by my estimation

the pile is shrinking

At times this marathon square knitting project has felt unending. I knit and knit, the pile of squares grows and grows, but the amount of yarn remaining never shrinks. Until now. All the grey yarn has been knit up, only about 1000 meters of evergreen, rust and gold remain. There's a tiny ray of light at the end of this tunnel!

At this point I'm prone to rashly say something along the lines of ... "Should be all knit up by tomorrow"... but for the record, my timing estimates are terrible. Things always take days, even weeks, longer than I think they will. When I worked as an estimator I calculated times using multipliers for each person. I'd look at a job and say "hmmm, this looks like a two hour job so Doug (multiplier: 0.8) will finish this in about an hour and forty minutes, whereas Tom (multiplier:1.1) would need about two hours and ten minutes." Apparently my own multiplier should be about 2.5!

I suppose it's probably in my own self-interest that I'm so unrealistic about how long things will take. After all, would anyone really knit socks or shawls if they really thought that through?

Come Blog Along Pattern 03 Post 02

a mismatched pair

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

It's not second sock syndrome, really it's not! It's just that the yarn that I'm using for Conwy was driving me around the bend. There was too much twist in the yarn; so much that I was fighting to keep it untangled long enough to knit it. Ravelry to the rescue! After posting my problem to the yarn forum the answer came back: reskein it, wash it and weight it down before hanging it to dry. And that seems to have worked. It looks like the remaining yarn will be much better behaved for the second sock.

While the green yarn blocked I cast on for the next pair of socks in the book: Dalarna. For this sock and the decorative chain stitch detail on the cuff I had to rewind the hank for a centre pull ball. That's not something with which I've had much experience but as usual there were some helpful YouTube tutorials. My ball works but it's not as tidy as yarn cakes I've seen on other blogs ... that's why it's outside the crop of the photo. If I start knitting socks two-at-a-time I'll need a ball winder and swift pronto.

The decorative chain stitch is a cute detail, but working it once above the ribbing and once below leaves me with four additional ends to weave in - I'm not wholly convinced it's worth the effort. Besides the cuff and the small clock pattern down the legs and edging the foot, the sock is mainly stockinette. Ho hum. I'd like to get both these pairs of socks off the needles as soon as possible and move onto to something more fun!

when I get a minute

a growing pile of mitred squares

Things have been crazy busy of late. At work we've had several large projects for financial conferences and promoting the fall TV season. And at home, I've had my hands full organizing for our big event in November. Seems like there hasn't been much time for blogging or for knitting. But when I get a minute here or there, I've been knitting squares - these mitred squares for Knit-A-Square.

We're up early this morning and will be on the road shortly for a beach clean up at the Palmwood Hotel at Lake Erie - one of many events taking place over the next ten days for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. The Crystal Beach area near the hotel is popular with tourists and surfers alike, so there'll be no shortage of food wrappers and drink containers to tidy up.

Crystal Beach is a couple of hours of driving away for us. Translation: a couple of hours of knitting for me. About time! Maybe I can get the last of this yarn knit up and the squares posted away by the end of the weekend. They're fun, they're easy, but they are getting a bit tedious now.

still another sock

with decorative chain stitch cuff

My Conwy socks are in time out. The yarn had soooo much twist that I was fighting it the entire time I was knitting. As soon as I finished the first sock I posted to a Ravelry forum to see if there was anything I could do. On the advice of a fellow Raveler, I reskeined the remaining yarn, washed it and as I type it's hanging in the bathroom with a towel weighing it down to relax the twist. Yarn Blocking, it's called, and fingers crossed that it works.

Overall I've been extremely disappointed with that skein from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks. It's not just the excessive twist. The yarn is very thin - much thinner than any of the other sock yarns in my stash even light fingering yarns - which makes for a very unsatisfactory knitted fabric for socks. I wouldn't recommend anything bigger than 2mm needles, in fact, it's probably better suited to lace projects rather than socks. It's also kind of unyielding and ropey feeling making it unpleasant to knit. The first finished sock feels prickly; could this be a side effect of the excess twist? I hope so, because I'm hoping the socks soften up with washing. Too bad really because the colour is absolutely stunning. Thank goodness I resisted the temptation of the other colourway I was looking at.

While that yarn dries I made a start on the next pair of socks for my Year of Projects - Dalarna. For this project I'm using hand-dyed yarn from Revelations of a Delusional Knitter in a colourway called Violas. Pretty, isn't it? Changing to this yarn from the last yarn has been very refreshing - this yarn is just so much plumper and softer, a real pleasure to knit. That's a good thing as the pattern is mostly plain old stockinette so it needs a lovely yarn to keep my interest.

the knitter's fair

more + more Alice Starmore

The good news is that I was able to stick to my shopping list at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair. The bad news is that it wasn't my willpower or self control that won the day, it was the absence of temptation. There were very few deals to be had and not much that interested me - just lots and lots of linen stitch or ruffled scarf kits.

I did buy a button - the square wooden one pictured on the left hand book. There were a couple of vendors showing buttons but most were too big and too thick to work for a cardigan. Besides $6 per button is too rich for my blood.

I also bought two books by Alice Starmore at a slight discount. The Celtic Collection contains the pattern for the Kells Sweater which is one of my someday patterns, and Aran Knitting has St Brigid for which I've already knit a swatch. I'll put these two books to good use I'm sure.

And then I bought a skein of sock yarn, Malabrigo Sock in the colourway Aguas. After spending more almost half an hour to find a parking spot I figured I deserved at least one skein of yarn. Overall the day was a bit disappointing; it won't be on my calendar of things to do next year.

Come Blog Along Pattern 03 Post 01

Comfy socks, these!

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby


One good thing about cooler evenings? Comfy socks! And they don't get any comfier than these finished Canal du Midi socks in an alpaca blend - sooooo soft and well fitting. I've learned a few things through this project. First I learned a new cast on: the Double Start Cast On. The double strand makes a ribbed cuff with more substantial edge which I like. And second, I learned that a bit of variegation might be worrying on a small swatch but on the larger canvas of an entire sock the stitch pattern might not be overwhelmed. That's an important lesson for me because I often hesitate to buy yarn with a lot of variegation - afraid that stitch patterns will be lost in the patterning of the yarn colours.

flying off the needles

On Thursday evening I cast on for the next pattern in Knitting on the Road: Conwy, named says Nancy Bush, for a town in Northern Wales with a long history of sock knitting. Compared to Canal du Midi, this pattern is simpler and easier to memorize. As well, it's knit on slightly larger needles so maybe it's not surprising that this first sock is flying off the needles. Just a few hours to knit the leg, the heel flap and turn the heel of the first sock. Looks like this pair is going to catch me up a bit on my year of projects schedule!

knitting down the stash

mitre madness!

It's been pretty much all mitres all the time when it comes to my knitting time these days. The simple narrowing rows of garter stitch have been a real pleasure to knit and I'm inspired to knit up all the Patons Classic Merino wool in my stash. And why not.

That's not the only stash-busting going on around here. Turns out those 10 balls of novelty yarn fun fur I've had for a couple of years is suddenly in demand. I bought an entire bag because it's just so deliciously soft that I could not put it down. The yarn has been discontinued and I guess I'm one of the few who has so much of the most popular shade in the same dyelot. When I bought it I had no particular plan for it and I still don't, so I'm pretty excited that a fellow Raveler pm'd to ask if I'd be willing to sell! Absolutely!

If it sounds like I'm harping on the destash theme, it's because I'm trying to build up my willpower and self-control in advance of the KW Knitter's Fair tomorrow. If I stay on track I could potentially have my stash knit down to 2 shoeboxes by Christmas, but did you see that vendor list? It's crazy! The mind boggles!  I've set myself a cash limit and prepared a list of purchases that I'll consider:

• buttons for CeCe
• superwash wool for a blanket but only if it's a fabulous deal
• sock yarn because it's small and I will use it
• patterns, particularly if they're suitable for Christmas knitting
• any book by Alice Starmore that I don't already have