Seeing Stars

Anyone who read yesterday's post might be wondering what I had up my sleeve with these towels. I have one word for you: stars!


If you look at the spot where the vertical purple stripes meet the horizontal purple stripes, you will see little four-pointed stars. Cool, huh.

Over halfway done weaving the first towel (and still enchanted by the way the stars appear, bit by bit, as I weave the purple rows.)

Weaving as Therapy

I got the worst cold this week -- it started with a sore throat and then I lost my voice, and got stuffed up, and now I'm in the coughing and dripping stage. Fortunately I've also had a few days off work, so I got to lay around a bit and feel sorry for myself, instead of having to pull it together and go out in public.


The same day that I came down with a cold, I started to sley the reed for a new weaving project. There have been lots of little hiccups along the way on this one: first I realized that I was two ends short, while I was threading the heddles, so I had to add two in and move everything over. Then I started winding on the warp and snapped two warp threads, so I had to redo those two and wind the warp again. I did, and then realized I had one more snapped, so had to undo it and redo it yet again. Fortunately I had time on my hands, so I could walk away when I got frustrated (often) and come back later when I felt calmer.

Since I have tons of the Cotton Linen blend from Valley yarns (that I used to make the Sunshine Plaid towels and my Wobbly Herringbone facecloths) I am making more towels. This is a set of four towels in undyed cotton/linen, with magenta stripes, and will follow it up with two or three more in a different design, in natural and violet.

The weaving doesn't look too impressive yet, I admit. Ignore the orange bit at the bottom - that's just the header, not part of the towels. Above that is the hem, in two parts, and then the towel itself. So far just stripes, right? You just wait and see.

Jubal Early Socks

One of the great things about being in a sock club is that it pushes you out of your comfort zone, a bit. This month, Cookie A pushed me out of mine.


Orange is, without doubt, my least favourite colour. I never wear it, and rarely buy anything that is at all orangey. I tore open my package last week to find an orange skein of yarn. It wasn't even yellowish-orange, or brownish-orange, or (one could only hope) pinkish-orange. It was Orange. Like, if orange was a two-by-four that hit you over the head, it would be this shade of orange. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance, and to my surprise, discovered that I even kinda like it. It's just so darn bright and cheerful and friendly, that I couldn't possibly resent it just for being orange. The yarn is from Hazel Knits, called "oh my darlin", and the funny thing is that the only other time I've used Hazel Knits yarn, it was also an orangey-pink yarn that I bought at the first Sock Summit.


The two patterns were a bit harder to choose from, since they are both pretty cool, but I chose the road easier traveled, and knit the ones Cookie called Jubilee Socks. For some reason, the word jubilee kept jumbling in my brain into Jubal Early, a bounty hunter ("So you're a bounty hunter..." "That ain't it at all." "So what are you?" "I'm a bounty hunter.") from Joss Whedon's Firefly. Jubal Early isn't particularly orange, but his is as unlikeable as he is likeable, which suits, I think.

The socks themselves were a simple 6-row repeat, with purl welts alternating with a little lacy faux-cable. Easy to knit and very quick. They fit well, and what better way to brighten up a rainy day than with some bright cozy socks.

Boysenberry Socks

Once again, I've been completing projects here and there, but just not showing any evidence of it on the blog. I present you with some evidence: a completed pair of socks.

These ones were from the April installment of Cookie A's sock club. Once again, there were two patterns to choose from, and once again I chose the simpler one. This one has a variation on a feather & fan lace pattern, with twisted ribs in between. Nothing terribly complex about it, but it certainly creates a lovely sock, especially in this bright berry purple colour.


The yarn is from Lorna's Laces, and is called Solemate. It's some sort of fancy space-age yarn, with a fiber called Outlast in it, that is meant to help control your body's microclimate so you don't get too hot or too cold. When I have mentioned this to other knitters, most of them have said "but wool already does that." It's true, and I haven't worn these socks yet, to find out if they really do make a difference that way. Today is a nice sunny day, so maybe I'll try them out and see if my feet stay cool.

In any case, the yarn is thin and strong, as Lorna's Laces tends to be, in my experience, and the colours go from lavender to magenta to a bright exciting pink. I really enjoyed knitting these socks. Even though they took two months because I only worked on them at cafe knitting with the girls.


Finished them just in time, too, since yesterday a parcel arrived in the post, containing the June shipment of Cookie A's club. I can't show you yet, in case some clubbers haven't received theirs and don't want spoilers, but it is bright and mouthwatering and not at all my usual colour. I wound it immediately and already have a couple of inches of sock cuff knit. Awesome.

Making Music

I've intended to start weaving that wooly plaid blanket for ages, but then the weather started warming up, and I started to think about this towel kit I had, and the next thing I knew, I had wound the warp for them, instead.

After a few days of meditatively and carefully sleying the reed and threading the heddles (566 little threads worth) I finally got to start the actual weaving today, and it's totally worth all the work. Just look at the spectacular colours.


This particular towel is based on a Mozart symphony: the colours of the warp stripes indicate particular musical notes, and the width of the stripes indicate what type of notes they are (i.e. eighth, quarter, half, etc.) If you could decode the stripes, you could actually play this on the piano like a musical score. I have to admit that I made one error in there, though, so don't try to play it. It won't come out right. I take solace in the fact that you probably can't spot the error.

The weaving itself is a waffle weave, which doesn't look as impressive while it's under tension on the loom, but hopefully will look great once it's off the loom and laundered.

I'm loving this project.

I Also Eat

I realize I've mostly been showing off my finished knits and not much else, for a while. I've been doing lots of baking and cooking, as well, but just haven't put up photos. Here are a few beauty shots for you to enjoy.

Scones I made ages ago, when I was in search of the perfect scone recipe. These were truly delectable. In fact, I think I should make these again soon.


One day I had a craving for a grilled cheese sandwich with smoked gouda and caramelized onions. Then I made it a reality.


Lastly, what self-respecting foodie hasn't yet made Prince William's Groom's cake? I altered the recipe by using a ganache for "icing", rather than just plain melted chocolate, which seemed to me like more than a little bit of a cop out. The ganache includes a bit of my tequila vanilla, and in my opinion is the best part of what is, ultimately, a really yummy chocolate cake.


Superb straight out of the fridge, but even better if it comes back up to room temperature, which softens the ganache a bit and really brings out the flavour and texture.


Cookielicious.

Felix socks

I mentioned, a while ago, that I stocked up on self-striping yarn, so I could quickly make a bunch of stockingette socks. This is the second pair from that group, from a Canadian yarn dyer in Quebec: Biscotte & Cie. It was their little kitty logo that caught my attention, the fantastic self-striping colourways that caught my eye, and the experience of knitting with the yarn that caught my heart. This particular one is Felix, 80% superwash merino, 20% nylon: it is soft and fluffy and makes a really nice fabric for socks. The colours are really spectacular, too, as you can see.

Another simple toe-up stockingette sock, using Judy's Magic cast on and a standard toe, and another afterthought heel - this time, I changed the shape a little, by making it curvier and less pointy, which I think gives it a much better fit to my actual heel, which is not terribly pointy.

I know it looks like all I'm doing is socks, lately, but I assure you that isn't the case. Other projects are on the horizon.

Elementary Watson Socks

These socks are part of the blog-post backlog (backblog?) that I need to catch up on. A while back my dad started hinting about socks. Of course I have a long-standing selfish knitter reputation to keep up, but even I couldn't say no. I rarely get asked to make something by the men I love, so when given the chance, I do it.


Coincidentally, I had found a nice men's sock pattern that I was eager to try out. These socks are inspired by a sweater worn by Mr. Watson (aka my beloved Martin Freeman) in the new Sherlock tv series from the UK. There have been some amazing knockoff sweaters knit by some awesome bloggers I have serious girl crushes on, but I didn't really want the full-sized sweater, myself. Socks seemed like a more reasonable tribute, to me, and with my Dad wanting socks, it was the perfect match. I ordered some Tough Love Sock yarn from Vancouver's Sweet Georgia Yarns in the Nightshade colourway and cast on.

I did use the opportunity to learn something new from this pattern - the Fleegle heel for toe-up socks - but after that, I made a couple of changes to the pattern (which you can't see because I'm not showing the leg, here.) After the heel, I didn't do the design on the back leg, but did k2p2 ribbing, instead. I wanted to ensure that the leg was comfortably fitted, and I decided that ribbing would do that better (plus the bonus of it being easier than adding more cables and stuff.) When it came time for the cuff, I carried on in the same ribbing in the back and changed the space above the flying geese motif to ribbing in the front. I carried on doing the cables just the same. It looks good (you'll have to trust me on that) and they fit my Dad really well. Success!

Unicorn Socks

Okay, so I still don't have photos yet of the kool-aid dyed shawl, or various other things I should have photos of. I'm going to ease myself back into being a good blogger by showing you a very simple and mindless pair of socks.


These ones are the simplest of toe-up socks, using some self-striping sock yarn to add interest while allowing me to make some very quick and easy socks. I went through a little spree, recently, of buying self-striping sock yarn, when I decided I was running low on socks and would need to quickly replenish my drawer before I had to start wearing (gasp) store-bought socks. This particular pair uses Knit Picks Felici, in a colourway they call Moonlit, but I think looks like the palette of a little girl's room decorated with unicorns and mermaids. Or maybe I'm just revealing a bit too much about my childhood. I found the yarn to be a bit splitty, but very soft. It is a wool & nylon blend, so hopefully it will stand up fairly well. (I just wore a hole in the bottom of a pair of socks from Knit Picks Stroll, which were about a year old. I think I'm going to darn them, since they are otherwise in really good shape.)


For these socks, I used my standard: the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula, but by now I just use the numbers from the formula and make the sock however I like. In this case, I did Judy's Magic Cast-on and a standard toe, then knit the whole length of the sock to the cuff before returning to open it up and knit an afterthought heel. I did the afterthought heel rather than a short-row heel because I didn't want to muss up the pattern of the stripes as the foot transitions to the leg, and also because I thought it would be nicer to have stripes around the heel rather than a block of one colour for the bottom and another block of colour for the top. If you've ever worked short rows in self-striping yarn, you know what I mean.

End result: a comfy and soft pair of socks in pretty stripes. Gimme the marker, Dude - I'm marking it an 8.

After the Kool Aid

After a little trip to the microwave and a lot of rinsing, my little test skeins are ready for viewing.


As I'm sure you guessed, they are dyed with (from left to right) Grape, Lime, Cherry. The original Ruby Red wool/silk is across the top, for reference.

I like the bright red of the Cherry, but I already have another shawl that colour. I also like the brownish olive green the the Lime turned into, but I do have some Walnut brown wool/silk that I've been planning to use for a breezy lace cardigan, and I don't know that I need two brown lace items, just now.

Most of all, I love the deep almost-black purple that I got with the Grape: it's just what I was hoping for. I think we have a winner.