Boyfriend Socks

Hi Knitters,

My current project is a free pattern on Ravelry:  "Boyfriend Socks" by Alice Bell.  It is my favorite men's sock pattern.  The cabling is beautiful and looks a little complex but the pattern is actually very simple and easy to follow for the intermediate knitter.  At first glance, seeing the 24 row repeat, I expected a more heads-up, no TV watching kind of knit.  But once you have knit through one pattern repeat you see that there are really only four rows to learn and repeat in the correct order.  You probably won't even need to refer to the pattern once you have worked through the repeat once.  You do, however, need to keep close track of which row you are on, so I would recommend a row counter or at least a paper tally next to you. 

For this pair I am using Cherry Tree Hill Semi-Solid sock yarn which I had on hand and, actually, I am not too crazy about how it is knitting up.  Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn is first quality and I have no complaint there.  But in this case the distribution of the semi-solid bits as I knit is looking decidedly out of whack.  Perhaps it's the 80-stitch cast on, but the variegation went from a lovely tweedy effect on the toes to some off-kilter over-sized stripes, funky but not in a good way.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of sock knitting is the gorgeous variety of hand-dyed, hand-painted, self-patterning, self-striping yarns.  It's the anticipation of not knowing exactly what the yarn that captivated you at the knit shop will become, and witnessing the fun surprise of seeing it come together stitch by stitch.
In this case, and for the first time since I have been using the self-patterning yarns, I am a tad disappointed in the outcome.

This is what is refered to as "pooling" and now I understand first-hand why we do not like pooling.  Since I am knitting in the two-at-a-time mode I think adding two more skeins would send me over the edge.  Debated frogging but decided I had too much time committed to give up or give in now.  I'll play around with it a bit and let you know what happens.

These socks are a gift for my Dad who thinks hand-knit socks are about the best thing ever and I know that my dad is not going to comment on the distribution of the self-patterning yarn.  After his first pair of hand-knit socks given to him for his birthday two years ago he was hooked.  Now all he wants for any gift-giving occaision is more hand-knit socks.  Last time I was home to visit I told him I would keep knitting for him until he had at least one pair for every day of the week.  This will be his sixth pair.  They may not be his prettiest but he can always wear them with boots.  Anyway, I shall plod on and hope once these are all neatly blocked and folded, I will feel a little happier about them.

Happy knitting, Josey

Oklahoma City Arts Festival

Hi Knitters,

Haven't posted in a while for two reasons. 

One: the Oklahoma City Arts Festival and

Two:  I am on a knitting deadline for one of my favorite yarn manufacturers.  I am privileged to be one of the first lucky people to knit with a new yarn that will be on the market this summer.  I will have more details and some pictures of this beautiful yarn and fun project later this summer.

The Oklahoma City Arts Festival takes place during the third week in April every year.  It's one of my favorite times of the year and a great showcase for so much of what makes Oklahoma City a great place to live.  Who doesn't love an arts festival?  Always something for every one.  The inspiring arts and crafts, live entertainment all day long, and no better eating and people watching anywhere.

 
Oklahoma City's Festival of the Arts was started forty years ago and we have missed very few of them since moving here thirty years ago.  For most of those years my husband's office was just a block from the Festival.  We had free and easy parking and could just walk out his front door and down the street.  Some years we have wandered through the booths and had dinner and dessert every single night of the Festival from Tues through Saturday.  This year we made it twice which really didn't allow enough time for all the food sampling we would have liked, but there's always next year!

This year--with just a few little windy spurts and one very short rainshower--the weather was nearly perfect.  The many and varied artists come from all across the states and represent nearly every medium and style.  This year my favorites were some of the textile artists (no surprise there) who had sewn their hand-dyed silks and cottons into loose and flowy clothing.   

I think it's probably accurate to say that the strongest draw to the fair is the food.  Local restaurants and caterers team up with city non-profits and provide an incredibly varied feast.  The vendors serve up every kind of savory wrap, roll, crepe, puff, wonton, taco, burrito and salad imaginable.  But they really shine when it comes to desserts.

Fried peaches with home-made ice cream, "Caramel Knowledge" Sundaes, lemon curd crepes with blueberry compote, tequila bread pudding, skewered strawberries dipped in dark chocolate sauce, sugary crusted strudels and melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls to name just a few and my all-time, every-year favorite must-have:  "Strawberries Newport."   Just ask any Oklahoman about the Arts Festival and he or she is likely to tell you that the first thing you need to do is get yourself to the Strawberries Newport booth.

I have eaten at least one nearly every year for the last 30 or so.  It's a flakey puff pastry topped with vanilla custard, fresh strawberries, and home-made whipped creme with just the perfect sweetness.  I think another thing that makes it so special is that you can't get it any other time of year.  It is a Festival-time only dessert. 

A percentage of the proceeds from both the art and the food sold goes to Allied Arts of Oklahoma City.  Just doing our part for the arts!  The entertainment from morning til night is as varied as the food.  From opening until closing the main stage features local talent.  We saw these terrific ladies wandering through the art booths early in the afternoon and couldn't help but smile.  They are the "Not Just Country Line Dancers."  They had tons of spunk and you could tell they were completely enjoying themselves.

We got to watch them perform later that afternoon and it was too much fun.  We all should be so spunky when we're seniors.  Everyone in the audience was smiling and clapping along.  If you want to see them in action check out this video.  It will make you smile.

This was the first site we saw as we came to the Festival this year.  Interesting, no?  We weren't exactly sure what it was, a snail or slug of some kind I think, but definitely unique and got lots of attention. 

More about knitting on my next post....

Happy knitting, Josey

Finally learning stranded or Fair Isle Knitting

Meet Miriam Tegels, the world's fastest knitter.

Knit Picks put together a video with Miriam's tips on how to be a speedy knitter.

I am not what you call a fast knitter and I don't necessarily aspire to be a speed knitter but who wouldn't love to pick up the pace, especially on those long boring stretches of stockinette?  I've always been told that the Continental method is a faster knitting style, but I've knit so many years as a thrower that my attempts to hold the yarn in my left hand have left much to be desired, and I eventually branded myself as having an untrainable lefty.  And I believed that this seriously impaired my ability to knit Fair Isle patterns. 

I have, however, really longed to be able to strand, or knit with two colors in the same row.  Particularly after I saw Bev, a speedy two-handed knitter at my LYS, churning out gorgeous Norwegian mittens, stranding away with both hands.  Check out some of her mittens here.  And then, "KnittingMaryB", my knitting sister-in-law, made this hat for my nephew and posted it on Ravelry:  Ian's Skull Cap.  It's a great winter hat for hip young guys and another beautiful example of well-done stranding.   

My first few attempts at stranded knitting were exercises in frustration. The front of the fabric came out puckery and uneven and the back was a tangled mess.  Since then when I come across a pattern that I love which requires stranded knitting, I pass them with a sigh.

Bev's Norwegian mittens and Mary's beautifully knit Skull Cap were the pushes I needed to give this stranded knitting thing one more go.  I found two patterns that caught my eye, one requiring changing the strands for every single stitch and changing colors every few rows--go big or go home, right?  I got some yarn out of my stash, put on a nice calming CD and sat cross-legged on my bed (one of my favorite knitting spots) and started out with new determination. 

I tried holding the yarn in just my right hand, switching the yarns after every stitch, carefully lifting up and over each time making sure I wasn't pulling the tension to tight, and then straightening. It didn't look half bad, actually pretty darn good, I thought. I was making progress. But I won't tell you how long it took me to get through one row of 60 stitches. This knitter strands with the right hand only--phenomenal! Didn't work for me though!


Here a KnitsPicks video on stranded knitting.  Makes it look so simple!

I knew I had to get my left hand going or it was no Fair Isle for me.  I put one color yarn in my left hand and one in my right.  I let all the past efforts and go and decided I was going to do what felt most comfortable and natural to my fingers.  Finally after all these years of knitting my brain waves coincided with my left fingers and it clicked. 

Here are my first samples of (successful) stranded knitting:

 

No more passing by those Fair Isle sweaters and Norwegian mittens which I had left for all the other knitters out there to enjoy!  I just walked through the wardrobe door into knitters Narnia....I am a happy knitter.   Who knows, maybe next I'll be knitting Continental with some of those speedsters out there!

Here's one more helpful video featuring how Eunny Jang manages stranding.  She is one of my favorite knitters when it comes to explaining things in a simple way.  Her calm competence makes whatever knitting technnique she is demonstrating seem very manageable. 

Happy Knitting,

Josey

Needle Holders and project bags

Two blogs ago I shared the pattern for the wonderful dishtowel tote my sister made as Christmas presents for her crafting friends and family members (like lucky me!). This time I am featuring the talents of my sister-in-law Mary. How grateful I am that my brother married a crafter! It makes holidays and get-togethers so much fun and we never lack for things to do or talk about. Thanks to Mary each family in our clan has accumulated over the years a large collection of her cross-stitch Christmas treasures--beautiful angels and Santa's made with such detail that she uses magnifiers to gather her beads for the embellishments. Here is the Christmas' treasure she made for our family this year:

Mary has an eye and skill for detail work and her neatness amazes me.  When not in her cross-stitching mode she makes beautiful jewlery with silver, beads and crystals.  Mary took up knitting again after a number of years focusing on her other crafts and it is no surprise that her knitting shows the same skill.  She was intrigued by the sock knitting that I was doing while we were all home for the holidays and, while there, bought supplies to make her first pair of socks.  Check them out on Ravelry under "KnittingMaryB."  You won't believe they are her first pair. 

She recently sent me pics of needle cases she made using the instructions from the blog but making her own adjustments.   I love how they came out.  I think she saved quite a bit of time and effort by buying quilted fabric which eliminates the need for making your own with batting.  And I love her button closures.

Aren't they well done?  And check out the project bags she made.  That's the perfect size bucket bag.  I am in the mood for making some more now--A knitter can never have too many project bags! 

Happy knitting, Josey

Perfect Project Tote made of Dish Towels

Hi Knitters,
Today I was using a tote that my sister gave me for a Christmas gift last year and I realized that it is too cute and too handy not to share with everyone.  We have several crafty family members and one of my favorite things about our Christmas get-togethers is seeing the creative work my family has done over the year.  My sister made me this adorable tote out of two dish towels, which means that much of your seaming is already done, a few seams here and there and you have a tote.
 

The instructions for this project are here at this Better Homes and Gardens Website.  It's the perfect size tote for socks and scarves and maybe even a small sweater.  A seam down the middle on the outside makes two deep pockets on each side to stuff your notions, needles, or crochet hooks.  I can't think of any crafter who wouldn't find an immediate use for such a cute bag.  The website instructions refer to it as a purse but I guess my knitterly mind translates everything into project purposes.  My sister substituted a fun hand-carved button for the felted flower, a big time-saver.  She did give a few helpful hints if you want to make one.  It took some hunting on her part to find the right size purse handles.  The handles need to be at least 8" across to accomodate the sewing.  She did eventually find some at one of the super Joanns.  Most of the handles out there seem to be smaller. 

I have quite a few towels that I have collected over the years just because I thought they were pretty but when I got them home thought they were too nice to put to use in the kitchen.  This is a perfect project to put them to use. 

Happy Knitting (and sewing),  Josey  

Noro Squares

Hi friends,

I am still knitting my Noro squares.  In fact, I am currently out of yarn and can't wait to get over to GYC to get a couple more colorways.   Each skein is a wonderful surprize, you really can't even guess at the final look until you have knit the last pattern multiple.  I am still not exactly sure what the final form of all these squares will be.  I am still thinking of framing them as artwork for my walls, but also picturing pillows, purses, and totes.  Each skein is just $9 which seems so reasonable in light of the incredibly rich and deep dye work.  One skein knits up easily on size 8 needles in an afternoon.  And there is just enough yarn left over to knit a little heart.  I want to knit a square in every color Noro makes but there are so many it is already getting tricky to keep track of the dye lots.  I have the dye numbers in my phone memopad with a description of each color but it's already getting a  little tricky to match my descriptions with the finished squares.  And I have dozens of colorways to go.

Here's my progress so far.  Happy knitting, Josey

Slipcover for tattered ottoman

Hi Knitters,

I have gone two days without knitting -- very unusual for me.  We had an upholstery emergency in our den. 
My husband and I spend the great majority of out time in an upstairs den, a small room with an angled ceiling over our garage.  Its kind of cold in the winter and hot in the summer but it's our favorite place to be and the furniture is well used.  This is what our poor ottoman looked like a few days ago.  I could have sworn that just a few weeks ago it was only a tiny worn spot and don't know how and when it ripped wide open like that.  And it's such a shame with the sides of it still looking spanking new.  I didn't have any left-over fabric from my red and white toile period but on a recent trip to Joann's for notions I found this fabric in their 40% off bin.  It seemed to tie in with the motley assortment in our den and I bought a yard each which turned out to be just enough.
I am by no means an experienced upholsterer and I wasn't interested in spending a great deal of time on this project. I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to drive myself crazy trying to match up patterns and stripes.  I just jumped in pretty confident I couldn't make it look any worse.  I took it step by step, sewed where I had too, and used fusible hem tape every where else.  I finished it this afternoon and am pretty satisfied. The hems are slightly askew and the stripes don't match up exactly but at least the stuffing is contained.  The dark fabric will take additional wear that the red and white toile could not and from standing distance it looks pretty darn good.  The whole project took two evenings and cost less than $20. Thank you, Joanns, for your wonderful sales every few weeks.

Now I can get back to my knitting. Except, now the sofa fabric is looking pretty shabby -- and not shabby chic.  Well, at least there's no stuffing showing yet.