Giving Thanks

Born to Grandpa Soxophone Player in the wee hours of the morning, GK5 Avery Anna, weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz.

10 fingers. 10 toes.

Swimmin'

Basic Black was a little too basic, so I added some red. The black is Regia solid colours, and the red is DGB Confetti, from stash.

I still have to make the second sock.

This is size Large knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder. Wearing magnifying glasses from the dollar store. Talk about going blind.

You can't see it, I don't think, in the photo, but there is some fancy work in this sock.

Maybe you can make it out in this close up that I've distorted.

I worked a pattern, using purl stitches, of Skulls and Cross Bones, 4 sets in all, around the top of the sock. The Cross Bones are 'X'ed behind the skulls.
The motifs aren't much clearer in person. I might have been better to duplicate stitch them in red, but I was going for subtle ;o)

This pair of socks was left hanging on the machine when I went off to the craft show last week.

It's from the Opal Neumusterung Series (try outs), this one #10034.
The colours aren't too clear in the photo - the blue is actually a little more towards a turquoise and the orange is a little more tangerine. When I try to tweak one, the other gets worse....so this mediocre photo is the best I can do.

There is a gas company whose colours these are - I forget the name of it...'Super something or another' that I used to see in Northern Ontario when I was a lad.

Qiviut

Here's a new pair of Qiviut socks, using both the brown and black. The black is really more of a very dark brown.

These socks are my Low Pressure pattern in Medium.... no hem top; just a mock ribbed leg (3:1 on the 72 cylinder) down to 15 rows before the heel, then all needles in.

I haven't actually worn a pair of these myself. But I tell you, the feel of the yarn to work with is wonderful.

Life in the City
The large craft show I was at last week was in Guelph. Not the big smoke, to be sure, but a fair sized city by Canadian standards. For the first time in my crafting years I got stiffed. Twice. The show venue didn't have cell reception so I wasn't able to use the portable debit machine and relied instead on the old manual imprinter to process VISA cards. These then have to be manually entered by phone to receive authorization when I get home. Two of them bounced.

I've never exercised an abundance of caution. I always figured, hey, if I was selling stereos I'd be more cautious. But socks!

Lots of Snow at the farm.

Maybe time to go for a swim:

Back at the Farm

My last craft show of the season is behind me.

Fair November, in Guelph, is the biggest show I've done, with attendance estimated at 30 000.

It was a very rewarding show but I'm pooped. The first two days (of four) ran 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. which is a long haul on your own. Thankfully there was a great team of student volunteers to hold down your fort while you grabbed a bite or made a pit stop.

DS and GK2 came to the show on Sunday and stayed the day to help me pack up at the end. Nice.

And thanks to the blog readers who dropped by to say hi.

My only real complaint - the temperature in the venue was 76 degrees F (I had a thermometer)BEFORE it filled with people and was never cooler. In the slow moments of the show I had a hard time keeping my eyes open in that heat.

Even though that was my last show for 2008, there are still 4 Saturdays at the Owen Sound Farmer's Market before Christmas, so there is still knitting to be done!

But to take it on the quiet side ....

Some basic black...this being Regia solid colours black. I believe the Fortissima black is even deeper/truer than Regia, but LYS didn't have any and I want these for this weekend so no time to order!

Yeah, I know I could dye some, but the dye pot is busy.

This is some Lorna's Laces undyed Shepherd Sock that I'm doing up in Bright Violet. I'm trying to get this as deep as I can so I've got 2.5 tsp of dye and 8 x 50 g skeins (about 1 lb.)

There was a purple I liked a little better in my custom recipe book - a mix of fuchsia and turquoise - but I'm out of fuchsia, so the bright violet will have to do.

If its not deep enough I may redye it with a weak bath of navy or even pale grey.

Why the purple?

This has been my FAVOURITE TV show for the past two years. Tudor Purple hasn't been featured in the costumes as much as I might have guessed, but still, it's put me in the mood to make some royal purple socks.

All's Well That Ends Well

My friend E had a cranking day at her studio yesterday. She is about an hour straight west from me.

But I went about an hour east from me instead!

What a day for a road trip...

Ay karumba! No wonder the power kept going out.

Not that the power being on did much good.

The 'about an hour' turned into two and a half hours. But I left early, so I arrived just in time for my ROOT CANAL.

As if the driving wasn't bad enough, I broke my glasses last week and they are at the optometrist getting repaired. Poor visibility no matter which way you look at it ;o)

What a #$))^#)$@% day.

At least I came home to a bottle of Tylenol 3, and this in the mail:

A wee stash of Qiviut sock yarn.

mmmmmmm Qiviut

I'm back on the road for the show circuit the rest of the week....back to blogging next week.

Some Regia and some Opal

This is Regia Galaxy series, #1555, from stash.
The socks are size XL, knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder. There are 100 rows in the leg after the hem top, and 90 rows in the foot between the heel and toe. Total weight of the pair is 105 grams, so one 100 g ball won't cut it.

I guessed this in advance...I never (well, almost never!) knit a pair of XL without a second ball at the ready! I knit a pair of Medium + with the remainder of the second ball which left about 10 feet of yarn to spare.

Well since that worked out, here is another pair of XL from the same series, this time in colour #1558

And digging a little deeper into the stash....

This pair of Medium + (yes there is an XL pair too!) is from Opal's wildlife series, #1611 Schlange (Snake).

I caught a bit of a surprise with this yarn. I thought I had matched the two balls so that the pattern would be the same in both socks....but I didn't realize that there is a narrow band and a wider band of both the red and yellow.

And even deeper in the stash...

This Medium + pair is Opal Lollipop # 1009.

This colourway reminds me of a muted version of Opal Brazil 5001, one of my all time favourites.

Meanwhile on the Farm

I woke up to this on Monday. The snow stayed until yesterday but it started raining last night and now it is gone.

I would rather have the snow than the mud that the rain has created....just to torment me at morning and evening chores in the barnyard.

I REALLY hate mud!

Remembrance Day

Today we celebrate Remembrance Day in Canada, this being the 90th anniversary of the armistice which ended the Great War.

Hmmm. 90 years ago.

My dad would have been coming up on 10 years old. I don't know if he played war. I doubt he played 'cowboys and Indians' (being the only white family living on his dad's trading post amongst the Ojibwa tribe).

My farm house would have been in its late twenties, having been built in 1890.

My sock machines were probably on their way up into an attic now that the war was over and socks were no longer needed for troops.

I came along well past that war, and even past the next.

But as a teenager I was just in time for

Viet Nam

I was at university in Windsor Ontario - on the Canada/US border, adjacent to Detroit Michigan during much of the war.

I was active in the 'underground railroad' helping draft dodgers 'disappear' with the many others into the Canadian north.

War Protest Songs were amongst the great tunes of the day. One I always remember, first I think by the Brothers Four and later the Kingston Trio:

Little Play Soldiers
Two little soldiers
Their games are such fun
Each with his helmet and
Little toy gun
Pretending they're lying
On the battle field dead
After they're tucked away
Safely in bed.

Quiet! Don't disturb
All the innocence of youth.
Teach them not to lie,
But never tell them the truth
That men will fall and die
While little boys grow.
But little play soldiers are
Too busy to know.

Little play soldiers
If only you knew
What kind of battles
Are waiting for you.

Little while crosses
And their rows are so long.
How will it end
If they don't know it's wrong?
For little play soldiers
Will never know why
We love them and kiss them
And send them to die.

It seems not a lot has changed in 90 years, except that my sock machines are now making socks again.

But today I want to remember my good friend Ennis. He lived with his family in Detroit, where his dad was a surgeon.

I pleaded with him to dodge the draft and let me help him find a safe place to sit out the war.

Even Ennis' dad, a proud American, urged me to convince his son to seek safety in Canada.

But Ennis was also a proud American and was steadfast in his resolve to 'do his patriotic duty', even though he strongly opposed with the war.

In the end, he went off to Viet Nam. He died stepping off his helicopter on his very first day.

Ennis had never known the love of a woman.

He had never known his 19th birthday.

Trekking Pro Natura

I continue on my Size Medium Knitathon.

Here are some Trekking Pro Natura socks, all done on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

Colour # 1601

Colour # 1602

Colour # 1604

Trekking Pro Natura
75% Wool 25% Bamboo; 420m/100g; machine washable but not recommended for dryer.

This yarn knits on the machine fairly easily - not as stiff as other bamboo blends I've knit.

There is no nylon so the socks are 'no synthetics' which is an attractive attribute to some.

Some of the Pro Natura has little white flecks in it, which I presume to be bits of bamboo. I don't like the flecks and pluck them out if they don't carry on beyond a single stitch.

Hunting Season
Deer Season, (rifle) started officially on Monday. Unofficially last Wednesday. Rifle Season lasts only one week most years, and for that week, plus a few days on either end, I never have the sheep far from home and I NEVER go walking in the back fields.

I've learned, over the years how to tell the difference between a local hunter, and a van of 'the boys' from the city.

In the case of the former I will hear a single shot, then nothing else.

In the case of the latter, I will hear a single shot followed by dozens and dozens of rapid fire shots. In many cases they still won't drop the deer; more likely mame it.

It is also hunting season for the coyote. Well, I guess its always hunting season for them. But at this time of year the coyote parents are teaching the young of the year how to hunt.

Like so many of the boys from the city, the young hunters haven't yet learned to do a clean kill. In the case of coyotes, a clean kill usually entails running the prey to ground and ripping its throat out. The young pup that caught this poor lamb skipped the first step and went straight to feasting on the prime quarter.

I've long accepted the symbiotic relationship that exists between predator and prey.

But for this wee lamb, I really was thinking, where the h*ll is Sarah Palin when I need her...

More Patons Stretch

Here are two more pair of socks knit with Patons Cotton Stretch: 41% Cotton 39% Wool 13% Nylon 7% Elastic; 219 m/ 50g.

Colour Kelp, #31206

Colour Sugar, #31415

Regia Stretch

Here's a yarn that has a cotton feel to it (to me) and the colours are muted like the cotton colours, but this yarn is actually 70% Wool 23% Nylon 7% Elite(polyester).

At 200m/50g the weight of the yarn is only slightly heavier than the 219m/50g of the Patons Cotton Stretch, but the same pattern of Medium socks is almost 15 grams heavier. And the yarn feels about 25% thicker.

(Truth be told - I thought this WAS a cotton yarn until I sat down with the label to blog this! I had two balls of it stuck in with my cottons. No idea where I got it....)

The colourway is #99.

If it looks familiar, check this out:

The pair on the left is an older Regia colourway that I've knit kazillions of socks with. This is colour # 5269 from the Jacquard series.

LYS and I always just call it Candy Cane. I really have knit bags and bags of this - its a great colourway and has always been popular at craft sales.