Catching Up

I figured I better take the chance to get caught up on my knitting here at the blog, since we are once again between rounds. The last time I mentioned Sock Madness I believe that I had just finished Round 1. Well... we've done a bit more since then. Round 2 has come and gone, and we even did an optional round over the Easter/Passover holiday.

Round 2 was a devil of a sock, Frick n Frack by Jenny Lee. The right and left socks are as close to opposite of each other as she could manage. One is knit toe up and the other from the cuff down. The cables cross differently on the right and left sock and on top of all that difficulty they both feature an afterthought heel. The pattern had you knit a tube then open up a slit to knit in a heel. It was pretty cool and I wish I'd taken pictures of the process. Both times it made me laugh like a monster mouth opening in the sock.

The optional round was da' Treehouse by Adrienne Fong & Debi Woods is kind of an inside joke for the group. There is a thread in the forum called the Treehouse where knitters can hang out between rounds, or when they've been dropped from the competition but still want to chat. The stitches form a faux zipper (and zipper pull) and there is a decorative button flap at the top of the cuff. It was a fun knit even if the new stitches caused some of us a bit of confusion.

That gets us caught up on the Sock Madness front. Sometime in the next week they should drop the specs for the true Round 3.

Since I seem to be in sock knitting mode I actually joined up with yet another sock knitting group on Ravelry, Sock Knitters Anonymous (or SKA). Each month there is a set of challenge guide lines and you knit socks that fit into one of the categories. There is a random drawing for prizes among people who finish a pair of socks in the timeframe allowed and each pair you finish gets you another entry. I'm currently working on the second sock of my Achilles Heal for SKA's April challenge (literary theme).

I've also done some non-sock knitting this year, but this post is already getting a bit lengthy so I'll save that for another time.

Dicey

I'm officially IN the Sock Madness competition this year. Our first pattern of the year was for Dicey, by Colleen Miller. (Note the pattern won't be available for the general public until the competition is over.) In general the sock was a toe up pattern with a heel flap and cables. That accurately describes what happened, but completely misses out on the fun. The trick to Dicey is that you roll dice to determine where your cables go. It's completely stupid how this made the sock so much more fun to knit than just following a prescribed list of where to cable.

My socks are warm and cushy, made from Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in the Thunderhead color. I knit them on US 1 1/2 (2.5 mm) needles and got a gauge of 8.75 sts and 12 rows per inch.

We have to knit to a certain width and length to keep things fair in the competition, so these are a little big on me. The cables draw things in enough that they aren't uncomfortably large, just not quite a snug fit. I am a little hopeful that after a trip through the washing machine they might be a little closer to my size. Regardless I will be keeping them and wearing them as much as possible. They are super cozy house socks if nothing else, and are serving me well this weekend during a cold snap.

I had two weeks to complete a pair, and was done in 7 and a half days. I didn't really buckle down and focus on finishing as fast as possible. In future rounds I will have to beat a certain number of people to progress, but this time I just had to beat the calendar. I took my time to keep from injuring myself. I know my wrist will hurt before I am done, but there is no reason to start off that way.

We had around 300 people sign up to compete this year and at the halfway mark there are only 66 who have completed their pair of socks. I'm curious how many more will come in over the next week. This weekend has seen a lot of completed 1st socks, and the 2nd does tend to go faster. I would guess that there should be near 200 people who finish, but only time will tell.

Meanwhile it is time to sit back and relax. I'm going to watch some Game of Thrones, and have a glass of wine.

A Pile of Socks

I've been knitting away on Sock Madness again this year. Don't know if I've mentioned it or not, and if I spend time looking at the very few blog posts I've done this year to find out if I'm restating myself then I'll probably run out of time to post at all.

I've managed to make it through 4 rounds so far, which is further than I've made it any other year that I participated. I owe my success to Jeff for helping to watch Max, and my competitors that kept cheering me on when I almost got knocked out during round 2.

Round 1 was a sock knit sideways, flat instead of in the round, and then seamed together to make a tube. After that the toe, heel, and cuff are knitted on and wah-lah you have a sock!
This resulted in vertical stripes on the sock that contrasted with the rings on the bits knitted in the round. It was a new technique for me, and even though it was kind of fun, I'm not really keen to try it again right away.

Round 2 was colorwork. I don't think I've ever had more fun knitting a two color sock. Something about the pattern just felt good in my mind and hands as I worked. In case you can't tell from the picture they are covered in coffee beans, and you KNOW how I love my coffee. The funny thing was that I think it took me a week to knit the first one and only two days for the second.

Round 3 was just fast. The bright sunny colors just sang to me after all the blues I'd been using. The pattern stitch was super easy to memorize, and it didn't seem like I had to work very hard at all to finish this pair in 5 days. The heel construction was a new one for me, and I really like how they look.

Round 4 was nuts. I've never knit knee high socks before, and I don't know if I could have every finished them if I weren't racing against 14 other people to finish the round in time to continue in the competition. For the most part they are just a plain ribbed sock, but there's one large cable motif on the outside of each sock, and swooping decrease of the ribbed portion on top of the foot. It's going to be a lot of months before I can wear these, unless it's freezing when we visit Iowa this summer, but you have to admit they are impressive.

That's it for now. We're going to start round 5 sometime next week, so I might have something else to show you soon. I hope this post makes sense, but it was written while Jeff was watching robot chicken, so if anything is complete nonsense blame him.

In Knitting News

Socktober Mystery Socks are completed. These were a lot of fun to knit, and the pattern repeat was easily memorized. It's hard to get large chunks of knitting time in nowadays, so having a pattern that I could start and stop really quickly was awesome. I love patterns like this that look so crazy complicated, and in reality it's pretty straight forward. I'm not saying that I'd make it someone's first knitting pattern, but maybe first sock pattern. It's that easy. Did I mention it's also beautiful?

Knit in Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock, Georgetown Colorway (152).

The pattern is by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops. I love it even more than the pattern she wrote last Socktober. I only just finished the 2008 pair a month ago. Between holidays, pregnancy, moving, and whatever else happened they sat on the needles a long time. Still they are pretty.

Knit in Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks, colorway 1518.The monster stirs, so I've got to run. Happy Friday!

Stalled Madness

They are done. What began April 30th has finally been completed. Through moving into a new house, pregnancy, and finally adjusting to life with a newborn (which includes typing one-handed, but not knitting one-handed) I have worked on these socks.

Lucky Diamond in 3 colors of Socks That Rock - Lightweight

The socks were done a week ago, I just haven't made time for the blog lately. What free time I have has been consumed with other pursuits. Still, I worked on these socks off and on for 4 months so I think they deserve their day in the sun.

I enjoyed knitting this pattern much more once there was no deadline, no trying to get through acres of seed stitch in the fastest time possible. It was fun to watch the diamonds emerge as the lines of cabled stitches crept toward and away from each other. The heels are knit last, and ended up being purple out of necessity when I ran out of red. I've come to like the purple heels. I kind of like that they don't really match, and I think I might do funky heels on other pairs in the future just for fun. Since no one sees your heel in a shoe it's almost like a little secret you get to wear. Before that though there are still more pairs to finish. I can't believe how much knitting is half done around here.

Now if you'll excuse me, the socks and I are going to play at little Professor Layton before Max wakes up from his nap.

What I've Been Up To

So it's been a while since my last post, but I have a very good reason. On June 24th I came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning and with major contractions went off to the hospital. Unfortunately the contractions did jack squat, and I was sent home early the next morning still pregnant, and still feeling crappy. Later that morning I spoke with my doctor and it was arranged that Friday I would trek back to the hospital to have labor induced.

I don't have any spectacular labor stories to tell. It was pretty uneventful. Although I was pretty entertained by the way the pulse ox made my finger look like E.T.'s.I tried to get Jeff to Twitter something for me about it, but this was before the epidural and apparently another contraction came and the tweet just went by the wayside. We were only in the hospital for about 8 hours before our son was born, so pretty much all the fun stuff happened later.

Blog meet Maxwell Everett Kievlan, born June 26th 2009 at 2:59 pm. He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long.There were all sorts of bumps along the road to where we are now. Jeff got a worse stomach bug than me on Saturday night, the day after Max was born. I'll spare you any details, but it was super bad times. Then Max and I had problems with breastfeeding, and lucky for you I did not take pictures of my scabby nipples so I can't show you the horror that was. It was bad though, bad enough to warrant a $60 prescription cream to heal them. The lactation consultant couldn't find anything wrong with Max's latch, and felt that the problem was with his tongue not sticking out properly. We tried to work through it, but after a week and a half I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Even trying to alternate breastfeeding and pumping for a bottle wasn't letting the nipples heal up. They looked better than they did on day 5, but every time he tried to feed they would get injured all over again.

Max was also losing weight over the course of the first week. If everyone's scales were accurate he dropped from 8 lbs 8 oz, down to 7 lbs 9 oz. To make sure that he was getting enough to eat we started supplementing formula feedings into his schedule. He immediately started sleeping better, and gaining some weight back. We go back tomorrow for another weight check, but at his 2 week check-up he'd made it back to 8 lbs.

Check out the Kung Fu Grip (2 wk appt)

Once I decided to exclusively pump and give him breast milk that way it was obvious that I needed help getting my milk to come in better. The lactation consultant recommended herbal supplements, but I balked at the volume of capsules that she wanted me to consume. I decided to call my OB and talk about the prescription drug option, which is Reglan. The nurse said no problem, and that people rarely have side effects and had an order phoned in for me. Well, I got me some side effects. I ended up with drowsiness, sleeplessness, anxiety, and I couldn't eat more than 4 bites of food every 5 or 6 hours so I was always starving. It took me 3 days to figure out the medication was to blame, and that it wasn't just "new mom crazies". Luckily the anxiety that had built up to the point of low grade panic attacks went away within a day of stopping the medication. Looking back on that first week now I can barely remember it. We were so tired at first, I guess - I don't really remember, and then I started that medication and everything went away. I have no idea how I made it through the weekend, and I can see why everyone kept asking if I was okay and looking at me a little funny.

The morning I stopped taking Reglan I spoke with the lactation consultant again and she said that she considered Reglan a last resort, because many of the women she has worked with have had side effects. So once again she recommended the Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle, only 2 pills of each 3 times a day... *sigh* So that's what I'm taking now. It may or may not be helping. I am producing more milk, but I've also been pumping 6-7 times a day for a couple weeks now and that could be part of the increase as well. Still, other than having strange smelling sweat and urine I'm not having any side effects, so I'm thrilled with the results. We're still having to give him formula, but I'm able to pump about 2/3 a days worth of milk for him now, instead of less than half.

Everything is going a little smoother now. I'm still working out the kinks in trying to keep Max happy by myself during the day, now that Jeff's back at work, but for the most part things are good. Since Max spends most of his day with a furrowed brow looking very serious, I'll leave you with the least serious shot I've taken of him so far. From just this morning.

Thbbbpt !

Two Socks and Some Cupcakes

Sock Madness 3 is upon us now. It started last Thursday, and so I haven't really had time to post. I've taken time to read blogs (while I knit) and I've twitted a bit, but a full post would have taken too long out of my knitting schedule, not to mention when I did take breaks from knitting I had to try and give my wrists a break, not more of a work out.

The round 1 pattern is called Tropical Mertini, and was a pretty hard easy knit. The pattern itself wasn't terribly difficult, but I had to learn an entirely new (to me) cast on method, and then it was written with an afterthought heel. This means that I knit all of the sock except the heel first, which left me with socks like this until today.

On Thursday morning I started with this:
After four and a half days (plus about an hour) I ended up with:
Not bad, but definitely not the best time I've ever made. Last year I managed one of the pairs in just two days, but this one did have several challenges for me in learning new techniques. The socks are very baggy on me, so they may end up being gifted. First I need to see what happens to them after they are washed. There is a metallic strand in the yarn that is a bit scratchy, and if it's too uncomfortable then they will turn into some house socks for me. My feet are always cold, so it's not like they won't get used.

A non-knitting reason these took so long to knit is that we went to San Antonio to visit some of my family this weekend. Since my cousin (the over worked Houston doctor) and I were both in the same place at the same time all sorts of people came out of the wood work. It was a blast. I really need to not wait so long before the next time I go to visit. We finished the weekend by heading out to lunch with just my cousin and her husband. We went to Jacala's which has been a family tradition as long as I can remember. It was a lot of fun and Kathy and I were both glad to get a chance to go while we were in town.

Last St Patrick's Day I found a recipe for Guinness cupcakes. They looked great, but I never got around to making them until this year. Jeff loves Guinness so I figured they'd get eaten by someone, even if I didn't care for them. I was really impressed with the recipe. I was concerned because it made a very runny batter, but it baked great and stayed fluffy and moist. The thing I was really shocked about is that I followed the directions and ended up with a cupcake that looked like the picture advertised or maybe even better. You can be the judge of that. I can tell you that it makes a tasty cupcake, and although a Guinness drinker may like it more than other folks it is plenty yummy even if you normally hate the taste. The beer adds just a hint of bitter really, more than a complete Guinness flavor. I hate Guinness, so that's okay by me.That picture is just a crappy iPhone pic. You will just have to imagine how much better they look in person. I'd love to share, but I'm afraid the remnants are going to work tomorrow and I don't think they'll survive the day.

Goal Met

I met my designing goal for this summer of getting at least one pattern down on paper that other people can use. Go me! Can you believe it wasn't a sock? I made the Nanner Hat for Lily (my newest niece) and the pattern is available for download from Ravelry. If you are interested you can use the download button to grab the pattern for yourself. At least I hope you can....



And for your enjoyment, a few photos:
First the profile view, use your imagination they kind of look like big fat nanners.
And a view of the top.
Next up, Jeff socks... I know I'm a glutton for punishment. He picked out the yarn himself though, and I really like the pattern it's going to make. Time to get out of the office, cause it's hot and there's no husband, cats, or knitting in here.

Another Pair Done

I finished my Making Waves socks on Sunday.
Pattern: Ocean-Toes (short version) from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Peruvian Sock from Tess' Designer Yarns
Needles: US size 1.5 (2.5mm)

These were a lot of fun to knit, and went a lot faster than I thought they would. Of course the last pair of socks I knit from this book was for Jeff, so I probably had that in my mind while working on this much smaller pair.

I really enjoyed using the Peruvian Sock yarn too. It's really soft, and silky, maybe from the silk in it. It has a great sheen to it too. It is an impossible purple blue to photograph, but the final pictures came out pretty well.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Can you tell that I like the flickrSLiDR? It's kind of cool to be able to put up more photos in less space. What do you think though? Does it make the page load suck, or not work well in your browser? Do you like it, hate it? I am here for you after all.

Two Socks and a Baby

I have a couple of finished objects to discuss today. Firstly my sister Traci finished her baby, Lily Mae, on Thursday evening of last week. 7lbs 4oz, 19 3/4" and no pictures because my family has only sent me pictures via multi-media message on my phone. I swear if they don't send me a decent picture soon I'm going to drive up there and take some pictures of my own. Both mom and baby are doing well and are at home. Lily's cute, as far as babies go. You know, they're all a bit funny looking. Still the first image I got of her was great. She looked just like Traci, only really ticked off.

My FO is much less complicated. I knit a pair of socks last week. Less time consuming, and strenuous than having a baby. I actually finished these on Sunday, but since I don't have anything else to show you right now you can see the finished Nanner socks (pattern by WendyKnits). Sorry, don't ask for the pattern, it was a limited time offer for knitting Plurkers and the time has passed. You can however see the slowly growing collection of Nanners that have been knit at the Flickr group here.


Created with flickrSLiDR.

Much Finishing This Morning

I finished up a couple of projects today. I stuffed Iza's frog last night, and today gave him a cute little smile. This would have been a very quick project if I'd had all the stuffing and eyes and actually finished the putting together in a timely manner. The actual crochet was very quick. I fretted over how to seam him together, and tried to find instructions, but in the end I just pretended to know what I was doing, and it seems to have worked out fine. Now I'll just try and keep him free of cat hair for the next week, and then he'll be off to his new home.
Since I was in the mood for completing projects, and since all these projects need to be ready to leave town on Friday I finally sewed the buttons onto Lily's Baby Surprise Jacket today. The baby socks and jacket are already covered in cat hair, because the cats kept laying on the yarn while I was making them. I' m going to wash all the baby stuff tomorrow and then they'll just need to dry by Friday.Now I can devote my full attention to my May club socks, or even start a new project guilt-free. I've completed all my current dead line projects, yea!

I've Been Knitting

I have been knitting up a storm lately. Of course it's a wee baby sized storm which made it quite easy to weather. Traci's due to become a mom is less than a month, and since I'm a fantastic knitter now I figured I'd better make with the hand made gifts.

The first project that I under took was Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. It's funny because it's such a simple pattern, but I couldn't have done it without the help of the notes I found here. The reason that it's called a surprise is because it starts off looking like this...
then you magically transform it into this!
This is actually a picture from before I seamed it up. But take my word for it, I did a good job. The jacket is sewn together (across the tops of the arms) and I added crochet around the neck. The only thing it lacks are buttons, because I don't have any buttons... It's possible you will see another photo of this once I procure and add said buttons, so lets move along.

I finished that baby hat that I was talking about. Even after knitting it a third time I still love the pattern. It has a nice rib to help it snug up to the head, and then these cute little ridges of purl rows then you leave holes so that a little braid can cinch it up at the top into this cute little poof.I apologize for the ugly baby doll in this and the sock pictures to follow, but I haven't got a baby of my own and I would feel weird asking a friend if I could borrow theirs for a bit so that I could post better knitting pictures on my blog.

I've knit one and a half pairs of socks for Lily so far. I'm working on sock #2 of the second pair. The first sock is a variation on Cookie A's Monkey socks. The pattern mod is called Baby Monkey by Nikkiana. The second sock is High Energy Baby Socks by Jodi Green. They're plain stockinette for the most part, but the CUTE picot edge at the top of the cuff makes the sock. I like to think that my color choice screams high energy.I find it fascinating that although both of these socks were knit on the same needles with the same yarn, and only a 2 stitch difference in width, they came out much different sizes. The monkey pattern really pulls the fabric in a lot, while the plain stockinette spreads out a little more. See what I mean? The high energy is knit a bit longer, but I didn't think they'd come out quite that different in size. Hopefully Lily will fit into one of them.I'm going to need to start working on the gift idea I have for my step-mom next. I know what Bree's getting for her birthday (and so does she) so that's no biggy. My step-mom is harder though. I have an idea, but it's crochet so as soon as I finish the baby socks I'm going to need to get cracking on it, since I still don't really know how to crochet. The deadline is June 13th, since that's when we go to Dallas next celebrate this pair of birthdays.

3 Socks Done

Sock Madness Round 2 began sometime during the day on Monday, March 31st. I did not have my yarn and needles at work, because I am not a boy scout. I can't remember if they girl scouts claim to always be prepared or not, but I'm not one of them either. I started round 2 at 6pm Monday evening after getting home. This pattern was much more difficult to execute than the first round, and I made a poor yarn choice. I used a yarn (Noro Kureyon Sock) that is really sticky to itself, so it doesn't slide smoothly and easily. It eats up valuable time that you could be knitting as you try to untangle it. And to try and get a smaller sock I used 2mm needles, which are really hard on my hands. I prefer to knit the Noro on 2.5mm. Crazy how a half millimeter makes such a huge difference in comfort.Still I managed to finish Friday morning at 2am. They were only taking the top 20 from each division this time, and I was worried that if I didn't push through that I might miss it. I'm such a silly paranoid knitter. I ended up being #13 from the Baylor Ball Band division. I liked that. I have a 13 on my office wall, just below my name plate. Everyone always asks why, even the people that have already asked before, and there really is no good reason. This guy at The Company took random number things that were no longer needed from the factory floor and assigned them to random offices, in no particular order. When I changed jobs and moved offices I took the 13 with me. I suppose that sort of non-reason just doesn't stick in peoples' minds. Still I like being #13. Of course if they only take 10 in the next round then I suppose I would regret it if I still came in at 13.The pattern is called Reversai, and was created by Janine Le Cras and is reversible. Because of the stitch pattern used you can put the sock on right side or inside out and it looks exactly the same. Isn't that clever? As you may have noticed from the photos these socks are a bit baggy for me. So they've gone to live with another knitter. Erin has the same sort of falling down love for Noro that I do, so I had her try them on last night, and when they fit, I asked her to keep them.

And if you're curious about the outcome of the creative award, we won! I will be getting some sort of prize, but I don't know what yet. I got an email that one of the vendors that donated prizes for the competition will be mailing something directly to my house. I'll post pics as soon as I get whatever it is. How exciting! I would like to thank my friends, family, and of course my publicist for this award. I couldn't have done without you.

I've also finished one sock from the March shipment for the Socks that Rock club. This time we got green yarn, and the pattern is called Leafling. I had a lot of fun with this one. From all the sizing discussions, and from my own math on the matter I knew that if I knit the small that came with the pattern it wasn't going to fit me. The sock would have ended up a whole inch bigger around than my foot. As I went about tweaking some numbers and trying to make sure that I wasn't going to run into trouble when going into the heel shaping, I documented my modifications on my Ravelry project page. I've received a lot of positive feed back, and that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.So now I'm off to the wonderful world of chores. I'm trying to get the house in order, and keep it from turning into a train wreck. It would be really easy to let everything slide between now and the wedding, but I know we'll have company over. This may be the first time that some of them have ever been to my home, and I don't want them to be scared off. So more vacuuming and laundry, and a trip to Goodwill to drop off another box of clutter. See you around.

One Down

Well round one of Sock Madness 2 is officially over. It doesn't look like any of the 4 divisions actually managed to have 40 people finish before the declared cut off, or if there were it hasn't been updated on the site. My group (Baylor Ball Bands division) got the closest with 39.

There are a few things going on in SM2 land now. We know that the next sock up to bat is Sock C. This calls for 350 yds of fingering weight yarn and US size 1 needles to get a gauge of 8.5. There's no color hint or suggestion on striping or solid. Normally this would mean a pattern release to come in about 2 days. However the powers that be are showing mercy toward one of our members who is getting married this Saturday, and the pattern release is going to be delayed until April Fool's Day. I have to admit that I'm also glad the pattern delay will mean that I don't have to try and knit around my bridal shower. (Hey at least I'm not crass enough to try and knit through it!) So sometime between now and Monday I need to swatch up at least one of my yarns to be ready when the pattern hits.

The last bit of round one will be the creative awards. The final cut off to post an interesting picture of completed socks (either yarn choice, sock modification, or photo presentation) is tomorrow 6pm est. Hopefully by Friday there will be a poll up to vote on the favorites, and determine who the winner(s) are.

I feel I have a pretty good shot at this. You've seen the official finished picture of zombies. I liked the juxtaposition of the budding spring tree with zombie socks. However, there was a photo in my mind that I just couldn't let go. Submitted for your enjoyment is my vision of the zombie attack. Let's all give mad props to Jeff for being a great sport. It took us quite a bit of work to get this photo taken, but he never gave up, and I love the way it turned out. Without further ado... Zombie Attack!!!

They All Fall Down

The Falling Leaves socks for Jeff are finally complete. I feel like I've been working on them forever. Of course it's actually only been a month and I have dabbled in crochet, and knit another pair of socks in there. There's also the large chunks of my life where I cannot knit, and the recovery time after the Zombies where my little wrists just needed a break.

Details: Pattern: Veil of Leaves from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi
(modified to fit a US Men's size 12 1/2)
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) - 2 circulars
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too
Sox Appeal Color 9580
96% Superwash Merino Wool / 3% Nylon / 1% Elastic
Started Feb 25th and Finished Mar 24th (at 11:30pm). On the one hand I can't believe it took so long, on the other hand I really didn't push to finish them all that quickly. And just because I think it's an insane number I'd like to point out that this single pair of socks is comprised of more than 29000 stitches. Adding up just the easy to count stitches it came out to 28,820. I didn't bother doing the math to figure out what went into that sassy heel, or the cute (not so little) toes.

And before you question it, yes he's entirely worth it. Now it'll be a while before I take on another project like this for him, but I think a simple yarn change would have made all the difference in the quickness of this project. So, what I hope you take away from this is, do not knit big socks in a yarn that is even 1% elastic. It will dampen your spirits and make it seem like it's not actually getting any longer... even though it really is.

Zombies in Springtime

Here's the pair in all their glory. I started my zombie socks on Mar 13th around 11am and finished Mar 15th just after 2pm. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. My apologies to anyone who received less than my full attention in the last couple of days, and to the cats who have all been shoved off my lap multiple times.

I know that there are at least 15 people in the world who knit this pair of socks faster than I did. I suspect that there were 20-25, but I don't know if I will be given that information for sure. If I find out I will pass it along.

I did have a really humorous set back this afternoon. Jeff and I were looking for shelving brackets. ... Well really Jeff was looking, and I was knitting while walking and trying not to knock things, other people, or myself over. Anyhoo, at some point I knit 6 rows and realized when I went to drop a stitch down (on purpose) that it wasn't there to drop. I had messed up the pattern six rows back. Bugger! Well, I pulled out my needles, unravelled a bit since there was no time to be tinking 6 whole rows, and carefully put the stitches back on the needles and took off knitting again.

I knit 12 more rows and decided I'd better make sure that I needed to do another 12 before starting them. I pulled out the first sock (finished yesterday around noonish) and compared. To my complete surprise I had already done 12 rows too many. I have no idea how I got off so badly in my estimation. But, if you'll think carefully on that story you'll see the true hilarity of it all.

When I ripped back 6 rows to fix a mistake, I ripped back to the point that I was done with the patterning and ready to knit a toe. Then I knit 12 more pattern rows, only to have to rip back to that same spot again. *slap forehead* Yeah, so I might be kind of quick in the knitting, but maybe not so much in the mental department.

Well the zombies are done, and now I'm going to get some lunch and take a small break from knitting. I will knit later today, but since I can, I'm going to take a few hours off.

Jay Walking

Well I finished my Noro Sock Yarn socks a couple of days ago, and I finally snapped a few quick pictures for you. These were really fun to knit, and the pattern is easy to memorize. The Noro was a bit tricky to work with at times, and in it's thickest moments made the stitches hard to make out on the needles. Still all in all I am very pleased with the results.

Finishing Feels Good

So I've completed some new knitting projects and finally worn my green Tofutsies. I'm completely torn on the Tofutsies. They are some of the softest socks that I've ever worn. The fabric is thin yet squishy, but the yarn has absolutely no memory. Even though I'd worked the entire leg in a rib stitch by the end of the day it was all saggy and sad looking. It just doesn't have the spring to keep it's shape, but it sure is soft. *sigh*

I also completed the third headscarf that I gave Traci for her birthday. It was a big hit. As soon as she saw the yarn her eyes lit up. It gave me a big warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Then over the last weekend I completed my Everlasting Bagstopper. It was a quick easy knit. I knit the body in Allhemp6 in Chocolate. There were tons of places were the yarn was tied together, but it was really well done, and the knots seemed sturdy. When I went to Hill Country Weavers to get the hemp I saw the Tartelette yarn and fell in love. Instead of getting a wider ribbon for the strap, as called for in the pattern, I decided to crochet handles with the Tartelette.

Bree helped me work out the stitch pattern since I'm not all that familiar with crochet. I'm quite pleased with the look of the finished product. There are issues though. I had intended to use this bag as a reusable shopping bag. I tried out the bag once already and it will hold plenty, at least space-wise. However it wasn't comfortable on my shoulder, it cut in a far bit, and I'm terrified that it's going to tear. How am I supposed to know how sturdy it is? I'm going to give it a few more shots, but I think I'll try to avoid putting glass in it. That should help keep the weight down, and if it does let loose at least I won't have broken glass all around my feet.

What a Cute Pair

I have such cute cats. I finished my pair of Life Styles socks and they are better now. The later color changes brought in more grey and purple, and brought everything together in a less scary pink way. They are still very pink, but they don't remind me of a stomach ache anymore.

My pattern was supposed to fit my foot, and although I've checked and re-checked my gauge either my foot is shrinking (or migrating to my ass) or something is really strange with this yarn. I haven't washed them yet, so it's possible they'll fit like a glove after a bit of shrinkage... Here's the project details (or look for Life Pair on Ravelry:

Yarn: Zitron Life Style
Color: 1862
Needles: 2 Circs US Size 3 - length 29"

gauge = 7sts / inch

Finished size 9 3/8" from toe to heel
9 1/2" from bottom of foot to top of cuff
Slightly loose on my size 7 1/2 (women's) foot

Work both socks at the same time, starting with toe-up. These were worked side by side, not nestled one inside the other.

Toe
CO 6 sts - Figure 8 Cast On
Inc each sock @ beg & end of each needle to 56 sts. (4 inc per increase round)
Foot
Knit in Stst until foot length is 7" - then start heel
Heel
[I first separated the socks onto separate needles before starting the heels. I've done it before still all on the same needles, but it's a bit fussy and I didn't want to deal with fussy this time. Besides I had extra needles laying around.]
- Hourglass heel with 8 middle stitches: That's 10 pairs per side.
Leg
Seed Stitch Rib - from Thuja pattern by Bobby Ziegler.
Work leg until it measures 8" from the bottom of the heel.
Cuff
Twisted Rib
K2tbl, P2 rib for 1.5"
Bind Off
Use sewn bind off

I Knit Socks

I like knitting socks. I have no where near what could be called too many socks, so knitting socks is both fun and practical. There's also the fact that I'm decent at knitting socks. Although it seems that lately I've had issues with them coming out a hair large, of course those haven't been washed yet and may have a bit of shrinkage when they do get laundered.

I also like to knit bags, but I do have entirely too many bags. So I mostly work to knit bags for other people now. Hats are fun, but there's only so many days in a year in which to wear a hat in Texas. I suppose I could knit enough that I could wear them once and then donate them to someone less fortunate, but I don't know that I like knitting hats that much.

I've tried to knit other types of clothing and I'm not having the best of luck. I knit a tank top that looking back on was not a good material, possibly had a bad pattern, and definitely lacked in the execution department. I've torn it apart, and rescued what I could of the yarn. If I'd come to terms with its suckage before I did a border on it and wove in all my ends (in the ghetto way I do) then I may have been able to save more of the yarn, but I don't care. I'm just glad that it isn't in my closet mocking me anymore.

I'm currently supposed to be knitting a cardigan type thing. It's going to be beautiful (maybe) and soft (oh yeah) if I ever get it done. Thing is I cheesed out on a yarn join when I ran out of the first ball. I told myself that it would work out okay, and then I told myself that I could fix it so it looked less like shit. I was wrong on both counts. The blue bastard is currently sitting on my washer waiting for me to get up the nerve to unravel almost a ball's worth of knitting to get back to that join and start afresh. *cry* I don't want to do it. It's one of those things. You tell yourself that you like knitting, and that redoing it is just more knitting, but I don't like screwed up knitting and I hate admitting defeat.

Still, I have knat socks. I completed my green pair of socks that were made with TOFUtsies yarn. It's 50% Superwash wool, 25% Soysilk, 22.5% Cotton, and 2.5% Chitin (from shrimp and crap shells). I decided that I don't like knitting socks out of a single color, because I get bored, but at least I picked a simple pattern so they were finished in a reasonable amount of time. This yarn feels a bit like linen during knitting, and the strandedness of it reminded me of the linen also. I haven't washed or worn the socks yet, but when I slipped them on for taking pictures they felt pretty good. I did a stockinette foot, and a 3X2 rib leg with a 1X1 twisted rib cuff. They were knit toe up on two US 1 circulars.

I'm currently in the process of knitting another pair (knitting both socks at the same time, instead of one after another). I'm up to the heels on these, and I'm not sure I like the color. I'd try gifting them to my sister, but they're pretty damn pink and she's told me repeatedly this year that she hates pink. Maybe when they're all done and I see them on I'll change my mind, but keep up your eyes open. If I still don't think they're for me then they may be up for free grabs. Here's a peek at what the foot(s) of this new pair look like. PINK!!!