Allergies suck!

I'm still here and still knitting. Spring has hit us with the full force and after effects of the yellow dust that is everywhere. Yes, it's pollen. I'm allergic to just about everything out there. I'm miserable without any allergy medicine. My nose is runny, stuffy, and my eyes feel like they want to seal shut. The stuff that I take to make me somewhat functional is making my brain feel like it's in a fog. I get so drowsy that I need to take short naps. Even a 5 minute nap helps get rid of the fog.

I'm working on some socks out of Regia surf cotton/wool yarn. These are black, grey, and white striped. It's just a simple stockinette sock. I think that these will go to my sister. I keep forgetting that I need to cast-on less stitches for a cotton yarn. My other pairs that I made last year get so stretched out and out of shape. They get too baggy during the course of the day. My sister has larger feet than me, so these will go to her and I won't have to frog.

I'm working on the Cabled Down Raglan from the spring issue of Interweave Knits again. This time, I'm using some cashmere odds and ends from Colourmart. I wouldn't normally pick this yarn for this sweater, but I'm trying to use up stash yarns. The color is a very dark navy blue. It's so dark that it's almost black.

Because of the brain fog, I'm not knitting that much. It's so frustrating.

Socks and more socks or sweater avoidance

I'm still avoiding the sweater that I want to make. I want to knit one, but I'm so indecisive as to what kind, what fiber, etc. I think that I've narrowed it down a little. I refuse to buy more sweater yarn. I plan to use something that I have on hand already. In the meantime, I'm still knitting socks. I've finished the Juice socks for myself. I think they turned out wonderful with this pattern. I haven't worn them yet, but these look like perfect spring time socks. I have started knitting socks for Dwight with the Lichen color. After seeing most of the foot knitted, the colors still meet his approval. They better!!! But after knitting the foot section, I realized that most of his store bought socks are thicker. Hmmmm. I need to look for a sport weight sock yarn in Dwight friendly colors. From the picture below, it looks like Dwight's socks can just melt onto our front porch.

Here are the details for the Juice socks:

Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers in Juice
Needles: size 0 Knitpicks classic circulars
Pattern: Monkey found at Knitty
started: March 16, 2007
completed: March 19, 2007

Bamboo 2--me 0

The bamboo wins again. Ugh. I tried making Spring Fling with it. I almost finished the back and it's huge! All of the bamboo is in a time out and I'm going to focus on socks and other projects for a bit. I think that I'll just stick with something plain for the bamboo yarn. I have ruled out cables and lace so far. I did like the pattern. I will have to keep that in mind for sometime in the future.

This yarn is from Black Bunny Fibers. I bought these a few weeks ago and love them. The yarn is very soft and the colors are wonderful. I bought the Juice(orange) color for myself and the Lichen(mossy/olive) color for Dwight. Yes, I'm going to attempt to knit socks for him again. He doesn't wear his other pair that often because he thinks they're a bit too crazy for him. He did wear them for St. Patrick's day because they are green. The orange is a very happy color. It was a welcome change after my bamboo disappointment. I knit some of the Monkey socks out of it and they turned out great! I'll post about those next time when I have pictures of the finished socks.

Summer sewing

This is the dress that I made for E last weekend. This was very quick to cut out and sew. I think it took around 2 hours from picking out the pattern and fabric to finishing the dress. I think it took me more time to pick out the pattern and fabric than it did for me to sew the dress. I like this pattern for several reasons. It doesn't have a zipper or buttons. It doesn't have interfacing. It's perfect for bumming around the house or wearing out of the house. I did make some changes. The dress was cut using the size 5 on the pattern, but the bottom was cut for the size 6 length. E is very slim and dresses fit her much better this way.

You can see the gap in the back in the picture above. After seeing her run around outside with the dress on, the gap isn't as bad as I thought it was. This dress doesn't gather, but has a more a-line look to it. This is much better for E. A lot of dresses look like they swallowed her. I plan on making a few more of these. Some will be out of nicer fabric and some will be for playing.

I'm posting the picture below because it instantly became one of my favorites of E. I love the way the sun made her eyes look in that picture. I have brown eyes and Dwight has grayish-blue eyes. E's eyes are a much lighter brown than mine.

Yes, I am stubborn

I have some bamboo yarn that I've been wanting to use. I really like the Cabled Down Raglan in the spring 07 issue of Interweave. So, I just had to try it out together. It didn't work. I like how slinky the yarn is and I like the cables, but they don't like working together. Everything that I read about bamboo said that it wasn't a good candidate for cables, but I had try anyways. It's frogged now and I'm going to save the pattern for later. I plan on doing something along the lines of a lacy cardigan with the bamboo.

The dress that I made for E came out okay. I took it in around the chest, but it still gaps in the back. Argh! I need to adjust the pattern for sewing it again. Tightening the elastic in the back wouldn't look right. I'm going to have to take in the front part of the top too. She likes it, despite all of that. That's what matters anyways.

It's amazing what I can get done

when everyone else is out of the house. Dwight took E and D on a really long hike. I think it might be around 6 miles total. E has made this hike a few times before, but this is the first time for D. On previous hikes, he rode in a backpack.

While they were away, I managed to sort through my patterns and figure out plans for a few yarns that I have. I vacuumed the house--thrilling. I made lunch and ate it in peace--hahaha! I sewed a dress for E. The last time I made a dress for her was two years ago. That's because those still fit the year after I made them. Maybe this one will last two years also. The dress is nearly complete. I just need E to try it on, so we can figure out how long the straps should be. I could go off of her measurements that I have, but I'd rather her try it on. I've already made a few adjustments to the pattern. I usually have to cut out the fabric in one size for width and a larger size for length.

Back to knitting...I finished these socks last Thursday. I took these pictures yesterday, but didn't get around to resizing until today. I figured out why flickr wasn't recognizing my exif information. When I saved the resized picture in Photoshop, I used the "save for web" option. That one saves the picture without the exif info.

The new Knitty came out. It makes me want to throw out my sweater plans and make more socks. I love all of the socks. I like a few of the children's patterns too. I really want to work on a sweater, so the socks and other patterns will have to wait.

One down, another to go

The first Cablenet sock is complete! It feels a bit looser than the socks I normally knit, but I'll live with it. My think my cast-on was too loose on this sock. I've started the next one already and did the cast-on much better this time around. I did the piquant heel. I love the way it looks. I'm usually a short row heel person, but this heel fits good too. I changed the toe to be less pointy. I'm happy with this one and I can't wait to finish the pair. My mind is wandering to other mini cabled socks. I'm not too fond of large cables on socks, but these mini cables are perfect for me. And while I was outside taking pictures, I took a few pictures of the scenery from the front porch.

I really like the photo on the left. That is what our porch looks like when some of the snow blows onto the porch. I like how it fades from complete snow to the wood. The blue chair is one that Dwight made a few years ago from a pattern out of ReadyMade magazine. The picture on the right is one side of our front yard. The little roof you see is the roof of the well house. The little tree on the left is what we use as our outdoor Christmas tree. We planted that the same year E was born. I've always liked the way those trees that lean over the sidewalk look with snow on them. The sidewalk didn't do it today, but when it's a little warmer while it snows the sidewalk gets a patchwork look to it. The snow will stick to the weeds between the stones, but the snow on the stones will melt.

I will conquer this sock!

I attempted Cablenet twice during Socktober and it didn't work out both times. I usually don't swatch for socks, but I should have for this pattern. The first time, I followed the pattern sizings and needles size recommendation. I knew that one wouldn't work. I didn't get to the heel turning and knew it would turn out HUGE. The second time, I went down in pattern sizing, but used the same needles. It ended too big. I frogged it and hid the yarn away in a box. After doing all of those shawls, I decided it was time to attempt the sock again. I'm determined to get this right. Plus, I'm stalling on starting my first sweater. ;-)

This time, I used the smallest size in the pattern and used size 0 Addi turbos. It looks like it will fit this time. I love how the sock is turning out so far. I'm not usually a bright pink person, but I think pink socks will be fun. I love all of those intertwining cables. I wonder how those little cables would look on a sweater? This yarn is a Cherry Tree Hill solid. I can't remember the color's name and can't find the label. The color in the picture to the left is more accurate than the picture up above. I need to work on my Photoshop skills to get the pictures closer in color.