Skew - Knitty Surprise By....

....Lana Holden, my friend & colleague at RiverWools.

I'm most impressed by this pattern - it's unique and interesting, and I love the way Lana writes about it in her introduction:

"...This heel requires neither short rows nor picking up stitches, but it does require a little bit of faith until the origami moment when a short grafted seam transforms an unfamiliarly-shaped object into a finished heel...."

Ahhh...'origami moment'.... a requirement of faith that the heel will surely appear... that is knitting poetry!  

As I wrote in a comment on her blog, I keep thinking the pattern should be called something like The Sock You'll Never Want to Hide in a Shoe.

But no, Skew is a great pattern name.

You can find it  here on Knitty.

Clean Socks & Freeform Bracelet

A very quick post - Sophia will be arriving any minute and I think that will limit my computer time drastically.

This was a lovely sight to me: a whole bag full of freshly washed handknit socks:
I want to thank Martha of RiverWools for assuring me that my socks indeed can be washed in the washer. For the longest time I was hand washing them and besides the time spent, they just didn't get as clean as I'd like. So. I pop them in a laundry bag (I like this one by Woolite) and put them in a cold/cold wash et voila! The spinning helps enormously as well, as it gets lots of the water out and they air-dry pretty quickly.

Here is my worktable in its current state:
I am working on freeform crochet here. And here is a freeform bracelet:

This is in ArtYarns in a Handpaint Stripe colorway (#136.) I have to say I loathed this colorway in the skein, but liked the way it worked up in freeform. And the yarn itself is very nice to work with - it's soft and kind of springy, and makes a rather sturdy crochet.

The interesting thing about this bracelet is that I created it essentially all in one piece. It just sort of flowed forth, beginning with a 36" chain. I crocheted back a ways with slip stitch and then I began to create the circles that form the design, then made the band by again creating a few inches of slip stitch cord and crocheting back and forth on both sides of it, formed the loop for the clasp, and finished by wrapping the remainder of the chain around the band. I secured it on the back side.

Sophia has arrived, so I'm done here!
Namaste,
Zann

Stitch Marker Factory

First, many thanks for the sweet, sad thoughts in regard to the death of Patrick's friend Jerry. I now light candles for him sometimes on Patrick's candlelighting page. I'm not sure where to put my thoughts and questions and emotions about death in general and the particular deaths we've experienced among our family and friends. I'm not sure how to even think about it these days. Wisdom-- I await some wisdom! Meanwhile, what seems to serve me well is to patiently abide in the present moment.

Life has been hectic and challenging of late, moreso than usual. We had family in to visit with Mom in the nursing home followed by a health issue for me which requires surgery (out-patient, scheduled for this Wednesday.) It's a relatively minor surgery in the grand continuum of possible surgeries. Still...it's ME....so please send whatever spiritual support you normally provide....healing energy, prayer, white light, blue light, angelic beings....I appreciate them all. And of course, being the devout UU I am, all humanist sentiments of compassion are equally appreciated.

So.
Overwhelmed I am (I'm not even thinking about The Holidays). But not so overwhelmed that I haven't been occupying my head, hands and heart with creative work. There is much accomplished on that front - knitted and crocheted gifts, socks, an Isis shawl in progress. AND I think I'm most excited about finally beginning to do some beading and wirework.

The latter started with stitch markers. I made dozens.

I began to call the kitchen table The Stitch Marker Factory.

The first ones I made fit up to size 10 needles. I made some that will fit to size 17.

It became apparent that I was going to have to sell some of the markers, so I created a little hanging card stamped with my signature leaf, with the markers strung on bright snippets of handspun yarn. Martha at Riverwools loved them and has now got them nicely displayed at her checkout table. Last time I checked a few had sold. I had the absolute pleasure of being in the shop as a woman saw them and said lovely things and wound up buying a set.

Making the stitch markers opened some pathway in my procrastinating about learning wirework and beading (this has to do with perfectionism and I think I will write about that later, it's important insight for me!) And I have since made some pendants and earrings and a necklace. Which will hopefully be the subjects of my next post.

I shall leave you with a picture of The Sock Factory:
Yes, that is THREE PAIRS of socks-in-progress. I thought that my way to avoid Second Sock Syndrome was to have two pairs going, but three seems to work really well for me. These aren't complex socks, just a basic pattern I use over and over for size 1 needles and Opal yarn, although the yarn on the left is another German-made sock yarn Super Soxx by Lang. My basic pattern has a preference for cuffs, heels and toes in a solid color.

Here's the first pair of socks out of the queue (I think I photographed them in-progess awhile back):


Ah, it feels good to write a blog entry here after such a long silence.
Namaste,
Zann

Socks In Progress

A very quick update, a copy of my recent post to the Womens Artistic Soul yahoo group:


I am still knitting socks and not doing much else creatively. I am sure
that there is a reason for that, the sock knitting must be fulfilling needs I
have right now. Perhaps it's need for small, manageable accomplishments, for the
rhythmic working of the needles without having to think very much for great
lengths of time. I am always doing at least two different socks at once, so
that I might be working on the more thought-requiring parts (heel flap, heel
turning, gusset, toe) on one sock, but meditative stockinette on the other. And
of course I also like the change of colorway from one to the other.


The sock knitting also seems to be giving me a better sense of sock structure
and technique. I have knitted quite a few socks, but whole heel/gusset
construction has never made sense to me -- I always have had to work it with a
pattern in front of me and the appearance of the heel/gusset has always seemed to
me like magic. Now that's not unpleasant at all, to have a magical,
wondrous sense after knitting something. But what I find unpleasant is my own fog
about this, about not having any understanding/visualization of the technique.

So I am happy to report that my current sock obsession is cutting through the
fog a bit.

These are very happy socks-- in Opal patterned yarn to which I have matched a
solid color for the heel and toe. Just cause I like socks with heels and
toes like that!

__________________________________

This is a picture of my August scrumble for that same group's monthly Freeform Exchange:

This is about the size of my palm, done in hand-dyed sock yarns from Claudia's Handpaint and Shibui and 2.5 to 3 mm hooks. Fun - really! And of course, inspired me to continue with more doodling in those finer yarns. Don't think I could plan to do a whole big project that way, but at some point perhaps there will be such an accretion of these scrumble doodles that a big piece will sort of naturally come together.

Always trying to trick my tendencies for instant gratification and short attention span....

Namaste,
Zann