Whooo!

My future daughter-in-law's birthday is today (well, technically yesterday as it is past midnight now) and I wanted to make her something. She loves owls and while I like the owl on Janelle's dishcloth, I wanted to make her something to wear.

So here is my owl headband:


It is made with Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, which is deliciously soft against the skin.

At size 4 needles I swatched at 6 sts per inch.

Loosely cast on 88 stitches.

Ribbing:
K2, P2 for 4 rounds
K2, P2 for an additional 32 sts. Place marker.

Pattern:
Row 1: K2, P5, K8, P5, K2, Purl around to marker.
Row 2: K2, P5, K8, P5, Knit to end (marker).
Row 3: K2, P5, place 2 sts on cable needle (cn) and hold in back, K2, K2 from cn, place 2 sts on cn and hold in front, K2, K2 from cn, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 4: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 5: K2, P5, K8, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 6: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 7: K2, P5, K8, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 8: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 9: K2, P5, K8, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 10: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 11: K2, P5, place 2 sts on cn and hold in back, K2, K2 from cn, place 2 sts on cn and hold in front, K2, K2 from cn, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 12: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 13: K2, P5, K1, P2, K2, P2, K1, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 14: K2, P5, K1, P2, K2, P2, K1, P5, K to end.
Row 15: K2, P5, K8, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 16: K2, P5, K8, P5, K to end.
Row 17: K2, P5, place 2 sts on cn and hold in back, K2, K2 from cn, place 2 sts on cn and hold in front, K2, K2 from cn, P5, K2, P to end.
Row 18: K2, P5, K8, P5, K36

Ribbing:
K2, P2 for 4 rounds.
Bind off loosely in pattern.

Blueberry Socks

I finished my sweetie's socks about three weeks ago and I felt like the second sock was much better than the first. I was beginning to understand not just how to follow the pattern, but also why I was doing certain things when I was. The trouble was, I was certain that if I just merrily went on my way to other projects, then I was definitely going to forget everything that I had just learned. With that in mind, I decided to knit a second pair of socks, this time for myself.

But I wanted the ribbing to extend down the foot... and I wanted cables down the side too.

I sat in bed one evening and did all the math in my head (at 52 stitches around how large the cable would be and how many repeats of ribbing there needed to be on either side of the cable so that it would still split evenly when I reached the heel). Happy with myself, I got started the next day and wrote down my plans. Only later did I discover that what I had come up with was nearly identical to the Cable Clock Socks on p104 of Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks! I just don't have the extra cables around the cuff and my cables are at regular intervals (every 6 rounds). Oh well, I know that I came up with it in my head.

Here is the finished first sock, completed last night:


However, I went out on my own when it came to the toe. There were several things I didn't like about the toes on my first pair of socks. Mainly I thought they were too pointy and came down to much too small before finishing (only 8 stitches). That last little bit of the sock would just get stuck under my toes and would bother me to no end. Plus, my feet are not exactly typical in shape. I realized that my first three toes are nearly the same length.

Finally, if I followed the method of toe decreases as described in the book, the lovely cabling pattern would be the first thing to disappear!

So instead I decreased through the ribbing pattern, and I only decreased on one side of the sock. This will require making a right- and left- foot sock, but I am happy with that.

You can see how neat the decreases are in the ribbing on the toe. Now, you might ask why I should care so much about the toe? Why, because these will be my sandal socks, where the toes of my socks will be displayed in all their beauty. Now all I have to do is make sure that I mirror all of this correctly in the left sock...

Knitting Update

Yes, I have been knitting a lot recently. Here is the proof.

Made a scarf to match the beautiful hat:



Still haven't decided who will be the worthy recipient of these items...


Made my first pair of socks for my sweetie who picked out the yarn nearly a year ago (and told me "when you learn how to knit socks you can make me a pair with this" - and I did).



But now I am afraid that I will forget everything I learned while making those socks, so I have immediately started another pair for me:


(have actually gotten past the heel already, but haven't taken another photo yet)

At the moment I am attempting to adapt this owl dishcloth pattern (http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/clothowl.htm) into a headband... but it is not going so well. I made it far to big and I think I need a different kind of yarn. Hopefully I will have more to say on this on my next post.

Well, I obviously suck royally at keeping a blog.

I did not just recently figure this out. This fact dawned on me about a month ago when I was struck with spasms of guilt for not having posted in a terribly long time. While I briefly contemplated posting a "My goodness, it has been so long" post, I then felt like after such a prolonged absence I must have something Very Important to say, but of course I didn't have anything Very Important to say because rarely does anything Very Important happen to me... This is doubly weird because as far as I know hardly anyone even knows that my blog exists, much less would critique me for my untimeliness. Nonetheless, my blog sat untouched and unread for another month.

My blog was destined to sit untouched forever as the longer it went unposted, the more dramatic I felt a post should be, but then Orata came along and forced me to arise from my blogging doldrums. She tagged me in her blog for 7 random things.

The rules are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven random/weird things about me:

1. I was born at home. Yep, in my parents' bed. Not just that, but I was born just feet from the ocean (well, technically the Long Island Sound, but close enough). 

Ironically, I hate seafood. Go figure.

2. I have an extra tooth. I just found this one out a few years ago. Apparently 32 teeth are not enough for me. I’ve got an extra one shoved up there ready to come out should I need it. It’s called a “maxillary fourth molar,” but I prefer to think of it as my shark’s tooth… 

Nope, I won’t post a picture of my x-ray.

3. I own two rats. Most people freak out about the tails, but I just love rats ever since my sister brought one home from her high school psychology class. They are just so friendly and sweet and they love to hang out inside my hoodie and stick their noses out to see what I am doing. 

Here is Trudy when she was five weeks old:

4. I can’t stand to have things read out loud to me. I don’t know why, but my auditory processing is just horrible. When they do those learning style tests to see if you are an auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learner, most people are a healthy balance of all three, but I am completely and utterly visual. I can’t even handle hearing and remembering a phone number long enough to dial. My husband is a musician too. He tries to see the positive side of this situation – he can practice all he wants and I never get annoyed, because it never sounds repetitious to me!

5. Related to number 4, I am really good at organizing complex things visually. I constantly see the patterns in objects. Right now I create the schedules each week for everyone at my work, which involves 14 students and 16 staff and a hundred or so appointments. It is like a giant friggin’ Rubik’s cube, but I am good at it. It has also made me good at weaving, and hopefully good at knitting, although it is too early to tell.

6. And now for something completely random. When I was 13 I used to have the Tim the Enchanter speech memorized and would give a performance for anyone that would let me. Yes, I was a Monty Python geek. For death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

7. And finally, the last random thing about me is that I have no online friends. That’s right, I have no one to tag this onto. I am a disgrace to my generation. I was such a nerdy outcast in junior high and now all those feelings of inadequacy are returning. The people from Ravelry are the only ones I really know who really know their way around the internet. It’s not that I don’t have any “real-world” friends, its just that I can’t think of any which have entered the blogosphere. I don’t know if that makes my friends lame for not being online, or if that makes me lame for not having any technically-savvy friends? 

So, I’ll tag Nicole from the knitting group, since she’s on my friend list on Ravelry and Huan Hua didn’t tag her for this particular blog list…