Adventures in Sock Knitting

A little mystery...

2012-01-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

So, I have this yarn...

See, usually I'm very organized and I put all of my stash into Ravelry and keep ball bands and all that jazz, but this yarn has a story.

I acquired it sometime before October 11, 2006 when it first appeared in a picture of my sock stash for Socktoberfest.

Then it marinated for a while until I got into Ravelry and put it in my Ravelry stash, strangely using a different Flickr account than my normal one, on June 28, 2007. Apparently I created a second Flickr account in June of 2007, uploaded stash pics over a couple weeks, and completely forgot about it.*

*until tonight when I was going crazy trying to figure out the details of this yarn!

In the fall of 2008, I gave the yarn to my mom to start her second pair of socks and deleted it from my Ravelry stash.

Fast forward to December 2011, when my mom declares that she should knit a second pair of socks and I remind her that I gave her yarn and needles. She can't recall, and goes and finds the barely-started socks in a drawer. (Minus the ball band and any identifying yarn information, of course.)

She declares that she doesn't like the way they look and is going to go buy some other yarn, so I pull the socks-in-progress off the needles - of course she wanted to keep the needles! - and take them home to knit for myself.

This is all well and good, except for the fact that I have absolutely no idea what the yarn is. And, being me, this starts making me crazy when I try to put the project into Ravelry. So I spent several hours last night going through my blog archives and trying to find where I posted about the yarn, since I seem to recall that it was a gift. I never posted. But I did find the stash pic above which gave me a clue about when I got it.

Then while falling asleep I think that I wouldn't have deleted the stash pics from my Flickr. It popped into my head at knitting group, so tonight when I got home I went back through my Flickr archives trying to find the time when I was photographing my stash in the summer of 2007 shortly after getting into Ravelry... but I couldn't find it.

In fact, I came and started this blog post thinking I would beg for the help of the internet in identifying the yarn from that first crummy photo, when I suddenly thought "Hey, didn't I have a different Flickr name once?" and found it.

And those are the lengths I'll go to to solve yarn mysteries... knitting is so relaxing. ;)

Finishing

2012-01-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

My knitting group companions Erin and Jessica of the Doubleknit Podcast have decided that 2012 is the year of FFS - the Finish, Frog, and Slog along.

As someone with far too many WIPs, I think this is a splendid idea. So here's my first finish:

I started these plain socks for Halloween, but as you can see it took me a while to get to them. I like wearing plain stockinette socks, and I have a lot of variegated yarn, so I try to keep some going most of the time.

Started: 10/6/11
Finished: 1/19/12
Yarn: Crash Into Ewe in Monster Mash

So, after finishing these plain socks, I started another pair in the yarn I dyed at Stephania's class. It started off like this:

And changed to this:

And is making some interesting striping socks, which I'll show you in a bit!

I've also been putting in some time on some languishing non-sock projects, but more on that later.

A couple more FOs

2011-12-26T23:14:00.000-08:00

I went to a holiday party for my knitting group, and a couple of things happened.

We have a gift exchange, and I got this lovely yarn spun by smallsmallfaery:

It's about 130 yards of Romney, and although it says 11wpi, which is a worsted / aran weight so it will be perfect for my big Chevron blanket*.

And I was thoroughly embarrassed that nearly everyone was wearing a Noro Striped Scarf, and mine (which I started ages and ages ago) was still a WIP. So I got motivated:

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in colors 40 and 233, 2 skeins each
Started: 1/18/2009
Finished: 12/18/2011

So, just shy of 3 years later I have finally finished my scarf! I feel pretty silly admitting that, but I just don't often get into the mood of knitting something in 1x1 rib. Now that it's done I've been wearing it most days!

Then while traveling for the holidaze, I finished a must more recent project, Melanie's 2011 Birthday Socks.

Yarn: Sophie's Toes in Grandma's Blueberry Pie
Started: 11/6/11
Finished: 12/24/11

Melanie modeled them and had the idea of posing with the lights leading from the tree to the plug, so we did.

*another WIP I really should put some stitches on

Shawlettes

2011-12-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

In September of last year, I knit the Milkweed shawlette, and I found a new love. This knitting craving goes well with my fingering weight stash, and the end result is a little touch of girly without being a full on shawl. Best of all, it's faster than a pair of socks and makes a great gift!

Which is why I've knitted a couple of shawlettes lately. First off, Damson:

Pattern: Damson by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock in Gold Dynasty
Started: 10/17/11
Finished: 11/6/11

I've had this yarn hanging around from the Woolgirl sock club for a while, and when I decided to knit a shawlette for someone who loves fall colors I figured this was the right yarn.

Unfortunately, for some reason I ran out of yarn quite a bit before the end. I checked and double-checked my gauge, but I'm really not sure why. (I also foolishly ignored the comments of another Raveler who had run out of yarn using this same kind.) Luckily I was rescued by someone else with the same yarn and was able to finish the shawl! I've already picked out yarn for my Damson, one with lots of yardage. ;)

Then I knit Multnomah as yet another gift shawlette:

Pattern: Multnomah by Kate Elsa
Yarn: Yarn Daze Sock in Snoopy Pirate
Started: 11/20/11
Finished: 12/4/11

I have a couple more on the needles for me, but first I feel the need to knit some socks...

Running In Circles

2011-12-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

This blog has been rather neglected of late while I've been doing a lot of secret knitting. A few things (gifts) have recently become un-secret, so I'll show them soon. But first I have something else to share.

I spent a good part of tonight pacing back and forth across my living room and down the hallway. Why?

Over the weekend I attended a dyeing class for striping sock yarn with my friend Stephania of Three Fates Yarns. I've actually dyed stripey yarn before, way back in 2006 I did a stripey yarn dyeing class with Dani of Sunshine Yarns which for some strange reason didn't make it to the blog. Anyway...

In case you didn't know, dyeing self-striping yarns is lots of work. You have to re-skein the blank yarn into extremely long skeins - this weekend ours ranged from 30-45 feet around - in order to get long enough sections to form a stripe. I always remember this when I see people complaining about the price of hand dyed self-striping yarn. They probably don't realize how much work goes into it!

After running in circles around Stephania's basement, we put on the dye. I dyed three skeins - two and three color striped skeins with equal stripes, a three color that has long blue/short grey/long purple/short grey, and dyed half of an existing skein of yarn black to make it into a striping skein. Then we rinsed the yarn and hung it to dry.

Since I had to bring mine back home, it's been hanging from the backs of two chairs across my living room and down the hallway since Sunday night.

Tonight it was really and truly dry (yes, Seattle is a fairly moist climate) so I wound it up. This required running in circles once again, this time with my ball winder. But the end result is lovely!

I have decided yet if I'm going to reskein it or not. Now that it's all wound it balls it seems kind of silly, but if I'm going to be storing it a while, it might not be a bad idea.

OK Cat Bordhi, you were right!

2011-10-10T20:43:00.001-07:00

At Madrona last February, I saw Cat Bordhi and she told me she had come up with a brand new kind of heel, and that she thought I would like it. I asked her some questions, and she told me it was a variation on a short row heel, and I was skeptical to say the least.

See, I hate short row heels. I hate the little holes, and I know there are ways to get rid of them, but it's not worth it because the second thing I hate about them is that they don't fit my feet well at all.

I have rather odd feet. They're very small - by length I should wear a US size 5.5 to 6 shoe, but I usually end up going a bit bigger because my feet are also tall. Not wide, if I try on a shoe like a Mary Jane or similar style that doesn't go over the top of my foot, I can fit into a 6 no problem - it's just that I can't close the straps. (You can ask Shannon, we went to the Fluevog store after Sock Summit and she watched me try on 3 pairs of shoes that fit great if I left the straps hanging wide open.) Perhaps because of this tallness, or perhaps for other reasons, the distance diagonally from the back of my heel around the front of my foot is very large compared to the circumference of my foot (12" compared to 8") - thus short row heels are not a good option.

But enough about me. I saw Cat again at Sock Summit, after she had released her Cat's Sweet Tomato Heel Socks ebook. She told me about the heel again, and I decided to try it.

Why? Well, Cat is a genius of crazy sock construction, and she looked at my feet and told me she thought it would work, and promised me that there would be no holes. Plus, because I am an *ahem* rather experienced sock knitter, she said I would probably be able to figure it out just from the YouTube Video.

And so... I did. Really, what did I have to lose?

Pattern: my plain sock recipe with Cat's Sweet Tomato Heel
Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks in Cherry Sours
Started: 8/7/11
Finished: 10/5/11

I cast on shortly after Sock Summit and carried them around in my bag for in between knitting, so it took quite a while to finish them. Plus I couldn't tell you all about them until I wore them!

So here's the verdict. There are a couple little issues:

1. The back of the ankle is slightly baggy, but nothing to interfere with wear, and I know Cat has many variations and tweaks in her book, which I didn't use because I just made the most basic version. This is really a very minor issue.

2. The foot is slightly too long, but that is completely my error as I wasn't sure where to measure from to figure out when to start the toe, and I didn't try them on. (bad knitter!)

3. Though the first pick ups of the wraps look beautiful, somehow I didn't do them quite the same the second time around and they look slightly less beautiful (also completely a user error), but they're still much better than those awful short row holes!

Overall, they fit very well and I think they'd be an excellent option for me if I ever knit toe-up socks again. ;)

And a little about the yarn, since I hadn't used it before. It's a nice cotton/wool blend and though it was a little splitty, it wasn't bad to work with. The finished feel is really nice! Also it was dirt cheap - I threw it in my cart when ordering my rotary mat from Joann's because it bumped me over the limit and was cheaper than paying shipping.

Socks and Shawls

2011-10-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

The knitting around here has been mostly secret, but I did manage to finish up a couple of public things...

Greek Isles Handspun Socks
Started: 7/27/2011
Finished: 9/25/2011
Yarn: Handspun sock yarn in Greek Isles superwash merino roving (Pigeonroof Studios?)

Unfortunately one of my larger sock blockers is hiding. I'm sure it's around here somewhere. I finished spinning the yarn during Tour de Fleece this year. The tag on the roving didn't say where it was from, but some Googling has lead me to believe that it was Pigeonroof Studios. I must have bought it in person or got it as a gift, though.

The other project is a little shawlette:

Pattern: Traveling Woman
Yarn: Stitchjones Glam Sock in Marine
Started: 9/10/11
Finished: 10/1/11

As you can see it's currently blocking. :) It's a very easy pattern, and a pretty quick knit too!

In other knitting news, yesterday I went to my LYS in search of a crochet hook for beading. I have some pretty little ones that I've used before, but this time my size 10 crochet hook (it looks like size varies between companies, but between 1 and 1.3mm) was just not small enough. Unfortunately, that's the smallest size they carry.

So after calling JoAnn's (no, they didn't have it either) I ordered sizes 13 and 14 online. (0.85mm and 0.75mm respectively). Hopefully these will be small enough. I honestly can't imagine how much of a hook they can really have at that size!

Skew

2011-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

First off, Stephania graciously lent me a picture of my socks hanging in the Three Fates Yarns booth at Sock Summit:

L to R: Jera, Falling Up, Intercalate, Isaz
I'm pretty sure that's the end of Sock Summit stuff, so moving on...

Skew is one of my old WIPs, Started February 12, 2010 - let's hope I finish it before it's 2nd WIP birthday. Shortly after starting it, I heard a lot of people were having problems with the fit. And, given my very high instep, I worried.

Skew, toe and foot

Then I learned about the high instep mods on the designer's blog, and a KAL for Knitty patterns inspired me to work on it more.

After the "inner ankle" increases

I think for me, the issue was that the sock is simple, but not *that* simple. It requires a bit of concentration, but doesn't have quite enough interest to hold my attention during the straight foot section.

more increasing, and see the bump where the heel will go?

I like my knitting either interesting or boring, this pattern is intermediate and switches back and forth too often for my knitting style.

separating heel stitches

But after finding about the high instep modification, I was convinced to persevere.

grafting the heel - hope you like Kitchener!

Besides, I really wanted to figure out if this thing was ever going to become sock-shaped!

hmmm.... still looks funny

It doesn't really appear all that sock-shaped...

... but it fits, I checked.

At last!

2011-08-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been slacking on my promised post with more about Sock Summit. The problem, you see (other than all the secret knitting keeping me busy) is that I have camnesia. It's a horrible disease where I bring my camera to Sock Summit yet take pretty much no pictures. It's true, I have a couple of pictures of my socks in progress and a few more of food. That's it.

So I borrowed some from Shannon Okey.

Here's Shannon's picture of me in the Cooperative Press booth. It's not a great picture of me, but I spent lots of time in the booth, and I helped hang up all those socks. :) Plus, it proves I was actually at Sock Summit.

The Monday after Sock Summit, Shannon and I headed to Knit Picks where we got to hang out, see pretty yarn, and make some videos. Here's me about to be interviewed by Stacey:

Of course, my eyes are closed. Maybe there's a reason there aren't more pictures of me at Sock Summit!

And further proof... my friend noticed that I am visible in Harry's (Franklin's ball of sock yarn) Sock Summit adventure video. I'm trying to squeeze out of the Goth Socks booth at about 2:14 in the video.

So now that you believe that I was there, here's what I got...

Just in case you were wondering, I still like blue.

L to R
Canon Hand Dyes Charles Sock Yarn
2 skeins of Three Fates Yarns Tethys Sock
superwash fiber from MacKintosh Yarns
a Magic Ball from Sophie's Toes
Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes
Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga

And the Goth Socks:

The two on the right are the same, I'm hoping to knit some gothy knee socks.

While I was photographing yarn, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of some of the yarns that are going to be in my book - some of them are from Sock Summit, some aren't.

It's not a complete list, since some (strangely the warmer colors!) are currently being knit. But the ones pictured here are (L to R):

ms. gusset
Tactile
Swoonish
MacKintosh Yarns
more Swoonish
kitchen sink dyeworks

Now back to knitting!

Whew!

2011-08-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

Last week was a whirlwind of socks!

Thursday morning I woke bright (ok, actually dark) and early to get on a train to Portland and Sock Summit. To be truthful, I was waking at 5am after a 2 hour "nap", since I stayed up til 3am packing and wondering where my summer clothes were once I heard it was going to be in the 80s in Portland. We haven't had much summer this year.

After a train trip of knitting and dozing, I arrived and sat down for a bit of knitting:

Then I met up with the lovely Stephania of Three Fates yarns to hand over my sock samples. I totally should have gotten a picture of them hanging in her booth, but alas I did not.

I helped Shannon set up at the Cooperative Press booth and had my first Voodoo Donut, scored a bit of Goth Socks when the market opened, and then went and sold CP grab bags until it closed again and we went to get dinner.

Friday morning I had a class, then headed to the market place where I alternated between helping at the CP booth and wandering the marketplace while knitting the socks above. I bought a few more skeins of yarn too. Just before leaving, Cookie A took a picture of my Twisted Flower socks!

I was lucky enough to have dinner with some fun and fabulously knitty people, including Kate Atherley who designed the My Vampire Boyfriend socks which I am currently neglecting - but they're awesome socks, and I'm totally going to finish them! - and Sarah from Sanguine Gryphon.

Saturday was more marketplacing and booth-sitting, and dinner with a friend who was down for just the day, then early to bed.

Sunday morning we could barely get out of bed - sometimes all the socky excitement is just too much! But we managed and headed into Sock Summit for one last fun-filled day. I skipped out for lunch and took the Max downtown with Lacey, where we knit socks... of course.

Afterwards I had a low key dinner with Shannon and then she got a tattoo! I love accompanying people on their tattoo appointments!

Then it was up even more early on Monday to head over to Knit Picks. I saw fabulous new yarns, met Stacey who I had only corresponded with by email, and filmed some video.

On the train home, I finished some socks:

Yarn: Jarbo Mini Raggi
Started: 4/29/11
Finished: 8/1/11

And the rest (including the yarn) will have to wait for later. Too much fun!

Hedera, Spinning, and the Road to the Summit!

2011-07-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

I finished my first KAL with the 52 Pair Plunge group, Hederaesque:

Pattern: A modified version of Hedera
Yarn: Cavyshops Merino Fingering in Tea Party
Started: 7/1/11
Finished: 7/24/11

A pretty pathetic start, but my July knitting was seriously hampered by my participation in Tour de Fleece.

I finished a skein of BMFA in Little Bunny Foo Foo:

And started some lovely Cloudlover superwash BFL in Hoarfrost:

These past few weeks I've spun more than I had in the past year! (And there's the knitting lull to show for it.)

In addition, I've been preparing for my trip to Sock Summit with a very important task... sock laundry.

The bottom half of the drying rack is hidden behind a table and out of the picture. So yeah, I have a lot of handknit socks. Obviously I won't be able to wear (or even bring!) them all to Sock Summit, but I figured it was as good a reason as any to take a picture of all my clean socks.

Girasole and Spinning

2011-07-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

A friend was out of town and I was taking care of her plants, so I took the opportunity to block Girasole in a cat-free location.

I'm happy with it, but I have no idea how I'm going to use it now that it's done. I'm not really a shawl person... I wore my Milkweed to Madrona with a little pin as a scarf-like thing, but that isn't really going to work with Girasole since it's circular. But I'm still glad that I made it - it's definitely the most genuine lace project that I've done so far.

After finishing Girasole I immediately embarked upon the 52 Pair Plunge and Tour de Fleece almost all at once. I've been knitting mostly on Hedera-esque:

And spinning quite a bit. First up is a 4oz superwash merino braid labeled only "Greek Isles". I'm sure I bought it at a fiber festival - most likely Rhinebeck, but I have no idea where it's from.

The skein on the left hadn't been washed when the picture was taken, but now it's fluffed up and looks a lot like the one on the right.

Then I moved on to some BMFA fiber (a Sheep to Shoe kit) in Little Bunny Foo Foo:

So far I'm really enjoying getting back to spinning!

Get out the super glue

2011-07-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have finished an epic WIP, Girasole, but I don't have decent pictures yet. A full post about it will come when it's blocked, but for now, here's a teaser:

Now, as for the title of today's post... I'm going to whine a bit.

I was so very excited for the Kollage Square Circular needles to come out in sock sizes with cables that weren't a string. I love knitting magic loop, but the original cable was *so* flexible (really basically a string) that I never bought any after trying a friend's needles.

Well, after preordering and waiting for a backorder I finally got my needles - a pair each of 40" circular needles in 2.25 and 2.5mm. I enjoyed working with them, but the 2.25mm needle had a weird join - the metal was crimped out a bit at the join and snagged the yarn. I emailed Kollage, and they were very nice about replacing my needle.

Last night I opened up the replacement 2.25mm needle and started a pair of socks - the join is fine. :) Then when cleaning my desk I picked up some socks on the old needle, which I had stopped working on because of the annoying join, and the cable fell out of the needle when I picked them up. Hrm... probably because of the wonky join.

Well, apparently not because as I was working on the pair of socks from last night on the new needle, the cable popped out on that one too! Keep in mind I've only used these needles for about 1 hour last night, and maybe 15 minutes this morning before the join broke.

Guess it's time to get the super glue.

I think Ishbel was a hit!

2011-06-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

When I knit something as a gift, I'm always a little nervous. What if the person doesn't like it? What if the person just doesn't really care?

Before I put in the effort of knitting Ishbel for my friend Christina for her wedding, I asked her if she wanted me to knit her a shawl - she said yes. I showed her some pictures and she picked this one. Sadly I was miles and miles away from her and her dress, but I picked a color that I thought would work.

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the color of the shawl matches the lace detailing on the bottom of the dress. :)

I got so many compliments on the shawl, and she looked great. Her mom was especially impressed!

Since I was busy being a bridesmaid this weekend, I didn't get a lot of knitting done. I did, however, make some progress on Herbivore on the plane. If I was going to use the measurements in the pattern I'd be almost done, but as I have a lot of yarn at this point, I think I'll just continue til it's almost gone.

Ishbel

2011-06-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

I went to Portland last weekend to visit my sister and my friend Rachel, who was visiting the west coast from New York! We went to two yarn stores, but I managed to avoid getting any new yarn.

I also finished Ishbel on the train - here it is blocking (excuse the bad cell phone picture):

The wedding is next weekend, so I'll try to get more pictures of my friend wearing it then. :)

After finishing Ishbel, I became mysteriously inspired to work on my Herbivore, which I started in February and have been neglecting ever since.

The color is actually this one:

Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Baltic

As you can see I'm still having too much fun with Instagram.

A post in Instagram photos (and one non)

2011-05-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

Totally unrelated to knitting, I really like Instagram. You can take fun little square photos with your smartphone, apply various pictures, tag them with a location and post them to your twitter / Facebook / whatever.

I haven't been posting much because I've been hard at work designing and knitting secret things, but here's a bit of an update.

My new pattern, Isaz on Ravelry (linked) and Knit Picks IDP.

Last weekend I met my friend Nicole for brunch (and sadly not much knitting) but while I was waiting I got a hot chocolate and worked on the Ishbel that I'm knitting in ivory Handmaiden Sea Silk for my friend Christina's wedding that I'll be attending in mid-June.

Never fear, I am now well into the lace on this shawl, and I have until June 9th.

Today Nicole and Mimi and I went on a bit of the Puget Sound LYS Tour. Last year I did the whole thing (I believe last year it was 27 shops!) so this year I felt like I didn't need to try to do it all again. Instead we just hit some of the new shops we hadn't been to and a couple old favorites that aren't close to home, like this one in West Seattle.

One of the new shops, Serial Knitters in Kirkland, was really great! And they had star cookies, which is always a plus for me. ;)

So there you have it!

For the Love of Socks

2011-05-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my lovely photographer Louise and I had a photo shoot for Isaz - this was the Three Fates Yarns KAL pattern, but it will be available for sale soon.

After a bit of chatting, and because the rune Isaz is the symbol for ice, we decided that ice it would be.

If one is really committed to socks, sometimes one must get a bit crazy.

Photo by Louise Foster

... and yes, it was cold.

The things we do for art!

Listening to: Løyndomsriss ~ Wardruna (a song about a rune for a post about rune socks)

Primavera

2011-04-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

I finished some socks early Monday morning:

Pattern: Primavera
Yarn: my hand dyed yarn, from ages ago
Started: 4/10/11
Finished: 4/25/11

The pattern was simple and quick, with just a little bit of effort beyond ribbing for something that looks a little bit different. I changed up the cuff ribbing because I can't stand it when the stitch pattern starts and it looks all askew.

I finished them, and then I realized that I didn't knit myself birthday socks yet this year. Those are next on the cast on list, just some simple stockinette socks for bus knitting. Right after I finish this other pair that only has the toes to go, but we'll talk more about those later.

Back On Track

2011-03-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hey look, some socks!

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare dyed by my Secret Pal just for me - it turned out gorgeous
Started: 1/17/11
Finished: 3/28/11

I've been quiet this month because I've been busy not knitting. I had a couple of surgeries and have been spending most of my time like this:

But less furry and more human, of course.

I thought I'd get tons of knitting done, but it turned out I was a lot more tired and a bit more sore than I expected, so progress has been slow. Now I'm feeling much better, but still not quite ready to go back to work so I think the next couple of weeks will show some of the knitting progress I imagined.

Either way, I think the kitties are happy to have me around to sleep next to all day.

A Crafty Addition

2011-03-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

Meet my new-to-me floor loom!

What, you didn't know that I wove? I'm shocked! ;) I did a bit of weaving here on a borrowed table loom, and I made a little woven "coaster" at Madrona last year on a floor loom which never made it to the blog... I fell in love. (Yes, I probably need to take a class. But I have a book!)

At Madrona in 2010, I was very tempted to buy a Schact Baby Wolf that was for sale used, but I just couldn't take the plunge.

Well, this year at Madrona I was going around unabashedly staring at all the weavers and wishing I too could have a floor loom. I was jealous. I was curious. And, strangely, it paid off. I was chatting with someone who had just bought a flip loom, and after a bit of weaving talk I learned that she had a floor loom that needed a new home.

She actually lives quite close to me, and after a bit of talking and some planning to find a vehicle large enough (the loom needed a new home due to space issues, it is pretty large!) it was all arranged and this afternoon I brought home my loom. Pre-warped, so I can even weave a bit without having to do the hardest part... at least right away.

I am so excited to really learn how to weave! I did use an inkle loom quite a bit in a middle school art class, and there was the little attempt with the table loom a few years back, but it seems like I might actually get my sock yarn leftover scarf done sometime soon after all!

Mysteries Over, and Madrona

2011-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been spent at Madrona along with all the west coast knitters who aren't at Stitches West. (OK, maybe not *all*.)

I've shopped a bit - mostly Gothsocks with a bit of Toots LeBlanc, Rain City Fiber Arts and Abstract Fiber Arts to top off the bag. Overall a small but quality yarn accumulation. The rest of the time was spent knitting, spinning, and chatting with other fiber folks.

I also finished some socks in my newest pattern, Isaz:

Pattern: Isaz
Yarn: Three Fates Yarns Terra Sock in Fenrir
Started: 12/27/10
Finished: 2/18/11

This was the mystery KAL in the Three Fates Yarns group on Ravelry, but it will be available soon.

A little bit of love

2011-02-10T23:21:00.000-08:00

And now for my annual pair of (Black)hearted:

Pattern: (Black)hearted - one of mine, free and on Ravelry
Yarn: Macek Designs Sock Yarn in Dark Milky Way
Started: 2/1/11
Finished: 2/9/11

I still haven't made the ones to match MJ's here:

Somehow, even though I don't like colors other than blue, purple, grey and black... I occasionally like pink.

And hearts.

... but I don't really want to wait until next year for the twin ones. Maybe they'll just be late for Valentine's Day.

Sunday Swing

2011-02-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

One of my knitting goals for 101 in 1001 was to use 33 new types of sock yarn that I hadn't used before. Thanks to the vastness of my stash, this is a totally reasonable goal. Still, there are some yarns that are my tried and true favorites, and I keep knitting from those. Also, when you have knit as many pairs of socks as I have (I think this is pair #183), you have already used many many kinds of sock yarn.

Pattern: Sunday Swing, from Knitty Summer 2009
Yarn: Catalina Yarns Sol Joy (discontinued)
Started: 1/22/11
Finished: 1/31/11

I'm pretty sure I got this yarn in a swap, but at the moment I can't really remember. I do know that I picked it up because it was a yarn I had never heard of, even though the colors weren't exactly my cup of tea. No matter, because these socks are a gift. In fact, as often happens to me with yarn, I liked the color much better once I started knitting the socks.

Sol Joy is a heavier sock yarn, I knit the socks on 2.5mm needles and got a pretty firm fabric. I'm not sure how it was dyed, because as you can see a bit on the leg of the sock, the colors formed a strange swirling pattern. Overall I liked working with the yarn. It's not super soft, but I think it will probably wear well.

Stay tuned, socks for February are well on their way!

Busy Weekend

2011-01-17T20:54:00.001-08:00

After the success of last year, the knitters and I decided to go watch the Rat City Roller Girls again...

It was lots of fun, just like before.

I even finished a pair of socks there... (deja vu, I swear that also happened last time!)

Pattern: Leafling by JC Briar
Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Lucky
Started: 7/24/10
Finished: 1/15/11

Erin and I have decided to work through some of the old Rockin' Sock Club kits together, and apparently I need the motivation of having her do it with me!

This sock has very interesting construction. Despite the appearance of a semi-normal heel flap, the gusset is actually worked completely differently from how you might imagine. Very clever.

Then I finished another pair of socks!

Yarn: Regia Nation Color #5399
Started: 9/1/10
Finished: 1/16/11

This poor yarn has been waiting nearly forever. I love the socks, though, I'm even wearing them right now!

This puts me at 13.57 miles knit in my sock marathon, since January 1, 2009. Hopefully I can keep up the pace this year and finish before the end of 2011.

Sewing

2011-01-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

As I alluded to in my earlier post about the steeks, I've recently borrowed a sewing machine from my knitting buddy Erin. This sewing machine is going to help me achieve a dream - something that I've been talking about for years!

I'm making a T-shirt quilt.

As you may have deduced from the music I sometimes put at the bottom of my posts, I'm a fan of the metal / hard rock genres. I have a *lot* of T-shirts. Some of them date back to 15 years ago or more - I started buying them towards the end of middle school. And, frankly, their condition is getting a little worse for wear. (I found several holes in shirts which I was still wearing up to their rather timely demise.)

A lot of strategy has gone into planning this quilt. My sewing skills are limited, and the sewing machine, while perfectly serviceable, is not one meant to sew knit fabrics. With the knowledge of my quilting friends and the internet, I decided to put interfacing on the backs of the shirt squares - to give them stability and make them easier to cut out. When I mentioned this to a much more accomplished sewing member of my knitting group, she suggested that I come over and use her rotary cutter, then put the interfacing on afterward.

Who am I to decline such a generous offer? I went over on Saturday and spent about 3 hours cutting out all the T-shirt designs. My sewing mentor also made me little scrap samples with some of her interfacing as well as the one I'd purchased - I severely underestimated how much I needed... I got enough for about 3/20 squares. Of course, hers was a much better choice, so I might be better off buying a different one.

I'm so excited to finally make this project a reality... but I think I'm going to need a lot more help. I've never sewn a binding or tied a quilt or done any of this before... but I can learn.

Listening to: Falling Snow ~ Agalloch, The Promise of Deceit ~ Katatonia

2010 Projects

2011-01-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

I listed them before, but then I got bored and made a couple of mosaics...

The Socks

The Rest

(minus the soaker, which I never got a picture of)

click to embiggen, and all that jazz

First Socks

2011-01-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

As predicted, the Fruity Monkeys were the first socks of the new year.

Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Passion Fruit
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Started: 12/27/10
Finished: 1/3/10

Eight days, and believe it or not I worked on other things in the meantime. Mostly Girasole, which *will* be finished while the new year is still young. :)

~~~

A few years ago I had an idea about matching up stash yarn with patterns, putting it all in brown paper bags, and creating my own sock club. The Yarn Harlot later blogged about a very similar idea. (I have a feeling this was during the Fiber Cult era, since I can't find any mention of it on my blog but I *know* other people heard me talk about it.)

Anyway, I never did it, and this year I'm not quite doing it as planned, but I have decided to knit at least 24 pairs of socks and to choose two specific ones to complete each month. One simple pair, and one more complex. I've decided that WIPs count for this purpose, and this month's picks are Monkey - finished already, go me! - and Leafling from the Rockin' Sock Club in March 2008. (Yes, I'm behind, what?)

Hopefully this will help inspire me to finish some of the longstanding WIPs and also to get things done in a timely fashion.

~~~

A pattern I test-knitted also just became public. Though I usually knit socks 2 at a time, this is just the one finished - knit single in the interest of time. The second one is a bit into the leg, but not one of my designated socks for this month.

Yarn: Girl on the Rocks Superwash BFL Nylon in Caddy
Pattern: Desmondus Socks by Chrissy Gardiner

I believe this is my first purchase from Sock Summit that I've knitted up... well, partially.

1/1/11

2011-01-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

These Monkey socks will likely be my first FO of the new year. :)

This year was a pretty good one for knitting. I had a few patterns released:

Diverged as part of Knit Picks IDP
Jera in Knitcircus, and now through my Ravelry Pattern Store
Intercalate in Yarn Forward Magazine #33
Isaz currently only to participants in a mystery KAL, but in the pattern store later

I finished:

Socks (22 pairs)
Leyburn
Mini Mochi
Redhearted
Intercalate
Diverged
Greenlicious
Birthday Socks
Twists and Turns Twins
Blue Moon Rare Gems
Jera
Solstice Twins
Trekking Socks
Lucy Monkeys
Intercalate II
Summer Sox
Gothic Summer KAL
Artichoke Socks
Handspun Socks
More Monkeys
Candy Corn
Garnish
Melanie's Birthday Socks

Non-socks (7 projects)
Pea Pod Baby Sweater
a soaker
Milkweed Shawl
Odessa Hat
Cinnamon Grace
Pretty Thing
Undercover

As far as my knitting goals, I stuck to my 1/3 yarn diet - buying only 1/3 as much yarn as I knit / destashed.

My 2011 Goals

1. Continue the 1/3 stash goal, but this year be better about not buying new yarn until *after* I have the "credit" for it (instead of buying and then catching up*).

2. Knit at least 24 pairs of socks, plus other things.

3. Finish items until I only have 6 WIPs left, and keep it that way. Casting on a bunch of new things at once is fun, but it means that some projects get set aside and take forever to finish.

* I'd gotten off to a pretty good start by not joining any sock clubs for 2011, but then I made an exception for Cookie's new club. I have already subtracted the 600g (approximate for 6 skeins of sock yarn) from my stash total for this year and will "pay it off" before buying anything new.

Socks, Steeks, Blankets, and Elijah

2010-12-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

I got my contributor's copy of Yarn Forward No. 33, and got to see my very own socks in it!

It was a very exciting moment. :) I'm not sure if the magazine is out in print in the US yet, though.

I sewed some steeks that I didn't knit or cut!

Since my friend Erin was so kind as to lend me her sewing machine, she needed me to sew the steeks for a little sweater she was knitting for her daughter. I was a bit worried as my sewing skills are minimal, but I managed.

You can see the finished sweater here.

I presented a non-knitted knitted gift!

This year I didn't knit for the holidaze. Instead I prepared a choice of elephants for my sister - a powerpoint slide with pictures of three different elephant patterns for her to choose from. She picked Elijah, and I will be knitting him soon.

I met a baby, and gave her a blanket!

I knit Undercover with some Three Fates Yarn that Stephania contributed - it was our joint gift to the baby.

The blanket turned out very nice, but the pattern has several errors that I put in the notes on my project, just in case you want to knit it.

I started my first Mystery KAL for Isaz!

It seems to be going well so far!

Next time I probably shouldn't wait so long to post. ;)

Intercalate

2010-12-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

I had an idea for some crazy cabled socks.

And so I made them, and I had a fun photoshoot with my fabulous photographer Louise.

We went to Gasworks park, and even though it was cloudy and a bit cold, we had lots of fun.

...Maybe a little too much fun. ;)

The design was submitted to Knitty for the First Fall issue this year, but it wasn't accepted. I struggled on what to do with it, but when I saw a call for Yarn Forward magazine, I decided to give it a try.

Since the socks were originally knit with yarn from a US indie dyer, (my good friend Stephania over at Three Fates Yarns) I reknit them with yarn from a UK indie dyer (Wild Fire Fibres) for Yarn Forward.

You can buy the issue online here currently only through Yudu but hopefully soon as a PDF, or in magazine form if somewhere stocks it near you. I've heard people have found it at Borders.

Details
Pattern: Intercalate by me!
Yarns: Three Fates Yarns BFL Platinum Sock (green), and Wild Fire Fibres Manyana (yellow)

It's a Mystery!

2010-12-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

Right about now a lot of us are pretty busy knitting gifts... even me. But come the end of December, most of that will hopefully be behind us, and we can knit for ourselves again.

Well, here's a suggestion:

Why don't you come and join the Mystery Sock Knitalong that I'm putting on with my friend Stephania of Three Fates Yarns.

So, are you with us? The KAL will take place on the Three Fates Ravelry group, found here. I've designed a pattern especially for the knitalong, and the pattern clues will be delivered by email starting December 26. You can sign up in this Google spreadsheet.

I've got my yarn at the ready!

You can join the KAL with any yarn, but if you want to pick up some fabulous Three Fates Yarns, you can do it on the etsy shop. She's even got some on sale right now!

People who finish by February 14, 2011 will be entered to win a prize, and people who do so using Three Fates Yarns will get an extra entry.

Got it? Good! Now go sign up and get ready to knit along. :)

Long Knitting Weekend

2010-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

With all the travel and time off for Thanksgiving, I got a bit of knitting done.

Pattern: plain... Melanie's Birthday Socks 2010
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock Special Seconds

Started: 10/31/10
Finished: 11/27/10

My sister and I have a tradition... each year I knit her socks for her birthday. She usually gets them around Thanksgiving, since her birthday is earlier in November and that's when I end up seeing her. She likes plain socks, so I knew hers could be my bus knitting for a bit.

Back in September or so, I asked her to pick yarn for her birthday socks, and she chose this one. It's really interesting yarn I got a while back from a Rut Bustin' sock swap on the knittyboard. I was a little sad to give away the socks from this yarn, but then again one really can't say much when the yarn has been sitting in stash since 2007.

Other than a few extra knots (it was a mill end, after all) the yarn was lovely! I still have quite a bit left, as the original skein was more like 1.5 skeins, so I might try to combine it with some other blackish leftovers and make socks for me. :D

How Knitting Saved My Toes

2010-11-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I had a snow day, and finished these:

Pattern: Garnish by me!
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower
Started: 11/7/10
Finished: 11/23/10

On Monday morning I awoke to find snow outside. Snow before Thanksgiving in Seattle is extremely unusual, but I had seen a few flakes on Sunday, so it wasn't a total surprise. I bundled up in my heavy-duty coat (bought before my study abroad in Norway), my handknit wool socks, my hat, my scarf, and my mittens, Pretty Thing was also in my bag... and I went to work. I had to wait for the bus for a very long time, but it was otherwise uneventful.

The way home, however, was not. To make a long story short, after a freezing 2.5 hour wait at the bus stop (I was much warmer than my non-knitting counterparts), I finally caught a bus which took me most of the way home. Since the next bus was nowhere in sight I ended up walking almost 3 miles home through the snow. And I don't think I've ever been more glad to be a knitter. By the time I got home I was freezing, but not half as freezing as I would have been without the knitwear!

Jera, again

2010-11-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

Yarn: Stricken Smitten Smitten Merino Twist in Rune

My pattern Jera was in Knitcircus in the Fall 2010 issue. Now that the winter issue is live, it's available for sale on Ravelry.

Yarn: Three Fates Yarns Eponymous in Olivia

My fabulous photographer Louise and I had a little photo shoot earlier this week. Then my fabulous layout-designer MJ made me a cute logo and a layout and then stayed on Skype chatting with me as I tweaked it into its final shape. Over the next while I'll convert my older patterns to the new fancy layout.

More knitting to come soon. :)

The End of a Story

2010-11-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Handspun 100% angora from New Hampshire Sheep & Wool
Started: 8/7/10
Finished: 11/11/10

When I lived in Boston, I went to a lot of sheep and wool festivals. Back in 2006 I won a skein of handspun Angora at the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool. The 4H always had a raffle, and my friends and I would buy tickets and go about placing them randomly in the boxes of things that looked pretty cool. I can't remember anyone else winning something, but I could be wrong. A little while later this came in the mail:

And then it sat in my stash. See, it's not sock weight (nor would one probably want to make socks with handspun 100% angora!) I alternated between forgetting it existed and wondering what I would ever make with it... and then I saw Pretty Thing. What a perfect project for a small skein of cloudlike yarn!

So in August I started it. It sat (and sat). I am not very good at knitting things that aren't socks, especially when they're for me and have no deadline. But I took it with my on my Port Townsend trip and worked on it a bit at the coffee shop there.

Recently it's been getting cold, and I've been wanting to finish something for that sense of accomplishment. Wednesday night I was chatting with MJ on Skype for several hours and managed to make it most of the way through. With only a few more rows left, I finished it yesterday. I wore it today and it is as fluffy and cozy as I ever hoped. :)

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have festive candles!

I have festive socks!

Yarn: Vesper in "Candy Corn"
Started: 10/9/10
Finished: 10/29/10

Today I wore my candy corn socks... it's a dream that's taken a few years to achieve.

As for other non-Halloween things, I've been meaning to talk about my knitting trip to Port Townsend a couple weeks ago!

My lovely friend Erin had a birthday, so her sister came to town and the three of us headed out to the Olympic Peninsula for a relaxing weekend of knitting, coffee drinking, yarn shops, yummy food, and more yarn shops.

On the way there we stopped in Port Gamble and visited The Artful Ewe:

The whole store was full of baskets of fiber and yarn hanging on the walls... it was great! I found a skein of yarn there for my Blurple Waves blanket, some beautiful BFL sock yarn, and a bit of fiber.

Being silly me, I only brought a sweatshirt as I hadn't needed a real coat yet this year... thank goodness Erin brought lots of knitwear and let me borrow some of it!

We also visited the yarn store in Port Townsend, Diva Yarn. It was small, but had lots of nice stuff. I got some Merisoft there for Blurple Waves. I've decided it's a good project for souvenir yarn.

Perhaps the most amusing part of the trip to me was the sheer number of knitting projects I had packed. I spent Friday morning thinking "Oh, I should bring...!" and throwing yet another project into my bag. When I got there I realized I had brought the aforementioned Candy Corn socks, Cinnamon Grace, Pretty Thing, Skew, Girasole, and yarn to start the birthday socks for my sister.

After realizing how crazy I was to bring 5 WIPs and yarn for another project on a 2 night trip, I decided to work on each project at least once... and I did! Well, other than the birthday socks that didn't get cast on.

I'll leave you with the view from our hotel room:

A Rare Occurrence

2010-10-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

I finished two things in a row that aren't socks. Last time it was the Odessa hat, this time...

Pattern: Cinnamon Grace
Yarn: Yarntini in "So Corny", the September 2010 club color
Started: 10/9/10
Finished: 10/24/10

Of course, both of these non-sock items were gifts. ;)

That picot bind off? Over two hours.

Feet and Books and Hats, oh my!

2010-10-12T22:10:00.001-07:00

As some of you may have seen over on knitgrrl today, I'm going to be putting out a sock book with Cooperative Press. As part of that we're trying to gather some information on shoe size and foot measurements, as well as pictures of size 8 feet. (Although we only need photos for size 8, measurements are appreciated for all sizes! Even my bitty little feet are going in the data.)

If you'd be willing to help, check out the survey, and thanks in advance!

As far as hats, well that's totally unrelated.

Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious in My Blue Heaven
Started: 9/28/10
Finished: 10/11/10

As you can see I left off the beads. The hat is for a friend's sister, who has recently started chemotherapy. A knitting friend who went through chemo last year told me that her most comfortable hat was 100% silk, so when I was at Oregon Flock and Fiber I picked up this skein.

Now to knit away on the Candy Corn Socks... I need those for Halloween!

Again

2010-10-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed Sock in Jay
Started: 9/24/10
Finished: 10/4/10

I dashed off a quick pair of Monkey socks for a gift. It's something I tend to do quite frequently since I have the pattern memorized. Besides it's easy and looks good in almost any yarn. Something a little "fancy" for hardly any work... that's one of the types of pattern I like best.

Yesterday I started something new...

A carrot? Maybe... stay tuned.

Socks and Shawls

2010-09-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of my knitting groups, Purlygirls, was having a KAL for the Milkweed Shawl, and I decided to join in. Apparently when it comes to knitting I'm influenced by peer pressure.

I've actually never knit a shawl before. It's true that I started Girasole, but that one might be a bit slow going.

Pattern: Milkweed by Laura Chau
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh sock in Thunderstorm
Started: 9/6/10
Finished: 9/19/10

I still need to get better / modeled pictures of it. It was a really fun, relatively quick, and pretty easy knit. I put in lifelines after every other chart, but I didn't need to use them. It was quick to do, though, so I'm sure I would have been glad if I had needed to go back.

I knew it was going to be a pretty small shawlette, but it's actually smaller than I expected. A good scarfy size, though I might need a pin to keep it from falling off if I want the triangle part in the front. Amanda's was bigger than mine, so I think I might have to block it out a bit more aggressively... unfortunately the cats "helped" me by taking the pins out overnight.

Over the weekend I was in Oregon and finished my handspun socks:

Started: 7/5/2010
Finished: 9/24/2010

They're just simple stockinette socks with some of my older handspun - the fiber is Spunky Eclectic and a gift from my friend Cathy for my birthday a few years ago. I'm not sure why the majority of the yellow ended up on the foot of one sock, but such is the nature of handspun. I spun the yarn and then took forever to knit it.

For the rest of my handspun sock goal (I've decided to make 5 pairs by November 2011) I'll have to get spinning!

Garnish KAL... and some finished socks

2010-09-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

My Ravelry Fan Club is having a knitalong for my most recent free pattern, Garnish. If you've been thinking about knitting it, why don't you join in? I'll probably be casting on a pair in the next couple of weeks.

Currently there aren't any official deadlines, but I'll be giving out a small prize to one of the finishers, probably around the end of the year. We like our KALs low stress. ;)

In other knitting news, I finished some socks!

Pattern: Artichoke Socks
Yarn: Jojoland Melody Superwash in color MS16
Started: 8/18/10
Finished: 9/12/10

The pattern is quick to memorize and easy to knit, although the instructions don't contain a chart. They also say that the pattern stitch is over 9 rounds, which seemed very strange to me as you would be decreasing the yarn over you just made.

Instead I did it over 10 rounds (all even rounds are the same, I just repeated it for round 10 as well), and also included a "set up" round identical to Round 2 before staring the first repeat of the pattern. Just my little picky changes...

Yarn

2010-09-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a knitting blog, and so I shall talk about yarn.

First off, I was in a swap on the knittyboard - you may have seen my earlier package posted in the beginning of August. Well for the 2nd month of the swap the person that we originally sent *to* sent back to us. I was away for a few days in the first week of September, but I came home on Labor Day to find this:

My pal sent me a couple skeins of Wildfoote, some handmade soap, notecards, a needle case, 2 skeins of Cotton Ease, and a "Blast Off Spinners" shooter thing. The last is for the cats - I haven't tried it yet since I was a bad recipient and didn't take a picture until today, but I'm sure they'll enjoy it soon.

And now for a bit more yarn talk... I've been using the end of my Summer of Stash to make sure all my sock yarn is up on Ravelry. So no, I did not just buy all of that yarn that went up on Ravelry. For the most part it was from Sock Summit (yes, it took me a year to get it up on my stash) or yarn clubs, but a bit was from the yarn crawl in May. None of it was bought this summer, as I haven't been buying yarn since June 21st.

While I may buy the occasional skein once my stash commitment is over on the 23rd, I'm still going to stick to my 3:1 rule (using 3 times as much yarn as I buy).

I also need to get crackin' on some of these WIPs, so I can cast on this:

Yes, candy corn socks, here I finally come!

Gothic Summer

2010-08-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

When I was at Madrona in Feburary, I got some of the coveted Goth Socks. It took me quite a while to knit it, but over the summer the Goth Socks Ravelry group was having a "gothic summer" knitalong. I decided to join. (Are we seeing a KAL theme going on here? Strange but true!)

I picked a skein of Oh My Goth in Blue Ballz. This actually wasn't one of the ones I got at Madrona, but I picked up a few skeins for a friend and she traded me this one. This made me very happy because I had been trying to get this color for ages.

One of my knitting buddies even got me a skein in an etsy update but didn't realize at the time it was worsted weight! Eventually I might have some matching arm warmers... we'll see.

Well, the deadline is looming (11:59 on Monday the 6th) but I got my socks done in plenty of time.

Yarn: Goth Socks Oh My Goth in Blue Ballz
Started: 8/7/2010
Finished: 8/29/2010

I just knit plain stockinette socks because I think they show off stripes the best. Maybe I'll be more adventurous with one of my other skeins.

As for the yarn, it was lovely to work with. The only minor complaint I have is that the black dye did rub off on my fingers a tiny bit. It was so little that I didn't notice it at first, but the last few days I've been working quite a bit on the socks and kept wondering why my fingers were so "dirty"... and then I realized it was the dye. Hopefully it won't cause any problems when I wear them.

Other than that, the yarn was squishy and soft and overall delightful. I can't wait to work with it again!

Knit Along

2010-08-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not very good at KALs, it's true. But when one of my knitting groups, PurlyGirls, decided to knit Cookie A's Summer Sox together, I decided to join in. You already got a sneak peek, since they were my chosen project at Stitch & Pitch!

I originally wound this yarn - a Socks That Rock Mediumweight mill end - to knit the Sunshine socks from Cookie's book, but the yarn was too thick and the socks were going to end up way too big. The Summer Sox have less stitches, so I figured they'd be a better choice.

To tell the truth, I wasn't a huge fan of this pattern. Sure, it looks nice, but the number of stitches is constantly changing - it's just something that makes me kind of crazy. In addition the yarnovers on each side are different. One is a purl-to-knit which means it's extra short, and one is a knit-to-purl which means it's extra long. These combine to make uneven yarnovers, which was the second thing that drove me crazy about these socks. I even tried modifying the yarnovers to make them more even, but it didn't really make much of a difference.

On the plus side, the stitch pattern is quite easy to memorize when you get going, so once I committed to knitting the socks they flew by - and since I knit them on 2.5mm needles, they were extra speedy!

If it wasn't a KAL, I might have given up. But it was, and so I kept on going and finished them at knitting Monday night. Of course, it took until now to get a decent picture of them on the blockers.

Pattern: Summer Sox by Cookie A
Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Mediumweight - not sure what color this was supposed to be, maybe a too-purple version of Midsummer's Night?
Started: 6/12/10
Finished: 8/16/10

I'm glad I've managed to complete yet another pair of socks, and that I got to do it with so many of my knitting friends. And, although they weren't my favorite to knit, I'm sure I'll enjoy wearing them!

Secrets

2010-08-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well, the secret knitting is finally done for now, though it's not un-secret yet.

But, in secrets that are no longer, I got a package from my no-longer-secret pal today!

This was an interesting swap, in that we weren't allowed to spend any money other than shipping. We sent yarn from stash, things we had crafted, etc.

My fabulous pal, mugwump, sent me some yarn, some patterns, an adorable project bag which I think she sewed, and a knit hemp grocery bag!

In fact, she did such a great job that she sent me a couple skeins of Melody (bottom left, 1st picture) in a color that I already have! No worries as this month I'll be sending her a package which will probably include some socks out of that very yarn!

And, as for things that aren't secret at all, I was at Stitch & Pitch on Thursday!

My Summer Sox were the selected project, and I got quite a bit done! I also had fun with a few knitting buddies, including my friend Nicole who has never been to a baseball game!

She was knitting this lace bolero:

Sadly the game itself was extremely boring, with no runs for the first 6 innings. Good thing we had our knitting!

A new pattern - Jera

2010-08-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

I had a new pattern come out on Wednesday in Knitcircus... meet Jera:

Pattern: Jera
Yarn: Stricken Smitten Smitten Merino Twist in Rune
Started: 5/22/10
Finished: 6/11/10

It's in the Fall Issue of Knitcircus

This ended up being one of my quicker designs... I started it in April and had it accepted in May, then knit up the samples and sent them off. And the wait for publication isn't even that long - it's good for impatient me.

These socks are inspired by the rune Jera (pronounced yer-ah). It's the 12th rune of the Elder Futhark, representing the year or the harvest - a good match for fall.

* The pictures are courtesy of Knitcircus *

Monkeys for Marti

2010-07-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

I talked before about yarn that just seems to be cursed. My Solstice yarn was like that until I recently made the plain stockinette twin socks with MJ.

Well, I've cured another cursed yarn! On our last knitting adventure afternoon at Neptune Coffee, Marti ripped out the second pair of socks that weren't working with this yarn and gave it to me. After finishing a few projects I cast on for some Monkey socks - seriously, that pattern looks good with almost anything!

Today we were back at Neptune knitting, and I presented her with the no-longer-cursed yarn... but it looked like this:

Yarn: Socks That Rock in Lucy
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Started: 7/3/10
Finished: 7/23/10

And they even fit!

Now for my next STR project - it takes up a good portion of my stash, so it makes sense that I should be knitting something with it most of the time. Erin and I have several unknit kits from past years of the Rockin' Sock Club. I made a goal to knit all of them by November 2011 (if the deadline seems weird, it's for my 101 in 1001 project).

Well, today I'm starting Leafling.

Listening to: The Promise of Deceit ~ Katatonia, Lithium ~ Nirvana

The Point

2010-07-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

See, I'm knitting these socks...

They're in a merino / tencel 50:50 blend so the yarn is a bit grabby, and there are some interesting stitch manipulations required. Because of this I need pointy but slippery needles. Apparently that's not easy to find.

Above we have a bunch of my 2.25mm sock needles.

On the far right are the Knit Picks circulars, which are the pointiest by far but unfortunately much too grabby. At least in my hands, the finish wears off these needles pretty quickly - you can see some gold showing through in the top of the picture - and once the needles are dull silvertone / goldtone the stitches are really hard to move along them.

Moving to the needle 2nd from the right, you see a pair of Hiya Hiya steel needles. These are some of my favorites because they're nice and slippery and pretty pointy - but in this case not *quite* pointy enough.

The next one to the left is an Addi Turbo. Strangely it seems to be about the same pointiness as the Hiya Hiya needle - but not pointy enough. Nice and super slippery though!

And on the far left, we have my brand new Addi Lace needle. These are unfortunately not as slippery as the regular Addis, which caused me to agonize about whether it was worth buying them. I had a pair years ago, but my skin and the brass didn't get along and the needles would get very tarnished and smell funny, so I ended up giving them to a friend. I'd heard that they have a new coating and hoped this would help with that issue. So far so good - they're certainly pointy enough.

And now some other socks I'm knitting, these ones out of my handspun. They also happen to be on my very favorite type of sock knitting needle: Inox Express. Unfortunately they come in 2.5mm but not 2.25mm. The perfect blend of slippery and pointy, but alas, not the right size.

These socks were supposed to be knit on my Boston to Seattle cross-country move in the U-Haul, but unfortunately due to a last minute packing mishap (my designated container of things to come with me in the truck cabin accidentally got put in a box and packed in the back) that was not to be. It's a little sad that it has taken me this long to get going on them!

Listening to: The Drapery Falls ~ Opeth

Catch Up

2010-07-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

I am apparently a bad blogger. I had no idea it had been more than a month, and I have no excuse since I have not one but *two* finished pairs of socks to share! I've also been busy with some secret knitting, but you won't see that for a while.

Well, let's get to it. MJ and I decided on something simple for our next pair of twin socks - I talked about them a while back. Our goal was to finish them by the summer solstice. Unfortunately, some secret knitting got in the way for me, but I was close.

Yarn: Yarn Pirate BFL Sock in Solstice
Started: 5/4/10
Finished: 6/27/10

The next simple socks in line were my Spring Trek socks. I was inspired by my plain stockinette Trekking birthday socks from a couple years back, and this yarn was my very first Trekking - a gift from my mom years ago.

Yarn: Trekking XXL in color 68
Started: 4/24/10
Finished: 7/3/10

I finished them while I was at the Oregon Coast with my family for the 4th of July weekend. I spent some time knitting and some time on the beach. On the 4th the tide was quite low in the middle of the day, so I went for a walk with my sisters.

I was trying to take a picture of this exposed rock when a wave started coming and I ran so I wouldn't get my shoes wet. As I was running, something fell out of my pocket. My first thought was "Oh no! My phone!" but thankfully it was not my phone - instead it was my camera. I had a horrible sinking feeling as the wave washed over my camera and then I realized... it's waterproof up to 10 feet.

Apparently Olympus doesn't lie! This picture was taken about 1 minute after a salty ocean wave washed over my camera. It's still working great. :)

Summer of Stash

2010-06-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

After finishing and mailing my secret and complicated project, I was glad to be able to get back to some simple knitting this weekend.

I got quite a bit of knitting done on Blurple Waves, and thought about taking a better progress picture. Of course, I didn't get around to it until after the sun went down, but it works:

As you can see, it covers my double bed, and is almost halfway done length-wise! Java thought she would help me take the picture.

Which was appropriate since her brother Pan was so helpful with my designing earlier.

As for the post title... I've decided to knit from my stash this summer. No new yarn! I have a lovely bunch of yarn already, and I just picked up some more on the LYS tour in May. I figured the summer would be a good time to focus on using yarn I already have. And because I don't think I really showed it much after I moved, here is the stash in its home... the knitting nook.

It lives there with my knitting books and patterns, my spinning wheel, and the little table that I like to photograph yarn and socks on.

Knitting and Skating

2010-06-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

It was a very knitful weekend.

Friday night I settled in on the couch for some quality knitting time with my iPhone and a 42 row chart. While I love complicated (secret!) socks, I do crave something a little more boring sometimes.

Saturday morning I got past the chart portion and took the remainder of the sock with me to a ball winding party with one of my knitting groups. Since most of us bought some yarn on the yarn crawl a few weeks ago, it needed to be wound. I just stopped by to chat and eat some snacks on my way to...

Rat City Rollergirls! With my other knitting group, of course. We sat, we knitted, and we watched girls in short skirts slam each other around on skates. I finished my sock and switched to my backup project - the poor Blue Moon Cast On socks that have been fairly neglected since December.

Today I met up with yet another knitting friend to hit the Fremont Sunday Market, stop by the yarn store, and knit while having some lunch. And thanks to that, my socks got finished.

Pattern: 5x1 rib
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight - a Rare Gem
Started: 12/31/09
Finished: 6/6/10

LYS Tour 2010

2010-05-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the annual LYS Tour around here. The yarn stores band together, offer a free one skein pattern and a discount on the yarn to knit it, and us knitters run around crazily getting our passports stamped at the stores - 25 this year! It was my first year actually touring on the tour, since last year I attended every day at one store - the one where I worked. :)

Thursday night after work I headed to 4 of the stores that are more or less on my way home from work... Weaving Works, Bad Woman, Full Circle (this was a new one for me) and Fiber Gallery.

Friday I met up with a couple of friends and hit So Much Yarn on our way out to Bainbridge where we visited Churchmouse and had a lovely dinner at Cafe Nola.

We got to "ride" the scooter:

And then got totally soaked running to the ferry in the rain...

... while eating ice cream from Mora!

A lovely but very chilly evening.

The next day some of us joined a bunch of others for a trek northward to 11 yarn stores! One of the stores had some lovely knitfiti outside.

Amy knit most of Fay's socks on the drive:

After some dinner we took yet another ferry home.

Then on Sunday a few of us hit the remaining stores, where we found this hilarious Opal yarn:

An Austrian pop "singer", Antonia, wears a different slutty outfit on every ball band! We're not sure exactly who the target audience is for this yarn, but it was too hilarious to pass up, so a couple of us bought some:

(Click the first picture to enlarge for a view of more of the outfits!)

All in all an amazing weekend, now back to the secret knitting!

Listening to: The Outsider ~ A Perfect Circle, Reading In Bed ~ Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, Digital Bath ~ Deftones

Seriously Noro? SERIOUSLY?!?

2010-05-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

OK, I wasn't going to blog today. And this doesn't even really count, but I just have to get this off my chest.

These 6 (yes, six!) balls of yarn come from about the last 1/3 of ONE 50g skein of Noro Kureyon. In which I already joined at least two other knots while knitting my sweater. And then after joining the turquoise - which was one of several colors knotted totally out of sequence - I knit not even a whole stripe before hitting another knot. Then I noticed a knot on the outside of the skein and decided I'd better rewind it.

Now, I know that knots are in yarn. That's the way it goes. And if I encounter one or two in a ball I'm slightly miffed but understanding. And Noro is notorious for having lots of knots, and often having knots with two totally different colors tied together. There's a section on the back of my other Noro sweater where the color sequence goes back two stripes and then repeats.

Yeah, it's annoying, but slightly less so when you can splice the yarn as you can with Kureyon. But this? This is not acceptable. And the yarn isn't cheap either! Beautiful, but not pretty enough to make this OK.

Ugh. Somebody remind me of this the next time I want to knit a Noro sweater.

(On a slightly happier note, progress is being made on the Kureyon Hoodie.)

The WIPs

2010-05-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I realize that I have a lot of WIPs (cough 19 cough!), and I try to do something about it.

I focused on finishing up my Twists and Turns socks from the last post, and then moved on to my special Blue Moon Cast On socks in STR Rare Gem yarn:

I initially cast on for the Braided Gem pattern from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, but it wasn't working out. I have this thing about patterns - I'm happy to do more "complicated" knitting if it ends up looking complicated - like Twisted Flower, for example. But honestly my preference, and what gets done the fastest, are relatively simple socks.

Not necessarily plain stockinette or ribbing, I think Monkey and Jaywalker are good examples of socks that look complicated but are actually really simple to knit. But if there's a lot of switching between knits and purls and paying attention to which row I'm on, or maneuvering stitches around each other... Well let's just say it had better look awesome. This pattern in this yarn didn't, so I changed to a 5x1 rib.

Then last night at knitting I started my Central Park Hoodie!

It doesn't look like much yet, but I have high hopes.

Twists and Turns Twins

2010-05-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, MJ and I have this twin sock thing. We get the same yarn, we knit the same socks (seriously, down to the number of repeats or rows of cuff ribbing!) and then we wear them 2002 miles away from each other. I Google mapped it. One time our twin socks even got to meet!

Well, here's the latest pair:

Pattern: Twists and Turns by me!
Yarn: ShibuiKnits Sock in Sky
Started: 11/16/09
Finished: 5/3/10

This is only the second time I've knit this pattern - the first one was, of course, for the sample in the book. I still like it. :)

I finished them at knitting group last night, which I think may be the first time I've ever finished a project there. I was forced to pull out my backup project - it was great!

So now that these poor neglected socks are done, it's time for the next pair of twin socks. These ones were unintentional, since I got the yarn from a club and MJ got it as a gift, but it is indeed the same yarn, so why not twin socks?

I think most knitters have had a yarn that just wouldn't work. You couldn't find a project, or when you did it never worked out, or maybe you just hated it... Well, I love this yarn. The color is lovely but the past two projects just haven't been right. First I tried to make Reversai for Sock Madness in April 2008 - the yarn and the pattern were just a bad match, so I frogged them.

Then they developed a new destiny... the Anastasia socks, which I still want to make... someday. They were just too big and I'm really not a fan of knitting socks toe-up.

But there's no motivation like MJ, so now they're going to begin a new life as twin socks, with a twisted 1x1 rib cuff and otherwise just stockinette. Hopefully this one will stick.

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 7

2010-05-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, the blog week is coming to an end today, but I had fun. It definitely motivated me to post more than usual!

Day 7: What a Yarn

There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative.

The vast majority of the yarn that I own is sock yarn, and I usually post a mini-review whenever I complete a pair of socks with a yarn I haven't used before. So today I'll talk about another yarn, a worsted weight yarn... Malabrigo.

I love this yarn. It's soft, the colors are gorgeous, and it's pretty affordable. I remember when Manos was all the rage and I discovered Malabrigo - it's a little more evenly spun but just as beautiful, softer, and less expensive!

The only thing I've knit in Malabrigo worsted so far was a hat and scarf set in January 2006:

It was knit with two balls of Indigo, and I even had a little bit left over! For a yarn I love so much, it's kind of weird that I've only used it once, and so long ago...

But I have a big upcoming project that I'm actually swatching for today:

I've been planning to make Central Park Hoodie for a while, and I even bought yarn for it a while back, but you know me and sweaters... Well a couple of weeks ago Aubriana and I were talking about knitting sweaters and the Central Park Hoodie and decided to do it together, starting this Thursday at knitting! So today while we're knitting and eating cupcakes, I'm going to swatch.

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 6

2010-05-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Day 6: Revisit a past F/O
Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted, whether it is the hat your sister wears to school almost every day, or a pair of socks you wore until they were full of holes. Or maybe that jumper that your did just didn’t like that much…

For no particular reason, I decided on my Baudelaire socks.

Here they are just after being finished in September 2006:

And here they are now:

I'm pretty sure the difference in color is just due to lighting and my new camera. You might notice that the bottoms of the heels are a bit felted, but other than that the socks seem to be holding up really well. They did indeed turn my feet purple after the first wear, but they don't do that anymore.

They're in remarkably good shape for being 3 1/2 years old, but the truth is that each individual pair of socks doesn't get worn all that often - I have so many! So I'd say they're doing pretty well! They get worn about as much as any other pair of my socks, and they're still in wearable condition and looking pretty good, if I do say so myself. :)

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 5

2010-04-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Location, Location, Location

Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favourite arm chair, your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you like to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?

I knit pretty much everywhere.

My favorite places and/or those I knit most often are probably in various coffee shops/bars/restaurants with my knitting groups and on my couch while watching a good movie. I often knit on the bus during my commute. Socks get knit everywhere, but Blurple Waves lives by the couch.

The most unusual places I've knit are at metal shows (before the music started, of course), around a campfire, on the roof of my old house in Boston, and underwater in a swimming pool. Occasionally I've even knit in the lab.

I think pretty much the only places I won't knit are bathrooms and in places or situations where it would be disrespectful to others.

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 4

2010-04-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Day 4: A New Skill
Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? Maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.

It's not really knitting, exactly, but I'd love to learn to weave. I already knit, crochet, and spin, so I figure I need to round out my fiber arts with weaving. ;) I did weave a tiny bit at Madrona this year, and got to try a floor loom for the first time.

That's a pretty short answer, but it's all I've got today. :)

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 3

2010-04-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Day 3: One Great Knitter
Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

I read a lot of blogs, and I enjoy all of them, otherwise I would just unsubscribe. It's hard to pick just one, so I'll just write about the first one that came to my mind...

Dances With Wool

Lene is in Finland and knits many beautiful things on very small needles - usually things she designs herself. She also does beautiful embroidery and sometimes shares little drawings. Reading about the snow and reindeer during the winter and the light nights during the summer is also really special to me because of the (far too short) time I got to spend in Norway.

Speaking of Norway, today Jessica was awesome enough to Ravelry message me about the coolest amigurumi ever. Seriously, go check it out. I'd post a picture but I don't want to go around being a picture-stealer.

In other news, the WIPs from long ago have been making a comeback! Every once in a while I start to feel guilty about all my neglected projects lying around in their little bags... taking up needles... sometimes nearly lost...

In about a week I'll be casting on for the Central Park Hoodie as part of a knitalong with some people from one of my knitting groups. Instead of starting new projects before then, I decided to give some old projects some love. Just in the past 24 hours I did a little bit on Girasole and a bit more on the Twists and Turns socks. :D

Listening to: The Drapery Falls ~ Opeth, A Distance There Is ~ Theatre of Tragedy

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 2

2010-04-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

Day 2: An Inspirational Pattern
Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!

Let's start out with the last part. While there are certainly things I don't know / have never done, I feel pretty confident that I've learned most of the major techniques in knitting. It's not that I shy away from projects because I don't know how to do them, the vast majority of the time it's that I just don't have any desire. There are a few things I haven't tried - steeking is one, and double knitting is another. I think I could probably manage both.

That said, I do have a project that I aspire to... the sock yarn mitered square blanket!

I've knit, to the best of my knowledge by a quick count tonight, 164 pairs of socks. I have small feet, which means I have a lot of leftover sock yarn. I've been saying for a while that I should really make a blanket with my leftovers. In fact, I've decided it should even be an all blue (or maybe blue and purple) blanket. Because the number of non-blue or purple yarns is small, and it might look a little weird if it was mainly blue with a random square of something else every now and then.

But I'm open to suggestions, let me know what you thing.

In any case... I will make this sock yarn blanket someday, but I think I need to finish Blurple Waves first - on ball 9 at the moment! And then do I really need two blue and purple blankets? I guess I have time to decide.

Listening to: Warm Hands, Cold Heart ~ 27, Wrapped In Plastic ~ Marilyn Manson

Knitting / Crochet Blog Week

2010-04-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today when reading a few blogs I noticed this whole Knit & Crochet Blog Week thing (you can learn more here, and I decided I'd participate. So here goes...

Day 1: Starting Out
How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?

I learned to knit when I was 6 years old. My mom was pregnant with my youngest sister and knitting a sweater for her, and I believe I asked how. She taught me and I knit a bit but never really made anything. Later, in high school, I made a couple hats from a book - flat and seamed. And then in college I made a scarf. Somehow through all this I remembered how to do the knit and purl stitches, although I did have to call my mom from Norway to ask her how to bind off my scarf. While in Norway a friend taught me to crochet and another friend already knew how to knit, so we had little needle arts groups when we didn't want to be outside in the cold and dark.

But I really started knitting when I moved to Boston in 2004. I saw a yarn store near my new house, went in to get a pattern and some yarn to make a baby sweater, and in the course of talking to Lucy at Mind's Eye Yarns I discovered the existence of knitting groups. I went to a couple and I was hooked instantly. Plus, when all your friends are knitters you definitely tend to spend more time knitting!

And after all that text, I should reward you with a picture!

Yarn: Regia Mosaik Color in colorway 5560
Started: 4/10/10
Finished: 4/23/10

These were my birthday socks this year, and I even wore them yesterday!

The yarn base is standard Regia, but this way of dyeing it was really fun. Many of the sections of color are about 1-2 stitches long, but then occasionally you get a longer one. It gives an interesting combination of stripes and speckling.

Diverged

2010-04-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog post I've been waiting to write for a long time...

Once upon a time I had an idea. It was an idea for a sock pattern, inspired by the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. A sock with paths that split apart and came together again. But it took me a long time to make it. Finally, about a year ago, I did.

A little less than a year ago I submitted the pattern to knitty, and then I waited. It was really hard. I guess I'm impatient, but when I have an exciting new pattern, I really want to share it and see others knit it. But 2 1/2 months later I got a very nice rejection. (I understand, knitty gets a lot of pattern submissions and of course they can't take everything!)

And then my pattern just sat. After all that waiting I had other exciting things going on, and I still wanted to do something special with my little pattern.

Then I recently heard about the Knit Picks Independent Designer Partnership Program and thought it sounded like an interesting idea. The real reason I design, other than to get those pesky patterns out of my head, is to see other people knit things I made up.

I think Knit Picks will probably bring this pattern to a wider audience than just my fabulous blog readers and the people who happen to stumble upon it on ravelry. Hopefully some of these people who like Diverged will also want to knit other things I've designed. It's definitely worth trying, so I decided to go for it. The pattern should be up in the IDP section in a couple of days - just a little over a month after my first email to them. That even includes reknitting the sample and coordinating with Louise for photos.

The whole process was not only quick (an advantage to putting patterns up all the time instead of in issues) but very pleasant. I even got to try a brand new yarn, Stroll Tonal, that was released a few days after I started my sample.

Pattern: Diverged
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Springtime
Started: 3/17/10
Finished: 3/27/10

Pattern: Diverged
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in 24 Karat
Started: 5/6/09
Finished: 5/26/09

You can buy the pattern for $1.99 through Knit Picks or on ravelry.

All photographs in this post were taken by the lovely Louise.

Green Socks #3

2010-04-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

I did indeed finish three pairs of green socks in a row, and since the first two are secret for now, here is the third:

Yarn: Zauberball in Grashalm
Started: 3/5/10
Finished: 4/9/10

My sisters visited for my birthday this weekend, so although I didn't get a lot of knitting done, I did have a lot of fun. One of my sisters wanted to try spinning, so I got her set up and she made a little skein of yarn after a lot of effort.

Meanwhile, my other sister baked the cupcakes.

And I cast on for this year's birthday socks!

The yarn is Regia Mosaik Color - as you can see a bit in the picture, the yarn is dyed with extremely short color sections - about one stitch. It gives an interesting effect! Although this yarn is sort of crazy-bright, I was inexplicably drawn to it.

I was inspired by my 2007 birthday socks - I do like to wear plain stockinette socks, and I usually have a pair living in my bag for bus knitting, so I knew I needed to start one for my birthday. Maybe this will become a yearly tradition!

Listening to: My Gift of Silence ~ Blackfield

Knitting Green

2010-03-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been knitting a lot of green. The color, that is, the title doesn't refer to any especially earth-friendly knitting.

See, I started these green socks with Zauberball when I needed some mindless knitting, and then I finished some secret socks that were green, and then on St. Patrick's Day I coincidentally started some other secret socks that are also green (and making quick progress).

So because of all of these things, it is likely that I will finish 3 projects in a row that are all green socks. Not really usual for me... although if they were blue it wouldn't be strange at all.

It does make me a bit sad when I knit things and can't share them with the world of Ravelry or the blog. I wouldn't want all you lovely folks on the internet thinking that I'm a knitting slacker! But sometimes that is just the way it is, so perhaps I shall have to put a bit more work into some of my half done WIPs so that I can show things off more frequently.

Oh, hello blog!

2010-03-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

When I posted about Garnish I had also finished a pair of socks. But I wanted to tell you about the new pattern, and I was waiting for the socks to get to Canada in the mail - which always takes longer than you would think but especially during the Olympics!

But now they're there and you can see them:

Pattern: (Black)hearted
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Jubilee
Started: 2/12/2010
Finished: 2/22/2010

I started these at Madrona to replace the Mochi socks as my easy knitting. Everything before and after the hearts is mindless, and I always need a mindless project to keep in my bag.

Although I cast on for them during Opening Ceremonies, they weren't really a Knitting Olympics project or anything like that. I just happened to have finished my other socks earlier that day and decided that it would be fun to cast on with everyone else. And I happened to finish them within the Olympics too. Total coincidence.

Well, this blog has been a bit quiet as I have been spreading my knitting over many projects (never good for finishing) and knitting some secret stuff (never good for blogging), but I'll try to keep it a bit more frequent in the near future.

Garnish

2010-02-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

I have a new pattern up on Ravelry - Garnish.

So this post is a little bit about that, and a lot about my fabulous non-knitting friend Brian...

The idea of this pattern was a bit long in the making, but the final inspiration was a little pop of color in an otherwise dreary winter. And when I saw Brian's grey and white apartment, I knew I wanted to do the photos there. And I was a little surprised when he went along with the idea, and even volunteered to be the photographer for my little photo shoot.

We had a lot of fun, and he really got into the spirit of it. Some ideas were maybe even a little too crazy. ;)

I was so glad to be able to get such nice pictures of the socks, but also really impressed that my friend, although he isn't a knitter, didn't think I was totally crazy. He definitely stepped up to the challenge.

Hopefully everyone else will have just as much fun with these socks. :D

Listening to: My Gift of Silence ~ Blackfield

Socks vs. Sweaters

2010-02-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Spending the last few days at Madrona has got me thinking about sweaters.

I saw so many beautiful sweaters and shawls, and though I did bring one sweater, most of the handknits that I wore were socks. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. ;) So I see everyone with their sweaters getting admired and I feel a bit jealous. My socks are certainly less visible (and possibly less impressive) than sweaters. And to be fair, my socks did get a bit of love, and my sweater got plenty.

It just made me wish that I had more sweaters or other obvious knitwear to show off.

I love to knit socks. I love to wear socks. And it's not that I can't knit a sweater or shawl, it's just that I don't really want to. I have knit sweaters, and they're great. I like them. But when I sit down to knit, I want to knit socks. Even when I start sweaters they usually linger for ages. They're not even that much more work! I'd say a sweater is roughly equivalent to two pairs of patterned socks - depending on the socks and the sweater, of course.

I met the beautiful Faery Ring which didn't help the case for socks. Not that I don't have a bunch of other sweaters to knit already... including a couple on the needles. But I've tried to reform my sock-knitting ways before, and it has never worked.

Speaking of socks, here's a pair I finished while I was there:

Yarn: Mini Mochi in #108
Started: 12/29/09
Finished: 2/12/10

This yarn was a bit difficult to work with - it's quite splitty and it took me a while to get the feel of how to knit it without splitting stitches. But once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. The one thing that did bother me a bit is the difference in the stripe length. This isn't just a case of me being picky about stuff matching though, the sock with the longer stripes had sections of much thinner yarn than the other sock. Not only did this change the length of the stripes, it also made the width of the sock smaller and larger in some places. The yarn is also quite fuzzy. I'm curious to see how comfortable these socks are and how well they wear. I do have more in one of the rainbow colors, so if I don't like the socks I might have to find another plan for those skeins.

Madrona

2010-02-13T00:13:00.000-08:00

I've had a great first couple of days at Madrona, including finishing a pair of socks and starting some new ones. Sadly I don't have my own laptop so I can't upload any of my pictures. Another time.

Until then I'll tell a little about a more "underground" knitting project. I mentioned that I had been working on Blurple Waves lately, but I didn't show it:

A bit of an artsy shot taken for Project 365, but I think you get the idea. I'm having fun rediscovering a lot of yarn that I got as "souvenir" yarn or received as gifts.

I think the plan of knitting a ball of yarn each month is going to get the blanket well on the way to my goal of finishing it before the end of 2011, and with not too much work at one time. So far I'm really enjoying knitting it - it's a very easy movie-watching kind of project - and really liking how it's coming out.

Finally, Leyburn!

2010-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Remember almost a year ago when I finished the first Leyburn sock? I started the second one right away to combat the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

Well... it didn't work. But this past weekend I finally completed one of my more pathetic over-a-year WIPs.

Pattern: Leyburn Socks (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in Carbon Dating
Started: 1/6/09
Finished: 1/18/10

Yes, the Leyburn socks are finally done! The pattern is pretty easy to memorize, easy to knit even while watching TV, and cute. I really liked the yarn...

When I first started it the floats threw me off a bit and I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to try these guys 2 at a time, so I didn't and that was the trouble. I don't know what it is about knitting single socks but I never get them done in anything close to "normal" time. But here they are and I can cross another WIP off the long list. :)

Other than a secret project and a non-sock gift, the best contender for next FO is my Twists and Turns twin socks with MJ. That or the stockinette Mini Mochi sock that lives in my bag for bus knitting.

I'm also making good progress on Blurple Waves - I'm on the 5th ball at the moment and making a goal to knit a full ball of yarn or more each month this year.

I've also been taking a photo every day this year for Project 365 (those are all my pictures there). The theme this week is clutter and that's brought a couple of knitting-related pictures, so I thought I'd share.

Monday night knitting group, with the aforementioned Twists and Turns WIP:

And a bit of the stash:

Peapod

2010-01-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

My first FO of the year is not socks. Shocking, I know. There are a few pairs of socks close to being finished, but this little project took precedence.

Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash
Started: 11/16/09
Finished: 1/10/10

Making this sweater was actually kind of fun, but it reminded me why I like socks so much. First there's the separate pieces all with their own ends. Then there's the blocking... before seaming. And the seaming. And then the blocking after seaming.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, and I did promise Stephania that I would knit this for her baby oh so long ago. Way before November. Way before the baby was even born!

After I got out my big Vogue book and looked up the proper way to seam (wouldn't seam without it!) I ended up very happy with the final product. And I can even seam while watching Deadwood on DVD. :)

Starting the New Year off right!

2010-01-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went out for coffee with some friends, which turned into dinner, which turned into getting up before 7am on a Sunday to take a knitting class with Jared Flood. An unexpected but delightful series of events.

I've been reading Brooklyn Tweed for a long time, mostly because it always has beautiful pictures. Maybe between my new interest in photography and my start at lace today I can emulate them sometime!

I enjoy taking knitting classes, even though most of the time I don't learn a lot. There comes a time when you have tried most things, and after the variety of projects I've made and the number of knitting classes I've taken (and taught) there isn't a lot that's really new to me. But there's almost always *something*. Today it was a variation on the Russian join.

Even if I don't learn much, it's still enjoyable. I like hearing from designers about what their process is, getting a sense of the person behind the patterns, and just getting motivated to start something different than my usual parade of socks.

Today it was Girasole. I've never knit a shawl or large lace project. (I did knit the Horseshoe Lace Scarf for Fiber Gallery, but that's a very simple lace pattern with only one motif over the project and no edging. I've knit lace socks that were more complex than that.

It's not that I don't know how to knit lace, or that I was afraid, it's just that I don't wear shawls. But I've wanted to knit one for a while, even if it just ends up decorating my couch. Maybe I can scrunch it up and wear it as a scarf...

Now I can pretend to be a "real" lace knitter and tell you how hard it is to photograph unblocked lace, although this one is small yet. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Cookie's Deep Dark Secret.

And now it's time for the promise I'll probably regret. I will finish this shawl before the end of the year. Oh yes, my first shawl in 2010... we'll see how it goes.

A Year of Knitting

2009-12-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to a close, I go back and review the year in knitting...

This year I knit 29 sock projects - one isn't here because it's secret. Not great, but not too bad considering real life and the number of non-sock things I knit...

And I knit 13 non-sock things. One of them (the snood) isn't pictured here because the picture doesn't look great and you can't fit 13 things into a rectangular mosaic. ;)

Also, since tonight is a Blue Moon as well as New Year's Eve, and because Tina said so, I'm casting on a special project.

I took this Socks That Rock Lightweight Rare Gem (Blue Moon Fiber Arts, get it?) and cast on the Braided Gem Socks from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. I even accidentally got a "gem" in the pattern name! The socks don't look like much because they just got cast on, but here's the yarn:

Now to grab some tea and knitting and ring in the new year on the couch with the kitties. Low key, but that's the way I like it.

Listening to: New Year's Eve ~ Pain of Salvation

Finishing

2009-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

I didn't do much holiday knitting this year. Mostly because I didn't really think about it and then there just wasn't time, but also because I was busy finishing something.

Pattern: a highly modified version of the Holiday Stocking (which appears to be the same as the Scandinavian Stocking which is found in a book) by Donna Kay
Yarn: Jamieson Shetland Spindrift
Started: 11/29?/07
Finished: 12/23/09

I started this a couple of years ago for my mom, and foolishly decided to modify it to have snowflakes instead of the... holly? presents with bows?... on the original. I decided if I couldn't tell what the motif was supposed to be, it should probably be something else. And I really like the snowflakes except they're almost all different so knitting them was an exercise in staring at a chart in a quiet room.

Also the purl-bump checkerboard pattern on the cuff and heel was horrible to knit. I also modified the heel to be a normal sock heel since the pattern has some weird square thing with decreases. No thanks!

Well, the stocking was well received and I'm very relieved to finally have it done. It turned out great but I think that's the last time I knit something like that!

Another (nearly) finished object is the knitting area in my living room.

Currently it's mostly occupied by my handknit sock laundry (which I thought might be interesting to some of you - can you spot any socks you recognize?), but soon that will be moved away and when I obtain a chair it will be a great place for spinning or knitting.

Knitting in the media

2009-12-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I was finishing up a pair of Monkeys (more on that later) while watching Frasier when I saw this:

Yep, that guy is "knitting" what appear to be crocheted granny squares. One would think that someone doing the show knew how to knit, because at one point the man is making fairly realistic knitting motions... but then again maybe not.

I posted something about this (but no picture) on Plurk and got a response from Aesox about a Jockey ad with a spinning wheel churning out knitting. The picture is a bit hard to see - it's possible it's just really thick yarn and someone jammed a cake of it on a spinning wheel, but it's hard to say.

These Jockey girls do a lot of things in their underwear, including riding horses. :o

I'm sure there are many other examples of failed representations of fiber arts - in fact I know I saw one a while ago with a ball of yarn tangled around some needles of someone who was supposedly "knitting".

In any case, back to those socks...

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Night Watch
Started: 11/23/09
Finished: 12/5/09

These originally started as the Hedgerow Socks, but it seemed like a lot of ribbing for not a lot of pretty. The pattern was just so plain, and it hurt my hands to be changing from knit to purl so much. I decided to go back to one of my old standbys - Monkey is such an easy pattern to knit. The pattern is easy to memorize and it's also easy to tell where you are in the pattern by looking at the stitches. Plus it's minimal work for what I think are very pretty socks.

Belated Candy Corn

2009-11-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

I started the Candy Corn socks intending to finish them to wear on Halloween.

Well, two things happened - they didn't stripe which made them less candy corn-ish to me, and then I had a lot of other knitting to do. Actually three things, because I got sick over Halloween and only wore my PJs.

But while I was visiting Boston I saw my friend Cathy and she likes bright cheery colors and said she would take the socks off my hands. Because I am not a fan of yellow or orange (or white really!) if it's not candy corn.

Yarn: Candy Corn from Macek Designs
Started: 9/5/09
Finished: 11/20/09

You can see a little candy corn-like triangle at the heel turn...

My dreams of candy corn striped socks continue, and I picked up some of the Yarntini candy corn striping yarn. Maybe next year!

Birthday Socks

2009-11-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

I have a tradition of knitting birthday socks for my little sister, and some for other holidays too. Actually, strangely enough, it all started with the first Ravenclaw scarf!

Then there was the Rainbow scarf:

And some rainbow socks:

Those ones had quite and adventure with a chewful puppy and were jokingly gifted to her again the next year with the foot re-knit. But her real socks the next year were these:

And then, in 2008, these:

There were some other holiday gifts in between - a red and black striped hat and these bright cheery socks last year:

This year my baby sister turned 21, and I can hardly believe it. But here are this year's addition to the lineup:

Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock! in Little Devil
Pattern: plain ol' socks
Started: 9/12/09
Finished: 11/10/09

This is the first time I've used Lisa Souza, but her base yarn is probably different now as this skein is pretty vintage. It seems to be the same base that most indie dyers were using in 2006 - the soft slightly fluffy 2-ply that's quite thin. This skein had great yardage, and I really liked the way the yarn knit up almost-striping - the black stripes don't always complete. The variation in the red part of the skein also gives it a neat look.

I asked my sister because I was considering doing a more exciting pattern, but she says that she likes the plain ones best. The yarn was acquired in a swap in October 2006, and had been patiently waiting in the stash. It was always intended for my little sis, so I don't know why it took me so long to knit it!

I'll see her for Thanksgiving, so the socks will be gifted then. She stayed at my place for Labor Day weekend, and it inspired me to pull the yarn out of the Expedit, wind it up, and start knitting her birthday socks.

Yarn? Is that you?

2009-11-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

A while back I ordered some Opal Feelings yarn on eBay. I've wanted some - particularly the blue one - since it came out a couple years ago, and now that it's gone I still wanted some. I've been waiting patiently for it to come in the mail.

Well, the weather in Seattle has been particularly bad these past few days, and tonight when I arrived home I was getting my mail out in the rain (and in the dark, I hate you DST!), I grabbed a package which I thought was a book that I'm also expecting. But upon bringing it to my apartment, I realized it was my yarn. Except... book shaped.

Yes, my yarn was vacuum packed. Supposedly to save on shipping, but I've found that yarn shipping to and from Canada is really very reasonable via air mail. In any case, it was amusing. I made a cut in the bag and a hissing sound started and soon I had two very normal (if slightly flat) balls of yarn:

Yay for Opal Feelings!

Now, as for the knitting, there have been many secret projects lately. A pair of socks which I forgot to take a picture of (but one has been promised by the recipient) and this:

You may remember the other Harry Potter scarves - I knit one of the old style for each house, though I never got pictures of the Slytherin one. Well, this PoA one is a gift. :D

That is a lot of stockinette. Even more than the first ones, because this scarf is longer. Whew! But it's done and I think it turned out really well. It's on the way to it's new home and I hope she likes it!

Going East

2009-10-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, my trip to New York City, Connecticut, Rhinebeck, and Boston was awesome. Of course, I hardly took any pictures, because I am *horrible* at remembering to take pictures. I returned home with a total of 9 pictures on my camera, and 6 of those were of my friend Rachel and her shawl.

But I figured I had to show you something...

I flew into NYC on Friday evening and took the airtrain (I think that's what it's called) and subway into Grand Central Station. On the way I saw a woman who I can only assume was selling pirated DVDs (she was saying something that sounded like a high-pitched beeping, but I think it was D-V-D-V-D-V) and two boys who broke out their boombox and were brakedancing on the subway - except I couldn't see them all that well because a bunch of other people were in the way.

I met up with Rachel and her cousin there, we had some dinner and took the train to CT. I got to spend the night at my favorite house - Rachel's family lives in a really really old house, I believe her dad said 230 years old. And there are all kinds of crazy things like keyholes in the floorboards and corn cobs in the walls!

In the morning Rachel modeled her new shawl, and then we got silly:

Then we headed off to Rhinebeck where we did many things, including meeting these adorable alpacas!

I couldn't help but notice their cloven hooves:

See, cute alpaca toes!

And then, we had the opportunity to take a really cool picture. As some of you might remember, I met Rachel while we were both working at A Good Yarn in Massachusetts. Well, now we're both in different states, but we ran into the owner of the store at Rhinebeck and got to take a picture together. Plus, look at all that knitwear!

I also noticed, while looking through old posts, that the sweater I wore was supposed to be my Rhinebeck sweater last time I was there - except it was like 70 degrees. So I'm glad it finally got to serve its purpose!

Later, more on my yarnful trip to Boston, and about 5 yarn stores in the general vicinity.

See you at Rhinebeck?

2009-10-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to blog about this, but then I forget again.

I'm going to Rhinebeck!!!

Yes, even though I'm no longer on the east coast, I figured coming out for Rhinebeck would give me the perfect opportunity to see some east coast knitting friends and go to my favorite Sheep & Wool festival. :D

So... are you going to Rhinebeck? If so maybe I'll see you there!

As for the knitting: little bits of progress on a bunch of little projects and some secret gift knitting. I'll post more about it when people get their gifts. :)

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

2009-09-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

I finished my Nebula socks.

Pattern: Nebula
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Lilac
Started: 4/14/09
Finished: 9/27/09

The detail in this picture is better:

Yes, it's been a very long time. But, you see, I have second sock syndrome and it is a horrible condition.

You may have noticed that I almost always knit my socks two-at-a-time on one long needle. There are a couple reasons for this - one being that then the socks turn out with exactly the same number of rows and have the decreases starting at the exact same moment and all those lovely things that make my perfectionist self unreasonably happy.

The other reason is that I can crank through a single sock in no time at all, but once it is complete it takes me ages to finish the second one. My Conwy socks took well over a year, if I remember correctly.

I have also found my Leyburn sock and partial-sock and am working on that too. Time to clear out those WIPs!

Sock WIPs for Summer!

2009-09-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

I participated in Summer of Socks this year, and my goal was to finish WIPs. Well, SOS ended at the beginning of September, but since I was under the impression that it would go until the end of summer, I decided I would work on sock WIPs through the end of the summer.

Yet another finished sock WIP - this one was from Labor Day Weekend, but did I blog it? Of course not!

Pattern: Kai Mei by Cookie A
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Go Go Grassy
Started: 5/26/09
Finished: 9/4/09

I just noticed those were started Memorial Day weekend and finished Labor Day weekend. Go figure!

And a little detail of the stitch pattern:

This is a wacky stitch pattern. Not hard, but definitely different. It turns out beautifully, though!

I made some really good progress and finished some socks that had been languishing for a long time, along with a few new pairs. My goal is to finish my second Nebula sock before the end of Summer (which is September 22nd, for those of you wondering).

So far I have this:

I only have a few more repeats until the heel, and the foot honestly goes nearly twice as fast since the bottom is stockinette. Those little cable twists, while gorgeous, are very time-consuming. For some reason the spiraling isn't showing up on the left sock. Hopefully it will when the sock is being worn.

My other sock WIPs include my second Leyburn - which I would try to finish if I could find it... I'm going to do a bit more searching tomorrow.

I also started a couple pairs of new stockinette socks to work on while watching movies or riding the bus:

The Candy Corn socks - these were supposed to be self-striping, but I think they're cute even though they don't stripe.

and my little sister's birthday socks:

The yarn is Lisa Souza "Little Devil", which I bought a few years ago with my sister in mind. It's rough being a blue lover with family members that love red and black. ;)

We have a winner!

2009-09-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, after putting up my little contest, I nearly forgot about it!

I had a lovely camping trip last weekend, spent some time knitting by the campfire (though of course I didn't get any pictures of that) and had fun hanging out with my sisters. And ice cream for breakfast, because that's always important.

But, without further ado, the winner of my 5 year Blogiversary contest is....

*drumroll please*

Thursday / Bex! - please contact me so we can discuss yarn / color / pattern preferences!

The winner was chosen using the random.org random number generator, because I was going to ask MJ to pick a number but she wasn't on IM and then I realized she was one of the entrants.

Well, the knitting isn't too interesting at the moment, I'm slogging through a couple of sock projects in stockinette that will hopefully be done soon so I can share them, but until then here's a camping picture:

A camping tradition, roasting soy hot dogs over a campfire.

Blogiversary

2009-09-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Five years ago I started this blog. I was a fairly inexperienced knitter, and had just moved to Boston and discovered the wonders of knitting groups. I've come a long way!

The blog has gone on more or less that whole time. Some times have been more active than others, and the fact that I pretty much only post finished stuff doesn't help with that. But I feel pretty accomplished for keeping the blog going for this long.

So, in celebration, I'm having a contest. Leave a comment on this post by midnight on Monday September 14th telling me what your favorite thing is that I've knit. You can even cheat and look at my Ravelry projects page. I'll select a random comment and that person will win a pair of socks knit by me. I'll find out your general yarn and pattern preferences and figure out something fun. :)

I'll be camping with my sisters this weekend, so I might not be able to approve comments right away, so never fear if you don't see yours for a while.

Listening to: Serenity Painted Death ~ Opeth

Knitting Fun

2009-08-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I went to Stitch & Pitch. I learned that Seattle was the first city to do one, and I believe this year was the 5th. My socks had fun hanging out at the ball game.

Then Saturday morning the same socks and I headed down to Salem. The socks got finished on the train!

Pattern: Summer!
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Dusk
Started: 3/4/09
Finished: 8/28/09

Then I got to give Snarfy her socks, which she tried on:

They fit! And I think she likes them!

Now, my goal for Summer of Socks this year was to finish my sock WIPs. It's ending September 1st, but I had been thinking that it ended at the end of the summer (September 22nd). So, I've decided to continue working on sock WIPs for the rest of the summer.

Next up? Kai-Mei.

Socks and Winners!

2009-08-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time to announce the winners of my contest!

The first prize goes to MJ, who guessed 20 pairs worth of sock yarn - which is exactly how much I bought! She'll be getting the Toe-Up book.

There are two runners up who guessed 21. This is a "more correct" answer than 19 because I actually came home with 21 pairs worth of sock yarn, just one of them I didn't buy and I realized the question for the contest was how much I bought, and also one of the 21 is not for me. This question was more complicated than I realized!

So Tece and Dawn are the two runners up - I'll email you copies of Falling Up. (Tece, I need your email!)

In the past few days I've also finished a couple pairs of socks.

Pattern: (Black)hearted
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Night Watch
Started: 8/1/09
Finished: 8/21/09

Pattern: Twisted Flower
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Wisterious
Started: 3/10/09
Finished: 8/25/09

Sorry for the blurry picture, the beautiful twisted stitches don't show up with flash and I apparently couldn't stand still enough.

I started the Twisted Flower socks so long ago as twin socks with MJ, but I got distracted when I hit the heel flaps. Also, there is a 38 stitch by 49 row chart for the foot, and that requires a bit more attention than my usual knitting situations allow. But the past week or so I decided I'd go for it and put on an audiobook and just did it. And I'm so glad I did!

Listening to: Heaven Beside You ~ Alice In Chains

Toe Up Socks

2009-08-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I'm not a big toe-up sock knitter. There are a few reasons for this. I've only found one toe-up heel that fits my feet well. One of the main benefits of knitting socks toe-up is not having to worry about running out of yarn, and I don't usually have to worry about that anyway. The gusset is my favorite part of the sock, and toe-up socks don't usually have a gusset.

Sometimes I do knit socks toe up, but then I use a gusseted short row heel, which means more calculating when to start the increases on the foot to end up on the right pattern row to start the leg after the heel. In this case, cuff down is just easier.

But, toe up socks have been playing a bit of a role in my life lately, so here goes...

I have an extra signed copy of Chrissy Gardiner's new book Toe-Up! to give away! I helped proofread the book, and picked up two copies at Sock Summit - one for me and one for the lucky winner. I'll also throw in a PDF copy of my newest sock pattern - also knit toe-up - Falling Up.

And, as a little bonus for the runner up, they get a copy of my pattern too.

So, how do you win these fabulous prizes? Well, just guess how many pairs worth of sock yarn I bought at Sock Summit. I'll give you some time to contemplate - entries will close on August 25th.

Listening to: The Drapery Falls ~ Opeth

Oh Snarfy...

2009-08-14T22:16:00.001-07:00

One of the fab Salem knitters, Snarfy, had her birthday at Sock Summit on Saturday. I wanted to give her these socks before leaving Oregon last weekend, but they weren't quite done. (See, the socks actually have nothing whatsoever to do with her birthday, but I figured it was a good occasion.)

Yarn: Dashing Dachs in Froggin'
Started: 5/20/09
Finished: 8/13/09

I posted this yarn in my stash on Ravelry one day, and Snarfy commented "OMG hot". I almost thought it a joke because... well let's just say this yarn is not really my style - but you could have guessed that. Of course, while I was knitting it I got comments both ways, so it seems that Snarfy isn't the only one who really liked this yarn.

In case you're wondering, skeined up it looked like this:

I got it from the Woolgirl club, and it was destined to sit in my stash for all eternity... but then Snarfy rescued it. Since I hadn't used Dashing Dachs before, I told her I'd knit the socks.

The base yarn is that standard 2-ply merino that many indie dyers use or have used - I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it's quite thin and rather loosely plied. It knits up nicely, though. Even though the colors weren't my favorites, I have to say I'm impressed with the dyeing. The black is *very* black and most of the colors have pretty clear "borders" and don't bleed into each other. The light blue does blend a bit with the bright green to make it a little bit of a darker green, but it looks good. And the bright green and yellow sort of fade into each other. But there aren't any muddy spots where the colors touch, which I was really pleased with.* Overall a very nice yarn!

* When taking the dyeing class with Tina from Blue Moon at sock camp, she talked about how she loves the magic of the colors blending together and forming other colors in between. Maybe it's my analytical / control freak tendencies speaking, but I can't say the same. ;)

Listening to: the menu music for Tru Calling... I'd better go finish my DVD!

Adventures at Sock Summit

2009-08-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, last weekend was one full of sock knitting adventures.

Friday afternoon I drove down to Portland with one of my Seattle knitting friends. We met up with a few other knitters for dinner - there was a wait for tapas so we headed up to The Secret Society while we waited, which ended up being my dinner. My mom picked me up and took me back to Salem, but I hear the tapas place was really good.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and met some of the Salem knitters for the trip up to Sock Summit. We hit the marketplace and attempted to proceed in an orderly fashion, somewhat hampered by the fact that we kept pausing in different booths and I kept stopping every three minutes to say hi to yet another person that I know. I actually never really thought about how many knitters I know, but it is a lot and they were well-represented at Sock Summit.

After lunch at Burgerville (where they are so nice as to put the calorie count on your receipt and totally spoil your lunch!) we made a quick detour to go see our friend's lovely yarn and the samples we knit from it!

And my pattern was there too!

And then... there was more shopping. And a bit of knitting, and dinner, and Ravelry partying. I didn't take any pictures.

Sunday I did a quick last look at the marketplace before heading home. I wish I had more time, but I guess I'll just remember that for next time. It was amazing, even without the classes and events!

Off to the Summit!

2009-08-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

There has been quite a bit of sock knitting going on around my house these past few weeks, but tomorrow I am off to the Sock Summit!

But first, here are some Monkey socks I knit in a swap:

Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: Pine Woods Yarn - I bought this at SPA a couple of years ago
Started: 7/12/09
Finished: 7/26/09

Forgive the bad picture, I misplaced my camera battery so I just snapped that with my iPhone before sending them off to the recipient.

The yarn was really lovely. I bought it because it was the "best" color there, a blue-green, but I didn't use it because it just seemed too green to me. As soon as I started knitting the socks for someone else I wished I had kept that pretty yarn for myself, but I have plenty of beautiful yarn for me so I'm glad these socks went to a home where they'll be loved. The yarn is a wool-nylon blend and it was very nice to work with and produced a very nice sock. I think it will wear quite well too, as it's more of a firm stringy texture - more like Trekking than the sproingy Socks That Rock, for example.

As for Sock Summit, I'm not taking any classes. Just planning on hanging out at the marketplace with my knitting buddies on Saturday and going to the Ravelry party, of course. I'm also excited to see a couple sample socks I knit and my newest pattern, Falling Up for sale there.

The mission? Only buy semi-solid yarns. I've been using a lot of them lately while designing and knitting more complex patterns and the variegated yarn isn't getting as much love, so I think it's time to stock up.

Falling Up

2009-07-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

Well, a while back I designed a sock with my friend Stephania's yarn, and now her yarn and my pattern are going to be hanging out together at Sock Summit. :) (Her etsy shop is Three Fates Yarns and she has some lovely semi-solids up now!)

So it's time to introduce Falling Up!

The idea for this pattern was based on a sweater I saw at the mall while visiting my mom in Salem. In fact, I was walking out of the mall with my mom when I suddenly saw a sweater with some lace panels and snapped a quick picture with my iPhone. It took a while, but eventually Stephania gave me this yarn to design with and the idea came together. After some swatching I finally figured out a similar pattern (I think it's slightly better, my decreases make more defined vertical columns) but there was one little problem...

It had to be knit toe-up.

Now, it's not that I dislike toe-up socks, it's just that it's hard to find a heel that fits me well. There's one, and it's the one I used in this sock. But doing a gusset in a toe up sock requires a lot more thinking and calculation to figure out when you need to start the increases to have your pattern line up with a certain row for the leg. There's the number of increases, which you use to find the number of rows, which you then plug into the pattern to figure out which pattern row you'll end on... it's much easier to just *end* on a certain row (like in a cuff-down sock).

But I persevered, and came out with some lovely socks that have all that annoying stuff figured out for you already!

It will be making it's in-person debut at the Knit A Bit booth #808 at Sock Summit, with a sample sock and Stephania's beautiful yarns, but the pattern itself is up for sale on Ravelry right now.

Listening to: Dark Waters ~ Brave, Digital Bath ~ Deftones

Wow, I have a fan club?

2009-07-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

In the wee hours of this morning, my dear friend MJ sent me a message on Ravelry to inform me of something I never would have dreamed...

Apparently I have a fan club. I totally thought she started it, but she didn't. A person I don't even know in real life started a fan club for me! Quite the ego boost. But I didn't join because, well, that just seems conceited.

Well, my fan club and maybe even the rest of you will be happy to hear that I have a few new patterns in the works, and hopefully a couple of them will be out in the next couple of months. And there's another one that's all done in theory, but I really need to get around to knitting up one of these days...

Since I can't show pictures of any of that, here's one of my current socks in progress:

The pattern is Nebula and the yarn is Three Fates Knitting. It's a sample sock for Sock Summit, and I think it's turning out beautifully.

Listening to: Hollow ~ Remy Zero, Die With Me ~ Type O Negative

Horcrux Twin Socks!

2009-07-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

Way back in March, right before moving away from Salem, I started making twin Horcrux Socks with Eloise in our Harry Potter Draco yarn from our mini yarn crawl to Twisted. And today I finally finished them!

Pattern: Horcrux Socks
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter in Draco
Started: 3/1/09
Finished: 7/4/09
.26 miles for a total of 2.29 in Sock Marathon

Although the Harry Potter yarns are an exciting idea, I didn't really like most of the colors. But blues and greys, though a bit boring, aren't bad. One weird thing was that after my psycho efforts to match the stripes exactly, they get all wonky after the heel. But there wasn't a knot! Just all of a sudden the order of the stripes changed! Strange but true.

So I've joined Summer of Socks, because it's summer and I'm planning to knit socks as I usually do. I've decided that my first goal will be to finish all my sock-WIPs this summer, this is 1 of 9 1/2.

Listening to: Kimdracula ~ Deftones, Evil In a Closet ~ In Flames

Socks and Vests

2009-06-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm in one of those phases where I'm not finishing a lot, and I've been working all the time so there hasn't been much blog activity. But today we have a couple things!

I was teaching a sock class for knitting two socks at a time, and the basic pattern specifies worsted weight - it's very useful for getting through 2 heels in one class. I almost finished the socks in the last class a week ago, but then they sat around on my couch waiting to be grafted, which is so unlike me! Usually once I hit the toe decreases nothing will prevent me from finishing a pair of socks.

Yarn: Reynolds Odyssey 441
Started: 5/30/09
Finished: 6/18/09

I bought the yarn in Boston shortly before it was discontinued, but I have so little worsted weight sock yarn in my stash this was the only convenient one to grab. I'm glad I did! I thought it would be a little more striped, but the finished socks are fairly subtle (and more pink/purple than blue, also a surprise.) The yarn is quite soft and the color effect is achieved by using plies of different colors. It was very nice to knit with and I'm looking forward to seeing how it wears.

I've also been knitting a vest for the yarn store.

Pattern: Portland Tweed Vest (rav link)
Yarn: Portland Tweed in color 5077
Started: 5/21/09
Finished: 6/20/09

I didn't have my camera today, so I took this picture with my iPhone. I'm trying to get WIPs cleared of my Ravelry page ASAP since I'm getting kind of guilty about their growing numbers. ;) This vest is, of course, not something I would normally knit, but I enjoyed working with the yarn. The pattern, on the other hand, was a bit annoying. It's written in a way that was very difficult to follow - probably to save room as it is printed in a booklet.

However, having the instructions about *how* to do the decreases on a separate page from where the directions for the pattern pieces (and *how often* to do the decreases) are is very very annoying. There were also quite a few things that were unclear due to the brevity, such as instructions like "knit to last 4 sts, ssk." Um... there are two more stitches left after that ssk, which I'm assuming I need to knit! Combine that with the fact that you have shaping going on at different intervals on either side of the piece plus a lacy cable panel in the middle...

Suffice it to say that it was not an ideal project for putting down to jump up and help customers. And that 7 stitch ribbed band around the front / neck? Knit as a strip and sewn on. Yeah. But hey, it turned out great!

WIPs

2009-06-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

I have 22 WIPs on my Ravelry page. In truth, I only have 20 because 2 of those are actually design projects that are complete, but that I haven't marked as FOs because I like to wait til I can show pictures. In this case I might have to bend that rule.

I go through phases of casting on, I'll start many *many* projects and I'll work on them all a little bit at a time - or at least a good portion of the projects, there are a few that have been lonely a while. Then finally I'll finish them, and it will look very impressive like I finish a lot of things at once. That is a trick.

Here are a few pictures, mostly of ones that I seem to be lacking photographs for entirely.

I started the Horcrux socks as twin socks with Eloise back in Salem I think. The yarn is the Harry Potter Opal in Draco.

These are some plain socks I promised to Snarfy because the yarn color scares me, and apparently she finds it "OMG hot!" I was happy to relinquish it to her, but since I haven't used this brand of yarn before - Dashing Dachs, if you're curious - I thought I should actually knit the socks myself.

And for something a little different... one sock!

Yes, I started my other Nebula, which is something of a minor miracle since when I knit socks one at a time they generally take me years to complete. The DPNs are also a trick - I believe I cannibalized the needles for another more pressing project. :o

There's another project which I'll likely be finishing Saturday, so I'll just save that one til then...

Listening to: Sober ~ Tool, How Soon Is Now? ~ The Smiths

Knitting vs. Real Life

2009-05-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, combine secret knitting with big life changes, and you get blog silence.

First of all, the knitting! Last weekend I went down to Oregon for a baby shower for my friend Stephania, so now I can reveal a bit more of that secret knitting:

Pattern: Blossom
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine in Sky (4 skeins)
Started: 4/28/09
Finished: 5/20/09

This was a fun pattern to knit, although the construction was not at all how I had expected. Here's a picture of it blocking*:

*Note: The second attempt at blocking included pins.

The pattern has ties, but a coworker with a young baby told me that ties are not that great on her baby so I decided to modify it to use a button. I think it turned out really cute, even without the suggested embroidery. My embroidery skills are questionable, so I decided to leave it plain.

The secret knitting is slowly coming to an end, so soon I should be able to post projects in real time.

As for real life, I just started a new job - this time in my field. It's keeping me a little more busy than my part time yarn store job was, so I haven't had quite as much time to knit. But, then again, now I have a longer commute...

Lace!

2009-05-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, the secret knitting continues - at this moment I have no less than *four* secret projects on the needles. No kidding! And most of them are time-sensitive, so they've really been getting all my attention lately.

That said, I can share this old project. It actually was not secret at all, but it was for work and needed blocking and so it was not photographed as a finished item until just the other day.

Pattern: Silk-Wool Horseshoe Lace Scarf from Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Silk (3 skeins)
Started: 3/5/09
Finished: 4/16/09

As you can see, my sharf (I have decided it is a sharf instead of a scarf, because it is very wide and a bit shawl-like. Yes, I do realize it is called a stole!) is in good company with the other lacy knits hanging out at the store. Although it is something I probably wouldn't knit myself, it was pretty fun. The lace pattern is very easy to memorize and became a bit boring after a little while.

I will admit that I did not block it. My apartment - based on size and cat to closeable door ratio - is not a good place for blocking lace. One of my lovely coworkers was nice enough to block it at her house.

If I were going to knit this pattern again I would take out a couple of repeats width-wise because, as mentioned above, the scarf turned out very wide and not as long as I would have liked. Of course the yarn used in the book has some insane amount of yardage, but I still think the scarf is way wider than necessary. Apparently a lot of people agree because it looks like most folks on Ravelry also took out lace repeats. Also the 2 stitch garter border doesn't really do anything except fold to the back. If you want a border, make it bigger!

Listening to: A Fine Day To Exit ~ Anathema, ...A Distance There Is ~ Theatre of Tragedy

Surprise!

2009-05-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Some of my secret knitting can finally be revealed....

Know what that is?

How about now?

It's my very first Baby Surprise Jacket!

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy
Needles: size 7
Started: 4/22/09
Finished: 4/28/09

I'll share one more picture after I put the buttons on - I couldn't decide if buttons were ok for babies, but the verdict from the mom was yes, so buttons there will be!

Sunday I went to my first baby shower for this round of babies. It seems that many people I know are having babies this summer / fall so there's been a lot of baby knitting in the works, most of it secret. Now this one is un-secret, so I can share it with you!

This is my first BSJ, although I know almost everyone has made one already. It's a pretty easy pattern, though I did find the chatty style it is written in a bit off-putting. And the random capitalized words? Strange! But, nonetheless, it is a lovely little jacket and a truly innovative pattern. I think it came out really well.

Alpaca?

2009-05-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what I was going to call this post, but then I realized that a lot of it revolves around not-alpaca. You'll see...

First, I knit this hat - which *used* to be the Alpaca Ski Cap - for the store. The yarn that was originally used was discontinued and so I knit it in some lovely Cashsoft Aran.

Another bonus of working in a yarn store is that you get to knit things you wouldn't make for yourself, but still enjoy knitting.

And on the first Friday of each month, there is a spinning group that meets. The owner was kind enough to lend me her folding Lendrum since my Kromski Symphony isn't very portable. I grabbed some fiber on the way out the door yesterday morning and got a bit of a surprise when I went to spin it. There were two little braids of fiber labeled "Alpaca" which I believe I got from a secret pal at some point. Well, I pulled it out and it certainly wasn't like an alpaca I have used! It had a lot of guard hair and really didn't feel like alpaca to me... not the soft squishy fiber most of us are used to. I don't know if it's just a different kind of alpaca or if it's llama perhaps? In any case, it spun up quite nicely anyway. I was jokingly calling it "fake alpaca" all night.

The resulting yarn is not as even as I usually spin, but it was a new wheel for me and it's a single treadle with scotch tension - much different than my large double treadle double drive wheel. All things considered it turned out well!

Here's the mystery-alpaca plied and drying in my bathtub. There were two colors, a navy and a brighter blue, so I plied them together for a barberpole look. I like it!

You can see the barberpole effect in that picture, as well as the guard hairs. The yarn looks a bit fuzzy - like you'd expect from an angora yarn, but isn't quite as soft.

I've been doing some other spinning lately, but this one at home. At Sock Camp my roommate Marisol bought one of the Sheep to Shoe kits, but wanted a worsted weight yarn. She's just learning to spindle spin, but decided that since the fiber wouldn't fit in her suitcase and she wasn't sure how fast she could get it spun, that she'd leave it with me.

The colorway is "The Claw" and this part kind of matches my wheel! The color repeats are very long, so I haven't hit the purple yet.

And last but not least, I got one of katkoe's random mailing Wednesday surprises, and came home tonight to a little envelope with these:

Stitch markers with the names of my (usually) beloved cats in an envelope that appears to be made from plastic bags!

Lots of ends

2009-04-27T13:40:00.001-07:00

When Snarfy and I bought the same brand of yarn at the Superbowl sale, we decided to make fraternal twin socks. One night at knitting group - just before I moved up to Seattle - I wound off some of my blue for her and some of her green for me, and the Snarfytwin socks were born.

Needles: 2.25mm
Yarn: Newton's Yarn Country Happy Feet
Started: 3/3/09
Finished: 4/26/09
.24 miles for the Sock Marathon, 1.46 miles total

These socks were a long time in the making, mostly because they kept getting pushed to the bottom of the bag as I knit other more time-sensitive projects. But they were the perfect socks for a few rows of bus knitting in the morning, and when I got to the toe yesterday I figured they should be finished. Of course, knitting socks with contrasting bits gives you lots of ends... I have to remember that next time I think about doing contrasting ribbing, heels, and toes in my socks.

Secret knitting still continues, so the blog might be quiet for a bit longer. Of course, deadlines for being able to show you some of these projects are coming up so the blog will soon be full of things I finished already. :)

Listening to: How Soon Is Now? ~ The Smiths, Dose ~ Filter