Obsession du Jour

Some stuff for some people, pt. 1

For Debbie in Ohio:

Knitting!

Specifically, a finished object.  Whee! Even better.

What:  Knee high boot socks for ME.
Pattern: Wendy's basic toe up sock with short row heels, found here.
Yarn: Hill Country Yarn's Instant Gratification Self Striping Sock Yarn in colorway 'Indian Stone'.  Aprox. 1 1/2 skeins made both, and I have more than enough left over for some shortling socks or a baby hat.  At 280 yards, one skein is more than enough for a pair of normal worsted weight socks.
Needles: Two Addi circulars, size 3.

My two cents:
1.  I am officially a member of the toe up revolution.  I think this is just the bomb and satisfies my compulsive little try-it-on-every-30-seconds heart like nothing else can.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on the top-down world entirely, but this will definitely be a big, big part of my sock knitting repetoire in the future. 

2.  I LOVE how roomy the short row toe box is for my fat little toes - yeah, yeah I know I can change the toe decreases in a top-down sock to get a similar fit, I just didn't know I wanted to until now.

3.  I like the simplicity of the short row heel a LOT, and also love how it fits, but the jury's still out on how it wears.  It just doesn't feel all that surdy to me, so we'll see.  When next I do this kind of heel, I'll probably try to remember to add something like the SL1K1 stitch pattern to the heel knitting for, at a minimum, the padding. 

4. The yarn.  YUM! Squishy and soft yet also has a durable feel to it - superwash without being TOO shiny, and colors that make me giggle.  Also two thumbs up.  Go get some.  If you like thick, scrumptious socks you won't be sorry.

There are still other toe up methods/patterns to try (don't forget to read the comments if you're in the market for more really great sock patterns), but this pattern gets a huge two thumbs up at Chez Obsession.  One thing I did notice, for instance, was that I missed knitting the heel flap, which - for whatever reason - I like to do.  It's somehow a very satisfying part of the sock for me, and I love the looks of the swoopy little gusset lines that one gets while decreasing.  Next time I do a toe up, I suspect I'll do (or at least read through) one of the several recent patterns for toe up socks with heel flaps and such.

Stay tuned for further adventures in the Great Toe Up Sock Trials 2006.

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For Jillian, my dear, lovely, bestest friend who has recently decided to become a mom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiOgye2PH9c&NR
Tidy up.  Words to live by.

Summertiiiiime, and the livin' is....

...well, if not 'easy', it's at least good.  Very good. 

Case in point #1 - Today I am wearing these:

Jaywalkers.  Finito.  These have served me fantastically as backup\subway knitting and I've enjoyed them immensely. The pattern is fun, the yarn is yummy, what more could a knitter ask? I have actually knit three of these socks in that I made a couple of modifications for for sizing on the 2nd sock that ended up making a DRAMATIC differences in both the fit and the striping (go here to see the old look).  Differences that, frankly, I loved so much I was willing to knit the 1st sock over again to get them into both socks.  I believe that the knitting goddess approved of the changes.  Wanna know how I know this?  Behold:

Note the almost perfect matchy-matchiness of the big, juicy, zig-zaggy leg stripes? Absolutely.Positively.Unplanned.Matchiness.  Eerie but kewl.

Pattern: Jaywalker socks (I KNOW you don't need a link by now)
Yarn: Socks That Rock (old skool, pre-weight changes) in colorway 'Moss Agate' from the Great Rhinebeck '06 stash explosion extravaganza.
Needles: Addi Turbos (2 circs, as always) sz #2
Mods:
1. Reduced the total stitches to make 6 stitches between each set of inc/dec, ie: 8 less than original small size in the pattern.
2. Gusset reductions every round rather than every other round.  I pretty much always have to do this. Perhaps it's the uber high arches inherited along with the fair skin & freckles?
3. Stopped the chevron patterning at the heel/ankle.  I did it all the way down on the first sock, but it was uncomfortable once it was stuffed in a shoe for any period of time, so I skipped for the final socks.

Case in point #2:  A fantastic weekend populated by wonderful friends, shoe shopping (which I have always thought I hated), garage sales, baby cuddling, pub food, and a sincere and concerted effort to convince two friends to move into the house next door to the Boston metro area.  Seriously ladies, Boston rocks.  You should live here, and not just because I covet your spinning wheels.  Did I mention all the great yarn shops?

Case in point #3: I got to cook actual food for actual people. I recognize that this is not a big deal for most, but as much as we love to entertain and as much as I love to cook, it has been a real trial this living in a glorified campground, er, I mean renovation zone for so long.  Friday night I really got to do some honest-to-goodness from-scratch cooking, and while I definitely felt rusty (and also cramped, what with the 6 sq inches of counter space in the not-yet-renovated-kitchen), and there were also maybe some timing issues on the hot vs. cold items, in general it felt fantastic & I was pretty happy with the results.  Wish I'd thought to get a picture.  MUST do kitchen remodel next/soon.  Sigh.

Case in point #4: The weekly farmer's market is back for the season!  Wheeeeeee!  Last night my dinner looked like this:

Al fresco pattern trolling dining including fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, onions, and homemade pesto & hummus courtesy of the local market stands and accompanied by a Prosecco 'pop' (why yes, that IS a pink plastic bendy straw. what of it?) courtesy of Ms. Moth Heaven. Seriously folks, how can you not love someone who brings you little individual sparkling wines and straws to go with them?   Dinner tonight will be pan-seared tuna accompanied by (farm stand) beets and broccolini and served with a lucious white wine plucked from the magical cellar of Ms Etherknitter.  See what I mean?  Life - she is very, very good.

Tomorrow, more FO's and a pattern question.  Get out your lace shawl ideas folks.

Feast or famine.

So.....yeah....it's definitely feast or famine around here.  I've been given a short lunch break by the Construction-Master in the midst of hanging these:

,
along with painting and installing quarter-round along the living room floor, stripping some of the woodwork in the hallway, running all new wiring for the floor outlets (ha!  you thought the great wiring adventure would be LONG finished by now, didn't you?) on the first floor, washing a month's worth of laundry, and cleaning a month's worth of neglect in the house.  These last two seem especially important to me because we have company coming next weekend, and while I am not what one might call 'anal retentive' regarding housekeeping (thanks to 3 years of living with 6 graduate student males in one house, before that I was a nightmare), I do still feel the need to scrape the Spaghetti-O's off the stove and vaccum the cat hair off the floor from time to time.  Figuratively speaking, of course.  We would never eat Spaghetti-O's in this house, much less leave bits to dry on the stove for days/weeks.  Ahem.   Also, there's been some weeding of the garden, which is settling in nicely for the most part.  I think we're going to lose one of our transplants, a 'Multi-Blue' Clematis, but everyone else seems pretty happy.  Like this Echinacea:

Echinacea 'Sunset' loving this sunshine.

Since my disappearance, some stuff has happened, there's been some traveling (updates to come), and there's even been a teeny bit of actual knitting/spinning/blog-type activity(ditto).  Not much, but some.  We'll start with the newest family member and her adventures with an old friend, Nadine .

Lucy and Nadine.

Oh yeah, she says her name is Lucy.  I'll admit that I tried to talk her into Lucretia, but she's having none of that sort of frilly name stuff, so I guess Lucy it is.   

The three of us have spent some time getting to know one another, because me?  Completely unfamiliar with the world of double-drive spinning, not to mention the speed with which a wheel this size will spin up fiber.  Folks, they don't call this a 'production wheel' for nothing. Fast drafting and good fiber control are key, apparently.  By the end of the bobbin nadine looked like this:

I think Lucy and I have come to a basic understanding of one another.  Next we'll try plying some of this, but before we did that, I decided that I needed a wrist distaff, so I ran a little bit back through to increase the twist even more and made this:

I used the examples in 'A Handspindle Treasury' (thanks again Santa), and oh my, my, how I love this thing!  Lookit!

Stunningly beautiful Hello Yarn hand painted roving from the Maine Fiber Frolic (what? I said there was travelling.) and the newest drop spindle in the stable, a Bosworth in Tulipwood from New Hampshire S&W. 

Can I say? SO MUCH BETTER to have a distaff for the handspindling.  Call me uncoordinated (and I am), but my enjoyment level of the drop spindle, which has always been mitigated by the fiber control issues, has just skyrocketed.  If you think you don't like handspindling, I'd like to suggest trying this before you completely dismiss this particular outlet for your spinning addiction habit hobby.  It bears mentioning here that plenty of folks have said the distaff was important equipment in the past, but I sort of always thought that just wrapping the fiber around my wrist was good enough, especially given that one of the joys of handspindling is the distinct lack of necessary equipment to tote around.  Who me?  'I don't need no stinking crutch'.  Foot?  Meet mouth.  Mouth? Meet foot.  Yeah.  So.Wrong.

Here are some links to other wrist distaff photos, but Urbanspinner's site with instructions for these seems to be down (temporarily?  permanently?):
Woolflowers
Notsoswift
Tessa
Fibernut

Spinoff Summer 2005 also had instructions for making a wrist distaff using an interesting technique.

Ooops...breaktime's over. Hear that whip crackin'?  Gotta go!  More stuff to show you!  Dang! I'll try to sneak away later.....

Just in case you weren't sure

http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html

And you?

-------------------------------------------------

Speaking of geekery, I've been playing around with toe-up sock patterns for the last week or two, just to see if I like them.  I love the idea of being able to do all the custom-fitty stuff for the foot, then basically just knit 'til the yarn runs out. The lazy knitter's way to no leftovers! Hooray! I'm lazy. I knit. This is a plan I can (maybe) get behind.  First I have to find a toe-up toe that works for me (heel construction drama to follow soon I'd bet).

I started out with the free toe-up on two circulars pattern at Knitpicks(I'm just doing one)
Verdict: Undecided.
Pros: It was easy to understand and to execute and I love the way the sock fits so far.
Cons: Two words that simply do not belong together - Toe Nipple.  Seriously, the toe area is crazy looking. I'll get a picture up here soon so you can see it. I can only hope this thing blocks out, but we shall see.

Next up was Wendy's basic toe up sock pattern. 
Verdict: Good.
Pros: It was easy to understand and execute (my gauge issues notwithstanding) and I like the look of the toe produced.
Cons: Um, dunno, I like this one so far.

This week there will also be a test run of Cat Bordi's 'Turned Toe' from Socks Soar on Two Circulars, and I'll let you know how that goes.  That's as far as I've gotten in my idle, dilettante's research - aside from a Google search (linky-links below).

Now I'm throwing open the floor.  Who out there has an opinion on the toe-up vs. top-down debate?  Does anyone have a favorite toe-up pattern they're willing to share?  And what about the afterthought vs. shortrow vs. flap heel construction question for toe-up socks?  Any thoughts? 

---------------------------------------------------- 

Toe up links:
Elann.com
http://knitting.about.com/library/blsocktoeup.htm
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8mnnp/amyssocks.html
http://tiajudy.com/putmeon.htm
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer04/PATTlolita.html
http://www.knitsnbytes.com/spiral-ll.html
http://www.hellchick.net/needles/patterns/toeupsocks.shtml
http://www.knitlist.com/96gift/giftksocks.htm
http://www.knitlist.com/2002/ToeUpSock.htm
http://www.needletrax.com/toeupon2circulars.htm
http://www.socknitters.com/toe-up/index.htm
http://www.planetshoup.com/easy/knit/sqrtoe.shtml
http://www.planetshoup.com/easy/knit/sqrtoe.shtml

Queen of the World!

Just for funsies, here's a full picture of the building in Friday's clue:

Queen of the World Cathedral

Still doesn't help?  Well then, how about this one?

Tee hee! Look! Beer!

Yup, Anne and Liz both guessed correctly that Montreal was the city in question.  This was our first trip up to Montreal, and what a treat! I can't say enough great things about this city.  We had a fantastic time and really, really didn't want to leave.  It's beautiful, fun, hip, friendly, vibrant, cosmopolitan, they have THE most adorable accents EVER, and even though it's a pretty large city, it seemed imminently approachable and livable.  If you've never had a chance to visit, you really must.  Plus, for those of us in the Boston area it's only 5 1/2 hours away!  How cool is it that we can drive to a completely different country in less time than it used to take me to get to beach back when I lived in Atlanta?  Go!  Go now!  Go hug a French Canadian today.

More fun stuff!  Look what was waiting for us when we got home!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Maxine.  Maxine is a straight up Romney from Melissa's flock at Skylines Farm, the same place that I got Nadine and Collette last spring.  Cat added for scale...as if I could keep them away.  Both of the cats go stark raving mad for the fresh fleece, rolling around in it, chasing each other through it, trying to eat it, and generally making absolute fools of themselves.  It's good to have someone else in the house that's as excited about shearing season as I am, even if it's only the cats. 

Here's a close up of this lovely, silky, lustrous fleece. So soft!  So clean! I washed up a handfull of it last night, and have not stopped thinking about it all day.  I'm dying to get home and spin it up!

*SIGH*  Shiny, yummy wool.

And just because I found this on the memory card, here is a long, long, long overdue picture of Rick's lucky game day socks, completed during the pre-Olympics finishing spree.  These were supposed to be for football season, but at least he's got them in time to cheer his team through March Madness.  And yes, the orange really is that bright.


Go Gators.

Specs:  Game day socks
Yarn: Colorado's Vail - sport weight superwash wool
(Wow, they FINALLY seem to be starting to run low on colors.  I still have a TON of this from a mini buying frenzy last year when it first went on closeout.)
Pattern: Adapted from Ann Budd's Handy Patterns, FINALLY adjusted enough to get it to the right circumference for Rick's tiny little ankles.
Needles:  Addi Turbos Sz 3  (two circs)

Ooopsie-daisy, was that MY credit card?

In lieu of producing actual knitting content today, something that I no longer seem capable of doing here on my knitting blog, I will instead do the second best thing and flash a little photo displaying the charms evils of compulsive yarn-hoarding. This might also be called yarn porn, depending on one's comfort levels with such things. Is everyone ready?

Details:

On the left: Three skeins of Alchemy Yarns' Synchronicity three glorious, hamonizing fall colors. Destiny: unknown, but it desperately needs to be around my neck, so I'm guessing a scarf/cowl of some sort. 

Next: 2 Skeins of Koigu Kersti in more fantastic fall colors, though these are a tad more subdued.
Destiny: Socks, of course. Haven't you heard?  Socks are the new yoga.

After that: Cherry Tree Hill super-sport in Champlain Sunset.
Destiny: Um, yeah, socks.

Next two skeins: Koigu KPM (my first ever skeins of this) in this amazing orange #2200 I think, and yes, it really is THAT orange.
Destiny: Damn.  This is really going to start to look like I have a problem, but yeah....Socks.

Last skein in this row: Cherry Tree Hill supersock in Potluck 'Jewels'
Destiny: What???  Stop laughing. 

Two skeins at the top: Cherry Tree Hill supersock in Potluck 'Brights' and straight up Black.
Destiny: Mittens, HAH! You thought I was going to say socks, didn't you? I'm not yet sure which mittens, but something from here is the most likely candidate.  Of course, I might also just take some of Adrian's fab new blank mitten paper and make my very own pattern, just for funsies.

In addition to these, there are:
Habu yarns: two skeins of a mysterious, luscious, bumpy, soft, wooly-something yarn whose destiny also involves keeping my neck warm in some way.

Cashmere: One skein of laceweight Jade Saphire cashmere in a phenomenal color called 'Everglades' - like this pic (scroll down), but a little softer.
Destiny:  Who cares?  Really.  It's cashmere. 

These two are currently unavailable for the camera as they are buried under a pile of furniture.  Yes, still laying floor here, just in a different room than before.

Source: Various stores all over NYC on a fantastic one-day yarn crawl w/fun, fun, knitty girls WAY, WAY back in December. I never did get a chance to write anything about this, or how fun it was, but it was indeed -- more fun even than I thought it would be, and let me tell you, I know these women so there were some pretty high expectations for the fun-o-meter.  You can go read more about it here, here, and possibly even here.  I know.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get called out as the world's most slack-assed blogger very, very soon.  Don't judge me, my fung shui is bad in here, or something...

Just in case you were wondering.

This plus this    = Very.Bad.Idea.

It might cause one to resort to frogging several days worth of knitting, drowning one's sorrows in this:

.....and starting an easy, brainless sock.  Picture two inches of orange ribbing and two rows of royal blue stockinette.   Lesson learned.  Lace & football don't mix.  Shocking. 

Quick and dirty

It seems like forever since I've been home for more than an hour or two that didn't involve sleeping (or chainsaws, but that's a different post) so I'm a little remiss in updates.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that most of the things that have kept me out of the house have also involved varying amounts of travel time that don't require that I put my hands on any sort of steering wheel(except for the ones involving chainsaws).  You know what that means, right?  Right. Knitting.  I kid you not, actual knitting content, yes, here.  I know, thrilling stuff this knit-blogging.

First up: the back of the cotton tank, done.  Thank you Melanie for encouraging me to stop being such a wuss and get on with it already pick this back up and finish it.  Now that my hand/wrist seems to be all better I think I'm OK with this cotton, and I'm going to cast on for the front sometime this weekend. 

   This is as close as I could get to the actual pale sage green color of this yarn. I've also been trying to come up with just the right word to explain how yummy the resulting fabric is, but all I can think of is scrumptchiliscious.  Yeah, I know.  Sue me.

Next up - socks.  Yes, more socks.  I might even call these boring if it weren't for the fact that they were knit from my very own handspun singles.  Woohoo! 

Thick, non-matching, glorious, luxurious & comfy, out of some handpainted (Boogieknits) merino.  These are definitely house socks that will never, ever, ever see the inside of a shoe.  They're just too soft, but I'm unlikely to take them off for anything OTHER than the need to put my feet into shoes, an act to which I am already morally opposed.   I can guarantee that you'll see more crazy-soft house socks here in the future b/c, while I'd MUCH rather be barefoot all the time (yup, you can take the girl out of the country...), after about October, even hot-natured me needs to put something on her tootsies.  Since I hate even the idea of wearing shoes in the house, and even slippers annoy the bejesus out of me, socks it is.  Please, kids, don't try this un-protected, frictionless sock wearing at home on YOUR hardwood/tile floors.  It's very dangerous.  You've been warned.  As for the not-matching thing?  Well, I didn't spin this yarn up with anything specific in mind, most especially not socks, so I didn't bother with that whole business of splitting the roving in half to maintain color repeats thing.  Honestly?  I pretty much couldn't care less, especially since thy'll never leave the house.  I DID use regular commercial yarn for the toes, just to make them a tiny bit more durable.  The remainder of this yarn is being knitted into a square for one of the many good afghan projects going on right now in blogland.

And last, but not least, there is this:

It's the back of the Cable Raglan Turtleneck from Debbie Bliss' book 4. It's the same yarn and color as in the book, which I'm pretty sure is a first for me.  The yarn is from a Web's clearance sale, last winter I think, and the speed of knitting with the chunky yarn is great fun.  This is one of the sweaters that got planned out while I wasn't allowed to knit, and I'm loving the instant gratification that this fast, easy knit is providing.  I'll probably go back to the tank and get it done first before moving on with this one, but don't anyone hold their breath or anything. 

Stay tuned for fun with chainsaws and spinning wheels.

Brought to you by the letter "S"

S is for Solidarity:
(and socks)

(Please, please don't judge me by the cat hair on this section of floor.  My house is bad, but in general, not THIS bad)

S is for Spinning:

(and Spunky Eclectic, hi Amy)

4 oz. Spunky Eclectic handpainted Merino roving in colorway "Autumn Girls" spun into springy singles destined to become soft, scrumptious socks.

S is for Spawn:

(because, knitting-schmitting, I have no illusions about what you really want)

Maxin' relaxin'

Leon and Lola are watching the College World Series with my man. And Bourbon? She's sleeping.  She's more into the National Geographic channel.  Atta girl, Bourbon.

Family cuddle.

Oh, and the kid socks are done.  It's amazing I tell you.  Pictures tomor...well, anyway, later.

Show and tell

There's a backlog of photos on my camera begging to be offloaded, and some of them belong here.

First up, yarn porn:

Hooray for Navajo plying!  This is some Spunky Eclectic handpainted wool in the colorway "down by the pond".  Purty, ain't it?  This is 2 oz of the 4 oz that's here and the other 2 oz is spun up, but not yet plied.

Next up, cat porn:

Napoleon and Josephine sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.......Just taking a little break from their parental duties, folks. 

For those of you who share my current sock fetish:

Knitpicks Sock Landscape "Mesa" using my standard Ann Budd pattern and two circulars.  These are thick and soft and scrumptious.  Those Knitpicks folks continue to impress me with the beauty and high quality of their yarns, and all for a great price.  I also have a TON of this left over.  Granted, I made these about 2" shorter than usual, but it still seems crazy to me that I'm pretty sure I could get another pair just exactly like this from the leftovers of these two skeins, despite my Sasquatch feet.  As soon as I can figure out which box my kitchen scale is hiding in I'll be comparing the weight of the leftovers to that of the socks . Yes of course I have to know.

And now, the stuff I know that you've all actually come here for, gratuitous kitten cuteness:

Lola, that's super-kitty up there, is actually sound asleep (actually, they both are, but she's the focus of this particular story).  She often falls asleep draped over the edge of their bed while trying to decide if she should come back out and play some more, and then she slowly sinks down, in stages, to the bottom of the bed - all while still sound asleep.  It's killing you isn't it, all that cuteness?  She's also a total ham.  Seriously, see for yourself:

She's destined to be a pin up girl.  Just look at that smile.

I'd also like to send a shout out to Ms. Melanie and Ms. Yarnpants for not running screaming away from the construction zone we call a house here at Chez Obsession.  See, they came by for some cider fibery fun last night, and we hung out with the stash that ate Chicago and the super-adorable cats, and we spun and we knit and generally had a grand old Friday night.   Don't you EVEN try to tell me that's not what you think of as a hot and hoppin' Friday night, because I won't believe you.  That or I'll just assume you don't know these girls.  So anyway, after they left, I realized that they were my very first social event ever in this house.  Yeah, after 10 months -- crazy, huh?  Thanks y'all!  Maybe next time I'll have that durned latch fixed and you won't have to hold the door of the outhouse closed while you pee.