Yarn!

The consequences of a major yarn buying binge have started to arrive in the mailbox. Today's mail contained my 6th order from The Loopy Ewe. I'm now officially a "Loopy Groupie". In addition to the yarn I'd ordered, I received a tote bag, a bonus ball of sock yarn, and some "Loopy Kisses". And since I'd already earned a $25 store credit with my first 5 orders, I applied it to this order, as well.

The picture above shows the whole order in a lovely clear plastic tote. Below, the bonus skein, ONline supersocke 100 Summer-Color, color 791, and the Loopy Kisses (peppermint candy).

The yarn I ordered, from left to right:
The Knittery, Chocolate Royale
Fiesta Boomerang [5 oz, 320 yds., Extra Fine Superwash Merino], Safari and White Zinfandel
Fleece Artist Sea Wool [115 gr (~4 oz.), 354 yds (325 m)], Cosmic Dawn and Aegean

The Fiesta is quite a bit thicker than fingering weight sock yarn. The gauge on the label is 18 sts = 4" on size 8 needles. Obviously, I'm not going to use size 8 needles for socks, so I'll have to swatch (ack!) In yards per oz., it's a smidge heavier than STR mediumweight, which calls for 8 sts per inch on size 2 needles, so that at least gives me a jumping-off point.

And from ebay seller Yarnbow, 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden in color 270, to combine with 2 skeins of color 245 already in my stash, to make this gorgeous striped scarf.

Stitch N Pitch

Baseball, anyone? I had heard of Stitch n Pitch, but didn't know much about it. Then I got an email from a not-so-local yarn shop, saying they had tickets for a game in St. Louis. So I started thinking, checking the date & time, asking the family if they'd be interested. We live about 150 miles south of St. Louis, but that would be "our" MLB team. My daughter called me from work today to ask if I'd gotten the tickets yet. I told her I would. She called later and I still hadn't gotten the tickets, but I made the call after I got off the phone with her. The tickets are discounted over the regular price tickets, and everyone gets a goody bag (even the non-knitting family members! more for me!). There are Stitch N Pitch nights all over the country. The schedule is on the website. It will also tell you where you can get tickets. See you August 6th in St. Louis!
This seemed like a good family activity to finish summer vacation. We all go back to school the following week. Seems like it gets earlier every year.

Geometry? !@#%!

I am taking a geometry course online, the last 3 hours of math I need to complete the math requirements for certification (I'm going to be a high school math teacher this fall). It started yesterday, with an endless reading assignment that made me want to poke my eyes out with a dpn. There was a homework assignment, too, due tonight at midnight. I got it turned in 7 hours before deadline. Take that! New lessons will be posted every TWThF until hell freezes over August 3rd. Pray for me, people.

Last week was Vacation Bible School. As I have done for the past 6 years, I taught the 5th graders. This year, I don't know why, but I just lost it a couple of times -- not a good example of Christlikeness. Fifth graders don't listen, especially when you have 20 or so in a room, in a rather informal atmosphere, with terrible acoustics (cinderblock walls and tile floors). I'm afraid they just didn't learn as much as they could/should have. But the funny thing is, they kept coming back. I have realized that I make an entirely new set of mistakes every year. I hope someday to have learned enough from my mistakes that VBS will run more smoothly!

Oh, knitting... that's probably why you're here.... I did start socks with the Colinette JitterBug, but once I finished the toe increases, I found myself flipping through Sensational Knitted Socks, and More Sensational Knitted Socks to find a pattern to use. Finally settled on Beaded Rib, and they're looking quite nice:

Other socks on the needles are the Inside Out socks, in STR mediumweight, Monsoon. These were the Feb. 2007 package from the Rockin' Sock Club. There was also an April shipment, and I'm hearing rumors that the June shipment may be on its way. I'm a little behind.

And the Big Black Socks for SocksForSoldiers. I thought I was finished with the legs at 12", and then I read a post that indicated that the legs need to be 14" (they'll shrink some in the wash, and they also lose some length when stretched widthwise). These legs are now 5 rounds from being 14" (or 140 rounds) long. I think I'll go work on them. Or do the next geometry assignment.


I almost forgot: if you love lace, you might want to sign up for Mystery Stole 3. It starts June 29th, so you'll still have time to gather supplies. One caveat -- lots and lots of posts, so you might want to set your delivery to digest right off the bat.

Happy Birthday, Principessa

Today is our college girl's 19th birthday.

She got her grades a few days ago -- 3.5 GPA! Especially impressive with her list of extracurricular activities. Great job, princess! We're proud of you.

We've just returned from a family reunion in honor of my grandmother's 90th birthday. We had a total of 31 people at a lake resort in southwest Missouri for 5 days -- 3 of her 4 children, with spouses, 6 of her 7 grandchildren & spouses, and 11 or 12 great-grandchildren. (Tricky little devils -- they're hard to count.) They came from Oregon, California, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri.

Vacation knitting was a making-it-up-as-I-go, hoping-I-have-enough-yarn tank top.

I bought the yarn last year from ebay seller Over the Rainbow Yarns; it is Handpainted Rainbow Cotton yarn; the color is called Skygarden.

Vacation yarn purchase -- just one skein of Colinette JitterBug, in Bright Charcoal. Not that the yarn store (Simply Fibers in Springfield, MO) didn't have anything else I wanted... I'd have gladly taken some of everything! Just trying to exercise a little restraint, here. Besides, I'll be going back -- my daughter goes to school in Springfield.

I think this is going to be a plain vanilla toe-up sock (pair of socks, of course!)

Snowflakes in May

These are the Snowflake eyelet socks, from Susan's Spinning Bunny. They were the January shipment for her Sock Hop sock club. I'm just a little behind ;-)

The yarn is a lovely soft angora/merino blend. The eye-of-partridge heel works well with this design.

I was fingerprinted yesterday, for my background check for the school district. I was surprised and relieved to find there was no ink involved -- instead, they use a scanner, like a small copy machine, and just place your fingers on the glass. They can even do the one where they roll each finger tip from one side to the other. Ain't technology amazing. The last time I was fingerprinted was for my bank teller job, 16 years ago, and it was done the old-fashioned, messy way.

Got a little catching up to do

Why is it so hard to keep this up to date? Maybe I need to have a certain time each day that I do a blog post.

Absorba has been done since about 2 weeks ago. I immediately put it to use, and the family seems to like it. It's very thick and soft underfoot. I've even washed & dried it -- I think it took 3 dryer cycles to get it dry! (I dry everything on low heat, so maybe it wouldn't have taken as long on higher heat.)

The pattern is in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I really didn't have the problems I thought I might with hand pain. Once I got it onto the KnitPicks needles, I took off & finished it rather quickly. It weighs about 2 1/4 pounds, according to my kitchen scale. I suppose you could make 4 of these out of 9 1-pound cones of Peaches & Creme double worsted weight, which you can order directly from Elmore-Pisgah.

My Stonington Shawl is to the point where I need to start the edging, which is knitted on sideways.

This has been a very relaxing knit -- garter stitch, easy patterning in the center, no patterning on the borders.

My big news (boy, is this going to cut into my knitting time...) is that the local school district has hired me to teach high school math next year. I have just received notice that I have enough college math hours to accept the position; I need to take 8 more hours of math courses, plus the education courses required for alternative certification. I'm hoping I can get quite a bit of it done online. After 15 years as a stay-at-home mom (I worked for a little over a year as a bank teller before my 2nd child was born), this is going to be a big change for me. I'm excited -- I know a lot of the kids & teachers & administrators, so at least I won't be a stranger. I have really enjoyed Jean's "What I learned in school" posts on her blog (Needles, Notes and News) as she has been doing her student teaching the past 2 weeks. Since I'm going to be jumping in the deep end without my little water wings this fall....

Lots of needle options

My KnitPicks Options needle set arrived today! As soon as I got it organized, I put together the size 15 needles with a cable to make a 32" circular, and picked up the poor, neglected Absorba. It has been on hiatus since the connector broke on the Denise needle I was using. I was able to add another section to the bath mat. I think one section a day is going to be a good pace -- the exaggerated hand motions required to knit with 3 strands of double-worsted yarn make it hard to work more than one section without resting.

As I mentioned earlier, I ordered pretty much the whole kit & caboodle in the KnitPicks Options. In addition to the set, I ordered the 3 larger sizes of needle tips (13, 15, 17) and the 3 longer cables (40", 47", 60"), and one package each of the plastic pockets that go in the binder.
I discovered that the needles fit nicely in the triple pocket sleeves, one pair of tips per section. The 12 different needle sizes used exactly 4 pages. I used a permanent marker to write the size in US and mm on each section of the sleeve. I also put the needle size ID tag for each size in with the needle tips of that size (they're a separate item, but seemed like a good idea). I then put each size of cable into a single pocket sleeve, marked with the length. Ran out of single pockets, so I put the smallest cables into a double pocket sleeve. I'm not sure what I'll use the other 3 double pocket pages for (the one that came with the set, plus the 2 extras I ordered). I might see about storing the smaller sized circulars (0 - 3, available separately) into those sleeves.

I like the needles -- this is such an awesome way to have every size & length of circular needle you could possibly need (except the sock sizes, because they're too little to screw onto the connectors). They do make a clicking noise. I very rarely click when I knit, and the rhythm of stitches on Absorba is so slow, it's not all that noticeable.

It continues

The insanity, that is.
I spent some time yesterday looking for whatever helpful hints I could find about making Absorba (the bath mat) on the Mason Dixon KAL blog. One comment contained a warning that the knitter had broken the connector on her Denise needle while picking up stitches to start a new section. I happen to be using Denise needles, as well, so when I was picking up stitches this morning, I thought, "I can't figure out how she applied so much pressure that she broke the connector," and blithely continued what I was doing. Then I pushed the needle along through the picked up stitches in order to place the next stitch on it, and *SNAP* the connector broke. I know Denise has replacement parts, so I went to their website. Then I started thinking about getting extra cords and needles, and thought I might rather have the KnitPicks set. So I, uh, just went for the whole thing -- the Options set plus the 3 larger needle sizes, plus the 3 longer cable lengths, plus some extra pockets for the needle case. If I ever think I need to purchase another needle after this, someone may need to find me a padded cell. And I still need to replace the Denise cable I broke ($2.50, with free shipping).

I worked on my black socks today while listening to a podcast for almost an hour. Knowing I can usually do 20 rows on a sock in an hour, I was surprised at my lack of progress. I didn't count, but it didn't look like more than 10 rows. I didn't think I'd gotten that distracted looking up other things on the computer during the podcast. All of a sudden, it occurred to me... (scroll down & look at yesterday's picture & see if you can guess)
... I did 10 rows each on 2 socks! 10 x 2 = 20! Whatta genius.

(Temporary) Insanity

At least I hope it's temporary. I have way too many projects going. I want to be project monogamous, but still I persist in starting new ones.

Last night, I started Absorba from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I ordered the 3 cones of Peaches & Creme double worsted weight direct from Elmore-Pisgah online. Colors are eggshell, ecru, and earthtone ombre. Using size 15 Denise needles. Large needles and bulky yarn requires exaggerated hand movements, which make knitting seem very slow. I have done the center square and the first 2 1/2 of the 10 logs. This will be a lovely thick bath mat.
This is, um, the felted moebius swirl bag from Knitty Gritty, before felting. I've been married to this man for almost 25 years. Sometimes it's best just to go with the flow.
Here's the bag after felting, considerably smaller. The yarn is Araucania Atacama 100% alpaca from elann.com. I used less than one 50g/100m skein. I like the moebius twist in the handle. I'm thinking a larger bag would be nice. This little one was just a few hours worth of knitting, started & finished yesterday.
Snowflake eyelet socks using a yummy angora/merino blend. Pattern and yarn from Susan's Spinning Bunny. This was the January sock kit from her sock club, and I just started it a few days ago.
My 2nd pair of Big Black Socks for Socks for Soldiers, this time in KnitPicks Essential, on US1 needles. My 1st pair used a heavier yarn & fewer stitches, so the socks were quite thick.
The Stonington Shawl from Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine. I started this before I went to Italy, but it wouldn't have been very good traveling knitting because of the cone. The nifty cone twirly thing came from Bo Peep's Wool shop, which does not appear to be selling yarn or anything other than patterns now.
I'm expecting to produce incremental progress on all of these, so it may be awhile before we see anything finished.

Home Again

I have actually been home since Sunday, but busy catching up on reading email & other people's blogs. And then there was the little glitch in getting the pictures off the xD card and onto the computer, but I got that sorted out.
Projects completed while I was away:
The Fleece Artist socks for my daughter, the Princess. Color: Rose; Pattern: Central Air from BlueMoonFiberArts.

Baby Cable Rib socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. Color: Tuscany

I also made a scarf from the Fleece Artist cashmere that had 1st tried to be a Moebius cowl. I'm not too sure about this scarf, either, although it is very soft, warm, and lightweight. Here it is, keeping me warm on a recent chilly morning.

So, where was I? Well, I was here:

And here:

And, well -- this one's a dead give away. I kept it because it's so bad... the person who took it couldn't see the screen on the camera because it was so bright outside, so it's kinda funny.

Ciao!

I'm off on an adventure for a couple of weeks -- don't know if I'll have internet access (maybe if I had a laptop...), so I'll catch up with everyone when I get back.

Misty morning

This is what our little corner of the world looked like early yesterday morning.


And I got the "Mad stripes" socks finished. The original pattern was called "mad cow", because the designer used a black & white variegated and a solid black for the stripes.

Lots of catching up to do

Well, time flies...

First up, we have cashmere socks. I had ordered yarn samples from ColourmartUK, and they also sent a 50g ball of fingering weight yarn. So I started a sock, and tried to order more of the same yarn. Unfortunately, they didn't have any more, so I got some that looked similar. Obviously, it's darker, and obviously, these would have looked better with the dark yarn as the heels & toes, and maybe the ribbing at the top, but I think they'll stay like this. I used the garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. They may not be the most beautiful socks on the planet, but they are very soft, very warm, lightweight, and machine washable!

Next is the Nana Fascinator, from Mission Falls East+West booklet. The yarn is Mission Falls 1824 wool, in the color Heath. This yarn had tried to be a couple of other patterns, wasn't happy, and now has found its niche. I changed the edging on the pattern -- the fringey stuff. It was supposed to be crocheted, and looked a bit like flat mushrooms, so I knitted on a sideways fringe, which twists a little. I like it.

And here it is on Miss Shortstop. I guess she was going to trot off to wherever it is she stores her belongings outside. I got the scarf back before she got too far.

This lovely creation is the Moebius cowl that Cat Bordhi made on an episode of Knitty Gritty. I even got the Fleece Artist 4-ply cashmere specified in the pattern (I think the color is Renaissance). It really looks better lying on the deck than it does around my neck (hey, that rhymes!). Anyway, it was a very quick knit on size 10 circs, just one ball of the cashmere, several hours worth of knitting. I frogged it the next day. I think I'm done with moebius neckwear. I might try a basket or bag, though. Now I have to figure out what to do with the yarn. I'm thinking lightweight, narrow-ish scarf.

Felt clogs for me. See how the inside matches my pajama pants? Fiber Trends pattern, Elann.com Peruvian Highland wool.

And last, my socks for round 1 of Sock Madness. This is how far along I was when I found out my division was closed. Knocked out in round one. Oh, the humiliation. So, what do you think, Principessa? School colors? Would you wear them if they fit you?

And then there were two

I finished the Winter's Eve socks on Saturday, and wore them on Sunday. They are beautiful socks! (They hadn't been washed yet -- I think the little holes in the toe shaping will close up after they're washed.)

That's our old Sam dog on the right; the black spot where he seems to be looking is Shortstop, our (female) black lab. On the left in the background is the machine shed with large round bales of hay for the cows.

Then I cast on for another pair called Central Air, also from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. This was an extra pattern in the Rockin' Sock Club August '06 shipment, in case the main pattern, Titania's Revenge, required too much thinking.


I am using Fleece Artist Rose from The Loopy Ewe, and these are for the Princess, aka our College Girl. Instead of a standard heel, I decided these needed eye-of-partridge.

In case you're not familiar with eye-of-partridge, it's similar to your standard sl1, k1 heel stitch, but each right side row is offset by one stitch. In other words:
Row 1: *Sl1, k1, repeat from * across row.
Row 2: Sl1, purl remaining stitches across row.
Row 3: Sl1, k2, *sl1, k1, repeat from * across row, ending with a k (last repeat will be sl1, k2).
row 4: repeat row 2

If you lose your place and don't know whether you're on row 1 or row 3, do the first sl1, k1 and then look at the next stitch. If the stitch below the next loop is recessed from the surface, you need to slip it, and you are on row 1. If the stitch is raised from the surface, you need to knit it, and you are on row 3.

Almost forgot: eye-of-partridge draws up more than a standard heel stitch. How much? In order to do this scientifically, I made a standard heel out of the same yarn -- 32 stitches wide, 32 rows of heel stitch. It took 40 rows of eye-of-partridge to get to the same length. So if you're going to use this heel, plan on 25% more rows.

It seemed like the thing to do

So, I didn't go string beads for the second sock. I made a hat, instead. Voila:


The yarn is Noro Transitions, color #19. The pattern? Basically, measure your head, multiply by your gauge, cast on about an inch worth of stitches less than your head circumference, knit about 2", increase that inch worth of stitches, knit until the hat is tall enough (leave the edge rolled), then do the top decreases.

I frogged another hat, same pattern, same yarn, different color (#5):

It looks better in the skein than it does as a hat.

I wore my new hat this morning to drive my son to school. It was 12 degrees (F) out there.

Valentine flowers from my guys (that would be my husband and my son):

I did string the beads for the second Winter's Eve sock last night, and I cast on and knit the first several rounds of the sock this morning, then got distracted and started a scarf. Why? It just seemed like the thing to do.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just in time to celebrate, here is the Winter's Eve sock, pattern by Sivia Harding, for the December 2006 Rockin' Sock Club. Yarn is STR (of course!) lightweight in Mustang Sally.

Try clicking to make it bigger. I can't seem to get a picture where the beads show.

Unfortunately, I am not wearing this today, as there is only one. Gotta go string the beads for the second one.

New Project

Mmm, pretty...

But what could it be? Look carefully, there's a little surprise in the purl ribs.

Pink socks, anyone?

I decided I need some pink socks -- sort of a Valentine's Day inspiration. So I went stash diving, and this is what I found:

Clockwise from top left: KnitPicks Gloss, Burgundy; KnitPicks Sock Garden, Star Gazer Lily (discontinued); Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Get Knitted (this was a special colorway dyed for this seller, and I don't find it on their site right now); handpainted sock yarn from ebay seller kbrece; Fleece Artist (from the Loopy Ewe); Lang JaWoll color 82.0162 (from theKnitter.com); Socks that Rock lightweight, Mustang Sally; Gypsy Girl Creations, Painted Desert.

Now I just have to pick a yarn and a pattern! One possibility is the Gansey sock pattern from the EZasPi Yahoo group, which is hosting a Gansey workshop by Liz Lovick. One of the more solid yarns would probably be my best choice. I have just completed my first project from the Gansey workshop, a swatch pin cushion in Peruvian Highland Silk.

Snowy Evergreen Socks

The yarn (merino/angora blend -- yum!) & pattern for these socks came from Susan's Spinning Bunny. She started a subscription sock club last fall, and I managed to snag the last full-year subscription. I don't even remember how I found her website, but when I saw these socks, I just had to join! I started them right after the kit arrived, but was in the middle of Christmas gift knitting, so I put them aside about 4 rows into the tip of the trees on the first sock leg. A few days ago, I picked the sock up and switched from 14" straight needles to a 24" circular, working back & forth. Much more comfortable! After I finished the first sock leg, I decided to do the 2nd, then put them on a long circular needle to work both of the feet at the same time.
Finishing involved several more yarn ends to weave than I usually have for socks, and the seam up the back of the leg. I did that with mattress stitch, 1/2 stitch in from the edge, giving me an invisible seam on the outside:

and what appears to be a single stitch column down the inside. Gotta love that. Mattress stitch isn't the easiest thing in the world to learn, but it's definitely a technique that is worthwhile to have in your arsenal.