Vaunt
So I lied. The plan had been to do these tomorrow. But in the interest of being all scholarly and productive tomorrow (a girl can dream), I'm doing them today. I'm pleased to present Vaunt. These are the latest in the ongoing attempt to find patterns that are subdued enough to appeal to both guys and girls but still interesting enough to not send the knitter mad with boredom. I think they hit the spot. Well, I think this pattern in this color hits the spot. One of the testers made them in a lovely pale purple that might not [...]
Strike a Pose
On our way home on Sunday, we stopped by Bully Hill, one of our favorite wineries. We've been going to Bully Hill for years...a fairly alarming number of years now that I think of it. We first went many moons ago when we were starry-eyed, fresh-faced college kids on our first trip together. It was good then, and it's still good now. In addition to picking up a bottle or two of wine, we also found a spot to take some sock pictures. Now this area of New York is full of Grand Sweeping Vistas. I, alas, do not seem [...]
Not Quite
It has been a rage-y sort of day. The kind where you stub your toe and burn your tongue and somehow don't quite manage to rinse all the conditioner out of your hair and all of your clothes are itchy and all the sounds in the world are too loud. I'm firmly convinced that the only way to remedy such a day is to go back to bed, take a nap, and try again later. Alas, I didn't follow my own advice. Instead I tried to take pictures of the most recent socks. In the heat. On The Boy. In [...]
Unexpected Maturity
Last night, in a totally uncharacteristic fit of prudence and temperance (and possibly a few other virtues, though certainly not fortitude), I did an impressive thing. My hands hurt, so I put my knitting down. I know, not exactly rocket science. But it becomes all the more stunning when I explain that I put my knitting down when I had only 8 rounds to go to finish the second sock in a pair. And they weren't even the traditional 64 stitch rounds (64*8=512, which is actually a fair number of stitches). Nope, they were the decrease rounds at the tip [...]
Snag
So we all do it. Or at least I hope we all do it. This morning I realized that I'd worked part of one row of the sock much much looser than the others. Now for some things this might not matter or might come out in the wash. But this is a sock, and I didn't want to leave a place that could wear our or irritate the foot. But of course it was many many rounds back, and I didn't want to rip. So if you ever find yourself in this unenviable potion (you of course won't because [...]
The Mysteries of Gauge
On a lot of my recent patterns, I've included a wee little chart like this. The shaded column on the left is gauge (in stitches per inch). The shaded row on the top lists the various sizes the pattern is written in. The cells in the middle tell you what size finished object you'll get if you make a given size at a given gauge. So with this chart, if you were working at a gauge of 4.5 stitches per inch, and you make the size medium, you'll get a hat with a finished size of 20 inches. This demonstrates [...]
One Down
Thanks to a truly butt-numbing amount of time spent in the car this weekend, the first sock is done, and the second is well underway. The thick yarn has totally spoiled me. These felt like they took no time at all (and the contrast to the other socks on the needles, the cable-filled gray ones, couldn't me more dramatic). I've written them up for testing, and if you want to make your own you can volunteer over here. With any luck at all, I'll have them finished some time in the next few days. Just in time for it to [...]
Give me Some Men Who Are Stout-Hearted Men
First, my apologies if the title leaves you whistling terrible songs all day. That song pops into my head every single time I hear someone talk about manly socks (with the substitution of the word 'socks' wherever you hear 'men' of course). I wouldn't want to speculate as to why exactly this happens, but it does. Hopefully I've spread the pain a bit. Now with that out of the way, on to the socks. See? The goal was socks that were thick, blue, and guy-friendly. I'm confident I've gotten the thick part down, and pretty comfortable about the blue part. [...]
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