Not Dead, After All

Last April, Frank Sanders from Northtipton was in Raleigh and helped me with my Brother KH-212. At the time, it seemed like it was functional, but when I got home and tried to cast on and knit, I discovered that several of the channels for the needles had gotten deformed, with the end result being that the machine would not knit.

Or so I thought.

Further research and an "oh well, there's nothing to lose" attitude led me to try changing the shape of the channels with a screwdriver. After testing to make sure all of the needles could freely move, and doing a fair bit of investigative "air knitting," today I finally got up the gumption to rethread the machine.

And guess what.

It's ain't dead, after all. Here are a couple of pictures of my very first swatch.

Eure....Whoops!

Everything doesn't always go according to plan. I had a clever idea for having ribbing on top of the kind of socks I made a couple of days ago: make the sock, take it off on waste yarn, then make a section of ribbing, take IT off on waste yarn, and then attach the two together using the main bed. Yes, there would still be a seam to make, but only on the ribbing part. Well...here's what that looks like:

It's "upside down" for no special reason...

Even with safety pins marking dropped stitches (I clearly need practice on picking stitches up that have been "saved" with waste yarn!), it looks pretty good. And it is very lovely, making the disappointment all that much sharper:

The cast-on for the ribbing doesn't stretch enough so that I can get my foot into the sock.

I'm not sure at all what to do about that. This is, in fact, the first time that I've made ribbing for anything on the ribber. There must be a fix...I guess I'm off to do some research!

My Sock Story

Since I saw a pattern book for socks when I was a young girl (it was a rather complicated book on hand knitting argyle socks) I have wanted to learn to knit socks. A year or two ago, I successfully crocheted several pairs of socks, a pair for my stepdad, two for my mother, and two for me. Sadly, crocheted socks do not have as much "give" in them as knitted socks, and Mom's socks do not fit her - they are scheduled for demolition (I know it's called frogging, but demolition fits my mood about those socks) and then knitting. (If you want to see the crocheted socks, as well as a few other things that I've crocheted in the last couple of years, you can look at my Ravelry page. You might have to log in - I am not sure.)

In May of 2010, Danny and I stopped at a small yarn shop in Longview, WA, Evie's Yarn Emporium. I was looking for some stitch markers for the pair of socks which I was then crocheting, having dropped my last one under the seat in the rental car. Evie, who is a marvelously gregarious person, asked me if there was "anything else" besides the stitch markers - and I asked her about making socks. Nearly forty-five minutes later (during which time, Danny came in from the car because I had been gone so long that he had started to worry), I had a ball of yarn, a set of bamboo #1 double-pointed needles, a pattern, and a handful of handwritten notes and advice from Evie. That ball of yarn became my first handknitted pair of socks.

It was tough going, my first experience with double-pointed needles, but I wouldn't be stopped. I tried again, with #3 dpns and some sport weight yarn from KnitPicks. The second pair of socks came out better than the first, but I still felt that it took F O R E V E R. I wanted faster.

Blue socks - sport weight from KnitPicks. Brown - forgotten yarn name from Evie's.

Fast forward to spring of this year, when I had my Bond. I made my first pair of machine knitted socks on it, from Liberty Wool purchased at DownTown Knits in Apex. Danny liked them so well that I promptly made two more pairs. (Only two pair, the first and last, are shown below - the blue pair that were made between these two appears in another post, but you get the general idea...)

Top: first pair of machine knitted socks; bottom, another pair. Liberty Wool, Bond machine.

And then...I got a Studio SK-301. My next two pairs of socks were made on it, from KnitPicks' Felici Sport. These socks feel great on the feet, so great that I almost didn't give Danny back the pair he loaned me when we were flying to Oregon this year. But...the problem with these, as with the ones made on the Bond, was twofold: the toes had to be Kitchenered, and the flat-knitted socks had to be seamed up the side. Yuck. Yes, you don't notice the seam when you are wearing the socks, but YUCK for having to make the seam.

The Felici Sport socks, knitted on the Studio.

So...now I have moved up to knitting socks in the round, as I mentioned in my last post. Next...figuring out how to put on a ribbed top!

Oh...if you do go to my Ravelry page, you'll see that there are a pair of socks listed as WIP (work in progress) that are called Insouciant Socks. There is no photo yet as I'm not sure what to do with them - they are "complete" but are too short and fit "funny." I might have to taken them apart and knit them on a machine - but I spent hours and hours and hours knitting the darned things. See? Another reason to machine knit socks - if you don't like the result, you probably have at most an hour or two in each sock so it doesn't hurt SO bad if you decide to frog 'em!

That's my story...so far. I have quite a few skeins of sock yarn in my workspace, and now that I don't have to seam, they will probably be socks in short order!

The "Ann Sock"

This weekend, I made my first pair of "Ann Socks," so named in honor of the very kind lady who told me HOW to make them. Ann attributed this sock to at least two other people, but she did admit to having changed what they had done, so, therefore, these are "Ann Socks" to me. If I get around to making substantive changes, I might start calling them "my" socks...

They are knitting toe-up, in the round using the ribber, with a short-rowed heel (the short-rowing is done on the main bed). The tops of the legs do not have ribbing on them, as you can't rib in the round (boo!), but instead roll down. I have an idea for how to attach ribbing while the socks are on the machine, but if it doesn't work, I'll probably take off any that need ribbing (such as those for Danny, who isn't a fan of the roll-down look) and do the ribbing by hand. (Ouch. I don't like to hand knit, I really don't, so I hope my idea for the machine-knit ribbing works!)

If/when I find the label from the yarn, I'll put a note here about what yarn this is, but I think it's a Bernat Sox or something similar.

Anyway...here is the first (note, I did say FIRST) pair! For me! The first pair of socks, by the way, that I have knitted for myself! The pink color doesn't really show up in this photo - but they are a lovely shade of pink with darker pink and some gray/green highlights. Love, love, love 'em!

Oh, and by the way - these socks represent the first project that I've made on the Knitmaster 700 that I bought myself for a graduation present! It only took me three months to get around to using it...and I have to give kudos where kudos are due, actually: another kind lady, Jo, from my knitting group was kind enough to spend a couple of hours at my house, giving me some tips on assembling the ribber correctly and walking me through my first sample of ribbed fabric. That sample was made of the yarn that is now one of the socks in the photo above.

So...to wrap up this post: THANK YOU, Ann and Jo!

Happier Walking

I've engaged on a rigorous program of walking: every day for an hour. As of today, I've walked 37 miles - despite getting blisters on my toes and having a problem with the nail of one toe cutting into the side of another toe. Yesterday, it was so bad that I only could manage a half hour of walking - boo! I needed a solution.

Danny had been indicating interest for a few months in the latest "thing" in shoes - shoes with individual spots for the toes. We went out yesterday and were delighted to find that not only did our local sporting goods store carry them - in our sizes, even - but that they were on sale AND it was the annual "tax holiday weekend," meaning that we didn't have to pay the sales tax!

I have just walked the first hour in my new shoes (yes, I also bought some marvelous toe socks to wear with them). It was terrific: I walked a full three miles today, which is the first time I've reached that milestone. My existing hurts were not aggravated and no new injuries occurred! Hurrah!!!

Here are some photos of my shoes.

Side view, taken at the store

Top view

From my perspective. They look odd!

A Hodgepodge

School is over. I got all As in my classes this past term, putting me on the school's President's List for the term and making my overall GPA 3.7. My diploma is supposed to be mailed next week.

Since I didn't complete college immediately after high school, getting a diploma was something that I always hankered to do but never had time for until these past few years. Getting my "education" was quite an eye opener into the whole business of higher learning. It was fairly disappointing to find the focus less on education than on making money, from the latest edition textbooks being required despite being nearly identical to the previous version to the kinds of classes required. Yes, I'm glad I did it, but the comment of a director years ago to me when I mentioned wanting to get a degree has been resonating as she was right: "Why do you want to do that? It will make no difference to how well you do your job." Well, it won't, but hopefully it will make a positive difference to how my resume is received - meaning I hope it helps me get a job even though it won't help me do the job.

We have a treadmill, bought last year in a fit of optimism and mostly ignored since then. I started walking last week and have now walked for one hour every day since then. Two days ago, my total miles walked exceeded 26, and Danny pointed out that I had walked - with 23 hour breaks - a marathon. A marathon. I don't know that I would ever do an actual marathon...but I am being consistent with the exercise. We'll just have to see where it leads.

I made a pair of socks for my mom for her birthday. She chose the yarn, which is Red Heart Fiesta, and I made them up on my Brother KX-350. They seemed to come out fairly well, and today she said that she loves them. Hurrah!

Mom's Socks

 Yesterday was an amazing experience. A knitter who lives about an hour from me wanted to get rid of her Singer 560 and various other bits - free if you could come get them. So I went. And she is the most amazing lady, a woman who used to be a knitting machine dealer. She showed me some of her work, which I seek to emulate, and kept giving me things! I got home and set up the tilt stand, cleaned the main bed, put a new needle pressed bar in it, and knitted a swatch. Then I got out the lace carriage and cleaned it, hooked up the electric, put in a card, and knitted my first piece of machine lace. Today, I am going to clean and set up the ribber and try it out. Then I need to go through the stack of books and magazines. She bought this equipment new in 1983, making it the newest metal bed machine that I have. I am still stunned by her kindness and generosity.

Machine Lace!

The garden is nearly done for the year. The peppers have been doing fantastic - and here are some pictures of some of that bounty.

That's all from me for today! Cheers!

Lemon Balm Tea

A few years ago, we accidentally acquired a lemon balm plant when purchasing our garden plants. Upon discovering that it makes a wonderful and soothing tea, we bought a couple more plants and encouraged new starts. Today, we have quite a lot of lemon balm out in the garden on the west end of the house.

When the leaves are dried, the lemon balm makes a better tea than when the leaves are fresh. Either way, once the leaves have been used they go out into the compost bin. As I was cleaning the tea pots this morning, I was struck by the circle of our tea: it starts out on the west end of the house, comes inside, goes into the compost bin on the east end of the yard, and then is spread about wherever needed. A perfect cycle would have the compost going back to the tea plants in the garden.

Good Eats Tonight

I made two loaves of bread today. One is a pesto wheat bread for tomorrow night's dinner with the Jessicas. The other is an oat bread for us. We had slices of it tonight for dinner with some of Danny's pesto and our tomatoes on top. He added slices of fresh cayenne pepper to his but I am not into spicy...no!

I also baked two of the small spaghetti squash and we had those topped with the leftovers from yesterday.

Homegrown and homemade...gotta love it!

Dinner Tonight? Lots of Homegrown Goodies

We harvested the first of the spaghetti squash today - eleven beautiful yellow squash! These are easy to cook - slice in half, remove the seeds, place face down on a baking sheet and bake for an hour. Let cool for few minutes after removing from the oven, and then use a fork (or a spoon - your choice) - to pull out all the strands. Tonight's dinner featured one of our fresh squash topped with Danny's homemade meat-and-veggie loaf and a side dish of homebaked wheat bread topped with homemade pesto (from our basil, of course) and diced homegrown tomatoes. Yes, I should have taken a picture. But I was hungry.

I do have a picture of some of the squash bounty:

as well as other pictures from today:

Closeup of the cayennes turning red - pretty!

The peppers...yes, that is a basil in the "odd" pot.

The basils are still looking great despite the near-constant harvesting!

We've eaten lots of these tomatoes so far.

I'm not posting a picture of the squash garden as it's clearly nearing the end of its lifecycle and looks rather pathetic. We'll be getting a few more squash, but then that will be that. Interestingly, when this squash experiment first started, I read all over the Internet about how to grow them, and one constant was that it takes "90 days" for the squash to ripen. Nowhere does anyone say 90 days from WHAT. Based on this experiment, it seems that the 90 days is from the time of germination, since our seeds were started in April and here we are, chowing down on ripe fruit about 90 days later.

Another Knitted Item

This afghan and matching pillow were made on the USM from Caron One Pound (the pink and cream) and Red Heart regular worsted (the multicolor). The pattern is in the "learning book" that comes with a new USM. They were completed...oh...probably in April.

Yes! A Bit of Knitting!

I actually have knitted a couple of things recently. Yes, they are "just" baby blankets, but both are a new technique to me so I actually learned a thing or two!

Both blankets were made on the Brother KX-350 from Diana Sullivan's Swirl Baby Blanket video pattern.

This one was made with Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in rust and white with the tension dial set at 7. It used EXACTLY six skeins of the yarn - three of each color - and I had to "squinch" a bit to get the rust edging done. There was just the tiniest bit left over of the white.

Why rust and white? Those are the colors for University of Texas, and the parents-to-be for whom this blanket was made both attended that school. That's why the not-strictly-baby-color scheme.


I can make "baby-colored" stuff, too, though. So here is the second of the two blankets, made from Bernat Baby Coordinates on tension 3. The yarn was in my stash and I forgot to weigh the finished product, so I have no idea how much yarn was used. :-( Boo for forgetting important details!

I ran out of time to get this one finished before we left for our trip to Ohio and Indiana, so the ends were weaved in while riding in the car, and the light steaming was done in the hotel room in Zanesville, OH. First time in years that I'd needed the hotel iron, and I was glad that it was there. Actually - it was a nice iron, with a retractable cord. If/when my iron ever gives up (probably never, since I rarely use it), I want one with a retractable cord.

Before I sold my USM, I made a couple of other baby blankets that were not intended for anyone. Since they are riddled with errors, it didn't seem likely that anyone would want them. But, not so! The friend who got both of the above blankets was thrilled (at least, she did a great job of ACTING thrilled) when I asked her if she would like to have them. The larger of the two, with the blocks of color, was made from Caron's Simply Soft. The brand of the other yarn has gone the way of many other things: right out of my brain. And I don't remember how much yarn or what keyplate. What I do know is that the edgings on these were hand crocheted and took far longer than the actual knitting. I did learn about keeping the yarn un-tensioned on the USM, and also learned about sewing as you go - a technique which came out better in the round blankets above.

This one is the smaller of the two, and the pattern is from the Bond Gifts and Toys Pattern Book.

This is the larger of the two. It's made from the pattern in the "teaching booklet" that comes with a new Bond machine. I left off the fringe as it didn't seem safe for babies - way too easy for that cutesy fringe to get stuck in a little throat.

 Missing from my blog, I realize now, are pictures of all the socks I've made this year. After I get the laundry done, I'll see if that mistake can be rectified. At least Danny loves his socks and wears them!

June's (Unintentionally Only) Post: Doodle, Oregon, and Garden Stuff

June is almost over. It quite got away from us, what with traveling and school and such. Two of my summer classes were five-week courses that ended on June 20 (I got an A in both, thanks). We left early for our Oregon trip for a unplanned quickie visit with our daughter and granddaughter who were staying in Myrtle Beach. And, of course, we spent a delightful week in Seaside, Oregon with my parents.

The garden is doing amazing things. We've been able to enjoy fresh tomatoes with fresh basil pesto broiled on top. Danny is loving the pepper plants. And the spaghetti squash...well, all I can say is that hopefully there is a way of preserving it, because at this rate we are never going to be able to keep up with it once it starts to ripen.

There are a lot of pictures following. Some of the garden ones were taken the day we left for our travels (June 6) and some today (June 25). Kind of a before-and-after thing. There are some pictures of our visit with the Doodle, and some pictures of our visit to Oregon. In Oregon, we climbed the Astoria Column (read about the Column here) - it was the first time that I'd ever been to the Column when it was open.

6/6 view of peppers

6/6 view of basil, rosemary, sage, basil

6/6 view of tomatoes

6/6 view of shade bed

6/6 view of squash

6/6 - one lone jalapeno!

Danny & the Doodle - she was fascinated by his face

Danny & the Doodle again

Note that his glasses have been removed to keep them safe

My turn with the Doodle!

Guess my finger wasn't what she was looking for

The two of us at the top of the Astoria Column.

View from atop the Column

I tried to take a picture of my parents, who are standing in front of the building.

The Columbia River, from the top of the Astoria Column

More from atop the Column

6/25 pepper plants - oops, there's a basil in there now!

A closeup of the peppers, in an attempt to show off their productive ways

6/25 another pepper closeup

6/25 and another

6/25 - The basils, rosemary, and sage - note that we've been harvesting basil quite regularly!

6/25 The tomato plants...from the front

...and from the back. Go, tomatoes, go!

6/25 The shade bed. Not doing as well as hoped, although the coleus (and the weeds) seem happy

6/25 - Squash overload!

On 6/25, the squash are growing out of the box!