2014 FO #5: Rainy Day Socks the Second

Sometimes it's a real pleasure to come here and write for my blog. Yesterday, I spent over an  hour trying to make one paragraph look and feel right. I moved words around, replaced some words with other words, read the sentences out loud to see if I could figure out where the issue was, argued with strangers on the internet about things that don't matter, and still I wasn't able to capture to concept I wanted to using my command of the English language.

So, for inspiration, I read a paper on another topic, found a paragraph that described exactly what I wanted to say but using a sophistication that I may never be able to achieve, promptly cracked the shits, packed up all of my stuff, drove home came home, downloaded a move on to my iPad and did some knitting. Very grown-up of me. Not helping me get my thesis done at all!

In knitterly news, the parade of finished socks rolls on.

These are my second pair of Rainy Day socks made with Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette. All the details are the same as the last one.

I even found a super cute box to put them in.

The recipient seemed to like them very much, which is really the most important thing. I wholeheartedly recommend this project as a gift for when you want to make socks for someone but aren't completely sure of their size or calf width - the lace in the pattern is unbelievably forgiving.

Of course it wouldn't be a blog post if it didn't feature my (apparently not very interested) favourite two living beings in the world. 

And the zucchini plants that are slowly taking over the entire back courtyard. As the plants get older and bigger, so do the (delicious) fruit. At this rate, by the end of summer I'll have zucchinis as big as my cat is.

Five pairs of socks to go!

When bathed in sunshine, life itself is sunny.

Happy Monday! I know that Monday is supposed to be all bleurgh blah blah icky bleurgh but I had an excellent nine hours sleep last night and I feel fabulous so I just can't buy into it today. Plus, I had a very productive weekend and am feeling very smug and pleased with myself right now. I think I must be unbearable to spend time with at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be back to my cranky self tomorrow and growling about silly things again the way I should be behaving.

Firstly, I got a decent start on my Christmas gift socks. This pattern is lovely to knit and the yarn is a delight to knit with, so that was all fun.

Secondly, I finally started the border for my Serenity-ish blanket. It's going to be a long, slow process knitting those seven stitches back and forth but the finishing line is in sight. At last!

I think the bee stitch was a good choice…I guess there's not much I can do about it now. 

And finally, two weeks after I should have (it's been too cold to garden!) I got around to potting my zucchini seedlings. I did a bit of internet research on the best way to transplant zucchinis and it turns out that researching gardening on the internet when you don't know anything about gardening is a completely useless way to learn anything about gardening. There's so much contradictory information out there that I was more confused *after* reading about it than I was before. 

One website said to plant the seedlings together in a hill but, since I have no idea what a "hill" is in the context of gardening as opposed to wide open vistas and landscapes, I smooshed three plants together in the same hole.

Another website said that vine zucchinis should be planted where they can grow on a trellis. I have no idea if I have vine zucchinis and the seed packet provided me with no insight, so I planted another four seedlings against a trellis (and next to a solar light, because, well, I like solar lights. Is there anyone who doesn't like solar lights? They are awesome! All they need is sun and they make my courtyard look amazing. Effect with no effort is my kind of lighting).

In my uneducated view the trellis ones look the happiest so far. I'm not sure if happiness is an appropriate measure for plants but it's been 24 hours and nothing's died yet so I'm going to count this as a win. If everything goes well in 4-6 weeks I'll been able to eat food that I've actually grown myself in my garden like some sort of pioneer or settler. Fingers crossed!

PS: I saw this bag on a Christmas gift guide and I want want want. Christmas is about buying for other people not yourself, though, right? Those Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen quote pieces of jewellery - gorgeous. 

Christmas knitting time!

It's the November 1 (already?), which means that it's the time of year to ... *dramatic pause* ... talk about Christmas knitting again! This year I am taking a zero-stress approach and only knitting three things. No additional Christmas knitting stress this year - I'm using knitting to reduce my stress instead!

The first is the Serenity blanket, which is technically not a Christmas gift but a blanket for a baby that's due on the 20th of December. You can't see it very clearly in this picture from the project's pattern page but the original pattern stopped the inner lace section by cutting though the leaves (Source of the photo).

I didn't like that so I continued the pattern so the leaves 'closed'. I really like how it looks now.

I just have to figure out what border I'm going to use now. Any suggestions?

The second gift is a pair of Rainy Day Socks for my stepmother, just like the ones I gave to Sam's grandma last year. I loved knitting them so much and they were so very quick and easy that this choice was a no-brainer.

Finally, and this should come as no surprise, a pair of plain boring huge stockinette socks for Sam. The colour is not quite as garish as it looks here - it's more of a dark burgundy that matches perfectly his old school colours. I know the school colours of his private boys school because still has a pair of boxer shorts that he got while attending there 10+ years ago. It seems strange to me that a) his high school gave out underwear and b) he still owns it, but apparently it's something boys schools do. Boys will be boys, I guess.

Of course while I was deciding what to make this year,

 Lucy was right there offering all the assistance she could.

Thanks Lucy. You're the best.

Argo and a delightful pair of socks (2012 FO #15)

Argo

Last night I went to see Argo, Ben Affleck's third directorial effort. It's a good film - enjoyable, good costumes and sense of place, decent script. But the end of the film just didn't ring true to me so today, while procrastinating working hard on my thesis, I thought I'd look up its accuracy. According to Wikipedia, the last half hour of the film is completely made up! The role of other countries in the escape is minimised or represented falsely (a decision that apparently weighed very heavily on Affleck, whatever) and the escape scenes are based in fantasy rather than a true story.

Now I don't expect Hollywood to represent the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Cole Porter biopic Night and Day (1946) starring Cary Grant is a complete fabrication. But all of the film style in this film works to create a realistic effect - uncannily accurate casting (to the detriment of the acting quality, but that's another issue), documentary/first-hand style photography in the opening scenes and the 'this is where they are now' captions at the end of the film. It's unabashed audience manipulation and, knowing how hard the film works to create misrepresentation and recirculate false ideas definitely causes me to reassess my previous good opinion of the film.

In happier news

I have finished my Rainy Day socks!

Check out the polar bear pyjama pants - am I rocking the daytime work sexy or what?

These were possibly the easiest and quickest socks I have every made in my life. I cast on and then left them by the computer, Whenever I or the computer needed a moment to think, I picked up the socks and did a few rows. 

Before you know it, without even trying and definitely without feeling like I put in any time or effort, the socks were done!

I made quite a few modifications to the original pattern. To get the most out of my yarn, I worked them toe up by casting on 20 stitches. using Judy's Magic Cast-on. I increased four stitches every row until I had 32 stitches then increased four stitches every second row until I had 52 stitches. I then knit one row increasing two stitches only leaving me with 54 stitches (one extra repeat)

I knit six rows plain so the toe would cover all of the actual toes of the recipient then proceeded as per normal for any toe-up sock.

I used a short-row heel and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast-off to end up with a fabulously comfortable and luxurious pair of socks.



While half of me doesn't want to give them away, the other half is saying IT'S NOVEMBER AND 25% OF YOUR CHRISTMAS KNITTING IS DONE! REJOICE!

So I'm going with rejoicing :)  Woowoo - total number of WIPS down to 15 (still a lot, but better than it was. As the Beatles say, it's getting better all the time.)

Day 24: WIP Wednesday

Last week in an effort to wrestle my WIP pile into some sort of order, I decided to pick just two projects and concentrate on them. It worked! One of those pairs of socks is effectively finished (dear weaving in ends, why do you suck so much? love me) and the other one is almost complete.

Since this plan was so successful, I've decided to expand it to four projects and work only on those:

The Barefoot Dream socks are my new handbag stockinette stitch sock. They need to be done by December for my mum's birthday, so no hurry. The mitered square blanket now has nine of the 12 blocks joined. It's being held up because I need to unpick and restitch the first three blocks I joined and, I know it's childish but I just don't want to! The Rainy Day socks are almost done. These are the quickest and easiest socks I have ever made. I keep them next to the computer and pick them up and do a row or two whenever my computer or I am thinking and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, these are almost done. I have to start making more socks on 2.75mm needles!

The final project is the Herbivore that I cast on for during CAST ON MANIA then promptly forgot about. The yarn that I'm using, the completely divine Madelinetosh Pashmina in Thunder, was a gift from my friend Christian. I'm seeing Radiohead with him in three weeks (woot woot!!) and I'd love to have this finished by then. The last Herbivore I made only took me about five days, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I love watching the list of of WIPs get smaller and smaller in number...

24 down, 7 to go.

Day 17: WIP Wednesday

I should actually start calling this the WIP Wednesday of Shame because according to Ravelry, I have 17 projects on the go at the moment. That is a million levels of ridiculous! How did I reach this place? The worst thing is that six of them are actually finished and just waiting for the ends to be woven in. So I'm both lazy and suffering from the knitter's version of ADD - what a winner.

I'm trying a new strategy. This week instead of working on All Of The Projects, I'm just going to focus on two. Firstly, the Rainy Day socks:

The finished sock is divine. These are probably the least durable socks I have ever made but they're like feet clouds - my toes were purring during this shot. I cannot say enough nice things about this combination of yarn and pattern.

Next, the boring Regia socks.  Look at them being boring.

Boring boring boring. Bleurgh. The odd random stripes of neon yellow can't save the acres of boring boring brown and green. But these will soon be finished! (I hope)

17 down, 14 to go.

Day 8: Oopsie!

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that the reason I didn't post yesterday was because I forgot. No excuses except for plain old absentmindedness. I took photos, planned some words in my head, uploaded the photos to my computer then got so caught up in reading my new book (Feminism at the Movies, if anyone is interested. It's great, and theory-lite so very accessible) that I never got around to actually posting anything...oops!

Mind you, I didn't have anything super exciting to share anyway. I've noticed that this time around, Blogtober is turning into a 'this is what I did today' journal. Yesterday I had an appointment on campus so I decided to spend some study time in the library beforehand.  I gave my poor crooked back a rest and (for once) didn't lug the contents of my entire study to the library with me. Vital ingredients for study: pen and paper (I did not see one other person using a non-electronic device to record information in the entire packed library. I am clearly a dinosaur), water (important to stay hydrated), Blistex (using Blistex is like smoking - you should never start and once you do, it's almost impossible to quit) and knitting, for sanity purposes. 

On the subject of knitting, I have I ever told you how much I love knitting socks with 5-ply yarn and 2.75mm needles? I have basically just looked at this project and waved my arms in its general direction and it's already a third of the way up the foot! After the black never-ending socks of doom, this sock is a minty-green fresh breath of air. Although, disturbingly, how puffed up and deformed does my foot look in this photo? It looks normal in real life, I promise.

For an update on the mitered square blanket, I have finished all the vertical seaming of the blocks and now I just need to do the horizontal ones.  It takes me one episode of Big Brother to join two squares (I know! Don't judge me) so I figure by the time the next two housemates have been evicted, I should be ready to start the border. The only thing is that with the first blocks I did (the column to the far left) I used a different technique to the other three and so it doesn't look as good as the others. I'm trying to work out if I care enough to unpick and re-seam those squares. My perfectionist instinct says yes but the realist in me reminds myself that it took me five years to get to this point and that if I lose momentum it may be another five years till I get it back again...

In case you were in any doubt as to whether this photo is authentically mine (the consistently shitty unedited quality of the photo not begin enough), please note not one but two cat toys placed carefully between the blocks. Welcome to my house!

Eight posts down, 23 to go.

Day 7: Never learning from the past

Just as I predicted yesterday, I woke up this morning feeling a million times better than I did yesterday. Sometimes having a good night's sleep, along with some ibuprofen and a really nice glass (or three) of white wine, can make all the difference.

One of the five socks of shame is now finished, which is very exciting.  I was incredibly stoked to get one of the pairs off the needles and get down to four, but then I started thinking... The needles looked so lonely and bare, I've got the yarn from this failed hat rewound into gorgeous soft mint-coloured balls just waiting to be made into a pair of weather-topical Rainy Day Socks (seriously, what the hell is going on with this weather. I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West and if I get rained on one more time I will actually melt), I love the feeling I get from starting a new projects and who doesn't want more happy when it's cold, grey and dreary outside. And, well, the rest is history.

I have five socks on the go right now. Clearly, I never learn from my mistakes.

7 down, still heaps to go.