Almost there

This past weekend we packed up the Jeep and headed west to go camping at Ludington State Park. While I didn't get much knitting in at the actual campsite, I did manage an hour or so at the beach on Sunday and several hours in the car on the way home.



I've only been working on these socks for a little over a month, but it feels like longer. I'm ready to be done, but in a good way. I love all the cables here and the color is awesome. Too bad I won't be able to wear them until the fall.



With the knitting time over the weekend and a few hours this week, I'm in position to finish the last toe this evening. If the weather cooperates this weekend, there could be an FO post next week. I also may post a poll to help me select my next sock project. I leave for vacation on June 26 and definitely need some vacation knitting.

The Most Intricate Socks In the World

I don't always knit intricate socks, but when I do, I prefer Wollmeise.*

Holy crap these socks are addicting. The pattern is Ornette by Cookie A. and it is the first pattern of hers that I have knit. I know there are tons of Monkeys and Pomatomuses (Pomatomi?) out there, but I couldn't resist the siren call of all those cables.



Contrary to how they look, the pattern is not all that complicated. If you can read a chart (and you'll need to as there are no written instructions to substitute) you can knit these socks. I find myself using the chart for the first cabled section you see on the right, then noting how the rest of the leg repeats and zipping through the end of a round. These definitely aren't the socks to knit when you're highly distracted or without looking, but they're hardly mind melters. I did run into trouble last night when I dropped a stitch several rows down. It was too tedious to tink back, so I had to frog six rows or so and pick everything back up. It totally killed my progress for the night.



The yarn is Wollmeise in Kornblume (I finally got my hands on some) and shows off the cable stitching wonderfully. It can be a bit splitty at times and I have to untwist the yarn as I go, but the beautiful saturated color is worth it. The yardage in this skein (575 yards) will come in handy what with all the little cables and having to knit the largest size. I'll need every last inch of it.



*An homage to these commercials

Sock Surgery

I've been itching to cast on a new project the past few days, but decided I should stick to my goal of finishing my WIPs first. To that end, I prepped my Paraphernalia Socks for surgery last night.

The pattern design is a series of cables surrounded by ribbing. It starts with a center twist over two ribs, which you can see in the picture just below the lowest needle. After that comes a quite lovely intertwined cable worked over six ribs, which pulls in the fabric quite a bit.

Unfortunately for me, one of the intertwined cables fell right at the top of the gusset and therefore right at the point where my socks get stretched the most. Another hit was that the complex pattern started right before the heel flap. If I simply frogged back to before it began, I'd lose all the heel flap and gusset knitting I'd done.

What you see above is the whole sock frogged back to a few rows after finishing the gussets - I had knit about 2 inches before trying it on - and the main pattern ripped out row by row. Yarn from the individual rows top to bottom is fanned out from left to right. I picked up a tiny crochet hook this afternoon, which will serve as my scalpel during this sock surgery.

My plan to alleviate the tightness in the pattern across my ankle is to reknit the pattern with only the central cable continuing through where the original intertwined pattern was. I'll continue for one full repeat with only the middle cable, which should land far enough past my ankle to make the socks fit better. I'll start out picking up the two columns of ribbing on either side of the pattern, and then work the cable itself row by row. Wish me luck.

Still Life: Felted Balls

Still Life: Felted Balls, originally uploaded by Camping Jason.

The fruits of my labor last night. Yesterday's post was really all about the quote, so here's a bit more detail on my process.

I used water from the tea kettle - very hot! - and only used enough to cover the balls in the bucket. Before, I had used a half full bucket which resulted in lots of splashing. With less water, I felt (ha!) I could get more friction with the plunger.

Before last night's efforts, the group at top left was completely unfelted. They still need lots of work. The group at lower left are almost finished, one more go should do it. The four smug ones at top right are the only ones I've deemed finished. And the sad yellow one all by itself was my first attempt and is too small. By the way, the yellow one just northwest of it is supposed to be the same color. That's what I get for felting washing darks and lights together. Didn't my mother raise me right?

The madness continues

So I felted more of those little spheres I've been knitting tonight, or tried to at least. My setup this evening consisted of two buckets in the bathtub - one hot, one cold - a plunger and rubber gloves. I alternated agitating the knitted spheres with the plunger in the hot and cold water hoping to shock them into submission. I didn't want to dump the wooly water down the tub drain and end up with a clogged tub, so I poured the buckets out into the toilet. I don't know if you've ever poured water into a toilet before, but it basically force flushes the toilet without the bowl refill; it's designed to work that way. What was left was a near empty toilet bowl with some grayish water. I didn't get to do a final flush to clear it out before my wife got home. All of this led to the quote of the night by my wife: "Did you plunge your balls in the toilet?"

Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal. Goodnight.

Three little balls of wool are we

Three little balls of wool are we, originally uploaded by Camping Jason.

I haven't gotten sick of these yet. I think I'm up to 6 plus the first yellow one (which is too small/squishy). I felted the green one by hand and decided to try the others in the washer; no such luck. I put them in a pillow case to keep any fuzz from destroying our washer and they started to felt, but got nowhere near what they need to be. I ran through through two cycles too. I really don't want to have to felt 1,000+ balls by hand.

I'm still trying to hone in on the perfect configuration for these. Using different yarns is definitely going to make things more difficult. In the long run, I'm hoping that slight size differences will balance out the finished project. I have made a few mods to the pattern, increasing directly after cast on and working the final decrease row in smaller needles, to eliminate nipples on my balls. Oh dear.

P.S. I have no idea why my entries show up like crap in the RSS feed. I'll try to fix it, but if anyone has any suggestions...

Here Comes The Sun

A brilliant, angry, yellow sunrise, originally uploaded by Camping Jason.

And so it begins. This was a test, to see how big my balls are. Turns out my balls will be bigger than Alice's. (Ok, I'll stop now.)

I followed the Oh Balls! pattern as written and ended up with a 2" diameter ball after felting. I used some crappy, fuzzy, acrylic yarn for stuffing and I don't think I used enough. I was wary of the ball shrinking too much, but I probably only lost about 1/2" in size. Next time, I'll have to stuff the balls so they're nice and firm. (Sorry!)

I felted it by hand in the tub, and switching from hot to cold water seemed to produce the fastest results. Everyone knows balls shrink in cold water. (Alright already!) I popped it in the dryer for 20 minutes to suck some more moisture out. It wasn't completely dry, but I didn't want to run a full cycle for just one ball. It did make a rather pleasing sound, tumbling through the dryer, I can only imagine how 50 would sound.

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to have lots of little felted balls all around my house... it'll be like some sick kind of Easter egg hunt.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who commented on my changes post. It's good to know who's reading and that you're so supportive.