Socks of a Different Kind

...or are they mittens?



Ollie, adjusting the shades.

Knitting's a Privilege

Here it is!

CBS Sunday Morning


(and even better there's a video on the Poilane Bakery next!)


What a wonderful Sunday morning!

Remember Mo Rocca vs. the Knitters?

Here, let me refresh your memory.

video link

Well, the whole story is supposed to be on CBS Sunday Morning!!! This Sunday, the 28th as Mo Rocca reports on knitting!

I made Mo some mittens, did ya see me?

My Knitting Bag

I had this wonderful knitting bag, purchased at my LYS, Arcadia Knitting in Chicago. It was made by Yancha, and it was adorable with a pattern of Japanese Sandals or geta on it. I used it quite a bit. Then I hadn't used it for a while...and do you know what happened?

One of the cats peed in it!!!!! Luckily it was empty of projects and just had a few pieces of paper and some little things, but arrrrrrrrrrgh! My main knitting bag!

So the hunt was on for a new bag.

I think I found it...

Very simple, pretty basic and won't look too ratty after a week. Cat pee impervious? Well, let's hope that's over! I got it from Laura Foster Nicholson Textiles.
She has some adorable ribbons, really cute patterns - but look at these!



Knitting ribbons! She has some for crocheters, and quilters, too!

I have to admit, the ribbons came first, I was given some by my friend H. and then I had to look at LFN's website and then I found the bag and.... you know.

That's all I've got for today. Now I've got to go clean the litterbox.

Are you kidding me?

This sock. I knit this sock for D. and his most ungracious response was "What will I wear them with?" Needless to say it sat unfinished and unmatched as I plotted a way to integrate the word "ingrate" into them. Purl bumps weren't obvious enough, and I thought turquoise intarsia might do the trick.
Well, I started the second sock, and lo and behold I had an immensely different shade and variegation in the second skein, so now...yep, I've got to rip the first sock out anyhow. Oh, well, it is just knitting.

I told D. that I was going to have to frog, and thought he might look to have some input into what he'd like, if he intended to wear them...and this is kind of what he wanted, something similar to Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Caspian Sea Socks. Our dear friend S. who used to live next door had some amazing socks his mother made for him (one day I will have to photograph them, they are truly awesome), and D. remembered those and wanted a pair of socks like that, the closest I found were the Caspian Sea socks.

Well then he said no, and thought he might something like Latvian Wedding Socks.
Maybe, he couldn't decide, but things were looking pretty wild there...

I thought to myself, Huh? but you ask what you'd wear brown socks with?

We discussed the socks more and he said he wanted socks like C#2's Mint Chip socks, with the stripes and different colors.



So we dug through my stash, and this is what he's getting:


Mini Mochi, and Dye Dreams sock yarn

Whatever. He doesn't know how lucky he is, does he?

Annemor's Mitten Class

Have I gushed enough about Annemor Sundbo?

This is from our Selbu mitten class. We had a couple of options, we could follow the pattern she gave us for a lovely Nordic Star mitten, or we could copy a motif or a variety of patterns following Norwegian "rules" to make our own mitten. The choices were overwhelming, and I had to think a good long time about what I wanted to make, then I thought, "well, if it's too small the kids can have them..." then common sense took over and I realized white mittens? kids? NO! and I decided that they should be mine!


Samples and motifs



Mine is bright blue & white, next to the bright red mitten.

I couldn't decide, so I'd knit, look around, knit, talk, take a photo, knit. I was not at all productive. I was so indecisive, I couldn't quite decide what to knit.
So, I frogged. I have found a cuff I like, but I'm still not sure on the motif.
Oh, well.

Here's a photo of me at the embroidery class, slouching in the chair, but at least I was being productive that day!


photo courtesy of L.Lutz of the WCKG

No, I did not knit that sweater, it's from L.L. Bean, knit in China.

Classes with Annemor Sundbo

I took some classes this weekend with Annemor Sundbo, author of Everyday Knitting, one of my absolute favorite books on knitting. Her story is fascinating, and she singlehandedly preserved a great deal of Norway's knitting culture and history. She bought a rag factory, and rather than shredding the old sweaters that had been brought to the mill, she realized the value of all these garments that someone had made and charted many of the designs and saved many, many specimens. Click on the link to her website, and make sure you click on the Ragpile tab to see some of what she has saved.

It was a thrill to be in her class. The very first time I saw Everyday Knitting I couldn't buy it fast enough...especially once I saw the charts of different reindeer, squirrels, birds and dogs towards the back of the book. Annemor put the designs into her knitting machine and knit up a lovely sample of the collection of designs. I was in heaven when I had the opportunity to see it in person and to handle some of the wonderful knitted items she brought.



Can you tell I'm a fan of Nordic knitting?

The first class was for embroidery for Setesdal sweater yokes. It looks absolutely intimidating!


This is L.'s very lovely piece, we have very similar patterns.

It was broken down perfectly, and even though I was not able to finish, I got the basics and made something that actually looks okay!


Ollie is my spokesmodel.

The main problem with this?

Now I need to knit myself a Setesdal sweater!


Psst...there's an example of a Setesdal sweater on the cover of Everyday Treasures.

You had to be there...

Last night at knitting one of my knitting pals was launched into her tirade about her serious dislike of Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns. She prefers to have her knitting patterns clearly spelled out without any room for wiggling or adjusting or ignoring, or basically knitting like I usually do.
Here's how it kinda went - I am taking liberties here which is okay because it's my blog ya'know!

M. : "I need it spelled out for me, give me a pattern that says what I should do!"

T. : "Yeah, you know why Fujiyamamama likes her so much don't you? Because she never follows the pattern anyhow!"

Me: "Yeah, I like how her patterns are written."

M. : "Well you must be her daughter then!!!"

I thought that was so funny! Did you? Oops! Is it one of those "you had to be there" stories? Oh well.

Have a great weekend!

Just One Done

Odessa by Grumperina has been on my to-knit list for a while.
I had the perfect yarn too, Colinette Cadenza in Fire. The colors look pretty neon here, but they're not quite that bright. The color range was from dark red/black bits to a nice orange and hot pink.



It was supposed to be for me, and I was ready to cast on earlier this year, and then I found out about my friend T., who needs hats now and pretty urgently. It turned out nicely, and the pattern was really well written and organized - which is exactly what one might expect from Grumperina.



I love the swirling ribs on top. I hope she likes it.

On to the next one!