And finished!

Tonight I the hardest socks to date that I've ever knitted. The left one took just over a month and plagued me with some many problems that I wasn't sure I was going to finish. Thankfully I was inspired by this month's club patterns that I made myself promise myself I wouldn't start any of them until I finished this pair.

 

Now to finish a birthday gift (putting the cord into the bag) and then to start more projects. I appear to have run out.

Estes Park, a decade later

As  I mentioned in my post yesterday, I visited the Estes Park Wool Market this month with my mom. I think the last time I went was in 1999, though I can't be certain. By that time, I had graduated high school and didn't *have* to go to the show for all the benefits of showing llamas.

Growing up, I remember we would go to the show for mom's birthday. At least, I remember going to it a lot. It was always painfully boring. I usually started the day looking like the llama on the right, yawning as mom talked to all the people she knew.

It seemed like we had to stop at every, single booth in the shop barn. Sometimes we even stopped at them multiple times. They would talk about not only the fiber (or wheels or other tools in the booth) but then they'd do what "old" people do and start talking about *other* things. This would mean would be there for hours and hours. Or at least it would seem that way.

 By the end of the day, my sister and I probably looked like this goat. Sprawling limbs and exaggerated sighs of boredom. Eventually we would get to look at all the animals there but that too would lead to boredom. Especially once the talking started. In those early years, we didn't actually bring animals and would only spend part of a day up there. The best part was that if we "suffered" in mostly silence, we would eventually go into town and get to buy some amazing salt water taffy. 

When I hit middle school, we actually owned llamas and we would attend as exhibitors. This would mean staying in a hotel for the weekend. I think my sister and I nearly got us kicked out of the hotel a couple of years in a row because we were hyper and annoying. Something about getting the "giggles". We would also do silly things like decide we were tired of waiting for mom to finish talking and walk back to our hotel which would only take a "few minutes" to get there. Try closer to an hour. A five minute drive can take much longer by foot though we still beat mom to the hotel. Being an exhibitor was almost worse than just going to visit. First of all, I showed llamas.

Grant and I doing an obstacle course.

Being 13 years old is awkward to begin with and when you add in braces and llamas, well, it was hilarious. At least the animals had some grace to them as I was certainly lacking. The big advantage of showing llamas, even when there are a million other kids doing it (or so it seemed at the shows), was that it made me really unique. I wrote a college entrance essay about having llamas. I was well remembered by one of the Dean's of my college as we talked about llamas when we met her. Everyone knew I was the girl with the llamas when I visited Coe, which is where I ended up going to college. It took getting into theatre and going to London for me to be known as something other than the girl with the llamas. As much as I hated it then, I'm grateful for it now as it got me to do things that were often uncomfortable and potentially humiliating in public and being able to handle it well. It was all about building character and giving me stories.

So years later, I plan a trip to visit my mom for the week, arriving so that we can go to the wool market. There were still the moments where she talked to people she knew for a long time. Of course, they remembered me (or thought I was my sister) and I honestly don't remember them. My brain can only hold so much. The llamas show has dramatically shrunk to a handful of participants where in my day there were hundreds of people and llamas. I had the most fun in the sale barn, where I exhibited some control. I bought some yarn to dye and I could have bought a lot more. The first booth we stopped in, belonging to one of mom's friends, I had already started petting the yarn there. One of the people in the booth decided to help by taking them all out of the basket so I could see them better....

Below are some photos of the really awesome things that I saw and that I managed to not buy.

Mohair "salad bar". Put together any colors you want, all for the same price by wait. Rather clever and very pretty.

The gossip wheel. Two people spinning with one person working the treadle.

Blending fiber to spin.

This is pretty. I wonder who made it...oh, of course Mom did.

Not that I needed to be encouraged...

I didn't buy any but it is amazingly soft. My husband wanted to know if it was made from the down of hummingbird wings since it was so expensive.

Short and quick project update

I meant to write a few weeks ago, while I was in Colorado but I was having too much fun and excitement. Then I was going to write this past week but I set a knitting goal for myself. I had finally reached it just in time for us to lose power. I've been without power at home since Friday evening. I'm currently at the local library working on some lighting design work which I need a mental break from so I've decided to update this blog. It would be even more awesome if I could do the updates that are floating around in my head but the photos for those posts are at home. So here are the highlights until I get better organized.

• I visited the Estes Park Wool Market with my mom for the first time in over a decade. It was much more interesting now than when I was 18.
• I got to spend a lot of time knitting and finished the knitting part of a beaded bag for my youngest step-daughter's birthday present. It's the first time I've ever done bead work while knitting.
• Dying happened at the end of the week. Tie-dying and yarn dying that is. I use to make tie-dyed shirts All of the Time. I probably had about 21 at one point. It was my first time dying yarn. I made some for my mother-in-law for her birthday and then some sock yarn for the Cookie A Sock Club because the Kirk inspired socks needed Captain colors.
• I'm about to turn the heel on the right Pirouette sock. It took me about 3 weeks to reach this point on the left one. I did it in about 1 week this time. I don't know if I've simply spent more time knitting on it or if my brain stopped freaking out but it was certainly easier.
• I learned about World Wide Knitting in Public and did spend some time knitting in public.
• Last night, I cast on plain socks as 2-at-a-time using the Magic Loop method. I think I have actual socks instead of a mess even. I'm very proud of that.
• The baby blanket has been frogged so that I can knit it on larger needles. Mom did it for me because she is awesome.

And now back to cuing work. I'm dreading writing out the cues for one song because there are going to be a lot of them. I hope it looks as magical in real life as it does in my head.

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.