Go...

I feel like I've been on the go since summer started. So many things to do and no time to blog about it. A quick recap:

-I finished writing out the patterns for the Tangled Woods and Whirligig Cable socks. Those can be found in my ravelry store.

-I finished writing patterns for two different items for a place that can't be named. ;-)

-I've finished knitting two more sock designs, but still need to work on the patterns. I'm calling one Divided and the lace one is still nameless.

-I'm almost finished knitting another new sock design. It's another pattern that seems to work with variegated yarns. I'm using Enchanted Knoll Farm in Wood Elves.

-We just got back from a camping trip. Laundry is done. Yay. I got a lot of knitting and reading done. Yay again.

-I started reading the Twilight saga books, got sucked into them, read them all, and now I want to re-read them.

-Watched the Twilight movie too. The movie is only good if you've read the book. Otherwise, it looks like the actors go around making weird facial expressions all the time. My husband found it amusing.

-I also read a book titled The Thirteenth Tale. Good book with a strange twisted story.

-I need to get a meal plan down for our next camping trip. I don't like the planning and packing part. bleh.

-The SolidSocks mystery clues are all out and I can finally post pictures. That's the picture at the bottom.

-I really need/want to figure out what projects to take with me on this camping trip. Many sock projects or maybe a shawl? hmmmmm.

Time flies...when you're designing

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted. A lot has been going on around here. I was asked to design the mystery sock for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. That is going on right now. The first clue was released on Monday. There will be two more clues to the pattern. I was asked to design a sock for two other things. Those are on the needles right now and I can't really say anything more about them. My desk is covered with various socks and needles. I don't think that I've ever had this many projects going at once.

In other news, my daughter's portfolio is done. It's been evaluated and everything turned out great! Our school year is over. Woohoo! She's been drawing a lot, writing stories, and reading since she's been done. She has also been going on pretend trips with her brother.

We went on an extended weekend camping trip. That was great, except for all of the pollen. I felt like I was constantly taking something to cope with my allergies. I did get A LOT of knitting done on that camping trip. We'll be taking a few more camping trips this summer. Socks are perfect to take on those trips.

I've finished a few socks that are bloggable. I finished the 52 Pair Plunge with 54 pairs of socks! There were some socks for my kids in there, but I think that most of them were adult sized. I would take a picture of all of them, but I've given away a bunch already.

These are Kai-Mei's from Cookie A's book. I knit this as part of a Sock Innovation KAL. They pick a different pattern each month. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to this month's sock. I'm not even sure if I have any available needles. ;-) These were knit with a merino/tencel sock yarn. It's so shiny! I like them and the yarn feels like a good summer sock yarn.

Pair #49 in the 52 Pair Plunge
Pattern: Kai-Mei by Cookie A in Sock Innovation
Yarn: Ashabee's Fiber Oasis in Fire Starter (merino/tencel) 80 gms used
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Start: May 1, 2009
Finish: May 2, 2009

I have two more socks that I've designed complete, but I'll save those for another post. Back to knitting...

Socks galore--Bex, Nebula, and Stranded

I thought about posting these three socks separately, but thought against that. It takes me long enough to post that I might as well do it all at once. So, here we go...

First up is Bex. If you're a knitter, you've heard of Cookie A. If you're a sock knitter, you've definitely heard of her. She's an awesome designer. I sample knitted this sock for her book, Sock Innovation. Sadly, that sock had to be shipped away and I think it's part of a trunk tour for Cookie's book. They didn't fit me either. :-( I've had this design for about a year and I knew that I wanted to knit a pair for me.

First, I needed to figure out how to modify the charts. Cookie states that there are three separate main areas of the Bex design and it should be easy to resize them. Instead of doing that, I just added a column of purls to the right hand side of the set-up chart. I kept that extra column for the leg chart, but had to move them when I came to the end of the repeat. If you have the book, I moved them on row 26. I would decrease the extra stitch away at the beginning of that row and increase in the very center of that row. Ta-da! Problem solved and the socks fit great!

Details:
Pattern: Bex by Cookie A in Sock Innovation
Yarn: flydesigns Lacewing in Lavender
Needle: size 2.25mm for the leg and instep, size 2.0 for the gusset and sole
Notes: I added 1 extra purl stitch to the chart. That adds 4 stitches to one round. I had to shift that stitch to accommodate the chart shift at the end of a repeat.
Start: April 9, 2009
Finish: April 24, 2009

The next sock is Nebula, another Cookie A pattern. I test knitted this and it had to be done quickly. She wanted one sock completed in a week. Sounds doable for most---right? With all of the twisted stitches and mini cables, this sock took longer than usual for me. I did still finish the pair in a week. This pattern is pretty cool in that it looks complicated, but isn't. The charts are small and very easy to memorize after a few repeats.

This pattern comes in 4 sizes. I knit the largest size for the leg, but decreased to the next size down at the gusset. This left the sole of the sock much smaller in stitch count than the instep. I had to improvise when it came time to do the toe. A few of the other test knitters carried the twisted rib through the toe. I've done that once and didn't really like it. It looks pretty that way, but no one sees it in my shoe anyways. ;-) I'll go for comfort instead.

Details:
Pattern: Nebula by Cookie A
Yarn: Opal 4-ply solid in red
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm) for leg and size 0 (2mm) for foot
Notes: cuff down, knit largest size for the leg, decreased the gusset down to the next smaller size for the foot
Start: April 13, 2009
Finish: April 19, 2009

And finally, we have the stranded sock. I'm calling it Loopy's Loopy socks because of the patterning on it and the yarn that I used for it. These socks are in the book Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch. I wanted to do them because I like how the stranded pattern is on the gusset and sole of the foot. I also like the seam down either side. That helps eliminate the jog that you can get with colorwork knitting.

Sock Knitter's Anonymous had a challenge to knit an under appreciated sock pattern. This pattern didn't have any projects listed in ravelry and no picture. I have been wanting to knit a stranded type pattern with one solid and one self-striping yarn. With this bold stranded pattern, I thought a self striping yarn would look great as one of the colors. I like how the Syncopation yarn has really wide stripes. It's too bad that it's so hard to get now. I bought this yarn a loooong time ago.

The name that I picked for this sock is fitting. These socks nearly drove me loopy. I had to knit three socks. The first sock was okay--stranding could be more even, but I'll live with it. The second sock turned out huge and I didn't discover that until I finished the sock. I had to frog the whole thing and start the second sock over again. The third sock came out great! It's probably my most evenly tensioned stranded project. Yay!

Details:
Pattern: Sock With Shaped Heel in the Knitting Marvelous Mittens book by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade and sKnitches Syncopation in Loopy's Red Socks
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Notes: modified charts to have 76 stitches instead of 84
Start: April 8, 2009
Finish: April 29, 2009

Now, the blog is all up to date with my finished projects. Well...of those that I can blog about. ;-) I've started a pair of plain stockinette socks for my son with some self-striping sock yarn from Elann. After that, I'm itching to design something.

Sample, test, sample

I've been busy. The title says why and that's all I can say. I've been doing some of my own knitting too. Ever since knitting the sample for Bex, I knew that I wanted to knit a pair for me. The problem was that the size it was written for is slightly too small for me. That pattern really draws in and is quite fitted. I could get the sample that I knit on my foot, but it wasn't comfortable. To fix that, I added 4 stitches to the round. This isn't as simple as adding a stitch to the stitch pattern, since this pattern shifts over after finishing each repeat. I had to add in the stitches and also take them out to move them whenever the pattern moved too. It was fun to figure it out.

My sock is knit with Flydesigns Lacewing in Lavender. It's such a squishy, pretty yarn. The yarn is a semi-solid and works really well with this intricate pattern. This sock has been put on hold by the projects in the title.

I have finished a pair of socks. This was started last month for the March Sock Knitter's Anonymous challenge. I've wanted to use this stitch pattern on a sock ever since I saw it, but knew that it would be too large at the written stitch count. I went ahead and used it anyways thinking that I could find someone with larger feet than me (my sister).

I made each sock a mirror of each other. The stitch pattern was easy to convert. It's also easy to memorize. I didn't need the chart after the first repeat. I used two lines from the pattern and repeated those for the cuff. After finishing the socks, I tried them on and they fit. Weird. This stitch count usually only fits my foot if the sock is heavily cabled and has no lace on it. I guess those tiny cables do pull it in enough.

Details:
Pair #41 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Shifted 8 by me
Yarn: Regia Line Step-green
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: March 30, 2009
Finish: April 16, 2009

I'm still hacking away at the 52 Pair Plunge total. I'm up to pair number 46. I number the socks as I cast on and that's why they sometimes appear out of order. So far, all of the numbered socks have been finished, except Bex. Still 6 more to go. It's still a reachable goal....

Smiling ear to ear...

I have so many reasons to smile this week. First of all, Cookie A's book, Sock Innovation, is out! If you're a sock knitter and don't have it--go buy it! Not only are there some pretty cool patterns from Cookie A, she goes into a lot of detail on how to design your own. I knit the sample for Bex (ravelry link) that's in the book. Cookie wasn't kidding when she said that the socks would be closely inspected. There are close-up shots of Bex in the book of the stitch pattern and of the heel area. Bex was my first sample knit and it was weird sending it off in the mail after I finished knitting it. I just sent off another one today. You'll probably be seeing it sometime next year. ;-)

Other things to smile about? Being asked to design something (by someone I look up to) is very exciting! Details are still being discussed, but it looks good so far. Asking if I will wholesale my patterns? Also very exciting! Now I need to figure out the printing costs and details for that.

Besides the sample knitting that became a priority last week, I'm still knitting a few of my own designs. This one was finished right before the secret project and after going through a few name changes I'm calling it Bug Parade. I initially thought that the center motif looked like spiders, but they grew wings after blocking. ;-) The smaller stitches on the sides are the leftover cicada wings that can be found everywhere after they've invaded an area. The first year that we moved here was a cicada year. I remember waking up one morning and wondering what that really loud humming sound was. It was all of the bugs digging into the trees around our house. Ewww. They left so many wings and body parts behind. Ewww again. After living here for almost 10 years, we haven't had another cicada invasion like that. We were told that it happens about every 17 years. I have no idea who came up with that number, but we'll see.

I've been in a bug mood lately. All of the stitch patterns that I've seen or tried resemble some kind of bug to me. It must be a spring thing when all of the creepy crawlies come out when the weather gets warm.

Details:
Pair # 40 in the 52 Pair Plunge II.
Pattern: Bug Parade by me
Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm in Esmerelda
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel, 1x1 twisted rib
Start: March 26, 2009
Finish: March 29, 2009

This pattern will be written up...sometime. I still have 11 pairs to go in the 52 Pair Plunge. I do have 2 pairs of socks on the needles already. I started a pair called Shifted 8 and found them a little bit too big for me, but perfect for my sister. I've started another pair with an altered stitch pattern and am calling it Shifted 4. So far, I like this one and I've been working on it a lot more than the 8 variety. Pictures to come in a few days...