It's a Dog's Life

Day sail. Hard life, indeed. I was able to knit most of the leg of my
first Coriolis sock. Love the pattern--simple enough to be meditative
but with enough interest to keep me going. This will be the first of
many, I think.

Maine morning

View from kitchen, pre-pancakes with local blueberries once the wood
stove gets going.

Leftovers

Fun ankle socks knit from the scraps of previously knit socks. A mix of Regia, Trekking, and Opal, at least. I ran out of grey for the heels and like the splash of rainbow added in. While I intentionally tried to put colors next to one another that I wouldn't normally pair up, I did keep the same striping pattern on both socks. Oh well--a little organization within the chaos can't hurt.

The Great Imposters

My friend Laurie made these socks on one of her antique sock knitting machines (this particular machine is circa WWI). While she's been making beautiful socks for the past year, she learned a way to make cables while attending a sock machine convention out here in the PNW a few weeks ago. In order to make the cable, as I understand it, certain stitches for the future cable are marked and treated differently as the sock is knit, and once the sock is complete, very clever hand sewing creates the look of the cable. Here's a close-up:

Clever, indeed! I love them--thanks, Laurie!

Another imposter has invaded the house. This is my dog, Jackon, in full fuzziness:

And this is Jackson after yesterday's trip to the groomer :

Yep, that's what a golden retriever looks like with a buzz cut. In just a couple of weeks we'll be headed to Maine with him, and we're hoping this short haircut will help with preventing hotspots and detecting ticks faster. He seems happy, and should be cooler, but I'm still getting used to seeing him without his long tresses. He's ready to go undercover!

Stained Glass Bubble Hat & Scarf

(bubble hat)

Meet the Stained Glass Bubble Hat & Scarf, my second pattern for sale. An example of slipped-stitch or mosaic knitting, this pattern combines the look of two-color knitting with the ease and speed of only ever knitting one color per round. And, of the six rounds of pattern for one row of bubbles, five rounds are plain knitting.

(bubble scarf)

The stitch pattern for this hat and scarf is the “Blister Check, or Coin Stitch” pattern in Barbara G. Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. While Walker’s pattern is written for flat work, my pattern has been rewritten for work in the round.

(detail: top, outside fabric; bottom, inside fabric--look Ma,

no loose threads!)

The hat is worked from hem to crown but begins with a provisional cast on in order to finish the hat with a garter-stitch edge knit in the round and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s super-stretchy sewn cast off. The hat pattern is written for two sizes, S/M and M/L.

The scarf is also worked in the round, creating a tube which hides the inside fabric, and is finished at both ends with a closed hem of garter stitch:

Suggested yarns are Zitron Trekking (XXL) for the variegated color and Vuorelma Satakieli for the solid color, although any fingering-weight (14 wpi) yarn such as Brown Sheep’s Nature Spun Fingering or Louet’s Gems Fingering Wt. could substitute for the Satakieli and another variegated yarn of similar weight could be used in place of the Trekking XXL. Or, pick your two favorite colors and go solid!

For only a hat or only a scarf, one skein of each yarn listed above should be plenty. For a small hat and a short scarf, one skein of each yarn should suffice. For a larger hat and/or a longer scarf, partial second skeins of each yarn may be required.

Suggested needle sizes are US 1/2.5mm and US 0/2.0mm.

Suggested gauge is 28 stitches and 70 rows = 4 inches in Bubble Pattern.

The pattern sells for $6 US. If you are in Portland, Oregon you can pick up a paper version at either Close Knit on NE Alberta or at Twisted on NE Broadway. Or, from the comfort of your own home, you can purchase the pdf either through Ravelry (search for "Stained Glass Bubble" or see my profile under sunnydayknitter) or here:

(Note: clicking the button above will take you to Ravelry's Paypal site. Ravelry will delivery the pdf to your email address. If you have any problems, please let me know! And I'd love to see photos of any finished Stained Glass Bubble hats or scarves--please share!)

If you like the bubble pattern but would prefer knitting it as a pair of socks, I hope to have a Stained Glass Bubble Sock pattern ready later this summer.

Zigzag Mitts Errata

I've caught one error in the Zigzag Mitts pattern, where the hand pattern merges into the cuff pattern for size M/L (the cuff pattern for size S/M is fine). I've posted the errata on the pattern's blog post here and will upload a revised version on Ravelry today. (Anyone who has purchased the pattern through Ravelry should receive an updated copy, an incredibly awesome feature of Ravelry!) If you purchased a paper copy through either Close Knit or Twisted in Portland and would like a pdf of the revised version, leave a message here and I will email it to you.

Basically, for the Cuff Pattern, size M/L, Round 2, the pattern should read:
[*kfb, k2, dd, k2, kfb, kfb, k2, dd, k3, kfb*]

If you're at all interested, here's why I made the change:

In the old version for size M/L, the double kfbs in the middle of each needle of the cuff pattern weren't lining up above the dd line of sts of the hand pattern. The revised version lines them up properly so that the k st from the dd line of the hand pattern flows right into one of the k sts of the double kfbs in the cuff pattern. You can see the difference in the photo below: the green and orange bands show the old version while the yellow and tan bands show the new.

Apologies for the trouble, and let me know if you have any questions! Cheers. j

Orange Mouse

My friend's son Abe turned 5 awhile back. I thought he needed a pocket mouse to take on his camping trips. Turns out, he loves orange! Happy Birthday, Abe! Pattern by Lucinda Guy in this book.