In which we discuss sick people, and new socks

Things are progressing well since the glove-gifting incident. I still haven't started on the second stripey sock, but it's only a matter of time. I almost did on Saturday, but then decided to start something else instead. I moved away from my basic plain old stockinette socks and started on Jaywalkers. They were originally going to be Primaveras, but then I didn't like how they were turning out. I've never been a huge fan of reverse-stockinette... Marksman seemed rather astonished when I was digging around in my backpack on the bus and had to shuffle around three projects, though. One of these


had about 10 rows of ribbing left (obviously done now), one was the second stripey sock, and one was theoretically going to be Primavera. You understand why there were three, right? We were on the way to family dinner, at which there is always knitting, because anywhere from 4 to 8 of us have projects going semi-continuously. I finished the ribbing on the one sock on the Skytrain and cast on for a new project before we got to my Pohpoh's. Where I was handed a sleeve to seam for my aunt. Who has a dearth of finishing skills. Me and my cousin both rock at seaming, apparently, though she is faster than I am. At one point, there were four of us working on one person's projects. Two of us seaming, and two working on a way to rip back 2 inches of pinwheel-blanket edging without tears. I don't think they ended up getting as far as taking the needles out, though. But. Back to what's currently on the needles. I managed to get a little bit of knitting in around the seaming, and then got home and decided I hated it. Spent all of Sunday (or most of Sunday) like this:

For anyone who wants to know, that's Marksman's head in my lap. (It only made the knitting *slightly* more awkward. I am so glad I knit continental.) He's been sick coming up on two weeks now, with a fever (though that's gone now) and sore throat and sore head and general discomfort. Which manifests as childish needy "I need you to pay attention to me" behaviour. Which I can handle in small doses. Luckily, he's getting past it (finally) and is coming to terms with the fact that I am not his mom. Though I did talk to her about it, and apparently this is just what happens when he's sick. Hrm.

Through all that, I finished one Jaywalker (which I would take pictures of if I had better light) and I love it. I managed not to run into the "too tight" problem I've seen running around the internet, likely because I knit stupidly loosely. I'm casting on for the next one as soon as this post is done :) For colour's sake, this is the yarn:


Also? I LOVE the Joby tripod I'm borrowing from Makr. It makes good macro shots easy. And I can put it anywhere! That, and the feet I've been using as sock models. Can you tell I was an art student once upon a time?

Metis sash = +5 charisma

ETA, March 21 2009: If you are looking for Métis sash stuff, go to this post instead. I promise it will be better.

So I've gotten back into my knitting groove, I think. I've been knitting a whole lot lately. I made (finally) a bunch of new dishcloths, and I think that's what sparked it. Surprisingly enough, this is the very first time I've tried the ever-popular Ballband Dishcloth from Peaches and Creme, eternalized in Mason-Dixon Knitting. But, I was bored, and wanted something easy to knit, that looked good, and we needed dishcloths. So. I learned that I have HORRENDOUSLY loose gauge. I used 34 stitches on 3.5 mm needles, with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, and still managed to turn out a 9x9-ish dishcloth. (For anyone that doesn't know, the pattern calls for 45 stitches. Though I don't know necessarily how the Bernat compares to the Peaches.) But anyways. No pictures of that, because they're just dishcloths. But then. I picked up the PJ socks again. (I might have done this earlier, actually. Like, back when I posted about starting socks from the top again, to see if I finish more of them) The first one of the last pair is now done, and I like the way it looks. I might need to get ahold of a scale, though, to make sure I have enough yarn left to do the last one. It worked out nicely, and I'm looking forward to doing the next one. The tops and toes and heels are all done un-striped. Well, as much as they can be, considering I'm using self-striping yarn to begin with.

The inside and the outside of the heel and the gusset. I like it. A lot. I didn't really think about the fact that the colour sections would line up the way they did, but it's good. I'm pleased, and I'm hoping that the next one works as well as this one did. (No, I do not have bigger pictures, because I fail at taking pictures that are non-blurry when they are bigger than these ones)

And more knitting, even. Last time Sir Marksman and me were on the Island, for birthday celebrations, I pulled out the sock in progress. The one you just saw pictures of. And Tim peeked over my shoulder and asked, oh-so-nonchalantly, "do you knit gloves?" And I said that, well, I suppose I could, but I'd never done it before. Which prompted a discussion, where we talked about how a forestry engineer can't wear real gloves, because they need their fingertips too often. And ended with me getting hand measurements so as to knit some fingerless gloves. I debated making Cigar, from Knitty, but that didn't pan out. So, I did a gauge swatch (gasp!) and wrote my own pattern. It took me three tries to get it right, but it worked out nicely. It was also pretty much the quickest project ever that was not a hat or a dishcloth. (It turns out I work well on a deadline.) And yesterday was the BC-Yukon Queen's Venturer Ceremony out at Government House in Victoria. I had, in the morning, only just finished the ribbing on the second glove. But I had a 2 hour ferry ride and 40 minute drive and a LONG ceremony to sit through. And at the end of the ceremony, I had two fingers left. To knit, that is. And it looked like we weren't going to make it to the 5pm ferry anyways, and the 7pm from Nanaimo was going to be the new Coastal Renaissance, so Andrew suggested heading up-island instead of waiting around. Me, being the resourceful Rover I am, asked if we could make a quick stop enroute. Ladysmith is, after all, on the way from Victoria to Nanaimo. And I had at least an hour to finish two fingers and weave in some ends. And so we made a surprise visit, and I dropped off some fingerless gloves, and we caught the new ferry home. The gloves turned out surprisingly well, I think, considering I've only done mitten-type things before, closely following a pattern. And I have a new favourite increase. Knitting into the stitch below (either before or after your current stitch) is going to be my standby for a while I think. I like it a whole lot more than m1's (mine always leave holes, even if I use the m1a (picking up the "bar" between stitches) method, and I've never really liked the way a kfb looks. So I decided to try something new, and behold! It works!
No holes, and no untidy purl-esque stitches. I am a happy knitter. And Tim is a very happy forestry engineer, who hopefully no longer has cold hands. I forget how fulfilling gift-knitting is.

For the sake of it, because I suppose I should write these things down somewhere, that was two strands of Four Seasons "sockenwolle" on 3mm needles, with a gauge of 5.5 stitches per inch. In navy blue, from some kind of kit my aunt bought and gave me the solid coloured yarn from. I think it went to good use.

And that sash, in the first glove picture, is the Metis sash from Marksman back in October. We've determined it's a +3 conversation starter and a +5 charisma when the person you're talking to is either a) of aboriginal descent or b) knows what it is (probably because of a). Case in point? When Hon. Steven Point, Lieutentant Governor of BC, and the very first Aboriginal to hold said position, was finished with the official-type picture taking yesterday, he came over to talk to me. Because I was wearing my sash. And Marg-mom, when I dropped off the gloves, gave me a new/shiny/clean one, because "if [I was} going to wear one, it shouldn't be one of [Marksman's] old beat-up ones. Wheeha.

A wishlist, of sorts.

I hate not having money. It pretty much sucks. I just about always have something that fits into the "oh, I wish I could afford..." Currently, said something is yarn. I'm on a yarn kick. (Maybe a little bit of a fabric one as well, brought on by Omiyage, from the library on Monday, and a trip to Dressew this morning.) And you know what I'd most like to have? Superwash, pretty-coloured, possibly sock-weight yarn. As much of it as I can fit into a rubbermaid bin. Because we all know I don't have enough of those already. I'm thinking enough to make Clessidra, or similar tall socks suitable for wearing whilst kilted, and then some yarn that is suitably coloured for some socks for the Boy, and then... I could go on. This is the problem, of course, with being a sock-knitter. In some cases/by some definitions, I do not have a lot of "stash". I just have... Yarn. You know it's bad when you start drooling over the BMFC colourways. Sigh.