July So Far

  

From my picture window, I've watched the summer sink its hot teeth into the landscape. In the space of a few weeks, the parking strips have crisped to the color of straw, and most days, the air has laid still and hot over the city, cooling only in the deepest part of the night. The heat is stifling, wilting, and wholly abnormal for this time of year. Even the animals are like, fuck that noise. The other day, I watched as a young crow flew into the yard and perched on the hedge for a second, only to find its feet entangled in the undergrowth of the juniper as it tried to lift off again. Taking this as an affront to its birdliness, it started flapping and squawking and fighting the branch as if it was the most dangerous kind of interloper - but then, somewhere in the middle of this bird-on-tree scuffle, it seemed to realize the absurdity of the endeavor, and hopped off sheepishly into the brush.

I feel ya there, crow.

Thankfully, our basement remains a cool refuge from the heat, and I've kept myself more than busy working, cleaning, designing, reading. I've managed to work steadily on a handful of design projects, and have finally started arranging the house into something approaching a habitable adult dwelling - but, as usual, even after one project is finished, there's always more to do.

And so, onward, July. Have the happiest of Wednesdays, friends!

<3

Cory

FO: Socks, and More Socks!

  

Even though moving has dominated our free time over the last month, I've managed to fit in some major knitting of the sock variety! I've finished up not one but two pairs of socks in the last few weeks: one for me and one for Lumberjack. They're both plain socks, dead simple to knit, which was perfect for my scattered, exhausted brain. So even though my studio is still covered in boxes, our kitchen is half-unpacked, and the whole house is due for a good vacuuming... at least our feet are nice and warm?

More details on Ravelry here and here.

Happy Wednesday, friends!
<3
Cory

WIPs: A Sweater; A Sock; A Plan

  

First off, thank you for your kind words and well-wishes on our house news! It been so wonderful to read your lovely comments, especially after long days of scrubbing, painting, and moving. You guys are the best. <3

But back to knitting! In between everything else going on, I've been trying to focus on just a few knitting projects at a time: sneaking in a few gusset decreases on a plain but sprinkle-tastic pair of socks in Knitted Wit Victory Sock here; knocking out a few rows of my long-suffering Custom Fit blouse there.

Last, I've been scheming a new project to get on my needles: a Robin shawl by Lee Meredith, using butter yellow, soft grey, and neon pink stash yarns - Shibui Sock, Baah! La Jolla, and Tosh Sock, to be precise. I think the weight and twist on these yarns will play very nicely together, and I've already sketched out a few different color variations and hit upon one I really like.

Now, I just need to finish something...! With a studio to finish painting and a whole house to move, I'll have plenty of time for that, right?

Happy Friday, friends!
<3
Cory

WIP: Blue Flannel

 

A few months back, I made some socks for Lumberjack. And, much to my surprise and delight, he wore them - a lot! As in, I had to steal them from his sock drawer to wash them, 'a lot.' After a week of near-constant wearing of the poor things, I realized that one pair of hand-knit socks just wasn't gonna cut it for this guy. So I started more, this time in some old stash yarn in a bright, variegated blue. I knew the yarn wasn't quite my color, but he really liked it, so onto the needles it went.

Overall, I've been trying to pare down not just my clothing and yarn (I'm doing a pretty gigantic purge - stay tuned on that front!) but also my works in progress. I've come to the realization that I often knit things out of a sense of obligation or guilt, usually because I've fallen out of love with the yarn, but it feels wasteful to give it away. Too long I've been making myself work with materials that don't give me the sort of joyful textural & color experience that I value so much in my knitting life - and what's worse is that I'm perfectly aware of it, long before I start!

So my goal in the coming months is to focus on projects and materials that I adore, and to let go of the yarn that doesn't make my heart sing, to make space for a more positive, engaged relationship with both my process and the product it creates.

And at the moment, that's socks for my darlin'.

Happy Friday, friends!

<3

Cory

FO: Socks for a Lumberjack

 

My poor Lumberjack-y companion. We've been married for a year and change, and together for over four, and still he is woefully short on knitted things. I mean, that's supposed to be the advantage of entering a legally binding commitment with a knitter, right? You might have to put up with skeins of yarn jumping out of unexpected cabinets like tribbles, but in return, they keep you decked out in sweet, sweet woolens. (It's a pretty fair trade, if you ask me.)

Until recently, I have been positively remiss in my duties as Knitter on Call. But what's this? Wham, bam, pair of custom-made socks? Hello, new bargaining chip!

Uh, Cory, why is there a stack of pink laceweight on top of my video games?

Shhhh... I knit you socks, remember?

Har. I'm the worst.

(Details on Ravelry here.)

<3

Cory

FO: Anniversary Socks

 

I actually finished these socks sometime last week, but it wasn't until the weekend that I had time and daylight to get photos. (Who knew that graduating takes so much work??)

This pattern is Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush, which I knit and loved once before, and always meant to make again. This time, I used one of my favorite yarns, Ella Rae Lace Merino, and bumped up the stitch count a bit. I've knit four pairs of socks from the Lace Merino now, and although it's not the hardiest yarn I've ever used, it makes for a wonderfully soft and delicate sock. I find the extra darning is worth the prettiness.

And honestly, these particular socks are so beautiful that I wouldn't mind having a drawer full of them!

Details on Ravelry here.

FO: Plumeria

 

I finished a pair of socks last week, and another pair a few days ago - I'm on a roll! These are a pair of plain socks that I started wayyyy back in February, and picked up again in August after finishing ballgown. I finally knit the last inch or two of the foot and toe last week, and bam - new socks for the sock drawer. Only took me the better part of a year.

Also, I'm (hopefully, tentatively) back on the usual bloggy schedule - just in time for the new year! Party!

<3

Cory

FO: Waving Lace Redux

  

At long last, my Waving Lace socks are done! It took way too long to knit these, but now that they're finished, I couldn't be happier with them. They're a beautiful color, which sets off the lace just perfectly. The yarn, Intrepid Otter TWIST! in Mother of Dragons, which was super lovely to work with: its snappy twist and soft color variation is exactly how I like my sock yarn.

The Saga of the Socks can be followed here:

Part 1

Part 2

And details on Ravelry here:

Waving Lace

Edited to add: Also - the shoes are Chie Mihara, in the style Wespa!

WIP: Anniversary Socks

  

Years ago, when I was a very new sock knitter - and very new knitter in general - I knit Nancy Bush's Anniversary Socks from Favorite Socks. It was during an intensive monthlong EMT class, and I knit them during early morning lectures to keep myself focused when coffee wasn't quite enough. I remember thinking while I was knitting them that they were the most beautiful, delicate thing I had ever made, and I was secretly very proud every time I stopped at the end of a round to look at them.

Even in the years since then, I've never forgotten that feeling: the magic of making fabric on tiny needles with tiny yarn; those little holes and twists producing something even more lovely than the sum of their parts. And even though I moved on to different projects and my sock knitting lessened for several years, I still thought of those socks sometimes. And then thinking of them turned into a plan to knit them again. And then I picked out a yarn from my stash that I thought would work.

And then I waited.

So the other day, I finished my Waving Lace socks and immediately wanted to knit another sock, so I went upstairs and grabbed that Ella Rae Lace Merino that I made those grand plans for, and I cast on.

And everything about it was just as lovely as I remembered.

Happy Monday!

<3

Cory

WIP: Waving Lace Redux (Part II)

  

I started these replacements for my favorite pair of socks back in December as my Christmas vacation knitting. I finished the first sock really quickly, and blew past Second Sock Syndrome by casting on so I could knit them working the booth at Madrona. (I was pretty chuffed with myself at this point, which should have been a sign that something was about to go terribly, terribly wrong.) Of course, in a moment of clarity I decided that I was too hardcore for the pattern, which meant I didn't need to bring the first sock or my copy of Favorite Socks with me to Madrona after all.

Hah! Hah! How blithely and adroitly I totally screwed myself.

I knitted merrily away on them for two full days, turning a heel and picking up stitches with breaks to sell Socks That Rock and Pom Pom Quarterlies to happy knitters. By the end of the weekend, I was about to start the toe shaping when I looked at the sock and realized that I had left out 3 whole rounds of the pattern - and the mistake was barely an inch into the cuff. My bombastic self-confidence withered, I put them away: I could bear neither the idea of ripping back an entire perfectly good sock, nor the thought of leaving the damn mistake in.

And then there was this really fun period of a month or two when I misplaced the finished first sock. (I took that as a sign from the universe that I should focus on other, more important things, like ballgown.)

Then the other day, I was tidying up in my studio, and had a sudden tingly feeling, like: my sock is near. It's near, I can feel it... and I think I need to apologize.

So with a deep breath and a small glass of wine, I ripped out eight or nine tragically lovely inches of sock, steamed the crap out of the noodly yarn, and started over.

And wouldn't you know - I think we might be friends again.

WIP: Plumeria Socks

 

This sock has actually been in progress for a while - I cast on back in February, to cheer me up while I sat around in lots of doctor's offices all month - but it wasn't until yesterday that I finally got around to photographing it. I took it as a ferry project while I took a day trip to Bainbridge Island to visit a friend. After a lunch on the patio of a nearby restaurant, we wandered around Churchmouse for an hour or so, petting yarn and quietly exclaiming things about fiber blends and color obsessions.

Every time I go to the island, I'm reminded of how much I love the place. The ferry ride over was cool and damp: the clouds hanging low over the dark green water, mist dusting the tips of the trees along the shoreline. As the island came into view, I felt a soft calm descend over me. Far away from the frantic pace of the city, it's as if I see color for the first time: the yellow of a schoolchild's windbreaker; the dirty grey of a gull's wing; the soft violet outline of land as it meets the sky. 

On the island, time expands. The excited footfalls of children gently thump across the carpeted ferry terminal floor. The open windows smell of salt and rain. Hands linger on a twist of brown wool, dry and slightly warm, as if it were still connected to the animal that bore it.

It is, in a word, magic.

Happy Thursday.

<3

Cory

Sock Monkey Time

  

I've been ill for a few weeks with symptoms of a chronic illness I dealt with as a kid, and although it's nothing life-threatening, the next few days are going to be an truly unpleasant barrage of tests and appointments. To make it more bearable, I have a pile of magazines and books (New Yorker! Bust! Pom Pom Quarterly! Brené Brown!), a new pair of brainless socks to cast on, and my little pink plastic Fuckmonkey to keep me company. (Thanks, Mom!)

The sock yarn is Happy Fuzzy Yarn Corrie Sock, a 75/25 wool/nylon blend in the colorway Plumeria, that I got in a grab bag at Sock Summit 2011. I'm not always happy with mystery grab bag selections, but I was pleasantly surprised by this skein - it's a lovely mix of  cheery magenta, true red, pale pink, and bright orange. Hopefully they will keep me cheered up while I am waiting to be endlessly poked and prodded.

To that end, I may take it easy on the blogging this week too - I have some Madrona stuff to share, but I want to be be functional human being again before I gush about all the wonderful yarn and people I met there.

See you later!

FO: Geodes

  

Socks!  Hooray!

These were done except for weaving in ends, bagged, and then frozen for months on end, so it was a relief to finally be able to sit down and finish them off for real.  The yarn is Socks That Rock Lightweight in the colorway G-Rocks, and it was the first Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn I ever bought - I think I got it in summer of 2007!  It tried and failed to become Jaywalkers 3 or 4 times before I finally gave up and shoved it deep down in the stash, to be unearthed last summer when I needed some plain socks to knit because my brain was short-circuiting from wedding planning.  Not much to say about these puppies except that they're bright, and they're done!

One WIP down, 20-something to go...

WIP: Waving Lace Redux

 

Almost six years ago, I knit a pair of Waving Lace socks.  They are probably my favorite pair of hand-knit socks; they're a pretty color and pattern, and they go with almost everything.  They are also starting to look sad these days, which is beyond impressive, considering that they are one of my oldest pairs of surviving hand-knit socks.

The originals were knit in Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock, which has worn like iron and survived through perhaps hundreds of machine washings and dryings.  It is kind of weird, though, because none of my other Lorna's Laces pairs held up so well - one of them actually ripped after only a few wearings!

So in honor of my poor Waving Lace socks - which shall soon be donated to the ratties - I started a replacement pair in yarn I got at Knit Fit from Intrepid Otter, a talented local dyer who makes the most gorgeous tonal and self-striping sock yarns.  The yarn is called Twist! and is a 80/20 merino/nylon blend, so I expect it to hold up almost as well as its predecessor.  So far, I love working with it.  The colorway is called Mother of Dragons, which is great, because Daenerys is a gorgeous badass and so are these socks.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season - I'm off to knit more sock!

WIP: Serab

 

While many of my projects are either stalled out or secret knitting (or both, hooray!), I've also been working on more socks.  Since I finished my most recent pair of plain socks, I decided that I should get back into the patterned sock game.  First up is Serab, from Silk Road Socks, which I've had in my queue for quite a while and first attempted almost two years ago.  I decided that the Sundara sock yarn was pooling in a way I didn't like, so I ripped them out.  This time I'm using Madelinetosh Sock, which is similar to the Sundara in weight and twist, but the colors are shifting more evenly.

So far, the pattern is entertaining and good... but holy crap is it killing my hands.  For some reason, reverse stockinette and me are not friends right now, and as a result, this much progress has taken me three weeks.  I can usually finish a sock in a day or two if I'm really motivated, but these have been rather torturous.

Luckily, they are also absolutely stunning.  I'm fairly sure that they are going to be the pair of socks that finally convinces me to get a set of sock blockers - the lace pattern is lumpy both on and off the foot right now - but if the finished sock is as pretty as I think it will be, it will all be worth it.

But never mind all that.  The real reason I knit socks?  Why, to make silly puppets with, of course!

FO: Snapdragons

 

Finally, I have another finished object!  Although I also have a pair of plain Socks That Rock socks and a shawl off the needles, they're waiting to go through the freezer treatment before I can block and photograph them.  In the meantime, I finished this pair of plain socks out of the Pigeonroof Studios merino/cashmere/nylon blend I got in New Haven several years ago.  I never had a boring moment knitting these socks - the yarn is soft and lovely to work with, and the gorgeous shifts of color kept my eyes and fingers moving.  Just in time, too - it got cold here in Seattle this week!

Happy Friday!

Ravelry Page: Snapdragons

Pattern: My usual plain sock

Yarn: Pigeonroof Studios 80/10/10 Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon, colorway Wildflower, most of 1 skein

Yardage: ~350 yards

Needles: Size 1.5 US (2.5 mm) Knitpicks metal DPNs

WIP: Snapdragon Plain Socks

 

Last week I went down to Portland with some knitting buddies for a class with Emily Wessel of Tin Can Knits at TwistedPDX (which was awesome!), and I needed some new knitting along the way.  I've been carrying around plain socks in my purse for the last month or so and really enjoyed having something simple to work on, so when I finished knitting my Geodes plain socks in the car on the way down, I immediately cast on for a new pair.

And oh boy, am I in love.  The yarn is by Pigeonroof Studios, a dyer whose gorgeous wares I've coveted and stashed for many years.  I saw Krista's yarns in person for the first time in New Haven, Connecticut, while visiting a friend, and was entranced by her use of color.  This yarn is an 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/nylon blend in the colorway Wildflower, and it's knitting up really squishy and lovely.  The complexity of the colors is just amazing, and I've been having the best time watching each one come into play as I knit.

This will be pair #4 of socks this year, and although it's a far cry from the 12 pairs I planned, I think it's pretty good nonetheless!  My sock drawer is getting fuller by the minute, so maybe I can even start throwing away some of my old, holey hiking socks.

Happy Friday!

FO(s): Simple Socks

  

If it seems like I haven't been knitting that much for the last few months... it's because I haven't!  As the wedding got closer, I started casting on and knitting easy socks without a backwards glance at my more complicated projects.  Now I'm finally getting a chance to photograph everything and start thinking about other projects, and I've found myself strangely drawn to the idea of finishing my previous works in progress.  Some of them are absurdly close to being finished: one needs to have ends woven in and buttons sewn on, and that's it; two others just need to be blocked and have their ends woven in.  Really, at this point it's silly not to finish them!

I will say, though, for some reason socks are less intimidating - the orange and blue socks weren't sitting around long before I wove in their ends and got Lumberjack to take pictures.  That might be a good thing in either case; I've got plenty more socks yet to make, and weaving in ends is pretty much always a good thing!

Finished Socks:  Sweet Tarts and Sesame Street on Ravelry

Pattern: My own simple sock recipe

Yarn: Panda Wool Print, colorway Circus (orange & blue),

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, colorway Carbon Dating (red, grey and dark green)

Yardage: ~340 yards and ~360 yards, respectively

Needles: Size 1.5 (2.5 mm) US Hiya Hiya double-points