Save Your Sweaters!

   

Before

After

 One of my Christmas gifts was so fantastic that I wanted to tell the world about it - especially the world of knitters!  I assure you that I have no interest in this product or the company that makes it.  I read about it on a Ravelry thread and my sister gave it to me for Christmas.  It's my new "must have" knitting accessory!

Now that I've been knitting for about 6 years, I've gotten to the point where some of my sweaters, even though I hand wash them with care, have started to look a little ratty.  I've tried hand-picking the little pills off, and I've tried one of those little battery-operated 'sweater shavers", but neither method really got the job done, so I wasn't satisfied.  I saw a Ravelry thread where a number of people were all raving about "The Gleener" as being the best method for making sweaters look almost as good as new, and for $22, I figured it was worth a try!  My sister saw me mention something about it just a couple days before Christmas, and I assumed I'd just order it after the holiday was over, so imagine my surprise when I opened a box on Christmas that contained a picture of the gleener inside and a note that told me it was on its way to my house!

I've used it on 4 sweaters so far - 1 heavy 100% wool sweater, 1 lightweight wool sweater, 1 lightweight acrylic, and the one in the photos, a heavy wool/acrylic blend.  It worked magic on all of them.  They all went from being quite "pill-y" and ratty-looking to going back to almost-new condition.  

Depending on the fiber and weight of the sweater you're working on, you choose one of 3 heads to attach to the handle.  All three heads are basically long, thin pumice stone in varying degrees of grit, and the one with the largest grit has a little wire cage over it.  You just lay the sweater out flat, pull the fabric taut, and pull the pumice stone end over the surface of the sweater.  You might think that the stone would tear up the surface of the sweater, but it does't - it just collects all the little pills from the surface and pulls them into a big strip of fuzz that's easy to discard.  

I'm not sure yet if the pumice strips last forever or if there will come a point where I have to replace them.  Even if this little device needs to be replaced in a few years, I'd happily buy it again - with about 10 minutes and willingness to give your arms a little workout, it restores your sweaters to a much nicer-looking state!

Snowed In

My neck of the woods is in the middle of a weather "situation".  Well, it's a situation as far as Illinois people are concerned.  I'm sure if there's anyone from Alaska or the colder parts of Canada reading this blog, they'd just refer to a day like today as "winter".  Anyway, it's been snowing since yesterday evening and we've probably accumulated around 6 inches so far.  Then tomorrow the high temperature is supposed to be almost 10 below with a -45 wind chill.  So it's one of those days where emergency services tell you to stay home unless you really, really need to leave the house.  School has already been called off for my kids and for lots of kids in the midwestern & eastern parts of the US.  Hopefully things will be back to normal by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, when our high temp will be a balmy 21 degrees.

Just in case you're not a northerner and you like snow pictures, here's what it looks like out my front door.  See the road there in front of my house?  Yeah, neither do I.  

In lieu of being able to participate in the world at large today, I decided to go domestic.  My son and I baked a pie.  It's my first attempt at lemon meringue.  It looks like a deflated whoopie cushion, but I'm pretty sure it'll be delicious because I licked the pan after we poured the filling in the crust.  

 I worked another crocheted baby bootie this morning.  If you have "liked" the Trappings and Trinkets page on Facebook, you already know that I've been learning to crochet this weekend.  I started with a misshapen gnome hat for my cat on Friday night.  I graduated to booties yesterday, and they both came out great, although two very different sizes.

My third bootie came out the same size as my second (so I think I'm getting that whole tension thing sorted out), but I accidentally worked it inside-out.  Easy fix - I'll just have to pull out the top few green rows and redo them, then I'll have a matched set.

Pattern is Baby Goshalosh Boots by Elizabeth Alan. Yarn is tosh dk in calligraphy and thyme.

Not sure what my next crochet adventure will be….I'm looking for patterns that I can instantly download.  I have a "how to crochet" book that is full of patterns, but they are some seriously ugly things.  Fantastic diagrams and descriptions on how to work each stitch, but there are no projects in the book that I would ever be interesting in making/wearing/using.  So if you're a crocheter, leave me a suggestion in the comments - I understand ss, sc, hdc, dc, s2tog, dc2tog and how to do increases.  I'd love suggestions on well-written crochet patterns for either baby / kid items or accessories for bigger people!

Happy New Year!

New Year's plans at my house were pretty quiet this year.  My little family happily spent our last evening of 2013 playing on the Wii together - first a dance-off, then family Rock Band, and we concluded with a Mario Cart tournament.  Before the kids headed to bed, we enjoyed some chocolate fondue together with strawberries, bananas, raspberries & rice krispie treat chunks to dip in it, then we watched one of the home movies I edited together a number of years ago.

Once the kids were asleep, my husband and I watched an episode of Downton Abbey while I started another pair of socks.  Actually, I made a plain vanilla sock out of this Prism yarn that I bought when I was in Madison, WI back in November, but I decided I wanted to do something a little more interesting with them.  But I just finished writing and editing 3 patterns, so I wanted a little break from making up another.  I decided another pair of Whirlwind Socks was the way to go.

Speaking of Whirlwind Socks, yesterday was the end of December, which means I promised to send the first check to the City of Washington Tornado Recovery Fund.  I'll be writing that check for $160, and I thank every one of you who has purchased the pattern so far!  Remember, even if you haven't bought the pattern, "favoriting" it on Ravelry helps other people to see it, and if you have bought it and plan to make a pair, sharing pictures on your project page, personal blog, Facebook, or on other knitting websites will also help get the word out so we might be able to send even more assistance to Washington.

I have two hat patterns and a lovely textured cowl coming down the pipeline.  Tests are underway and you'll be seeing a few new patterns published toward the end of the month and beginning of February.  I hope you like them!

Generosity

In the spirit of Christmas, I wanted to share a little story of generosity with you.

I have been very excited over the last 5 days to see people buying the pattern for Whirlwind Socks.  At last check, around 26 people have helped me accumulate a donation to send to the City of Washington Tornado Recovery Fund.  I've been very happy to see people from all over the place purchasing it - not just midwesterners who are familiar with tornadoes, but East Coast residents who might have experience with hurricanes and Europeans who have probably only see that sort of devastation on tv.

I've also seen familiar names of local knitters come through my paypal account.  But this morning I woke up to the name of a Washington acquaintance in my inbox.  She is someone I knew from the days when I taught music at a local grade school.  I remembered being at her house for some reason or another (I think she hosted some sort of baby or wedding shower that the teachers all attended) and I had a moment of relief thinking, "She must have been really lucky because most of the section of the neighborhood she lives in was heavily damaged."  (The photos I posted in my last blog post were taken very close to where I remember her living.)

Then I noticed the address paypal sent along with her payment.  "Oh, she has moved to a different town," I thought.  Still lucky - I bet her old house didn't make it.

Next I clicked from my e-mail inbox over to Ravelry where I had a message in my inbox….it was from this same acquaintance.  She just wanted to say some very kind things about the fact that I was donating pattern sales to this cause.  But here's the kicker.  She said she was living in the town I saw in her paypal address "while we rebuild".  So yeah, she obviously lost her house, and here she was sending in her $5 donation like so many others have already done.  And while I'm touched and have to hold back tears as I type this, I'm not at all surprised.  Because that's the kind of people we live with in this town - they may have problems of their own, but they're never in such bad shape that they can't help out a friend or a neighbor.

I was talking to a close friend not too long ago about what a crap year 2013 has been for so many people we know.  She was saying it's hard to understand why some people seem to have everything go wrong all at once.  She referenced a mutual friend who lost her dad very suddenly just a couple months ago, then had her house heavily damaged in the tornado.  I told her that the friend probably has her bad days, but she's also probably looking at the people around her thinking, "I feel so bad for my neighbors because, while my house was very damaged, their houses are completely gone."  If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that we are able to handle whatever life brings our way.  And part of handling it is realizing that someone always has it worse than you.  Sure, I was basically sick from April through December of this year, but there are other chronically ill people out there who don't have a husband who takes care of them when they can't do it themselves, a mother who will drop everything and drive for 2 hours to give that husband a hand when he needs it, or fantastic health insurance so they can get the care they need without worrying about going bankrupt.

When the tornado hit,  I was ticked that I was too weak to go outside to help with sorting through the debris and cleaning up (I learned my lesson with the chin stitches, universe!  I'll be good until I get my strength back!)  But I did find a donation center where the kids and I could help by organizing clothing donations, and a school kitchen where we could help prepare food that was taken out to volunteers.  It's the same philosophy that I saw in the Ravelry message this morning: no matter what each of us is facing, we get through it by looking outside ourselves and trying to find something that we can do for other people.

So I thank you, Washington acquaintance (you know who you are!), and the 25 other knitters who have helped support tornado recovery.  You all make me proud to be counted as a member of "Team Knitter".

If anyone else wants their donation sent in at the end of the month with my first check, you can find the sock pattern here.

Whirlwind Release

For the past two years, I've made it a point to thank my pattern customers each year by releasing a pattern around Christmas and offering a coupon code so people can download it for free.  This year, I hope my pattern customers will understand why I decided to change things up a little and instead of releasing a pattern for free, I'm asking if you would join me in benefitting a cause that is near to my heart.

A month ago you may have seen coverage of a bad day of tornados in the midwest.  The hardest hit community that day was Washington, IL.  I've lived in Washington since I graduated from college.  I taught music at one of the local grade schools for a few years before we had kids, so I've had an opportunity to become acquainted with a large number of the families in this community.  Washington may not be my "hometown", but it is the town we've lived in ever since we were married 15 years ago, and it's the only home my kids have ever known.

We were very fortunate that day that our house was not in the path of the tornado.  In fact, driving through our neighborhood right after the storm, you never would have known what sort of destruction you'd see less than a mile away.

In the days after the tornado, all sorts of organizations descended upon our town.  The Red Cross and FEMA were there.  Team Rubicon and other volunteer disaster clean-up teams have worked tirelessly alongside local volunteers to sort through and clean up the debris.   Churches organized teams of volunteers and sent them to where they were needed.  Church and school groups were busy cooking meals that they served in their facilities as well as took out to people who were working outside.  It was really amazing to see the outpouring of support from people who came from all over the place to help out.

The tornado went through town on a Sunday.  Power was knocked out to most of the town and because of the location of our house, we're always last on the power restoration list.  So the next day, the kids and I drove up to my parents' house where I sat around stewing about not being able to help out.

To pass the time, I decided to knit some socks.  These socks started out as my "I'm away from home with nothing to do with myself" project, but as I worked, I realized that maybe I could use these socks to help out.  I'd write up the pattern and release it as a tornado benefit.

You wouldn't believe the costs that go into dealing with a disaster like this.  Yes, hopefully the homeowners will have insurance and each individual's out-of-pocket cost should be somewhat limited, but the city will have huge costs to take care of.  Right after the tornado, police, fire & paramedics from all the surrounding towns came to help, and they will all be paid.  For at least a week after the disaster, extra police were manning check-points at the roads that led into the affected areas to keep the damaged homes somewhat secure, and those workers need to be paid.

Bringing in heavy machinery and manpower to help with clean up doesn't come cheap, and in fact the city announced it had run out of money to help homeowners clean up just a couple days after the city started sending out trucks to pick up the debris.  But the biggest long-term problem for our city is that because the tornado destroyed so many homes (leveled + damaged houses = almost 1100 total) and tore right through the section of town that has the newest real estate, we lost 47% of our residential real estate value.  So right when the city will need funds the most, it will take a huge hit to its income from property taxes.

The recovery from this tornado will be long-term.  Because we've already had snow here, even the clean-up is going to take a while.  I am thankful that everyone I know who is currently unable to live in their homes has found rental housing.  I was happy to see how local realtors and insurance companies worked very quickly to get people out of hotels and into rental homes.  There are many organizations that are set up to take donations, but I will be donating proceeds from this pattern directly to the City of Washington Fund that has been set up at a local bank.

Enough disaster talk, now let's talk about the socks!

One 100g skein of pretty much any fingering-weight yarn is going to be plenty for a pair made in either size (the pair in the photo was made from Malabrigo Sock yarn).  They're knit toe-up, so if you are cutting it close on yarn, you can just split it into 2 equal balls before you begin and just knit until you run out.

My two favorite features of this sock are the texturing and the heel.  The twisted stitches that run across the instep pull the socks in at the arch, so you end up with a nice, snug fit.  And now that I've discovered the Fleege Heel (thanks, Margi!) I don't know why I'd ever go back to one of the other heel-making methods.  It's VERY easy to do, uses no wraps, and you end up with NO holes.  I just can't say enough good things about Fleegle!

The twisted stitches are not complicated, and a link to a video demonstration for these stitches is included in the pattern.  Other pattern supplements are a link to a video for Judy's Magic Cast-on and and article that illustrates how to work right and left leg increases.  The pattern is written for two sizes: US Women's Shoe Size 6/7 and Women's 8/9, and is written for magic loop, although knitting on double-pointed needles or with two circulars instead is a simple switch.

Many thanks to Margi and Kim who test-knit the pattern and whose input made it infinitely better!

Thanks in advance to everyone who is contributing to our town's recovery either by buying the Whirlwind Socks pattern, making a donation on your own, or giving your time and energy to one of the organizations that has helped out in the area.  Everyone here is determined to start fresh and make our community even better than it was before, and it means a lot to all of us that we have gotten so much support from people outside our little town!

In the Mood for a Test?

It seems like it's been a long time since I've put up a new pattern for testing.  In reality, it's only been 3 months, but a lot has happened in that time!

If you're a sock knitter, like working new patterns, and are willing to keep a careful eye out for problems or errors, please join this test!  You can find the details here.

These might be the best socks I've ever knitted, thanks to the "fleegle heel".  A tester that worked on the Unisox pattern pointed me toward it, and I'm so glad she did!  No little holes to fix up after you're done with the heel.  It works beautifully!

I hope everyone is doing well and you're well into enjoying your holiday knitting by now.  I've been procrastinating with mine....my next project is making a boat load of headbands and hats.  But by the first week of December, I hope to move on to a holiday project!

Recovery Socks

This past summer, my grandma was diagnosed with a pretty serious heart situation, and in September, she underwent open heart surgery to take care of the problem.  Her doctors say she's recovering well, and I can see a huge improvement in her coloring, but she's still having trouble getting out of the post-surgery funk.  I'm no stranger to medical funk, so I decided to make an attempt to boost her spirits by sending her some notes and little gifts in the mail.  I wish I could do more, but since I live 2 hours away, this is the best I can do for now.  Luckily, the holidays are coming up, so I'll get to see her in person at the end of this month and next.  She's been telling us since her surgery that her goal was to be well enough to help wash dishes after Thanksgiving dinner.  My aunt flew in from Florida last week to take her turn at nagging Grandma into recovering....so we're all pulling for her!  If you're reading this blog Grandma, I'm happy to wash your dish for you, but I hope you're feeling well enough to sit at the table to visit and eat dessert with the women for an hour after dinner, while the men are in the family room watching sports and dozing!  I don't want you to have to go home for a nap at 4pm!

Anyway, keeping in mind that I wanted these sock to be easy-care and warm (but not too warm because my grandparents keep their house pretty warm in the winter), I went to my LYS looking for some mid-thickness yarn in a washable fiber.  I was thinking maybe superwash merino, but I also had a very specific color scheme in mind, and I didn't find any superwash that matched the colors in my head.  So I settled on this acrylic / nylon yarn from Cascade - Cherub DK.  My swatch looked great after being machine washed & dried, but this is my first experience with the yarn, so I can't vouch for how well it will wear.  It has 4 out of 5 stars on Ravelry though, so it can't be too bad.  And the price was certainly right - at $3 a skein, you could easily make a pair of socks for $6 (or $9 if you want to do stripes.)  

I am super-excited about this pair of socks, because it is my first experience with using the Fleegle Heel.  During the Unisox test-knit, one of my testers told me about this heel, but at the time I didn't have another pair of socks to knit and I was busy working on other things, so I bookmarked it to use next time I wanted to make socks.  Well, I'm so glad she shared this heel technique with me!  I've done a number of heel techniques - doing a heel flap & picking up stitches, short-row heel (and a couple modifications of this technique trying to eliminate tiny holes), and the after-thought heel, but I have to say, this heel is by far the easiest to work and it HAS NO LITTLE HOLES TO CLOSE UP.  None.  You get beautiful, tight gusset stitches and no holes at all.  Seriously, you have got to try this heel technique.  

I did a basic toe-up sock, simple pattern to follow if you're interested:                                                                            














Women's size M (L).                                                          
The size M would fit a size 8-9 shoe like a regular sock.    
The size L would fit a size 8-9 shoe like a slipper sock, meant to be worn over another pair of socks.

I used the magic loop method, so that is what this pattern is written for, but it could just as easily be done with two circular needles or a set of double-pointed needles if you prefer one of those methods.                                                             

Materials:                                                                               
2 balls of Cherub DK (3 balls if working stripes)              
(Skeins are 180 yds each)                                                   
US Size 4 Circ Needle                                                     
Gauge: 24 sts x 34 rows = 4" x 4" in stockinette st              

My stripe pattern alternated 10 rounds of the dark purple with 5 rows of the light purple, but this is easy to modify depending on your taste.                              

Instructions:                      

                                                                             

CO 12 sts divided bet 2 needles using Judy's Magic Cast-On.  

R1: (needle 1): K1, M1, K to last st, M1, K1.                            

       (needle 2): rep needle 1.                                                         

R2: Knit all sts.                                                                            

Rep rounds 1 & 2 until there are (20) 24 sts total on each needle.

K in stockinette until sock is long enough to fit the entire foot to the point where the leg meets the top of the foot.

Begin Fleegle Heel:
Make sure stitches are still evenly divided between the two needles.  Needle #1 will be your gusset needle (bottom and sides of the foot) and Needle #2 will be your instep needle (top of the foot).
R1 (needle 1): K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2.
      (needle 2): K all sts.
R2: Knit all sts.
Rep rounds 1 & 2 until needle #1 contains 36 (40) sts.

(You'll notice that my math here is slightly different than the blog post I linked to suggests - my first attempt was made by repeating these two rounds until I had 46 sts on needle #1, but my heel was way too large and the back of the sock was baggy.  So I frogged it, reduced my stitch count to 40 on the gusset needle and the heel came out great.)

Turn Heel:

Place a marker in the middle of the stitches on needle #1 (There will be 18 (20) sts on each side of the marker.)

R1 (worked on needle 1 ONLY): K to 3 (3) sts past marker, K2tog, K1, turn.  Pull the yarn tight.
R2: Sl1 Pwise, P to 3 (3)  sts past marker, P2togtbl, P1, turn.  Pull the yarn tight.

R3: Sl1 Pwise, K to the gap, K the st before the gap tog with the st after the gap, K1, Turn.
R4: Sl1 Pwise, P to the gap, P the st before the gap tog with the st after the gap tbl, P1, Turn.

Rep Rows 3 & 4 until 20 (24) sts rem on gusset needle.

Work Cuff:

Resume working in the round.  For my first round, I did a plain Knit row, then I established 2X2 ribbing.  Since I was doing a stripe pattern, I made sure to Knit one round plain each time I switched colors, so the lines between the stripes aren't distorted.  The remaining rounds were all done in 2x2 ribbing.

The cuffs on my socks extended 3" past the heel, but you can work them as long as you like (just make sure you have extra yarn).

Switch to a US size 8 needle to work the bind-off so the cuff is stretchy enough to fit over the foot and ankle.

I hope these socks keep Grandma's feet cozy while she recuperates this fall, and I hope this simple sock pattern comes in handy for you sometime!