anoisette

this is one 25g ball of the make make yarn knitted up on japanese size 7 bamboo circular needles in a k3p1 rib. i’m making a toque for winter (as far away as it seems!) and i’m very happy with it so far. i had a few false starts, i wanted to knit it top down but after a few attempts that i kept frogging, i gave up and started bottom up. the yarn has a very subtle striping thing going on, with slightly different shades of grey. i like it.

picked up this japanese yarn for my next project. this yarn comes in a spectrum of delicious colors, but i ended up choosing the boring (but versatile) grey/black. i want to make a hat out of it that i can wear anytime. i love this yarn so much i might just buy some colorful stuff to make something else with once the hat is done… but what to make make?

i finished my socks a couple of nights ago but only just now had a chance to take a photo of them. so here they are in cloned glory! these were done toe up with a short row heel and i just kept on knitting until the ball of yarn ran out. it’s great not to have any yarn leftover, i think that’s a great advantage to the toe up method. that an not having to graft the toe shut.

somehow reading the knitting meme on tricotine made me start thinking about how many continents i have knit on. so far, it’s 4. north america, europe, asia, and oceania. now too bad i never thought to get any photographic evidence. although i suppose it’s never too late to start. maybe it could be kind of a fun project to try and knit in as many countries as possible and get pictures of yourself doing that. i guess kind of similar to yarn harlot’s sock photos.

things have been quiet here because i only just got back from australia and haven’t quite had a chance to get my life reorganized. my trip gave me the opportunity to finish my sock! i do however still have to bind it off. i did a loose bind off as directed in the knitty universal sock pattern, but unfortunately i still couldn’t get it over my heel. i do recall reading somewhere that there is another way to bind off that maintains the elasticity, so i’m going to have to try and find some instructions somewhere and do that when i get the chance.

i had a great time in australia! i’m working on sorting out all the pictures i took. and will probably post some eventually.

ok notice how my sock has backtracked? this is because foolish me didn’t try it on after turning the heel (see i didn’t realize that with this gauge and yarn it’s much shorter to do a short row heel than a heel flap) and when i finally did, it was too short! that and i foolishly started ribbing right after turning the heel which made my rib start right from the heel instead of closer to the ankle. so i frogged it all the way back down to right before the heel and started over. i got to practice doing the short row heel again, which i guess isn’t such a bad thing. live and learn.

so knitting is really great to do while watching tv or something like that, but here in japan i don’t have a tv, and even if i did it would all be in japanese so i wouldn’t understand much. most of the time i just knit on the subway, but occasionally i like to knit in the evening and then it’s nice to have something else going on while i knit. so tv is out. occasionally i’ll watch a movie, but i don’t always want to knit for that long. anyway, i think i’ve finally found a solution: podcasts. a few days ago i posted about a podcast about kiva.org that i listened to. last night i listened to an episode of escape from cubicle nation interviewing the author of the personal finance blog iwillteachyoutoberich.com. makes me feel like i am being double productive, knitting socks and learning about entrepreneurship!

and so i found some time to turn the heel using a short row technique, i followed the instructions from the misocrafty short row heel tutorial. once i wrapped my head around the wraps and double wraps it went pretty quick, although i’m not entirely sure i really got it since the join part doesn’t quite look the same on both sides. oh well, it works though. now i am just going to keep knitting the top until i run out of yarn, following a k2 p1 rib pattern. so far i do prefer this toe up method of making socks.

the second socks has been sitting almost finished for a couple of days now. i just haven’t had a chance to sit down and graft the toe. in fact, i have been putting it off since my last attempt on the first sock didn’t come out properly after a couple of tries. i just had to go with it after try number two because the yarn had already been cut and it was getting really finicky to fix. hopefully i’ll have some time soon to finish it (although the next few days are busy ones, i’m leaving for australia in a week! aaahhhh! so much to do!).

in the meantime i’ve started a new sock, this time toe up. again, i’m at an impasse because i have to work on turning the heel and i want to try to do a short row heel. this again means setting some time aside to sit down and follow instructions. the problem is the stockinette foot and leg parts just go by way too quickly doing it on the subway every day, but then i don’t have time to do the trickier parts so i’m left without any knitting for my subway commute. yesterday i was just finishing up the foot part of these socks and a little old lady started talking to me about it. except i have no idea what she was asking me coz my japanese just isn’t that good.

finished the first sock! my first sock ever! am almost done decreasing the gusset on the second one so it should be done in the next couple of days.

the weather here is beautiful. i think spring has properly arrived. i’ve got the balcony door open and the sound of birds chirping is wandering in with a nice little breeze of fresh air and the occasional trickle of kid’s voices playing.