My first attempt at my Monkeys was a little off. This is my first go round knitting lace, and I’m learning by the round, but I definitely effed things up. The cuff, which is always the easiest part of any sock, was not messed up, so I frogged back to that point and then tried not the make the same mistakes again. Here’s what I had before the frogging:

As you can see, one of the holes on the fourth needle was not so much decorative as it was massive.

Luckily, this time I’m doing better. For one, I don’t have any craters in my sock. For another, I’m being consistent with my yarn overs (I was doing it wrong the first time, which is embarrassing, since I made an entire blanket that was full of yarn overs [unless those were wrong, too, but then at least they were all wrong in the same way]). Here’s the new and improved version:

Looking at these pictures reminds me that I need to learn how to use the macro mode on my new camera…

I keep doing this to myself. I don’t read the entirety of something, and it ends up biting me in the butt. For some reason, I had it in my head that the Monkey sock pattern by Cookie A. was knit from the toe up. I was apprehensive about starting toe up socks, but I figured that I would get it soon enough. So I got up this morning, Googled the figure 8 cast on, and got it after a few false starts! The tutorials on Knitty and Hello Yarn were invaluable! I was rolling, and just about the time I got to my first set of increases, I decided I should see where the sock pattern picked up. So imagine my surprise when I realized that Monkeys are NOT knit from the toe up. They’re top down, just like every other sock I’ve ever knit.

I was discouraged but not totally cowed. I googled toe-up Monkeys and found a few people who’d done it that way. Monos Locos, an adaptation by Jennifer O’Sullivan, looks interesting, but it inverted the lace pattern and removed the purls, which I did not want to do. Another toe-up adaptation, this one by Zhenya Lavy, kept the lace the way that Cookie A. had done it, but employed the magic loop, which I have yet to attempt. So that was no good for me, either. I found this web site that had a listing of Monkey KALs, and lost it, but I just used my Googlefu and found it again. Here you go! It lists various Monkey adaptations and tricks. So what was there to do but to frog what I had? Thankfully, I was relatively close to the start of my socks, so frogging was only mildly painful. Also, I already swatched this, so when I do begin, at least I know I should be on gauge.

I just checked, and it’s the Falling Leaves pattern that is toe up (and also on a magic loop). I think I may try those after I finish the Monkeys, unless I find another pattern that I like better in the meantime.

So I decided that today I would start on the Monkey socks by Cookie A. In keeping with my newfound desire to do things correctly, I was going to swatch it and then go from there. I remembered the pattern calling for size 1.5 dpns. I had no idea where to get those, but I thought I’d do the swatch on size 1 needles and go from there. So then I brought the yarn I’m going to use and the needles to work today, and looked over the pattern once more. It turns out that Monkeys are made on size 2 needles. So what I have right now is not going to cut it. I felt pretty stupid, but realized that all was not lost. I could just swatch another pattern, right? Except no, because pretty much all of the other pattern I want to make are somehow on size 2 and 3 needles. No 1s, no 1.5s. I don’t know if I just liked different patterns last night, but I’m not even sure which of the patterns I read and wanted to make even required 1.5 needles.

Luckily, I still have two pairs of socks to make (for Stephanie and Terea), and I want to prevent boredom by doing something different, so I found a pattern that requires size 1s: Spring Forward! I’m going to swatch this now and see how it comes out. Thankfully, I kept the remaining Lorna’s Laces from my last pair of Jaywalkers in my bag (I was going to use it as waste yarn when I cast on my toe). I’m using the same yarn in different colors for these socks, so I guess I really haven’t lost any time. I just hate making stupid mistakes like that.

I know that I just finished my second pair of Jaywalkers yesterday, but I really don’t want to lose my momentum. I enjoyed making those socks and the feeling of accomplishment when I finished weaving in the last strand, and I want those feelings again. Plus, I said that I would make socks for Terea and Stephanie, and I want to do that soon. Also, I know that I sometimes find sock knitting tedious and boring, so I think I’ll mix it up and make sure that I actually work on one of my many other UFOs when I need down time from the socks. I just realized that Zeeby’s bag, which I have been working on for no less than two years, is a nice, mindless project that I could easily complete while watching dvds. I have to do the same row over and over again for 11 inches, and there are no decreases to worry about, so why not?

So I finally finished my first pair of Jaywalker socks. As you can see, they’re pretty cute, even though one foot is about 1/8 of an inch longer than the other. Oh well. I need to find somebody with narrow, but long feet. Maybe I’ll have to try them on the feet of all of my tall, skinny friends. It could be like Cinderella, with socks, and a lesbian subtext!
Seriously, though, I really love this yarn. It’s Lorna’s Laces and it is self-striping, which is the greatest thing ever! I think that the stress of the last month gave me the motivation to finish the first sock and start/finish the second one, so let’s hear it for silver linings. I realized pretty early on (but not too early to do anything about it) that these socks wouldn’t fit my feet, so now I am making a second pair in the larger size given, and I hope that they’ll fit me! This pair is going to be magenta and white striped, which will look adorable on me!

Here are the beginnings of my new socks. I really like the way the first pair turned out, so I’ll stop being so lazy and do more work on these.

It’s been a while since I last posted anything, but I have actually been knitting stuff. I made more booties (and then didn’t photograph them, but more on that later), but the big project was the scarf that I made for The Boy. It was a broken rib scarf, and if I’d had any idea how much work that was going to be, I probably wouldn’t have slacked off until late-mid December. I started it when I bought the yarn in October, but then got bored with how slow it was coming. Fast forward to the week before Christmas, when I realized that I had a problem on my hands.

How to finish without my fingers falling off? It wasn’t easy. I stopped hating the pattern so much and became an automaton, and fell in love with the cashmerino yarn, which also helped a lot. I watched a whole lot of Buffy dvds until the wee hours of the morning, but I finished a whole 20-some odd hours before Christmas, so GO ME. Below, the finished product:

Wow. I just realized how horribly blurry this picture is (this may be why you’re not supposed to take pictures of FOs at 3 am, after 7 hours of marathon knitting and cursing).

I finally sent out four pairs of booties that I’d been holding hostage longer than was decent. I stupidly forgot to take pictures of them (more for color variety, since they were all made from the same pattern), but one of my friends was kind enough to send me a picture of her son wearing them. This is the first time that I’ve seen my booties on a human. Cute! She said that he usually hates socks, but kept these on for a few hours, which tickled me to no end. I’m honored. The kid lives in the South, and it wasn’t that cold there on Christmas, so I salute the trooper. The pattern is made for a baby of about six months, so they’re kind of huge on him right now, but at least they’ll last for a while.

After I finished the hat for EJ’s dolly, I had to make one for him. I measured his head first, and the thing is 20 inches around, which is kind of nuts, but whatever. He was pretty stoked that I decided to make him a hat. He’s really fascinated by my knitting, so I think I’ll teach him next year when he has better motor skills. He’s pretty bright.

I used the same Paton’s Classic Wool Merino that I’d used for the doll’s hat, but I cast on 48 stitches this time. Maybe it’s overkill, but I don’t know for sure until EJ tries on the hat. Sammy graciously agreed to try it on again (she’s a great gal, that Sammy). I think the width is correct, but it might be too long.

I’m really proud because I finally (after two days, I know) figured out how to do the mattress stitch properly. I really liked the finished product on the hat, but now I wonder, how would the mattress stitch seam work on hats that are flipped back up on the bottom? What seam is used then? Or haven’t I figured out mattress stitch to the degree I think I have? Oy. I will keep looking around and see if I can figure this out.