Thank you for all your lovely comments on my Lismore. A number of you have commented on how quickly I knit.

I still maintain that I do no knit particularly quickly. I’m just persistent.

I believe in project monogamy. I work on only one large project at a time, hence the illusion of speed. (I also like saying “hence.”)

For example, I knit only on Lismore all last weekend. While I do have a sock in progress. I did not touch it all weekend. so I made a lot of Lismore progress. Also, I’m now knitting sleeves, which go a heckuva lot faster than the body.

I have noted that I tend to finish colorwork projects more quickly than one-color projects. I don’t knit any faster on them, but I find them more entertaining, so tend to knit for longer periods of time when doing colorwork.

Several people have asked me if the Kauni wool is scratchy. Off the skein it is not what you would call soft, but I understand once washed it softens up nicely. As this is my first experience knitting with it, I can’t tell you how much yet. But I will after I wash and block the completed sweater.

Here is my Lismore progress from last night:

As you can see, not so much as over the weekend! Weeknight knitting time is sadly much abbreviated. But I’m hoping to get this sleeve done by the end of the week.

The inside of the sleeve:

A close-up:

I decided to try to make the two sleeves match. So far, so good:

Baby Feet!

Thank you to all of you who submitted data for my chart of baby foot sizes. I’ve put all the data into a chart, and it is available, in pdf format, here. I’m also linking to it from my free patterns page. I’ve put the measurements in inches and centimeters, and where there was more than one entry for an age, I listed them all.

While I realize that babies vary in size, it’s something to start from if you need to knit for an unknown baby.

Cha-cha-changes . . .

If you are reading this blog from my site (and not in Bloglines) you’ll have noticed some recent changes, courtesy of my awesome web guru. The template changed to a lovely new layout. I no longer have two sets of photos posted — the photos that are now in the blog entries are stored at a location other than Flickr, so should not be blocked for people reading at the office. And if you click on each photo in the post, a larger version displays. And of course we have the large rotating photo of my lovely spokesmodel.

But wait! There’s more!

There’s a feature in the comments that will now insert a link to your latest blog post (assuming you put your blog url in the appropriate box in the comment form) at the bottom of your comment — unless you tell it not to.

Another new (and I think wicked cool) feature is the ability to subscribe to my blog via email. The link to do so is up in the top right corner of the page. By subscribing via email you get each blog post emailed to you. And (now this is way cool) there is a graphic of a tiny speaker at the bottom of the email. If you click on that, it takes you to a site where you can have my blog post read to you. The automated reader is not perfect, but it does a pretty good job, I think.

Anyhow, you may have noticed some wonkiness here and there over the past few days, but I think the end result is worth the wonk.

In Other News

I’m thinking about quitting my job to travel around the world, appearing at small venues to perform dramatic recitations of Monty Python and the Holy Grail whilst turning the heel of a sock.

Whaddya think? Yes? No?

Lucy thinks I am nuts.

. . . when you attempt to log in to your timesheet at work and get an error message: “User Unknown.”

I wonder if they are trying to tell me something?

I’m glad you all enjoyed the steek cutting video. The secret is out: there’s really nothing scary or difficult about it. I sincerely hope that some of you who are holding back from knitting something that requires steeking out of fear of cutting will take a leap of faith and just do it. As long as you are using a hairy yarn that will stick to itself, or you have reinforced your steeks by either crocheting or stitching down on either side of the cutting lines, you have nothing to fear in cutting open a steek.

I’ve talked about steeks before — here are some links:

Norwegian Steek Article (Knitty)
Norwegian Steek Techniques I
Norwegian Steek Techniques II
Fair Isle Steek Techniques I
Fair Isle Steek Techniques II

You may have noted in the rolling of the credits at the end of the video that Ms. Lucy von Ragdoll was credited with providing cat hair for the film. I sometimes call her Ms. Lucy von Ragdoll because of this Petsmart commercial that cracks me up every time I watch it:

Proof once more that I am easily amused.

The Results Are In

My new sock pattern-in-progress shall from this day forward be known as “Twisted Logic Socks.” Thanks for voting! Here’s a photo of the sock on the hoof:

Lismore

I completed the first sleeve of Lismore.

And I’m working on the second sleeve. And thinking ahead to my next “big” project. Because warm weather is setting in, I’m thinking it’ll be something in laceweight, rather than warm cozy stranded shetland wool. It’s getting rather uncomfortable to knit on Lismore. Fortunately, the temperature has dropped quite a bit and we have a cool day or two in the weather forecast. Long may that continue.

Lucy likes the cool weather — great for sleeping.

It is time to vote for your favorite among the suggested names for this sock-in progress.

L-B and I went over the list of excellent suggestions and narrowed it down (with some difficulty) to just a few. so here you go!

 Loading ...

In Other News

I did indeed knit a neckband for Lismore.

And as you can see, it is not a turtleneck. My little spokesmodel was quite excited about photographing this, obviously.

Then, I cut open an armhole steek:

(Bloglines readers, there is a video embedded there.)

I started a sleeve:

The current state of the sleeve:

In Other Other News

Lucy and her Daddy entertained me by staging a vignette representing a scene from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

I finished the Peace Socks last night.

To recap, these are toe-up socks knit on 2.75mm needles using Chameleon Colorworks Evolution sportweight sock yarn, in the “Mourning Dove” colorway, purchased from The Loopy Ewe.

Although the pattern is similar to Cookie A.’s Baudelaire socks, I decided to go ahead and offer the pattern as a freebie because:

1. The Peace Socks are worked in sportweight yarn and Baudelaire is a fingering weight pattern.
2. Baudelaire is a freebie, so by offering mine free, I’m not taking sales away from the lovely and talented Cookie A.
3. They aren’t exactly the same as Baudelaire anyhow.

So, anyhow, the Peace Sock pattern is available here, in pdf format. It is permanently linked to from the Free Patterns page. Didja notice the tabs at the top of the blog? One of them takes you directly to the free patterns page. Cool, huh?

I started a new sock last night. Here it is:

The yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Eidos sock yarn in the Phaedo colorway. It’s 100% merino fingering weight and I purchased it at The Loopy Ewe. I love this yarn. The subtle color changes are just amazing, and I am particularly enchanted by this colorway. It makes me feel quite . . . philosophical.

The design is something I worked up and it consists of twisted traveling stitches on a purled background. Because this twisting and traveling tightens up the gauge somewhat, I’m knitting the sole using my usual size 0 needle, and the instep using a size 1. After I turn the heel I’ll use size 1 needles on both the front and the back because I’ll be continuing the pattern around the back of the sock.

This is one advantage of using two circular needles over dpns — you can easily knit the sole and foot on two different sizes.

I haven’t named this design yet — anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for all the input I have so far on the baby foot sizes. I really appreciate your measuring your little ones for me.

Several of you have pointed out that babies vary quite a bit so age is not a great guideline. I do realize that, but it is a start. I’m hoping I’ll eventually get a range of measurements for a number of different sizes so the chart will be useful to give one a ballpark idea of how big to knit socks. I’ve on occasion been asked to make socks for “a 12-month-old” and I know I’d like to have some measurements for a starting point since I have no personal experience with babies, apart from having been one lo, those many years ago.

Thanks to those of you who mentioned existing resources in the comments. I’ll compile those and add them to my chart page so they’ll all be in one place.

Lucy, however, still doesn’t “get” socks. She prefers bird watching.

Well, to be more accurate, calling all moms/dads/grandparents/guardians/custodians of babies.

A little while back, Norma mentioned on her blog that she had a hard time finding standard foot sizes for babies online. I’ve had the same experience. Recently, I’ve had the need to make socks for a 12-month old baby, and googled my fingers to the bone trying to find standard foot sizes for babies.

So, can you help me create a baby foot size chart that I can post on my site for all to use?

If you have a baby handy whose cute little feet you can measure, leave me a comment with the following information:

• baby’s age (in months)
• length of foot
• circumference around ball of foot
• circumference around ankle

I’ll compile the info in a chart and post in. The more babies’ measurements I can get, the better the chart will be. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

Lismore Update

Yes, I’m still slogging along. I’ve slowed down dramatically the past couple of days in my knitting, but I have cast off the steek stitches and am ready to join the shoulders.

I think I will go ahead and knit the neckband next. I’ll be happy I did once I finish the sleeves. But I decided to set Lismore aside until the weekend. For some reason I’ve been particularly tired every evening when I get home from work (and how is it possible that it is only Wednesday?) and have gone to bed early. I’ll pick Lismore up again Friday night, when I can stay up late.

I’ll work on socks in the meantime. My little sock model has been pestering me for a new toe to model.

And my little helper is just waiting to see what I do next.