Vic's singlet - further adventures in knitting in public

Yesterday I met Vic.

Vic was the best kind of taxi driver. Chatty, interesting and interested who didn't feel the need to lecture me or patronise me or tell me his political opinions.

We discussed lots of things. Smoking and giving it up. Drinking - he doesn't doesn't drink, just a glass or two of red wine with dinner. Football - he barracks for my AFL team's traditional rival. We were in Melbourne so football is the easiest topic of conversation unless you encounter a Collingwood supporter. We don't talk to Collingwood supporters. On this, Vic and I agreed.

Anyway, after we had exhausted the topics of smoking, drinking, veggie gardens and footy, Vic noticed my knitting.

What was I knitting? A sock for my husband.

"Oh!", he said, "just like my Mamma."

Vic is 67 years old and was born just outside Rome. He emigrated from Italy 40 years ago and is the youngest of six boys and the only one of his mother's sons still living. He owns his own taxi and now works only 4 days a week.  His brother-in-law does the other three days.

He told me his mamma knitted socks for all her boys and her husband and also jumpers and undershirts. "Dio", he said, "how itchy those undershirts were the first time you wore them! But mamma said wear them or freeze, so we wear them."

I am so grateful to have the privilege of hearing Vic's story and tonight he is going home to his family and will tell them of his Mamma and her handknitted singlets. He has never told them before.

Cornstalks

How was your New Year's Eve?  Mine looked like this.

Time was, reading was one of the things that defined me.  One of the reasons I knit is because I can knit and read at the same time (rather than cross-stitch, embroidery or some other needlecraft I enjoyed).

Reading dropped off as caring for Mum became more demanding.  I didn't have the brainspace or the time for someone else's story.  For other carers books become a refuge but for me it wasn't so - there was always something else that needed to be done.

So I am becoming a reader again, or trying to.  Over the Christmas break I read the third of Kate Grenville's books about the fictional Thornhill family in colonial Australia.

Sarah Thornhill is both the title and protagonist of the book.  Sarah is the youngest child of William Thornhill, a transported convict and his wife, Sarah.  She is a currency lass or cornstalk - the first generation of European children born in the colony of NSW. These books have their inception in Grenville's own family history. 

When the first of the trilogy, The Secret River, was released, it caused a debate about fiction and history and Grenville has obviously emerged bruised from the engagement. 

For me, both The Secret River and Sarah Thornton are obviously fiction (while being based on some family history). It is up to the reader to pursue the history and neither is presented as actual history.
The novel explores the issues of being rootless, of disposession and the disposessed, generational guilt and Reconciliation. The themes are very current and it seems to me rather blugeons the reader - it doesn't feel subtle. There is a definite agenda being pushed.

The book presents some stylistic issues.  There is no indication of direct speech which really annoys me.  Without quotation marks for speech I find myself having to think about whether the words are spoken or descriptive and it detracts from the meaning of the words if I'm worried about the construction.

Speaking of construction, does anyone know if toe-up sock knitting was current in the 1830s?  Knitting appears in the hands of Sarah's sister who is reported as being half way up the leg of a stocking.  It niggled but is a minor concern.

The second book of the trilogy, The Lieutenant, is in the pile beside my bed. The books are stand-alone and can be enjoyed singly or in any order.  And they are very enjoyable.  Grenville continues to be a favourite author.  The Idea of Perfection (the 1999 Orange Prize winner) is one of my favourite novels.

Traditional Fathers' Day

I nearly burst a pfooffa valve the other night watching an advertisment.  Can't remember what it was advertising, but the gist was "don't give Dad socks for Fathers' Day".

I am happy to report that TOF doesn't think socks are a naff present for Fathers' Day.

He loves his handknits and knows how much love they represent and appreciate that the animals cared enough to commission me to make them.  He likes his new Wallabies jersey and the bottle of whiskey as well.

Verdant

Football season has started.  We've  been to two Brumbies home matches so far.  Last night the only thing in the stadium more colourful than these socks in progress was the language of two blokes in front of us.

These are using up the leftovers of the socks I've been making since the beginning of the year.

So far I've made 5 pairs of green and one pair of pink socks.  I should finish these today and that will be the last of the pink (from an unravelled scarf) and the last of the  the lime.

Almost.

TOF picked up a jumper at Salvos recently.  It was completely knitted from lime green Bendigo Harmony.  It cost a dollar.  There's enough yarn there for exactly 10 pairs of athletic socks.  I'm going to try some longer socks and will overdye them.  Neither Mum nor TOF will wear the green.

Sporty

Wee atheltic socks made from Bendigo Harmony a pattern of my own devising.

These in response to a desperate need for sports socks.  I know I can buy 3 prs for $1.80 at Rivers, but they are crap. 

Good things about these socks:

• soft, squishy, comfy and should be longer wearing that the Made in China rubbish
• I can get 5 socks from a 200g ball of Harmony.  I'll be looking for Harmony or Heirloom Breeze scraps soon, I reckon, to make a stripy scrappy pair.
• they use stash
• they are really quick to knit.
• while they stretch out worryingly on the foot, the wool and lycra content mean they spring back into shape when washed.
• they machine wash in cool water

Mk II already on the needles.  This time I'm including knitting-in-elastic for the ankle ribbing and shortening the heel flap a tad.

Keeping Mum (happy)

And this pair of baby socks is the fourth pair of sockees completed in the last couple of weeks. Mum's hairdresser's daughter had a little girl recently.  Mum commissioned these for little Chiara.  It's Patonyle left over from socks I made Mum.

TOF's Mum commissioned 3 pairs of baby socks for her expected great grandson (see last post), which I was happy to supply out of left overs, including these ones from a Moda Vera sock yarn (Mum got the big version for Christmas).  Sorry forgot to photograph the others.

There's another pair on the needles and then the commissions are fulfilled.  Next up, baby jackets in self-striping sock yarn.

The Shiner

TOF's niece is having a baby in April so of course knitting is in order.  After checking with the grandmother-to-be, I opted for a blankie, any number of socks and some little jackets.

Spotlight had 8ply Sports Support yarn for $1.99 a ball during the after Christmas sale.  A 50/50 wool/acrylic blend, it's quite nice on the hand but I suspect may pill a bit.  This gorgeous royal purple is in the "Plum" colourway.  A very scientific poll of knittes and their fellas last week decided that the colour should be "Shiner".

The pattern is adapted from a freebie on the BBC website.  It's a diagonal garter stitch square knitted from 4 x 50 gram balls of 8ply yarn.  Improvised the ruffle edge from the remaining 2 x 50g balls as I wasn't fussed on the lace edging (little fingers, eyelets, not a good combo),

Using a 150cm circular needle, I knitted up stitches all around the edge (from between the edge bumps) and joined in the round.  The frill took almost every bit of the two balls.

First Round:  K1, Kf&b, repeat all around
Second Round: Purl
Third Round: Knit
Fourth Round: Purl
Fifth Round: K1, Kf&b, repeat all around
Sixth Round: Purl
Change to 4.5mm needle
Seventh Round: Knit
Eighth Round: Purl
Continue alternating knit and purl rounds until sick to death of doing 600+ stitch rounds, or the ruffle is deep enough, or in this case, until the wool ran out. (about 10 rounds)
Cast off in knit, or if enough wool, a picot cast off would be nice.

Finished dimensions 22" along each side.

I love this blankie and will knit it again and when I do it will be a little larger and the frill a little deeper.

Big read

One of the activities I let go when I took on more responsibility for Mum’s care was book group. More than that, I stopped reading altogether, having little brain power left at the end of the day. Every effort is being made to get to at least a couple of the meetings this year and even to read off list books.

Our book for discussion on 2 February is last year’s Booker Prize winner, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I was excited as the prospect of reading it as I’d enjoyed this author before and I once was a Booker junkie, reading as many of the short list as I could before the big announcement. I was excited until I saw the size of the book – 651 pages. Seriously? 651 pages? You really need 651 pages?

Mantel’s hero is Thomas Cromwell, who is often portrayed as Henry VIII’s Machiavellian henchman responsible for the reforms that led to the formation of the Church of England. Here he is a self-made man of intellect, ability and passion. Entirely human and entirely sympathetic.

I’m still not quite over resenting the 651 non-skimmable pages, but I am yet to see where the editing could be done to make it shorter. The prose is dense and intense but it is not wasteful. Some passages need to be re-read to gain a complete understanding, and the family tree and cast of characters at the front of the book is necessary, even if you have an average or better acquaintance with Tudor history.

There are still a 250 pages left to be read and I’m thoroughly enjoying the journey. This is slow reading at its best. Knitting to accompany such a demanding (but completely enjoyable) read is necessarily simple. Adult and baby socks have been knitted to it and just now a garter stitch baby blanket. Complicated knitting and this book do not mix.

Normally I would recommend borrowing a copy from your public library but this time, Canberrans, if you can buy or borrow a privately owned copy do so. The ACT Public Library has 32 copies and as of this morning 143 requests on them. This means the loan period is reduced to two weeks and trying to get through this in two weeks is impossible unless you have those two weeks to lie in the shade and read.  Although it does wonders for the concentration to have such a deadline.

Early Spinning and Knitting on the Monaro

Archibald Crawford was born in 1833, in Campbelltown, Scotland and was 10 years old or so when his family settled for a year on The Dry Plain on the Monaro in about 1844. He was in charge of a flock of 800 lambing ewes. 

He writes in his memoir Eighty-Five Years in Australia (Sydney: John Sands Ltd; 1925), pp 22-23.

My mother, of whom I was very fond, used to spin all the wool for our knitted garments, of which we wore a good many. She never spoke English in the home, although she had an average knowledge of it, but always Gaelic. When she was knitting, sewing or spinning, she would sing old Gaelic songs to us; she had a very sweet and pleasing voice. One of my brothers-in-law, named Brayshaw, made the first spinning wheel which she used in this country; later on, when we went to Victoria, she got an imported one, which is still in existence as far as I know, and would probably be used during the Great War. At night I had to tease the wool for carding, another thing I did not like doing, and one night I was complaining and mother said to me, "No doubt you do think it a great bother to have to tease the wool, but you just think when you are out in the snow to-morrow how you would feel if you have no nice warm socks to wear." The next day I had reason to remember her lecture.

View from the Rocks

Blagged some online time at the very part time South West Rocks Library.

The blanket for The Old Flame's mother is done - I'll block it when I get home.

Also done, TOF's 4ply socks. Don't have time to go into details about why they were not knitted last year when I first cast them on - detailed updates will have to wait.

The remaining WIP is a jumper that's been on the needles for 4 years. Should be finished by the weekend.

Days here are warm, and there has been much op-shopping and unravelling of old hand-knits.

WIPeout 2009 - my accursed socks

These took seriously too long, a month since they become the take along project, even with Pooh's help. Actually, probably says more about the lack of down-time than my knitting speed. That and my inability to take notes on pattern changes, resulting in several unravel and reknits on the second sock.

Too sick to reflect on the socks or the nature of the yarn. Just another project off the needles and not enough light to photograph them properly. Feel nice on, though.

Get out of Gaol Free Bootees

Socks for Aiden knitted in recycled and rescued blue crepe 4ply weight yarn on 2.5mm needles, using Mim's pattern.

WIPeout 2009 - vintage socks

Someone else's UFO, purchased in this state from an op shop for $2. The bag included another ball of vintage Patonyle as well, in a delightfully retro mustard yellow.

PATTERN: Don't know. Bought these for $2 hoping to either finish or unravel them. Most likely a Patons sock pattern and I have most of their vintage sock books. I could find or read the pattern to finish them.

YARN: 1970s Patons Patonyle.

PROGRESS: There was one completed sock and second sock done halfway down the leg. From the handwound ball attached to the second sock, some unravelling had already occured.

ISSUES: When I tired on the first sock, the foot fitted perfectly but the cast on was too tight to go up my leg.

ACTION: Frogged, washed and drying.

It's quiet .... maybe too quiet.

It sure has been quiet on the finishing things front around Taph Towers of late.

I knit and kint and knit and nothing gets finished (3 whole days and nothing finished - impossible!). People who like their gratification instantly or possibly sooner probably shouldn't be knitters. But I do so love it. I'm not me without knitting - I know because I've tried the not knitting and it just feels wrong.

The blanket for the Old Flame's mother is about halfway there. This is because I revised the finished size downwards, but it was based on a very scientific try-on-over-my-lap-and-his method. TOF's parents are considerably smaller than we are (cuckoos, anyone?) so if the rug fitted comfortably over my lap and part of his lap, I was obviously halfway there - at least. Right?

There are a some flaws in the blanket (a couple of purls that should have been knits), but I am embracing my limitations and going with a few imperfections. Perfectionism is part of the reason that 22 WIPs were identified at the beginning of June.

I did not, however, embrace the imperfections of the current sock in progress. Last week was a bit hectic, so only the cuff of the second sock was knitted (despite planning to finish it). Just as well because the nagging, "this doesn't feel quite right" feeling which plagued me during the knitting of said cuff turned out to be not the wrong sized needles, as suspected, but the wrong freaking pattern. Why I would knit a 1x1 rib when I always knit 2x2 rib cuffs? Also, why I did not check the other sock which was in the knitting bag the whole time when I first began to doubt is also beyond me.

We'll blame workplace deadlines and stress and let it go. Another hectic week this week with many teleconferences and meetings in which I could not knit means I've lost a week with the sock. Feeling a little less love for the project right now. Second sock is now unravelled and cuff reknitted and will be worked on in the coming week.

Maybe.

We have an unexpected arrival. A former member of my team and the world's loveliest person whom I fail to keep up with regularly because I am in the top ten of world's worst people, has just welcomed her first grandchild. A little boy - who is too big for the baby stash boy coloured socks. Obviously Aiden needs socks and I must provide them - now.

This weekend I knit baby socks. Next weekend we return to the scheduled knitting.

Luckily another dear friend's daughter produced a daughter who has been gifted with a matinee jacket (the pink one) and socks. I was prepared for Ruby.

G O, G G O ...

We seriously know how to show a sock a good time around here.

Saturday it got a drive in the country.

Enjoyed a little guest up a tree knitting by Winnie the Pooh (I think he was stuck, as Pooh, is so wont to be)

Some modelling on an acquaintance's sports car (yes, a Goggomobil - and it was the Dart)

and a working bee at which the sock watched us collect, haul and stack 4 or 5 trailer-loads of timber around followed by a sausage sizzle and some quiet afternoon knitting (but I forgot to photograph that).

After all that, the sock got a little international rugby action at Bruce Stadium where the Wallabies trounced the Italians in -2C weather.

WIPeout 2009 - my socks

PATTERN: Pretty much making it up as I go along, with reference to a Patons pattern, but even it's mother wouldn't recognise it.

YARN: Lucy Neatby sock yarn in the Fiery Fuschia colourway that Janet brought with her from Ottawa in may 2007.

PROGRESS: Started in November 2008. Part way down the first leg.

ISSUES:

• Because these are for me, they keep falling to the bottom of the pile in favour of more pressing knits
• I overshot the length of the leg and have to do some maths to make it work, or unravel.

ACTION:

• Do the maths
• Keep knitting - another portable project is a good thing.

It's not me, it's you

The relationship with Mum's birthday socks is over. Over I tell you.

We had a busy day. Firstly at a staff meeting when the gusset stitches were picked up and the gusset begun.

Over lunch when we finished the gusset and got a fair way down the foot.

At an afternoon teleconference we got even further down the foot.


On the way home in the bus (after finding a pair of skis by a skip and rescuing them) we knew we were almost at the end.

And then, this evening, while watching Torchwood season 2 on DVD we concluded our relationship. I know I should have waited until morning to end it, but we were so close to a resolution I felt it unfair to wait.

Mum is excited about her new socks. Me, I'm not happy. The green stripe is different in the two socks (despite them being the same dyelot), and there was a knot at the bottom of the second ball of yarn that put my pattern repeats out. Still, they are done and will be winging their way to South West Rocks by lunchtime today.

Monogamous Knitting

When in a monogamous relationship, it's great to spend time together and share mutual interests.

So far Mum's birthday socks have been to a National Trust Council meeting where we caught up with an old friend



and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Farmers' Market.

WIPeout 2009 - Mum's birthday socks

PATTERN: Umm - see "Issues" below.

YARN: Patons Patonyle in the sickly pink self-striping colourway.

PROGRESS: First sock knitted to gusset stitch pick-up. The were at this stage Christmas week, Mum's birthday is in late April.

ISSUES:

• found I'd dropped one of the heel stitches way back at the beginning of the heel
• Mum's in warmer climes for winter and announced she didn't need anymore hand-knitted socks. However, she's been wearing the same two pairs of hand-knitted socks in high rotation for the last month. She does need and want more hand-knitted socks.
• Can't remember what pattern I was using, if any and don't have any notes about it.
• don't really like the colourway

ACTION:

• Stop worrying about the dropped stitch. Put a safety pin in it and sew it in when the sock is done.
• Count stitches in band
• Count stitches in gusset pick-up.
• Count number of rounds in band.
• Measure length of leg to heel flap
• Count rows in heel flap
• WRITE ALL NUMBERS down - that's the pattern fat-head.
• suck it up and keep knitting

Sock-fu and encouragement

The unbirthday socks are done and will be on their way to Warwick in Queensland tomorrow even though Peggy would like to keep them.

If anyone knits these socks, I suggest you add a couple of centimetres to the foot unless you're knitting for a person with a narrow foot. I am enamoured of the yarn. It's soft and lovely to knit with, if a little splitty. It took almost 3 x 50g balls, so I've enough left for another pair for the Old Flame (later, darling, I promise) and maybe another, slightly shorter, pair possibly for my brother.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I'm trying to be honest about the number of WIPs and the nature of my resistance to finishing them. I suspect there will be almost as much frogging as there will be knitting in the next 3 months.

Thanks especially, this morning, to Priscilla at By Hook or Needles for de-lurking in the comments and awarding me a Kreativ Blogger award. I've never quite worked out how to get these things into my sidebar but I'll try over the weekend. Priscilla is also a librarian and for the crocheters, has several free patterns on her blog.

And a decision has been made about the blanket. After many calculations, I'd have to knit about 15 hours a week for 4 weeks to get it finished. In the interests of sanity it will be a Christmas gift.