A year of socks

I finished my pair of socks in late April 2007, I could go back and look at the date, but I'm close enough with today. They were the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe with some Trekking bamboo yarn. I wore them once and discovered a dropped stitch in the decreases for the toe on one of the socks. That sock now sits in my basket with a stitch holder keeping this stitch in place waiting for me to fix it. oops.

I made this little mosaic from my Flickr pics. I'm pretty sure I have them all, but not completed shots of all. The last one is a WIP that doesn't have any pics yet so it's just the skein of Lucky.

Here's to another year of socks!

I love yarn clubs

I really really do. And I've been pretty lucky in that I have liked almost everything I have received, it may not be what I would have picked out, but these clubs are expanding my horizons and I'm loving it. Now, I just need more time to actually knit all this yarn. Hee hee.

My newest arrivals are Sundara Seasons 5th shipment, Yarn Pirate March Booty, and the Rockin' Sock Club March shipment.

I have really enjoyed the Sundara Seasons Club, I've signed up for Autumn again. I have yet to actually knit any of it, well, I've started a sock and the yarn base is amazing, as is the colour. And I have plans for Icarus with the silk lace when something else that I can't exactly talk about is finished. But I digress, the 5th installment was the 3 sock yarn and it is called Bronzed Forest. It's sort of the love child of the first two sock yarns, and I loved both of those (I totally would have picked them!).



Booty Club. I am so in love with the colours that Georgia puts together, she is a fantastic artist and her new baby is so so cute! And big! The March Booty is called Emerald City.



Last but not least, RSC. The March colourway is called Lucky and is, of course, green. A study in green. I wound it into a cake last night and I'm looking forward to starting it, soon. I don't want to get behind.



So that's that. I've finished a pair of socks for the MIL, those are next!

Oh what a Tangled Yoke we knit

So, it was a couple of weeks ago, but Tangled Yoke is done. It's so so pretty, I'm really glad I knit it.

The Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan, by Eunny Jang. Interweave Knits Fall 2007
The Yarn: The recommended Rowan Felted Tweed (amazing!) in Herb. Turns out, it's a good colour for Project Spectrum, Earth.



The pattern was very well written and I had surprisingly little trouble doing cables from a chart for the first time. The cable rows were crazy long and sometimes quite complex, I was only able to get one cable row and one purl row done in an evening. That was about how much my brain could handle too.



I started in November 2007 and worked on it was I was either bored with Avast or waiting for something that was backordered that I needed for Avast. The fit is OK, the lower arms are a little big, but not bothersome big and when I tried in on after I finished the yoke, I thought it was smaller, almost too small, but it's not. It's good, it's a really nice sweater. I like it.



I'm not sure why the husband didn't tell me my hair was so weird. This is why I'm always the one behind the camera.

Next, a stash update!

Big Grey Sweater? Check.

The Big Grey Sweater is done.

I started knitting Avast, for Jer, in August 2007. He is a picky, picky man when it comes to his clothing so it took a long time for him to decide on a pattern and I stressed the entire time if the final product was going to be to his liking. And it is.



It took me too long to knit this, I admit. I took breaks between pieces to knit other things, I had to wait for back ordered needles and I ran out of yarn at one point. Amazingly, I found more of the same dye lot in a store in a very different city from where I bought the orginal. So finally, on Saturday night after reading a number of tutorials on how to sew in a zipper, I sat down with my needle and thread and 2.5 hours later (so painfully long, there is a reason I don't sew) the sweater had a zipper, and I was done. There was very little seaming, the body was knit in one piece to the armpits, then the sleeves were added and the whole thing knit, doing raglan decreases, to the neck. The only seams were sleeves and hems, there was a lot of picking up and knitting to create the hems and I am now much better at it.



I used Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed in Night, which I believe is now a discontinued colour. It's a beautiful yarn, but the cabled band that runs along the bottom of this sweater doesn't show up very well and that is a little disappointing. I didn't really alter the pattern much, I'm no designer, but I did add extra length everywhere for my husband and his Monkey arms. I'm really quite happy with the fit, it's a great sweater for the long and lean.



Now, back to stalking the mailbox for my RSC package.

Can I just say,

I love a little felted easter egg I finished knitting the basket today, and just put them in the washer. They are super cute!

Hopefully they will dry quickly so I can show them off!

Nothing like a good block

I finished the scarf for my brother's wife this weekend. It was a really quick, easily memorized pattern resulting in a very nice scarf. It could be a bit a longer, if I had more wool. The length is pretty good though, it's around 58in.



The pattern is Crest of the Waves Scarf by Judy Jacobs and I used Misti Alpaca Worsted. With it being a worsted weight I decided to do a somewhat lacey scarf a)to take full advantage of the yardage and b)to make it a little less warm since L tends to wear her scarf all day, inside and out. We don't want to boil the girl. I liked the look of the scarf before I blocked it, but it's amazing now.



I didn't do the tassels or beads on the ends, I'm kind of anti-tassel. I think she probably is too, again because of the wear the scarf all day issue. And I've never seen her wearing a scarf with tassels.



I hope she likes it!

This week - zipper, egg basket, and button bands.

Yarn-mail Wednesday

Well, actually it was Monday, but it's squishy yarn mail none-the-less.

I came home from taking Small Boy to school Monday afternoon to find THREE squishy packages on my doorstep. So very exciting.

The first one I opened was my long awaited Kidsilk Haze from Webs. The last I spoke to them there was still one colour backordered and I asked them to please ship what they had. It's so lovely, I hope my Mom will like the Modern Quilt Wrap, she should.



Today I called a fairly local shop and they have the colour that I'm waiting for. They didn't have it 2 weeks ago when I was there, but oh well. So it's going out in the mail tomorrow.

Next was Vintage. This thing has me scared. It's going to marinate for awhile before I tackle it. My SIL is going to help me with leaves (Right?). She just learned to knit in October and recently finished her first socks and got her Ravelry invite yesterday! We got the Claret colourway for my red wine drinking MIL.



Then I opened the February Booty Club package. Yowsa! It will make a scarf for my Girl for next winter. It's called "I Want Candy" and it's the Merino/Tencel yarn. This came only about 2 weeks after the January shipment arrived, and man do I love Kalamata!





Finally, I 1/1 for RSC socks! Serendipity aka Dragon Scales is done. I'm not sure how I feel about the toe, I'll have to wear them a bit to pass judgement. It was a great pattern to knit though. The only thing I changed was to add another 1/2 repeat to the leg, I'm not a fan of short socks.




That's all for now. Still plugging away on the seaming for Avast, I should do that this afternoon, and I have finished the chart for the yoke of Tangled Yoke. I'm a little concerned about fit over the boobage, but we'll see.

Alright, so I started a baby blanket. I know, I know. But they are ALMOST finished.

I'm doing the log cabin baby blanket from Mason Dixon. I've done 4 blocks, one of each colour and I began block 5 this morning, with colour A, the same ball I knit the first block from. It's cut in multiple places. I've pulled out 4 pieces that are about 18-24 inches long, I found another end and started pulling and it was looking good so I started the block. Now, 6 garter ridges in, it's cut again. I don't want to rip out what I've done, so I won't, but I'm using a new ball now. Grrr.

Attention everyone

Attention! Avast is blocking! Yes that's right, I finally finished knitting the giant grey thing. And when it is dry, I will seam the sleeves and the hems, find a zipper and figure out how to attach the darn thing. It looks quite spiffy all pinned out on the floor, if I do say so myself.

Here it is, in it's 62 inch wingspan glory.



Also this weekend, another item checked off the to be finished list, the second pair of Monkeys for SIL. Modelled by my rather slim 7 year old son whose feet are much too small for these socks.



These were made with STR mediumweight in Metamorphic with 2.25mm Knit Picks DPNS. I'll see her next weekend, hopefully she likes them as much as she does the Pink Granite pair.

And, well, because I'm weak and I was happy to have finished knitting Avast, I finished the first sock of the RSC January shipment. I added another 1/2 repeat to the leg and by weight I should have plenty of yarn left for the second sock. I don't like short socks. These are great socks. Again, modelled by big boy, 7, who keeps asking if these are for him "because I REALLLLLLLLY like this colour Mommy."



And, lots of knitting this week, Tangled came out of time out. Turns out all it needed was a few days of sitting in it's basket to find the error of it's ways, and now it's behaving nicely. It still takes about an hour to do one of the cable rows, but I'm getting there. The next row has a 5->1 DECREASE! WOOHOO! Sorry, no pictures yet.

Tomorrow, we celebrate the first ever Family Day holiday. Hopefully this freezing rain will turn to snow and maybe we will go sledding for a bit.

Another one bites the dust

My basket is getting more and more empty!

I did start the Serendipity socks, only to frog what I did because it was too big and knit it again, and I'm just about done with the first pattern repeat. But! I finished Jeremy's slippers! I made him felted clogs a year ago (have I told this story before?) and he loves them, says they have changed his life. He didn't want me to go out and buy more wool to make them as I had enough feltable bits left over from other things that I could make him a non-matching pair. So, he has one purple/white slipper and one green/white slipper. What he wanted was a second pair so he could leave the mismatched pair at his office so he can wear them at the end of the day when he's doing paperwork and returning phone calls (no patients!), and have a pair at home. And being the (somewhat) good knitting wife I am, I made his giant feet another pair.



The problem. They are really wide. Does anyone know how to fix that without making them any shorter? I'm afraid to put them in the washer again because the length is good, but they are really floppy.

Hopefully by Monday I'll have an "all but the zipper" post about Avast. The end is in sight! I need to do the bottom band and a little bit of seaming (hems and sleeves). Then the zipper, even though I'm not quite sure how the zipper is actually going to get attached to the sweater.

Those of you that are getting buried under snow and freezing rain (like we are today) be safe!

Caution: RSC January picture at end of this post

Long time no blog! But do you really want to read about me still working on two cardigans at the same time? I don't know who's brilliant idea that was, but it's getting me down I tell you. Avast aka the Giant Grey Thing, needs it's front bands and bottom band done and I'm almost to the fun part of Tangled Yoke, the cabled yoke.

I did finish something though. Because I just had too, and I knew there was new sock yarn in my future. My Calamity Charades. They make my feet very happy. From the August Yarn Pirate package, "Calamity" BLF. Nice socks, and quick knitting when I actually worked on them. Just over 2 weeks total knitting time, with a 2 week break in between the 2 socks.


Oooo! I almost forgot. I made two cakes this week too. The first was last Saturday for the Baby Girls birthday party (her birthday was the 5th). It's a castle for Ponies and I think she really liked it. The bottom layer is the only edible portion, I used a styrofoam cake dummy for the round on the top because I really didn't need that much cake. We had quite a bit leftover as it was.



I did another cake yesterday for my Dad. He was curling last night and my mom wanted to surprise him there with a cake when everyone was done. He was very surprised.



The little curling rocks are made out of rolled fondant, and are, I think, my favourite part. I tried to get them all about the same size so I used a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon, they're about the size of a quarter in diameter. The whole cake wasn't to scale, so I figured it would be OK if the rocks were a little big. Everyone loved it.

And the reason I'm trying to finish all these things, other than there are too many and it's stressing me out? My first Rockin Sock Club package. It arrived in record time, so much faster than anything I have ordered from them before. Six days. Six. I'm still waiting for my Yarn Pirate, this will be day 15 for that one. Anyhow, it's a snow day today so I'm going to bake with my boys and do something fun. Maybe toss them in the backyard for awhile.
And here, is 'Dragon Dance' So out of my box, but so pretty. And making me think about Project Spectrum.

Looking back, forging ahead

I've been thinking a lot about the knitting year that was 2007. Far and away my most prolific knitting year ever.

I learned to knit as a child, trying my hand at a few things through high school, but I don't think I ever really finished anything. When I was in university my one of my roommates wanted to knit, taught herself, and when we weren't studying, we knit. I think I did about 3 sweaters for myself. Since then (I graduated in 1996) I've been a sporatic knitter, always with A project on the go that takes awhile to complete because my mojo would ebb and flow. These projects would be knit from the pattern, adding length to the body and sleeves as the only modifications. Not that I'm saying I make more mods now, but I digress. And they would have been made of Patons something or other, acrylic or a blend. I could do cables, I could do colourwork. I was pretty confident in my abilities, I even knit a Philosophers Wool cardigan (~2001) that my mom bought for herself (for me to knit) and steeked it, and I didn't even know that it was called a Steek. Still scared the bejeezus out of me though.

Enter January 2007. I decided I wanted to knit myself a scarf, so I decided I would look on the internet for a pattern. There had to be a pattern on the internet. I found Knitty, and the scarf pattern I wanted to knit. I bought some Patons SWS (which is far to itchy for a scarf, don't do it) and knit myself a scarf.

I also found the Yarn Harlot around the time she was making some Fiber Trends felted clogs. So I bought myself a pattern and have since made 8 pairs of them, and I wear mine (the first pair) every day. From reading that blog, I decided to try knitting socks, what was the big deal anyway? In April, I knit my first pair. Now I get it.

In 2007 I discovered knitting blogland. So many blogs to read, then just look in the side bar of any one of those and find many more blogs to read. I love it. I've kept a blog about my life at livejournal since March 2002, but then I started this one, because I didn't think my friends over there wanted to hear me prattling on about sticks and string. I have learned so much from these blogs. My yarn choices have changed completely, I am a yarn snob now. I have a ball winder. I have a STASH! It's a sock yarn stash, which apparently doesn't count, but it's prolific if not diverse. I still can't buy a sweaters worth of yarn just because it's pretty and not have any reason to use it. That's just not me. I have been inspired by these blogs. I find myself wanting to knit things that I never before would have imagined wanting to knit. Like socks. Like lace, but Anne Hanson, wow, she makes me want to knit lace. And I will, when I finsh what I'm doing.

Then, in July, there was Ravelry. I love Ravelry. I want Ravelry to be around forever. What a great resource it is.

So here I sit in 2008, amazed at what I have accomplished in 2007 and excited about what I want to do in 2008. I knit everyday, I have a little tendonitis in my right wrist, but a tensor helps that, so I can knit everyday. I miss it if I don't.

I still love to decorate cakes, but when it's not your job, it's not really something you can do everyday. Especially since I don't really have a desire to weigh 300 pounds. I do want to get better at making flowers though, so a gumpaste course may be in order. At the end of January I will be starting a photography course at the local college. I love my D50 and want to learn how to use it to full advantage. I'm also (gulp) going to take a Pilates instructor course over a weekend in February, this scares me a little because it could turn into an actual job.

So that's that. I've been thinking about all that, so I wanted to get it out. I'm not much of a writer so please forgive my poor sentence structure and jumbled thoughts. My counter says that I'm 2 visits shy of my 200th visitor! Which, quite frankly surprises me. Do I have any regular readers or are you just popping in from my link on Ravelry? Whoever you are, thanks.

Happy 2008!

A New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a very nice Christmas, and although I have been horribly sick since Christmas day we have managed to complete all of the family/friend obligations and now I get a few days to rest. Ha! Right. The husband is back at work and there are 3 children here all.day.

My 2008 has started with some squishy yarn mail that I was waiting for! First, yesterday came both my December Booty Club package AND my purchase from the Yarn Pirates Etsy update she did shortly before Christmas.

The December yarn is a Merino/Tencel blend called Icicle. I'm sure that one day I will get to it, but since I'm just now knitting with the August shipment, it's not going to be anytime soon.


From the Etsy shop, I bought her Christmas colourway, Hawthorne, for some Christmas socks for next year and an overdye called Prehistoric which I love! I pulled it out of the envelope and my 4 year old said "It looks like a dinosaur!"



Then today, I got my sock yarn shipment from Sundara's Season Yarn club. My season is Autumn and the December yarn is called Mossy. It's even prettier than the pictures I snuck peeks at on Ravelry.


To close out the FO 2007 file, I realized that you have not yet seen the lovely Anemoi. I would totally make another pair of these mittens, my first ever mittens actually. They were such fun to knit, and they are warm and cozy and match both my coats perfectly! (one green, one brown)




And, pair #3 of the IL socks are also done and in the hands of the grateful recipient. They are Retro Rib Socks from Favorite socks knit in Socks That Rock mediumweight colour, Mystic Kelp. They did some strange striping and pooling, but turned out nicely.


And my favourite parts, the bottoms!


Plans for 2008, well first I have to finish the last 2 IL socks, they are another pair of Monkeys and another Retro Rib. A matching pair of slippers for my Dearest, a second pair of slippers requested by my SIL. I'm going to TRY to somewhat keep up with the Rockin' Sock Club, but I don't know. Avast needs to be finished (this sweater is haunting me!) and my Tangled Yoke needs to be finished, the sleeves are done. Sounds like enough doesn't it! But what I really want to do in 2008 is a lace project, something from Anne Hanson of Knitspot. But I must finish the lingering projects first!

What about you, do you have big knitting plans for 2008?

Winter storm

That is A LOT of snow! It's been snowing all day, seems to be slowing down a bit now (5pm) and there is at least 30 cm out there. I'm thinking there will probably be a snow day tomorrow. Good thing I bought that gingerbread house kit last week, it will be a good activity if I have boys home tomorrow. Anyhow, the knitting. I forgot to show one of my FO's from a few weeks ago, a nice warm hat for the Baby Girl (OK, she'll be 2 in January, but she's MY baby). It's a pattern I've wanted to do since I bought the book, Zoe Mellors Double Knits. So, I ordered some Knit Picks Swish Superwash and I did the Inca Hat.



However, it's too big and is living comfortably in a box in the basement with the coat I bought at The Gap on clearance for next year. I stuck to the pattern, except that I did a single crochet edging instead of pick up and knit. I just wasn't in a pick up and knit frame of mind that night and this was quick and easy. If I were to do this pattern again, and I think I would, I would do it in the round. Colourwork and purling isn't a whole lot of fun.

I've also finished my SIL's black slippers. I gave them to her last Sunday and she felted them on Monday, wore them on Wednesday. Loves them. I negelected to take a picture of the big floppy black slippers, so, use your imagination. With the leftover black, I decided to try and make a pair of Dashing for the small boy's Kindergarten teacher. One is done and it looks good, but I'm worried about having enough of the black to make the second. I really don't want to have to run out and buy another ball. If there isn't enough, I guess he won't get them.

Otherwise, I'm still working on the same old things. My longer needle is still backordered at JBW so I might try this week to work Avast on the shorter one, I'm tired of this project, the heel is turned and I'm done the gusset decreases on the second Retro Rib sock, Tangled Yoke sleeve #1 is done. Time to start finishing things if I want to start my first big lace project in January. And no, I don't know what it's going to be yet, but that's the plan.

Cold

Well, winter dumped on us this week. Cold, snow, and more snow and more cold.

My small boy has a birthday next week, and we had a little family party last weekend. Of course, I made a cake. He had originally wanted a Rocketship cake which I was familiar with, since big boy also wanted a rocketship cake for his 4th birthday. But changed his mind and wanted a chocolate cake with race cars on it. Done.

I just love the folded anticipatory hands of an almost 4 year old in the background!

There has been some knitting going on, but everything just feels really stalled right now. I'm waiting on a longer needle to finish Avast, the tangled mess is in time out. I got it untangled and wound, but I can't look at it right now. It's destiny is a hat for big boy (who has FINALLY lost his 2 front teeth!). I've finished the first of my SIL's socks, AKA the socks that never end and my other SIL brought the Classic Merino over last weekend for me to make her 2 pairs of felted clogs so I have pretty much finished the black pair of those, just need to attach the second outer sole and sew up the seam. We're having supper with them on Sunday, I think she'll be pleasantly surprised to have a pair of slippers one week after bringing me the yarn! I was a bad girl and cast on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan too, I was itching to knit something for me and my big project (Avast) is waiting, so I have done one sleeve, I'm going to like this sweater if the sleeve is any indication. So I will leave you with a couple of pics of the Sock That Never Ends and some boring black slippers. Aren't you glad you dropped in today? And I see that someone is reading, so if you are just checking me out, thanks for reading and if you keep coming back, thank you too. And let me know who you are and I'll return the favour.

Retro Rib Socks from Favorite Socks (it's so hard not to put a 'u' in there!) in Socks that Rock mediumweight Mystic Kelp


Fiber Trends Felted clogs, black Patons Classic Merino

3 hrs and counting

This is not the part of knitting I enjoy. This was meant to be a 5 minute task while the little ones ate lunch. Supper's just about ready now.

I'm a bad blogger

Forgive me, for I have not blogged in 18 days! Wow, where does the time go. Well, knitting and 3 kids, that's where it goes.

It's been a somewhat productive 18 days. I did decide to rip back the Yarn Pirate Rum Runner Monkeys (did I mention that?). I added another repeat to the leg and did a flap instead of short row heel. They fit SO much better now.



I also finished the Waving Lace Socks for my MIL. I didn't really like knitting the socks, but I am very happy with the way they turned out. She's going to be very happy, I hope. Hopefully happy enough that she will come watch my kids for when I have to go for JURY DUTY!!!! Yep, I've been summoned. Yay.



Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks



The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in January One



I've also finished one sleeve of Avast and I'm halfways through the second, soon it will be time to cram all the stitches onto one needle and do the yoke. I hope to have it finished by Christmas, but we'll see. My afternoon nap knitting time will soon be taken up by the painting of the dining room.

Have a great week to any that are reading, and I'll post more, I promise.

Sugar crash

The day after Halloween, the kids are crashing. The 3.5 year old is a mess today, the boy needs some sleep. Fortunately there is no school tomorrow and he can sleep in. I hope. Boy 1 lost tooth number 5 yesterday, Superman looks pretty funny missing one of his front teeth I tell you. And the Girl, she's just funny, trying to say everything she hears. She quite enjoyed the trick or treating last night and is quite posessive of her bag of goodies.

Anyway, a knittng update. I finished the "Just like yours" socks last week and presented them to my SIL on the weekend, she loves them. Yay!


I'm cruising along on the MIL's Waving Lace Socks, halfway down the foot of sock #1


Avast, is a big grey sweater. I'm done the increases on sleeve one, and now I just have to make it long enough for Mr. Monkey Arms.

Anemoi, j'adore. Almost done, good thing, the mornings are getting rather chilly.

A sad revelation

I came to a very sad revelation yesterday. One I think I really knew all along, but yesterday made me face it. I wore my Rum Running Monkeys for the first time, and they just don't fit right. I love them so much, but I know that I won't wear them in the state that they are in. So, I have decided, I'm going to pull them back to the leg, add a repeat, do a flap heel (they're currently short row) and finish them.

It makes me sad and happy all at the same time.

She gets it

My SIL gets it. She's a non-knitter (but thinking about learning) and she totally gets it.

She was here on Friday night, to felt her slippers and decided on a sock pattern for her STR, and we were looking in the sock yarn bin and I was showing her my lovelies and the STR that they ordered. She squeezed and petted and rubbed them on her cheek, no prompting. Not even a flinch or a weird look when I said I was thinking of keeping one of the sock yarns as a pet.

My husbands sister, she rocks.

AND! Her neighbours cleaning lady raises Alpacas, has them shorn twice a year and pays some one to spin it. She sells some (basically to cover the cost of making it) and donates some to McMaster Childrens Hospital for volunteers to make blankets for the premies that they can take home. So, Jenn is going to get me some and I will make a blanket for a tiny baby. A warm soft cozy blanket, an alpaca blanket. I'm very excited about this. Now I just need to figure out what pattern to do...

Mitten love

One of the projects, I've cut down quite a bit, finished a lot waiting for the STR.

I love the Anemoi, love them. Here they are, right mitt in progress. I just realized today that I have never made full mittens before. I did a pair of Fetching last winter, but never fully fingered mitts. I'm happy. My stranding is kind of hot and cold, they will need a good blocking for sure.



And! I have about and inch left of the 16 Avast inches. YAY!