Sock Innovation

I finally got my new book, Sock Innovation, by Cookie A. I was happy with the patterns but not totally thrilled. :( The book is well laid out and there is alot of information on designing socks that I haven't seen anywhere else; however, the patterns are similar. Many of them use cables, most will look nicest in solid colors and all are top down. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited over this book! Maybe that's my problem, the months of anticipation and then I get it and it's a little teeny bit of a letdown. Hmmmn...we'll see. I haven't decided what I'm going to make next. I love her patterns though and will make a few of them!


I promised a better picture of my mis-matched Embossed Leaves, one with FLOWERS...SPRING!! Here it is.


The crocuses have finally bloomed!

I need to get out there this weekend, with my camera and go on a spring picture taking stroll through the woods!

Off to knit more PinkaBoo!

Embossed Leaves

Good Morning...or is it? It's 5:25 AM and another dark and stormy day in New York. I think we're going from winter blizzards to April showers. I prefer when we have a long drawn out spring. Some years, it seems, we go from winter to summer in like, a week. Others, it's drawn out. At this point, I'm thinking it's never going to be summer.

Many, many things have been happening. We have a new addition on the block! I am making her a blanket that I have been calling pinkaboo after the cotton fleece color. I've only done a few rows so nothing new to report there. I also bought a gift...actually, a few. Ok, ok, more than a few. This is a very, very special baby.

In order to get crackin' on the blanket, I had to get my March KAL off the needles. Embossed Leaves. I made them out of Knitpicks Kettle Dyed Ivy. I was very excited about this yarn, until last night.

Now, as I said, it's a dark and dismal day and these will certainly be photographed outside if the sun ever returns but...look closely...they don't match!

The sock on the right is more olive and the one on the left is more emerald. Yes, same dyelot and yes, I pulled the yarn from the same direction on each ball. I like the effect of the kettle dye, it's a solid but it's not! These will be gifted, they're a little short for me in the leg and in the toe. Besides, I have ALOT of socks. Into the Christmas gift basket. I will wash them and hope that they even up a bit but I'm nearly certain that they won't.

This was the pair of socks that was just never meant to be. Everything that could go wrong, did. I started knitting them together, two at a time, magic loop. When I got to the first row of pattern, I realized that one sock had 64 sts and the other had 66. I ripped one out and did just one at a time after that. I broke yet another Knitpicks Options Harmony needle. Wood ain't no good when the needles are this small. They flex a little and I was doing k2tog and SNAP! This month, I burned a hole in my left thumb that you could fit a pencil eraser in. Serious delay. Then, I couldn't find the pattern, then, I couldn't find my stitch markers, then, I left them at work one night. Yesterday it was, "I need to finish these TODAY" and I knitted from a few rows into the gusset decreases through the toe. On round 2 of the toe, I pulled and guess what happened? Another needle broke, this time, the join. I am glad that I anticipated this and bought THREE needles but I can't keep spending 18 dollars in needles. I may have to go back to metal for the skinny ones. I'll call Knitpicks on Monday. They need to make these with a carbon filler. Or, out of ebony.

On the spinning front, I am nearly finished spinning my 90 alpaca / 10 Dorsett in camel. I have two massively filled bobbins and a few ounces left to spin out of the 10 oz that I bought. I must knit this into something useful as I am thinking it's going to make a fine skein or two of yarn. I bought some more roving that was on sale. It HAPPENED to be green and it was like 30% off so I snatched it up. I also bought a merino with some tencel mixed in. I am really working on how much twist to put into the yarn to have it hang properly. I see other people's skeins and they have no pigtails and mine do. However, spinning takes time and I did take a few weeks off after the burn injury so no need to be hard on myself. I'll save that lovely merino for a bit on work with something that costs less.

My next sock project is going to be a toe up. I think..I still haven't done that. I don't think that I am going to like it but I must try it. When knitting top down, I think the heel comes out better. I do like that you can use up ALL of your yarn but I'm not sure that I'll know when to stop the foot!

Let's try and make more posts for April...! Hopefully, I can get out to the park or the beach and share some nice photos of flowers and things that are springy with all of you.

It's Nearly April!

It's nearly April and I haven't blogged. I must pay more attention to this!
I've been swamped at home, at work and at knitting and spinning.

My burn injuries really caused a delay with Embossed Leaves. Work has been busy and I'm exhausted all the time. I can't do this change of clock thing at all! I have been doing some more spinning and a little bit of knitting and I even started a baby blanket today!


Weekend UPDATE!

I've been spinning my alpaca/dorsett on my Lendrum and I'm amazed at how much my spinning is improving. It really does take awhile and I have a long way to go but I am happy with my progress lately. I feel like I made a step, jumped to a new level. We'll see how I feel after I ply this...and actually knit a shawly/scarfy thing (pattern tbd) out of it.

I've been knitting Embossed Leaves for a few March KALs and I'm hoping that I am able to finish it up. I think that I will but we'll see. Burning a hole in my thumb slowed me down major big time. I have sock 1 down and I'm about 1/3 of the way through sock 2.

Here's a peak at what I've done so far. Thi is nice, Knitpicks Essentials, Kettle Dyed Yarn - Ivy. Works well with the pattern.

My friend is adopting a baby girl (yay!) and I'm making a baby blanket. I just started it today. Nothing really to discuss or even see yet! Let's call it the PinkaBoo Blanket. It's made out of Cotton Fleece Pink A Boo!

I am liking the Cotton Fleece yarn now that I'm using wooden needles. The yarn didn't work too well with my metal ones....hmmmn...

In other news, Spring sprung...with yet more snow here on Long Island. See the flakes? They were big giant fat ones and it snowed long and hard and even stuck a bit to the grass. Like, a squall went through. It was weird because it was about 40 degrees and snowing HARD. All snow, too, none of that rain smoosh mixed in.

For now, I leave you with this picture of my little boy, who turned seven on 3/13 (Friday, the thirteenth!) who is asking, "Is it spring? Do we get a snow day?"

Lost Leaves .. a New FO.

Another pair of socks in a week. I've finished the Embossed Leaves. As suspected, the pattern is lost in the yarn. Sigh...
But here they are in their heavenly completion:

Embossed Leaves

Start Date: July 20, 2008

End Date: July 26, 2008

Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome, Birches colorway

Knitpicks circular, Harmony US 2, 2.75mm

The jury is out as to whether or not I like this CTH Sockittome. It's got nylon in it, which isn't a bad thing. It almost feels acrylic-ish though. I'll see how it is after it has its bath. It is loosely spun and tends to split from time to time. The colors are beautiful though. I have three hanks of it which I bought on clearance when a store was going out of business last year. So, have to use it up! I like the more tightly spun yarns, they show the stitches better.

What's next? Smooshy Froot Loops, anyone?

Embossed Leaves Update

Lately, the cost of things has really gotten me down. It's absurd. The dollar seems to have virtually no value. Everything is expensive. I filled the gas tank in the Equinox yesterday, $79.41. For the first time in my adult life, I've really curtailed my spending habits on the necessities. We eat steak less often. Once a month or so. That's probably a good thing. We eat out less. We drive less. I try to work from home one day a week, saving $8 in gas and whatever I would spend eating out. Another good thing. I'm also trying to limit the use of electricity here. I've been going around my house checking to see what's just plugged in and not doing anything. There are tons of things plugged in that don't need to be. I wonder how much I spend just keeping little lights on electronic appliances? Plus, the five computers, various ones plugged in. No need to keep that printer powered on all the time. These are called Vampires. So, not only do we have the knitting gremlins but we have vampires. Additionally, please consider all the non-green things that have to happen in order for you to have food, eat a cheeseburger. They have to raise the cattle, truck them food, the cattle produce methane, (from the stuff that comes out of the cattle), they have to transport the cattle to the slaughterhouse using gas, transport the meat to the butcher, wholesaler, supermarket you have go there, buy it and bring it home (assuming you don't walk to the market you'll use gas). Please do your part, continue to knit socks and try and reduce your carbon footprint. Watch out for those vampires and gremlins.

All of this leads to global warming, melting the ice caps and reducing the glaciers in Greenland drastically. Go GREEN.

Can you tell that I have been watching "Earth, the Biography" on TV lately? Excellent series. I knit to it all the time. Knitting can almost be considered going green. The lambies produce methane of course but a little wool goes a ways. I'll have to start spinning. I'm still kicking that around for my fall project. September always inspires me to do something. I love those first crisp days of autumn, which I call, "First Day of School Weather", makes me feel motivated. Of course, when I was a kid, September was cold. It kinda doesn't get cold anymore.

But anyway, wanna see my socks? I really wanted to have them done today. I may be able to finish them, we'll see. Here's what they look like lately:

As of yesterday, midday:

As of this morning:

Three things you'll notice, "What's wrong with this girl? She needs more solid sock yarn, the pattern is beautiful and lost here". Honestly, I wasn't expecting this to be as variegated as it came out. I was thinking more white...

Secondly, it's only a little bit larger. I finished the gusset decreases and I've moved the socks to have the instep on one side and the sole on the other. I'm about 6 rows into the foot now. Sailing through now! Two reasons I haven't finished: 1. I had some minor surgery on my right index finger's knuckle. Not a big deal but it hurts a little when its stretched.

Finally, the last reason is that my son has been on a puzzle kick. He wants so badly to be able to do a 500 piece puzzle. We just graduated to 300 pieces...

First, it looked like this:

And, two hours later:


It was done. So, not only do I secretly color in their coloring books but I also play with their toys. Honestly, I really coached alot here but he's gotten really good at puzzles. I showed him 'puzzle strategy', I like to do all the ends first and then sort out the pieces. This wasn't difficult at all but he's only 6. He was very happy to do this and get it all together. Sock knitting had to stop for a bit.

So, I can probably finish the socks today. We'll see. First karate, then they'll go in the pool and I can knit after that. DH is at work...I'm planning my next pair now, as we speak.

How Much Do You Knit?

I should've joined the 52 pair plunge. I don't think that I would make it but I keep checking out the knitters and watching it, I'm like, ... glued. It's more exciting than the Olympics. Some people are off to a late start and some are on pair 10 already. Imagine, knitting 10 pairs of socks since Memorial Day? Geez Louise.... Some people knit '16 hrs a day' on the weekend. I wonder how much I knit?

How much do you knit? Maybe this week, (being I'm a math nut and find such things 'fun') I will keep track. I know that I knit an average of 4 hours a week in the morning. In the wee hours, before work. Sometimes, I walk on the treadmill and sometimes I blog, which would take away from knitting time. Then, I knit at night. Possibly three hours. Maybe a little less. Let's say that I do that almost every night. So, maybe 24 hours a week is spent knitting. That's one whole day and only a little less than half of what I spend working. Wow. It's like a part time job. No wonder I can't keep up with my housework, yard work, children's activities.....Then, there is all that time I spend glued to Ravelry minding everyone else's business, checking out what they made and in what color to see if I should do something similar or completely different...Oh well, time to show you my Embossed Leaves Socks which I started the other day.

Here's the cuff....

And here's what they looked like this morning....

Not that much done. Sunday night, I made a mistake, although I can't figure out for the life of me what I did. I didn't photograph it (because I didn't want to hear you howl with laughter) but I had a giant hole. I keep knitting along, too, thinking it would either heel when I wasn't looking or 'work itself out'. It didn't. Soon my leaves would be called Swiss Cheese Socks. So, I had to rip back about seven rounds on one of the socks, separating them and then putting them back together. That's always fun....thankfully, things are moving along swimmingly now.

This is Cherry Tree Hill in the Birches colorway. I don't know why I wasn't smart enough to knit this in a solid. I just don't have suitable yarn in my stash and it really is in need of an enhancement. Anyway, I like the colors in this. It reminds me of the sunlight going through the leaves in the springtime. There is some colors of the new leaves, the white light and some browns for the shadows. It's beautiful. This is Sockittome. Don't let it fool you, the yarn is thick and fat but when you knit with it, it goes skinny on you so don't think it's more of a heavyweight than it is. It's not. It has some nylon in it and it doesn't have as tight of a twist as the supersock but it's nice! Supersock is possibly my favorite sock yarn. It has excellent stitch definition, the multis don't pool, the colors are nice and there is adequate yardage for a pair of socks for people with chubby legs and feet.

I am a little further along than this picture and if the kiddies go to bed early (and stay there) I can do another repeat (16 rows) and start the heel flap if I'm not too tired.

I leave you with a poor photo of my blooming Lily.

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!