I'm late; I'm late; I'm late

Dear friends,

I'm feeling a bit like the white rabbit today--constantly going somewhere, constantly busy. The one difference is that I'm constantly confused. Everything is a bit overwhelming right now, and I have a 7:00 a.m. flight to catch tomorrow. I wish it were a vacation destination, but no, it's a conference and work. I have so much to do before then. I was hoping to update this blog and my etsy shop before leaving, but it looks as those to-do items will have to wait until I get back.

Yrs,
LK

The Monkeys are Done; My First Sweater; Dissertation Update; Sock Club Update

The Monkeys are done

I grafted the last toe on Thursday night at my knitting circle. These socks were delightful to make. If I had to make them over again, I would probably use size 0 needles for the leg and then switch to 1s for the gusset/foot. They're a tad looser than I would like in the leg portion of the sock, but nice nonetheless. I love them. They make me happy to look at. I used my Woollly Boully Softie Sock in the Country Apple colorway. Here are my pattern modifications: size 1 dpns, my slip1 k1 heel flap and regular gusset, decrease toe to sixteen stitches as I like to do. When it comes to socks, it's better to do as you like to do. At least that's what I think.

My first sweater



I remember a while ago I promised that I would do right by this sweater. And I really did try to stick by her. I bought yarn and made a swatch, and I was all set to go. Then, I realized (yes, even after making a swatch in garter stitch) that the sweater was in garter stitch. (I guess that's why everyone says to "read the pattern all the way through.") It's not easy to see in that photograph that the sweater is in garter stitch. Oh no, I thought. I like garter stitch, but I don't think I'd like to wear a sweater made in garter stitch. I don't think it would flatter me. I thought about rewriting the pattern, but, having never made a sweater before, I didn't feel confident enough in my abilities.

Then my friend Jody showed me her copy of this fall's Knitting Fashion magazine, which seems to be very difficult to find on-line. I think it's a European magazine, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I loved the sweater at first glance. Loved the cowl neck; loved the stockinette stitch. But the pattern called for a heavy worsted and size 11 needles. I had already bought a bunch of worsted. I tried a swatch on size 10 needles, and it draped just fine and filled out a bit after washing and blocking. (Oh, yes, I went all the way with my swatching. I didn't think I would, being a sock knitter and all who never, ever swatches--just a quick look at the yarn and I'm off.)

I was very proud of myself. I was able to convert the pattern by thinking through it in my head and performing some very simple arithmetic. Then I found this, and it confirmed my changes. I was very pleased with myself. I had always been terrible at figures.

So I cast on Friday. As of this post, I have the back all done and am almost beginning my neck shaping on the front. Sweaters do go fast. I estimate that I knit about 18,000 - 20,000 stitches in a pair of socks. I'm sure that this sweater will contain about that many stitches as well. I always silently stare when someone, seeing that I tend to always be working on a new pair of socks, tells me, "Hmmm. I think I'll start to knit socks. They go faster." I just silently stare.

Dissertation Update



I had to print out my chapter today. I just couldn't see it anymore. I email myself a copy of it daily if I make changes. I don't trust anyone, anything anymore when it comes to saving. Oh no. I had a big crying fit this spring when two pages of my prospectus got eaten by my flash drive. I still can't look at a flash drive without cringing.

It's such a baby still. It's 43 pages and it's shapeless, without form, an utter babbling blob. I'm hoping that a print-out will help me to force it into some sort of shape. If I'm quiet in blog-land these days, well, I'm hoping that this photo will tell you why.

Sock Club Update

My sock club is almost full, and by almost full, I mean there's only one spot left. The club has 24 spots. One is mine, and is being reserved for a special someone, 21 have sold, and one is left.

Dyeing will begin this weekend. I have such a lovely colorway planned. I'm already swooning. Just swooning I tell ya.

We've Got Buttons!

A while ago, Pam asked if I had a Woolly Boully button for her blog. I also got a special request from Julia for a Woolly Boully Sock Club button for her blog. Buttons? Hmmm....I hadn't even thought about buttons. So I thought about buttons; it made sense for me to have buttons. I know nothing, however, about making buttons. (Well, I did try to once, a long time ago, and that turned out very badly.)

I then remembered a very talented blogger and photographer and designer who had designed a beautiful button for her Fiberlicious group. I also remembered that the Knitting Philistine had taken a very lovely photo of my yarn. I then remembered that she is very open to doing swaps. She usually swaps her soap. I asked her if she would consider doing a button/yarn swap. She said yes, and I was absolutely thrilled.

The two buttons above are the Knitting Philistine's creations. The first one is a Woolly Boully Yarns button and the second one is the Sock Club button.

You may post them on your blog. I would very much appreciate if you did the following:

- please have the buttons link back to my blog;
- and please remember to save the buttons and then upload them to your blog;
- if you prefer, you may download the buttons from my flickr site, but the same rules apply--save to your drive and then upload.

Pam has also started a Woolly Boully Woolies group on Ravelry. I know that not all of you are on Ravelry yet, but if you are, you can click here to join.

I am so excited about the Sock Yarn Club. You know, I really didn't think anyone would sign up. I really thought I would go about my day, come home, check my email, and see that no one had signed up. As of this writing, we have 19 members in the club. Goodness! I feel really honored that anyone signed up at all, and it really means so much to me to think that so many of you have such faith in my abilities to bring you great yarn. Thank you all so much!

Woolly Boully Sock Club, Korknisse, and I've been Raveled

Hey you all. I have some exciting news. Well, it may not be at all exciting to you, but it is absolutely exciting for me. I've started my own sock club. I'm planning lots and lots of fun things for the shipments, but I'm having an oh-so-difficult time pinning down three colorways for the club. There are so many on my mind. I guess I'll have to save some for later.

The club will have a book theme, like some other sock yarn clubs, but I thought I would centered my sock yarn club around my books. I know, I must be so self-centered! But really, I'm very often inspired by images in my writing when it comes to yarn dyeing. The two really do go hand and hand for me.

Details for the Woolly Boully Boully Books Sock Club are here.

***

When I first happened upon these, my heart flitter-fluttered. Korknisse is (are? -- is korknisse plural?) the cutest little folk ever. I want a whole village of Korknisse.

This one is an apple one, made from my Country Apple Softie Sock. This one is for a special someone whom I have never met, but who has been an awesome person to me. (She made me this!) She wrote a book with "apple" in the title, and I thought this would be an appropriate gift for her. She said that she had wanted to learn to knit to make those cute little animals (amigurumi?) that everyone has been making. So I thought that a cute little Korknisse might fit the bill perfectly.

I wanted to use fingering weight yarn and size one needles. I couldn't find any patterns on-line for these specifications, so I just improvised. The original pattern is here. The English translation of the pattern is here.



Here's my modified pattern for fingering weight yarn and size 1 dpns.

Sweater:
cast on 24 stitches (If you knit loosely, you can use 20 stitches.)
join in the round
k2p2 for five rounds
knit for five rounds
cast off

Hat:
cast on 24 stitches (Again, if you're a loose knitter, you should use 20 stitches and adjust your decreases according.)
join in the round
k2p2 for four rounds
k four rounds
k2 k2tog k2 repeat
k two rounds
k1 k2tog k2 repeat
k two rounds
k2tog k1 repeat
k two rounds
k2tog k1 repeat
k two rounds
k2tog repeat
Draw yarn through remaining stitches.
Weave in ends.
Put clothes on a wine cork and draw two little eyes. (I prefer my Korknisse without noses!)

***

Yesterday, I was Raveled. My Raverly username is WoollyBoully.

Sunflower Socks

Well, after what seems like months, I finally have another pair of socks done. These socks took forever. I made short-row heels; I must have forgotten that I don't like knitting short-row heels. Unlike heel flaps, which I can make in my sleep, I still need to look at line-by-line instructions for short-rows. So, when I can't zone out when knitting, it tends to take me longer to get anything knit.

I love these note cards that come in little magnetized boxes. The boxes are perfect for keeping a pair of socks in or for gifting socks. I guess I'll need to write a lot of notes if I want more of these boxes. They're also great for storing knitting notions, paper clips, and any little thing that doesn't seem to have a home.

The weather is shifting.

I felt it weeks ago when my allergies flared. They flare fiercely in autumn. Along with the sneezes comes a vague sense of feeling under water, a deadened alertness, and fuzzy memory.

Oh, yes, and sudden food cravings.

Things I have craved: sour pickles, hotdogs with relish, granny smith apples with an ever-so-slight glaze of candy-apple coating (just to feel the crisp crunch along with the stickiness), braised red meats, heaps of raw vegetables.

None of these cravings make sense to me; none of those foods, excepting the braised red meats, are foods that I eat regularly or have ever craved at all.



My sunflowers socks were made using my Sunflowers, Texas, fields of colorway (these are 50% superwash merino and 50% tencel) over 60 stitches on size one dpns using a Sherman short-row heel.

I think my last post, bemoaning the slow slow wait for my Ravelry invite, must have made the Ravelry gods feel slightly sorry for me. In one week, my place in line has changed greatly:

• You signed up on July 14, 2007
• You are #16310 on the list.
• 915 people are ahead of you in line.
• 18118 people are behind you in line.
• 44% of the list has been invited so far

At this rate, I'll get my invite in about three days. About.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Well, it seems as if everyone is making Monkey Socks--at least everyone but me. You see, I've had problems with lace-knitting. Lace-knitting does not like me. I tried it once--yo, k2tog, yo, blah blah, and I want to punch someone, especially if I have to pass any slip stitched over anything on top of all of that attention paying and counting.

But no, the Monkey Socks are quite tame; they're relaxing, mesmerizing. I now see why knitters knit one, then two, then three pairs of these. I already want to knit more and more of them. I already want to give some to everyone I know and love.



I started these last night, and I didn't want to stop. I'm making these with my new colorway, Country Apple in my 100% superwash merino Softie Sock line.

I've been a bit busy, so I won't be showing those two remaining finished objects just yet. Perhaps this weekend or early next week I will. But I did want to show you all that I too do as monkeys do. I am officially in the club, and coming to think of it, I was getting bored of my stockinette socks. I really was. I was losing interest.

I do feel a bit left out, however. It seems that all the action is over on Ravelry, and I was so naive. I thought that I could sign up at any time. I waited and waited and waited, and that line moves so slowly. It's perhaps the slowest line in the world.

Here is where I am in the queue:

• You signed up on July 14, 2007
• You are #16310 on the list.
• 3937 people are ahead of you in line.
• 16305 people are behind you in line.
• 37% of the list has been invited so far

I really feel bad for those folks who are behind me in line. I've been waiting forever, and they will have to wait even longer. In one month, that list only moved by four percent. I'm very grumpy about this.

P.S. Thank you all for your comments and concerns over my mom's package. She has another one coming her way, this time by UPS.

I think I'm getting better

I have three finished objects to show you. Three. There's a scarf, a pair of socks, and this hand-spun yarn. I thought that maybe I should show you all three finished objects in this one post, but then I thought better of it, seeing as how I've been so delinquent at posting here as of late. Because my urge to show the finished object is so great, I'll have better successes publishing new posts if I withhold them for later days: or so I've convinced myself.

When it rains it pours certainly rings true for me. It often happens to me just like this. I have no finished objects for what seems like a long, long time, and then out of nowhere I have three. I just wish that only good things would pour.

I've had one of those weeks where I have just thrown my hands up, so expected were the inconveniences, the down-right injustices. I won't bore you with everything that went wrong this week, but there is one thing that I'm very upset about.

My parents live in a rural community, on a rural road. The neighbors collect their mail at a central mail box. Everyone has a key, and packages are put in larger boxes. If you have a package, you will have been given a key to retrieve the package. Well, even with this system, thieves break in and steal packages. My parents have had several packages missing or stolen.

I had sent my mom a very special package. She had been wanting some of these miracle creams, very expensive miracle creams. I happened to find this stuff for a good price, ordered it for her, and tracked the package on-line. The package was DELIVERED, but there was no package. Urgh. I called the USPS headquarters and filed a claim. I don't think they can do anything but log it and keep an eye on the area.

My mom has been making such positive changes in her life. She's eating better, exercising, and buying herself new clothes instead of wearing whatever someone gives her. In a word, she's loving herself, and I thought, by god, she deserves some of this expensive cream and I'm going to get it for her.

What do you do when your mother calls you, very sad and crying? Well, you do what you can without upsetting her more. So, I'm going to tell her that I was protected by some buyer protection policy (which is not true--I did buy the stuff from eBay, but I don't think you're protected in case of thief--oh, and that day, PayPal wouldn't let me pay with my American Express card, which protects me against theft. (You see how easily the universe conspires against me?)) and order her another one. I'll have it shipped by UPS this time. I don't trust whoever stole our last package to not steal it again. (And I won't buy it from the same eBay seller who hasn't even bothered to return my simple email, asking if there was insurance on the package or not--bad, bad customer service.)

In my mom's very Buddhist way, she says, Well, let them have it. That's what she always says when something unjust happens. Let them have it.

I'm so sorry to bore you with this story, but if this does happen to you, don't take it lying down. Report it to the USPS. They should know if there are areas with lots of mail theft.



I now return to the knitting content of this post: the handspun was this. It's superwash merino in the Punk colorway (discontinued), hand-dyed by Pigeonroof Studios. It spun up beautifully. I loved working with merino. It's 124 yards.

I think I'm getting better at the spinning, although this yarn is still a bit over spun. It's more uniform that the previous yarns I spun, however.

I want to knit it up, but I'm not sure what to knit it into. Any suggestions?

From the Depths of the Chevron

Forgive me for having neglected this blog for longer than I'm known to, but you see, I've been working away at a little project that will haunt me if I don't finish it by this time next year. It's my dissertation, and I've been plugging away at it, two pages a day, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more; it is coming along.

Not much sock knitting these days. I'm excited, however, to start a Monkey Sock. Angela at Fluid Pudding just made a Monkey Sock using my Red Robin: Bird, Nest, & Eggs yarn, and it is beautiful. Look here and here.

I have been working away on my Chevron Scarf. By now this scarf is so famous that I don't think I need to say what book this pattern is in, but my dissertation mind, forever documenting, tells me that I must! Do I resist? I don't know. I really don't know.

I'm making this scarf with some awesome sock yarn from the Great Adirondack Yarn Company that was gifted to me this past Christmas by one of Manly's sisters. I'm using Soxie in Maple Leaf and Spring Garden. The color combination is just stunning, and I won't ever, ever get bored of seeing how the colors develop and play off of one another in this scarf.



I wasn't always working on this scarf; in fact, I kind of loathed knitting it. Then I switched my 16" metal circulars for 9" bamboo straights. Oh, love. I'm in love with knitting again. I think I just need to realize that I'm a bamboo-needle kind of girl and stop trying to hang with the metal crowd. It's not working out.

I bought the needles on Friday, when two of my dear knitting friends (they comment here as JaneD and tigerlily) and I ventured into a yarn store after lunch. JaneD is going to start sock knitting. Oh, yes. Another one of those is on the brink of being born.

I do slip a few things into my etsy shop now and again. I also do special orders and reserves, so let me know if there's anything you're dying to get your hands on.



Speaking of my etsy shop: I'll be selling rovings there soon. I think. I hope. I dyed my first roving up last night, and while it didn't quite turn out quite how I envisioned, I think it's lovely, and it didn't felt! I'm so excited to spin it up.

Woolly Boully Softie up at the Loopy Ewe

My Softie Sock yarn (100% superwash merino) is up at the Loopy Ewe, but you might want to act fast if you want some--many of the colorways have already disappeared. Do not despair--the Yarn Grove still has some of the popular colorways in stock.



I wanted to share a little story about a new colorway I have that's up at the Loopy Ewe right now. It's called "Sunshine Family." Does that ring a bell at all? If you're about my age, it might. The Sunshine Family were my favorite dolls. I managed to get this off of eBay a few years ago:


I'm sorry that the picture quality is so bad--I took it with my old camera when I was in Texas a few months ago. Texas is where my doll collection is. What else is in the collection? I might be a bit too embarrassed to say right now. I still have the Sunshine Family dolls that I played with as a child, but I wanted these--untouched, promising, evoking the anticipating.

There's more to this new colorway than that. I was obsessed with yellow as a child. Second in line were orange and green. I was girl who preferred Bert over Ernie. I loved our 70s kitchen. My mother had a crocheted doll that was done up in yellow, orange, and green. She made me a chevron blanket in those colors. These are the colors that, when seen in this combination, make me feel happy. I think that deserves some socks.

Woolly Boully Softie Sock at the Yarn Grove

I've been a bit absent from blog-land lately. I've been trying to reroute my brain to think more academically; I mean, I've been doing a lot of dissertation preparing. I'm trying to spread myself into that realm for a while.

But I did want to stop in and say hi and that I miss everyone.

Prizes have been mailed. If you won some of my yarn, I still have to dye it up, but I'll send you an email to let you know when to expect it.

Jane at the Yarn Grove has some of my Softie Sock up in her store! Stop by if you have a minute.

I also made two new Poochies: Chocolate-Cherrie Poochie (above) and Pink-Lemonie Poochie (below). The new Poochies are available in my etsy shop. I have two new Poochies coming soon: Ph.D. Poochie (yes, the tuition bill is due soon!) and Prissy Poochie.



For now, the Poochies are an etsy exclusive. They are made in colorways that may or may not be repeated, and they are twisted into little lap-dog shaped skeins. They are sold at a price that is slightly lower than my regular yarns to help them all find homes.

I've also been trying to spin, but the humidity isn't very nice to my spinning wheel or my roving. I did manage to spin this into this:



I just starting spinning merino, and I don't know if I can go back to BFL, which now feels harsh and difficult to draft compared to merino. I don't think, however, I could have started spinning with merino--you do have to move faster and be more sensitive to the fibers. I know now why everyone says that spinning with merino is like spinning a cloud or butter or a dream.