Over, but not out

This is post #449 on my blog, and is my last (methinks) on blogspot. Look for me now at:

www.soxophoneplayer.com

I've had one too many battles with blogspot and am going to give wordpress a try.

I actually USE my own blog a lot, and I wish I had set it to better access specific archived content. So if I want to refresh my memory on what I did with a particular yarn, I don't have to sift through pictures of the dog and tales of assorted craft shows to find it.

So....I'm going to try a method I've seen on other blogs where each bit of information is set as its own post. That should make looking things up a more efficient exercise.

As part of that system, I'll try to use post headings that specify the content. (I swear, I can't come up with even ONE more blog title!)

Anyway.... please visit me over at the new digs....

More Anne

Alas.

I have emptied my stash of Schaeffer Anne ;o(

Here are is a pair of size Small, knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400:

I don't knit a lot of Small socks - Ladies' CAN/US shoe size 3 - 5 or kids 11 - 2 - but I do try to keep a few on hand. They are 10 rows shorter in the leg and in the foot than my size Medium. And depending on the yarn I will tension a wee bit tighter than Medium.

And here are two pairs of size Large, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47:

Well that's it for my stash of Anne, unless there is another secret hiding place I've forgotten about.

Of course I do have a drawer full of Anne Ends, so here we go for another wild ride of eco knitting (keeping those leftovers out of the landfill!).

Sock Scarf

This is a handy project if you happened to just knit 28 balls of Anne. I used a bigger leftover for the hem top, heel and toe, and then 27 other colourways for the stripes, each one at 25 rows. This gave me an overall length of 64 inches.

But wait, there's more!

This honkin' long Sock Scarf measures in at 84 inches, using 30 different colourways and making the stripes 30 rows each.

Perfect for a dude with a footballer's neck.

Or no neck.

Or a Soxophone Player with a 17 1/2 inch collar....

Deer Me

Yesterday was the first day in two weeks that it wasn't raining.

So Jesse and I went for a walk to check out the fall colours.

The colours are very late this year. We're only at about 30%. Most years in the past decade the colours have peaked the week before Thanksgiving (the real Thanksgiving ;o) ) and the trees have been bare for the long weekend. Not so this year.

Here we are nearing the crest of the knoll out back, and Jesse pauses for a photo op by the bright red dogwood.

From here we went to the top of the rise and turned right. I still had my camera turned on from the Jesse shot when,

I realize its not a great shot, but rare is the chance I get to take one of a deer. By the time I get my camera out of my pocket, and it goes beep, and Jesse goes bow-wow, the deer are long gone. (click to enlarge -its in the centre of the photo)

For some reason this time they (there were two but only one in the shot) just stood there and looked at me. Even when the camera beeped as I took the first photo. And Jesse just stood there and looked at them. Strange.

I saw 6 deer the afternoon before while driving down the hill nearest the farm, and 4 more that evening.

I love to eat deer, but I also like just watching them... beautiful creatures that they are.

Slip Stitches
A was asking what I mean by slip stitches in my size Medium knee socks.

It's just a skipped stitch - I take the needle out of the machine, as in mock ribbing. Hang the stitch from the needle you want to remove on its neighbour.

Normally I knit size medium on the 54 cylinder. For knee socks I need more stitches for the upper leg, which makes the ankle and foot to wide, even with a tighter tension. So I remove every 4th needle on the top half of the cylinder when I get to the pre-heel, and that snugs the fit up. You could also purl those stitches but then you'd have ribbing-ridges which could be a discomfort issue.

Yet another way to reduce the size for the foot would be to remove the sock from the 72 needle cylinder altogether when you get to the pre-heel, and rehang the work on the 54 cylinder, doubling up stitches as necessary during the rehang. (This is what I do for my Over the Knee Socks - I knit the top part of the sock on the 100 needle cylinder, and rehang on the 72 when I get to the part where a regular knee sock would begin.

Jon Michael Talbot
is one of my favourite composers of spiritual music. We do a lot of his music in choir and our accompanist does great arrangements for multi parts, applying a soft jazz influence.

Here's a clip of JMT in concert, performing a piece we sing often, Healer of my Soul.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all....

Mousey Clay

Here is a new pair of Knee Socks in size Medium.

This is my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight yarn in my recent dye batches of Mouse Grey and Clay.

I was watching CSI Miami the other night (closing toes) and the villain, er, villainess was wearing a cool pair of knee socks. They (and she ;o) ) inspired me. I think her colours ran more to butterscotch, but these were as close as I had on hand and, you know, you gotta' create when you get the urge!

And since I was knitting size Medium Knee Socks, I made:

This is the same pattern I knit in Medium + last week.

Both pairs are knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47. The only difference between the Medium and Medium + is that the former is 5 rows shorter in the foot, and I slip stitches on the top of the foot - beginning 15 rows before the heel- to narrow the foot slightly.

"When the rain comes

they run and hide their heads" to quote an old Beatles tune .

What a merry-go-round of weather we've been having for the past few weeks. Torrential downpours alternating with brief sunny breaks.

Real brief.

Fortunately the crowds didn't run and hide their heads from the Meaford Apple Harvest. A lot of folks are now sporting a new pair of socks ;o)

Visiting Anne

I found a few bags of Schaeffer Anne in my stash. I thought I'd knit it all some months ago, but apparently not...

These are all size Large, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.

Opal Hundertwasser

Here's a blast from the (recent) past - one of my favourite colourways of all time - from the Opal Hunderwasser series.

I'm replenishing my supply of Sock Scarves and this seemed a good place to start. This scarf is about 64" long, including the hem top and foot. I knit it on the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47, using my standard tension for a 4 ply yarn (=~10 rows per inch).

I got 2 scarves from three 100g balls. Well, almost 2 scarves. I was short half the toe on the second scarf, but happily found some leftovers from the same batch of yarn in my scrap drawer.

I've decided scarf knitting is a great thing to do at the end of the day when my eyes are getting tired and my concentration begins to wane. Just crank away until its 'really long' then close it off with a foot.

Apple Harvest Craft Show

Today the Soxophone Player has loaded the truck and is heading into Meaford for the Apple Harvest Craft Show.

This show has been running for over 25 years, always the weekend before (Canadian) Thanksgiving. The show raises money for community projects. It is known to be one of the top rated craft shows in Ontario - always a waiting list of vendors, and always a good crowd of shoppers, including many bus loads from around this side of the province.

The show is named in honour of the local apple harvest, Meaford being the apple capital of Canada ;o) The apple harvest is running late this year, like every other harvest, due to the cool summer. But the show motors on!

The quality of crafts is high at this show, as it is generally well juried. Of course some one always seems to sneak under the wire gluing one piece of dime store crap to another piece of dime store crap and calling it a handmade craft, but this show does better than most at weeding such things out.

If you're going to the craft show, be sure to pop by my booth and say hello...I'm in the curling rink, just inside the main entrance on the left.

A change of pace

Talk about old Mutha Hubbard's cupboard...

That is what remains of my Koigu KPPPM stash after my recent binge ;o(

Have you ever had the DT's when you're out of a favourite yarn?

It's very cold today, and I don't have the heat turned on. Maybe that's why I'm shaking. But it might be Koigu withdrawal.

What to work on next?

Here's some yarn I pulled out of Misc. Solids Stash: (from the left) DGB Confetti colour #9020 (rich red), and three Fortissima Sockas... #1058 Medium Grey, # 1062 Light Grey Heather, #2002 Black.

I was tooling around on the What's Cool page at Knitty and was inspired by this:

I didn't have the exact colours on hand so I chose the closest I could find in the stash, and I ended up with this:

I used my own striping configuration, and knit an entire foot rather than toe-less, but I think the effect is in the right part of the ball park.

The reason I didn't do the open toes...my open tubes - such as in my fingerless gloves - have a bit of a curl at the end. This is a nice decorative touch (IMHO) but would be a real pain with a sock if you wanted to put a shoe on.

I've got my thinking cap (such as it is) on, pondering a curl-less open foot.

I loved my Koigu binge, but after several weeks of hard production knitting I needed to take a creative detour, and I think these knee socks fit the bill.

The socks are size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.

Since I had the black and red going, I ventured into the world of unsocks...

And came up with these:

I made this pair of fingerless gloves with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400.

They are meant to go with these:

This is my pattern I call Jezebel, and this pair is size Medium.