Oogyknitter

After happily finishing the ribbing for JH #2 the other evening, I had to ponder the pattern for quite some time in order to figure out what exactly was going on.  If I started the chart at the beginning of the row, the ribbing and cable patterns would be misaligned (it's a 1x1 rib except in those sections where the cable panel originates - in which case it's 2x2).  After some contemplation, I decided to back the beginning of the row up to the point in the ribbing where it made sense to start the cable pattern.  And I thought to myself - I don't remember this being an issue when I made JH #1!!! Well, for good reason - I had actually FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS for JH #1, and started the beginning of the row where the pattern author had indicated within the cable pattern (rather than at the beginning of the line).  Doing so results in some jockeying around of the row marker each row, but it made sense the first time around, and I can't believe I didn't remember that (o

It's snowing here today.  Not the pretty Dreaming of a White Christmas snow, but the fine grains that fly horizontally in the wind and stick to the sides of trees or the deck.  And it's windy.  And cold.  Were it nor for the daffodils and the supremely green lawn, it could be mistaken for a warmer day in January (we have the heat on too!). And - I'm going to need to make another January Hat .  A former neighbor has just done us an immense favor and I think a navy version (in Northampton) would be just perfect for her.  April Hat will still be waiting in the wings, along with the off-white yarn (also Northampton), but the design is all wrong for this particular recipient from my perspective.  February Hat is bright pink , as you'll recall (although I still haven't blocked and pommed it yet), which you can't give to just anyone, and I already gave March Hat (was also navy) to another friend.  And I'm not even dreading all those bobbles again!!  Thus far my

Since there is actually the possibility of some snow in our weather this coming weekend, and it will otherwise be wet, windy, and cold, I thought I'd post a picture of what things were like yesterday afternoon: Coincidentally, the beverage is a gin and tonic with - lime!!! This also gave me a nice opportunity to manufacture some Vitamin D as well as complete the gusset and turn the heel on the FM sock.  I heard a lot of bird noises, but only recognized the obvious ones (robins, cardinals, crows).   This morning, a couple of deer walked by in the woods, both stopping briefly to check out the pileated's tree shredding job.  It seems like they are even better camouflaged now with even the smallest bits of green starting to appear!

I know I'm stating the obvious when I say that the right tools make a difference, but so far today I've had two examples of that, and I thought I'd share them with you in lieu of more pictures of FM Sock #2 (I'm about halfway through the gusset and hope to start the heel this evening or tomorrow morning!  But you're already sick of hearing about these socks, aren't you?  Perhaps it's time to start thinking about something new?? (MONKEYSOCKS)). The first example was provided by the ladies at Mason Dixon Knitting .  I signed up for their daily emails, just so I could guarantee something fun in my inbox each day (you can also follow along on their web site at your own pace if you prefer).  Today, Kay posted about knitting sweater sleeves with something called "FlexiFlips".  I hadn't heard of them before, but they appear to be super short circulars, and using more than one of them on a sleeve or a hat gives you the small circumference knitting o

Yesterday morning I promptly cast on for FM sock #2, and before I knew it, I was off and rocking: It feels like this one is going faster.  Must be the increased confidence I have now that I'm an expert lime slice maker!!!  (Or the Karbonz have cast a spell so that I knit faster and therefore can start MONKEYSOCKS sooner!!) I also made the needed repairs on my mom's second slipper, and they are now ready for felting! In wildlife news - there were some deer out on the lawn early yesterday morning, but they quietly disappeared shortly after that.  There are still birds and daffodils everywhere!

I like to open the blinds in the morning and look out to see if there is anything new I can spy since the day before.  In the winter that's pretty limited to footprints in the snow; in the spring, there are lots of flowers and leaves making their first appearances.  Sometimes there is actual wildlife. This morning there was a cat I hadn't seen before - not the orange one that tends to lurk around our deck (hopefully eating rodents underneath), but a darker one with white paws walking along the edge of the field towards the house.  I thought about scaring it off, but decided to wait as it paused, hopefully about to pounce on a varmint.  I turned away for a moment, and when I looked up again, THE CAT HAD TURNED INTO A DEER. I nearly jumped out of my skin.   OK, so it turned out that the deer was carefully watching the cat, which had continued its walk along the side of the house, but it was standing in the exact same spot where the cat had been.  After another minute

So either there is someone frantically waving a white flag of surrender in the woods right now, or there is at least one deer out there swatting its white tail.  That's all I can see - white waving/swatting.  Now I KNOW that the deer have been out there all along, laughing at me as I continue to peer out the window and think they've headed for greener pastures (literally)! Some of the leaves on the trees are starting to open before my very eyes - one minutes it's all branches, the next there are little green buds everywhere.  I'll have my hands full soon - not only will I be trying to figure out what kinds of birds we have, but there will be trees to decipher as well! I continue to advance slowly on the FM lace cuff.  One of these days I'll actually make it all the way through so I can have it diagnosed (wedding gift or not?), blocked, and photographed for you! I'm on my third pair of baby mitts for this batch.  I'm still aiming for about a pair a week

These are everywhere, and most are yellow, but a couple of clumps are white.  Some look like they were deliberately planted, whereas others may be the result of those squirrels that just can't sit still!  I like having the random bits of green and color this early in the season, even if it does mean that this may be the bulk of it due to the feasting deer.  I'll be planting some potted herbs soon, we'll see how far I get with that! It was warm enough yesterday afternoon for me to sit out on the deck, which was lovely.  I also had fun messing with the birds - I was playing some bird calls on my phone, trying to figure out who I was hearing, and sometimes they all just stopped and listened.  I definitely heard a cardinal (birdie birdie birdie), robins, chickadees, and what I've since figured out is a wood thrush , although I haven't yet seen them.  What a fat tummy!!  I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for a sighting! Speaking of birds - over the weekend,

The month of April always makes me think of the brief but lovely Simon & Garfunkel song .  What a dazzling live performance - I can't imagine what it must have been like to be there!! After I sat down yesterday morning to hammer out a few more rows of the FM Sock cuff lace, and after messing up at least half of them and only managing to increase my progress by TWO rows (remember, these are really short - about 10 stitches each!!!), a flurry of other activities ensued and I was otherwise engaged for the rest of the day.  So much so that I totally forgot that yesterday was the release for the APRIL HAT pattern: Here we go with bobbles again!  I'll forge ahead - I still have plenty of worsted weight wool to make good use of.  I'll select the yarn and add this to my impending project pile, but will otherwise continue to (attempt to) refrain from starting anything new just yet (with the exception of baby mitts, which are really just one ongoing project). Neuro, I l

What does a turkey look like on a really windy day, while walking across the big grass? The answer, my friend, when blowing in the wind, a silly feathered umbrella about to turn itself inside out: (I'm not sure which is worse, the picture or my lyrics!!!!) Yes, the turkeys were back again this morning, this time headed into the woods from who knows where (I noticed them at about the point where they are in the picture - taken from our bedroom window).  There were only 4 or 5 of them, and they were sort of ambling around, definitely not marching, and definitely not in single file. We saw the fox briefly yesterday, bounding into the woods.  No sign of the deer, but they are so well camouflaged this time of year it's possible they're here every day laughing at me from the cover of the woods. In other adventures, I spent some very frustrating time with the Salt-Crusted Edging this morning.  I've made it through the first lace pattern repeat (9 more to go!!):

I know what you're thinking - I must live in Canada, because their T-giving isn't in November like the one in the U.S.  Well - I'm relatively close to Canada, all things considered, but their T-giving is in October, not April. What makes today Turkey Day is this: (Yes, it's a terrible picture - taken through a window with a screen, using my phone that has a functional yet suboptimal camera (and I'm OK with that, since I don't take a lot of pics aside from the ones seen here!).  I also zoomed the image in the photo editor, which doesn't help with the clarity one bit.  The quality is so poor I wouldn't be surprised to see a blurry Sasquatch lurking in the background!) Anyway - the turkeys made an appearance today (they are the shadowy dark things in the photo), and at one point the Tom puffed up like a cartoon turkey (he is the largest dark blob in the photo).  After milling around in the woods for a while, they all marched down the driveway and o

The saga continues for the Frozen Margarita sock.  I was merrily adding lime slices on the leg when I realized that, although they are not large features, the limes are taller than I thought, and that adding three to the leg was going to make the leg much longer than I wanted.  Since these socks have that cute lacey beaded thing at the top, I wanted them to be on the shorter side.  So - new decision - each leg will have only two lime slices: one in the front that is off center, and one in the back that is centered.  I'll still aim for chirality for the second sock. I took this picture yesterday as I was about to string all those beads for the lacy cuff (which is why the yarn is a different color): Some observations (after acknowledging that at first glance this picture might appear somewhat felonious!):   Even when using the lovely dark felt otherwise reserved for chain maille wrangling, the beads had a tendency to jump off and disappear into the carpet; there are us

There are some really good things going on with the Frozen Margarita socks; specifically, I've rounded the heel and have completed two of the lime wedges on the leg, with only a few areas of re-work here and there where I failed to count: Now, for a couple of new decisions that will have some implications I'll need to deal with. First, as you can sort of see in the above picture and bit better in the below picture, as the lime slices are worked as short-rows back and forth, I end up knitting and purling in alternate rows for about 6 rows.  Unfortunately, since I was taught the English method of knitting, I throw my yarn and wrap it counterclockwise around the needle, which by design creates purl stitches that are slightly larger than knit stitches.  When this happens in stockinette stitch, especially in less flexible yarns, it creates a textured striping effect (the accepted technical term is "rowing out", and one knitter evidently familiar with the scientific

Welcome to the continuing saga of the toe-up MUMTU heel!  Today the Heel Extension: And the Heel Flap in Eye of Partridge: It's definitely tapping into my mindful knitting mode!  Although I'd like to think I can crank out a terrific cuff-down heel with one brain hemisphere tied behind my back, I haven't executed many toe-up heels successfully.  I keep messing up and having to tink back - although at least it's all been within-row.  Good thing I didn't try to start this last night after a couple of glasses of wine!! Our HVAC guy is here today working on the boiler and for a while had it off-line.  There's a bit of chill in the air, so I've been wearing the Switching Modes scarf that Neuro made for me - although I think of it more as the Scarf of Warmth and Soothing, since just wearing it makes me feel better! In addition to the chill it's also raining out, yet the silly pileated woodpecker is out there pecking and ack-acking al

OK, here we go, we're rounding the corner and headed for the Frozen Margarita sock leg; first stop, the Gusset: As you can see, I've filled in all the variables from the MUMTU pattern, and have completed the Gusset section (I keep wanting to add a second T - why is that??).  I would say it was fairly straightforward - increase at both ends of the sole every other row, 10 times - but I kept getting my M1Rs and M1Ls mixed up.  And I keep thinking that the pattern has them reversed as well.  I'd also say I was following the pattern anyway, but I'm pretty sure I've still got a couple in there that are backwards.  In the overall scheme of things - hopefully not a big deal.  I fixed what I found within 3 rows, and will let the rest stay as they are.  Next step, Heel Extension! March Hat is all blocked, pommed, and ready to be on its way to its recipient tomorrow morning: I'm pretty sure I used the wrong kind of provisional cast-on for the tubular cast-o

I'm trying to get some traction on the slippers for my mom as well as the Frozen Margarita socks, and am happy to report a bit of progress on each.  I'm targeting Mother's Day for the slippers (and they will need to be mailed - eek!), and an early June wedding for the socks. The slippers for my mom look like a hot mess right now, but most of the knitting is done and I'll be left to all of the seaming and then felting very soon: You'll recall that I had decided to leave most of the foot plain for the Frozen Margarita socks, with the exception of the lime slice on the toe.  Here I am closer to approaching the MUMTU heel process (brace yourselves for a play-by-play on that!): The Karbonz needles have decided on their next project: I had intended to take some time to find a great pattern for this super cool yarn, but I keep thinking that Monkey Socks would work really well.  Other than the mitts and slippers, I don't tend to return to the same patt

Thanks to Neuro, I had the most wonderful surprise today!  She sent me a yarn care package over the weekend, and it contained BABY MITTS and an amazing skein of yarn!  I'm so thrilled - thank you very much, Neuro!!! The timing for the baby mitts couldn't be more perfect - I was racing to get 4 pairs done before this Wednesday (more about that below), and was thinking about how to pose them for a blog pic.  Now that I have 7 pairs (SEVEN!!!!), they make the most beautiful flower: The yarn is amazing too, and will keep me busy thinking about what kind of sock pattern it wants to be.  Definitely more on that yet to come!  Here is a sneak peek at its super duper colors: On a somewhat related topic - 88 days ago I started working on The 90-Day Gratitude Journal.  The dates aligned perfectly with my 90-day notice period for my termination; I started the journal the day after receiving my notice.  Day 90 is this Wednesday, which is also my first official day of severance (