Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers

Lately I've been feeling a great fondness for my country and a great appreciation for our military. I've been a bit nervous about the escalating animosity toward the War on Terror and I fear (God forbid!) that this animosity might be directed toward the men and women involved in that action. Frankly, I fear that some of the same folks that rudely and childishly boo'ed George W. Bush as he stepped down on January 20th may also feel inclined to boo returning soldiers. I'm horrified by the possibility. I feel a great need to show my support for the men and women in the US Military. A bumper sticker just isn't enough (and I don't really like bumper stickers anyhow).

Also, I really like knitting socks.

So I signed on with a group called Socks for Soldiers, Inc. It's a group of knitters run by a woman named Kim Opperman. We knit regulation socks and caps, along with a few "leisure" socks and caps, for the men and women in the US Military. If you've never experienced the joy of a pair of well made hand knit socks you may think we're nuts. Just trust me, they're wonderful! Besides, socks are just plain fun to knit.

I purchased a Socks for Soldiers kit when I signed on with the group so I'd have everything I'd need to make soldier socks (well, almost everything):

I had to supplement the kit with a few additional knitting needles (you need three different sizes to follow the pattern), but everything else was there. There's olive drab Regia Stretch yarn, red white and blue beaded stitch markers, a tape measure, darning needles, an official Socks for Soldiers sock band, a copy of the pattern (not pictured), KnitPicks Harmony needles, and a vintage medic's personal effects bag.

I'm really pleased with the supplies. I've never worked with the Regia Stretch yarn before. It's really great stuff! Apparently it holds up to military laundry (machine wash hot, tumble dry hot) and military combat (24+ hours between a soldier's hard working feet and a pair of combat boots). Nice, eh? I think I'm gonna get me some of this stuff in some non-military color and knit myself some bike socks!

When I first started knitting socks I was warned away from stretchy yarns -- very difficult to work with, I was told. But this stuff is pretty easy to deal with. I think the stretch in this yarn comes from the way it's spun rather than any material (elastic) added to the yarn. Maybe that's the difference, or maybe stretchy yarns simply aren't as difficult as I was told.

Regia Stretch isn't as stretchy as elastic yarns but it's certainly stretchy enough. Laid flat, these 2x2 rib sock legs measure about 2.5 inches across, but they'll stretch over a 2 liter pop bottle.

This is one of the tests we're supposed to do as we knit to make sure that our socks will fit over the most buff of military legs.

I'm also liking the Knit Picks Harmony needles. I've been using Addi Turbo Lace needles for a vast majority of my knitting because, frankly, they're the best. But they're a little expensive, running around $15 for a single circular needle (I use two matching circs to make socks). The Knit Picks Harmony needles run a bit less than half that price. They're nice and sharp like the Addis and the highly polished wood needles grip and release the stitches nearly as well as the brass coated Addis. While the Addis warm up almost immediately when you pick them up, the Knit Picks are wood and thus never feel cold (this is very nice in the winter when my fingers tend to get chilly). The only possible complaint I have is that these size zero Knit Picks feel rather flexible. I'm sure I'll get used to that.

I'm about half way through my first pair of soldier socks. No one in my family is in the military. And, with the exception of a friend from college that I've since lost touch with, none of my friends are in the military. I feel really good about this project. I'm so happy to have this opportunity to connect in a small way with a few of the folks that have taken on the job of defending my country, my freedom, and my way of life. I'm very pleased to be able to thank them and show my appreciation with something more than words.

If you want to join Socks for Soldiers check out this informational site or the main Yahoo Socks for Soldiers group site. If you don't knit (you don't know what you're missing) but you want to help out, Socks for Soldiers, Inc. takes donations toward shipping costs and other goodies that go in the care packages with the socks.

Off I go to knit some socks!

"if you want to destroy my sweater, pull this string as I walk away..."

All done!

ok, almost all done. I still have to sew on the pockets and the buttons. And for some reason I've got Weezer stuck in my brain.. ouch!

If you recall when I originally posted about the sweater I thought I might like some vintage minty green shell or mother of pearl buttons. The big box craft store had a huge sale last weekend and all their buttons were half off so I bought a whole bunch, half of which I will probably never use.

I found some green shell buttons similar to what I'd imagined:

Hmm, no, not quite right. A little too boring and a little too shiny. Maybe if they'd been just a touch bigger and had a little ridge around the edge... but these just don't work.

I also found these buttons:

If only I could get my silly camera to focus on them! They're quite lovely and my blurry picture does not do them justice. They're just barely big enough, the patina and the color go perfectly with the yarn and, the detail gives them texture and pop. These buttons rock! I just gotta sew them on.

So, I learned a few things while knitting this sweater:

• Small mistakes aren't that hard to hide, especially in a piece like this, so long as you keep your stitch count right and don't do something really fugly.
• Those cheep plastic stitch markers suck. They constantly feel like they're going to break, they don't slide nicely over the needles, and they feel just plain wrong in your hands. Cotton scrap yarn works much better (cotton so it doesn't shed contrasting fibers on your work).
• Short circular needles have short needle parts. Short needle parts can be awkward.
  
• Ah hah! I'm a texture/feel-it girl. The way the whole thing feels and moves in my hands makes a huge difference in how much I enjoy knitting it. I know this seems like a no-brainer, but I usually think of myself as a process girl. For knitting, it seems, the feel is super important. The process is important, too, but it plays second fiddle. This explains my early distaste for inexpensive aluminum needles and my instantaneous aversion to those nasty plastic stitch markers.
  
• When it comes to finishing a nice warm sweater like this, motivation plummets when temperatures rise. Duh! Or maybe it's just that I enjoy the knitting part a whole heck of a lot more than the finishing work, even when the finishing is minimal. Also, Duh.
  
• There were errors in this pattern. *GASP* The Horror! Ok, no big deal. I've got the mad math skillz. Or at least enough math skills to sort out stitch count errors and the like. I was actually surprised that the errors and occasional vague instructions didn't cause me any real difficulty. Maybe I'm better at this than I thought!
  

So, sweater's done. Or, at least the knitting part is done. That's one knitting challenge down and many more to go. Time to move on to socks!

Actually, I moved on to socks last night. Hey, nice lady from the Whitmore Lake Yarn Co? Ya know that addi TURBO circular needle you talked me into buying when I thought I wanted a bamboo one? Wow! This is truly fantastically amazing. I love it. I want more. Thank you!


... If you want to destroy my sweater (wa wa)
pull this string as I walk away.
Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked
lying on the floor, lying on the floor..
I've come undone...

(ugh! that song is a brain worm! help!!)