Episode 86 Skyp Sock Wave

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This show by sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince& Co.

The folks at Quince & Co believe that businesses can be good citizens—should be good citizens—without making too much a fuss about it. So, they have created a line of thoughtfully conceived yarns spun from American wool or sourced from earth friendly overseas suppliers. Find them at www.quinceandco.com and while you are there, sign up for their free e-newsletter.

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.  My business site is www.longaberger.com/paula

Pipeliner Notes

I share notes from Judiuni and Lasknits2.

Nature Notes

Garlic Mustard Day.  Take a few hours each year to pull up these plants on your property so you can keep it in control. 

Common Violet  Viola sororia sororia State Flower of Illinois since 1908 Possible host plant for a number of butterflies, especially fritillaries. Flowers are edible but have little flavor.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream  Act 2 Scene 1  William Shakespeare

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

Needle Notes

Main Needle Choices for Socks or other small items in the round:

1.      Double Points  4 or 5

2.      Very Short Circular 9 to 12”

3.      2 circulars, usually 24”

4.      One long circular also called Magic Loop, 32” or longer

Both of these somewhat dependent upon newer and more flexible cables than were available prior to 2000 or so.

Socks Soar on 2 Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi  2001

The Magic Loop by Bev Galeskas January 2002 

I attempted 2 at a time socks on Magic Loop.  Took Judiuni’s email to heart and divided up my Austermann Step into two equal balls of 21 g each.  What a mess!  Would work better with toe-up using Judy’s Magic Cast On.

KarenE1969 started the Simple Skyp Sock Wave at the Knitting Pipeline Retreat.  Thank you, Karen!  This is my new favorite sock pattern.

Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku   Written for sport weight but I didn’t realize that until today when I started on the show notes.  Stitch count seemed right for fingering weight and mine fit perfectly.

Cakewalk Yarns Stash  colorway Vernon  80/10/10

Reasons to Love Simple Skype Socks by Adrienne Ku

1.      6 + 2 rib is super stretchy so the sock fits well.

2.      Easy to memorize, only 2 rows and one is simple rib.  Skyp comes from the main stitch Slip one, knit 1 YO, PSSO

3.      Wonderful for variegated yarns.  Pop of color and texture. 

4.      Unisex-usually a YO in a man’s sock is the death knoll but it works here because of the pass over.

Piper’s Journey KAL

Welcome to newbies who are joining the KAL!

The Blethering Room

I tell the story of how a Snowy Owl was in our town for two days and I didn’t know about it.  Sigh.  Shed a few tears.

In the Pipeline

Lookbook KnitBot Essentials

KnitBot Essentials by Hannah Fettig

Print and e-Book $24

e-book only $20

Slipped Stitch Patterns

Interrupting Cow Socks by Laura Linnemann  $4.00 Ravelry Download

Blue Monday Set a free design by Thea Colman www.spudandchloe.com  Beewing linked to it on our board.  Hat and mitten pattern with stranded slip stitch colorwork. 

Lorna Miser Blue Ray Socks from The Knitter’s Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn.  

Skyp Ribbed Socks by Adrienne Ku

Claire by Adrienne Ku top down, unisex, ribbed  $5

If I like a free pattern by a designer then I try to purchase one of her patterns as a thank you.

Joy in the Congo.  60 minutes April 8, 2012   Amazing Story!

Book Notes

Sock Knitting Master Class: Innovative Techniques and Patterns from Top Designers by Ann Budd. 

17 designs by 15 designers so that is a great value even if you just consider the patterns in the book.  Although the font is a rather small I recommend this book if you enjoy sock knitting.  Font is a bit small.  Highly recommended.

Haste ye back!

Episode 85 Sock Songs

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes.  You can subscribe on iTunes!

This show by sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

The folks at Quince & Co believe that businesses can be good citizens—should be good citizens—without making too much a fuss about it. So, they have created a line of thoughtfully conceived yarns spun from American wool or sourced from earth friendly overseas suppliers. Find them at www.quinceandco.com and while you are there, sign up for their free e-newsletter.

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.

Thank you to everyone who left 5 star reviews on iTunes

Pipeliner Notes

Thanks for the feedback on last week’s show.  Several of you enjoyed the story that Lois sent in about Alexander McCall Smith.  Musings on the Slip Stitch brought in comments.  Karebot said she is going to honor the Slip Stitch in April.  That came off the cuff more or less in jest but in reality I have actually been appreciating slipped stitches more.  Funny thing.

Nature Notes

We’ve gone from very hot weather to much cooler, which I am enjoying.

A Eastern Phoebe, or pair of phoebes, is building a nest on our gutter outside the bedroom window.  Phoebes are in the flycatcher family so you will see them doing some gymnastics as they fly and catch insects.  They have a tail that bobs up and down.  Their call is a raspy and short Phoebe rather than the clear Phoebe or Sweetie of the Black capped chickadee.

May Apples and Sweet William are adding to the color of the woodland floor.  The Spring Beauties are still in full bloom and the leaves are really beginning to come out on the trees.  We are still hearing the spring peepers although they were quiet last night as the temperature was below 50 when we went to bed.  Fifty degrees seems to be the cut off point for the peeper song. 

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment. ~~Ellis Peters

Needle Notes

Low Note: Proactive Star Toe Socks:  Pico Accuardi Dyeworks.  Accidental Felting despite not going into dryer. 

Plain Ol' Socks

Used Austermann Step with Aloe and Jojoba. Two knots in skein.  Great yardage.  A little on the thin side.

Listening back to an Episode and I heard myself say that I didn’t like having two pair of socks going at the same time.  Why?

Erin of MommyNeedsYarn No MoreTears for Autism Speaks.  Started project on March 23, Finished April 1, 2012.

BBknits Butter Pecan  Size 1 32” Harmony Needle

Learned:

1.      I will not collapse if I have more than one pair of socks in progress
2.      Magic Loop…getting into the groove. 
3.      Had a gutter where the loop came out.  First stitch on each needle was a purl stitch. See Episode 84 Cat Bordhi video with alternative way to purl.  At this point my head was beginning to spin but I decided to
4.      Cable without a needle.  Knittinghelp.com  (see below)
5.      Short Row Heel  First do a series of decreasing short rows with wrapped stitches and then a series of increasing short rows with wrapped stitches
6.      New way of concealing wraps  Cat Bordhi video

Cabling without a Cable Needle

Piper’s Journey KAL

Will probably unsticky the thread at the end of the month

Upcoming Pattern: Hyla Brook

Will use 2 skeins of Quince & Co Tern (wool/silk blend)

In the Pipeline

Knitting

McHenry by Susan B Anderson

Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku

Watching

The Fat Squirrel Speaks by Amy Beth.  Fantastic video cast!  Go watch it!

Reading

At Home by Bill Bryson

Listening

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Bird Decals from Duncraft 

Episode 84 Slip, An Unsung Hero

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes.

This show by sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

The folks at Quince & Co believe that businesses can be good citizens—should be good citizens—without making too much a fuss about it. So, they have created a line of thoughtfully conceived yarns spun from American wool or sourced from earth friendly overseas suppliers. Find them at www.quinceandco.com and while you are there, sign up for their free e-newsletter.

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.  My business site is longaberger.com/paula

Pipeliner Notes

Carol asked how to distinguish yarn weights.  I talk about wraps per inch tool.  The best way is to do a gauge swatch.

I read a letter from LaLaLand

Nature Notes

Spring Beauty aka  Claytonica virginica  Closes up at night or on cloudy days.

Spring Beauty

Shepherd’s Purse is the flower/weed of the week.  Botanical: Capsella bursa-pastoris

The Flowers

 by Robert Louis Stevenson 

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames--

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Shady fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where, if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

My bench in the woods, surrounded by spring beauties and other fairy things.

 Needle Notes

Mystery Mittens for Me by Laura Linneman

Clever use of the slipped stitch...and that got me thinking about slipped stitches and how they are unsung heros.

Shetland wool fingering weight from Schoolhouse Press. 

Knit Stitch is like the good well behaved child.  Purl is rather like the black sheep of the family, in some circles anyway. The Slip Stitch is like the forgotten wall flower or perhaps the one we wouldn’t miss until it was gone.

I talk about some of the ways that the slip stitch, if it can be called a stitch at all, is used in knitting.

Edges, SSK and other decreases, colorwork patterns, texture patterns, slipped stitch heel flap, brioche, and mosaic knitting are some of the occasions when slipped stitches are essential.

Barbara Walker is probably the Queen of Slipped Stitches with her invention of Mosaic Knitting. I believe she is the inventor of it and certainly the mistress of it.  One piece is a tea cozy that is done in mosaic and then lined in red wool, a most effective way to keep a pot warm.

Faithful mosaic knitting tea cozy and faithful teapot.

It has at i-cord piping along the edge.

Inside lining is also mosaic knitting.

If you are doing stripes you can decide to slip a stitch at regular intervals and it looks a bit like stranded work.  On the next round, try purling your slipped stitch for a completely different effect.  It is fun to play around with color and slipped stitches.

The Blethering Room

Story about neglected wildflowers  Bastard Toadflax and Hoary Puccoon

In the Pipeline

Watching

Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables

Reading

Maisie Dobbs #3 and #4 Pardonable Lies and Messenger of Truth

Listening

Louise Penny Still Life

Knitting

Socks

Cardigan (in the planning stages)

Quince & Co Finch in Icelandic colorway. Waiting to become a sweater.

Quince & Co Tern in Boothbay Blue, a potential sweater for me.

Music

Lydia McCauley

Hawthorn from Quieting

www.magnatune.com

Haste ye back!

Episode 66 Afterthoughts

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This show is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business www.longaberger.com/paula .  Sign up for my sale newsletters and special offers by sending an email to Paulaef@aol.com.  Please include your name, address, and phone.

My Annual Open House is Sunday, November 20th.  Contact me for details or visit www.longaberger.com/paula

Thanks to you...

Knitting Pipeline has had over 200,000 downloads since July 2010!  There are over 300 star ratings on iTunes.  Thanks to each one of you for listening, sharing, and being a part of the Knitting Pipeline Community.

Pipeliner Notes

 I read a note from Karin ("miterwriter" on Ravelry).  A little brown bat, nicknamed "Bertie", has been living on a light fixture in their garage for almost 15 years!  A wonderful story of wild animals and humans coexisting peacefully. 

Note on last week’s Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal:  it is a good idea to refrigerate any leftovers.

Winners of J-Knit apps

JKnit HD for iPad--Moz aka enquery, Peggie aka BleedingHeart, and Marsha aka Teal

JKnit--Barbara aka blb, Monique aka georgiedean, and Sally aka svjanis

Knit Evenly--Lynne aka knittensmitten, Ròs aka scarhandpiper, and Lu aka LuciaKnits

 Thank you, Bronwyn, for contacting the winners!

 Nature Notes

Flying Fox (Bat).  photo by Tim Jannech, husband of Kayak on Ravelry.

Thanks to Prairiegl (Leah) in OK for asking about cleaning bird feeders.

Bob joins me for Nature Notes, but only for a short time because he was grading papers.

Tips for Clean Birdfeeders

Feeder Maintenance and Hygiene  (Audubon)

Non-Toxic Bird Feeder Cleaning

The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Needle Notes

Nellie by Donna Higgins

Update on the Crochet flower closure. Directions are a bit sketchy.

I watched You Tube videos and managed to crochet the flowers by myself!  (Charr was out of town.)
I attached one side of the button with flower and the other side serves as a button closure.

Finished Projects

Piper’s Fancy

Celtic Cross wears ancient red flashes.  Our tartan, The Flower of Scotland, has a stripe of the ancient red in it.  I like my ancient red Piper's Fancy Shawl with the uniform.



Piper in the woods.

It works when I look like a normal person, too.

I needed a project that was completely mindless.  This crescent shawl that has increases at the beginning of every row so it doesn’t have a wrong side.

Afterthought here is that I did not plan the border beforehand.  I swatched a lot!

Nubby Noro Mittens by Annie’s Woolens

Has an afterthought thumb.

My pattern notes are here.

Love the pattern as the texture adds interest without being too fussy.  Every other round is a plain round so it is easy to see where you are in the pattern.

Afterthought Heel Socks by Laura Linneman

Knit Picks Felici Sport Weight

With this type of heel how do you prevent getting “ears” on the corners where you begin and end the Kitchener Stitch?  I might try decreasing at corners just before doing Kitchener.

What I did learn.  Sometimes you do need to power through.

 In The  Pipeline

• Annabel Babe Cardigan by Carrie Bostick Hoge
• My Ultimate Rip Van Winkle—oldest sock yarn in my stash.

A Ravelry Note

A new feature on Ravelry is that if you have your yarn stashed and you use stash yarn for a project then a little thumbnail photo of the yarn will appear in your project notes.  It’s tiny but it is there!

The Blethering Room

Registration is in progress for the Knitting Pipeline Retreat!

March 2-3, 2012 Washington IL

$50 for Fri night and all day Sat.  $40 for Sat only
Registration information is in the sidebar.

My first afterthought insertion of any kind was an afterthought pocket in my Three in One Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann.
Rip Van Winkle Challenge

Go through your Ravelry queue to find a project that has been asleep for a long time.  Or maybe you have been asleep while others have been knitting this project.  In your Ravelry queue you can see when you put projects in your queue.

Another mission for the overachievers out there:  go to your stash and try to find your oldest yarn and match it to an pattern in your queue.

There will be a separate thread to enter for prizes.  November 15-30.

High Note

Better Homes and Gardens is kicking it up a notch! Not as traditional as it used to be.  Inexpensive subscription and you get free digital editions with paid subscription!  More knitting magazines should do this because knitting from a magazine is for me, very tedious.

Stockinette Zombies is a new video cast that I enjoy.  Check it out!

Music

One Morning in May from Foreignlander by Lydia McCauley.  www.magnatune.com

Have a great week, haste ye back, and hold your knitting close.

Episode 54 A Dishcloth Binge

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Thank you to Quince & Co for sponsoring this episode! www.quinceandco.com Sign up for their free e-newsletter.

Emily in The Kilkenny Cowl by Pam Allen.  Knitted in Chickadee in the Clay colorway.

Pipeliners

I heard from new pipeliners Carolyn and Jenn.   

There were two new 5 star reviews on iTunes.  Kitten Little and Lyn862.  Thank you so much for your kind reviews. 

Dilemma is the proper spelling.  Is "dilemna" a regional issue?  According to Common Errors in English Usage by Paul Brians "dilemna" with the "n" is clearly wrong!

Nature Notes

We finally have a break in the heat.  It was so wonderful to open up the house.   This morning it was in the 50’s when I went on my morning walk. It is noisy here with the grasshoppers and cicadas buzzing and chirping all day and most of the night.  I listened to the grasshoppers while knitting the Leafprints Shawl by Anne Hanson, and noted that the buzzing started up faintly at 8 AM and was quite a bit louder at 8:30 AM. 

On the Grasshopper and Cricket  

The poetry of earth is never dead:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about a new-mown mead;

That is the Grasshopper’s – he takes the lead

In summer luxury, - he has never done

With his delights; for when tired out with fun

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

On a lone winter evening, when the frost

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills

The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

--John Keats  1795-1821

Needle Notes

I have 3 patterns that I go to when I feel a dishcloth frenzy coming on.  I have no idea what propels me to stop what I am doing and knit up a pile of dishcloths.  It is a nesting instinct that hits me every two years or so.

Mason-Dixon Knitting by Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner.  These ladies are hilarious. 

Petal Dishcloth by Hazel Schrock
Waffle Dishcloth from Debbie at Homespun Living Blog.  Visit the Firefly Farm Goods!
Eloomanators Diagonal Knit Dishcloth.  Variation of Grandmother's Favorite.

Petal Dishcloths

Waffle Stitch Dish Cloth from Homespun Living

Eloomanator's Dishcloth

New one I tried.  It is just ok.
Holes and Ridges Knitted Dishcloth Debra Proctor USU Extension Agent.

Holes and Ridges

Peaches and Cream site  Cotton yarn
Knit Picks Dishie
Lily Sugar and Cream carried by Michael's and Wal-mart in my area.

Events

Stitches Midwest.  Meet me in the Market in the Concession/Snack Area about 11 AM on Friday, August 26th, 2011.  I will be arriving Thursday morning and leaving after lunch on Friday.

Knitting Pipeline Retreat March 2-3.  Details will be announced in late September.  The place is reserved as well as some local accommodations.

Blethering Room

Bronwyn is going ahead with her cardigan with the twist in it.  She knitted up a baby version of the sweater with the twisted join.  I think she can pull it off!  Check it out on our board on Ravelry under Episode 53.

Franklin the Turkey has been banging on the window occasionally.  He flew to the rooftop when Bob walked around back with our son's two dogs on leads.  He knows that dogs are more dangerous than people. 

High Note

The New Best Recipe: All New Edition by Cooks' Illustrated  $35 but $21.47 on Amazon.
A hefty volume that would be even heftier if it had photos of the food.  I love food photos!  Reliable, extensively tested recipes.  A must for my kitchen.

Foolproof Hard-Cooked Eggs from Best Recipes.  (my abbreviated version)  Put 6 eggs in a pot with water at least one inch above eggs.  (You can cook more eggs as long as the water is 1" over the top of the eggs. )Bring to a boil over high heat.  Turn off heat.  Cover and let sit for 10 min.  Meanwhile, fill a bowl with water and a tray of ice cubes.  Put the eggs in the ice water for 5 minutes.  Peel eggs from the blunt end.  Perfect!

These instructions from Simply Recipes are quite similar. 
Martha Stewart has her egg say here.

In the Piping Circle 

Celtic Cross is preparing for a competition on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend Sept 3 in Waukesha WI.

Harry Potter Fans take note.  You can learn to play Quittich at the Waukesha Games.

BBC World Pipe band Championships  Live streaming begins at 9:00 BST on Saturday August 13 that would be about 3 AM for those of us in the Midwest.  Later on you can catch video of the highlights.

Visit my business site at www.longaberger.com/paula. 

Thanks for listening.  Haste ye back!

Haste ye back!