Faithful to One

Surprisingly, I am working on just one project; socks. It is an interesting but easily remembered pattern so it is simple to pick them up and work on a few stitches at a time. I did take some yarn out of my stash when I completed the black sweater But I haven't started anyhting with it yet. I have been working on a few sewing projects that needed the final finishing touches.

Yesterday, the boy child asked me if I got bored knitting socks. That depends. The ones that go round and round that I take to his sports can get very boring and tend not to get worked on out of season. Socks with visual interest, like any object, are more interesting to knit.

He is more sure of my accomplishments than I am. He declared that I had knit at least 10 pairs of socks this year. Actually this is just my second pair.

A Finished Object

On Wednesday I finally finished my sweater. I am not going to take any photos of it as it is black and I doubt they will come out clearly enough. Here is a link to the pattern. The original pattern uses a bulky mohair. I used Patons Lacette which is between fingering and DK weight. I have used this yarn once before on larger neddles and liked the effect so I decided to use the yarn at a looser gauge again. Because it is a brushed type yarn it works well knitted at a looser gauge. I have just under a ball left so at some point I will have to see what it is like at the recommended gauge. This was the project mentioned in this post.

So I have just some socks on the needles right now but I will soon be digging into the stash for my next project.

A Chinook

After more than a week it finally stopped snowing although Wednesday was still very cold. The chinook came in yesterday and we had sunshine and temperatures above freezing. Here's a picture of the sky although it does not show the arch as well as real life.



The city should be happy as this is their main form of snow removal. It is amazing how poorly cleared the roads are but this week one of the news stations counted the cost of uncleared roads. The costs include insurance claims, emergency personal, time spent in traffic and people taking sick days. It will be interesting to see if people's opinions on snow clearing change when the good weather comes. The city has a sidewalk clearance by-law. Your sidewalk has to be cleared within 24 hours of the last snowfall so the by-law officers were out yesterday ready to ticket the non-compliers. Shouldn't the city set an example by clearing the roads.

Saturday's Sky

It's a good thing that the webring is called Saturday Sky as this means you get some blue sky. After the Chinook last Monday, it has snowed every day. But, at least, it stopped snowing during the day on Saturday and we had some sunshine. So make the most of it as it is going to have to keep you going for a few more days.




On the knitting front, the mess from last week is fast becoming a pair of socks.

No Second Sock Syndrome Here

Did you know that some people have many odd socks? They knit a sock and then never knit its mate. I wonder if these people wear odd socks or are doomed to always wearing store bought socks.

No such problem in this house. I love wearing my hand knitted socks so I am always going to complete the pair. I knit my socks on 4 double pointed needles (dpns). I have tried the magic loop method on hats and mittens but didn't really enjoy it and I can't really justify buying more circular needles to try the two circular method. When I say 4 dpns, I mean stitches on three needles and one needle for knitting. I have had most of my dpns for years so they only have 4 needles in a a set and not 5 like you can get nowadays.

So here are a couple of photos of my completed Baudelaire socks.



I did not make any adjustments to the pattern as I used Stretch by Regia which I had bought in England last summer and I decided that the "stretch" would make up for the inelasticity of the pattern. I saw some Stretch in the LYS on Monday but for some reason the owner did not realise that I was interested in buying. But that is a story for another day.

Those photos were taken indoors as this was the view from my front step at lunchtime (and it is still snowing).

What a Mess

or this yarn will not get the better of me.

I have nearly finished my two projects so I decided that Saturday night was a good time to wind the yarn for my next project. Usually I can wind yarn and knit a gauge swatch while watching a movie. The chosen yarn was Anne by Schaeffer. Yarn bought in a sale in the summer and recommended for socks. The store was not winding while the sale was on but I could have gone back at a later date and had the yarn wound. Except I never did as I am one of those people who like to wind yarn just before I use it so it is not always convenient to return to a store. Plus I don't really mind winding yarn even though I don't have a swift nor a ball winder.

So Saturday night I untied the yarn put it over the back of a chair and thought it looked a bit crinkly but I brushed that thought aside as I wondered if maybe it had just been tied up for a while. After a few winds of the ball I was faced with this.



I have no idea what went wrong. This has never happened to me before. I didn't get a gauge swatch worked I didn't even finish winding it before bed time even though I watched a (the) hockey game after the movie.

Sunday morning I was back working on it aided by some buttermilk pancakes and coffee courtesy of the spousal unit. So by mid-morning it looked like this.



I was convincing myself that there was an improvement. But I was in a quandry. If you recall I wanted to finish my black sweater while the Super Bowl was on but I also wanted this mess finished with. Should I go with the mess and hope to finish it before the end of the game or should I go with the sweater and then return to the mess. Decisions, decisions. Plus how could I eat Super Bowl food and work with this?

I decided to continue with the mess. As much as I wanted to finish some things. I couldn't bear the thought of having that sitting around for another day.

After watching the Super Bowl and Miss Marple, I finally had this



It needs to be wound again as I gave up worrying how it was wound when the bigger issue was getting it wound at all. But it is done.

Saturday Skies

Here are a couple of photos from yesterday. They were taken shortly after 7.30 am.


The first one is the view from the back of the
house and you can still see the full moon;
the second one is the view from the
front of the house and it shows
the sun rising through the clouds.



Here is a photo from last Saturday. It was a lovely sunny day and I noticed an airplane that looked as if it was going straight up. I am pleased that the con trail came out in the photo.