robknits

Social networking and socks

     I just checked Ravelry, and there are 11,537 people ahead of me.  I think that's hilarious.

     I am pretty sure that while it will be nice to have access, my track record with so-called social networking sites indicates that I will not be doing much with Ravelry.  I have a Facebook page now, since more and more librarians are using that as a way of giving more access to patrons.  But I forget to look at it, and don't do anything much with it.  I did have fun and waste most of one day creating an avatar for myself though.   After getting an invitation from a colleague, I joined Shelfari, which is a booklovers social network.  You create a bookshelf with titles you choose -- books you love, books you want to read, etc -- and there are groups you can join: scifi or travel writing or mystery lovers, etc. I set it up, which was fun, but I haven't done much with that either, though that, and a book my sister sent me,  helped me rediscover my love of travel writing.  I have the feeling I will be using Ravelry (when I get on in the year 2020) the way I use the web now: looking for images of finished projects so that I can get an idea of what the project looks like or how a yarn knits up.

     On the other hand, the type of social networking (small s, small n) that blogs and sites like Knitters Review have enabled means I now have knitting friends, folks I would not have met otherwise, who I can visit as I travel or enjoy via online conversations.  So I agree with the Harlot's comment in the article on the new knitting stars this summer (was that in Vogue Knitting?) when she said that the internet made knitting social.  I know my on-again off-again attempts at becoming a competent independent knitter took off in big ways once the internet enabled the creation of knitting e-lists. A paradox, that I became an independent knitter by becoming a more social knitter?  Nope.  The shared expertise and experiences helped me learn so much that I am no longer knitting blindly.  It helped me become what Anna Zilboorg called a knitting anarchist.

     Last night I was a Virtual Librarian for three hours and didn't have many calls.  So I was playing with knitting while sitting at the computer.  It had occured to me a while ago (and I believe I blogged about it) that my mental block against converting flat knitting stitch patterns into circular patterns would disappear if I just charted the pattern.  The extra stitches (i.e., the pattern is worked on 8 stitches +3) always confused me.  So, since I was still looking for a pattern to use on the Anne socks, I sat down with Walkers' Treasury of Knitting Stitches and opened a Word document.  I loooooooove using the knitting font Laritza told us about.  I just created a table and changed to the knitting font.  The conversion turns out to be so absolutely completely glaringly obvious and simple I can't believe I have wasted years saying I couldn't convert between flat and circular stitch patterns.  So far I have only tried knit and purl patterns, but still, I can even imagine seeing it clearly for lace.  Anyway, I ended up charting and using a King Charles Brocade stitch on the Anne socks.  Because of the colors in the yarn, it will be kinda subtle, but I really like it.  And picking up these socks again reminded me of my recent discovery of how fantastic the Anne feels as I knit.  So I thought I would do a little list here of my responses to the different socks yarns I splurged on or used from the stash since spring.

Opal I did not love knitting with the Opal handpainted yarn.  I found the yarn rough to the touch as I knit.  I have already worn the socks (we had a little cold snap, though we are back to the high 70s/low 80s this weekend) and liked wearing them well enough.  But I don't think I will use more Opal.

Regia Step Line This also seemed a bit rough to my hands, though I really liked how the colors/short stripes in the yarn worked up.  If I came across more of this stuff on sale, I might be tempted but there is a lot of softer sock yarn around.

Froehlich Blauband Special This stuff is no longer available.  Froehlich, a European company that made very nice yarns of all types, went out of business when the mill they used went bankrupt and took their inventory with them.  Fortunately for me, my LYSO was their US distributor, and I managed to stock up on all sorts of Froehlich products.  The Blauband Special sock yarn was wonderful.  That's what I am using for the socks I showed in the last entry to this blog.  It is much softer than the Regia and the Opal.  So I definitely will be using whatever I have in the stash, which I think is actually quite a bit.

(A few minutes later...)

     I just went and looked at the stash.  All the yarn is supposed to be in one closet now, and most of it is.  I went through looking for the Blauband.  I don't like shopping in yarn stores that organize by color, but I do like organizing my own stash that way, except for the sock yarns.  Think I'll move them all to their own cubby.  Anyway, here is most of the Froehlich Blauband stash -- I actually have two of each color.  I suspect that I have a few other skeins here and there.  So I have enough for at least 10 pairs of socks!  Most of it was purchased over the year at the LYS sales. The solid colors are a bit softer than the twists and the tweeds.

Since I succumbed to consumer desire this summer and bought a lot of the trendy artisan-produced sock yarns, I have those to compare now too, though the Anne is the only one I have started working with.  So I will be reviewing those as I wind 'em and knit 'em, though my first impression of the Zen Yarn Garden is that it may not be as soft as, for example, the J.Knits.  Eventually then I will be talking about Lorna's Laces Sock, Lisa Souza Sock!, Dream in Color Smooshy, J. Knits, Zen Yarn Garden, Bearfoot (like the Schaefer Anne?), and Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome.  I bought some of it from folks who were destashing -- there's another form of social networking. 

Reconnected

    Not having Internet access from home felt very strange.  But after sitting in front of the computer all day today (hey, it was Saturday, what else would I have wanted to do today, right?), I am plugged in once again.  Hard drive in, programs reinstalled.
     Without the computer there was a lot of knitting time.  Here is a portrait of the WIPs:   Clockwise, starting at 1 o'clock:  the cowl, using handpainted merino tencel from Dea Terra Yarns,  the speckled sock using Froelich's Blaubund Special, the fronts of the Garden Gate cardigan using the handspun, handpainted yarn bought in the last century in Madison Wisconsin, and a scarf, almost completed, made from Amie's handspun.  Nice progress and I am happy with all the projects. And they are ALL using yarn from the stash. The cowl only needs to have some ends darned in and a dunk in the sink. 
     But I am sure you see the problem.  4 active WIPs ... all in the identical colorway.  Hmmm.  I do have other colors of yarn.  But I can't deny that when I just reach in to grab something, these colors speak to me.  I am in the mood for red right now though, and when I darn and dunk the cowl, and finish the last inch of the scarf, I have some options.  One very likely one is the Knitpicks Gloss in burgundy, sitting right now on top of the stereo cabinet.  I am going to look through my lace patterns to figure out what I can use with 666 yards of fingering.  I am itching to try some lace.  The true laceweight in my stash is, of course, green -- but two different shades, Zephyr in sage, and Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool.  I like the idea of starting lace this time with fingering.  I could do Knitty's Branching Out. Or -- oooh ooh oooh -- I could do the Falling Water Lace scarf.  I have enough of the Gloss to do 4 repeats of the pattern, I think.  There are too many great patterns to choose from.

Oops, almost forgot:  for her fans, here is a slightly shaky portrait of Maggie that shows her gorgeous two-toned eyes.

Back to my old habits...

   

Knitters Review is back.  I hadn't realized how much I had used it  for asking quick questions about dyeing, spinning, patterns, fit, etc etc.  So here I was thinking of trying rainbow dyeing and I couldn't post a question!
     One of the fleeces I bought at MDSW, Bridget's, has turned into both a treasure and a challenge.  I love Bridget because the fleece is a cold clear white threaded throughout with black.  I thought that would make a very cool yarn.  But oh, the tips.  They will NOT wash out.  Or rather, some will, but most won't.  Which means I need to learn how to evaluate those tips when I buy a fleece.  So anyway, I have been washing Bridget's fleece in small batches, separating out those parts with that clear white I was so attracted to, but also washing and keeping the (larger and larger) part of the fleece that has a creamier, warmer color (from all the stain that won't wash out!).  So I will be getting two batches of yarn from this fleece.   This is the first time I have had this sort of problem with a fleece -- sheer beginners luck I suppose on the earlier fleeces. They all washed out beautifully.  I have already handcarded a batch of the yellower fleece -- very easy to card into very very soft rolags.  Bridget is Coopworth and I really like it. 
     The very white Bridget is going to be dyed with Cushings Ocean Green dye.  I haven't yet decided what to do with the yellower Bridget.  This fleece will be spun woolen -- that creates a softer, warmer yarn than what spinners called a worsted yarn.  That's different from the knitting term worsted which indicates a weight of yarn.  In spinning, a worsted yarn is made from fleece that has been combed, not carded, and is spun in a particular way.  The results is a smoother, firmer yarn.  That's what I normally prepare, in part because I really like combing.  But I love carding the Coopworth.
     There might actually be 3 batches of Bridget.  The white, dyed Ocean Green and handcarded.  The first batch of yellow, which was handcarded and has not yet been dyed (I may try dyeing the rolags).  And a second batch of yellow, from the remaining fleece, which I can use to try out the drum carder I bought a couple of months ago and have still not used!
     I do need to keep washing fleece.  I don't want to store any of it dirty -- it attracts bugs that like to eat wool, smells not so great, and gets harder to wash. 
    In the meantime, I have not started any more socks -- instead I am focusing on the Shetland shawl, and am beginning to see the possibility of actually finishing the trim and going on to the body.

GREMLINS!

     I cannot get to Knitters Review! Every time I try, I get a filler page from Network Solutions telling me the domain has expired!  Other folks I have contacted are not having trouble at all.  Auauaughghghgh!  Anyone have any ideas?  I have emptied the cache, cookies and history of my browser.  I have used another browser.  I have clicked on links other folks have said are working.  I ran Spybot and Spyware Doctor.  This is so bizarre.  If anyone has a solution, please let me know.

Another ring

     I just joined a handspinners' ring.  I love rings but the programs you have to negotiate to join are sooo clumsy.  Finally got it to work, and got the code to insert.  As you can see in the column on the right, their code creates a huge navigation link that does not fit into the space I have for links.  I will have to play with it, or contact someone, to figure out how to make it work on this blog design.  So for navigating through this ring, all visitors to my blog can do at the moment is either join themselves or move to a Random site.
     In learning to spin I am struggling with some imprecise language.  The word "roving" seems to cover a wide range of fiber conditions.  Some of the "roving" I have bought to spin is super-processed -- not only carded and dyed but also, I think, combed, so that all the fibers lie parallel and almost no drafting is even possible.  When I asked my spinning mentor about this, she brought me rolags (they look like fiber croissants) of pretty much unwashed fleece, so sticky with lanolin I can't get a draft going.  She is going to give me some cleaner ones to try.  I am still trying to find some of the stuff I have seen in online spinning videos -- fiber cleaned into "puffs" but not combed.  Lucy tells me I will have to do that myself!  So it looks like at some point in the not too distant future I may end up buying a fleece.  And of course Maryland Sheep and Wool seems even more exciting.
     Trying to spin has eaten up all my knitting time.  Tonight, however, I want to try a new bindoff for the socks.  I maybe announced the fingerless mitts projects prematurely -- right now I really don't feel like making them (cringe).  I did want to make lots more socks til the bind off on these got me cranky.  Plus, the bend I put into my Addis #1 while making socks also indicates how hard they are on my hands.  I am not sure why I use a death grip on the needles when knitting socks -- I don't think I do it with other projects.  I do have some Sedrun (a heavier weight sock yarn) peeking out of the basket, so maybe I will start a pair of socks from that.  It is Froehlich's sport or dk- weight sock yarn.  I think those will go much faster and on more like a #2 or even #3 needle.  And since we are about to buried in snow, a good project if I am in the house tomorrow.

New Yahoo! knitting group

A new knitting group has been started on Yahoo!Groups for mitten knitters.  Mitten knitters don't have the community that sock knitters have, and even on the Knitters Review forums, there's a hat group, a scarf group, a sock group... no mittens and gloves group.  So someone started one and announced it on one of the knitting lists (socknitters? knitlist?) and I ran right over and joined.  I had originally thought that mittens would be my basic, no need-to-think much project, but that turns out to be socks.  But now that I have learned the most important rule of anything made in pairs...
i.e. start both at the same time
... I may be able to go back to mittens.  Especially  now that I figured out the figure-8 cast on.  Now I can make my mittens from the tips to the cuffs, a la Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens.  My problem with all those elaborate mitten patterns is that they are designed for an "average woman's hands" and I am smaller than average -- size 6.5 shoes, size 7 gloves.  So I love the idea of starting at the tip, just like I start my socks at the toe, and will try on, try on, try on....