Blue black holes, stellar lifeforms

This appears to be an ordinary ball of sock yarn.

It is not.

It sits there, in its recurrent completeness, representing a space-time anomaly that sucked ten hours of knitting time out of my life.

The skein became a ball several months ago to start Marina Piccola.  Before getting around to swatching a stitch count for Marina, I decided it was the perfect yarn for Monkeys. 

The twisted rib was fun.  The start of the lace was not.  I define the concept of the tight knitter.  But I could not solve the laddering problem that goes with a purl stitch at the start of each needle.  I searched Ravelry for hints.  Clues.  A few did the pattern all in knit stitches.  (They appeared to be contrarians.)  I seemed to be the only knitter amongst the 4415 to find these purl ladders cosmetically damaging.

Life is too short and death is too long.  I frogged it. 

The yarn ball sat silently, biding its infinite time.  I searched for an interesting pattern where I could use the K1P1 twisted ribbing.  Aha!  Crosswalker socks!  Twenty rows into this pattern, I noticed a dimple at the junction of ribbing and leg.

It is visible at twelve o'clock in the picture, where ribbing meets leg.  I threaded a dental floss life line, took it off the needles, and tried it on.  Pooching ensued.  The sock won't lie flat on my ankle.  I put the stitches back on the needle, and put it aside for a day or two to think about it.

That's when the sock tried to kill itself.

The k2tog stitch jumped off a cliff, and laddered down four rows.

Rescue happened.  Then I brought it to knitgroup for consultation.  Knitgoddess Lorrie discussed the mechanics of what was happening.  Because the decrease/increase pattern forms a V of stitches, there was no place for the top of the V to go.  It met a straight line at the ribbing.  That meant its only option was up and out.  She did not think it would block out. 

I frogged it, AND the ribbing today.  It is back in the stash, where, like in the Government Warehouse scene in the first Indiana Jones movie, it will be lost for eternity amongst a million similar skeins.  I'm hoping that time dilutes the curse.

Meanwhile, back at the stash, lack of knitting and spinning mojo rules.  My current intervention strategy has been startitis.

Celtic Braid sock, by Cabin Fever, in Shibuiknits, color #2955.

So far, so good.  The pattern is just complex enough to be entertaining. 

And this is Bosnian mitten #1 from Blackberry Ridge.  It is my first colorwork. 

I am mostly thrilled by how it came out.  It certainly isn't perfect.  The aforementioned tightness of knitting is evident in some rampant puckering.  However, it is quite acceptable for a first attempt.  And it was wildly fun to knit.  Colorwork has seemed like an impossibly high bar to aim for.  Now it is possible.  In the tradition that what is worth doing is worth overdoing, I've acquired the Jamieson & Smith yarn to do two of Ann Feitelson's designs.  J&S are discontinuing some of their colorways.  Those don't include the ones needed to do my two sweater choices, but one never can predict how that particular yarn breeze will blow.

Today is Mr. Etherknitter's birthday.  Although this year's number is more painful than many, I keep reminding him that the alternative is not better.

I am so lucky to have found this guy.  He is intelligent, kind, handsome, selfless, creative, and funny.  Happy birthday to one of the best lifeforms ever to grace the planet!

Comments

[Cathy]

Love the mittens - love the advice from those in the know about the blue socks (are you trying again?) and best of all - happy birthday to Mr Keeper.

[Danielle]

Happy birthday to Mr. Etherknitter.

[Sylvia]

Happy happy birthday to Mr. E, and many more to come!

I refuse to purl at the beginning of a dpn and rearrange the stitches to avoid such things. You only live once.

Colourwork. Looks good! Don't expect the mate to match perfectly -- it takes everyone a few projects for the hands to figure it out and settle into gauge.

[Martha]

Happy birthday, Mr. E!!

[Carrie]

Happy Birthday Mr E! I'm with you, Mrs - my stepdaughter was moaning about being old at 25!

[Beth S.]

I'm impressed by your maiden voyage into colorwork! I think it's much more difficult to do colorwork on a small-diameter project (all those frequent needle changes make it hard to strand evenly) so you should be proud of yourself.

Happy birthday to Mr. E! And remember, it's better to keep having birthdays than to stop having them. :-)

[Karin]

You are hilarious...the first paragraph hooked me...what a pleasure to find a great knitter, great writer, AND a physician...Mr. Wonderful couldn't have happened to one more worthy.

[Kathy]

You know how dear I find Mr. E -- hugs to him! As for startitis, I can offer no remedy -- I have no less than FOUR socks going now, none of which I am inspired to finish!

[claudia]

I'm of the opinion that Mr. E. is a superhuman life form. Happy Birthday!

[LaurieG]

Happy Birthday Mr. Etherknitter! And the laddering purl stitch - it's a geometry size/space issue. You simply cannot get that purl stitch tight (you're always wrapping around the needle and so getting the needle circumference.) I alleviate it by not going in front of the rh needle (it makes a kind of tight yarn over) when you come to it on the next round, just adjust your yarn placement appropriately.

[Stephanie]

Happy Birthday to one of the good guys!

[JessaLu]

Happy Birthday, Mr. E!

[Lee Ann]

Happy Birthday, Dr. E., from someone who knows durned well the alternative sucks. And it's thanks to the Drs. E. that I get to have brain scans, dude. Because my brain still works. After a fashion.

(Umm, don't ask my husband about that last one. He thinks I have brain scans to see if I still have one.)

[Lee Ann]

P.S.

Holy crap. A sock that tried to commit suicide.

Sock, buddy. Get a holed of yourself.

[Juno]

Happy Birthday to Mr. E. He's a good, good man. And you bet your ass this is better than the alternative. Give him a hug from me.

[monap]

Thanks for sharing your beautiful work! To eliminate the ladder created when knitting in the round and starting a needle with a purl stitch, I place my empty needle across the top of the just completed needle. Then, after purling the first stitch, I allow the new needle tip to dip down a bit to move the new stitch even closer to the last stitch on the previous needle and give an extra tug. With this method, I've even created reverse ladders -- a row of stitches that are visibly tighter than the others. Good luck!

[Birdsong]

Happy Birthday to Mr. Ether, and I certainly believe in looking at each new birthday with a 'consider the alternative' outlook. I am glad that the mitten and the other sock are going better... is the yarn cursed?

[kmkat]

Happy belated b'day, Mr. E! (He IS quite the handsome guy, even with a light coating of ice!)

The blue yarn is gorgeous. Perhaps the curse could be lifted if it were in my stash instead of yours? ;-)

[Karen]

hi! That stitch that wanted to stick out in such an unsightly way? Perhaps giving it the Monkey treatment - where there is a yarnover (or something like that - maybe there is a better idea?) right before that to make some space? I realize that a lacey hole might not be the most desirable thing, but if your friend's assessment as to the reason is the problem, making space for it in some way would be a solution. Just a thought.

And Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. E!