Mysteries Over, and Madrona

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.

Socks, Steeks, Blankets, and Elijah

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. ;)

It's a Mystery!

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. :)

Socks and Shawls

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

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...

Gothic Summer

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

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!

Knit & Crochet Blog Week - Day 7

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.

Knitting Pink

I arrived home on Wednesday to find some pink yarn in my mailbox.



The yarn was from MJ for me to test knit the socks she's designing. Yep, she's come to take away my niche and has started designing socks too. ;)



See, pink ribbing! Oh, come on, you didn't really think I was going to show you anything secret did you? The California Socks in progress snuck into the picture too. They're actually getting a bit of attention after every few rows of the pink socks to give my hands and brain a bit of a rest.

Then because I can never have enough sock WIPs... I cast on for the Sockamania Simply Cables socks in Socks That Rock Lightweight in Blue Brick Wall. I've had this yarn sitting on my shelf for a while now because I wasn't totally convinced that I loved it. But then... I wound it into a ball:



Look at that blue beauty!

I also have a goal to spin more this month - I'm trying for at least 8 hours of spinning in March. So far I have 0 hours done and all these socks probably won't help...

Olympia, WA

Alphamonkey has a bad habit of visiting state capitals and not posing with the capital buildings, but he did see the Farmers Market complete with a big bell:



...and the fish ladder.



Aside from getting Alphamonkey ready to go and finishing the other Monkeys I didn't get too much knitting done on this trip. But tomorrow is another travel day, so we'll see!

Hanging in Portland

I'm still on my whirlwind travel around the west coast, but today was spent in Portland, then on the train to Olympia.

My little sister was nice to show me around Portland and oblige me by being the main sock photographer. Our first stop (after coffee) was the PGE faces.



Next we saw these adorable otters.



And then we hopped on a bus over to Hawthorne St.



We even found a very appropriate store there for Alphamonkey:



And after the train ride Alpha has someone to look up to - pair #98



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Finished: 11/23/07

Sorry Z, I was originally only going to be around for a bit this afternoon but then I ended up coming last night.

Alphamonkey Goes to the Beach!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

A beachy interlude:



I'm writing from Arch Cape where Alphamonkey and I are spending Thanksgiving with my family.



Alphamonkey has been getting into trouble and stealing the pie.

And my room has this beautiful doorknob:



The first two photos were taken by my mom who is learning to knit socks now. I asked her to take a picture but she wanted to wait until she had more progress, so expect that one tomorrow.

Listening to: Muzzle ~ Smashing Pumpkins

Travel or It is still Tuesday in Seattle!

Today Alphamonkey joined me on a journey west. He was very excited (and slightly hopped up on caffeine) at the airport.



Yes, I have sunk to a new low and am blaming my frou-frou Starbucks beverage on a sock. I may need professional help.

After a loooong (6 hour) flight we are finally at our Seattle home where it is still Tuesday. I'm about ready to claim my bed back.




This does bring up an interesting question of what I will do about posting on Thursday and possibly Friday when I'll be without internet access. So here's a question - is it more cheating to post ahead or to write on the actual day and post it later?

Oh, wait, this is a knitting blog... I knit Alphamonkey's companion Monkey socks on the way here and got quite a bit done. I'm in the gusset with a predicted finish tomorrow.

Listening to: Warm Hands Cold Heart ~ 27

The Monkey Convention

Alphamonkey has been enjoying his stay in Boston and has been invited to many exciting events. The day today started with a bang as the first snowflakes were visible in the morning on his way to wait for me at work.

After work, however, he was excited to join the very exclusive First Annual Boston Monkey Convention.



While there he had the opportunity to meet another pair of Monkey socks-in-progress and some assorted other monkeys.

After the convention he experienced an intense sensation of personal growth.



Just as he thought it was about time to leave, he heard about this thing called "Thanksgiving" and "postal holiday" and he thought better of it. Instead he had the chance to travel across the US, visit the beach, and experience a real American Thanksgiving. He decided to stay on a few extra days.

Listening to: The Leaving Song Pt. 2 ~ A.F.I., Smile ~ Kitty F Band

Whew!

As I was worrying about not being able to show you a pair of finished socks 3 days in a row, I was saved by my mail.

Alphamonkey arrived today!



Alphamonkey is part of the International Sock Knitalong and was previously in Kentucky with Katie. It arrived here with me today and I'll be knitting two repeats on the foot, taking some pictures of Alphamonkey around town, and then sending it off to the next knitter.

I also got my yarn from Ancient Threads:



No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes it is pink (and grey, and lavender-ish).

...and I got my Woolgirl Sock Club package!



And that is what I got in the mail today. I swear the mail deities save it all up and then rain down mail on one day.

Plodding along...

Knitting progress is being made, though currently on many projects and because of that nothing is getting finished lately.

As you've probably noticed I go through phases of finishing and phases of casting on, and another finishing phase is right around the corner. But until then...

I've finally started some socks with the Black Bunny Fibers sock yarn that I bought a couple of months back. So far it's doing the zig-zag pooling thing, but I don't mind.



Pan makes a good knitting helper.



The pattern is the Eleanor from Socktopia. It was a speed knit-along this weekend, but I totally forgot about it and didn't realize the pattern was up until Sunday afternoon. Not that it would have helped much, I worked both days this weekend and moved my fish tanks on Sunday morning.

It was sock laundry day today (ignore the ugly tile colors in my bathroom).



That's not even all the socks, there are a couple of pairs hanging on the towel rack and a couple more on a towel in the living room. Good thing the roommate is gone. ;)

Listening to: A Smart Kid ~ Porcupine Tree, H. ~ Tool

Sock Madness

Have you all heard about Sock Madness?

Well if not go check it out, and if you want in you've gotta sign up quick. :) It's still open, but only until they hit 128, the desired number of participants. It sounds like it's going to be a blast, all those patterns, all together. The blood, the guts, the glory...

What? I'm in it to win!