mock at will

I just ordered a spinning kit. Yes, I have turned into one of Those knitters; no longer content to simply buy vast quantities of yarn, I am going to learn to make my own. The spindle and roving are my reward for working on the HCOH. I am now 3/4 of the way done with the second front panel, and have only one sleeve, assembly, neck and button band to go after that. I will probably live to regret saying this - oh, hubris! - but I actually kind of like finishing. Well, except for weaving in the ends, but I've been doing Russian joins when I add a new ball on the HCOH, so I won't have as many ends to weave in as I might otherwise. It's not quite as easy as spit splicing wool, but I'm very glad I learned to do it, and I'll be even gladder when I'm finishing this bad boy.

And here is my second pair of socks:



I loved making these. They're made from Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Moody Blues colourway, knitted on 3.25mm Brittany DPNs, and they took me about a week to make, with plenty of non-knitting busy-ness in there, so they didn't consume my every waking moment. Heh. Until I turned the heel on the second one, at which point I became obsessed and just knit like fury until they were done. I am sticking to a very simple pattern for a while, mostly because I either plan on knitting socks for Phil (who isn't exactly the lace type) or I'll be making them from variegated or self-striping yarn so beautiful I don't think it needs a fancy stitch pattern. The colourway is a bit deeper and darker than it appears in that photo, which I took in very bright sunlight. One thing this very hot, sunny weather has been good for is rapidly drying wool, 'cos those suckers blocked in about two hours flat. I am deeply in love with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock; I don't know how well it's going to wear, but it is just pure heaven to knit with, especially now that I have some wood DPNs to work with. Aluminium needles, in most cases, are just not for me, since I'm a tight knitter, and I need that little bit of flex you get with wood or bamboo.

I am going to finish the second front panel of the HCOH tonight if it kills me, so I can cast on another pair of socks in that Koigu I've been hoarding.

uh oh

Still hot. Still very hot.

Unable to locate more Rowan Chunky Print in the appropriate dyelot, so I trudged, in the heat, over to JL in Liverpool today to see what they had in similar gauge/colour/fibre still available from the sale. Found plenty of Rowan Chunky Plaid in a similar colourway, and even though it has some of the dreaded acrylic in it, it's mostly lambswool and alpaca, so it'll do. (This is for a funnel neck jumper for my MIL for Christmas.)

Came home, drank ice water, finished the instep decreases on the current sock -- it's just way too hot to knit anything big, but the sock is OK, heatwise. Decided to knock off for a bit, went upstairs to check e-mail and look at still more yarn online, because that's what I do.

DISASTER! WARNING! DANGER!

Stash in Chester (my fave semi-LYS) now has - gulp - Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere in stock. Let me repeat that: Pure. Cashmere. 100%. Pure. Cashmere. No microfibre, no merino, no blend. Just aran-weight cashmere. Pure. There is now a mainstream source of cashmere I can personally fondle before purchasing. This is bad. This is very bad. 25g for £9.95 with a mere 45 metres per ball, which suck-diddly-ucks, but it is cashmere. I have very little self-control around cashmere. And for a Debbie Bliss yarn, that's actually cheaper than I'd expect. I am withholding judgment on the colours until I actually see them in person. And I probably won't see them in person until the weather cools down just a little, because there is no fucking way I am going to risk sweating on any yarn that goes for ten quid per 25g.

Mmmmcashmere.

heatwave

Holy crap, it's hot. Yes, yes, I know, I know, this is wussy English heat, and thus I am, well, a wuss, but I'm telling you, it doesn't take long to adapt to the generally mild English climate, and when you do, your notion of extreme changes entirely. 30 C is bloody damn hot, people, particularly in a nation where your basic climate control device is a window. Back in the fiery pit of summer hell known as the upper midwest, I would probably have considered this a nice day once, but nine years have passed, and I am more delicate now, and I want my weather in that blessed zone between 10 and 20 C, thank you ever so much.

As it happens, I've also adapted to the metric system, so it's not all pure wussery.

Fortunately, our house is pretty well designed to handle hot weather, so when the afternoon heat is at its absolute fiercest, I can retreat to my north-east-facing lair on the first floor, turn on the fan, and wait it out. Inevitably, Pix appears when I do this, and plops herself directly in front of the fan, blocking a fair amount of the breeze as she makes herself as comfortable as possible. Cats are charmingly self-centred like that. If they had opposable thumbs, they would always drink the last of the milk.

Let's see. Cats? Check. Knitting? Check. Neurosis? Oh, definitely check. The other day, I asked Phil if it ever seemed to him that I was a born spinster who'd somehow accidentally got married. He laughed a lot, and it was not laughter of the 'oh you silly girl, don't be ridiculous' variety, if you know what I mean. It was more the laugh of ironic appreciation. I mean, he's OK with it, and it's nice to know I'm not just imagining it, because it really does explain a lot.

food & yarn

So there's the itsy-bitsy-tiny cardigan I made for Casey & Josh's new arrival. The baby is so wee that it will doubtless be months before he grows into it, which is fine. May he wear it in good health and happiness.

I got a sleeve done on the HCOH, and started the other front panel. (I knit things way out of the suggested order as written in the pattern. Having to do two sleeves in a row sounds vaguely depressing, so I split them up.) I've been doing so much smaller gauge knitting lately that the 5mm needles felt huge and awkward in my hands at first, and though I did more or less adjust to them after a while, it felt really good to cast on and start another sock. My new sock is being made in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock's Moody Blues colourway. I LOVE this yarn forever and ever, and second sock syndrome will definitely not strike me, because I love knitting with the yarn so much and can hardly wait to wear the socks. Phil's already worn his; we had a cold spell last week (why yes, this is northern England, and cold spells in July are nothing unusual) and he was very grateful indeed for the snuggly new wooly socks.

Speaking of Phil, yesterday was his birthday, and while I haven't got his pressie yet (though I think all the stuff I've made for him of late should count for something, and we're planning on hitting the camera shop sometime next week so he can pick out what he wants), I did bake him an awesome cheesecake. I make maybe two cheesecakes a year, and one is always for his birthday. I go totally over the top with the birthday cheesecake, because he loves it so, and I very strongly believe everybody should get the birthday cake of their wildest dreams. Me, I like a plain cheesecake, pure and innocent and unsullied. Phil? Bring on the freaking chocolate ganache, man. So I did. One layer of dark chocolate ganache, made with Valrhona, topped with a layer of Lindt white chocolate ganache, and then I melted some more Valrhona and drizzled it over top of the white chocolate layer. This was the cheesecake of wretched excess, and even with my loathing of white chocolate, I have to admit it was fantastic. I think the double cream in the white chocolate ganache tempered its inherent sickly sweetness, and the fierceness of the dark Valhrona balanced it beautifully. I'd never choose to put white chocolate on a cake that was made mainly for my benefit, but it worked and Phil loves it, so it's all to the good, really.

In other news of gustatory delight, I picked the first ripe cherry tomatoes on Thursday, and we had them in a salad yesterday. There is very little in life that beats a good, hard-grown heirloom tomato, at least when it comes to food. I marinated a couple of chicken breasts in lemon, garlic, ginger, soy, spring onion and coriander for a good long time, then cooked them with quartered chestnut mushrooms in a little peanut and toasted sesame oil in a heavy pan. When the chicken was cooked through, I pulled it from the pan and left it to settle while I deglazed the pan with soy sauce, lemon juice, and a bit more toasted sesame oil. I sliced the chicken breasts thinly and placed them on a bed of mixed baby greens, sliced sweet peppers, spring onions, the cherry tomatoes and a handful of cashews and raisins, and then I poured the mushrooms and slightly-cooled pan sauce over it all for a dressing, and goddamn, it was good. It was one of the best salads I've ever made, and with some nice fresh bread and a glass of wine, it made a wonderful dinner. Next time, I might add some water chestnuts for a bit of crunch, but I think it'll be pretty hard to improve upon this salad otherwise. Freestyle cooking is so satisfying when it works well.

P's on holiday all this next week, and while we have absolutely nothing exciting planned, we will definitely be enjoying the garden and the fine weather, and may make the odd day trip. It's just nice to have him at home when we can just relax, sleep in, play with the cats, potter around in the garden and spend some time together. The longer we're together and the older we get, the more I think those are the best holidays of all, which doesn't mean for a minute that he's getting out of taking me somewhere for our 9th anniversary in September, of course. Ideally, somewhere with a good yarn shop.

victory is mine

But the socks are for Phil. I finished them yesterday evening, blocked them overnight, and put them out in the sun today to finish drying. When P got back home this evening, he obligingly tried them on, proclaimed them a perfect fit, and I've since put them away for cooler days.

My first sock, the cuff of which is pictured in the post below, was only a success in the sense that I learned a lot while doing it. It's recognisably a sock, all right, but it would take a very strange foot and leg to fill it, because I jacked up the decreases after turning the heel. But that's OK! I did the hard parts perfectly -- the heel went smoothly, and let me tell you, the Kitchener stitch ain't that hard -- I just made the leg of the sock waaaaay too narrow, due to my insanely tight knitting (I was so nervous I had a death-grip on the DPNs for most of the process, and also: gauge swatch? what gauge swatch?) and then fucked up the decreases after the heel, as noted above.

After finishing the mutant sock, I decided to go for something I could knit on somewhat bigger needles, to compensate for my death-grip gauge, and also, not to waste any of my good sock yarn on my second attempt. (I graciously gave myself permission to indulge my second sock syndrome, due to the fact that the first sock was, basically, unwearable anyway.) The successful pair of socks were made from regular ol' Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-Ply on 3.25 mm DPNs, and even though they're just plain grey wool socks, they were so much fun to knit! The Jaeger is really soft, springy wool, very forgiving, and these will be seriously cosy winter socks. I don't know how durable they'll be, since they're a fairly loose gauge and 100% washable merino, with no added nylon or polyacryl, but you know, I just don't care. It only took me six days to knit them, at a couple of hours a day, max, and more to the point, I was working with a fibre I absolutely love, and knitting with it was pure joy. It also helps that MM is fairly inexpensive, readily available, and comes in very many colours; I could see these socks becoming a winter wardrobe staple around our house, since we definitely have plenty of draughts.

Learning to knit socks was great fun, and gave me a terrific sense of accomplishment and confidence in my own abilities. I would say that if I can knit socks, anybody can, and it would be true; not because I am a barely-competent knitter, but because I now believe I'm actually a pretty damn good knitter, and the odds are, if you want to knit socks, you probably are too. It's really not hard; it just requires patience, perserverance, and desire, all three of which you will need while you're wrestling with those first few rounds on the DPNs.

Hear me: Until last November, I had never in my life knitted anything more than a garter-stitch scarf. Since then, I have made three sweaters, two pairs of baby bootees, several hats, mittens, more complex scarves, taught myself to cable, to do short rows, learned to read and follow a pattern, how to correct (or cover up) my inevitable errors, how to use double-pointed needles, knit lace, and many other things I can't call to mind at the moment, but suffice it to say, there are lots of them. I love this. I'm good at this. I will never run out of new things to learn, but I know for sure I've learned the most important thing I need to know: it's just knitting. There was no need for me to be nervous and quite literally afraid to knit those socks with those scary DPNs, and all that tension and death-gripping and whatever. It's knitting. Who the hell cares is you screw it up? You can tear it out and start over, or decide it's just too much of a pain in the arse to bother, and do something else instead. I do this because it gives me pleasure to knit, and it makes me ridiculously happy to see somebody I love wrapped in a garment made by my own two hands.

Learning to knit socks also had two happy side-effects. The first is that I now love fine gauge knitting. I used to regard it as one of those things I'd never have the patience for, because it would take so long, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong. The smaller needles make me knit much faster because they're so much easier to handle, and I am looking forward to doing a lot more work with them. The second thing is that knitting those socks refreshed me, and I'm now back to working on the HCOH, with the plan of doing ten or fifteen rows a day until it's done, which should let me finish it within a couple of weeks. Right now I'm in that delicious phase where I get to plow through my patterns and books and peruse my stash while deciding on a new project. (My stash was hugely enhanced this past weekend at the John Lewis sale; pictures to follow.) I'm also going to cast on a new sock, because socks are the most fabulous on-the-go knitting project imaginable -- I took those socks with me everywhere last week, and all I had to do was toss them in a Ziploc bag and throw it in my purse.

If all this hasn't convinced you (I'm looking at YOU, cee-dub) to try socks, I have one more wonderful revelation with which to tempt you: Number of ends to weave in? Two. Beautiful.



Note sexy legs. Phwoaaaar!