A Beautiful Rainy Windy Autumn Day

The rain to the wind said,

“You push and I’ll pelt.”

Robert Frost “Lodged”

It’s been a wonderful day of rain and wind. When wet, the gold, yellow, orange and red of autumn’s leaves intensify. Against the background of a gray metal sky, the leaves are wonderfully vibrant. When plucked from their branches by the wind, they swirl in such a play of color that it is like looking at a Jackson Pollock painting in motion. I love autumn.

Busy Being Glamorous

She isn’t harassed. She’s busy, and it’s glamorous to be busy. Indeed, the image of the on-the-go working mother is very like the glamorous image of the busy top executive. Arlie Hochschild The Second Shift

I have news for dear Arlie, there’s nothing glamorous about being so busy that your head spins. That’s what I’ve been all this week: too busy — too busy to even be busy. Very little knitting has gone on and so the Autumn Lace Sock pattern is still not ready.

My poor baby girl, a pointer labrador mix, Dakota, needs an operation to remove a large lump. I love her to pieces and am just sick over this operation. Too boot, the vet is now treating her for hypothyroidism. I’m not crazy about taking medication myself and I always have grave reservations about giving my pets medications. But the vet says she needs the soloxine. I read up on the med and hypothyroidism in dogs on the net. Dakota doesn’t show any of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. Yet the vet said her blood test showed hypothyroidism. I’m real uncomfortable with this.

I hope to get knitting done on the Autumn Lace Sock this weekend. In the meantime, I have a box full of hats I crocheted last winter. I am going to go through them, take pictures and put some of them up for sale in my Etsy store Avalon’s Dream. The link to my store is here and on the sidebar. I hope to post one or two for sale over the weekend.

Tonight I think I’ll just sit and love my 2 pups.

Knitting Continues

As a cure for a cold, take your toddy to bed, put one bowler hat at the foot, and drink until you see two.

Robert Bruce, Sir Lockhart

Let’s just say I would if I could follow the above advice. Another trip to the MD’s. More medicine and nothing works. My insurance company is getting cranky with all this. It does not like me being sick. I don’t like me being sick either.

My insurance company is now playing doctor, deciding what it will cover, what it won’t. It’s become like a game of craps. Will it or won’t it cover this next medication, test, or proceedure. A roll of the dice, if you will. What it does or doesn’t cover seems as arbitrary as a dice roll.

I am not a fan of medicine, its practioners, etc. I have seen first hand the stark limits of “modern medicine” when I watched my husband die 12 years ago. He was 42 years old. For all the advances in medicine there is still so much that it cannot make well again.  Medicine, modern or otherwise, has it limits.

Today, I took my pointer – labrador mix to the vet. Dakota is my big baby girl and I love her dearly. She is 8 years old. The vet found a lump on a mammary gland. Tests are being run to see if Dakota’s kidneys are well enough to withstand surgery to remove the lump.

I am still knitting the Autumn Lace Sock.

Autumn Lace Sock Knitting Pattern Delay

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

William Shakespeare

All’s Well That Ends Well

I am knitting and checking my math as fast as I can and still I see no way I can meet my own deadline of releasing the knitting pattern for my Autumn Lace Sock today. Dang and double dang it. You see, I have this major hang up about releasing a pattern that I have not thoroughly tested myself. It is very important to me that my patterns be accurate and easy to follow. I want knitters to enjoy themselves while knitting my patterns and I want them to love the projects when they finish them.

So while I am 99% sure that all size measurements for the Autumn Lace Sock are correct, I need to finish knitting the woman’s small to be sure. I want to see that the proportions are right. Especially the proportion of cuff length and the percentage of leg pattern that shows beneath the bottom of the cuff and comes before dividing for heel and instep. Although the numbers tell me that length and percentage will be fine, I need to see it in real life before me. I guess you could say I don’t trust numbers.

On the Rhinebeck front, I am still undecided about whether I will go.  If I felt good there would be no question that I would go, but the creeping crud I caught is still hanging in there. I keep thinking of all that beautiful yarn I’ll miss touching and I could almost cry. Sigh.

Time to get back to the sock.

Knitting Love

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

A little over a year ago my younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.  A mastectomy was followed by a long course of chemotherapy and then radiation. I decided to knit her a shawl that she could wrap around herself the way my arms would if I were there to comfort and support her.

The first thing I did was look for the “right” yarn, which I now know was naive. The yarn had to have the correct colors, weight, and texture. I found two that I was going to narrow down to one. Then it hit me. Content. Fiber content.

Did I really want to give my sister a shawl made from heaven knows what chemicals? Wasn’t her chemotherapy enough exposure to chemicals for a lifetime? Thus began my research into and sole use of organic yarns or yarns made of natural fibers. What I learned about how yarns are made and dyed changed me as a knitter. It also changed how and why I choose a particular yarn for my projects.

I won’t bore you with too many details. The short of it: Chemicals play a large role in the manufacture of yarn. A much larger role than I had ever imagined. They even play a role in yarns made of all natural fibers. And unless the organic yarn is grown in a particular color (organic cotton yarns come to mind here) their “organic” status can be lost the minute the yarn hits the dye vat. If you want true organic yarn, it has to be organic from start to finish. Vegan dyes, natural dyes and dye procedures keep an organic yarn organic. (I am not going to start on mordants, though a yarn company’s use of and type of mordant does make a difference to me in selecting or not selecting a yarn.)

I very much believe in “going green”. I make my buying power agree with my sentiments. I buy yarn from companies that have small environmental footprints.

Next time you’re looking for yarn give one of the environmentally friendly ones a try.

Errata Hearts Abound Baby Socks

Pattern: Hearts Abound Baby Socks

Page 4

Foot should read: Work even until piece measures 3 inches from the back of the heel or about 1.5 inches less than desired total foot length.

Autumn Lace Sock Design Done

The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk. Did you know that? That’s a fact.

Waldo Salt

Midnight Cowboy

Well, I’d be out of luck today if my life depended on sunshine and coconut milk. It’s cloudy here in the northeast and I am allergic to coconut.

I have finally completed the work on the Autumn Lace sock.

I couldn’t be happier. It came out exactly as I planned. I will release the pattern this Friday. Right now I am proofing the pattern. I am also knitting a pair of Autumn Lace Socks for myself. That’s how much I really like the look of these. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock DK 100% superwash merino in apricot. I love the softness and warmth of this yarn.  All the details of the socks will be given on Friday on my blog, in my Etsy store AvalonsDream and my Ravelry spot.

Rhinebeck is happening this weekend and it may be the first time in a long time that I will not be able to attend. Rhinebeck is the sight of the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival. It is always awesome, especially if you are like me and love animals and yarn and spinning and knitting. Unfortunately I am still harboring remnants of the creeping crud. I am still pretty congested and lacking my usual energy. The drive up, the drive back, the walking around, may not be something I can easily do this year. It will break my heart, but I may have to pass this year.

Autumn

Martha: “What is Autumn?”

Jan: “A second spring, where the leaves imitate the flowers.  Maybe it would be so too with human beings that you would see bloom if only you helped them with your patience.”

Albert Camus The Misunderstanding

I love Autumn. It is my favorite season. With a freeze predicted this weekend, I spent most of my time preparing the garden and the pantry shelves for the coming winter months. The garden was a real money saver this year what with the spike in gas and fuel prices. When we added up our grocery bills for the summer we got a nice surprise. Eating out of our garden really did save us money at the food market.  Of course the money saved went to pay gas and electric bills rather than being stashed away for the upcoming holiday season. Still, I am very grateful for the bounty of our garden.

Needless to say, with all the making and putting up of tomato sauce, soups, stews, and freezing vegetables I got precious little knitting done on the Autumn Lace sock. I had hoped to finish at least the baby sample sock over the weekend. I am at the point where I am picking up the gusset stitches. If it’s done by tomorrow I will post a picture.

Sock Knitting Design

“I like to have a plan,” said Mr. Palliser.

“And so do I,” said his wife, —”if only for the sake of not keeping it.”

Anthony Trollope

It’s good to have a plan and wise to keep it flexible when designing.

I often start out with a picture in my mind of how I want the knitted piece to look. I follow this with a rough sketch to which I add many notes and collections of ideas. For me, this is a large portion of the design process. The sketch, the notes, every decision or non-decision is as tenuous as a spider’s web in a breeze. All, some or none of the ideas may reach fruition.

I have been working on designing a knit sock sized for baby up to adult. A mommy and me kind of project. The design had to be cute enough for a baby girl and at the same time serious enough for an adult woman to wear. The sock I designed is called Autumn Lace.

The idea for the sock started with a picture of a lace cuff in my mind. I knew I wanted  a solid knitted fabric for the foot. The knitted foot fabric had to be delicate and subtle. The solid knitted fabric had to fit with the lace of the cuff and not detract from it.

I spent well over a month on this part of the design. Searching, swatching, rethinking. What looked okay the day before did not look so good the next. A step forward, two back and one to the side seems to be the dance of design for me.

This stage of design can’t be rushed for me. I have to be patient with it. My instinct seems to know when everything goes together and it is time to stop searching, swatching, and rethinking. When the design is right I feel the rightness in my gut and in my bones. I enjoy the knitting. I am peaceful. When I rush this part of the design process,  I am uncomfortable with the knitting. I still search, swatch, and rethink in my head. I know I don’t have it right. I feel the wrongness with every stitch.

With Autumn Lace, I let the design process dance. While I need to alter the length of the leg portion on the baby sock to bring the lace cuff closer to the ankle, I am pleased with the way the prototype looks.

I swatched many lace patterns before I found one that was the right proportion for both a baby size sock and an adult one. I was attracted to the lace pattern because it reminded me of Autumn: the lacey edges of the first ice on the pond,  the patterns made by leaves that have fallen to the ground. I altered the stitches of the lace pattern for circular knitting and in doing so I feel I have come closer to what I originally saw in my mind.

The knitted fabric for the leg and foot, I think, works beautifully with the lace cuff and the shell scallops that border the cuff. The knitted fabric is a simple knit – purl combination that adds visual interest to what would otherwise be a plain stockinette stitch fabric.  The knit – purl combination also reminds me of Autumn, particularly the floor of the woods and leaf covered paths with their bumps and ruts.

This weekend I hope to complete the adult medium version of the Autumn Lace sock and get started on the reknit of the baby one. I  hope you enjoy the weekend.

Design By the Numbers: Sock Knitting

After a big ship has rotted away, there still remain three thousand nails.

Chinese Proverb

What, did they count them? The nails, I mean. Three thousand sounds like a number that has been rounded. It’s too nice; too easily divisible by more than one number. Two, 3, 4, 5, and 6 divide nicely into three thousand. They don’t leave messy remainders over which a knit designer must agonize.

When I begin a design I swatch. I need to know how many stitches per inch and how many rows. Row gauge can be less precise at first when you are knitting to a length. “Knit until piece measures x inches / centimeters from the beginning.” If you have to make a second knitted piece — sock, sleeve, front or back, whatever — that needs to come in at the same measurement then row gauge is important. To get the same length and have it all even I count the number of rows it takes to get the “x inches / centimeters.” I write down the number of rows on the pattern so that I can duplicate the exact length for the other sock, sleeve, front or back, whatever.

The numbers game in knitting gets challenging when both stitch and row gauge need to come into some agreement with the knitting stitch pattern as well as the size of the piece.  In an ideal world the multiple of stitches needed to complete a knitting stitch pattern would divide evenly into gauge for all sizes. But who lives in an ideal world?

In my next few posts, I am going to show you the behind the scenes stuff that goes into designing a knitted sock pattern. Til then, have a good one.