Etherknitter

Noro Kureyon sock yarn startitis

I was entertained and thrilled by all the suggestions offered as contest entries in my pre-Christmas post.  I learned that there is still SO much to learn.   The random.org number generator spit out Cheryl S., so she is the winner of the Loopy Ewe $25 gift certificate.

Mr. Etherknitter was also amused by the avalanche of comments.  He suggested that I give out a second prize (also $25 credit at the Loopy Ewe) to Wendy for the first identification of a rock 'n roll reference.  So let it be written, so let it be done.  (-Yul Brynner, The Ten Commandments, 1956, deMille).

Discipline has been absent in the Etherknitter queue.  I often feel out of step during this time of year.  Working December 24th, December 25th and December 31st feels lonely.  This means I've cast on, not once, but twice.

Noro Kureyon sock yarn, colorway #150 had arrived.  I'm 80% through the ribbing.  The yarn has big variations in grist.  The second picture demonstrates this.  I cast on using a #0 to prevent the thin spots from creating foot-mesh.  But the fabric is potentially stiff.  I did a quickie swatch (just a long tail cast-on in the middle of the length between the sock on the needles, and the ball) on a #1.  I'm going to switch to the larger needle when I get to the leg and see how it looks.  The yarn is scratchy and rough.  I've read that it softens with washing.  The color runs are long.  I cast on 72 stitches, finished 16 rows of cuff, and haven't changed colors yet.

The Cabley Mitten is in progress for Mr. E.   He has substantial paws, so I needed to add a pattern repeat (12 stitches).  The peacock in the family wanted Lamb's Pride Medieval Red (M26), so that accounts for this blaze of glory on the needles:

It's a fun pattern, and a quick knit.  I haven't done a waste yarn thumb yet.  I'm looking forward to seeing if I like it better than the stitches-on-holder, cast on one-more-stitch, darn the holes (both meanings of the word) later approach to thumbs.

Have a happy, warm, and safe celebration for the New Year!   Our evening plans will be Formaggio cheese and meats, sweets, early Champagne (1990 Veuve Clicquot, La Grande Dame) by the fire, knitting (me), programming (him), and an early bedtime.  See you on the other side.

Joy of the holidays!

Mr. Etherknitter's Italian cousins work as art restorers in Rome.  I am cleaning my desk, and find a sample of their recent work from the Vatican collection. 

May you have all the joy and celebration of the season and the holidays.

Contest!

Step by step, FO's are dropping, flopping, plopping off the needles.

Yarn:  Judy of Smatterings, colorway "Dress Blues".  Yes, I was a rock 'n roll honeychile, and always think of it as Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.
Needles: #1 Crystal Palace
Pattern:  simple st st sock;  20 rows of K2P2 ribbing, slipstitch heel flap, kitchenered toes

The snowstorms have been making life interesting.  Last Thursday, there were not enough hours between 5pm and morning to drive home, clear the driveway, sleep, and drive back to work.  Mr. E and I stayed in town with a last minute hotel reservation.  It was fun until the next morning.  Then I discovered that I had no comb, no deodorant, no floss, yesterday's socks and yesterday's underwear.  Sunday's storm was more fun.  The roads were too slippery to get out for a newspaper, so we cross-country skied in the cul-de-sac on the unplowed road instead.  I made a turkey chili, and found a good Cotes du Rhone to keep it company.  The volcano pictured below is a construction formed by a deck table, two storms, and two lazy shovelers who didn't. 

I will soon be celebrating a significant comment number AND a blogiversary.  Both events will probably coincide in January.  So, of course, I'm having a contest. 

I came to knitting and spinning later in life than most.  I learned to ski (both downhill and cross-country) after residency finished.   These learning experiences taught me wonderful things that have made my life brighter, happier, more colorful, more connected.

I don't want to postpone learning important new stuff.  The older one gets, the tougher a job it is to build the pathways in the brain that make skill acquisition possible.  The contest is this:  leave a comment with something you think I absolutely should learn while the brain is still young.  All suggestions will be random-numberized, and the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate from the Loopy Ewe.  I couldn't figure out a yarn or a colorway to please all contributors, so you get to choose your own. 

Please do not suggest crochet, quilting, bungee jumping, or learning to fly a small plane.  They are all equally dangerous in my world-view.  Those who possess those skills are far braver than I.

There is one other rock 'n roll reference in this post.  (It is not my name for the sock color.)  Can anyone identify the song and the group?

One WIP, One FO, and yarn

You are looking at my first colorwork.

The Bosnian mitten from Blackberry Ridge seemed seductive and forgiving.  It is in the middle of its third attempt at forward progress.

The first mistake was not carrying the main color yarn to the inside.  That was two tiers of tinking.  The second mistake was a misknit, and required frank frogging.  I am taking a deep breath.  I am fine.  I'm having fun.  (Really.)  There are no scissors in view.

My Ravelry queue has been overtaken by colorwork.   It is time.  The kit was purchased and started as a reward for finishing the mittlets.

I started with the angora 80%/merino 20% yarn from Samson Angoras, purchased at Rhinebeck, 2007.  I used the number of stitches, and the thumb gusset from the accompanying free pattern.  Then I used my own patterning.  Six rows of K2P1 ribbing, then mistake rib for the hand, st st for the thumb gusset, ending the palm with six rows of K2P1 ribbing.

Although it is big for my hand, it will serve the stated use (warm winter hands around the house) admirably well.  I had thought that the broken rib would pull in more, but it doesn't.  I did the thumb gusset as directed in the pattern.  I am quickly not-a-fan of pulling the gusset stitches together and having to repair the resulting hole between the thumb and the palm.  The hole was big enough to require two or three mattress stitches, as whipstitching it just created holes in different places.  (Note to self:  pick up stitches AND your sorry knitter's derriere.)

Spinner's progress:  another bobbin of Coopworth is almost done.  I've lost count.  Six?  I also added another fiber to my lifelist last month. 

I purchased Arapawa roving, 1 ounce (Rhinebeck, 2007).  The roving was soft and downy.  It was one of the nastiest spins of my lifelist to date.  Neppy, clumpy, clotted, it was clearly impossible to make a smooth or remotely even yarn.  I submitted to what it wanted to be, then Navajo plyed the resulting yarn.  It may become something acceptable when incorporated into a knitted fabric, but I currently call it a flop.  Brown is the color of autumn,  and hard to photograph.  This is a time when the camera was truly more sympathetic to the model than the model deserved.  In order, roving, singles on the bobbin, unwashed skein.