lolajl: May 2005 Archives

Yesterday Bruce and I went with our friends Greg and Lynn to this brewery in Ellicott City, named “Ellicott Mills Brewing Company”. Wow . . . the food there is really delicious, and service was very prompt for a busy Saturday evening on a holiday weekend. You should try the Key Lime Pie - it is just out of the world. I couldn't finish it all, so I pushed it aside. Greg eagerly asked if he could have it, and I consented. We couldn't figure out what the crust was made of - I said it seemed to be made out of graham crackers but he didn't think so.

But . . . that's not the treasure I'm talking about. While driving into this fascinating city which was established in 1772 and still has all those old buildings, I spotted a shop with the sign “Celtic Knot Yarn Shop”. I was just so excited to see that. I knew we wouldn't be able to visit it as it was after hours when we went into the city. After dinner we took a walk down to the Patapsco River, and I kept my eye out for the yarn shop but didn't see it until we had crossed over to the other side. This morning while browsing the website, I discovered that the yarn shop is on the 2nd floor . . . no wonder why I didn't see any knitting-related items.

I looked for pictures of the old part to put in here, but I couldn't find any on the web. I do plan to come back with Greg and our friends sometime this summer to do more exploring. Be aware, though, that should you decide to visit this city, parking is at a premium and you'd do best to park in the public parking lot (I don't know how much it costs there).

MeMoiJa has a really neat trick to use the 3 needle bindoff for the sock heel, instead of kitchener stitch (which drives me slightly up the wall). Her examples uses dpn needles, which can be really tricky to manipulate. I tried adapting this technique with the 2 circs that I use and ended up having the stitches slip off and unraveling a bit.

So, I tried again . . . this time, knowing that the cables are flexible, I folded these in half, slipped my hand all the way into the tube, hooked my finger around the “U” part, and gingerly turned the sock inside out. Success!!! Then, I carefully slid the needle tips out of the sock, one at a time, and got a couple of stitches bound off. So far, it's working like a charm.

Wish I had my camera here at work. So now I need to get going on the orange sock heel so I can show y'all how I did this maneuver.

Update

Last night I had Bruce take pictures of me binding off these stitches.

First, you hold both needles together one hand so that these form a “U” loop.

Then you put your other hand into the open end of the sock, making sure to poke your first finger out of the heel end opening.

And then, for better control, it helps to pinch the sides using your thumb and second finger. Once you've got ahold of the needles, you can now go to the open end and pull it inside out.

Now both needle ends are inside the socks and you'll need to work these out. Simply grab one of the needle and and with your other hand, reach into the heel end and reach for the cable portion, and pull it out.

Repeat until all ends are out. . .

Then, gently pull the needles until the stitches are on the metal ends.

Proceed to do the 3 needle bind off. Just grab one of the needle ends - doesn't matter which one and use that to work both stitches.

You'll see that I've got two stitches worked already . . .

And then started binding these off.

Repeat until all the stitches are bound off, as you can see in the next picture . . .

You'll need to keep an eye on the tension of the stitches bound off - these are a bit too tight for my taste.

Here's how it looks now. Yes, there's a slight bump inside but this shouldn't be too noticeable since this yarn is fingering weight. I suppose it would be more noticeable if the yarn used was worsted weight.

And here's how it looks on my foot. Now I gotta knit it's twin . . .

I'm really looking forward to the weekend . . . I'm planning to go into work early so I can get outta there and hopefully beat all those folks inching along on Rt. 50 (which is the Highway to the Beach come Memorial Day Weekend).

Saturday B and I are going to be spending the day with our friend Greg - we are going to this brewery in Ellicott City and then to see Star Wars. I've heard that some people hate it, and other think it is wonderful. I'm of two minds - I think the philosophy exposed in the movie is a bit screwed up (Orson Scott Card has an interesting essay about this on beliefnet.com, plus Ted Mattingly has a pretty good editorial about this at his blog, Get Religion), but the special effects will still be enjoyable.

I just got two sets of Addi Natura bamboo circs, so I'm going to be casting on for yet another pair of socks (yes, still not finished with others) so I can take it with me for the day and to the theater. And I'm working on a test pair of booties using a pattern that is referred to at String or Nothing that will be for Baby Hall. I'm using Dale Baby Ull - this is truly lovely yarn but splits a bit. I'm using hunter green, which is a great color. Why green? Because Sis doesn't want “gender” colors and the paternal side is strongly Irish.

In an effort to try to keep this blog fresh, I'm going to be embarking on the first of many scrolls through the blogroll. Safari has a neat feature, tabs within the window, so this morning I shut down and then restarted Safari so that Saft would recall the URLs from the previous session. Here's what I discovered this morning, while reading through the blogs on the Metro going to work ...

Bay Colony Farm is thinking about getting fleeces at the local college. Hopefully the fleece will be nice without so much VM. I have had my share of fleece with lots of VM, and believe me, it's no fun to try to pick these out. And you still don't manage to get it all out.

Speaking of socks, cindyknits says that knitting the second sock is a chore, which I wholeheartedly agree. I've got three socks for which the companion socks need to be knit. And I need to get going on my knitting for Baby Hall ... Tipper is spinning up some really lovely yarn for socks. I like the colors but I don't really have any yarn with this particular color shade. I think I still have superwash wool somewhere, but I don't think I labeled it. I think I know which bag it is ... hopefully I get it correct.

At smatterings' abode, the orchids are blooming, and are these beautiful! My mother loves and grows orchids. She gave me a tip - don't put blooming orchids outside because insects will eat the blossoms. I don't know which insects, but I'm going to listen to her advice. One of my orchids is starting to bloom - small blossoms that smell of cinnamon. I can't wait for it to fully bloom. I'm sorry about her not being able to get the vegetable garden prepared in a timely manner and wish her the best of luck in getting those 57 day varieties. I do need to get my vegetable garden prepared - perhaps this weekend? Right now it's covered with grass cuttings in an effort to kill off the weeds. Need to remember to take a picture of it . . .

Catherine D. was able to sell the Spring 1999 issue of Knitter for a price higher than books from She Who Must Not Be Named??? Must remember to take a look at the issue when I get home.

Well, now I've got to close this out and upload the post while I still have access to the unprotected wireless service as I wait for this likely-to-be false alarm to end at my office building as I type this, 8:30am. And I had only just gotten comfy in my office for the past 10 minutes. What a way to start the week.

Well, I was going to post my observations about Maryland Sheep and Wool, but there's so many other blogs out there that have done a better job of describing this show. And besides which, I didn't do a major shopping expedition (well, I did bring home a few items) and was just there to enjoy the day with my husband and our friends and their children, who went to the festival for the first time. I will venture to say, though, that I'm simply astounded at how large this has grown. I started going there about 10 years ago or so and it definitely was more pleasant and comfortable back then, intimate, even.

I think the people running this festival are going to have to do some serious thinking about how this show is run, so that it doesn't get so out of control and drive people away. They really need to start thinking about selling the festival items online. Yes, the catalog mentioned this, but when I went to the website, I was disappointed to find that the online store didn't exist. I think this would have helped, in a small way, to alleviate the sale process where one is faced with long lines and hour-long waits all day long.

Joy Fender, who is a photographer, went to the festival for the first time and took some wonderful pictures.

Here's what it looked like at about 2pm yesterday, after the sheep dog trial:

There's absolutely no way we were going to join them . . . we had to wait for about 5 minutes or so before we could see a bit of a clear path to navigate through.

Still too tired to say more about my day at the fair right now . . .

And I'm tired. Did some shopping and still managed to have cash left. More later when I've decompressed.

I'm off to the MD$WF today with hubby and our friends Colette and Joel, and there two little tykes. For many of us this marks the start of the fiber season. Reading my blogroll, it seems that a good number of bloggers are going to the festival, and some are going to be selling their products.

I was struck by smatterings' yarn. The colors seem beautiful, and I'm sure these look even more beautiful in the sunlight. This would be perfect for a pair of socks.

Martaschmarta is really lucky to have a room dedicated to fibers . . . someday I'll have a room like that. Well, gotta run - lots of stuff to do before I get on the road. See y'all later!

It's that time of the year . . . anticipation of Pascha, which we Orthodox Christians celebrated this past weekend, which means that MDSWF is just around the corner (hmm . . . I notice that Pascha and MDSWF are on the same weekend next year . . . hmm . . . what to do? I'll have it figured out by then, I hope).

This is what I love about spring because there's so many mileposts. Lent . . . the blooming trees and flowers . . . Pascha . . . seeing the new lambs at the festival . . . preparing the garden. Knowing that summer is just around the corner, with the warm sun and vivid colors of blooming gardens. I have a lot of tulips growing in the backyard, which I hope were able to survive the frosty evening. Father Frost still isn't quite ready to let go just yet.

Because I had a busy weekend, what with Pascha and all, I didn't have much time to knit. I'm almost done with knitting the heel for the Brown Sugar sock, though. One thing that I'm not happy with is that it seems rather snug. I had cast on 56 stitches, I think. but I'm a bit of a tight knitter, so I probably should have cast on at least 4 more stitches or so. Perhaps stretching it out after washing will improve it.

I've been checking out my favorite blogs and there are quite a few interesting posts out there. At string or nothing, there's a really good explanation on how to rip out a mistake in lace knitting. Lace patterns can be intricate, and you may find that you've got an error 4 rows down and dread the prospect of ripping back to fix the mistake, because I don't want to have wasted the 3 days of knitting yarnovers and decreases. I'm going to have to try this out with a relatively easy lace pattern so as to get this technique down.

Yarn Harlot is going to be at MDSWF, it seems, and will be autographing her book. I hope to pick up a copy there and get it signed by her. And Curlypurl is at her loom again . . . I'm in awe of her weaving skills and wish I had a loom. I've been seeing quite a few comments about recent magazine issues. I stopped by Borders and picked up Interweave Knits and SpinOff. I just finished skimming through SpinOff. I had a look at Knitters, but it didn't really strike a chord so I left it there. Now I'm off to looking through Knitters and to see another knittting blog is struggling with . . .