The sock that will never end

Shortly after my last blog post, it was pointed out to me that I apparently can no longer read and process English properly. No one was harsh enough to say it in that manner, but I certainly felt that way. When it came to the heel flap of the pirouette sock, I was reading the instructions for the right sock. I was knitting the left sock. Beyond that, I had read the instructions as knit between 3 and 19 stitches, which confused me to no end. What the instructions really say is knit the 16 stitches in the panel, knit 3 more stitches and you'll have worked 19 stitches.

So once I comprehended English again, I was fine.

Until my brain decided to go on auto-pilot.

As I was working the gusset decrease, I realized 12 rounds in (it takes a while to notice these things) that I had added a decrease where there wasn't suppose to be one. This decrease happened earlier on the leg. My brain or my hands simply decided that since that was the pattern, I should just keep doing it. At least I noticed it before I had finished the gusset. I only had to frog it to where I picked up stitches.

I've successfully finished the gusset and started working on the foot. I somehow lost a stitch on the top of the foot, though I see no dropped stitches anywhere. I have no idea what happened and have decided that it doesn't matter. I simply added an extra yarn over to "fix" it. When I glanced down at the yarn leading to the skein tonight, I noticed this:

 

Yes, that's part of the yarn that hasn't actually been spun and is more fleece than yarn. I could either cut it out or just knit it through. Mom recommends cutting it out and weaving in ends later. Two friends recommend just knitting it. I'm leaning towards the just knitting it camp as I really want to finish this sock because then I have to do the other sock.

I've got a mantra that's helping me get through this silly sock. I keep telling myself that I can skate 25 laps in 5 minutes, so how hard can a sock be. I never dreamed my roller derby would get into my knitting head! At least it makes me a little less whiny to myself. I apparently needed to finish getting the whine out though. I should start offering cheese...

But this sock will get finished! Both of them!

Orange Pork

Early on, I had this brilliant thought that I would write not just about my knitting and sewing projects but also my baking projects. Well, this isn't quite baking but it was a huge success, so I feel it must be written about.

On Mother's Day, a friend and I met up to go to the Shepherd's Harvest Festival, which was guaranteed to bore our husbands. The promise of llamas convinced them to stay through that and then they were gone to do "manly" things and drive the Telsa around. The original plan was to have our friends stay over for dinner so I took out some pork chops to grill. My husband is a genius when it comes to cooking meat with fire. Sadly, being responsible adults prevailed and our friends headed home.

So the meat sat for a few days. Come to this past Thursday (4 days past thaw out) and we needed to cook the meat. I ended up with a horrible headache but was determined to marinate the meat for at least 12 hours and then cook it on the wood grill/smoker outside. I mixed things together and stuck it all into the fridge to sit for 12 hours.

The next morning, I successfully made a fire though it took longer than normal. The main goal was to smoke the meat. Once the fire was convincingly not going to die, I seared both sides of the and then removed them from the fire, sticking them over to the side. This I have learned from my husband and there's some sort of chemistry change in the meat by doing this, but I'm honestly not entirely sure how to explain it. I know that I didn't hover over the meat and managed to give it just enough time to be done but not overcooked. The husband even gave me an A+ for my work. It was then that he realized that I actually am paying attention to what he is doing when I stand outside chatting with him as he grills.

So that I can recreate this later, this is roughly the recipe of what I did.

In a large bowl, add the following to pork chops:
-fresh grated orange rind from 3 Cara Cara oranges
-fresh squeezed juice from 3 Cara Cara oranges (same ones the rind came from)
-pulp from one orange
-Light coating of vegetable oil
-Soy sauce, roughly equal to the same amount of orange juice

Place in fridge and let marinate for at least 12 hours

Grill and smoke on wood fire. Gently sear each side and then remove from flame. Let smoke until pork is firm.

Orange Pork Chops, fresh off the grill.

Update on knitting

Husband Socks: Finished!

Earlier this month, I finished my first pair of socks for someone else. They were made for my husband so that he would have something with extra padding when he jumps through hoops on a tight rope. To the right is a photo of him trying them out on the wire the day I finished them. Of course, he's gotten so use to wearing shoes while on the wire, that the wire hurts when he's just in socks. We have talked about adding some suede to the bottom of the socks and turning them into pseudo-shoes.

He commented on how quickly this socks went compared to the last pair, the Ernies, that I made.  Even though his feet are HUGE, these took less time because it was mostly straight knitting and look at how short they are! It looks like he's wearing slippers instead of socks. Of course, that could be because of their construction.

I used a sock calculator to figure out the pattern or at least the base of the pattern. It's probably the only time that I've made a swatch sample for a pair of socks as I needed to figure out what my gauge was going to be. I ended up using a double strand of  worsted weight yarn that I had taken at a yarn swap. I got it because it was pretty. This was back in January, before I had gotten spoiled with really, really nice, hand-dyed yarn from the Cookie A sock club. This yarn is a 70/30 acrylic/wool blend and it will work out for my husband who will most likely end up destroying them, but not out of malice. If the do end up with suede on the bottom, they'll take even more abuse than on the wire and end up being his ren fest shoes as well.

While working on the first sock, I decided it would be a good idea for him to try them on. I was about an inch away from doing the decrease for the toe and I'm glad I had him try them on. The top of the foot was perfect but the bottom...sagged. A lot. I did some searching on Ravelry and decided that I could either decrease the gusset to have fewer sole stitches than top of foot stitches or I could rib the sole. I decided to rib the sole because it would make it thicker and he wanted it to be thick for the jumping on the wire.

They did end up being perfect and fitting his feet. Even though they are "just socks", he does like that they are made to fit his feet. And once I finished them, I was able to move onto my next pair of socks.

Pirouette Socks: In progress and stuck

A couple of months ago, I found some lovely yarn that was being sold as 2 for 1. It had this lovely strip pattern to it where one strand stayed a consistent pattern while the second strand changed colors.  Shortly after that, the second club shipment and patterns came and I realized that I must make the Pirouette socks with this yarn.

After a rough start, where I got confused (it's a complicated pattern and I was overthinking it) and had to recast on due to fix gauge issues, I eventually made progress. Well, now I'm stuck again. Once I got into a rhythm with the pattern, I was fine. Now I'm confused by the set-up for the heel flap. I don't understand the instructions, so I'm stuck. I really want to finish these socks before the next shipment arrives but I'm stuck on the first sock. I'm tempted to set them down and start a new pair just so I can have a project that doesn't annoy me.

Baby blanket

I'm also working on a baby blanket. The original thought was for my cousin but my husband has a cousin who had a little girl about 6 months ago, so I feel like it should go to her first, if it ever gets finished. The fuzzy yarn is frustrating at times to knit and the needles are the size for the gauge shown on the yarn which are size 5 needles...which means that this blanket, with 160 stitches per row, is going to take forever!  I've got 8 repeats of the pattern finished and need to do another 32 or so. At least it's looking nice. I just wish it would go faster. Last night I decided to try knitting continental style (I normally knit English style) to see if it was any faster. I honestly am not sure but at least I was a little bit less annoyed with the pattern and more annoyed with the new technique.

Project update

Yesterday I started on the second skein for the baby blanket. I'm not sure how long the blanket is going to end up being though I imagine it should probably be longer than it is wide. I'm guessing about 3-4 skeins total should do it. It seems as though it's going to take forever though. I measured it but I'm not entirely sure what it is off the top of my head. About 6" now I think.

I've broken my promise to only work on one knitting project at a time. I'm also working on knitting a pair of socks for the Husband. The first one was finished last week and he was delighted. There was some frogging to correct things so that it would fit his sock but he's happy with it. At least it means I can have two projects going and not get bored with either one. I started the second one this morning. Since it's a plain ankle sock, I've already started the heel flap. Maybe by next week it will be finished.

On top of all of that, I've agreed to make a costume vest for the Husband's circus performance next week. Out of silver lame. This will be interested but first I need to clean off the drafting table in my work room so that I can cut out fabric.

Baby blanket

Back in January I went to a yarn exchange. It was amazingly well organized. Everyone piled their yarn by type in a kitchen nook of the apartment. Then we all drew letters and went in alphabetical order. Each time you went, you could take two units of yarn. A unit could be anything from a single ball or skein of yarn to a whole set. If there were multiples of a yarn, you had to take all of it but it counted as a single unit. That is how I ended up with 10-12 skeins of this:

This was one of the last units that I picked. It's fuzzy and acrylic. I had sat debating about it for a long time. To be honest, it was the fact that it was made in France that caused me to cave. Not really logical but I figured I could convince Husband that it was a good find for no other reason than that. He was, of course, not too amused with my haul from the exchange and didn't like the logic that I brought home fewer units that I had left with.

So this yarn has been sitting, waiting for me to come up with a brilliant plan with it. One of the people at the exchange suggested making it into a monster, but I have no idea what to do with a monster once I make one. I thought about making a monster blanket or hats to donate but nothing really inspired me. Then I went to Wisconsin. I was out there for a work conference and I have family in the area. Family that I haven't seen in years. 

Taking advantage of the fact that the conference was winding down on Saturday and that we had a long wait until our bus ride home, Husband and I met up with my aunt and grandma. While we were spending time together, I learned that one of my cousins and his wife had just had a baby girl. This led to inspiration! I could knit a baby  blanket! Even better, I could design the blanket!

To be honest, I also needed a project while waiting for the yarn of my next Cookie A sock club shipment. I cast on the yarn to keep myself amused and started knitting. I hadn't actually committed to the baby blanket yet. At that point it might have become a scarf. Yet as the yarn knitted up, it seemed like a perfect baby blanket. So I sat down later and sketched out what I wanted it to look like. 

Years ago, I was dating a guy who loved the 4th Doctor so I made him a very long scarf. Instead of just knitting it, I started to do stitch patterns including cabling. I hadn't done it since then but I love cables. So that was the main idea to go into the blanket. I then figured out how many stitches I would need and how many I had leftover. Then it was a matter of looking for a stitch pattern that would fit into the spaces between. At first, I was going to do a seed stitch next to the cable but it didn't read well with the fuzzy yarn, so I frogged it when I ended up messing something up along the way. I also decided to do a basketweave between the cables to add texture to the blanket. When I was about 8, my grandma made me a blanket, which I still have. I love all the textures and how complex it is and I wanted to go something similar to it. I'm not at the level that I feel confident doing something that complex and I wish that Grandma was still alive so I could ask her about it. Now all I can do is look at it and try to puzzle out the stitches on my own.

To figure out what stitches to use, I turned to the internet. I used Knitting on the Net for the basketweave stitch. This was the same site I used years ago when working on the long scarf. I also ended up using the Lion Brand Stitch finder for the cable. My hope is that once I finish, I'll write the pattern up and share it on Ravelry. I have a feeling it's going to take a while. Below is my current progress. I've not been working on it a lot lately between work and wanting to make socks for my husband. I also need to move it to a larger project bag as it's starting to get bulky in the one I've been using.

One of the cables

Basketweave stitch

16 Yarn Shops, 1 snowy April day and a full charge of the battery

For the last six years, local yarn shops in the Twin Cities have done a shop hop in the spring. This year was my first time attempting it and the 7th, and largest, shop hop. Sixteen of the 30+ yarn shops in the Twin Cities participated. Each shop had a pattern and specially dyed yarn for the event. If you brought a donation for a food shelf, you could also pick up a charm that went with the theme of the shop. The overall theme of the event was called "i Yarn @" which I didn't understand until I started going to the shops. Each shop had a location that they "yarn" (knit/crochet) at and had the dyed yarn tie into that theme. Sometimes the pattern did as well.

I first heard about the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop on Ravelry. Then, I looked at my work calendar. The event takes place over 4 days because it's not entirely realistic to get to all of the stores in one day. Of course, my work schedule laughed at this and had one open day for me. One day to get to 16 shops. I talked with my husband, telling him that I was going to take my day off and do this. He asked if he could come along for a larger purpose; to take our Tesla Model S out and see how many shops we could get on one charge.

The original route

Revised map. Google Maps "helped" by removing part of the  route.

Yes, we own an electric car. A sexy one at that. It's the mid-range and my husband figured out a map to take us to all the shops. Except he forgot 2 of the shops, which I didn't notice until the week of the hop. The original map was going to take us to the far end of the Tesla's range.

With the additional 2 shops, it looked like we were going to really be pushing the range. We decided we would  play it by ear, be mindful of the miles, take back roads and put the car into the extended range use. It also has an extended charge, which we did for the last half hour to hour before we left the house.

Of course, it can never be simple. The first day of the Shop Hop, it started to snow. A lot. A blizzard's worth of snow. I had debated going to a shop or two on Thursday before work so that there wouldn't be as many stops on Friday but the weather disagreed. I wasn't even sure my car was going to make it out of my neighborhood to get me to work that day.

Spring in Minnesota.

This was going to make things extra tricky with the Tesla because the cold diminishes the range of the battery. We were also going to have to be careful about how much heat we used because that also drains the battery. I offered my husband the chance to stay home as yarn really isn't his thing and it had turned cold and icky. I even offered to take my gas powered vehicle but he would hear none of it. He was going to come with me and work from his mobile, green office for the day.

On the Ravelry forum, there was a message that the stores were all going to open an hour early on Friday! This meant one more hour to fit shops in. If I had been truly clever, I would have taken more pictures of the shops but we were on a timeline. We only had 8 hours to get to 16 shops, which included about 5 hours of drive time without any traffic or snow. This wasn't a shopping trip, but a challenge to be fulfilled. Get to the shops, use the Tesla, collect all the stamps and do it in one day!

But first, fuel was needed. Not for the car but for us. We went to breakfast at an awesome French bakery called Chez Arnaud. Quiche Lorraine, pain au chocolat and hot chocolate are great ways to start off the morning. It was also conveniently on our way to the first stop on the list, Amazing Threads.

My husband, who tried to play navigator and work at the same time, trusted my phone to get us there but he felt it took us the wrong way. We got quite turned around and took back roads, killing a few extra miles. The location was also frustrating. It's in one of those giant complexes with buildings going off in every direction, with signs pointing to building numbers. There was definitely a bit of anxiety on my part trying to find the place without getting too turned around. I was also a bit worried that maybe I'd misread the forum and only a few places were going to be open at 9 and that we would have to sit outside waiting for the shop to open. But it was open! It was warm and cozy inside and I wish I'd had more time to walk around and enjoy the shop. That pesky timeline!

After there, it was a quick jaunt up to Anoka to visit The Shepherdess. I had made a point of not bringing my wallet into the shops as my husband was camping out in the car. However, I walked into this shop and fell in love with the yarn and the project. I dashed back out to the car and grabbed my wallet. They offered kits that included everything needed for the project and it will make an awesome birthday gift for my youngest bonus-daughter.

From there we went to All About Yarn. Just after 10 am on the second day and they were sold out of the specialty yarn! My phone was confused as to how to get me there, so once again we lost a little bit as I had to turn around.

After that we traveled south to A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe in White Bear Lake. On a side note, the city of White Bear Lake is cute in the tooth-rot sort of way. There were banners all around town with pictures of a White Bear (a polar bear perhaps?) which was just so...touristy. Having grown up in a tourist town, I do get a little twitchy visiting places like this. However, the yarn shop was awesome. I really liked the yarn, though not enough that I had to have it. I did end up chatting with one of the women for a few minutes. This was the first shop that I understood the theme! Theirs was yarning at the beach, including a beach cover. I was definitely starting to feel very pumped by the whole thing.

On our way to Lila and Claudine's in Mahtomedi (yeah, I have no idea how to say it either), Husband called a work buddy of his who lives in the area. We ended up stopping for lunch at a place called Four Seasons. It use to be called Three Seasons but they apparently felt that they needed to acknowledge all of the seasons. When we walked into the place, I was a bit nervous. This seemed on par with truck stops in the middle of nowhere that you have to build up a tolerance to their food. They offered something called broasted chicken. I refuse to look up what that means as I just don't want to know what they did to the chicken. I knew it was a bad place for lunch when Husband asked the waitress to bring some oil and vinegar with his salad. She just sort of stared at him and was confused. Luckily another waitress was able to help him out. After the unexpected hour there, we headed out to the next shop...which turned out to be across the street. I could have easily walked over there, checked out the shop and been back while Husband and Work Buddy were still eating. We would have saved a few miles at least. This was a very lovely shop. Walking into the shop, they had a sign that said "Yarn Helps", which is very true. Once again, I started chatting with someone who worked there, though I did eventually get downstairs and say their beautiful yarn. However, once again, I was on a mission and didn't want to be delayed by chatting too much. And I didn't want to get too sucked into the loveliness.

Onwards to Stillwater and Darn Knit Anyway. This shop was on my internal list and I was delighted to see it was on the hop. I had driven past it very late one night taking a friend over to the area. I tried to be quick as I knew that time was ticking and I knew the next leg was going to be a long one and we were going to start hitting traffic soon.

On the drive to Crafty Planet, we encountered a couple of moody and scary drivers, so I accelerated so I could get past them. There was a bit of scolding because those quick accelerations drain the battery. We were already playing a fun game with the defroster on the car. I'd blast it until I could see again and then turn it off. Add on top of this the fact that the "food" Husband ate was starting to catch up with him and that he hadn't taken his own advice to dress warmly, he was starting to feel unwell. But we arrived safely to Crafty Planet, which I'd been to a few times before. I absolutely love this shop. Earlier in the week I had needed stitch markers for a blanket I'm working on. I thought about going to the closets Micheal's but did a search for yarn instead and remembered that Crafty Planet is just as close. I'd much rather spend money on a local, small business than a large corporation. As I was filling out an entry for a door prize, I mentioned how the trip was being done in the Tesla and one of the employees told me that I needed to post about how it went. I promised to write a blog entry about it. It's a week late but it's finally being done! I also bought my other purchase of the day. My mom has had both of her knees replaced twice. It seems that even though she's been doing PT, she's still developing scar tissue so she has to have more surgery. She asked me to pick her up a skein of yarn to help her recover. Not that she needs more yarn but you know what, I also don't need more books, but that doesn't stop me from getting more.

At this point, the original plan had been to head east to the Saint Paul area but Husband looked at the map and said we should hit the shops in the Minneapolis/Uptown area first since we were already close. So we went to StevenBe. If you are use to calming yarn stores, this place isn't for you. It's...outrageous and I mean that in a good way. It's also extremely overwhelming. Husband came into this shop as he'd been there before to purchase Christmas presents for me. It was an experience and loud and not at all what I'm use to in a yarn shop but it was fun. Husband was a bit disappointed that I didn't bring my gift certificate from him and spend it there but honestly, if I have a $50 gift certificate anywhere, it's a rare day that I know exactly what I want. I've spent almost 2 hours in a bookstore once spending $25. There are so many choices and it was extremely crowded. I don't like being rushed in my yarn shopping. I like touching all of the yarn. And I don't want to just buy yarn for the sake of buying yarn. At least not anymore. I like having projects in mind, though I admit this doesn't always happen. Sometimes a yarn is perfect and just needs me to own it.

Next we headed west to Linden Yarn and Textiles. More accurately, we went to where they use to be located. The information the folks doing the yarn hop gave was correct, but the google map wasn't. I didn't bother to double check because everything had been accurate so far. I wasn't finding a place to park (the Tesla is bigger than my car and I'm intimidated about parallel parking it), so Husband went around the block as I discovered that the shop was no longer there. This meant we'd have to catch it later. Instead we went to Needlework Unlimited. Inside, at the main counter, a poor, older gentleman was getting his card stamped. He looked defeated and glanced over his shoulder at who I imagine was his wife as she shopped. At least I saved Husband from having to do that. The employee I talked with there was delightful and introduced me to a yarn they carry called 'Sota. I heard "Soda" and was a bit confused why someone would dye yarn to look like soda but to each their own. The colors of 'Sota are beautiful and I shall have to go back and get some once I have a project in mind. And get my stash down a bit.

Next we headed down south to the two stores that Husband had missed. I had been to Unwind Yarn Shop before and loved the calm of their shop. And I fell absolutely in love with their yarn. I didn't buy any which is a long story and I'm just going to leave it at that. At this point, we nearly went home. Husband wasn't feeling well and was starting to get bored. It's not fun having a bored anyone with you. He really wanted to go to the next shop, Yarn Garage, as it is also owned by Steven Be. We got there and as I chatted with the person working the hop area, he found yarn. Yes, he found yarn for a sweater that he wants me to make him. That he's designing. I've never made a sweater before let alone made one from a pattern that's never been tested. Once he found the yarn, he felt in a much better mood though and we (by which I mean he) wrote down the information so we could buy it when we have a design for the sweater.

From there is was back north but before we got back onto the highway, Husband asked that we stop at a gas station. Why did we need to stop at a gas station if we were driving an electric car? Because a friend of his owns the gas station. Of course his friend wasn't there but he got to leave a note and we got some snacks to recharge. Then onto 3 Kittens Needle Arts. I admit bias to liking this shop before I even went in for two reasons. One-they have "kitten" in the shop name and I'm a cat person. Two-the charm they were giving out was a teapot and I'm a huge tea drinker. I'm not going to admit how many teapots there are in my house. At least I use all of them. The yarns here were clever in their name and lovely and it was the first pattern that I knew I was going to make. I even had yarn already. One of the ladies I chatted with was even talking about getting an electric car herself when I mentioned taking the Tesla.

We were starting to wind down. It looked like this was going to be our last stop as we were losing charge faster with the cold weather and Husband wasn't feeling well. When I got out of the shop, he said we could make one more stop on our way home as we would be near it on our way. This would be the Yarnery which I've decided has the worst parking situation ever. I didn't want to pay for ramp parking for a quick in and out and Husband was feeling too poorly to take over driving. After circling the block and asking him to tell me to take him home, we headed home.

We made 12 out of the 16 yarn shops in one day, which was impressive. One friend said that he didn't love his wife enough to go with her to that many yarn shops. I feel very fortunate to have a husband who willingly came along. How did the car fare? Well that's the other reason we headed home instead of trying to hit any other shops along the way because Husband's anxiety was starting to pick up. This is what popped up on the display when we parked in the garage:

  The car was even telling us we were done for the day. But it was well worth it.

Total miles: 160.7

The estimated number of miles left after we got home.

Our mostly accurate final route. We skipped the last shops though it was our intention to make them. Maybe next year.

Finished! Now what?

Friday morning I finally finished my first pair of Cookie A socks.

This picture shows that it's still winter...I apparently need to shave my legs...badly.

Have you ever been on a trip (especially a driving trip) where you are suddenly feel done with the traveling and are ready to be home? I started to feel that way towards the end of the toe of these socks. I was in some ways mentally done and ready to be finished with them. This is probably due to the fact that I'd started "knitting" them in my head even when I wasn't actively knitting.  The pattern, despite some early upsets, was actually really easy and friendly. A bit addictive as well to be honest. I wore them to work today so I could show them off to everyone.

 As with every other toe (5 so far) I've done, it was finished with the kitchener stitch. Despite having done it several times now, I seem to always have to look up how to do it whenever I get to that point. It's really an easy process but I think I over-think it every time and that's why I have to go back and look up how to do it.

 The yarn has been amazing. There was a little bit left and I'm wondering what to do with it. I've got this idea of making a patchwork project with all the leftover Cookie A yarn. Assuming I have leftovers with the future ones of course!

There are several reasons to want to be done with this pair. One-I've got another pattern from the first club shipment that I want to make. Two-the next club shipment comes on Monday, so I may change my mind on knitting priorities. Three-I have this strange, fuzzy yarn (10 skeins of it) that I feel should be made into something else. Four-the husband has consented to letting me make him socks. It's with stash yarn and it's not going to be the best yarn but frankly, I don't want to give him my best yarn to wear while he jumps through a hoop on a tight rope. Five-I've pretty much been knitting socks since November now with a short break to make some hats so it might not be a bad idea to branch out and try something else for a change of pace.