Been Awhile

I know, I know, I've really been neglecting my blog. But now that winter will be settling in, days are shorter and I should be on my treadmill, I will be knitting and spinning up a storm. I bought three new skeins of STR lightweight at Rhinebeck and I am on the foot of sock number one. I'm knitting bluebell rib from Charlene Schurch out of "Goody Goody" on size 2 needles for DD whose feet grow daily. I picked an easy rib pattern because of this as well as it'll have alot of stretch. Before long, she'll be up to grown up sizes. This is a 54 st sock! I couldn't resist having her pose on a blocker amongst the fall things being it's November 1.

I have been spinning away and I have completed a grab bag skein for my spinning guild holiday grab bag. (can't show you that one but it came out loverly!) I also got tons of fiber to spin so I'll be busy. I'm spinning some powder blue merino and white bamboo now and it's beautiful. That came from Creatively Dyed.

On the knitting front, I finally finished two UFOs. The pinkaboo blanket and the infamous remind-me-never-to-knit-in-black socks! No pinkaboo picture yet because it has to be blocked for a few weeks now...but, here's the black socks in my pumpkin studio.

I still have hubby's sweater to finish up though, the one that was supposed to be his Rhinebeck sweater for last year. It's oversized and he lost a bit of weight so I'm going to have to make larger than expected seams whenst I do finish this. I didn't like the way the pattern was written. I never seem to get row gauge. The back of the pattern had me knit a certain number of inches and the front referenced rows after the armhole decreases. My pieces didn't line up and now I have to redo the front to make it match the back. Frustrating....

My Knitpicks Harmony needles are the bestest provided that they don't come in anything smaller than a 2. I've consistently had the problem of the join breaking. On one of my 1.5's, the join came off the second time I used the needle and it came off on BOTH ends. I have to call them again. This is also frustrating to me. I'm being converted over to wood and can't have this happen all the time.

I'm still in Rhinebeck glee and can't wait until next year. Only 49 more weeks! I would love to go to MD S&W but that's not going to happen this year. DS is making his Communion that very day so we'll be home. Looks like I'm not going to get to another festival until Rhinebeck 2010. How dreadful.....

Well, time to get things in order for tomorrow and watch the World Series.

What a Week!

As some of you know, I have been knitting in the Solid Sock KAL on Ravelry. I started my peach pair of Milanese Lace on February 2nd all set with the intention of finishing within a week.

It's been a rough month. I did work on them and they're finished today, 26 days later; however, not without a war wound. These socks just weren't meant to be.

First, a broken needle.

Then, I couldn't find the matching wooly nylon which I had to use on sock 2 being I used it on sock 1.

Then, the directions being wrong for the lovely eye of partridge heel I wanted to do.

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.

Thing I learned this month: NuSkin really works!

Then..finally, I was on the foot of sock 2....then the toe this morning...and voila!

That's my lovely sock and a nice close-up of the pattern. I love them. Let's see if they grow when I wash them.

Hoping for better things in March. Color is GREEN!

Can I knit Green Socks or what??

Milanese Lace Sock

Happy President's Day!

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.....

Hello February!

Another month. It's the dead of winter here on Long Island. It snows a bit nearly every day, 2 inches here, 2 inches there. There have not been many warm days and I think we have snow on the ground from around Christmastime, believe it or not. Ugly bits of dirty icy old snow were covered today with a blanket of new snow. It was springlike yesterday and yet today we got another winter storm today and about 4" of snow. I would much rather have 30" of snow than all these itty bitty 'storms' because I only want to shovel once. 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.

Here's a close-up of the Eye of Partridge heel and the nice gussets. Much nicer than some of my earlier pairs. I used exactly 49 grams of yarn so I can easily make him another pair. The leg on this is on the longish side and they're a bit big for him so I'll be fine as long as it isn't a yarn eating pattern.

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!

Slipped Stitch Ribbed Socks

I'd like to start off this post by wishing everyone the very best of the season and hopes that we have a great 2009. Pray for peace and for a more stabilized economy this coming year.

Next up, actual knitting! We're all spun out, time for a post of some nice new socks that I made for my little girl. I finally finished the slipped stitch ribbed sock. Ravel it for the details. I was very happy with the way they came out; they're just a wee bit small. The little girl has grown about six inches in 10 months and I did have to buy her new shoes, new sneakers and new clothes. These are snug around her ankle now so next pair will need to be bigger. I bet I can't get two pairs out of one ball of yarn much longer. She needs to go to a 50-56 st sock in order to get them on her little feet.The colors are awesome! I made them out of a STR mill end that I got at the Fold booth at Rhinebeck. These are all her favorite colors, Dora and Neopolitan ice cream all mixed up with a little blue. No attempt was made to match the striping, obviously. I deliberately used this pattern to break it up. Straight stockinette would've worked, too.

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...

More Spinning or "What am I gonna do with this yarn?"

Ok, time to oogle!

So, I've been practicing spinning out of some gifted mystery fiber. It's probably BFL although we can't be sure because it wasn't labelled. It foofs up when it's underspun and BFL does that so I'm guessing that that is what it is.

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.

The bottom one isn't as nice as the first one but it's still very good. They're both spun much more evenly than anything else I've done prior to this and the twist will set much better when they've had their bath. I also made some autumn/pumpkin colored yarn in a light bulky weight that I didn't show you yet but I had some left over.

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.

Maybe one more skein out of mystery fiber and I'll be ready to tackle some of the nicer stuff I bought....like these:

That's BFL for the Evergreen Grove (I bought two of the Evergreen Grove) and Mixed berry Rambouillet. The lovely one on the bottom was irresistible to me. It's merino and it is lovely! I am saving that one. This give me a chance to try different fibers. By the time I spin and use what I have, I'll be ready to tackle that one and it'll be fall. Gorgeous. I actually love all of them. Not shown is 8oz of solid Louet Corriedale. I will show you that next time along with my current knitting projects which aren't going anywhere because all I do is spin and do exercise on the wii fit nowadays. Also, not shown is two skeins of autumn colored mystery fiber that is the color of the one in the mixed skein above. It's very pretty!

Now, in other news, remember that pair of Seeded Ribbing socks I made for my little boy? Well, I got an e-mail on Ravelry that they'd like to use my picture for the pattern page! I didn't get 'top booking' but if you ravel Charlene's Seeded Ribbing socks, you'll see my socks! On my little boy's feet! I made them! (Both, the feet and the socks.) I was ... honored! So, if you're looking for me and want my autograph or something, I'll be the one in the Jackie-O sunglasses and poofy scarf at Rhinebeck 2009. I'll also be carrying around 30lbs of fiber like some people I saw this year. It'll be really fun to go to Rhinebeck as a spinner. Only 10 more months!

Catching Up...

It's been a rough week. Kids are getting ready to go back to school, parents are ready to rejoice. Only a few more days, hang in there. It seems that at the end of the summer, they go a little crazy. Summer vacations are usually done, camp is done, days are getting shorter, fall is in the air. They're itching for something new. It's an ugly, rainy Saturday morning today. Husband went all the way out to Montauk to play a Wedding Ceremony at 1PM. In order to make it there on time, he left the house at 6:30AM. Holiday weekend, gotta pass the Hamptons, one road...could take a few extra hours. I miss him already. I need him to help me with my kiddies who have the End of Summer Crazies. Don't believe me, do you? Read on.......

This week, I telecommuted on Thursday. I got up extra early so that I could do mommy things before work. I planned on making meatballs and sauce at 5AM. So, at 5AM, I got up and went downstairs. I heard the pitter patter of little sneakers....I went into my sunroom to see my son.

"Hello, Mommy. I got up at 4:48 o'clock today. I made this".

He is very proud of his art. So, I let him play with it and proceeded to make sauce and do laundry before I had to start working. See those meatballs floating around in there? I dumped them in the pot, raw. It adds fat to the sauce and makes it extra delicious, of course. It also saves time, no frying or baking. The disadvantage is they tend to fall apart which is ok because then we just have meat sauce. I think next time I will lightly brown them in a hot oven on my Pampered Chef bar pan. Sauce was perfect. Kids and husband gobbled up almost all the meat. I stole two meatballs when no one was looking.

After making the pot of sauce, two loads of wash, running the dishwasher, I worked. At lunchtime, I stopped. I had to make him one of his favorite sandwiches. It had to be cottage cheese on white bread, not toasted and cut exactly the way he likes it. Surrounded by cherries to make it visually appealing. Surrounded by cherries so he could save the pits and plant them in the backyard so we can have a Cherry Orchard.

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!

Seeded Rib Socks..

Yes, another pair of socks is on the needles. I can't have my son feeling left out so I started these during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics on Sunday night. Start date is 8/24/08. I worked on them after I took this picture and I am nearly up to the heel flap. Maybe tonight I'll do that and take another shot!

My fall project is going to be a nice bulky tweed pullover from Knitting for Him. He has picked out "Shawl Collar Sweater" - ravel it here. Only a few projects in Ravelry so far so we'll see. It seems that it knits up with alot of ease and I'm considering making it out of Cascade 128 Chunky Tweed, the same yarn that I used for my Hooded Danbury Coat. My coat is also quite large (and STILL not blocked) so I'm going to carefully swatch out of the leftovers from that and calculate what we'll need. The yarn calls for even bulkier yarn but I can't afford the Rowan and I was thrilled with the Cascade so I'll use that.

Gotta walk just 1 mile this morning while reading Farmer Boy. I am re-reading the Laura Ingalls books as I walk across the country in my quest to be fit and literate. I read these back in grade school and they're great for treadmill walking, large print and easy words. One chapter is usually 20 minutes and it's perfect. I am not enjoying this one as much as the others, very descriptive. I don't remember reading this back in the day, it's the one about her husband's boyhood. It wasn't available on the bookmobile so I skipped over it when I went through the series.

Treadmill time!

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!

Mudslide Baby Cable Ribbed Socks and a Game for You!

Gee, isn't this what this yarn was supposed to do in the first place? Gee, wasn't the RPM pattern written for this yarn? Gee, did it matter that I used lightweight instead of medium weight or whatever it called for?

How do you like my Mudslides? The stripes are so definitive, this is just crying for a forethought heel, isn't it? I guess I'm going to have to learn how to do that. Soon, too. It's nearly time for the heel already.

Pattern: Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks

Yarn: Socks that Rock, Lightweight, Mudslide

Magic Loop, two at once.

Needle: Knitpicks 2.25mm, Size 1.

Cast on: 56 sts.

Start date: 2/24/08

Note: This is more a small/medium sized sock. The recipient is smaller framed and much thinner than I.

Oh, and BTW, you know how I live in a gameshow, right? I bought a new thing. Not really something that one would win on a gameshow.

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GAME SHOW TIME, can you guess what I bought?

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I'll give you some hints:

1. It has nothing to do with knitting or crafts that I would do; however, it was made by someone who has to be very much of a master craftsman. (or craftswoman...or craftsperson?)

2. It is energy efficient.

3. It is something that was invented many, many years ago. In fact, something that nearly everyone has had and it's been in existence for probably more than 1000 years.

4. They are available in various materials, plant, synthetic, mineral but the item seldom would be made of more than one of these as its main component.

5. It is silent. If it makes a sound, it would be annoying and you would probably fix it as quickly as you could.

I know you're out there and you lurk and you never leave a comment...comon, take a guess. Answer to be announced in a few short weeks when I will publish pictures of it.

Hmmnn..put on your thinking caps!

Bear Necessities...

Nutrisystems sends you a stuffed bear every time you lose 10 lbs. Mine arrived today.

Isn't he adorable?

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!

Later, that SAME Day...

I wanted to show you the Regia Bamboo Socks. They were done on knitpicks size 0 needles, twisted rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I didn't enjoy this yarn so much, it's not very elastic and the socks are a teeny bit on the larger size because the ribbing is not very clingy. The colors remind me of Monet and they're to be a gift to my Mother in Law who loves to paint. Now, to save them until Christmas....

I must admit that I do love the way that they feel and they'll be a nice summer sock.

Later, this SAME day, I will upload more pictures of WIP.