Sunday, November 1, 2009
Been Awhile
Saturday, February 28, 2009
What a Week!
Then, I accidentally put a twistie in the microwave. Did you ever read that metal in the microwave causes a fire? Well, it's true. I burned a nice hole in my left thumb the size of a pencil eraser. Major delay of game.
Then, we were fooling with the furn-a-kit hutch; changing it into a coffee table. Great idea until we had a small mishap and DH put his end in first and it gouged a piece of my left index finger out. Yep...1" long and 1/4" wide. That'll probably leave a nice scar.
Then..finally, I was on the foot of sock 2....then the toe this morning...and voila!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Milanese Lace Sock
Without further ado, Milanese Lace Sock #1 is done.
Here's a close up of the heel. I've used Wooly Nylon as a reinforcing thread and it was a perfect match. Good Stuff!
The pictures are a little dark, sorry about that. I'll take some good ones when both socks are complete. Busy today trying to clear out my office and balance my check book from 1997 to the present on Quicken so I can work on my taxes.
Back to the shredder.....
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Hello February!
Yesterday was Groundhog Day. Puxatawney Phil said six more weeks of winter but what's-his-face in Staten Island said spring is just around the corner. What kind of drugs was he on? Once the weather pattern is in place, it stays that way for the entire season pretty much. I predict spring will be late and I'm nearly regretting not digging up my Dahlias. Best to start shopping for bulbs now.
Anyway, I was able to knock out a third pair of socks for January. (well, technically, I finished them on February 1st.) Ok, I knocked out the first pair of socks for February. I finished a pair of Ridged Squares for my Dear Son. He wanted green socks and he got them.
For the February KAL for Solid Socks, I'm working on Milanese Lace in a none green color. See if you can guess what it is. Hint: They're not red either! Pictures next time!
Until next time, happy knitting!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Slipped Stitch Ribbed Socks
The toes are different but they're really cute!
As for this pattern, eh, so-so. It wasn't that fun to knit (as you can tell, these took me two months!) and I'm not so thrilled with the fabric. It's somewhat dense because of all the slipped stitches (maybe why they came out so tight?). I really liked the pair that I made my son, the Seeded Ribbing, much better. I made them slightly larger, anticipating growth as I made them this past summer. You can see them on the Ravelry page for this pattern. (Notice I told you that the other day as well as today, you can see that I'm still happy about that. I don't know if they chose my picture because they came out nice or the photography was nice but I think it may be a little bit of both! I sure hope so! DH, who is discovering that hand knitted socks are a wonderful thing, truly liked this pair and wants some for himself. I have some woodsy brown Lang Jawoll that I can make him a pair out of but I have my eye on the Merino Lace from Favorite Socks. The picture in the book doesn't do it justice. I was checking out a few on Ravelry and they're beautiful!
Alas, while I'm in get things finished mode, I'd like to finish up the Shawl Collar Sweater which has suffered a major setback. I was sailing along until the stupid instructions had me knit "20 rows less than on back" for the front and it just didn't work for me. I finished the front, seamed the shoulders and guess what? The front was about 1.5" longer than the back. So, finally, I got up the mo-jo to take out the seam and rip out out down to a point where I can fix that, along with the decreases for the collar. What a pain in the @(!&%@. Of course, it's now sitting on the needles and every night he says, "So, how's my sweater? I could've used it today, it is wintertime".
I'm adding some craft books to my library, I'll show you to them next time. I got a gift card for Christmas so I used it. I also think I'm going to order a camera bag with my other AmEx gift card, or maybe save it and use it towards a lens....we'll see. Gotta wait until things turn around a bit.
Have you seen mortgage rates? Hmmnn...maybe refi the house at 4.3%, pull out enough money for an alpaca farm....get the bag and the lens...some fiber...
Saturday, December 20, 2008
More Spinning or "What am I gonna do with this yarn?"
I'm having less trouble with the wheel since the last guild meeting. When I was plying up the undyed Corriedale, I needed Lance Armstrong thigh strength when the bobbin was getting full. I have learned more about proper tension and I'm getting much better at spinning evenly. I was able to make these two skeins of lemon lime somewhat heavy worsted weight (I didn't check the WPI yet) yarn.
I also had a bit lemon lime left over on one bobbin so I decided to ply them together. This isn't at all beautiful; however, it was a lesson for me. I could easily see how the yarn was twisting together and work on my plying skills. This was only a few yards, a sample for me. Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's a strange color combo.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Catching Up...
Can you cut a sandwich like that? Who said girls are harder than boys? She eats whatever is put in front of her. This applies even if it happens to be in someone else's bowl.
DS & DD,Sharing a bowl of Rice Crispies. Noticed they used a divided bowl, don't want to get each others "COOTIES".
By nightfall, they were tired. Work was done and it was time to knit the socks. I got up to the heel flap and I crashed. (Remember, I always tell you, never knit when you're too tired! I do not take my own advice often enough and this is what happens.)
These are for my DS, who has little boy feet, size 12 shoes. I will make them a little longish and hopefully he can wear them 2-3 years, we'll see. I guess that depends on how he grows. I wanted to use the regular slip stitch heel flap but I didn't. I put in stockinette stitch, forgetting to slip. Dopey. Also, pattern has an odd number of sts in the heel, which I DETEST because I can't think that way. 48 sts around, 24 each sole and instep. Bada-bing (I'm keeping with the Italian flair to this post, have you noticed?) and you're done. No dice. I ripped it out. I also had to be a smart ass and knit them both at the same time and I turned in the wrong place. I ripped it out. Then, I noticed that a stitch that was supposed to be a purl was a knit. It was about half way down the sock. In fact, there were two of them that were wrong. Very, noticeable. You probably can't see it here but I can. I put the sock to bed Thursday night and scheduled its surgery for 5AM Friday morning.
Friday morning, I prepped the socks. (one stitch each sock was wrong...) I put one sock on a holder and worked on the other. "Crochet Hook", I said to the nurse, my trusty dog, Zoey, and I proceeded. I dropped the stitch back eight million rows and fixed it. Second sock, at 5:25, alot faster. Probably because I had my coffee. DS stayed in his bed a little later, thankfully. DH got up early to help me handle the kiddies, thankfully. Sock was fixed.
The crazies continued during the day when the little Punkins called 800 numbers to buy stuff off the television. You know, stuff they need, Rainbow brushes, Oreck Vacuum cleaners, that chamois wipey thing that the "Germans make", Hank Williams classic CD Collection and Sledge-o-Matic. Thankfully, DH was able to nip this in the bud.
Friday night, socks were together at last on one needle. I clipped them together with a holder, a guaranteed prevention of turning in the wrong place. I knit the heel flaps, turned heel on sock one and turned heel on sock two. I actually knit them together on a single needle all through the gusset decreases and no errors. YAY. Don't ask me how I did this. I know how to do it but I haven't figured out how to explain it. You need to have a spare DPN or two and it's not really hard once you think about it. Just remember, you have to knit all of the soles and then all of the insteps. If the sts are in the wrong place, slip them to the DPN. Keep slipping them and knitting them on and off in order and voila, at the end of a row (or two, if you miss the first time) everything will be lined up. This took me three attempts when I first did it and now it's cake. I will attempt to document it and photograph it someday.
Finally, this morning's knitting session, which began at 6AM (I let myself sleep in a bit because it's Saturday) went swimingly. I know this is a really cruddy picture but I'm well on the way to completion now. I'm past the halfway point of the foot and should have nice FO pix within a day.
Ah, Saturday. We didn't have eye candy yesterday but I have a feeling we will have a nice sky picture for tonight....hopefully a good one. The end of a rough week.
We'll be saying goodbye to summer tomorrow and I hope to have some nice pictures to help us all remember it. This way, we can look back in January and say, "look at that nice rainy weather".
Stay tuned, I can't wait to tell you and show you my new trinkets. I am going to work on a special project next and guess what? It's not a sock!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Seeded Rib Socks..
Thursday, March 27, 2008
A Trip to the City .. and my new project
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!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Mudslide Baby Cable Ribbed Socks and a Game for You!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Bear Necessities...
He posed with the socks and he posed with the Wallaby. Later, we got a knock on the door at 8:20 AM. I was in my PJs working on the sock. I couldn't let whoever it was SEE ME. I totally forgot about the rocks being delivered. They came today!
Isn't that a cool action shot of the dump truck? We are going to put them all around the pool. The kids are supposed to help with that project and I am supposed to be food shopping. They're upstairs destroying the house and I'm here blogging away.
In the knitting world, the socks above SHOULD be done tonight. Maybe not kitchenered closed but maybe so. I like this two socks at once bit. Ok, ok, I did knit them together last night but that's what happens when one knits and sleeps at the same time. I am just about up to the toe decreases and I am getting very excited about it. I will try them on tonight. They're a gift for my aunt and her foot is a little smaller than mine. (a little shorter, a lot narrower so I am a bad model.) My foot is so incredibly wide...like 10" in circumference, maybe even more. I just don't know if the STR is going to cut it for me. Even this pair, I'm using cherry tree hill, 420 yards and I'm starting to run low. Remember how I took out an entire sock because it was too narrow? Well, that yarn only lasted to the ball of the foot when I widened the pattern by a few stitches. Amazing.
It's sad because I am considering making the cross hatch lace pattern out of the rose quartz but I don't want to run out and I don't want anklets. Let me think about it. I am going to finish this pair tonight so I have one night to 'sleep on it'. The poncho won't be started until the Wallaby is done and that seems to be going slowly now that I have had to knit it twice. I'm up to the rib area somewhere. I may work on that tonight instead, depends on how tired I am.
Hey, Knitpicks now offers 32" cabled circulars in some new sizes. I have to get me some of those. That should work fine for two socks at once. It's ok now that I have the hang of it, just a little tight. I also want to do two socks, toe up someday. I'm not brave enough to try that yet though.
Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have a fo to show you. Nice new socks!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Later, that SAME Day...
Later, this SAME day, I will upload more pictures of WIP.