Angora & Wool Socks

As you can see, I've finally finished these. I did it on Monday, our first of 2 "cold" days in a row. They are holding up much better than the red angora Sockettes I made. I think it's because of the strand of sock weight wool I knit with the sport weight angora. I've worn the green ones to bed twice now, but I turned them inside out in case they were about to fuzz up like tribbles on acid. Forturnately, they only fuzzed up a little. I think it will be safe to turn them around. I did find out that I like look of the reverse of the cable pattern.

Speaking of the cable pattern, I came up with a fine innovation (cop out). (BTW--how do you cross out a word on the blog in order to put in the euphemism & still show the original, crossed-out word?) I had so much trouble keeping track of when it was time to cross cables, that ultimately I gave up and started putting them in when I felt like it. These were not made 2-at-once and so the crossings don't match from sock to sock. But because of my counting insufficiencies, they didn't match anyway. About half-way through the second sock is when I started this. It's not obvious at all. Of course, nothing is obvious in the first picture. I think it shows the thickness of the socks, though. And it's the only picture that shows both. This is Lynne's piano. I don't have a piano, but if I did, I couldn't play it.


The color is more accurate in the second picture. You can nearly see the cables. You can also see how thick these are. They fit very well, though and can be worn in shoes. I still don't want to subject them to hard wear yet. Right now they're for keeping my tootsies warm at night while the winter winds try to annihilate humankind.

I included picture number three because it shows the fuzziness the best. My feet really care. They are quite happy. I think I should call them Happy Fuzzy Socks. They are a big success. Maybe I should call them Big Success Socks. Angora Luxury Socks? Happy Fuzzy Big Success Angora Luxury Socks?

Details: Happy Fuzzy Big Success Angora Luxury Socks

Pattern: Ad Hoc: 4 st cable w/ 2 st reverse stockinette, toe-up

Heel: Afterthought on 1/2 the stitches

Yarn: 1 strand Vintage Red Heart Baby in light blue, 100% wool and 1 strand Laines Fonty Tricotez l'Amour, 80% Angora 20% Merino

Needles: US size 3 metal dpns partly and partly 2 circs (Yes, I have knitting A.D.D. or K.A.D.D.)

O.F.O Post

Oldest first: Pear. I made this for a workfriend last spring (2006). She was in a bad car accident and her sternum was fractured and her heart was bruised. I thought she needed something to squeeze. Incidentally, it's more than 6 months later and she's still healing. I'm just happy she's still with us. We are almost exactly the same age. We're able to appreciate each other's bad days. I've been going into her 2nd grade classroom and we've been teaching writing together. I'm having a good time and I hope she is, too, even though it's such a difficult thing to teach. She is the favorite teacher of almost every child and parent we have. When the kids are ready to graduate almost all of them say 2nd grade was their favorite grade or MM was their favorite teacher.

Soapy the Sea Turtle. This is actually made from a soap holder pattern called Soapy the Soap Turtle. Find it here: 3 If By Land, 6 If By Sea! The name refers to the differing decreases needed to make a land turtle or a sea turtle. A sea turtle is flatter. This is an excellent pattern. MM saw a mouse I made for another teacher's baby shower and asked me if I would make her son a turtle because he loves them so. (This was before the car accident.) Generally I say no to such requests, but there were special circumstances here. I had known MM for 9 years and never once had she asked me for anything. The second circumstance was that I had just seen TurtleGirl76's Knitty Coffeeshop Gallery post of her Soapy and had linked to and read the pattern and was intrigued. At my request, MM recently brought Soapy and the pear to school for me to photograph.

Da Pears

Details: Pear
Pattern: None
Yarn: Frogged from Land's End cotton vest. Abit greener than shown.
Needles: dpns, 2US

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Soapy makes a break for it. Just-gotta-keep-climbing-two-more-steps . . .

Off to see the world. Back to the sea!

Details: Soapy the Sea Turtle
Pattern: 3 if by Land, 6 if by Sea

Yarn: Frogged from Land's End cotton vest. A bit greener than shown.
Needles: dpns, 2US

A Few F.O.'s by My Students

The snake is actually a finished object from last year's knitting club. It is by a 3rd grader who has continued this year. Her mother comes and helps us almost every week. She helped her daughter with this project only by encouraging her. The whole thing was knit by the child. I don't know about the sewing-up. Pretty impressive for an 8-year old. I'd say its about a meter long. There are increases all along the body. The head includes both increases and decreases.


This wristwarmer in classic girl colors was knitted by a newcomer to knitting club this year, a 4th grader. She is working on a second one. This child does NOT have second-of-the-pair syndrome.


The pieces that follow are also by a 4th grader in this year's club. He learned the knit stitch in one session. He next knit a neck warmer in the round on 16-inch circs. It would have been a hat, but I let him get the knitting twisted when joining. I felt terrible, but he said he liked it as a neck warmer. A polite child. He learned to cast on and off on the neck warmer. So this week he shows me the pieces in the 1st picture below. They match perfectly when stacked one on top of the other. The counts must be identical, but also the stitch gauge and row gauge. This is something I haven't achieved in my own knitting. He wasn't taught how to decrease. He bound off one stitch at the beginning of rows to get the slanted edge. Kinda mind-blowing, especially when I read about people being nervous to try a new technique like circular knitting or like how I am about colorwork. There's more. Look at the next picture.


Look carefully. Two yarns are coming out of the top. Yes indeed. Mosaic knitting or slip stitches or something. "I knitted two colors at once" he says simply. That's when I went for the camera. (I apologize for the fuzzy picture.) The red is a solid, the rest is the same variegated yarn as the two matching pieces. This is so cool.
Here's what's funny. The kids seem to think that anything that's been bound off is a Finished Object whether its function is known or not. Some of them put their heads together when the boy didn't know what the two matching pieces were yet. My favorite suggestion was to sew them together to make a cat saddle. They are just the right size.

Brehley's Grandma's Wrist Warmers

Most of you know that I work at an elementary school. Among our wonderful volunteers is Brehley's Grandma. (That's what we all call her.) She comes like clockwork every Wednesday morning and works with kids in the hall right outside the library where I am. She periodically brings the whole staff candy or baked goods. Last year she brought me great big, round, fat, delicious beets from her garden. I don't have classes on Wednesday morning so we shoot the breeze and tease each other a little bit. She's got diabetes and has to watch her health and her hands are always cold because of circulation problems. I sometimes hang onto them a little bit to try and warm them up. So when I traded for some 50/50 silk/cashmere I knew just what to do.

It's not the warmest or the softest yarn, but it's very smooth and non-irritating. Brehley's grandma did let me take pictures of her wearing the wrist warmers, but those photos did not turn out. Here's one done. The other one was completed and does match it. In fact it is the matchiest match I've made of any object ever even though I didn't count rows. I am pleased to report that she wore them all morning. But by lunch was ready to go home and wash them because a kid she was working with kept sneezing all over the place. The yarn label said dry clean, but I told her she could handwash them. Well, if that doesn't work out, I've got more luxury yarn in my stash.

What it is . . . Brehley's Grandma's Wristwarmers

Pattern: None

Yarn: Trilly (50/50 Cashmere/Silk)

Needles: Size 4 Clover Bamboo dpn's

Cast on: 36 stitches

Thumb: Gusset (inc. to 15)

Yay, I Have a Sock Bag!

Isn't it nice? It's the only purse I've actually made out of all those upholstery samples I got a few years ago. I did say "purse," not "sock bag." I am repurposing it. It was just a little bit too deep for a purse and so never quite worked out for me. The idea was to better accomodate my long wallet, but I went too far (as usual). It makes an excellent sock bag.


Let's see what's inside. Oh yes, vintage baby wool. To be specific, it is Art. E.277 Coats & Clarks Red Heart Baby Wool. Net Wt. 1 oz. 3 ply 100% Pure Virgin Wool "Tangleproof" Washable Colors Color 802 Baby Blue Dyelot 748. The quotes on "Tangleproof" aren't mine, though I would have added them anyway because I'm sure I could manage to defeat the tangling defenses Without even trying. Furthermore, I had some similar stuff and it DID felt. So, this may not really be washable. Sometimes "washable" means hand-wash only in luke warm yadda yadda yadda.

There is also a skein of angora. It is 80% Angora 20% Laine Merinos; Laines Fonty Tricotez l'Amour; Depuis 1880; Coeur d'Angora; 100% Francais; 25 g - =/- 108 m; Made in France. I like the "100% Francais" line. This is important people, especially if you are French! It's hairy stuff for sure. Its not as fine as the red angora with which I made bed socks a while back. The hairs are longer and seem a tad coarser. I love Angora. Kathy is to angora as Homer is to donuts. Er,Kathy is to angora as Kathy is to donuts if you must know the truth.

And here is the sock with the 2 yarns stranded together. It's making for a very soft, yet fairly firm fabric. It'll probably be too thick to wear with shoes. The most accurate shade of the green yarn is the picture with both yarns peeking out of the bag.

Here's something else I'm making. It's going to be a baby blanket for Sophie. I was thinking full size twin bed blanket, but this knitting is hard on my wrists because of the weight of the project. But we shall see. I've got enough yarn and Seiding said she'd contribute some brights, which I lack. It seems to be a little better now that it's big enough to rest on my lap and still have my hands up at knitting level. I do hold them up at almost the level of the solar plexus. Maybe I shouldn't do that. I want to be able to knit for the long haul--for the rest of my life. I don't need no stinkin' carpal tunnel syndrome.

This started out as a log cabin square as you can see above. I kept on going though and am now working in the round, as you can see below.

A few words to would-be snowtographers: Maybe the snow won't stick to your knitting if you bring your objects down to the outside temperature first. Eh?