Stranges things that happen with knitting

I seem to have recently developed a gauge problem.

This is notably visible in certain projects that have been knit over time and are supposed to have shaping.
In fact, just this last Saturday, I cast on a worsted weight yarn onto a size 9 needle and started a top down knit cap for a friend's child. At first I thought it was knitting a little thin, but I felt that a thin hat wouldn't be too bad.
I finished it yesterday and it totally lacks shaping. The knit is so loose that even when I switched from increases to stockinette the hat continued to bell out. I finished it only to have to frog it. I am going to have to get yet more dpns so that I can get a smaller size going.

This shaping problem also infected my laundry soap bag. While that project was done on only one size needle and with set yarn, the top half and the bottom half do not seem to have the same tension. The bottom bells out so much that rather than looking like a jar or old Grecian urn, it looks like a knitted U.F.O. The irony is that the project is no longer a UFO as it reached the point of FO last week.

Oh, you want to see the wild hair stranding that I made?

Just remember, there was absolutely no pattern for the whole thing. Nothing inspiring to look at when I was knitting it up and deciding which color was going where. It was totally play.

An End & A Beginning

It was a seven month journey.




Even longer if you count the time spent trying to get the recipient to select a yarn.






It was an on again, off again project. Months of work and months of not touching the yarn, the needles or even the measurements.




There were highs, when precious stitches were saved and new techniques learned, and there were lows, when inches of ribbing were ripped back and stitches were left hanging in the air and needles snapped in my hands.






Was the journey worth the effort?

Perhaps.


So far my roommate seems happy with his new socks.


(Of course that might be because I have made it clear that he will be happy with them or else.) (The kitten thinks she has a new something to chew holes into.)



- - - - - -



A few days ago, in a fit of "it would work if I knit it this way", I cast on for a new stuffed toy.

This one is a secret surprise for a friend of mine who happens to like pink birds.

Can you guess what it is?

Breaking news, literally.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled post to bring you the following story:

It was late when M. entered her room, roughly around 1 A.M.. She had just eaten dinner and had a plan for how the remainder of her evening was about to go. She was only half right.

As was her custom, M. took a moment to check Ravelry (a website for yarn enthusiasts) and then her email. It only took a few minutes and then she turned around and picked up her project.

M. has been knitting a sock, and tonight, she was planning on finishing it.

One hour and then another slipped by unnoticed. M. was focused on her stitches and the shortening length of yarn.

To M., it seem to take forever to get within range of "casting off". Stitch by stitch, row by row she kept to her task. She later admitted that occasionally her mind wandered a bit. M. thought about funny posts she wanted to make in the CPaAG forum of Ravelry and other "such things like that, ya know?"

"Knitting a 2x2 rib is not the most challenging thing there is, okay?" said M. sounding a bit defensive. When asked what a "2x2 rib" was and what that meant, she looked around as if searching for words then frantically picked up two metal spikes and began waiving them menacingly. This reporter decided to let the question go and get M. back to explaining the events of the night.

It did finally happen and M. said that she felt a bit excited as she saw the length of yarn was finally within range to "cast off". She also claims that she gave herself a stern talking to, telling herself to "calm down before you mess up and end up having to rip back yet again."

M. made it through the first needle, carefully doing a loose bind off she called "k2, pass stitches back and k2tog, *k1, pass last stitch back, k2tog; repeat from * to last stitch." She assures us it is a loose bind off and since she was working from ribbing some times she "p2tog" but found that very uncomfortable.

According to M., 5 needles were being used to make the sock.
Tragedy struck when she was two stitches into the second needle. She was attempting another "p2tog" when she her a very soft snap.

"At first, I thought the cats were up to something out in the hallway. They stay locked out of my room, because of all the yarn-you see, and, anyway, they are always making funny noises trying to lure me out of the room, mostly in hopes I'll leave the door open behind me or something. I've often told the cats they should start an industrial music band or a kitty equivalent of STOMP or Blue Man Group, but anyway. So I heard this sound and froze for a second then ignored it. Then I noticed my knitting needle, the one holding the stitches yet to be worked, was a lot shorter than it had been and I couldn't figure it out. I think, like, my brain was trying to protect me or something. I didn't know it yet, but was 3 A.M. already and past my bed time.
So, it took a moment but I realized something was wrong. I had my working needle inside two stitches and somewhere around 45 stitches on the other needle so I was really, really careful to hold both those needles with one hand and not let them move while I opened my other hand.
Then I had one of those moments, you know, where you can't makes sense of what your looking at until your subconscious has had the chance to do whatever to cushion the blow. Eventually I sorted out the image. I had a snapped needle in my hand.
For a second, I was panicked. This was the second snapped needle from this sock just on this set of needles! I had a bamboo set I had started with that had a needle snap nearly in half, which makes three broken needles all together. Somehow this sock was eating needles!
I had all these stitches on the small piece and the rest of the needle was useless in my hand."

She admits that it took a lot of willpower to keep herself from blowing up and going on a killing rampage.

"Lesser things have tipped knitters off the edge and into pure madness. Just ask."

M. turned her panic into determination. She says that, for a moment, all her years of watching MacGuyver boiled up in her mind's eye, but in the end there was a simpler fix.
The needle she had already finished casting off of was with in easy reach.

"I don't think the stitches would have stayed still if I had to get up from my chair. Knitters know that stitches can be like three year old's, just give the parent some huge messy issue to distract them and the kids will take advantage of he distraction to make the mess worse in the name of play."

M. tossed down the piece of needle in her hand and picked up the whole one. She tried to be careful, sliding stitches over the sharp, broken end and onto the new needle but even she could not prevent some splinters getting into her yarn.
"All I can say is that my roommate better like splinters."

Eventually she did get the stitches moved over and was able to return to her task, but there was still another breath-taking moment ahead of her.

"I was starting on the last needle, and remember-we are talking 45 or so stitches per needle, when I noticed the end of the yarn was dangling from my hand a bit closer than I liked."

M. said she barely breathed at all while she worked those last stitches.

"I totally gave up on the p2tog and started pulling my stitches a little tighter."


In the end, there was a few inches of yarn left after the last stitch was worked.

"I was so happy that it was finally done. I mean, there were several times when I wanted to set the sock down and go get a big bottle of wine. After the needle broke, I wanted some strong port and when the last stitch was done all I could think of was the bottles of whiskey I've collected and how much I thought I could down straight before I lost consciousness. It seemed like such a good idea."

Yet, she resisted the urge and instead went to bed so she would be rested for work the next day.

Even as she laid her head down upon her pillow, she tried to dismiss the drama of the evening's knitting and instead focus on the accomplishment, but it was a challenge. In her mind's eye, the phantom of the second sock loomed before her and she hoped that it would not be needle hungry as well.

Party as Promised

Well, I was going to post this after the party, but I was tired. The next day I had to work and since then I just have been trying to catch up with various things.

Thus follows my report of the Yarn For Breakfast's First Annual Christmas Party and Gift Exchange.


First, the spread. There was tasty food and more tasty food. The picture I took was premature as more dishes arrived a bit later. My favorite was the peanut butter and chocolate cookies, for which I managed to get the recipe.

I brought pastry wrapped cheddar smokies which were actually made by me with no spotter in the kitchen to guide me or prevent me from melting random kitchen items. I am no cook. Baking is a skill I fluent with, but with cooking my vocabulary is limited and often requires a translator. I was very proud of the results of my cooking as the food was tasty and no cutting boards were accidentally destroyed in the process.

Back on December 2nd I aired out my tale of woe as concerns the sock. I told you of how I had ripped it back and left you with a mental image of a tangled pile of yarn next to a partial sock. What I forgot to mention when regaling you with my pain was how limited my pick-up-stitches skills are. Picking up 2x2 ribbing with size US1 needles was beyond me.
I put out a cry for help as the only thing I could think of would be to rip back the entire leg to the stockinette section as I could not thread a lifeline in the ribbing nor find the purl stitches.
My plea was answered by Carly. I promised a gift for whoever got the stitches back on the needles. She told me no such gifts were needed, but I feel she earned it after spending quite a bit of the party tucked away with a bright light working with those size US1 needles quietly concentrating on getting the sock back to a workable state. I had picked up some traditional German Christmas cookies, Domino Stones. They are made with layers of soft gingerbread, creamy persipan and fruit jelly coated in a rich bittersweet chocolate. A barely worthy reward for someone who is willing to do what I myself could not make work.

Diligently she worked and lo, the sock was ready for rows. We needed to complete a row or two to make sure all stitches were accounted for. I told her she could, but as I knit backwards it would probably be best if I did the first row. She was fine with that, but curiosity got to her and she watched me knit the row and asked how she would be able to knit a row for me without making a gap or messing up the stitch orientation. I told her she would knit with the needles on the far side of the sock purling the stitches that were purl oriented to her and knitting the knit ones. Because she would be knitting from the inside it would actually be going the same direction and me knitting from the outside. She asked to try and I handed over the sock. It was an easy success and I got to show that left-handed knitting is easily swappable with right-handed knitting. It was very nice.


Then came the gift exchange. We drew numbers and picked up gifts, then came the opportunity to steal other gifts BEFORE unwrapping the gift. I think this was the best version of the gift stealing I have ever experienced. We had much thieving and still had the surprise of what was in the gift at the end. Several gifts were stolen three times around, the max stealing. This was caused partially because knitters with gifts of yarn can't help but talk about the yarn and so many of us knew that there was some very nice yarns even if we didn't know how much or what else was in the package.
My contribution was named "Most Creative" gift. My gift was two skeins of Cascade yarn and custom designed cookies to match the yarn (plus one cookie that matched a yarn which I have). The yarn was nice, but everyone was taking with the cookies. I had gone to the Cookies by Design store in our area and taken some yarn with me. I talked with the person there and requested cookies that matched and they did an absolutely wonderful job! They even did the labels and the variegation to perfection! They had given me a sample cookie and it was so very tasty. In the gift, I included their catalogs in case someone wanted to see about ordering some.


Myself, I got the perfect gift. See, I wanted the yarns I saw other people had landed. I really did. Yet, each time I caught myself with gift envy I reminded myself of my stash at home and my roommate's comments when I had come home with more yarn after shopping for the party.
No, I didn't need more yarn. Rather, I needed something to replace the knitting bag I used to have. My friend Carolina had crocheted for me a mini-backpack complete with straps. Large enough to hold a large skein and a project. She even put a little pocket on the front and a flap lid with a crocheted button enclosure. This whole thing she made from plastic bags. It was stain resistant, easily cleaned and a great example of recycling. It was perfect, until one of my cats decided to chew off the button and a strap and put a hole in it. When I packed up my knitting to take with me to the party, I had put my projects in this little paper bags I have collected from yarn shops. In a sense, I was brown-bagging it to the party.
I needed a replacement. So when I opened my gift, it was to find the thing I needed more than yarn, a knitting bag! Add to that a super bonus WIP bag! I have been wanting one since I first saw it but have either never found one or was not really sure I would use it. Currently, it is holding the ripped remains of the sock as I work to finish it a second time. The WIP back has prevented me from having to wind the yarn and I know that I could use any ball that will fit in there and yarn won't go bouncing around the room.
Immediately I began loading my projects into the bag and the sock into the WIP bag(which now travels with me to work and back. I take calls while working a sock and can keep the yarn below the desk with no worry about it causing problems.) My roommate does not care for the colors of the bag. When he told me this I told him I could have ended up with more yarn and he shut up quickly. He is learning to accept little wins.

Coming soon:
Knitting for male genitalia is not hard.

A note

Greetings!

I apologize for the silence. I unfortunately experience one of my size US1 dpns snapping.

I am on the cuff of the sock.

For a temporary measure I placed some tape on the needle, but alas, it was still uncomfortable to use.

This experience has sent shock waves through my projects and even the projects with medal needles are declining to be touched until the sock issue is resolved.

And to think, this is only the first sock. There is still a second one to be knit. Mercy me.

Just this past weekend I acquired a set of rosewood dpns, provided by Lantern Moon and made available at a very interesting yarn store, the Hook & I. This store also has $5 grab bags, which I could not resist.

My five dollars netted me three $12 skeins of novelty yarn, one skein of novelty yarn that I actually have a matching skein of already, two skeins of a boa style yarn, two Knit 1 back issues (hurrah!), one sweater pattern and one baby sweater pattern which is about to become a gift for the center manager at my current job. I found out last week she knits and is even on ravelry.

Later today I shall begin the transfer of project to new needles. (By the by, these are extremely long dpns, being 7" and I am not use to that.) Hopefully, this will calm the other projects and life can return to yarn harmony.

Thank you for your patience during this troubling time.