So the only Christmas knitting I’m doing (for her, it would actually be Hanukkah knitting!) is a pair of socks for Anna. She’s still a college student, so I have to use superwash yarn that’s tough enough to withstand college machines; this is KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (golden yellow), and it’s the Kai-Mei pattern by Cookie A, which I knit once before. I’m telling you, it’s an absolute blast to knit, and how often do you end up with socks that have a right sock and a left sock?

i really ADORE this pattern

I finished the first sock in a day and a half, and I’ll cast on the second sock tonight. When I finish it, I’ll get back to my beautiful Audrey in Silt.

Happy Wednesday y’all, and if you’re in NYC, stay dry! I have to be out and about all afternoon, and am starting to hate the weather gods, who give us reliably rainy weather on Wednesdays. Come on. Shift it over a day to Tuesdays or Thursdays, at least once in a while.

angee, in knitpicks felici

I did round 1 swatching for my Mothed sweater and didn’t like the fabric; I need to swatch again, going down a needle size. It was just too thin and kind of gauzy, and not what I’m going for, really. I persist, like a real grown-up knitter!

Other parts of the NE got snow, and we were supposed to but mercifully we didn’t. It is gray and drizzly, though, so it’s that kind of April Fool’s Day. I hope you aren’t fooled today (unless you want to be)!

black flippin socks

I’m knitting black socks, because my son wanted them. Black. Socks. Of which I could buy a dozen for $2. Black socks. Me, with my feeble eyes, living in my sun-unlit apartment in wintry Manhattan. Black socks he’ll wear to work and probably throw in the machines at the laundromat in his neighborhood, followed by a tumble in the giant dryer.

And every stitch I strain my weary eyes to see is formed with oopy-goopy love for my boy. Who wants black socks that his mom knitted for him.

*Yarn courtesy of a sweet sharing by Sara over at Wool Durham – swing by her blog, if you don’t already know it!

Anyway. Sidetracked. When Katie was here, we went through my stash and I sent her home with some pretty yarns to get her own stash going. She saw this green KnitPicks Felici, which I’d bought when I got the pink Felici for Marnie’s socks. Actually, I’d bought the green specifically to make socks for Katie, but then it got buried in my stash — you know how that goes — and newer yarn, newer projects, life, time, all intruded and I forgot all about the green yarn until we saw it. She’s knitting her first pair of socks, so I cast on this new green pair for her, hoping that we’d both hit the heels around the same time so I could walk her through it before she went home. Here’s the current status of the pair I’m making for her….and boy, does that springy green lift my winter-laden spirits. I’m dying for lack of color in the city, so I just glance at the socks and imagine the spring:

soft to touch, happy to look at, GREEN.

This is a Cookie A pattern, Angee, so it fits my sock-knitting mind. Top down, fun, and attractive. The Felici colorway is called ‘green vegetables’ and I really like the particular shades of green. Katie should be wearing these by St Patrick’s Day, to be sure. After all, I finished Anna’s birthday socks in one week, so I can certainly get these knocked out, despite everything that’s going on in my life.

We’re looking at a sunny, mild weekend (40s! Whee!), and I may be going shopping with Will on Saturday. The boy needs a winter coat in the worst possible way, and I’m not fooled by this temporary respite from winter. Oh no, not me. I’ve fallen for that before, thinking winter was over in April. Ha. As our former president said, “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

I just like to pretend he was a comedian, and he meant to say the things he said (now that he’s out of office and can’t hurt us any more).

I got Anna’s birthday socks finished inside one week, which is slow for lots of people but not for me! It’s a fun pattern to knit, and free, so double winner. The color does remind me of a Texas summer sky, so since she’s a yankee living in Houston I think she’ll like them.

anna's 20th birthday socks, done in 7 days go me!!

The combination of almost 0 hours of sun so far this year, plus EVERY project I’ve finished in 2011 is blue, what’s up with that, led me to seek something that’s a big punch of color. When I glanced down into my huge and overflowing knitting bag (which is really a repository of any yarny thing that happens into the living room), I saw my Zauberball, which is red and cherry and purple and blue and all combinations in between. It made me think of summer berries, and boy that’s just what I need, here in the bleak and grim ending of such a snowy January. I had been so inspired by perches’ gorgeous Zauberball shawl and had planned to make one for myself, but I’m on a very rigid no-yarn no-pattern purchasing diet so I had to do something different.

I didn’t really find it all that much fun to knit, but whenever I wear my baktus, I get loads of compliments. I hadn’t realized there was a lace version when I made the last one, so I’d planned to make a 2nd one with lace. Then Eskimimi came along and did a variation on the plain baktus, striping two halves of a Zauberball skein. So I decided to assemble these variations into one thing — an Eskimimi version plus lace. Here it is, all together:

i really like this section - the stripes are showing up

it's becoming more a muddled purple mess

But see what’s happening? By the random luck of striping, both balls are in the same color right now, so the striping has disappeared. Still, it’s interesting to watch the shifts in colors, so I’ll keep going for a while. I’m not committed to it, so if I don’t like it all that much I’ll frog it and find a free shawl. The yarn is so lovely — be sure to check out perches’ shawl to see what I mean. Really, beautiful.

And speaking of perches, she’s got a month-long thing going called building winter; read this post of hers for details. This week, I have

relied on daydreams of green and warmth and summer; kind and warm words from my friends……

slogged through trying to teach college students the concept of means, averages, etc., and going nuts that they can’t seem to get it; deep and icy-cold puddles of brown filthy snow melt at every corner; a couple days of serious pain in my sheck…..

cherished my sweet sweet daughters and their loving communications; the fact that I get to work at home, which is especially wonderful when the weather is so miserable; the fact that even though it’s sometimes a slog, I get to be in this world again each day.

Happy Sunday, y’all.

But I did stay up late and finish sock #1, so in the hope of closing my weekend on something approximating a high note, here’s sock #1 of Anna’s 20th birthday socks. The color really is summery lovely, and balm for a bitter winter spirit. Here’s to a much better week!

So then, thinking of one end of the pendulum made me think of a pit of melancholy, which took me then to Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, which opens with these great lines:

I was sick, sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears.

And then that reminded me of Kafka’s deeply horrifying story, In the Penal Colony. And then, after all that descent into horror, I remember: wait! I was going to show you some pretty socks!

Anna's 20th birthday socks, Komet

They’re the Komet socks by Stephanie van der Linden. If you think the color is familiar, you’re right. I originally bought this color — Sweetgeorgia in summer skin — and I must’ve been drunk or insane, because I bought it specifically to make these socks. But I bought it in worsted weight. WHAT was wrong with me. I’d planned to make socks for my youngest daughter Anna, who turns 20 early in February, so I showed it to her when she was home over the break. I actually gave her a choice of this color or another, and she picked this color.

The day after Christmas, I picked up the yarnWHAT?! Worsted weight, was I insane (I ask myself this question a lot)? I immediately went online and ordered a skein in sock weight. And I just got it yesterday, almost a month later. Note to self and to y’all: don’t order from Sweetgeorgia if you need something in anything approximating a hurry. I’ll have to get the socks in the mail by Saturday 2/5 to get them to her in time, so I’ve got to focus and get them done. Other people can knock a pair of socks out in that amount of time, I just don’t know if I can. I imagine I’ll be knitting all weekend. Like that’s a bad thing.

Another snowstorm last night — what’s that, the 3rd one so far this year? And today’s only the 21st? Hope it’s warm where you are, and if it’s not, I hope you get to stay inside and knit.

just gorgeous, in every way

It seems to be a blue year, this year; while I was waiting for some yarn to arrive, I knocked out a quick braidy cowl, which I named Oh, Marcia. So corny. It’s the Very Braidy Cowl, in Sweet Georgia worsted (colorway summer skin):

Marcia, Marcia Marcia - a very braidy cowl

In exactly the same colorway, but sock weight (which had been my intention when I mistakenly bought the worsted, above), here’s a pair of socks I made for my youngest daughter Anna’s 20th birthday. She really loves handknit socks, much to my real surprise, which makes it such fun to make them for her. This pattern is Komet:

the komet pattern (free on rav), in Sweetgeorgia tough sock, colorway summer skin

SO MUCH BLUE. Something very different was called for……red. Here’s my “I need something red shawl” (aka LaReine Shawl, by Angela Tong, in OkayKnits Sena, colorway sweetie-pie). I absolutely adore this piece, and wear it all the time:

it's such a vibrant color, and a very nice length!

I had this absolutely gorgeous colorway of madelinetosh’s Tosh Merino Light called filigree, so I used one skein of it to make a Saroyan. I loved the pattern, and loved the yarn, but for some reason it won’t photograph correctly, no matter what I do, what kind of light, etc. So trust me, it’s a gorgeous olive green, not so brown:

IT'S NOT BROWN!!! grrrrrr!!

If this wasn’t the quickest and simplest hat pattern in the world, I don’t know what is, but the yellow and white combo really lifts it into “Wow! Where’d you get that hat!” status. Made for Marnie, the pattern is “My Striped & Slouchy Hat“, knit in Cascade 220.

adorable, right?!

These socks — Angee, by Cookie A, knit in KnitPicks Felici (colorway: green vegetables) — are for my oldest daughter Katie, who (a) loves green and (b) picked the pattern. I love knitting for my kids. Knitting the hat above and the socks below was a great antidote to winter.

angee, in knitpicks felici

It took forever, but I made a second Traveling Woman shawl in tosh DK, colorway byzantine. It’s gorgeous, drapy, squishy, and warm:

Traveling Woman Shawl, by Liz Abinante, in tosh DK

A very very quick little knit, I cranked out the Fetching mitts in a couple hours. The yarn is so soft, Cascade Eco Duo (70% alpaca, 30% merino), in the vanilla colorway. It’s a fun knit, and I know the mitts will be luscious to wear but I don’t know how they’ll hold up, given how soft they are (and the yarn is loosely-spun singles). Still, look:

you wouldn't believe how soft these are!

I love this hot little number: Hannah Fettig’s featherweight cardigan, in Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ “clotho,” colorway deliciously called dragon’s blood. This is a wonderful little sweater, I see why everyone has made it.

the color is dragon's blood

This was without a doubt the fastest sweater I’ve ever knit; it really just took 13 days, even though there was a 15-day break in the middle while I was gone to Vietnam and didn’t work on it at all. This is my Wintry Mix sweater, designed by Amy Herzog, knit in the recommended yarn (Berroco Blackstone Tweed).

Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)

A second Thea Colman design, this one the Vodka Gimlet — but since my colorway was Oz (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted), I named my sweater Ozma’s Delight. I can’t express how much I adore this sweater, I’ll probably wear it every day:

sweater LOVE

When the weather started smelling cold, I realized I don’t have a warm hat, so I knocked out A Hat for Eudora, designed by Alexandra Tinsley. The pattern was a birthday gift from Kelly, and the yarn is Cascade 220. I call it my Berry Welty hat.

the hem facing is blue and purple, but only I get to know that!

Here’s my Laurayana sweater — Ayana by Amy Herzog, pattern gifted by my friend Laura. This was knit in Cascade 220 Heathers (color, montmartre, which is much more dusty lavender than it looks here).

really such a comfortable sweater to wear.

For my youngest daughter Anna, a pair of handknit socks — the only kind of socks she wears, which cracks me up given who she is, otherwise. Not a handknit anything kind of person!

Kai-Mei (pattern by Cookie A), in KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (golden glow)

Her foot is at least a couple sizes smaller than mine, so that sock is stretched pretty far to fit over my foot!

this is it. a yard and a half.

With each row, I went through this pair of thoughts: “Oh, no problem, I’m definitely going to have enough yarn.” “OH NO, problem, there’s no way it’s going to last.” But it did last, obviously, and now he owns a pair of socks knit with madelinetosh (tosh sport, colorway tweed) and my love.

his tweedie-pie socks

I still can’t quite believe he let me knit something for him. He’s not (like, at all) a guy who wears sweaters or scarves, so maybe this is just the first of many pairs of socks I can sneak into his drawer.

During those later teen years, of course, I was too busy/cool/bored to watch that kids’ show. But when my kids came along and I watched it again, I noticed hey! That’s “Night on Bald Mountain”! The music choices were interesting! I realized I could say whole passages by memory (oh what a world, what a world, who would’ve thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness….). And I realized that I didn’t identify with Dorothy, at all. For me, it was all about the Scarecrow.

The Scarecrow was really smart, right from the beginning, but he didn’t understand or believe that until he was awarded a dumb piece of paper by the wizard. Yeah, that’s the part I identified with. I’m not discounting everything I learned when I was in college (ages 36-40) or graduate school (40-45) – not at all. I did learn how to think more carefully, how to test my thoughts and be more skeptical. I did learn a lot of stuff too….the importance of the year 1066, the quadratic equation, how to do structural equation modeling, a bunch of stuff about psychology, etc. But like the Scarecrow, I didn’t really think I was smart, and getting that PhD kind of meant that I was. [note: what it actually means is that you are willing to endure years of hardship and difficulty, and that you are willing to bend over and take it. a few other things, too, but that's the gist.]

Even though I taught myself how to weave and spin and knit and sew and make quilts, I didn’t think I really knew how to make a quilt until after I took a little class. OK, now I have some kind of official stamp: I know how to make a quilt. Never mind that I’d been making them before.

I listen to knitters describe how they completely changed this, modified that, didn’t like anything about this sweater so they tweaked this and that, how they decided to design X or Y, and I think wow, I need to take a class. Maybe I don’t.

Anyway. What the hell does this rambling have to do with the price of tea in China?! And when am I getting to the topic that relates to the title of this post?! OK, now.

I’m knitting a sock without a pattern. (Go me! and geez Louise. Big deal.) You know, I’ve kind of been in a knitting funk, or something. I’ve got several projects going, and I faithfully knit knit knit knit (or knit purl knit purl, all that damned stockinette) and just don’t seem to get anywhere. Blah. But then I got the new madelinetosh yarn yesterday, and it’s just so squishy (her hallmark adjective!) and all, and I cast on last night.

Wowie, knitting sport weight yarn on 3.5mm needles? Fabric flows off the needles. This yarn knits up beautifully, I now think I need to buy a sweater quantity (and find a sweater that’s not just miles of stockinette). It’s not like knitting a plain old ordinary plain vanilla sock requires any brain power – it doesn’t – but I’m knitting without a pattern. Maybe after this I can start fancying-up my own sock patterns. Socks are the easiest thing in the world to knit…..a standard canvas, set and defined sections to play with, easy breezy.

Since this colorway is called tweed, I’m calling them tweedie-pie socks. I know.

your basic sock - but wowie, the yarn

the yarn! the fabric! delicious!

The combination of the yarn, the speed, and the project seem to have cured my funk. Maybe I should just accept that I’m a sock knitter. I love knitting socks. Farewell, funk! Be gone!

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