Did I show you the latest pair of socks?

The Art of the Fugue as a Duet

Now that the weather is mostly cold, I wear a number of the things that I have knit - socks, shawls, hats, cowls, fingerless mitts, sweaters, etc. I don't make a big deal about it, if someone comments on something that I am wearing or asks if I have made any particular item, I am happy to answer them and share what I have made. But I am not going to call attention to my handknitted items nor am I going to insist that people look at my latest projects.

This last pair of socks that I just finished? That is different. Even before I finished them, I was showing them to anyone who would stand still for a minute to take a look.  [Go ahead, take a look at the project page for them, here.]

They are the most complicated pair of socks that I have ever made, The Art of the Fugue by Caoua Coffee. The pattern is cuff-down and I am most comfortable toe up. The texture of the socks comes from many twisted stitches with directions that talk about dropping two stitches at a time off the needles and then knitting them in a different order, in essence knitting cables without a cable needle. For whatever reason, I decided to knit them simultaneously using the Magic Loop technique, so I had both socks going at the same time on one long circular needle.

I am very proud of them.

Did I show you the latest pair of socks that I just finished?

Please, No Penguin Jumpers or Tree Leaves

Penguin by Tom Watt
this is not the type of penguin
 that needs a jumper.
in fact no jumpers 
are needed right now.
please do not start knitting 
the bird a sweater.

Things on the internet seem to live forever and cycle through every now and then. We all have well-meaning friends and relatives sending us jokes and warnings that are like the cat in the song "The Cat Came Back". We see them again and again and again.

One famous example of this is the request for sweaters for penguins in New Zealand, which is the perfect combination of cute and and helping out. In 2000, a request was put out for jumpers to help penguins that had been covered in oil. These sweaters keep the birds warm and prevent them from ingesting the oil on their feathers. Certain sizes and patterns and materials for the sweaters were requested. Then a flood of penguin sweaters ensued.  People hoping to help spread the information far & wide. I can only imagine what was sent and would hazard a guess that a significant percentage of items were not the correct size or the correct materials or even penguin jumpers. The number of people saying "wait, stop, we don't need any more sweaters" couldn't keep up with the production of cute little penguin jumpers of all sorts. 

Of course every now and then the request resurfaces, sometimes when there is actual need, and sometimes when someone sees the old story, and the flow of cute little penguin sweaters begins again. 

This morning I made the following tweet. 

It isn't every day someone asks for knit leaves for a tree to promote peace. greenprophet.com/2013/02/knit-p…
— Batsheva Appel (@stick2myknittin) February 11, 2013

I try to read the things that I tweet, so I saw that the post was recent. What I didn't do was a little more investigation.

According to the post that I read:

TikkunTree Project, which began in 2007,  was inspired by the destruction of olive groves during the continued Israeli occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories. The organizers say that, until its eventual exhibition, the TikkunTree is intended to serve as a vehicle for conversation about peace as it travels to knitting circles and community groups, making intermittent public appearances as it grows.

But here's the problem. I can't find any mention of the TikkunTree being on tour or anything happening since 2009.

I was already conflicted about the project. Yes, I love fiber arts. Yes, I am for peace. But I wasn't certain how the project was going to advance peace or bring people together.  It was when I went to look into the TikkunTree Project further that I found out that nothing has really happened in a few years. 

And I regretted my tweet. And felt like I had asked for some penguin jumpers in different sizes, when there is really no current project looking for penguin jumpers. Please do not begin knitting sweaters for penguins. Please.

They both said "Yes!"

I recently wrote about making gifts for people and realizing that I didn't know in either case if the gift was wanted, or more importantly, whether or not it would even fit.

They both said "Yes!"

Two years ago I knit a scarf [Irish Hiking Scarf by Adrian Bizilia] in beautiful Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Marron Oscuro for the guy who cuts my hair. He loved it and proved himself knit-worthy by spending the next ten minutes running around the salon showing it to everyone. 

When I asked him if I could knit him something this year as a gift, he said "Yes!"

It turns out I was right, he isn't interested in a hat unless the weather is minus 10 degrees, because of hat hair. When I suggested finger-less mitts, he lit up. He has been looking for a pair and hasn't found any that fit well. I just happened to have a tape measure handy, so I took his hand measurements and I have been knitting finger-less mitts for him using the pattern arden by mikka. I am shortening the mitts at his request and will be mirroring the cables, including the oddly crossed cable in the first mitt. It is now a design feature.
All going well I will be able to give him the newly made mitts the next time I see him.

"Yes!"

Coming to my senses

I finally came to my senses today. I am using some of my vacation time to clear up the knitting backlog and to make a couple of gifts. But I soon realized that I needed to be more realistic. Way more realistic.

For example, a wine bottle cozy that was supposed to use up "deep stash". The main part of the knitting went quickly in February, in 2011, but I put it aside awaiting a knitted icord. As I picked it up again and started in on the icord, I realized that I needed to come to my senses. Why was I knitting yards of icord? I can't knit as much as I used to, so why was I spending time on knitting a length of icord. I wove in the ends, found some ribbon and it is done.

I then moved to making gifts for a couple of people, the guy who cuts my hair and the woman who cleans my house. I bought the yarn and spent lots of time searching through patterns on Ravelry.

The hat is a cute pattern, Windy City Hat by Jodi Haraldson. Despite making a swatch, despite washing the swatch, despite careful measurement, the hat is too small. At least I think it is too small because I realized don't know what size to make. Love knitting with Madelinetosh Vintage in Cousteau. Love the pattern. But I forgot that knitting in the round requires a swatch knit in the round. Set aside without finishing for now.

Started fingerless mitts, but even at gauge they seem too small, and I can't be sure because I am in the dark again about sizing. Beautiful Malabrigo Merino Worsted in a Marron Oscuro. Didn't even set the one I started aside, frogged it.

And I came to my senses. I need to go through everything and see what is doable and what isn't, what is worth doing and what isn't. When I give my end of the year gifts tomorrow, I will ask if they want the knitted things that I was planning to make and if they do, I will get actual measurements. If they don't, I will chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Feels good.

Socks for $250/each, or $500/pair

Thanks to jeribrock for pointing out this article on Yahoo News about expensive socks and tights on Ravelry.

Truth be told, we think these knit socks are ugly. Also, they're incredibly impractical since they're full of holes and can't be washed. ...While we fully endorse staying cozy in wool socks and knit tights this season, we were astounded by the abundance of $50, $100, $500, and $1,000 pair.

I have been enjoying making socks this year, especially now that I live in Chicago.  My socks are very washable, warm, practical, comfortable, beautiful, and colorful.  Here are some of the socks that I have made this year:

People generally have two reactions when they see me knitting socks.  They either tell me that I can buy socks or they tell me that I can sell socks.  I am interested in knitting socks, not buying or selling them. 

I knit socks because socks are a small project that goes anywhere, I get to use a wide variety of wools that I can't buy in ready-made socks, I can custom-fit the socks to my foot, and there are some really cool sock patterns out there.

I am thankful that I do not make a living knitting socks for sale.  It would turn something I enjoy into a chore, a job.  There wouldn't be much choice in patterns, because it would have to be what people were willing to buy.  There would be too much thinking involved, because right now I make only one size - my size - and having made many socks the pattern is pretty much memorized. 

Finally, most people don't have any clue what a fair price for handmade socks really is.  The materials cost is somewhere from $10.00 to $36.00 for wool socks and the time involved is approximately 15 - 25 hours.  Most people stop their request when they hear the materials cost, and in truth, $500/pair for hand knit socks sounds a little low to me.

Where has all the Wollmeise gone?

my very own skein of Wollmeise
Originally uploaded by batsheva7

When is a craze for a brand of yarn a frenzy? a bubble?

I heard about Wollmeise yarns on Ravelry soon after becoming more active. People rave about the colors and the quality; speak endlessly about how difficult the yarn is to obtain and share strategies for getting some. After seeing all of the interest, I checked out projects made with this yarn, and found deep saturated colors and person after person saying that the yarn is wonderful, there is no better yarn.

With the popularity, comes scarcity.  Wollmeise is very hard to purchase. Very few places sell it and those that do sell Wollmeise sell out moments after making it available on their websites. I wasn't interested in staying up all night to try and get in on the Wollmeise craze. When I checked out Wollmeise available for sale or trade on Ravelry, it was soon obvious that FSOT is really FT when it comes to this yarn. People who have multiple skeins of yarn are only interested in trading for other colors, not in selling.

Against the odds I managed to order a skein of Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in Blue Curacao at the beginning of the month and it arrived soon after. The color is indeed very beautiful and saturated.  I don't know if this is the best yarn ever because I haven't settled on a project for it yet.

While I was waiting for the yarn to arrive, I went on Ravelry to see what others have done with their precious skeins and I found something very interesting. There are only 8,357 projects made with Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash, but there are over 30,000 skeins stashed away! Even knowing that not every knitter or crocheter is on Ravelry, to my mind, the numbers indicate that everyone is falling over themselves to get their hands on the yarn, but no one is making anything with it.  This vast difference between Wollmeise acquired and Wollmeise used smells like a bubble, with too many people going after too few things, bidding the price up, and speculators investing in the yarn for sale rather than for knitting.

I like my solitary skein of Wollmeise, and I might buy a companion for it one day, but I am leaving this yarn bubble alone.