EZ as pi

Ugh.

Ever have one of those days?

Why are these things so flimsy?  Am I suppose to buy new headphones when this happens?  Order replacement covers, only to have them rip again?  And from where?

Being ever the pragmatic one I thought I could do better if I just made them myself.  It sounded good in my head.  I searched Ravelry for patterns and found only crocheted ones.  I could crochet, but...hmm, think. All I had to do was knit a circle...and when it's big enough, stop.  But how many stitches do I start with?  And when do I increase?  Well, EZ, that's Elizabeth Zimmermann, had the answers, and I provided a few of my own.

EZ as pi Headphone Covers

Materials:
leftover sock yarn, you really don't need much. 
2 hair bands
1 set of dpn's size US 1 (or whatever method you use to knit in the round)

Cast on 9 stitches using Emily Ocker's Circular Beginning (if you don't have Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann, shame on you, both the pi shawl, from which this pattern is heavily borrowed, and this cast on is described in that book)

Round 1 knit.
Round 2 (increase row) knit into the front and back of each stitch, 18 stitches
Knit 3 rounds
Round 6 (increase row) see Round 2, 36 sts
Knit 6 rounds
Round 13 (increase row, do you see a pattern here?)
Knit until it's big enough (I did 3 more rounds, if you need to knit more than 12 rounds, you'll have to do another increase row).

Cast off over a hair band, like this:

That is, holding the hair band behind your knitting, when casting off alternate pulling the yarn through the inside (make a stitch, cast it off) then over the outside of the hair band (make a stitch, cast it off) thus wrapping your cast off around it.  I know! I thought of that all by myself!

Here's a youtube video of the cast off -- sorry no audio, I'll work on that.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Before the first sock, there were

Eight heels, one after another.

and set of armwarmers.

Afterwards, it's mate.

A setup bonnet and another sock.

Then it's mate.

Another pair.

And another.

I did it! I cranked out a sock!

3 years and 10 sock machines later I finally cranked out one sock (not even a pair).  Here it is unfinished, fresh off the machine:

I don't really have an explanation for why it took so long.  I was pretty fascinated with the machines themselves and maybe that served as a distraction.  It's also not as easy as it looks.  There are lots of things to keep track of.  There are stitches that drop, ribber timing, tension, how to start, when to switch from 1-1 ribbing to 3-1, how long to do the leg, the heel, how long for the foot, the toe, and generally being able to fix whatever goes wrong -- and believe me there's plenty.  But here it is the first sock.  Modeled by my daughter below:

she's doing a little happy dance

So which machine did I use? I've got a cast of characters and named each from Phantom of the Opera. There's Christine the 2007 NZAK, Buquet a Verdun 47, there are the two Legare 400s Firmin and Andre, the large Legare Piangi, the Gearhart Madame Giry, the Canadian AK Meg, the Verdun Semi-Automatic Raoul, and of course the English AK the Phantom itself. That's nine. Recently I acquired this beauty:

A top of the line, NZAK Mark IV. It's the cadillac of all machines, with steel inserts, brass stoppers, she's a marvel, and my Carlotta.

Will work for yarn

The Golden Fleece shop in Santa Cruz had a grand re-opening celebrating it's new ownership and invited Handwerks, the yarn company I do design work for, to do a trunk show.  I came along to help.  The day was soggy for the first weekend in June and we were wondering if anyone would show up.  Boy were we surprised.  The place was rockin'.  A constant stream of people, some coming just for us!  Well Laura -- and her yarn. I ended up with 2 skeins of silky wool in a new color Hummingbird, payment for 3 hours of "work".  We were so busy I barely had time to shop but I met a fabulous designer, one of the Bellsisters, and bought her pattern which I started in the same weekend.  Meet Joyette in-progress:

again in Handwerks silky wool, I swear it's fast becoming my favorite, color Sonoran Sunset.

I sold 3 of my own patterns as well.  And you know what the shop has?  A computer dedicated to downloading and printing patterns!  We had a great time.

  

Yarn Shop Hop

Last weekend I participated in the Peninsula to Pier Yarn Shop Hop, details here. This year they had daily raffles at each shop, goodies donated from various sponsors, and on Sunday, I won the one from Bobbin's Nest! 

There were 12 shops participating out of 15 in the area. Friday a group of us started our hop at Nine Rubies where a weaving class was taking place. We split up and half of us hit Uncommon Threads where I got the last skein of Handwerks 100% cashmere then met the others down in Morgan Hill at Continental Stitch where I got the cutest scarf kit.

Everyone we met along the way was nice and we oohed and ahhed at the raffle baskets. One person in our group won the basket at Continental Threads. We had dinner and picked up cupcakes in Morgan Hill, and ended the evening knitting with good friends and good wine. Three shops down and 9 to go.
The next morning we all got up and headed down to Carmel to Knitting by the Sea. It's been awhile since any of us had been there and we were all wishing we could stay for the day. But singled minded we had our breakfast and went straight, ooh a Coach outlet, to Knitting by the Sea where I succumbed to the cute project bag and some funky sock yarn. From there our GPS took us to a brand new yarn store on Foam St in Monterey. The Twisted Stitch was just getting their bearings but the shop was moderately stocked with some nice yarns, including some yummy laceweight merino from Pagewood Farms. A quick snack break and some carpool rearranging and we were off to Knitting by the Sea in Aptos. I fell down hard there what with the Misti Alpaca attacking me, recovered we split up again and went to Chic's with Sticks where I got tripped up by the Australian mohair. We all met up again at Swift Stitch who has Habu! Who could resist Habu? One final stop at Yarndogs before we called it quits and that was 9 shops with 3 more to go on Sunday.
Just the local shops now, 1-2-3, it was The Knitting Room, Bobbin's Nest and finally Green Planet where the two of us turned in our passports and celebrated our victory at Orchard Valley. Below is a sampling of handpainted goodies that didn't get past me. You can see all the spoils here.