Knitting Nevermore

I came across a book of knitter's cartoons while perusing Amazon.com today.  The book's title is "It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons."  While taking "a look inside" the book, there was a page titled "Lost Knitting Diaries of the Famous."  One in particular really tickled me, so I'm sharing it here.  (I know it's copyrighted, but it's printed on their page so I figured there's no harm in reposting on my blog.  But if I'm shut down tomorrow, you'll know why.  ;)

"The weather being very fine, I sat for some hours in the park to work the second of the pair of stockings I wish to give Lenore as a birthday gift.  When for a moment my back was turned, its finished mate was plucked clean from my knitting basket by a large raven.  I am sick at heart to think I shall see it nevermore. (Note to self: Possible story idea here?)"

Love.  It.

And from one of my favorite authors, too!

Definition of Insanity

There are various ways one might define insanity - some clinic, some anecdotal, and others based on actions.  In the spirit of the latter, I have cast on a pair of knee socks.  And not just any knee socks, but a pair of knee socks from Cookie A which have many charts and many, many cables.  The pattern is called Lissajous and comes in both a sock (ankle-length) and stocking (knee-high) version.  I love knee highs in the winter, so I decided rather flippantly to knit the stockings.  I ordered three 50g skeins of Shibui sock yarn (most socks use ~100g, so I figured 150g would be plenty) in a pale yellow called Jonquil and waited excitedly for October to come so I could cast on.

I had started a scarf pattern called Scalene after finishing my September In and Out red socks, so before casting on for Lissajous, I wanted to finish it.  The scarf was done in fingering weight yarn - Knit Picks Chroma.  I basically copycatted someone else who knit it using the same yarn in the same colorways.  The pattern was gifted to me by someone in the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) group on Ravelry, and I ordered the yarn from one of our frequent Knit Picks orders.

I had never worked with Chroma before but knew that it was a single ply yarn.  I have to say that while it was very soft to work with, the single ply was a little tricky at first  The yarn has very little to no twist, so it's almost like skinny little roving.  When I first started the scarf, I was splitting the yarn left and right.  Luckily after several rows, I got used to working with it and didn't have any more splitting issues.

The Scalene pattern is basically a triangular scarf done in garter stitch - knit every row.  Back and forth.  Knit knit knit.  But there are some keyholes added where you can pass the scarf through when you're wearing it.  Those added a bit more of a challenge than all the knitting, but the pattern was pretty easy to follow.  I did have to cast off a bunch of stitches in the middle of a row which wasn't hard but I had never done it before.  Then I also had to cast on stitches in the middle of a row which necessitated some youtube searching before I felt confident enough to do it.  All in all, Scalene is a pretty quick project even with fingering weight yarn.  I think I'm going to attempt to make two more for Christmas gifts, this time using worsted weight yarn so they go even faster.  I have a pending Knit Picks order for more Chroma but in worsted weight, plus size 7 needle tips to use with their interchangeable cables.  (The pattern calls for U.S. size 4 needles for fingering yarn.)

I still want to block the finished scarf so that it's a flat triangle, but just got some T-pins two days ago and haven't done it yet.  Here it is unblocked:

Unblocked Scalene Scarf using Chroma fingering yarn in Prism & Bare

Scarf done.  On to socks!

At this point, I had two pairs of socks in progress - Monkeys using the Tree Fort colorway from Knit Picks and Hedera using Patons Stretch sock yarn in Kelp.  Monkeys for me, Hedera for my Curves boss Elaine for Christmas.

Only two pairs in progress???  Wow, that's pretty darn good.  So no problem starting a third!  I cast on Lissajous.

Heaven help me!  This pattern, while the knitting itself isn't THAT complicated, putting the pattern and charts together correctly to actually knit it is an exercise in organization and strategic post-it notes placement.  Here's an example of what I have to do:

Knit chart D for front of leg.  For back of leg, knit to marker, knit chart B, knit to marker, knit chart E, knit chart G (starting after row 10 of chart D, otherwise skip G), knit chart F, knit to marker, knit chart C, knit to end of round.

That's a lot of charts to track.  And that's not including the earlier part when I had to knit halfway across chart A, insert charts E & F, then knit the rest of chart A.  (Did I mention that charts B & C are subsets of chart A so after the first 8 rounds you abandon the other stitches in chart A and only work B & C with E and F between then and knits making up the missing stitches from A?  Are we having fun yet?)

As amazing as it sounds, I cast on and have been knitting without any major chart oops errors.

As a side note - see that green Ball Sack?  A wonderful woman on the RAK forum made a pair for me!  I had requested them for my birthday and she contacted me saying she was going to knit them.  How awesome is that???  Hmmm... maybe I should have called this project "Lemon & Lime."  :)

Anyway, after knitting about 1.5" of sock, I tried them on and slide them up over my calf to just below my knee.  I noted two things.

1.  Even though I'm using the needle size (U.S. 1.5 - 2.5mm) called for by the pattern and knitting the size based on my leg measurements, I probably could have used size 1 needles for a snugger fit.

2.  My legs are freaking long.

I thought knitting 6" of sock before starting a heel was a lot of sock.  Ha.  For these babies, I've got a good 12-13" of sock to knit before I can start the heel.  And that's for one sock.  Let's say 25" of leg, two heels is another 5" or so, then almost 9" per foot.  That's a grand total of 48 inches of sock.  Four feet of sock knitting.  With skinny yarn.  On tiny needles.

This, my friends, is the definition of insanity.

(Oh, did I mention that after knitting 2" of Lissajous, I cast on a fourth pair of socks?  Yeeahh...  I'll tell you about that next time....)