All Buttoned Up

I’m still chugging along on this blanket. When I was first working on this, I’d thought I’d do 3 blocks across by 4 blocks deep (a block being 4 mitered squares) and had thought that was only 36 miters… but my math was wrong - that would be 48 squares. Since I’m pretty happy with the current size of the blanket, I’m sticking with 36, but obviously, only 3 block by 3 blocks.

I’m knitting this for a baby that is due on the 7th of September and I’ve only got 8 more blocks left.  Now, you should know that the mom said that she doesn’t think he’s going to wait until the 7th.  But 8 blocks isn’t that much.  After that, I’ll only have to seam them and knit the borders.  I’m feeling pretty confident about my ability to finish this.

In a previous post about this blanket, someone left a comment suggesting that I must want to add some blue to the blanket.  And while I’m appreciative of that person’s kidn suggestion, at the same time I don’t intend to add any blue to this blanket for two reasons:

1. I chose a color them of greens and neutrals and adding blue to the mix would kinda mess that up.  And I haven’t done all this work for nothing.
2. I’m a feminist and one of the issues that peeves me the most is gender stereotyping.  I’ve pretty much decided that unless it’s a special request, I’m probably not going to be knitting any pink or blue baby blankets.  *I tried to write a few sentences explaining myself here, but nothing I could come up that was adequate could be said succinctly - so I think that’s going to have to be another post.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep knitting this blanket. And I’ll be sure that I’m going to finish it in about a month, never mind that while I’ll be working on this, I’ll also be doing the following:

• Moving 1/2 way across the country again (see the box in the top photo)
• Unpacking an entire apartment’s worth of stuff
• Ending my summer job
• Completing about 2 weeks of intense training for my new job
• Beginning my new job
• Leading about 2 weeks of intense training for my RAs (by intense, I mean 12 hour day…)
• Completing orientation and registering for graduate school
• Beginning Graduate school

I jinxed myself.

A few weeks ago, I bought enough of the yarn above (silk with some cotton mixed in) for a top.  I swatched on the US4s that I had with me and loved the drape.  I washed the swatch and searched and scoured for a pattern worthy of such a lovely score.

I never found anything that I liked - and I resigned myself that I’d have to design something myself.  Not difficult, but annoying and not what I wanted to do.

This past weekend my parents were in town and since I’ve accumulated a fair amount of “crap” I had to send them home with a bag of stuff so that I could bring the rest on the plane… and the easiest and quickest thing for me to send home in a bag… was my yarn stash minus the mitered blanket in progress.  Including the above since I knew that I at the very least wouldn’t have time to work up the schematics for a whole new design.

And then, today, this pattern in the exact perfect gauge becomes available.   I love it so much that I’d love to be able to start it immediately.  And yet, my yarn is now in Indiana while I remain in NY.

It figures.

So. As you may know, I’ve been in New York for the summer. I’ve had an internship at Columbia  (working for one of the departments). I’ve done a ton of cool stuff - seen 4 shows on Broadway, been to a few museums, scored an awesome couture dress, torn it up at a few yarn stores and done some good knitting (although definitely not as much as I thought I’d need - I brought a whole suitcase of yarn - that was unneccesary - although it did give me a head start on getting stuff on Ravelry) and I’ve made some fantastic friends like Rachel, my roomate, pictured below.

First, thoughts on the internship: I’ve learned a lot from this internship. The first is that in future job searches, I should ask a lot of questions along the way. In all honesty, I didn’t know what kinds of questions I should have asked until I went through this process - but now, I have a big list of question for use in the future. I’ve also learned that in future job searches, what I’m actually doing on a day to day basis is much less important than the kind of supervisor I have. A supervisor, in my opinion, can make or break an internship. (I’m ecstatically excited to get back to IU - because I already have a great relationship with my Fall supervisor - heck, I’m knitting her a baby blanket…). How the organization is structured is also important and something that I’ll keep in mind in the future.

Thoughts on being a supervisor: I’ve only been able to do a little bit of supervising this summer (that’s me and one of my 1:1 “people” above- one of the girls I got to supervise more closely) - but its been just enough to learn that this is totally 100% what I want to do.  I am a student affairs professional (or I want to be one in the future).  I like being a mentor and I like helping people achieve their goals.  Student affairs is a fun profession and it’s one in which I do well.

And at the end of this whole thing (well, technically I have like 16 more days left, but who’s counting - plus I have to pack and stuff so I might not blog for a bit)?  I am at very least a country girl - but probably a midwestern girl.  True I’m absurdly liberal - but there’s something about smelling garbage day in and day out that makes you crave those few days a year when the farmers spread out the fertilizer and the whole county smells like cow shit.

Sometimes, when I think about it a lot, I almost start crying because I miss the Indiana nights.  I miss the sound of the crickets, the cicadas, the birds and the frogs.  I MISS THE SOUND OF RAIN!!!  When it rains here, I only hear it as the cars drive through it on the streets!  It doesn’t even hit my window!

And while we’re on the topic of water, I want to be able to touch wet things and know that it’s from the morning’s dew or a rain storm - and that it’s safe to touch!  I want to stop having to carry around this pocket size bottle of antibacterial gel.

I miss being able to lay in the grass and being the ONLY one doing so - and yet not get any stray glances because of it.  I miss people asking me if I want a pop (not a soda) and I want a can of this pop for less than a dollar!  I want to walk around with my fake chinatown Prada bag and instead of fitting in, I want to feel as pretentious and superficial as I ought to feel.

I’m such a country girl.   Pardon me while I go knit, in my rocking chair, while I listen to some Kenny Chesney.  And then I’m going to make my mom’s potato salad recipe.  And go outside and look for some stars in the sky.  I don’t expect to have any luck.

Introducing the Strangling Vine Scarf:

• Knit with less than a single skein of Sea Silk (a skein of SS is 430 or so yards of fingering weight)
• Size US 4 needles (but it’s a scarf, so gauge is not essential - it’s about which drape you like most)
• Not reversible (it’s a pretty pattern, but there is a wrong side - sorry)

And… it’s available for free!!

In order to be worthy of the pattern you must…

Do at least ONE random act of kindness. This is something that you have to do (you can’t just join a facebook group where someone else, somewhere is going to donate money for some cause) and it can’t be something you did yesterday before you read about this. I’m not going to tell anyone that whatever they did wasn’t enough… but try to do something that will have a little bit of an impact on the “good” quotient in the world- you know, do something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside! PLEASE leave me a comment letting me know what you did (so I can feel warm and fuzzy too).

Why am I doing this? Well, the pattern isn’t too genius, but I do think it’s kinda pretty - and some people might want a copy of the pattern. This made the trouble of writing up the pattern “worth it.”

At a loss for what to do? Here are some suggestions:

• If you’re on Ravelry, donate! (Casey and Jess are working so hard… and now they’re doing this full time… They need some support!)
• Send a college student you know a care package
• Knit a square for a charity afghan or a scarf for the red-scarf project.
• Send a letter or postcard via snail-mail to a person who’d never expect it and may not have anyone else who’d send them something.

Click the download button to get it now!

Yay! (Don’t forget to do your RAOK!)

12/23/07 -ETA- I used to offer this pattern via email - but it became WAY too much to keep up with (grad school is crazy ya’ll!) and so now… there’s a link! Yay. Less email junk for me to keep up with.

I got my final secret pal package yesterday!  I was sorta expecting it, but unlike normal, I forced myself to NOT stalk the mailman this time.  What was in it:

• Some size 1 sock needles (which is good because I have like 5 sets of US 2… and only one of US 1)
• The book Home Knits by Suss Cousins - which is so full of cool stuff I want to knit for my new apartment - and for my mom   It was a perfect spoil because it’s not something I’d have bought for myself… but I totally love it!  I’m sure you’ll hear more about this book from me in the future!
• Some  yummy trail mix that had some chocolate in it…
• A sock pattern
• A cool magazine
• a gift certificate to the Loopy Ewe - where I bought me some sock blockers!!!  Something I’ve been wanting for a while!

Thank you Miss Secret pal!  (She lives here if you want to visit).

Note:  I think this is going to be the last of the posts about my 9 to 5 socks.  I don’t want to bombard you with tons of posts about this pattern!

I’ve had some questions about modifications to the 9 to 5 socks and I wanted to share my suggestions with you.  What follows is also in a clever and pretty PDF document here, just in case you want to print it out. (Those who’ve surfed here can find the post about this pattern here.)

 For a Smaller Sock or a slightly thicker yarn:
Change the number of stitches you cast on to 60.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 stitches on N1, 12 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3 and 12 sts on N4 and work according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel flap, move stitches as directed in original pattern so that you have 17 sts on N1, 13 sts on N2, 17 sts on N3 and 13 sts on N4.  When working Row one of the heel flap, work the same, except only work the *K1 Sl 1 wyif* portion only 9 times.  To do the heel turn, work the first row as follows:  Knit 14 sts, ssk, k1 turn. Work the remainder of the heel turn as written.  On the round preceding the gusset, work as written, but only twist the stitches that you picked up from the sides of the heel flap.  Work the rest of the sock as written, shortening the sock as necessary.

For a larger sock:
As written in the pattern, the sock has a lot of stretch to it.  If you feel like you need to make the sock larger, add a pattern repeat to the top of the foot.  Cast on 78 stitches.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 sts on N1, 24 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3, and 18 sts on N4 and work the sock according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel clap, redistribute the sts so that you have 17 sts on N1, 25 sts on N2, 17 sts of N3 and 19 sts on N4.  Work the heel flap as written, lengthening as necessary, picking up an appropriate number of heel stitches when preparing to work the gusset.  Work the rest of the sock as written, lengthening as necessary.

Other ideas for modification:

Allergic to wool?
The sock is worked in a thinner fingering weight sock yarn and so substitutions should be of a similar weight if you intend to work the original pattern.  You can also use a slightly thicker sock yarn (maybe something like Cascade Fixation) and work the pattern modification for the smaller sock.  Gauge is almost everything here.  If you get gauge and you like the yarn, use it.  Also, this pattern really is VERY stretchy and so it can be very forgiving with sizing issues or problems.

What about those # 1.5 US needles?
If you’re looking for needles of that size, you can find them in most yarn stores that have a wide variety of needles.  Knitpicks.com has also started carrying the size.  I liked them for this pattern because it wasn’t much smaller than the US 2s that I’m used too - but not quite so thin and scary as US 1s.  Remember, needle size is less important than gauge - and again, gauge is only almost everything with this pattern - it’s very forgiving with sizing because of it’s stretch.

What about yarns that aren’t a solid color?  Variegateds and hand-dyes?
Try it!  I used a solid yarn because I knew it would photograph well so that I could properly show off the pattern.  I can imagine that the sock would look amazing in an almost-solid color - something that is kettle-dyed and is subtle tones and shades of the same color.

More questions?
Shoot me an email.  My email address is nicole.hindes@gmail.com . You can also come back to the blog at allbuttonedup.wordpress.com.