Mystery Socks - what to do?

I'm on the heel flaps of the socks for the Mystery Sock KAL, and I'm trying to decide if I want to modify the pattern to continue onto the top of the foot.

picture here (I'm linking in case anyone else in the KAL doesn't want to see the pattern Koigu PP Ruffle)

I think the socks might go to my mom since she's been admiring them constantly.

Baby socks! (20 1/2)

I finished these socks for a darling little boy born 8/25. It's actually my very first pair of baby socks, as I don't know a lot of babies until last week when 3 were born! I see more baby socks in my future!

However before I knit more baby socks I'll knit some more for me! I've started a pair of socks for the Mystery Sock KAL in the blue Koigu that my Summer Fling SP sent me. :)

Socks, Tool, and Amazing Lace!

Yesterday at about 3pm I hopped in the car with my friend Jason, armed with socks-in-progress for the long ride out to the Gorge to see Tool. We actually saw them there together at Lollapalooza '97 so it was extra-cool, we could relive our "youth". ;)

I made quite a bit of progress in the car, and then we got there quite early so I took my knitting along with me to meet up with some other people at the campground. There were a few comments about my knitting, but people were actually quite interested and didn't seem to think I was totally nuts. (OK, maybe a little...)

And I finished my Cedar Creek socks! (19 1/2)



I think if they doubted my sanity in the beginning they were pretty sure of their doubts when I made Jason photograph my feet. But whatever!

And a picture from the show:



Hey, the subtitle isn't Socks, Yarn, and Rock 'n' Roll for nothing. ;)

Also I'm a finalist for the Amazing Lace Challenge #6, so vote for me here if you think I'm worthy. ;)

Socks #18 1/2

These stripey socks were inspired by the request for green and purple. :) The green is handspun (not by me), the purple is Knitpicks Palette. They're sort of "organic" lumpy bumpy socks, slightly thick and very comfortable. They're meant to be worn with boots so that's perfect, and the legs are quite tall, so there's even a tiny bit of calf shaping.

You'll be seeing more socks on feet while I'm on vacation since my friend convinced me that yes, it would be totally crazy to bring my sock blockers on vacation with me. ;)

Changing time zones

Yesterday afternoon right before leaving for the airport I found this in the mail:



Inside was some beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn, Brittany DPNs and a red bag:




It's from a contest I won on Cpurl's blog.

Then I wound my yarn for the trip.



That's just the yarn, I'm also bringing 3 pairs of socks-in-progress. However on the plane I got about 1/2 a pair done and I'm just about to finish another today. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...

I got to the airport, got through security, and then was on the phone with a friend when I heard them start to talk about someone flying to Seattle on my flight (that would be me, I was supposed to transfer in NYC.) So I walked up to the counter and the ticket agent asked if I'd mind switching to fly through Salt Lake City instead, 1st class, and arrive at about the same time. Um, of course not!

So I had a 1st class airplane adventure - I've never flown 1st class before, it was yummy!

Today I went driving around a bit with my aunt running some errands and we went by the house where I lived when I was a baby!



And here's a view of downtown Seattle from the freeway:

Socks on a Plant!

For the last Amazing Lace challenge I couldn't find any really unlikely models. I was thinking about using my fish until I realized that fish are pets, and therefore disqualified.

So I decided to do a parody of Snakes on a Plane and present to you Socks on a Plant!

Not quite as scary or dangerous, but a little funny-looking. ;)

It's a party!

The Party Yarn is finally finished!



It's made from various different kinds and colors of roving. I'm hoping it will make Noro-like stripes if I knit wristwarmers or a hat or another small circumference item.

And now for the close-ups:






It was my first shot at Navajo plying and I'm not sure quite what I think of it yet. I think I'll have to try it again with more even singles, as these were a little thick and thin, and the loft changed with the different fibers.

Shoes and mail call

I went out with my kniting buddy and saw these shoes which I just had to have!



With a pocket!



We watched Must Love Dogs and I knitted on my Conwy socks. Then I got home to find a HUGE pile of mail. Apparently all my mail decided to come on the same day.



I did a swap for some cotton yarn for a tank top and along with I was sent *drumroll please* more mysterious Chinese sock yarn! I am so excited!



The label:

Spinning and Sewing and Yarn, Oh My!

Wednesday evening I went over to caflygrl's house to sew some PJ pants. We quickly ran out of thread so we went to the store to buy some more and picked up dinner on our way back.



The table is a pretty accurate summary of the night with food, sewing, and a laptop. She even got a pretty good action shot of me sewing!



And the finished pants came out pretty well! My first real sewing project without my mom.



The blue ones with stars are mine, bet you guessed. ;)

Tonight I reskeined some self-striping yarn that I dyed with Dani a few weeks ago. The color combo is my own invention, I like to call it BlueBlueBlue Stripe



After reskeining the yarn I went into my room to find my spinning oil and came back to find Pan had taken over my fibery area on the couch.



But I made him move and did some spinning like I had hoped to tonight. In fact I spun more on the Party Yarn from my fibery adventure a few weeks ago.



I'm planing to Navajo ply it and make something crazy.

Vassenda?

Tonight I got together with the usual Monday night knitting girlies (minus one who's out of town). Usually we cause chaos in Starbucks by talking about random topics which other patrons may possibly find disturbing, being sketched, and having random men butt in on our conversations.

Tonight we went to Cassandra's house instead. We ordered a pizza and she told her name to the girl on the phone, spelled it, spelled it again, and said it once more.

We go to pick up the pizza and there's no pizza for Cassandra. So what did the girl write down?



Well, first she wrote Vanessa, then she crossed it out and apparently stuck on the letter V wrote Vassenda.

We were maybe a little too amused. ;)

So we ate our (yummy if spelled wrong) veggie pizza and did some knitting.



Ah, the adventures of knitting group...

Socks 17 1/2

I promise, this is the last picture you'll have to see of these much-photographed Trekking socks. ;)



I know the picture is a bit dark, but that's the most accurate shot of the colors I could get.

Yarn: Trekking #100
Started: 7/25/06
Finished: 8/13/06

A new sock knitting goal

For a while now I've been thinking about sock knitting goals. Besides numbers and the like, I'd like to try as many kinds of sock yarns as possible - and not necessarily things which are strictly sock yarn, although I'm unlikely to knit socks with worsted or laceweight. ;)

So I've posted a list in the sidebar of all the sock yarns I've used, and a list of the ones I have in the stash but haven't yet used (although this one may be a little less complete).

Check out the list - it's just above the progress pics - and let me know if you can think of any other yarns that I should try!

ETA: I'm not a fan of silk, so it's unlikely I'll try any of the silk blend yarns.

A sock! (Pair 16 1/2)

This is the sock I sent to my pal Cary (along with some goodies) for the Summer Sock Party swap. The picture was at a funny angle, it wasn't really that lopsided. She emailed to let me know that she received the package and the sock fits, so now I can post it here!

The yarn is some Opal Magic, can't remember the color off the top of my head, and the pattern is Jaywalker, of course.

So this sock will be Pair 16 1/2, and when I get my sock from my pal and knit the second one - cuz that's how it works - then I'll have the whole pair and it will take whatever number comes next at that time.

A cautionary tale...

When you are going to knit a felted bag for your SP and your friend graciously offers to give you some leftover yarn for one of the colors felt a test swatch.

Because, if you don't, you will start felting it only to realize that while the accent color is felting the main color is not. And that your fabulous intarsia felted bag for your SP is getting less and less fabulous by the second.

And though your really want to blame someone else, it is your own fault for not felting a test swatch.

And that somehow sneaky non-felting yarn lets you make a felted join while knitting just to confuse you. Because it's mean and evil.

So, let this be a lesson to you!

An SP Package and the Boston Knit Out!

I arrived home today to find a little box from the UK packed chock full of goodies for me!



See how everything was wrapped all nicely in gold paper? Then I got to open all the little packets and reveal these!



Starting top left:

2 skeins Wensleydale wool, roughly sock weight
wool fat soap - sounds odd but I'm sure it will be lovely
little heart containers of marmite... um... thanks? ;)
an indigo dyeing kit!
two balls of Limbo sock yarn, almost reminds me of Trekking
the book The Elephant Vanishes
Two bags of gummy candy - worms and fish

Thanks once again to my amazing Knittyboard SP7 - double the sock yarn goodness and dyeing with indigo, wow! And she even says there's one more little reveal package to come!

And on to the second part...



Will you be there? I will!

Sunday, September 24, 2006
12pm - 4pm
Boston Common, Boston, MA
Rain or Shine

Tutorial #1 - Heels for two socks on magic loop

I've seen many people ask about turning the heel and picking up gusset stitches while knitting socks two at once on magic loop, so I decided to photograph the process and prepare a little tutorial. Keep in mind that there is more than one way to do it, this is just the way that I do it.

Note: All left and right directions refer to the knitting when the right side is facing you.

1. After knitting both heel flaps, turn the heel of the right sock.



2. Pick up the stitches for the left gusset of the right sock.



3. Turn the heel of the left sock.



4. Pick up the stitches for the left gusset of the left sock.



5. Knit across both insteps.



6. Turn and pull out the "magic loop" between the instep and gusset/heel stitches.



7. Pick up the right gusset of the right sock, leaving the magic loop.



8. Knit across the rest of the right sock gusset/heel stitches.



9. You have finished picking up the gusset of the right sock.



10. Pick up the right gusset of the left sock.



11. Knit across the gusset/heel stitches of the left sock.



12. Ta da! Your heels are turned and your gussets are picked up, continue knitting around like normal, decreasing as desired.

The Hands of a Knitter

In this post a random theory is proposed - that the way people knit has something to do with their hands. I'm contributing to this theory here.

First off, my hands:



And now an action shot of me knitting continental:



Now we'll see if there's anything to this theory...

Stay tuned for the post that will make these socks the most photographed WIP of my knitting career!

Worth the wait!

Today I received a package from my Knittyboard Summer Fling SP! She sent it over a week ago, but the mail has apparently been a bit slow lately.

But today the package arrived and it was definitely worth the wait!



The yarn on the top left is sort of a one grey ply/one slate blue ply yarn which is much prettier than the photograph shows, and she sent 4 skeins. :)

Moving on we have a card, a journal with a tiny sand dollar on it (real, I think!), some gorgeous blue Koigu. (Socks, yay!)

Chocolate and candy crunch sunflower seeds - the rainbowy things on top of the star stickers. Now these I have never seen, I think they'll be very good. To the left is a needle gauge. Despite having two already one can *never* have enough needle gauges. I'm totally serious, I am forever hunting for my current one, which lives with the addis, and the 2nd is in some unknown location. However I can move this to the addi home and use the smaller square one as a take-along in my bag now. Very useful!

And last but not least, above the crazy seeds are some circular needle stitch holders (to hold the needle points) and some star confetti.

Thanks so much to Fiberfool, my Summer Fling SP!

A day with Knittyboard Folk

In the morning I met Cathy and we headed out to a sale at one of your LYSs. I got some bamboo sock yarn (I'm so excited to knit some of it!) and we did a little wandering around and shopping.

Later in the day we got a call from T, who was in town from NYC and we met her and went to the LYS again. Well, we had to! Then the three of us went out to a little cafe for iced drinks and dessert. We discussed what a frappe means in Boston and how it is not pronounced correctly. What is around here?

During that time I got invited along to see a movie with Cathy and some friends. T had to get going so we snapped this picture and sent her on her way.



We went back to Cathy's where I had forgotten my cell phone and then headed downtown, where I saw the cows pictured in the last entry. I also posed with my sock-in-progress with another cow, one that has the Boston T Map!



I'm pointing to my stop.

After a lovely dinner and showing of Clerks II, I went home and found a little envelope from monkee!



I'm the proud owner of a Monkee Original! Syvsternen, a 2nd version of the doily I admired on her blog months ago! :D I'm so excited.

She also has a picture of it here with a dark background that shows it off better.

M is for M'Udder Goose

I'm totally ripping off caflygrl on this one, but I saw this cow today near the Common and it just had to be. :)

M'Udder Goose



And it even had yarn-related goodness in the little pictures: