Go With the Flow socks by Evelyn A. Clark
Interweave Knits, Summer 2005
yarn: German sock yarn
started: April 29, 2006
completed: October 4, 2007

These definitely weren’t started in October but Socktoberfest inspired me to sew up the toe last night. They’ve been sitting in my basket for about three weeks just needing kitchener stitching for the toe. Now on to another pair of socks for Socktoberfest.

I’m going to settle on this blog template for now since it is fall. When I have more time, I’ll put one together that I really like. Don’t be surprised if the template changes regularly just because I can’t make up my mind.

It’s been a rough week or so. My aunt is not doing well but we were able to travel to Kansas to see her this past weekend. It’s very hard saying goodbye.

**I just noticed my sidebar isn’t working. I’ll get it fixed later today. –Saturday, October 6

Well, I’ve managed to survive two weeks of classes. There have been meltdowns and self doubts about getting through school but yesterday it all seemed to come together. I’m truly enjoying my classes, especially Children’s Lit. What isn’t fun about reading picture books for class? Today, we discussed the picture books we read for class and I had one of those “this is totally what library school is supposed to be about for me” moments. In my readings for today, I discovered a few picture books that have come on the scene since my childhood that I really liked, such as Good Night, Good Knight, The Princess and the Pea, which has my favorite artwork of all of them, and No, David!. And I’ve also rediscovered some books such as Where the Wild Things Are, My Friend Rabbit and a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that I hadn’t read before. (I always remember the Rumpelstiltskin my parents read to me as a child that was illustrated by Edward Gorey, which is still how I envision the little man.)

There have also been the serious library school readings about information that had my head swimming a few weeks ago. It’s all about reawakening that intellectual mind of mine that’s been sleeping in the back of my head for over 10 years. (I didn’t need it when I was getting my computer science degree, that called for the practical mind.) My first paper is due in about twelve days and I’m nervous about it but know that I’m fully capable of writing 800 words easily.

My assistantship at the reference desk is going well and I’m starting to get a handle on how to answer some questions with confidence. It’s definitely challenging and I’ve learned so much in the last two weeks at the desk.

My knitting and sewing have suffered a bit from my busyness with school, as I completely expected they would. I did manage to finish the Moderne Baby Blanket two weeks ago and blocked it last week but just got around to taking photos today. I’m also making myself work on the Go With the Flow socks, which are almost finished. Last night as I was working on the socks at knit night, I realized I made a somewhat blaring mistake that I refuse to fix. On one sock there are four lace ribs on top of the foot and on the other sock there are five lace ribs. I’m so close to being finished with my third sock of the pair (I had to reknit one of the feet) that I’m leaving them as is and calling it a design element. (Photos of evidence coming soon.) Just before school started I started another quilt that’s a bit of a funky monkey quilt but that will have to be for another day.

My goals this weekend are to get all of my readings finished for my Monday classes, finish the Go With the Flow sock, hem two skirts, and possibly work on the panel skirt that I started and have neglected since mid-July. It’s a lot but if I put my mind to it I think I can do it.

Since I’m so immersed into the whole library thing now, I love finding random library-related things now, such as this song that I found out about on The Shifted Librarian blog.

First of all, thank you all for your wonderful comments and emails about my acceptance into library grad school. I’m so excited to start and see what the library world may have in store for us.

February was a very cold month, we had snow and more snow. We still have snow on the ground despite a few warmer (over 35°F) days this past week. I’m so happy March is finally here. February was a great month for reading and I read an amazing book that I’m recommending called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I’d seen it at the library and had meant to read it but kept putting it off. This was a wonderful book and it’s on my personal top ten list now. When I was a child if there was one animal that I wanted to be, if I had to choose one, it was the elephant. Why? Because it was big, something I definitely wasn’t and it started with an E. Silly reasoning, I know but I was about 5 or 6 when I thought about this.

February had been designated sock month for my knitting almanac project but for some reason my excitement for socks just wasn’t there until about February 26. I did knit a pair of baby socks knit, Bryan’s alpaca scarf, a pair of fingerless gloves and made quite a bit of progress on Martha.

A former co-worker of mine is having a baby in a few weeks and when I received the invitation to the baby shower, I knew I had to knit her a pair of socks. I missed the shower because I had to work that day, but she loves the socks. These were experimental socks for me in that I decided to try the after-thought heel. I had started out with a short-row heel but had holes and decided that it was time to try the after-thought heel, which worked quite well.

During the cold of the last six or so weeks, I’d thought many times about knitting myself some fingerless gloves but didn’t wanted to buy any new yarn for them. Around Feburary 8, the idea hit me, spin some yarn from fiber that I received from Wendy, my secret pal back in July 2005. I started spinning it quite bulky and after two days of spinning and plying, I had about 45 yards plied. I wasn’t sure how far that would get me so I decided to just knit until I ran out of yarn. Fortunately, 44 yards got me quite far. February 16, I knit one of the gloves and on February 19, I knit just past half of the second one before I ran out of yarn. Immediately after I ran out of yarn, I sat down, spun and plied another 18 yards, which was plenty to finish the top of the second glove. (Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.) Of course, as soon as I finished them it started to warm up slightly but they’ve been perfect for those chilly mornings and evenings.

In the last five days my excitement about the Go With the Flow socks seems to have exploded. The idea of wearing them really appeals to me now (why they didn’t before I don’t know) and when I set a goal of knitting 20 rows a day, I’ve seen some amazing progress. Now I’m about 16 rows from the toe decreases on the second sock. Then I have the fun of ripping out the foot of the first sock and reknitting it. In wearing several pairs of my handknit socks recently, I’ve realized that those knit on the size 2 Addi’s aren’t wearing well on the bottom. So I’ve decided that the only solution I have is to rip out the feet and reknit the bottom of the socks on size 1 Knit Picks circulars, while knitting the top of the instep on the Addi’s. I’m fine with this, especially since it means that I won’t worry about wearing my socks out as quickly and having to repair them sooner than later.

March is lace month, here are my planned knitting almanac projects:

• I’m planning to graft together the two pieces of the lace sampler scarf that I’ve already knitted. Easy-peasy lace project to finish.
• Finish the Go With the Flow socks.
• Swatch and knit the lace doily from A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swanson
• Swatch for the shawl to be knitted in April
• Knit more swatches for the Walker Treasury Project

Thank you for all of your kind words about the vest. Bryan loves it. He loves it so much and it looks so good with so many of his shirts that he’s already worn it three times this week. Fortunately, he wasn’t at the same place all three days so no one saw him wear it twice.

Now to January. It was a month of high goals.
I completely underestimated the time that the Cider House Rules vest’s button-band would take. If the first incarnation would have worked, then it would have been completed around January 10 but it just wasn’t meant to be. Finally, around January 15 after fiddling with it for a while, I had an ah-ha moment and the button-band finally came together. It looks wonderful. My only complaint is that it felt like it took a lot of time away from my other sweater knitting. I know I could have stopped at any time and focused on the Martha sweater but I wanted to get the silly button-band done and out of my knitting bag. My plan was to finish it by the time we left for Seattle, but that just wasn’t meant to be.

In the last week, I’ve made significant progress on Martha. I’m about 20 rows from shaping the armhole. This is definitely another project that I underestimated the time it would take. It’s a fun sweater to make and it’s definitely keeping my interest. My two hopes are that it doesn’t sit in my knitting bag too long without being worked on and that it doesn’t detract too much from my February knitting in sock month.

Of course, my first month of my Knitting Almanac wouldn’t have been complete without one project gone awry. My attempt at the Bianca jacket wasn’t meant to be and looking back, I’m really glad that I didn’t go any further with it. I’ve learned that when I’m making a cardigan sweater to always start with one of the front pieces just in case it needs to be ripped out for whatever reason. This was definitely a case where I was glad that I only worked part of one of the front pieces.

I also had to stray a bit from the planned projects to work a sample for my lace class in March. The sample was worked in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport weight and it knitted up so lovely that I think I may have to knit another sample and eventually make a scarf out of the two pieces by grafting them together.

February is another month of high goals. I think they are a bit more attainable but we shall see. My goals for February are:

1. To finish the Go With The Flow socks, the first of which is already finished and the second one is about 1/8 finished.
2. To start and finish another pair of socks.
3. Fix a few of my socks that either need reinforcing in the toe and heel or possibly even reknitting of the foot. Not let the fixing of socks completely overwhelm my whole month of knitting socks.
4. To enjoy the act of knitting socks and if I get frustrated or tired of them to knit on the Martha sweater.

For the Second Annual Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading, in celebration of Imbolc, the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day, I’m posting a poem written by Bryan. It’s a poem that he wrote for me and it’s wonderful.

Homily on the Crawling-Down-Mountains Beauty of Things

For Erica

The crawling-down-mountains
Beauty of things
Like the calm a behemoth brings

Is delirious leisure—
I wrap my feelers
Around my wife,

Thankful inside, still warm

From breakfast,
And set out in snowshoes

So easily
Across suburban glaciers,
Deliberately

Despite satellite
Images of the blaze,
The expletives
And gruntwork
accumulating around us,

And bask in that
Sent-down stuff
Beefheart or Orpheus
Described with howling innards

Still warm from breakfast—
My wife in the Holies
With Metric and Eisley
And socks for the betterment
Of the feet that alone
Are allowed to wear them,

She plies for hours,
The roving
Through the mother-of-all
Is yarn human red
That will soon be worn

Worn by a child

Whose delicate
Art of accidentally
Breaking things,

Like the calm a behemoth brings,

Crawling down mountains,
His beauty
Will topple the globe,
Becalming

The heart between two lungs,
Fit with fissure,

You should favor
Mornings that come to rest
In flavored skillets.

–Bryan Voell (completed around July 2005)

Did you know that last night/early this morning was the Full Snow Moon. Today marks the exact middle of the winter season, we’re the same distance from the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox!

Ever since Bess mentioned doing her own knitting almanac I’ve been thinking about it a lot and am even planning my own. Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac is such a classic and an inspiration. I feel that I should plan the entire year out now so that I can try to stick to it, “try” being the key word here, but I know how I can be when something more interesting comes along. There is SK’s sock-knitting machine that I’m going to try out on Saturday, and Project Spectrum 2.0, which can inspire something completely different than I ever expected. Hopefully, my projects planned for the month can fit into Project Spectrum, too.

Here’s what I have so far. A few of the months correspond with the classes I’ll be teaching. I’m also not going to be strict and make myself work on the theme of the month exclusively since there are some gifts that need to be made that I won’t fit into any particular month.

January: Sweater month.
* Finish up Bryan’s Cider House Rules vest, which is very close to being finished. I’ve already finished sewing on two armhole bands and am on my third attempt at the buttonhole band. Darn those evenly spaced buttonholes and making them match up to the vest. I had to restart the buttonband last night after being more than 40% finished. Oh well, now it will fit perfectly.
* Start and complete the Bianca Jacket from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits. If Bianca Jacket is completed before end of month, then start the Martha sweater from Rowan Magazine 28 in deep red Felted Tweed.

February: Sock month.
* Finish the Go with the Flow socks from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005. I’m 1/2 way through the cuff on the second sock.
* Knit the second sock for the Watercolor socks. One is a display at the store but by summer I hope to have another sock knit for the store’s display.

March: Lace month.
I’m teaching a lace class and hopefully, will be knitting some lace of my own. I don’t know what I’ll knit for this month, something to keep me sane while I wait for my letter for library school.

April: Shawl month.
Start one of the many shawls that I’ve planned to make. The three that I’ve been planning for awhile are the Summer in Kansas shawl, the Flower Basket Shawl and the Diamond Fantasy Shawl.

May: Afghan square month.
I’ve been working on the Great American Aran Afghan from Knitters since May 2002. For the last several years, I’ve been knitting two squares in a year and then skipping the next year. This isn’t a year I plan to skip. I’ve completed 10 of the possible 24 squares, I may not make all 24 I haven’t decided yet. If I could finish 4 more squares this year, I would be happy. Heck, if I worked on one a month, which was the original plan I could be finished by February next year. If you know of a store that carries Anny Blatt’s No. 4 let me know.

October: Socks for Socktoberfest 2007, if Lolly hosts it again.

That’s all I have so far. I would like to “learn” something new this year but at the moment I’m not that into challenging myself too much. Some things I’d like to do this year:

• More felting, but our current washing machine situation doesn’t lend itself to felting. Sharing two machines with 20 other apartments isn’t completely ideal.
• Learn how to do the Cat Bordi mobius cast-on.
• Knit a vest from my own hand-spun yarn. Maybe I’ll designate a month entirely to knitting with my own hand-spun.
• Attempt to swatch and start the Garter Stitch Jacket from Norsk Strikkedesign. I love this sweater but I’m wondering if it’s even my style anymore.
• Since I’m using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s idea for a yearly almanac, I have to knit something from an Elizabeth Zimmermann book. I might try the Baby Surprise jacket or one of her EPS sweaters.
• Work with the lovely Blue Sky Alpaca yarn that I have for a cable-knit sweater.

Some people have bad addictions to drugs, food and other unmentionables. Currently, I find myself glued to my computer more than I probably should be. I’m addicted/obsessed with YouTube. Not the crazy home videos but instead music videos by some of my favorite bands. Another thing that’s currently attracting me to the computer is Dr. Blind by Emily Haines, the lead singer of Metric. It’s such a haunting and beautiful song, I just want to listen to it over and over, I had it going through my head all day at work yesterday and while I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep last night. Fortunately for myself and the computer, Emily’s solo album comes out on Tuesday.

This past Monday Bryan and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We both had to work that day, after work we got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. I truly can’t believe it’s already been two years since we got married. It was such a wonderful day and it was so wonderful that sometimes it doesn’t feel real. The wonderful thing was so many people came from near and far to celebrate our wedding. At this time two years ago, we were honeymooning in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

On a different note, this morning I had my hair cut and I feel so great. I’ve been so irritated with the layers that I had put in back in May. So I’m growing those out and the stylist softened the front, so I have really long “bangs” that come down to my chin. Nothing like good hair cut to make you feel like a normal person again.

Today was my day off since I work all weekend and I am hoping to finish my market bag soon. On RoseByAny’s blog she listed her goal dates for finishing certain projects. What a great idea. Here are my wish dates for finishing two of my current projects.

Hobo - October 8 (exactly one year after I re-started it)
After an extra hard lesson in gauge, I have less than 70 rows to go before I finish the body on the second piece. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be finished with the body within the next week. Once I get going on the sleeve, it took me a day or so to finish it on the first piece. Then I need to block the pieces and sew them together. Fortunately, there are only four easy seams on this sweater. The top of the sleeves and the side/underarm seams.
Go with the Flow socks - October 31
I’ve joined Lolly’s Socktober Fest again this year. I hope to finish these socks and possibly start another pair for myself, which hopefully will go quickly. If I can finish both pairs by the end of October that would just be fabulous. I’m hoping that my obsession with socks from last year comes back.

I can’t believe I forgot this earlier, Marianne, my August Project Spectrum swap pal sent me this cute little fellow for August. He’s so cute and all handmade. I totally loved the creativity of the Project Spectrum swap pals I had. I didn’t experiment with a lot just challenged myself to make cool cards in that month’s colors and I think some of them are my best cards. I wasn’t the best Project Spectrum participant working on projects in that month’s color. Frankly, I had too many projects and I had too many babies to knit for. I guess the Log Cabin Blanket counted for almost every color of the rainbow anyway, so I guess I was working on a project in that month’s colors now that I think about it. March really inspired me to work on the Hobo sweater and now I’m more than 75% finished with the sweater.

We’re now in our fifth straight day of 50 degree weather with rain. A low-pressure system has parked itself on top of us. There are those of you that live in the Northwest where five days of rain isn’t a big deal but it’s really starting to wear on me. I want to be outside enjoying the sun. It’s May, not March. This is obviously payback for having a beautiful April with nice warm temperatures and lots of sun. I know we need the rain but can’t it rain one day, then be sunny the next? Not six days straight.

Fortunately, the rain didn’t stop us too much on Saturday as we ventured out for the first Farmer’s Market of the season. It was the first time we’d been to the Farmer’s Market here but we came home with some great stuff - four small basil plants, a pound of strawberries (YUM), three lovely tomatoes, locally-made raspberry fruit spread (sweetened with white grape juice) and a pound of freshly picked salad greens, which were scrumptious.

Sunday, the rain and cool temperatures were the perfect excuse to bum around, knit and read the entire day. Today, I’m having a serious case of the Mondays and the rain is not helping. Speaking of work, you’re probably wondering what became of the Acquisitions job. The interview went well, but they hired someone with previous acquisitions experience. I received a very nice note in my mailbox at work from the woman who interviewed me. She explained why they hired someone else but another position would be opening up in August and I’m her first choice for the job. When I saw her on Friday, I thanked her for the note and said it meant a lot. She told me that I’m hired for the position opening up in August, unless I change my mind. Things are working out for the better, now Bryan and I can have a leisurely summer after the middle of June. He’s in school for the next four weeks for an intensive summer semester and then he’ll be off for two months.

I’ve made some progress on the Hobo sweater and significant progress on the “Go with the Flow” Socks. I just turned the heel last night.

In my previous posts about my trip to Maryland, I haven’t included photos of the yarn I spun in my Novelty Yarns class with Judith Mackenzie McCuin. (click photos for larger image)
From top
2-ply slub yarn
Cabled bouclé with red thread - fiber 50/50 silk/wool (this was a rescued by Judith)
Marled yarn (3-ply)

Cabled Bouclé with white silk thread

Cotton bound bouclé
My first time spinning with cotton so slubs were very easy to do

I need a bit of practice with boucle yarn but it was really fun to do. Right now I’m just waiting for my new wheel before I start anything new, it should be here in about a week and a half. Last week, I finished spinning the garden yarn on Wednesday. Because I don’t want to start anything new, I respun a hank of the Lemondrop plied yarn so that I can cable ply it to make it stronger. I have one more hank to do and then it’s just waiting for the new wheel to arrive, so that I can wind all of the yarn I’ve spun on Matilda onto the bobbins of the new wheel. I realize that I could wind the yarn onto weaving bobbins but at this point, I can’t afford a bobbin winder and I figure this will be just as easy.

Because I’m in the library so much and in Maryland we were talking about kids’ books about knitting and spinning, we’ve been reading kids’ books in bed to each other before we go to sleep. In the last few nights, we’ve read Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton, Mr. Nick’s Knitting by Margaret Wild, which is out of print and such a wonderful book, and Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson. All of these books are so beautifully illustrated. Yes, there is a theme here of knitting and sheep. Next on our list are The Baabaasheep Quartet by Leslie Elizabeth Watts, With Love From Grandma by Harriet Ziefert and Deborah Kogan Ray, Mrs. McDockerty’s Knitting by Ruth Martinez and Catharine O’Neill, and Derek the Knitting Dinosaur by Mary Blackwood and Kerry Argent. I found all of these in just a five minute search on the library’s online catalog. There are a lot more that I just didn’t find in those five minutes. We thought it would be a perfect way to get acquainted with more than just adult fiction so that we can be well-rounded librarians.

I’m off to do my volunteer work and then work after that. Looks like we may see the sun on Wednesday. I plan on spending a good part of the day outside!