pepperknit

3 skeins of yarn: 2 brown, 1 blue. A sock pattern that is close to, but not quite, 2:1, is a good idea, but you should realize that toes and heels actually constitute a decent amount of yarn. Which means you will run out of the “1″ before you’re through with the “2.” These socks would have been done a bit sooner, but I had to take out the first one to redo. But I’m thrilled with the ultimate result, so it was all worth it.

Do you see what I did? My little tweak that fixed not only the yarn consumption but created a small optical illusion so that the stripes appear to be essentially the same height? (It’s not exact, I know, but it’s pretty good in my opinion.) My 2:1 “pattern” was to knit 6 rows of brown to 2 rows of blue, until I got to the calf muscle, at which I not only increased stitches but started working 8 rows of brown to 2 rows of blue. I had 31 inches of blue left in the end. Thirty-one!

Stripey Socks
Yarn: Koigu KPM (or however many Ps should be in there)
Needles: US 1 Knitpicks
Method: Short-row toe, short-row heel, toe-up, magic loop
Calf shaping: On the 6th brown band from the heel I increased 6 stitches (2 stitches a row for 3 alternating rows). On the 14th brown band from the heel I increased another 6 stitches, same deal, only I knit that band for 7 rows. All following brown bands were 8 rows high.
Carrying colors: I didn’t bother with any kind of “jogless” trickiness with the color–who cares? I don’t mind that there’s an apparent spot where the rows ended. I just carried the blue up along the inside, putting a tiny bit of slack in so that it wouldn’t pull.
Started: I have no idea. I think I probably officially started them, um, back in April? I went though some nonknitting time in there.
Finished: Wednesday, July 25 (Mom’s bday!)
Nitpicky notes: I really wanted the heel to coincide with a blue stripe, and I’m pretty lucky that the foot length worked out for me to do that! I don’t know how I would have engineered it otherwise.

Not much else to say. Luf!

Many thanks to Brenda for being the first to let me know of my idiotic mistake, in which I completely shut my own blog down due to financial issues. That is, I forgot to update my credit card info with the various agencies that I needed to pay upon the anniversary of purchasing the domain name and server space. She instant messaged me with a “what happened?” and I was like “huh? . . . oh, SHIT!” [smacks head]

So I quickly paid up, and fretted about the potential loss of everything, but it seems we are unharmed. All that time away gave me some time for this, though . . .

Not a final final swatch, but definitely an informative tool for slight tweaks from here.

It’s coloury* this week. First, we rediscover our colored pencils (to chart for Hermione’s Sweater).

Then we go to School Products to shop for yarn for the sweater.

Sweater update? I’ve settled on a needle size and have started swatching the colorwork. It’s slow progress, but it’s fun!

* I’m neither British, Canadian, nor putting on airs. I just think that colory does not adquately describe a coloury experience.

Yes. I was up way too late last night obsessing over that yoked pullover of Hermione’s. I spent a lot of time looking at some of the great links people provided and researching yarn, again beginning with a suggestion from the comments. After dinner tonight, I broke out the colored pencils.

And I started charting the colorwork. I’ve since moved to Excel, where I can copy, paste, and see the repeat quickly. Only once I swatch will I really get a feel for how this will look. And I can’t swatch until I get some yarn, right?

My current choice for yarn is Karabella Aurora 4–from the name alone it’s appropriately Harry Potterish. I will try to find the time to get over to School Products (home of Karabella) this week to look at the yarn and think about colors (do I go with Hermione’s brown and tan? Or brown and something else? The white is most definitely my favorite part, so that stays). I expect to be knee-deep in this one by the weekend, if possible!

I plan to provide this pattern when it’s ready, if it works. (Likely for a small fee.)

It’s the birth of the Auror Pullover.

So, have you seen the latest Harry Potter? I promise, no spoilers here, just some knitting talk. I saw it this evening, and I am now inspired to knit my own version of Hermione’s Icelandic sweater. I’d seen this style of sweater before, of course, but something about the white background made me look at this kind of sweater in a new way. The gauge is small, and I’m already thinking about looking for yarn. I feel certain it’d be wrong to save the photos I’ve found online and post them here, so instead I’ll make you click. So far, the only images of the sweater I can find show it under a jacket, but we’ve got the long shot (featuring Ron and Harry), where the little detail along the bottom edge is visible, and a close-up where the neck pattern is more clear. I love it! I’m getting out the graph paper immediately!

Other knitting delectables came to light–Umbridge’s costuming is perfect, with lots of knitted gear, including a lacy cardigan; even her pink-on-pink knit herringbone dress with matching coat had me thinking about knitting! Ginny wears a totally cool crocheted vest, and Luna Lovegood has a cute crocheted cardigan. Not to mention, of course, Weasley sweaters and scarves.

As for the movie, it was fine. They had to condense a lot of book to make even a long movie, and I understand that things had to be tweaked, but I felt they skipped some important character development. The score is ludicrous, and kept us laughing the entire time. So in that way, totally enjoyable!

Edited to add: A glaring omission that only just occurred to me–they dropped Hermione knitting hats and socks for house elves!

Central Park.

Look, I didn’t completely forget. I bought this yarn with Pam back in April, and I think not too long after that I cast on for these. I truly do not remember, and for some reason I didn’t blog about it or make any notes whatsoever. I’m going to have to count the stitches around the toe to figure out what the heck I did when I go to make the second sock!

I had planned to knit until the brown ran out–I have two skeins of brown and one of blue, so I worked up a pattern that was essentially 2:1 brown to blue. I want very badly to use up all the yarn, but the socks are nearly TOO tall at this point! They’re almost embarrassing to pull out of my bag on the bus. It’s time to do a cuff and call the first one done.

Guess what I discovered? My blogiversary was, um, back in May. May 30. I had it in my head that the anniversary was in July! The purchase of pepperknit.com does date to July, but I didn’t even debut the new blog until August. So . . . no excuses, I missed my blogiversary, plain and simple. It’s now been two-plus years. In some ways it doesn’t seem like that long, and yet it feels as if I’ve been at it forever–can’t imagine my life without it.

Knitting, however. . . . I have not been knitting. Is it because it’s summer? Or something else? I don’t know, but though I tote unfinished socks around in my bag every day, I don’t add to the number of stitches. I’ve been busy, and that definitely gets in the way, and I’ve been Flickring, which is a time-suck beyond all others. Oh, and I’ve been fantasizing about these . . .

But I have no timeframe for unbundling these little lovelies. I need an FO, though, and fast! Will revisit some single socks and see what I can pull together. It’d be a pickmeup for me, and it would actually give me something to talk to you guys about!