January One -- Carbon Jaywalkers
December 07, 2005
I am not immune.
Call it hubris. Call it naivete. Call it what ever you want, but I was crazy to think it wouldn't happen to us. No relationship is perfect and the sooner I learn that the better. Sure, we work hard at what we've got. Sure, I'm all singing at the top of my lungs about fate and love and love and more love. But sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes going the extra yard or two can really make a difference. I'd like to think I'm learning my lesson. But that doesn't make it hurt any less.
At 1:39AM, with Georgie sleeping blissfully unaware beside me, I ran out of Socks That Rock yarn.
It was bound to happen. Who was I to think I could get away with such perfection? Other people have had problems, why would I think I was different? Look, I know schaudenfreude is alive and well on the Internets (and two fold in real life) and there will be people out there sitting back in their seats smiling smugly at the fact that I RAN OUT OF YARN. Go ahead. Have your laugh. I forgive you. I'm laughing myself. It was dumb luck that I bought this great yarn and found this great pattern and cast on and never looked back. EVERY DAY I get emails asking about gauge and fit and yarn and I really don't have any answers. I never checked my gauge on this pattern. I just knit the socks and it worked. FOR ME. Everybody knits differently. Every skein of yarn is a skank unto itself. We're all like delicate knitted snowflakes. No two socks are a like.
Enough. This is how much yarn was left:
I had literally THREE ROUNDS LEFT! Two knit rounds and one decrease. At the taking of the picture there were 32 stitches total on the needles. Lucky for me, I've got a great big STR stash so I just went in and picked up some Obsidian and pulled a couple of yards and finished the sock. There's no way you can tell. NO WAY. Go ahead - see if you know which foot it is....
There they are. My third pair of Jaywalker socks in Socks That Rock yarn, Carbon colorway, size #1 Addi Turbos - small size of the Jaywalker pattern. (Links in the sidebar.)
ETA: Okey dokey - it totally must have been something in the cosmos last night - Rosemary ran out at ALMOST THE EXACT SAME SPOT I DID! I think I got one extra round on her. VERY WEIRD. Also I have it ON EXCELLENT AUTHORITY that starting in the New Year (or thereabouts) the NEW PUT UP of SOCKS THAT ROCK will be 360 yds! WhooHOO! Great news! Thanks Tina and Kaci!
You can bet your sweet ass I'll be casting on for another pair today. I think instead of going back to Hard Rock, I'm going with Azurite instead. Switch it up a little. (Oh let's be honest. I'm a little bit too stressed to have to worry about running out of yarn again! ;-) )
Posted by Cara at 09:21 AM | Comments (33)
November 28, 2005
Thundercrack!
baby's back.
This time she'll tell me how she really feels.
This post will have something for everyone! Consider it Random Wednesday. Only it's Monday.
As I mentioned on Friday, Thanksgiving went really well. The food was great, company better and it all went off without incident. Except for the fact that my sister got a cold Wednesday night and felt miserable all day Thursday, it couldn't have gone better. My contribution (besides watching the kids off and on all day to keep them out of their mom's hair and vaccuuming) was a salad. I modeled it after my favorite salad of all time from Gigino's in NYC. It's the Peperina salad and I made it with mixed baby lettuces, shaved pear, shaved parmesan, pecans (I thought they used pecans, but I guess they use walnuts) and pomegranate seeds sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar. I was really pleased with how it came out and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
I've got no pictures of the kids because I didn't take my camera with me. I know. Blasphemy. But I'm sick of taking pictures and I'd just download them to the computer and they would sit there. Besides this was a break from photography work and it worked because yesterday I got A LOT of work done and I'm feeling like I'm back on track. At least a little bit. But I got a lot of cuddle time with the kids and they got their new bunk beds which was a trip in and of itself. My nephew ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk and my niece slept with me on the floor. The baby is big as can be - if I could only show you his monster thighs - but he's so much fun! He giggles nonstop and just smiles so sweet and he's such a cuddler. This is definitely one of my favorite ages. They're still babies, but they can engage you in that wide eyed wonderful way. All you have to do is smile and his whole face lights up. I miss them.
I hit the mail jackpot on Friday. Georgie was particularly impressed. I always call him to find out about the mail when I'm away and his standard reply is junk junk and more junk. This time HE called ME. There were lots of lovely thank you cards from all those boxes I sent out the other day - so sweet! An email is plenty, but a card? In the mail? For me? I was really touched. Thank YOU! Vicki's card was my favorite - check out this knitted thank you:
I tried to find the card on the artist's website, but it wasn't there. Hey Vicki! Where'd you get the card? It's SO LaPierre!
But what really impressed Georgie was the package from Hong Kong. I got my Crossed In Translation book! Yay! The book is really beautiful - think Rowan meets the House of the Rising Sun. And the freaking pattern is TWO pages. Lucky for us, knitalongers, there's barely any words to go along with the pattern. It's all charts and schematics. We should be able to figure this out no problem, right? G-Love thinks I've completely lost it. He may be right.
Oh and rest assured, seeing the sweater in it's native language has only made me love it more.
She slips, she slides, she slops, she bops, she bumps, she grinds
Now if only I could stop making socks:
Kaci - this pictures for you! Mwah!
I finished one...
and started another!
For all you Jaywalkers out there, I'm planning on doing an FAQ for this Friday's update. So if you have questions - let me know in the comments, or in an email. And don't forget you can always email me or Kathy (who, by the way, is an inspiration to me! First Jaywalker, and now Grumpecue! Kathy, you're killing me!) Basically everyone seems to have similar issues, so we'll address them this week. Namely gauge and the bar increases (yes - the holes are supposed to be there! It's a design thing! ;-) ) But if you've got other questions, let me know.
My heart's wood, she's a carpenter
She's an angel in the night, what she does is alright
As much as I love my socks, I'm sort of getting frustrated with myself. It's like I can't knit ANYTHING else. I think about all these projects I want to knit - mittens, finish my gloves, work on the Prairie Blanket. I just can't seem to concentrate. I'm trying to go with the flow like Margene says, but I'm antsy. And this doesn't just relate to my knitting either - when's the last time I read a book? Can someone tell me please? How pathetic is that?
We're not going to even discuss the fact that I just got off the phone with the embryo people - I was late on my payment to keep those totsicles frozen. When's that shrink appointment again?
Dance with me, partner, dance with me, partner
Dance with me, partner, all night
If you've got the DVD, make sure you watch the supplemental material on documentary disc. I can't stop watching Thundercrack. Over and over and over again. It's simply stunning. DO IT! WATCH IT NOW! You can thank me later.
Posted by Cara at 10:16 AM | Comments (18)
November 21, 2005
Excuse Me, Ma'am
Yes, Officer?
Do you know how fast you were Jaywalking?
Yes, Officer, duh. They don't call them Addi TURBOS for nothing!
Have I ever told you my goofy story about my Addi Turbos? I was a fairly new knitter - eh - I don't know - maybe a year in? And I had seen these Addi Turbos at yarn stores and I was intrigued. But I was nervous. Everything I read said they were super fast. I wanted something fast - it would make me feel like a real knitter, I thought. But how fast was fast? So I'm in an LYS buying some yarn with a non-knitting friend and I say to the sales person, "So do these needles go really, really fast? How fast are they?" (I guess I was looking for some kind of miles per hour equivalent - like minutes per row? MPR?) She looked at me in all seriousness and said, "Well, they go as fast as you can knit." DUH! I love that story. Not sure my stupidity translates so well in the retelling, but trust me. I felt mighty stupid.
Anyway, it's been suggested in the comments that maybe I have a problem with a certain yarn and a certain sock pattern and a certain singer whose first name begins with B and last name begins with S. I'm just saying. Why can't the Jaywalker pattern become my stockinette sock? If I'm getting results as wonderful as the ones in the picture above, why should I get bored? Or feel the need to move on? And for some reason - I'm not sure I can articulate it - these socks go RIDICULOUSLY FAST for me. Maybe it's because I know all the numbers in my head? So I can count my progress and immediately know where I am in the sock? All I know is that it took me a month and a half to finish the cuff on my Retro Ribs socks, a pattern I will probably never pick up again, and they're only a couple inches longer and have less stitches. I know the cuff is short on these, but I don't think they're THAT short. Whatever. I'm not making excuses, I'm just casting on again:
Last time I checked, the blogpoll race between Carbon and Hard Rock was still pretty tight, so I'm sticking with my plan to do one Carbon, one Hard Rock, blah blah blah. I can't WAIT to see how the Hard Rock knits up. I've finished the ribbing and did one pattern repeat. Today I'm going to visit a friend in the hospital, so I think the progress will be good. I'm not going to kill myself on this sock - read finish it in three days by staying up until past 2AM three nights in a row. I'm freaking exhausted. I need to break the stay up late cycle. I have too much work to do and I'm tired of the holidays already. Yeah. Bah Humbug to you too.
I'm updating the Jaywalker KAL page with names, and also Natalia has started a pair toe-up with some notes, so I'll put a link on the page as well.
Posted by Cara at 09:15 AM | Comments (21)
November 20, 2005
Late Night Rockin'
No. Not that kind. ( Ann, get your mind out of the gutter! )
I was up until 2:30AM again last night. But it was okay because I watched Thundercrack from '73, oh I don't know, 20 times? It worked too. Sweet dreams last night. ;-)
Is it wrong if I never want to knit another sock pattern? Ever?
Posted by Cara at 09:30 AM | Comments (12)
November 19, 2005
Jaywalker!
Well, last night things were pretty tight between Hard Rock and Carbon - gotta admit I was pulling just a little bit for Hard Rock - but it looks like Carbon pulled through in a squeaker!
I actually asked G to break the tie (this was around 9:30PM) and he picked Carbon too. He said no one has yellow socks. You should make yellow socks.
I thought since this is my third pair of Jaywalkers and I can pretty much knit them in my sleep now (which I did last night - I cast on at 11PM and went to sleep around 2:30AM) I should tell you all my numbers. First off, in no way do you need to use Socks That Rock yarn. Use whatever yarn you want! I just happen to have an abundance of this yarn in my stash, as well as a deep undying love for its beyond soft colorful goodness, so that's what I'm using. These numbers will be especially helpful to those of you using STR, since the current skein yardage at 325 yds is a tad on the small size. (Tina is rectifying this! In the new year, STR will have 350yds!)
Here we go:
I'm using size #1 Addi Turbos - two circular method - which is 2.5mm for those of you in the real world. I cast on 76 stitches and do twelve rows of 2x2 ribbing. I do 25 pattern repeats and then start the heel. This gives me a cuff of about 6". I do 15 heel rows before turning and then continue on until I have 57 pattern repeats down the instep starting from the top. Then I start decreasing for the toe. TADA! My foot measures 8.5" around and 9.5" from heel to toe. In the picture above I've done the ribbing and 10 pattern repeats - well on my way! Yay!
I'm thinking that maybe once I've finished this sock I might switch and do one sock in Hard Rock, then go back to Carbon, etc. Might be fun to switch it up, don't you think? And they go so fast - by the end of today I should be ready to turn the heel.
Okay - we've got LOTS of interest and I'm so happy to see it! Here are the participants so far:
+name+ = finished
I've listed everybody in my sidebar as well. The more the merrier! I've also got some buttons. I made the obnoxious yellow one and Kathy provided the rest. If anyone else would like to contribute, send me the buttons and I'll post them here. Please, if you take one, save it to your own server. Thank you!
I also wanted to let you know that Natalia has started her Jaywalkers TOE-UP! I know a lot of you were thinking about this - she's got some details here. Thanks Natalia!
Remember, email me or leave a comment if you have an update - I'll be posting updates on Fridays. Thanks everyone! Now go out and KNIT!
Posted by Cara at 03:47 PM | Comments (45)