MG: oregano v.2

socks finished! to resolve the pooling-barbershop-pole woes, i worked part of the second sock leg inside out for a spiral running in the opposite direction. the color patterns of the two socks don't particularly speak to each other, but it is not distractingly disjointed either... i think.


the two accidental sorts of short-row spines are in mirrored position. matching ones are either both on the outside or inside of the heel.



i've started oregano's redo. craving a cozy knit and inspired by the shape of the sweater on the left (click to visit it at Phildar)...


i cast on for a sleeve with my clover mini circulars. this version of oregano bears no resemblance to the first (teehee). i'm thinking scoop neck, snuggly ribbing, and columns of double eyelets.


mmmmm... tubular cast-on--i used the version in Wiseman's (2002) The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques and adjusted for 2x2 ribbing.

MG: pooling woes

i'm learning variegated sock yarn may not be for me. on hubby's first sock, the pooling started off at a nifty spiral; then there was a bump in the yarn right after the heel, whereupon all the blue and yellow gathered on the back of the leg. i was slightly irritated at first by the irregularity, but the resulting sock made me happy.

on this mate-to-be sock, no bump, so the spiral continues up the leg in a contrived manner i never devised. i'm unhappy, but it's hard to bend pooling yarn to your will. below is my third attempt to adjust the pooling (efforts toward the top).


i've ripped since. after trying wrap and turn, knitting from the other end of the ball, and continuing the strand at a different point, i'm now turning AND starting at a different point on the strand. ok, this much angst isn't warranted; i'm just easily frustrated by not being able to control my knitting.

meanwhile, i've been dreaming of new projects as a break from pooling woes. this means lots of swatching. i like to swatch b/c you learn about the yarn and nothing is a mistake. these are Lanaknits Hempton (50% hemp/50% cotton, medium) and some of the beloved Manos using needles of various sizes. i'm thinking shrugs or short cardigans for either or both.


eat local challenge: last saturday i made my regular trip to the Berkeley Farmers' Market. first time since i got back; sigh... i'm home.



let's see... pluots & plums (like eating candy), onions, garlic, collards (it's delicious if not overcooked, i promise. quickly stirfried w/ garlic and mushrooms; take it out while still bright green; yum!), eggplants, avocado, early girl tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes (happy taste buds AND bio-diversity!), carrots, and a most perfect head of romaine lettuce (dense and crisp. it should squeak if you squeeze the base. hubby accused me of snuggling this head of lettuce while carrying it home. i can neither confirm nor deny that fact). and... something that begged for its own photo...


small jewels of sweet summer. they are small; what you see is only a pint. they are ripe and shiny and deep red and intoxicatingly fragrant. mmm... i'm thankful to have my market. eating local is delicious.

MG: eat local challenge

first, have you heard about the hopeful development in Australian sheep welfare? hooray for the sheep! i'm relieved and elated--changes on such scale are possible (assuming all goes well, that is).

a little sock progress before i get to the point of this post... i started hubby's second sock, successfully evading the second sock syndrome. tiny toes on little dpns:


foot grown on mini-circulars, then the heel half went back on dpns, which are slightly smaller in diameter (denser heel):


ok, i read about the eat local challenge on Absinthe Knits and mellowtrouble. this was a while ago, but i never got my act together while i was away to post about it or officially join. i have been making efforts for the challenge however.

when i'm in berkeley, it's easy to eat in the way i prefer--deliciously and sustainably most of the time. while i was in dayton, ohio this summer, eating well was hard for me. in the discouraging landscape of corporate chains for restaurants and stores alike, grocery shopping became a depressing event. i got lazy about making an effort for fresh, sustainable goods.

the eat local challenge reminded me to work a bit harder for more options, so hubby and i drove to the Webster Street Market downtown. look what we found!


it's a sampling of what we brought home: freshly baked salted rye bread, gorgeous blueberries, local yogurt cheese, cannelini beans (for soup!), and unrefined raw sugar. we also found a stand called "Azra Desserts" where this friendly man sells his beautiful cookies--just a small number of simple things on his ingredient list. you know, flour, butter, sugar; no hydrogenated oil in sight. we bought some linzer cookies w/ raspberry jam. they were so yummy--buttery and sweet with a tiny bit of tartness from the jam.



i know not everything we purchased was grown in the area (in the 100-mile radius sense). i'm guessing the sugar and the beans came from elsewhere, but for me, there are layers of eating local... if not grown locally, then baked, roasted, pickled, crafted, sewn, marketed locally.

i like supporting small merchants (instead of the shipping and administration of large corporate chains). at places like the webster market, i also have the benefit of variety. raw sugar and cannelini beans are not everyday items in the dayton supermarket. and the prices were excellent too.

my market goods were fresh and flavorful. the blueberries were plump and dusky blue. we also brought home a canteloup whose sticky sweet scent you could catch at arm's length... just the way it should be.

MG: ohisashiburi!

hi there! i'm back! i've just returned from an extended trip to ohio, during which Kitty Kitty and i met up for some fibery-fun (as i'm sure you've already read from her posts). we learned spindle spinning techniques from each other, drooled over patterns, and chatted incessantly about knitting. it's great to have an equally obsessive knitbuddy.

during the rest of my trip however, i oozed into a major knitting slump. all i have to show for the time i've been gone:



more bluefaced leicester on my ashford spindle; i'm still not very consistent on it (i miss the wheel!). and i knitted a sock! not a practice sock, but a real sock--custom-fit to my hubby's foot. it was a try-on-as-you-go effort using stasia's toe-up sock formula (uh-oh, her site is gone. :( the link i have doesn't work anymore.) and a figure-eight toe.

i made hubby try on the sock a bizillion times b/c i wanted it to fit just right. i even did so while he was sleeping. he was rather cooperative and would stick his foot out of the covers for me as he continued slumbering.

the sock has a significant imperfection. somewhere in my searches through sock techniques, i neglected to pay enough attention. the spines of my short row heels are different. see?



i used knit-togethers and purl-togethers at the wraps, both of which are right-slanting on the right side of the fabric. i didn't think about matching them at all beforehand, so the spines are inside-out versions of each other. which one do you like better? i have to decide what to do about the second sock. hubby suggests a mirror image version, so matching spines are either both on the outside or inside of the ankles...

the cuff gave me a hard time. i wanted a turned hem with some stretch in it. the ribbing was irregular (4x1 and 2x2 mixed), so i couldn't work out a tubular cast-off. i looked in books and searched online but couldn't find anything i liked. so i made something up. it's a combination of the various stretchy bind-offs i found. i did one row of tubular prep, slipped the stitches under a purl seven rows down on the wrong side, then used Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind-off (i used knitting needles). it's relatively stretchy, clean enough, and doesn't flare much when the sock is worn. i think i like it.


it's good to be playing show and tell with you again. meow...