good-natured ribbing

I found myself knitting a standard sock for Nigel instead of finishing my flat foot pair, and decided to put in an afterthought heel. I haven’t done one in a while, and wanted something I could do without a pattern. I’m using two colors of Regia “4-Fach Haltbar: 4 fädig.” I don’t see the equivalent English on the label, except some that states it’s “dimensionally stable” and “hard-wearing,” which is just what Nigel needs in a sock. I started with 68 stitches for the cuff, and increased to 72 for the rest of the sock. I think the heel turned out really well. Sometimes I have a gap in the corners, but avoided it this time.

I also got it into my head to knit a Forest Canopy Shawl for a friend. In a meeting at work last Monday I found myself staring at Beth’s Forest Canopy Shawl instead of paying attention, and decided it would be a great pattern for the Karabella Lace Merino Silk yarn I picked up at School Products in NYC a while ago. I think I was right.

I finished one sock while we were driving, and took pictures of it in Bellingham. You can see that the sock changes color at the heel. I knit until I reached the end of the first set of rectangles. There seems to be enough Flat Feet yarn to knit 3 socks my size. Or, maybe one pair my size and a pair of child size socks. There is plenty of yarn for a large pair of socks for sure.

I like the feel of this yarn a lot. It’s a little nubby from being machine-stitched, but when I get home I’ll block it and see how that changes the appearance.

Backing up a little bit, on Sunday, while we were visiting Portland, our hosts graciously took me to Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, where I found more yarn I had never seen before!

Must be nice to live in the Pacific Northwest, with such great yarn to be had everywhere!

The joys of summer vacation! Yesterday I got to go to three yarn stores in Spokane with my mother-in-law, Mary, and my brother-in-law, Chas, both of whom are knitters. There were many great things about this. Since we all knit, and we’re on vacation, we took our time in all three stores. My favorite of these was Paradise Fibers, which is oddly (or maybe conveniently, depending on your point of view) located in a building adjacent to an adult bookstore. Also great was the fact that I found some yarns I had never seen before, which doesn’t happen all that often. And, finally, we got to go to Sonic Burger for lunch, which we never get to do in Michigan.

The first of the two things I had never seen before was this:

This is not a scarf. It’s Flat Feet sock yarn, which is sock yarn that’s been machine-knitted into material and then dyed flat. Chas explained this to me, since I don’t dye, but this method (quite logically) yields different results than dying skeins of yarn. There is waste yarn at the end of the flat material which you remove, and then you start knitting. Instead of having a ball of yarn, you knit directly from the material as it unravels. I’m not sure if my hotel-room photos are doing justice to the bright colors, but here’s a slightly closer picture.

The second thing I had never seen before is this: a lucet. It’s a little wooden thingie that you use to make i-cords. With a little bit of coaching from Chas, I got the hang of it very quickly. He says that you get to the point where you don’t need to watch, and then it’s really easy to do this on a bus or while you’re walking to work. I have to admit, it’s oddly addictive. I can’t wait to get one and then find a project that needs i-cords.

Now, from the hotel room window I see tons of smoke. There seems to be a warehouse fire north of us, which is bad news since it’s windy and hot and dry.

It was nice on the sock blocker, but once off, yech. The main problem was the yarn. It was too fine for the pattern, I think. The pattern looks nice in pictures I’ve seen of it, but on me the sock is slouchy, and puffs out over the heel.

I like the stockinette on the sole, though. I’m frogging this and will turn the yarn into a plain sock. This means that, once again, I have failed to complete a pair of toe-up socks.

A minor setback for me. I have 2 other pairs started, both simple enough to knit on the plane tomorrow as I fly across the country to Seattle.