Crafty catch-up with some travel thrown in

I have been busy with a number of things and a huge amount of business travel. Therefore,  be warned, this is a long post with lots of pics

First, I finished a sweater for DH in a really boring dark blue Rowan Felted Tweed (Midnight) which I hope will become a much-used comfy sweater. I had finished the body and sleeves in the winter but was fighting the inevitable sweater on the lap syndrome. I love seamless sweaters but I hate knitting with the entire sweater on my lap. Oh well.

I worked on it during Knitting Camp and got it done to the neck. It is the EZ seamless saddle shoulder knit from the bottom up. It is in Knitting Without Tears. I've done the top-down version before. I had to rip when I got to the top of the shoulder because the armhole was too short. I needed more plain knitting at the bottom. I ended up doing 3" plain before starting the shaping.

I did the neck 3 times. I did short rows in the front to give a bit more of a curve to the neckline. Then I followed EZ's instructions for raising the back neck but it became too high. Then I redid it with fewer rows in the back and it looked OK. I bound off using Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off. But it was too sloppy. So I ripped that out and tried mixing that for a few sts with regular BO for a few sts. Still too sloppy. I redid it one more time with just a regular loose in-pattern BO and I'm sort of happy with it. It looks OK but I think I should have gone down one needle size for the ribbing. I'll see how it looks while being worn. If it tends to flare out, I will re-knit the neck band again.

I love the lines of the sleeve decreases. That is why I love this pattern.

Next up, I made DH a pair of socks. I've never knit him a pair before so this was an experiment in fitting. The lesson I learned is: do not try to fit a pair of socks while traveling. I think I ripped the first sock out at least 5  times at various points. I took detailed measurements, or so I thought. But the first time I didn't measure where the instep begins. I like to put a little gusset in before a short row heel as I think it fits better. Second, I had too few sts in the short row heel so the length of the heel wasn't long enough for his foot. I had to re-do that part a few times to get the length right. I still have one flaw in the sock: the heel is too narrow for his foot. I should have left more sts at the tip of the heel. 

However, all this heel knitting occupied hours on planes when I had nothing better to do. And I have perfected a new-to-me short row technique. I used the Socktopus shadow wrap technique on the sweater above and liked it a lot. So I did that on the heel and then found out that she doesn't give instructions for the lengthening part of the short rows. They are meant for shaping where you just knit the shadow wraps together and go on with the rest of the sts. Doing this meant two rows for each short row - one to pick up the sts and another to do another short row. That would throw the shape of the heel off. I ended up going with a comment I found - pick up one half of the shadow wrap along with the other half from the other side of the gap. This makes a beautiful heel and I think it is my new favorite method. Sadly, since I was on planes and unprepared to take photos, I don't have in process photos. Next time!

The yarn is Knitcircus yarns double gradient sock set that i got from Amy at Knitting Camp. It held up well through all the ripping and re-knitting. But it is splitty and has a lot of plies. I knit socks at a very tight gauge so it did cause some issues due to the loose plying of the yarn. I am impressed with how exactly the two balls of yarn match each other. The socks are almost identical even though I didn't really count rows. I tend to measure rather than count so I could be off a row or two on the foot between the two socks.

Should I mention that I breezed through the second sock? Yes, I have copious notes for the next go around.

That is the completed sock heel along with the sock from the outside. 

This is a close-up of the heel from the outside. Love how the stripes match!

And the heel on the inside. See how neat it is? And no holes anywhere! I did start and end the short rows on the last st of the instep so that the sts would not get stretched out while I was working the rest of the short rows and I think this helped with the no-holes. But it is also a factor of the shadow wrap technique as there is no gap at all between the end of the short row and the next st. 

When I was home between my travels, I was working on re-doing the bead necklace that I posted about in this post in July. The necklace is done and I also made a few pairs of matching earrings and a bracelet to use up all the extra beads I bought. I wore it this weekend in the Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show's fashion show. I entered 3 shawls and my Rose Lace Collar Bohus sweater in the show and the colors in the necklace were perfect for the items.

The bracelet is on top. The earrings inside the necklace are made like the tassel on the bottom of the necklace. The other two (on the right and left) are different and smaller and lighter. One is more pink and the other more teal so I can pick the one that goes with the outfit and highlight those colors in the necklace. I am quite pleased with the way this turned out after the first fiasco. 

But I am glad to be done with beading. i want to get back to knitting and spinning and finishing up my dishtowel on the loom. This weekend is the Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck so I will be spinning. Spinning on my spindle as I volunteer and spinning on the Hansen at my two Amy King workshops. More on that next week.

Now on to the travel. I went to Singapore and Tokyo in September. I didn't take many photos in Singapore as it is usually hot and humid and I stay indoors most of the time. But I had to spend 9 hours in Hong Kong airport on the way back because I had to get here the day after I was done with work. The only way to do that was to fly from Singapore to Hong Kong on the late evening flight and then catch the morning flight from Hong Kong to New York. I walked around the airport along with catching up on work and the beginning of the Great British Bake Off.

In my walks, I captured these unique pieces of art and history scattered around the airport. There are also objects of art inside glass cases and children's play areas.

This is a vertical 3D painting on a wall with a helpful set of footprints nearby that indicated the best place to take a photo.

This one is on the floor and also has a set of footprints indicating the best photo spot.

 There was a contest involving charities and food and this Buddha (created by American Airlines employees) won. It is made of cans of seafood. Their labels create the colors. The mountains represent the mountains of one of the islands of Hong Kong, I think. The link is to a PDF describing the contest and the sculpture. It has photos of the piece being built. The seafood cans will be donated to local food banks after the display is done.

 I also took these photos of a model of the old time food stalls in Hong Kong. The description below describes their place in Hong Kong society but they are being replaced by chain fast food places. These were the original fast food of Hong Kong - places to get a quick cheap meal. I hope you can read it. It wasn't easy getting a good picture of it.

I have many more pictures of Tokyo and want to do do justice to the 1.5 days of sight seeing that I was able to squeeze in. Yes, I know. I have promised that before. But I am not traveling as much any more and I hope to have time to blog more regularly. 

Next week Rhinebeck and Tokyo!

A Day in the Life will be right back after...

a short break for some knitting news.

I have been knitting quite regularly, maybe inspired by all the lovelies at Camp. First of all, I finished the socks I started back in February at Madrona. I've named these Boysenberry Waffles. You've seen them before. Here's the pair:
A close up of the broken rib pattern.
A closer look at the heel. You can see the little gussets I make so that I can work eye-of-partridge st on the heel and make it deeper. I purled the gussets so I didn't have to keep track of them. You just increase till you have the correct number of purled sts and decrease till all of them are gone.
I also made a beaded beret in Rowan Wool/silk in the Bramble colorway. I thought I would knit this at Camp and I swatched for it there but I didn't have enough beads. This is for a class where I'll be teaching two different beading techniques. My usual beading class involves about 10 different techniques but that involves just a sampler. Students wanted a real project so I came up with this. The brim has the beads threaded on and that was why I couldn't start without all the beads on the yarn. I use a Big Eye needle to thread beads as some of you may have seen when I was making my necklace. One can also use a floss threader but I find it too floppy to pick up the beads. This is a close-up of the finished brim with the shadowed diamonds pattern that I designed. The blue diamonds have a green shadow.
On the top, I put the beads on the st via a crochet hook. The crochet hook that fit the hole in the bead was too small to grab the yarn without splitting it. So I struggled with fixing the splits. I remembered that vanessa had mentioned that Oral-B Superfloss could be used for the same purpose. So I went out and bought some and voila! it worked beautifully. The Superfloss is not as fast as the crochet hook when it works well , but much faster than fixing a split st when it doesn't work as well. Yes, the photo is out of focus. But you can see the result. I'll take a better picture next time I pull out the camera.

I'm working on the Wild Apple. It has been slow going because I am increasing after the yoke. That means the rounds are getting longer and longer. I am up to over 500 sts between the front, back and two sleeves. But I am almost done. Once I divide for the underarms, the body is one long mindless knit. I knit really fast when I'm just doing mindless stockinette so it doesn't take as long as it might for others.

I don't win things. Or so I said till I went to Camp last year. I won two raffle items last year, a lot of vintage Rowan yarns and the Natural Knitter by Barbara Albright. This year I won some lovely skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport Mill-ends in Motherlode. Frequently, folks bring items they've knit with winnings and prizes for show-and-tell. The vintage Rowan is very precious and I want to do something really beautiful and unique with it. However, I have a plan for the Lorna's Laces.

I am debating whether the Lorna's Laces project or a pair of mittens from Latvian Mittens or a ch'ullo inspired by Andean Folk Knitting by Cynthia LeCount is going to be my next project. I am failing miserably at coming up with a color scheme for the chu'llo (more in a future post) but I think I have a good one for a pair of mittens. So one of the first two will be next.

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Tortoise Knitting

Lately I've realized that I knit like a tortoise. Not in huge spurts like some folks but I knit regularly and inch along till I'm done. Since I only work on a few things at a time, I have enough FOs to compete with others.

I broke one of my rules this week. I started on a simple project while I still had one on the needles. But I really wanted to do a KAL with Debbie New and a hat seemed innocuous. Of course I started late - on Thursday when the KAL was to begin on a Monday. Oh well! I'll be caught up to the KAL by tomorrow when Debbie posts the next set of instructions on the Schoolhouse Press site. Oh no! She already posted Part 4. I'm behind again. This is why I don't do KALs.

Here's my Klein Bottle Hat so far, looking very much like a ribbed watch cap. That top-most contrast colored yarn is the exciting part - where the inside turns into the outside and becomes one surface. The other bits of colored yarn are just marking where I need to start counting from. I'm done with the inside and part-way done with the outside. I need to get the outside up to that little slit on the inside by tomorrow. It is very boring so far, lots of ribbing in navy. It looks narrow, I think, because of the ribbing.
In true tortoise fashion, I am moving along on the socks also. Or should I say sock? Here's the first one of a pair. I'm done with the heel and am moving steadily along on the leg.I did a little purling at the heel to maintain some interest and also to count. I was able to count the increases easily on the first gusset and when the purl sts are gone, the second gusset was done. This is the heel that I gave instructions for a while ago. The colors are a little overexposed as I took this by the window and I wantedto show the details. The actual sock is much darker in color - like boysenberry jam.Instead of knitting, I am still reading. I went through three Brother Cadfael books this week. Mehitabel, I also love Margery Allingham but not as much as I love Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael. In times of extended comfort needs, I have spent lots of time reading her books and Harry Kellerman (the author of the 'Rabbi' books).

Those Pesky Feet

Human feet are very unique and unfortunately don’t always conform to their owner’s sock knitting preferences. This often makes knitters wonder if there is something wrong with the knitting itself. Relax! It is not your knitting, it is the feet themselves that are at fault.

To illustrate the problem, I present – my feet.

I have fairly small feet, rather average in most respects. But I have very high arches. The top of my foot doesn’t slope gradually up to the instep. There is a slight slope and then, at the arch, it suddenly rises up in a hurry. There is a huge distance from the ankle to the back of the heel. All of this makes the standard heel flap/gusset heel fit rather well. So far so good if I am knitting the sock cuff down.

However, I don’t like knitting heel flap/gusset heels toe up . I tried the standard short row heel and it stretched out over that odd high instep. I tried knitting it over 60% of the sts and that didn’t help because, while it adds to the depth of the heel, it reduces the width of the instep. Additionally, I was getting holes in the bottom of the sock at the heel because the fabric was stretched tight there. This made the fabric thin and prone to wear.

Finally, I developed a gusseted, short-row heel that I really love. I like knitting it, it is mindless, and it fits me and it comfortable and durable. It isn’t something I invented. It is something I cobbled together. I am going to explain this in general terms as well as using my own numbers as an example. In my case, I use 68 sts for the circumference of the sock.

Beginning: When the length of the nascent sock comes to the point where the instep starts to slope up above the arch, I start increasing. I add 2 sts on every other round, on each side of the sole. My beginning of round (BOR) is at the left side of the sock, where the sole meets the top of the foot. The first half of the sts after the BOR (34 sts) are the top of the foot and the second half (34 sts) are the sole. I increase as follows:

Rnd 1: K1, M1, knit across the instep sts, k1, M1, knit to end of rnd
Rnd 2: K

I continue this increasing until I have 1” worth of sts on each side of the sole. My gauge is about 8-9 sts per inch for sock yarn. So I add 8 sts on each side for a total of 16. Once I am done with this increasing, including the subsequent plain round, I am ready to begin the heel.

At this point, I have 50% of the circumference sts (34 sts) + the 16 sts I added set aside for the heel. I work the short row heel on these sts, leaving the instep sts in reserve. Now we will be working back and forth on the heel sts (34+16=50) only.

Middle: I work the short row heel with an eye of partridge st pattern on it. This makes the heel very thick and comfortable and also helps with wear. You can use any short row heel variation you like. I have used wraps, the Japanese short row method, the yarnover method, and others in the past. My current favorite is one described in the Sock Wizard V3 program as the Ultimate Short Row Heel. I am not giving details on how to work it because I don’t know if this is a commonly used technique elsewhere and is not really pertinent to this discussion. Whatever wrapping and turning method or no-wrap technique you like can be used.

Row 1: K across the heel sts (e.g. K 50)
Row 2: Sl 1, p to end (e.g. Sl 1, p49)
Row 3: *Sl 1, k1, repeat from * to next to last st to be worked, k1, turn
Row 4: Sl 1, p to last st, turn

Repeat rows 3 and 4, working 1 st less on each row i.e. turning 1 st before the end of the previous row until you have 25% of your circumference sts left being worked. The rest are on hold. In my case, I work the heel down to 18 sts with 16 sts on hold on each side of the heel.

Now start the increasingly lengthening rows, continuing the sl 1, k1 on the RS.

Row 1: *Sl 1, k1, rep from* to wrap or end of the penultimate row (2 rows earlier), pick up wrap or whatever you like to do, turn.
Row 2: Sl 1, p to wrap or end of penultimate row (2 rows earlier), pick up wrap or whatever, turn.

Repeat these two rows till all the on-hold sts are now being worked. Work across the instep sts and start working in the round again. Keep the EOP pattern on the heel sts going. This makes a nice cushion for the Achilles tendon.

Ending: Continue the back of the heel sts in eye of partridge, decreasing 2 sts every other round till we are back at the original circumference number.

Rnd 1: K across instep sts; k1, k2tog, *sl 1, k1 to 3 sts before BOR, ssk, k1
Rnd 2: K

Repeat these two rnds until you have decreased away all the sts you added on the foot. In my case, I repeat these rnds 8 times.

Now continue as always with the leg and cuff.