Minnesota Yarn Stores

How do I love thee?

Thou art more lovely than a summer day

And more numerous..

We Minnesotans take our summers pretty seriously since they are so short. I am loving summer here. I always forget exactly how lovely summer is. Each week different plants start blooming. Birds are courting and nesting like crazy. Mornings are sweet with bird calls and the smell of peonies.

And equally sweet are the amazing yarn stores here in the Twin Cities. It was such a treat last summer to discover a new yarn store just a few blocks from my home. BeYaGi has beads, yarn and gifts. As I mentioned earlier, they were kind enough to have a sale my first week home. I bought most of my yarn for the upcoming year.

I focused on sock yarns so I can make socks for Kent since he actually needs them.

I also bought yarn to make a baby sweater for Kate,

premmie hats for the babies at United Hospital,

and a few gifts, and bit of yarn for me.

Now I need to get it all back to Singapore without spending more than I saved at the sale.

I also visited Borealis Yarns with Louise. They keep expanding their selection, but I was good and just looked.

Finally, I visited Yarnery and only bought a few sets of Hiya Hiya circulars for projects I want to work on now. I forgot all my needles in Singapore.

That is probably it for my yarn store visits this trip. I don’t have much more time in town. I didn’t get to the Sheepy Shop, Depth of Field, Double Ewe, Three Kittens or any of the other yarn delights in town. I keep dreaming of the Singapore Knitters visiting here and touring the yarn stores. That would be dangerously fun.

I have been trying to maximize time with my family since I am only home for a short time. On Tuesday I head down to Dallas, Texas to see Kent and his family. Then he and I will head to San Antonio, Texas for NECC, an enormous educational technology conference. 20,000 some people are registered for this year.

On the knitting front, I am having fun. On the flight from Singapore to Tokyo I worked on the forest canopy shawl. It is still very small, but it is making more sense. I love the Dream in Color Smooshy yarn. I’m using Ruby River. Although lots of people in Ravelry have knit it with lace yarn and it looks lovely, the pattern actually calls for yarn the weight of Smooshy. I saw someone who had knit it with this colorway and I liked how it looked. Of course, with my loose gauge, I had to go down a couple needle sizes. I know it is supposed to be lace, but my looked more like a fishing net.

I had lunch with wonderful Louise who patiently helped me understand how I will knit the border if I ever get to that point. Turns out I was viewing the shawl upside down. We newbie knitters never run out of new mistakes to make!

From Tokyo to Minnesota I work on the heel flap and heel turn on Kent’s socks. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten it right when knitting 2 socks on two circular needles. There is a Ravelry group for Antje Gillinghan’s book Knitting Circles Around Socks. In there, she has written an extended explanation of how to pick up the gusset stitches. I had that with me on the plane.

I wasn’t able to follow it exactly because the pattern I was using was not written for knitting both socks at once. However, her directions were so good that I was able to think through what to do. I made one false start and then realized I needed to start on the opposite side of the fabric and add one extra row when I was done so I’d end up on the correct side of the fabric for my directions. As per usual, it took me hours and had to retry a couple parts, but it worked the best it ever has. I think my next pair won’t be any trouble.

I am now done with the gusset decreases and am just working my way down the foot. Am eager to try them on Kent’s feet when I see him on Tuesday. I hope they fit. (Pay no attention to that gusset hole…)

In honor of Summer of Socks I have cast on a new pair. It is the Chunky, cozy cotton socks in the Knitting Circles Around Socks book. I want them as a pair of house socks. Our marble floors get cold and I had a pair like these long ago. They weren’t hand knit but I wore them out they were so comfortable.

The week I arrived in Minnesota, BeYaGi had a 20% off sale. I was able to get the exact yarn the pattern calls for, and get it at a discount. It is Patagonia Nature Cotton from Araucania. I don’t have the label with me so I can’t tell you the colorway. It is a riot of yellow, golds, greens and dark blues. I can tell that no one who has seen me knitting it particularly likes it, but I love it and since they are for me, that’s all that matters.

Since Kent’s socks are being knit on US #0 needles, it is a big kick to be knitting chunky yarn on size 6 needles. They are already a few inches long. It took me many many hours before Kent’s socks were this long. It is a thick/think yarn so it is being very forgiving of gauge.

And here’s a shot of someone who tried to stow away in Kent’s suitcase. Luckily we found her in Singapore.

Yup. Remember that you saw it here. These aren’t my cats, but I love it nonetheless.

First, the promised photos of my new Chameleon Colorworks yarn.

That first skein is still snuggled in my stash, but the latter, in the shade mushroom, is in the process of becoming socks for Kent. These are the Garter-Rib Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I like how the yarn is knitting up. When I received it, I was a bit disappointed because it is supposed to have some variation in the color, but it doesn’t. However, it is a pleasing oatmeal color and is nice to handle even though it likes to split when I have to pick up dropped stitches.

Thus far, the width of the socks seems good. When I pull them up Kent’s leg, they are snug enough to stay up, but not tight enough to squeeze ridges. They have an unfortunate “design element” on one leg. I knit too late into the dark at a restaurant and the next day, after and hour spent trying to get everything right on the needles, I finally bit the bullet and knit a row that really should have been ribbed. Doing that made a line across the sock. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

Only other problem at this point is that my beautiful birch KnitPicks needle that broke was giving me a tighter gauge than the metal Hiya Hiya of the same size. It is still an acceptable fabric, but not quite as nice as the original.

Thanks to comments on the Knitting Circles Around Socks group in Ravelry, I now have the two balls of yarn feeding out of the corners of a ziplock bag. This is keeping them clean and keeping the balls from getting twisted together.

When the socks are longer, I will put the balls inside the socks. At the start of a row, I pull out enough slack for the row. This way the skeins never tangle, and I can easily pick up or set down the project.

And finally, a visit from the flower inspector. Kapas was good; she didn’t eat any of them, just sniffed appreciatively.

Long time no write. That seems to be the norm on this blog! Sorry about that.

1. Magic Strip Socks are Finished! I truly mucked up the first toe as I did the knitted Kitchener stitch. I took me an hour and a half to fix it. Thankfully second toe only took about 20 minutes to finish off. I had a blast with the yarn because the color runs are so short. It was a constant delight to watch how the the different colors interacted as I knit. I mistakenly said it was dyed with Kool Aid but I was wrong– it was dyed with Easter egg dyes, which is equally cool in my opinion.

2. Chameleon Colorworks yarn from Dyeworks Fiber Studios Arrived. Adrianne ordered us great yarn from the US. I’ll post photos later because my photo app keeps crashing and I don’t want to post 2 MB photos on the blog. I used my new ball winder to convert the hank into well-mannered center-pull balls. Unfortunately, I was so enamored with the winding process that I failed to notice the hank slipping off the dining room chair. It instantly became a tangled mess and it took me hours to untangle it. That was not how I planned to spend a precious weekend afternoon. However, at looooong last I had two lovely balls all ready for my next project…

3. Began Garter-Rib Socks. I’m attempting my first 2-socks at a time project that is NOT from the book. I’m knitting the Garter-Rib socks from Charlene Schurch’s (sp?) Sensational Socks book. That amazing book gives directions for knitting them on DPNs or on a circular needle. I’m using what I’ve learned from my previous two sock projects to knit both on circulars at once. I love that her book lets me figure out my gauge and then tells me how to knit the pattern at that gauge.

I took time I couldn’t afford to start them this week rather than on my trip to Bangkok. Good thing I did; the US#1 needles were making a too loose fabric so I started over with US#0 needles. Yes, bad me for not swatching. I figure that since I’d need to knit in the round to get an accurate gauge, I might as well just start knitting. Since I was willing to start over when the first needles didn’t give me the fabric I wanted, I think this system will work for socks. I know you don’t get your real gauge until the swatch is washed and blocked, but I’m using a ribbed pattern that should be fairly forgiving, and I can keep trying the socks on Kent’s foot, so this should work.

The needles are my lovely KnitPicks circular needles that I bought in Sydney. They are so tiny I fear they will break, but I am enjoying them. Being bamboo they are a bit stickier than my Hiya Hiya needles. That is helping to keep the stitches on the needles. Only down side is that the needles themselves are so colorful that I can’t easily mark them so that I don’t accidentally grab the wrong needle. However, I’m doing okay so far, haven’t accidentally joined the two socks together by knitting with the wrong needle. And the colorful needles show up really well against this off-white yarn.

Now that I’m done with the cuff, the pattern is really easy and more interesting that just K2, P2. Instead, the first row is K2, P2 and the second row is straight st st. I like the design it makes. Hopefully it is masculine enough for guy socks. I think it is.

The yarn is a bamboo, wool, nylon mix. It feels cool as I knit it, so hopefully the socks won’t be too warm for Singapore. Men at our school aren’t allowed to wear sandals so Kent has to wear socks everyday.

Realistically, I know this pair will be a lesson it itself as I figure out what fits Kent and what he likes. However, I can dream that this pair is a big hit, quickly becomes his favorite pair of socks, and doesn’t leave nasty welts around his legs because their fit is perfect.

Kent and I had the great good fortune to spend a week in Australia. First we went to Cairns and spent two days and one night on a dive boat. We didn’t actually dive; we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. It was mind-blowingly amazing. If you ever get the chance, do it. I can recommend Cairns Dive Centre as a good operator.

Next we went to Sydney. Since Quantas doesn’t allow knitting on their planes, I didn’t get any real knitting done until Sydney. One evening there I knit the heel flap and turned the heel. Then I made the mistake of also trying to pick up the gusset stitches. Take my advice and don’t begin this in the wee hours of the morning. When I was done, it looked good, but the working yarn wasn’t where I needed it.

The next day I was so eager to get back to the hotel to work on them, but that wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t get back to them until yesterday, three weeks later.

My first day in Sydney, after we spent the day tramping all over, and before we met Chris Betcher and Linda for dinner, I went to Tapestry Crafts. There I bought this…

I also indulged in a bit of sock yarn…

The first two were pretty self-explanatory, but the latter is Araucania sock yarn from Chile
colorway: Ranco multy. Yum!

I also bought two pairs of KnitPicks needles. They are lovely. Unfortunately, I should have checked my needle list in Ravelry. I bought the wrong size!

As I mentioned above, I’m finally back to working on my socks. After ripping back twice and ending in the same predicament, I got smart and just moved the socks around on the needles until they were the way they were supposed to be (back on socks on one needle, insteps on the other) instead of half of instep and sole on each needle. I may actually be a row off, but I think in the end it won’t matter– at least not to me.

Most of the gussets look okay. I picked up the extra stitches at the gusset turn and it work most of the time. Only one doesn’t look so good. I redid it a few times, but the fabric isn’t dense enough there. It isn’t a huge problem, but I’m glad these socks aren’t meant as gifts.

I’m so behind in my blogging. I’ve been memed twice and haven’t gotten around to responding. Here’s the first one…

These are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Okay, six non-important things/habits/quirks about me.

1. I like licorice, Butterfingers, and Heath bars but can’t find them here in Singapore.
2. When I was 13 I broke my ankle sledding (not skiing).
3. I don’t like strawberry lip balm. Makes me think of Carnation Instant Breakfast drink from the 70’s. Yuck.
4. Except for some kids movies, I don’t find most movies engaging enough to watch them in the theater. I’d rather rent them and watch them at home so I can knit at the same time.
5. I used to go ballroom dancing 4-6 nights per week. Now I don’t even remember how!
6. I am a total failure at other languages. I can’t even speak Bahasa and that is a wonderfully easy language to learn (or so everyone tells me). I forget as soon as I stop practicing. Pathetic!

Okay, now to tag. I tag Louise, Jackie, Ingrid, drbrucepk, Tammy, and Chris.

WalleyeGirl and I have been muddling through our first attempt at knitting two socks at once on two circulars.  We were both knitting the basic sock pattern from Antje Gillingham’s book Knitting Circles Around Socks.

A while ago we were both struggling a bit picking up the second set of gusset stitches.  Imagine my surprise to receive a comment from Antje Gillingham herself!  Here’s what she said…

You’re right! Picking up the second set of gusset sts is rather weird…let me try to explain.

After you’ve turned the heel and picked up the first set of gusset sts (each sock is worked separately!), you should be able to turn your work and knit across both sets of instep sts. Then turn your work again. The heels are facing you. Cover both tips of the 24″ needle. Only the tips of the 16″ needle are exposed. Slide the sts of the first heel flap to be worked close to the corresponding needle tip. Then take that heel flap in your left hand. With the right hand grab the other needle tip and bring it around the front to the heel flap you’re holding in your hand. You should be able to begin and pick up the second set of gusset sts, this time starting with the corner stitch and working your way up the side of the flap.

Once those are picked up you can easily knit across the heel and down the other side of the flap. Then you’re once again set up to pick up the gusset sts of the second sock, beginning with the corner stitch.

Hope this helps!
Happy knitting!!
Antje

Thank you Antje for taking the time to clarify this for us.  I’m working on the Anne’s Magic Stripe socks now, so I’ll refer to these notes when I’m ready to start picking up the 2nd set of gusset stitches.

Last night while watching Akeela and the Bee I started the Magic Stripe socks over so I could do a k1 p1 cuff as instructed, instead of the k2 p2 cuff I had started.  The movie was good fun and I’m loving using the hand dyed sock yarn from Louise.

Unfortunately, after I finished the cuffs and was a few rows down the leg, I found ANOTHER HOLE.  I studied it and studied it. It was a big loose bit of yarn, but it wasn’t a dropped stitched. I always seem to get at least one of these per item I knit.

I  haven’t found a way to fix them besides unknitting to that point and then reknitting. Very annoying in any project, but how to do it when knitting two at once?  Is it possible to slip a needle through the row below where I want to fix, so that I can rip back rather than unknit?

I dug out two more #2 needles (good thing I have the largest collection of #2 circulars in captivity) and  then ripped back.  It was challenging to slide the needle in to the k1, p1 ribbing and in some places I was up or down a row from what I intended.  So, when I ripped back, some stitches were not quite right; there was an extra stitch above  the row I was in.  When I started to knit again, I kept having runs of working yarn that were anchored at both ends.  Slowly I figured it out.

However, when all seemed right, I had two working yarns, one on each half of the sock!   That should not be.  In this method, each sock is knit from its own ball of yarn. There is only one working yarn per sock.

I wondered if I had accidentally knit both socks with one ball at some point, but no.  they were separate.  The times I’ve accidentally used the same ball for a round, the socks become conjoined, and that had not happened here.

I never did figure out what had happened, so for the second time that night, I ripped them out completely.  Today I need to get a pedicure. I may try casting on for what truly must be at least the sixth time.  <sigh>

At least I really, REALLY like how the yarn knits up when I’m not making mistakes. It isn’t exactly striping, the color runs are not quite that long, but that makes it perfect for short attention span knitting.  (No pictures. I refuse to take any until I make progress, or I have another hole and can show it here for suggestions. I’m hoping for the former.)

My traveling project is an infant hat.  Not certain I have enough of the premmie hat yarn left to make it. May need to frog the final premmie hat for the yarn, which is too bad since the final premmie hat looks nice.  However, friends here have a baby who could use a hat. Taxis and doctor offices are cold, and he has a few health complications  that mean he will probably be spending some time in doctors’ offices.

Hooray!!

Friday night, while watching “Meet the Robinsons” which we had downloaded from the iTunes store, I finished my basic socks. They are the first wearable pair of socks that I have completed. I am thrilled.

I’m glad I started with the basic sock pattern for a number of reasons…

1. It is a very basic pattern, so less room for mistake.
2. It calls for Cascade 220 yarn which is heavy enough that this project only took my a little over a month, despite not getting to work on it very often.
3. Antje Gillingham wrote very clear directions and included many helpful photos with this first pattern in her book. There was only one place where I was truly confused and had to muddle about a bit to figure out what to do.

I have learned a tremendous amount from making these. I really enjoyed the two socks on two circular needles method so well explained in the book “Knitting Circles Around Socks”.

My next project is also from that book. It is the Magic Stripes socks. Rather than use the Schaefer Yarn Anne, I will use the gorgeous, hand dyed yarn I posted earlier. It was a gift from Louise Schlossmacher when she visited Singapore last year for work. She dyed the yarn with Kool-Aid. Here is the photo again so you can feast your eyes…

I spent the next night breaking the skein into two separate balls. I cast on numerous times. Is there some trick to figuring out just how long a tail to start with in a long-tail cast on, so that I end up with a reasonable bit when I’m done casting on? I am a master at running out or having a bunch left over when I’m done casting on.

It took me two attempts to get both socks on the needles. I knit for a while, made a few mistakes, corrected them. I’d made two or three complete rounds before I realized I was knitting a K2, P2 ribbing instead of a K1, P1 as is called for in the pattern. I spent the rest of my time unknitting but I grew too sleepy to finish. I still have half of one sock to finish unknitting before I can start again. I could have just pulled it off but I was heartily sick of casting on by this time.

I hope this pair of socks will lack the gusset ladders that plague my basic socks. A big thanks to Louise who took time out from her trip in Switzerland to suggest that I be sure to pull the first and second stitch on the new needle firmly, otherwise I’ll still have gusset ladders even if I twist the stitches as Ingrid suggested.

I did knit a bit this weekend. On Friday we met friends for lunch and then coffee. I was able to knit in the taxi and over coffee on my Grace Kelly headscarf which has come out of hibernation for a bit. I’m not skilled enough at the two sock method to travel with it yet, so this scarf will be my traveling project for a bit.

On Friday I managed to knit about 20 rows. Then yesterday, I ripped them out to fix a weird hole. It is now back to where it was before I frogged. I’m at 81 stitches, increasing one stitch for every two rows. When I hit 90, I get to start decreasing. Only complaint is that the yarn is a bit dark; difficult to work on it without good light, especially since my needles aren’t very sharp.

One of my other treats this holiday weekend was to finish reading North by Northanger or The Shades of Pemberly: A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery. It is a mystery book written in the style of Jane Austen’s writing, with Elizabeth Darcy as the protagonist. I enjoyed it greatly and it spurred me to listen to the Pride and Prejudice as I went about my workouts and chores this weekend.

Today, as I finished the premmie hat that has been on my needles for the past two weeks, I listened to the proposal scene. Nice to giggle while I knit. I’ll spare you a photo of the latest hat since it looks like all the others. I don’t have them here to compare, but I think this hat is approximately the same size as the smallest of the other hats. I worked most of this one in taxis, where I seem to make many mistakes, so this poor hat was partially frogged numerous times. At least I’m getting really good at running a needle through my target row before I begin frogging. That saves me much time.

What’s on your needles theses days? Any Valentine’s projects still in the works? I had been hoping to start a pair of socks for my Valentine when I finished my basic socks, but they are a bit too rough for gifting so I’ll knit my Magic Stripe pair first.

No time to write, but I’m doing so anyway.

Didn’t finish the fourth premmie hat in time to send it. Made a mad dash to post office after work to get them in the mail. A colleague of Louise’s was here in Singapore. Since the mail between Singapore and US has been so slow, I didn’t dare mail them all the way to her in Minnesota. I’m hoping the Singapore mail got them to the colleague in time. Otherwise they are stuck in the Northwest Airlines office here in Singapore.

I’ve been longing to work on my socks. Would have finished them if I had been able to go to a mini-knit out on Friday, but I was a good teacher and went to the school variety show instead. 3 hours long. Wish I could have knit during it. I did bring my knitting, but my seat was in too dark a location. At least I had a seat. Last year I spent those 3 hours sitting on the floor.

Today I kept trying to get into work because I am woefully behind on everything, but it wasn’t meant to be. By the time laundry and grocery shopping were done, it was pouring. So did I start my work at home waiting for it to clear? Nope. I worked on my socks while I listened to podcasts. I’m down to the final decreases before I graft the toes.

I love that when you knit them on two circular needles, you can keep trying them on. Good thing I did. I must have short feet because they fit well everywhere, but according to the directions, I should be making these 8 inches (or until the reach the base of the big toe–that’s where I was to begin the toe decreases). If I’d gone that long, the socks would have been too long. Watch these end up too short. No matter where in the world you live, you’ll hear me howl if that is the case.

Walleyegirl is also knitting two socks on two circular needles. She is encountering problems and wonders if the fault could lie with her using 16″ needles. I think she’s right on the mark. My directions call for one need to be 24″ long and the other to be 29″ long so that you can easily tell the needles apart. I’m using two 24″ circulars. One is a bronze addi turbo lace and the other is a silver colored addi turbo with a red cable. Those visual cues have helped me to keep track of where I am and (mostly) prevented me from knitting with the wrong needle. I am finding the 24″ needles none too long. I can’t imagine getting it to work, especially picking up the gusset stitches along the second side. That was tight with the 24″ needles.

My dear socks are not without problems. I appear to have made a perfect button hole on one, even though the pattern doesn’t call for a button hole. I’m calling it a design element, but that’s not fooling even me. Second problem are the dreaded ladders along the gusset. Ingrid says I need to twist the gusset stitches as I pick them up. Anyone know of a good video on YouTube or somewhere else that shows this? I’m not quite sure how to do it.

In any case, no photos of the socks tonight. Will post a photo when they are done.