Mossy Cottage Knits

Avast, Ye Scurvy Bilge Rats!

Today, four short, unrelated blurbs make up the Gratuitous Story of the Day.

First, happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone!

Secondly, time again to check the corn cam!

Thirdly, as a public service announcement, my knee, which is currently loathsome shades of yellow, purple and blue, wants everyone to know that you cannot attempt to put both of your legs, albeit mistakenly, in the same leg of a pair of jeans and hope to stay standing. I suspect I looked very much like a paralyzed stork as I fell over.

Lastly, just for grins, a picture of the souvenir I bought in San Diego for K, the Gecko Girl.

Knitting Knews
I say, enough slummin’ in Scarf World and Sweater World! I’ve plunged right into designing a sock based on the leaf swatch from the baby blanket. Yesterday I went to Skeins Limited, an LYS near where I work, and purchased this skein of Rowanspun DK.

I chose this yarn for three reasons. First because it’s DK, and I wanted a yarn that was fine but not too fine (which is actually code for "because the baby blanket pattern calls for DK and I'm not bold enough to try something different"). Secondly, because it’s green (the color name is “Goblin,” actually) and I think it will highlight the leaf pattern well. And, thirdly, because it’s not just green, it’s a wacky, edgy lime green with minute flecks of bright blue and gold, not a color I would normally choose, but that's the point—I’m trying to force myself to think out of Le Creative Box. (Thank God, says innovative graphic designer K, who groans every time she sees me position a picture e-x-a-c-t-l-y in the middle of a wall.)

This yarn is curious. It has a slight "bloom" to it that makes it look like worsted weight, but if you examine an individual strand closely, you can see that is definitely DK. I'm a little concerned that the bloom will muddy the leaf pattern but I'm so intrigued by the yarn and by the color that I'm just going to plow ahead anyway.

Now the challenge is to figure out how many stitches to cast on since I haven't knit a sock in DK weight before. I emailed the savvy folks at the socknitters group on Yahoo and got these answers: 48, 50, 52, 54, 60, and 64. Ack! The good news is that I can add or remove stitches from the stockinette areas to my heart's content.

Dye Garden Dyegest
As I mentioned a coupla entries ago, I recently gathered some madrona bark for dyeing. Madrona trees shed their bark naturally so one need only gather it from the ground or peel it easily from the tree. No begging one's partner to pleezepleezepleeze prune the tree, no fighting the ornery dawg for the stick, no accidentally cutting one's finger with a dull pocketknife.

As with the cherry stick, I gathered this madrona bark from a local park. K and the two friends who accompanied us showed great patience as I kept darting off to bounce around on all fours like a frenzied monkey, picking up pieces of bark. At one point, K even joined me in doing the frenzied monkey dance, bless her bark-pickin' l'il heart.

I regret not getting a photo of one of the madrona trees, because its colors were particularly curious and stunning. The peeling madrona bark, as you can see, was a rich, lustrous, rust red while the new, exposed bark was an astonishingly bright, silky smooth, chartreuse green. The things you can find in nature—amazing!

Posted by Ryan at September 19, 2003 09:08 AM