Conversation starters

Hello again and look, I did manage to cake sock yarn so I'd have something to do on short breaks from Palliative Care, which is where I am grateful to be spending my days with my elderly and much-loved and very ill aunt:

Knitting is such a great conversation starter. I'm recognizable for it now, and people feel encouraged to tell me wonderful, loving stories their mums who sewed or knit or wove things. Sometimes the mum is the patient and sometimes it's the storyteller. In both cases, I'm glad for the connection, which seems to help us all get through this surreal in-between time.

 

I walk to and from the hospital whenever possible and have seen some beautiful skies like this one, which I thought you'd enjoy, too. "It's the little things" is what we so often hear or say, and I'm finding that sentiment to be very much true. 

This lunch bag, for example, which I bought because I don't always have the opportunity to slip to the hospital food court. Aren't these flowers pretty?   

I'd love to add a little hedgehog charm to the handles but I have no idea where to find such a thing. Not even in the hospital gift shop! I'd forgotten how vast and thoughtful the wares are in a hospital gift shop.

Here's my favourite bolt hole, when I do get to pick up a coffee and a muffin:

 

There are two rows of benches under these windows where few ever stop to sit, which makes them perfect for emptying your mind and getting in some sock progress. I am reading stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery while I work, which is such a help.

This backpack is new too... Tom Bihn's Daylight Backpack, which replaces the one I've used for ten years or so. I love the design and I get such delight from unzipping it to see the pale purple lining inside, which is called 'dusk', and now that I'm typing that I'm thinking is there anything more vampiric or sepulchral, or more appropriate for Palliative? 

I can't unsee that now. Ugh.

Fortunately I did buy a bigger one as well, in case I need more room: the Paramour. It's black too, but with a grey lining. Also slightly depressing. Uuuuuugh.

I shouldn't joke. The fact is that if somebody you love needs the level of care offered by a Palliative Unit, and you're fortunate enough to get them into one, you might as well embrace its oddness and beauty. There are no discussions about weather there, I can tell you! I learned early in this journey that in a hospital, everybody's your friend, because everybody's going through something and we all need support for it.  

I just try to treasure each moment and get myself to the hospital gardens for a few minutes every day, if only to walk past one of the water features and loop straight back inside. 

And I make sure I wear something bright every day, too. If you do it right, it's another conversation starter. 

That's right. White shoes after Labour Day. AND socks and sandals together! I am living dangerously.

Getting back to where we began with this Hug, I am 90% confident that the Briggs and Little Sport yarn is going to be my favourite for winter warmers. I did finish one and try it on, and even before a run through a bath of Soak Wash, it didn't feel itchy at all. (small gauge needles probably helped!) 

As was the case with my last post at the end of August, I don't expect to be back for a few weeks. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and remember that it really is the little things! Even scratchy socks knit on small needles. Or really pretty clouds after a post-hospital grocery run. 

 

Let the experiment begin

Lots going on at Hugs here this week, with tiny buffer zones of summer walking and sock knitting. Which skirts us ever closer to the need for different sock knitting! To that end, I picked a yarn for the first Sock Experiment.

It's Malabrigo Sock's 'Myths' colourway. And I can tell from the look of the two cakes I wound from the one big 100g cake, the socks are not gonna look the same, SIGH.

Brace yourself for a brief moment of negatives:

There are several criteria my new favourite sock yarn will have to meet, and Malabrigo Sock has failed on the first three. 

My beloved Vesper Sock never runs less than 100g and is always generously a bit more. Malabrigo Sock: 100g on the nose. 

And though Vesper Sock is hand dyed into stripes, and therefore no pair of socks will have exactly the same colours at heel flap or toe graft, they are at least comparable. None of this one sock lighter than the other stuff.

Worse, Vesper Sock is proper fingering, allowing me to use a 2.5mm square needle (round needle equivalent, 2.25); and Malabrigo Sock is 'light fingering.' Which meant I had to make the very hard decision to size down to 2.25 square needles, and cast on more stitches. 

I'm going to have to accept a shorter leg on this pair (a failure to meet functional standards) to compensate for the reduced yardage and tighter gauge... or else sub in another yarn to make stripey extensions on the leg (a failure to meet convenience standards).

However! all is not lost. There is a positive that balances some of this out, like the gorgeous blue sky is even bluer against this wafting cloud from my walk the other day...

 ... and this includes my having located my 2.25mm square needles despite their not being in any of the little knitting stashes I have in the living room, dining room, bedroom, and office. You'll never guess where I found them!  

in the knitting needle file boxes I keep in the basement. 

Who knew I'd actually *use* that thing, when I finally set it up after years of accumulating tools?

I wrestled with the change and challenge of new sock yarn for a couple of weeks before I could make myself go looking, but once I found the smaller needles, that decided it. I'm casting on eight more stitches and accepting shorter, potentially more hardwearing, socks by squeezing the gauge tighter.

Last night I found a show I wanted to try on Netflix: Murder Mindfully, a black comedy with some Nordic Noir feels. Once I'd settled onto the sofa in Treehouse Cottage (TM), I got to work casting on all those stitches and doing my tidy 1x1 ribbing for the top of the sock.

 

For an hour or two all I did was knit and watch that show. Like I said, there's a lot going on these days, and I've been mindful in my own way to block out some quiet times. Even so, I didn't expect to be thrilled to include such tiny takes-forever knitting in said quiet. And yet...

It was so *peaceful*. At the tight gauge, with these colours I'm really loving, and the tiny precise neatness of the needles, I could simply breathe while I worked. 

And when I was ready to go to bed, I'd finished the cuff! Even though I had to do two extra rows of it than uusal, to get the same distance as with my Vespers. 

I'm gonna be knitting these socks a long time though because whew, do they ever not grow fast.

Now the sun's come out and I don't want to miss any of these lovely late summer days, so I will take my leave again. I hope you enjoyed my Vicarious Walk pictures taken over the course of the week, and that you have a lovely day and weekend... see you next Saturday!

 

 

Whatta heel

My self-stripey sock adventure has hit a milestone and never fear, I have documented it! But first: heel flap.

 

I've knit this pair's heel flaps as I always do, but I'm thinking now that I could have a harder-wearing heel if I slip every other stitch, every other row. Next time! when I'm trying out the very thin Malabrigo Sock (which is in fact very thin - light fingering, as opposed to fingering, which I normally use.) 

 

Gosh I love these shots of matchy-uppy stripes. I did offset the layers a bit so it wouldn't be boring but you know, with hand-dyed yarn you can never be quite sure both socks will match perfectly. And in fact they don't ever, completely... I always end with one toe having a few stitches of a different colour, and sometimes as much as two rounds of it.

But back to the slipped stitch technique: I can work that stitch along the entire sole of the foot to resist wear... a bit of a nuisance, and it'd use up a lot more yarn, too, so I'm pondering the best design approach to incorporating a second yarn as there's only so much in one skein. Not sure just subbing in a contrast heel and toe would be enough for somebody who takes a size 7 shoe, or larger!

Okay: time for a look at the first heel turn on this pair.

This is typical, with a colour change partway along, in this case a little green bleeding into turquoise stripe, but more notably, a ton of that turquoise getting knit before the short rows for the heel shaping. You can see it there on the left of the centre 'triangle'. Every sock I've ever knit with this yarn has done that. 

Now take a look at the second heel turn.

P E R F E C T I O N ! ! ! !

I almost want to frame it, and never wear it, ha!

With this sock, the purple strip started at the very last row of the heel flap, so that the entire turn is perfectly balanced. It was such a lovely surprise! I may never notice it once I'm wearing this pair into the ground, but just now while I'm knitting them, it feels very special.

Special enough for its very own Hug? I vote yes. It's too nice a day to spend inside, even to celebrate a beautiful sock in progress.

So thanks for dropping in to share the moment with me, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend! 

See you next Saturday, possibly for Sewing Talk, because I have an idea for a super glam evening skirt I might be ready to articulate by then. Or not, ha! 

 

 

 

 

Treehouse Cottage

A couple of weeks ago when the heat was so bad we really had to stay inside, I moved all the furniture in our (air-conditioned) bedroom and renamed it Treehouse Cottage. Welcome!

The first edition was kind of stupid, with our tall headboard jutting out into the rest of the room and blocking the view of the window from the door, so I only intended it to last for a few days. Then I made this tweak, turning the bed to let more light through, and now I'm smitten! There are so many different places I can work in here now - two standing desk areas, a seated desk area, and a sofa to curl up on. 

But also, the bed converts into a tree-adjacent lounge and knitting area, complete with shifting sun patches as the leaves outside move in the breeze.

 

And how pretty will this view be, come autumn? 

Part of my motivation for this change was that my friend Caro's just bought her first house, and it's a stunning century home... I mean, so much swoon, and super inspiring to me to take a fresh look at our own place. It's fitting that I get to curl up today in my Cottage Nest (TM) and watch a bunch of her HIGHly recommended YouTube book videos while making some sock progress.

That strawberry mug on her side table was from me. So proud, ha!

I'll be going out later for more epic walking, which I've been doing tons of since the weather cooled down a bit again. Here are some random flower pix I caught on my travels:

 

Yellow and purple really are lovely together, aren't they. We also went further afield to the Toronto Islands this week, where I got a different look at the CN Tower than is possible from my usual vantage points. In case it's too subtle to register from here, it's the tiny vertical to the right of the setting sun that's beaming from the right of one of these heavy branches: 

I know, I know - more tree! I do love them.

Hard to believe our summer weather's getting close to halfway done. This year I intend to enjoy it a lot more than usual and do more of my writing at night. High time that outings got priority scheduling, right?

Hope you're getting in some fun outings and/or getting the most out of wherever you make your home. Thanks for spending this time with me and I'll see you again soon! 

(Not next Saturday though - it's a long weekend, and I might be kicking up my heels - but I'll definitely be here to share something crafty or otherwise fun on August 8.)

Meanwhile... doesn't this sock look perfect for summer? Or very early fall, when it's cool enough to wear them, but nobody's ready to let go of those lazy hours. Not that I have my eye on a pair of bright green walking shoes that would totally go with, or anything... 

 

 

 

 

Knit n natter

Ugh the heat! You cannot work with heavy textiles in the heat. Not a big blanket, and not a mohair blend sock either. 

This one's up to the chompy stage and can't manage so much as a nip. Just limpness and a plea for water. 

So instead (after cooling and watering that poor blue sock), I've done work on a stripy, having been reminded by last week's photoshoot how much I love Vesper sock yarn.

Still haven't found a new sock yarn source. Really need to work on that. But it's so easy to distract myself from that problem by binge-watching some new series, or one I missed when it first came out. After I finished almost all of The X-Files, which wasn't quite the way I remembered it, I started in on The Mentalist. I hadn't seen a single episode of that and I wasn't especially interested to start, but whoa: loved it! Loved every season. Loved the series finale too, when I finally got to see it last night. 

And now I need something else to watch while I finish this sock. I'm thinking about the new season of Enola Holmes, or a re-watch of the last few episodes of Person of Interest, or a good sit-down with The Boroughs, from the Duffer Brothers. 

There's something about creepy crimey shows that's always appealed to me. Surely not as an outcropping of my childhood love of Nancy Drew mysteries... but maybe.

Oh, and by the way: did I ever give my black handknit cat her closeup?

She has a fish purse! (We're in my air-conditioned office for these pix, which I've renamed The Treehouse for the summer.  I love working at my desk here, with my fish-purse cat for company.)

Speaking of Nancy Drew, I reread The Secret of the Old Clock not too long ago and it held up so much better than expected. It was a 1950s tweed cover edition, so I got the whole tactile appeal of holding a real book that opens up easily to each page.

Sorry, just had to interrupt myself with a closeup of my beloved coaster from the gift shop at the (truly excellent) London Transport Museum. The 'm' uses the actual typeface from the Tube!

Usually when I'm reading these days, it's ebooks on my new Kobo Libra Colour. This week I finished Mary Stewart's Touch Not The Cat, from 1976, which now that I think of it is another creepy crimey story. She wrote so lyrically, I just sink into her work. I think only John Berendt, writing Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil, affects me the same way. 

That book, I read in a trade paperback I deeply regret loaning out or else packing into a box in the garage when we renovated, only to be lost to raccoons. The new editions either don't appeal to me or have a huge sticker over the otherwise fabulous cover. Ugh, amiright?

 

Anyhoo.... I've been knitting again, while watching things, and it's been really nice, and I didn't appreciate how much I've missed it. Do you find you have ebbs and flows with your knitting?

Either way: hope you have a fabulous weekend! Thanks for spending this bit of it with me and I look forward to seeing you again next Saturday. In the meantime, I'll no doubt be dipping into this second sock, and trying to grow it to the chompy stage. It'd be fun to have one of the pair face off with Mr. Mohair, don't you think? 

 

 

 

Quiet Time

I might gift myself a quiet day today. It's delicious-looking outside... not hot, with a gentle breeze... and nobody wants to do any deep cleaning on a day like that, or work to a deadline, or even fuss over supper, amiright?

Much nicer to sit and do some gentle work on a blanket so it's ready for the cool winds of autumn.  

Surprisingly (to me) I did make progress on this blanket over the course of the week, with two new stripes done!

 

There are ten stripes in each repeat, each made from three repeats of the same pattern I used in single repeats for the last, very very busy-looking, blanket. And I plan to do six repeats in total before I start the border, because I am a glutton for excess hot-weather crochet apparently. 

So far, I have two full repeats plus the two new stripes, which I have decided is pretty good going into July, even though there is much evidence to the contrary. Sometimes it's important to look at the positives, or else manufacture some. 

For example: it only takes me about two hours to do three repeats of the base pattern, which means it's quite plausible I can get through an entire 10-stripe repeat in two weeks, just watching a movie every day, something I definitely deserve to be allowed to do. And really, I only have three more 10-stripe repeats outstanding, which adds up to six weeks, which has me finished before we even hit September.

I barely have to try to make that make sense. All I have to do is ignore all the heatwaves coming in those particular six weeks, ha! And focus on how gorgeous it's going to look with our drapes, when it's done.

Today, though... I think I will focus on all the trailing ends I need to take care of before it's any fun to go on. 

 

And that means taking some quiet time with the blanket on my lap and a darning needle in my hand, out in the shade of the porch, listening to the birds and the insects and any passers-by enjoying the day a little more actively than that.

Hope your day is lovely however you spend it, and thanks so much for spending this bit with me. See you next Saturday! 

 

Unfinished business

Today is the first quiet one after a busy few weeks, and I thought I'd grab the chance to wrestle with some scattered knitting projects, starting with this random basket of mystery items.

Only when I looked more closely, I saw that all they need is to be wet blocked and tucked away for cold weather. YEESH.

So I nosed around some more and quickly found a pair of socks with yet-to-be-grafted toes.

Also these socks, same.

I mean really, what was I thinking?? To get so close and then just stop. 

Not unlike how I finally got the cushions out for the "new" (7+ years ago) porch furniture so we can actually use that summery crafty space again. Mind you we also have actual garden space for summery crafting, thanks to Pete and his ongoing efforts in the garden.

 

But I like the porch, with its solid flooring. No gaps, like the deck, and no dirt as on the flagstones. Or at least, not as much. If you've ever dropped a darning needle outside you'll know what I mean!

 

I usually need to concentrate hard on grafting so I get the needle movement right, but today it felt totally natural. 

 

Maybe I'm getting used to the process, or maybe it's just the peacefulness of sitting outside, where the sun is beyond the shady shelter of our roof and the breeze is soft enough to cool without blowing anything away. Either way, I grafted this toe without any stress at all.

Yesterday we ran into a neighbour on the street and stopped to chat a while, and then we remembered the porch and invited him to come sit with us for a bit. We had the BEST catchup and all noticed how sitting out there chatting, none of us looking at screens but enjoying the long leafy views, was relaxing and just plain nice. This is a discovery most people don't have to make - it's too obvious! - but after neglecting this space for so many years it was a delight to have the reminder.

The second toe grafted as easily as the first, even if it does have a blue stripe its partner does not.

Such a gorgeous day here. I've come inside to type up this hug, and through the open windows I'm hearing birds and insects, and young children playing and laughing. Hope it's as lovely where you are and that you have some restful time coming your way soon. I know I do, because I have some ends to run in...

... and another pair of socks to graft shut.

As always, thank you so much for stopping in and I'll see you next Saturday!