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?"

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??

Eye Candy Friday

Lonely path at the Wantagh Park.

February Break Update

It's been a busy week. I'm trying to spin, knit, get the house in order, do my taxes and amuse the kids. Tuesday, we went to the park for a bit. Somehow, I smashed my UV Filter. Always use one! You never know when that can happen and it protects the lens. Do the math, a replacement filter is like $10. I have no idea how it happened and didn't even notice it until I got home! I thought the lens was dirty and that's why I got a diagonal ghost image on my pictures.

See:

The line starts at the lower left, just above the railing and goes all the way up. Also, in the bottom center. Pooh. Lens was fine, thankfully. The next day, we went to Best Buy to visit the TV I want to buy and to get a new filter.

Today, I took them to the Long Island Children's museum. I almost always enjoy going there but like to do so when it's not crowded. I was there only 12 minutes after the place openned and it was filled to the gills. Lots of interesting exhibits though.

Girl in a bubble.

Self portrait (yes, I focus with hand underneath, I was shielding lens from the track lighting)

Some dried up thing...no flowers yet, when will it be spring?

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.....

Eye Candy Friday

Delicious Pumpkin Bread....

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!

My Moment of Need

I often wonder what would happen if, say, I fell down the stairs and was alone in the house. Or, say, if I choked. I asked a doctor once and he said that you could do the Heimlich on yourself over the back of chair. I filed that info in the back of my mind. It's been years since I've choked as I think that I've learned to eat with more human bites. I remember choking all the time as a kid.

My son doesn't like jelly. He eats plain peanut butter on white bread, which I've never tried. Well, today, being I had the munchies, I took a glob of peanut butter and slopped it onto some Arnold Brick Oven White. I don't know why I did this, I really don't like white bread at all. I bit into it and...maybe it was (and maybe it wasn't?) a human bite. Guess what happened? It got stuck. I wasn't choking but I needed the Roto Rooter man to clear out my esophagus. I thought about Hugh Laurie and "House" and things going down my throat and the close up of what my esophagus might've looked like. It was clearly stuck. Visions of a snake swallowing a whole baby pig flashed through my mind as I reached for the milk. Milk. Better than water? Should I have reached for Crisco? Olive Oil? I drank it and none of the cold stuff hit my tummy. It took a good minute.

It was truly, my moment of need.

The children were in another room arguing over Speed Racer on TV. They didn't help me.

Well, neither have my Ravelry friends. Yet. I'm sure they will.

I am up to the heel flap in my Ridged Squares sock and want to make the Eye of Partridge with German Chain Selvage and there is a mistake in row 4 of the pattern. I posted it in the SKS forum, it's been 43 minutes and no one has extended a hand ..yet.

Here's what I posted:

I’ve checked the errata on the website and there isn’t anything posted for this particular heel flap. I want to do the Eye of Partridge with German Chain Selvage from page 67 of MSKS. I have an even number of sts in my heel flap.

Row 4: K1, #K1, sl 1 wyib, rep from # to last 2 sts, sl 1 wyib, sl 1 wyif.

That doesn’t work out for an even number of stitches, now, does it.
What’s it supposed to be?

Then, I have to tell you about my Knitpicks order. I am starting to think they aren't paying attention to me. I recently broke a Harmony wooden needle, size 1, 2.25. It cracked lengthwise. I called them, they sent a metal one. I just ordered a bunch of stuff that I didn't need and attached a note to the order about the needle. Well, they messed up again.

In my moment of need. I'll try calling them in a few minutes, after a glass of milk.

I won't be eating peanut butter any time soon.