Outcomes

In case you missed it, the U.S. had a General Election for president and other offices last week on Tuesday, November 8. I was in NYC on Monday to have dinner with my sister, and we meandered over to Rockefeller Center, which was crazy-resplendent with flags, bunting, lights projected on the buildings and the skating rink, and tent-like outdoor broadcast booths and cameras on booms all set up in preparation for the next day. The vibe seemed hectic, even a bit hellish to me, but my sister loved it.



Election Day was a beautiful, mild day roundabout Exit 151 and indeed across the country = no excuses for not getting to the polls. Heavy turnout usually favors Democrats, yet there were two whispers of trouble ahead for the Democratic candidate for president. My polling place is in the sapphire blue bellybutton of New Jersey and while there was a line to vote, turnout was noticeably less than in 2008. And one voter in line began talking very loudly and unpleasantly about exclusionary voter ID laws, generally a Republican issue, often with racist overtones. Hindsight is 20/20, and in retrospect that seems a presage of what was to come.

Maybe there was a third sign: I baked a patriotic confetti cake, and it was awful. In more skilled hands or to other palates it might have been acceptable (a master cake baker I'm not), but to me the cake was overly sweet from the candy sprinkles, with an overly soft, almost gooey, collapsing center. A metaphor, perhaps.



Tuesday evening as the polls closed and the voting returns trickled in it became increasingly clear the opinion polls predicting a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton and a chance to flip the Senate to the Democrats had been stunningly wrong. Reflecting the confusion, Wednesday's print NY Times had one headline, while their website had another. In the sober light of morning, it turned out Republican Donald Trump had prevailed by carrying the Electoral College but not winning the popular vote. Trump was president-elect, and his party retained control of both houses of Congress and a majority of governorships and state houses, and is poised to appoint the majority in the Supreme Court.



In the ten days since the election, I finally finished my Debate Socks, knit in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Super Sparkle, colorway Star Speckled Skein. Amazing to relate, the 8% Lurex content is not only adorable, but also comfortable, not scratchy at all. Now that's a win-win.



Round town there's been some trouble with ugly winners, which in some cases has taken on a life of its own. Notably, after a small business near the train station was defaced by graffiti expressing coarse pro-Trump sentiments, some children painted it over with a cheery mural, which was again vandalized. Rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat. The sixth iteration is pictured below.



It was defaced as well. But this time the vandals did not get away with it. Train commuters had noticed the mural would be fine through the evening commute, but would be marked up by the morning commute. So the business owner and a buddy camped out overnight, spotted two older adults in the very act, and called police, who made the arrest.

There have been other upsets, so there's going to be a community march and vigil tomorrow afternoon from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., starting at the main library and ending at the WW1 memorial. I have tickets for a show with an 8:00 o'clock curtain, but I'll go for a while. It's important. To be continued....

Another Wrap

The month of August has fleeted away with only one blog post, backwards progress from two in July. Aiya! It's a new month, time for another wrap, verily, a wrap sweater. Behold Sabine by Julie Weisenberger, worked in Shibui Knits Linen, colorway 2032 Field. Here's the front of the cardigan.



As per usual with Cocoknits patterns, Sabine is well-written, enjoyable to knit, and the results are delightful. The pattern calls for Superior, a luxurious cashmere/silk/merino blend, but is equally lovely and considerably cooler in chainette Linen. I'm a sucker for out-of-the-ordinary yarn – Linen sometimes made crinkling sounds when still in the skein, but it softened considerably with handling or in humid weather. The knit fabric blocked easily and drapes beautifully. Here's a view of the back of the cardigan.



My only lament is how long it took to start and finish the sweater, my August Camp Loopy project. Initially I swatched and cast on for Hitofude, then realized I really want a Hitofude in a different color. I tried double-dipping with the 2016 Ravellenic Games, but was DNF, shorthand for the other frustrations of my frustrating August. At least I finished the cardi before the end of August, although I posted its photo to the Camp Loopy gallery so late, I'm still waiting to learn if it beat the September 1 deadline.

Other than that quibble (which is more about my schedule than the sweater), I'm very pleased. I wanted a transitional piece, a cardigan in a rich autumn color yet a breezy summer fiber for those fall days when the school year/program year has begun anew but the weather is still sticky. Summer clothes no longer seem to match the increased formality and tempo of the season, and heavy fall fabrics are completely unbearable. Enter Linen Sabine – perfection in cardigan form.

July Wrap Up

July was alternately so miserably hot and so torrentially rainy and there was so much negative stuff going on off the blog that the month seemed interminably longer than usual. And then it was over without any blogging. Well, let me catch up with an interminably long wrap up post.

At first I balked at writing this and wanted to insert various qualifiers, but on reflection this year's Tour de Fleece was a success, unqualified. I accomplished my goal of finishing a half-braid of fiber using a new-to-me technique, sampled a luscious new-to-me fiber, and spun another sample using another new-to-me technique. All cause for happiness and satisfaction, but it's only in retrospect that this has sunk in.

The half-braid of Gale's Art Polwarth, colorway Sweetness and Light, turned into 297 yds (271 m) of fractal-spun 2-ply with 63 yd (57 m) of plied-against-itself 2-ply left over. I was surprised by the way the colors of the fractal-spun aligned – there were far more sections of solid color and far fewer sections of barberpole than generally occur in random spinning. I'm curious to see how the yarn will knit up.



The luxurious Victory Farm Paco-Vicuña also was a surprise. I had expected the downy-feeling fiber would be difficult to spin, so spun it July 9, one of the challenge days. It turned out the lovely fiber spun so easily and beautifully the only challenge was stopping with a 12-yd (11-m) sample skein. The results remind me of baby camel – I'm going to have to rummage through my stash to find that sample skein and compare the two.



While I'm glad I tried ply on the fly and I'm pleased with the end product, I did find the three steps forward, two steps back process more time-consuming than I like. There's 52 yds (47 m) of ply on the fly and 72 yds (65 m) of ordinary 2-ply spun from Zarzuela's Fibers SW Merino, colorway Santa's Coming! pictured below. Unsurprisingly, the ply on the fly has long segments of pure color while the ordinary 2-ply has delightful barberpole effects. I do rather like the barberpole effects. Somewhat surprisingly, the POTF felt like a crepe yarn while it was getting its finishing bath, a difference I don't notice when it's dry.



At some point in the spinning action, the hook on my (apparently camera-shy) birdseye maple Bosworth got bent, which of course made it spin eccentrically. I was afraid I might have to send it back to Journeywheel for repairs, but was able to straighten it out with (padded) heavy pliers. Whew! I love my Bossies – the longer I spin, the more I prefer them. Indeed, while mousing around the Journeywheel website, I noticed this beauty, a 30 g pau amarillo midi...



... and clicked. A new bright yellow spindle, reminiscent of the Maillot Jaune, seemed a fitting conclusion to my TdF.

Having watched the Republican National Convention, of course I watched the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Inspired by the most moving speech of the convention, I made myself a pocket U.S. Constitution. As my puny stapler can't possibly secure so many sheets of paper (mighty in thickness however small in size), I sewed the pages together.



I also blocked and seamed my July Camp Loopy project, Simple Straight Skirt by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas, knit in Cascade 220 colorway 4002 Jet. I dislike finishing, but also hate to see anything less than the full effect. In this case, mattress stitch seams.



Blocking, seaming, and the addition of waistband elastic transformed the skirt from a vaguely skirt-shaped lumpy mass into an honest-to-goodness skirt that fits perfectly. What an excellent pattern – well-written and perfect results. I don't know why I've had such a mental block about knitting skirts, but now I want to Knit All the Skirts! It's too hot right now to comfortably model a wool skirt, I'll have to remember to do that when it cools down.



Last but not least, another singleton sock came down from the Clothesline of Shame, Clouds by Rebecca A., worked in Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fasset, colorway 4261 Landscape Caribbean. A fun pattern and a fun yarn, it's just everything that intervened that made it take so long to finish the pair. One sock uses wrap and turn short rows, the other uses Japanese short rows.



Now it's on to the Ravellenic Games 2016. I needed some jollying along – the antipathy I've harbored against the Sports Event That Shall Not Be Named has only increased in two years, and the multiple hazards of the host country and my own general state of blah were formidable obstacles. Sometime this week that turned around (hence the need to wrap up July). I've joined Team Loopy 2016 and Team BBMF 2016 (rated M), and am ready for the Mass Cast on tomorrow!

The Week That Was

It's been a sad, sad, sad week of gun violence across the U.S. Each incident has been more dreadful than the last, culminating in the horror of a bomb robot used to kill a mass shooter who targeted police.

In difficult times, I knit. For Summer of Socks 2016 I finished By the Seine River by Dona Knits, worked in Regia Design Line Jazz Color by Erika Knight, colorway 6454 Kind of Blue. It was an easy, fun knit that really should have been finished much sooner.



And I spin. Project 1 for the Tour de Fleece 2016 is to finish a half-braid of Gale's Art Polwarth, colorway Sweetness & Light. At the beginning of the week it looked like this.



At the end of the week it looked like this. I randomly spun the first half of the braid, but fractal-spun the second half. The broad strip is on the left spindle, the thin strips are on the right spindle. I'm going to let the singles rest before plying them.



Today is one of the tough mountain stages for the TdF. Chilly llamas on the road are a possible additional hazard. I think I must spin up some of my paco-vicuña in their honor.

Prosperous Voyage

On the last day of the month my June Camp Loopy ship has safely come in: behold my 3 Color not-Cashmere Cowl by Joji Locatelli, blocked and styled as inspired by stashmaven.



The kindly mods in the Lace Lagoon thread indicated June projects need only be done, and do not require blocking, but I have an aversion to rumpled FOs, especially rumpled lace FOs. At casa Jersey Knitter, blocking is not optional.



That's so much better!

The pattern is simple and well-written – an easy, straightforward, fun knit. As always for me, the challenge is finding sufficient time and motivation to knit. I opted to change the ribbing and not "correct" the jogs at the end of rounds as I find the jogs endearing, the fixes not so much. For the BO I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy BO, but on reflection I kinda wish I'd used a tubular CO and BO for something so close to the face. The interesting alpaca-cotton yarn, Manos del Uruguay Serena, shares many of the best traits of each constituent fiber. I thought it might bloom alpaca-like after washing, but instead it retained the crisp stitch definition of cotton. It should prove to be a comfortable three-season cowl when cowl season comes around.

As long as I was emulating others, I struck a pose similar to the designer's. Let me tell you, it was hot in there!



Suffice to say that as a fashion photog, I'm no threat to Richard Avedon, recently in the news.

Overall, I enjoyed the first month of my first year at Camp Loopy and the company of great mods and congenial fellow-campers. Initially I wasn't sure I wanted to go camping all summer, but June was so pleasant, I'm getting ready for my July project, Simple Straight Skirt by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas, using Cascade 220, colorway 4002 Jet. I'm assigned to Gold Pirates.



The July theme is Buried Treasure, that is, a long-queued or long-desired project. I've always wanted to knit a skirt, but somehow never have. Hopefully this is the year!

Sumer Icummin

Happy Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere)! Every year when summer rolls around I find myself craving a smart new straw tote bag. The trusty old and worn canvas tote bags that got me through the fall and winter just won't do. I'd not considered make-your-own, but inspired by knitcole's Rafia Tote Bag, this year desire became a weaving project, with raffia and citrus-y colors and pirates. I must admit the project came together when I saw the whimsical fabric I picked for the bag lining, Robert Kauffman Message in a Bottle, designed by Suzy Ultman.



For the warp I used Just Our Yarn Aziza, 5/2 100% Tencel, in pretty variegated lemonade and limeade tones, part of my MDS&W loot. It's lovely stuff, also very slinky. I didn't attempt to wind it into a ball, but dressed the loom with the yarn still as a hank, which is why the remainder pictured below is in a (now much smaller) hank.



Dressing the loom took me three days and about 367 yds (336 m) of warp. There were the usual sorts of interruptions and delays, not to mention I find the process tedious in the extreme. Some people say it's meditative. After the dreadful news last week I needed something meditative, but for me this wasn't it. Strange that I'm a process knitter, but an impatient weaver. I tend to think of my woven FOs as intermediate items, precursors for sewing projects. Maybe that's why I don't think to take many pix of my loom or weaving-in-progress (sorry).

For the weft I used Morex Ribbon 100% Rayon raffia. The entire spool, 110 yds (100 m), fit on my stick shuttle in a loose rustling mass. There was lots of aural stimulation, unusual for fiber projects! I wove a few inches before realizing the raffia is a skinny cord when it comes off the spool...



... but it can be spread into a broad flat ribbon.



The fabric looks and drapes much better with the raffia woven in the form of a spread ribbon rather than an unspread cord – the cord is stiff and unstable as weft while the ribbon scrunches down nicely when beaten lightly. I thought about unwinding the shuttle, spreading the raffia, then re-winding the shuttle, but decided it worked better to keep the shuttle wound with rustling raffia cord and to spread only enough for a pic at a time. More tedium. Oh well, I'm happy with the results.



The straw bag is shaping well! To be continued....

Unruffled

Now where was I before being distracted by those squirrels... right, modifying my Sweet Nuttins. I enjoyed knitting them in all their bells and whistles glory – interminable German Twisted CO! ruffles! cables! lace! beads! patterned heel flap! patterned gussets! – but I usually wear mid-calf socks under trousers, and I knew the ruffle would fidget me. So I unpicked it.

First, I picked up stitches using dpns, then frogged back. Or rather I unpicked back, as ribbing doesn't exactly zip out when frogged backwards. I suppose that means there's no gorffing in knitting.



The unpicking process was rather hard on the yarn, Lorna's Laces Solemate, which is very soft and prone to splitting and pilling. Initially I'd thought about knitting a longer cuff, but after seeing how frizzed the yarn had gotten, decided to bind off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy BO instead. That made the unruffled sock somewhat shorter than the ruffled sock. JSSBO flares slightly, but not nearly as much as the original ruffle.



After more unpicking, I had a pair ruffle-free yet still sweet Sweet Nuttins. It's too hot right now, but I'm looking forward to wearing them when it's cooler.



It occurred to me that this Adrienne Fong pattern knocked me out of Sock Madness 10 and another of her patterns, Sockdolager, knocked me out of Sock Madness 7. More accurately, it's the usual busyness and travel that do it... unless... unless it's the Curse of the Belly Button!

Squirrel!

My Ekornsokkene are finished, and I'm happy. It's my first FO for the One Sock KAL.



This was a fun pattern to knit. The colorwork band on the foot was so interesting, I rotated it on the second sock to show off the entire band on the tops of the socks. Here's the two tops.



And here's the two soles. It was interesting how the jog at the end of each round distorted the X motif more than the double-eight pretzel motif.



Curiously, despite the sprightly squirrels on the legs, as the stripes progressed the socks began to remind me of woolly bear caterpillars, in a good way.



It's said woolly bear caterpillars can predict the severity of the coming winter. I can never remember precisely how, something about the thickness of their color segments. No matter, this week's weather forecast is for sweltering summer temperatures!

I Got Nuttins

It finally stopped raining roundabout Exit 151, and I finally finished my Sweet Nuttins – ahead of the Sock Madness Round 4 deadline but 35 minutes too late to earn a spot to advance to Round 5. I even had the requisite late night, bad light FO photo.



When better light dawned, I took a modestly better photo to show off the socks' ruffled cuff, cables, lace, and patterned gusset. I don't know why the yarn (Lorna's Laces Solemate, colorway 809 Midway) looks so very different under different lighting conditions.



Shortly thereafter the new pattern for Round 5 dropped, and the competition went on without me. Which left me free to modify the pattern and put my stash in order, up next. Edited to add: Squirrel!

Greater Than the Sum

As per usual, there's been much busyness roundabout Exit 151 that has taken me away from blogging, also from knitting. So it took me 11 days to finish the Sock Madness Round 3 socks, Waimakariri by Sonya Newstead. Named for a braided river in New Zealand, the pattern masterfully explores sock architecture with its wandering cables.



The elements that comprise Waimakariri are simple enough. The sock begins with a cabled tab.



One knits around the tab, increasing for the toe. A Kacha-Kacha is extremely helpful.



Then things get a bit complicated. Even with a Kacha-Kacha I had to pay such close attention that suddenly (!) I had a singleton. The techniques involved are simple enough – there's nothing particularly difficult or unusual – yet the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Between the need for attention and the need for competition speed (and the busyness) there's a woeful lack of intermediate pix. Sorry about that.



The pattern as written is difficult to modify and, alas, also does not fit over my heel. After discovering this inconvenient reality and frogging my first attempted leg, I solved the issue without otherwise altering the pattern by knitting one gauge on the foot of the sock, a much looser gauge on the leg, and a much tighter gauge on the cuff. YMMV – some Sock Madness knitters say this sock fits them very well without any gauge acrobatics.

Because the many increases and decreases and changes in stitch count introduce significant strain into the knitted fabric, the untenanted sock puckers and the tenanted sock has a few holes. Other Sock Madness knitters say both are mitigated by washing and blocking. I've not had the time nor the leisure to do that yet, but I hope that also works for my socks. I found knitting the strained fabric put more strain on my hands and wrists than most cabled fabrics.

My sock has variable gauge not only on purpose, but also inadvertently in places. The yarn used, Zauberball in colorway Grashalm, is a loosely spun singles that varies in weight from light fingering to almost-DK, which was annoying in the extreme. I mostly liked its variation in color, a subtle ombré for the most part, except where it's not (sigh). At least the dye job is so regular that it took no effort to knit matching socks. Unsurprisingly for a loosely spun singles, the yarn was splitty and pilly, and a challenge to knit. I doubt I'll use it again.

While I was occupied the bloom season in Branch Brook Park galloped by, one of the earlier and faster seasons in memory. Happens sometimes. Lacking cherry blossoms to view, next is a brief rest for me and my tired wrists, then the Sock Madness resumes with Round 4.

Ahead of the Storm

The alarming weather forecast for tomorrow is for pelting rain and 70 mph (113 kph) winds. That's bound to do some damage, so I rushed out to Branch Brook Park for a hurried look at the cherry blossoms lest I miss this year's show entirely. The main season bloomers were just shy of peak bloom. If you can't see this year's show in person, try Cherry Blossom Cam.



Inspired by jooan's wee socks, I knit a wee Rose & Thorn sock, using the fussy beaded CO, Quatrefoil Eyelet (in Treasury 1) and twist sts for the roses and thorns, eye of partridge French heel, and wedge toe. Note to self: for a wee sock, it's better to knit a plain heel flap rather than a slip-st flap, which pulls in too much for the reduced scale. I think I'm going to attach the wee sock to my purse.



Here's hoping everyone in the path of the storm stays safe and sound. See you on the other side.

Ecce Socks

Roundabout Exit 151 several sacred holidays are also common secular holidays. Yesterday, Good Friday, is one of them. For me, day off = FO. Ecce [Latin, Behold] Sock Madness glory, Rose & Thorn Socks by Ronni Smith! Worked in a mystery pink yarn from stash, they're a perfect fit on my Frankenfeet, which is a rare thing for a competition pattern.



It turned out the beaded cast on is about equally complicated on circular needles as it is on double-pointed needles. After trying the former and becoming frustrated with dangling wires, I gave up and reverted to trusty dpns. Here's the beady picot cuff before folding.



After folding and joining, some beads went askew.



It sometimes took considerable fiddling to get them astraight. It's better to knit carefully, even if slowly, and to get it right the first time rather than to have to stop for corrective measures.



Alas, I was knitting in such haste, I forgot to weave in the cast-on tail before finishing joining the cuff. Oh well, I wove it in later.



The pattern calls for an eye of partridge French heel and a wedge toe, my favorites for fit. The only mod I made, allowable under competition rules, was to lengthen the foot with three rounds of stockinette before starting the toe. I also double-dipped with March Sockdown, cable challenge. Happiness!

Meanwhile, at church I was voluntold to read the liturgy for the 12th Station of the Cross ("Jesus dies on the cross") for Good Friday. High churchy ritual generally doesn't do much for me, but perhaps others derive value and benefit from it. I hope so. It's not a draw for me, it also doesn't stop me from attending, but on the whole I'd rather stick to my knitting.

A Feast of Firsts

Sock Madness 10, Round 1 is over. While knitters advancing beyond Round 1 (including your truly) await their team assignments, let me ponder in serenity and with decent pix the many firsts I encountered while knitting SlipStripeSpiral by Mylene Pijpers.

Perhaps the first thing to note is there was Enough Yarn. I'd been fretting about that, so much so that I knit the toe-up sock with 60 rounds for each foot, but only 50 rounds for each leg. While that certainly satisfies the Sock Madness regs for this round, I coulda had taller socks, as I prefer. It would seem I had the yarn and I think I had the time. Oh well. One of the lessons of Sock Madness is not to tarry.



Now that the pair is finished and photographed, I just realized how well the color progressions on the feet match. The legs, not so much. Neither was planned. It's also more apparent that while this new-to-me spiral toe is a better fit than many, it still isn't the best fit for my Frankenfeet. I'm glad I learned it, though.

The Cat Bordhi Sweet Tomato Heel also was new to me. I worked the first heel keeping the slip stitch chains in pattern, which made the ones closest to the heel distort rather badly.



Then I noticed others in the KAL did not keep the chains, so I worked the second heel without the chains. Rather to my surprise, it doesn't seem to have made much difference for the sock fit.



As previously mentioned, I liked working Japanese short rows (another first for me), even if I can't explain them.

I also liked working Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off (not a first for me). It's a bit involved, with yarn overs and reverse yarn overs, but what I especially value about it is how nicely it works for ribbing. See how nicely? That crenelated appearance means the ribbing is, well, ribbing.



Overall, I'm pleased with the socks and happy to advance. Bring on those late night, bad light, in pajamas FO shots!