Sewing, knitting, and beyond

Sigh

2012-01-13T09:31:00.005-05:00

My poor neglected blog. I've found it's hard to come up with regular and interesting posts. I just joined the twitter world. It doesn't help that I've had a designing block. Instead of socks, I've been knitting things other than socks and from other designers. I'm in Knitspot's Fall in Full Color club. That has been a lot of fun getting a new pattern from her every month. It's also kept me busy and I haven't finished all of them yet.

I'm still knitting socks, but they're self striping. When sock yarn is this pretty, it doesn't need a cool pattern to go with it.

I took a picture of my sock drawer years ago. Right now, there's a thread in SKA where someone asked about sock drawers. I thought it was time to take another picture.

This photo is from 2008.

This is from 2012.

And this is the other drawer of socks that I haven't worn yet.

And this is my box of sock designs, ideas I've tried, and variations of some of my designs.

That's a lot of socks!! I've been giving them away too. What I thought was cool is that there are some socks in the 2012 picture that are in the 2008. The design funk is over. I do have a new design on the needles right now. It has a few matching things that will go with it too. I just have to do the not so fun part of pattern writing.

Blankets

2011-09-23T14:05:00.006-04:00

This is a quilt that I'm working on for my son. His sister just got a quilt from me for her last birthday. I wanted to make something for his bed now that he has his own room. My little guy likes the color orange. I didn't want to go completely crazy with that color and found a really cute set of fabrics at Fabricworm. Most quilting fabric website sell bundles of fabrics from one collection. At Fabricworm, they bundle up coordinating fabrics from many different collections. I combined two of their collections (one mainly blues and grays and one blues and oranges) to make this quilt. I'm almost finished. I just need to add a bit more quilting in some bare spots and then the binding.

While I was organizing my yarns, I noticed that I have A LOT of sock yarn leftovers. I separated out the self-striping ones and figured out that I have enough of those alone to make a good sized throw. Each of these blocks takes a little over 10 gms of yarn. I usually have at least 20 gms leftover when I make a pair of socks. So each of my leftover balls of yarn over there on the left will get me two squares. There will be no sewing in this blanket. Yay!

There's another reason that I started this insanity. There's a bad cold running around our house. First, it took down my husband, then my son, and now my daughter and I. :-( The cough that I have is driving me crazy. I haven't wanted to work on any of my more complicated projects and this blanket has been getting most of my attention.

These are two of my neglected projects. The stole is Long Shadows by Anne Hanson. It is the August pattern from the Knit Spot Fall in Full Color club. The yarn is so pretty and the pattern is very straight forward. My mind just isn't into lace right now. The socks were supposed to be a new design, but I haven't gotten very far.

I'll just stick with the quilt and blanket for now. I hope this cold goes away soon so I can have all of my thinking capacity back for these patterns.

Threaded, 12 Legs, and Scales

2011-09-06T08:05:00.003-04:00

I have three new patterns! Two completed test knitting last week and the other one is a completed mystery knit. Threaded and 12 Legs are both cuff down socks. I had a lot of fun with the cables on these socks. Threaded has a cable that threads in and out of other cables. 12 Legs has something that looks like a mutant spider. I think that I'm in a green phase since I managed to pick green for both of these socks. 12 Legs was originally knit as a toe-up sock in red several years ago. I was never happy with the way that pattern that way and switched it around to a cuff down pattern.

Scales is the name of my August 2011 mystery sock for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. This pattern was released as four separate clues during August. Most of the knitters seem to see the hearts instead of scales, but I kept my name. The August theme was water and I tried to go along with that.

Scales is also a cuff down pattern with cables. All of my patterns have detailed descriptions for how to cable without a cable needle. It's not set in stone and I really don't mind if someone uses a cable needle. I just want to have that there just in case anyone would like to try it. I don't have descriptions for how to do the cables with a cable needle because I've never knit them that way. I don't feel confident in putting it in there if I don't actually use that method.

I still have a lot of other projects too. This is a stack of wash clothes for our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I had a lot of fun making them and I got to use up some of my neglected cotton yarn stash.

I'm also sewing again! I miss sewing. I like how a project can be completed in less than a day. I've been sewing hats for our shoe boxes too. I made four and then decided to make one for myself. My hat is the green one with flowers. I've wanted a hat for a while now, but haven't been able to find one that I really like. This green hat was my test run for interfacing and fit.

I have new sewing and knitting projects in the works. I also have a stack of projects that needs to be photographed. Busy, busy!

School!

2011-08-18T13:49:00.004-04:00

Our first day of school was yesterday. My kids got a jump start on me and started before I was finished with my coffee. The picture below shows my new "office" and the kids hard at work. They like that little table. This used to be a dining room, but you can see that I've taken over. hahaha! I have my desk where I knit and write patterns. You can see my sewing corner with my swift hanging on the wall. Just last night, I added my weaving loom right next to my desk.

The ironing board is only out when I'm sewing. Right now, I'm sewing tote bags to include in our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I wanted to sew bags last year, but time got away from me and I ended up buying cheap ones. I wasn't too thrilled with the quality of those and was determined to sew my own this year. The picture shows what I've accomplished in about 1.5 days of sewing. I've made 10 tote bags!

These are just basic tote bags. I didn't interface them or add any pockets because I didn't want the extra bulk taking up shoe box space. I did line all of them. They seem pretty sturdy. I put four of my knitting stitch dictionaries into one bag and it held up just fine. I'll probably make a few more bags and pick out the best ones for the shoe boxes.

I'm still knitting on my Gnarled Oakwoods shawl for Camp Loopy. What didn't help is that I got my first shipment of Knitspot's fall in full color club! I won't post a picture on the blog yet. The pattern is a scarf or stole. I really want to cast-on, but I should probably finish this stole first.

I do have a pair of socks in progress. They're self striping socks for my son. I'm avoiding designing anything new until I get some of my backlogged patterns written and test knitted.

Harvest

2011-08-16T09:03:00.004-04:00

It feels like harvest time. We have a constant stream of tomatoes coming into our kitchen from my daughter's garden. She's also brought in green bell peppers, pumpkins, green beans, and okra. Her sunflowers are huge! That ladder is about 8 feet tall.

I finished my Camp Loopy project #2. I knit Miss Sophie's Hands using Studio June's Eight Bells yarn in the Blue Suede Shoes color. I'm still not very happy with the fingers. They feel a tiny bit bagggy and I should have knit those with a smaller needle. I finished two other pair of socks for the cabled sock, mittens, or gloves challenge.

Now, I'm working on project #3. I'm using Bugga yarn in Common Emerald Moth to knit a Gnarled Oakwoods shawl. I've had this pattern for a while, but have been hesitant to knit it because of the grafting. I have no idea why. I've knit other large shawls that required grafting in the center.

For this shawl, I'm knitting both halves at the same time on one circular needle. It's sort of like knitting two socks at once from both ends of one ball of yarn. Since Bugga has a slight variation to it, I'm knitting both halves from both ends of the same ball of yarn. I hope that the slight variation between different balls of yarn will just look like shading that turns out equally on both ends of the shawl.

This is my 12 Legs sock pattern. It was originally knit toe-up a few years ago. I've changed it to cuff down. I want a good variety of cuff-down vs. toe-up patterns. This sock was knit with Dream in Color's Everlasting sock in Bitter. I really like the feel of this yarn.

I just put a call out for test knitters for this sock and for my Threaded pattern on ravelry. Both of these socks were knit with green yarn and both are cuff down. I need to find other colors to knit with. ;-)

I'm enjoying our last day before school starts. I'll be spending it knitting and pattern writing.

Summer's end

2011-08-09T09:05:00.004-04:00

A phrase commonly heard at this time of year..."where did summer go?" Summer's almost at the end and the school year is about to begin. I've installed software on my daughter's laptop. My son's lessons are organized on the shelf and ready to go. This summer has been filled with camping, house renovation, and reorganization. In between, I'm still knitting and working on patterns. Test knitting for two of my patterns ended a few days ago.

This is my Technical sock. I named it after what my husband calls difficult sections of mountain biking trails. This pattern throws everything at you--cables, lace, and twisted stitches. Some might think that would be a bit much for one sock, but I think it works in this case. This pattern is toe-up and has a patterned heel flap.

I used Lorna's Laces new Solemate sock yarn. This yarn has pretty cool heat regulating fibers in it. It's a blend of merino, nylon, and Outlast. It's the Outlast part that does the climate control thing. I thought lace would be a good fit for this yarn. Between the temperature regulating and the lace, these should make good warm weather socks.

This is my Not Connected sock pattern. I came up with the idea for this pattern right after I designed my Everything's Connected pattern. I wanted a similar look, but with the stitch pattern occurring in staggered columns. Then I threw in some lace on every row within those cells. Not Connect is also a toe-up pattern with a ribbed heel flap.

I have a mystery sock in the Solid Socks group on ravelry. We're up to clue #2 and there's still time to join the fun. This pattern, like my other mystery knits, will remain free. This sock is knit cuff down and is cabled.

I'm working on another cuff down pattern. I hope to get a good mix of cuff down vs. toe-up sock patterns in my store. I initially knit this pattern years ago toe-up. Writing the math for the toe-up version was getting complicated and that's why I switched this one to cuff down.

After that, I'll be working on project #3 for Camp Loopy. I'll be using Bugga to knit a shawl. I thought I had decided which shawl, but I've changed my mind. Again... Cast-on isn't until August 15th. I have plenty of time to change my mind and hopefully settle on a pattern.

i.d.w.i.w

2011-07-12T13:34:00.004-04:00

That's a phrase I hear from my sister a lot. She doesn't abbreviate that, but I didn't want to put the whole thing up there. It's "I do what I want." That's what I did with these shawls. The Loopy Ewe set up the challenge to knit a shawl using two colors. I've never knit a shawl in more than one color before last month. Now, I'm knitting them all the time. ;-)

These are tentatively called s.a.w. shawls. That stands for stripe at will. I had a basic idea for a triangular shawl, but I didn't want the stripes all over or in a regular pattern. This first shawl was knit with madelinetosh tosh sock in two colors from past Loopy Ewe sock clubs. They work well together, but the single green stripes got lost in the brown. This shawl had a mixture of single contrasting stripes and the larger blocks of contrasting color.

The next shawl, I wanted a lot more contrast. I used Wollmeise 100% in Himbeere and Blue Curacao. Since there is so much contrast, I decided to stick with the single contrasting stripes. I didn't want the shawl to read as only stripes, so I spaced out the stripes a lot more. This shawl turned out huge and I still had leftovers.

And because I worked on these while on a road trip and a camping trip, I had to take along more yarn "just in case." It turns out that I did have time to finish another shawl while on the trip.This shawl was knit with some interesting yarns. The orange is from Gaia's Colours and is 100% soy. I like the look of this yarn, but it does have an odd smell. The brownish yarn is also from Gaia's Colours and is a merino/bamboo sock blend. There was much less yardage in the orange yarn than any of the others. When it was getting close to running out, I worked the stripes across the whole bottom of the shawl and then finished it off with just the brown yarn.

I really like the shape of these shawls. I do plan on writing out the pattern to these. I think it might end more like a formula with instructions on how to do the different types of stripes and how to go about changing colors. These are fun and I wonder what they would look like if I added some lace into it? Hmmmm. I might have to start another one.

Garter shawls

2011-06-22T11:40:00.003-04:00

It now seems to be garter stitch shawls all the time over here. It started with Anne Hanson's les Abeilles shawl. I knit this using Fleece Artist Nyoni. I bought this back when the skeins were giant and had near 800(?) yards. I made the largest shawl and tried to use up as much of the skein. With this shawl, I've found that I really like the drape of garter stitch when it's gently blocked. Gently is soaked, and stretched out by hand without the use of pins.

Then The Loopy Ewe announced plans for summer camp. The first project had to be a shawl, cape, or scarf that used at least two colors of yarn. I bought yarn for my camp project, but also raided my stash for more yarns to use since there were a few two colored shawls that I wanted to try. I knit this Different Lines shawl before camp started with Handmaiden Casbah(blue-ish) and Dragonfly Fibers Djinni(green) yarn. This shawl is very soft and squishy.

Then is was time to cast-on for the official camp project. I picked a shawl called Stripe Study. This pattern is really easy to knit and it's also easy to memorize. After completing the first contrasting stripe, you can knit the rest of the shawl without looking back at the instructions.

This was also the same day we were leaving for a real camping trip. I packed along my camp project plus extra yarn to make another if I finished the first one. I ended up finishing both projects during the camping trip! The brown is Dream In Color's Starry yarn in November Muse. The other three colors are Smooshy in Grey Tabby, Spring Tickle, and Absolute Magenta.

I've started another garter stitch shawl in my own design. Right now, it's scrunched up on a circular needle. I should be done with it in a few days. I have a few more ideas floating around in my head too. But I do still have a sock pattern to finish. So much to do and too many ideas.

Brand new!

2011-06-07T10:31:00.003-04:00

Some quick thoughts before I get back to pattern writing...

So many new things have come recently. I have 2 new patterns coming out in two different sock clubs in June. I'm pretty excited about the designs. Unfortunately, those designs won't be available to the public until next year. I have another 2 new designs that will be at TNNA this weekend! I'm excited about those too, but a bit nervous(?). This is the first time my designs will be somewhere so public and hopefully seen by many people in the knitting industry. eek.

I also have a brand new laptop! Woohoo! No more sluggish computer while running Photoshop. Along with the new laptop, we signed up for a better internet connection. There isn't much available out here, so what we have now seems so expensive compared to dial-up. Then again, it is so much faster! I can actually get stuff done on the internet and then work on my patterns. I used to do both at the same time while waiting for pages to load.

And with a new connection means the old email must go. Ugh! It's a pain changing out my email address at every website.

I'm working on a new sock design. This one will be the mystery sock in the Solid Socks ravelry group in August. Actually, I'm sort of stuck on this. I have more than one design that I like a lot and I can't decide which one will be the mystery. I'll probably write up all of them and decide later.

Busy bees

2011-04-26T08:53:00.003-04:00

Spring is here. Our azaleas have bloomed and gone. Seeds have been planted in the garden. Carpenter bees are buzzing. We battle those every year trying to prevent them from drilling new holes into our house. I've been buzzing around knitting a lot of socks.

I've been in a lace sock mood. It started with the sock that I designed for The Loopy Ewe's April club. The yarn is madelinetosh's Tosh sock in Midnight Rendevous. It's a very dark purple--almost black, but not. I tried my usual cables or twisted stitches, but this yarn wanted to be lace. Plus it was an April pattern. Lace is more appropriate for this time of year. The center portion of my pattern, Rubus, reminds me of blackberries. I know it's not the season for them, but with spring comes thoughts of berry picking. The side/secondary part of this pattern reminds me of vines.

My other lace socks were done with a desire to have a few patterns with smaller charts. I was in the middle of designing other things that can't be shown and sample knitting. I needed sock patterns that I could work in between those. These are all easy to put down and figure out where you left them when you work on them again.

There was a knit-a-long in the String Theory group on ravelry. My goal was to knit all of last year's sock club colors and I squeaked in and finished. I also won some yummy smelling perfumes in a random drawing from the finishers list. That opened up a whole new world of shopping. ;-)

As of March 30, I have completed the 52 Pair Plunge IV. Yay!! That link goes to my project page that lists all of my completed socks between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. I'll continue to list socks there until the deadline to see how many I do finish. And since I don't see my designing, sample knitting, or my kids feet will stop growing any time soon, I've signed up for the 52 Pair Plunge V for next year. The next challenge starts July 1.

Knit and release

2011-03-25T11:42:00.005-04:00

You know those fishing shows where they catch something really cool and then let it go? That's what it feels like I've been doing for the last month.

I've been working on a few designs and knit a few samples. And then they're off in the mail. Since the last blog post, I've complete 6 more pairs of socks. Most of them can't be shown. Sample knitting is pretty cool. It's like getting a "behind the scenes" view into what a design goes through. Plus, I get to knit cool stuff, but don't have to keep it. Yes, I have too many socks in this house.

Spring is teasing us. We've had a few warm days where we could actually open the window. And then we have a chance of snow this weekend.

I'm on week 3 of no chicken or beef. I wanted to mention it because it's not feeling like that big of a sacrifice since I'm not really missing them. I've never really liked touching raw chicken. I usually let my husband grill it so I don't have to handle it at all. And with beef, I stick with ground beef that can just be thrown into a pot. Eating out has been interesting. I've been forced to order more veggie based things and have found a few new favorites! I usually order a chicken fajita quesadilla at my favorite Mexican restaurant, but now I've tried their spinach quesadilla and it's just as yummy.

I had to give my hands a little rest, but I should probably get back to knitting.

Back on track...socks!

2011-03-07T10:59:00.004-05:00

This dial-up connection is wearing me down. Increasingly, there is less and less that I can get to load in a reasonable time on the internet. And that is frustrating. I've started looking into a satellite connection or even something like Verizon's hotspot. Either one would work for our location, but the limits are really...limiting. CNN even had an article about 1/3 of the US not having broadband. The article even included a link to see if broadband was available in your area. Adding insult to injury, that website initially wouldn't load. :-( After trying it a few more times, I finally did get it to load just to find out that nothing is available here except for the two options that I mentioned above.

Ugh, enough of that ranting and onto knitting! The two socks above were finished a while ago, but we had some really dark cloudy days that made picture taking difficult. Those were taken indoors. I really like the lace on the blue socks. It's fun and the chart isn't too huge. The beige socks are Enchanted Knoll Farm in Gold Dust Woman. The blue socks are Dream in Color Everlasting Sock in Blue Fish(and it did turn my fingers blue).

I've been knitting more self striping yarns lately. I'm supposed to be writing patterns and need to focus one those. Plus, I want to use up some of my String Theory yarns from last year's club before this year's club starts up again. From top to bottom and left to right: Ultraviolet Catastrophe, Horsehead Nebula, Chrysocolla, and Neon. That last one was hard to photograph. The camera kept washing out those super bright colors.

I've woven a few more scarves. I've started using my cashmere and cashmere/silk blends to make really long scarves that you can double up around your neck. No pictures of those because I haven't washed all of them yet.

I'm on a lace sock kick right now. I just finish done a few days ago and I'm working on another one right now. Lace socks seem to knit up quickly. I'm up to 45 completed pairs of socks for this 52 Pair Plunge. Only 7 more to go before the end of May.

Stream of consciousness

2011-02-17T16:16:00.003-05:00

I did take pictures for this post, but I didn't like how any of them turned out. I'll try again another day. So many things going on, I'll just list some of them.

My daughter had a birthday. The day was filled with all of the things that she wanted to do. One was to learn how to weave! She started and finished her first scarf on my Cricket. She liked weaving a lot more than knitting or crocheting. I finished her quilt and she loves it!

My 25 inch Schacht Flip arrived and I've woven one thing on it. I made a 16 inch wide scarf/shawl with sport weight yarn to try out the loom. Next up, I want to use my Colourmart cashmere yarn or the cashmere/silk blend to make a really thin and wide scarf/shawl. Before I do that, I tested out a 100% cashmere scarf on the Cricket. I only broke one warp thread while trying to wind it on. Not bad and the scarf looks so light and fluffy.

I finished two new sock designs, but those are the pictures that I didn't like. I need to take a break from design so I can write up these patterns! Two sock patterns have been tested and those will be released soon. I had issues with the 80 stitch size in one of the patterns. I'm still thinking about cutting that size out.

I finished a pair of fingerless mitts for my sister. She saw the purple pair and liked them, but I had to make them in a more sister-friendly color. I also wrote out the pattern for it and that needs to be tested.

My sister let me watch many episodes of The Vampire Diaries off of her dvr while I visited last year. I bought season 1 on dvd and have been watching/listening to it while weaving or knitting in the evenings.

Cookie A.'s sock club has started!! The first set of patterns is very cool. I want to try to make the cookies too, but I need to go shopping for ingredients.

There's still space left in the Heisenberg Principle sock club. If you like some of the self-striping socks that I've knit recently, run on over there and sign up. I really like how flexible the club is. You can pick dyer's choice of yarn bases or you can pick to have all shipments in a certain base. You can also add-on a mini skein for heels/toes.

The wood laminate part of our flooring project is done! We want to put something else in the kitchen, but haven't decided on it yet. I've bought curtains/drapes(what's the difference?) for our former dining room/future office. They're a deep red, shiny, and pretty! Now, I just need to order the furniture for that room.

Right now, I only have 1 pair of self-striping socks on the needles.

Not just socks

2011-02-03T11:09:00.003-05:00

I do work on things other than socks. ;-)

I finished these a while ago, but wasn't able to get a good picture of my own hands. I had my daughter take this picture and it came out pretty good! I'm going to have to ask her to help out with picture taking if I'm going to continue designing things like these.

These fingerless mitts were made using modified charts from my Unicurve sock pattern. I plan on writing and releasing this pattern soon. I just need to work on the thumb numbers some more. What I really like about these is that they use less than 50gms of yarn and that the pattern is really stretchy. This is the medium and it's loose on me.

These are the scarves that I had drying on a rack in the last post. I'll show some close-ups of the patterning that each yarn made.

Yarn used from left to right: Fiesta Baby Boom, Fleece Artist BFL, Cherry Tree Hill, All Things Heather, and Jojoland Quartette

Yarn used from left to right: Yarn Pirate, FlyDyed, and the last three are Red Heart

The Red Heart scarves were a fun experiment in weaving with 2 colors. I need to work on my technique when I change the colors on the side.

I've started a new and simpler sock pattern. I've also reminded my self why I like twisted stitches, cables, and large charts so much. This sock is boring me. I don't really have too much motivation to work on it because it such a small stitch pattern. I have it memorized and it just seems endless while knitting it.

I did shake things up a bit by trying out a different short row heel. This one is called the double stitch, yo yo, or sister stitch short row method. I like it. It does seem easier to do than my usual wrap and turn. But I'll have to figure out how to add this to a pattern without being too wordy.

I did start another lace sock, but I don't have pictures of that one yet. It has a larger chart and a lot more interesting to work on than this one.

Obsess much?

2011-01-26T14:00:00.006-05:00

This is only 7 of the 10 scarves that I've woven between January 13-23. Yeah, some might call me crazy. I'm calling it a necessity. In the grand house remodeling project, my computer, craft, and homeschooling room will turn into my daughter's bedroom. That means all of my yarn, fabrics, and books will have to be relocated. In an effort to ease that relocation, I'm trying to use up some of the things that have been sitting around for a while. And this includes my variegated sock yarns. I'm designing with mostly solid yarn or semi-solid yarns now. Plus, variegated yarns look pretty cool when woven. A few of them will give an automatic plaid effect. I'll post more details about the scarves and the yarns they're made out of when I can get better pictures. I would like to have a little sunlight, but it's snowing again.

I've finished the Threaded socks that are pictured in the post below. I will be writing up that pattern soon. The Mullion test knit is moving along. There have been sooooo many missing symbols on the charts. The test knitters have once again been awesome in catching them. Yesterday, I put a call up for test knitters for my Taglioni socks(over there on the left). That has been filled quickly. These were originally called emaNoN, but I've changed it to Taglioni because of the way the cables look like the ties on ballet shoes. I like the emaNoN name and it will be back on another pattern.

Another thing that has been hanging around for a long time is a quilt for my daughter that I started over 5(?!) years ago. The top is pieced flannel, with flannel back, and a layer of batting in between. I had a crazy idea to hand quilt it since it wouldn't fit in my sewing machine. Well, it's thick and hard to hand quilt. I did about 1/4 of it before I stuffed it in the closet. My daughter has asked me many times if I'm planning on finishing it. I've decided to just tie it and be done with it. I started tying it last night and I like the way it looks so far.

Because I don't have enough to do around here (haha!), I've started a cross stitch pattern for my son. My daughter has one of those birth record frames that a friend of ours made. My son has asked why he doesn't have one. We picked one out and I'm working on it. I'd forgotten how slow cross stitch can be.

I'll end with more house remodeling pictures. The picture on the left shows the wall that we had to build. That's where the refrigerator used to be. The picture on the right shows the other side of that wall. You can see the rectangle on the floor of where the box around the refrigerator was. See that mural wallpaper? That's gone. We'll be putting up more cedar wall planks on that wall to match the rest of the house. That wall will also be covered with bookshelves when we're finished. This will be my new computer, craft, and homeschooling room.

Start and finish

2011-01-18T10:22:00.006-05:00

The Complicated test knit is almost finished. Things have gone really well and my test knitters have been awesome! I should have a new call out for test knitters later today for Mullion or Crooked Wheels or maybe both.

I've started another new design. I'm calling this one Threaded because of the cables that pass through the loops. I guess that I'm still fixated with cables. I like how they stand out and after a few rows, you can usually tell where they're going to go. These are easier on my hands than all of those twisted stitches I designed last summer.

I'm still working on using up my stash yarn. Since my last post, I got out my neglected Cricket loom and wove 4 new scarves on it. I don't have any pictures of those yet because they haven't been washed. I've been thinking a lot about getting a new loom. I want a wider one and have been considering the 25 inch Schacht flip.

Our remodeling is still moving along. We now have a revamped pantry. We had to do that to be able to remove 3 cabinets from our kitchen. We had to move the cabinets to make room for the refrigerator. We had to move the refrigerator to free up the corner of the dining room where it used to be. One thing just led to another and half of this floor is a mess right now. I really like the new pantry.

Busy, busy. Lots of things going on around here.

Great News x2

2011-01-13T13:35:00.004-05:00

Exciting stuff going on around here. Sheri over at The Loopy Ewe announce this year's plan for the Loopy sock club. It's changing and will be called Club Loopy. I was surprised when she announced the designers for the spring round. I'm so used to designing and then having to keep quiet about it for many months. I can't say what yarn I'm using or what color(s?) I've been assigned, but I will say that the yarn is pretty and soft. ;-) Is that vague enough?

This is the sock that I finished a while ago, but couldn't post. Allison posted about it on her blog, so I guess it's okay to talk about now. Months ago, she asked if I would design a sock for her Valentine's Day kit and if some of my recently designed socks were available. She liked Zurc, but asked for one change. I like to knit my socks toe-up and she prefers cuff down. Fortunately, Zurc was an easy design to flip.

Okay, there were two changes. I always knew Zurc would be a temporary name, but I have a hard time coming up with good names for my patterns. Allison's husband came up with Papyriform. I like it and it's so much better than the temp name. She knit it up in a great variegated/semi-solid color called Silver Plume. Check out the rest of the kit while you're there too.

The Complicated test knit is moving along smoothly. A few errors and typos have been found. One of these days, it would be cool if the test knitters found no errors. Haha! I'll most likely start up another test knit next week.

Complicated Testing

2011-01-07T11:46:00.002-05:00

The testing itself isn't complicated, but Complicated is the name of the sock. The sock isn't that difficult, but I do like the "It's complicated" quote from The Count of Monte Cristo. Sadly, I've never made it through the whole book . I do like the movie a lot. It's one that I'll actually listen to while knitting.

Complicated is a toe-up sock with a gusset and slipped stitch heel flap. I have a call for test knitters in the Free Pattern Testers ravelry group. If you'd like to test, come on over and join the group.

Socks for others

2011-01-06T13:09:00.003-05:00

I usually knit for me, but lately I've been knitting socks for other family members. My daughter is to the size where I don't have to knit socks specifically for her anymore. Back in my early sock knitting days, some of my socks were a tad too short and I finished them anyways. Now those socks belong to my daughter. They're a little bit long for her, but she'll grow into them just like she's grown out of all of the other socks that I knit too big for her last year.

My son still has little feet. By little, I mean that they're about 2 inches shorter than mine. They're not the tiny little feet anymore. I loved knitting socks for his little feet and now he's growing too fast. These socks were knit big on purpose. He mostly wears these around the house. With our new laminate flooring, he likes sliding across the floor in them too. Both socks are sport weight Fortissima yarn that I bought several years ago from Little Knits. They were one sale and I bought a lot of it because it was hard to find sport weight self-striping yarn back then. Over the years, my kids have socks in several different sizes from this yarn. It's not too scratchy and very sturdy yarn.

My husband is picky about his socks. He usually lives in smartwool type socks in the winter. I remember when he bought a pair early in our marriage and I wondered why socks could cost so much? Jokes on me since the yarn that I buy now usually costs more than that. I've knit him a few pairs over the years and he's had an opinion about all of them. Fingering weight merino/nylon blend--too thin. Sport weight self-striping--too scratchy. Sport weight indie yarn--felted and now no longer fit.

And then we come to Knit Picks Felici. He says that this one is very soft and is one of his warmest pairs of socks. For last Father's Day, I gave him a pair out of the Sticks and Stones colorway. He's worn those weekly through fall and winter and they have held up really well. Recently, I finished another pair out of the Ecology colorway. He did say that they colors were a bit bright. I mentioned that if he could wear orange smartwool socks, these were along the same lines in brightness. He did wear then and he does like them. Yay!! I have a few more pairs for him planned. I just need to knit them on the sly before he can see the colors. ;-)

I'm still working on pattern writing. I have three patterns that are really close to the test knitting stage--Complicated, Crooked Wheels, and Mullion. Another pair is almost there--just needs some clarification in the leg to cuff transition. The fingerless mitts pattern has stalled at the thumb gusset. I'm stuck on the wording.

This year is off to a busy start.

2010 in review

2010-12-30T10:39:00.005-05:00

Another year ends and knitting is still going strong. I've knit more from my stash, but somehow my stash didn't decrease. ;-) One of my goals this year was to mainly knit my own designs and I did do that. Here is my 2010 project count:

Scarves: 4
Shawls: 5
Legwarmer: 1
Fingerless mitts: 2
Christmas stockings: 2
Socks: 67

Of the socks: 10 were kid-sized, 23 were self-striping, and 30 were my own designs. I didn't design 30 different socks. I knit a few of them more than once either changing colors for the stranded pattern or different sizes. I did release 12 patterns this year. I hope to release more next year. I already have a few designs ready to be written and others that are ready to be knit.

Since I don't like posting without pictures, here are some of my latest finished socks. From top to bottom and left to right, the yarns are Wollmeise Twin in Taube, Dream in Color Everlasting in Tang, Dyelectable Yarns Lolita in Crimson Moon, and Light Brown Hare-Three Hares in Happy New Year.

Right now, I'm working on some self-striping socks for my husband. He's decided that he likes the Felici Sport weight socks the most in terms of warmth and softness. Coming from him, that's high praise for a hand knit sock. In the past, other socks were too thin, too scratchy, etc.

We also have a big project going on in our house right now. We've ripped out the carpet and are installing some laminate flooring. We live in an old log house and nothing is level or square. That makes any type of home improvement project a pain. We had a lot of problems a few years ago trying to get a new tub/shower into one of our bathrooms. Before putting the laminate down, we had to repair some old water damage (ugh!) and level the floor. To do that, we also had to take out the stonework around our fireplace. Below are before and after pictures.

I hope this next year brings a finished floor. Not just in our living room, but the rest of that floor. I also hope to publish more patterns. See you next year!

Catching up again

2010-12-13T11:10:00.004-05:00

Brief update: Took a lot of projects with me to work on during Thanksgiving week and finished only one. Instead, I spent time catching up with my sister at her new house, playing with her new dog, watching dvr'd episodes of Vampire Diaries and Big Bang Theory, and just hanging out with family. It was a great week, so I'm not too sad that I didn't finish much. And of the projects that I took with me, the one I finished was picked up and will be used by a yarn store. I won't post pictures of it now.

Here are some recently released patterns:

The pair on the left is Pirate Danger. It is another one of my toe-up, twisted stitch, with a heel flap and gusset designs. I initially put a short row heel on this, but decided against that and put a slipped stitch heel on it. This pattern is charted and available in two sizes. Within those two sizes, the pattern can further be sized by adding purl stitches in between motifs. The skull is already a large motif, I didn't want to make it larger.

The pair on the right is called Snakes. It is also a toe-up, twisted stitch, with a heel flap and gusset design. This design started because I saw the center motif in a twisted stitch dictionary. I liked the look of it and wanted to use it in a sock. The challenge on this sock was to find enough other motifs in a similar design in the stitch and row counts that I needed.

I've named this sock Harps and Strings. It's currently available for free with purchase of Mini Mica yarn at Saffron Dyeworks. It's been wonderful working with Dee again. She dyes such pretty yarn and this Mini Mica yarn is just luxurious. It's a 50/50 blend of merino and silk. The yarn is very soft and has a great sheen to it.

The sheen provided some difficulty in designing a pattern. The shininess likes to compete with stitch patterns. I had to find a stitch pattern bold enough to withstand the shiny competition for attention in this sock.

Right now, I'm working on three different cabled socks. I also have some Christmas projects that I'm working on in secret. I can only work on these in the evenings after my kids have gone to bed.

I've also started thinking about next year. I have a few projects that I'm signed up to do and I'm very excited about them!

Cables

2010-11-08T10:19:00.004-05:00

November is here and I'm still busy. Pictured above are my Fenestra, Unicurves, and Downward Spiral sock patterns that have recently been released. The mystery sock OppAtt is going on in the Barking Dog Yarns group. Almost everyone participating is using the Opposites Attract yarn and it's fun to see the different pairs of colors.

Snakes, Pirate Danger, and an unnamed red sock for Saffron Dyeworks are currently being test knitted. Those should finish this week or next and then be released this month. The red sock above is the one that I designed for Saffron Dyeworks' Mini Mica sock yarn. It's a luxurious merino/silk blend. The yarn has a pretty shine to it and can surprisingly withstand multiple froggings without showing signs of it.

It's exciting to see my designs pop up as ones knitters have chosen to knit for the November SKA challenge. I'm participating too, but I'm designing a few new cabled patterns. Below is my first November sock. I used the new Dream in Color yarn called Everlasting Sock in the color Gilt. It's an 8-ply fingering weight yarn that leans towards a heavier fingering weight. These socks were knit with a 2mm needle and feel very sturdy.

A lot has been mentioned about comparing this yarn to Wollmeise. Everlasting feels thicker and squishier than Wollmeise. Wollmeise is smoother and shinier than Everlasting. Both yarns show off twisted stitches and cables really well and come in great colors. The extra plus that I would give to Everlasting is that it is easier to find.

Very Busy

2010-10-20T11:48:00.005-04:00

Yeah, it's been a long time again. I thought about just giving up the blog. If I want to include pictures in my post, it takes me about an hour with uploading and formatting. That eats too much into my knitting/designing time. Maybe I'll just do a few posts without pictures and see how I like that. I'm pretty much on ravelry all the time now. Especially right now. I've been busy actually writing knitting patterns! I know...I've been meaning to do them, but I'm a lot more motivated to knit than to write.

I was voted in as a designer of the month at Sock Knitter's Anonymous and November is my assigned month! Woohoo! Because of that, I'm pushing myself to get new patterns out before November. I'm having several patterns test knitted. I've used the Free Pattern Testers group for the first time and it's been a great experience. Sure there are a few rules that have to be followed, but keeps the group running smoothly. I like that the pattern testers are not afraid to tell me the truth about wording and such. I hope it makes my patterns better!

I was also asked to design a sock for a November knit-a-long in the Barking Dog Yarns group. I'll be using her new Opposites Attract yarn. The idea is very cool and the results are interesting. You buy sock yarn in sets of 2-50gm skeins. One skein will have a dominant color with a few other colors. The other skein will be the opposite with one of the other colors as the dominant. This yarn is great for mirrored type sock patterns.

I have another pattern that will be released in November as part of a sock club. I can't really say more than that. I'm also working on another sock pattern for another indie dyer. That one will be released in mid-November. Preparing for November has kept me really busy.

Two of my patterns pictured in the post below have just finished test knitting. Split Cells and Chimes are now for sale on ravelry.

DYO

2010-06-24T09:05:00.004-04:00

One of the categories for June at Sock Knitter's Anonymous is Design-Your-Own. This is probably my favorite month. I started designing 2 years ago during DYO month. It's pretty cool to see a lot of other knitters take a try at designing too. I've been casting-on a lot of different socks to keep me busy during the rest of this month and into July. July is always a busy month for with relatives.

I finished these self-striping socks back in May. The black and white stripes are from Lovesticks, who sadly doesn't seem to be making self-striping yarn anymore. The other two pairs are from Vesper yarn.

I finish two pairs of socks that I designed. The first is called Chimes. I'm back to doing the toe-up type of sock with a gusset and heel flap. I really like this method because I can carry the design down the heel. I like carrying the pattern through the toe area too. I didn't like how some of my other sock pattern start out with a stockinette toe and then move to the stitch pattern with no type of transition.

Pattern: Chimes by me
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% in Campari Piccolo
Needle: 2mm
Method: magic loop, 1 at a time, toe-up, gusset with patterned heel flap
Start: June 8, 2010
Finish: June 15, 2010

This pattern is very different for me. First of all, it's cuff down. Second, the stitch pattern fades out half-way down the foot. I like it though. It was a nice change of pace from my usually designing method:

Pattern: Split Cells
Yarn: Light Brown Hare-Three Hares-Poison Apple
Needle: 2mm
Method: magic loop, 1 at a time, cuff down, heel flap and gusset
Start: June 8, 2010
Finish: June 19, 2010

We went camping with friends for an extended Father's Day weekend. The kids got to try out rock climbing. My daughter was more into it and could trust whoever was holding the rope. My son and his friend are about the same age. They were hesitant on the rock and didn't ever make it very far up. They did have fun wandering around and climbing up rocks on their own.

Halfway around the world and back

2010-06-08T23:21:00.006-04:00

Too much to say, so I'll just let the pictures show you what I've been doing these past few months.

I'm still knitting socks. I was sick when we got back and stuck with easy stockinette socks for a while. I've also used this time to write out some of my patterns. I plan to continue knitting self striping socks until I make a good dent in my to-do pattern pile.

Busy

2010-03-23T10:12:00.003-04:00

These are some of the socks that I've been working on since my last blog post---wow, back in January. I've been busy knitting, trying to focus on pattern writing(not succeeding), homeschooling(we're ahead of schedule!), and family stuff(good stuff). Spring is here and that means vacation and camping plans will be made soon.

I've tried some new yarns from different sellers on etsy. Great yarn, very pretty colors, and good prices too.

I've tried out different circular needles. Addi lace---like them. Hiya Hiya circulars--like them too. Robyn's Nest circulars--like them also! Those are very different. I'll have to take a picture of the different needles for comparison. I also tried the 5" Knit Picks Harmony dpns. I like those too, but I still favor magic loop for socks. It is nice to have a lot of options now.

Back to knitting!

Quality

2010-01-29T23:33:00.003-05:00

Or longevity. I know that the socks I knit will someday have holes worn through them. I'm okay with that. At the rate that I knit socks, it's probably good. My mom likes to wear one pair constantly (wear, wash, repeat as soon as it's out of the wash) until it gets a hole in it and then moves onto another pair. My kids will wear holes in any yarn that doesn't have nylon in it and then even some that do.

But when it comes to knitting needles, I do not expect them to wear out. The ones that I've used lately seem to have some sort of expiration date. I know that the company will replace them, but I've already had several replaced. I just don't like the waste of the needles that came apart. Their average life is about a year. One year for me is around 40-50 pairs of socks. Not all of those are knit on the same sized needle. I don't think needles should wear out that quickly or ever.

Right now, I'm on the look out for new needles. I've even started and finished a sock on dpns! Can you believe that? I can't show those socks since they're for a sock club. It was fun knitting with dpns again. That's how I learned to knit socks. I'm also using my 9 inch needle again. Those take a while for my hands to get used to them.

These socks are tentatively named Tessellating sock #2. Wonderful name, right? These were a lot of fun and quick to knit. I like the little linked bubbles. This one would be a great way to use up a lot of little bits of leftover yarn. I think it would look great in more than 3 colors too. I don't like repeating patterns, but I want to see what this one looks like with a lot of leftovers. This sock was like the previous pair and used about 20gms of yarn of each color.

Details:
Pattern: Tessellating sock #2
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Timber, Bordeaux, and Spruce
Needle: size 0 (2mm)
Method: magic loop, 1 at a time, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: December 28, 2009
Finish: January 13, 2010

This shows that cute socks don't have to be made out of expensive yarn. I picked up this Red Heart sock yarn and it was only $7 for 2 skeins(50 gms each). I used about 60gms for this pair. I think I'll make my daughter some cute ankle socks with the rest. The yarn has aloe in it and it did feel nice while knitting. I would compare this to Regia or even Opal, but it did seem a bit hairier than those brands.

Yarn: Red Heart -heart and sole in Spring Stripe
Needle: size 0 (2mm)
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel, twisted rib cuff
Start: Thanksgiving 2009
Finish: January 18, 2010

I'll close with a mention about patterns. Many designers are donating a portion or all of their proceeds to many charities that will help the people in Haiti. Here's a link that will take you to the patterns that are participating. If that doesn't work, just go to the patterns area and click on the "Help for Haiti" link at the top of that page. Every little bit counts. We've made our donations, but I've also bought a few patterns too.

1st pair of the year

2010-01-12T18:51:00.007-05:00

I finished my first pair of tessellating socks. I'll think of a snazzier name if I ever write up the pattern. These socks used about 60 gms of yarn total. So, that's around 20gms of yarn for each color. I balanced that out by doing the toe, heel, and ribbing in different colors. I like knitting tessellating patterns because they seem to fly by quickly. Each color section doesn't take that long and I keep wanting to knit until the next color change before putting it down.

Details:
Tessellating sock #1
Yarn: leftovers of Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in wine, gold, and eggplant
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm)
Method: magic loop, 1 at a time, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: December 28, 2009
Finish: January 6, 2010

I've finished one sock and I'm up to the heel on the 2nd sock of my other tessellating pattern. I tried to match up a few variegated yarns to tessellate, but that just hid all of that stranding. My stranding technique still needs some work. I'm holding both yarns in my left hand. I tried doing the one color in each hand thing, but can't get a decent tension or rhythm with the one in my right hand.

I wove a few more scarves. My 12 dent heddles arrived on last Monday and I was off weaving with sock yarns almost right away. These three are made from non-superwash yarns, so they're probably better off as scarves instead of socks. The scarf at the bottom is Knit Picks Sock Landscape yarn in Mesa. I really like the plaid that came out of it. The top ones are Jojoland yarns when you could only find it on ebay. They're both a merino/cashmere blend. The left one has a springy feel to it and the right one is really fuzzy and soft.

I learned how different yarns can really mess with your tension. These three yarns were very different from each other and each behaved differently on the loom. I liked the Mesa one the best. It was the smoothest and easiest to weave. I also learned how to hem stitch the ends. I'm not confident that it will hold, but it looks good for now.

These were all made on my Cricket using a 12 dent heddle. From left to right and top to bottom, there were 92, 104, and 104 warp ends. The scarves measure 7x60, 8x62, and 8x62 inches.

I'll go work on the second tessellating sock while everyone else is sledding. Ah, it's quiet in here. ;-)

Out with the old...in with the cold(?)

2010-01-04T16:16:00.005-05:00

It's cold here and it's going to stay that way for the rest of this week. These snowflakes are one of the few reasons why I like it when it gets this cold. I can only take photos of like this when it's well below freezing. The temperature was around 20 degrees when I was taking these.

Here's the recap for 2009 in numbers like I usually do.
Last year, I knit:
9 shawls
49 pairs of socks
2 scarves
1 hat
3 pairs of mittens
2 bath mats/rugs

and wove 4 scarves. Wow, that's a lot of socks. A lot of those went elsewhere because I don't have 49 new pairs of socks in my sock drawer. ;-)

This year, I really want to use up some of the yarn that I already have. I've started that in December with the bath mats and the woven scarves. The mats were knit using a hemp/wool blend yarn that I bought when I first started knitting. The woven scarves used up most of my worsted weight yarn. I'm still waiting for my smaller sized heddles for my loom. UPS is supposed to deliver those today, but I'm not sure if they'll attempt our driveway with all of the fluffy snow on it.

The Sock Knitter's Anonymous group had a leftover challenge during December. I started two pairs of socks using various solid leftovers and I really like the results. I need to make a few more pairs like these to use up more of my leftovers. When I was trying to decide on yarn for these two socks, I laid out all of my leftover balls of yarn (approx. 20ish to 40ish grams each) and found that I had several gallon sized plastic bags full of them! Eek. It's time to use those.

I hope you're staying warm where ever you are. If not, I hope you have pretty snowflakes like these:

Uh oh...new hobby

2009-12-29T10:44:00.003-05:00

When my husband asked for ideas for our anniversary, I first suggested that we get a gift that both of us could use. Being that it was our anniversary, I didn't want to suggest something for me. Well, he had a different idea. He wanted to get parts for his mountain bike. So, I thought about it and said that I wanted a loom. That was about 3 weeks ago. I spent a week looking at various looms online and reading reviews. I settled on the Schacht Cricket loom. It's small, not too expensive, and looks easy to use.

It arrived a few days after our anniversary, but I jumped in and started weaving away. My first attempt was hideous. I almost didn't take a picture of it. But I did anyways to show my progress. It's amazing how my first scarf looks compared to my 4th. Yes, I wove 4 scarves in 3 days. My husband and mom were laughing at me, but I don't care. Here's the first scarf. I used the Wool-ease yarn that came with the loom and followed their instructions. As you can see from the close-up, the edges are too loose.

These two were woven with leftover Wool-ease that I had in my stash. At this point, I just wanted to practice and wasn't really picky about colors. The one on the left is #2 and you can see the edge is a little better. The green and beige is #3 and is much improved over the natural colored scarf.

I'm really happy with how the 4th scarf turned out. I'd actually wear this one. ;-) I had left over red and black Patons Merino wool from the pirate bag that I knit a few years ago. I wasn't sure if I had enough, but tried it anyways. I ran out of weft yarn before the warp and ended up cutting off a lot at the end.

I wasn't sure how to do the weft color changes. In the previous scarves, I overlapped ends when I ran out of weft and needed more. I can see those overlaps in the finished scarf and didn't like how they looked. In this one, I left long loops at the edge where I changed colors, cut those, and wove them in after the scarf was finished. It took a loooong time to do, but I like how you can't see them at all now.

I've already ordered parts for the loom so I can weave thinner yarn. I have a lot of fingering weight yarn and leftovers too that I think would make great scarves.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T00:06:00.004-05:00

It's a little early, but I thought it better to post while I still had a lot of free time. This is what our Christmas tree looked like when it snowed this past weekend.

I think that I've found a plan for my knitting for the upcoming year. Details to come...

Crazy lace at 1am

2009-12-21T09:58:00.005-05:00

I worked on this shawl like crazy late last night and early this morning just to finish it. Why? Because I wanted to take a picture of it in the snow. ;-) It's supposed to warm up sometime this week and I'm afraid all of the snow will melt. I don't think we'll have a white Christmas.

This shawl was my first designed by Birgit Freyer. I say first because I bought a set of her patterns and they're all so beautiful! I've had this website bookmarked for over a year, but was always hesitant to buy them. The patterns are a little more pricey than typical lace patterns, but I found this one worth it. The charts were clear and easy to read. As a bonus, this pattern was easy for me to alter. I cast-on fewer stitches for a slightly thinner shawl.

This shawl had a few unique stitches in it. Some stitches changed the stitch count on that row, but will be accounted for on the next right side row. This makes the top points of the little diamonds match the bottom points.

Details:
Pattern: Johanna by Birgit Freyer
Yarn: Wollmeise lace in Granatapfel (235gms)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Mods: decreased cast-on for thinner stole
Blocked size: 20 inches wide by 98 inches(point to point) or 72 inches(straight part only)
Start: November 18, 2009
Finish: December 21, 2009

I'll leave with a picture of the snowman that my daughter made-- all by herself! --wearing the shawl. ;-)

Chaos

2009-12-20T10:12:00.003-05:00

Not much chaos here. We're having a pretty low-key Christmas present-wise. My kids received a lot of gifts during our Thanksgiving trip. This shawl was started and finished during our trip. I'm not sure how I would look using a circular shawl ;-), so I'll probably use this as a lap blanket. The pattern was easy to follow and easy to knit. It was a great project to knit during a road trip.

Details:
Pattern: Order to Chaos by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade (3.5 skeins)
Needle: size 5 Knit Picks Options
Start: November 17, 2009
Finish: November 28, 2009

Right now, I'm working on another shawl with my last skein of Wollmeise lace yarn. We didn't get the huge snow storm like east of here, but we have around 6 inches of snow. Pictures to come...

Left hanging...ouch

2009-11-17T13:40:00.005-05:00

That's how I felt after finishing Diana Gabaldon's Echo in the Bone. It is around 800 pages long and so many things were still left unfinished. Her books are usually very long, but I read through them quickly. The story flies by and I just need to know what's going to happen to the characters. And now I'm left waiting for another 4 years. That's about how long it takes her to publish another one in this series. In the meantime, I've picked up King's Under the Dome. Yes, it's another huge book. I tend to gravitate towards books of this length.

There has been plenty of knitting too. I knit my daughter a few shawls. She's asked for a shawl a few times lately. I'm hesitant to give her anything in laceweight that will easily snag. She's still 8 and likely to use it to tie around herself, her dolls, to some railing, etc. I picked out a few pretty skeins of sock yarn and set out to find suitable patterns. What made this easy is that The Loopy Ewe's 4th quarter challenge is to knit a shawl. Many knitters have found patterns that will use only a skein of sock yarn. Perfect!

I started out with a free garter stitch based shawl pattern called Multnomah. I'm not a big fan of garter stitch, but this shawl is very soft and squishy. So far, my daughter loves it.

Pattern: Multnomah
Yarn: Perchance to Knit in Fleur
Needle: size 4
Blocked size: 56 inches across and 16 inches down the center back
Start: November 7, 2009
Finish: November 11, 2009

Next, I wanted something a bit more like the lace I knit for myself. For this yarn, I picked the Traveling Woman pattern. It starts with stockinette and ends with lace at the bottom edge. This pattern was very fast to knit. I think that I knit stockinette faster than I can knit garter stitch. I like the nicely rounded back to this one. I might make this one in a larger size for myself.

Pattern: Traveling Woman
Yarn: Hazel Knits in Sailor's Delight (90 gms used)
Needle: size 4
Blocked size: 58 inches across and 15 inches down the center back
Start: November 10, 2009
Finish: November 11, 2009

I'm still knitting socks. I started this one to go with the Solid Socks group color for November. It's brown this month and I've had this yarn in my stash for long enough. I used this cable stitch that reminds me of pretzels. yummy. This yarn is thicker than usual sock yarn, so this pattern went by quickly too. Right now, I'm using the leftovers from this skein to knit socks for my son in a basic knit/purl stitch pattern.

Pattern: by me
Yarn: Opal 6-ply solid (90gms used)
Needle: 2.5mm
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: 11/4/09
Finish: 11/9/09

And I just finished this shawl yesterday! The sun was really harsh when I tried to take some photos, so I tried some indoor photography. Once again, Anne's pattern was flawless and easy to knit. I like how this is a knit until you run out of yarn type of pattern. I didn't knit that far, but it's good to keep in mind when I have a limited amount of yarn.

This was knit with one of the giant skeins of Nyoni that I bought last year. I had enough yarn to probably knit 2 more repeats, but I didn't need the shawl to be that big.

Pattern: Boxleaf Triangle by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nyoni in Moss (180 gms used)
Needle: size 5
Mods: Knit something between the medium and large size.
Blocked size: 74 inches across the top and 36 inches down the center back
Start: 11/12/09
Finish: 11/16/09

Up next, I have two more lace projects that I've just started today. The socks for my son that need to be finished. After that, I need to knit him a few more pairs of sport weight socks for this winter. He's grown out of most of his socks from last winter.

Focus

2009-10-28T21:44:00.005-04:00

I'm lacking focus these days. I'm usually a one, maybe two project person. That's one easy one to carry around and one more complicated. Right now, I have 4 different socks on the needles sitting on my desk. One was a vacation knit that I'm not sure that I like. One is a test swatch for a pattern I'm trying to design. That was started and ripped multiple times on vacation. Two are colorwork patterns. I want to write the pattern while knitting the second sock of those pairs.

When I look at a new book, it's always the stranded patterns that stick with me. I rarely knit them because I have tension issues and have a hard time fitting the sock to my legs. But I'm determined to get it and that means practice.

Let me back up and talk about my finished projects from the past few weeks. Over on Sock Knitter's Anonymous (SKA), one of the challenges of September was to knit a Wendy Johnson pattern. I decided to challenge myself and knit knee highs. I've finally accomplished that. I wasn't happy with my yarn choice, but it was the only yarn that I had on hand with enough yardage for knee highs. Now I have ideas of designing my own knee highs.

Details:
Pattern: Catriona Knee Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential/Stroll Tweed in Black (3)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) circular
Mods: increased a lot more than the pattern states to accommodate my calves
Start: September 19, 2009
Finish: September 28, 2009

When we go on vacation, I usually like to take a lace project with me. On this trip, I took some Wollmeise sock yarn and knit Trevi. Those two are a great combination. Trevi really stretches a single skein of sock yarn into a good sized shawl. I like lace patterns with strong geometric lines like this one.

Pattern: Trevi by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Merlot
Needle: size 4 (3.5mm) for the main part and size 3 (3.25mm) for the knit on edge
Notes: I knit 6 repeats of chart B and had 15 gms of yarn leftover
Start: October 4, 2009
Finish: October 10, 2009

And when I came back from vacation, I was fed up with the socks that I took with me. I was trying to design a sock pattern for self striping yarn. I had a few good ideas on paper that I took with me, but didn't like the way they looked on the actual sock. bleh. Those are still sitting on my desk and I started this pattern. I'm calling it my H.F.V.B. socks--that stands for: home from vacation blues. ;-)

Pattern: H.F.V.B by me
Yarn: Opal uni 4-ply solid
Needle: size 0 (2mm) for the foot and heel and size 1 (2.25mm) for the leg
Start: October 14, 2009
Finish: October 21, 2009

Even with all of these projects going, I'm itching to knit another shawl. It must be the cold weather. Well it's back to knitting, I'll leave you with these pictures from my part of the world...

Hot!

2009-10-08T09:43:00.002-04:00

From the earlier picture, you can see that yesterday started out cool, but it was HOT in the afternoon. I relaxed in my chair with my knitting. ;-) It wasn't too bad knitting in the hot sun. The kids did a lot of running.

Having fun!

2009-10-07T12:35:00.003-04:00

I'm not in the water... I'm sitting on the beach and working on some new patterns. :-)

Cough, knit, cough, design, repeat

2009-09-22T14:13:00.003-04:00

Ugh. I have a cold right now. I hope that I'm just getting it out of the way and will be relatively healthy for the rest of fall. I usually love this time of year when the temperature starts to drop, but I haven't been able to enjoy it because of this cold. I have been knitting a lot lately. I have new designs, more designs being written, and more socks being completed.

The first one is Decorated Diamonds. It's not written up yet, but probably will be. I have the different sizes all charted out and just need to write up the pattern with the correct numbers. You would think that after writing so many patterns that the numbers would coincide with something already done, but there's always something different.

Details:
Pattern: Decorated Diamonds by me
Yarn: Opal solid
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: August 13, 2009
Finish: August 24, 2009

This sock was knit for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. September's color is red and I love red! I had to knit some socks for this month. This sock is called 12 Legs. It was going to be something along the lines of spider until I counted out the "legs" correctly. ;-) I see this sock as one that I would wear inside of a mary jane type shoe, so the toe was done with more stockinette.

Details:
Pattern: 12 Legs by me
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Wine
Needle: 2mm for the foot, 2.5mm for the leg
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, short row heel
Start: September 1, 2009
Finish: September 14, 2009

And this is the sock that is keeping me busy right now. Yellow was September's challenge for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous (SKA) group on ravelry. I've had this neon yellow yarn in my stash for a while just waiting for the right pattern. I found one! These twisted stitches show up really well with the brightness of the yarn.

There was a huge response to this sock and I started writing out the pattern right away. The pattern is finished and it's being test knitted. I was overwhelmed and surprised at the number of people that offered to test knit! I've sent out the pattern to those that said they could start right away, instead of waiting for October. Why October? Because that's I'm the designer of that month at SKA. I want this pattern to be ready by then and October is coming soon.

Organizing test knitters isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I've tried setting up the pattern on ravelry and then sending out free links to it. But that gets complicated when I have to send out new links for the updated pattern. ugh. I think that I might have to set up a yahoo group. I wanted to keep everything on ravelry since that's where everyone is.

Back to the yellow sock. I'm calling it Everything's Connected. My husband and I have been watching the season 2 dvds for the now canceled Life show. We enjoyed it and it's sad that it won't be back this fall. The main character is trying to be all zen and "everything's connected" is something that he says often.

Details:
Pattern: Everything's Connected by me
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill solid in yellow
Needle: size 2.25mm for the leg and heel, 2mm for the foot
Method: magic loop, cuff down, heel flap with picked up stitches, grafted toe
Start: September 15, 2009
Finish: September 20, 2009

Three new patterns!

2009-09-05T14:43:00.003-04:00

I'm distracting myself since a package that I really want is going to be delayed until after the holiday weekend. What package am I waiting for? It's the Loopy Ewe September sock club package with my pattern in it!! A few people have gotten it already and have posted pictures, but I'll wait to post my pictures until later.

I've been busy writing patterns and put up three new patterns in my ravelry store.

This is Leaf Remains. The pattern is short and sweet with a small chart, so I'm offering it as a free. It's a toe-up sock pattern and is written for 5 different sizes ranging from 48 to 80 total stitches.

You can get it here --> download now

I've named this one Within X. It's a toe-up pattern and written for 3 different sizes. It has a nice combination of lace and twisted stitches to make a sock that's pretty, but will stay snug on your foot. It's available to --> buy now

This is Dash and Slash. It's a pattern appropriate for solid or variegated yarn. This yarn is Socks That Rock lightweight in Firebird. The pattern has knits, purls, and cables to break up the color. It's written as toe-up and for three different sizes. It's available to --> buy now

I need a pool

2009-08-03T09:14:00.003-04:00

A testing pool, that is. But that's jumping ahead. Let's catch up from where we left off in June (!). Yikes, I can't believe it's been that long.

This is Whirligig Cables. It's a fun cable pattern that reminds me of whirligigs or candy. This was knit with Opal 4-ply solid yarn. I used a 2.0mm needle for the foot and a 2.25mm needle for the leg. This pattern does draw in a lot from the wide cables. It was done in my usual magic loop, toe-up, 2 at a time, and short row heel fashion.

This one is Tangled Woods. I seem to be fond of the cable and lace combination lately. The cables and lace seem to balance each other out with the drawing in and opening up. The yarn is Knit Picks Essential/Stroll Kettle Dyed yarn in Timber. Very pretty color, but a bit hard to photograph. This pattern was also knit on a magic loop, 2 at a time, and toe-up.

This one is unnamed and the pattern needs to be written and tested. But before that, I need to figure out how to resize it. I don't like releasing patterns with one size only. I really like this sock. The pattern was easy to memorize, but wasn't at all boring. The yarn is Knit Picks Essential/Stroll Kettle Dyed yarn in Spruce. I used a 2m needle. It's also done in my typical magic loop, toe-up, short row heel formula.

This is another unnamed pattern that I need to write up and have tested. I think the pattern works with the variegated yarn. The yarn is Enchanted Knoll Farm in Wood Elves.

And this is why I need a pool. I think that I need to start a testing pool because it will drive me batty if I put a call out for testers separately for each pattern. Beyond these two, I still have about 8(!) other patterns that need to be written and tested. Wow, have I let things stack up. sigh... The pattern writing part slows me down. I would so much rather be knitting a new design than glued to my computer making charts or writing. I'm not sure how I'll do a testing pool. I've done two separate ones on yahoo groups, but those were secret. All of my socks that I've mentioned are already on my ravelry projects page. No secrecy there, so I may just start a ravelry group. Decisions...

Other than knitting, we had a good camping trip. I took a shawl and two lace scarves with me and finished them. They're still not blocked. sigh again... My parents came to visit for a week and I thought that I would get a lot of knitting done, but I didn't.

I did get a lot of reading done. I bought a set of Harry Potter books and read 1-7 in two weeks. Great books!! I'm so glad that I didn't read them when they first came out. I find it very hard to be patient while waiting for the next book in a series to come out. I'm still waiting for the next book in Gabaldon's Outlander series. I think that's supposed to come out this fall? I might have to re-read through that series.

I also need to start planning the next school year. My son is already asking to start now. That's a great sign that he's excited about it and still likes it! My daughter apparently has my reading obsession gene. She's been reading a lot this summer and is recently stuck with Nancy Drew books.

Go...

2009-06-22T14:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-03T13:14:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-29T13:16:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-20T11:12:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-04-07T14:26:00.002-04:00

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...

After a year...Snowflakes in Cedarwoods!

2009-03-28T12:24:00.004-04:00

Blankets and I have a history...if things are going smoothly, I can finish them rather quickly. If something happens along the way, they get squished into a bag or box and hidden for a while. This is Snowflakes in Cedarwoods by Anne Hanson. I first saw this on Anne's blog while she was designing it and liked it immediately.

Let me back up and talk about the yarn...I had 5 cones of camel hair yarn from Colourmart that were waiting for the perfect project. I bought them (years ago) with the intent of knitting some kind of cabled cardigan for myself. After knitting one sweater, I realized that I'm not much of a sweater wearer and started looking for a new project for all of this really soft yarn. Along came the Snowflakes in Cedarwoods shawl. The pattern is written as a shawl, but I thought that I had enough yarn to knit it as a blanket. I used the camel yarn doubled and everything went really smoothly through the first few charts. Square shawls are started in the center, so the beginning really sucks you in since it goes so fast.

After reaching the halfway point in the blanket, I realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn. ACK! At that point, I looked around and couldn't find anymore of the camel yarn. Colourmart's stock varies with whatever is available to them. Sometimes things never come back. I even looked on ravelry to see if anyone had it for sale in their stash. No luck there. I gave in and ordered some cashmere in natural. Cashmere natural is a very different color than camel natural. I tried blending them together by holding one strand of each. Yuck. I tried tinking back, but that was taking a loooong time. At that point, I was frustrated with it and stuffed the whole thing in a bag and tried to forget about it for several moths.

And then I saw this beautiful blanket knit from another of Anne's patterns. It turned out beautiful and motivated me to let my sad blanket out of the bag. I knew what I had to do and pulled the needle completely out of the blanket. Thank goodness the yarn is a little sticky because of the oil. After painfully ripping out many rows, I decided to stop the blanket after Chart J. That would leave off the last chart and the border. Instead of those, I just knit 10 rows of seed stitch with the cashmere yarn and called it done. Surprisingly, it took only one night of ripping and recapturing the stitches and one more night of knitting the border. The blanket had to sit in a time out again after that. Why? Because Colourmart yarn comes oiled. To properly wash it, it needs to be done in a machine, with lots of soap, and with warm or hot water. Let me tell you, it takes a lot of guts to throw your hand knit item in the washer and dryer.

I do have a front loading washer and I sat there watching the blanket go round and round the whole time. Laugh all you want, but I wanted to be sure that it didn't shrivel up to a tiny thing while it was in there. I did put it in the dryer, but only for 10 minutes. After that, I laid it out on a bed and let the ceiling fan dry it. I didn't even have to pin it out. The border just needed a little stretching at the corners, but I pulled those out and it stayed.

I'm so happy with the way this blanket turned out! Dwight liked it too and asked if it would stay on the bed. Ummm, no. I want it to be where I'll see it a lot and that would be in the computer room where I knit, read on ravelry, and do lessons.

Final details and a few more pictures...
Pattern: Snowflakes in Cedarwoods by Anne Hanson (Knitspot)
Yarn: 4 ply camel from Colourmart (4.5 cones) and 4 ply natural cashmere (.5 cone)
Needle: size 4 Knit Picks Options
Notes: Ran out of camel yarn, so I stopped after Chart J, knit 10 rows of seed stitch with natural cashmere to add a border
Unblocked size: almost 6x6 foot square
Blocked size: 64 x 64 inches
Start: May 9, 2008
Finish: March 22, 2009

Out with the old

2009-03-27T16:54:00.003-04:00

This sock has been in progress for a looong time. If you look into my old posts, you can see that most pairs of socks take me less than a week to knit. These socks have been on the needles since last Thanksgiving. haha! I just haven't been in a plain stockinette mood. Lately, most of the socks that I've been knitting in my size are my own designs and are chart intensive. I was looking at my 52 Pair Plunge numbers and thought it would help if I finished the socks that were in progress. I'm up to #40 now. Phew, still 12 more to go and only about 2 months to do it. It's totally doable, but that's only if I don't get distracted.

Details:
Pair #39 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Martinique
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
method: magic loop, 1 at a time, plain stockinette, short row heel, 1x1 ribbing
Start: November 2008
Finish: March 25, 2009

Here are two pairs of socks that I knit for my little guy. He's 5 and has the smallest feet in the family. I owe him a few pairs after knitting 5 pairs for his sister. She should be set for a while and now it's time to knit some for him. The striped pair were knit with Elann's Sock It To Me yarn. I got those socks out of one 50gm skein! I like knitting for little feet. The green and red socks have been named "hurt lizard" and were knit from Yarni Girl sock yarn.

My little guy is very happy with his new socks. He likes the striping ones better, but I think that I need to make them match next time. When taking pictures, he tried lining up his feet to make the stripes match across both feet. They don't. I knit with either end of the skein and the stripes go in opposite directions.

Pair # 38 in 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Elann-Sock It To Me # 714 (50gms)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, 2 at once, plain stockinette, short row heel, 2x2 ribbing
Notes: 54 total stitches for foot and leg, 52 total stitches for ribbing
Start: March 20, 2009
Finish: March 23, 2009

Pair #37 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Yarni Girl (can't remember colorway) (40 gms)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, 2x2 ribbing, short row heel
Start: March 16, 2009
Finish: March 18, 2009

And another very old project has now been finished!! It's my Snowflakes in Cedarwoods blanket. I'm very excited about this one. I had all sorts of problems with this project--mostly running out of yarn or motivation. It's finished! This is what it looks like unwashed and unblocked. The camel and cashmere yarn is from Colourmart and is oiled, so the blanket had to be thoroughly washed----in hot water---with lots of shampoo. Eek. I'm always nervous throwing my hand knits into the washer with hot water, but the blanket survived and looks beautiful! I'll get the pretty pictures taken soon after it dries.

Back to sock knitting...

It's mine!

2009-03-20T14:05:00.004-04:00

I've disappeared again, haven't I? This time it was for a good reason. I was asked to design a mystery sock for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. For a few days, I was busy digging through stitch dictionaries and tons of graph paper all over my desk. I can up with a design, but decided to keep that one for myself. Is that bad? I liked that one a lot, but it also was difficult to divide into parts for a mystery sock. I've charted that one into excel and it's ready to be knit--someday. Digging out the graph paper and dictionaries again, I came up with another sock. Now, this one is perfect for a mystery knit. Each section looks to be interesting on it's own, but it can also have an element of randomness if we want to take it in that direction. Why so vague? Because the mystery knit isn't until June.

Any why wait until June? Well, there's the fabulous book coming out very soon. Cookie A.'s book, Sock Innovation, should be released at the end of this month or the very beginning of next month. There are a few knit-a-longs that will start in May for this book. I knit a sample for that book and have kept that a secret for almost a year now. The publisher has put photos and descriptions of all of the projects on ravelry, so it's probably okay to show my picture. This is Bex (ravelry link). It looks far more challenging than it really is. It was a fun knit and Cookie A was wonderful to deal with. In fact, I'm sample knitting again. ;-)

Okay, that was last year's knitting. Back to current projects...I finished another pair of socks. This makes pair #35 for the 52 Pair plunge. I don't think that I'll make it, but oh well. I haven't completely been focused on socks.

This is Leaf Remains. It was originally called Open Windows, but a search on ravelry showed too many projects with exact or similar names to that. I called it Open Windows because it was designed on a day where I had the windows open and it was such a beautiful day. With it's new name, it probably would have been better to knit it in a different color.

Details:
Pair #35 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Leaf Remains by me
Yarn: Opal 4-ply in dark purple
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: March 6, 2009
Finish: March 9, 2009

I've actually finished another pair of socks--pair #36. Those are for my son. I need to get a picture of them before I can officially turn them over to him. I've forgotten to take a few pictures of some of my socks for the 52 pair plunge, since they usually go directly onto the little feet. After that, they're not really presentable anymore. ;-)

I've also dug out a project that has been sitting in a bag for almost a year now. It's Snowflakes in Cedarwoods by Anne Hanson, but I'm knitting it with thicker yarn and it's going to be blanket size. This project has had so many problems, but I've fixed them now and am hoping to see this finished sometime this month. Yes, I just gave myself a deadline. Now, I'm off to work on it....

Too many ideas

2009-03-08T23:05:00.003-04:00

I seem to be coming up with pattern ideas faster than I can knit them. I tend to be a monogamous knitter, but I've been so tempted to start casting on single socks. Thank goodness that I mostly knit 2 socks at the same time or I would move on and knit a new idea after the first sock was done. Right now, I've gone back to my standard short row heel. I just find this heel so much faster than the gusset heel. It's the gusset increases that make the rows seem never ending. Short row heels are so easy--no looking at numbers--and they fit my foot really well. But gusset heels are so pretty. I'll still do gusset heels on a few designs, but that will be determined by the stitch pattern in the sock. I think some stitch patterns work really well down into the heel flap area.

This sock was fun to knit and seemed to go so quickly. The yarn is Enchanted Knoll Farms in the Silk Road colorway. It's so pretty. I love the stretchiness and squishiness that this yarn has. This pattern reminds me of a geometric pattern that might be found on a rug. It works great with this variegated yarn too. I might have to write up this pattern.

Details:
Pair #33 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: not named yet by me
Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm in Silk Road
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: February 27, 2009
Finish: March 2, 2009

Besides that sock, I've decided to try the Sock Knitter's Anonymous(ravelry group) challenge this month. It was either a Cat Bordhi pattern, lace, or the mystery sock. I chose to do a Cat Bordhi pattern. Not just one of her patterns, but a stranded pattern. I'm not the best at stranding knitting, but I think that I just need some practice.

This is the Clematis Vine pattern from the New Pathways for Sock Knitter's book. It's unique in that the gusset increases are on the bottom of the foot. I thought that was a strange place to put them, but you don't really feel them. There's something about stranded knitting that makes the projects go quickly. I think it's the "I'll just do a few more rows to see how the pattern is coming out" thing. On these socks, it was the leaves for me. I'll just finish one more leaf before putting the sock down. Before I knew it, the socks were finished.

Cat's patterns in this book rely heavily on accurate row counting. I'm pretty sure that I counted correctly---at the time. I think my stranded knitting tension is just all over the place that it was hard to get a good count. These socks ended up a little long. That's okay. I can always give them to my sister. She likes thicker socks for wearing at home and these are definitely too thick to be worn inside regular shoes.

Details:
Pair # 34 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Clematis Vine from New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Araucania Ranco in dark olive green and Cherry Tree Hill solid in pink
Needle: size 1 (2.5mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: one at a time, magic loop, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, picot cuff
Size: largest size
Start: March 2, 2009
Finish: March 5, 2009

Up next, a lace sock in a solid Opal yarn. I started those on Friday and they're almost finished. After that, I don't know. I have a few ideas that I want to try, but I'll have to match up patterns with yarns first.

Falling Ribbons

2009-03-04T13:22:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, it's nice to have an easier pattern. Here's a pattern with a much smaller chart that's possible to memorize. This pattern could be used with mildly variegated yarns, like the Lime & Violet yarn shown above or the Conjoined Creations Flat Feet yarn shown below. This pattern comes in three sizes that are charted. The pattern starts at the toe and has a short row heel.

To view more details about this pattern and my other ones, you can visit my ravelry store. Or you can just...

Finally...success!

2009-02-27T13:40:00.003-05:00

I know that's an odd angle, but it was my best photo of the yarn and stitch pattern. I managed to put together a pattern that I liked for the pretty Franz Wollmeise yarn. There is a larger stitch pattern that runs up the center of the front and back of the sock. On each side of that, there is a smaller stitch pattern that sort of mimics the bigger one. I'm pretty happy with this and I'll probably write this one up soon.

I had to mess around with the stitch count while knitting this pair. I was afraid that the lace would make the sock too loose, so I altered the stitch count in some places. Luckily, there are purls that can be purled together here and there.

After knitting these socks, I learned something from my camera. I have a Canon xsi (digital rebel). When I first got it, I was worried about not having a swivel lcd. That's how I used to take most of my sock photos --myself. With the xsi, I learned that I can take photos with the lcd on. It's not the same as the swivel screen, but I can get a better idea of whether my whole foot is in the shot or not. ;-)

Pair #32 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Swarm by me
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Franz
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Notes: stitch count changed to accommodate pattern and fit
Start: February 23, 2009
Finish: February 26, 2009

I've already scribbled another design out on graph paper. I need to dig through my yarn to see guess which one will look the best with the stitch pattern. The socks below are mini-socks to fit my daughter. I knit these with the idea of releasing those patterns soon. I have Fallin Ribbons (the upper sock) ready to go. Cables and Corsets is giving me a headache. The heel is just complicated and I can't figure out a non-wordy way to explain it in the pattern. These are #29 and #30 for the 52 Pair Plunge.

I'm still knitting away on socks for the 52 Pair Plunge. I think that I'll make it. 20 more to go! When phrased that way, it sounds like a lot. I do have three pairs of socks that are half completed, so I am a little closer.

Busy starting and stopping, ugh

2009-02-25T13:22:00.003-05:00

I have a few skeins of the much coveted Wollmeise yarn. I was only able to buy these back before it became insanely popular. I was tired of having the yarn just sitting around and looking pretty that I wanted to use it. This is the Emil color. I tried some twisted stitches mixed in with plain stockinette and was not happy with the result. The yarn self striped at the stitch count and gauge that I used. This has been ripped and I'm searching for another pattern to use with this pretty color.

This is Franz. It also wanted to stripe a little and I didn't like the pooling at the heel gusset. I guess that I'll have to stick with a short row heel for these two yarns. I was knitting both of these over 66 stitches around. My gauge was 9 stitches and 13 rows an inch. This sock didn't look too bad under the right light, but it was also too tight getting it on my foot. I've changed the charts and tried it again.

This next sock fits a lot better, but it still pulls in a little. I'm using a lot more stitches that I thought I would need.

This yarn is a basic 4-ply Opal solid. It is slightly thinner than the Wollmeise yarn, but great for showing off a stitch pattern. I love how the diagonal lines grow out from the cables on either side of the foot. I do plan on writing this pattern out. I just need to figure out how to make it for multiple sizes. I wanted something different at the top and settled for a picot edge. I think it caps the top of the sock off nicely.

Details:
Pair #31 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Twist Me by me
Yarn: Opal 4-ply in red (62 gms used)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, patterned gusset heel, picot cuff
Start: February 18, 2009
Finish: February 22, 2009

Red is so hard to photograph. I'll have to take better pictures for the written up pattern.

I've started a new sock with the frogged Wollmeise Franz yarn. I think it's working out. The stitch pattern doesn't seem to be fighting the striping too much.

I've also been busy reading too. I'm reading romance books for a competition. I probably can't mention what contest, but it's a yearly thing. I'm reading books for 4 categories and that resulted in 17 books! I got them earlier this month and I'm down to my last 4 books. I have until mid-March to finish them. This is my second year reading and I'm enjoying it. I've gotten books that I wouldn't normally pick and I've found that it's fun reading something different.

Constrictor

2009-02-06T13:17:00.004-05:00

Constrictor is one of my favorites. Despite being another pattern with large charts, this pattern is pretty easy to follow and knit. This pattern combines lace with cables. The lace alone would make the sock very stretchy, but the cables pulls it in to control how far it will stretch. I don't usually like to knit patterns more than once, but these were fun. My daughter is especially thrilled to be receiving so many "fancy" socks.

The pair above was knit out of Enchanted Knoll Farm yarn in Chai. I've said it before on my blog, but I love this yarn. It's very springy and bouncy with a very good twist.

The pair on the left is Lime & Violet in Ginger Rogers. I'm a huge fan of Fred and Ginger movies, so I had to buy this color. The yarn was very nice to work with and not too variegated for this pattern.

I try to write my patterns to fit many different sizes and this one is written for three sizes. Each size has two charts that mirror each other. It's available for download...

Twisted Arrow

2009-02-05T16:01:00.003-05:00

I'm slowly working my way through the socks that I knit last year during a design-your-own challenge. Twisted Arrows is up next. Just about anyone that knits socks probably knows about the Wollmeise craze. I love the colors too, but sometimes it's hard to find a pattern that will play nice with them. This twisted stitch pattern looks good with variegated yarn and isn't a complete bore to knit.

The first pair were knit with Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Raku-Regenbogen. The pair to the left was knit with Perchance to Knit in Citrus Grove. The second one has more contrasting variegation, but the stitch pattern still shows.

Twisted Arrow is written in two sizes. Because of the super stretchiness of twisted stitches, those two sizes should be sufficient for any number of feet. The pattern is completely charted for each size.

Available for download...

Summer Sliding

2009-01-29T20:54:00.004-05:00

...is finally here and it's just in time for...winter? Maybe you can think warm thoughts while knitting these to keep your feet warm until summer arrives. It has been a long road to write this pattern. There were so many decisions...charts vs. written out, print vs. pdf, etc. Those that know me also know that it takes me a long time to make a decision on anything. Never mind about all that, you probably want to get straight to the details.

The green pair were knit with Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Frosch. The purple pair were knit with Fly Designs Lace Wing in Petrol. Any solid or subtly variegated yarn with a good twist will look great with this pattern.

Summer Sliding is a toe-up sock pattern with a gusset/patterned heel flap type of heel. It's also fully charted and comes in three sizes. The pattern is rather stretchy and those three sizes should accommodate a wide range. Each size has mirrored charts and the sock can be worn with either the more open or solid side facing out. Or you can even make two socks with just one of the charts to make things simpler.

Now available for download...

Poinsettia and a jillion beads

2009-01-27T22:03:00.003-05:00

Pretty isn't it? I didn't think the pattern looked like it used a lot of beads, until I read the supply list. 5000 beads?! Wow, she must be over estimating that just to be on the safe side. Umm, nope. I have no idea how many I used, but it was over 150gms of beads. Every single one of those beads were placed individually with a crochet hook onto a stitch and then knit or purled. I think the results were worth it. I like knitting beaded projects every now and then even though they do take more time than regular lace. There was a nice rhythm to knitting the lace, pick up the crochet hook, add bead, set hook down, knit/purl, and continue.

This scarf is knit in two halves and then grafted at the center. I finished the second part in half the time that it took me to do the first. There is a bit of patterned lace on the wrong side of the scarf, but only on a few rows. Overall, it was a fun knit. I got to use up some leftover yarn and beads. Yay for stash knitting!

Pattern: Poinsettia by Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs
Yarn: Hengyuanxiang Knitting Wool (not sure of amount used-leftovers from other projects)
Needle: size 2 (2mm) Knit Picks dpns with stoppers on ends to make short straights
Hook: size 11 (1.05mm)--used for bead placement
Beads: 4.5 boxes of 8/0 iris green seed beads (each box was 35gms)
Blocked size: 12.5 inches wide x 56 inches long
Start: January 8, 2009
Finish: January 23, 2009

Project shuffle

2009-01-26T00:08:00.005-05:00

I've recently gone through a project purge. I think it was brought on by the evil mohair boucle yarn. The boucle project has been frogged (yes, I managed that) and the yarn has been hidden away in the closet. The wrap was turning out too big. It would have been far too big, even with fulling/felting(?). The yarn was driving me nuts, so it was time for it to go away. Surprisingly, the frogging wasn't that bad.

I also frogged an old mystery shawl that I was working on with some teeny-tiny Colourmart cashmere/silk yarn. I loved the pattern and loved the yarn, but didn't really like them together. It was time to frog and save the pretty yarn for something else. I've also decided that I'm going to take a break from mystery things. I have too many books and patterns floating around here. I don't need to add any more for a while.

Sooo...what was I working on all this time? One thing that I was working on was Poinsettia by Sunflower Designs. It's finished too! Now, it's just waiting for pictures. I'll post the details of that scarf when I get them taken. Let me just say that it's a trial of patience and sheer determination to place almost 5000 beads on a scarf----one-at-a-time---with a tiny crochet hook. It's a wonder that I'm still sane. Or am I?

Most importantly, I'm working on pattern writing again. I'm test knitting my own pattern. How sad is it that it's been so long since I've knit the socks that I need to actually read my own pattern? I guess that is one way to test knit it. I'm still thinking about sending it out to additional test knitters too. Which sock pattern am I working on right now? That will have to be a surprise. ;-)

Around the house, we had a huge accomplishment for D. He finished all 100 of his reading lessons!!! It's so cute listening to him read through out the day. I also enjoy hearing him try to sound out random things around the house--words on the stove, words on his toy boxes, and words on just about anything he can see.

First of 2009...Queen Silvia

2009-01-05T14:26:00.004-05:00

The Queen Silvia shawl is finally finished. Those 20 repeats in the center of the shawl seemed to last forever. Then I had to pick up stitches for the border. It was 130+258+130+258. Phew! I was not happy with my picked up stitches. I think that I knit the selvedge edge too loose and that resulted in a weird holey line where I picked up the stitches for the edging. The good news is that it doesn't look too bad after a good blocking. It probably won't even be seen when I wear it. I completely disliked the edging after the first two rows, but there was no way that I would take it out and pick up all of those stitches again. By that point, I just wanted to finish the shawl and move on to another project.

My knitting style has changed. When I first started knitting, everything was tight. Now, everything is too loose. I used a size 3 needle with this yarn and some parts of the shawl looks really open after blocking. I tend to like dense lace, but sort of like the openness of this one. I got a lot faster at purling all of those stitches together for the nupps by the middle of the shawl. I changed the nupps from 5 stitches in the pattern to 7 stitches.

Overall, I'm pleased with the shawl. I used the yarn that my husband brought back from China. It's 100% superwash wool. I found that out after trying to spit splice it. After blocking, the yarn has a metallic silver-y look to it. It looks very elegant and delicate.

Details:
Pattern:Queen Silvia Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia
Yarn: Hengyuanxiang knitting wool--94 gms used
Needle: size 3 (3.25mm) Knit Picks Harmony
Size: 25 inches wide and 72 inches long blocked
Start: November 19, 2008
Finish: January 4, 2009

My next project is the Snow Flurries Wrap and I'm knitting with boucle yarn. Boucle yarn is evil. It looks so pretty, but it's a complete PITA to knit. The little loops get caught on everything--needles, jewelry, rough fingernails, etc. I love the look of the wrap, so I'm going to "tough it out" as Dwight would say.

For this year(hopefully), I'm trying to knit from stash. Queen Silvia used up almost all of my leftover HYX gray yarn. The boucle yarn is from stash. I have a lot of leftover lace yarns that are probably enough to make scarves. That will be on the list for this year. I might try to use those with my leftover beads too. I'm not even going to mention my sock yarn stash. My project list keeps growing...

2008 in numbers

2008-12-31T11:48:00.003-05:00

I like to count things. Some might call it weird, but I tend to count when I'm bored. I've counted the logs on the walls in our home. I've counted the beams going across the ceiling of our computer room. Yeah, I'm strange, but I hear my sister does the same thing. ;-P So, it's time to count my knitting projects for the year.

For 2008, I've knit:

35 pairs of socks
2 dolls
8 shawls
7 gloves/mitts/fingerless gloves
6 scarves
2 hats
1 shrug
6 cowls

Once again, socks have dominated the list. I branched out this year and designed several pairs of socks. I'm still working on getting the patterns written. I've also moved beyond always following a pattern and just winging it for the cowls and scarves. I'd love to design a full shawl this next year, but that would put a dent in the time I have to knit the patterns that I already have. We'll see. I also have a few projects that are still on the needles. There are 2 shawls, 1 blanket, and 1 pair of socks that are waiting. There hasn't been very much knitting time lately because we've been busy. What are we doing? Well, I'll show it in pictures...

See you around next year...

Endless repetition...

2008-12-17T13:15:00.004-05:00

This is the start of my Queen Silvia shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia. I started this with the intent of working on it while on vacation. hahahahahaha! That never happened. I knit 5 repeats before we left. I managed to knit 1.5 repeats at my parents' house. Right now, I'm up to 9 repeats complete....out of 20! At this rate, it will be a while before I get to the border. I changed the nupps and made them 7 stitches instead of 5. I guess I like how they're bolder and stand out more when they're made of more stitches.

While I'm still recovering from the flu, I just haven't been up to working on lace. Instead, I'm knitting the self striping stockinette socks that I started on vacation. I did manage to do a short row heel on the short 9" needles without needing another needle. I can't knit very long on those short needles, so I'm also working on the two-at-a-time pair. Those are ready for their heels.

D had a birthday. He's 5 now and says he's not my "little guy" anymore. He's my "big guy." ;-) Either way, he's still cute. He wanted to go to the "peanut restaurant" for his birthday. That's what he calls Logan's. Here he is with his dessert. It was a tiny bucket with brownie and ice cream in it. He received another Transformer for his birthday. He says that he's collecting them. He has quite a collection going that sits on our (unused) fireplace.

As I look at him, it's hard to believe that he's not a little baby or a little boy anymore. It's hard to see that part of him when he goes around using words like "fascinating" and "stabilize." He seems to pick up those big words easily from us and understands how to use them correctly. He's still my very sensitive guy that gets his feelings hurt easily, but he also freely gives hugs and kisses to me. He's so good at puzzles and did figure out how to use the computer at my parent's house. He knew where to find the games.

The weather has been up and down since we got back. We've had warm days and cold snowy days mixed together in the same week. The wood stove has been going steady. It's in the basement, so I'm getting extra exercise going up and down the stairs all day. I check the fire and load more wood into it about every 1-2 hours depending on the size of the logs. Thankfully, Dwight brings a wheel barrow full of wood closer to the house and I don't have to go all the way to the wood pile.

Back from a trip and still alive

2008-12-12T10:08:00.005-05:00

We're back from visiting family for Thanksgiving. This trips stresses me out because of the balancing act of having E and D spend time with my family and my husband's family. Most of them live within an hour of each other. Besides the stress, we did have fun on the trip. My Mom cooked all sorts of yummy foods and took us to great soup restaurants. I definitely can't get soup like that up here. Watching tv is so addicting that I'm glad that we don't have cable or a dish. I did get to watch season 2 of Heroes and the first season of Big Bang Theory(so funny!). That's the way to watch tv shows. You get to see one right after another, no commercials, and you can skip the credits. We had a yummy Thanksgiving meal and the leftovers too. We also got to put up the Christmas decorations at my parents house. E and D enjoy that every year.

I did pack less knitting projects this year and still didn't finish anything. I took my Queen Silvia shawl along and managed to get only two repeats done on the center. I took some self striping yarn to start socks. They did get started and I didn't get much farther than the toes. For the airplane, I took along a self striping sock on a short 9 inch circular. The needles are so cute! It's a bit awkward to hold at first, but it is a nice way to knit when you get used to the short needles. These needles made it through security with no problems. I also had a set of wooden dpns in case I got to the heel. I didn't get there yet, but I have thought about it. I think that I might be able to do a short row heel without having to use any other needle.

Now that I'm home, knitting hasn't really resumed yet. I caught the flu. Argh! I feel like I was on one of those movies where someone on a plane coughs and everyone gets sick and spreads it all over the world. LOL. I must have caught it on the plane because I didn't get sick until a few days after we got home. I'm about 50% better now. I didn't feel like knitting while I was sick, so I read books instead.

I finished Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Great book! I can't wait for the next one in the series to come out, but I read online that it's not until Oct 09. Well, that gives me time to re-read the whole series. I also read Grisham's Playing for Pizza. That was an okay book, but definitely one that I will not be reading again. It had far too much descriptive football sections. I like football, but I really have no desire to read about pass plays, run plays, etc.

Today is a beautiful day. It snowed last night right after it rained. Every tree branch has a layer of snow on it. The wood stove is going and the kids are playing nice. I think we'll take a "snow day" today with lessons and just enjoy the snow.

Triinu scarf

2008-11-18T16:34:00.003-05:00

This was a quick knit. It only took me about 3 days. The nupps weren't too bad to knit once I got used to them. I did try this pattern with 100% lace alpaca yarn and that didn't go too well. This was my first time knitting nupps and the Dream in Color Baby yarn made it so easy. You can't really see the nupps in the finished scarf, even though I did do 9 stitch nupps. That doesn't matter to me. This was mainly a test run with nupps. Now, I want to do the Queen Silvia Shawl or the Crown Prince Square Shawl with finer lace yarn.

Details:
Pattern: Triinu scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in black parade--88gms
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Notes: knit only 27 of the 29 repeats of the main chart
Blocked size: 13 inches wide and 67 inches long
Start: November 11, 2008
Finish: November 13, 2008

A large shawl will have to wait though. I have other projects that need to be done. Plus, it's that crazy/hectic/fun time of year. I need to focus on smaller projects. Up next is a stole out of Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I'm using the One Skein a-Stole pattern. I found that while searching for non-sock patterns using this yarn in ravelry. The search function in ravelry is amazing and a lot of fun to use.

Today, we woke up to a winter wonderland. What?! In November? Yes...everything was covered in snow. I think we had at least 3 inches of the stuff. I try to take a few pictures of our house throughout the year. I like seeing how the trees change around it. Everything feels closed in during the summer when the trees still have their leaves. Now, it feels much more open....and colder. ;-)

Aren't these leaves pretty? My daughter collected them in a bucket while the trees were turning. Yesterday, she dumped the bucket out and used it to collect snow. I'm glad that I didn't tell her to sweep those leaves off of the porch.

One word for you...

2008-11-12T09:10:00.003-05:00

Facebook. Yes, I got sucked into it by friends. I didn't think that I would be into the whole "social networking" thing, but it has been a lot of fun finding and catching up with old friends. One friend, I haven't talked to her since 9th-10th grade. That's 18 years ago! Okay, I'm aging myself, but I don't care. I've also found some college classmates. I've kept in touch with them on and off through the years, but the emails kept getting more and more infrequent.

In knitting, I'm working on small projects right now. I've knit and finished 3 cashmere cowls. Two of those are dark blue and one is green. I used a different stitch pattern on the green one and it's much more open. I'm not sure if I like it. Dwight has been using his cowl on his bike rides and seems to be happy with it. If anything, I should have cast on less stitches for his.

My Slow Bee #2 stole has been set aside for the time being. I'm working on the Triinu Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia. I'm trying to use up leftover lace yarn. I first tried to use some alpaca cloud (100% alpaca) and it was too slippery. I was going crazy trying to do those nupps with that yarn. I ripped that out and cast-on with Dream in Color baby yarn. Ah, so much better!! The nupps are super easy to do with this yarn. The yarn is a heavier laceweight, so I made adjustments. The nupps are 9 stitches big. Sounds scary, but it isn't too bad to do them. No pictures because I'm lazy. I'm too lazy to pin out what I have so far and I don't like taking pictures shriveled, unblocked lace.

I'm still getting to know my camera. I've been out more and getting more pictures of the kids. This one is one of my favorites. I think this might be our Christmas card this year. The cowls that they're wearing were knit with sock yarn held double. I used my default garter rib stitch pattern that I like for cowls. I like that it's interesting and won't put me to sleep. It's also not likely to fold on itself.

Back to knitting on the scarf...I'll have knitting pictures next time.

And now we return to knitting...

2008-11-01T14:57:00.003-04:00

I ventured out to photograph my Fiore di Melanzana stole somewhere besides the front porch. This is a rock that is a short walk from our house. It's a flat rock in the middle of the woods. Dwight sometimes calls it our "thinking rock." He used to go there to relax and just think. The kids like to go there and have pretend picnics since the rock makes a perfect table. It's usually hard to photograph anything near the rock because of the leaves blocking out the sun, but this time of year is really pretty there.

This stole was fun to knit. It was surprisingly quick once I dedicated all of my knitting time to it. I really like how there was no grafting. You start with a provisional cast-on in the center and knit from the center out for each side. The long side edging is knit along with the center of the stole. The edge for the short ends is knit on sideways and there are only a few 10 stitches to bind off. I love this type of stole construction. It makes for a very fussy-free knit. There was lace patterning on both sides of the stole, but it was easy to do once you saw the pattern emerging after a few rows. Again, I can't say enough good things about Anne's patterns.

Details:
Pattern: Fiore di Melanzana by Anne Hanson (knitspot)
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow in Grape (2.75 skeins)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks classic circular for the main section, size 2 (2.75mm) for the edging
Size: tall width and petite length-blocked to 25 inches wide and 87 inches long
Start: September 27, 2008
Finish: October 29, 2008

Cookie A said that it was okay to give out this link. That's the layout for her book!!! The book comes out in April. I'm so excited. I did a sample knit for the book and it's the one on the cover. Cookie says that the cover is being changed, but those socks should stay. Those socks were fun to knit, but I was nervous knitting it to a size slightly different than mine.

I finished E's modified monkey socks. I did knit a little on my Slow Bee #2 stole, but decided that I should start knitting some gifts. I'm using some left over cashmere and knitting cowls. Dwight could use one, but who knows if he will actually use it. If not, I'm sure someone will appreciate it. My current plan is to just keep making them until the yarn runs out. I have some leftover navy blue and a dark green. I think that I have enough yarn to make two from each color.

I just got my order from Knit Picks today. I took advantage of their book sale and bought a few books. I had to get Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. I flipped through it when it arrived and could see myself knitting quite a few of the projects. The shawls are so pretty, but I will definitely knit them in something besides the neutral colors shown in the book. That will have to be later after the gift knitting is done.

I also bought Not Just More Socks. I love the gloves with the beads on the wrist and the convertible mittens. I have a ton of sock yarn and it's time to make something besides socks. This book is perfect for that. I've gotten good use out of the Not Just Socks for Kids book and thought this one would be just a good.

Enough typing and time for more knitting...

Trick or treat

2008-10-31T11:13:00.003-04:00

We went trick or treating last night with friends. Here are my two scary pirates. Okay, maybe not so scary.

Trick or treating was great. We went with friends and all of the kids had fun. No one was cranky or tired this year. All of them got a lot of candy.

D has been a pirate for three years now. I changed his costume with a few added pieces. E was a pirate king (queen according to D). D thought it was great that he got a mustache and some eye make-up. E was thrilled with wearing make-up for the first time. They were both not so happy when it was time to scrub it off.

D did get a new pirate hat. He wanted the front to have the pirate symbol from the Pirates That Don't Do Anything movie. He also got to carry the wooden sword this year. I made that last year, but felt it might be too dangerous for him to carry it. This year, he knew not to swing it around anyone. hahaha! I made him a bag for his candy that looks like a treasure map. There's a boat on one side with a trail that goes to an "X" on the other side with jewels.

E got a pirate crown that sort of matches the one from the movie. A lot of hot glue was used to hold that together. I also made her a bag to match her outfit. I haven't sewn in a long time and it was fun! I do need to make a new bag for my new camera.

It was cool and the kids had to wear a few layers underneath their costume. No one complained of the cold. It helped that they ran from house to house.

I keep meaning to blog more, but get distracted. I bought a new camera. My old Canon Pro1 started acting up on our train trip. I looked around and it wasn't worth it to get it fixed. I tried out a Canon sx10 IS and didn't like it. It didn't feel sturdy and it was much bigger than the Pro1. If I wanted a big camera, I might as well get a dslr. And that's what I got. I ended up with the Canon rebel XSI/450D. So far, I'm pretty happy with it. I've been learning a lot more about what settings are appropriate for certain light conditions. I've also had to mess with a lot of other settings to get the pictures how I like them. I'm still using the basic lens that comes in the kit, but time will tell what other lenses I'll want. ;-)

In knitting, I just finished my Fiore de Melanzana stole. I need to photograph it, but was too busy with Halloween costumes. I'm trying to finish up other projects that have been sitting around. I started a pair of modified Monkey socks for E a long time ago. I realized that I need to finish them soon before she out grows them. I also have a shawl and a scarf already on the needles. I'm not sure if I'll work on those or start thinking about gift knitting. I probably should start the gift knitting, but I need to make a list first.

To end this, here are a few more Halloween pictures...

Autumn fun!

2008-10-15T10:42:00.004-04:00

Here is my Autumn Arbor Stole. I like this picture with the sun and leaves showing through the stole. This is the stole that I took on our trip. I did take a separate needle for each side. This pattern was very easy to follow and knit. The big plus is that it only had one chart and that made it really portable. I say it every time I knit one of Anne's patterns -- she's some kind of lace knitting genius. Not only does she create this beautiful patterns, but she comes up with so many different patterns in different shapes too.

The yarn is Dream in color Baby in the Black Parade color. I'm a big fan of Dream in Color yarn. It's very soft and just has a nice squishy feel to it. The two shawls/stoles that I have out of Baby yarn are some of my favorites. The subtle color variations are perfect for lace and the finished items are so cozy.

Details:
Pattern: Autumn Arbor Stole by Knitspot
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in Black Parade (185 gms)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Size made: tall width and petite length
Blocked size: 23 inches wide and 84 inches long
Start: September 26, 2008
Finish: October 11, 2008

I'm working on my Fiore de Melanzana stole now. I'm not very far into it, but I am getting faster at doing the lace on both sides.

We had some autumn fun this past weekend. On Saturday, we went to a mountain biking event that was held for kids. It was great and E had fun riding her bike on the trails. They had snacks, drinks, pizza, and prizes for all of the kids. They had three different teeter-totters set up for the kids to try. E tried the widest one. She was pretty nervous the first time, but soon got comfortable on it. That picture was taken at the moment the ramp was moving to lean the other way for her to ride down. I was told a few times that she did great on the trails. She gets some practice on the hills around our house, so mountain biking isn't a new thing for her.

On Sunday, we went to Sweetapple Farm. It was a very warm day for fall. It was hot when we went through the corn maze. The maze had a bee theme this year with bees, honeycombs, and flowers. When you enter the maze, you get a sheet of paper with 33 questions that you can answer. The answers are found on signs throughout the maze. The kids had fun trying to find the signs that told us bee facts. After the maze, we visited the animal barn. The kids got to feed some of the animals. There was a pretty herb garden with a puzzle that runs through it. If you find all of the letters, you can decode the message. E had a lot of fun with that. At the end of our day there, we bought some pumpkins to carve.

A lot of catching up...

2008-10-12T22:44:00.005-04:00

It's been a busy September. The September mystery sock has ended. There are quite a few finished socks already and it's been so much fun seeing each one completed. I knew that the rolled edge might not be popular, but I like it. I wanted something nice and horizontal to cap off the top of the sock. I don't like adding ribbing to the top of the sock if it doesn't flow from the rest of the stitch pattern. Here are the two socks that I knit while testing the pattern. The left sock was knit first with Opal 6ply yarn. The right sock was knit with Wollmeise in Campari Orange.

After all of the mystery clues were out and the questions have slowed, I got a severe case of the lace bug. With our vacation coming up, I knew that I wanted to take a lace project. That resulted in casting on for 4 different shawls and scarves trying to figure out which one to take. I cast on for the Slow Bee #2, Fiore di Melanzana, Autumn Arbor Stole, and the swiss cheese scarf. The Autumn Arbor stole won and it came on the trip. I was able to finish about 2/3 of the stole during that week away. Not bad. I have finished it this week and it just needs to be blocked. I'm hoping that I'll have it blocked and photographed for my next post.

Where did we go? We went to Cass Railroad and stayed in the caboose on the top of the mountain for two nights. This was a different adventure from our usual camping trips. The train ride up the mountain was fun. The falls colors were beautiful! We did get rain the one whole day that we were there, but that was worth it to see the double rainbow! Dwight and E saw it first and then came to get me. I was staying in the warm caboose. There's a coal stove in there and can really heat up the place if you can manage to keep it going. That was difficult at night, but not too bad.

For this trip, I made a few hand knit items to keep us warm. I made a cowl for E, D, and myself. D got a new hat out of Knit Pick's new Imagination yarn in the woodsmen color. I knit a bucket hat for myself. And I was sure to pack a few hand knit socks for everyone too. I can see why there's a cowl craze right now. Those things are very useful and I like multi-use items. E likes to wear hers as a hat most of the time. I used mine with my hat to cover nearly all of my face for the cold train ride back down the mountain.

Isn't this just beautiful! I'd take any rainy day to see this.

After the two nights at Cass, we drove over to Watoga State Park and spent three nights in a cabin. This cabin was heated by a fireplace in the living room. That was another challenge to keep warm at night, but we survived. It wasn't that bad and it was fun having the fire to watch and listen to all day and night. This park was beautiful too! There are a lot of hiking trails that start near the cabins. There's a pretty lake there too that would be fun for the kids in the summer. The roads within the park look like something out of a postcard. The roads were black and smooth with the trees forming a canopy overhead. At this time of year, the leaves were pretty and rained down whenever a breeze came.

From Watoga, we drove over to the Beartown boardwalk. The rocks looked cool to me, but the kids were bored quickly. They just wanted to race down the walkway. They did have fun sticking their hands into the holes in the rocks while pretending some evil monster was getting them. We visited so many other things on the trip, but I won't be too wordy about those. All in all, it was a very fun trip. It was different from any other camping trip or vacation that we've taken. I would love to go visit that section of West Virginia again. We did pick a great time of year to go since the leaves were so pretty already, but it wasn't too cold.

That's enough catching up for now. Back to knitting. I'm working on my Fiore di Melanzana stole in Knit Picks shadow in the grape color. It's pretty, but the patterned lace on both sides is slowing me down.

Too busy hiding

2008-09-16T21:56:00.005-04:00

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

2008-09-06T11:45:00.003-04:00

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...

Ah, much better...

2008-08-20T12:12:00.002-04:00

Things started looking better right after I posted on Monday. E finished off her lessons writing a great page all about herself. At first, she found the task a bit too open ended, but I did give her some suggestions. Soon after that, she had finished writing the whole page.

To answer Nancy/Iowa's question, yes we are homeschooling. This is my third year homeschooling E and D is just starting. Yesterday and today's lessons went really smoothly. D is still enthusiastic about his lessons. He doesn't want to stop when I do. E was like that when we started kindergarten. From my experiences with her, I know to cut him off before he gets burnt out or tired.

Back to knitting news...the shawl is moving along. The designer got back to me and things sped along after that. Now, I'm waiting for the next section from her. While waiting, I've gone back to knitting socks. I started and completed a pair of socks for D using leftovers. I used around 40gms for his socks. Now, I'm knitting a pair for E. Her socks have gotten to the size where I can no longer use the leftovers from my socks. They're just not enough. For the sock that I'm knitting for her right now, I've added in toes and heels in a solid color to stretch other yarn. After this pair, I'll have to dive into the new yarns to make socks for her.

The kids need more socks for this winter. Just about all of their other socks fit perfectly or are too small. I should be able to easily complete my 52 pairs in a year goal while knitting socks for them. I need to knit each of them more pairs to rotate through for this winter too. Some of last winter's socks have died and gone to sock heaven. ;-) All of the socks that D and E have worn through were 100% wool. I'm going to stick with wool/nylon blends for them in the future. Sure they're not as soft, but the kids don't notice or comment about it. They just like having the colorful socks.

Both of my test knitters have gotten in touch with me this week. It's so encouraging to hear from them. They did have a few questions about the same area in the pattern. I've added some clarification to my pattern that will hopefully help when it's released as a mystery sock.

No pictures today. It's nice and cool in the house and hot outside. Okay, it's warm. But 80 degrees does feel hot if it's only around 70 degrees indoors. I love the cool evening and night temperatures. It keeps me motivated to knit because it feels like fall is already here. I have a few other things that I want to knit for the kids for this fall and winter. I need to get moving if they're going to be done in time to be useful.

Back to school time and...

2008-08-18T13:08:00.004-04:00

I'm feeling drained already. It's only 1pm and what a morning! D started his kindergarten lessons and did great. He wasn't very enthusiastic about starting, but he didn't want to stop once we started. That was encouraging for me. E started the the day off great, but hit a bump in the road. It was pretty much down hill after that. sigh.

In the knitting area, I'm testing knitting a shawl and I hit a bump with that too. I can't get my next row to line up properly. That's frustrating. I've checked to see if I made any mistakes and everything looks good up until this line. I'll have to wait to hear from the designer.

I'm also having my mystery sock test knitted by two people. So far, so good. I did have an error about the way I referred to the multiple charts. oops. I did it one way in the file with the complete pattern, but had to change it to accommodate the pattern being separated into four clues. I'm happy that the charts do seem to be correct.

Beyond that, I'm still working on writing up other sock patterns. I think that I have most of the pattern portion written for a few of them. Now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the big charts into the pdf without making the file size huge or the charts looking blurry. I'll probably have those test knitted too before I let them out.

I have no socks on the needles. Yikes! I think that I'll start a plain stockinette sock to work on while the kids are doing lessons. That's all that I can manage right now. ;-)

Details for the sock above:
Pair #15 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Lovesticks in Count Sockula
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: August 7, 2008
Finish: August 10, 2008

Weaving socks and some mystery

2008-08-04T11:29:00.003-04:00

This is my latest sock. Every now and then, I need a simpler pattern. This one was perfect. It was simple enough to not need a chart, but it wasn't boring. This pattern could probably be done in a more variegated yarn too.

Details:
Pair # 14 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pair #9 for Summer of Socks 08
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Nightwatch
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, gusset heel with patterning
Pattern: Weaving (pattern to be written later)
Start: July 30, 2008
Finish: August 1, 2008

I've been asked to design the September mystery sock for Sock Knitter's Anonymous (ravelry group). This pattern will be released in four parts, once each week during September. I've been digging through stitch dictionaries and working up a few different ideas. I think that I've finally gotten down what I want. Something interesting, but not too complex since there is a wide range of skill levels on the SKA group. The only requirement was that I use orange yarn. Pretty cool to have such an open ended range of what I could do. By the end of this week, I should have a good rough draft of the pattern.

I can't really say much about the pattern. I've been asked about using variegated yarns. I think a slightly variegated yarn would work. A yarn that stripes subtly might work too. I really don't think that yarn with bold stripes would work.

Falling Ribbons and Constrictor

2008-07-30T12:53:00.003-04:00

Names... I don't enjoy picking names for my patterns. Most of the time, I don't have a name until the sock is finished. Even then, I have to stare at the sock for a while before a name comes to me. I try not to associate the name with the yarn or the color of the yarn. Most of the time, I try to name it based on what it looks like. It's sort of a game. What is the first word that you think of when you see this? --type of game.

Words that came to me with this sock are bound, tied, wrapped, swirl, etc. I finally decided on Constrictor as the name. It looks like a boa constrictor is wrapped around your foot the way the cables pull across. The cables look tight in the photo, but they're not uncomfortable. I chose not to wrap the cables all the way around the leg thinking that would be too binding. That was a good decision. As knitted, these socks are snug, but not too much.

I tried doing something different with the gusset. I did my fancy count backwards type heel on these. I love how the heel looks, but it's probably not the best sock for closed shoes. These socks would be best for clog type shoes.

I have to talk about the yarn. This is Enchanted Knoll Farms yarn in the Chai color. I LOVE this yarn. It's a 4-ply and that makes it super smooth. I've been looking for a yarn that has a similar smooth base to Wollmeise, but easier to get. I've found it and bought some more. The colors aren't as saturated and rich, but I love how they're more subtle in their variegation. I can't wait to try a twisted stitch pattern with this yarn. I think it will look great.

Details:
Pair #13 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pair #8 for Summer of Socks 08
Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farms in Chai
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, my fancy gusset heel
Pattern: Constrictor (my own to be written up later)
Start: July 27, 2008
Finish: July 29, 2008

This sock took me longer than expected to finish. My parents were visiting while I was working on this sock and not much knitting was accomplished that week.

This yarn is Conjoined Creations Flat Feet yarn. It's the yarn that comes knitted in a giant rectangle. You can separate them to knit two socks at once. I did take a picture of the yarn before I knitted, but the coloring was all off. :-( This flat was dyed with the colors going at a diagonal. That resulted in very subtle and thin stripes--no pooling at all. The yarn is strange to knit with because it's basically frogged yarn. I found that it didn't really affect my knitting or gauge. It did feel a little rough because of the texture, but that didn't bother me.

Details:
Pair #12 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pair #7 for Summer of Socks 08
Yarn: Conjoined Creations Flat Feet
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: Falling Ribbons (my own to be written up later)
Start: July 18, 2008
Finish: July 27, 2008

Up next... I have no idea. I've been looking at my sketches and I can't decide which one to do first.

Summer Sliding and This End Up

2008-07-16T15:42:00.003-04:00

I've decided to just skip the vacation photos and get on with posting the rest of the socks. These sock patterns are popping up in my brain faster than I can knit or write out the patterns. I am taking a lot of notes with each sock. The hard part about writing the pattern is figuring the charts and numbers for the sizes that I'm not knitting.

After knitting Magic Mirror, I still have zig-zags on the brain. A lot of sock patterns just have small chart that you repeat until the sock is your size. Right now, I'm interested in patterns where the stitching moves and the charts barely repeat on the sock. This results in large charts, but I like large charts.

This sock has a smaller zig-zag on it than Magic Mirror. I also wanted one side of it to be more solid than the other. You can wear these socks with either side facing out. I like it with the open areas on the outside parts of the leg. I'm calling this one Summer Sliding. It could be slides at a playground or at a water park.

I did do the gusset heel on these socks again. I changed the way the increases and wraps/turns are done. They came out nearly invisible! I was pretty excited about that. Dwight just looked at me funny when I was showing it to him. ;-) He probably looks at me funny a lot when I'm talking about knitting.

Details:
Pair #10 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Summer Sliding (my own)
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Frosch (90gms used)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe up with a Turkish cast-on, gusset heel
Start: July 11, 2008
Finish: July 13, 2008

This is the sock that I just finished today. This was an easier knit and the chart was easy to memorize too. The frustrating part was trying to photograph the sock. There was something about my camera, the sun, and bright red color of the yarn. This is one of the better photos.

I'm calling this sock This End Up after those arrows you see on boxes showing you which way to stack them.

Details:
Pair #11 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: This End Up (my own and will be written up later)
Yarn: All Things Heather in Maraschino (70 gms used)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at a time, toe-up using a Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: July 14, 2008
Finish: July 16, 2008

If you look over on the right, I've added my Hidden Hearts pattern. I've also changed the Magic Mirror pattern. It's a new pdf and this one has three different sizes. The small and large sizes have not been test knitted, but I did go over the numbers a few times. I also tried to get the charts clearer in the pdf while keeping the file size down.

Catching up x3

2008-07-09T15:55:00.002-04:00

It's been a while. I've finished three socks since my last post. I wanted to finish writing the patterns too, but that's taking longer than I thought it would.

I finished Purl and Zag while I was getting ready for our camping trip. Ideally, I wanted to have the pattern written before we left, but I've decided to write it for at least three sizes. That means making three different charts and adding those sizes to the directions.

I think it's a lot easier to design a sock pattern for solid yarns. Throwing variegated yarn into the mix makes it a bit harder to find a stitch pattern that will look good and cooperate with the various colors. I think this stitch pattern is bold enough on it's own, but also lets the colors show off too.

Pair #6 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Purl and Zag by me
Yarn: Great Adirondack Silky Sock in Onyx (70 gms used)
Needles: size 0 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: June 21, 2008
Finished: June 24, 2008

This is another pair that I started and finished before the trip. I'm not sure how to write this pattern. This was a challenge for myself to use a gusset heel on a toe-up sock and to incorporate the stitch pattern in that heel. That meant counting and working backwards.

I was successful at knitting these socks with the fancy heel, but writing it? I'm not sure how to explain how to count backwards on the chart to figure out how to do the pattern on the heel. I can see why cuff down patterns are more common that toe-up. It would be a whole lot easier to explain if I just knit the other way, but I'm stubborn. ;-) Look at that heel...

#7 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Cables and Corsets--pattern to be written out later
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Brombeere (87 gms used)
Needle: size 0 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe up, Turkish cast on, gusset heel
Start: June 25, 2008
Finish: June 28, 2008

This sock was started and finished on the trip. The stitch pattern plays nicely with the variegated yarn and it's easy to memorize too. That's always a big plus for an on-the-go knitting project.

I did the gusset heel on this sock too. This one fits me just a little bit better than the previous sock. I still don't see the big advantage of this type of heel over the short row heel. The gusset heel can be prettier, but the short row heel is easier to memorize. With the gusset heel, I have to refer to the written directions to turn the heel. Maybe it's because I've done so many short row heels and that's why it comes so easily. I'm not sure if I'll continue to do the gusset heels. They make pattern writing difficult. ;-) But they look so pretty...

#8 in the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pattern: Twisted Arrows-pattern written later
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Raku-Regenbogen (90 gms used)
Needle: size 0 Knit Picks classic circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, gusset heel
Start: June 28, 2008
Finish: July 3, 2008

I'm working on another sock right now. It's a mindless knit since I'm using a pattern out of More Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm still working on the patterns for the socks in this post. I really want to focus on writing them in more than one size. I know that I'm usually a little disappointed when a pattern only comes in one size, even if it says it's "very stretchy." Some of these stitch patterns aren't that easy to resize. I usually end up having to draw a new chart for each size.

My next post will be vacation pictures...

Bloomin'...take two

2008-06-23T22:03:00.003-04:00

Today was an impossible day for photos. It was either bright sunshine or really dark thunderstorms.

For the Bloomin' socks, I did what I hardly ever do. I ripped back a project after it was finished. I took out the cuff and all of the flower section. I'm very happy with how it looks now. I took away a few lines from underneath the flower. I also made the flower larger and knit several more rows for a bigger rolled cuff.

This sock is very easy to resize. The leaves and flower are on a purl back ground. It's easy to add or subtract stitches from either side to make the sock wider or narrower. This sock started with 64 stitches for the foot. Towards the heel, I added 4 additional stitches to the sole. I kept those stitches for the leg and I am very pleased with the fit of the socks. In my pattern, I wrote it for 64 stitches throughout without my added increases. These socks have a 7 inch relaxed circumference and a 10 inch stretched circumference.

Bloomin' is a free pattern that you can download from ravelry. That link should work even if you're not a member of ravelry.

To recap some details about the socks that I made:

Yarn: Opal Uni solids in a dusty rose color (65 gms used for pictured pair)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: Bloomin' by me
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel, rolled cuff

Bloomin'...take one

2008-06-20T14:16:00.003-04:00

Here is sock #5 in the 52 Pair Plunge II. This is another design by me. I've wanted to do a sock that had a vine-ish look to it starting at the toe and ending with something pretty near the cuff. This is a combination of a few different stitch patterns. I took the elements that I liked and put them together. This pattern will be written up, but I've changed the charts. I want to knit it with the chart changes and take pictures of that one for the pattern.

Overall, I was happy with this pattern. I changed the flower a little bit and I definitely changed the cuff. I wanted a rolled cuff, but it didn't roll as much as I thought it would. As it is, it looks odd to me. I know that I don't want a typical ribbed cuff, but I'll deal with that when I get to that section on the next pair.

Pair #5 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Opal Uni solids in a dusty rose color
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: Bloomin' by me(will be written up after I make corrections)
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel, rolled cuff
Start: June 15, 2008
Finish: June 19, 2008

I must say that I was surprised and overwhelmed at the response to the Magic Mirror socks. They've been linked from Lime and Violet's Chum and Craftzine's blog. I've gotten a lot of hits from those two places in addition to ravelry. On ravelry, there are a few people that have started the pattern already and have posted pictures. That's exciting for me to see my pattern knit by other people. I can't wait until the finished pictures are posted!

Up next, I'm knitting with a very dark variegated yarn. Talk about a yarn being difficult to find an appropriate stitch pattern. I've searched through all of my stitch dictionaries and I think that I found one that won't compete too much with the colors.

Magic Mirror socks

2008-06-14T10:16:00.005-04:00

Here is pair #4 for the 52 Pair Plunge. As long as I'm still having fun, socks will keep on coming at this pace. The socks aren't getting old or repetitive as long as I keep doing interesting patterns or challenging myself to come up with a pattern of my own. This pair is one of my own and I LOVE it. The charts that I made for these socks are huge and I wasn't sure if the curves would come out smooth. When I started these socks, they do look large from the lace sections and the twisted ribbing. After knitting the foot, it starts to pull in and become a very snug, stretchy sock. I think that this sock should fit a wide variety of foot sizes.

These were knit at the same time on one needle. That was interesting and challenging for my brain. Since I wanted the socks to mirror each other, I had to follow one chart for one sock and then a different chart for the other. Some knitters might even be able to flip the chart in their head. I didn't want to try that because ripping or tinking back on magic loop is a pain. ;-)

Details:
Pair 4 for the 52 Pair Plunge 2.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Pumpkin (used 72 gms)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: Magic Mirror socks
Start: June 8, 2008
Finish: June 11, 2008

I think that I've gotten used to taking a picture of the backs of my own legs. These socks were posted to ravelry already and the response has been huge. Thanks to everyone for all of the nice compliments. That lit a fire under me and I was determined to get this pattern out quickly. It still wasn't as quick as I wanted. I had to argue with word, excel, the pdf converter, and photoshop. That was mostly me trying to experiment in many ways to keep the file size reasonable.

Now that I have one pattern done, I have a few others here that will be written up some time soon.

Too many ideas...

2008-06-11T10:27:00.003-04:00

I'm still going strong with the 52 Pair Plunge 2. I'm actually ahead of the one-pair-a-week schedule. That's good because I'll need a break from socks sometime in the next year. I've been looking through stitch dictionaries and coming up with my own patterns. Now I have too many stitch patterns that I want to alter to fit into socks.

These super bright yellow socks were knit from a stitch pattern that was really easy to fit onto socks. The yarn is solid Cherry Tree Hill color. I really like their solid yarns. It feels springy and doesn't split at all. I decided to put the picot edge at the top simply because I was tired of ending my socks in 2x2 or 1x1 ribbing. I like the picot edge because it's thick, feels sturdy, and is pretty. I'm not fond of having to sew it down.

Details:
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill solids-yellow
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: basic sock with stitch from a stitch dictionary
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel, picot cuff
Start: June 3, 2008
Finish: June 5, 2008

This is my Monkey pair for the 52 Pair Plunge 2. Over on the Ravelry group, they picked out two patterns for June. One pattern was Monkey, so I added it to my queue for this month. I've knit this pattern before, but never with Socks that Rock. In fact, I've never used any of the Socks that Rock yarn before now. This is their lightweight yarn, but it felt like sport weight to me. It was definitely thicker than most indie dyed yarns that I've used. The socks turned out really dense and should make a nice winter sock, despite the lace. I like how the yarn pooled into stripes. I did the picot edge again and was a little faster at sewing it down.

Details:
Yarn: Socks that Rock lightweight in Emerald City (used 95 gms)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel, picot cuff
Notes: This yarn is on the thicker side for sock yarns, but I had to use a 2mm needle or the socks would have been too big. This resulted in a very dense sock. It should be great for next winter.
Start: June 5, 2008
Finish: June 7, 2008

And this is what I'm working on right now. This pattern was heavily altered from a stitch pattern that I found. I love how these socks are turning out. I started calling them my Mirror socks because of how they mirror each other. Now I'm calling them my Magic Mirror socks. Why? Because they look so shriveled, small, and kind of ugly on the needles. They look great on my foot and stretch a lot. I think that this pattern wouldn't need to be altered much to fit a wide variety of foot sizes.

And speaking of patterns, I really want to write up a few of these socks as patterns. I also haven't posted about two lace scarves that I've knitted because I want to write up the patterns to post along with them. I need to get with it and start writing them before the backlog gets too long and overwhelming that I don't do it at all.

If you're wondering how I had time to do all of this, it's because Dwight took the kids camping. I stayed home because my allergies have been super annoying this season. Over the weekend, I managed to sew 4 dress for E, finish the Monkey socks, start on the Magic Mirror socks, and do all sorts of cleaning. Not bad. I also had a lot of fun watching old New Kids on the Block videos on youtube. I obsessed over the guys back in the day and it's so exciting to see that they're together again and working on an album.

And it begins...

2008-06-04T16:08:00.003-04:00

The 52 Pair Plunge started on June 1st and runs for a year. The goal is to knit 52 pairs of socks in one year. I think that I can do that easily. To challenge myself, I'm trying to come up with some of my own designs. I'm using stitch dictionaries for inspiration. I plan on trying to write up a few of them as patterns. We'll see. I've tried to write a pattern before and I tend to get really wordy.

This is my first pair and I had a lot of fun with it. The chart was too big to memorize, but the socks were still a fast knit. The pattern is really stretchy. I don't think that I would have to size this up very much for anyone, but it would be difficult to size down.

Details:
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Dusky Aurora (used approx. 80gms)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: mine using a stitch dictionary
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: June 1, 2008
Finish: June 3, 2008

I said that I would take better pictures of my Marie Antoinette socks and here they are. If socks could be sexy, I would say that this one qualifies. I love the detail in these socks, especially down the back. I don't knit too many patterns more than once, but I really want to knit this one again. This was such a fun pattern and surprisingly quick.

Another pretty shot:

Through the fog...

2008-05-24T09:19:00.003-04:00

Allergy fog, that is. Ugh. Either I can't think straight when my head is all stuffy or I feel drowsy and out of it on allergy meds. This allergy season is brutal. You can see the stuff flying through the air. Our porch had a lovely yellowish blanket on it until Dwight washed it off last week. I think it's already covered again.

I have gotten a few things done since my last post. These Marie Antoinette socks were finished earlier this month, but have waited a long time to be photographed. Even then, I tried to dash outside quickly to avoid the pollen. Most of the pictures of me wearing the socks turned out blurry. :-( I'll try to get better shots of the sock on my foot. These socks were a lot of fun to make. I've put them off for a while because I thought they were too complicated. The top edge is knit first in one strip, you sew it into a circle, and then pick up stitches to work the sock down to the toe. The directions are very clear (as always with Anne's patterns). The socks were surprisingly fast to knit.

The yarn is a new one to me. It feels a little rough, but softened up after a wash. The yarn feels on the thicker side of most fingering weight sock yarns. The semi-solid colors are perfect for patterns like this one.

Details:
Pattern: Marie Antoinette by Knitspot (Anne Hanson)
Yarn: Araucania Ranco color 103 (used 70gms)
Needles: size 1 (2.25) Knit Picks Harmony dpns for the top edge and Classic Circulars for the rest
Start: May 3, 2008
Finish: May 8, 2008

I've also finished two lace scarves and I'm working on another one. For one of the scarves, I found a great stitch pattern that I liked. I drew it in excel, mirrored it, flipped it, and it came out great! I plan on trying to write that one up as a pattern. I've known how to make a chart in excel, but I've now figured out how to get the charts out while still looking decent.

I've joined the Summer of Socks again. It's going to be different than last year. I'm not going to try to knit the most socks. Instead, I'm trying to make a few new patterns. I've searched through my stitch dictionaries and I think that I have a few stitch patterns that would look great on socks.

I've also joined the 52 Pair Plunge. I saw that last year and didn't think that I would want to knit that many in one year. I did knit more than that last year. I've gathered together most of the sock patterns that I want to try into one binder. Between this and Summer of Socks, there should be a lot of sock knitting this summer.

Late Laminaria

2008-05-12T11:18:00.003-04:00

I knit this shawl a few weeks ago, but I'm finally blogging about it now. Things have been busy around here. I've been working on E's homeschooling portfolio. That is finished and has been reviewed. Phew! We got a dog. Well, we're trying out a dog. She's a black lab and almost two years old. She's a very well behaved dog, but we're not sure if a dog fits into our family or routines right now. On top of that, we're not sure if where we live is good for her. We have been finding a lot of ticks on her and around our house. She does have a flea/tick treatment, but I'm not sure if that's enough.

Back to knitting, this is Laminaria. I knit it out of two strands of Colourmart's 2/28 cashmere yarn. I wanted a dense shawl and that is exactly what I got. I bought this yarn as an odds-n-ends lot on ebay last year. I initially bought it to make a scarf for Dwight. It's just about the right shade of UT's burnt orange. I still have plenty left to make that scarf. I'm thinking about knitting another Henry scarf since I liked the last one so much. I love how this shawl turned out. It is dense, but it's light and fluffy. The cashmere does feel funny coming off of the cone, but a few dunks into very hot and soapy water softened it up a lot.

I picked this shawl because it has a few stitches that I haven't used in a shawl yet. Overall, it was quick and fun to knit. The
3-into-9 or 2-into-9 stitches weren't so bad to execute. I was using my pointy Knit Picks Options needles and they made it easy to do those stitches.

Details:
Pattern: Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman on Knitty.com
Yarn: Colourmart 2/28 cashmere laceweight-doubled
Needle: size 5 Knit Picks Options
Start: April 18, 2008
Finish: April 25, 2008

Up next, I'm knitting a blanket or throw. I'm not sure what the final size will be, but it is going to be larger than a shawl. I'm knitting Snowflakes in Cedarwoods out of 4ply camel hair yarn from Colourmart. I'm only on the third chart out of 11, so it will be a while before it's finished. I'm hoping to finish it before the weather gets too warm for me to have this project in my lap.

Remnants

2008-04-28T18:44:00.003-04:00

My sample knitting yarn still hasn't arrived yet (I'm starting to get worried), but that leaves me with a lot of knitting time. I've had to find projects that are fun, easy to memorize, but are quick to finish. That left me looking at all of my leftover lace weight yarn. I've looked through my stitch dictionaries and there are so many stitch patterns that I want to use. I've started to use them and the leftover lace weight yarn to make scarves. I don't have a plan for the scarves, but I'm going to keep them in my "last minute gift" pile. These scarves only take around 50-60 gms of lace weight and can be completed in a few days. I was working on more than one at a time since I couldn't decide on stitch patterns. ;-) After these two, I have a whole list of stitch patterns that I want to turn into scarves.

These scarves both used around 55 gms of lace yarn each. I used size 2 Knit Picks dpns with rubber bands on the ends to turn them into straight needles. They're the perfect length for these scarves. This is Remnant #1. Pretty original name, huh? Using this stitch and 55 gms of yarn, this scarf blocked out to be 9 inches wide and 60 inches long. This stitch pattern is in Barbara Walker's 3rd Treasury of Knitting Patterns and it's called Laddered Diamonds (p.164). This one took me a while to memorize, but I finally got there at the half-way point on the scarf. I would love to try this pattern again in a more solid colored yarn. This stitch would probably look good in a triangular shawl too. Hmmmm...

This is Remnant #2. Yes, another very original name. I figured that I would just keep on going with the numbers since I plan to do a lot of these. This scarf blocked out to be 10 inches wide and 60 inches long. The stitch pattern is from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns and it's called Open Star Stitch (p.154). This one was really easy to memorize and this scarf was easy to put down and pick up. I love how the yarn pooled into some weird alien animal type print. I might have to keep this scarf for myself.

I also finished another shawl, but I'll save that for another post. I've started another scarf and that will probably be finished by my next post too.

In other news, our little garden is starting to grow. Living up on this hill, I love how the world starts to close in around us in the spring. It's starting and we'll be surrounded by leafy trees in a few weeks.

I've been working on E's end of the year portfolio. It's online and I will put a link up to it when it's finished. I'm pretty happy with how most of it turned out, but I'm not happy with some of the wording.

Edited to add: Remnant #1 is Cherry Tree Hill Cascade lace in Dusk. Remnant #2 is Cherry Tree Hill Cascade lace in Tropical Storm.

Hocus pocus...Crocus Pocus

2008-04-16T10:54:00.003-04:00

I know that I disappeared again. Sample knitting was under way and I can't blog about that. That hit a wall when I ran out of yarn. :-( More is being sent, but now I'm free to work on other projects.

I'm test knitting this for Susan over at Sunflower Designs. This is her latest shawl and it's called Crocus Pocus. I was so happy that I had suitable yarn and beads on hand. I probably should have used smaller beads due to the weight, but I still like the way it turned out in the end. The yarn is Schaeffer Anne in Billie Holiday. I was concerned about a superwash yarn blocking, but this blocked wonderfully! It didn't try to spring back or curl while I was making it pose for pictures.

Every single bead was placed on by a crochet hook. There is one row where every other stitch is beaded and I thought that one would last forever. I was concerned about the weight of the shawl, but it is comfortable and it stays on your shoulders. This is the shawl that you want to wear on a windy day. Nothing will blow this off of your shoulders. ;-)

If you look at the full size photo of the edging, you can see that I had to mix in another type of bead. I ran out of the transparent rootbeer and mixed in some iridescent iris beads. It's not too obvious, unless you're looking for it.

Details:
Pattern: Crocus Pocus by Sunflower Designs
Yarn: Schaeffer Anne in Billie Holiday (approx. 105 gms used)
Needle: size 4 (3.5mm) Knit Picks Options
Beads: 8/0 transparent rootbeer and iridescent iris (approx. 180 gms used)
Hook: size 11 (1.05 mm)
Final size: 70 inches across the top and 32 inches down the center point
Start: April 12, 2008
Finish: April 15, 2008

Presenting....Arabian Nights!

2008-04-04T10:46:00.003-04:00

It's done, blocked, and the ends are woven in and trimmed. Let's talk about the grafting. OMG did that take forever. Okay not forever, but about an hour and a half to do the actual grafting and then another hour to fix the wonky parts.

It's huge, but so pretty. For the first time, I tried blocking it to the specified size. It didn't look so good and I reverted back to my usual blocking method. I do a full wet-blocking for lace. Then I lay it out on the floor and smooth it out with my hands until it looks okay. After that, I start securing the crochet yarn that I threaded through the straight edges. From there, I start really stretching it to get the lines straight. This shawl was different because it has beaded sides that aren't straight. I pinned those out individually--ugh! That took forever. In the end it wanted to be around 35 inches wide (!) and 91 inches long.

Overall, I'm happy with the look. I do need to go back and reinforce the beaded fringe. Some of them stretched out during the blocking process. Actually, I would recommend not doing a full wet-block with beaded fringe. I need to add some beads to the center where there is a visible line in the beaded diamonds. I think it will look perfect after adding in a few beads to fill the gap.

Final details:
Pattern: Arabian Nights by Sunflower Designs
Yarn: Hengyuanxiang Knitting Wool - used 210gms
Needle: size 2 (3mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Hook: size 11 (1.05mm)
Beads: 8/0 Iris blue
Changes: I grafted the center.
Blocked size: 35 inches by 91 inches
Start: February 26, 2008
Finish: April 2, 2008

What I'm not happy with are the pictures. This purple yarn is so hard to get the color correct in photos. And why is it that the colors look different from Photoshop and Flickr? I take the photo into Photoshop, adjust the color and size, save it, and upload it. It seems that flickr must do something or my eyes are getting old. No laughing from you--Dwight. :-P

My secret project has been delayed in getting to me, so I have been trying to fill my time with small knits. I decided to try Anne Hanson's Orchid Lace mitts. I bought this pattern to use up leftover bits of lace yarn that I have saved. For my first try, I tried using the leftover Dream In Color Baby yarn from my Irtfa'a shawl. I only had a little under 40 gms of yarn left, but decided to give it a try anyways. I had enough--just barely enough. These mitts are so quick and easy. I finished these in one day. What was difficult was getting a good photo of my own arm with the whole mitt in the shot. I managed to do it thanks to the swivel lcd on my camera.

Details:
Pattern: Orchid Lace mitts by Anne Hanson (Knitspot)
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in Gothic Rose - 36 gms
Needle: size 2 (2.75mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Start: April 1, 2008
Finish: April 2, 2008

I also finished a wash cloth--exciting! ;-) I still haven't gotten word on my project, so I'm off to find another quick knit.

Almost there...

2008-04-01T12:42:00.005-04:00

No pictures today because I need to get some ideas down before they're gone. I've finished the second half of my Arabian Night stole. I stopped at row 39 of Charts G3 and G4. Why there? That's also the end of Charts B, C, and D. The next row would be a purl type row and I thought that might be a good grafting row. But that would leave some weird single beads in the center of the stole. One idea is to knit 2 more rows on one half and 4 more rows on the other half. That will make the beaded diamond in the center match the rest of the beaded diamonds. But that might make the side charts B, C, and D look funny. That might require some creative grafting too since the stitch counts wouldn't be the same. I think the only thing to do is insert a lifeline and try each option and see if I like how they look.

In other knitting news, there will be even fewer blog posts for the next few weeks. I have a secret project that I can't blog.

In the mail, I just received my order from Nordic Fiber Arts yesterday. Wow! I love all of the books that I bought. I bought Latvian Mittens, Folk Knitting in Estonia, Selbustrikk, and Stromper/Sokker. The last two are in Norwegian, but full translations were sent that were about the same size as the pattern booklets. Very cool. This order was placed in early March and it took nearly a month to get it, but it was well worth the wait. The wait was due to getting the translations.

In news around the house, E has started training for a 5k. She has done one 5k every year since she was 4. All of the previous years, she didn't train at all and it was just for fun. This year, she's training and we're hoping that she'll jog the whole thing this time. We're loosely following the couch to 5k training schedule that has you walking/jogging for 30 minutes a few times a week for several weeks until you're able to jog the whole 30 minutes. E wasn't too happy with the first day. She kept asking why did she have to walk so much and why couldn't she run more. She wants to jump right in and run. We're trying to pace her and build up her endurance.

Half way through the night

2008-03-22T13:12:00.002-04:00

Arabian nights, that is. This is one half of my Arabian Night stole. I stopped a little short of where the pattern ends because I'm trying to do a seamless graft in the middle. I stopped where the border and side column charts end. I might need to do 2-4 more rows to make the center panel look better, but I'll determine that later. That's why the yarn is still attached. I also stopped because look at the little ball of yarn that's left. That's from the second ball out of 4. My husband brought this yarn back from China. I have no idea what the yardage is on each ball, but I had guessed it to be in area of 600-800 yards. Now, I'm leaning more towards the 600 yards after finishing this half of the stole.

I've started the second half already. I'm into the long non-beaded section. I got ahead of myself and didn't pre-string enough beads for the second half. Argh! I'll just have to cut the yarn to add more. This stole is going to be another huge one. When I pinned it out for the picture, it measured 31 inches wide and 42 inches long. That wasn't even stretching it out completely.

This is what the beaded center panel looks like. I like the row of beads on the border and how the twisted stitches make a neat line on either side of the bead.

All of my other projects have been neglected because of this stole. I want to finish it and wear it! Posey is still around and waiting for attention. So is the chick/egg toy. I have some sewing projects that I want to do after these knits. I know that I've been saying that for a while now, but it's time to make summer dresses for E. I have the patterns and fabric and I just need to find the time.

Speaking of E, look at her new smile:

Cute!!! She's lost another tooth. The second tooth was very loose after she lost the first one. She was actually excited about going to bed because the tooth fairy was coming. I told her that the tooth fairy might be on vacation. She gave me the funniest look. She knows that the tooth fairy is me, but she still talks about her like she's real. The tooth fairy did visit last night and E was happy with the goodies that she brought--stickers and a new toothbrush. The tooth fairy was a bit cranky because she had gone to bed and then remembered that she needed to visit E. I had to drag the tooth fairy out of bed, gather the goodies, and then sneak into E's room.

In other news, see that song down there? That's on the latest cd that I've bought and I love that song. I'm surrounded by princess talk around here and it's so funny to hear a song like that. To me, it's about not wanting a fairytale because they're not real and not perfect anyways. In other words, being realistic.

----------------
Now playing: Fairytale - Sara Bareilles
via FoxyTunes

Yeah, I'm still here...

2008-03-19T11:28:00.003-04:00

Yummmmm. This is what we made for dinner on Monday. This pizza is so easy to make and so yummy. We fancied it up by adding some spinach. I don't think E or D minded the added green to their pizza either. Now, if we could only find a whole wheat crust recipe that we like. The crust on this one is out of a package. After making the crust, you just layer the mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, spinach, grilled chicken, Parmesan cheese, and oregano.

I've made some knitting progress. I'm slowly working on my Arabian Nights stole. I'm nearing the center of the stole. I plan on tweaking the pattern in the center. The center is supposed to have three vertical lines of beads. I don't want those there and I'm going to try grafting it to be as seamless as possible. I'll have to find a good place for this half of the stole to end before I setting it aside. I think that I'll run a lifeline and keep this side on some needles and still attached to the ball of yarn. That's just in case I have to rip, tink, add more rows, or do whatever to get the center to look how I want it. I'll take some pictures when this half is done.

I finished the mittens from Selbuvotter for E. Steaming really does wonders for evening out funky stranded work. ;-) These mittens were so lumpy before I steamed them that I hid them away and didn't want to look at them. After steaming, they're acceptable to me. I still need to do more practice with my stranding tension. You can really see my tension issues on the backs of the mittens. I tried doing one mitten on two circular needles and one mitten with dpns. After the steaming, the mitten done on two circulars looks better than the dpn mitten. I don't like small circumference stranded work. The thumbs on both mittens look bad. :-(

Details:
Pattern: NHM #3 from Selbuvotter
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill solid in Pink and Knit Picks Bare
Needle: size 2 (3mm) Knit Picks circular and dpns
Start: March 4, 2008
Finish: March 18, 2008

I have a few other projects on the side too. I haven't gotten much further with the chicken/egg toy from Craft magazine. My hands and acrylic just don't get along, but I do like how acrylic looks for toys. It was supposed to be done for Easter, but I don't think I'll get two done before this weekend. Oh well. I'll just give them whenever they're done.

Can you figure out what this is? If you said a sock, then you must have looked at the new spring Knitty. This is going to be the Posey sock designed by Lisa Kay. I just had to try it for the cool construction. Those little squares are tiny and a bit awkward at first, but they fly by once you get the motions down. I'm making the sock one row shorter because I can't count. ;-) Really, I was eager to see where the sock was going, so I shortened it. Lisa was so nice and linked to my picot edge tutorial in her pattern. It will be a while before I get there, but I think that I'll have to use my own tutorial. It's been a while since I've done a picot edge that I've forgotten how to do it. I still have one more row of squares to do before I start sewing the leg together and make it look more like a sock.

In other news around here, our wonderful postman is leaving our route. :-( He was so nice and he's been here since we've moved to this house. The kids loved it when he delivered a package to the house because he would always talk with them for a bit.

Snow, teeth, and more knitting

2008-03-09T15:39:00.004-04:00

Is this what March looks like? Looking through my old digital pictures, I can see that we usually get a dusting of snow. This probably isn't our last snow either. Almost every year, we get a little bit of snow after the azaleas have bloomed. We got a bit of the snow storm that came through yesterday. We got around 5 inches of snow and thankfully not the 20 inches that Ohio received. The birds love coming to the bird feeder when it's snowing. Yesterday, we had birds all over our trumpet vines and the ground underneath the feeder. I spent a lot of time watching them. These pictures were taken through our kitchen window.

We had something exciting happen last weekend. E lost another tooth. She has a cute gap toothed smile now. She was very brave. The tooth has been very loose for a few days and she finally let Dwight give it a few tugs. She said that it didn't hurt that much and no tears were shed. I think she was more focused on what the tooth fairy was going bring. She does know that the tooth fairy is me, but I play along and pretend that the tooth fairy is someone else. She gives me the funniest look when I talk about the tooth fairy. It's similar to the "come-on Mom, you're not fooling me" look.

The tooth right next to it is ready to come out too. She's working on it, but it will probably be at least another week. This picture was taken last Monday, when it reached 70 degrees. It's been a crazy spring weather week with temperatures that high and ending with snow.

In knitting, I'm slowly making progress on Arabian Nights. This picture was taken a few days ago when I was 70 rows into the second set of charts. This section goes faster than the first beaded section. As of Sunday afternoon, I've knit 120 rows out of 200. I wasn't sure if I liked the edging on the sides. It seemed so loose and floppy looking. After pinning it out, I've decided that I like it a lot. I like those large holes that it makes and the little loops with beads on them. Here are some closer shots of those sections.

I've started a few other projects too. I started the NHM #3 mittens from Selbuvotter for E. I'm knitting them out of a Cherry Tree Hill solid in pink and Knit Picks Bare. The mittens are done except for their thumbs. I'm not too happy with my stranding. I need more practice to stop the puckering. I think it might have something to do with switching between projects too. I'm also knitting the chick/egg toy from the Play! issue of Craft magazine. So far, I only have the chick body and half of the egg knitted. I want to make two of them for Easter.

Busy, busy, back to knitting...

Mingus completed and Arabian nights begins

2008-03-03T14:56:00.002-05:00

Mingus was completed this weekend. What a fun knit! The second sock flew by compared to the first. This pattern is odd in that you're knitting part of two different rows on the charts for each round on the actual sock. It was confusing at first, but easy once I got into the rhythm.

I gave Fleece Artist another chance after having problems with their color saturation on two different pairs of socks. Those were both with SeaWool and with a darker color. Somoko is a great yarn. I like the addition of mohair and the subtle shine of the silk. This yarn feels quite durable. Dwight claims that it doesn't feel soft, but it felt soft to me and I was the one knitting with it. ;-)

Details:
Pattern: Mingus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Fleece Artist Somoko in Burgundy (used around 85gms)
Needles: size 1 (2.5mm) for the leg and size 1 (2.25mm) for the foot
Start: Feb. 26, 2008
Finish: March 2, 2008

I started my Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights shawl. I suppose mine is the Arabian Nights variation since I'm using darker colors. Something important was brought up on this shawl's ravelry board. Someone mentioned reinforcing the beaded fringe because it would be tragic to get that snagged on something. I never thought of that and I'm the type of person that would get it snagged. I plan on going back and reinforcing it with another strand of the same laceweight. The beads flow easily on the yarn and I think it will be no problem to weave in another yarn. Speaking of beads, I've been dragging them along and pushing the down the yarn with no ill effects to the yarn so far. This yarn is a pretty durable yarn for a laceweight.

This is another shot of the beaded fringe. I ended up twisting the stitches on both sides of each loop. The beads wanted to travel around and I had to stop that before it drove me nutty. That's why I like the crochet method of adding beads. The beads stay exactly where you put them.

I've finished the bottom border with the beaded diamonds. Now I'm knit up to row 4 of charts D, E, and F. I'm knitting this on a 32 inch circular needle, so you can see that this is going to be a wide shawl. Here's what it looks like so far.

Lace and Beads

2008-02-27T09:03:00.003-05:00

Look, more snow! Woohoo! Right. For a few days, I thought spring might be right around the corner. Now we have 2 inches of snow on the ground and today's high is only in the 20's. One positive is that it is nice to wake up to a beautiful sight like this. Another positive is the snow does make it easier for me to take pictures of my projects. I really need to work on my indoor photography. Hopefully this is the last of the snow and I'll need to figure out something else for my photos.

I said that I wanted to knit something beaded and geometric. I didn't have to look any further than the winter 07/08 issue of Vogue Knitting. This shawl (#2 in the mag.) caught my eye, but I wanted to use supplies that I had on hand. The yarn is Zephyr in Chanel and it's a dark pink/fuchsia type of color. If I were to knit this shawl again, I would use a smaller needle and knit another repeat of the squares. This shawl is more airy than I usually like. I did think about adding another repeat on this one, but I thought that a large, bright pink shawl with beads might be a bit much. :-P

Details:
Beaded Shawl(#2) from Vogue Knitting Winter 2007/08
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephr in Chanel (approx. 5 oz used)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Harmony
Beads: 8/0 Iris blue
Hook: size 11 (1.05mm)
Start: February 21, 2008
Finished: February 25, 2008

And now I'll introduce Mingus. Isn't it lovely! I do have a lot of socks, but this one is just too pretty to pass. I love the yarn and the pattern and together it's a perfect combination. The yarn is Somoko by Fleece Artist. It is hairy, but that doesn't take away from the bold patterning on this sock.

I did have a cranky moment with this sock. I wont' go into too much detail, but it involved frogging, larger needles, and me muttering about fat ankles. The good news is that this yarn is easy to frog, despite the hairiness. It also didn't suffer much in the frogging and still looks great.

I'm starting another project. It's the Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights stole. I first saw a picture of this stole a few weeks ago and the designer was still working on it. It's so pretty and it has beads! The pattern just became available and I have it. I'm in the process of stringing a million beads onto the yarn. Okay, it's more like 2500, but it feels like a million beads. I prefer the crochet method for adding beads to lace, but the ends of this stole has a beaded looped fringe that can't be added by hook. I'm using some purple yarn that Dwight brought back from China and beads that I had already too. In fact, they're the same beads as those in the Beaded Shawl at the top. I initially bought those for my Seaweed Stole, but ended up using a larger bead.

I'll close with some monsters that I made with the kids on Monday. We were inspired by Craft magazine. From left to right are E's monster, D's monster, and mine. E did everything herself except the sewing. D needed help cutting out his felt for the main part, but he did cut the decorations himself. My monster is made from leftover fleece and I like it much better than felt. If we make more monsters, I'd rather do them in fleece or regular fabric. I'm not a big fan of felt because it looks worn so quickly. These monsters were so quick and easy to make. I can see making a lot of these with E and D. They already want to make more.

Lunar eclipse

2008-02-20T23:26:00.005-05:00

9:02PM----------9:13PM

9:28PM----------9:40PM

9:45PM----------9:57PM

9:59PM----------10:44PM

Dwight and I braved the 20 degree temperature and watched the lunar eclipse tonight. I was beautiful outside. It snowed on and off all day with big, fluffy snowflakes. The ground was sparkling in the moonlight. My photography is very experimental, but I do have an idea of where to start. For these photos, I had to use the digital zoom, manually focus, manually adjust the shutter speed, use a tripod, and use the remote control.

According to this article, I think that may be Saturn in the 9:28PM photo. The stars were beautiful during the eclipse. I wish I knew how to spot constellations better.

After an hour, I got the "change your battery" shut down. I changed my battery, but the camera gave me the same message with the spare battery. I think it was too darn cold out there. I put the camera in my coat for a bit and was able to turn it back on, but not long enough to take a photo. I went inside, waited a bit, and tried again. That's when I took the 10:44PM photo. After that, I didn't want to chance damaging my camera and stopped for the night. So, I have plenty of pictures of the first half of the eclipse, but none of the second.

It was fun to watch, despite the cold. All of the photos above have been cropped. I didn't mess with the coloring. What you see is what the camera took. I think a few of them came out great!