Not sure...

Lately, I've been intrigued by the Mason Dixon mitered square blankets. I am probably not going to knit any blankets, but I do like working with mitered squares, so I did a little experimenting.

 The square on the left is pretty blah. I used some nice short-length variegated leftover sock yarn, but the variegation is too short to look good with this pattern. I mean, it's okay, but boring. The square on the left worked better- it's a self-striping leftover sock yarn, and I like that look a lot (the nicely matching chevrons were totally accidental). Each of those squares is about 7" square (the one on the left is slightly bigger because the base yarn is slightly heavier) but they'll block out the same. I cast on another square and will alternate the two yarns on the sections, and I think I might sew them together for a hat. On the other hand, that might not work either. Such is the nature of experimentation. Oh, I see that I started the white yarn on the wrong side of the pieces too- on the next project, I'll fix that, but I'd better stay consistent with these squares (and pretend it was on purpose) (that's how designing works sometimes, you know).

I spun up another bobbin of the overdyed, self-striping gray Romney roving. It's such a pleasure to spin. I'll spin up a mostly-matching bobbin and ply them together. By the time I get done with this stuff, I'll have 800-1000 yds of yarn. I think it might want to be a shawl.

Otherwise, it's been in the mid-high 80s all week, and it's way too late in the season for that kind of heat. It's also very dry and windy, so the fire index warnings are out everywhere. The farmers are combining everything, though, and it will be very good if the crops can be harvested before it snows (probably next week).

Oh yeah, and I ordered one of these....

What happened to November?

I lost November in the shuffle, and despite the Knitted Gift Tub (which has lots of things in it),  I'm not even starting to be ready for The Holidays. This is the first time I haven't had my trees up by Thanksgiving in years. But it's going to snow today, and that will probably put me in the mood to decorate.

The Girls and I made some Turkey Cookies before Thanksgiving. The cookies were easy to assemble, and The Grands had a great time. They made some fantastic gobblers. And of course, they got to eat the leftover components- so things were a little giddy around here for an hour or so, lemee tellya.

I'm in Book Limbo for a bit- the manuscript has been sent to my agent, so as I wait for her assessment/suggestions for rewrites, I've been sewing. Unfortunately, Certain People read the blog, which means that I can't show any of the things I'm sewing right now, but trust me, they're pretty darn adorable. (I'll post pics after Christmas).

I can show you this though:

I started another mitered square hat. This yarn is Lisa Souza Sock, colorway Lapland (though it looks Watermelon to me). I tried and tried and tried to find the right stitch pattern for this yarn and nothing looked good, not Aunt Helen's Variation, not Waffle, not plain stockinette (the color changes are too short for stripes but too long for attractive blotching), not Entrelac. As a last resort, I tried mitered squares, and that did the trick. I think this hat is going to be adorable.

On the health front- I'm improving. My voice is shot, and will remain so until I'm done with the inhaler, but otherwise, I'm coughing less. And today, I will up the treadmill distance to 1.5 miles. I've been increasing the length and intensity of the workouts gradually (I'm impatient, but not anxious for a relapse)- when I work up to 2 miles and 4mph walking with a good incline, I'll be ready to try running the odd quarter mile. I've learned that Linda Ronstadt's Poor Pitiful Me is the perfect song to accompany a 3.5mph workout. It's good to sweat again- I've missed it.

Mitered Square Hat

In amongst all of the other excitement, I did find time to finish the Mitered Square Hat, knit with leftover Twisted Fiber Arts Playful yarn.

I love how it came out.

So did the three girls  (ages 8-11) who were here when I finished it. They all begged for one.

Maybe Santa can do something about that...

It's easy peasy to make:
Heavy Fingering Weight Yarn (though regular fingering will work too), Size 2.75mm needles (dpns and 16" circ)
4 rows of 19st mitered squares (instructions here)- 14 squares each row
Sew the back seam, pick up 140 sts around the upper edge.
K 4 rnds.
Dec Rnd 1: *K 12, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 2: K
Dec Rnd  3: *K 11, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 4: K
Continue in this manner, working one less st before the dec on each odd rnd, until there are 10 sts left. Cut yarn, thread tail through remaining loops, tighten and tie off. Weave the ends in, wash and block.

This hat fits me just fine-it's snug and it reaches just below my ears. But if you want a longer brim, just work another row of mitered squares. If you want a bigger hat, work more squares in the row. If you want a smaller hat, work fewer squares in a row. Regardless of size, pick up 10 sts per square for the crown. You could also pick up stitches along the bottom edge, and work a ribbing or border if you like.

Laying flat, the hat measures 8" long and 9 1/2" wide.

Settled at Netherfield

If I could have but both of my feet settled happily in Netherfield, and everyone else's feet covered equally well, I should have nothing else to wish for...

Hand-dyed self-striping yarns are notoriously variable as to their repeats (I know, I wrote a book about it once), so though I'm just a tad bit anal about my toes matching, I don't quibble when it comes to Twisted Fiber Arts yarns- even gloriously mis-matching is beautiful (and this is just a minor difference, and since I don't wear open-toe shoes with socks, it truly doesn't matter).

I had no problem knitting a pair of my generic socks from the Playful base (which is a bit heavier than usual fingering weight,  with a skein weighing in at 120 gr, and 360 yards). In fact, I have a nice size ball of leftover yarn.There would have been plenty for larger feet as well (I'm a size 7-8). 

I'm going to wear them today. I have a skein of Netherfield Arial, which is a true fingering weight, which I will probably use to make a pair of lace socks.

For my next take-along project (not that I'm going anywhere, any time soon), I started a leftover Twisted Playful Mitered Square Hat. I have a few more squares to add to the first row, and I plan to make each row of squares with completely different colorways (I knew that there was a reason that I never threw away even little amounts of this yarn- that it would come in handy sometime). I think I'll pick up and knit a few garter stitch rows along the bottom edge, to even it out, and I plan to sew the tube together, and then pick up stitches to knit the crown decreases in random stripes of whatever yarn I have left. It should be pretty cool.

In closing, I am going to say this very very quietly, lest I jinx myself: not only am I feeling better this morning, but I think... I think that I might finish the first draft of the YA on time. Maybe.

Look what came while I was in North Carolina

My copy of 101 Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders!

Like all of the books in the series, this edition is chock full of wonderful patterns and designs, all using a single skein of yarn- in this case, sock yarn. Of course, I jumped at the chance to contribute these:

I used Twisted Fiber Arts yarn, in Playful (the wonderful heavy fingering weight superwash), dyed in the Scorched colorway. I don't think Scorched is on the roster at the moment, but any of the wonderful Twisted self-striping colorways would knit up to the same effect.

I have recently been reminded that winter is on the way- so I'm glad these gloves are back with me, because they're mine! All mine!

Contemplating

...well... I still don't know. Either it'll be really interesting and striking (which is what toddlers want in their outerwear, dontchaknow), or it'll be really really awful. But if it's really awful, I can toss the finished sweater into the dyepot, so it'll be salvageable regardless. I'm rather curious to find out which way it's going to fall.

The most interesting thing is that the pattern calls for Size 2 needles and thinner yarn. I'm using Size 5 needles and worsted weight yarn (for the most part), and the pieces are coming out exactly the size listed in the pattern. Very strange.*

Mods: besides working the sleeves separately (which will involve some jockeying when it comes to the gussets), I am going to make the sleeves one row longer, and I'm going to add a border to the sleeves and hem (probably not ribbing, since there is no ribbing anywhere else on the piece). Otherwise, I'm working it to the pattern specs.

*I don't think the difference has anything to do with the pattern- people just knit differently.

Still not sure

I couldn't stand wondering whether the blah handspun would look every bit as blah knit into mitered squares (a la Amy Clarke Moore's Hannah's Sweater in the All New Homespun Handknit), so I wound a hank.

Still not exciting, but less awful than I expected. The yarn is heftier than it looks, and instead of working up nicely on size 2 or 3 needles, I ended up using size 5's, which means that the sweater will be bigger than the pattern (which is okay- I don't have any toddlers ).

Here is the first row of the body, and the first row of one sleeve*. I'm still not sure- it's not pretty, but it's not horrid either. Since I'm using bigger needles, but working the required number of squares, I'm going to need more yarn. I can spin another 2-3 largish hanks of this stuff, but even that won't be enough to complete the whole sweater at this size. Unfortunately or otherwise, this particular color combo is no longer available.

Luckily, when it comes to odds and ends of handspun yarn, I'm well supplied.

I think I might be able to pull this one off after all.

*I'm working the sleeves separately, from the cuff up (rather than as instructed) because I want them to match each other, and the body of the sweater, and I'm not sure how far the yarn will go.

Signing at Athena Fibers

I had a fantastic time at Athena Fibers in Sioux Falls yesterday. The store itself is lovely- rooms and rooms of yarn, nestled in a lovely old house in a quiet neighborhood. The yarns are many and varied, and all of them wanted to jump into my basket. And the people were such fun that I only realized that it was past time to leave when someone spotted my husband waiting outside patiently. Great yarn, great people, fun conversations, and lots of laughs. And dessert. Pretty hard to top that.

Here's a fuzzyish shot of everyone, pretending to be sedate (my camera didn't like the back lighting). Note the sleeping puppy.

This is more like it... Note the dessert... and the puppy

Yarn- I guess I was in a purple mood yesterday. A couple of Bokus, 2 Mini Mochi (moochi???? mookie??? how do you say it?), a ball of Ty Dye sock yarn, and some sheep buttons that begged to come with me.

And on the way home, I finished Jane's Mitered Koigu Mill End Socks. I love how they came out.

All in all, a great trip! Thanks Lauri and Judy, and everyone!

P.S. Mona stopped by, but had to leave early. She gave me a shout out on her blog.

The Field Report, Happily Hookin', Yarn and Exchanges, and Miters,

What a difference a week makes. The entire soybean field isn't as stripped as this section, there is still a lot of yellow, and even a smidge of green, but the dry-down has begun (despite an inch of rain in 20 minutes yesterday).

Our cottonwood tree is turning as well. Some years, the cottonwoods give up early and the leaves go straight from green to brown. It looks like we'll have color from our largest trees this year.

I won a lovely little Snowman wallhanging kit from On the Prairie Rugs at NCFF. A couple of nights ago, I gave rug hooking a shot. Guess what? It's a lot harder than it looks. Okay, it's not hard exactly- the process itself is simple: use a hook to bring narrow wool fabric strips from the back of the piece, to form uniform loops in a design on the front. It's the uniform loop thing that I'm having trouble with.

See?

It's fun, and the piece is supposed to be primative (boy oh boy, is it ever primative). But I saw some of the totally gorgeous finished pieces in the On the Prairie Booth at NCFF, and my little snowman would be embarrassed to show his frosty face in that company. That said, he'll fit right in with the Folk Art/Primative style of some of my holiday decorating.

Though I might be tempted to hang him back side out.

Remember the yarn and book exchanges that are absolutely not chain letters ?  I still have 2 book exchange slots if anyone is interested (the last yarn slot was filled. Thanks). Please follow the link for instructions and limitations of the exchange. In the meantime, I got my first exchange sock yarn in the mail: a lovely ball of Austermann Step (with Aloe), in blues/pinks/creams/yellows. It's lovely!

Thanks, Julie from Maine!

Though most of my time lately has been taken with getting workshop handouts ready for SAFF in October (I want to mail the handouts and all of the yarn and dyeing supplies next week, rather than trying to take them on the plane, and tempting fate to mis-place my luggage)(not that I'm not tempting fate with the P.O., but I'll have time to replace stuff if it doesn't arrive). Anyway, I did find some time to work on Jane's Koigu Mill End Mitered Square socks. I have the cuffs finished and sewn, the stitches picked up, and the heels done. All I have left are the feet and toes, which will be lovely road knitting for my trip to Sioux Falls and appearance at Athena Fibers tomorrow! Hope to see some of you there!

Koigu Miters

My friend Jane, who ferried me around Portland for a week, expressed admiration for some mitered square socks that I'd made, so I bought some Koigu Mill Ends at the Sock Summit specifically for her (hurrah for an excuse to buy sock yarn!). I started out alternating colors on the first row (the lightest one), but not only was that extremely fiddly and slow, the color change didn't show very well. So for the rest of the miters, I'm using one color only, and they look just fine.

I doubt I'll get a whole lot done on them in the next few days because I have to work on more SAFF and NCFF workshop handouts, and knit a few more sample pieces for those workshops. And on Friday, we have our first fall meeting of Knitters Etc. I can't wait to see what everyone has been working on over the summer.

But in the meantime, aren't these colors pretty together?

Koigu Miters, and Ghostbusters '54

I bought some Koigu mill ends (!) at the Sock Summit, in order to knit some mitered cuff socks for Jane, who ferried me all around Portland for days on end while I summitted. She's very fond of orange, and though these are more on the peachy order, I think she'll like them.

This time around, I'm actually using two yarns on each square (which is how mitered squares are usually knit). There wasn't enough contrast in some of the more solid-ish yarn bits for single-color squares, unless I wanted to do each square in a different yarn. I very much did not want to knit each square in a different yarn. So bi-colored rows, it is.

I think they're going to be gorgeous!

And on a different subject altogether: what would Ghostbusters have been like if it had been filmed in 1954? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAboGO9MDsQ

Before the Parade

If there is a parade today, that is. We got 1.34" of much needed rain yesterday (we measure our rainfall in increments of hundredths of inches)- it was a lovely, gentle, cool rain, with no storms. But this is a holiday weekend, with many munincipal outdoor festivities planned, and though we need the rain, it could have come on Thursday, or Wednesday with the same benefit.

This morning, it's still cloudy and there are intermittent droplets, but no storms predicted until later this afternoon. I think the parade will probably go on, even though much of our main thoroughfare is torn up for the installation of new sewer pipes (talkaboutcher mud). I'll head uptown with camera and get some pics of old fire trucks, marching soldiers, and combines. There is no Cow Pie Bingo slated at the 4-H Fairgrounds, unfortunately, but there is a new thing called a Treasure Hunt, whereby coins and prizes have been hidden in a sandbox for the kids to find. That should be interesting, especially after the rain.

In the meantime, I finished the Twisted Leftover Mitered Cuff Socks and am totally enthralled with them, and very glad that these are mine, all mine (pair #3 for the Sock Summmit). And I started the Spring Forward socks, from Knitty ( http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/PATTspringforward.html ). Karen and Mary (Procrastination Diary and Knit Geekery in the links to the right) both mentioned this pattern recently, which reminded me that it was on my To Knit List. This is a wonderfully easy lace pattern that looks far more complex than it is. I'm using Decadent Fibers Savory Sock Yarn (link in Stash Enhancers) and size 1 needles (the pattern needs 66 sts, so the smaller size needles are necessary, in order to keep the sock a manageable size).

But we're leaving on vacation in a week, and have company coming the few days before that, so what I really need to do is clean. And go to a damp 4th of July Parade.

p.s. and once again, I cannot get a link to embed. Sorry.

The Field Report, Mitered Progress

We live close to the railroad tracks (as you may have noticed in the crabapple pic last week). They spray along the tracks to kill the weeds (in 1911, a spark from a train started a fire and burned down two houses on our property. The RR built a single huge duplex for the brother and sister who owned the burned houses, which we bought in 1984. That house burned down in '92, and we rebuilt a much smaller house on the same spot in '01, but I digress). The weed spray kills the broadleaf weeds admirably, but did not touch the lone patch of volunteer wheat, which has headed out.

The soybeans grew a lot this week, even though it was fairly cool and dry (low humidity, low dewpoints, and no rain). We're slated for some storms in the next day or so, which is a good thing, holiday notwithstanding. Everything around here needs a good drink.

I'm done with the Tudor Era for the time being (until The Six Wives of Henry VIII arrives), so I made do with The Stand, which is an okay adaptation of the book (Gary Sinese, Ray Walston, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, the guy who played Larry, the gal who played that evil girl who seduced Nick, and Miguel Ferrer are perfect. Molly Ringwald as Frannie, and Laura San Giacomo, not so much). And I made very good progress on the Twisted Leftover Mitered Cuff Socks. I went with 5 rows of mitered squares this time, and I like how they came out. I'm using the following Twisted Fiberarts Yarns (link in Stash Enhancers- there's a new update btw- go and order some now), all Playful (heavy fingering weight): Valkyrie Heel/Toe Lightning Coordinate for the upper edge, Scorched, Valkyrie, Karma, that pink./orange stripe whose name I can't remember (added later: Tulip), Firefly, Lightning heel, and then on the foot, Scorched and Valkyrie (I'll work bands of the others as I continue). I love these socks and will love debuting them at the Sock Summit, even if it is 100 degrees outside (as it very well may be).

Goin' Boleyn

... I crack myself up...

So, I watched most of A Man for All Seasons yesterday, and I have to say that I was mightily unimpressed. There is remarkably little Henry VIII (played as a simpleton and a lout by Robert Shaw) in a story that is ostensibly about him (and no Anne, who was the reason for the uproar- though I suppose the real reason was the lack of male heir- except for a teensy little cameo- played by an even younger than Mary Queen of Scots Vanessa Redgrave). There is, however, a lot of Susannah York, as Moore's daughter Margaret- who, as far as I can tell, was thrown into the story as eye candy.

I had not previously seen the movie, though I do remember that it got lots of Oscar nominations, and some wins. I can't for the life of me figure out why. The writing is wooden, the acting is wooden, and the costumes are so distractingly bad that I would not be able to appreciate the acting or writing even if it had been stellar. The fabrics are obviously modern, they don't drape properly at all (there's no heft to any of them- it's like they were woven from polyester and air. Except for the vinyl which masquerades badly as leather). I could even see machine stitching on some of the hats. By contrast, the outfits in Mary, QoS, AotTD, and especially The Tudors, are magnificent.

But that doesn't really matter, since the story is about on par with the costumes- instead of this being the drama of Thomas Moore's dedication to his religious beliefs and his deteriorating relationship with his friend and King (which The Tudors played out very well), it's a power play between Cromwell and Moore, and a little toady named Richard Rich (I have no idea if he was a real person. I hope not). I'll finish watching it today, but I won't be buying a copy for myself.

I did put that time to good use though- I continued work on the Twisted Leftover Mitered Cuff socks for the Sock Summit. I have 2 more rows of miters, and then heel/foot/toe construction as per usual.

I have The Six Wives of Henry VII coming, but after that, I may switch to Rome Season 2, for my fictional history fix. And if I want Robert Shaw doing what he did best, I'll stick with Jaws or The Sting.

I can't believe I'm going to show you this

The Merry and Bright table runner went together very well. I've done enough machine quilting now to play a bit with the serpentine quilting (varying the direction of the curving lines to match the direction of the pieced blocks). The binding matches well and I got it stitched down in a minimum amount of time. I took a few nice pics (I really like the one with the morning sun showing through the blocks)

And then.... I turned it over.... and this is what I saw.....

Oh well... And no, I'm not obsessive enough to take it out, straighten the edge and sew it again (which wouldn't work anyway- the backing shifted a bit in the quilting too)- this is the back and it looks okay, if not perfect, from the front. But I may end up keeping this rather than gifting it as I had hoped. Or at least I can't give it away without a note saying I know it's crooked, and I'm sorry. This is what happens when you pair me and a pre-printed border. If the backing had been all-white, I would never have noticed it (it would still have been crooked, but I would have remained blissfully ignorant of that fact).

Also, real quilters will notice that the points on my sashing stars aren't quite right- that's because I used 1 1/2" squares rather than 1 1/4". Oops.

But the Firefly Mitered Cuff socks turned out perfectly. I'm not going to bother writing up this pattern. If you want to make some- search the blog for Mitered Square instructions, then make a cuff with 4 rows of 6 squares. Pick up 60 sts across the top and work 4 garter stitch rows. Sew into a tube. Pick up 60 sts across the bottom. Work 1" of stockinette, and then finish the heel and sole as per your favorite Vanilla sock pattern. Voila! (P.S. the socks are not for me- that's why they're too long)

Next up- I think I'm going to try Entrelac with the Twisted Fiber Arts Playful yarn. It'll be an adventure, and it'll probably look better on the back than the table runner.