BrambleStitches

A photo tutorial for my dad who finally admitted that he has only worn the socks which I hand spun and knit for him two years ago ONE TIME because he doesn’t know how to wash them. At least I can be fairly certain that he hasn’t worn the heels out.

(I posted several times about his socks here, here, here, here, and here.)

Daddy, I will shame you into washing your socks if I have to.

Step One: Fill the sink with hot water.

Step Two: Add a little dish soap when the sink is almost full, so it doesn’t get too sudsy.

Step Three: Add socks, and allow to sink into water on their own.

Step Four: Gently swish and squeeze socks as needed to remove dirt. Usually just soaking is enough, unless you’ve been running around in the mud with just your socks on. (And if that’s the case, then I don’t want to know about it, because it will just make me crazy.)

Step Five: Gently squeeze out the socks, drain the sink, and refill with same temperature water.

Step Six: Allow socks to briefly soak in rinse water, swish gently to remove detergent.

Step Seven: Gently squeeze out as much water as you can. You can roll the socks up in a towel and stand on it for a few seconds to get a lot of water out.

Step Eight: Reshape and lay flat on a towel to dry.

(PS, these are the leftover yarn baby socks I mentioned in yesterday’s post.)

Homemaking, Knitting

Since I’m all caught up with the regular (machine-washable) laundry, I figured I’d tackle the huge pile of woolens I have let languish in the laundry room A: for a few weeks, B: for a few months, C: forever. I have a fairly small drying rack, so I can only wash a few things at a time, but I do have a couple pairs of really cool adjustable sock blockers which I use all the time.

The pair of socks drying in front were knit from my first hand spun yarn. I had only had my wheel for about a month. I was pregnant with Olga at the time, and I knit the socks during an unexpectedly long trip flying from Palm Springs, California to North Bend, Oregon, to visit the ol’ family in Gold Beach. Washing them today I see that one of the heels is just about to wear through, so it’s time for a little repair work as soon as they dry. I’ll show you how I do it when I get to it (which, going by my attention span, might be a while).

The other pair of socks are knit from Trekking XXL, made for the husbandperson shortly after Olga was born. (I think… possibly before… mommy brain.) There was just a tiny bit of this yarn leftover when I finished his Neanderthalian-sized socks, so I made a tiny pair of baby socks out of the last bit. And in fact I ran out of yarn while finishing the second toe of the baby socks and had to substitute with bright orange. Nice.

(To see a larger version of the photo above, click it, then on the next screen above the picture click "all sizes.")

Knitting

The other evening, the Man commented about how nice and warm my sewing room/office (should I call it my studio?) was, even in the wee hours of the morning when he was getting ready for work, and how nice it would be to sleep in there. Our room is cold at night, and even wearing our warmest jammies, thickest socks, sweaters, under three quilts, and with the thermostat cranked up to 78 degrees, we freeze our toes off. Sleeping in the studio seemed like a smart idea. We don’t have a normal bed, just a Japanese-style futon, so it was no big deal to shift things around.

The first night we lumped all of our blankets in there, and kept the thermostat where it was. I had to get up twice in the night to turn the heat down. Last night we started with only one quilt, and I put the thermostat at 71 degrees. It was perfect! I was worried that the kids room would be too cold, but I checked on them around 3 AM and they were as toasty as can be. Yay! This will probably save us about $50/month on our electric bill. Double yay!

(Above, Olga with my Ashford yarn swift. On the floor is our futon.)

Now laying in bed amidst all of my crafty goodness has got to be one of the best ways to spend the wee hours of the morning (add a hot cuppa’ joe and I’m sold for life). So to milk it as long as possible before putting the bed away (it just rolls up) I decided that it really was unacceptable for my little man, the son of a KNITTER for goodness sake, to not have a pair of mittens to keep his digits toasty. And what more comfortable way to knit on a chilly winter day than by laying in bed?

I’ve had some merino yarn that I spun from a hand dyed roving I bought in Bisbee, Arizona, that I’ve had squirreled away in my stash for Gavin. I bought the roving while I was pregnant with him, and at the same time bought another roving with which I spun up and knit this hat for Olga this past spring. I also had one ball of Knit Picks “Wool of the Andes” which I thought would serve better than the handspun as ribbing. It’s only a little bit darker than the green in the merino. The pattern itself is about as basic as you can get, from Morehouse Farm Merino Knits. I made the smallest size.

I lost a bit of knitting time, because I had to go to the Commissary yesterday, but I finished the first mitten while dinner was in the oven (I’ll share the recipe and the picture of leftover lunch later… yum!). The picture above is at an odd angle. The mitten is actually laying in my my still-aproned lap. (Thanks, Mom, this is my new favorite apron!)

Here’s a closeup of the fabric. It is knitting up fairly densely on 3.5mm dpns, but since I was a bit inconsistent when spinning this yarn, there are a few spots where it’s quite thin, like on one of the thumbs. I think in the future I’ll try to save my thick and thin yarn for slightly larger projects were the yarn has more of an opportunity to balance out. (Does that make sense, knitters?) I think even adult sized mitts would have enough stitches to accommodate the variance in thickness.

And there they are! I finished the second mitt this morning, just before Gavin woke up. See my beautiful stitch markers? I got them from JLYarnWorks a couple years ago, and I love using them. And can you believe it, I managed to wrastle the boy to the ground to get those mitts on him, and they fit! And he kept them on! And they’re cute! I think I’ll try making an earflap hat for him with what’s left of the yarn.

Knitting

Here’s the last knitting project of 2007 for me. I finished this evening, though technically I’m weaving the last yarn tail in 2008. This is the same pattern that I knit earlier this year, just with slightly fewer stitches across (I cast on 21 stitches) and made quite long (about seven feet, but I didn’t measure it). It came out so nice in Brown Sheep Company’s Top of the Lamb worsted wool yarn, though I did notice that the lightest gray is a bit thinner than the others, and the medium gray is a bit heavier.

It’s nice to finish the year with a completed project.

Knitting

I did it! I finished knitting my very first pair of argyle socks! I told you that I sort of goofed the second sock a bit. Well, that made it sort of hard to embroider straight white lines, so there are a few places on the second sock where the lines don’t quite meet up. By a long shot. And it wasn’t because of the crappy beer either (which, incidentally gave me a headache and prevented me from doing any embroidering whatsoever… ).

But, as we say in these parts, they pass the galloping horse test–that is, if you were galloping by on a horse, wearing your item in question, would someone notice any mistakes? And really, if anyone is getting that close to my husbands ankles, we’ve got bigger things to worry about.

Knitting

This evening, while The Man was watching, I finished knitting his argyle socks. Surprise Honey! These are actually for you, so you had better act surprised when you pull them out of your stocking on Christmas morning. I haven’t embroidered the white lines on the second sock yet. It was kind of a pain to embroider around all of the loose ends on the first sock, so I figure I’ll weave all the ends in now, before I embroider the second one. Unfortunately all we have to drink is this crappy beer, but I’m drinking it anyway in the hope that it will make weaving in the yarn ends more fun. If that’s possible.

The second sock was in many ways easier than the first. I did have some trouble with the diamonds this time, but it was totally user error, and I managed to fudge it. I did figure out that I’d been slipping stitches wrong on the first sock, which resulted in the not quite perfect color change (you can see here that the right side of the diamond transitions from black to brown seamlessly, while the left side has a little blip). But I had much more confidence with the second sock, so what took me almost six months of tentative knitting on the first sock, took me only three days of gung-ho knitting on the mate. Knitting after the kids and husband went to bed helped a lot, too.

The pattern I used for these socks is free here. I used size 0 (2mm) bamboo double pointed needles, and Wildfoote sock yarn by Brown Sheep Company. It’s 75% washable wool/25% nylon.

A word of warning: this isn’t a straight forward pattern, but a formula based on measurements and your gauge. Because of that, the directions can seem a bit disjointed at times, since they’re written in modules. Also, I prefer the hourglass heel directions given in my favorite sock knitting book, The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, by Lynne Vogel. I did the first heel according to the formula directions, but went back to my preferred method for the second heel.

Knitting

Well now, ain’t that swell? I added the duplicate stitch stripes (diamonds? crosshairs?), and I’m in love with these socks all over again. They just evoke bowling and ham dinner and a decanter full of bourbon. Or maybe that’s just me. Today, after I tackle the kitchen and find the size 0 DPN I misplaced, I’ll start on the mate.

Knitting

Since The Man was in the field all week, it was a perfect opportunity for me to work on his “big” Christmas present–Argyle socks. (I can safely tell you about them, because I know he doesn’t read this, and he knows, vaguely, that I’ve been working on them anyway…) I have one nearly finished. Erik came home last night, finally, only to reveal that he had duty today. Sooo… I’ll spend this morning unknitting a few rows from the toe of the sock, since I got a little carried away. Then hopefully I’ll have a chance to get a good start on the mate.

Knitting, Life in the Corps