socks ... like that's a big surprise

i joined socktopia sometime in january, because the idea of knitting from a selection of themes seemed less stringent than some kal's. though i'm horrible at sticking to a kal, i thought i could handle the flexibility. i did not knit any socks for this kal in january, though i tried. but, i tried harder for february, and knitted these!


i finished these socks sunday evening, as jackie worked her ass off, literally running circles around me.

there's better pictures of sock parts and colors over here and a blog post here.

but, the buck doesn't stop there! of course, there's still lots of sock knitting to be done ... and i cast on for the mate of this sock soon afterwards.


i'm already into the lace part, enjoying the repeats (again). ha! ha!

and there's always more ... as the themes for march have been announced, and i'm considering knitting socks from either of these books, as one of the themes is around the world.


i've said it before, and i'll say it again, if you find a book you really like, buy it ! because, someday it will be out of print, and it will be much more difficult to find, and likely way more expensive. i purchased anatolian knitting designs years ago, in the early days of my sock knitting. it seems then, there weren't that many books about socks, and if there were, they were all of the ethnic variety. i was so sock hungry that i would pick up anything that even mentioned the word socks.


and why i bought andean folk knitting ? ... well, i had, and still have, this thing for bolivia.

nevertheless, what i'm trying to get at, is that i might attempt some colorwork in socks. i feel rather well equipped with my knitting library. i just don't know if i have the patience. jenna has the patience ... go check out her amazing socks!

edit:if you like the flavor of these types of books, here are some that are still available (still in print, or not priced beyond reason) ...knitter's ethnic socks & stockings, marcia lewandowski's andean folk knits, and nancy bush's folk socks and folk knitting in estonia, and anna zilboorg's fancy feet.

oh, and i wore those pretty koigu socks, in the very top photo, yesterday ... and the wind blew right through my eyelets!!! brrr !

koigu socktopia sock specs: 2 different colorways of koigu, size 1 1/2 dpns, top down, 2x2 eyelet rib.

a very good morning

after not knitting on a certain sock for many months, my interest was renewed. i cast on this baby back in november.


i'd forgotten how much fun it is to repeat a lace chart, again and again ... progress !
and it's even more fun to finish the toe and get the fit right on the first attempt !

what else made this fun to finish this morning? well, i was perusing my bloglines, trying to catch up (which, i will never actually accomplish), and followed a link from splityarn for a podcast on stash and burn. i'm always a little late to embrace technology, but what fun it was to listen to knitters talk about their stash, projects, and a new knitting book review! it was great to just sit back and listen, as i finished the foot and toe of my sock.

specs: fibertrends pattern leaf lace socks AC-58, froehlich wolle silky baby-lambs, size 1 1/2 needles.

ps ...

i knitted another square !


noro kureyon 188

haphazard ...

some times, here, here and there, i have spoken about quilting.

i suppose, aside from my one true quilt, i have been piecing in other forms, by way of knitting and crochet.










well, while i wasn't looking, there was a little giveaway of fat quarters at sew, mama, sew ! thankfully, jan of be*mused was paying attention, and when kristen announced the the giveaway, jan stepped up and nominated me to receive a pack of fat quarters. HOW COOL IS THAT ?!

needless to say, i sort of flipped out when i learned of this (i thought the email was spam, i mean, "free fabric" sounds too good to be true)! thank you both!

i'm being a good girl !

yeah! one of my orphans is now a complete pair! i knitted on these yesterday ... and worked one of the toes twice.

i think that's the bane of my sock knitting ... the toes .... you'd think after all the socks i've knitted, i would think after all the socks i've knitted, that i would know what i'm doing. but, when it comes to fit, if my sock is even a tad too short, i don't like how it feels on my little flintstone toes.

that's what happened with these. i finished the first sock, and tried it on, and determined that i needed 3 more rounds of stockinette before the toe shaping. whaaa !

and i don't want to do toe up, because then that would be even more ripping to do to take out that heel because of how the sock is pulling on my toes.

see the red sticking out the top? sock blockers. sock blockers from the loopy ewe.

and the conversation goes like this ....

mom: what are you doing?

me: knitting (duh!).

mom: are you working on my socks ?

me: no.

mom: are you making another orphan ?

me: ummm ... maybe ....











i am trying to be good. it's not easy. i guess that's why they call it virtue. my goal this morning was to finish this sock. well, that's not going to happen until tonight.

i want to get this pair finished before the end of the month, as this sock(s) is my submission for socktopia. i'm using two different shades of koigu, a variegated and a semi-solid. i don't know the color numbers for either, as i've either A. lost the labels or B. can't read the numbers on the labels. i don't mind having leftovers in koigu either, as i think the leftovers would be great for some future gloves or motifs for a blankie.

oh, the theme for these socks is "short & sweet". they're not exactly short, but they're certainly sweet (i could say they're short because they're not knee-hi and koigu has crappy yardage).

sock specs: 64 sts, us size 1 1/2 needles (knitpicks dpns), koigu (2 variegated, 1 semi-solid for cuff, heels, and toes), 2 x 2 rib cuff, and an eyelet rib for the body.

the shame ...

we all remember the the island of misfits from rudolph, but how about the gallery of sock orphans from gray la gran ?!













feel free to click on any picture to go read the horrid details.

thanks heather! i wore it today! valentine's day comes early to the single that can only indulge themselves :) (...in? within? oh! where's my grammar?!)

LOVE

the postman brought me a wonderful surprise today! first of all, THANKS MOM! secondly, i present red wetty. this fellow is from shelby, north carolina (mom), wally world (socks), and stupid sock creatures (book). this is not the first time said creatures have appeared on this blog ....

he's got a little ladybug on his ear!

"full frontal"

ps. he's only 6" tall! ... awww!

headline: knitter is a closet quilter !

... or, at least she wishes she were a quilter. she made a quilt many years ago ... a quilt that took 8 years to complete! and she loves it, and she uses it, and she wants another one.



so, she picked up a pattern last year by indygo junction. something about it was appealing to this knitter pseudo-quilter ....


it's called plaid flowers, and it needs some tweaking. first of all, it's a small quilt, and needs to be at least queen size. and, it has these awful vertical bands between the flowers that just need to go away ! so, the knitter-quilter girl sat in bed last night, surrounded by her knitting magazines and this pattern sheet, and she folded these tiny pleats into the paper to make it look like the picture in her head ... just columns of flowers ... like beanstalks.

so, she's taken the first step. she's told everyone that she's going to make a quilt. the next step ... a trip to mary jo's.

kNiT kNiT kNiT

mindless knitting certainly has its benefits ... such as, no stopping to think about what to do next, or if i goofed the pattern. but it has come to a semi-screeching halt because i have promised myself to start the mate ! before i proceed with the heelflap, i'd like to get started with the mate and knit it as far as the first sock. now, i just have to find my other set of clover size 1 dpns.


i was admiring my lizard ridge squares the other day and grouped them together for a snapshot. i love how they're turning out. then i was reading up on blogs today, and saw that zarah was doing the same !


this shade of kureyon is color 184. it's fresh, just added to the stash today. that leaves me with just 3 more balls of kureyon to knit up before i begin knitting up the leftovers, then ... i can buy some more fresh kureyon. i don't mind acquiring it in bits and pieces, here and there, because i don't feel the harsh monetary bite (as much).

some finished, some not ...

i finished this square of noro kureyon 95 the other day and quickly cast on for another square.


i don't know which color this one is because its label is missing. but, i do have six squares finished now.


for the unfinished, i seem to be having trouble on the toes lately. i could have something to do with talking, drinking wine, knitting black lace, or just the knitting gods are against me.

have no fear! there's always more yarn !

this is for the mindless ... (trekking 109)

guess what today is?

... why, it's the first day of project spectrum! i did not participate last year, because ... i'm a really bad joiner. often, i think, i just join up so i can have the pretty buttons.



but, obviously, it was in the cards for me today, as today was nothing but gray and white! it snowed ... not much, but still, it snowed ! this is the view from my sewing room. i spent the day not doing anything that i should had, and instead fiddled around with knitting and playing on the net.

not too long ago, on the net, i picked up these two lovely hanks of the merino/tencel fingering yarn of the yarn pirate. i had first fallen for the incredible blood orange, and then i saw the quicksilver ....

they're both absolutely beautiful, though the quicksilver fits the bill for the first two months of project spectrum. i have swatched the quicksilver ... though i still have lots of unfinished knitting on the needles.

this works for me

i mentioned in my previous post that i goofed up knitting the lace, and felt that i needed to chart the pattern. so, i worked on it some last night, and finished up this morning.

i first charted out the pattern as written for the first 16 rows. i already knew what the chart for the lace repeat looked like, so the challenge was figuring out what to do near the edges, especially as increases are worked into the pattern.


the first thing i noticed, and did not like, was a YO next to an edge stitch. that would not be fun, nor neat, for seaming, ... so it was the first thing i changed.


... and because i took out that YO, i had to change the type of decrease the YO was paired with. the decrease had been paired with 2 YO's, so it was a double decrease, so i had to change it to a single decrease ... thus the K2tog.


the stitches circled with green represent the stitches near the edge where one decrease is paired with a single YO. the stitches circled in red(s) represent where the double decreases are paired with two YO's.


i don't know, yet, where i'll put my increases exactly, ... but i'll worry about that when i get there. at least i know what it's suppose to look like. and, i like drawing all the pretty colors on the chart!