accountability

i like to start sweaters (kinda like starting socks, but they take MORE time). during this holiday, one of the craft stores had a coupon for thanksgiving day only. the coupon was for 30% off your purchase, including sales items.

so, to escape the chaos of post-feast, mom and i drove over to the next town to the craft store. neither of us "needed" anything, but you know how it is when you have a coupon burning a hole in your purse.

it seems i've already bought every kind of sock yarn the craft store sells, and they didn't have a colorway i wanted to knit. BUT, the vanna's choice yarn by lionbrand was on sale for $2.49/ball, and then with the 30% off, was about $1.75/ball. SOLD!

y'all know i'm not a yarn snob. and if you notice the colorful heart that has been in my sidebar for years, i do have an affinity for acrylic. the vanna's choice comes in such great colors, "sophisticated" colors. and, it comes in tweeds!

the pattern is by Patons. it's from the booklet, Patons #500838, Next Steps Three. i like this book because it's more of a recipe book, full of mix & match. the little pattern booklet was about $5. it's around 75 pages, with variations of vests and sweaters, but all cardigans. it's all written for using their yarn of course, in the shetland chunky solid or tweed. my craft store did have the yarn, but not a colorway i wanted, and it was not on sale. thus, the vanna's choice.

the vanna's choice is smaller in gauge, so i did my swatch and decided to go with the size small, which will yield a sweater with maybe 1" of positive ease. i've not yet decided if i'm going to do the collar or not. i might just finish the crew neck with ribbing.

regardless, i need someone to keep me honest and on track with the project! i am enjoying the knitting. it's kinda mindless. i have the back done, and parts of the fronts finished.

and the sock knitting will surely get in the way at some point. wednesday is the 1st, which means i could cast on another sock for SKA. BUT i want to finish my acrylic cardigan!

i found this quite enjoyable today, particularly the last paragraph.

20 days?!

wow. where have i been?!

work-wise, this is "the busy season". and knitting-wise, perhaps i've spread myself a bit too thin.

i seem to be a bit disorganized lately.

socks! we'll start with socks.


this is a "firestarter" sock. this pattern is also by yarnissima (same as my spice man socks). i wanted to knit this for the november challenge on ska. i had some issues with the pattern, but it does look good.


the first sock was finished almost 2 weeks ago, and i've yet to cast on the mate. my goal is to start the mate this week.


the yarn is knit one crochet too's "crock-o-dye". i purchased the yarn back in the early spring just for this pattern. it's a good match too. the knitting is enjoyable, and i look forward to having the pair finished, but i keep getting sidetracked with other projects.

such as, i wanted another sock to work on, something more basic. so, i started "paraphernalia" with my small stash of bamboo & ewe sock yarn.


it was pretty gloomy out yesterday morning as we headed out for shopping, but the sock isn't much prettier than the photo anyways. there's nothing wrong with the sock, or the color, it's just very plain.

i'm actually much further along on this pair than the firestarters. for this pair, i'm very close to the heelflap of sock #2.

though this sock is not as flashy as the firebird, i bet it will get worn more often.

ready for christmas

i actually finished stuart's stocking a few days ago, and i toted it around for a couple of days to show off 'in person'.

i am VERY pleased with the knitting. though this is red heart sport (acrylic) yarn, it blocked very nicely (with a bit of steam and light press with a presscloth). i blocked all but the ribbing and loop. i wanted the ribbing to maintain its integrity. if you've never steamed acrylic, essentially, you can "kill" acrylic. and once you kill it, there's no going back. how do you kill it? .... with steam. the steam evens out all the lumps and bumps, and makes the fabric more fluid. it needed it too!

i'm glad it's acrylic, because the moths won't feel compelled to munch on it when it's in storage. and the colors ?! i love the COLORS !!!

and, i learned something new ... i finally learned how to weave in the yarn i hold in my right hand when that yarn is stranded behind the yarn in my left. i found these two videos:

the two-handed fair isle technique (particularly “stitch 4”) and,
the youtube video catching floats.

how do i forget?

i am SO not impressed with my memory! thank goodness for flickr and those handy pictures to remind me. though, the truth is, i post in too many places (upload to flickr, my ravelry page, and then the forum for the project ... and see, i'm still forgetting the blog).

and this explains the conversation of what mom was talking about the other day, and i had no clue what she was talking about ... "i was looking at your flickr and saw a sock i hadn't seen before. it had a big dark spot across the front of the foot."

oh? you must mean these .....


this is spice man, again. and the yarn is my Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock & Baby Yarn - 2 ply , in colorway "cleopatra", which i got at SAFF a couple of weeks ago. in my SAFF post, it's one of the yarns i wound into a ball while riding home from the event.

i was in a hurry to cast on, so i did not weigh the yarn before i started knitting. in an ideal world, i probably would had weighed it, divided it into 2 balls, and knitted up every scrap of yarn. but, in impatient world, i'll have a pair of socks with leftovers.

as the name states, it is yummy. in some ways, the twist reminds me a bit of koigu, but a wee bit thinner. i am on sock #2, and am about to turn the heel.

i want to cast on my november socks, but i'll have to find another set of 2.25mm 32" circs for that endeavor. the november socks will also be a yarnissima pattern, firestarter. so, all this spice man knitting has been "training".

the holiday season

i guess, after halloween, it's "all downhill" in terms of the holidays. i know thanksgiving is next, but with my schedule and lack of free-time, i am thinking about christmas.

in my SKA group on ravelry, one of the challenges for october was to cast on a stocking for a 'celebration'. of course, i chose a christmas stocking ... for STUART.


i am using a pattern by cascade yarns. it's free on their website (scroll down 'til you see 220 Wool W104 FREE Download ... it's near the bottom).

i'd love to be knitting this out of wool, but ... i am not. instead, i got a few skeins of this red heart. the colors are perfect, the price is right, and it fit the bill for my instant gratification.


now, the motifs in the stocking are 1)from the original pattern 2)stolen from an SKA mystery sock design 3)made up/charted 4)borrowed from someone else's stocking.

(all the above)

and the pattern has an afterthought heel, but i substituted a shortrow heel.

nevertheless, i am now on the foot, plowing my way through a snowman motif. i should be finished by the weekend. and then, i can cast on more socks for the november challenge!