DYO

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

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.

Hot!

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!

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

Go...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autumn fun!

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...

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.

Vacation and Secret of the Stole progress

Isn't that pretty? I was lucky to get that shot on the morning that we were leaving for home. We slept in and missed the sunrise on all of the other days.

We decided to catch one last bit of warmth and picked a great week to do it. It was so warm on the beach and it really did feel like summer. We didn't do much besides play on the beach or in the pools. Well, we did go out to eat at a lot of yummy restaurants. E loves the beach and water. It was so hard to get a good picture of her because she was constantly in motion. She ran all over, dug in the sand, got buckets of water, collected shells, etc. It took a bit for D to get warmed up to the idea of all that water. At first, he was very content to just play in the sand. By the end of the first day, he was running everywhere with E.

I took a lot of knitting with me, but only finished one pair of socks for E. And that was done mostly on the car ride down there. It was nice to just relax. In the evenings, I just zoned out and watched tv. I really wanted to knit some lace, but didn't bring any along. When I got home, one of the first things I did was to get the next clues for the Secret of the Stole and the Secret of Chrysopolis. I worked one the Secret of the Stole first and finished clue #2.

It is a fast knit, but does require a lot of counting for those long stretches of knit stitches. You can see that it measures around 19.5 inches wide across the top. From the point to the needle cable, it measures around 21 inches long. I don't have a clue as to what the theme is, but the hints are interesting. It's fun reading what everyone else is guessing. It doesn't really go with the hints so far, but those things above the three vertical lines look like spiders to me. Hey, they have 8 legs. ;-)

I'm currently working on clue #3 for the Secret of Chrysopolis. I really like how these two stoles are so different in looks and design.

While on vacation, I picked up the Vogue Knitting's holiday issue. I love the stole in it. Yes, I know that I don't need another stole, but this one has beads in it too. I really like the beaded edges on the short ends. That one is definitely going on my must-knit list. I probably have enough yarn and beads around here to knit it too.

Coming home brought us back to reality. We really need water--again. It's been so dry this summer. The azaleas and rhododendrons look so sad and curled up. Even the dogwoods and smaller trees look wilted. We're trying to use as little water as possible. For now, we're still running off of our cistern. When that gets too low, we switch the whole house over to the wells. Our wells are usually reliable, but I almost ran one dry washing two loads of laundry in one day earlier this summer. For next summer, I want to have some kind of system that will use the grey water from our kitchen sink and our showers to water our plants and garden. We've tried washing dishes in a huge bowl/bucket and then dumping that water on a plant outside. It works, but it's a pain to do. We have all winter to brainstorm ideas.

SOS #6 done and so many waterfalls

Here is the Vesper sock that I finished on our way home. The yarn is very nice and the colors are wonderful. I do knit my socks from both ends of one ball of yarn. The pinks on either sock to line up, but the black and red stripes are reversed. I like it. These socks are bright and very fun. I can't wait until cooler weather lets me wear them more often. Right now, we're having temperatures in the mid 90's. Not exactly sock wearing weather. Not even cotton socks.

Details:
Yarn: Vesper sock yarn in Strange Little Mama
Needles: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, two at once, toe up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: Welt Fantastic from Sensational Knitted Socks (modified to make the zigzags wider and left out the welts)
Start: July 1, 2007
Finished: July 7, 2007

The first falls that we went to was called Lower Falls (left). Lower what? I don't know. ;-) I just know that it was quite a hike getting back to the parking area. There were a lot of switchbacks and a lot of obstacles (rocks, roots, etc) on the trail. The second falls that E, D, and Dwight went to was the Upper Falls (right). I was too tired and opted to stay in the car for that hike.

The next day, we went to Linville Falls. Hmmmm, this one was very familiar. Why is that? Dwight said that we've never been there before. I swear we have been there. I came home, looked into the honeymoon album, and I was right!! That's one of the falls that we visited on our honeymoon--10 years ago. It was fun to go back and take E and D with us this time.

After that, we took a loooong detour to the Crabtree Falls. Why the detour? Because we were slightly lost. Dwight said that his map was wrong. Right... I have to give him credit though - he did stop and ask for directions. These falls were beautiful. There was a bridge where you can get a full view of the falls. But you could also do a little scampering over rocks to get a bit closer too. E and D did that with Dwight and had lots of fun playing in the water. The twisty hike to this one was well worth it.

E did the 5k race again this year. She finished and her time was much better than last years. She's 6 and this is her third year doing the race. I'm so proud of her for finishing. She's said that she wants to do again next year too. She didn't do too much training this year, but maybe we'll do a bit more before next year's race.

The last waterfall that we went to was Looking Glass Falls. This is definitely a tourist waterfall. All that you have to do is park your car, walk down some stairs, and you there right at the bottom of the waterfall. This waterfall is very beautiful, but there is just something missing when it's that easy to get to.

We did do some camping on this trip. That was fun, except for the twisted ankle. E and D seemed to enjoy the whole trip. There was a lot of adventure and we didn't stay in one place long enough to get bored. ;-)

What am I working on now? I'm working on a pair of socks out of Misty Mountain yarn and using another pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I haven't started Mystery Shawl #3, but I'm sooo tempted. All of the pictures so far are beautiful. I think that I will definitely like this shawl made in black.