Toe-Up?

A few weeks back, maybe longer, I bought Socks From the Toe Up so I could, you know, look at the pictures. I haven't knit a sock toe up yet. I actually tried to do two at a time, Magic Loop, toe up but the dog attacked it and I haven't gone back. :(

I am really enjoying the pictures in this book! I decided to tackle my nemesis, a toe up sock. While I was tackling, I tackled Judy's Magic Cast On. I must admit, dealing with the magic cast on is much nicer than dealing with waste yarn and unzipping. It wasn't overly difficult to figure out, I think once I got the hang of it I thought it was ingenious. It's also alot easier than casting on two socks at once, 70 sts each, all those strings hanging, one circular. This was cake compared to starting a top down sock.

So, first, I picked a "wild" handpaint, STR Minestone.

The colors are pretty. I don't really like the name for this colorway. It reminds me of snow covered evergreens with pine cones not a mine. Winter Pines or something like that would be nicer than MINESTONE. But alas, I don't get to name yarn.

ANYWAY...

Then, I attempted the cast on. This took awhile. I practiced it a few times so I would feel confident.

Here's the top view.

And here's the back or the bottom view.

It looked like it was right and like it would work. After you do this, you just flip it over and start magic looping.

Here's the tip of the toe after a few rows of increases. I do have a small hole where the tail is. Hmmn... Nothing that I can't snug up when I weave in the yarn. I also have small ones where the M1's are but I didn't know if twisting them would be uncomfortable or ugly so I did them the normal way.

See, you can't see any holes from the side.

Then, I stuck it on my foot to see how it would look....

Of course, this is as far as I'll get. I don't know how to knit toe up socks! I'll just make one long foot - clown feet!

Stay tuned to see what transpires...pattern details and progress coming soon to a blog near you.....

Ride, Sally, Ride!

Busy knitting...here's a sneak peak.There's a teeny weeny hole near the cuff there...I may've missed picking up the wrapped stitch. The markers tell me where to do things on the second sock, which should be started tonight.

This pattern is NOT easy but can be done if you're paying attention. The sts used are cake, the construction is just so different than the norm! Parts of the sock are worked back and forth in rows. The chevrons are set up with short rows, the heel and then the gusset shaping is odd. I wasn't sure that I had that right initially but it worked out just fine. The toe decreases are kind of a pain and time consuming if you're magic looping. Throughout the sock, you rearrange the stitches. My "foot" portion was only a few rows. If you're working on this and saying, "Hmmn...I'm supposed to start the toe now? So soon? The whole ball of my foot is hanging out". Well, that's the way it is. The toe is like 40 rows. Mine started at the purple bow! I think that I might've been able to go down a needle size to a 1.25 size 1 although the fit is very good with the 1.5.

I love the color. I love the pattern and I can't wait to make another pair in a wild multi! Maybe Hard Rock!

Eye Candy Friday, Rhinebeck, Zigzag Sock

Picture time!

First up, let's look at some more Rhinebeck pictures.
Just pictures of the crowd, walking around. I see Harry Potter stripes there in the foreground, nearly matches the beautiful trees.

STR, LSS in "Bleck" whatever a bleck is....its lavender and I will photograph it again. I couldn't stop pettng it so I had to take it home with me.

My son coming down the slide in his Weasley sweater.

This was taken on the peaceful wagon ride, pulled by those two lovely horses from last times post. Time to remove the polarizing filter, I'm afraid. I got them to stop and pose for me so I will show you another picture of the lovely horses.

Ah fall, time for celosia. Love the colors.

There was a big turtle or tortise. I don't know which one is which.

This nice lady was playing with that beautiful wheel. Notice the carving work, a work of art! This can be viewed at Golding's website. I got to try it, too and made a small mess. It was only my second time spinning on a wheel. She gave me a quicky lesson so I could proceed to ruin the fiber.

My babies having hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. They even got their picture taken with a sheep! My daughter loves sheep, my son was a bit leary...
Check out this picture, yarn spun from dog fur! No sheep for you!
A rare photo of me, my daughter and my son wearing sweaters all made by me. Mine is the hooded Danbury from Lion Brand's website made out of Cascade. It's a little big, so I have the sleeves rolled up. I steamed blocked it. The other person is my friend with her son. She gets to live up there and can be at Rhinebeck in half an hour. She's lucky. PLUS, she will soon be a knitter.

Now, regular pictures. I finished my Zigzag sock last night and will update Ravelry tomorrow morning.

Here's the sneak peak.

And finally, a boring picture but you can see ...

The First Frost has arrived! It was in the upper 30's last night!

Stay tuned for the next sock project in which I use this mill end....Dora colors...to be loved my little girl.

Rhinebeck - Part One

Ah, Draft Horses, fall colors and.....some of my haul from Rhinebeck.

Yes, I'm back! Yesterday, I roused the kids and the husband at 4:45AM, "comon, let's go!" and we got in the car and left the house at 6:10 AM. One stop on the road around 8AM (when it happened to be 34 degrees and I was freezing, woolies and all!) and we arrived at precisely 9AM. The parking lot was somewhat full already and the gates were only open for a few moments. I grabbed my Stop N Shop tote and bag, woke the kids and hustled off to The Fold to raid the STR.

Needless to say, it was a mob scene. I ran into Christine A., who was behaving and not buying all that much. Shortly afterwards, Elizzabetty, arrived and she was trying to be good like Christine. Behind her are the mill ends, tons of them. They were gone when we went back later in the day. I was lucky to get three of them. I also got two skeins of Soft Touch Ultra in "Straw" which I think I'm going to adore. One other skein of some autumn colored sock yarn and then a moment of weakness. I bought a Bosworth Spindle and some lovely purple roving. I was able to spin some yarn on it this morning. I plan on getting a wheel, maybe in early 2009, we'll see how things go. It was really fun to do and I would show you but I just exceeded my Picassa photo limit. Pictures coming next time!

I was able to see my friend, Marina, who is lucky enough to live in upstate New York only a half hour from Rhinebeck but she doesn't knit, .... yet. We'll get her going soon enough. She brought her adorable little boy who my kids loved playing with. (Pictures next time.)

Everyone was sporting their Ravelry buttons and wandering around with bags of roving, fleece and yarn. There was a petting zoo and I even saw a kangaroo with a little joey in her pouch. He briefly popped his head out to see things.

Greetings from Sock Heaven!

I'm so happy! I finished my Spinel Spring Forward Sock! YAY!
Pattern: Spring Forward - knitty.com
Needle: Knitpicks Options - size US 1.5 - 2.5mm
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight, Spinel
Date Started: July 12, 2008
Finished: July 19, 2008
Gauge: 7 sts per inch


They're super nice. This is an easy lace pattern, more of a snap than Monkey although I think that I like Monkey better. I am not so sure that I like it in the variegated yarn. I loved it in the beginning and was falling out of love with it in the middle. I was back in love with them after I put them on. According to Elizzabetty, it takes that with lace. "Lace Socks tend to look like Shar Peis until you try them on." Words of wisdom. See my little Shar Peis?


No sooner did I put them on that I decided the next project would be Embossed Leaves with long tail cast on, twisted rib and there is NO WAY I am breaking the yarn after the heel flap so stay tuned. That just seems silly to me. Especially in a place where (EEK!) one could possibly get a hole at a later date.


I couldn't decide whether to do these in a solid or a variegated and the Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome that I bought last year has been burning a hole in my dwindling stash lately. I wanted to try it out. I don't have a solid but for some reason I thought I had Cherry Blossom, which is more white than anything else. I have birches. BUT, look what they did to me!

The label lies:

ahem.... The scale doesn't. (Unless it's weighing me, of course.)

Yes, I weighed the entire thing before I started to wind it up and yes both of my yarn cakes weigh 45 grams so I'm good and should have plenty of yarn. But 9 grams is alot to be shy! Those Cheapskates. Weasels. Infidels. AND, this is my favorite yarn, more so than STR because it's thinner and nicer to actually wear. I like CTH, Valley Yarns Franklin and STR. In that order.


Let's see how this goes. This yarn looks really fat in the hank but smooshes down like the Smooshy when you actually knit with it. The twist is looser than STR and CTH Supersock. I'm liking the colors alot! It's Birches.


Stay tuned for pictures of my newest WIP!

Spring Forward Update

Woo-hoo!

Leg is almost done! I had some time last night so I completed 2.5 repeats of the pattern to complete the leg. Per the pattern, the heel can start here or after the third repeat. I'm going to keep going, 12 more rounds and then it's heel time! I should have enough yarn.

I don't believe that this is as stretchy as the pattern led me to believe. The ribbing is STILL snug on my leg. Could it be that all this treadmill walking has given me Incredible Hulk Calves? I'm thinking, on my next pair, to go up a needle size for the ribbing only. Also, the best ribbing is the K2, P2.

The other thing is, this is the first time I did the twisted rib ribbing. Maybe it's a teeny bit smaller?

Have you seen the group "52 Pair Plunge" on Ravelry? You have to knit 52 pairs of socks in a year. from Midnight 6/1/08 through midnight 5/31/09. I mean, I think I could knit a pair of socks in five days, or even less if I have the time and I put my mind to it. But this, it'd be like working overtime for an entire year! Knitting and working would be my life. The way I figure it, you'd have to do a pair every 4.5 days on average, just to keep up. Somewhere during theyear, there's going to be a time where you can't do a pair in 7 days. Things happen, weddings, vacations, busy weeks with school/work/family, holidays, business trips, illness. You might be at places that wouldn't be as receptive to public knitting or you might just be too plain tired. Or the Gremlins might get you and you have to frog back. This is harder than the Knitting Olympics. SOCKS, EVERY SINGLE DAY. ALL YEAR. Membership is closed now but some people have already knit 9 pair! WOW! Hats off to them! I don't even think that I could blog every day for a whole year.

I'm going to watch, see how many really do it.

Spinel Spring Forward Socks

Yesterday, my husband decided to do a gig for his computer consulting. He left the house early and left me with the children, fast asleep. It was early. I had plenty of time. I figured that I would pick a color and wind it up into two balls and knit (reknit?) the Spring Forward socks.

After examining my stash pile of STR ... Downpour, Hard Rock, Rauen, Stormy Weather, Spinel, (I know, it's kinda small)...and, sadly, no really springy colors....I decided to go with Spinel. I saw YarnGurl's Waving Lace Socks on Ravelry and thought that my Spinel would knit up into a nice Spring Forward sock with minimal pooling. Waving Lace is a similar pattern and also in my queue. (I don't really like pooling all that much). Then, the Gremlins came out. They came out just as the yarn was on the swift and the kiddies woke up and were downstairs yelling something about wanting Rice Krispies and where's daddy. The swift was flying away and I hit a bump. Damn yarn got all tangled up in many places. I don't know how that happened, stuck down in the bottom of the ball winder, wrapped around the pole of the swift, underneath my foot. They move fast, those little buggers. I left it. I went out to feed the kids and came back to yarn hell. It took awhile but I was determined not to have Ruby Slippers, Butter Peeps and Spinel strewn about the house along with the laundry, dust bunnies and the dog hair.

It worked out ok, I got two nice balls wound up, each at 2.5 oz each. I didn't want to knit and be lost with the ends getting tangled, but I took care of that. Yes Siree, those Gremlins ain't gonna get my yarn tangled this time!

Then, kids were yelling about something again. So, I told them they could swim and I would watch them and knit. I can do that with this pattern, it's easy. (Not like Baby Fern, I have to pay attention more and the needle is smaller.) In the pool they went and I knit for a bit.

I photographed them against natural colored cement and these colors are very true.

Pattern: Spring Forward from knitty.com

Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight

Colorway: Spinel

Needle: Knitpicks Options US1, 2.5mm

Start Date: Saturday, July 12, 2008

What d'ya think? Nice, hah? I wish with all my heart that STR would come out with dark green semi solid like this. This is more blue-green / tealy. I like some of the new colors they have. It may be time for another four to add to my stash.....so much yarn needed, so little money to spend.

......Is there prize money for beating the Gremlins?

Later, that Same Day..........

This morning, I told you about working on socks toe up. I was very excited about these socks, actually. I chose the pattern Laburnum from Sensational Knitted Socks. I got them on the needle the right way and was merrily on my way to the heel.....see!

So happy was I that I even took them outside....

ah...so lovely my little toes.

In the afternoon, it was warm and I needed to take a lunch break from work. The kids were back from karate camp and hubby was on his way home to watch them while I finished working. I took the sock outside for some sun and to watch the kids in the pool.

They spent the afternoon there, in a basket.

I spent the afternoon working and then cooking dinner.

The dog spent the afternoon.....

Eating my socks, making a hole in the yarn and breaking it AND eating the needle. (Note the broken end!!). UGH! GOOD GRIEF!! WTF?

(calming down to my usual motherly, non-cursing self...)

Boys and girls, can you say, LIVID??

So, back to the drawing board for a third time with Ruby Slippers. I hope I can still reuse this yarn after frogging and refrogging and winding twice....better take out Butter Peeps instead tonight. Nice light color...probably top down it this time. I will work on them after treadmill, kids get bath and husband is sleeping.

Ok, in case I don't post tomorrow, I leave you with three pictures..
Dragon in a tree.

Life Among the Dahlias... Baby Fern progress here! More on this in a future post!



Dog doing time.....
No explanation necessary.

Bad, bad, Zoey....

Odds and Ends

Well, I've chosen Baby Fern from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch for this lovely dark green yarn. So far, I only have one repeat done but it is going smoothly and not worth showing you a picture until there is a bit more meat.

Being I spent this weekend rearranging my house to make more room for my ever increasing stash tidy up a bit, there wasn't much knitting. The flowers are blooming, the birds are twittering, the days are getting longer and the stash has been enhanced:



Valley Yarns Huntington, which bears a striking resemblance to Cascade Heritage, in green and red. To the right, Louet Gems in Champagne.


I am very excited over the Huntington yarn. It's nice, it's thin, a teeny bit splitty and screams for nice intricate patterns. Not overly expensive either! The colors are gorgeous in person, it's a darkening sky here today...

I haven't worked with Louet yet but I'm looking forward to it. I am considering making those into Waving Lace socks.



Next up, a member of everyone's top ten list of favorite sock yarn: STR:




l to r: STR - Downpour, Hard Rock, Mustang Sally

Ah, STR, a pleasure to work with... I want to be able to complain about the pooling. Mustang Sally isn't as solid as I wanted. She is my second choice for Waving Lace.

The Palindrome scarf is well on its way to being a grown up scarf. This pattern eats yarn though. Each ball makes about 10" of scarf so this is an expensive endeavor. I am using Plymouth Royal Silk Merino and it's absolutely lovely gorgeous and yummily delicious.


Nothing new with my Dragon Scarf, the yarn broke and I have yet to reattach. Wow, I currently have three WIPs. That's alot!

Just so you don't think that I only photograph wool, here's a picture of Saturday's sky, with telephone lines. Too bad I wasn't down by the water or in the park for this sunset. It was spectacular.



I am home from work today, enjoying my aloneness.

Time to knit!

Tidal Waves and Las Vegas

First off, my latest FO:

Pattern: Textured Rib
Yarn: STR, Black Onyx Lightweight
Needles: Knitpicks Options, size 1 2.25mm, magic looped
64 sts casted on.
Started: March 23, 2008
Finished: April 9, 2008

I finished them Thursday night and they're great. Remind me not to work with Black Yarn until I move to Alaska and decide to knit socks...in June...This is really hard on the eyes and had they been another color, I would've finished them days earlier.

So, I put down my Waving Lace, sadly. I picked up Pebble Beach and started the Tidal Wave socks. This pattern is cake, no purl stitches and goes nice and fast. I wound the ball up and this time I'm knitting one at a time. Not sure if this is going to be a mistake or not.....It's kinda weird that beginning of the row isn't where you would think it would be. I took this shot at the end of the fourth (I think....you know I can't count rows/repeats very well...) repeat and the tail is now in the middle of the row. The marker was placed at the start of the round and it's moving. Everything is moving...ebb and flow...in and out. This is a really neat pattern. There aren't any purl stitches and every other row is knit. Sort of like the Eleanor pattern with a nice twist to it. The pebble beach yarn is made up of the most lovely beachy colors. I will certainly photograph these in the sunlight ... or even on the beach. We'll see. I'm somewhat happy with the way the colors are playing out, not pooling like in RPM. A spiral would actually be desirable with this pattern, it keeps the motion of the ocean going. I haven't tried them on. They're a perfect gift for my sister in law who loves the beach, goes nearly everyday and even surfs. She skis too. These will make nice skiing socks.



In other news, my sonny boy hit a milestone the other day. I don't have a great picture of it yet though. Naturally, I cried...he's really growing up so much.
Here he is nearly crashing into our neighbor's car.

I took him over to the church parking lot, took off the training wheels and off he went. He was so pleased with himself. He started jumping up and down, "It's awesome! I did it!! I am so awesome!!" Now, the worries start, bike, bigger bike, car, girlfriend (OMG!!), college, wife, kids...

Oh, the title of this post is sorta weird...I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow morning for work. I thought it would be cool to take the socks with me and hopefully photograph them shooting craps or something like that. ;)

I may take Waving Lace with me and make it out of a different yarn....just for, variety. It's a long plane ride, too. Plus, I'll be travelling alone this time. I need to get some good blog fodder to entertain myself.

A Change of Heart....

I have been knitting away on Waving Lace and have decided that I really like the pattern but I don't like Lorna's Laces with it. I don't know. I want to like Lorna's Laces. The colors are lovely. I loved the Shepard's Worsted and the way my poncho came out but I can't get into the sock yarn. I think..it's..darest I say it...??? It's nice, it's pretty, but it screams for a 00 needle and I can't do it. First off, that would mean no magic looping. Secondly, how much of a difference could there be betwix the 00 and the 0? I made the Waving Lace (well, started...) on 2.25mm, size 1's and it's too loose. I have to use fatter yarn or smaller needles, in which case, they won't fit. I'm frogging them back and holding onto the beautiful Douglas Fir yarn for another project that I can use 0s on.

In the meantime, it's off to Vegas on Sunday. A work trip, not a fun only trip. I may be able to take crop circle pictures again. I am flying out and back alone and I think that, if I'm not too tired, I should return with a lovely pair of socks. The pattern and yarn that I've chosen for this trip is Tidal Wave Socks and the STR Pebble Beach.

Isn't that a good choice? I will continue the wave pattern onto the instep and modify the pattern a bit here and there but I think that this will be an excellent choice for my size 1 needles. They will be for my sister in law, the surfer girl who will love the colors and the pattern. Too bad summer is coming and it's not wool sock season. This won't eat up alot of yarn, which is good because STR is kinda skimpy and there is always the chance of running out. In fact, this will be mindless plane knitting, me thinks.

A Trip to the City .. and my new project

Yesterday, I went to visit my co-workers in the NYC office. I took DD with me because she loves to see the city, the dinosaur at Toys R Us, likes the pizza, and loves the train. She's becoming more and more demanding, like The Brat in Willy Wonka, Violet. She even says, "I want it now!!"

Silly me, took her to NYC, took her to Toys R Us, took her to see the dinosaur and took the camera. I left The Sock on my desk at work so it didn't get to see the dinosaur! That would've been a great picture. The expression on DD's face when the dinosaur roared..holding the sock.

At first, he just examined the scenery....

I am working on a new sock! It's just a plain black one, using Charlene's Textured Rib pattern. I'm using STR, Black Onyx, 64 sts casted on, size 2 needles, magic looping, two at a time. This is my first sock on 2's. I went to the 2 because they're for hubby and I didn't want to run out of yarn going at a smaller gauge, especially with STR, which is nice but skimpy on yardarge. For some reason, the black feels thicker. I'm just about ready for the heel flap and I only started this about three days ago. Pattern = piece of cake. I'm thinking that I'm moving up to 'intermediate - experienced" sock knitter now. (Yes!! Goal in life, accomplished!!) I'm scaring myself looking at harder patterns. I looked at the chalet socks pattern, with travelling stitches, the zig zag socks from Vogue (easier by far!) and Bavarian Socks. You can see them on Grumperina's website, they're lovely. Being the expert (she's past 'experienced' knitter by far!) She notes the mistake in the pattern. I'll try it and see what happens and I'm leaning towards this as my next project....either Bavarian sock or Waving Lace. (I know...I'm out of control lately.)

Next question. This book has been out awhile. It's not that great of a book but it's more than 'ok'. The Bavarian sock, among others, are truly lovely. Why only five projects on Ravelry so far? (soon to be six)....

Then, he spotted her!! Ready to eat my baby! Poncho and all! Turn up your speakers!

Mudslingers, Mudslides, STR, and RPM

My hairdresser, Barbara, is an interesting person. She is a classy kinda gal, lives in a nice house not too far from the water on the South Shore of Long Island. She loves to have a good time and she loves to go dancing. I was thinking of making her a scarf but she had mentioned how she was out one night and called "Mudslides" "Mudslingers". We had a nice chuckle over that. She has seen some of my sock creations and would love a pair of her own. She wanted plain black, which I talked her out of. Mudslingers would be more her speed!

I love the STR yarn but I'm becoming more and more partial to the nearly solid of Rose Quartz as opposed to the stripey-ness of some of the others. I really, really love Ruby Slippers and I'm holding onto it for just the right pattern. Mudslide has been in my stash for awhile. It reminds me of drinking Bailey's Irish Cream with a Vanilla Ice cream Floating in it. Ah....the days when I was thinner and younger. The richness, the smoothness of the speckled Breyer's vanilla floating in a pillow of Bailey's Irish Cream, giving it that appropriate tang. That's what Elizzabetty and I used to do for fun back in the day. To think, all of those memories, wrapped up in a yarn. What more could one want for a snowy February night's worth of knitting?

The stripes weren't working for me. What pattern, what to do? Then, during an e-mail conversation with my partner in crime yarn consultant, Elizzabetty, she suggested, "Why not knit RPM?" EUREKA!!

After finishing up Eleanors for Eleanor, (quick, soundtrack of Eleanor Rigby should be playing in your head..."Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been") I decided to whip out Mudslide and take it for a spin. I got out my scale and weighed out two balls of equal weight, 60 grams each. I clipped, I rewound the ball in the opposite direction so they'd be coming out of the skein the same way and casted on two at once, magic loop. Now, some of you may not think of this, yarn has a twist to it. It goes in one direction. Think of the little spinsters at the spinning wheel, they're pushing all of the fiber in one direction. If you look at it under a microscope, I betcha you can see the difference. If you knit two socks, with opposite directions, you just might be able to detect a difference. It would be, well, the nap of the fabric that you create. (Analytical scientist in me comes out once in awhile.) So, best to rewind the second ball in the opposite direction so that the yarn is going in the same direction for both socks. Also, if your yarn is striped, you'll be knitting the stripes in reverse order if you don't do this.

Anyway, I proceeded to cast on for RPM with the intention of knitting two at once using the magic loop method. To do this, you cast on 1/2 the stitches for the first sock and then all of the stitches for the second sock. Then, you fumble with the needle a bit and cast on the remaining stitches for the second sock and voila, ready to go. I have really given up on 'joining' and just work the tail into the beginning when the sock is done. It's just too difficult for me to get it nice and neat. I knitted the funky ribbing pattern, two at once, quite successfully. When I got into the pattern; however, I had to separate the socks. This isn't a pattern worked over a multiple of stitches with a nice repeat. It just doesn't work out that way. It would be difficult to work two at once, setting myself up for disaster. So, I'm going to do one to the heel and then the other to the heel and; heavens to Betsy, consider doing a forethought heel. I wouldn't want to distort the pattern of the striping pooling that I have going on. Note in the photo below, I've already separated the socks and worked a few rounds of the pattern.

Pattern: RPM available on knitty.com

Yarn: Socks that Rock, Lightweight, Mudslide

Needle: Knitpicks size 1 2.25

Casted on: 63 sts and the size is perfect!

Tablecloth: Linens & Things

It's Friday, it's snowing and I have a nice picture to show you for Eye Candy Friday:

Gotta work on my photography! Maybe we'll do a walk in the woods later this afternoon and I'll have a prettier one for you.

Ok, ok, here's another shot, at least give me credit for taking away the "Christmas Pumpkins" from my stoop!

Stay tuned for more RPM!