The Little Monster misses J, who has gone to the Crazy State (RI) for his dad’s birthday (81^st). He’s only been gone a day and she’s following me around wanting to be petted. J is usually the object of her affection; I’m her much-scarred playmate. How does she get those claws so sharp so fast?

The ice is melting! The parking lot out back is an icy lake. I think the drains are still plugged with ice.

I have a theory why the two socks came out different sizes. While knitting a third sock, I thought that the twist on the third cake seemed tight. I have finished the leg and I find that it matches the shorter of two existing legs. The two completed socks are the same length more or less, but the foot is longer on one and the leg longer on the other, by five-eighths of an inch or so. I switched the two balls when knitting the second sock and have tighter twisted yarn on opposite ends of the pair. It’s a theory.

If true, the getting a matching foot will be a challenge.

This is the scarf I’ve been working on for J for over a year. It’s now just an end-to-end garter stitch, but it is such a bore. It was garter stitch, knit entirely through the back loop, but that was never going to be finished—not enough stretch in this yarn—and I frogged and started over recently.

detail➥

J doesn’t think I’ll ever finish it; therefore, assuming I can knit on it in morning before he gets up, it will make a nice Valentine’s gift.

Yarn

elsebeth lavold Silky Cashmere, 003 Black, 005 Wine, 004 Rust

Needles

Addi Turbo 5.00mm (US #8), 150cm circ

Pattern

CO a lot, knit back and forth ad nauseum

BTW, I use the wooden spool on the circ cable (lower right) to push the work along the needle.

PS. One of my pet peeves is people who don’t show you what the back of a scarf looks like. It always shows when worn. (I’m guilty too.)

PPS. I’ve updated the reading list.

Back to knitting.

The newfound love and affection hasn’t prevented her from adding a few more scratches to my hand. Three whole days without a hand to gnaw on. We had a service come in a feed and play with her as well as scoop out the litter-box, but we couldn’t ask them to sacrifice a limb. Only one revenge pee in three and a half days is pretty good though.

Dallas was fine. The trip was surprisingly hassle-free and all legs of the trip were on-time or earlier. The weather was perfect—80° on Thursday, almost as warm on Friday. I even got to knit outside for a while until I started to doze off.

We celebrated Mom’s birthday at Mario & Alberto’s in North Dallas—Tex-Mex, of course. There is certainly better in Dallas, but my sister and niece are not so adventurous. And no waiters were harmed despite their having sung Happy Birthday to my mom. I wouldn’t have dared.

Knitting

I had intended to finish the the second KPPPM sock in Dallas, but I left half the yarn here. I took some cream Austermann Barkarole to knit on the plane, trying to see what I could come up with in the way of a men’s scarf. I fell back on the Tunisian rib since I had neglected to bring a pattern book. It is a bit stiff on a 3mm, and it will take forever to knit the 475m I have in that stitch and I suspect that it will not be long enough if I try. This is one ball, knit out, 100 stitches, 14½”×3½”. That would give me a 5½ ft scarf in 38+ hours of the same stitch over and over.

Reducing the width to 75 stitches would give me the right length, but would not reduce the duration. What I would like is a slightly looser pattern, but not a basic k/p texture pattern. Any suggestions?

I could just move up to a 3.5mm needle.

I realized today that I finished my other sister’s socks without ever taking a picture. Damn.

Miscellany

1. I am too old to be chasing the Little Monster around the apartment.
2. The Half-Priced Books on Northwest Hwy in Dallas is worth the trip to Dallas.
3. Used book stores rarely have good knitting books. An entire book on duplicate stitch? I assume then that we are supposed to will the good ones to friends when we die?
4. Word Problem: The sweet twinkie, Sean, who was our flight attendant on the last leg of our trip (and admired my knitting while saying he had tried it, but didn’t have the patience for it) will be half my age no earlier than ten years from now. How old is he, assuming he is old enough to legally serve alcohol on an airplane?
5. Really, how does one flirt with a flight attendant?
6. Damn. I have to go to work tomorrow.
7. Having joined Ravelry, I realize once again that I can easily spend more time thinking about, reading about and writing about knitting than actually knitting.
8. How did my 16g stainless steel PA accidentally go through the airport metal detector undetected? I am now uncomfortable about what else can get through.

Ta ta.

Knitting Content

The finished Tunisian rib socks

Yarn

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Flames (#146)

Needles

Crystal Palace Bamboo 2.25mm dpn’s (US #1)

Pattern

my own, for better or worse; Dutch heel and round toe (modified) from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks; Tunisian rib from Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, p.159.

This is the first time I’ve used a Dutch heel in stockinette. It seems too wide and too long. In case you are wondering about the proportions, these are for my sister, who has short feet and high arches. We’ll see how these do.

Detail of the Tunisian rib, which has become my favorite rib stitch.

☃

History

Going through the old photos I never posted I found this from April 2007.

Yarn

elsebeth lavold Silky Wool, color 15 Pumpkin

Needles

Addi Turbo 3.50mm, 40cm circ; Inox straights in the same size

Pattern

my own, again, using two lace patterns from Barbara Walker’s second Treasury and a variant of my own.

Still snowing.

Resisting

I keep picking up Jane Sowerby’s Victorian Lace Today. I’m so tempted. I’m resisting; it is only a month and a half until the Χ–thing and there is no way I’m finishing a shawl in six weeks. I’m down to one or two conference calls a week and staff meetings are down to a minimum.

Work, though, is why I have nothing to show. Unless you are interested in SQL scripts and funds transfer pricing analyses. I do have a lovely cap plodding along in a Tunisian rib with cables in a smaller sort of gauge. Lots of knitting with very little progress. And a Manos de Uruguay Cotton Stria scarf at work for those conference calls I’m not having. Nothing significant enough for photos.

I now have a laptop for work. Which I carry home every night in case I should finally come down with a cold or the flu and be compelled to stay home. I haven’t yet, but I check my e-mail and end up wasting time at home that I could be wasting at work.

Question

If you are knitting a hat with cables and ribbing, is it better to decrease into the rib or the cable?

Fat Yarn

I look at chunky or even aran yarn—and sometimes even worsted—and think what could possibly do with that? Besides a hat. That I wouldn’t wear. Large yarns making my head look smaller.

I do have some nice thick yarns, several skeins of Malabrigo Merino, in fact, but I look at them and think ‘scarf’, in fact, brioche scarf—which I’ve done. Twice.

I could do a different brioche.

The Downstairs Neighbor is Still a Pig

The other night he banged on his ceiling to complain about the sound of my chair as I rolled away from my desk before shutting down and going to bed. Really, mice make more noise than we do.

I Googled him. Apparently his wife is more successful than he is.