Gitte's Socks

Allow me to introduce another pattern in the BBF line: Gitte's Socks.



They are knit in fingering weight yarn and feature a nice eyelet check pattern-- pretty but not excessively complicated. The sample socks are knit in BBF Bamboo Lite Sock (a base on backorder right now) but any fingering weight yarn in a solid or semi-solid would work, including Superwash Merino Classic, CashSock or Tight Twist Sock (which will be my next update).



One amusing anecdote: I did a photo shoot with Bridget as my foot model in Rittenhouse Square. (The photos I took weren't usable but this was entirely due to my skills as a photographer, rather than the beauty of Bridget's feet. The lovely photos you see here were taken by the uber-talented Laura Grutzeck.) We were snapping photos and Bridget was striking poses, and a woman walked by with her boyfriend and Bridget heard her ask, "Are they anybody?" We of course cackled at that. But we didn't pay her too much mind, because us Somebodies try to ignore the Little People as much as possible.



You can find Gitte's Socks on Ravelry here or Patternfish here. I'll be adding some hard copies to the BBF store soon, too.

A real live FO

I can finally show you a project I worked on this past spring. As part of Ted's Fiber to Scarf Exchange, I received a mass of Louet Northern Lights top in the mail from a mystery sender. Made of 100% wool and space-dyed, the colorway was called "Marmalade": golden yellow, dusky orange and sage. Part of the fun was not knowing who sent me the fiber and being given purposely vague instructions (unisex scarf).

You have probably heard me say that I'm still a fairly new spinner and when I spin, I need to let the yarn take me where it wants to go (generally it wants to go in the thicker direction) rather than to decide "I'm going to spin a four-ply DK and knit X pattern with it" ahead of time. I was delighted to find that his wool spun very easily. The spinning was fast and enjoyable, and made me feel like a much more experienced spinner than I am, with fairly consistent and smooth singles.

Here's a photo of the singles on the bobbin:



and here is what it looked like after being plied:

and after setting the twist:



and after putting it into a ball:


I ended up with a yarn around chunky weight without major variations between thick and thin. I chose the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern by Hello Yarn, making one modification: I omitted one of the cables, so that my finished scarf had two instead of three. I needed to do that given that my handspun was thicker than the worsted weight yarn called for by the pattern.

I really enjoyed this pattern. It was fun and easy to memorize but gave a very professional looking result:


It was especially satisfying for me to do the whole thing, beginning to end, from spinning to selecting a pattern, to knitting the scarf, and to be pleased with the way the yarn came out and the way the yarn looked knit into the pattern.

I was highly amused to see that the recipient of my scarf was (drumroll, please) Ted himself. I suspect he assigned me to himself in case I blew the deadline. Which I did, but mostly because I couldn't find my blocking wires and didn't want to send the finished scarf unblocked. I hope he will forgive my tardiness. It took me a little while to get over the notion of sending my beginner's stuff to someone who spins as exquisitely as Ted, but since I consider him a friend and an absolutely wonderful person, I gave up obsessing over it.

You can see some of the other finished scarves (including the gorgeous one I got from Katherine) at Ted's summary page here. (He has a few more to add, I think, in addition to mine, but I know he's been on vacation and had some computer mishaps so check back in a little while to see the rest.)

All in all, I heartily enjoyed participating in this project and would gladly do so again. I felt a great sense of satisfaction at having done a project from beginning to end and also felt that it was a good way to appreciate how much my spinning has improved over time. A huge thank-you to Ted for doing all the thankless work of collecting roving, mailing it out and keeping us all on track.

Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas...

I'm almost done with my next book review (it's a twofer) and will try to get it up tomorrow. In the meantime, feast your eyes on some selections from tomorrow's Etsy shop update:


This is a new-to-the-Etsy shop yarn, Superwash DK, which is the same yarn I used to make Courtney's baby jacket:


It's the same base as my Superwash Sock: 100% merino, nice twist, great stitch definition, and having finished a little sweater in it, I can tell you it's a pleasure to knit with.

I've also been working on a bamboo blend for the Etsy shop. This is NOT the same yarn that the BBF Sock Club just got: it's a different blend from a different vendor. It really does look and feel quite different, and I suspect it will knit to a slightly heavier gauge (i.e. 7 to an inch instead of 7.5 to 8). It's fifty percent merino and fifty percent bamboo. I've only got a few skeins ready for tomorrow




but I'm hoping to have more in next week's update. Nice sheen from the bamboo! Superwash, too. (The one up top is shades of brown, more complex than it looks in the photo.)

While I'm catching up, I've got my December Book Report for my bibliophiles:

1. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein. Imagine you are an adoptee in your mid-thirties. Imagine you contact the agency that handled your adoption to get medical information about your birth parents. Imagine that a few days later, you get a call from the agency telling you that you have an identical twin who was adopted by another family in another part of the country. This is a memoir written by a pair of twins to whom this actually happened. It's a fascinating story, quick to read, in memoir form; it's also infuriating to read how blithely the adoption agency made human guinea pigs of these infants, separating more than one pair of identical twins in order to do a nature vs. nurture study.
   
2. Never Enough by Joe McGinniss. McGinniss is best known for Fatal Vision, his somewhat controversial book about a former Green Beret and medical doctor who was convicted of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters. The controversy surrounded both the defendant's guilt based on mainly circumstantial evidence, and McGinniss's role in befriending the defendant only to write a book concluding that the defendant was guilty of murder. McGinniss's latest book concerns the murder of a Hong Kong investment banker by his wife. I was fascinated by the description of this couple's world, living as wealthy young expats in Hong Kong, but since there was never any serious doubt as to who did it, the case was less compelling than those covered in some of McGinniss's earlier books. (Part of what was so gripping about earlier books was the dawning discovery by one family member that another family member may have committed murder in light of less-than-conclusive evidence about what actually happened.) While reading the book, I found out that I went to college with the murder victim; I don't recall meeting him, although I think he may have dated someone on my freshman floor. Weird and sad.

I started a couple other books and ended up abandoning them; I think the hubbub of the holidays made it harder to get into books for me.

Happy birthday, Bun!

Hard to believe, but another year has flown by and Charcoal turned two on Saturday. (He's a Libra, in case you were wondering.*) What does the spoiled bun-bun get for his birthday?



A hula girl (left) and beach basket (right), made in bunny-friendly, edible, chewable materials, from the fine folks at Bunny Bytes (where the urban rabbit shops). Charcoal was a gentleman, though: he bought the hula girl dinner before ripping her skirt off.

Of course, there was cake (or at least cupcakes):



In knitting news, I finished the Kaffe socks for N.,


and started the next pair, for G. It's "Chewy Spaghetti" sock yarn in the colorway Sporty. G. chose it because pink is her first favorite color and blue is her second favorite color.



With Stitches and Rhinebeck coming up, I'll need lots of mindless sockknitting to carry along.

Dyeing News

I've been busily dyeing, and I'll have a Black Bunny Fibers update on Wednesday, around noon-ish. In addition to sock and laceweight yarns, I've got three batches of pure silk DK (which I did once before) and a couple of skeins of worsted-weight Columbia yarn from a Michigan farm (it's nice and soft).

I've been trying out some new yarns, including some 50% tencel/50% merino wool sock yarn. I was pleased with the way the dye took so I'm hoping to have some skeins of the merino/tencel in the update after this next one. (Believe it or not, I'm still waiting for a backorder of the half wool, half silk that Liz so charmingly used for her Clapotis,** I'm waiting on a delivery of roving, I'm waiting on a backorder of superwash merino, AND I'm waiting on a backorder of merino/silk. Feh.)



*According to a pet astrology website found on the prestigious Internet, "Libra pets are easy-going and like lots of attention. These pets divide their attention equally among all members of the family. They make wonderful companions and hate to be left alone. These pets love good food and soft music. They can be stubborn at times, and may disappear to sulk."

**I got together for a quick cup of tea and some knitting with Liz last week. You should see her phat ride...

Off to the baby shower

but at least the baby sweater is finished.



Louisa Harding's Geordie Baby Jacket, knit in Plymouth Encore (purchased at Rosie's Yarn Cellar).

My mother told me an unbelievable story -- yet it did, indeed, happen, for my mom is simply not the type of person to make this kind of thing up -- about attending a baby shower in which one of the party games consisted of being given a disposable diaper, lemonade and chocolate candy. A prize was awarded to the guest who created the ickiest-looking faux doody diaper.

Rest assured that I will give you full details of any such hijinx upon my return.

I must be feeling a little better

because look at my socks! I finished the second one last night when I should have been knitting part of a sweater for the book. (You might remember that some astute commenter saw my photo of the first sock and asked where its mate was...)

Pattern: none; my usual cuff-down wing-it socks.
Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers Superwash Merino Sock Yarn
Needles: Size US2/2.75mm

Maryland Sheep & Wool

Maryland is only six days away. I'm planning on looking mainly for undyed yarns that I can then dye and put in the Etsy shop. Although the fun thing about Maryland is that you never know what you're going to stumble across. I do plan to avoid all mass-frenzy scenes (e.g., the Koigu booth and the Socks That Rock booth). Does anyone know if there's going to be a blogger meet-up like there was last year?

Preview

I'll be updating the Etsy shop tomorrow sometime in the morning (after 10 am). Here's a sneak preview of some of the wool/nylon skeins I've got


and here's a preview of some of the merino/silk skeins:



I'm hoping to get another book review in before the weekend, but we'll see.