My mantra–I\’ve had this magnet on my fridge for some time! Turns out it fits into my Craft Room decor now!

This is normally the time of year where I talk about how I have failed to post, what I have done, etc. Well, this year is mostly no different. However, quite a bit has happened over the last year, and while I usually gloss over past events and focus on only the current ones, I will not be doing that this time.

Instead, I intend to take some time to catch up on the blog. There are a lot of things I\’d like to share, and I hope you will feel it is worth it, dear readers. Along with life/knitting events, one additional thing I intend to continue is The Sock Project. (You will be able to single out those posts as that name will be in the title). But for today, let\’s start at nearly the beginning: what I did over last Spring Break.

It turns out that Virginia Woolf was right: having a room of one\’s own truly is amazing and wonderful; and it is all the more glorious when you have waited 28 years for it. We now (finally!) have only 3 of our 6 children living at home, leaving one bedroom free. A guest room, you say? I think not. A craft room it was.

So, last April–after many months of discussing how to do it–my husband and I set out for real to create a special room for me in our home. Oh, I had been using the room for a little while already, but with weird, odd and end furniture. Not to mention that the room had a strange, musty feel, as though it was always dusk in there. Now it was going to really feel like my room.

My new room has been a marvelous getaway in my own home, the place I go after work and waaaaaayyyyyyyy too much intense human interaction. In fact, it sometimes feels like a vacation when I am in here! (Of course, I am in the craft room right now…)

The next few posts will be the story of how we did it, and will hopefully contain a few good DIY tips along the way. Let\’s get started!

Jolene\’s mural, done around 2003. She is now 28 years old and has not lived at home for 11 years!

To begin with, the room we used had survived two teenagers. It first belonged to our oldest daughter, Jolene, who is an artist. She is our free spirit, with a BFA in dance and a love of visual art as well. Back about 14 years ago, she painted a mural on one of the bedroom walls. It took her several weeks to complete and meant a lot to her; in fact, it took me quite a while to finally make the decision that it would not truly be MY space if I left it up. So, I took some nice photos of the mural and intend to put them into a special book for Jo. Then I had the daunting task of covering multiple layers of acrylic/latex and some oil paints, along with a healthy dose of teenage angst.

A triple layer of KILZ did the trick and brought the room back to its original very drab self. It also revealed the red \”mistakes\” that were all over the ceiling and floor moulding, leftovers of the mural and of another wall, which at one time was fire engine red.

Sad, but time to move on!

When my son Alex inherited the room once Jolene left for college, he hated that red wall (mostly because my daughter had painted the outline of a girlfriend on it, and it was just plain creepy). Alex requested that it, along with the non-mural walls be painted white. Now, those white walls were dirty with years of stinky teenage boy.

Covered! Whew. 3 coats of KILZ

The filing cabinet and a couple of the white walls. Also, note the bamboo shade in the window. Not at all conducive to my 50\’s theme.

Morning always bring me strength and determination! Anything seems possible!

Notice the coffee cup — always at the ready!

In the early morning of the day after the KILZ completion, I contemplated. Colors, themes… I realized that my hubby and I had not really done a very complete job of planning the room. We really had a rough sketch for IKEA furniture and a budget, but had not gone much farther than that. I thought about how drab the room was…like an old office space lost in time (except for the red splatter here and there). It even had an old, dead taupe-colored filing cabinet, given to me by my mother-in-law. It was so useful…and so plain.

I decided the room needed energy, and I had only one week off work, so I hit the paint department at

Inspiration!

Home Depot. I had recently been doing a little research into the 50\’s era for another project, and had been charmed anew by the decor and clothes of the time. I decided to use 50\’s kitchen colors as a jumping off point, as weird as it may sound for a craft room. but I love the robin egg blue and the cherry reds of the time, so I decided to go for it.

More next time! Stay tuned!

Here is a tiny sneak peek:

Meeting a knitting hero!

I continue to work on the Wendy Johnson socks — the heel has me slightly confounded at the moment. Truthfully, I was confounded about 3 weeks ago and put them down \”for a minute,\” and have not picked them up just yet. They are sitting next to me right now, keeping me company. Nagging me, really. The live stitches on them have been moved, however, from my addi turbo circulars to some Knitter\’s Pride Dreamz circulars. I was irritated with the tiny needles and blunt tips. And when a girl wants some stilettos, where does she go? The yarn shop, of course.

More whimpering. I was unmoved. I was following the Piper again. This time he just had a different

instrument. 

The 10-minute drive felt longer than ten minutes to both of us. As I parked in the spot right by the

front door, my suffering waned. I dragged Amy Rose from her car seat and we headed into the store; I danced in, Amy Rose plodded.

Once inside, though, Amy Rose\’s mood lifted. I thought that maybe she heard the Piper, too.

It was Amy\’s idea to head over to the voices around the corner. We peeked.

And there she was. I thought. Betsy. The woman herself. I knew it was her. I was pretty sure it was her. I had never seen her in real life, though, never heard her voice, never watched her knit as this woman was doing now. Maybe it wasn\’t her. Maybe I just wished it.

I stared too long. Nervously laughing and chatting momentarily with the other women as the saleswoman who was working that day stood to help me with my needles. I welcomed the escape and we walked back to the front of the store where the needles were kept.

She has no idea, I thought. She doesn\’t even see me stealing glances back over around the corner. I nervously bought my needles and was poised to walk out of the store, never knowing the truth.

\”Mommy, can we stay?\” Amy Rose shook me, \”Let\’s look around. Maybe can we sit down at that table and have a rest?\” She said this so everyone heard.

Stunned and horrified at the idea of lingering and the possibility of being found out as the stalker I truly was, I stammered, \”S-s-s-ure, honey. Let\’s look over here.\” Still glancing back at the table, I dragged Amy Rose to the back left corner of the store, as far from the rectangular table as I could get. I feigned shopping for yarn. Everyone at the table had gone back to the business of knitting and visiting, they had no idea of my obsession!

I sneaked around the isles, stealing glances of the Betsy-look-alike and hearing them women talking. After a while, I had to dare to walk past the table to another part of the store, so as not to be accused of shoplifting instead of stalking.

We smiled at the knitters.

There was nothing in the other room.

Okay, I thought, there\’s no option. We have to pass back by the table. We\’ll have to sit down. I asked the women unnecessarily, \”Mind if we join you?\” They are gave an energetic \”Sure!\” and invited us to a couple of chairs. I inconspicuously pulled out my Betsy McCarthy \”Starter Stockinette\” socks (seen in the last post) and began working on them.

After too many minutes of small talk, asking the other women questions and trying–but failing–to listen to their warm and interesting responses, I decided to strike. I addressed Betsy. I told her I felt silly, but had to ask if she was who I thought she was. And, after all that self-imposed stress, turns out it was hardly a big deal. Turns out she is the most approachable, humble and sweetest-natured person you could ever hope to meet.

I confessed I was knitting her sock right in front of her, and she just smiled. Of course, she likely knew it all along. Then, she told me about her life here in Vancouver, how she takes walks with a mutual friend of ours (who still lives in her building, in case you were wondering!) and how they take walks through downtown–and knit at the same time. Once, she told me, it took several blocks for her to realize that her yarn ball had fallen and been trailing behind her, unwinding all the way! That last story did it for me: Betsy McCarthy was a kindred spirit to me in some ways.

So, I guess, when you meet your heroes, sometimes it turns out okay. Sometimes they are more than you may have imagined, and maybe you even will have something to talk about. Sometimes, they may even let you take a picture with them at the local yarn shop, where it turns out you both buy yarn.

…and a few other things…

Newish favorite knitting books

• The Knitter\’s Curiosity Cabinet by Hunter Hammersen. These books are very beautiful and very clever. They have been very carefully and thoughtfully planned out and it shows. Just lovely. Both books have a sock and another accessory to match for each design. This first book has patterns based on botanical designs.
• The Knitter\’s Curiosity Cabinet II by Hunter Hammersen. This second volume has patterns inspired by butterflies.
• Indie Socks by Chrissy Gardiner. She is one of my first favorite designers and will be forever one of my favorites. Some of the clearest instruction you could ever find comes from Chrissy. And she is a very sweet person to boot!

Sock Knitting books I like

• Knit Socks! by Betsy Lee McCarthy and the follow up to it. 

Books on design

• Knit Design Workshop by Shirley Paden–very comprehensive book like a master class on mostly sweaters/jacket design. Lots of worksheets and math to help you design your own sweaters, skirts, dresses and jackets. She also provides some patterns to showcase some of the techniques in the book, and they are very challenging larger projects.
• Socks a La Carte, both toe-up and top-down formats by Jonelle Raffino & Katherine Cade. Fun way to design socks with training wheels! Lots of ideas to get you started to do your own socks. Good for beginners who are just learning the math to calculate how many stitches are needed in a circular sock pattern, or really any tube pattern too, like a mitt or hat.
• The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt. VERY comprehensive book. Recently updated and encyclopedic reference book on literally everything knitting. Not a casual read, but something to reach for to learn or remind yourself of a skill.

I have come, once again, to the heel gusset of my toe-up sock, Rosebud, by Wendy Johnson. Now it is getting exciting! I like this pattern because the lace is not overly complicated and is (so far) only across the instep. Plus, there is a nice relaxing plain-ish round on the even rounds. An advantage of toe-up knitting, as we all know, is the try-on factor. And this socks seems to fit well so far! I think it is a keeper.

Look! It stands up on its own! And without starch, too!

It fits! Just enough slouchy on the ankle. I can push it down a bit after washing. Superwash softens up anyway.

The old one

I have decided that the best way to name the posts on my ongoing sock project is to use the date. I was thinking of  \”Stardate,\” or \”In the Year of Our Lord,\” but neither quite fit the bill. So, for now, regular ol\’ date it is.

This week\’s story is about learning — and when is knitting not about learning? It is endless, which is one of the most enjoyable, challenging and annoying traits of the sport. Or hobby. (I dislike that descriptor. Look, the only time I am closer to a sport is when I cook for the family on Superbowl Sunday. Let me have this one.)

I began at the beginning, sort of. I picked out a pattern I had downloaded (free!) long ago called Diagonal Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson. I even had the yarn for it. Alas, since my last post, I have frogged the toe, foot and part of the heel. I felt it was too big, in spite of getting gauge, to stretch well enough on my foot to show the lace. I could have easily altered the chart and pattern for 8 less stitches or so, but I decided that I also didn\’t love the lace pattern. And what is the use of spending so much time on a knitting project if you don\’t love it? The yarn has been redirected to another Wendy Johnson pattern from the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body book called Rosebud Socks.

This pattern is interesting, has the same design elements that attracted me to the last pattern: a gusset

Rosebud Socks. I like them already!

from the toe, up; lacey (but prettier), and a toe-up heel flap. Same brand of yarn — Dream in Color Smooshy — and same gauge as the previous one. There is one small catch:  it calls for a 66 stitch circumference, just like the last one. Pushing it for me, especially with lacework that needs to open up when worn.

And to boot, this lace pattern is also a bit more complex.  Won\’t be able to alter this one \”easily\” mathwise! So this time, I went down a needle size. Last time I used a US1, and I got gauge, but the pattern really called for a US0. This time, I am following the rules and using the smaller size. Sometimes I have learned, you might be getting gauge — or you think you are — but just a tiny adjustment makes all the difference. (Ever have that weird experience where you get the stitch gauge, but not the row gauge? Or vice versa? I think this might be something like that. I am hoping, anyway!)

We\’ll see what happens! So far, so good. And I think a toe makes a good swatch. And a foot is an even bigger one if one is still not certain whether to continue a pattern.

And if you haven\’t checked out Wendy Johnson, you should. I love her patterns and her blog. On the blog, you can watch her knit up project after project. And she knits so fast!! It is positively inspiring. Especially if your socks are wearing out and you have to really get on the stick.

Happy cozying,

Janelle

Turning attention back to the project of replacing all the socks in my sock wardrobe,

I have found the label for my first socks! I was a bit wrong about their make and origin. In fact, I got them backwards! The yarn is Mille Colori socks&lace by Lang. The label says they were made in Italy for the company, Lang, that is based in Switzerland. The language on the label is varied, but two things that jump out at me are the german, which predominates and the english, which is UK english. (\”Colour,\” not \”color\” was the giveaway there.) These little details remind me of one of my favorite things about knitting: it is international, transcending language and culture. Lovely.

My socks used up 365 yards/334meters of the original 437yds/400m on the ball. I have 72 magical little

Like my little yarn tag and my squished out heel? That\’s what I get for hurrying to get the photo!

yards left to play with. 

This is a fun one for me as I have never tried a heel flap form the toe, up. I am almost there. The lace pattern was easy to memorize and the yarn is yummy. I do really like the Dream in Color yarns. The most fun part: the name of the color of the yarn is \”Strange Harvest.\” Oh, how that speaks to  my darker sense of humor — or humour, however you like it…

Last post, I discussed socks and how they really pulled me in to the knitting world. I mentioned sock vs. scarves. I began to really get off track while writing the post. The \”aside\” became so large, that I thought it might make a better story on its own. Errrr….incidental rant. Here we go.

So, about scarves. As Joan Rivers used to say, \”Can we talk?\”

Yes, scarves are simple and wonderful and I do soooo love to wear them. For experienced knitters, they make great mindless knitting like for sitting with friends or in front of a 5 hour binge-watching of BBC\’s Pride and Prejudice. They are a great idea for teaching beginners to work the basic stitches and they can sometimes help to work a difficult-to-learn stitch in repetition.

But can we please face it? Can we call it out? Let\’s hold hands and do it together:

SCARVES ARE HUGE AMOUNTS OF FABRIC! (If you want to actually wrap them) They have up to thousands of stitches, rows and rows of potential monotony.

Picture this:

You are working your first project. It\’s a scarf. Easy enough. A rectangle. You started out with such excitement!! The first knit and purl (or maybe only knit!) stitches were so exhilarating! Now, believing yourself to be nearly finished with your project, you have mastered those stitches. You hold up your monumental accomplishment. The piece looks really long. You say, \”This must be like 3 feet! Whew! What a task! But it was worth it. I am almost there! I cannot wait to wear this and show it off! Hmm….what will I make next?\” But when you whip out your tape measure, the piece measures only 10 or 11 inches long.

Realizing that you have so much more to go, and setting the project aside — possibly forever — and possibly with some force, you might then say something like, \”I GET IT ALREADY! KNIT AND PURL THIS!!!\” And you hope it was not out loud because you are with friends. In public, in a coffee shop. You sigh a little sigh of relief as you realize that no one noticed the whole debacle. Your friends are laughing at other things. You sit in mad frustration. You attempt a smile, looking around as if to say, \”I just put my knitting down because I needed a little break.\” You try to casually reach for your coffee. It\’s cold. Crap.

Sometimes, isn\’t nice to finish a project? Especially as a beginner? To feel accomplished; that is a treat! And isn\’t that why God created cowls? Hats? Fingerless mitts without thumb gussets? Disclothes? Bookmarks? Amigurumi?

This is why I have only made one scarf. I did it as a beginner. On super-duper bulky yarn and US13 needles. Huge. Sort of fast. Had a cable, too, that improved the experience too.

Will I continue to make them? Of course! They definitely have a real and useful place in our knitting lives. I just don\’t want to make that many

😉 Happy cozying,

Janelle

Previous sock purchases. Used up? Not entirely.

Yes, I have a lot of irons in the fire. Usually there are too many –and yes, it causes me to drop some of them once in a while. (Or every single one of them all of the time.) But I have been, low these 7 years of my knitting life, wanted to put just one more iron in.

Early on in my knitting life, I learned to knit socks. I loved it. In fact, it was one of the aspects of knitting that totally sucked me in. I know in my heart that if I had started out knitting scarves, I would have never kept it all up.

Back then, 7 short years ago, I swore to myself (that way, I was not committed…you know, accountability and all that…)  that I would replace every sock in my sock wardrobe with a hand-knitted one.

They fit better anyway, I told myself. They are portable, inexpensive, and contain just the right amount of complexity to keep a person interested.

I looked at my socks to see if I thought I could truly replace them all. After all, store bought socks are their own animal. I bought clogs and even some Keds slip on mules one size too big to make one particular pair. I heard that was a good idea.

I read book after book, bought yarn after yarn, made list after mental list of which sock patterns I would try out. And then….

I didn\’t do it.

The socks on the blocks (no, not sock blocks. go morbid)–not even all of them are shown here.

Oh, I made a few, but I did not accomplish the original goal. Not by a really, really, really long shot. Today, I still own all the same socks from that original wardrobe. And I am still wearing most of them. But they are 7 years older. Some are doing well, some are still just ok. Some are sort-of ok. Some are ill. Some are in critical condition. And some are in the sock-morgue. I cannot let any of them go, because that would mean facing emotional sock defeat.

So, now, 7 years later, wearing old and holey socks, I will finally begin the replacement of my socks. For real. Perhaps I may lose more along this journey; after all, who knows what frustration or roadside treachery awaits me? The fallen socks will be remembered along the way, but then finally released to that better place in the trash under the sink, where my shame will be hidden forever.

I may say a few touching words each time I drop one in, too. Like, \”Woo hoo! I have some new socks! I don\’t need you!\”

We will see.

Add caption

Let\’s begin here: above, you see — on the desk in front of me — a pair of socks I have been working on off and on since last summer. These are basic socks. I like to use US1/2.25mm dpns on fingering weight yarn for most socks. I like to drop the stitch count down to create  at least 10% negative ease (if not a little more), and I like to stop the sock length knitting early, to end at about 1/2\” short on my foot. I believe socks fit better with pretty snug negative ease around, but not too much too short. (Then they cramp your toes and make you paranoid that your big toe will pop right through!! Dang it!!) So…as an example, with this yarn on my needles of choice, I am getting 8 stitches to the inch in stockinette. I have a 9\” foot circumference, but for this pair,  cast on only 7.5\” worth of stitches: 60.

The particular pair of socks I am working on now contains very old Rose City Yarn Crawl yarn. I think I bought it at Twisted on Broadway in Portland. It was so squished up and old that the label is now lost. I believe it is Italian yarn, but made in Sweden. (Does that even make sense?!) It is a single ply merino wool (100%, possibly) with a cool sort of blurred solid strip that reminds me of candy corn.

The first one fits perfectly and I am nearly done with the second (been knitting while watching all the past episodes of The X-files, of course). I then plan to hit each sock in some order. I am thinking of re-visiting the beginning. A little trip down knitting memory lane doesn\’t sound half bad. Those are some seriously good sights and smells!!

And yes, I decided to do all this while continuing to work on a wedding dress. But isn\’t variety the spice of life?

Happy cozying,

Janelle

While I have been \”away\” from the blog (again….ahem….) I have been doing a great many things. I will reveal these moderately interesting things over time, but you may be wondering about Jo\’s dress.

Yes, she is still getting married, and yes! I am still knitting it.

Jolene admonished me, however, pretty early on in the knitting process that Andrew can never be allowed too see the dress — not even in parts — on the blog, or anywhere. After an appropriate \”duh…..\” from me, and an acknowledgement of my feminist daughter\’s tendency to adhere to some old traditions (I supposed I just learned that this is one of them), I agreed. Sort of.

I will share some pictures here, but only a few until the big day (which is yet to be determined by the completion of the dress… no pressure….) . And, as I believe that Andrew gets the blog postings from Facebook,  I will not be announcing new blog posts about the project on Facebook. Twitter and email notifications will still go out. I hope these precautions will satisfy everyone.

So far, I have completed the body of the top and the button band. I am now working on the sleeves. Having just re-read my last post, I see that I explained the dizzying array of needles and yarn for each piece of this project and the fantastical pain that getting gauge was! I am preparing to do all of that again for the skirt — and not looking forward to that piece! In fact, it is my belief that the diversity in needles, gauge and materials is likely the biggest reason not many knitters have attempted this pattern.

So far, no regrets on the materials I have selected. They are all working splendidly. And I have not had to re-measure Jolene.  (Whew!) Things seem to be going pretty well, except….

I have noticed a phenomenon during this project: anytime I work on the dress, math, gauge swatches, writing notes, taking photos, trying it on, knitting…I hold my breath. The whole time. Each time, I only realize I am doing it after I am feeling strangled. To come up for air, I have been doing other projects, too, which may put me behind, but who doesn\’t need to breathe!? I ask you!! If I end up staying up for sleepless night, re-living the writing of complicated 15 page research papers for AP English in high school? So be it! Some of my best work is done under pressure, but it must be done with a little side of O2.

The pay-off so far for all this hypoxia? The top FITS! It fits how she wanted it too. (Long breath here…I just noticed I was doing it again….dang it!!) I had to shorten the waist, which made me very anxious. and Jo lives about 2.5 hours north of me, in Seattle, That was a toughy. I cannot post a pic of that (yet). you will just have to believe me 🙂

Here are a couple of pics:

The picture above was taken \”on the blocks,\” before shoulder seaming and button bands were completed. The pic to the left is just a close up of the edging.

These are all I have for now. but more to come!!

So much to share from the summer, but for today, this is it!

Get your cozy on, it\’s winter!

Janelle, fellow rabid knitter

My engaged daughter, Jo, and I have settled on a dress pattern. It wasn\’t very hard, since she is most absolutely not a \”foofy\” girl. We both knew how the dress should really look, and the fluffier, more cupcakey dresses were easy to rule out. Barring designing one for her myself (*gasp! choke!* and *anxiety beyond belief!*), we knew that a leaner profile with simple and few details that reflect her easy-going little self was a must. It had to be elegant, of course, since it is a wedding dress, and transportable in the event that she and her hubby-to-be decide to get married abroad (which is on the table under \”thinking about it,\” with more on that possibly to come). Jo is also on the small and shorter side, so we can\’t have a dress that eats her in any way; length, busyness all had to be in proportion.

There were actually very few dresses that might fit this bill. At least, dresses that were strictly \”wedding dresses.\” In a stroke of luck, the very dress we both were thinking of jumped out pretty early on in the search process. In fact, I found it first without Jo\’s presence. But I \”knew.\” I emailed her the picture, which was returned with a squealing phone call only a few hours later. \”Mom! I have already shown a picture of the dress to 4 people! The people in Trader Joe\’s think I\’m weird!!\”

That was it.

I ordered the book the dress pattern was in. It is the Wedding Ensemble by Michele Rose Orne in her book, \”Inspired to Knit.\”

I love that it really appears to break down into manageable parts: a tee with a button-up back and a long skirt, both with lace trim, wide and narrow. All these things are pretty simple in their parts, and both top and skirt can be shortened if need-be.

What I didn\’t love after I received the book in the mail from Amazon and looked into the pattern further, is that it calls for 4 types of cotton yarn (in varying percentages of cotton) in 3 weights: #1 superfine. #3DK/ light worsted, and #4 Medium/worsted. ( I am using the US Craft Yarn Council system for these weights/numbers/names. For reference, you can find it here.)

To make things a tiny bit more complicated, two of the yarns are discontinued, and the \”light/DK\” yarn the pattern calls for is actually called \”sport\” and \”dk\” by different sources–eg. Ravelry vs yarn sellers. If it were \”sport,\” this would actually be classified as a #2 weight by the CYC, and not a #3.

Truly, all that matters in the end is is THE GAUGE, right? I can figure this all out. So I looked closely at the gauge and needles. Oops. I mean gaugeS and needleS. Plural. Really plural.

Maniacal laughter began playing in my head.

There are 5 sizes of needles called for in the entire pattern, ranging from straight ones to 32 inch circulars. These are used to get the various gauges for each piece of the pattern. For example, the lace (of course) has a differing gauge from the stockinette, and the heavier yarns of course have a generally bigger gauge than the smaller ones.

After I shook off the catatonic state that had frozen my face, I thought two things:

1. This deceptively simple looking pattern is the devil. Where\’s Jon Lovitz?
2. I will not let this pattern defeat me. (Especially if it is the devil. This is frickin\’ Lent, devil. You can\’t win during Lent.)

My conclusion is this: press on…as you probably just saw, with the \”frickin\’ Lent\” statement and all. And not just because I am red-headed, freckly Scottish-French-American stubborn, but also because I am curious.

Approaching this as a sewer, I realize (or perhaps, more accurately, I believe...) that the different gauges are to make the different trims to fit and lay properly. If it were fabrics for cutting and machine-made trims we were talking about, you could just cut them all to size. But when you are knitting every stitch of your own fabric, well, so be it.

If you, too, decide that you simply MUST make this pattern, I am going to try to help all of us. Let us unwind some of the confusion.

Here are my first findings, all on the yarns. I hope it helps–I noticed that only one person on Ravelry has actually completed and photographed this pattern.