So I Lied

...about those pictures of the sock. I decided to block it instead, and then of course I didn't want to put it on. Instead, some spinning:



It's hard to see here, but this is actually 2 different natural colors plied together. This story would be a whole lot better if I remembered any actual information (or wasn't too lazy to go check), but the only thing I can remember about it is that one sheep is named Sarah and the other Coco. I bought 8 oz. of each color, spun them separately (I still have 4 oz. of one color to do), then plied them.

I thought about making a 3-ply, starting with all three the same color and changing one at a time till all three were the other color, but now that the color differences are so subtle, I'm glad I didn't--it would have been a lot of calculation and weighing for something that didn't even show in the end.

I used the woolee winder (and accompanying bobbin) for most of it, and the skein is huge in comparison to the skeins from original Lendrum bobbins--there's room for so much more yarn on the woollee winder bobbins!

I ripped out the sweater (just a partial sleeve) from the last post (the one I wasn't sure I'd blogged about before). The construction I'd imagined seemed like a good idea in theory, but once I got going I decided it would look sloppy. And as a break from small needles I started a felted basket/bowl. Or bunny bed.

Bunny!

Kevin does like the bunny now that he's seen her nose (and since she hasn't chewed on anything yet, AND doesn't recoil in panic when you look in her general direction... Previous Bunny was a little skittish).



How could you not like that nose?



I am sort of leaning towards Muppet (or maybe Moppet? Conveniently shortens to Mopsy!), because her ears are kind of muppet-y. The one small problem with this is that I didn't actually watch the muppets. So instead of thinking of the real muppets, I think of the year my elementary school class put on a play in which the muppets were on General Hospital (scarily, several of the girls in my class watched General Hospital in elementary school).

I was a chicken, and the boy I had a crush on was the Swedish Chef. The stage was set for him to fall madly in love with me, naturally, except that my wings weren't as good as the other chickens' wings. They (or, I suspect, their parents) cut out big wing shapes from cardstock (two for each arm) , stapled the edges together (leaving one side open), glued paper feathers on the outside, then stuck their arms inside and flapped around. I cut out feather shapes and scotch-taped them to the sleeves of a white cardigan--every time I moved my arms I nearly molted as the tape pulled away from the sweater.

(Next time, I swear I will actually write about knitting! I finished the first sock--the pattern is going to be available, Karen, both here and linked to the Brooklyn Handspun store--and am inching along on the sleeves and upper bodice of a summer sweater which I may or may not have mentioned before, and I still need to take better pictures of the shawl... which I brought to the CT sheep and wool festival but didn't actually wear since it was pretty warm. Also, in non-knitting news, I am so, so, so glad that I did my LAST! LONG! RUN! before the marathon yesterday, because it is gross and chilly and rainy today. And I learned to erg, in preparation for learning to row, on Saturday and did not make a complete fool of myself!)

I Only Bought a Little Fiber...

But look! It came with bunny attached!



(I still haven't picked a name for her. Ideas? Hassenpfeffer has already been rejected.)

Let's Pretend

...that this is the same color as my previous sock pix, okay?



(That's what you get for taking camera-phone pictures inside!)

This is the new and improved pattern, without the gigantic invisible problems from the last version. I had an essay to read (for work), so I took a longer lunch than usual and read and knit at the same time, and have partly turned the heel. It's toe-up, and I'd usually do a short-row heel, but I'm trying a modified Cat Bordhi-style toe-up heel from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I say modified because I put my increases in the usual place, and because I don't have the book with me so I'm making up my own numbers, not following a master pattern. I can always revert to a short-row heel, but it seems to be working so far.

RIP

I couldn't help myself:



I kept staring at the sock for the rest of the day, and finally ripped it back late last night (always a good idea!). I do like the stitch pattern, but I think it will work better with a slightly fuzzier yarn. This is Signature, which has very tight twist, and amazing stitch definition--I think I'd like the rib pattern better in a yarn with a little less definition.

I was telling Kevin that even though you guys thought it looked good, there were gigantic, unbearable problems that just weren't visible in a picture. My argument was slightly undermined when he pointed out that he'd seen it in person (as did Annie), and not seen these supposedly gigantic, unbrearable problems (neither did Annie), but I stand by it anyway: I needed to rip due to gigantic, unbearable, invisible problems.

I tried a bunch of other patterns without liking them either, but I think I've finally found one that might work. Maybe. Unless I decide to switch back to the ribs and eyelets, with some kind of invisible modification to fix the invisible problem.

Possible Sock

So, here's how the socks for Brooklyn Handspun are coming along:



I'm about ready to start the shaping for the heel, but I'm suddenly not sure about the stitch pattern.

I wonder if I might like it better if the eyelets were simpler--maybe just one loop (small? big?), instead of a figure 8? Or maybe different decreases? Although now that I'm looking at the picture again, maybe I'm obsessing over nothing?

(There are a couple more pictures in flickr, if you'd like to obsess with me--just follow the link in the picture.)

Changes

You may or may not have seen the post on Ravelry, but The Garter Belt has been having problems for the last year and a half--I haven't posted about it because I hoped things would work out, but it looks like they won't. I'm disappointed, and I'll miss working with everyone, but maybe it'll be the push I need to explore other directions, design-wise.

In any case, I think I've successfully updated all the links on my sidebar (that's why I posted all the patterns earlier) and the Ravelry links. We're still working out how to keep the patterns together in Ravelry, and I haven't worked out how to link to free Ravelry patterns for non-Ravelry users, so School Picture and Seaweed socks are temporarily unavailable here (if you were planning to knit them this second, leave a comment and I'll send you a PDF!).

And now I need to go to bed... I'm getting a cold and Kevin has decided I need to get 8-9 hours of sleep every night between now and the marathon!