Too busy hiding

Okay, I'm not really hiding. I'm just worrying. I probably worry too much about things. Every Monday, I've started worrying as soon as I put an Orange Mystery clue online. Most Mondays, I had nothing to worry about. This past Monday, I was really worried because the clue #3 was a strange one. It wasn't your typical sock heel. I was relieved when a few people got through it. Then a few people had questions about one part. Then a few more had questions about the same part. Then I started questioning my pattern. And yes, there it was....a mistake. Argh! Okay, it wasn't too big of a mistake. My math was correct. I was my wording that made my math appear incorrect. sigh I've fixed it and I hope that's the end of worrying for this week.

On a happier note, I've been test knitting. That's all that I can really mention. It was fun, but I've found that I really don't have the eyes for editing. It's like my eyes just auto-correct things. All of the test knitters have kept in touch through email. It's amazing how many things I blew by and never noticed the error.

I did finish another pair of socks. This was for the orange part of SKA's September Sockdown. I've wanted to knit a cabled sock, but didn't want a typical cable. I went for the patchwork cable from Barbara Walker's 3rd Treasury. The stitch pattern itself wasn't wide enough for my socks and I had to think of a filler for the sides. I went with a simple twisted rib to match some of the patches in the cables. At the top of the sock, I wanted to use the seed stitch to match the other patches, but didn't want that to be the cuff and I didn't want it to just be at the top of the cables. I needed a dividing line. I figured out a way to do a horizontal line with a few yarnovers and passing yarnovers over other stitches. It turned out pretty good and I want to use that technique again in another sock. Surprisingly, it's not binding since it's done with extra yarnovers. All in all, I was very happy with how these socks turned out.

Details:
Yarn: Opal Uni in melon
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: my own using the Patchwork Cable II from the 3rd Barbara Walker Treasury
method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up using a Turkish cast-on, gusset heel with patterned flap
Start: September 4, 2008
Finish: September 10, 2008

In other knitting, I've started another pair of socks for E. I've also started some gloves for me. This is my first knitted glove (with complete fingers) that I've tried. Doing all of those fingers and weaving in all of those ends are fiddly, but the gloves are so pretty! Beyond that, I'm in the mood for lace again. I just need to sort out which pattern goes with which yarn in my stash....

Socks everywhere

Well, the orange mystery sock for Sock Knitter's Anonymous is underway. The first clue went out this past Monday. So far, the reception has been good. In ravelry, there are 61 listed projects for it so far. The first clue was really short. The second clue will come out next Monday and should keep everyone busy all week. The photos of the first complete clue are great! It's a lot of fun seeing my design knit in a similar color and by many different people. I feel for the group mods though. They have been inundated with questions about yarn being "orange enough." It's enough to drive anyone batty.

Since my last post, I've been knitting a lot of socks. These are mostly for E and D. They now have two new pairs for each of them(one hasn't been photographed yet). I'm back to knitting socks again. I had to cast on an orange one to count for September's sockdown. I'm still working on patterns. I'll most likely wait until the mystery sock is almost over before releasing another one.

From the left to right: Regia Line Steps for D, Elann Sock It To Me Puzzle for D, Regia Strato and Knit Picks Essential Black for E, and Enchanted Knoll Farm in Pumpkin Juice for me. The first three are various garter rib. That pattern is stretchy (great for kid socks), easy to memorize, and not boring.

The socks on the far right are another pair for me. I'm calling it Seeds for now. The yarn is called Pumpkin Juice and I wanted the dots to look like pumpkin seeds. They still look more like dots than seeds, but whatever. I still like how the socks turned out.

This is what I'm working on now for September's Sockdown challenge. This month is orange, a Cookie A. pattern, or the mystery sock. Since I've already done the mystery sock twice and those don't count, I'm going to do an orange sock and a Cookie A. sock later. The picture on the left is more accurate in color, but the one on the right shows the stitch pattern better. This is the patchwork cable stitch pattern from the 3rd Barbara Walker Treasury. It's a cool cable with various different textures in it. I've wanted to use it on something for sometime now and decided to just put it on socks. I've knit them up to the heel flap, so they might be done sometime this weekend. Back to knitting...