I'm working on some patterns for a Christmas knitting booklet to benefit pet rabbit rescue. Here's the beginning of a gauntlet mitten.



I fall in love with our CSA/organic farm box more every week. Here's this week's shipment which contained red leaf lettuce, red new potatoes, mangoes, strawberries, blueberries (already disappearing), garlic, spearmint, some enormous Collards, and some sweet onions. Those weird round yellow things in the front right are actually lemon cucumbers. Next week our shipment includes corn and shiitake mushrooms. Find a CSA near you at Local Harvest.

This photo looks like some sort of a stand-off is occurring between Peaches and Jack.



Happy 4th of July!

CALEDONIA SOCKS

(NOTE: There were several errors in the heel of this sock pattern. I've reknit the heels and fixed the pattern and I apologize to all who had trouble. )






These warm socks have a rolled edge on top and a two color ribbing. They're perfect for those who aren't experienced with stranded color knitting and may have tight tension when knitting with 2 colors. The main stranded section of the socks is on the foot so you don't have to pull it over your heel. Plus they're knit in worsted weight yarn so you can finish them quickly.

Copyright 2006, Nanette Blanchard. All rights reserved.



Size: Women's Large, size 8-9 US

If you plan to resize this pattern to fit a small foot try reducing the size of the needle to a size 5 (US) dpn rather than reducing the number of stitches of the sock. Try the sock on as you go and if you feel it is going to be too long, omit the last 3 rows of the Chart A pattern. I usually start the toe decreases on a sock when the sock reaches the top of my fourth toe.

Materials: Worsted weight wool yarn in three colors. For the mainly green socks I used both Wool of the Andes and Peruvian Highland Wool. 2 skeins Color A: Moss Green, Less than one skein each Color B: Burgundy and Color C: Pumpkin Orange. For the mainly black socks I used black, orange, and lime green.

Needles: One set of four or five dpns in size 6 US (4 mm), or size needed to get gauge

Notions: Tapestry needle to weave in yarn ends and to kitchener toes

Gauge: 9 stitches to 2" (5 cm) over stockinette stitch. To save time, take time to check gauge.

With color 1, cast on 44 stitches. Join, being careful not to twist. K 4 rows plain. Do 2 color ribbing as follows:

Rows 1-3: *P2 Color A, K2 Color B, rep from * across.
Row 4: *P2 Color A, K2 Color C, rep from * across.
Rows 5-7: *P2 Color A, K2 Color B, rep from * across.

(I find it is easiest to do 2-color ribbing by holding the purl yarn in my right hand to knit continental and the knit yarn in my left hand to knit English/American.)

Begin color striping sequence as follows: K 3 rows Color A, K 1 row Color C, K 2 rows Color B. Repeat this stripe sequence 6 times or until desired length to ankle. End by doing 3 rows Color A.


Heel: Sl next 22 sts to first dpn, next 11 sts to 2nd dpn, and next 11 sts to 3rd dpn. Work back and forth in rows on first 22 sts of first dpn only. Row 1: (RS) *Sl 1, K1, rep from * across. Row 2: Sl 1, p21. Repeat last 2 rows 9 times more, then repeat row 1.

Turn Heel: Continue on 22 sts. Row 1: Sl 1, K15,SSK, turn. Row 2: Sl 1, P10, P2TOG, turn. Row 3: Sl 1, K10, SSK, turn. Repeat rows 2 and 3 until 12 sts rem. ending with a WS row. With RS facing, knit across 12 heel sts.

Gusset: With empty dpn, pick up and knit 14 sts along side of heel. With 2nd dpn, knit across 22 stitches from next 2 dpns. With 3rd dpn, pick up and knit 12 sts along other side of heel, then k 6 heel sts - 62 sts. Beginning of round is now at center of heel. Rnd 1: Knit. Rnd 2: On first dpn, k to last 3 sts, ssk, k1; k22 sts of 2nd dpn, on 3rd dpn, K1, K2tog, K to end - 2 sts dec. Rep rnds 1-2 until 44 sts rem.

Work Chart A below.

The color pattern doesn't perfectly match up at the bottom of the foot but it really won't be noticeable. I used duplicate stitch to add the center stitches of Color B to the pattern rather than do 3 colors a row for that row.

Toe: Make sure you have 11 sts on first dpn, 22 sts on 2nd dpn, and 11 sts on third dpn. Round 1: On first dpn, knit to last 3 sts, K2TOG, K1; on 2nd dpn, K1, SSK, knit to last 3 sts, K2TOG, K1; on 3rd dpn, K1, SSK, knit to end - 4 stitches have been decreased. Round 2: Knit. Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until 16 stitches remain. K sts from first dpn on third dpn so you have two dpns with 8 sts. Kitchener stitch the two sets of 8 sts from each dpn together to finish the toe.

Finishing: Block socks under a damp towel. Weave in ends.

Make a second sock.

ABBREVIATIONS

K - knit
P - purl
St - stitch
Sl - slip
DPN - double-pointed needle
RS - right side
WS - wrong side
K2TOG - knit two stitches together
SSK - slip 1, slip 1, knit two together
PSSO - slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over
REP - repeat
Kitchener Stitch - Thread a tapestry needle with yarn tail from the mitten top. Working from right to left, with right sides facing you, for front knitting needle, pull yarn through 1st st as if to purl, leave st on needle. For back knitting needle, pull yarn through 1st st as if to knit, leave st on needle.
Now continue these two steps until all sts are worked. Front needle: pull yarn through 1st st as if to knit,slip off needle; pull yarn through next st as if to purl, leave on needle. Back needle: pull yarn through 1st st as if to purl, slip off needle, pull yarn through next st as if to knit, leave on needle.

I totally forgot about the photos of Santa Fe we took last weekend.

The first photo is going toward the plaza, the heart of Santa Fe, with a view of St. Francis Cathedral.



Here's a close-up of St. Francis, the mother church for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Something was going on - a Father's Day procession or something and there were all these outdoor altars and rose petals everywhere and the church bells rang for a solid hour.




There was some sort of art show in the plaza, a common occurrence. Spanish Market and Indian Market are the two largest but I couldn't figure out the theme of this one.




Outdoor art is very popular around here and some of these cool metal sculptures moved in the wind.

Here is some outdoor art in front of some public building just north of the plaza.

June is traditionally my least prolific month in the knitting department. So what is the best thing to do for more inspiration and motivation? Come on, you all know the answer.

BUY MORE YARN!



I have decided that I need more colors in the yarn stash. I don't have the storage space for a zillion colors of three or four weights of yarn so I've chosen worsted weight. I actually prefer socks and mittens in worsted weight because they're warmer and it saves time when I'm designing my own projects. I'm now going to try to collect all the colors of both Wool of the Andes and Peruvian Highland Wool. I think that will be enough colors to work with for any purpose.

Tomorrow, June 23, is Best Friends Day. The world's largest animal sanctuary is asking everyone to perform one act of kindness for animals to celebrate. I donated again to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. It does my heart good to see all the retired zoo and circus elephants romping around in 2700 acres of beautiful land. I love getting their email newsletter and am also totally addicted to the Elecam and enjoy checking in to see what the elephants are up during the day. Watching them goof off and roll around in the pond is absolutely hilarious.

I'm almost finished with the socks but I want to write up the pattern to post here on the blog. I think it might be a good first stranded color knitting experience. Plus I think working on this will distract me from thinking about how freaking hot it is here.

Peaches pretty much does the exact same thing all day every single day.



Blogging Project Runway has a photo of the upcoming Season 3 designers. One of the contestants lives off the grid and makes all her fashions via solar energy. I can't wait.

I went through Madrid again today and thought you might like to see some of the photos from the Hollywood version of a small funky town.

These shops are actually art galleries but in Hollywood I guess all small towns need a candy store and a bakery? I do wonder how all these changes affect local businesses - most have signs in front of them to disregard the stuff for the movie set and come on in. The benches aren't normally there and they lined the street with bark.




Believe it or not the Madrid general store usually looks like this complete with a bookshelf of free paperbacks on the porch. They added even more Christmas lights and a bunch of ristras. The movie equipment in the front of the photo was just left there - since they don't shoot on weekends they had various people sitting around keeping an eye on all the stuff all over the town.



Here's a new gazebo, a ton of new grass, and various set items for the fake chile festival. They also had carts full of chiles and an old yellow pick-up truck full of watermelons.




Here are some fake gas pumps in front of an art gallery. They also had a fake ice cream shop selling kumquat ice cream (yeah, right), a fake post office, a fake bicycle and lawnmower repair shop, and a fake beauty shop.



This entire building is new - a fake diner. You can see the yellow tape around the front to keep us non-movie people out.






I also took some Santa Fe photos and I'll have those and a photo of the socks on another day.

Guess what I've spent 3 days working on??? One collar.







It is the first collar I've made with a neckband and it is a camp shirt with waist darts, McCalls 3541. I'm pretty sure monkeys wrote this pattern. Finally after 7 tries and re-cutting an entirely new neckband, a talented woman from Pattern Review gave me some excellent advice. She even has her collar advice online HERE. The shirt fits well and I plan to make more with fabric I like a lot more.

I'm almost finished with the first sock. I was initially thinking of knitting a pattern on the foot similar this sock from the first little Vogue Knitting sock book that I also knit with worsted weight yarn.



Instead I went with a Fair Isle design chart.I should have these done soon - I still haven't decided if I'm going to finish the Unst lace socks.

I still haven't finished the Unst socks and may quit because they're a bit tight. I did start on some socks that I'm designing as I go in Wool of the Andes. I plan to put a more complicated design on the foot.

I'm finally getting used to the much lower energy output I have in the hot weather. I did manage to make one fancy meal - crepes with whole wheat pastry flour. I used some asparagus and mushrooms from the organic farm for the filling.

I just found out Nava Atlas, the veg. cookbook author, has a blog. I do believe I have every one of her books in my cookbook collection. I finally catalogues all my mostly-vegetarian cookbooks at Library Thing - check it out HERE.

This weekend we were driving through Madrid on what is called the Turquoise Trail to get to Santa Fe for errands. Madrid is this tiny artsy, hippie town with zany local characters and lots of old dogs sleeping in the middle of the road. One writer called Madrid a place "where old carnies go to die."

Anyway, Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid) had completely changed. First of all the port-a-potties and local characters and dogs were missing. Then there were these banners saying "Madrid Chile Festival" all over. I was surprised as I had never heard of such a festival. An antique gas pump magically appeared in front of one of the galleries and someone had put a gazebo and (gasp) grass and tables and chairs near the general store. We couldn't figure out what on earth was going on - there were no signs of an actual festival. Then we saw about 30 identical RVs parked at the school near a huge tent and about 10 semi-trucks parked at the ballfield .

On our way back through Madrid we finally figured out they must be shooting a movie. Sure enough - we checked the "Madrid Chile Festival" banners and they said Madrid County. There is no such place. I got home and did an online search and they're shooting a Disney movie called Wild Hogs with John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen. The movie brings 75 jobs to the area which is probably about 1/4 the population of Madrid.

Here are some photos of sleepy Madrid before it became famous.

Poor Blogger has been sick the last two days so I hope things are better now and I can post.

Lately I've had the strongest urge to knit a sweater - not a lacy summer sweater but some big Fair Isle or Norwegian monstrosity with lots of colors in heavy wool. I am trying to ignore the urge because a) I never wear the sweaters I already have and b) knitting such a project in the heat would be insane.

The socks are coming along but they are turning out tiny. I may have to give them away.

In other news, someone has discovered the joy of watermelon on a hot summer day. I try to avoid giving her fruit but I swear she can smell watermelon from the next room. She immediately shows up and starts begging shamelessly.

I'm glad I'm done with most of my summer sewing because my machine is in the hottest part of the house. It is about 100 degrees F here so I mainly take naps and watch movies with DH sitting in front of a fan.

I'm enjoying working on the Unst socks. I'm using Kroy sock yarn and stretched the sock out on my hand to show the lace pattern up close.

Here are some of my sewing FOs. I made a few more summer shirts for DH. These are also from the Kwik Sew 2935 pattern. I add a lot of topstitching to make them look more store-bought. The wrinkled turquoise one has palm trees on it and the brown one is trees in a forest.



Here are some shirts for me. I'm a tough fit for shirts with vastly uneven shoulders and a large chest. Any pattern I buy will need modifications and I chose Kwik Sew 3200. This pattern has bust darts and optional waist and back darts. I used a fitting book to increase the bust dart.

My first attempt was the inexpensive gingham one on the bottom with only the bust darts. It really needs the waist darts. The second was the one on the left in a lightweight stretch cotton with all the darts. I then decided I don't really like the bottom hem. My 3rd attempt was my favorite so far - the green one on the top although I only did the bust and back darts. The shirt with the collar on the right is a camp shirt, Kwik Sew pattern 2952. I realized I don't really look great in camp shirts but I can wear it over a camisole.



I enjoy sewing shirts the most and some day hope to acquire enough skills to make us both some dress shirts. I bought David Page Coffin's excellent book Shirtmaking and am slowly working my way through it.

Gallup was pretty fun - we were on a cattle ranch about 15 miles south of town. Here's my latest FO very loosely based on the socks in Andean Folk Knits. Ignore the green thread in the scan - I've been so busy sewing that threads seem to be everywhere.



I have decided that June is Nancy Bush lace sock month and I've started the Unst socks from Knitting on the Road. Unfortunately I made a mistake while drinking wine and watching the Spelling Bee and have to rip back. Oh well - I'm glad a girl speller finally won at least.