Horcrux Socks

Here are Susan's adorable Horcrux socks. I used violet Wool of the Andes and a slightly tighter gauge (size 4 dpns) because I only had two skeins of yarn and I have size 9 feet. Good thing I did because I only had a few yards of yarn left over. The free .PDF pattern for the socks is HERE.



I just bought these two fabrics to make camp-type short-sleeved shirts for DH. I only purchased the lighthouse fabric because it was on sale but I adore the fabric on the right from a Mardi Gras fabric collection. It has gold metallic accents and will look wonderful on him. I suspect it may be too busy alone so I'm going to add some black cotton of a similar weight and make him a two-tone shirt.



Ms. Peaches LaRue is in her punk rock stage. Every rabbit I've ever known has shed in a different style and Peaches does it all over at the same time, giving her a pathetic ragamuffin appearance. I try to pull out all the excess fur but she disapproves greatly of this practice. She takes off for parts unknown if she even suspects I have a comb or brush.



I'm done goofing off - I need to do nothing but gloves for the next few weeks until the booklet is finished.

Anatolian Knitting Designs

Most of Anatolian Knitting Designs by Betsy Harrell consists of black and white knitting charts. The back of the book includes some fascinating history of Turkish sock knitting; the book also includes one pattern for toe-up socks with a peasant/afterthought heel.

I'm a bit disappointed in the actual charts but perhaps that is because I have most of them in my other sources already. They do have some fascinating names like donkey eye, earring, and chimney grate. The charts also include the name in Turkish.

The author interviewed a group of traditional knitters from a cooperative in the Sivas province to find out whether or not there was significance in the colors and charts used in the sock patterns. It doesn't really sound like there is significance to the specific patterns anymore although she muses that there must have been at one time. She talks a bit about Asian motifs in textiles - triangles for mountains, trees as a symbol for immortality, and snakes (s-curves).

I'm not sure if she is talking about stranded color knitting or intarsia in the sock pattern. "Bobbins may be thought useful for carrying the colors of the bands...Changing and carrying colors: When changing colors, it is necessary to twist the different-colored yarns at the back of the work, so no holes occur in the knitting. ... Colors should be loosely carried across the back of the work to prevent having long threads, which toes get tangled in when the stockings are being put on. To carry yarn on the backside, bring the yarn of the color not being used under and over the yarn being knitted, and continue knitting with the latter. No more than 3 sts of 1 color should be knitted without carrying the other color(s) along at the back." The photo on the front of the book shows antique Turkish socks that have many colors per row and may have been done in intarsia in the round although all the socks pictured in the book using the book's charts look like they are done in two-color stranded color knitting.

The most interesting part of the book for me was a two-page essay titled "Historical Notes on Knitting and the Wearing of Stockings." She discusses the earliest known examples of knitted socks. "The heroes at Troy wore foot coverings, though it is not certain what kind... At first the Romans considered that covering the legs was effeminate, but in due time they adopted the barbarians' practice of wearing breeches." ( This was interesting to me because I could swear I saw Lucius Vorenus wearing socks with his sandals in last week's (Philippi) episode of HBO's Rome!)

I bought it from Needlearts Bookshop but Schoolhouse Press carries it as well.

Here's a pair of Turkish socks I knit years ago from Anna Zilboorg's excellent book Fancy Feet: Traditional Knitting Patterns of Turkey. In it she says it is traditional in Turkey not to weave in yarn ends from all the colors used. I have no clue if the yarn ends would then go on the inside or the outside of the sock.

I apologize for the wonkiness of my last post. I'm still getting the hang of the new Blogger. If losing my archives and one of my Bloglines feeds wasn't bad enough, now I am having trouble signing in.

I did manage to find a photo of the new Blogger executives hard at work. This explains quite a bit.

Today I sent $504.43 to the Colorado House Rabbit Society from knitting booklet and pattern sales. I held some of the money back which I'm going to put in a savings account to use for a possible web site redesign, knitting software to help with pattern design, materials, etc. That is why it now says on the Lulu web site that a portion of the proceeds go to pet rabbit rescue instead of the 100% I was sending before.

Today I also heard some good news about a rabbit named "Baby" who has been listed for adoption on our Four Corners Bunnies web site. She is the black bunny in the photo below. She and her young partners in crime were found dumped in a field in a rural area and a nice woman rescued them. The two white babies were adopted much earlier but finally Baby has found a new wonderful home with some bunny people who don't mind if rabbits chew on their antique furniture. Apparently the adopters also renamed Baby after the woman who rescued her.

I just love good news like that. Here are my other favorite rabbit rescue stories.

Rusty (see below) was spotted at a feed store downtown. The rescuer had to go check him out because she'd never seen a spotted rabbit before. Turns out that Rusty was in a small cage with another unneutered male and he was covered with fight wounds. The rescuer yelled at the store owner and grabbed Rusty and took him straight to the vet. Fortunately Rusty recovered, gained back his good looks, and went to a really wonderful couple who had another rabbit who needed a companion.

Alphonso was found by a woman walking her dog through her neighborhood. She heard some sounds coming from a construction dumpster and found Alphonso who'd been dumped there. This kind woman learned all about rabbits and set up a special section of her home office for Alphonso while looking for a forever home for him. It took a few months of waiting but Alphonso also found a great forever home with some folks who love rabbits.

Tomorrow I'll have a review of the Anatolian knitting book for you.

Caspian Sea Socks

Here are the Caspian Sea Socks done in size 3 dpns and Merino Style DK yarn from Knitpicks. These socks were just a complete comedy of errors. First of all I accidentally shaved off four rows between one of the motifs on the foot. No problem - I did the second one the same way and will just call it a design feature. Then I ran out of green yarn and couldn't find any other similar colors. So the heels are different colors.

Then I finished the second sock and realize I actually put the waste yarn for the heel on the front of the sock. I didn't feel like ripping out the whole foot so I removed the waste yarn and kitchenered the two sides together. So I snipped a thread and removed a row from the heel sides to insert the peasant heel.

The fit is decent but I prefer my usual sock heel. I do like this yarn for socks and plan to get more. It is soft and feels really well-cushioned with all the stranding.

This is Why Winter is so Beautiful

When I took the dogs out this morning, the air was so crisp, the sky so blue, and icy white was all around me, reflecting the sun with a million sparkles. I took a deep breath in, and I felt so alive. The children begged to go out a little before school to sled down our driveway. How could I refuse, knowing that soon enough winter would be gone...

More Snow

I did tell you we enjoyed the snow, and I thought I'd share with you the happy faces of my little boys playing in the snow in our driveway. Meanwhile, I have been having fun shoveling the snow!

SNOW!!!

I must have become a true Californian during my 12 year stay there, because there is nothing like snow to make me jump out of bed, and, like a a 3 year old, jump up and down in front of the windows. Mind you, the big storm that was supposed to bring us feet of snow is only going to bring us a few inches, which is better that no snow at all. SO I AM HAPPY!






As a true Californian, I bundled up the children and off we went out in the cold and wind to see more snow. We took the T and decided to go to the Boston Commons.













When you go the Commons you are sure to see ducks ice-skating on the pond, policemen riding proud horses, people just standing there staring at the snow, and a caring person feeding the pigeons... and if I could only knit with my arctic gloves on, you'd find me there too, knitting my socks!

Here's a dark photo of my teapot collection nestled among the dried lentils and beans. The black and white cat one is my newest and favorite although it drips when it pours. The green one second from the left has bunnies and carrots sculpted on it.



Despite Blogger's insistence that my blog would not be changed in any way, upgrading to the new version of Blogger has resulted in my archives disappearing. I'll try to figure it out later this week.

I know I should be knitting gloves but I started Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Caspian Sea Socks. If you go to Knitting Daily and do the free registration you can get her free pattern. I am apparently incapable of knitting any of PGR patterns the way she writes them so I am doing it top down with extra colors.






There are some three color rows on the cuff with a braided edging. I plan to add the extra colors on the foot via duplicate stitch. I'm using Knitpicks Merino DK and I went up to size 3 dpns for the foot to ensure they'll be long enough for my size 9 foot.

These socks have a peasant heel - it is worked similar to a peasant thumb where you put in some waste yarn while knitting then add the heel later. I'm not especially fond of the fit of these heels but the pattern for the bottom of the foot was so cool I'm going to do the heels her way.

Of Knitting Socks, and Cleaning Bathrooms

Yesterday was Sunday, and Sunday is a big day for me. I clean bathrooms, of which we now have 3! As I woke up, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, it almost felt like spring, minus a few degrees. I thought, maybe I won't clean...Maybe I could just sit in my comfy lounge chair, and knit Rolfe's socks... No, no, no...I thought. Come on Caroline, there has to be something good about cleaning bathrooms! And then, I had a great new idea, what if I tried to see common points between cleaning bathrooms, and knitting socks. I proceeded to make a mental list of the resemblance.
Actually, it is really not that far fetched. You knit socks for yourself or for others. It is a gift of love. You clean bathrooms for yourself and for others, and it is very appreciated. You can knit socks in many ways. You can knit them with dpts, or circulars. You can clean a bathroom with a scrubby, or a sponge, you can use liquid cleaner, powdery cleaner, or foam. You can knit socks, from the top or from the toe, and there are many possibilitites for the heel. You can knit a short row heel, a flap heel, an after thought heel. It is the same with bathrooms. You can start with the bathtub, and finish with the toilet, or vice versa, etc... I was already feeling better about cleaning the bathrooms. It was not all that bad. So for safety, I decided to conjure up a few more positive associations. When you decide to knit a sock, you go to your stash, or go to the store and you pick the yarn. Well, when you need to clean the bathroom, you go to your cleaning product stash, or to the market, to get your materials. I thought, not bad! So I carefully got up, as if I was afraid a brusk movement would make me lose my good thoughts. I went to my cleaning product stash. I picked a light yellow bottle, deep yellow gloves, a teal blue scrubby, a green smooth sponge, and an oatmeal wiping cloth. The palette was fantastic! I entered the first bathroom, ready to make magic, I decided I would start with the tub, I sprinkled some yellow product, and as I started rubbing, like a souffle, my enthusiasm collapsed. No matter how much you work on a bathroom, no matter how much you scrub, the bathroom only goes from a filmy white to a white! Whereas a sock, is a colorful wonder... Reds, yellows, blues, greens, and every color in between... So I put the cleaning products back in the stash, and went to sit on my lounge chair, with Rolfe's socks, and I thought I'll never like cleaning bathrooms, at least not until they invent a cleaning product that changes the bathroom colors, or stripes!!!

I found a cute British book on house rabbits at the library - it is called Living with a House Rabbit by Linda Dykes and Helen Flacks and it has lots of adorable photos.



I love the hilarious captions for the photos such as "Carpet-chewing is a favorite pastime of house rabbits" and "Jaffa's youth was spent on one long mission of destruction."

Apparently British house rabbits have much larger ears than American rabbits:



The caption says this guy is 6 months old - he'll have to triple his size to grow into these ears.

Recently I ordered one skein of all the blue, green, and purplish shades of Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. Please ignore the brick red shade at the top right of the photo - I'm not sure how that happened. I wonder why there are so few green color choices? I'm going to do the same thing with Peruvian Highland wool as well.

I started a glove for the glove booklet and am anxiously awaiting my copy of Anatolian Knitting Designs from Needlearts Bookshop. It was backordered for a while but they shipped it earlier this week. Considering it is already fetching hundreds of dollars used via Ebay, I'm glad I snagged a copy for the original price while it is still around.

Men's Hiking Socks

Here are the first of DH's Valentine socks - he picked the colors and the pattern is the men's hiking socks from the Lulu store. I'm also doing some socks with three colors of worsted weight yarn and size 6 dpns so they should certainly be done by Valentine's Day. After that I am back to glove knitting until the booklet is finished.

Sock Pixie is Born

I just moved to Boston from California, with my husband, and 4 children. Until a little more than a month ago, I used to own a yarn shop there called Philato. For a month, I thought maybe I was just on a short vacation. And then, reality sank in, I was a yarn lady no more. So I vengefully put my needles away, and stored my stash in the coldest corner of the basement! Slowly day by day, the yarn bug crept up... I started by having my children knit baby hats for donation, my poor little husband needed a new scarf, so of course I had to knit it, and then it was socks, and the smell of the yarn, the touch of the yarn, the colors of the yarn, and the magic of socks did their trick. This morning I woke up, I was the sock pixie!

Every time I convince myself that Peaches is losing weight I see yet another photo of her where she looks enormously roly-poly. Here she is stationed at the wood stove waiting for some more firewood to inspect. I think I must be delusional that I'm succeeding in slimming her down. She is quite good at begging. She'll plant herself in front of you and just stare you down until you feed her.

I'm working on a pair of colorwork socks for DH - I hope to finish at least two pair by Valentine's Day since I can't think of any other gift for him.