Year of Projects - Huron Mountain 02

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

The high today is expected to be in the double digits. In fact, we're expecting temperatures 10° C above seasonal norms all next week (10°C = 18° F!). Yippee!

My first Huron Mountain sock was finished Tuesday and I've been overwhelmed by its popularity. Several coworkers and friends have tried to put dibs on this pair or place orders for their own pairs. Even Gavin has remarked that he particularly likes this pair, and he's not generally a fan of socks at all. The second sock was cast on Friday. After some steady knitting through last night's hockey game I've finished the first chart and am ready to start the second to complete the leg to the heel. Once the sock is done I'm going to wear it around the house a bit  - with shoes and in stocking feet - to see how I like the feel of the banded heel. It's kind of nice to be able to carry the colourwork chart through the foot with the interruption of gusset decreases, so I'm hoping it tests out okay.

My guess is that my second Huron Mountain sock will be finished about midweek. Looking through the list of patterns remaining to be knit, I decided to tackle Christmas in Tallinn next. The pattern is written as a Christmas stocking, but as the chart repeats at 18 stitches which can be knit 4 times across 72 stitches, I'm determined instead to knit it as a pair of socks instead. Socks with a very fancy leg pattern, that's for sure, but socks they will be! In anticipation I had a look through my stash for yarn that would work; here's what I decided upon -  the main colour will be a light grey, the main contrast will be worked in a variegated blue/green yarn and for the small bits of the second contrasting colour in the cuff I'm using a solid navy blue. I hope the effect will be interesting and dramatic. We'll see by next week!

That's it for me this Sunday - it's way too nice to stay inside! Have a great week on your Year of Projects and whatever else you turn your attention to!

two little projects

Yesterday I finished the Barbie Dress (pattern 781) that I had started on Tuesday. When I cast on the dress I thought it'd be a quick little project - boy was I wrong! Turns out that dress uses a lot of yarn and takes a lot of time. I should have guessed that from the beginning when the first instruction is to cast on 162 stitches for the skirt! Yikes! The bottom part of the skirt is straight stockinette so it's inclined to roll up; if I were to do it again I'd start with a few rounds of garter stitch to straighten it out. Following the pattern directions, there should have been more purple reaching higher but when I ran out of purple I decided that the drop waist would start a whole lot sooner. Round 19 of the decrease shaping - with all its K3tog TBL and m1 K1 m1s - was nearly the death of me. That's enough of playing with dolls for now! Phew!

With the dress finished, I moved on to crochet a square to fulfill a promise made to SIBOL. This is for their "One Heart from Around the World" blanket. The challenge had been posted for some time and it turned out that they were extending the deadline hoping to get a few more squares. I checked my stash, I had just enough red worsted, so I signed up for one square. Of all the squares I've crocheted this is not my favourite. Those really long double-triples in the bottom corners just bug me, as do the stitches worked two rounds below at the top centre of the heart. As well because the centre of the square is worked as a ring of seven chain stitches, it leaves quite a hole in the centre of the block. I used the yarn end to tighten that ring to narrow the hole but if I did this square again, I'd use the adjustable magic ring instead.

Now that these two little projects are wrapped up, it's back to socks. I cast on my second Huron Mountain sock last night. Gavin's had a migraine for the last couple of days, and it's still "buzzing" in his head today, so it looks like a quiet weekend for us.

Work-in-progress Wednesday

This morning I have one finished Huron Mountain sock. Before casting on the second I decided instead to use those size 0 needles to knit up a Barbie Doll dress, pattern 781. A local charity collects the dolls and their gear for a store they open before Christmas - parents on social assistance can shop for gifts for their children at no cost. Sounds like a good use for my sock yarn scraps, so I'm trying to knit an outfit or two a month.

As for the book, at the moment I'm reading The Cat's Table. Last year at the beginning of October I decided to read all the books on the Giller Prize shortlist. Although the prize was awarded at the end of October,  I'm still catching up: two read, one started and three to go. Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient is one of my most favourite books ever in no small part because of the lyrical quality of his prose. So far his new book is just as fulfilling; absolutely beautifully written, worth savouring every sentence and every paragraph. And so far each book on the shortlist is a completely different animal from the last which has been kind of fun.

There's lots going on in the craft world - check out the links at Tami's Amis to see what everyone else is sharing!

dishcloth fail

Some unknown amount of time ago I picked up this free pattern sheet for a Snowflake Dishcloth while browsing the yarn aisles at Michael's or Len's Mill. Looked pretty cute in the picture so I thought I'd give it ago. But I've stopped and frogged before even completing the final round. One thing's for sure - there must have been some serious blocking to make that dishcloth look so pretty in the pattern photo! Theirs looks much sturdier, it lays flat and their picots uniformly point in the correct direction. Who blocks a dishcloth? Seriously?!

Of course it doesn't help that I was using natural colour cotton from my stash rather than the bright white they recommend. Looks rather like the grubby snow that accumulates at roadsides several days after a snowfall, doesn't it? Not nice at all.

Never mind. I think I'll go back to knitting socks now.

Year of Projects - Huron Mountain 01

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

There's something about a colourwork chart that I find addictive. As soon as I finish one section of a chart I can't wait to start the next just to see how it looks. And then onto the next, and so on. That's the story with this sock too; I'm drawn from one section to the next with an impatience to see how it'll look. And as a result, this Sunday morning finds me halfway through the first Huron Mountain sock after just two days of knitting.

The pattern is meant to look like the plumage of the North American Loon. To be more accurate I should be using a true black instead of charcoal grey and a bright white instead of this creamy white, however I'm not a fan of knitting on tiny needles with very dark coloured yarn. The light in my living room is not sufficient and my eyes are not up to that challenge. Besides I'm trying to knit from my stash, so this was the best I could do.

The heel construction is quite unusual - one Raveler described it as a "band" heel. The heel flap is shaped so that after picking up stitches to reinstate the round the original number of stitches is attained without need of any gusset decreases. In so doing the "lice" pattern is carried on from the leg and worked right away after the heel without adjustment for a decreasing stitch count. This is also the first time I've worked "lice" stitches - widely spaced single contrast colour stitches within a field of the main colour, something that finds its roots in traditional Norwegian knitting.

One more thing to admit: this is one of the patterns in the book that I didn't want to knit. Now I'm glad I did. I've learned a new heel, I worked a lice pattern for the first time and, as it turns out, I like the sock more than I ever thought I would. Another pleasant surprise from designer Nancy Bush.

Finished Object Friday

It was Thursday morning when I finished my New England socks. Really pretty, huh? Both the lacy pattern and the sorbet coloured yarn. On either side of the central diamond pattern and around the back of the top four inches of the leg there is a "lacy rib" pattern which is surprisingly stretchy. I'm always afraid with lacy sock patterns that there'll be no stretch and no give, resulting in an ill-fitting sock. Not so in this case. And once more I realize that I should never doubt Nancy Bush - she absolutely knows what she's doing when she designs socks.

I changed from a round toe as written to my usual with decreases every second row on each side - is there a name for that toe? It's my standard because I just can't abide the feel of decreases across the top of my toes or under my toes.

The heel is a bit odd as written - the slipped stitch rib pattern continues from the heel flap across the heel turn - but I decided to just go with it. Will it make the bottom of the heel sturdier? Maybe. I've worn out plenty of socks at the bottom of the heel so that seemed like a good thing to try.

The yarn is the biggest surprise in all of this. Based on what I saw in the skein I expected pink and yellow stripes - kind of like what happened on the back of the heels. Instead, for the most part, the effect when knitted is virtually semi-solid. It's a happy accident and it certainly suits the pattern nicely. The yarn is Alley Cat sock from Wandering Cat Yarns in a colourway called "Peeps", which is not unlike their stock colourway "Aurora". It's a lovely yarn to knit - very soft and non-splitty.

Upon finishing the socks I considered what to do with the leftover yarn. Seems to me these colours would suit a blue-eyed blond beautifully so Barbie doll clothes it is. Here she is "dolled up" in a sundress based on this pattern. Looks like there's still enough yarn for another sweater or two. They are quick little knits; besides Barbie dolls and clothes are always welcome donations at the local charity No-Charge Christmas Store.

As always on Fridays, check the links at Tami's Amis  - prepare to be inspired, amazed and surprised!

Surmount the Stash March Update

We're now two months into my year long commitment to Surmount the Stash in 2012, so it's time for another report card. Let's see how I did this month!


Monthly budget of $50 for all knitting related expenses: I spent $20.00 for the grey wool from Dutch Hollow Acres for Susie Rodgers Reading Mitts + $6.00 for the Windscheif pattern + $4.50 for the Koolhaas pattern + $10.02 mailing costs for a SIBOL square and a chemo cap + $31.08 at the Purple Purl for a retracting measuring tape and a skein of sock yarn + $23.56 at Knit-o-matic for highlighter tape and some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino =$95.16. Remembering that I was $0.98 over last month, I'm now $46.14 over budget. That's not very good, is it? To get back on track I'm pledging not to spent one more cent this month.


Manage my WIPs: Once again I've been disciplined about starting and finishing things. Three hats and one charity square were completed and shipped to charities. Another two baby hats have been knit and are awaiting donation. It felt like I was starting and finishing something about every other day through February and now, on the first day of March, there's one last sock on needles that'll be finished before I leave for work this morning.


Plan projects to work through my inventory of yarns in my Stash: This month there were a few yarn purchases and pattern purchases that weren't strictly necessary. As well, for much of the month my projects were in sock and baby yarn - stash busting goes much more slowly when the yarn is so fine! I didn't make any scrap yarn socks last month and just one dishcloth - I can and will do better this month.


My conclusions? The grades on this month's report card have definitely slipped when compared to last month. Time to recommit and see how what I can accomplish in March.