Stop the Madness

Somehow I never did quite summon the necessary enthusiasm for Madness. I mean the fake Internet, do-it-for-the-lulz, March Sock Madness variety and not the real world warring madness types. The latter have a way of draining the joy from everything, rendering the former empty husks. I gathered yarn, printed the qualifying pattern, tried a few color combinations, but advanced no further. Ah well.

Instead of Madness I did a spot of baby knitting. There's nothing like babies and baby knitting to restore a sense of goodness and sanity to the world. This is Watermelon Baby Cardigan by Stitchylinda Designs worked in King Cole Cottonsoft DK. Beautiful pattern, beautiful yarn – I especially love how the yoke increases look like watermelon seeds.



That's better. On to Yarnia Sock Bingo, Summer of Socks, and the new-to-me Supersock World Championship, on Ravelry and on a companion website. Despite its grandiose name, SWC seems reasonable and mellow and I'm hoping to qualify. But, as always, the countdown timer waits for no knitter. Must knit faster.

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.

While Away

Sorry for the absence from blogland, it's the usual. Here's something to while away the time while I'm away: a photo of progress (or lack thereof) on Scar, pictured with the August 1 New York Times to furnish proof of date for August Sockdown.



From the solstice to the cross-quarter day with nothing new. Must do better in future!

Shortest Night

In the Northern Hemisphere it's Midsummer's Day, longest of the year. Last night a local coven was celebrating in a nearby park. There were subtle signs of their activity along the path, such as the sacred bowl...



... and holy bucket (containing insect repellent, a must for those who choose to worship skyclad).



There were less subtle signs also.



I could hear the coven hooting like owls. Dunno why – I suppose they may not understand what I do in worship either. (For that matter, I'm not always sure why we do certain things, but that's another conversation.) Anyway, it was less bothersome than the high-low droning of the 17-year cicadas of a couple weeks ago. I didn't intrude on the ritual, but the vibe made it seem an auspicious time to redeem a Singleton Sock of Shame, so I pulled out my old Scar (ha!) and finally started working on its solemate.



Happy Solstice!

Better

It was bugging me.



That's better.



I finished the pair on a public conveyance. My seatmate kept stealing quizzical sideways glances until I slipped the them on, when she smiled, but she never said a word.

Restore the Shore

Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the unofficial start of summer in the U.S., DH and I went down the Shore, as we say in New Jersey. This was our first visit to the Jersey Shore after the superstorm. Some parts seemed almost back to normal. Other parts still looked devastated, and in some places almost-normal homes or businesses were right next door to still-devastated homes or businesses. It was both brave and sad beyond words, and I didn't have the heart to take pix of that. Most Shore residents and business owners aren't looking for handouts, but they do need some help, especially the return of summer visitors.

So we went and gawped at the Sandy Castle, intended to be the world's tallest sand castle and to raise funds for Superstorm Sandy victims. We got to see it at its full height of 50+ feet (15.5+ m), with a replica of the Barnegat Lighthouse on top. By the time President Obama and Governor Christie saw the Sandy Castle today, vibrations from a nearby bulldozer demonstrating beach reconstruction caused 8 feet to fall off the top. Ah well.



The artist, Ed Jarrett, will be removing the wooden forms and adding sculptures to the sides of the Sandy Castle over the next month. Guess we'll have to go back to take a look. I also want to see if this improbable grove of coconut palms nearby prospers.



This year Memorial Day was also the start of Summer of Socks 2013. So in between Shore pleasures such as playing Skee-ball and devouring boardwalk delicacies (oof), I started a sock, a reprise of a shortie sock pattern, Queen of the Jungle Stripe, that I developed for a single skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. That was long enough ago that it was pre-Ravelry (::gasp!::) and the old put up of the yarn. Prior Queens (I and II) were starting to look a bit worn and there happened to be a single skein of Lorna's in stash; I cast on. Time flies when you're having fun and by the end of the day I had most of a singleton. Because every sock deserves an adventure, it's lounging in the sand next to some gull tracks.



I've put various heels and toes on the four Queens I've knit. This Queen will have an afterthought heel and has a short-row toe with zigzag bind off. The placeholder for the heel went well enough, but I was inattentive and bungled the toe bindoff. See what I mean?



You know that's going to bug me.

Autumn Splendor

Behold, fiery silk hankies from Zarzuela's Fibers, a Summer of Socks prize! Sweet!



I’ve never spun silk before, which is said to dye like animal fiber, spin like plant fiber. The hankies are indeed lustrous, brilliantly colored, marvelously light and thin, and crimp-less. They stick to everything, particularly my un-exfoliated hands (oops). Perhaps snag on or grab on everything is more precise – the "stickyness" is not like glue or syrup, it's more like suede or Velcro. Anyway, I foresee many happy hours of exploration and play ahead.

Speaking of the hour, the equinox has come and gone, the cross quarter day approaches, and I have yet to post an SOS wrap up (oops). Given all the busy-ness here, a full wrap isn't going to happen; a quick encore presentation of FOs will have to do instead. So, reprising: Padma Cycling Socks, handspun Lotus Heart Socks, and handspun Simple Skyp Socks.



However rushed this post, let me not fail to express my gratitude to the founder of Summer of Socks, Jessica, and to her co-moderators, Annie and Cookie. I had a great time knitting along this year – thanks to them and see you next summer!

Wilderness Rescue

Last week DH and I were on vacation, which proved unexpectedly eventful. My idea of a vacation is to unplug and go someplace scenic, like Acadia National Park, and to hike and bike and eat well and commit crimes of fashion.



Alas for my preferences, sometimes things happen. This year we experienced some heavy weather, participated in a wilderness rescue, and (because we were unplugged) learned of the deaths of four U.S. diplomats through the language of flag etiquette. Leaving the politics of the moment aside, diplomats serve their countries no less than military personnel, and their loss is always a somber event, worthy of being marked by flags at half staff.



Somewhat counterintuitively, the heavy weather ended up being picturesque. Hurricane Leslie blew by Downeast Maine far enough out to sea that the ocean was stirred up but on land there was not too much wind and rain. (In NJ, there were dangerous rip currents.) That meant no sightseeing cruises, and also strong surf at places like Thunder Hole. Usually the thing only gurgles like an overgrown bathtub, but this time the spray was 40 feet (12 m) high and swept over the lower walkway, which was closed.



Later the weather cleared, Thunder Hole resumed gurgling, and it was calm enough for picnics out on the rocks. I'm always impressed by people who bring elaborate set ups, the better to enjoy themselves.



It was on a calm day that we witnessed an accident on the trail, a first for me. Two people in a group ahead of us lost their footing and fell about six feet (1.8 m) onto rough granite. As you may well imagine, there were broken bones, broken heads, loss of consciousness, and lots of blood. I've read the shock of an emergency often causes people to temporarily flip their personalities – normally hard-charging extraverts freeze and need encouragement while normally reticent introverts leap into action and give orders. Also, dogs understand when something serious has happened (the group had a big dog) and will obey people trying to help.

That's pretty much what happened: I snapped into emergency mode and organized the group to give basic first aid to the injured hikers – staunch the bleeding, keep them lying down where they fell (they did want to get up, even when not quite awake) making sure their heads were higher than their feet, have someone block the sun and provide shade for their heads, and (after they regained consciousness) keep them talking. There wasn't any cell signal and the rest of their group looked too stunned to move fast, so DH hiked out to the trailhead to call 911 and guide the first responders in. The dog stayed calm, except when another group of hikers with a dog came by – then he looked like he was prepared to defend his family to the death, but he settled down when admonished.

Again, not to get political, but I was very grateful for all the first responders who came when called. The first were park rangers who ran (!) up the steep trail like something out of The Last of the Mohicans (!!!). They had powerful radios, an oxygen tank, bp and pulse ox devices, neck braces, bandages, splints, alcohol wipes, and even treats for the dog. There was much bracing and splinting and bandaging and radioing, during which time more rangers arrived, some with stretchers, others with helmets, ropes, and rappelling equipment. Then EMTs arrived. Eventually 19 men and women were on the scene and one more was watching the trucks and ambulances. There was a long and careful discussion about how to move the injured people out, given the severity of their injuries and the difficulty of the terrain. There also was some paperwork, which made DH impatient. But in short order the injured were strapped firmly to the stretchers, the stretcher-bearers were divided into teams, everyone cleaned their boot treads and set their feet, then – I couldn't watch this part – they lifted the stretchers and passed them from hand to hand down the trail because they couldn't carry them the usual way. It was amazing how quickly they were able to evacuate the scene.

After all that, DH and I decided to carry on with our hike, which we finished in record time. Adrenaline will do that, but overall I can't recommend it. Along the way I took a pic of my handspun Simple Skyp Socks, which had had more of an adventure than I'd ever wish for and held up very well.



Happily, the rest of our vacation was tranquil. There's not much to say about it and I'm glad!

Lament

By some unhappy coincidence, DH and I made our annual outing to the U.S. Open on the day distinguished by the highest temperatures (93° F or 33.8° C) and lowest air quality of the tournament. Gentle readers, it's your choice: read on or skip the ordeal and scroll down to the sock.

The brutal conditions – it's usually 10° F (5° C) hotter on the courts than in the stands – had the unexpected effect of making some matches last longer because it was harder for players to summon the extra energy needed to break service and win. The weather was unkind to spectators too. We dragged our butts from court to court, heeding the admonitions to stay hydrated and making way for emergency personnel tending to those who didn't. Even my pix seemed to suffer heat exhaustion – in this one the ball looks like it's merely rolling on the court, when in fact it was in furious motion.



Several of the courts have fine views of the Manhattan skyline. Or at least they usually do. The new One World Trade Center is finally tall enough to be visible (it wasn't last year), even though the rest of the skyline was obscured by haze. It's the stub sticking above the middle flag pole. (The Empire State Building and Midtown would be to the right.)



Needless to add, although I took a sock, it was 'way too unpleasant to knit. Also, as a wholly random aside, DH wants me to note here (lest he forget again) that the frequency for the low-power radio commentary is FM 88.1.



As for this sock, the color for September Sockdown is red. Back in June I started a pair of red Lantern socks for June Sockdown, because the symbolism of the lanterne rouge (the last qualifying finisher in the Tour de France) is ::cough:: appropriate. So much so, I haven’t yet finished them. Rather than frog and restart them for September, I (naturally) started a new pair of red socks, Fake Cross Stitch Sox by Claudia Tietze.

Laments have the effect of teaching one to be cautious, but so far, so good.

Socks of Serendipity

Sometime during Month 2 of the Summer of Socks KAL I had a brainwave to knit the then-TBD Month 3 sock using this old stash yarn, Zen String Lotus Toes BFL, colorway Iris (discontinued). This because my Month 1 sock has a lotus motif on its cuff and the Month 2 pattern was Lotus Heart... so I figured that to round things out the Month 3 yarn should be Lotus Toes. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I suppose one should note that in the continental U.S. July 2012 was the hottest on record. Coincidence?



I've always liked the lovely colors in this yarn, so evocative of irises, but I'd never knit anything with it because I suspected the short runs of complementary colors would end up contrasting as strongly as zebra stripes (only more colorful). When the official Month 3 pattern, Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku, was revealed, despite better judgment I plunged cast on. Sure enough, the variegation overwhelmed the pretty skyp stitch pattern. Plan A dashed.

Meanwhile, I had wound up the recently finished Crown Mountain Farms handspun in preparation for knitting gradient socks. That didn't work out either – the transitions weren't clean enough. Another Plan A dashed.



While I sat amid the ruins and potsherds of my plans, the obvious presented itself: Simple Skyp Socks in Crown Mountain Farms handspun. The socks knit up so quickly, they almost knit themselves. I kept thinking I should take some progress pix – then they were done.



Much to my surprise, only minimal editing was needed to align the bands of darker tones, including at the heels and toes. And despite my anxiety that there might not be Enough Yarn (particularly acute with handspun), all was well. The socks are knit to pattern specs for the sportweight version: 56 sts around, 24 pattern reps in the leg.



The pattern was a real pleasure to knit – fun, easy, quick, with handsome results. I plan to use this pair as hiking socks – but I'm thinking of knitting up a dressier pair in fingering. Given how rarely I knit socks twice, there isn't much higher sock praise in my book.

Medal Tally

Behold, Ravellenic Games glory is mine! Or at least it is for the two out of three projects finished on time: the pair of socks for Team Tufty and a scarf for Team UCC. I thought I had until midnight local time the last day to finish a third project, but the rules specify a deadline of 11:59 pm British Summer Time, which was already past by the time I sat down to knit and watch the Olympics™ Closing Ceremonies at 9:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time. The delayed broadcast got me! Ah well.

However that may be, I'm very pleased with my handspun Lotus Heart Socks. I'm especially pleased with the way the hot spots in the roving translated in the FO. I don't have enough experience to be able to look at a braid of roving and know if it will spin up suitably for the project at hand. As things turned out, the mottled yarn does obscure the lace pattern somewhat, but the stripes are not as strongly contrasting as some.



Incidentally, after all the fussing with contrast cuffs/no contrast, there's a subtle tonal difference between the cuffs and legs that wasn't planned, it just happened as I knit.



During knitting, the sock initially seemed far too small. That caused me a certain amount of freaking out and frogging, but persevering knitters should trust the pattern, keep calm, and knit on – the pattern tweaks I tried only made the sock far too big = more frogging. (At least my handspun held up to the hard use.) In the end, the only mods I retained were the mirror image cuff and an extra pattern repeat in the leg, because I prefer a tallish sock. Because the cuff tends to flare, the sock fits better cupping the curve of the calf anyway. Go figure.

Speaking of which, that's two badges for me.



I also finished another scarf for my church project, for three more badges. This one is a bit more subdued in color, for those who might appreciate something less BRIGHT. It's still el Corazón Rojo, though, so the texture leaves much to be desired.

     


Project #3 is finished as well, but as it doesn't figure in the medal tally, I'll blog about it, and finish my Ravellenics musings, in another post. To be continued....