Fuzzy Blue Sock

Over the weekend, I cast on the red Indigodragonfly fingering wool for a pair of classic toe-up socks, using Kate's pattern. I've been knitting steadily on on the first sock and today, I realised that I already had 5.75 inches in the foot. I was ready for the heel! But there's a problem: I can't really turn a heel while scooting around on public transit, which is what my Wednesdays are like. I usually try to spend a couple of hours working the heel quietly at home to avoid catastrophic mistakes.

So I decided to reach into my stash and retrieve that blue, fuzzy, wool and start another sock. Based on past experience (at least 20 tries to get that red sock going), I figured it would take me at least and hour to get a cast-on I was happy with. Imagine my surprise when I cast on and started knitting and 20 minutes later, I was well into the increases. This is a Happy Sock! And it's still happy - in fact, I finished the increases last night on the subway and I'm into the foot now.

I'm using the Brittany birch DPNs I bought a couple years ago. I'm finding them lovely to knit with so far, though they're a bit shorter than I'm used to. I transferred the 'long needle' of this project onto two needles and just marked that side for later reference. I may keep this configuration through the heel.

And the wool? It's wonderful! It's a deep, dark blue with dark pink fuzzy bits. I don't know if these socks will hold up for regular use (it's 100% alpaca), but these will be wonderful warm socks to jazz around the apartment in on snowy days.

And here's the answer to my sock conundrum. I just need to have a couple of socks on the go at various stages of construction so I'll always have something easy to knit on the subway. Or at the dental hygienist - that was truly the driving factor in this case. I hate to sit in that chair with nothing to do.


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My Janome SUV 1122

Well, I did exactly what I swore I *wasn't* going to do yesterday: I bought a sewing machine.

After I taught my noon class, I had an itch to 'go on an adventure' so I rode out to Victoria Park station to the 'Sewing World' store.
At first glance, it looked like a hole-in-the-wall sort of place. I was hovering near the door when the store owner spotted me and called out an cheerful greeting. That was Teresa and boy, can that woman sell sewing machines! I'm glad I completed all of my research up front because it would have been easy to get swept up in her sales pitch, about 90% of which was lost on me but 100% reflected a genuine enthusiasm for sewing and for Janome machines.

I knew what I was looking for. I told her: 'Entry level machine, Janome, $200-$300 range.' She had none of the compact budget models I was considering (sorry, no 'Hello Kitty' Janome for me) and I had already ruled out the 625E as 'out of my price range'. She showed me two entry level mechanical machines. The SUV 1108 was on my short list, but the 1122 was on sale for $299. The store was entirely sold out of that model but she had 12 shipping the following week.

I had a feeling that if I waited until December, I'd be battling it out with the holiday shopping crowd. Teresa left me to my iPad for a few minutes and I did some investigation. The SUV 1122 is only sold in Canada and there were few reviews available for it. The three reviews I did find were very positive, though. I also found the 1122 for sale second-hand on Kijiji. The seller paid $700 new in the spring of this year and was offering it used for $350. I noticed a few other used machines in the $300 price range.

I have to admit, though, the clincher was the free lessons. Teresa's shop is a bit like the Apple Store - free lessons are offered by appointment (one-on-one), on the machine you've purchased. Basically, she makes sure that you're at ease using every feature of the machine. Given that lessons might cost me $160-$250, this is a good deal.

The downside: This is *not* a compact machine. It's full-size. But it's a solid entry level machine. I doubt I'd ever want to upgrade. I just need to figure out a place to store the thing!

So, I took the dive. I bought the SUV 1122. It will probably come in on Tuesday, but I'll wait to pick it up on next weekend. I'm already thinking of all the things I can make with my new sewing machine!

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It's a pair!

And I have socks! Voila!


I was so excited that I stayed up till 1:30 a.m. working the ribbing of the second sock and binding off.

I can't believe I'm wearing socks that I knit myself! Yay :-)


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Sew much to think about

This morning, I spent an hour with one of my private yoga students, teaching her to knit. It was hard!!! I'm good at teaching yoga, but knitting is something entirely different. I taught her the slingshot cast on and then the knit stitch and purl stitch. Her homework is to practice those and by the end of next week, cast on 81 stitches for a hat!

I'm starting to feel excited about Christmas. This year, my mother is buying me a entry level sewing machine. I've been internet researching different brands of machines. According to one forum, nearly all machines are now made by Janome, so the brand doesn't particularly matter. I have a short list of Janome entry level machines. I'm aiming to spend between $200 and $300.

Someone in a forum recommended a vintage machine if you want something durable and reliable. It's kind of a shame - my grandmother willed me her vintage Singer sewing machine, but it's a HUGE machine in a big cabinet. I don't think it would fit in my city apartment. It's still sitting in my uncle's house in Ohio ten years after her death. If I really get into sewing, it might be worth the drive down.

I'm already thinking about fabric to learn on and what my first few projects will be. I don't want to buy this thing and then see it collect dust because I don't use it. I'd like to learn how to sew eye pillows and KIP (Knitting In Public project bags). They're $30 on Etsy. I'm sure I could sew them for less. I'd like to figure out the construction of my favourite 'Bandha Bag' that I use to carry my knitting and sew up something similar.

In other words, I want to take this seriously, be ready to dive in when I finally buy it. I briefly considered what it would be like to buy it *now*, as in 'today', but the truth is, I'm enjoying the process of researching the machine and reading about sewing and looking forward to the purchase.


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Ribit

I had such a nice day yesterday. In the afternoon, I opened up all the blinds and it was so nice to *see* the city and get some sunlight. In the late hours, the sun streams into the kitchen. I caught up on the Internet, then sat in my chair and attempted to start the heel on Sock #2. I totally screwed that up, ended up frogging.

I tired to fix the sock, but unbeknownst to me, I had dropped two stitches, so I ended up frogging *again* and now I have several rows of knitting to do before I can even start the heel. To add insult to injury (ribit!), I knitted too far into my hat and had to rip several rows out of *that*.

I practically have a lily pad hanging off my ear! I overheard some good frogging advice in the knitting store on saturday. It's basically this: Get those stitches back on the needles - don't worry about *how* they're on the needles - sort them out after. This is what I did and I now feel very at ease with reorienting stitches on needles. Knitting life lessons...

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Stash and a Wool Moratorium

After walking the dog, I took on an Internet-y project: I organised my stash and knitting projects on Ravelry. It's been a couple years since I even logged on, but my Ravelry is now fully updated. It made me realise, though, how much wool I've actually accumlated and need to use up. So I'm declaring a 'wool moratorium', though I'll probably be getting another skein of that Cascade Superwash in the top-down sock class in two weeks.

I checked the schedule at Lettuce Knit for classes I can actually take (that don't conflict with my schedule). On my wishlist: Double socks class (knitting two at a time), Kate's Cabling 101 (beverage 'cozy'), Entrelac (I think Kate usually teaches a scarf), and Mittens Bootcamp. Classes are tricky for me because knitting classes are often in the evening or on Saturdays when I'm already teaching (I'm a full-time yoga teacher).

But I can go to Mitten Bootcamp! The class is on on a Thursday in December when I'm I'm hiatus from my Thursday class. I'm so excited! This will be fun and, I suspect, not to difficult for me to pick up, given that I can now knit socks. I have a feeling that I'll be knitting up some more Malabrigo in the New Year, creating mitts to match my hats!

I'll keep my eyes peeled for the New Year! I would really love to learn Entrelac in a class context because I know it would be easier. And cabling! Weeeee!


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A knitting adventure

Yesterday was my big knitting shop adventure. Two knitting shops, $50 worth of yarn, an afternoon of knitting with strangers and one run-in with a friend of 14 years who I hadn't seen in at least five.

It's true that knitters gather in these shops to knit and chat, but for the most part, these groups feel like closed circles. I got that vibe at the Knit Cafe, even though I sat down and knitted for awhile (at a seperate table from the others - the 'knitters table' practically had a force-field around it). It didn't matter anyway - that shop's not local to me. I bought some really gorgeous pinkish-orange wool (not Malabrigo, but a nearly identical wool called Manos) and caught the streetcar east.

I rode north to Mirvish Village to check out EweKnit. This is the shop I stumbled across online - they just opened back in August. It's a gorgeous shop and since it *is* my local, I figured I should find courage and sit down with the group knitting there and I did. I stayed for a couple hours.

The owner, Claudia, was lovely and welcoming and made me some tea. I did feel a *bit* like an imposter, but knitting helps me calm down in general - social lubricant - so I was able to overcome my natural shyness.

Later on, a woman came in, sat next to me. I had my eyes on my knitting, but I chatted with her about some baby hats she had knitted and suddenly she turned to me and said my name - I looked up and realised that I had been chatting with a longtime friend who I hadn't seen in years!

I stayed until 6 - closing. At that point, I was literally binding off on my sock and I finished it before I supper. One week, one sock! I'm starting the second one today and I bought red Indigodragonfly wool for my next sock.


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Twisties

Sock #1 is going well! I'm still knitting the leg, but I'm pretty sure I'll finish that by tonight. That's less than a week for a sock. Not bad for a newbie! I figured out where those periodic twisted stitches are coming from. When a stitch falls off the needle, I need to be more careful about how I put it back on. All of those twisties were from temporarily dropped stitches.

I tried the sock on last night and it fits perfectly! I was worried about that because it seemed so big. I'm already looking toward my first sock in fingering weight and thinking about what yarn I'll use.

I'm also rethinking my next hat. I can knit those garterstitch hats in my sleep. I bought the pattern for Kate's entrelac hat and it's definitely do-able. I have all the skills. Sort of. It will be a more complex project than simple knitting. Okay, fine - I'm scared!

I was already calculating the cost of circulars for that project when I remembered my Denise needle set. I suppose I should go ahead and use it. This is exactly why my mother bought it for me, but to be honest. I'm feeling leary of those plastic needles. Maybe I'll love them...I owe it to her to try.

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I have a sock!

I have a sock! Yesterday, with a few bloopers here and there, I managed to get through the heel. By evening, I was back to knitting even rounds and there are plenty to be knit - 6 inches from that point, confirmed by an email to Kate (I wrote to ask from what point the 'leg' is measured from).

The email was fun! I had took a photo of my sock and created an illustrated diagram of my request, with arrows pointing to possible starting points for the leg measurement. I gave the sock a smiley face and, as an afterthought, added a talk balloon. Kate thought it was hilarious, replied "Happy sock is happy!" lol!


There were a few problems with the heel, but I muddled through. The biggest problem was losing one of my heel gusset stitches. If I dropped it, I can't figure out where (I checked the sofa cushions). I ended up picking up a bar and twisting it to make a stitch. Inelegant, to be sure, but it apparently worked. Actually, it wasn't the obvious mistakes that showed up, but the ones I didn't even know about.

Anway, it's a sock. It looks like a sock, feels like a sock when I put it on. And everything is easy from here on out. In fact, I'm pretty sure the second sock will be easy-er, since I've finished one already.

Last week, I picked up some longer stainless steel Hiya Hiya needles which are a joy to knit with, much easier than bamboo! I'm a convert! The big problem with this sock and the bamboo needles is that they're too short and I kept losing stitches off the ends. Lesson learned: long DPNs are better.

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Yarn Along: Socks and Journeys

I started a sock and a book almost simultaneously, so I've been enjoying the week, alternating between the two.

My first 'real' sock is going well. I just finished the heel gusset today and I'm moving into the perilous waters of wrap-and-turn this afternoon. With any luck, I'll be back into the comfort of even rounds by tomorrow. *holdsbreath* This is sock #1. When it's finished, I'll move on to sock #2.

The book is 'Sweet Jesus' by Canadian author Christine Poutney. The story follows three siblings who journey across the continent and into their own past. Connie is a mother of three children, Hannah is a writer and Zeus (my favourite!) works as a therapeutic clown in a children's hospital.

So far, I'm loving the characters and I've been drawn into the story.




I'm posting as part of Ginny's Yarn Along.

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Three years later...

You know that item on your to-do list that keeps getting buried, deeper and deeper? And even though you've tried to cover it in an avalanche of other 'to-dos', it still weighs on your brain like a mountain?

Yeah. For me, it was that sock. I just couldn't figure out how to knit the heel and I couldn't seem to motivate myself into the knitting shop to ask for help. So I buried the sock and I just stopped knitting. Every fall, I got 'knitting guilt' because cool weather always triggers my knitting itch, but I didn't do anything about it.

To be fair, life was busy. I was absorbed in getting out of my weirdly serene dysfunctional relationship. It ended quietly with the Easiest Breakup Ever: About once a month, E would suggest we break up so I just waited for it. When the suggestion came, my response was "That's a great idea. Let's do *that*." And we did. I was so relieved.

After that came a few intense, highly focused yoga years. I'm a career yoga teacher and I really needed this time to develop my practice. I experimented with different teachers, different studios, even travelling to Montreal for a time to study with a master teacher.

I learned a lot, and one of the greatest lessons that came out of those long months of practice was an important one of 'balance'. In my singleminded focus on yoga practice, I had lost the other parts of my life: writing, reading, playing my guitar and yes, knitting.

This summer, I started to reclaim those things, one by one. It started, ironically, with an Epic Clear-out of my apartment, some redecorating and in the process, the rediscovery of the lonely, orphan sock. So, last month I looked for classes and when I found a sock-knitting class that didn't clash with my busy teaching schedule, I signed up.

Last Saturday, I happily settled into an easy chair and learned to knit a tiny 'training sock'. In the process, Kate cleaned up my knitting technique. My mother taught me to knit continental style but in picking it back up again, it had morphed into something Kate identified as 'combination knitting'. I likely learned *that* from a sweet elderly Ukrainian friend who ran a B&B in Kensington Market until her death a few years ago.
Now that I've sorted it out, I have two new projects on the go: Another hat, just for practice and to use up my very small stash. And a worsted weight sock. This time, I'll finish it!

And this is my tiny training sock, which I now keep beside my chair to remind myself that I can indeed knit socks!

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