Go Away, Sandy!

Hurricane Sandy, I mean.

 Here I am ... just northeast of DC, disturbingly close to the bay.







We just went through this a year ago, with Hurricane Irene, and I was none too pleased then, just as I am now.

I lived on the Gulf Coast in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and East Texas for years, years, and never saw a single hurricane. I move up north to Baltimore, and there are three in  nine years, plus two snowpocalypses and an earthquake. I'm going to go live in Tornado Alley. That's got to be less nerve-wracking.

So the stores are all sold out of gallon water jugs ... that and batteries, candles, and flashlights, are usually the first to go. I have made sure I have lots of dog and cat food so they don't go hungry, and stuff I can eat without cooking such as crackers and tuna. I have a gas stove so I can still cook, I just have to light it by hand because it's an electric ignition. I am in a rowhouse, so I am only exposed on two sides. That helps. I just have to go pick up about a hundred potted plants, is all. And then make sure the stray cats have shelter.

If we do get hit by the hurricane, and I do lose power, I will be staying home for several days and knitting and reading. It will be a good chance to do these things without the distraction of all of the electronic devices. As nice as it would be to sit and read for two days, I really don't want to have to clean my refrigerator out and throw out food and take cold showers and all that ... so I hope this hurricane goes northeast and leaves us all the hell alone!

I haven't been knitting as much as I want to. Here's a sock. A sock, and a cat.

Petunia. And the yarn is Tofutsies. I've been working on this pair for quite a loooong time.


I'm knitting them all the way to just below my knee, and then I'll just hope they don't slide down a lot, like all my knee socks do.

Meow.

The Next Best Thing to Buying Yarn

Knitpicks had a sale ... and kept reminding me via email that they had a sale. Guess my weekend is all booked up now.

How many fiber-related books do you all have? I was going to 'fess up, but I just went and counted and I am embarrassed to go first!

I am also working on socks ...

From the Toes Up a-la-carte book. Pattern is the "Scribble Lace."  I knit one through the heel, then put that one on holders and started the second one. I know it seems odd, but I really do avoid Second Sock Syndrome that way!

Buh bye! Have a great weekend!

A Finished Object Friday in Socktober!

Blue socks are done ...


I disremember what yarn this is. Some common sock yarn from Joann's, probably.

I really enjoyed reading the comments some of you left in my last post, about memories of your mothers' knitting habits. I don't have children to knit for so I occasionally knit for the children of friends, but I find that they outgrow stuff so fast!

To answer some of the comments from last week:

Autumngeisha: My mother used long metal needles too, hollow ones, about 14" long. I have them, but don't use them ... I really don't like knitting with metal unless it's 3mm or less!

Babajeza:  Knitting really thick socks is surprisingly easy. I made a pair for a friend with Lion Brand Jiffy Thick-n-Quick, and they were finished in no time! My friend loves them, and won't let anyone else in her family wear them.

Minding My Own Stitches: My mom made mittens a few times, but I think I lost them pretty often, so she stopped!

In this vein, I have something that was my mother's that absolutely puzzles me. My dad sent it to me in a box of her knitting stuff a few years after she died. Here it is:

It's about the size of a lap rug, and made from acrylic (probably Red Heart, acrylic was all she used). I am absolutely baffled what pattern this is!

 

Clearly there are knit stitches and purls. But is it woven? Did she carry the white yarn over the red? It's very intricate! It was unfinished, so I bound it off and I hung it on the wall behind my bed, like a tapestry. I have two huge pattern books of knitting and crochet patterns, but I've never seen anything like this. 

So, everyone have a great Socktober weekend! 

Sigh .... they grow so fast, don't they?

Don't forget to stop by TamisAmis on Friday, for FO Friday!

Socktober the Ninth

I thought, in honor of Socktober, I would show you all the socks I have knitted.

This doesn't include the big house socks I knit with acrylic yarns for wearing around the house. And this is minus the lovely orange pair I wore today and didn't want to stack with the clean ones.

When I was little, and growing up, my mother knit socks for all of us (my dad, brother, and I). She knit them with Red Heart and she knit them very large, so we could wear them over our regular socks (mom kept the thermostat low). You couldn't wear the mom-socks with shoes or boots. They were too bulky.

And mom knit our socks with these broken plastic dpns. Probably about a size 8. That was all she ever knit socks with -- not only was my mom frugal, she knew what she liked and refused to buy new needles that she might not like as much. To her, the broken ones were still usable, even though they had no tips!

Perhaps she didn't like the metal dpns, as I don't. They make my hands ache, and my mom had arthritis. I don't believe wooden needles were readily available in the little corner of Louisiana she lived in at the time, and knowing my mom, she likely would have balked at spending the extra money for the bamboo needles (anything from $8 to $12, and if you use circs, you need two).

I personally knit with almost nothing but Clover brand knitting needles. I have some Knitpicks Harmony needles which are also very good to knit with, but the Clovers were what was at Joann's and regular readers of my blog know about my fondness for Joann's! So about 90% of my collection is Clover Bamboo, and Addi Turbo for the smallest sizes.

Does anyone else have a sock story to tell, for Socktober? If so, Georgie Girl and Molly-the-Glaucoma-Cat would love to hear it!

No, do go on ... socks, was it? How interesting.

Socktober Already?!

Time for Socktoberfest!

I was rooting around through a yarn drawer and found the above blue sock. I had started it as part of a pair of two-at-a-time socks ... and by two-at-a-time, I mean one pair of socks on 4 dpns, a la Anna Karenina. Or was it War and Peace? In any case, it's where you knit one inside the other, alternating skeins of yarn, purling the one on the inside and knitting the one on the outside. It was fun, but tedious, and once I figured out how to do it, I grew frustrated by how slowly it was going. And how worried I was I would cross a stitch and wind up with useless socks! I pulled them apart and will knit them one at a time.

So, to follow Socktoberfest, which is also a Ravelry group, I will finish both these pairs of socks. I set aside the pink one to finish the cowl. I am determined to finish them this month, though. And have two new pairs of socks for winter.

The Bohus sweater creeps along slowly ... I'm just not that into it right now, you know? I don't blame the Bohus. I tell it, "It's not you, it's me!" I just want to knit socks.

So I have a question for you sock knitters, and I hope you'll answer in the comments. Do you have problems with your heels wearing through quickly? Because I do, no matter what the yarn (fingering, worsted, wool, acrylic) the heel wears through. It's frustrating. I would blame my rough skin, but it happens to the socks I knit for friends, as well. What am I doing wrong?

Don't forget to visit Tamis Amis on Wednesday, for Work-in-Progress Wednesday!

It's Too Big (Edited).

Everyone say it with me ... 

"Gauge, shmauge!"

I didn't think gauge mattered since I was using the yarn they called for ... but I forgot that I didn't have the right needles available, so I used a size 0.25mm larger. 

It's still a fairly nice Mandola ...

So I will wear it anyways. 

I have no new cute cat pictures, so I leave you with a 1-year old boy investigating the bra rack at Macy's. 

He seemed to favor the underwire demi bras.

 Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Finished Object Friday!

This was edited to add better pictures. Pictures that make it appear that I actually make an effort with my appearance ... ;-)

Inching Along

It's a good thing I'm not in too much of a hurry!

Because my Bohus Swing Coat will not be done anytime soon! This is the back. The lighter purple is the hem. It's 12" and needs to be 17" before I take the next step, which I assume is sleeve-related.

Here's a closeup so you can see how wonky my stitches are:

Kinda warbly, aren't they?





Cascade tweed ... I think it's loverly.







And the Mandola cowl-hat is creeping along.

I've got 25 rows out of 68. My fingers are tired from typing a lot, so sometimes I just don't want to fuss with thin yarn and 3.25mm needles.





That's it for me. What WIPs are you all WIPping up for the coming winter? (Unless you're in New Zealand, of course, and starting Spring!)




Don't forget to check in with TamisAmis on Wednesday, for WIP Wednesday!

 It's not really meant for two, but Molly Cat doesn't read labels.