Miles and Miles of Yellow Yarn

A Marmalade Sock

I think one of my favorite things about knitting socks is that I can do anything I want with them.  I have a template in my head now, and I don't have to sweat the details of "what gauge?" or "what needles?" or even "what toe?" and "what heel?"  I know when I start out how those things are going to roll: toe up (no need to really worry about gauge), usually on 2.25 mm needles, short row heel.  With the basics on autopilot, I can focus on other things, namely, what yarn and what stitch pattern I want to use.

I've been lucky to have a long running yarn trade with Emma.  It was Emma, in fact, who helped to give me a big push in the sock knitting direction by sending me my first sock yarn and providing me with a bit of on line knitterly encouragement.  Emma's recent boxes have focused on sock yarn dyed in the UK and I've loved everything that she's sent along.  Unfortunately, I had knit with almost none of it.  Not because I couldn't think of anything to do with it, but because I was worried that what I would do with it wouldn't do it justice. Recently, however, I was able to remind myself that sheep aren't, in fact, going extinct and that even if I just knit plain stockinette in the round socks, I would still be giving myself (or someone else) something quite enjoyable to wear, which is all the justice any skein of sock yarn should really need.

Lately I've been thumbing through my stitch pattern books looking at textures.  I think most textures are a challenge for me because 1) they involve purl stitches and 2) they often don't go well with hand-dyed or self striping yarn.  Don't get me wrong, I am perfectly capable of making a respectable purl stitch, but I find they slow me down when making socks so I often avoid them except for the ribbing at the cuff. But I'm trying to work at being a bit more of a process rather than strictly product knitter these days, and so I decided that this time I would pick one of the more complicated looking stitch patterns that I had my eyes on.

Of course, I decided that the pattern I picked was really incompatible with most of my hand-dyed yarn.I was going to need something reasonably light in color and mostly the same color in order for the texture to show itself off.  My feeling about pattern is that there is no point knitting it into a garment if the yarn obscures it.  And thus, it was, that the perfect yarn for the pattern I wanted to try was a skein of Oxford Kitchen Yarns sock yarn in the most lovely orangey fall "marmalade" colorway.  According to the label this yarn is 100% British Blue Faced Leicester, which adds to the interest for me, because I haven't ever made socks out of BFL before.


I'm afraid this photo doesn't entirely do justice to the subtle and lovely variations in this yarn.  It has a more heathery effect up close and in person.  I quite like how it carries the texture and shows off the pattern while not getting lost to the pattern stitch.


A little higher resolution on the pattern stitch so you can see all those fussy purl stitches more clearly.  The purl stitches do slow the process down a bit, but the result is well worth it for me as they help to create not only texture but also depth.

The first sock is finished and I've cast on for the second.  I'll talk a bit more about the experience of knitting with the yarn and the pattern details when the second sock is complete.

You Know You're A Grown Up When...

Today was a real milestone day.  When it started, I didn't know it would be, but I think that's true of a lot of milestones that I hit.  They sneak up on me and whack me in the back of the head with a rubber chicken and giggle as they pass me by.

When John and I got married, we had one lovely sports coupe (a Subaru SVX that on lovely summer days we still miss) and my functional but not as lovely Ford Escort.  After finishing up my PhD and getting started on my post-doc, I got obsessed with having a car that I really adored.  A sporty car that reflected the fact that I was a young professional with a personality.  The Escort ("Annie" -- from Harry Chapin's "Mail Order Annie"*) went off to my Dad and my Mercury Cougar ("Corey" -- from Harry Chapin's "Corey's Coming"**) filled her spot in the garage.  John and I now had two mostly impractical vehicles -- Corey being somewhat more practical because she was a hatchback -- but with no children in the picture, it wasn't a big deal.  We were happy even if other people thought a garage filled with sports coupes didn't make a lot of sense.

When the time came to replace the Subaru, John and I decided that if we were going to get a new car, it had to have 4 doors.  While the kid thing was in the back of our minds, the most prominent thought was just to be able to put 4 adults in a car comfortably.  John doesn't have too many expensive hobbies or too many things that he spends money on, but he does like to have a nice car.  We settled on a Jaguar X-type because not only did it have 4 doors, but it also came in AWD and had a stick -- practical and fun.  And since we got it, it's been a good car for us.  When Z arrived, it became the car with the baby seat since the Cougar, while it could, in fact, safely have a baby seat installed, with two doors, was not a whole lot of fun to put a baby seat in.

And that, combined with the fact that the Jag's backseat is not all that capacious given the ginormous size of the infant and toddler carseat system we chose, got us thinking about a more family friendly vehicle.  SUV's were out because neither of us liked the idea of parking a behemoth in the city, or the gas mileage that usually comes along with them.  John and I have what we refer to as a "Minivan Deathpact" (i.e. we will shoot each other before we get one)***, so those were out, too.  That left us with the station wagon or large sedans.  And we eliminated the sedans because we wanted a car with more of a hatch-back like carrying option.


Just like when we got the Jag, we wanted something sporty and fun to drive.  Add a manual transmission and a back seat that can accomodate our baby seat onto that and the field of options gets very narrow very quickly. We weren't in any hurry though, so John had time to find us the perfect car.  Last weekend we brought her home.  Enter Inga, my beautiful new Swedish girl -- a 2004 Volvo V70 R station wagon.  With a 6 speed transmission and 300 hp under the hood you pretty much forget you are driving a station wagon when you sit in her cockpit.  And the one we bought is in such good condition it feels like a new car.   John and I have actually been fighting over who gets to drive her! 


All of which meant that it was time to send our second coupe to a new home.  In a surprising stroke of good luck, we sold her this afternoon (we thought a 9 year old sports coupe with manual transmission might take a while to sell).

As she was driving away with her new owner.  Recently detailed 17" alloy rims shining in the late summer sunshine, I had that realization.  The rubber chicken to the back of the head.  John and I had a baby and now owned only eminently practical cars.  Not only that, but we both really like and are happy with our eminently practical cars.  And I have become a Volvo station wagon driving mom.

At this point, I looked around my house.  Noticed the the foam corners on my impractical glass coffee table.  Noticed that all my impractical interior decorations have been moved out of baby reach or moved out of circulation all together.  Thought about how we are now in the market for baby-proof door latches and baby gates for our stairs.  Remembered that I could no longer do simple things like leave my knitting or my laptop on the couch.  Was reminded that restaurant selection criteria now includes whether they have high chairs and serve French fries.  Realized that almost all of our outings are planned around naps.

And that's when it hit me.  John and I have become parents.  Completely unhip, completely practical grown ups.

And you know what?  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

* I became a Harry Chapin fan through my father.  "Mail Order Annie" tells the story of a mail order bride who comes to be the wife of a farmer in North Dakota from the point of view of the farmer who is waiting for her to get off the train.  When I got Annie, my dad, who worked for Ford, handled the process for me and drove her to Chicago for me so that I didn't lose any time in grad school, so she was my Mail Order Annie.

** The Cougar got her name from another Harry Chapin song "Corey's Coming" and it tells the story of an older main who worked in a train yard and befriends a younger man by telling him stories "of the glories of his past -- but he always saved his story of his Corey for the last".  When the old man passes on, the younger man is at the funeral when Corey arrives and becomes the young man's story and dream as well as he takes over the old man's job.  At the time, Corey was my dream car.  But I had to order her and wait for her to come in by train from the Flat Rock plant in Michigan. 

** I mean no offense to those of you who happily (or unhappily) drive minivans.  In fact, over our Florida vacation, we had one and it was a handy vehicle for 4  adults and a baby.  For John and I, it's just a symbol of Chicago suburbia and something we made a conscious decision to get away from when we bought our house in the city. It's one of those jokes we have between us.  Like all things, there's just different strokes for different folks.  We have no problems with minivans or the suburbs for people who are happy with them -- they just aren't things that make us happy

Return of the Rogue

So what is this this great source of inspiration that I found amongst my unfinished projects?

It is none other than Rogue, whose sleeves I completed before I got pregnant with Zosia and who was then left to linger when it was clear that a fitted cardigan would be unlikely to be a part of my life for some time to come.

This turns out to be one of those times when having blog archives was a very good thing indeed.  Otherwise, I would have been baffled as to the gauge and needles for the project. As with the sleeves, my row gauge is pretty close, my stitch gauge is somewhat closer to 4 than the 4.5 stitches/inch required.  I've decided to go forward with that, working the smallest size because then I get the benefit of a somewhat shorter sweater that is somewhat wider (but not as wide as it would be if I had gotten stitch gauge and was knitting the next larger size up).

I'm using the instructions for cardiganizing Rogue beecause it is clear from my sweater wearing habits that if a sweater is not a cardigan and not made out of soft wool it gets almost no wear time.  This wool is solid stuff, but not soft enough for a pullover.  Rogue cardie here I come!

So far, it remains a very pleasant knit. The cables add just the amount of interest I need to keep it fun, but there are not so much of them that I feel like I can make no progress in an hour or two.   So far, the instructions are also quite excellent and easy to follow and I had no problem working out the changes needed for splitting the kangaroo pocket for the caridganization process.

Now the only thing that remains to be concerned about is the ever present issue of "having enough yarn".  So far it looks good and, in any event, it will be hard to tell until I get a good deal farther, so at this point, it's full steam ahead!

Socks of the Future

Last night I got so busy with an old project that I forgot to actually blog.  It's been a little while since I got really lost in my knitting, so I let myself go with the stitches and actually let myself dream of having a new fall sweater. 

Looking over my other projects, I can say they are all progressing.  I have finished the body of the skirt for Ms. Z's Zebra Striper jumper.  My Kusha Kusha scarf is increasing in size slowly.  My walking is resulting in the better part of a toe for my walking socks.  And I have another, more detailed sock project that I'm very happy with -- the first sock is almost finished.  I'll blog about it when I the first sock is complete.

Thus, I am left to talk about something that I have been indulging in a little more this summer than I did last summer: buying sock yarn.


One day a couple of weeks ago, Ms. Z and I were out for a walk and I popped into Nina's (one of two stores that I can consider my LYS) to see if I could find any books with good baby garments.  While I was there, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is now carrying Dream in Color yarns.  After picking up some Smooshy, I was completely able to understand why so many people are raving about this sock yarn.  I let Ms. Z help me pick out a couple of colors to take home for inspiration.  The blue is Some Summer Sky and the red is Ruby River.  I think it's very likely that one of these skeins will become a pair of Francie socks once I finish up the patterned socks I'm working on. I've been in a bit of a sock knitting rut lately, and I think those socks look like something that would get me to think a little bit along with being fun to knit.  And since Z helped me pick them out, if there are any left overs, she's going to get some socks, too.  Baby Dragon socks, anyone?

I have to show off this next skein because I don't think I've ever worked harder or clicked faster to purchase sock yarn.  I swear, getting this stuff is harder than getting tickets to a Hannah Montana concert.  It's Sundara Yarns Sock yarn in the Lilac colorway.  After getting hands on with some while visiting Claudia I got bitten by the need for some of this yarn.  The lilac wouldn't have been my first choice if I could have picked anything, but as it turns out, it's still a pretty nice colorway.

This skein was enough to convince me that I would like to have a little more in my stash.  However, I just don't have the time any more to arm wrestle several hundred other virtual knitters for the chance to whip out my PayPal account for a share of the goods when this stuff gets posted. So, I decided to take the plunge and splurge on being a part of the last half of her Seasons yarn club.  I'm looking forward to a couple more skeins of sock yarn as well as a couple of different weights of the silky merino.

While I know I am not knitting very quickly right now, I am really feeling inspired by my knitting lately and I am enjoying surrounding myself with new colors and textures that make me want to pick up my needles in any free moment that I have.