Baby shower knits: slightly cheating

Is it wrong to have made a little hat initially for one baby only to give it to another?

That's what I did on Saturday. I had a baby shower to go to, and two days before, I whipped out the One-Hour Baby Booties from Stitch 'n Bitch 2. But let me go back to the hat. The hat is the Umbilical Cord hat from Stitch 'n Bitch 1. I made it over winter break for a baby that was born in March. I never gave the hat to this baby because I never made the matching booties. So, as I put off making the booties, the baby's head, I'm sure, grew and grew and grew.

So, I decided to give the hat to another baby, along with the booties. I had to mattress stitch these booties--one looks like a disaster and the other looks semi-okay.

The yarn is Lana Gatto Baby Soft, 54% virgin wool, 24% nylon, and 22% cotton.

I don't really know much about babies, so whenever I make this hat and bootie set, I always wonder, Is this hat too big? Are these booties too small? Can a baby's head possibly be THIS big??? Good Lord!

And, of course, it doesn't help when your boyfriend says, Say, isn't that hat kind of big for a baby? And I just play the you-wouldn't-believe-how-big-a-baby's-head-is card, as if I knew ANYTHING about that, but I guess he assumes that I must know how big a baby's head is since I am, after all, a woman.

By the way, why aren't my friends having girls??? They are all having boys, and I've been dying to use my pink baby yarn. Or maybe I'm old-fashioned. I think that next time, I'm going to use the pink yarn regardless of the sex of the baby. Besides, a little four-year-old boy loved the Snow White Princess Barbie I gave him for his birthday last week. But the parents of this boy are really open to the fact that their son loves dolls and so-called girlie things. I think that is so awesome. I would be afraid that other parents might not be so open. But really, who wants to shop for action figures and cars? I want to shop for dolls and cut little pink pony things with brushable hair and glittery wings.

Speaking of my love for things pretty and pink, I had fun picking out yarn at Spunky Eclectic and using the gift certificate my Secret Pal got for me. I decided on this gorgeous Pink Lemonade sock yarn, and then I couldn't resist this Neapolitan yarn as well. I'm already staking out my mailbox.

Is this a knitted bowl I see before me?

What I first thought was a knitted bowl on the cover of the new Ikea catalogue turns out to be some wicker thing; however, after going through the catalogue I found evidence of some sort of knitter-mastermind-plot to introduce knitted goods, knitted-objects-in-progress, and baskets of yarn into the decorating scheme.

Exhibit A: (page 96)

Exhibit B: (page 213)

There were a few more knitted things (or things made of yarn if not exactly knitted) in the catalogue, but I'm already feeling a bit silly for posting about this at all.

In knitting news, I'm making progress on my Trekking sock. I wanted to try a short-row heel with this sock, but then I just couldn't make myself unravel the short-row instructions and I remember just how much I love the way that little heel flap hugs my ankle. I'm afraid I was lazy, lazy.

In non-knitting news, I dyed my hair yesterday by myself with a bottle that came in a box. I decided that I'm not going to spend $1,000+/yr coloring my hair anymore, so all those expensive highlights are now brown and brown they will stay because that is a lot of money to be spending on hair when you're living off of loans! Besides, I can take the money I'm saving and maybe actually go to Europe next summer or perhaps buy more yarn.

A big worm; new sock; birthday yarn; a big thank you

A Big Worm

This big worm was found trying to cross a little path in Thailand. It was so big that I had to stop and take a picture of it. I asked my little 11-year-old cousin where the worm was going and where it had been. He said it came from the old felled tree and was working its way into the house of people who wanted to eat it.

New Sock

I finished a little worm last night. It's made with some KnitPicks Parade yarn in the Gumball colorway. This worm was a nasty nasty pest at 1:00 a.m. Why? Well, this worm apparently didn't have enough to eat and wanted more yarn just as its knitter was approaching the toe. Very very annoying worm indeed.

Apparently, I'm not the only knitter who ran into this problem. (I read about this happening on other blogs.) This worm would have been a better worm if I had knitted it toe-up and with a short-row heel as short-row heels use less yarn than heel flaps and gussets. But how is a knitter to know? A knitter assumes that one ball of sock yarn will make one sock. Good thing I saved the "starter yarn," which is what I call the yarn at the beginning of a ball that isn't used because you want the socks to match or start with a certain color.

This worm is a bit more colorful, but just as weirdly shaped as the worm I found in Thailand.

Birthday Yarn

My boyfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday. (By the way, does anyone notice anything different in my blog heading? I'm no longer (gasp!) pressing thirty.) So I told him sock yarn and a foot spa. He must think I LOVE feet. Here's what he bought me:

So this yarn isn't exactly what I think of when I think of sock yarn, so I'm a little wary of the owner of the yarn-shop-that-shall-not-be-named who told my dear boyfriend that this was sock yarn. Nevertheless, I think my my boyfriend did a lovely job. It's so lovely. I love the fact that he went into the yarn store and bought me yarn! What a wonderful wonderful boy!

He even said that I could make him something with the brown yarn and that the blue yarn was for me. Say, ladies, have any of you been brave enough to make socks for manfeet? Frankly, I'm a bit frightened.

A Big Thank You

Today I got a huge surprise from my Secret Pal. She got me a gift certificate to Spunky Eclectic. I'm already drooling over all the gorgeous sock yarn and am having a difficult time deciding on what I want. I haven't come across this vendor before, so getting the gift certificate was like getting two gifts in one. Thank you so much, Secret Pal. I'll let you know what I pick out.

Jaywalkers & Paper Lantern

There was one thing that I had to absolutely do before leaving Texas. I had to finish and graft Jaywalker 2. But, of course, I also had to cast on for a new project in order to endure a four-hour flight to New York. So there is another sock in the works.

The only variation that I made to the Jaywalker pattern was working the toe down to 16 stitches and not the 28 that the pattern calls for. There is a little error on one of the socks, but we won't talk about that. We won't mention at all how, when I was getting ready to slip the double-decrease stitches over the next knitted stitch someone nudged my arm just the slightest bit and no matter my cursing and picking at loops with a safety pin I just couldn't set that double-decrease along with several stitches that slipped off the needles to rights again. We just won't talk about that.


The Jaywalkers are pictured with a little paper lantern that I bought at the Damnoen Saduak floating market just outside of Bangkok. If you ever go to this market, be prepared to pay tourist prices for goods (unless you're my mother who can work a bargain like it's nobody's business), but know that the prices are still bargains for tourists and the food and fruit are still very cheap. This paper lantern cost me about $2.50, so I'm not complaining.

We paid a fair price for a two-hour boat ride around the market, which included a stop at a palm-juice vendor, who gave free samples, and a fish-feeding frenzy in front of a temple. (You pay 5 baht--a few American cents--for a bag of fish food and when you throw the food into the river, hundreds of fish come up to eat.) My favorite part of the 2-hour tour was stopping to eat "boat noodles," a traditional Thai noodle soup that the vendor prepares from her boat!

But I digress--back to the Jaywalkers. I still don't think I chose the best yarn for the Jaywalker pattern. I do like how the socks look toward the instep, but I don't like the broad stripes on the cuff and gusset very much. Jaywalker 2 definitely went faster than number 1--perhaps because I put it down and picked it up over a long period of time.

The current socks I'm making are my "instant gratification socks." They are made with a sport-weight yarn (Parade by KnitPicks) on size 2 Addis, which are really like a 2.5. I'm already on the heel flap. It would usually take me a week to get this far with a sock. After these, I'm going to tackly my Trekking yarn. But a lie a little bit--I already kind of cast on for that project.

Second Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire

Here is my second Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire. A special thanks goes out to our SP8 hostess Patty for sending it our way.

(I have knitting pics to post soon and more Thailand pics. Promise!)

1. What is your favorite season?

Spring, definitely spring. I love the promise that spring holds, how it's cold and unbearable one day and then warm and lovely the next. I love the first blooms, the tiny bursts of bright colors, the coat that doesn't know just yet whether to stay put or not.

2. Where is or would be your favorite place in the world to take a vacation?

I feel like a cultural heathen because I've never been to Europe, never even been to England. I think I would love to go anywhere on that side of the world. Countries that appeal to me are Italy, France, Spain and for some reason the city of Copenhagen--I think it's because of the mermaids.

3. If you could have any job in the world and not worry about finances (everything would be taken care of), which means you'd be doing something you actually like, what would it be?

I've always dreamed of having my own bed and breakfast in a lovely little corner of some lovely mountains, but then I don't think I would really enjoy cleaning up after anyone. Then I dreamed of raising sheep, but then I remembered that sheep poo and get sick and die and all that. I think I would like to sit at my desk and write. I think that's exactly what I would like to be able to do.

4. What is your favorite project to knit or crochet?

Oh, socks, definitely socks. I don't want to knit anything else! I used to look at patterns and think, oh, I have the right needles and yarn for that. And then I would make the project. But now, all I do is look at and dream about all that lovely, lovely sock yarn out there.

5. What is your favorite food - whether it be a main dish, dessert, snack, whatever?

Oh my god. This is a difficult question. I love many, many different foods. But if I had to say just one thing, I would have to say my mother's Thai beef salad. Other things I love: Cape Cod brand sea salt and vinegar chips, custard, rare steak, oxtail, bolonaise and pasta, mussels in white-wine sauce, Thai noodle soup, carbonara and pasta, lamb chops with rosemary, and I could go on and on really.

6. What is your favorite way to relax and unwind?

Well, I hate to say it, but knitting is the answer to this one. And I also like cleaning. I know it seems weird, but cleaning makes me feel less anxious and this is probably why I was a nervous wreck when I was studying for my orals--I had no time to clean.

Jaywalker & Mountains

Soon, quite soon, Jaywalker 2's toe will be done and grafted; so before that, I wanted to share a little photo that I took for you while I was in Thailand. Here is Jaywalker 2 amid the mountains of my mother's hometown and the pasture where her cows graze. (Cows not pictured.)

This photo certainly doesn't do anything justice: it can't convey the teak trees, the bamboo and banana plants, how they themselves graze up towards clouds that gather and glide against the mountains, at times seeming so close that you think you can touch them.

Orchids and socks

I'm so anxious to tell you so much about my month in Thailand that I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps I should talk about the flowers, the fruits, the mountains, the people, the Buddhist ceremonies, my aunt's mushrooms, the rain, the huge spider, the markets that I love. But since this is, after all, a knitting blog, perhaps I should tell you about my knitting.

Here is a pair of socks that I made for my aunt who is always so good to us when we are in Thailand. She looks after our every want and need and I always feel that what I give her in return is never enough. So I wanted to make her a pair of socks. The orchids are in the front yard of my mother's vacation house, and there always seems to be orchids blooming.

These socks were made with KnitPicks Dancing in the Tap colorway. This yarn makes very comfortable and stretchy socks (I had a hard time giving them away!), and I highly recommend it if you're knitting socks for someone who, say, lives in a tropical rain forest and isn't accustomed to washing or even owning socks and who may not know the dangers of felting. (The yarn is cotton and wool and nylon and elastic.) It's easy to knit with, but I must say that the color repeats did get a bit boring after a while--it doesn't quite surprise in the same way that a handpainted variegated yarn will.

I made a 1.5 inch cuff over 2x2 ribbing with a traditional heel-flap on size 1 Addis using the magic-loop method. I made some errors on one sock that I won't tell you about, but let's just say that it was very frustrating and I had to frog a few rows and messed up one of my wrap and turns which led to a huge gusset hole despite my picking up two extra stitches near the join. (Well, maybe I said more than I should have, but I should also say that sewing up that hole went extremely well and I hardly noticed it was there when it was all sewed up and done with.)

I also made her a little dishcloth with Peaches 'n Creme yarn. My older sister, who I taught to knit a while ago, made the other one. Here's the little package we made up for our aunt.


I have many more pictures and stories to tell and I'm anxious to get back to my DSL connection in Brooklyn so that I can upload pictures without getting frustrated. (Slow uploads coupled with jet-lag is not a good combination.)

Jaywalking in Bangkok

After a month in the mountains of Thailand, away from internet access and all things tech, I'm in a nice little hotel in Bangkok. There's internet access, but it isn't free, and the computers don't seem to have a slot for my little camera card. I'll post lots and lots of pictures when I'm back in the states. That will be in a few days! Woo hoo!

I've had an amazing trip and can't wait to tell you all about it. I went to many Buddhist ceremonies and parties and got a bit tanner than I was when I left the states.

I knitted a pair of socks for my aunt and am now knitting my second Jaywalker in Bangkok. I had high aspirations with my baggage full of sock yarn and Proust but it all came to naught. Lewis Carroll wrote that he believed in periods of extreme intensity followed by periods of extreme idleness, so I suppose that I have done the right thing by doing nothing at all after all that intense testing and studying and grading and what not.

Thanks so much for all your well wishes for my trip.

Pictures and postings to come soon.

One last post before I go

I have a strange and slow internet connection here in Texas, so I'm not posting any pictures in this post. Speaking of strange and slow, my suitcases just made it here. Mind you, I made it here Friday night. My suitcases just made it here. The suitcases arrived without any kind of apology notice or travel coupon or free frequent flyer miles. I'm hesitant to state which airline this is.

Speaking of airlines, I'll be leaving in two days for a journey overseas. I'm hesitant to state the country that I'm going to in case my Secret Pal spoilee reads this by chance and finds out who I am! Maybe I should make up a country? I guess I can say the continent? I'm going to a country in Asia for one month. How's that?

What I'm packing: enough sock yarn for six pairs (I know...very very ambitious!), Addi turbos size 1 and 2, bamboo dpns size 1 and 2, my knitting sock book, darning needles, tape measure, some dishcloth yarn to make my aunt some dishcloths, and my second Jaywalker-in-progress.

Jaywalker number 2 is all but 2 inches in length, and I'm hoping that it will be somewhere in the instep by the time I land in my destination country. I believe the total travel time is 26 hours! Great day! That's a long time, and if I don't make significant sock progress and Proust progress, well then, I don't deserve to be a knitter or a reader.

I doubt I'll be able to post again before I go. Tomorrow will be spent madly packing and wondering whether I've enough toothpaste or dental floss or shampoo.

I hope that you will stop by my blog again in late July, when I return. I promise to have lots of pictures of socks and flowers and mountains and fruits.

Maybe I will teach a child to knit.

I'm going to a very poor area of a poor country. It's where I was born, and I feel an intense need to help the people here.

While there, I plan to also set up a scholarship fund at the village school, a scholarship that is specifically for girls. Girls often have to drop out because parents, if they can only afford to send one child, will more often than not send the boy child.

Perhaps I will also teach young mothers how to knit baby blankets.

Happy knitting, and I'll see you in about a month!

ABT (All But Toe)

If I can refer to my stage in my Ph.D. program as "All But Dissertation," then I should be able to refer to my stage in my Jaywalkers as "All But Toe." I'm officially ABT on Jaywalker one. I hope to cast on for Jaywalker two before I get on a plane on Friday. I have a four-hour flight to Texas, and as much as I'd love to pick up my Proust again, I'd really love to come out with a few inches of Jaywalker before landing. I have to say, if any sock has been Proustian in duration for me, this sock is it.

The gusset and the foot of this sock felt as if they went on forever and forever. Never before did one sock seem to go on and on. I really did pick this sock up every chance I got, even knitted a few rows before bed each night and each time I would pick this sock up, my boyfriend would ask me, "Are you still working on the same sock?" And very humbly, I would have to answer, "Yes."

I can't believe that I realistically thought I could turn out a pair of socks in two weeks. I know many knitters can do it, but I just can't. I don't know why I can't, but I know I can't. (Socks as my Knitting Olympics project?!?! What was I thinking???) So, I figure if I can turn out a pair a month, I should be happy.

I have another pair of socks that are ABT, and I hope to finish them before Friday as well. These are the first pair of socks I ever started. The pattern called for size three needles and worsted weight yarn. Advice to new sock knitters: do not begin with worsted weight yarn because you think it will be easier. I'm dreading finishing these socks. I don't enjoy the worsted weight yarn. I don't know why. I guess I'm just used to sock weight yarn now and don't like the feel of big yarn on my hands.



Here is another piece of embroidery that my boyfriend's mother made in the 70s. I think the colors complement my Jaywalker perfectly.