My recycled cashmere hourglass sweater is done and I hate it. Okay, April Fools is over, I love it!

April Fool's! Of course I love it.

How could I not love it? Isn't that sooooo much better than the original giant tunic-y thing?! That original sweater was so big that I managed to knit the body of the new sweater up to the armholes and in the round with only 3/4 of the yarn from the back of the original! That means I've got lots of yarn left over. I do believe I'll have to make a cashmere scarf and beret set this fall.

But back to this sweater. After my first sizing error, I stuck with the pattern numbers and it came out fitting great. There's enough ease, but it's still nice and form-fitting (instead of becoming uber-drapey like uhhhh, Klaralund - wink, wink). I also kept the body and sleeve length as given in the pattern and they worked out too. (Whew - I was worried about those sleeves!) I did however add two extra decrease rows to the top, to trim down the wide boatneck and give myself some bra strap coverage. So pattern, good (check the pattern errata though before you make one).

And the yarn, very good. It's a 65/35 cashmere/cotton blend that I recycled from an at least 10 year old Banana Republic sweater. It suffered a bit in the ripping (although I carefully ripped the entire sweater by hand instead of using the ball winder), making the yarn a little less tightly plied. And, of course, my hand knitting is nowhere near as even as the machine knitting of the original. But all this gives it a natural and casual sort of look, which I really like. Like the often irregularly dyed and sometimes slubby cash iroha that the pattern originally called for, it makes the sweater lovely and feminine without seeming so dressy and delicate that I couldn't ever wear it (can you tell I'm having a problem with some of the less casual patterns that some companies have been coming out with lately?). No, this one is just right: it's soft as can be, feels very comfortable directly against the skin and is cozy warm and fun to wear.

Another week and another trip to IKEA, but this time not just for furniture shopping. I had to make that looooong drive down to pick up one little thing that they didn't have in stock last week, so some New Haven Stitch n' Bitchers helped make it worth my while by coming to meet me for a little knitting in the cafeteria.

seriously, we're knitting at IKEA!

Lauren arranged everything and brought her man and his wonderful newly finished sweater. Jessica brought her beautiful Koigu Clapotis-in-progress and some lovely blue stitch markers for me (thanks!!). Sami brought her blue(!) yarn for tempting and her Wiseman Finishing Techniques book and managed to do the tubular cast on with all of us blabbing. Karen brought some fabulous recycled sari silk yarn for the water bottle sling from Knit Wit and some books for Bookcrossing's IKEA release challenge. And Eklectika brought the wrong half of her sock knitting, which would be an empty needle holder and an extra ball of yarn. We stitched (well, everyone except for Eklectika), we bitched (okay, mostly Eklectika), ate meatballs and cinnamon buns (me, me) while the boys watched SpongeBob, which was mercifully playing in a loop in the kids area of the cafeteria.

Thanks gals, for making the trip so much fun! (Thanks from the little guys too, who were in a good mood all the way home!) See ya next time for knitting in one of the display living rooms.

Just past the heel on the first retro rib sock. It would appear that finishing the hourglass sweater, starting the white bread sweater, taking crazy day trips to IKEA and working at the yarn store all weekend have cut into my sock knitting time.

While I've been busy, a huge pile of new knitting mags and books has accumulated!

Not surprisingly, I've spent the last few evenings with my knit lit instead of my knit kit. New knitting books are hard to resist, especially if you find yourself in a little post-project blue phase like I am now. They're filled with possibilities, are always the perfect size and there's no need to frog them ever. A few hours with Rowan, Verena and Stephanie and I'll feel much better.

Today however is Wednesday. Alas, my web server was down for the part of the day yesterday when I was home and able to blog. So this week, Wednesday is Tuesday, okay.*

You mean there's MORE finished sockapalooza socks?! Oh yeah!

Shirley's fair-isles (seen on her pal Andrea's blog)
Sara's beautiful red lacey socks (and there's another peek at the great socks that Nancy sent her!)
Mary's fabulous handspun Monet-esque socks (here they are on Illana's feet!)
Jamie's blue retro ribs
Valentina's pink "patented" no-kitchner socks
Morgan's variegated socks (seen here on Chris' blog)
Martha's beautiful blues (on Leandra's happy feet!)
Elizabeth's blue and green socks (on her pal's feet)

Only 16 people left on the list to finish and report in. Only 16 - wow! I am so happy with how this knitalong turned out. And so impressed at how many of you have come through for your pals. What great socks and great pals. Thanks to you all for making the sockapalooza rock!

* - When I was in college, we always had those Jewish holidays off that fall in the middle of the week. In order to make up the missed class days from the M-W-F schedule, there was an official "Tuesday is a Wednesday" scheduled in the calendar. It was sort of fun doing everything on the wrong day!

I have been the recipient of a yarn mitzvah - a very good yarny deed. A knitter friend of mine (one of the people who helped teach me to knit!) has developed chronic tendonitis and has come to the conclusion that he'll never knit through all of his stash. So he gave me this entire bag of Cascade 200 in a beautiful forest green.

Sure, he could have sold this yarn on eBay or tried to swap it with somebody for something, but he really just wanted to give it away to someone he knows will use and enjoy it. Isn't that a wonderful thing?

Since I can't really repay him for the yarn without going against the principle of the idea, I've decided to thank him by doing a yarn mitzvah myself. I'm going to give away some Phildar yarn from my stash. No swapping, no trading, no money. I'm giving them away. Buuuuuut, I'd really love to see whoever takes the yarn to do the same: find something yarny that someone else would appreciate (it doesn't have to be a lot) and offer it up on your blog or give it to a deserving friend. And if you don't have a blog, I'm happy to post it here for you. It would be great to see the mitzvah be passed on from one person to another.

So here's the rules. Post a comment to the entry with the yarn goody you'd like to have by Sunday, April 10 and start thinking about something yarny you'd like to give away. I'll pull names and announce the winners after my vacation next week.

(Yup, I'm going on vacation all next week! Can anyone recommend a good yarn store in the Columbus area? I've heard that Wolfe Fiber Arts, which I really loved, has closed. Where can I go instead? Help!)

5 skeins of Phildar Copacabana in color #4 "naturel", which is beige/white variegated. This the same yarn I used to make my tiny tank a couple years ago (just in a different colorway). It's 100% rayon and knits up like a spongey cotton tape. There's 94m per ball at 14st/10cm.

My good buddy Becky sent me a few skeins in this color to make a second tiny tank and then I bought a whole bunch more of it thinking I'd make a whole sweater, but now I really just want another tank. So here's the extra I bought, all the same dye lot and everything. It'd be enough to make a large tank with wide straps and maybe even short sleeves.

The yarn mitzvah rules: If you're interested in this yarn, leave a comment to this post by Sunday, April 10 and start thinking about yarn you might want to give away. I'll draw a name and announce the winner in two weeks.

6 balls Phildar Licorne in color #101, "giroflee", a gorgeous orangey yellow. Licorne is Phildar's mercerized cotton, like Rowan's cotton glace, but it's much smoother and has a beautiful sheen. It's the same cotton yarn that's called for in the infamous cardi raye (just in a different color). It's 100% cotton, 120m per ball at 25st/10cm. It should be enough yarn to make a large tank or tee. Check the Rowan books for cotton glace patterns.

I bought this yarn thinking it was a totally different color (the Breiweb site shows it as a peachy color). It's a beautiful color, but I'm unsure about whether I could get away with it. Plus, I have some more in red that I know I'm gonna love!

The yarn mitzvah rules: If you're interested in this yarn, leave a comment to this post by Sunday, April 10 and start thinking about yarn you might want to give away. I'll draw a name and announce the winner in two weeks.

More server problems = more knitting time! While I was waiting to be able to post, I managed a few more rows on the front of my white bread top.

I haven't finished the back though. Earlier this week I was overcome by the need to start using all those neat, retro colors, so I put the back aside and started the striping for the front. Fun, fun!

So I'm out last week at my car dealer, getting the oil changed and having the car looked over before our big trip. The boys are playing in the dealership's playroom and I'm knitting on my retro rib sock while watching the Red Sox on the tv. (It's not so bad having the car serviced at the dealership. Definitely worth the half hour drive out of town for every oil change.) And as we are packing up to go, what do I see on the side table, next to crayons and coffee stains but a ball band for some Rowan yarn!

I didn't have my camera with me, so this will have to do

How neat to know that I hadn't been the only woman in there that day knitting amidst the pictures of SUV's and 'tires as decorations'. The ball band had been ripped and the yarn name was gone, but it was a silk blend, so I'm guessing maybe Summer Tweed. It would be so cool if it had been Kidsilk Haze though. Can you imagine lace in the service area? I love it!

- - - - - - - - - -

Okay, I shouldn't be telling you this one, but some mommy stories, as embarrassing as they may be for the mommy, are just too funny not to share.

click here for the big poop pic

This is a picture box in what is officially our favorite bathroom in the Boston Children's Museum. I like this bathroom because there is ALWAYS one of those Schoolhouse Rock songs playing in there and the boys love it for this crazy display case of animal poops. We pretty much have to visit this bathroom every time we go to the museum. As soon as we get to the area where the bathroom is (it's the handicapped bathroom by the Air Balls exhibit for anyone who's curious), B suddenly "has to go" and then they both go running in to see the poops.

So one time, we're in there waiting for B to finish up and S starts asking me to tell him all about the poops in the picture. They're actually really gross, but I was willing to do anything to get them to stop pressing on the glass to try to touch them! I mean okay, we're at a museum, let's have a little learning experience about poop. So I'm reading and explaining, "this is rabbit poop, look at how small it is" and "this is wolf poop, look at how big it is." We'd gone through them all and then I asked the boys, "so who makes the biggest poops?" They thought for a bit and then S answered, "Mommy." This from the one whose diapers I'm still changing!

My first sport-weight retro rib sock is done. Woo hoo!

Anyhoo, here are the numbers I'm using just in case there's anyone else out there who, like me, just is not up to knitting these socks on teeny-tiny needles! With Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport on US4's, I cast on 56 st., did 4 repeats of the cuff ribbing and 14 repeats of the leg ribbing pattern. (Oh how I love that ribbing pattern!) I divided for the heel, working 28 st. for heel, and keeping the remaining 28 st. on needles for the instep. To divide the stitches without disturbing the pattern, I completed the round and worked 4 stitches from the new round - the last 28 stitches became the instep stitches and the next 28 the heel. My heel shaping was pretty standard: on the first row, slipping 1, purling 28, then P2tog, P1; the next row is always K5, K2tog, K1; and then continue working K2tog and P2tog rows as usual until all heel stitches are incorporated into the heel. I picked up 15 st. on the sides of the heel flap and in the gusset decreased back to original number of stitches on each needle in the usual manner. For the toe, I followed the instructions from the original pattern, decreasing every other row to 32 stitches then every row to 16 stitches.

(Update: I think it's going to take me about one and a quarter hanks of the Shepherd Sport to make these socks.)

If you ever want to fiddle with sock numbers, check out Teri's great page outlining a basic sock formula.

Vacation! It's time for our bi-annual trip out to Columbus for a big boardgaming convention. Since my usual knitting time will be filled with gaming for the next week, I won't have any knitting progress to show. So I'll be on blogging vaca for a week and a half! I still might sneak up a picture or two, because, well let's face it, I'm a blogging addict, but there won't be knitting, I can tell you that.

See ya next week!

New York Super Fudge Chunk in a NY rest area.

This little lifesaver can be found at Exit 24 off I-90 in Erie, PA.

Smile, we're almost there!

COSI. A giant museum to entertain the boys for five hours!

A Tab! I haven't seen a Tab in like fifteen years.

Cool game bits. These are from Um Reifenbreite, 1992's German game of the year.

A crack. Not as uncommon a site in a gaming room as you'd like.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Eeewwwww!

Look, intarsia sheep.

Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck with worm tiles and dice.

Around the World in 80 Days via trains, boats, balloons and the occassional elephant.

Walk the Dogs with dozens of tiny dog figures that you keep in the "doggie bag".

Quackshot, with pigs and ducks and plastic arrows, oh my.

When on vacation, I always find it good to mix pleasure with pleasure. I may be in Columbus for another of my hobbies, but that shouldn't stop me from doing a little yarn shopping too. I was crushed when I heard that Wolfe Fiber Arts, which I had visited on my last trip to Columbus and was looking forward to patronizing again, had closed. But I heard from some helpful Columb-ians that Knitters Mercantile had bought up their inventory and was opening a new store the very week I'd be here. So first stop on the Columbus knit tour, the grand opening.

Located in a still-under-construction strip mall (the hotel employee giving me directions didn't believe that the store would even be open!), Knitters Mercantile is more store-in-a-box than Wolfe Fiber Arts was, but with comfy couches in the front and luxury yarns decorating the walls, I quickly forgot that I was in a strip mall. It actually reminded me very much of Knitting Hands in Brooklyn inside - just a bit smaller, and in Ohio. They had free cookies out on the tables to celebrate the opening, most of which my boys either ate or touched, and a little shelf of kiddie books in their huge book area that the boys dove into after I banned them from the cookies. B even fell in love with a sample felted hat and wore it for the whole hour and a half that we were there.

Despite their very impressive inventory of Jamiesons, Colinette, Peace Fleece, Maggi Knits, Rowan, Jaeger, Karabella, America's Alpaca, Reynolds, and Plymouth yarns (most still bearing the WFA price tag), I didn't find anything that I absolutely had to take home. Oh, there was so much that I could have gotten! But I did put my name in for a grand opening door prize. Fingers crossed! Sure hope this store is still around when we come back next time....

What Knitters Mercantile may be missing in atmosphere, Temptations (scroll down) in the suburb of Dublin, has in spades. This store is jaw-droppingly gorgeous, with yarns of every kind divided in different rooms of an old house. There's the baby yarn sitting room (with coloring books for the boys), Noro/Lamb's Pride/Lopi living room, several bedrooms filled with yarn upstairs and downstairs, a sock yarn closet, novelty hallway, and the needles and notions bathroom! And they also sell antiques, so the yarns aren't just in bins, but in beautful old pieces of furniture and lovely baskets and bowls. Yummy! The boys loved all the colors and textures.

True to the store's name, they tempted me. I almost carried off some Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk, some Noro I'd never seen before, Reynolds Frisky, Karabella Vintage Cotton, and South West Trading Company's optimum wool, but somehow I left here empty-handed too. After a day of yarn shopping, S was as disappointed as I was that I didn't buy anything. Back at the hotel he concluded: "They didn't have the right yarn for mommy. They only had the other yarn."

The next day, I decided to stop by the last yarn store I'd gotten a tip about, the Yarn Shop. I'd been told it was more of a crochet/acrylic store and didn't really have high hopes of finding "the right yarn for mommy", but - now, don't hate me, yarn snobs - but I think I liked this one the best. It's totally in a strip mall and is definitely crochet-y (check out that crocheted pillow on the fouton behind B in his "hat du store"!). Despite the low-end look, they've done a fabulous job of mixing an excellent selection of good, inexpensive yarns with a respectable selection of high-end, designer yarns. I've never seen so much Sirdar yarn and patterns in one place! And right between all that Sirdar and and a couple of walls of Plymouth Encore were the new Rowan cashsoft and cash/cotton yarns, beautiful Karabella yarns, lots of Jaeger yarns, even Colinette and a huge sock yarn collection. I can really see this store being a terrific LYS both for women who've been knitting forever as well as young, hip newbie knitters. And they had the best little kids playarea of all three stores. The boys actually told me that they didn't want to leave when I said that I was paying!

Yes, you heard right. Paying! I did find a little something to take home. I almost came home with a bundle (I had a hard time releasing some Cascade 220 and Touch Me in beautiful blues that I'd never seen before), but I restrained myself. Because seriously, how much more yarn do I really need? Not so much, apparently. Unfortunately for you, my one little Ohio knitlife souvenir yarn is all packed away already, so you'll have to wait until next time to see it!

For those of you anxiously awaiting the wrap up of games that were played....

Diamant

Australia

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Louis XIV

Poker!!

Ubongo

Memoir 44

And Tower of Babel, which I somehow forgot to photograph.

Favorite game played this year: Um Reifenbreite. Favorite new game: Around the World in 80 Days.

After much Blues Clues watching in the car,

loads of fun climbing in the McD playplace,

and even a little sock knitting along the way,

we've finally made it home.

Drumroll please....

Yarn mitzvah winners are: Ellie, who won the Copacabana ribbon yarn; and Kelly, who won the Phildar Licorne! Thanks to everyone who played along. I can't wait to hear what Ellie and Kelly do to pass on the yarn mitzvah to others. If anyone else does a mitzvah of their own, I'd love to hear about it. Let the good yarn karma roll!

And speaking of good yarn karma, I got a call from Knitters Mercantile in Columbus, where I put an entry in for their grand opening door prize. Would you believe that I won something? I can't wait to see what it is. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Retro rib socks all done. Shepherd Sport, China Blue, Retro Ribs: love it, love it, love it!

I love 'em so much, I had to have a BIG picture

And you wanna see my souvenir yarn from Columbus? Don't want to shock you, but it's sock yarn. More Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport to be exact.

I liked the colors and was intrigued by the name, "argyle". I'm really curious to see how this knits up.

The pooling of variegated yarn is such a cool phenomenon. It's not one I usually liked, so I was pleased to see this beautiful scarf pattern in the Fall 2004 Interweave Knits, which took control of the pooling and used it to create stripes. Several other knitters were also intrigued by the idea and took up the challenge of making the pooling scarf with me. It didn't work out for most of us. Turns out Schaefer Anne doesn't pool that reliably. And six feet of adjusting gauge to insure pooling was too much for the majority of us. I learned a lot though and even managed to get some variegated morehouse merino yarn to pool in a short scarf.

pooling colors scarf

Fall 2004

Any other finished pooling scarves out there?? Other successful adventures in pooling? Or just plain ol' crazy pooling (like in this sock from fellow Knitsmith, Dava)? Do tell!

My new Lorna's Laces "argyle" yarn is soooo pooling.

I'm blue...

...no I'm gray with a crazy red stripe!

Question, where should I place the heel? What should be the front and what should be the back??

Still pooling.

As Cara says, "Shazam!"

I decided to keep the fun, red zigzag on the front of the sock. It's hard work though! I am having to adjust my tension every couple of rows to keep the pooling in the middle and prevent it from doing the swirly pooling thing (like in Dava's sock). Fingers crossed that I can get sock #2 to do something even vaguely similar.

It seemed to me that a great way to avoid interrupting the pooling by doing a heel flap and a gusset with a different number of stitches, was simply to do short row heels and toes (a la Priscilla Gibson-Roberts) in a solid color. I found the perfect red in Gems Merino Sport at my LYS. So I kept the funky pooling red in front and then broke up the pretty blue in the back with the heel. Neat, huh?

  
Pull out the camera, and the little hands will come.

And for those of you fully convinced that I've been abducted and brain-washed by pooling variegated sock yarn producing aliens, I am having a blast making these socks, but they're not going to be for me.

Sockapalooza Wrap-Up!

First, a few final sockapalooza socks to show this week:

Kirsten's stripey socks
Sarah's beautiful beaded socks
Jennifer's blue stripes

It's now a month and a half after the official end of sockapalooza and we have several stragglers doing their best to finish up and a couple of non-finishers who haven't responded to my requests for updates. So, send in those updates if you could please! And let's also try a different approach. If you haven't gotten your socks yet, let me know. Let me know too if you've heard from your pal or not, so I'll know if there is a chance that you'll still be getting socks. If you haven't heard from your pal and they don't respond to my emails, I'll work out a "consolation prize" for you.

** Speaking of which, if anyone is interested in donating sock yarn or something else as a consolation prize for those sockapaloozers who were forgotten by their pals, please contact me! **

Once I get all these final sockers taken care of, we can talk sockapalooza summer tour!

My giant white bread top is taking shape.

Aren't those stripes great! I totally adore them. The colors are so cool together. And to think that this was hand-me-down yarn from Amber's hubby's grandmother! Amber says that between bags of old Phildar yarn, a half-finished angora/alpaca sweater and lots of quality acrylic yarns, there was just this bread bag with totally retro colored mystery yarn. She brought it to the swap and it's like it's finally found what it was meant to be. I'm so keeping the bag, don't you know!

Anyhoo, back to the knitting. The body came out a little larger than I had anticipated. It's not too big, but after doing a lot of adjusting for my larger gauge, it seemed like it was coming out a little snug. Ends up that it will have the same sort of fit as the pattern in the Vintage Knits book. But it is most definitely longer. No crop tops for me, thank you very much. Instead of just doing more stripes to lengthen the piece - I was worried about messing up the sequence at the very top where the neck edge color needs to contrast with the colors on the shoulder - I made each stripe a few rows longer. This added a good two inches to the whole piece. It's gonna make reworking the sleeves a be-atch, though, since I need to keep the same overall shape while adjusting for my larger gauge and now longer armholes. The good news is that I think I have enough of the mystery yarn left over to do stripes on the sleeves as well.

My very good day started the night before when my LYS handed me 7 balls of Calmer to make a store model of my own nothing but a t-shirt pattern.

It then continued the next morning with a yarn delivery from the mailman.

Merino stretch from Elann to substitute for a Jaeger pattern calling for Jaeger's old wool stretch yarn (I found the old Jaeger mag in Columbus!).

And speaking of Columbus, the mailman also delivered my grand opening door prize from Knitters Mercantile!!

Fabulously pink Berroco Suede yarn and two balls of Skacel's fiori print yarn, which reminds me of Karabella Roses or Cascade's Malizia (such an incredible yarn!).

Then the best part of all: after we all get dressed and are ready for the day, the boys look out the window and S declares "It's a rainy day. Let's go to that yarn store with the trains." Oh, I've trained them well. So off we go to Circles in Jamaica Plain, which has a wonderful playroom for kids. The boys played, I shopped.

I came home with this beautiful hank of Blackberry Ridge fingering weight wool in blue stone. Perfect for socks to wear with jeans!

And just in case that wasn't enough, a little bird told me that my new favorite online store, The Knitting Zone, is having a sale this week!

Yes, it was a very good day.

Too freaking cool!

What I really love, besides those awesome colors, is how the red "shazaam" stripe pooled a little more on one side of the heel than on the other. That way the red could be worn to the inside of the leg, making the socks appear more blue, or to the outside, showing off how wild they are.

Um, I may just have to keep these socks afterall.

So Sandy, of the aptly-named Sandy's Knitting, tells me that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to the neighborhood for a reading and book signing. I'm so used to traveling miles and miles to get to cool stuff (like Webs or Ikea or Germany), that I couldn't believe that the cool people were coming to me for a change. Sweet! I mean, not only am I a mere 10 minute drive from Circles, but I actually know how to get there. (Believe me, this is a big deal in Boston.)

Look, look, right next to Stephanie, it's yarn!

the harlot, saying funny things

Good times. I knitted (about 150 yards of yarn!), I ate way too much food (why aren't all book readings pot-luck?), I saw a nothing but a t-shirt (Joan came into the room saying "Alison... Alison..." and I, thinking she meant the store owner, totally ignored her until I noticed what she was wearing!) and I got my book signed.

I now own a total of five books that have signatures in them. Two already had signatures when I got them: the first, Brandon Mably's Brilliant Knits, which I got at Wild & Wooly in Lexington and was totally surprised to find a signature in; and the second, an old children's German primer from the former East Germany, which my non-German-speaking mother picked up for me at a book sale having no idea what it was, and which contains a signed dedication to Angela Davis (yes, the Angela Davis). But the other two, I stood in line for: Michael Moore's Downsize This! and Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet.

That's Brandon Mably, Angela Davis, Michael Moore, Douglas Coupland and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. That's not such bad company, is it Stephanie? Oh, I also have an autograph from Famous Amos, the cookie guy, does that help?