Monday, February 05, 2007

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

First: a great big, huge THANK YOU to everybody who sent well wishes to my father.

He came home Saturday evening, much earlier than any of us were really expecting, and is doing wonderfully.
They did not do the stents that they had originally been planning, I'm unsure of exactly they did end up going with, but apparently they couldn't anesthetize him during the procedure, and it was incredibly painful for him, but a much quicker recovery time.
He's still experiencing a little bit of discomfort but can return to work as early as tomorrow if he would like. That is a huge weight off of my shoulders, and I'm very glad to be home again.


While I really didn't think I would get much knitting done while at my parent's house, there was a surprising bit of downtime with just me and my thoughts, so to keep my mind busy I cast on for and knit these:

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they are a variation on the 3x3 cable with moss stitch pattern from Sensational knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch

I'm using Knit Picks Essential tweed in Plum.

I am not quite happy with how bright and ... circus-y the tweeding is. You can't see it very well in the picture, but it is *bright*. I had originally meant this yarn to be for my cousin Tasha for my wedding, but this is not something she would wear. I'm glad I saw an example of it knitted up on the knitting curmudgeon's sight before I started something for her. I don't mind the bright tweed as much, so they are now socks for meeee!


And to hold the socks in progress I broke out my grandmother's old singer sewing machine and made this:

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the strap has a little snap and can fit over a wrist or be hooked through a belt loop, very similar to these but for a fraction of the price! I'm not the world's best seamstress (or even a very mediocre one) but I had a great time making this, and want to make a few more to coordinate with my socks in progress! It is way better than my usual method of storing socks when I'm not working on them. (a plastic grocery bag.)

Speaking of socks, before everything with my father happened I had finally reached the heel on my mis-matched Regia socks:

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how fun and bright!


Once I got home as was able to relax I got back to the sheep shawl.
Even with a week long break I'm making pretty good progress:

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I've finished the village and the sunflowers and am ready to start the first grass chart before the sheep! So excited!

9 comments:

Monika said...

Thanks so much Abigail! You are the best! I'll get through all that web language, and try to figure it out, since my son's not here to help me out. I love all your socks by the way. The Regia sock yarn, I've never seen before I saw it here on your blog. I love them. I've just got a new sewing machine, can't wait to figure it out and get some sewing done. Nice bag you made there too.

Abigail said...

You are welcome! I can't wait until you have to sock pattern available, it looks super cool.

I had never seen Regia until I went to visit a friend in Oswego NY and a yarn store there had some, I haven't seen any since!
The bag was super easy, just a 5 inch diameter circle, and a rectangle of fabric about 10 inches tall and long enough to go around the circumference of the circle plus a little for seaming. I was working off of half a semester's sewing class way back in high school and an antique Singer sewing machine, if I can do it, you should have no problem!

Rositta said...

Wow,that shawl pattern is dynamite. I've never attempted one, I may do so one day. I have never figured out how to knit sock on round needles, I still use 4 needles...ciao

Abigail said...

The shawl is a lot of fun.
I find myself being obsessed with lace and socks recently.

A lot of people find DPN's easier, but I always just end up poking myself a lot, so I switched to magic loop and I love it, two at once also helps eliminate that whole second sock syndrome issue. :D

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that your father is doing alright.

And your knitting looks gorgeous; love those tweed socks!

kat said...

glad to hear your father is better. can't believe all the projects you have going plus stopping to sew up a bag. great work.

Kelley said...

So glad to hear your father is doing well.

The cable socks look gorgeous. Plum is one of my favorite colors (though, oddly, I'm not a fan of purple in general . . .). I've been considering buying Essential or Essential Tweed. I'd love to hear what you think of the yarn (besides that the tweeding is bright--which is good to know) and how the socks wear.

Abigail said...

Kat –
Thanks, and the bag wasn't that much work, nothing professional, just about 5 minutes worth of sewing.

Kelley –
Thank you.
Re: essentials, I like the colour choices (I suggest ordering a colour card, my monitor isn't very accurate) and it is nice and squishy and soft to knit with. The tweed bits are a bit bright, and some don't knit in very well, and some just leave big bulky blobs of colour, but I still rather like the results so far, maybe because the darkness of the purple helps tame them. I saw par of socks knit up with the light grey tweed and they looked about 50x worse - like a circus puked all over them, the tweed bits stood out so much.

As for wear, the hederas I made are from essentials too, I knit them on size 2.5 (3mm) needles and got roughly 8 – 8.5 sts/inch and they felt really loose to me, I would suggest going a little tighter. They feel wonderful on the feet, but they are already beginning to pill quite a bit, and I haven't worn them that much. The cabled socks are 9 sts/inch on size 2 (2.75mm) and I hope that will help with the pilling, but I think I might like them a little tighter still.

Rositta said...

Oh yes, the second sock syndrome...happens a lot around here. I now have three different socks on needles, I'm baaad...ciao

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