Sigh

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

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

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!

Harvest

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

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.

Brand new!

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

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

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!

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

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

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?

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

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.