Sourdough madness

For anyone questioning my sanity, I’m willing to offer you the final nail in the coffin, and that is undoubtedly my relationship to my sourdough starter. No, I’ve never baked sourdough successfully before. Yes, every time I’ve tried to cook with this starter (pancakes anyone?), the results have been pretty pathetic. And perhaps that’s why I’m so crazy about this starter – I’m good at baking! Really! So I should be able to keep a sourdough starter alive!

Well, this year I bought a packet of freeze-dried starter from Amazon, San Francisco variety, and started it off last week. It’s getting nice and cold in this part of the country, and heating the house via the oven sounds pretty good to me. Unfortunately, I’m apparently incapable of reading directions (I can follow them, but not read them in the first place. Go figure), and for almost a week was significantly underfeeding my starter.

Once I realized my mistake – the guilt! The pangs of conscience! My darling starter, you’re an innocent in this cruel world, and I can’t even feed you right! Bad enough that the house is cold, we keep odd hours, and sometimes we feed you too late…but I haven’t even been feeding you enough!

Seriously, I pay more attention to the starter than the cat. Poor Lydia. Proof in the pudding? Concerned that I had irreparably damaged the starter, I’ve been monitoring it every 4-6 hours. But I can’t be home every 4-6 hours every day, and Tuesday I’m out of the house from noon until 10pm. Oh noes! So? Yesterday Sourdough came to school with me. What, you didn’t get the memo that it was “Bring your Live Active Cultures to Work” day? I’m sure I saw someone with some kimchee…

Anyway, as if that were bad enough…now I’m mustering up the guts to actually bake with this starter. The last time I tried to bake with a sourdough starter it was awful, so I’m worried. Granted, that was a much different starter, but…

Baking with a sourdough takes time and planning. And I’m not super great at that. I like my recipes to come together at the 11th hour; my most common baking failing is trying to pry a cake out of a pan much too soon before it’s cool. Sourdough, on the other hand, requires days of preparation. You need to feed the starter over the course of a few days such that it grows to the proper proportions. It has a much longer rising/proofing period than your average yeast bread. How is a girl to keep track of it all, and know when she should start the process rolling?

Spreadsheets.

I spent the afternoon learning how to use conditional expressions in Excel to make a spreadsheet that would take an input time (start time, middle-time, end time, etc.) and extrapolate the rest of the procedure. So, I could say that I want to put the bread in the oven at 8am on Sunday morning, and can get a timeline of what I need to be doing. In this case, I’d need to get started with the refrigerated starter at 8pm on Thursday. Or, if I have 1/2c fresh unrefrigerated starter (as I do), I can wait until 8am on Friday to start the doubling process.

Certainly there was an easier way than the nested =IF(…, then) commands I had to write, but heck, it works, and I know how and why. Want to make some sourdough? If you’re local I’ll share my starter, and I’ll even share my spreadsheet!

Sourdough baking timeline spreadsheet

T-shirt serger-y

I’ve had my serger for almost a year now, and I have to say, I’ve used it very infrequently during that time. Those times I have used it have been fabulous (in particular, finishing the hem on Lauren’s wedding dress), but, perhaps like my beautiful spindles, my spinning wheel, my banjo, guitar, bagpipes, flute…there is a specialized time and place for them, just too seldom. So, the other day, I began my mission to use the serger for good, so as not to let it pine away under its polyurethane dust cloth.

I had the perfect project – my Sock Summit tee. I had only 2 areas of complaint for Sock Summit. The first was the lack of chairs and lounging surfaces at some of the events, and the other was the somewhat disappointing swag array. Despite being an event almost exclusively attended by women, the organizers chose a boxy unisex shirt to sell to attendees. Of course I had to order one, but I was less than thrilled with the fit. A small would have been more flattering, but I’m changing sizes in the bust and waistline pretty rapidly these days, and I wanted a little room to grow.

unflattering boxy unisex tee, size M

There are a few main differences between a women’s fitted tee and a standard unisex boxy one – the neckline, the sleeve setting, and the side shaping. Because of the desired roominess factor, I decided to leave the third part alone. The following illustrations show the main differences in shaping:

Unisex Tee

Girly Tee

Overlapped:

The compromise:

That’s not to say that my compromise made a particularly flattering shirt. Trust me, making the sides more fitted would have changed this for the better significantly. But I can always do that later, when I’m sure things will continue to fit me. Right now, I want the belly room.

So, how to make these alterations? First, I went and pinned down the slope of the arm inset, and cut as evenly on both sides as I could:

pins along my new armhole

arms off

Then, I cut the sleeves smaller, lining them up the arm holes I’d already cut so that they would fit the holes. Because the new armholes are curved and inset, they’re necessarily larger than the old ones, so in order to use the old sleeves, I’d need to make something of a cap sleeve, cutting on the diagonal. Otherwise, the armhole would bunch up, not very attractive.

little sleeves

Then, to sew. I lined up the sleeve and armhole, turning the body of the shirt inside out so the “right sides” were together, facing each other, and I was looking at the inside of the body. My serger has a teeny “free arm” that allows me to remove the main sewing table and slip a tube up to the needle to sew. Very useful. Using my serger at a pretty medium setting, I sewed both sleeves on, like so:

There’s still a bit of bunching, but this is a lazy, lounge-around shirt, so I didn’t mind so much.

After attaching both sleeves, I decided to widen the collar, by making a serged edge just outside the original collar. I freehanded this, so I don’t actually have good photos. Another freehand job was shortening the sleeves. After trying the shirt on, I thought that the hemmed edge looked a bit frumpy still, so I serged from the armpit around the edge of the sleeves, bringing them a bit closer to the body, and also causing them to ruffle just a bit, for extra cuteness.

In the end, a much more feminine cut, despite leaving the loose and baggy sides (which I’ll really appreciate in upcoming weeks, anyway). A little shabby-chic, which isn’t my usual style, but I think I can pull it off.

By the way, the basic restructuring can be done with a basic straight-stitch machine. Move the sleeves, take in the sides, no problem. Contrary to popular belief, serged stitching doesn’t add extra stretch necessarily. It does keep little annoying frayed edges wrapped up nicely, which is why it gets used for knits/jerseys so much. The serger does a nice job with decorative edging, though. You could zig-zag and trim close on a regular sewing machine for a comparable effect, but it’s not quite the same, and it’s nowhere near as fast to accomplish. The serger is like white lightning!

Ah my serger. Not too expensive (well, $350ish. I think my sense of “expensive,” particularly for tools, is very different than what it used to be), and very effective. I’ve recently learned how to do a blind hem with it! After the disappointment of learning that I could not make the “coverstitch” that you see on the edges of most commercially-hemmed jersey garments (look at the parallel lines at the bottom of your t-shirt) without significantly upgrading my machine or buying a separate unit just for that task, I found the serge-able corollary, and am pretty happy with it. Time to design that long jersey skirt and get going with my autumn sewing (before the quilting bug gets me)!

A Wrap-and-Turn Tutorial

Who could have predicted the popularity of the Nose Cozy? It’s a funny little cone of stockinette, worked using short rows, and perfect to use as a beak, or a false nose, or a witch hat for Barbie…

Well, in my post on the Cozy, I talked a bit about the specifics of wrapping and turning short rows when working in stockinette, as you do for that pattern. But, when I wrote that, I didn’t have the time to go through and make a photo/video tutorial as I would have liked. This, dear readers, is that tutorial. Read on!
A preface: this tutorial is specifically addressing the smoothest way to handle w&t short rows in stockinette, which is not only what you encounter in the Nose Cozy, but also short-row toes/heels when you’re knitting socks, and also the vast majority of short rows in garment shaping (bust “darts” and such). In my experience, the following procedure also works just fine for most lace short-rows where the front side is the “pattern row” and the reverse is mostly purls across. When we start getting into ribbing or garter stitch, however, with purls on the facing side, you may want to seek variants. This is something I hope to tackle in the future, but for now, a tried-and-true approach to stockinette short-rows.

• Following Directions: Work X number of stitches OR until X stitch; wrap and turn (also written w&t).

With short rows, you will have stitches left over on the left when you turn your work around. It may only be one, or it may be most of your row. Keep this in mind.

Now, for the fun part. Once we’ve worked the requisite number of stitches, up to the appropriate place, we’ll be wrapping the following stitch on the left (in the case of the Nose Cozy and most short row toes, the only stitch left on the left). In doing so, we’ll be making a loop that sits snugly around the bottom of the stitch like a choker necklace. This stitch will not actually be knitted or purled, just wrapped and returned to the needle.

what we’re aiming for – a triangle of stitches, with wraps and turns at each edge

1. Start out by bringing the yarn to the opposite side of the work, between the needles. If you’re on the knit side, that means back to front, if you’re purling, then front to back.
2. Slip the unworked stitch to the righthand needle.
3. Bring the yarn back between the needles (knit side – to the back, purl side – to the front). In our case at the end of the row, we’ll just bring the yarn around to the back.
4. Slip the wrapped stitch back to the left needle.
5. Turn your work around, and continue following your pattern, starting with the next stitch on the left. You will inevitably have some stitches on the left and some on the right, unlike normally when you start a row with an empty needle on the right. This is what makes it a “short row” – you don’t work every stitch in the row, but rather turn at some point before the end, in our example, one stitch early.

So we’ve mastered the “wrap and turn” part, following these directions for both the knit and the purl sides. My mantra? Move yarn first. That way, you don’t get confused about what order things happen in – you just move the yarn first.

Move the yarn, move the stitch. Move the yarn back, move the stitch back. Turn.
ommmmmm….

But now you have all these wrapped stitches, and as you continue on, your pattern will ask you to do something like, “work wrapped stitches with their wraps.” Whatever do they mean?

Permit me to take a step back to talk about this conceptually. If you start knitting at one end of a row and only go partway before you turn around and come back, that’s in essence a short row. But in that scenario, you’ll end up with a big ol’ hole at the place where you turned. This is why w&t was invented; the technique eliminates the hole by creating an extra piece of knitting that joins the end of the shorter row with the knitting that continues beyond it. If we wrap and turn all the necessary stitches, we’ve solved part of the problem. But then we have those wraps, which make gaps and sit like purl bumps on our stitches. We can’t have that! So, to have a more flawless appearance, we work the wraps with their stitches – the extra yarn disappears to the back of the work, and smooths everything over.

Let’s look at this in practice.

On the knit side, you knit up to the wrapped stitch, and then, using your right needle, scoop up the wrap from the bottom. Keeping the wrap on the right needle, insert the right needle knitwise into the wrapped stitch. You’ll want to knit these two pieces together, so first readjust so both pieces are on the left needle. To do this, pull your left needle out of the wrapped stitch, and reinsert it in the same direction (toward the front) into both the wrap and the stitch. You should be in k2tog position, so go ahead and work those two together. the wrap is the horizontal piece just below the stitch on the left;
I’m picking it up from the bottom, and will work it together with the stitch

On the purl side, it’s a bit trickier. If you pick up the wrap like you did on the knit side, from the side facing you (the purl side, in this case), you’d end up with an unsightly bump on the face of your knitting. No good. So, we need to approach from the other side. Using the right needle, reach around the back of your work (the knit side) and scoop up the purl from the bottom. Bring the needle around toward the front of the work, and insert it purlwise into the wrapped stitch. Again, you’ll probably need to readjust your left needle, so remove it from the stitch, and reinsert it into both pieces, making sure the left needle ends up in the back, in p2tog position. At this point, you can purl those two pieces together.

looking over the back side (knit side) of the work, and scooping up the horizontal wrap from the bottom (further away from the needles)

For our nose cozy pattern, and for short row toes and heels, after picking up a wrapped stitch, you’ll be asked to wrap and turn the next stitch, which results in a double wrap. Picking up and working a double wrap is just like working a single wrap, except, well, you have two pieces to pick up, so you’ll end up working 3 together, either knitwise or purlwise.

    
a double wrap on the knit side and the purl side

Some techniques benefit greatly from seeing it done – this is one of them. Have a look at the following video to watch the picking up and double-wraps in action:

And there you have it! All the steps needed for making a wrap-and-turn nose cozy. So how does this relate to, say, a sock heel or toe?

Well, if you wanted to start a pair of toe-up socks with a short-row toe, you’d start off by provisionally casting on half the number of stitches you hope for in the final foot (we’re assuming here that you’re making a basic sock where the foot and the ankle have the same number of stitches, not compensating for any sort of stitch pattern. If you are compensating for a stitch pattern, base your stitch number here on stitches/in in stockinette, not in pattern). As an example, we’ll imagine a 60-stitch sock (sock yarn, size 1 needles, should make something like a women’s medium sock). You’d make a provisional cast on of 30 stitches, and my preferred method is the crochet cast on, but you could even do Judy’s magic cast on or a Turkish cast on, and leave the other stitches on another needle…I just prefer not to have that extra needle floating around.

Using those 30 stitches, you’ll work exactly as above. So, in this case, knit across 29, w&t. Purl 28, w&t. Knit 27, w&t…you get the picture. Do this until you have a small number of stitches unwrapped in the center – 10 or so – and then proceed to step two, the picking up and double-wrapping. Once you’ve gotten through all of the stitches, up and down, you’ll have a little toe, and you’re ready to join in the round, unpicking your crocheted cast on or using the other half of Judy’s Magic or the Turkish cast on.

Simple as that!

Knitting with Beads – a tutorial

For all of you lace knitters out there, there may come a day when the addition of beads is desirable, if not absolutely necessary to make you happy, to fulfill your sparkly knitting dreams. And once you start looking, you’ll see that you have a number of options out there on how to achieve this effect.

1) the Pre-Strung approach
One option is to start off by threading all of your beads onto your yarn before you start a project, and when you approach the stitch to knit, you slide a bead up between the needles and onto the piece of working yarn you’ll use to work the stitch.

Beading needles are made of thin, twisted wire, and are about 3″ long

First thread the yarn onto the needle, then the beads go on.

when you get to a stitch that requires a bead, slide a bead up between the needles on the working yarn

Here, the beads are sitting on YOs, adjacent to k2togs…

…and when they’re knitted with YOs atop them on the purl side, they float delicately on a single strand.

Advantages: In double-sided lace patterns (that is, where you’re making YOs on both sides of the work, instead of purling straight across the back), this will allow the beads to float on a single strand of yarn, for a very delicate, beautiful effect. Some patterns really need this to shine. Also, your beads are all strung, so you don’t have to worry about loading them in as you go, spilling them all over the place when you’re trying to knit distractedly (I’m sure that every beader has their own story of a spilled-bead catastrophe). Also, unlike the following techniques, if you have to rip any of your knitting back, your beads stay put instead of cascading around the room. A distinct advantage.

Disadvantages: First, you need to take the time to thread all the beads on. Realistically, this could be upwards of 1000 beads, depending on your project. For reference, the Aeolian Shawl uses 850 beads for the small version and 2250 for the larger, and it doesn’t use beads particularly densely. Then, you need to keep these beads orderly on the yarn. For more reference, size 6 seed beads (largish, best for sock-weight knitting) string about 8 beads to an inch. You do the math – that’s 3 yards of beads for something like the small Aeolian, and almost 8 yards of beads for the larger. (note, the Aeolian does not use this technique for incorporating beads – the numbers presented here are for perspective alone) Not only do you need to keep these strung beads orderly, but you need to be able to pull the working yarn through them. That means that every inch of yarn you knit could be traveling through 8 yards (24 feet! 288 inches!) of beads, which, as they’re made of glass, might snag, shred, or otherwise sully your yarn. I’m presenting the worst-case scenario, but it’s not an unrealistic one.

A neutral point on pre-strung beads: you’ll find that this technique makes the bead sit on half of the knitted stitch, on a diagonal, and with a tendency to fall either to the front of the work or the back. As previously mentioned in the Advantages, this can be a desired effect, leading to ethereally floating beads, but in other patterns can be undesirable, particularly if you’d prefer your beads to sit solidly on both legs of a stitch and stay evenly-placed between the front and back of the work.

Here, I’ve placed beads on regular knit stitches…

…and you’ll see how they naturally fall unevenly. This is just how it worked out, I didn’t force them to do that.

You can, of course, straighten them out, but you’ll see that they can flop right back.

So, after considering this option, you may be interested in a different method of beading.

2) the “hook and scoop” approach (aka the Crochet method)
So let’s say you want that bead to sit squarely in the middle of a stitch, and you don’t fancy pre-stringing the beads. How the heck do you get the bead onto the stitch if it’s not on the yarn? Answer #1 – tiny crochet hook.

Method: Knit up to the stitch you’d like to place a bead onto. Using a small steel crochet hook, scoop up one bead, then hook that stitch with your small crochet hook and slip it off the left needle, slip the bead over the yarn loop so it sits snugly at the base of the stitch, and return the stitch to the left needle to be worked as normal. (Note: You can insert the crochet hook into the stitch knit-wise or purl-wise without any difference, just don’t twist the stitch; when you return the stitch to the left needle, insert the left needle into the front of the stitch, i.e. in front of the left leg, behind the right leg.)

Photos, followed by a YouTube video of the process in action:

first, scoop the bead

then, hook the stitch… …slip the stitch off the left needle, pull the bead over…

…and return the stitch to the left needle, making sure it’s not twisted (right leg in front is correct).

Then, knit the beaded stitch…
(my previous stitch is a YO, which is why the yarn’s coming from the front)

…to get a result like this!

And in live action:

Nota bene: If your pattern calls for you to place a bead on a decrease stitch, you may have to place the bead on an unworked stitch that’s one or two stitches away from the gap in the needles (if you want the bead to show on top, it needs to sit on whatever stitch of the decrease ends up on top). For example, to work a k3tog, you’ll want the bead on the third stitch in, so slip two stitches, place the bead on the third stitch, slip the two slipped stitches back, then work your k3tog. For a s2kp, the middle stitch (second one in) ends up on top, so slip one, place the bead, slip back.

Reference Frame: Where do I place my bead for this decrease?
(note, these are all on the knit side, without their purly counterparts, for good reason. Beads will naturally fall to the knit side of a decrease stitch)

place bead on 1st stitch: ssk; skp (a.k.a. sl1, k1, psso) , sk2p (a.k.a. sl1 k2tog psso); k2tog tbl
(essentially, those decreases where you slip the first stitch, which eventually gets passed over the others, or where you are are working multiple stitches through the back loop)

place bead on 2nd stitch: k2tog; s2kp (centered double decrease)

place bead on 3rd stitch: k3tog

So you’ve figured out where to place the bead, and knowing is half the battle. But sometimes we run into problems. For example, when I say tiny crochet hook, I mean teeny tiny. Size 10 is the absolute largest I’d go, and it works ok for size 6 seed beads, but is too big for my 8s or 10s. Size 14 is better in terms of the beads, and should be grand if you’re using a tightly-spun laceweight or cobweb yarn, but might cause problems grabbing hold of the whole strand if you’re using something thicker or fuzzier. One suggestion I have is, particularly if you’re using larger beads, to try a Knit Picker. It’s a teeny-tiny latchhook, and after you put the yarn into the hook you flip the little gate, so your yarn gets locked in place while pulling the bead over. My Knit Picker is too large to fit in size 6 beads, but if you’re using fat yarn and pony beads, you may have luck.

an assortment of tools (including an improvised teeny crochet hook for size 8 beads)
notice that for real seed beads, you’re going to have a hard time using a hook.

Another problem you may encounter is that although it may be easy enough to get your hook into the bead, getting the hook and the doubled-over yarn through the bead’s orifice might just not be happening. You might try a smaller crochet hook, or using a length of dental floss or tigertail (coated metal thread used for beading). These last two techniques are in essence the same as the Flosser technique, so I’ll hold off on explaining them here, as I touch on them a bit later.

the same process with the tiny hook
note, the bead is already on the hook, but my thumb is obscuring it in this photo

pulling the stitch through the bead

color aside, have a look at the different effects using different sized beads on laceweight

Other problems to this method are that it’s laborious and potentially messy, as you’ve got an open container of beads that you’re regularly fishing one out of with a tiny hook. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this can both be exhausting (you mean I need to be able to SEE where the hole in the bead is?) and a recipe for disaster, especially in a house with cats, small children, or strong breezes.

So this is where I suggest solution 3. I dare say it’s brilliant, and I wish I could take credit for it myself, but someone out there certainly came up with this first. I can only hope to spread the knowledge around.

3) the Flosser method

Method: Go to your local health and beauty aisle, and find a package of 3-in-1 flossers. Oral B calls it Super Floss; it’s got a long, slightly stiff flossy part, a spongy, thick part in the middle, and a shorter, stiffer threader. $3.50 got me a 50-pack of generic flossers (in mint flavor – yum!) from CVS. Thread one bead onto the floss, slip it all the way to the end of the long flossy part, and tie it on securely (to prevent other beads from slipping off this end). Thread more beads on from the stiff end, as many as you like, so long as they all fit on the long flossy bit and the spongy bit. The spongy part will compress where the beads are, but expand where they aren’t, keeping them safely in place and not all around the kitchen table.all set up and ready to go

look how I can shamelessly taunt the cat, and the beads don’t fall off!

Then, when you need to place a bead, thread the stiff end through your stitch. Slide a bead up off of the sponge toward the tip, and when it’s about an inch away from your stitch, thread the stiff part through the bead, headed toward the spongy part. Slip the stitch off the left needle, pull the bead down over the stitch, replace the stitch, and remove the floss.

Again, photos, with video following:

floss goes in

double back and bring a bead up

slip the bead over the end

slide the bead onto the stitch

replace the stitch onto the left needle to be worked

And, in living color:

A similar effect can be reached using plain (unwaxed!) dental floss or beading wire/tigertail, without the distinct advantage of being able to fearlessly store many beads at the ready. Personally, I find regular dental floss to be a bit too limp, and tigertail too thick with its plastic coating, whereas the stiffness of the flossers is just right for my liking. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Knitting mid-air

For at least a decade now, people have been asking me about bringing knitting needles onto an airplane. Because really, people like to travel, and like to knit during long periods of monotonous sitting to while away the hours in-flight, or between connections, or in line for coffee. And with the cost of checking baggage these days, most people I know try to squeeze into one carry-on and one personal item whenever possible, eliminating the opportunity to “just check your knitting stuff.”

So today I’d like to talk a bit about flying with knitting, and present you with some facts, some anecdotes, and some tips for the itinerant knitter.

Let me start with a blanket statement. TSA allows knitting needles, crochet hooks, and most needlepoint equipment in your carry-on luggage.

Quoting from tsa.gov:

Transporting Knitting Needles & Needlepoint

Knitting needles are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage.

Items needed to pursue a Needlepoint project are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage with the exception of circular thread cutters or any cutter with a blade contained inside which cannot go through the checkpoint and must go in your checked baggage.

Yes, folks, that picture of Susan Bates size 7, 13″ long aluminum poke-your-neighbors’-eyes-out-while-you-knit needles is courtesy of the TSA website itself.  And if they’re not afraid of those, then they’re not afraid of the toothpicks you’re making that sock on.

You know what’s also allowed on planes? Crochet hooks. And sewing needles. And, guess what…FOLDING SCISSORS. Or any pair of scissors with a blade 4″ or less. Pointed or rounded, doesn’t matter (and this has been the case since 2005, folks). And nail clippers. And lots of other things with little sharp points and blades and whatnot. Just don’t bring a boxcutter or a circular thread cutter pendant, and you should be fine.

Now, I’ve been giving people this advice for years, but still playing it safe when it comes to my own travel. I generally have put extra DPNs and interchangeable tips into a pencil case with my writing utensils, and if I’m using interchangeable circulars on a project, I might even take the tips off until I get through security, again, stashing them in the pencil case. I’ve been more inclined to work with wooden needles when traveling (and, they’re cheaper to replace). I would avoid bringing scissors, figuring that I could tear the yarn with my bare hands if push came to shove.  But I recently traveled to Portland, OR for a knitting convention, and figured that if there were any time to push the limits, this was it.

So, I brought my knitting stuff. A collection of sock needles (both DPNs and small fixed circulars), crochet hooks, scissors, works in progress, etc. Have a look at all the things I brought in my hand luggage through security:

Whatcha lookin’ at? I like to knit socks!

Long circs in size 0, 1, and 2; Crochet hooks in size 10 and D; DPNs in size 0, 1, 1.5, and 4; darning needle; nail clippers; tweezers; and of course, the scissors.

And, let’s not forget the other needles that either started out or ended up in projects:

Circs in size 2 and 3; size 3 DPNs

Take note: that was going to Portland. I mention it, because returning, I added this:

It’s 9.5″ long, and sharp enough to draw blood (see my Sock Summit post to see that yes, in fact, an identical spindle did draw blood). It’s a Russian supported spindle, and it’s a bit scary.

Now, I was a little concerned about the spindle. I bet if I’d gotten a grumpy TSA agent, that wouldn’t have slipped through. As it was, though, no one batted an eyelash.

This raises an important point, though. Like it or not, at the end of the day the individual TSA agent you’ve encountered is in charge, and it’s his or her job to keep air travel safe, so if that person thinks your knitting is a problem, then you’re out of luck. I’ve heard knitters bringing along a printout of the page above that says that knitting needles are allowed, and if that makes you feel more justified and a bit safer then I wouldn’t tell you not to, but my reckoning is that, if I’ve butted heads with an irate security agent who wants to confiscate my knitting needles as a matter of personal and national security, I don’t know that I want to be the smart aleck who tells him that he’s wrong, implying that I know his job better than he does. Someone with the gift of tact could probably maneuver that situation with a fair amount of grace, and perhaps sweetly convince the agent to let them keep the needles, but me? I don’t think it would end well, so I opt for the path of surrender. I’ll insist on my right to opt out of the backscatter machines, but I’ll let the knitting needles go if it comes to that. I will say, I don’t have $55 needles (cough, Signatures, cough) to fly with, and I always have a book to read. So, not the end of the world.

I’ll address another story of “what knitters do” as back-up plans if they get a grumpy TSA agent! Another “plan,” now more of an  urban legend, is to bring a padded, stamped mailer to ship the needles or other items back to yourself. Sorry, folks, but this plan would only work in a pre-9/11 world, when you’d find stamp machines and mailboxes within airports, so you could send a postcard to your sweetie en route. These days, you’d never find such a thing, so if you put all your needles in the padded, stamped bag, you’ll just have to deal with the agent throwing away your padded, stamped bag. Tough noogies.

My final caveat is an important one: everything I’ve said here applies to air travel originating in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Transportation Security Administration. Once you leave the States, these rules no longer apply, and you’re at the mercy of either the country or the airline of the departing flight. Not having flown out of every country under the sun, and not really being in a position to create an exhaustive, up-to-date list of what policies are like elsewhere, I’ll only mention those instances that I’ve had personal experience with. Generally, I haven’t had problems. Russia has always been fine, and the UK allows knitting and sewing needles. Dublin, however, explicitly prohibits knitting needles. So does the Prague airport. Not wanting to make waves, I didn’t try to push my luck with either flight, and I was checking baggage both times, so tucked my knitting inside.

Bottom line is, try to check the websites of those airports you’re traveling from before you go. This could be particularly important if you’re transferring between different international flights, and will need to clear security more than once, in different countries. If you can’t find any info online about the places you’re leaving from, and the airlines also can’t provide information for you, I recommend playing it safe, and bringing as innocuous needles as you can muster/sneak (wooden DPNs in a pencil case, or metal needles tucked into the spine of a book, for example), or put them in your checked baggage. But, in the USA, you shouldn’t encounter problems, so knit away!

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, happily knitting mid-air (she’s a thrower!)

Sock Summit – A debriefing

It’s been a week since Sock Summit, and while my life will never quite be the same, things have returned to a sense of normalcy, such that I’m in a position to fill you all in on the wonders I saw, the experience in a nutshell, and my reflections.

In a word, I had a wonderful time.

I arrived in Portland late at night on a Tuesday, and had an hour and a half to go 20 miles, to get to my hostel before their registration closed. I’d chosen this hostel because it was in a nice, vibrant neighborhood, cost an affordable $31 a night (even cheaper if you’re a HI member), and was only a couple of miles from the Oregon Convention Center, where Sock Summit was taking place. It was a great decision, and I absolutely loved the hostel and the neighborhood it was in, as well as the commute back and forth (more on this in a minute), but getting to this hostel at 11pm was tricky, because the MAX, Portland’s light rail system, doesn’t run with much frequency at night, and by Google Maps’ reckoning, I wouldn’t make it on time. So, I investigated cabs, but seeing that I’d be charged something like $50, I found that the Blue Star transport company runs a downtown express shuttle on the half hour for $14. And then I’d be only half a mile from the hostel, and could walk or taxi from there. It was a great plan, and having previewed my walk on Google Street View, I felt comfortable with hoofing it, even at 11:15 PM. I got to the hostel, settled into my bunk bed, and fell asleep to the oceanic sounds of a sleeping lady, snoring loudly across the room.

The neighborhood near the NW Hostel, between the Alphabet and Pearl Districts

Wednesday had three goals – to pick up my rental bicycle (aka trusty steed), meet my Aunt Christine for lunch, and to get my registration packet at the Convention Center. These were all uneventfully accomplished. I took a lovely walk in the sunshine to the waterfront where I found Waterfront Bicycles (aptly named, that), picked up my little hybrid, and tooled around the waterfront bike path a bit. I did end up swapping the bike out for one a bit larger, and without squeaky disc brakes, but then I was off! I went back to my hostel to meet Christine, and we had a lovely lunch at Papa Haydn (the best part was the Marionberry Lime tart we shared for dessert – delicious!). I spent some time resting up at the hostel, then biked down to the Convention Center to start the Sock Summit festivities! I grabbed my registration materials, and met up with a group of knitters who’d prearranged to go out for dinner. I was about to join them, until I realized that the wave of exhaustion had truly hit me, and that I wouldn’t be able to hold up particularly well. I dashed off home instead, made a run to Trader Joe’s to stock up on provisions, and called it an early night.

Thursday was Day 1! I didn’t have anything at the CC until 1:30, so I spent the morning exploring the neighborhood a bit, and visiting the famous Portland Food Carts downtown. Lunch was a gyro from a mediterranean cart, and was enjoyed on the grass by the water. Then, for the knitting to begin!

My first class was Making the Next Monkey with Amy Singer, editor of Knitty. She’s a wonderful conversationalist, and really compelling to listen to. The information she gave was, admittedly, a bit specific to her publication – less about how to be Cookie A and make revolutionary, world-changing, über-popular designs, more about how to take your awesome design and get it into the format that Knitty needs. Still very interesting. The best part was seeing the “before” shots of popular designs, including those by Cookie A. The girl really didn’t know how to take an interesting photo, which would be surprising for anyone who’s familiar with her iconic Pomatomus and Monkey shots.

Then – the MARKETPLACE. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, knitters, but the line was incredible – stretching down the corridor, around the corner, into a different exhibit hall, looping back on itself a few times. I’d make a conservative estimate of 500 people in that line at the point when I joined it, waiting for the marketplace to open. Could have been much more than that who arrived in the minutes after the place opened up.

Waiting patiently…plopped down on the floor and knitting, the way things should be.
But see how the line just..keeps..going?

And when the doors opened, it was like the gates of paradise – you could hear harps and the angelic host… and the screams of the mob at GothSocks, being trampled and squashed (and elbowed, scratched, and shoved) as the dyer tried to meet demand, lobbing skeins of fluorescent-and-black striping yarn to the feverish mob. I kept my distance, and having heard some of the horror stories of those who met bodily harm in the chaos, I’m glad I did! On the way into the Marketplace, we were greeted by the Sockgate…just to prove that yes, some knitters are big dorks, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We were sharing the CC with OSCon, the Open Source convention, so I think the east side of Portland was mightily geeked out for a few days.

Yes, those are charted knitting symbols around the perimeter…

I made my way with bated breath to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth in the back corner, home of Socks that Rock. I picked up two skeins of StR lightweight – one in a summery blue and green, the other with green, purple, and fuchsia, and fondled a whole lot of others. But, the marketplace was large, and I didn’t want to burn out too quickly – in the first minutes! I did end up returning to this booth on a later day to snag a skein of StR in “Pond Scum” green – a perennial favorite of mine.

Pond scum never looked so lovely.

Next I picked up my “swag” – a tee-shirt and button I’d purchased at the time of registration, and then started my more aimless wandering around the marketplace. One of the first stops I made was the Ancient Arts Fibre Craft booth. The proprietress, Caroline, was warm and helpful, and I was immediately taken by their “Tibetan fusion” Russian supported spindles. Like a Russian, but with a more angular whorl, and made out of a variety of woods, not just the super-light woods that Russians traditionally come in. I was playing around with them, when one span right out of my control, and as I thrust my left hand out to catch it, I pricked myself on the spindle’s tip! Luckily, no Sleeping Beauty story ensued, just a little bit of blood loss (that I tried to hide for fear that people would freak out about bodily fluids and injuries…). But, for those of you who wonder how Sleeping Beauty could have possibly pricked herself on a spindle, it’s because when you use some spindles (including those used on certain spinning wheels without orifices, c.f. walking wheels), you draft off the sharp, pointy tip of the spindle, not off a hook or orifice. And, as the adjectives “sharp” and “pointy” would imply, these things mean business, and can puncture you if you’re being clumsy. Lesson learned.

Pointy, right?

I took home this Bubinga wood beauty (incidentally, not the bloodthirsty one), and continued my tour de marketplace.

The place was too large and overwhelming to go into much detail on, as you can imagine, but I did get to see some beautiful yarn, much of which I let someone else take home. Hazel Knits was one shop I was very impressed with. Jennie the Potter had a mob scene (selling limited-edition Sock Summit coffee mugs), but I managed to get a lovely knit-patterned pendant. Sanguine Gryphon had the longest line I’d seen, but it was an orderly chaos, and I took home a skein of orange Skinny Bugga. Signature Needles had a line to rival Sanguine Griffin, with their hand-machined needles. Ultra-precise, carefully crafted for the knitter in mind. $55 for a set of 5 DPNs! I decided to wait (and unfortunately, when I returned on Sunday, they had sold out of the size I wanted! You snooze, you lose!). Blackthorn needles was there too, representing the other approach to high-tech knitting tools, with their carbon fiber needles. These were seriously impressive. I loved the stiletto tips of the Signatures, but the lightweight flexibility, and warm natural texture of the Blackthorns was really tempting. But, alas, they didn’t bring many sets of 5″ needles (their standard DPN size is 6″, and I really prefer the shorter length), so I ended up passing (and ordering them online when I got home…).

My ceramic pendant from Jennie the Potter

Some local folks had also made the journey out West! A big shout out to Stephanie at Dirty Water Dyeworks, who is based out of Arlington, MA, and who I keep running into – at Common Cod’s Fiber Camp, at the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl, at Gather Here’s Pints and Purls, and now, in Portland, OR! She makes lovely colors, and if I didn’t have 2 skeins of her wool sitting in my yarn basket, I probably would have taken home more! Also, I was pleased to see WEBS of Northampton, MA making an appearance, showing off the fact that not only are they an internet powerhouse, but also a yarn shop with real, nice people and good stock. East Coast represent.

The Marketplace was also home to the demos – I caught a bit of the Fastest Knitter competition between classes on Friday, but missed everything else, including the amazing Fleece to Foot competition, where they went from Sheep to Sock in a day’s work. No team actually finished their socks, but it made for a good show, I hear! The Oregonian did a nice writeup of the highlights here. For those of you who haven’t seen sheep shearing, you can see the Sock Summit shearing videos on Youtube: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. Also in the Marketplace was the World’s Largest Sock project. It’s about 7 meters around, and is a large circular project with a dozen or so needles in it that keeps moving around from fiber festival to knitterly event. The currently-sleepy blog documenting the project can be seen at big-sock.blogspot.com.

That’s one big sock…

I’ve already commented on Amy Singer’s class, but that wasn’t the only one I took. On Friday, I was in class all day with Cookie A herself, talking about how to take sock knitting off the grid, and make a stitch pattern travel around the foot in an interesting manner. In retrospect, it wasn’t all that earth-shattering, but I did get some good ideas about sock shaping, particularly around the gusset. Here’s the little sample sock I made, that has two traveling patterns intersecting at the side of the foot:

Hard to see, but there’s a pattern traveling diagonally across the ribbing,
and one also starting at the picked-up heel flap and moving up over the front of the foot.

Saturday I had a day with Nancy Bush, who was teaching us Twined Knitting. Well, I should have done my research, because it turns out that I know how to do twined knitting already. In fact, my friend Doris had asked for help with a twined pattern (called, in this instance, a Latvian plait), and I dissected it and even posted instructions on YouTube for her, so one could say I’ve even taught twined knitting. So, perhaps a waste of money. But, I met some great knitter friends, and did enjoy Nancy Bush’s quaint pseud0-traditionalism. A side-note from the files: somewhere I’d gotten the idea that she was ancient, but no, she’s just a regular middle-aged woman, probably in her late 50s or very early 60s (she maintains a very small internet footprint, so I’ve been unable to dig up anything to confirm her age, except that she started her fiber arts company, Wooly West, in 1980). I will say that I’m pleased to be able to make the lovely embossed chain stitch from the twined knitting, but the “technique” that we spent 6 hours working on (and $150, plus materials fees for which we were overcharged) can mostly be summed up as, “like 2-color fair-isle, except that you twist the yarn at every stitch like intarsia. And you don’t need 2 colors, you can use two ends of the same color.” Not rocket science.

The chains are pretty, though.

My fourth class, on Sunday morning, was the most wholly informative, full of new information: Introduction to Natural Dyeing with Kristine Vejar, of A Verb for Keeping Warm. It was great – she had lots of yarn, plants, extracts, and information to share, as well as a powerpoint to walk us through the Indigo dyeing process. It certainly would have been better to get the hands-on experience of working with her in her studio, playing with the dyepots and mixing colors, but sometimes you can’t bring in hotplates and chemicals and drying racks and dyes into a convention center. I get that. (Although, they did manage to bring in live sheep. Just sayin’.) I’m particularly excited to give this a try now that I learned that, with the exception of the indigo dyeing process (and wode, another insoluble dye that also makes an excellent blue), the dyestuffs are totally non-toxic, so I won’t be so shy about playing with them. And, Sock Summit had a silent auction to benefit Doctors Without Borders, and I “won” the natural dyeing kit that Kristine had put together, with madder root, logwood, and fustic, as well as more instructions and some bare superwash merino. So, I’m soon to be on my way!

Hooray for dyestuffs!

Outside of the classes, I had some great experiences with my fellow knitters. I visited some lovely yarn shops in Portland, a city that is embarrassingly rich with good yarn shops. Urban Fiber Arts, Knit/Purl, and Happy Knits all got visited, and at Knit/Purl I took home a cone of Habu Textile’s Bamboo Copper, which shines beautifully now, although I fear it may oxidize to green! Happy Knits hosted a wonderful party on Saturday night, with beer, cake (amazing cake), fudge, karaoke, raffles, and the one thing that surprisingly had been lacking in my Sock Summit experience – a social venue to chat and knit. The space in all three stores, but especially Happy Knits, was amazing (so, too, is Yarn Garden, down the street, which I didn’t make it to this trip, but visited in 2008). I envy Portland for its affordable real estate and sprawling spaces…and wonderful community of knitters that makes it possible for all these stores and more to thrive in close proximity to one another!

This fellow Raveller enjoyed Voodoo Donuts’ “Cock and Balls.”  I opted for the slightly less risqué Bacon Maple bar (with strips of real bacon) and French Cruller.

Thanks to Ravelry, I was able to visit some great (and delicious) meet-ups – one to Voodoo Donuts on Friday morning, and then to a Dim-Sum lunch on Saturday afternoon. Having a bicycle made it particularly convenient to duck back and forth over the bridge to the Convention Center and back downtown, and the weather couldn’t have been nicer. When I last visited Portland, I’d noticed how omnipresent the biking infrastructure was – bike hitching posts at both ends of every block downtown, bike lanes colored fluorescent green in particularly tricky spots, separate lanes and paths for pedestrians and bikes to share. In my 6 days on bike in Portland, averaging 5+ downtown, high-traffic city miles each day, I never once felt like my person was in danger. Anyone who bikes the greater Boston area will know how opposite that is from the situation in our city, where you’re often lucky if you can go a mile on city streets without having to drive extremely defensively to avoid aggressive (or clueless) cars, jaywalking pedestrians, and other cyclists who show blatant disregard for the rules of traffic. It was a lovely change of pace (and helped restore my blood pressure to its normal, mellow levels, after Boston started to invoke more and more rage)!

The final segment of this chronicle is, of course, a recounting of the FLASH MOB. Wh-what, you may ask? Yes, the flash mob. For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, the idea is, in a crowded place, all of a sudden, a group of people appear from nowhere, do something together, and then disperse, bewildering onlookers and making a sensation. Choreographed dances are particularly good for this, as they make it seem like suddenly you’re in the midst of a lyric opera…pretty cool, right?

The idea was a good one, but the problem is that it was organized, well, by the Official Sock Summit Organizers. And the Organizers have liabilities. So, while the coolest thing would have been to have renegade knitters appear in the center of downtown, or at the Brewers’ Festival, and do their thing in front of completely unsuspecting strangers, it didn’t make organizational sense. How do you get everyone there and back efficiently? What happens if someone sprains their ankle or has heat exhaustion or some other medical concern? We need to have it somewhere near the Convention Center for transportation efficiency (even though the CC is in the middle of nowhere). And that way, we can have the music set up in a safe place, and have EMTs on hand in case they’re needed. More responsible…and less awesome. But I dig responsibility, and I don’t want to knock it. I’ve been in that place before. I’m just saying that the Flash Mob was really more a pre-arranged demonstration of sock knitters’ choreographed singing and dancing, and less “flash” “mob.” Because 15 minutes before the scheduled start time, everyone was filling the area, lining up, making it perfectly clear that something was up (and obvious enough that CC management went around warning people not to fall off walls and into ditches). So, we were sunk into a recessed area away from the street (and shielded from view), subdivided by a pagoda with a bell in it (such that you can’t see our true numbers).

But, the hour came, and by golly, if we didn’t have a knitterly flash mob of our own!

Sylvi’s done!

Short post today, but I can’t not share. Sylvi is DONE! Knit, seamed, flowers sewn down, lining made and sewn in, pockets knit, lined, and crocheted down, buttons and toggles attached, done.

16 skeins of ruby red Cascade 220 Superwash (color 893), 2.5 yards of Amy Butler Full Moon Polka Dots in Cherry, 4 horn toggles, 2 horn buttons for the cuffs, and a few months of work.

The knitting on this took no time – I was working on size 9 needles with the yarn doubled, and it knit up quick. But, the pieces were large, so it wasn’t a very portable project most of the time, and for those of you who know me, I like to work on the go. Then, the lining was a hurdle that, while easy enough to execute, kept me guessing for some time.

Eventually I just traced out the pattern, spent an afternoon sewing, and voila, it was done! I was most nervous about the arm holes, as raglan shaping isn’t something that translates well to the rigidity of woven fabrics. To compensate, I added a 2″ box pleat in between the shoulders along the back (similarly to the way many men’s jackets are lined, or the way men’s shirts have a pleat under the yoke). This way, when I bend forward or reach my arms out, I’m not worrying about putting undue stress on the arm seams, or restricting my movement. Along with sewing the lining to the knit jacket along all the outer edges, I’ve also tacked the knitting to the lining in several places – at the center of the flowers, along the edges, at the armpits, and at the peak of the hood. This helps keep the knitting in the right shape, and prevents the lining from bulging over the edges as it’s tempted to do.

Some comments on the pattern. I lengthened the back (redoubling the small oval section of the middle back chart) and added an extra flower to compensate for the gap. I didn’t like the doubled leaves in the mid-back of the original, and I was concerned about row gauge. In the end, the weight of the knitting helped the project stretch, so it’s longer than I had planned, but the lining adds the extra stability and shape to it. I changed the direction of the cross of one of the early cables to enhance the symmetry, but otherwise, I mostly behaved and followed directions.

I’m really happy with the results – all 5lbs of them!

More details and photos of the jacket in progress, with link to the pattern, are available on my Ravelry project page: http://ravel.me/gnochistickate/s1

 

Melting away in Boston

I’ve never been a big fan of the heat. The one year I begged my parents to let me go to the municipal day camp, I spent the bulk of the time hiding under trees with a book, trying to ward off heat stroke, and looking for any excuse to spend time in the air-conditioned rec room. At least in my own recollection, I was the pudgy, whining geek who wilted above 80 degrees.

Things have improved a bit, thank goodness. I can now run a mile in good time without having to take walking breaks. I’ve found a path in life where sitting apart from the crowd with a stack of arcane books is praised, not scorned. Life is good, and I wouldn’t relive adolescence for anything in the world. But I still am not a sun-worshipper, and I still start to droop as the thermostat rises. And baby, it’s hot outside – heat index of 108 as I write.

The weather has certainly taken a toll on my ability to do, well, just about anything. I’d sit in the swimming pool all day if I had one, sipping on lemonades and listening to podcasts. It’s so bad that I don’t feel like knitting. Seriously, can you imagine?

Luckily, all this will change. No, the weather’s slated to hold steady, but next week, I’m headed to cooler climes – to….Sock Summit!

I’ve mentioned Sock Summit before, but let me take a few moments to elaborate on its goodness. For the second time ever, a group of sock knitters (more than 1800 individuals, as best I’m able to discern) from the whole world over will gather in Portland, Oregon, to convene, to knit, to teach, to learn, to peddle wares, to purchase wares, and above all, to celebrate a craft and our favorite footwear – knitted socks!

Now, some of you may think this borders on fanatical, and I would hardly deny you that. If I were a Portlandian, of course I’d want to go to a local knitting convention. But to fly across the country (with gas at these prices!), spending a week in a youth hostel, shelling out a fair amount on workshops over the course of 4 days, not knowing anyone attending – all for a hobby? I admit, it borders on “much”. But this ridiculous trip continues to be the most anticipated event on the horizon, and I frankly can’t wait.

Loyal readers will have seen my post about the Bayerische socks I just finished, which will make a star appearance in my wardrobe, as will other favorites – my Interlocking Leaves, my Clessandras, and either my Jaywalkers or the Monkeys. With only 4 days of Sock Summit, I have to be selective about what socks make the cut! I also have to add another project to the works – a lovely pair of socks, made especially for my ITFF secret swap partner (who is going to be getting a lot of lovely things, and perhaps more from SS11!).

Although my knitting mojo has been low, I certainly haven’t given it up entirely, and despite the heat, have been working hard on a couple of big projects. Bayerisches got finished, Sylvi is truly almost done (pockets on, lining sewn in…just needs to be tacked down in any number of places), and an old project is nearing completion (but no spoilers on that one). And, I’ve started a number of new things, too – a lovely Estonian lace stole in MadelineTosh Pure Silk Lace (it’s like buttah) as a shop model for Stitch House, a fun geometric blanket, and an entrelac baby sweater of my own design. Hopefully I can get some of these things finished sooner rather than later (but there’s always the airplane ride to and from the West Coast to look forward to)!

Socks on the mind

First things first – they’re done!

Eunny Jang’s Bayerische socks had been in my “to knit” list ever since I found them…in 2006. In January 2010, I bought the yarn for them off a Ravelry user – 2 skeins of Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano Red – and earmarked them for a Ravelympics project. We may need to back up for some of you; Ravelry is an online community for knitters and crocheters, and is awesome. The Ravelympics happen whenever the Olympics are on – you commit to knitting a project during the course of the Games. Well, I didn’t quite expect to get these done during the Olympics, but I had hoped to use that as an impetus to get started on a long-awaited project.

So, in February of 2010, I set to work. Newly-enamored with the Widdershins heel from my Interlocking Leaves project finished the month before (pattern here, my project on Rav here), I decided I’d work the pattern toe-up. And, because I’m a loose knitter and drop down a needle size on everything, I figured I should go from a 0 down to a 00, just to be safe. And set to work…and got pretty far:

And then, I realized I wasn’t happy. One problem was the size. I’d been so anxious to turn the heel that I did so just a bit too soon, and the toes felt cramped. And on the 00 needles, the luscious softness of Malabrigo Sock was lost, feeling stiff and inelastic. They were like cardboard compared to the Interlocking Leaves, and people couldn’t believe it was the same yarn. I was feeling dejected. So I put them away for a while…

side note: this is a teachable moment – gauge is not absolute. The gauge given for a particular pattern does not correspond to some golden mean, it most likely corresponds to the designer’s own gauge, particularly in a self-published pattern that hasn’t been test-knit and run through an editorial board. And, in this case, I’d forgotten that although Eunny Jang is a superstar and an amazingly fast knitter, she’s also a loose knitter, just like me, and that her gauge and mine are pretty interchangeable on her patterns. D’oh!

And then I took pretty pictures, and ripped them out. Rip rip rip. My husband was cringing, asking if I couldn’t salvage them, but no, I couldn’t, and away they went, back into the skein, into the sink to soak, and rolled back into a new ball to start over, top-down, size 0. Re-started sock 1 in September ’10, finished at the end of April ’11 (amidst a flurry of other knitting in the middle, Sylvi coat included).

Then, I realized I had a deadline – Sock Summit! You’ll certainly be hearing more from me about this convention of sock knitters (only 2 weeks away!), but for now, suffice it to say that I wanted my knee-high beauties done for the end of July. So, I balled up skein #2, cast on, and went at it, full force. I got to the calf decreases, compared to the first sock to make sure I’d done the same number of repeats, and noticed something horrible. Terrible!

The second sock, with the exact same number of rows, was about 1″ too short, at only a third of the way completed.

ARGHHH*&+@^~*+&%$=#<@#!>!&kersplat…

But, denial is my friend. Oh yes. “Maybe it’ll stretch in the wash.” “I haven’t tried it on as many times as the other one, so it’s probably going to stretch out.” “It doesn’t bother me.” Ha…ha..ha. So, I continued knitting on the sock for another month. And then I bit the bullet, and ripped it all out again, skeined up the yarn, washed it, dried it, rolled it into another ball, and set out for the last time.

I started sock #2 on June 12ish, while on vacation at J’s parents’ house, and I had a couple of hours of uninterrupted knitting each day, which helped significantly. I was in the zone, knocking out an inch of Bavarian twisted cable stitches an hour. I kept at it solidly (well, knitting a few things in the meanwhile), and finally, they’re done, with plenty of time for Sock Summit!

The Great Rhody Yarn Crawl (with pictures)

WAY BACK in April, I took part in one of the most fun and foolhardy experiences of the year, the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl. 15 yarn stores in 2 days, all across the little state of Rhode Island. I had totally intended to photograph all the places I visited, and totally failed at that, but did get some good shots and some great experiences! It’s been a few months, now, so the impressions I present here are the ones that were truly lasting. I hope you enjoy my knitting travelogue across the state of Rhode Island as much as I enjoyed the experience, and for anyone near RI, I highly recommend it for next year – it’s already in my calendar, April 13-15!

Day 1

And so it begins…

Knitting Needles
555 Thames St, Newport

This shop is down off the main drag of Newport, and as the first stop on my epic adventure, set the standards for what was to follow. It was cheery and colorful, and the owner was really welcoming (considering I was there just minutes after the shop opened). The visit was sweetened by winning a shop model sweater – a pink thing that I don’t think I’ll actually ever wear, but still – a free sweater!

Knitting Corner
575 E Main Rd,  Middletown

The Knitting Corner was tucked into a little strip mall, and as such I completely blew past it on the first try. No GPS, no smartphone, but I did have my trusty-rusty Rhode Island road atlas, from the days when I’d first started driving, so I was able to correct my mistake and find the shop without much trouble. I loved the combination of beads and yarn, and the adorable little girl keeping an eye on the beading counter. I picked up 4 skeins of SWTC’s Bamboo yarn in gold, to make myself a Clapotis just like the shop model we have at Stitch House. At half off!

Sakonnet Purls
3988 Main Rd, Tiverton
Of all the shops visited this weekend, Sakonnet Purls was definitely the highlight. After pulling down the gravel drive and walking into the farmhouse/shop, I was greeted by a tray of scrumptious baked goods and a friendly cat, not to mention wall-to-wall yarn set into warm wooden shelves in this rustic farmhouse. Room after room greeted me with yarn of all kinds, and then, there was the discount barn! An entire room (bigger than many metropolitan yarn shops, full stop) devoted to overstock, extras, and bargains. I picked up a bottle of Eucalan in grapefruit scent, tried to get the cat to give me some love, and soaked in a bit more of the wonderful, warm, yarny ambiance!

Bella Yarns
476 Main St, Warren

Bella Yarns, in downtown Warren, had a tough time coming right after my visit to Sakonnet Purls, but it was clear what a difference being in a more “urban” setting had. This shop, unlike the previous ones I’d visited, was bustling with customers, and the sales staff were cheerfully highlighting different yarns, showing off the raffle baskets available, and ringing up the perpetual crowd. The stock itself didn’t make much of an impression on me, except that I was delighted to find a wide array of sock reinforcing yarn! I picked up a few different colors and headed off!

Fresh Purls
769A Hope St Providence

Fresh Purls was one of only two shops on this whole adventure that I’d been to before – I’d stumbled in on their 3rd anniversary party, so I’m used to seeing it in a festive mood! I had just had lunch (falafel pocket at East Side Pockets – my favorite!), so I was fed, fortified and ready for more yarn. For a small shop, they cram in a lot of quality – Lorna’s Laces, lots of good sock yarn, some amazing hand-dyes, Jade Sapphire cashmere…I picked up a ball of rainbow-colored Zauberball and hit the road!

The Yarn Outlet
50 Division St, Pawtucket

After leaving Providence, I headed north for Pawtucket. A Yarn Outlet in the center of Pawtucket? Really? This was just one of those instances where I was immensely glad for the Yarn Crawl to show me things that I’d never know about otherwise. The shop itself was roomy and had a good selection of lower/mid-range yarns, and a really fine selection of needles and accessories. I picked up a set of 4″ HiyaHiya dpns to try out (turns out I hate them – anyone want to buy them off of me?), and upon checking out, was chitchatting to the woman working, when I realized…there were 15 shops on the crawl! Well, on the Google Map that the organizers had created (and which I’d been using as the starting point for planning my own itinerary), there were only 13. I was missing the Wayland Yarn Shoppe on the Prov/Pawtucket line, and Manmade by Jonne in Warwick. Phew, at least I had time to go find them, and the Wayland Yarn Shoppe wasn’t too far from where I was (and, I was running ahead of schedule by quite a bit). So, back to the south!

Wayland Yarn Shoppe
112 Raleigh Ave, Pawtucket

This shop was tricky to find, and looked a bit like an old 1960′s hair salon that a big-haired Italian grandmother might own. I’d never heard of it before, which really surprised me, as I used to live not too far away, and considering they’d been open for 30+ years! But, when I went inside, I realized, this is your grandma’s yarn store. The clientèle inside, sitting around a table, were all little old ladies, and I got the distinct impression that I was a disruption to their routine when I entered. The proprietress was flustered, showed me to the raffle table, and that was about it. A quick look around the small space showed mostly acrylic/baby yarns, overflowing the shelves. I moved right along to…

Peter Patchis Yarns
174 Cross St, Central Falls

If Sakonnet Purls was the nicest yarn shop I visited, the coolest by far was Peter Patchis Yarns. Yarn Warehouse! For realz! This shop is not for the fainthearted, and the owner (Peter, I assumed) is not your usual chatty LYS owner – he seemed a little shy, and certainly well-suited to this quirky shop. Located in a warehouse building in Central Falls, this is the sort of place where you enter alongside a loading dock and follow homemade signs on looseleaf paper stapled to the wall, directing you upstairs. Inside, you find bins upon bins of cones of yarn, sorted roughly by fiber content. Wool, cotton, chenille, acrylic, etc. Also, you can find boxes of zippers, trim, ribbons, and much more. Not well organized, not well labeled, but in abundance and at good prices (yarn prices are by pound). If I get into machine knitting or weaving, I certainly know where to go for supplies – check it out!

Manmade by Jonne
247 Pawtuxet Ave, Warwick

Next stop was Manmade by Jonne. I have to admit, I didn’t get the best impression from this place. First off, I only got one raffle ticket (when you show up, you get one, and when you bring an item for donation to the Food Bank, you get a second). The owner (Jonne?) was polite, but we had a strange conversation in the spinning nook. I was impressed to find a Kromski retailer in the area, as I have a Symphony, and am thinking about someday getting a Sonata for travel. I was talking about how nice the finish is on the Symphony he had, as I’d done the finish on mine myself, and it needed more work. I then got a lecture on how you should never try to finish a wheel yourself, because we’re in New England and the humidity changes. I sort of scoffed, saying that furniture makers have been making expert wood pieces in New England for centuries, and that I have some woodworking experience, but he just continued saying that you should never, ever do it. Well…sorry…but I already did it, and I’m happy I did! Jonne then went off to teach a cello lesson and left me to wander the small shop by myself. There were some nice fleeces, but no yarn that really spoke to me, and I was feeling a bit put out. I needed rejuvenation, which I happily found at…

Unwind
5600 Post Road, East Greenwich

Unwind! This was, hands down, the friendliest yarn store of the crawl. I was quickly ushered in, had a piece of cake placed in front of me, and was encouraged to take a load off and knit along with the ladies. They all ooohed and aaahed at my Bayerische Socks (more on these later), and made me feel just like I belonged there. They had a great sale on Cascade 220, but they were already out of the colors I was interested in by the time I got there. They also introduced me to Tanis, a Canadian yarn company (one-woman show turned indie dyer turned international yarn producer), with beautiful sock yarns. If their stock hadn’t been so depleted by the time I got there (they had a good day of business before I’d arrived), I would have probably taken something home. As it was, I stayed later than I should have, and finally had to pry myself away to get to Woonsocket with enough time to both get to Yarnia and then get to Forge Park to pick up my husband for dinner!

Yarnia
68 S Main St, Woonsocket

The eleventh shop in one day, I admit I might have been a little burnt-out by the time I got to Yarnia. I also might have been a little short on time, and perhaps speeding to get there…oops. But, I did get in before they closed, and got to wander around a bit. I’d visited the shop once before, when they occupied the second-floor retail space. They’d since moved downstairs, and had added a lot of coziness. Sofas and rugs helped a lot. Unfortunately, in my rush, I didn’t linger much on the details, but I did pick up a braid of BFL to spin, in rainbow hues. With that on top of my Verb for Keeping Warm acquisitions and my Hello Yarn fiber club subscriptions rolling in, I’ve got a lot of beautiful spinning to do! Luckily, Yarnia is just down the street from my grandmother’s house, so I’ll be certain to be back for a more leisurely look. I ran off to go grab the hubster from the train station, and then we had dinner with my dad and grandmother. A lovely day full of yarn.

Saturdays, I work at Stitch House, so I couldn’t travel southward in pursuit of fiber. There was, however, Sunday, accompanied by my darling husband!

Day 2

Knitwits
Millpond Plaza, Westerly

Getting the lion’s share of the travel over with early in the morning was wise on one hand, but also didn’t set me up for particularly good yarn shopping. Earlyish on Sunday, we started off for far-flung Westerly, RI (for those who don’t know, this is essentially Connecticut). Knitwits was a cute little shop, but as I was a bit bleary-eyed from the drive, I can’t say that many details of the shop stick firmly in my mind, except that my husband was intrigued by the cart they stored yarn on, and that they had a good amount of buttons!

Knit One, Purl Too!
406A Main Street Wakefield

Knit One, Purl Too was set back off the road, and had a really pleasant atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the labyrinthine setup of the yarn display, maximizing space and also keeping the yarn orderly! After poking around, J and I went to get some lunch at a little cafe just next door on Main Street, then hit the road back north!

Eneri Knits
Oak Harbor Village, Exeter

Eneri Knits seemed to have the best marketing campaign – the logo was smooth and attractive, the name wasn’t too kitschy, and the shop, despite being tucked into a shopping plaza, took full advantage of its space – particularly with the kitchenette in the back, stocked with yummy baked goods! The space was bright and airy – I only wish that I’d been able to see the ALPACA that visited the day before! I was able to replace my set of folding scissors there, and enjoyed looking through the well-chosen selection of books!

The Mermaid’s Purl
1 Main St North Kingstown

Our last stop! Never have I been so happy to find a yarn shop in my life (to date, at least)! This shop comes in at a close second for most lovely (although I have to wonder if the euphoria from finishing my epic quest added to that), and perhaps deserves to tie, as it’s really wonderful, albeit quite a different shop from Sakonnet Purls. It’s a cozy little nook, filled with luxury yarns. Buffalo? check. Hand-dyed sock yarn of all sorts? check. Pitcher of sangria on the back table? Oooh la la, check. The ladies working here were exuberant and delightful, and I really wish that I’d had some must-buy item that needed to come home with me, but alas, I resisted temptation and spared my checkbook…this time.

15 shops done.

Hurray!

All told, it was a tremendous amount of fun. After the shops, we headed to the Slater mill for the Culmination Ceremony (which was, unfortunately, a bit anticlimactic). I entered all my tickets into the raffle (and, boo hoo, didn’t win a thing!), snuck a peek at Ysolda Teague, fondled some yarn by Dirty Water Dyeworks, and then went back up 95 to Beantown, stars in my eyes from so much pretty yarn.

Who’s gonna join me next year?

 

UPDATE: Just hours after posting this, I received an email from Sakonnet Purls – quite arguably my favorite of the whole lot from the crawl (making it perhaps the best yarn store in RI!), saying that they’re closing their doors forever, and soon! They’re looking for a buyer, ideally, but may just be liquidating and moving on. So, does any of you have an extra $100K you can donate to a worthy cause (that is, my buying a yarn store, and saving the best yarn store in RI from disappearing off the face of the map)? Anyone?