Lost that lovin' feelin'

Whoa, it's gone, gone, gone... I just can't be motivated to work on lace right now. My Spring Surprise Stole has stalled at clue 4. I did knit a few rows of clue 5, but I'm just not in the mood to knit something that needs so much attention. There are so many other great mystery lace alongs going on right now, but my attention is somewhere else. Maybe it's the beautiful sock yarns that are so distracting to me.

Those are Wollmeise 100% superwash sock yarn in Emil, Paul, Johannisbeer und Brennessel, and Franz. Wollmeise is so hard to get from the Loopy Ewe. I ordered these direct from Germany. They sat on my desk for a few days before I wound them into balls. I still don't have a ball winder, but I've found that I did enjoy winding these by hand. I get to watch the colors go by and think about what I want to do with the yarn. I usually wind yarn if I'm having trouble deciding on what to knit. It's not like I don't have enough projects lined up, but I'm having trouble getting motivated to work on the bigger ones.

I finished the cross stitch block fingerless gloves for my sister. Those were such a quick knit. The cross stitch block is one of my favorite stitch patterns. It's easy enough to memorize, but it's entertaining enough to keep boredom away.

I like the individual fingers, but they are uncomfortable when I try to knit wearing them. These type of gloves are great to wear while taking pictures outside in the cold. I used to just take one glove off, but now I just wear fingerless gloves and my hands stay warm. In between pictures, I do put my hands in my pockets or my finger tips do get a little cold.

Details:
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Midnight Derby (used 55gms)
Needle: size 1 (2.5mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Pattern: my own basic fingerless glovepattern with the Cross stitch block from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Start: February 6, 2008
Finish: February 8, 2008

After the fingerless gloves for my sister, I wanted to make another pair out of the pretty Wollmeise yarn. Now I have these, Very Terhi fingerless mitts. The pattern is by Yarnissima. They're so pretty! The yarn is Wollmeise sock yarn in the Brombeere color. This one is such a deep, dark color.

This pattern is written for thicker yarn, so I had some adjusting to do. I ended up adding two stitches to either side of the main section on the top of the hand. I also added 4 stitches to the palm. The thumb had to be adjusted too. I messed with that while I was knitting until it fit comfortably. I only used 45 grams of yarn and there is a lot left over in the skein. I'm thinking of using the main criss-crossed section on a pair of socks.

Details:
Pattern: Very Terhi by Yarnissima
Yarn: Wollmeise sockenwolle in Brombeere (used 45 gms)
Needle: szie 1 (2.5mm) Knit Picks Classic Circ.
Changes: I added 4 stitches to the front and 4 to the palm to accommodate the thinner yarn.
Start: February 9, 2008
Finish: February 12, 2008

Speaking of socks, E was wearing some socks that I made for her last October. They're too small--already! I'm back into sock production mode. I want to make a few pairs for E and then a few pairs for D too. I've noticed that he fits her socks better than his own. But he doesn't really want to wear her socks because of the colors. He likes bright colors like orange and yellow. She likes girly colors like pink and purple.

E and D love their socks that I knit. They don't wear the regular white store bought socks anymore. Dwight made a crack that I was saving money, since we don't have to buy socks anymore. Right....that's because sock yarn is so cheap. *insert eyeroll* At least the socks I make fit. Both kids have very narrow feet and my socks fit their feet so much better. For example, E's foot is 7 inches long and 5.75 inches in circumference. According to the chart in Sensational Knitted Socks, a foot that is 7 inches long is usually 6.75 inches around.

I like knitting socks for them, even if they do outgrow them so fast. It only takes me two days to finish a pair. I'm off to finish E's new socks.

A Gothic Rose and a Surprise

I still seem to have lace on the brain. I'm currently working on two different shawls/stoles. This is clues 1-3 of the Spring Surprise Stole. I'm knitting it out of Colourmart's 2/28 cashmere yarn on size 2 (2.75mm) Knit Picks circular needles. Lul said that this would be a challenging stole and it is. Those circles along the border are very different than what I've seen in lace patterns. Then there is the bird's eye section inside the large circle in the center. That requires a lot of attention. I've finally gotten the hang of it and clue 3 went by rather quickly. This stole will have 12 clues and that leaves me plenty of time to work on other things.

The cashmere yarn is coned and oiled. Coming off of the cone, it doesn't feel anything like cashmere should feel. This is what it looks like after a hot bath with a lot of soap. It fluffs up a lot and becomes really airy and soft. This little swatch is just about weightless. I can't wait to see how the stole feels after it's been washed and blocked. I should have measured the swatch before I washed it, but I didn't. It did shrink a little, but I'm not 100% sure how much.

Since the Spring Surprise Stole will be a drawn out knitalong, I've picked out another shawl to do. This will be Irtfa'a, another Knitspot pattern. So far, the pattern is a quick knit. I've already done the neck edge and the first 28 rows and I just started on yesterday. I'm on the second set of 28 rows. This is another well done pattern by Anne. I'm so amazed that she can crank out these patterns so quickly and get all of these stitches to flow together so nicely.

I'm knitting this out of Dream in Color's baby yarn in the Gothic Rose color. Gothic Rose is a pain in the *** to photograph. It's a deep reddish, brownish, dark color that looks different under certain lights. The yarn is a heavier type of laceweight. I usually use a size 3 needle with typical lace weight yarn, but I'm using a size 4 needle for this shawl. This yarn looks huge compared to the 2/28 yarn that I'm using for the Spring Surprise Stole.

After Irtfa'a is done, I have some sewing projects that I want to do. I have all of the fabric that I need for E and D's quilts. I just need to decide on a layout and size. That is going to be a huge project. I'm not really looking forward to it because I'm going to have to clear out a lot of stuff to sew those. But they will be so cute when they're done.

Lessons have been going well with E. She started cursive today and wasn't too thrilled with the letter practice. She's been fascinated by cursive whenever I write it and has asked about learning it. When trying it out today, she said that it was a lot harder than she thought. ;-) I had to remind her that she didn't learn how to print the alphabet neatly on the first day. I don't think she's going to like the repetition of practicing her letters again. I'll have to think of interesting to make it fun for her.

Yarn prize!

Thanks to everyone that posted about the 42 socks. I received my prize package in the mail yesterday. What a wonderful surprise to have it arrive so fast! Here is what was in it:

From the top and then left to right: Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Rainbow and Lime & Violet Kayley-Did, Perchance to Knit in Frozen Grapes, Tausendschoen in Schlangengift, and Woolbearers in Frosted Glass. There are still a few other things coming too. The links take you to the places that donated the yarn. I think that I might have found a few new places to shop. ;-) I have to say thank you to everyone that donated the yarn and to Jessica for arranging the Summer of Socks.

This is what I'm working on now. It's the Dancer's Wrap from Not Just Socks for Kids. The body of the wrap is knit in one piece. You start with the loooong garter stitch tie, increase for the left front, decrease for the armhole, increase for the back, ..., until you get to the other loooong section of garter stitch tie. The tie is cut off from the left side of the picture. I'm using Lana Grossa sock yarn. This yarn is not at all soft. I'm really hoping that it will soften up a bit when I wash it. Thankfully, this is a wrap and E will be wearing a layer underneath it. The colors are really off in this picture too. The red should be a bright candy type red and the darkest color is really a dark brown. There are a few other colors in there, but they're really subtle and you can barely see them. So far, I'm still enjoying this knit. It's not so bad knitting a sweater for E on size 3 needles.

I'm still working on the Star Flower chart. I thought that I would post the chart today, but I just checked it and it's missing something. Yikes! I can't have that.

I love seeing something like this out of our windows. We see deer a lot and then we see turkeys a lot--separately. It's rare that we see them this close together. (Keep in mind that these pictures were taken with a lot of zoom, through a screen, and through a double glass window.)

SOS #27 and #28

Two more gift socks and some beautiful yarn...

Summer of socks is in the final stretch. There are still so many patterns that I want to make, yarns that I want to try, and gifts that I need to make. I told myself that I would take a break from socks after it was all over, but we'll see.

These two are more gift socks. The gray is for my sister--big surprise! They should definitely fit her color criteria. Let me just say again that it is so nice to have relatives with feet that are very close in size to my own. My sister's feet are about the same as mine, but a bit wider. That's okay when I make socks because she likes her socks to be very snug. The socks on the right are another pair for my Mom. She likes short socks. The ones that I've made for her are about the limit in height as to what she likes. Plus, there really isn't a big need for long wool socks in Texas. ;-)

Details for the gray sock:
Yarn: Regia Patch Antik #5752
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Addi Turbo
Method: magic loop, two at once, toe up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: plain stockinette
Start: September 4, 2007
Finish: September 5, 2007

Details for the short socks:
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill in Peacock and Tropical Storm leftovers
Needle: size 1 (2.5mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, two at once, toe-up, short row heel
Pattern: plain stockinette
Start and Finish: September 5, 2007

I received a wonderful surprise in the mail this week. Susie, the one that dyes the Perchance to Knit yarn, contacted me last week and asked for my address. She wanted to send me some yarn. Why? Because I knit pretty socks with her pretty yarns. I think that it is her yarns that inspire me to make those socks. So, we could go round and round with the praises. :-) When I got the package, there were two hanks of yarn! She read what I wrote about the merino/nylon blend and wanted me to give this one a try. Thank you so much Susie! Here are the pretty skeins that she sent. That's Fleur on the left and Bright Columbine on the right. Those bumps on the yarn are the stitch markers that she includes with each skein. I have quite a collection of those now.

Up next, I'm knitting a pair of socks for me! Yes, again. I'm using some Lime & Violet yarn and a pattern out of Sensational Knitted Socks that I've been wanting to knit.

When the lights goes out...again

Argh! The power went out again Tuesday night. It didn't come back until Wednesday afternoon. Whenever the power goes out, I call the automated number for the power company. Why? Because sometimes they just don't know that our power is out waaay out here and it comes on soon after I call. That didn't happen last week or yesterday. When I call, I usually get the "press this number" type recording. Yesterday, I found out that they have a new fancy voice automated system. I really don't like those. This one kept telling me that it couldn't hear me. I felt so odd shouting into the telephone. POWER OUTAGE. The part that nearly drove me batty was that after you report a power outage, it asks if you want tips on coping with a power outage. NO. Then it asks if you're worried about waking up late and do you want a wake up call. Um, NO. I just want to hang up. I did hang up on it and it called me back. I had to go through those questions before I was allowed to hang up. Fun...yeah right.

Instead of trying to knit by candle light, I wound yarn instead. I set up the swift and wound away. By the time the power came back on, I had wound all of the sock yarn that wasn't wound yet. That was around 10 skeins of sock yarn. I like having them wound and ready to go. When I'm ready to start a new project, I like to look into my yarn box and pick which colors I want to do next. Sometimes, but rarely, I pick out a pattern first.

Yesterday afternoon, I picked out the pattern. I bought Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Now this isn't a straight forward pattern book. It's encouraged to you should read it first and knit the baby socks. I didn't do that. I flipped through the book a few times looking at all of the great sock pictures. I immediately liked the Coriolis Spiral sock, that so many have pointed out on blogs. But there is no direct pattern. I have to go through and find numbers A-J before I can knit the sock. I did my homework and I'm off and knitting. I almost have the foot section done on this sock. We'll see how if it fits after the heel is done. Or if I fall on my head for not reading or knitting the baby sock. ;-)

I have to mention the sock yarn that I got in the mail on Tuesday. It's Fly*Dyed Lace wing(fingering weight) and Monarch(sport weight). I bought it from Little Knits. I think that I'm going to love this yarn. The colors are great. The base yarn is very similar to other sock yarns that I like. On the sock that I'm knitting now in the Elfen color, it made tiny little stripes around the sock. It's starting to pool near the heel, but it still looks good. One of the great things about this yarn is that it's a bargain. The fingering weight comes in 125 gm skeins and that's somewhere around 540 yds for under $20. I could probably make two pairs of socks out of this skein.

Those stitch markers up there were made by me. E had some glow in the dark letter beads, so I can see them during the next power outage. The wire wraps aren't very nice, but it works and it doesn't snag my yarn. That's what matters when I want to knit the socks now. Back to knitting...

Spring is closing in on us

As I look out the windows, I can see less and less. The trees are starting to fill in and the dandelions are everywhere. Pollen is driving my allergies crazy. Carpenter bees are trying to attack our house. And ticks are found on everyone. Yuck! But it is so green and so beautiful outside. I just need to ignore the bugs and pollen as much as I can. Another sign that spring is here is D waking me up at 6:30am every morning. He's an early riser and unfortunately, I'm not. Birds are building nests around our house. But some of our regulars aren't here. The hawks, cardinals, and bluebirds didn't build near the house this year. I think this is because we were outside much more and probably scared them away.

Back to knitting, I've finished two pairs of socks. One pair is out of the Regia yarn for my Mom that I mentioned in the last post. The other pair is out of the left over Lorna's Laces for E. Details for Mom's and E's socks:

Yarn: Regia Surf 5411
Needles: size 0 Knitpicks classic circular
Pattern: my plain sock pattern
Start: ? didn't write it down
Finish: April 30, 2007

Pink and Yellow socks for E
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Sassy Stripe
Needle: size 0 addi turbo
Pattern: my plain sock pattern
Start: April 29, 2007
Finish: May 1, 2007

This is what I'm working on now. This sock yarn is Bougainvillea from Perchance to Knit. I bought this from The Loopy Ewe. Well, I didn't directly buy this one there. There was a major shopping frenzy going on when I ordered it and the system let me order a yarn that wasn't there anymore. Sheri gave me several options and I chose this one. I'm glad I did. The colors are so pretty.

I decided against doing my plain stockinette sock and wanted to do something patterned. Well, it's not easy picking out a pattern for sock yarn as colorful as this one. I picked the stansfield 304 pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I've only done two repeats of it in this photo. I think it looks much better when stretched out on a foot. Back to knitting...

Better Sea Wool Monkeys

Ah, that's much better. I should give up on indoor photography or work on my photoshopping skills. The lighting was ideal on the front porch yesterday. I took these socks outside, a bunch of new yarn, and my new completed shawl. This is a much, much better photo of the origin Sea Wool. I didn't get a good shot of the shawl. I need to hang up a lighter backdrop than the woods. The shawl got lost in those photos and it didn't do any better on the porch. Speaking of new yarn, here are some of my latest favorites.

The left is Lorna's Laces Shepard sock in Sassy Stripes. This is my first time using Lorna's and I like it so far. It's as thin as opal yarn, but softer and squishier. I've started a pair of socks for myself. I'm calling them my happy socks. Why? Because you can't help but feel happy when looking at colors that loud. The middle is Fleece Artist merino sock yarn in Tiger. I've knit with Fleece Artist sock yarn before. It was my first indulgent sock yarn that I bought when I started knitting socks. Those have held up well and I wanted another pair. The right is Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Renaissance. I really like the colors in this one. These yarns are in the immediate I-want-to-use yarn stash.

This is something I made rather quickly for E. The pattern is from the May 07 issue of Creative Knitting and it's called Diamonds on the Cuff. I used some left over cherry tree hill glitz sock yarn and some beads that I had on hand. E likes it a lot and D wanted one too. I did make one for him, but it turned out a bit too snug for his wrist. I also made one out of the leftover cherry tree hill cascade silk laceweight yarn. I like how that one turned out size-wise, but silk is not really up to the wear and tear that my two kids put it through. haha! I'll have to try a more durable lace weight.

Details of the cuff:
Pattern:Diamonds on the Cuff from Creative Knitting (May 2007)
Yarn: Leftover cherry tree hill glitz in tropical storm
Needles: Size 1 dpns
Beads: 84 6/0 beads in rootbeer from Firemountain Gems
Changes: I only did three of the beaded diamonds for E's 6 year old wrist. It's quite fitted, but another diamond would have made it a bracelet and more likely to fall off of her.

Bamboo 2--me 0

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

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

I'm free!

Free from the responsibility of watching E and D. My husband just returned from a 3 week business trip. What a relief! Watching E and D has been stressful for the last week. Things went surprisingly smoothly for the first two weeks. E and D played well and they listened to me. But towards the end, I think we were all getting tired of each other. Now they have Daddy back and they are happily playing outside in the snow.

Dwight brought back yarn! This is the same yarn that I'm using for the knitted veil in the post below. I like this yarn a lot and it's a shame that I can't order it from anywhere off of the internet. It's so smooth and easy to knit. Dwight paid attention and bought more colors and more balls of each color. This red is a different red than the one I'm currently working with. This red is more tomato-ish and my current one is a deeper, darker red. The labels are a little different, but there is still no yardage information on it. I should have asked him to ask the people at the store. Oh well. With at least 4 balls of each, I should be able to make a nice sized shawl out of any of the colors.

He also bought a knitting book. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a pattern book or a stitch pattern book. This book has knit and crochet items in it. There are many pictures of sweaters, vests, skirts, shawls, scarves, hats, and bags. There are stitch patterns for every item, but there are only a few schematic drawings with measurements. There are no directions, no yarn information, or needle sizes. The pictures of the items are in color and on glossy paper.

The patterns are a rougher, plain paper. This is an example of a pattern for a shawl. That's it. This is crammed onto one page with around 5-6 other patterns. I can probably decipher the shawl patterns, but I'm not sure about the sweaters. I haven't knit an adult sized sweater yet, so we'll have to see about that part in the future. The back of the book does have a very good section showing what all of the knitting symbols mean. Phew, at least I don't have to figure that part out. Even if I never knit a sweater, I'm happy to have this book. It will be great for ideas. I was also very surprised that Dwight bought me a book. The fact that he took the time to search for a knitting book is very sweet. He had some interesting things to say about the bookstore. He said that every chair was taken and people were reading. He said that the store felt more like a library and that all of the books looked thumbed through. My book was in great condition.

He also brought back things for E and D. I don't know what they were more excited to have, their toys or the snacks. They think the snacks that Daddy brings back are pretty cool. Dwight doesn't go on many business trips, but it's a lot of fun when he brings back so many cool things.