A Bluestocking Knits

Missed It By That Much

I didn't have these ready for Laura's first day of school -- got down to the toe shaping last night and decided that I'd rather sleep.  Had everything else ready -- backpacks, lunch boxes, new shoes, clothes laid out, even everything on Julia's kindergarten teacher's list (disinfectant wipes, fabric paint, scissors, 3-pack of T-shirts, etc. etc. etc.) -- so I don't feel too bad about the socks.  I have the flu, in fact, in the middle of a heat wave -- 106° F outside our front door yesterday, 41° C -- so I think I'm doing pretty well to at least be standing up!

So my littlest is a kindergartner.  I got a bit teary-eyed when the time came to say good-bye, although hid it well enough, I think, not to embarrass Julia.  She had fussed dreadfully the first few weeks in both of her years of pre-school, so that I was half-expecting a struggle today, but she and Laura skipped and ran much of the way to school, and after a little story-time from Miss B. -- who read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn -- Julia ran over to give me a hug, refused a "kissing hand," and ran back to the circle of kids.  I even had time to wave to Laura as she danced gaily into her own classroom.

Now for that second toe!

Thoughts on the Conwy Socks

I am quite in love with these socks and the fabulous Conwy pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road.  I must confess that I never have quite absorbed which maneuver makes the left twist and which the right, but even so it was not long before I memorized at least which one came first in the sequence!

The calf shaping allows for a beautifully long and flattering leg -- almost stockings.  I had a feeling that one skein of Jitterbug wouldn't stretch to a pair of Conwys, and so I bought two, and made the leg a half-inch or so longer than in the directions.  The larger gauge of the Jitterbug was enough to make the sock a bit bigger than the 7 in./18 cm circumference of the original, too, without that bothersome tweaking -- these are about 7 1/2 in./19 cm.

I made some minor modifications in the calf shaping, as it seemed to leave the twining cables a bit vague --

As written, the single K columns on either side of the shaping would merge into the reverse st st areas, butting up against the cables and leaving them without their background.  Instead, I worked the first three decreases as in the chart, but shifted the rest so that the 2-stitch reverse st st section stayed intact.  The last 2 decreases I worked with a sl next 2 sts tog, K1, psso -- which called for moving the last st of the rnd from needle 4 to needle 1, and omitting the last p st on the chart, but made the cables stand out nicely.

(Not easy to take a picture of the back of one's leg!)

I also used the Welsh Heel from Knitting Vintage Socks, instead of the round heel in the pattern -- it's fussier, although that might be simply because I've not done it before, and I didn't get it quite right either time, but it seemed appropriate in the circumstances.  It has four lines of decreases instead of the round heel's two, a rather sharp short-row curve at the outside edges, and a lengthier line of paired decreases in the center, on either side of the seam st.  I'm all for historical accuracy in its place, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it is written so that the paired decreases are not symmetrical, with K2togs on both sides of the seam st -- surely the Welsh would have figured out that ssk will lean to the left and K2tog to the right?  Ssk is used in the gusset immediately following, after all (or at least its cousin sl 1, K1, psso) -- so I used both, instead of all K2tog.

It makes a generous turn, quite suitable for those with wide heels.

And the Jitterbug softens up a treat with washing -- this one is a lovely deep green, rather more on the bluish side than the yellowish green I might have expected from the name "Velvet Olive," but I bought it for looks, after all!

I listened to an audio version of Monk's Hood while working these, read by Stephen Thorne (who I can't quite place but at times sounds remarkably like John Wood).  It was a pleasant surprise to hear Cadfael say, about two-thirds through the book, "I'm from Gwynedd myself, from the far side of Conwy"!  Thorne does a nice job of characterizing the different voices, giving Cadfael a soft Welsh accent, too, which I quite missed in the television series. 

And if there was any doubt that I am addicted to sock knitting --

Charade socks, in Supersock's "Blues and Purples," cast on while the Conwys were still blocking -- these are for Laura, and I was hoping to get them done for the first day of school, but that is Thursday and I already have ripped out this in the photo, since it was too small ....

How Green Was My Conwy

I've been thinking a lot about family history lately, for various reasons -- not the least being reading the Brother Cadfael books, with Cadfael's quiet pride in his Welshness, remembering again the amazement of finding my own great-great-great-grandparents on the 1841 census in Breconshire, in a little town called Llangattock.  (I had known that they were Welsh, but not where they had lived, or what my great-great-grandmother's parents names were.)

For some time, I've been tempted to knit a project now and then that has a connection to my own family history -- Bavarian stockings, a Scottish shawl, something Irish -- I'd long admired the Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road, and when I saw Jitterbug's "Velvet Olive" colorway, I thought the two would be a perfect match -- that the stuff says "Made in Wales" seemed to bring everything together.  (More details and photos of Conwy when I've finished the second one!)

The lamp is my great-grandfather's -- he was a fireboss in Pennsylvania around the turn of the last century, and this was his safety lamp.  His parents were German, and he married the daughter of a Welsh miner, who had immigrated with his young family in 1869, working his way up from the pits of South Wales to become a mining supervisor and owner in America.

I haven't read How Green Was My Valley in years -- I remember being deeply moved by it when I was thirteen or fourteen, I guess, not only by the story itself but by a sense of kinship with young Huw Morgan.  This quotation brings back to me some of its lyricism and poignancy, and explains a little of what I find so fascinating and timeless about family history:

"I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond. And their eyes were my eyes. As I felt, so they had felt and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning and no end, and the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was to Time That Is, and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one, born of Woman, Son of Man, made in the Image, fashioned in the Womb by the Will of God, the Eternal Father."

Yes, We Have No Bananas

But we do have Monkeys!

These arrived yesterday from Specs of Specs Knits.  I fell in love with the colorway as soon as I opened the box --

Socks That Rock medium-weight in "Nodding Violet".  So gorgeous!  The blue is a little more vivid than I could capture, but still, this gives a pretty good idea.  Also in the package was a box of salt-water taffy (a perfect treat, as we missed it at the county fair this year!) and a postcard of the colonial kitchen at Cedar Grove at Fairmount Park -- not only an intriguing thing in itself, but also cleverly color-matched by Specs to the socks.

("That salt-water taffy sure looks good," Julia said with all the subtlety of a five-year-old.)

A few action shots before it gets to hot to even want to think about thick wool socks -- the beautifully-grafted toe --

and the fabulous swirly-swirls.  Thank you, Specs!

("So how's the taffy, Julia?" "Ih's guh--!" she said, appreciatively if somewhat incoherently.)

Thoughts on the Ostrich Plume Lace Throw

Ta-da!

This is my slightly-modified version of E.J. Slayton's Ostrich Plume Lace Throw from Vogue Knitting Baby Blankets (one of the On the Go! series), knitted in ten balls (ten!) of Rowan Calmer, started a great long time ago, I'm afraid, but finished at last and gracing my sofa already.

I had intended to make a much larger throw, but if you've read the saga you will know that I was nearly heartily sick of the thing; perhaps time heals all, as I'm very happy with it now that it's done!  It is about 40 x 37 inches (say 101 x 94 cm) give or take, as it is quite stretchy from both the lace and the springiness of the Calmer, and it has not been blocked.  Now that I look at the photos closely, I wonder if I should have worked it on a size larger needles, but on the other hand the stretchiness might solve that for me.

I didn't like the fact that the top edge of the lace didn't match the bottom edge, due to the fact that that while the bottom starts off with the pattern row, the top finishes with the "plain" Row 2 and a decrease row (which is added to help the top scallop the same way the bottom does).

Instead of the dec row, I worked the patt row (Row 1) but did not put the yo in the small cable-like sections -- this brought the stitch count down to where it would have been after the dec row -- and then I worked the 8 rows of garter st.  If I'd been willing to rip out the top border a third time, I would have slipped in a K2tog at each of those spots in the first garter row, as it still doesn't scallop quite as much as I'd like.  But the eyelets in the plume section are closer to the garter border now, and the passed-over bar across the cable-like section also match the bottom edge more closely.

That said, I love this lace pattern -- it really speaks to me, for some reason.  Mostly the plume-like bits, I think.  I worked 11 repeats instead of the 9 in the original number of sts, and carried on until I'd more-or-less run out of yarn at the end of the tenth ball.  (I might have gotten another repeat out of the last ball if I'd been willing to gamble!)

This color of Calmer is "Chiffon" -- alas, discontinued. 

Now I need only some cooler weather -- already have plenty of good books waiting!

Hot Enough For You?

Remember this?

Ah, well, it's been a long time.  I'd forgotten about it, too, until I tripped over the bag the other day, on my way to open up yet another window to try and get some cool air into the house, and saw that the thing was actually not too far from a good stopping place.  It's really too hot to knit much just now, but I was so close that I sat this afternoon with a fan blowing on my hands to finish the last few inches.  Proper photos and a wrap-up to come.

In Nature News, we've got a pair of sharp-shinned hawks living in our big pine tree in the backyard.  They are both juveniles, my cousin-the-zoo-vet tells me, so their colors will change as they mature.  Nest-mates, I'm guessing, since they are both juveniles and about the same size.  Very chatty, too, like teenagers, "kew-kew" all morning and afternoon.

There are still a few open areas in our town, but we are, to be honest, deep in suburbia, which makes the hawks all the more fascinating.

So I think I'm going to read for a while, instead of knitting.  It was 80° F (26 C) when we lugged our dinner outside at 6:30 -- just not knitting weather.  I don't know what made me think of it -- perhaps putting Ellis Peters on my mental list of authors I'd like one more book from -- but I've gotten it into my head to read all of her wonderful Brother Cadfael mysteries again.  And the "Blackadder" font I found a while back was too good to pass up, so here's a button, just for fun --