i'll never be hard core

not like my knitting friends in finland. we FINALLY got snow, snow and sleet, winter. i love it, but my feet got cold and wet, as did my bum, trying to take pictures for proof that i have finished both my pairs of socks for january's challenge of sock knitters anonymous.

i am not hard core. i am a weather wussy. someone please bring me some hot tea.


all the details here on my ravelry page.



and details here as well .....

brrrr ! running back inside now !!!!

and the socks ....

in between shawl knitting, there has been progress on the sock knitting. i am nearing completion of my first two cast-ons for the january challenge of ska, and i even cast on a 3rd sock.

first, cauchy is getting very close to the toe ...


this knit is faster than my other projects, mainly because there's not too much switching back and forth with knits & purls, and the sock is only 60sts. that makes a difference.

my favorite feature of the sock is the wee picot cuff. you do a provisional cast on with smaller needles, do the eyelet row, and change to larger needles and knit the same number of rows. the change in gauge keeps it all nice and tidy, with no flare or flipping. love it!

socken #2 is my child's french sock by nancy bush.


the progress here isn't as great, as this sock has more stitches (72 i think) and there's lots of switching back and forth from knit to purl, and there's patterning every row. i have the pattern memorized, but it's just not a quick knit. it's lovely, but slooooowwwww.

i am not to the heel yet, but perhaps i will get there by the weekend. maybe. unless i knit on the shawl, cauchy, or my new heart socks.


this pattern is a wendy johnson toe up from her book, _socks from the toe up_. i don't usually have success with her patterns, but i'm a glutton for punishment, so thought i would try try again.

and this yarn screamed "valentines" and "hearts"!


the hearts aren't really that obvious with this yarn ... it all depends on the lighting. but, they'll be in there, and that's all i need to know for the entertainment value.

now, this design does qualify for the wendy johnson kal on ravelry, but only if i finish the pair before the month's end, which will never ever happen.

and haruni is dry!

dry and worn a few times already ...


i am quite pleased with this shawl. blocking her out was a bit of a pain, as i had to pin out each little crochet loop. and of course, you don't get it right the first time. but at some point, you just kinda let go and decide the knitting police will let it slide. her lower point is a bit wrinkled because she's been worn a couple of times.

haruni was my first shawl for the 10 shawls in 2010 kal on ravelry. i spent about a week trying to figure out my next cast on. it was always, i love this pattern, i love this yarn, but there's not a really good match. finally, i settled on anne hanson's dovecote.


i'm knitting this one with some old stashed yarn, lanett superwash wool. the petite size shawl only requires 600 yds. i have a bit more than that, but not much, and this colorway is long discontinued ... which means this could be a 'knitting with anxiety' kind of project. eeks.

so far, the knitting is good. the pattern is at least 13 pages long, both charts and row by row instructions. i am using both. the repeat is 18 stitches wide, so i have my markers on the needles as well.

i love how the pattern starts out with a provisional cast on (at the back of the neck) which allows the border to be knit on at the same time (and these stitches will be grafted together later).

i can see adding beads to this, perhaps in small banded diamond section ... if i manage to get out this weekend and get beads.

sigh. tired.

ps

haruni is drying ....

i nearly forgot!

it was my birthday .... which more often than not, get's lost in the season. but the gifts are always memorable ... such as this year, felted soaps !

.
mom and critter found an article in some magazine at a doctor's office, and ripped the pages out. Yay them! and they used fiber from projects past to felt up some bars of bath soap.

they look like easter eggs, don't they? anyhoo ... i finally pulled a bar out of the bag last weekend, and i've been using it. it works. it takes a bit for the suds to come to the surface, but it's all good. and they're so colorful a blind girl in the shower, such as myself, can find the soap!

overcommitment

i love knitting (and crochet) and of course get sucked into the bottomless pit of ravelry, and every project i see i want to make too, though i have less free time than ever. what's a knitter to do? join another kal ....


i'm going for the gold! i'm going to complete at least one socken-orphan, and perhaps cast on and finish knitting Aftur from lopi volume 25.

i went to the local yarn shop today that sells the lite lopi, but she was closed due to an emergency. i will try again next weekend. Aftur is the same kind of construction (and yarn) as my Fonn dream sweater. of course, not being able to get the yarn today makes me want it more. i do have until february 12th to decide on colors and get the yarn. perhaps i'm biting off more than i can chew, but i really love these kinds of sweaters, and i really love the lite lopi too (even if it is scratchy)!

a knitting day ...

aside from a meeting and some errands this morning, i have been knitting most of the day. it's amazing how much i can knit when the time is more than stolen moments. and, it's equally amazing how much knitting can be done in those stolen moments.


on the left is cauchy from cookie a's _sock innovation_. i'm knitting it with one of my purchases from SAFF last fall, miss babs bamboo baby. the yarn has a very nice lustre, but sometimes one of the plies will get caught on a needle and pull out a bit. the sock on the right is nancy bush's childs french sock from _knitting vintage socks_. the yarn is cascade heritage. i LOVE cascade heritage.

i knitted on both of these last weekend, and then it's just been bits here and there, as i've worked a lot of overtime in the past week. and then today, i kinda got distracted with something else ...


this is going to be haruni. here's a link to the project page on ravelry. it's a free download. yay!

the other day i wanted to wrap a red shawl around my neck, and i realized i didn't have one. well ... i will soon enough! at this point, the project is mindless enough that i can watch movies and knit w/o really missing anything.


of course, it helps if you have a chart keeper.

okay, back to knitting. and for reading later in bed, i picked up the new VK today.

cleaning house

from time to time, i find a project that i failed to post here, as i sometimes forget, when the process involves, 1) taking pictures, 2) processing, 3) uploading to flickr, 4) posting on ravelry, 5) updating blog. apparently, i only got to step #4 when i finished these socks back in october. whoops.


these are the socks i knitted for the september sockdown. one of the challenges was knitting with yellow. of course, i had to add beads, because that was a future challenge. beaded socks are this month's challenge. but, i'm not doing it again. i didn't mind adding the beads, but it is time consuming, and a bit fiddly.
all my details are over here, from when i originally posted this project.

but, a note i will add here ... i knitted these socks with 2.25mm dpns, with the exception of the beaded band, which i used 2.5mm dpns. that section does not have a lot of stretch (not due to the beads, but the stitch pattern). i think i could had even gone up to a 2.75mm needle and been fine (for that section only). just a little FYI incase anyone else decides to knit this pattern.

and, the sock(s) ...

i am recommitting myself to knitting for at least one of my groups on ravelry, the sock knitters anonymous group.

yesterday, i cast on nancy bush's child's french socks.


it's nice to knit an almost mindless sock. i fully intend to finish the pair by the deadline (the end of january).

okay, that's all. i have updated all my pictures and posts. have a great day!

whoops! the yarn is cascade heritage in colorway 5606. it's a burgundy, though i have trouble capturing color sometimes.

and the knitting !

i am so impressed with myself. not that i knitted a shawl, because i can knit shawls ... but that i finished a shawl!

after my first rip out session with the baby yesterday, (i ripped about 5" of the edging) i continued onward as it would be too much like me to put it down for something more fun. i love starting things, can't say i like fixing things.

after finishing last night, i went ahead and blocked. i figured i better while i have the time.

and look, she's a beauty!!!









this is Aestlight by the shetland knitter, Gudrun Johnston. i did the larger version, on size 4mm knitpicks options ... which was pointy enough and not terribly slippery. it was good to use these needles as i used the stoppers and cable to make a giant stitch holder for the stitches across the top while i knitted the border and edging.

my final measurements are 57" wingspan and a 28" drop. it's much bigger than i expected. it will be cozy (and stunning!) for work.

the yarn i used is dyed by fearless fibers. it's a superwash sock wt, in a colorway called butterscotch. this yarn was a gift from corbett about 2 1/2 years ago. i was always skeptical of knitting socks with this yarn, because it's a 2ply. but fear no more, i would surely knit socks with it. but, a shawl is more tempting, as a shawl is more "public". why hide such pretty yarn under pants and in shoes?


there are lots of things i have not done or finished, but it's new year's weekend, and i am relaxing. to me, that's way more important (and necessary) than all the other stuff.

happy new year!

not quite caught up

some people use the new year to take down all their christmas stuff. not me. i'm using it to relax and catch up.

i have crocheted some more snowflakes, but haven't yet blocked them. i thought my previous pictures were kind of ugly, so i took some new ones ...




christmas was the whirlwind it always is. i still have some other pictures to share, but that will be on another day.


stuart had a wee christmas stocking (and all my pictures of that were out of focus). in his stocking he had a bicho. a wee felted bicho. he likes it lots. he takes it everywhere!

he's also sitting in a yarn bowl. actually, it's not a 'genuine' yarn bowl. but, it's a bowl for yarn, and santa found it from a local potter. i have been using it too. one can never have too many bowls.