Checkmate, Nihilism

Who knew? To knit socks (or hats or otherwise to cook, clean, grow, or create things), is nothing less than a way to defeat learned helplessness and existential dread. No lack of that going around.



So, behold, I have an Invitation to the Dance singleton. It is lovely, and I hope soon to have a pair. Checkmate, nihilism. Resistance is NOT futile.

Resolution

Happy New Year! May it be filled with that 20/20 clarity... and fancy doughnuts!



It's going to be a doozy of a year, methinks. I was feeling grouchy and stressed at the close of 2019, and was looking forward to some peace and quiet for at least one day. But, the new year had scarcely dawned when a flock of urgent and/or trolling messages landed in my inbox. Argh.



So. Rather than start a first foot this year, I'm simply going to continue on last year's first foot (never finished), Invitation to the Dance by Caoua Coffee. It's a lovely pattern that deserves better attentiveness, and I look forward to reducing the number of UFOs buzzing around Area 151. Besides, I just joined the Team 2020 Sew My Wardrobe sew-along – another reason to limit and/or reduce knitting projects.

Pause

Having finished the Sock Madness Round Two sock on time, I advance! I'm quite pleased, both with the socks and because I really wanted to get beyond Round One. I have a feeling I may not get beyond Round Two, but that's OK, I just wanted to progress beyond Round One.



The socks are Echoes by Liz Harris, worked in red Fortissima and white Sock-Ease. While I do admire stranded colorwork, I'm not a big fan of socks with stranded colorwork all over because it's always a struggle to pull them over my heels. But there are the happy exceptions. On these socks, I particularly like the tumbling hourglass motif, the way the stitch pattern remains coherent at the end-of-round jog, and the nice framing stitch that keeps the gusset decreases tidy. Clearly a thoughtful, technically excellent design. The yarns are recycled from two other projects, dating from 2008 and 2012, and I'm pleased they could finally be reclaimed and put to use. They work well together, I think.



The striking stitch pattern seemed vaguely heraldic to me, and I decided I wanted the MC (red) yarn dominant over the CC (white) yarn. It's more usual to have the CC dominant, but I like the results (and of course have to show them off). Here's the leg stranding.



Because I was speed-knitting, sometimes often late at night, and this week riveted by the news from Paris, sometimes I accidentally reversed the yarn dominance, which is easy to see on the wrong side of the pinstripe sole. (See the red lines among the white?) On some projects I'd feel a compulsion to tink back and fix that, but in this case I uncharacterically shrugged and knit on! For gentle readers unfamiliar with the concept of yarn dominance (some prefer the term color dominance), here's two helpful explainers.



Meanwhile, my computer migration is mostly done, but instead of the unalloyed joy of having a fast new computer I have the odd feeling that for a user like me peak utility has come and gone and, like AutoCorrect, future innovations are frequently going to be annoyances. (Although it might be nice to have a car that parallel parks itself.) As if to underscore that, when I was posting photos of Echoes to my Ravelry project page, a requirement for advancing in Sock Madness, the link from Flickr to Ravelry malfunctioned. The workaround I used was acceptable, obvs, but argh.

For observant Christians, today is the pause before the deep dive that is the culmination of Holy Week: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. For others, maybe there's the hope of landing an invitation to an Easter feast, which this food writer dubs "Spring Thanksgiving." While that's a novel notion to me, this year I'm going to go with it.

Signs of Spring

The signs are everywhere – spring is springing roundabout Exit 151! In celebration, I took my singleton Echoes by Liz Harris, the Sock Madness second round sock, to Branch Brook Park. I never tire of the annual show of cherry blossoms. The sock is pretty nice, too. (That's my sock, but not my hand.)



Last weekend the indubitable sign of spring was NJ Wool Walk. Pressed for time as I've been, I contented myself with a quick outing to Yarnia, where I filled a small basket with some yarn and other necessities (not shown) and some swag that came with the purchase (below). I got a notions bundle. I do love me some knitting swag. When unwound, the pink mini ball of yarn contained a coupon for 15% off a future purchase.



This weekend, given the prevalence of puffy buds on the trees and if the mild spring weather continues, I'd say it will be peak bloom in Branch Brook Park.



For those unacquainted with the technical terms for cherry blossom bloom stages, here's an illustrated primer (yes, such things exist!). Or in the "Beauty is truth" spirit, maybe it's enough to know that puffy buds = promise of beauty imminent. If you can't make it in person, there's always Branch Brook Park cam. And not to worry, there's plenty of late-blooming cherry trees, mainly with very showy double-ruffled magenta flowers, to come.

By the Light of the Super Blood Wolf Moon

Happy New Year, gentle readers, a couple weeks late! If the way January has started continues during the rest of the year, there will be much last-minute alarums and just-in-time scrambling in 2019. I sincerely hope not, I was hoping for a tranquil, prepared year. Well, onward.



Tonight there's a total lunar eclipse visible from the continental US, breathlessly dubbed a Super Blood Wolf Moon. It's the only total lunar eclipse of this year, so I'm going to stay up late, bundle up against the cold, and try to get a photo. I'll post the (possibly only blob-like) results above. (ETA: Only a little blurry, not too bad considering it was freaking cold outside and someone may have tripped over the tripod. Anyway, a beautiful copper eclipse moon.)

My first foot of the year is Invitation to the Dance by Caoua Coffee, which was the warmup pattern for Sock Madness 11 (2017). Although I enjoy her patterns for their beauty and erudition, and this one is proving similar to others, I didn't have time to knit it pre-SM and was only a cheerleader for the duration. Maybe this year will be lucky thirteen? Hm.



I'm excited that after a year away the Food in Jars Mastery Challenge 2019 will reprise the excellent 2017 experience, complete with hashtag (#fijchallenge), a presence on Facebook and on Instagram, and seasonal adjustments for participants in the Southern Hemisphere, who currently are awash in stone fruit, a heat wave, and the Australian Open. The (Northern Hemisphere) January challenge is citrus. I have a new marmalade recipe (a friend's family secret!), and I want to try candying citrus slices. In preparation I bought some crazy-expensive organic citrus because edible peel is a feature. So far I've ::cough:: eaten some excellent grapefruit and made some citrus peel vinegar cleaner. Apparently there are "18 Places You Should Be Cleaning With Vinegar" in the kitchen alone. I have a greasy oven (worse than #3) and a stinky Instant Pot sealing ring (#10) to tackle. No-longer-young-hopefully-not-yet-old fogey and neo-Luddite that I am, I don't quite get Instagram, so that's an additional January challenge for me.

Although my phone may be an impediment, and perhaps that's one more thing to remedy in 2019. Hm.

Amazing to relate, last year's last foot, Holly Jolly Cranberry Biscotti, won one of the prizes in the Sock Knitters Anonymous random prize draws for Nov/Dec 2018, a pattern from This Handmade Life. I'm thrilled. I've participated irregularly in SKA for 12 years, and this is the first time I've won a prize. Maybe it's an auspicious beginning to another lucky thirteen (even though the SKA calendar runs September-August)? Anyway, whee.

Souvenirs

Of course now I can't wash my hand.



I had a good time at Rhinebeck. It was strangely warm this year – not as warm as last year, yet warm enough that heavy coats were not needed and I took off my Blue Wave hat. In the afternoon it briefly rained buckets, more a summer downpour than an autumn rain. The trees were barely turned, too, in the Hudson Valley in the third week of October. Perhaps it's true climate change is coming for our yarn. Hm.



However that may be, it was good to be at the fair, good to be with congenial company, good to see so many handknits and so many clusters of knitters doing their things, as the Stitch Marker Swappers, above.



There even were sheepie cookies. Which is enough, and more than enough.

Edited to add:



Although I didn't have time to knit a new Rhinebeck sweater, I re-purposed an in-the-round Angry Sheep gauge swatch into a cozy for my Zojirushi. I love my Zojirushi, which is a thermal bottle that keeps hot beverages hot and cold beverages cold. The cozy is to protect its finish as it clanks around in my tote bag, not because it needs extra insulation. The swatch is from the yoke of the cardi, which tapers, and the taper in the swatch rather nicely matches the taper in the Zojirushi. Happiness.

Hope to See You At Rhinebeck

This year I couldn't manage a new sweater for Rhinebeck. Guess I'll have to content myself with a new hat, nothing fancy, just Blue Wave 2018 by Donna Druchunas. I made it a bit smaller than written, with the wave pattern continuous around the hat.



And here's the inside view. The hat needed light blocking, accomplished by placing it on an inverted gallon (3.78 l) jug of vinegar and misting with water. Whodathunk my head is roughly the same diameter as a gallon jug.



I'm thrilled to bits to be going to Rhinebeck. It's been years since I've gone, a drought I hope to remedy in the future. And I hope to see you at the fair!

Excuses

Whoa, somehow almost the entire months of March and April have zipped by, full of whoa and woe, and I got nothing, except maybe excuses for not blogging. They're reasonably good excuses.

First, two of my trees split during the endless series of nor'easters in March. Here's one, the other wasn't as photogenic. So many other trees roundabout Exit 151 were damaged in the storms, it took a long time to get on the queue for tree service. Woe.



There was a modicum of sock knitting. I finished one Fée Dragée on time, so qualified for Sock Madness patterns, but not for competition. Which given all the other cray-cray going on at casa Jersey Knitter is just as well. I thought about unpicking the toe, then figured whoa, it's not broke, so don't fix it.



There was a LOT of traveling and a little knitting on planes and trains. Most of the time I was so frazzled, I forgot to bring my mini-Beyoncé, and when I remembered to pack her, I forgot to get her out to take pix. Then I forgot where I put this Soul Mate Hearts Sock, and it remains unfinished. Woe.



I was so busy, I almost missed the cherry blossoms. Gentle readers know that is most unlike me. Whoa! Woe!



So so long to March and April, full of whoa and woe. They were enough to make one collapse in a quivering heap of protoplasm. They were enough to make one decide to skip MDS&W. They were enough to make one sigh, "Il faut cultiver notre jardin."



Wait. I have asparagus. That changes everything!

All Ahead Slow

With two days left in the Ravellenics, I just finished a singleton sock. Yay, me but either I must knit much faster, with the concomitant frustrations, if I cherish any hopes of earning any medals or laurels, or continue moving forward, albeit slowly, and stop worrying about external pressures.



Meanwhile, my tabi-toed Send in the Clowns socks suffered a blowout on the right heel and left big toe. This is the second time this brand of yarn failed after moderate wear, which is disappointing.



I know from sad experience that when sock yarn fails it's rarely worth the effort to darn the sock. Because when the yarn is this worn, it means the sock is on the verge of going to pieces – new holes inevitably appear at an ever-increasing rate. It's far better to move on and knit new socks.

Alas, this relative lack of rapid forward progress does not bode well for the upcoming Sock Madness 12. I can't say I mind overmuch. It wouldn't be the first time I ended up out of that competition.

Time to Make a Change

I started feeling dissatisfied with my Supporter's Socks. It's not the pattern, I'd knit it before; it's not the yarn either; the match just doesn't seem right. This is as far as I got. Not very, as things go. Conversely, not too far to turn back. The season of Lent is all about metanoia – re-thinking, repenting, turning back.



Under similar circumstances, sometimes I'd slog onward and keep on knitting, sometimes I'd set the project aside to hibernate. Not this time, even though it's my first foot.



Sometimes one just wants a happier sock. Sometimes one needs a happier sock. This is Soul Mate Heart Socks by Elly Fales. It's a happy sock.



That's better. I'm double-dipping with Ravellenics Sock Hockey and February Sockdown (new to me designer), too.

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!

Late to the Party

Somehow I missed the grand blast-off on May 16 of the One Sock Knit-along, which is ongoing through May 31 on Ravelry and on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (#onesockKAL). How can this be? Perhaps I've been so focused on Sock Madness that an opportunity to reduce the membership of the Singleton Socks of Shame almost slipped by. Or perhaps I'm just fashionably late getting started.



No matter, I'm jumping in with Ekornsokkene by Pinneguri. When last seen in January, the sock was merely a leg; now, after the difficulties of February, it's in danger of joining the SSofS. That will not do! *knitknitknitknit*

Coming and Going

Popping in to say I'm really liking Ekornsokkene by Pinneguri. I note that orange is not a favorite color, indeed, in my experience it's sometimes associated with considerable negativity. And yet sometimes things just come together. Here's the front of the sock.



And here's the back of the sock. It's a nice view coming or going.



It occurs to me that I knit socks with stranded colorwork and stripes last January. Those were happy socks, too. Yay, January happy socks!

It also occurs to me that I have no red shoes to show off in tribute to the fabulous David Bowie, 1947-2016. Then again, considering their fate at 2:57 in the music video, maybe that's not so bad. So instead of "Let's Dance," here's "Peace on Earth" from 1977.



Makes my eyes sting for more than one reason. Sigh.

Ready

Happy New Year! I hope gentle readers are enjoying their holiday weekend. While some apocalyptist sorts would say the turn of the calendar is wholly arbitrary and the concepts of time and attempted measurement thereof are illusory, at casa Jersey Knitter it's an occasion for a first foot. I'm thinking of knitting Ekornsokkene by Pinneguri using Regia Design Line, Trekking, and Socka for January Sockdown. And speaking of illusions, I may watch some TV, too. (Get your own sign from the WNET Thirteen Pinterest page.)



Approaching apocalypse or no, I think I'm ready.

Foot Notes

Incredible to relate, during the blog drought I started and finished a pair of socks. Could the drought have been so long? Objectively it wasn't, or rather the combination of pattern, Puschkinia by Kirsten Kapur, and yarn, Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes Paintbox Gradient, were just so compelling that time stood still. Whatever. I'm quite pleased with the results.



The yarn was an impulse splurge at last year's MDS&W. I don't often do that, but I'm glad I indulged. For one thing, I fell in love with Foot Notes while making Camino de Santiago. (Did I ever post its FO photo? No?? Gah, lemme fix that.) The yarn is wonderful to knit, on the softer and less sproingy side, yet with excellent stitch definition.



Then there's the colors. Foot Notes Paintbox Gradients are comprised of 15 skeins of 30 yards (27 m) each. I selected the Wild Thyme colorway – it was very hard to choose, they're all so wonderful. Costly too, but ah well.



The pattern is masterfully written, as all of Kirsten's are, with helpful exposition for less experienced knitters (but not so much more experienced knitters become annoyed). In the flower section I made the CC yarn dominant over the MC yarn, and reversed that in the ticking stripe sections. I offset the ticking stripes just for fun, made an eye of partridge heel for fit, and a contrast toe to match the heel. It was a most enjoyable knit. Were I to knit the pattern again, I'd use two solids rather than a gradient to make the colorwork and stripes pop. But that's for next time.

De-Cuff

There are always so many UFOs buzzing around Area 151 that by the time Free Up Your Needles rolls around, I'm spoiled for choice. I decided to start with this modified version of Canada by Nancy Bush, which was intended to embody one of my New Year's resolutions for ::cough:: 2009. The cuff reads, "NaKniSweMoDo."



Neither the socks nor the knit-along went as planned, yet except for that nagging reminder of knit-alongs past, the sock is quite lovely (as most Nancy Bush patterns are). I decided to revive the project by first de-cuffinating the sock.



Next steps: finish the foot, finish the cuff, graft cuff onto leg, finish second sock. Simplicity itself.

Socks and Stripes Forever

While watching fireworks and munching mixed grill yesterday, I had a brainwave about heels. So after the food leftovers were stowed, I found some sock yarn leftovers and cast on a cycling sock.



One problem with scrappy socks is the fear of Not Enough Yarn. To allay that concern I decided to use Merino/Tencel leftovers from two projects, Kaibashira and Split-Toe Sweethearts, and to play with stripes as well as heels.

First I tried a Priscilla Gibson-Roberts short row heel with stranded vertical stripes. Because short row heels aren't a good fit on my Frankenfeet, I added a vestigial heel flap for good measure.



I was happy with the way the stripes wrap around the heel. Short row heels usually produce wedges of color and afterthought heels produce bullseyes – these are vertical stripes. The extra heel depth afforded by the vestigial flap was perfection. But, alas, the stranding made the heel narrower – too narrow for me. So... goodbye heel #1. Ravelas!



On to heel #2. I'm really hoping my brainwave actually contained a kernel of knitterly sense and wasn't a fanciful by-product of grilling during the third heatwave of the season.

TDBAW 2012

It's the day before Ash Wednesday, variously known as The Day Before Ash Wednesday, Pączki Day, Shrove Tuesday, Fastnacht, Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. Which means it's time to eat pączki or pancakes or fastnachts or king cake. This year I went to Banas Bakery in Wallington and obtained pączki, rich, hamburger-sized yeast buns filled with prune jam, rose marmalade, custard cream, or raspberry jam.



Last week I was so annoyed by the uproar over birth control that I pulled out the scariest yarn I have in stash, Great Adirondack Yarn Co. Soxie, colorway Chili Peppers and wrote a long, ranty post. (Gentle readers who abhor non-knitting content may wish to scroll down to the pink bunnies.)



The yarn is scary because while it is beautiful in the skein, when knit it develops prominent flashes of teal blue on a chili red background. Not what I would have expected, and decidedly not to my taste. The rant included the virally infamous birth control panelists, who at times were the colors of chili peppers too.

Photo credit: LGBT | POV

Given it's TDBAW, instead of ranting and turning chili pepper colors myself, suffice to note that despite strenuous claims to the contrary, there is no freedom of religion conflict here. As Constitutional attorney David Boies explains, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does two things with respect to religion: it prohibits its establishment (= creation of a national church), and it guarantees its free exercise. Free exercise includes freedom of conscience, but does not always include freedom of conduct.

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However, I detect a freedom from religion issue. No doubt the would-be theocrats are sincere in their beliefs, not least a belief that the dictates of their church possess a higher authority that should be above the rule of law and universally imposed. Unfortunately for them, the awkward fact they seek to legislate morality only emphasizes their failure to persuade their own congregants, people of differing faiths, and people of no faith, and raises even more awkward questions about religious authority. Given those realities, and speaking as a practicing Christian who may differ in doxis yet tries to respect the praxis of others, I'd like to eat my pączki (and pancakes and fastnachts and king cake) in peace.



Moving along, tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. One of the things I'm giving up is this Marshmallow Bunnies sock. I'd really hoped to have the pair finished to wear for Easter, but it simply will not fit over my heel. As the picot hem is too big and the stranded section is too small, should I return to this pattern, I may have to fiddle with stitch counts or intarsia to get enough ease.

I did cast on a chili peppers sock – more on that in another post.

Knit of the Lepus

It is this knitter's considered opinion that some patterns drive one nuts because they can. Take, for example, this innocent-looking wip, Marshmallow Bunnies by Debra Baker.



Seriously, take it. It's gone to the frog pond twice already because the cuff will not fit over my heel. (Not to make invidious comparisons, but this was not an issue with Winter Garden.)



I have no choice but to go all EZ on this sock and mess with GAUGE. We'll see who prevails!