Neumes and a sock...

I've been sick all week with some sort of stuffy-nose-sore-throat-achey-body madness. It's wretched. However, I did produce some neumes for you. On the right, you see some quadratic notation. From the left, a C clef, a clivis (my favourite neume), a pes, a virga and a punctum. I don't normally work (academically...) with quadratic notation; I prefer the German neumes of the 14th century. However, wouldn't have been able to knit them with worsted weight yarn. Their base shape is a rhombus. I'll knit some when I have some fingering weight yarn in the necessary colours.

In sock news, the Shelridge Farm yarn mentioned in the previous post has become part of a sock:

I never get tired of plain, stockinette socks. I rather like this colour way; I think I'm in an unrelenting pink phase. I'm not upset buy the way it is sort of pooling and there's probably nothing I could do about that, save knit a pattern into the fabric. I'm using US2 dpns and I rather like the weight of the fabric produced.

And now, back to the unscheduled coughing that is taking up too much of my time...

Post-Kalamazoo haze

I returned from Kalamazoo last night after a drive lasting more than an hour longer than it should have; I can't wait until the construction on the Dan Ryan is done, but I have a feeling I'll have started, finished my PhD and have tenure before that happens... I stopped briefly at Stitching Memories to peruse their sock yarn selection and came home with some Shelridge Farm 3-ply in a pink-orange colour way. Unfortunately, the price tag is covering any further information.

Here's sock 27 of the year; the mate of the sock in my previous post. It's resting on the windowsill of my dorm room at Western Michigan. My mother yelled at me because the first picture I took was of my knitting; not of my friends, not of the campus.

I didn't get as much knitting done as normal; the trade off, though was that I heard some interesting papers, made good contacts, and saw many non-knitter friends. I also received a scarf in a wool-soja blend from a Canadian knitter--also a friend. It's lovely and will match my winter coat quite well.

Finally, I want to mention the beginning of a new project. The Kunegunde Project will attempt to create a knitted tapestry of my favourite miniature of my favourite Saint. The miniature is found in a 14th century Gradual from the Archdiocese of Bamberg, which Kunegunde and her husband Heinrich II founded in the early 11th century. I've begun to chart the image and assemble the required yarns. More to follow.

I had about 64 grams of Dream in Color left over from the previous pair of pink socks and since I love this yarn so much, I'm not going to let it sit in my stash. The skein was about 128 grams when I first got it, so I used half for the first pair, which were a larger size than I usually knit. I've been keeping track yarn usage by weighing the ball on my kitchen scale (which, admittedly, gets more use as a yarn scale than as a kitchen scale...). The stitch pattern comes from a German sock book --Das Geniale Sockenbuch-- I got a few years ago. It was published by Topp, but doesn't seem to have a publication year.

I'm off to Kalamazoo on Wednesday! I don't think there are any sessions on medieval knitting though -- neumes, to be sure!

A Thursday

I'm tired today; I think everyone at the office was suffering the same thing. I've made a bit of progress on the Hedera (op. cit) but started to wonder if the chitin in the yarn could have a negative effect on the intended recipient of the socks, whom I believe is allergic to shell fish.

Here's a picture of my cats. I should have introduced them earlier, as their knitting help is invaluable. The cat in the foreground, Patch, is 13 and the one in the back, Amys, is about 6.

I've got just a bit of toe work to do on another stockinette sock, which I'd like to have done by the time the national news is on, giving me roughly half an hour.

22 and 23

Socks 22 and 23, out of the previously mentioned Dream in Color Smooshy were finished today. White paper provided for contrast... The colours are a bit lighter than the picture shows. I've not blocked them yet; I'm not actually planning to block them... They'll be passed on to their future wearer in just over a week at the Kalamazoo Medieval Studies Congress.

I went to the LYS in Delafield yesterday and came home with some lovely Lorna's Laces 3-ply in two shades of purple. That, however, has been stashed in favour of finishing up the Tofutsies (op cit.). I only used 34 grams for my first pair out of that ball, so I've cast on for knitty's Hedera. No pics yet, as it's just ribbing.

New Yarn

Yesterday I went to my favourite LYS for some new sock yarn and came home with 4oz of lovely Smooshy in colour 260. By 9 pm I'd already wound it. I've cast on my standard 60st. stockinette sock, as I need to have this pair done by the second weekend in May. Pics to follow. The weather here is awful today; cold and rainy.

Sock #20 of 2007

I started knitting socks as an exchange student in Tübingen, Germany in 2003. My sock production for the first few years was meager, but has increased significantly since 2006. In that year, I finished a record 54 socks.

My current pair:

yarn: SWTC tofutsies in colour 720, sweep you off your feet.

needles: US size 1, set of 5dpns

I've not managed to get all of the cuff, but that's k3p2 ribbing for about 3/4 of an inch before I switched to stockinette.