A Much Needed Break

2023 has been a topsy-turvy year, filled with good things and bad.  I am thankful for the good things, and sincerely happy to be looking ahead. 

My business partner has been having some medical issues since the first week of August.  She has mostly been off work, only teaching for a couple of hours one day a week.  She, like most women, liked to think she is Superwoman and able to do All The Things.  Realistically, this is not so.  

This means that I have been running the shop pretty much by myself for four months.  This was hard work 17 years ago when I opened.  Being slightly (?) more busy now than then, it has become exponentially more difficult.  The last four months have raced by in a blur — work, sleep, work, sleep.  

I am NOT complaining about my partner’s absence.  I much prefer her to take the time necessary for a full recovery.  She is my best friend and I want her around for many, more years.  

Another truly dreadful experience for 2023 was September, when my son contracted Valley Fever.  He was misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly for just over a week, which nearly cost him his life.  Thankfully, his lovely wife was persistent and vocal with the medical staff and kept me closely informed of all developments.  Finally a qualified lung doctor came on the scene, correctly diagnosed the issue and started the proper course of meds.  Son is recovering, but still has a long way to go.

The best, joyful parts of 2023 were truly joyful.  Son came to Michigan from Arizona with his fiancée and her little boy.  Doug and I traveled over and got to visit for a weekend with them.  The weather was dreadful — freezing rain and all that flows from that — but family reunions made up for it all.

The son was married at the end of July.  I flew down to Arizona and a great time was had by all.  He was patient and waited, and the Right One showed up in his life at the right time.  

My elder sister in Missouri has been battling a lung cancer recurrence for two years.  Her oncologist has advised that if her bucket list included travel, 2023 was the year to do so.  She has always wanted to see a Univ of Mich football game at The Big House (also known as the home stadium).  My youngest brother arranged tickets, and the extended family descended on Dad’s.  The Wolverines won and the weather was conducive to travel.  Sadly, my youngest sister was not able to attend (lingering sinus infection), but the rest of us (5 siblings) had a joyful reunion weekend.  We have hopes for next fall.  As we all know, life comes with no guarantees. 

The final and best thing 2023 brought was a new grand-daughter.  My daughter and her husband welcomed a sweet baby girl on December 1st.  Getting to the post-delivery stage was a bit fraught, but the complications amounted to a hill of beans.  Everyone is now healthy and happy. 

And so the year of socks comes to a close.  I bring you this picture — a family tradition being carried forward. 

A year in Socks

 With the holidays rapidly approaching, I started to concentrate on my socks list.  I knit on them in the car, at our Thursday night get-togethers at the store, during my Monday night visits with the kids, during my monthly visits with family, while watching television … I am sure you get the idea.  This is the result — a full week before Christmas!

Mostly these are plain socks. When I could no longer tolerate the thought of yet another plain sock, I went wild and made a pattern.  I thought I had strayed more than I did, but apparently only once.  I can say that  the first pair for 2024 is NOT plain — and one of the pair is already finished!

Here you see some Regia Tutti-Frutti, KFI Indulgence, Sandnes Garn Tresko, Laines du Nord Paint Sock,  Berroco Comfort Sock, Urth Yarns Merino Sock and Wisdom Yarns Wacki Saki.  All but one came from my store — Never Enough Wool.  Who knew we had such a wide selection?!?

My little men have reached the size where they need more than the residual wool from an adult pair.  Soon, at the rate they are growing, they will need their own skein!  

My daughter has been safely delivered of a beautiful baby girl, and I am so totally enamoured.  When my children were babies, I was a young and nervous mother.  Now that I am the grandmother, I can totally relax and enjoy the time with them.  I plan to do so, as much as my daughter allows. 

If I do not get back here before Christmas (face it, the odds are not in my favour!), I hope that each of you have a lovely holiday season spent with your loved ones and friends.

Sigh.

 This, my friends, is why you use a lifeline AND make copious notes on every project.  Especially if it is a project which will be pushed aside for any length of time. 

I had started the Thunder Snow MKAL last summer.  The last clue was released as I was on my way to Calgary for my daughter’s wedding.  (Hard to believe it is a year already!). I was foolish and neither used a lifeline between sections or made any notes.  When I came back to it … I tinked stitch by stitch four or five rows of 400-plus stitches.  If I had a good stitch count, the stitch patterns did not match the instructions.  Reluctantly, I went to this option n the hopes I could find a row to pick back up.

Most of an episode of Critical Role later, I had this:

I will freely admit that I am the author of my own misfortune.  The big question remaining, however, is have I learned from my mistakes?  I will be casting on again tonight while the trauma is still fresh.

 The MKAL clues included a folk tale about snow/winter from many different cultures.  I loved reading those tales as much as I have enjoyed knitting the shawl.  The best part of all is that I get to re-read all those lovely stories!

In other news, I have finished yet another pair of socks!  

These are the bog standard top-down socks with nothing special added.  Well, except for the love knitted into them.  The wool is from Urth Yarns and is their merino sock yarn.  Apparently, this style of their sock wool has been discontinued. I  have used this wool for projects other than socks and quite enjoyed it.  This time, using an Addi sock rocket I found it to be a trifle splitty.  Still will be a great sock tho.

This is pair number 8 for the year.  Three of the next five are smallish and will be my November and December knitting.  The two adult pair remaining?  I will be knitting them soon — I do not want to become complacent and end up knitting in the wee small hours of Christmas Eve.

Happy knitting and crocheting!

A Tale of Two Socks

 

Way last April, a mere three months ago, when I last posted I promised I would post again.  thankfully, I did not specify when!

In any event, here I am with a report about two sock patterns.  You recall the pattern a frustrated client flung at us?  The pattern, Vanilla Latte Socks, was a toes-up construction.  A brief glance persuaded me that it was confusing.  A longer read through did not change my mind.  

I cleared my sock needles and cast on, using KFI Paint Sock.  I elected to not work the broken rib the pattern suggested, being interested in only the heel turn.  One thing this pattern does that I really like is that the first two short rows use the first and last stitch of the instep, thus dealing nicely with the dreaded gap issue.  Onwards I went.  This designer used a double stitch technique instead of wraps and turns.  The confusing part was that she provided stitch counts (good) but counted the double stitches as two stitches (eh?  Two loops on the needle means two stitches?), thus giving a whopping 110 stitches (or more, I cannot find the pattern right now) before starting to work the gusset.  The first row of the gusset/heel flap had you work a multitude of decreases— knitting the double stitches off, of course.  None of this was apparent to me from reading the pattern, but crystal clear with work in hand.  The back of the heel/flap was a delightful ribbed triangle, working its way up the back of the sock.  Truly a work of art.  From there on, the sock was a perfectly normal toe-up sock.

We were teaching a toe-up sock class at the store, so I also had some plain socks going.  The yarn, Tutti-Frutti from Regia, is a cotton blend and a lot of fun with which to work.  Sunny and happy, which is always a nice feature when knitting in the grey days of February and March.  These socks had a more standard gusset and heel turn.  

I present pictures to show the differences!  First, the side views —Regia on the left and KFI on the right.   Note the increases running diagonally up from the heel on the Regia socks.  The increases in the KFI sock are parallel to the ground.

The fun part is when looking at these socks from the back.  I usually do a ribbed/slipped heel flap on my top down socks.  The Vanilla Latte socks provide a ribbed heel, but without the reinforcing slipped stitches.  The short row heel we taught is just basic stockinette stitch.

Both pair of socks are destined for Christmas gifts for later this year.  A pair knit early in the year, two pair of worsted weight work socks (though only one is shown here and sadly they count as one), and these guys.  I have six pair done and it is the start of July!  

I am caught up!

Random Thoughts after a bit of a break

 So, even though I was all optimistic about posting regularly way back at the beginning of the year, I fell down dramatically.  Do not ask how it is possible that it is already a third of the way through April. 

In March I managed to step into a pothole in the parking lot.  I swear the hole was deep enough for a goldfish to survive in.  In any event, I learned from the previous experience that a trip to the emergency room was a good idea.  No broken bones, and the doctor (intern) was impressed that I owned an air cast.  It is 5 weeks since the fall.  The ankle is still tender and weak, but I have started not wearing the cast in the mornings at home. 

While wearing the air cast, I feel I am channelling my Mother.  She wore a brace on one leg as a result of having polio in her youth ... climbing up and down the stairs reminds me SO much of my mother.  Also walking across the house.  She has been gone 20 years this month, and I am really feeling the loss this year.

Other random thoughts ... since I finished that beautiful sweater in my last post, I KNOW I have accomplished several finished projects.  For the life of me, I struggle to remember what they are.  I know there was a pretty lace scarf because it was a class sample.  I have finished two pair of socks, knit two at a time, for my daughter and her husband (which finishes up Christmas 2022).  Now that it is April, I can safely say that I have finished one -- ONE -- pair of socks for Christmas 2023.  Several months behind in other words. 

We are teaching a crochet class at the store -- a dishcloth, hand towel and scrubby.  The dishcloth was tunisian crochet (also known as afghan stitch), with some single crochet around the edges.  Being left-handed, my rows work backwards to almost everyone else.  We didn't have any lefties in the class this time around ... The hand towel uses tunisian simple stitch, a bobble stitch, and a reverse stitch.  I have managed to master all three of those.  The scrubby will use yet another type of stitch, and I am looking forward to that. 

April 10, was officially "ice out" for our side of the lake.  It was a beautiful day -- sunny and warm.  Makes me itch to get this accursed cast off and be able to take walks.  Swimming and canoeing will come soon.  And sailing.  I am so looking forward to sailing. 

For Easter dinner, Doug and I were child-free.  I made scalloped potatoes, from scratch, with lots of cheddar cheese.  The dish turned out fabulously -- Doug doesn't recall that I had ever made this before.  He definitely says I should make this again.  We also had ham, with roasted brussel sprouts in balsamic vinegar/olive oil/maple syrup.  The veggies and potatoes didn't exactly match in terms of flavours, but brussel sprouts were the only veggie on hand.  Sadly, no children visiting meant that the traditional Easter Bunny Cake did not get made, nor was there any decorated eggs or chocolate bunnies.  Oh well.  Probably better for the healthy eating goal to not have them. 

During my absence from the Blog, we also traveled to Michigan in February.  My middle child brought his girlfriend and her son up from Arizona, in hopes of showing them a Michigan winter.  We had freezing rain ... and as usual, flying was an interesting experience.  They were supposed to land in Kalamazoo, but the weather made it impossible.  He ended up flying into Grand Rapids, which was a bit of our route, but easy enough to accomplish.  Their plane landed just as we drove into the airport.  Even with the freezing rain, we got sleds and went sledding down the hill at my father's house.  Neither the girlfriend or son had done this before, so it was exciting for them.  And on Saturday morning, there was JUST enough snow to make a little snowman.  Tiniest snowman you have ever seen -- maybe 18 inches high -- but he had a hat, scarf, eyes, mouth, carrot nose, corn cob pipe and buttons on his chest.  It was absolutely adorable. 

 A customer came into the store a while back, looking for an easy-to-understand-and-execute sock pattern.  The one she had was confusing, and she flung it at us.  I glanced at it, agreed that it was confusing, and helped her find one she could understand.  Then I held onto the pattern, because I was curious and wanted to see how it worked.  I am now knitting a pair of socks, using that oh-so-confusing pattern.  And it IS confusing.  I have almost finished the heel turn and then it's a straight cruise to the cuff.  You will see pictures and more details next time I post. 

And I WILL post again!  Happy knitting. 

 

New Year and all things are possible

 The New Year has arrived.  I tell myself all sorts of strange things for the upcoming year — I will walk every day, I will exercise every day, I will post every week.  You know, those things we HOPE for, and strive towards, but often miss.  So far, I have walked in the neighbourhood of 3k on Sundays and Mondays.  Easy, because those are my non-work days.  The rest of the week?  Well …

I do, however, have knitting on which to report.

My first finish for 2023 is the Color Evolution design, from Laines du Nord.  (This pattern is not yet available on Ravelry!)  I used the recommended wool, Matera, in four colours and a 4.5m needle for the body.  I have to say that this wool is fabulous — soft in the hand and even better on the body.  I put the sweater on for the picture, and did not want to take it off!  (8 balls of grey, two red and one each black and golf.)  One aspect of knitting that I really like is that I can make the sleeves fit exactly right, something most store sweaters fail to do.

We have been teaching a master knitting class at the store using the design Carnival Blanket from the designer Margaret Holzmann.  Rather than a full sarnize blanket, I opted for a baby size.  Even so, it was a multi-month project!  The multi-colour yarn used in the star shapes is King Cole Tropical Beaches DK (and only one ball!) and the green oval shapes are worked with Sirdar Snuggly DK #490 (3 balls) and a 4.0m circular needle.  The afghan will be finished by working a row of single crochet followed by a row of crab stitch, using the Sirdar Snuggly.

The technique I used for the construction of this blanket was to knit the four oval sections, and then join them together by working the 4-point star.  This worked well for the initial join process; however, when joining the four circles together I ended up with gaping holes.  I sewed those holes up, using the tail from the initial knitted pieces ... and it all looks great in person.  Would I recommend this designer to other knitters?  Absolutely!

Another very recent finish is a wee pair of socks for a little man in my life.  These were meant to be a Christmas gift ... the best intentions often go astray.  In any event, the yarn is Lang JaWolle Cotton Stretch 4-ply in two colours -- the same colours I used for the little man's mama and step-papa. 

Sadly for me, the little man lives far, far away so I had to guess-and-by-golly a bit on the sizing.  I finally decided on a 2.5m needle, 48 stitches and a 7" foot.  I hope to know by the end of next week how close I was on the sizing!

Finally, a finished object from 2022 -- this is the Bragg Creek Cowl, designed by Caroline Sommerfeld.   Our sales rep. was kind enough to leave us two sample balls, and oddly enough the pattern just kind of fell into my Ravelry ... The yarn is Hertig from Ancient Arts and the colours I used are Scottish Mist and Kismet.   Absolutely a delightful wool and an easy-to-read and execute pattern.  I strongly recommend this one too!

That's about it for me today.  Hopefully I will be back soon with more updates!