Not so Happy and Branching Out

Believe it or not, I really have been knitting.


Here's my Happy sock.

I started this one so I would have something plain when we went camping. Right before we left I realized that despite having double digits worth of WIP's, none of them would be good for camping. Camping projects need to be plain, small, and able to dry out in case they fall in a river.

So I started this sock, it's toe up, so I knew I had a while before I got to anything difficult. I started the first 10 rows or so of the toe, read the pattern to see that I knit until it is 1 inch past "the point where the foot attaches to the front of the leg." And then I put it in the camping bag.

I worked on it over the weekend by the camp fire, and in the rain, until it was past the point where my foot attaches to my leg, and then put it away until we got home. When I consulted the pattern again I saw that it also says 5.5 inches for a women's size 9 (and I am an 8). I measured where I stopped and it was much more than 5.5 inches so I ripped it back. Then I made the heel and tried it on again to find that it was WAY too short.

Huh?

Now I realize that the pattern says "work even for 5.5 inches" so I guess that means 5.5 inches after the toe. I'm not familiar with patterns having you start from after the toe, that makes no sense to me. But anyway. I cannot tell you how NOT happy I was with my Happy socks when I had to knit the same damn piece of it not twice, but three times.

Once I got the thing the right size it was a breeze. I like how the stripe works with the lace. I find it fairly difficult to find a stitch pattern that looks good with a strong yarn pattern, and picked this one especially for that. I made it considerably shorter than the pattern calls for, but in every other way I followed the directions. Really, I think I did. Don't anyone pass out on me. Oh wait, I cast on 20 stitches instead of 12. (I do not have pointy toes.) And, um... I increased up to 60 stitches, instead of 56. (I have wide feet.) But really, that's not that much, is it?

Overall I give the pattern a thumbs up. Just watch out for the wording on how long the foot is. It's not wrong, but it's a little misleading IMO.

And here's some progress on my mom's Branching Out scarf. The yarn is so completely soft I can't believe it (it's Baby Alpaca) I almost have the pattern memorized enough now for it to be TV knitting. Then it will be done in no time.

One of these days...

...I'm going to get my shit together and start updating my blog again.

It's just that right now all of my free time is tied up in getting sheepytimeknits.com up and running.

Oh, and finishing the soaker pattern. The final stages are to knit each size, and test how the measurements are working out

So far so good. My friend Janet (who has a Ph.D. in mathematics despite all evidence to the contrary) helped me do some complicated math that allows me to calculate the circumference of the leg holes. It involves pythagorean theorums and gauge math. Fun stuff.

And after a ridiculously simple mathematical mistake (on her part), some bad measuring (on my part), and some false knitting starts (also on my part)....

It works!

That red soaker could easily have been 2 soakers had I not had to rip it back so many times because I can't follow my own instructions. But, it's going well, and now I'm testing the custom math, which also *looks* like it's going well so far.

Fingers crossed.

OMG I'm *famous*

OK, well, maybe not, but Franklin mentioned me on his blog. I am inordinately excited about it. I'm not sure it's normal.

Does this make me a groupie?

And Franklin, on the very very off chance that you ever read my blog, I heard you emailed another friend of mine, Eric, about coming to our knit night. The group of us discussed driving up to Kokomo to kidnap you next time you're there.

So keep your eyes open. We have pointy sticks.

Gryffindor

I finished these in record time and have just not gotten around to taking pictures of them. They were quite fun, and I did manage to get them both out of the 1 ball of red yarn.

First I tried to have my 4 year old take pictures of them....


He thought that was just the best thing ever. So maybe he gets me after all...

Better late than never!

So, yeah, I haven't blogged in a while. Insert all of my previous excuses here, I don't want to repeat myself, and I think they all apply. It's been crazy. But anyway...

Remember a while back when I blogged about how Project Linus sent out a request for blankets in Colts colors?
Well Janet and I got together after a very (VERY) busy garage sale at my house and turned these...

...into THESE.

Our knitting group rocks! I was hoping we might have enough blocks for 2 blankets, but we ended up with enough for 3. Considering what a very short time we had to throw these together, I think we dod pretty good. They were nice and snuggly, too. There is a row of blocks that you can't see over the top of the banister.

A couple days after we turned them in we found out why they were doing it.

It turns out Peyton Manning donated upwards of $50 million to the St. Vincent's Children's Hospital. They re-named it after him and had a big event. You can see a kid with Peyton who has a Linus blanket HERE (It's not one of ours, though).

Go Colts!

Noro longies finished

Thank you to all of you who responded to my what should I do about these pants. You were all right, they look cute I think!

Yarn: Noro Kureyon 132 and black Lamb's Pride

It was a bit of a pain in the ass to get the legs to match all the way down. I pulled out 2 small balls and started in the same place, but toward the end, after the red, the purple stripe wa a lot bigger on 1 side than the other, and the place where the black stripes started would have been purple without any green, (that ball barely had any green on it at all) So I frogged back and took out some of the purple stripe, and then grafted some green from somewhere else in the yarn to get it to match there.
Here's the back. You can see one set of short rows fall between the black stripes, but I think it works well. They've gotta go somewhere!
Detail

I *really* like how these came out.