Drop drop drop

I am so tired.

I slept five hours between nine and 2.30, but I started waking up every half hour after 12. Which, surprisingly enough, left me less than well-rested. I’m guessing it’s the bright daylight blazing through my windows (it really was a beautiful day), or the approximately two liters of coffee I’d had before.

Oh, coffee.

My big problem with coffee is that I like it a lot. So much that, in fact, I bought a nice big mug to have my coffee in. A normal coffee mug holds about 300ml. Mine holds 6oo. Which means that with only two mugs, I drink over a liter of coffee and barely notice that fact. I had a lot of coffee last night, and another two today during the day. It’s a lot of caffeine. Granted, I put a lot of milk in there, but still… that’s like 3 liters of coffee in less than 24 hours. Glorious brown elixir of life or not – that’s a LOT of coffee.

Plus, you know, fake Bailey’s with Saskia tonight, just a bit, and I’m still woozy. Drinking the second half in the steaming hot bathtub was probably a mistake, but also delicious.

So. As a result of too little sleep, coming down from my caffeine high, and a brilliant hot bath in the middle of the night, my whole body is heavier than a stone. Which is nice. I felt ready to drop all day, but now I’m just deliciously relaxed to boot.

And yet somehow between all of the coffee drinking and grocery shopping and sleeping badly, I managed to finish the first Roomie sock and work my way down most of the shaft of the second one. It’s still fun – but nowhere near as crack-like as the first one. I’m still waiting for a huge onset of SSS though.

It has begun

I’m about ready to drop, since it’s 8.30am and I’m running on lots of coffee instead of sleep, but I need to gush real quick.

Christian, my best friend, stayed over the night, rather unplanned because his motorcycle wouldn’t start up when he wanted to leave around midnight. So until four-ish, we and Saskia, my friend and roomie (for whom I’m knitting my current socks) sat together in the kitchen, until she went to bed. Afterwards, the two of us went to my room, hung out on the bed, started watching a movie… and I’d barely picked up my knitting when he asked if I could show him how to do that again.

Instead of flipping out with joy (besides, I was too tired at that point. Knitting was the only thing keeping me awake) I grabbed the top leftover ball in my leftover drawer (surprisingly enough, it was the rest of the grasshopper yarn) and some needles and showed him.

(It’s a terribly unflattering photo, I know. It was also taken in the middle of the night, though it’s possible that the sun was already rising, so that’s probably part of it. If you read this, buddy – sorry!)

And so for the next four hours, we just sat there in companionable silence, knitting away. I finished Saskias fake Argyle socks to the point where I’m pretty sure I could start the toe but I’d rather she try it on before that. Once I got done with the pattern, I just knit with my eyes closed for a while.

He knit a… rectangle. Which now proudly serves as a cape for my terracotta chicken. It’s garter stitch, and it’s awesome. I’m so proud. And also really, really excited about the prospect of having a knitting buddy.

Around six, he confessed, ‘I’m sorry I always thought you were crazy for knitting so much. But now I see… it’s really fun!’

About an hour later, when I wanted to see how he was doing, he uttered the words every knitter has in common: ‘Yeah, lemme just finish up that row!’

I didn’t squee or anything. But.

It has begun. Heh. Heh. Heh.

Und diese Biene die ich meine…

Grasshoppers are done!

done in Zitron Trekking XXL bought right at the source. My first spring knitting!

closeup of the pattern – it’s quite simple, actually. it’s [k2tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, ssk] for the pattern row, odd rows are all knit. 13 pattern repeats in the shaft, then after the heel, I continued it over the top until I was done with the gusset.

I replaced the first ‘column’ on each side (ie the k2tog, k1, yo on one side and the yo, k1, ssk on the other side) with stockinette, continued like that for four more repeats, did away with the second columns (so it was k11, yo, k1, ssk, k2tog, k1, yo, k11) for four more rounds, then stockinette till I’d reached 44 rounds after the gusset, standard wedge toe, done.

Wheee!

Now I can start my Roomie Socks. I have yarn to wind.

Postcard letter: What makes these special

Dear Tyler!

Have you ever owned 17300 of one thing? No? I didn’t think so.

Well, now you do! Because 17300 is the approximate number of stitches that make up your brand new socks. Congratulations!

Now, before you jump up, tear the socks off your feet, lovingly wrap them in tissue paper and hide them in the far corner of your closet before any dirt gets onto them, or the cats see them, or you walk holes into  them – stop. Relax. It’s hammer time.

And after all, that’s what they’re made for.

I really hope they fit. They’re far-traveled socks, you know. I had the original idea in Philadelphia, I drafted the first chart on the plane between two continents. I bought the yarn while I was at my parents’, and took them everywhere: my friends’, the doctor’s office, the sauna. (There was no actual knitting IN a sauna though – ouch, ouch, metal needles!) Most of the second sock was made between my parents’ and Leipzig, which is pretty much halfway across Germany, and I embroidered the words and arrows on at my own apartment here in Leipzig. That’s a lot of places to go for a pair of socks!

I tried to work some good mojo into them: the excitement of traveling, the relaxation of sauna, the wackiness of Rocky Horror, (of course. I watched it multiple times as side-entertainment, and listened to the soundtrack even more often) the lightheartedness of 1990s college movies, the adventure of 18th century Scotland – and last but not least, my love and affection.

Bottom line – they might look like socks and feel like socks, but they’re not. They’re more. They’re my time and my good wishes, all captured in 17300 stitches of fingering weight yarn wrapped around 2mm needles. (In case this means nothing to you, that’s a whole lot of stitches and really tiny needles!)

So now go, walk some big honkin’ holes into them, and don’t forget to pack them when you come visit me! (Even if it is in July. You never know!)

– Patti

PS: If you desire some sort of underwear with ‘Thrust’ on them – I advise against wool.

Public knitting

Things I learned today: Don’t drop a DPN on the tram if there’s somebody sitting right in front of you, because it will take all your power to keep from flying headfirst into his crotch when you try and pick it up.

I’m almost done with the Grasshoppers. Cast on the second one last night before Jule, knit for two and a half, maybe three hours there, and a tiny bit at Christian’s afterwards (VERY little. I was kinda drunk, but my stitches were surprisingly even.)  and then again this morning/afternoon. I’m completely done with the lace pattern – there were 16 more rounds of it after the gusset decrease, with a gradual decrease of lace every 8 rounds, and now there’s just a tiny bit of stockinette and the toe left. The pattern is crack, I swear. Not a spot of SSS, though it took me forever to motivate myself to rip back the toe on the first one – there was a decrease mistake somewhere, which put it right on the bottom of my list until I finished the Time Warps.

Speaking of the Time Warps. I sent them out yesterday, with a letter squeezed onto two postcards. I can’t wait until he gets them, I’m guessing/hoping sometime next week. (Also, Deutsche Post. €6 to send a C5 envelope? Seriously? That’s five cents more than I paid for the yarn!!!)

Aaaand… somebody nominated them for the Bobby Award for Best Obscure Pattern. Holy shit. Not that I stand a chance of winning, but… holy shit. I’m slightly overwhelmed, and my ego is ready to burst.

It’s a kind of magic

It’s weird, knitting. And the more I do it, the more I think there might be magic involved.

I’m not talking about the whole magic feeling of turning string into something useful. Certainly, that seems magical, and I marvel at it constantly, but there’s nothing… mysterious about it. It’s loops through loops and there’s a system behind it that’s been working for more than a thousand years.

No, I’m talking about the fact that you can wait, and wait, and wait for something, and the minute you decide that after all, this forced pause might be long enough to knit and get out your project – the doctor calls your name, the train arrives, the red light turns green, the traffic jam dissolves. I’ve waited for people  to arrive forever, and they called or I heard them pull in before I could get my needle into the second stitch.

That’s not only magic, that’s damn inconvenient.

Rose tints my world

… keeps me safe from my trouble and pain…

People just keep loving the socks. I’m stunned. Real people! Love! MY! SOCKS!

Rocky fans must be crazier than I thought.

I mean, people queued and favorited Los Sockos Procrastinatos, but with the Time Warps,  I get what feels like tons and tons of comments. Including one that said that now the person absolutely had to start with the whole sock knitting thing – just to make a pair of these!

I’m stunned.

And thinking about at least charting ‘THRUST’ and an arrow down, for underwear.

Crank up the sonic oscillator…

ah, the Time Warps. (As an aside note, I’ve typed that so often now that it looks to me. This is a bad sign. Good thing they’re done.)

Anyway, in the wake of my excitement at finishing them, I spent the morning turning my messy, multicolor paper chart into a nice, tidy spreadsheet and writing out some instructions, like how to find a basic sock pattern. (I’m not crazy. There’s tons of basic sock patterns out there a million times better than anything I could cook up.)

So now this

has turned into a perfect, pretty PDF that even has its own Ravelry project page. This excites me greatly.

What the socks ended up looking like? Well, personally, I think they’re awesome.

Honestly, I wish they fit me. But, fortunately for Tyler, they’re not only too wide but also too long, and  I’m gonna go to the city… tomorrow or so… buy a large envelope, stick them in there, and groan about the outrageous price of shipping stuff overseas. At least they weigh less than 100g.

I’m still confused as to the fact that my gauge on 2mm metal needles is looser than on 2.25 wood ones. Maybe it has something to do with the whole… warp in the space-time-continuum or something.

PS: OMG, somebody already queued them!!! (I know this means next to nothing, considering how I queue half the new patterns, but SOMEBODY QUEUED MY NEW PATTERN! Somebody besides me likes them!!! Yay!!!)

It’s astounding…

I did the Time Warp again! *dances*

Yes, indeed, Tyler’s Time Warp socks are done, done, DONE!

With the 2×2 ribbing, followed by 20 rows of stockinette shaft, my standard heel and toe and lots of stockinette in  between, I admit they were a pretty easy, mindless knit. Except for the duplicate stitch embroidery just above the heel flaps. It turned out pretty awesome, but it drove me absolutely fucking bonkers. I hate duplicate stitch. Plus the E in STEP just didn’t want the same thing I wanted and ended up one row too small – which I noticed when I’d just woven in the end. Great.

Good thing I bought that random ball of red Meilenweit the other week just before I left, because for some reason, it seems I didn’t have any other kind of truly red sock weight yarn. Granted, this one has one quarter dark in it, but with the muted colors of the grey… it all goes together quite well, and gay or not, we’re talking about a man having to wear these. Man? Guy. Tyler’s only a year older than me. But he does work in a freaking bank… I’m getting old, if suddenly and unexpectedly people I graduated with are… grown up!

Anyways.  I tried to put a lot of good mojo into these. I watched RHPS twice, I believe, since after all they’re Time Warp socks. And I listened to the soundtrack… a lot. Let’s say a lot. If I hadn’t known the words before, now I probably would. I knit them in the car ride to and from the Sauna, I even knit one needle (16 stitches) in the changing room. Naked. (Heh. Talk about mojo.) Continuing with the naughty theme, I also watched ‘Threesome’, that 94 college movie, which is possibly a rather unfortunate choice, but I was so bored today, and it IS a good movie, except kinda creepy with the whole mojo thing. (But at least there’s a Music Man reference in the movie)

These socks are traveling socks, too… I decided I wanted to knit Tyler a pair of socks in the plane on the way from the US to Germany, I mapped out the first ideas in my head on the train ride from Frankfurt to my parents’. I bought the yarn and started them there, carried them with me everywhere (including the sauna), knit most of the second sock between my parents’ and Leipzig, finished up here, in my own apartment… they’ve been all over the place!

I’m kind of more enchanted by them than I’d like to admit, since I probably won’t be making a pair for myself. They’re awesome, but that duplicate stitch…

(Maybe ON the heel flap. Intarsia. Go shoot me now.)

Also, in a fit of exuberance and altruism, I offered to knit both of my roomies a pair of handknit socks, and had them pick yarn from my endless purchases. More socks, just what I need, but at least they have smallish feet. Yay!

I would have finished the Grasshoppers, but somehow I screwed up the toe decrease last night, and I just didn’t want to deal with them today. Same goes for… other unmentionable projects. I justify this to myself by saying that I didn’t really have that much time today, after all, I unpacked, put everything away, did laundry, put new sheets on my bed plus changed from the thick down blanket to the lighter summer one, spent time with both the dog and my two-legged roomies, made food, and… didn’t set a foot outside of this apartment.

Amazingly enough, I still had couscous, canned champignons, and some kind of sauce in a bag that made up a pretty amazing dinner. This was an especially nice surprise after discovering I had no pasta left, and I had just resigned to having couscous with tomato sauce.

At least the Tempest has its own project bag now.

And I’ve started to collect the hair Wave sheds, formulating a vague plan to spin it up when/if I have enough.

This last note is included because hell, this post now fits into ALL my categories!

Spring fever

The good news is: I managed to squeeze all my yarn into my suitcase. This means I have to find a spot for shower gel and shampoo in my backpack, which is weird, but at least I won’t have to leave any yarn behind.

The not-so-good news is: it seems like I’ve developed a case of startitis. I was helpless in the face of all the new yarn in the house, so I pulled out a green ball of Trekking XXL and new 2.5ers and cast on a pretty, lacy green spring sock I tentatively titled ‘Grasshopper’. Because, you know, it’s all springy.

No, really though. It’s several shades of green, a shade of teal and some white (or is it very very light green?) mixed in.

It doesn’t really show the brightness and vividness of the colors, but it was a rainy day yesterday, and I already packed my camera. Not that today is any better cloudwise, but at least it stopped raining.

But, you know. Until I get a photo, just picture that yarn with 20 rows of 1×1 ribbing, and  [k2tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, ssk] every other row thirteen times, a heel flap in plain stockinette, and the first seven rows of the heel gusset split between a patterned top and a stockinette bottom.

And only after Dead Poets Society and a teeny tiny little bit of Sky High, too. Oh, and some listening to Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’ audiobook. Ok, I’m not as awesome as I thought.

However, this means right now I have on the needles: three pairs of socks (Time Warp, Grasshopper, elf socks for my mother that only need some smallish triangles added at the top), a lace shawl, a cardigan, and a random pair of almost finished mitts on my broken Harmonies that I can’t finish because, well, my Harmonies are broken.

Oh, and there’s a pair of randomly striped stashbuster socks, them kneesocks, a pair of gloves… and I think that might be it. But we’ll just ignore those last few for now.