Aran Sweater knit and unknit, but is it errata?

Well..... I did knit... and we put the "NO Reporters Allowed Past This Door!" sign back up.

Knitting. Growl! I think that my sweater pattern's first row should read to do 4 sets of what the pattern calls RT3, and that count works out for the 114 stitches that are supposed to be on the needles. Also, arithmetically, if the XLarge is supposed to be 126 stitches wide, 5 increases work for that count, so I think maybe I'll give it another go. I knit, therefore I rip.

I hate errata on a very old pattern. This is *THE PATTERN:

The ROW in question says:

"Row 1: (K 1, p 1) 3 (3-5-5) times, k 1, * p 2, [sl next st onto cable needle and hold in FRONT of work, k 2, k st from cable needle (LT 3); sl next. 2 sts onto cable needle and hold in BACK of work, k 1, k 2 sts from cable needle (RT 3)] 2(3-3-4) times, LT 3, p 2 *, LT 3, p 2, put a marker on needle, work Row 1 of pattern st on next 32 sts, put a marker on needle, p 2, LT 3, repeat between *'s once, k 1, (p 1, k 1) 3(3-5-5) times."

To get the number of stitches to come out to be the full 114 for the large, the RT 3 repeats must be (3-4-5) and NOT (3-3-4). This is the very first row. *sigh My confidence is waning. I will have to work out the math for every single row or be prepared to frog.

I've been staying out of even the OT in KR. But there was some good news in there, so does that count? =o)

Karen, Jazzie loved the feral smells coming out of the box. The top smelled like sheep, just ever so slightly, and a Foreign sheep as well. hee hee. He wanted that little bag in the WORST way. Ah, your sweet Tobie. It's nice to have a dog that is puppy like. They play more and are the best companions. Glad he's feeling better.

Susie's Sharp Points: Homeless people and Teenagers-Hoo Boy

Susie's Sharp Points: Homeless people and Teenagers-Hoo Boy

Hoorah! Meet Sue Woo, a KR friend who really can lay down the facts, much like an armored personel vehicle, right to the White House Door. You go Girlfriend!

I did knit. I got five more stitches including a first little cable done, on the Aran Sweater back. As I read it all, the pattern is getting clearer and clearer. Thank you to my aran sweater knitting coach, Karen. Yeay!

Pugknits, I've discovered that dawn dishwashing soap and the kitchen sinks can be used to wash fiber. I poked around the internet a bit and then someone told me even more about it in a sewing chat. Now to find some and keep Jazzie out of it. He thought the last slivered top that came in with the wheel was his new play toy. Happily he is only 9 inches tall and couldn't reach the top of the box to steal it.

I go up and down like a weather balloon but this must be the manic in me.

Maya Angelou's Poem

I wanted to post this here, so that I can read it as it is a message of hope, not the flowery kind, but the gritty get back on your feet and stand with the others kind.

It doesn't behoove any of us to give up or give into the forces that just want to use us for their own pathetic short term goals.

A Brave and Startling Truth

We, this people on a small and lonely planet Traveling through causal space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we discover
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And alow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign lands
When the rapacious storming of churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tramble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged may walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Not the Garden of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled in delicious color By Western sunsets
Not the Danube flowing in its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the rising sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade, the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cantankerous words
Which challenge our existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Can come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils or divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
And without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

It surfaces, like a whale, to spout! What is it??!!

Thank you Jane, and Karen, and Pugknits I am feeling a lot better. There is that saying about a hard fall resulting in an even higher bounce? Somehow that sounds too much like manic depression, lol. Anyway, the confluence of three things produced this, and two are easing up.

#1.My mother died when she was the age I just turned. I realize that had an affect I'm still dealing with. There is that Nostalgia, with a capital N, for all my mother was in her gentle, unassuming life. Hers was a life filled with taking good care of any little living thing, green or otherwise, that passed through her hands.

#2. This weird, tenacious virus that sneaks up on your immune system when you've turned your back and gets you yet again.

#3. The daily drenching in bad news. That flow has been cut off at the source. It has died the death it deserved.

I got some new sock needles today, (Yeay!) and lunch out (Lovely chow mein noodles) with DSis and DH was nice as well. We took time to watch the puffy white clouds sail by in the big blue sky. Sometimes the Earth just calls to it's children with such a soothing voice that you can't ignore it. It seems to be saying, "Look at what I made for your enjoyment my Darlings!". What a good mother is Mother Earth.

In a slow upward spiral she rises, singing

Well, not really singing, more like gurgling.

I've taken the suggestions of all to heart. I cannot thank you all enough for making them.

So far three stitches on the aran sweater. God, only three? But there they are. I've promised myself at LEAST a stitch a day.

And the TrekkingXXL arrived yesterday. I'm going to put some on the needles soon.

The spinning wheel is getting moved to the light, so that I can spin during the day by the window where I can see the Cape Honeysuckle in full bloom, and watch the little hummingbirds.

My fever and cough is almost gone. On the mend. Will post the progress on the sock heels in a couple of days

Aran Isles Sweater, and a Murder by Torture.

Karen, I am getting it out tomorrow and staying away from the computer to get my head back. The sweater will certainly help.

Tonight I cried and cried over the fact that Iraqi patriots are dying and our soldiers are being used to administer torture and to torture to death people in a country where said patriots are dying for their OWN land, THEIR OWN LANDS, for the love of Christ. And it is just too much for me to bear anymore. Are so many of my people really blind to this UGLY, unspeakable Irony? Don't they even see what is happening?

I read too much bad news, news analysis, and today was the last straw. Being impotent after a whole life of caring deeply about Peace and Justice is causing heart pain. And having my own country go down the road it's going and not being able to stop it for even the blink of an eye is going to kill me. I have the word of my doctor on this.

So, I am going to knit and to spin yarn, and try to save my heart. And anyone who doesn't agree that THAT which is above is what is happening, I don't care what you think. I'm through thinking we can have a dialog with people who can't see torture, see we are doing it, and know what it is that it is doing to our sons and daughters!

I am sick to death of the lies, the greed, the arrogance and the aggression that is Washington DC.

Reading up

I have been trying to get back to the end of that yarn puff at the oriface on the wheel. Finally the Amos Book came in at the library so I've been reading it. I now know that

1. I don't want to even OWN a fleece, let alone wash one, and

2. I will never try to grow my own flax much less process it. It's nice to know the limits of your patience and strength.

The heel to the sock was coming out too narrow, so now I'll just stick on a generic heel and go on down the foot. It's time to dig out that pattern for the Aran sweater and go for it. Karen, thank you. I will just do it!

Pugknits has some luscious yarns on her web page that you should all see. She has a gift I tell you! Go see?

Yukon Leaves Sock pattern -- Update

Jane, thanks, and I love this pattern, too. 

I had Yukon Leaves pattern here but it is now a sub domain of a site that's earned a poor reputation.  I want to knit these socks again  but have to figure out how to get them.




Also, I've posted a new link under Fun Stuff that others might enjoy. It's a blog by a dedicated Quack Buster. I think he or she is a science buff, or maybe even a "bone fide" Science Gecko. hehe

Progress on the wildfoote socks

Up to the heels and now for the dreaded gussets! I love this pattern, and if I haven't put a link to it before, I will come back in and do it this afternoon. Kim, this yarn has been a pleasure to work with. Thanks again to my sock exchange Buddy! 
 

I'm so Happy!

Jane, thank you! I just tied my little piece of leg rolled fiber onto a short yarn leader, and then onto the leader of the bobbin. Fiddling with all that extra commercial yarn as a long leader was part of the problem. Also, I do promise to stop falling over things in the dark. I can't, apparently, trust my eyes in the dark anymore. I'm getting very clumbsy in daylight and should have known better. I'll start carrying a flashlight at night.

Val, your two suggestions, loosening the brake - I didn't even realize it was on - and not going all the way through all the hooks to the top of the bobbin but just the first flyer hook made a big difference. What a beautiful little wheel this Louet is. Thanks for the tip on Arnica for the bruises. One of them is still sore.

The virus is starting to pack up it's bags. This morning I feel like it will only be a few more days before it disappears entirely. This one had DH worried and he's a LOT calmer than I am.

We have Yarn!

I am sending BIG THANK YOU'S to Val and Jane. This is the first off the wheel and I'm soooo relieved to finally be getting somewhere!  

What's been happening.

I cough too much when I lie down so I'm just going to stay up all night.

Three days into this strange virus, that has found it's way into my chest, I fell in the dark and bruised a knee cap,my calf, a hip and a boob. I think a box corner nailed the last one. I have to stop falling and probably will when I can no longer walk. Yes? There is a solution to every problem in this world! Halleluja!

But, with all this enforced resting, the two wildfoote socks are up to the heel, and I hope to have the gussets in by tomorrow and to be knitting the foot shortly after that. They are sure coming along well.

The spinning is monstrous. I can't get any of the fiber to go into a yarn that will stay together, so out come the spindles tomorrow and I will try out this box of cursed fiber on the Goldring. The old fashion way will tell me a few things about the fiber. I've got two pounds of it, free, that came with the wheel, and by gosh and by golly, I am going to spin that mess of hair UP.

Val Scott says it can be done, my daughter says it can be done, and so it will be done! I've been running clockwise draws and twists up my leg to get the yarn to attach to the commercial yarn and then to the leader, and it looks like it's going to make it onto the bobbin intact. But, it just FOOSTS out at the last minute and will not make yarn. I never let the wheel go back counter-clockwise, the yarn on my leg is twisted clockwise and for some reason a demon in the wheel is biting it off I tell you! If I ever see that demon, I'm sending him to the Artic Circle to harvest me some Quivit. It's only fair.

Something Beautiful

This is what I want to add to my future sock adventures

And a word to the wise. If you don't want to have this link take you away from this page, hold down the shift key while you click on the link. It's a trick I just learned from an amazing guru in "Blog Talk" at Knitter's Review. Yeay!

Carodan Farm

Or some of these from Angora Valley

And finally yesterday I received Nancy Bush's book on Vintage socks and found the best explanation of the ssk dragon in it that I'd ever seen. Well, it was drawings and words together which is how my brain works.

What I had been doing was slipping two stitches as if to knit, putting them back onto the left needle, struggling to jam the right needle in the front of those stitches to knit them off, twisted. Here-to-fore, I had always done knit 1, slip, psso for that left slanting decrease. I wanted to come into the 21st Century after all, so tortured my hands for a few months, like we did our feet with pointed shoes, to be in fashion with knitting trends. Now ssk is a friend.

There is no excuse...

In my book there is no excuse to decide to ask a novice spinner a half dozen questions the second she sits down to new wheel. Yet, that is the crime that my DH committed today. I had the nicely slit roving snaked back and forth on my lap, just as I had seen on Liz's blog one day, and I had the leader fed in and on the little flyer hooks. I was ready to roll, or rather twist and spin. The books on ratio and pinching inches, and little fans and revolutions of the wheel and how this was all related had been read, ingested, and were about to flow out my fingers and toes in a sweet concert of semi lumpy but perfectly respectible yarn.

Enter the dog, who was not to be outdone, trying his best to get into my lap, and fixing me with those big brown eyes as he turned this way and that with little yippy whines so that I would be sure to see his distress and just pick him up. He put his little foot up on the edge of the fiber box so as to emphasize his rights to my lap. I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes at DH to cut off the stream of questions about a lamp that I'd taken out of service at least 6 months ago but he decided that TODAY WAS THE DAY IT NEEDED TO BE FIXED, and by Heaven above, I was engineer in charge of remembering what it's symptons (in detail) were.

My advice to all women who wish to learn to spin on a wheel is to buy it and learn it before their DH retires and is home all day and you assume the role of household memory bank. The dog has an excuse. He was trained that way.

I have an awful cold, it might even be the California Flu. I am here at the ungodly hour of 1:12am posting because to lie down means to blow the top of my head off with coughing fits. May you all stay well!

A cold, A Trekking we will go, and the effects of reading too many sad things

I've done myself in I tell you. I'm too old to keep doing it, too. It's given me a damp, drippy little rhino-virus and a free ticket to the next viral adventure, "Bronchitis" or even "ear infection".

So, tomorrow, with the hoof fully healed, I'm going to start on the spinning and stay away from NEWS of any kind. Being fully informed and fully impotent to change anything, that is without being able to have the full power of an Angel of Death, I think it's time to bow out of the cycle of woe. For a few days anyway.

I've been sitting in front of the wheel trying to read a book and treadle. I've also been trying to understand the meaning of "ratio" regarding the wheel going around and the flyer going round. At least I think it's the flyer. Maybe not! Scotch tension, something else I'm reading about, seems to be caused more by not enough good Scotch whiskey in the house for hot toddies at the moment than by anything else.

The daughter thinks pink socks are "too pink", and that means I get to keep them and send her the wildfoote if she likes them. I've also discussed the purchase of some TrekkingXXL with DH and his mild reaction, and slightly heightened interest at the words "hiking sock yarn" seems to me to mean I've got a "Go" for purchase. So far, no LYS has any. This is SoCal after all, and not the Yukon. Is that an excuse for them to not supply the needs of crazed sock knitters who want to knit hiking socks instead of buying them for $35 a pair?

First Wildfoote sock up to the heel

I hope this shows the patterning, which is pretty cool. When I knit socks I usually do them tandem, knitting up to the heel on both, turning the heal on both, etc. I do the whole leg if it's a lacy sock. That helps me to keep a rhthym with the pattern. I spent a lot of time resting a foot, which helped this enterprise no end!  

Aran Isle Sweaters and Lack of Spinning

Yes, Karen, I am attempting to knit another aran sweater, this one is very different than the last, and I'm older and these patterns don't make as much sense.

Aran in a Man's Size for DH

I am SERIOUSLY considering this one:

Man's Pullover

instead

*sighs* My brain has changed. Perhaps now it really wants to view charts? Idon'thinkso...

About the foot. I've had flare ups of plantar fasciitis from time to time (feet and legs were caught under an overturned truck at a young and tender age), and the worst of the hooves decided that this was THE most opportune time to "kick up it's heels" as it were.

I didn't say much about it until realizing that it kept me from spinning up any clunky beginner's yarns which other spinners might wish to ROTFLOL over. A good laugh can save a day! =o)

Foot healing and the socks are coming along

I'm about ready to start some spinning, if my foot keeps healing. This has been such a string of delays that I'm thinking of naming the wheel not Lilly, but Murphy!

I really can't complain much about my foot. DH's Mama fell and dislocated her shoulder and chipped a little bone in it. Poor little gal. She always picks herself up and goes at life again, though! You gotta love someone with so much grit!

Also, the aran ribbing came out of the basket. I've knit about a quarter of the way on the first row before giving up and trying to read the pattern, printed in some strange foreign language. It's actually English but it's Greek to me. Back at it tomorrow, which is another day, thanks to God.