Seeing the Code: Another Crazed Cookie Fan

So crazed was I about attending sock classes and a book signing with Cookie A., that I paid no heed to ensuring my youngest was a part of my fan pic. Sorry Colby.

The venue, Renaissance Yarns at Kent Station was awesome, loved sitting next to my fellow Ravelers Liz and Brian, and Cookie's teaching was just terrific. The boys and I were there for both the morning and afternoon classes that were offerred: "Socks Toe-Up" and "Traveling Stitches."



The Toe-Up technique was a new one for me. Besides the added benefit of measuring as you go, toe-up socks fit high arches better because of the gusset construction. Of course, being a toe-up newbie and a complete spaz on double points, I was only able to actually complete the toe cast-on, ribbed cuff, and kitchener cast-off during class.


The hand-outs Cookie created for both classes are very detailed and will be a valuable resource that I'll return to often.

Here's my traveling stitches swatch. There was a more complicated lace swatch for us to do as well, but again I was doing well just to have completed the simpler one.



In the second class, Cookie focused on really de-mystifying her design process by explaining how to place different types of increases and decreases within a stitch pattern in order to turn vertical motifs into ones that will move in any direction you desire. Even though I have little aspiration for designing my own patterns, it just helps to have a clearer picture of the building blocks of knit design. A far cry from my humble swatch, here's Cookie A.'s Ornette design:



I used to prefer written instrucions for knit patterns but converted to chart reading after knitting my (single) lace glove. I must admit before my conversion, I resisted charts and thought of them as quite foreign; a bewildering collection of dots and dashes like this one from a Japanese knitting book:


To borrow a phrase from The Matrix, "I'm seeing the code now." Mere ciphers and cryptograhps have been transformed before my very eyes into Neo and Morpheus doing all sorts of crazy martial arts stuff. And since the class with Cookie, I can now look at a pattern chart and see motifs that travel! He-he ;)



I just have to add how terrific the boys were, too. Mike and Morgan are traveling with her volleyball team so the boys had literally no choice but to attend the workshop with me. They sat for six plus hours in the store while I knitted and they didn't make a peep! They busied themselves with Ipods, books, the sports page, and handheld games. Of course I had bribed them earlier by purchasing new games for their Gameboys that they hadn't been allowed to play until the day of my class. The bribery continued with Johnny Rockets for lunch during the break and Fondi pizza for dinner with Coldstone ice cream after the workshop was over. But still, they were champs and I'm grateful to have been able to do both classes.



Hope you had a great weekend too and are enjoying your Summer!

Knit happens

I seem to suffer from my own version of Second Sock Syndrome. To better explain, I give you Exhibit A:




No, it's not an optical illusion. My first sock is quite a bit larger than the second. See how the color pools differently on the first?
When I brought them to show at knit group this morning, more than one person had the same query, "Oh, what happened?" My answer: "Knit happened." Apparently I'm in the habit of forgetting that I knit tighter and tighter as I go along. In fact, all of the three times I've ever knitted a pair of socks... one has been consistently smaller than the other. But it's been a long time since I've knitted my last pair of socks. So I forgot about my Second Sock Syndrome.

My friend Carol, the first recipient of my sock knitting, graciously assured me that her socks fit perfectly as she conveniently claimed to have one foot larger than the other. Hmmm.... I think I should have already known this fact about my friend of over a decade--- but I love her for making the allowance.

The hubby, who'd already seen me start over several times on this recent pair, tactfully suggested I move on. I tend to agree. My friends in knit group thought it would be a good idea to knit one more pair in the same yarn, one larger sock and one smaller sock instead of re-doing. Then I'll have two size-matched pairs. I think that will be a great solution!


Here are a couple pics Morgan took last weekend while we were waiting to be seated for Nathan's hip-hop dance recital at a local junior high school. Yep. I'm working on that second sock--- I thought I was just politely minding my own business but it happened that Saturday was actually World Wide Knit In Public Day. I wasn't even aware of WWKIP until later when I visited Susan's and Michele's blogs. I was just doing my usual thing and Morgan snapped away on her new camera because she thought I'd like some pics for my blog.
Ahh, those poor children of mine. They've been trained so well--- ;) And doesn't Colby look absolutely thrilled to be watching me knit? Hee! I don't think so. (P.S. That's Mike standing behind Colbs--- I think this is the first time his pic has been on the blog. Welcome to blogosphere, Honey!)


This reminds me of another time I was KIP (knitting in public). I was very excited to see The Holiday with a my friend Elisabeth and her daughter Emilie when the movie first came out a couple of years ago. In the years spanning our friendship, Elisabeth's daughter has gone from being our kids' babysitter as a highschooler to graduating from college and becoming a young professional in high-tech. Even with our age difference, Emilie had always been interested in my opinions on Girl Stuff: fashion, decorating, entertaining, crafting. We'd crafted and lunched together on several occasions and I was always so validated and gratified by having her teenaged stamp of approval. And later, her young adult approval continued to make me feel very cool, like a cool mom, even.
Long story short: our movie started, I pulled out a blanket that I'd been working on for some time, (it was probably not the most portable project I could have chosen to bring) Emilie caught sight of me and my mammoth white fuzzy throw and asked incredulously, "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to finish knitting this, Silly."
That was it: The moment I went from 'cool adult' to completely and utterly uncool 'older-type-person.' Lesson learned. Crafting is one thing--- but CIP is another thing entirely. Apparently.

Fortunately, Emilie and I are still friends. And I'm very glad of this. My coolness just wasn't meant to last, and I'm okay with it.

Because sometimes, knit like that just happens. ;)

Fair Isle, Fair Weekend

I'm still beaming from the all the fun had, friends made, learning begotten and fabulous time we all shared at the Madrona Fair Isle Workshop last weekend. Those lovely sweaters are the mindspring and handiwork of our awesome instructor, Janine Bajus.

This is the designer and teacher whose fearless approach inspired our class to form a new Rav group called, what else? Fearless Fair Islers :)


Just a portion of Janine's shetland stash:


Day 1: We learned about color inspiration and how to combine color effectively. (My speed swatch.)


Day 2: Charting motifs in combination with backround and foreground color.


Day 3: Janine covered sweater design and construction. (I was so in awe of the talent of my classmates. Some of our completed motif swatches--- mine's the wonky bird one.)


All that, and food, glorious food, three banquets a day! Organic and mostly vegetarian ... 'twas delicious.




Guest quarters:


"Diva" di Madrona:


Suzanne's spinning and weaving supplies and artifacts made for inspiring ambience:


A loom with a view:


More handspun eye candy:


And all sorts of fiber-love in between: Our classmate Susan sharing one of her lace FO's.


Some photo booth mug shots with Nancy and Marie, my spinning friends:

Shout out to my girl Steph from Hermosa, and Janine:

With Steph and our hostess Suzanne:


Our experienced co-hostess knew to park herself by the front door on the last day *sniff* of the workshop to bid us adieu.


Marie set up her tripod for a final group photo before our departure: (Diva, front and center)


My 'Little Birds' swatch marks the end of an incredibly rewarding weekend and the beginning of new possiblities... now if only the swatch could magically turn itself into a sweater. ;)

Monkey in the Middle

Before I tell you about the Monkey, I want to thank my friend Samantha for giving me my first modeling gig last Friday. Just so you know, it involved my being draped across the hood of a sports car--- but I assure you, its' an artful image. Just click here to see for yourself!

Well? What do you think of that gorgeous design? Is there a future for me in 'modeling'? I've heard that Giselle Bundchen demands to be paid for her work in Euros instead of US dollars. Not me. I'd work for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Never mind, though. You're probably just relieved to have found a beautiful sock at the end of that out-click!

Now that Zoom Zoom is published, Sam's socks are the next in my queue. I've even picked up a new skein of hand-dyed for the project... Pagewood Farm Merino Cashmere in Fruit Freeze:


I would knit them right now, if I weren't currently in the middle of: killing the clover in the front and back lawns, re-organizing my yarn stash, Spring cleaning that didn't get done in the Spring, the kids' end-of-school activities as well as my first Monkey sock by Cookie A. (Yarn is Blue Moon Lightweight Socks that Rock in colorway Tricoter, dyed for the 2009 Shop Hop.)

I've been wanting to get into sock knitting for some time now. I've knitted a couple of plain pairs in the past, but nothing with any texture. I chose the Monkey because many of the Ravelers I follow have commented on having a lot of success with them. The pattern is inspired by falling leaves and the angles of tree branches, and named Monkey because once conceptualized, the original socks took weeks of trial and error to be perfected and knitted. When they were completed, the designer claims that the proverbial Monkey finally got off her back! I'm starting to sense multiple monkeys riding my back unless I'm able to complete more socks. The crazy thing is, I don't normally wear socks!--- (except under boots in the winter... I think the 'no-sock thing' is a relic from my So Cal upbringing.) But I am definitely beginning to understand the allure of sock-knitting.


One skein of yarn can bring so much gratification with a relatively small investment of time and resources. And not being particularly math-minded myself, I must say I marvel at designers like Samantha and Cookie who are able to manipulate the mathematics of a sock pattern until just the right texture and pattern emerges. For the sock knitter, it's an almost magical experience when the various parts of a sock are formed. I think I'm under some sort of sock spell, right now. I've gone and signed up for two sock classes at Renaissance Yarns in Kent: Toe-Up and Traveling Stitches, to be taught by Cookie A. at at the end of the month. I wasn't able to get into any of the classes being offered at the "mother of all sock events," Sock Summit 2009 in Portland because I neglected to pounce when registration opened *sniff* so I was much consoled to have secured a spot at the other venue.

Actually, my friend Steph at Sunset Cat has been very influential in revving up my interest for the knitting-class scene. We've gotten to know each other through Raveling and blogging and she recently clued me in on the Madrona Fiber Arts Fair Isle Workshop that's taking place near Seattle this weekend. We're both signed up for the workshop--- she's flying in from Hermosa Beach, California to attend, and we're actually going to be hanging out in the real world this weekend! (The class was my Mother's Day gift from Mike and the kids.) As participants, we'll have 3 days of instruction dedicated to designing and knitting a custom Fair Isle sweater. I think it's going to be a challenging class given my relative inexperience. But I'm definitely looking forward to the camaraderie and uninterrupted fiber time. Steph and I are hoping to squeeze in a couple of off-site activities, too!

Now I'd better put myself back in the middle of a few things that need to be done before the weekend's yarn adventures begin. ;)

Zoom!