for self-patterning sock yarn.

The "separating stripes" led to some funky pooling. I may knit these socks again with a stripes-only yarn to see what happens.

The gory details:
Pattern: Flechtmustersocken from Der Geniale Socken-Workshop by Stephanie van der Linden. It's recently been translated into English, I've seen it at stores. Very good book.
Yarn: Beryll HappyStrick. Never heard of it before, but it's nice.
Needles: US #0. No surprise there.
Comments: These took me a long time, and I'm not sure why. But they came out OK for my first entrelac socks, and I hope my sister likes them.

Still Kicking

2010-05-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

The world is not flat, I haven't fallen off the edge of it. But I'm likely to be more than a little spotty with the blogging until mid-May, when the final project for my class is due. I've been knitting, spinning, and cross-stitching, and there is stuff to see. I just don't have the time to put it up right now.

See on on the other side of finals!

Caturday

2010-04-24T09:57:00.001-07:00

It's Caturday! It's also homework day and laundry day and grocery shopping day, but the cats are being extra cute.

Morgana has this funny habit of lying on dark patches of carpet. Black is her favorite color because she blends in so nicely. Yesterday, I got a package from a goth store, and my belts were wrapped in black crinkle paper. This morning, there was a black cat on black crinkle paper...

...and a gray and white cat on white crinkle paper.

My cats are using military-style camouflage techniques. They're probably waiting for the stash closet to open, for milk to spill, or for the bag of kibbles to come out. They're lurking, ready to spring.

Speaking of spring, my allergies are acting up, and I haven't had as much energy to knit. But i finished up the increase section on my Clapotis this morning. To me, it looks like gray and red camouflage. And I love the way the colors are pooling. Very nice, even pooling action.

I guess the camo effect would only work in a volcanic wasteland, but you get the picture.

Rainy Day

2010-04-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

It's a gray, rainy day. I tried to take pictures, but colors show up all washed out. Can you believe the fabric below is blue? A pale blue, but still...

I'm not a big fan of gray, at least weather-wise. I'm solar-powered. When the sun is shining, I want to bounce around and do fun stuff, when it's not, I just want to curl up somewhere. So that's what I've been doing, and I've made good progress on the kitty cross-stitch. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Whew

2010-04-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

Taxes are done. Homework is done. Time to knit!

Procraftination

2010-04-10T05:46:00.001-07:00

I should be playing with a JavaScript library. My assignment is due next Saturday, and there's quite a bit left to do. So what am I doing? Why, casting on for my Clapotis, of course! Reds and blacks... I think we're back to my favorite color combination.

Don't believe me? Look, spinning! Why, yes, it's black and burgundy. With just a bit of glitter for added drama. Now, if that's not goth-tastic, I don't know what is.

And the outlier. Because statistics teaches us there's usually an outlier. Remember these? I was knitting them in December. I need the needles so I can start my socks for my one and only sock club this year -- the pattern-only option of the Janel Laidman sock club. No yarn coming into the house. Yarn diet, I'm actually doing it.

Now back to JavaScript. Somehow, I doubt that site will make itself interactive if I just keep looking at it.

The Power of Stash

2010-04-06T18:17:00.001-07:00

Today, I went stash diving. One of my groups on rav is doing a Clapotis KAL, and I bought some Lion & Lamb for it ages ago, right after I knit my mom's. Lovely yarn, I wanted one in reds and blacks. The colorway is called Embers, how could I resist?

So I opened my stash closet and dove right in... looked in every bin, spent 20 minutes, no Lion & Lamb. But I found this... black Lamb's Pride Superwash. Just a few months ago, I knit a friend some fingerless gloves out of the stuff, in fuchsia, and another co-worker asked if I could knit some for her daughter, in black. I thought I'd have to break my 0 tolerance yarn diet for this. Guess what? I don't! The perfect yarn was sitting in my stash all along.

Eventually, I did find the yarn. Grays and reds and a bit of blackish purple, like a fire that's going out. Perfectly named. Look at that sheen.

And I found something else at the bottom of my stash: my long-lost ballwinder! What almost became an evening of winding took less than an hour. Yeah.

Now, I just have to find the pattern in its folder, and I'll be good to go. In the meantime, have a picture of my mystery sock in progress. The color is pretty close to what they look like in real life. I call these my vampire socks... between the blood red and the lacy holes and elegant columns of twisted stitches, I'm getting a very vampiric vibe.

Thursday, I'll be doing homework. But today, I'm digging up the Clapotis pattern. My pattern stash is also pretty big.

652

2010-04-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Not the best picture, but here it is... the Bridgewater Shawl in blob form. It's actually brown. And it's a square. And I spent a good long time today picking up 652 stitches. Now, I'm ready to start the edging.

However... knitting a lace shawl is not exactly the best way to put a huge dent in the stash. I need to cast on something worsted-weight. I'm planning on knitting another Clapotis, this one for me. That should help.

Zombie!

2010-03-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

What would you do if the zombie apocalypse happened and you didn't have the perfect hat to wear? I know many people ask themselves this difficult question, and I have found the answer. I knew I had found it the second I saw 3.5 oz of assorted fiber (some of it glows in the dark!) at Merlin the Cat Yarns on etsy.

Radioactive zombie apocalypse yarn! Spun and plied on Big Meg, 1.5 oz of spindly awesomeness. She's a bit light for a plying spindle, but once you get some yarn on her, she spins and spins and spins like a dream.

This is the hank, freshly soaked in Eucalan and dried, much to the amusement of my cats, who tried to slay the neon sheep.

And a closer look. It was surprisingly difficult to keep the singles from becoming all even and smooth -- art yarn is not easy to make. Did I mention it glows in the dark?

Now, if I could only find a brain-shaped button, I'd have everything I need to make the ultimate hat for the radioactive zombie apocalypse...

In somewhat more... tame crafting news: the March mystery sock for SKA. Homework and twisted stitches have kept me from progressing too far -- this is 2/3 into clue 1. I love twisted stitches, but they hurt my hands.

The yarn is a beautiful cherry red, or blood red, depending on your preference and point of view. I love these socks, but knitting them is going to take a good long time. I can only do a few rows a day, then I need a break.

Reconciled... Sort of

2010-03-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

My knitting and I have reconciled, after a fashion. I've been spinning and cross-stitching more, and doing homework.

But I'm really excited about my spinning. The first picture shows the color accurately, the second shows the texture of my single.

Originally, I started this project as an entry for the March challenge in the Spindlers group on ravelry. The theme is fairy tales, and this fiber made me think of Rumpelstiltskin and the miller's daughter whose father claimed she could spin straw into gold. Look at that color. It looks like antique gilt, it even has a tiny bit of Angelica in it for extra shimmer. It's called Lioness, but I think of it more as Old Gold -- or Fool's Gold. It's the color of pyrite.

It won't get done in time for the challenge, but I'm incredibly excited anyway. It's my first-ever project spun to a specific weight. Once I ply it, it will be fingering weight, and I'm thinking shawl thoughts. This is much too pretty to be hidden in a shoe.

My second intentional weight project is the fiber that came with one of Jesh's spindles. It's not much, but it doesn't have to be -- it's my first ever laceweight, I'm still practicing, and I can't believe how much yarn I'm getting out of that tiny sliver of fiber.

Finally, let me show you the center square of the Bridgewater shawl. It's getting there! Almost time to weave in the ends, then pick up 600 stitches or so. It'll be gorgeous when it's done, though.
There is more knitting. I'll share my hat and sock projects in a bit. Have to do homework first...

Trouble in Paradise

2010-03-22T16:28:00.001-07:00

After three consecutive attempts to cast on for a hat, my knitting and I are not on speaking terms. It's not a breakup, just a break, and it won't last long. We're too tight. But I need my yarn to decide what it wants to be, and I need time to cool off, or I might chuck it out the window. So instead, I've been stitching. Here's one of my WIPs, a kitty hanging from a tree.

There is the UFO I started my senior year in college, and this year is my 10 year class reunion. But we won't talk about that (amazing how time flies!). I'm going to finish this little guy for a SAL. Then, maybe, I'll get around to the enormous UFO. Or I'll knit that hat.

Today, I Frogged

2010-03-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was going to show you pictures of Kat (rav link), but it turns out I didn't have quite enough yarn to finish. So I ripped it out. I'll be casting on Lucky instead, because I want my lovely green and purple birthday yarn to be a slouch hat or beret. It's been sitting in my stash since August, and it's told me only recently what it wants to be.
I'll be leaving off the pompom, though -- and I'll be knitting in the round. No way am I knitting this flat and seaming.

Time Flies...

2010-03-14T05:33:00.001-07:00

...when you're too busy to have fun. I'm taking a class, which is admittedly fun, but comes with lots of work. And things have kicked into high gear at work. So there's precious little knitting or spinning time. But I try to squeeze some in here and there, for the sake of what passes for my sanity.

Fiber makes me feel better. Fiber is good for you, and, best of all, it doesn't count towards my yarn diet. So here it is, 5.something oz of superwash sock yarn-to-be. And my new Ethan Jacob. 5.4 oz of spindle, supposedly almost the same weight than the fiber, but oh so much less voluminous.

Both spindle and fiber have passed feline inspection.

I've been working on my Bridgewater shawl, and I'm finally past the halfway point on the center square. By the time the lace edging comes around, it'll be a nice change of pace from all the garter stitch.

I'll leave you with a picture of Merlin lounging on the fireplace. He looks so relaxed and comfy.

It's good to be a cat at our house.

There is more knitting and spinning, but it'll have to wait until the weather improves. It's gray, windy, dreary... not a good time for pictures. And my remaining projects are actually in fun colors. You'll have to wait... and I'll try not to let almost a month go by between posts again.

Garter Stitch That Goes Forever

2010-02-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

...and ever and ever. I'm still knitting the ginormous Garter Stitch Square of Doom. I had a big assignment due for my class, so I didn't get much done. And I swatched. Berets look awful on me, but I just got gauge. Gauge is powerful. You know how it goes. Pictures soon. I need to catch up on some sleep.

Spin, Study, Knit

2010-02-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a week. Between work and classes, I hardly got any knitting or spinning done, except what I manage on the train. Here is a picture of my Bridgewater shawl. It's the huge garter stitch square in the middle. Almost halfway there, have to keep going -- it'll be pretty when it's done. The alpaca silk yarn is so smooth and soft and airy, and it has a bit of a sheen to it.

I also bought another spindle. Saw the Chinese dragon, couldn't resist. It's from Yorkieslave on etsy, and I love it. Such lovely detail, and such a smooth spin. The batt came with it, and I can't wait to get spinning -- it's cute and little and glittery.

If you're wondering what happened to my zombie yarn... well, this is about half of it. Yes, the white bits actually glow in the dark. How cool is that?

As you can see, it's pretty thick-and-thin. It's the darndest thing... I used to have to work so hard to get even yarn. Now? When I don't pay attention, it turns out all thin and even, which is not a good thing in yarn inspired by the brain-eating hordes. Making art yarn takes a lot more work and thought than regular yarn. But it's fun.

We've got Class

2010-02-07T15:48:00.001-08:00

It's been over a week since my last post, eep! It's not that I haven't been knitting -- it's that I've been taking classes. My first homework assignment was due on Saturday, and by the time I had everything set up so I could submit it, it was pretty last-minute.

But never fear, there will be knitting content. I just wasn't sure anyone would want to see a quarter of a large brown garter stitch square. It will become the Bridgewater shawl from the Brooklyn Tweed pattern book, but right now, it's boring brown garter stitch.

Zombie!

2010-01-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

I like small projects. They eat up yarn, and they are useful. This one just flew off the needles, and I didn't even bother to block it. I managed to get a pair of Fetchings and this headband out of one skein of Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted! No leftovers. I'm taking this stash reduction thing very seriously.

Details:
Pattern: Cabled Headband from The Knitter's Book of Yarn
Needles: US #4
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted, color: frosted fuchsia
Comments: Fun, quick pattern. It'll come in handy when my hair falls into my face.

There has also been some spinning. Instead of plying the yarn I finished the other day, I got inspired. Here it is... my first art yarn! The inspiration: 28 Days Later, a surprisingly cerebral zombie flick. I recommend it. And the Shadowrun xbox game. I used to play the Shadowrun RPG. Somehow, the futuristic feel of the game and the bright green box it came in gelled into an idea for yarn (yeah, that's weird). And the roving is called Zombie Glow. So... how could I not?

I have plans for this stuff. I want to ply it into a bulky weight with slubs, tufts, and bits sticking out every which way. Then, I want to knit a hat. It'll be my Radioactive Zombie Apocalypse Hat. Did I mention this stuff glows in the dark?

Fluffy Activity

2010-01-28T15:34:00.001-08:00

It's been a couple of days, but there's lots of stuff to see here. Gather round while I share my knitting progress and new spinning toy!

As you may remember, I'm on a yarn diet. This time, I'm taking it very seriously. This is the Cabled Headband from The Knitter's Book of Yarn, and I'm using the leftovers from the Fetchings I made for a friend. My leftovers were beginning to turn into a stash all their own. No more! I only hope I don't run out of yarn...

One of the entrelac socks is done. Except for the afterthought heel, but I want to knit both when the rest of the socks is done. I don't think these will be ready by the end of January so they won't count for the December Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge, though.

Finally, I've been spinning. These are 4 oz of merino in blacks and grays, which I received during an SP round on knitty a while ago. I need to wind off the singles from the spindle, and then I can start plying. And I have just the right tool for that.

Look! New Tabachek spindle! 1.5 ounces, perfect for plying. Merlin thinks it's a cat toy, but for once, I have to contradict him.

The idea is to take the little balls of singles, put them in mugs, wrap yarn around handles once for tension, then 3-ply. We'll see how that goes. I may change my mind and only ply 2 singles together. We'll see.

Selfish Knitting

2010-01-23T15:31:00.001-08:00

I have several projects going. A pair of socks for my sister, a (very late) birthday knit for my sister, a nearly-finished headband for myself. So what do I do? I pick up the latest issue of Knitscene, Take one look at the Geodesic Cardigan, and start winding yarn.

In all fairness, this is part of my stash reduction project. I have two of these large hanks of Morehouse Merino laceweight. I bought them years ago, when they still had a brick-and-mortar store in Red Hook, NY.

And here it is, all wound up. I had some yarn breakage, hence the two balls, but I'll use the little one to swatch. The colors are closer to the real thing in the top picture. But I wanted to show off those balls. I wound them by hand. 880 yards of laceweight. Took over an hour. Now the swatching. I love this pattern!

In other news, my mother send us a box from Germany. No food, per my request (it's wintertime, and all I want to do is eat, eat, eat). Some sweaters for me, a nice sweater for Mr. Batty... and this box. The cat loves this box.

German box, with flap. Perfect size for a cat. It has been claimed.

On a roll!

2010-01-21T05:27:00.000-08:00

Dude, I'm on a roll! I signed up for the Sole Mates sock club... the patterns only option! New patterns to help me knit up the sock yarn I already have. Patting myself on the back here, because clicking on the pattern-and-yarn option sure was tempting.

Thank you!

2010-01-16T04:36:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to say thank you for your input on my knitterly moral dilemma. I am going to search my stash for suitable black Fetching yarn, I seem to remember some leftover Aurora8 after I finished Mr. Batty's hat. If there isn't enough, or if I really can't find it... I'm getting a ball of black Lamb's Pride Superwash. I think it's my new favorite superwash worsted weight. Lovely stuff.

And... to follow up a question with a question: When you undo a provisional caston, which side do you start on? The side with the knot, which is essentially the beginning of a long-tail caston, or the side with the leftover yarn and the working yarn? I know I've done this successfully in the past, but the last time around, I fouled it up. I don't want to frog again!

Yarn Diet Ethics

2010-01-13T05:59:00.000-08:00

We all know I'm on a yarn diet. No yarn for a year. And I've been doing well. Granted, it's only been 13 days of new year, but still...

Fast forward to yesterday. A co-worker has seen the Fetchings and asked me to make some for her daughter. She's in her college's marching band, her hands get cold, and the Fetchings would have to be black to blend in with her uniform.
I think I have the yarn to make them, but I'm not sure. I'll turn my stash upside down. But... if I don't... do you think it really counts as buying yarn? She said she'd pay for it (which I don't want her to do). And I wouldn't use this as an excuse to start buying yarn because of a 'failed resolution.'

So... what should I do? Buy the yarn if I don't have it? I don't want to say no.

Fetchings

2010-01-11T18:35:00.001-08:00

First FO of the new year! I started and finished this pair of Fetchings in about a week. One of my work friends lost all of her fingerless gloves, so I made her some. Here's the right Fetching:

And here's the left Fetching.

Boring Details:
Pattern: Fetching
Needles: US #4
Yarn: Lambs Pride Superwash Worsted -- my favorite of their yarns so far!
Color: Frosted Fuchsia
Comments: I added a row of cables both at the wrist and at the finger section for a more covered look. Bound off in pattern, not in picots, but didn't block to get a similar rolly effect.

Coming up: Batty tries to spin thicker-than-usual yarn. Who'd have thought spinning thick yarn could be difficult? My first attempt with a spindle certainly didn't point in that direction.

Frog Hair

2010-01-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

Have you seen fleegle's hilarious post about frog hair yarn? No? Go check it out, it's really funny. And... I have some! It doesn't have a lable, but I'm convinced that this is the genuine article, straight off the back of the notorious Psychedelic Frog. Proximity to this yarn has mind-altering effects on humans. Want proof? I think it's a great idea to knit socks out of the yarn on the right and finish the cuff with some of the yarn on the left.

No, I don't know why. It's one of those urges.
For something a bit tamer, a picture of a Fetching. I'm almost done with the second one, and they are going to a friend from work who has misplaced all of her fingerless gloves. It's cold at the office. These should help.

As soon as the Fetchings are done, I'm either going to knit a headband with the leftover yarn or, if there isn't enough, I'm casting on the Shipwreck Shawl. Maybe by then, the effects of the frog hair yarn will have worn off...

Cupcakes etc.

2010-01-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

Wow. I knew that, collectively, knitters knew everything! Thank you for the cupcake frosting advice, I'll be on the lookout for a large nozzle.
The vegan cupcake and buttercream recipes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (amazon link). Check out the book if you're vegan. Check out the book if you're not vegan. The cupcakes are very yummy, and so is the buttercream. I use almond milk instead of soy milk because the thicker, fattier, nuttier texture of almond milk is closer to soy milk than thinner alternatives like rice milk. The results are fabulous, and even people who do the moo will happily eat these.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, the train had switching problems, I just finished prepping tomorrow's dinner, and the laundry is going... I'm beat.

Sugar Buzz

2010-01-02T15:36:00.001-08:00

Weeee!
I've baked cupcakes two days in a row, and we just got back from Mr. Batty's co-worker's house... I'm high on sugar. I brought cupcakes, and they had several kinds of cake. Bounce, bounce, bounce!

Ahem. Look, entrelac! I like how this sock is coming along. Except for the in-between-stripe stripes, which are pooling and turning into undefined blobs in the entrelac pattern. A straightforward self-striping yarn would have been better. But this isn't bad enough to rip. Overall, I think these socks will be OK. I'm almost down to the toe. The heel is an afterthought heel, so no heel yet.

As I said, cupcakes. I made some, with chocolate buttercream frosting. Except it's not butter, they're vegan. But they're very good.

I had some... swirling difficulties. They make it look so easy on TV! Me, I end up with turd-shaped swirly brown blobs. I guess I don't have a bright future in cake decorating ahead of me. Oh, well.

New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-31T06:06:00.001-08:00

It's that time of the year again! Before I go on to this year's, let's review how much of last year's resolutions I kept.

Entrelac: Just finished the entrelac portion of a pair of socks. That counts. Yay, I got one!
Two at a time socks: No, didn't do it.
Knitting more non-sock objects: Some were knit, but more than the year before? No. Too preoccupied with socks, I guess.
Shrink the stash: Uh... didn't happen, in spite of yarn diet. Stash actually grew. I swear I didn't buy that much yarn! Now, if I could only figure out why there's reddish light coming from my stash closet at night... and I swear there's some giggling, rustling, and I can faintly hear Barry White playing in the background... Hmmm. Mysterious.
Sell non-fitting clothes on eBay: That one's a yes. Anything that wasn't insanely expensive got donated to charity. I only have one more box of clothes left to sell on eBay, and that's it.
Work out regularly: Uh... well, I've been walking more, 3-6 miles a day. But I still have to get my butt to the gym.
Spend more time running games: Didn't happen. Got sidetracked by other stuff.
Start my holiday knitting early: Kind of did that. Then ended up with last-minute orders, went from done to not done. So... this one sort of worked, then didn't.
Cross stitch and do some spinning: I've been doing both. So this one's a yes.

So, some of these I did, but most of them, I didn't. I think this year, I have only one resolution. But it's a big one.

No Yarn. January 1, 2010 till January 1, 2011. No sock clubs. No sock yarn. No yarn purchases. Not for gifts, not for projects, not for any reason. No get out of jail free card. It easily turns into excuses.
Needles are OK, patterns and books are OK, fiber is OK if I run out.
No yarn. For an entire year. There, I've said it. It's official. Now, excuse me, I have to lie down.

FO's, WIP, and a New Toy!

2009-12-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a week off from work, and it's 20 F outside -- and windy. We decided to stay inside, rather than go out there and... well, not be sticks in the mud. But on the bright side, lots of knitting is getting done.

The Cowgirl Slipper Socks, which were supposed to be a Christmas gift, are finally done and blocking. Here is a pre-blocking picture -- they're dark, purply fuchsia in real life, not washed-out red.

Details:
Pattern: Cowgirl Slipper Socks
Needles: US #5
Yarn: Frog Tree Superwash Worsted... something
Color: Frosted Fuchsia
Comments: These can be knit in a few hours. Not when you're sick and end up ripping back 3 times, then frogging back the toe of the first slipper sock... but in general, it's possible. They are cute and comfy. I think I'll make myself a pair too.

In other knitting news: How many times have I said I'd try entrelac? Look, I'm actually doing it! This closeup makes it look all bad and holey, but really, it's quite pretty, and I'm happy. It's loads of fun. If the socks turn out pretty, they're for my sister. If they turn out hideous, I'm keeping them.

Speaking of hideous, please ignore the green fiber with orange, yellow, and pink slubs. Focus instead on my new toy, my new spindle! The fiber is less than an ounce of free fluff that came with it so you can try it out right away. They know their customers.
This is Maggie. She is made of maple and weighs 4.6 grams/1.6 ounces, and she spins like a dream. Around and around and around. Doesn't want to stop. I bought a smaller version from Carolina Homespun and fell in love. I just had to have the bigger one... so here she is.

Merlin also has a new toy: His cat fountain. He now takes it apart for fun. Look at the basin and the top part... they are completely crooked, and no water is flowing. Poor Morgana doesn't know when she's going to find it in working condition, and when it will have been disassembled by her fuzzy brother.

I'm starting to think Mr. Engineering Cat has fuzz on the inside of his head, not just the outside!

Christmas Fun with Cats

2009-12-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we had Christmas fun with the cats. Merlin had his eyes on the package from Mr. Batty's mom ever since it came in the door. We were joking that it was catnipped. This is him digging through packages to get at the cat stocking.

They found it. Cats with new cat toys, happy, happy, happy. Morgana in particular is a toy cat -- when she has a toy, she zooms all over the place. Hence the tail shot, she's too fast. The combination of black and incredibly fast, therefore hard to see, has gotten her in trouble more than once.

There was some unwrapping of human presents, which included bat stuff (hmmm... I guess I'm a bit obvious about the bat thing, they've started showing up at work too).

This one had me laughing. On Wednesday, I was making egg nog, lamenting its grainy consistency, and blaming it on my bent whisk. And in my stocking, I find... a pasta server, which we don't have, a brand-new whisk, and a potato masher you can use in a nonstick pan if needed because it's plastic. Yay!

I also got an all-purpose knitting book that has fabulous illustrated instructions for entrelac. And then, there was the package of baklava from Mr. Batty's Dad... combine this with the pumpkin pie and egg nog, and I'll be rolling to work.
Or getting a gym membership. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do -- as soon as my cold goes away, I'll get my butt back into shape.
In the meantime... I hope you have lots of rest and fun and knitting. It's what I'm about to do.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:41:00.001-08:00

To all who celebrate, I wish a merry Christmas! At our house, this is another occasion for playing console games, petting the cats, and cooking. Look, pumpkin pie! And this time, I didn't accidentally fry the crust!

And... Quorn (myco-protein turkey replacement... tastes better than it sounds), cranberry sauce, little potatoes, and stuffing. Yummmm, stuffing.

Not pictured: egg nog. Lots of it. I made a whole bucket. Also not pictured: The slipper socks I didn't finish because I was sick. I'll finish them tomorrow or Saturday -- have to finish the toe on one and rip back the toe on the other. It came out too big.

Wishing you all happy, peaceful holidays. I'm going to bed now... it's the season of love and sharing and all that, but I'm guessing everyone at church would appreciate it if I kept this nasty cold bug to myself...

Snow and Cookies!

2009-12-22T04:41:00.001-08:00

By popular request, I am putting up a picture of Sunday's snow. I've seen so many lovely pictures on people's blogs, but I didn't really want to go outside to take my own, so here is a shot from our bedroom door. Yes, our balcony goes off of the master bedroom. I think it's a New England thing. By the time all was said and done, we had snow up to my thigh on our deck, which I shoveled because Mr. Batty was coughing like crazy and I don't want him catching pneumonia.

I hadn't been feeling particularly Christmassy this year, but the snow did the trick. Here is the result: Egg nog cookies! Recipe below.

Egg Nog Cookies

Dough:
2 sticks butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp nutmeg (the fresher, the better)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla extract (or more... experiment!)
1 egg

Icing:
2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 tablespoon flavorful light rum (or 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon rum aroma)

Cream together butter and sugar until smooth -- I use a hand mixer, but if you have the fancy standing kind... yeah, that works too. Add vanilla and egg, beat until incorporated. In another bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and nutmeg, then add to the butter mixture. Mix until just incorporated. It's better to undermix a bit than to overmix. Roll dough into a ball in your mixing bowl, cover, and stick in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350 F/180 C, put racks in lower third and upper third of oven. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 10-20 minutes so it softens up a bit. Then, take a small ice cream scoop (80) or a tablespoon measure and make balls about the size of 2 tablespoon measures held together to form a ball. Put on baking sheets, leaving space for the cookies to spread.
Bake one tray on the lower rack, one on the higher rack, for 10 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Rotate the trays halfway through baking.
When they are done, transfer cookies onto cooling rack. Wait to cool before putting on the icing.

For the icing, mix confectioner's sugar, rum, melted butter, and milk in a bowl. Beat with mixer until thick and creamy, around 4 minutes or so. Spread onto cookies. Wait for icing to set before putting in a container -- the icing becomes harder as it sets and won't make a mess.

Have fun eating cookies. Take some to the office or you'll eat them all.

Morgana watched the baking efforts from her comfy spot amid the blankets. Yesterday, I was right there with her. Apparently, a round of snow shoveling was exactly what I needed to come down with Mr. Batty's sore throat disease.

Feeling better enough to do work, so I'll go do that now.

Still Knitting

2009-12-19T10:25:00.001-08:00

It seems it has been forever since my last post! 2 weeks, or thereabouts... I bet you thought I'd abandoned this blog. But not to worry, I'm still here. I have been busy and work, and busy knitting. The socks below took forever. They are man-sized. They are almost exclusively knit in twisted stitches. They hurt.

A closeup of the little cable detail, and of the fancy ribbed gusset.

Now to finish one more pair, ship them off, and that's it for this year. Then, I can finish and send off my sister's birthday gift, which is over a month late. I feel really, really bad about that. But I expect to have plenty of knitting time tomorrow -- we're supposed to get hit with a major snow storm. I've seen what it has done to other parts of the country. We're ready for the big fluff of 09!

Weird Weather Saturday

2009-12-06T04:47:00.000-08:00

I swear, it just gets weirder. Thursday, we had 68 F, which is about 20 C. Too warm for November. Oh, and winds so bad, I almost couldn't get near the building to get to work. Which then swayed until I turned green in the face.
Then, on Saturday, it got colder. I didn't think much of it until later in the evening, when there was... snow. Yup. From short sleeves to snow in 2 days. Weird, huh?

Also weird is the sock that just won't fit. I've knit the cuff for Ann Budd's Cowgirl Slipper Socks twice now, and both times, it came out ginormous. I ripped the attempt below last night. Today, I try again. On needles 2 sizes smaller than the ones called for.

The rest of the day, we watched The Fiddler on the Roof and played Arkham Horror. It's a fun board game about -- you guessed it -- the Cthulhu mythos. You're an investigator trying to close the gates that are popping up all over town and releasing foul cultists and dreadful monstrosities into the streets of Arkham. If you don't... worse things happen.
There are a lot of little chits and cards, but though it looks incredibly complex, it's actually fun and pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And there are expansions!

Of course, you can't play a board game with lots of little bits and pieces without feline interference. So we cat-nipped their scratcher, and they were pretty much busy the rest of the evening. Here's a picture of both of them having fun with a box.

Merlin sticks out because he's gray and white, but Morgana is quite the camouflage kitty. We've accidentally locked her in closets and other dark spaces because she blends in perfectly. Sometimes, this is great, other times... not so good. Fortunately, her brother meows until we let her out.

Gothic Charm School!

2009-12-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

Jillian Venters is awesome. She is classy, she is witty, she is goth -- she is the gothic Miss Manners. She has offering friendly advice to goths and those who love them for years. Check out her awesome site here. The lessons are awesome.
And... now she has a book! I bought it today and can't wait to read it. Sure, I've been goth for... well, a significant number of years, but I still enjoy her insight. Because goths and regular people alike can always use that extra bit of advice on how to be a nice person.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T07:48:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody who celebrates! The annual cook-a-thon has come and gone, and we are still not hungry a day later. Not in the picture: Mount Aetna, the amazing exploding apple pie. I made it, it exploded. All is as it should be.

Also not in the picture above: Merlin, trying to figure out if there's any chance the humans won't notice if he sneaks up on the stuffing. Or the buttermilk mashed potatoes. He really seemed... interested in those.

In spite of the tough economy, there is much to be grateful for this year. We have a place to live. We have jobs. We have food. We have cats. We have family and friends, though they can't be with us for the holidays. Still, that's a lot of Good Stuff.

Klutz...

2009-11-24T05:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I squished my finger in the door but good. It's better today, but that means I lost a whole day of holiday knitting. It's the end of November, aaaaaaah! I hope everything gets done by the ship-by date, preferably without sore tendons.

In other news, I just found a tub of Crisco at a grocery store along the way. I know, exciting, right? It means all non-alcoholic ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner are accounted for (there's a bottle of Calvados for the gravy and another bottle of something for... I forget, one of the other dishes). Tomorrow, we start cooking!

Feminism Fail

2009-11-19T05:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I got a little brochure from Dell. Hey, computers, cool! After all, they sell the awesome Alienware gaming computers that you can trick out until they cost several thousand dollars more than you can afford. I'll never buy one, but I sure like to drool over them. So I opened the brochure and found...

"Now you can customize your Dell laptop with your favorite OPI Nail Lacquer shade!" I'm not making this up. It comes in lovely colors like "Princesses Rule!" -- and if you don't believe me, here's the link to their website.
Because this is what I really, truly care about when buying a new machine: Will it match my nail polish? Will I look cute holding the laptop? Will all my co-workers die of jealousy because they wish they had this pearlescent pink piece of technology?

Women don't want technical specifications. Women don't want to... you know, do stuff with their computers. They want them to match their nail polish. Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I thought we were further along.

Gearing Up For The Holidays

2009-11-15T06:43:00.001-08:00

At Casa Batty, we are gearing up for the holidays. I'm not crazy about Christmas decorations, gift-giving, and all of that stuff. But I love Thanksgiving. It may even be my favorite holiday of all -- it combines two of my favorite things: Spending a whole day in the kitchen with Mr. Batty and eating.

The tradition around our house involves getting a copy of every single Thanksgiving magazines I can get my hands on. I'm a vegetarian, but Mr. Batty isn't, so we make one turkey and one Quorn.

We spend time with the magazines... then, we usually make the same recipes we first made in 2001, our first Thanksgiving together. But the process of looking, daydreaming, and choosing is fun.

Speaking of holidays... look, socks, not for me.

'nuff said.