First Socks

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.

Monkeys for Marti

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

Oh Snarfy...

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!

Settling In

First off, if you haven't seen this video of sheep-herding art, it really is a must see. And I am not someone who usually posts links to YouTube on her blog. I saw it on Shannon's blog this morning and it is pretty amazing. And I haven't seen it everywhere yet, so I figured it was worth posting.

Now, back to me...

I've been working here and there on a few projects, but a lot of the knitting has been put aside in favor of apartment (and stash!) organizing. I know I've said it before, but it is sure great to have knitting friends. Especially knitting friends like MJ who knits with me on Skype and, occasionally, does crazy things like stay up til 4am (actually 6am her time) organizing yarn in my new Expedit on Skype. Yeah... But let's rewind.

Monday evening, as planned, I took a trip to IKEA with my buddy and partner in furniture acquisition, Brian. We made a really quick trip through IKEA and got most of the items on my list and magically fit it all into his Jetta. The Jetta totally wins. Now, granted, IKEA furniture is flat-packed, but we got a big (4x4) Expedit, a TV stand, 2 lamps, a drying rack, and a few assorted smaller goodies all into the back of his car. Then, after dinner, we got to put it all together.

There are many reasons why I love Brian, but one of them is that he is a guy who reads directions when assembling furniture. :)



And I was so excited I kept exclaiming about how great my new Expedit was while it was still in pieces on the floor!



Then we finished and when Brian left at about 11:30 it looked like this:



It would have ended there, but MJ was online and I exported my Ravelry stash to a spreadsheet and assigned bin numbers alphabetically by yarn manufacturer. MJ was still around so I emailed the spreadsheet to her, and she checked off yarns while telling me what bin they went in over Skype. Yes, we are both nuts. And now it looks like this:



I still have a few yarns to add to my Ravelry stash - some of the stuff I got right before moving from Boston didn't make it in, and there was a bit of yarn acquisition in the intervening 6 months. Also I've found that I'm really *really* bad at remembering to add my Rockin' Sock Club yarns. Probably because of the whole spoiler issue, and then after a month I forget.

I was going to show you some pictures of my socks-in-progress, but this post is already unwieldy so those can wait for another day.

Listening to: Alone ~ Amorphis, Enjoy the Silence ~ Depeche Mode

Things I Love

Well, thanks to my V-day SP (again) I have something to post today too!



While I walking up the driveway with two dogs and an armful of mail, my SP box was making scary rattling noises. I was worried something was broken, but all was well. (Also, an aside, I love how my SP wrapped everything up individually. I don't usually do that when I send boxes mostly because I don't have festive wrapping and tissue around and don't think to go buy it, and partially because I'm kind of lazy unconcerned with presentation.)

Anyway, the little packages were unwrapped to reveal this:



Clockwise in a spiral: A pretty handmade card, raspberry jam which looks delicious!, some beads to make a necklace / bracelet, a button describing the steps of Kitchener Stitch, a bath... thing (not salts, but something bath-y), chai flavored mints!, Panda licorice (Hey! Pandas! Was that a clue yesterday?), a skein of Dream In Color Classy in Night Watch, an organic dark chocolate truffle bar, a grow your own wand, with a star on it, cherry 3 Musketeers.

My SP says a lot of the package is local to her area and where she spends the summers, which is a really cool idea. :) I'm going to the ocean with my family over Valentine's Day this weekend so I'll bring the licorice to share. I like licorice, but some of my family *loves* it. But that dark chocolate truffle bar is all for me!

The yarn is for my Blurple Waves blanket. You haven't seen it since I first started, but now it looks like this:



It's my blanket for all my random blue and purple worsted weight - a lot of which was gifted to me by SPs. I figured it would be nice to have it all together in a big project instead of making countless hats and scarves. At the moment it's looking pretty purple, though. Maybe this Classy should go in next.



That middle stripe (Eskimo by Bouton d'Or, from a past SP) is actually a light blue, but the lavender above (Woolarina handspun, prize from the Knittyboard WIP-along) makes it look purple. You can see more details on the Ravelry project page.

In other knitting news, I spent some time last night making Excel versions of the charts for a couple of patterns - Marble Arches from the 2006 Rockin' Sock Club and The Mystic Sea from my first time at sock camp. I started these socks ages ago and had to rip them out because I couldn't find my notes on pattern modifications or I forgot which size needles I used. I took screenshots of the charts and put them on my iPhone! I love my iPhone. Now I can start up the socks at home and not have to worry about carrying patterns with me when I take them to knitting group. :)

Listening to: Closure ~ Opeth, Nightdriver ~ Klimt 1918

Rockin' Socks

As I mentioned in the last post, MJ and I are making Diamondy "twin socks" in Space Dust. It's not really my colors, but since it was my camp name I had to get some. MJ is knitting way faster than I am, and I feel like the mother of a small child telling myself in my head "This is not a race!" Do you hear that MJ? Twin socks are not a race!



Of course, I'm consoling myself with the fact that, since I'm knitting two at once, I already have the whole horrible 1x1 twisted rib section done. I HATE knitting 1x1 twisted rib, but it is so pretty when it's done! I couldn't believe I had put it in this pattern, but I did and so I knit it. I was complaining to MJ on IM too, but really I only have myself to blame.

I also got my first 2009 Rockin' Sock Club package today. I know there's a big issue with spoilers, so here's what I did... I posted the photo to my flickr, but if you go there you wouldn't see that. To see it you have to click the links below, which is a "guest pass" to the photo, which is marked as private. Hopefully this is a good solution to not spoiling (even accidentally) while still letting people see it if they want to. Let me know if it won't work or something.

the whole kit

just the yarn

I won't say anything spoily either, but I will say that I really like this kit and intend to make it soon so more spoiler links may be in order.

Listening to: Moth ~ Audioslave, Breath of Water ~ Cave In

January Goals

I've done pretty well on my goals for January. After going through my goals posts from the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 I've figured my goals are the following:

1. Reduce the stash
2. Try new yarns (from the stash)
3. Knit more Rockin' Sock Club socks
4. Knit a sweater
5. Finish old WIPs

So in January I did the following:

1. I bought 500g of yarn - all sock yarn - during the month of January. This includes sock clubs which I purchased last year but which arrived this year. I knit 200g from the stash. Not too shabby, almost all of it was sock clubs and "holiday" yarn purchases. Since I returned home to reside with my stash, I'm doing very well. ;)

2. I succeeded in this by trying the Panda Cotton (which I bought on my holiday trip) and Inspinknity. The Panda Cotton socks were started in December, so Inspinknity is my official January New Yarn.

3. I started my newest RSC package as soon as it arrived and I've made good progress so far. The yarn is wound and ready for Marble Arches as my February RSC sock.

4. No progress on the sweater yet.

5. I finished the Olympia socks this month, which were technically a 2007 WIP. I did frog Canal du Midi and make good progress on the California socks. I also found and made minimal progress on Mystic Sea - I intend to work more on those this month and finish them before sock camp in April for sure.

Knitting Excitement

Lots of exciting things happened in my knitting world today!

First off I noticed that Omly tagged/mentioned me as part of her "You Make My Day Award" post. I *am* going to do this too, but I need some time to think and I already have a full slate for today. So off we go:

I got my first SP package today for Knittyboard SP10. It has actually been sitting at the post office for a few days while I worked out a time to go pick it up when they were open.



I got a cool Day/Night journal which has pages going both ways (you have to flip the book over for day or night) which is a very neat idea. I also got some green tea, some Great Adirondack sock yarn, and some very cool stitch markers!



They're especially great because they're the ones you can clasp on a stitch to mark for things like cable rounds and such - I always need more of those. :) Thank you Starlight Fairy!!!

Tonight I went out to knit with some of my lovely knitting buddies and stopped by Magpie beforehand and couldn't resist this shirt:



I'll admit I also got some freakshow stationary. But no yarn! See, I'm being (kind of) good!

I worked on the BFF socks for Cathy and wanted her approval every time I did a cable twist round. I kept holding the socks towards her making little "eee" noises until she commented on their amazing beauty. I don't know why, but I'm really excited about these socks.

And when I picked up my SP package this morning I also got the first one from the Neighborhood Fiber Co. Sock Club!



I was really excited about this one because I've never tried the yarn and I'm in luck because the first package is blues - my favorite!

Listening to: Vicarious ~ Tool, You're All I Have ~ Snow Patrol

Olympia Socks

Please note! Below the knitting content there is a picture of the January Rockin' Sock Club shipment, if you don't want to be spoiled scroll slowly and stop after the sock recap!

Last night after posting I went out to a craft night with a new group. I had a blast, met a lot of neat new people, and got some good progress done on my Olympia socks. When I got home I was pretty tired but it is beyond my ability to leave socks when they're in the toe decreases so I had to stay up and finish them - not too late though.



Pattern: my own in-my-head stockinette sock
Yarn: Panda Cotton in Bleeberries - Grapes ~ no idea what a bleeberry is ;)
Needles: size 1 (2.25mm)
Started: 12/31/07
Finished: 1/25/08

I got this yarn on a trip to Canvas Works in Olympia, WA over the holidays. I was in dire need of a darning needle to finish my Central Air socks and made my friend drive me to the yarn store. He was surprisingly nice about it but did want to get out of there quickly. While I was there I saw the Panda Cotton which I haven't seen locally (ok, I saw it once and didn't like the colors) so I picked up a couple of balls.

This yarn is pretty splitty - the cast on ends had unravelled into little threads by the time I finished the socks and went to weave them in, and I did have a few sections of the yarn do the same while I was knitting. I really liked the yarn despite this, it's very soft and the finished socks are lovely. As I was putting them on this morning I was struck by how much less stretchy they are than wool socks. It's to be expected from a cotton and bamboo yarn, and the elastic does help. Personally I prefer wool, but this yarn would be GREAT for a vegan or wool-sensitive person. And I'm sure I'll be changing my mind in the summer when these socks will be on my feet while the wool ones hang out in the back of the drawer.

WARNING! Spoilers beyond this point!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I arrived home tonight to find the first package from the '08 Rockin' Sock Club! I must say that I agree with Tina's sentiments on red - it is one of my least favorite colors for some unknown reason. My mom likes it too but thankfully I did not grow up in an all red house. However, I like this yarn.



I've also made the decision to try to keep up with the club this year. (I know, what a novel idea!) I think I probably had that idea way back in '06 which was quickly derailed by my hatred of the very first sock club yarn - Rainforest Jasper - when I saw it in the skein. However, once I finally got around to finishing those socks (in August '06 at the Gorge right before seeing Tool!) I loved them. They are probably my favorite Rockin' Sock Club socks that I've knit to date.

The problem being that I decided I would continue knitting the socks in order. After my pitiful performance on the Cedar Creek socks, I proceeded almost immediately to Rock and Weave and completed them in a reasonable amount of time. Then came my 14,000 pattern modifications on Hippy Crunchy which I believe took me all the way into 2007. I finally finished Central Air in December after starting them in May. I'm way behind, about to start Marble Arches from the '06 club. But hey, only two more pairs and I'm done with '06!

See the pretty yarn all wound up:



In any case, maybe I'll try to finish a pair of RSC socks a month this year - that way I can catch up on some of the older patterns while still staying current.

Listening to: Passenger ~ Deftones, In Motion Part II ~ The Gathering, Lomo ~ Klimt 1918

This is not about capital ideas, it's about socks!

I've been having a sock-filled trip to the PacNW. My little sister was nice enough to take me by Knit-Purl and get me some lovely naturally dyed sock yarn.



We also headed out to Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks on Thursday where I got to see a Legare sock machine in action (I totally less than three them!) Then on the train to Olympia I finished another pair of socks!



Pattern: Central Air from Rockin' Sock Club '06
Yarn: STR in Titania
Started: ? long ago
Finished: 12/27/07
Needles: Size 1 (2.25mm)
Pair #101

More sock knitting is in progress as we speak!

Listening to: Principle of Evil Made Flesh ~ Cradle of Filth, Ballrog Boogie ~ Diablo Swing Orchestra

What? It's the end of the year?

Well, it has come to my attention that the year is almost over. In fact, I got my STR club package and it was the last package and I think that's when it really hit me. Um, 2007 is practically over! (You think the fact that it's December and I am frantically trying to finish this knitted Christmas item would have clued me in, but I guess not.)

Right! Well, I was just talking to Catherine about knitting resolutions for next year. This year I didn't really start with any resolutions. I did pledge to try to buy only 1/3 of the yarn I used. I didn't completely succeed with that, but I did use more yarn than I bought this year, which I think is pretty good.

In April I decided to knit all of the socks from Knitting Vintage Socks , which I'm still working on. But I never said I would do it this year, and it hasn't been a year since April quite yet anyway.

So what about knitting goals for 2008? Well I do want to continue working to get the stash under control. I also would like to work on trying more of the different types of yarn that I have in the stash. As much as I want to try new yarns, I tend to knit with the same ones over and over.

I was thinking it might be fun to do a little sort of "sock club" with my stash - maybe throw skeins of yarn in brown bags and write months on them blindly and then open one each month and force myself to cast on socks with it. That would be interesting...

I also want to knit a sweater in 2008. Maybe start my Rhinebeck sweater a little more than two weeks ahead of time. ;) I have yarn for a couple of sweaters that I've been thinking about knitting for a good while but haven't actually started yet - the two foremost in my mind being the Ribby Cardi and this Adrienne Vittadini sweater. Well, that and Durrow.

Now back to the grindstone - I'll keep brainstorming about knitting goals for the new year.

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.

Socks and Mail

Well, the rainbow sock is finished which brings my sock count up to 90 pairs total, and gets rid of that pesky 1/2. Not too long to go til 100!



Yesterday I went to the post office and picked up a couple of packages, and then got home to find another waiting for me - a very good yarny mail day.

First off, my final SP9 package from my amazing pal jochibi:



I was lucky enough to meet her this spring at Maryland Sheep & Wool along with a bunch of other knittyheads, so when she told me we had met it wasn't *too* much of a clue. She sent some beautiful Socks That Rock in the Space Dust colorway, which was my camp name. She also sent emergency chocolate, a cute fish bath fizzy, honey to go with the myriad of different kinds of chai that she has added to my collection, some more chai, Werther's Original candies that are a little different from the normal ones, and come nice hand lotion.

Thanks jochibi for being such a great pal! :)

Now on to some other mail...

I got my latest Yarntini club shipment:



With some orange, but actually quite pretty yarn, orange lip balm, and one of those nifty little DPN holders.

I also got some Wollmeise via a swap with Peachy:



The colors are Veilchen (violet, like the flower) and Mitternacht (midnight).

Listening to: Undone ~ 27, A Desolation Song ~ Agalloch

New Yarn!

Despite my yarn-dieting (yes, I've been very successful despite dreaming the other night that I totally forgot and bought a sweater worth of yarn) I have still been getting some new yarn!

Rachel picked up some yarn for me on her trip to California and gave it to me when I saw her this week. It came complete with a guest cat inspector.



Pan and Java will be jealous, I'm sure.

Then today my first package from the Woolgirl Sock Club showed up!



I love this yarn, it is totally my colors! The pattern looks cool too, so I'll probably knit it.

Speaking of sock knitting, the current secret knitting is almost done. Up next... MORE secret knitting! (Yeah, I know...) That, however, is not on such a tight timeline so I'll be working on other things too.

Listening to: Don't Look Too Far ~ Anathema