Pomatomus in Progress

by

September 8, 2008

2:02 pm

Comments Off on Pomatomus in Progress

Yarn

, , , , , , , , ,

On Ravelry, there’s a group called Sock Knitters Anonymous, and they’re now in the second year of a challenge known as Sockdown. Every month, there is a theme, and for each pair of qualifying socks completed (cast on during the month and finished by the end of the following month), you get an entry in a drawing for prizes. This month’s theme is (a) knit any pattern in a yarn that is at least 75% orange or (b) knit any Cookie A. pattern in any yarn or (c) knit a mystery sock pattern given to the group over the course of 4 weeks in a yarn that’s at least 75% orange.

This has led to a whole lot of discussion about various yarns and whether they are Orange Enough. A search through my own stash revealed that I have no orange yarn. So, I cast on Pomatomus instead:

Pomatomus in Progress

The yarn is called Monarch, in a colorway called Blue Grass. It’s beautiful. I love it. But it’s pretty much an entire sock in 1×1 twisted rib, with a pattern that I can’t quite make stick in my head, so I have to keep a close eye on the chart. The payoff, though, is a really gorgeous sock.

One Sock and a New Skein

by

September 5, 2008

11:55 am

Comments Off on One Sock and a New Skein

Yarn

, , , , , , , , ,

I finished up the first ‘Vog On sock the other night during Palin’s speech. Yes, in this house, we watch both party conventions, although our politics are firmly left of center.

'Vog On

That picot bind-off gave me something else to focus on, at least. I’m not in love with the way it folds down at the top, but I think the sock itself is very pretty. I’m already into the gusset increases on the second sock. I like this lace pattern a lot, and I love Judy’s magic cast-on, now that I seem to have gotten the hang of it.

A couple of days ago, my second skein of Wollmeise appeared in the mail (thanks, Sandy!).

Wollmeise Fluffy

That’s the Fluffy in Wilder Mohn. The picture doesn’t quite capture the rich reds, but it was the best I could do before heading out the door this morning.

I’ve been keeping both skeins of Wollmeise (along with my 2 new skeins of Numma Numma – never fear, I will get to that entry!) on my desk where I can look at them. And pet them. And maybe squish them a little.

‘Vog On!

by

September 3, 2008

8:00 am

Comments Off on ‘Vog On!

Yarn

, , , , , ,

It seems that y’all need a little time to ponder the Wollmeise project.  I understand.  I feel the same way.  But I think it’s going to be the Estonian socks.  Unless I cave and buy a copy of Ornette, but I think that one might look better in a solid color.

In the meantime, I started a new sock with this lovely yarn:

BMFA Silkie

It’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR Silkie in an unknown colorway. (It was payment for a test knit of a sock pattern.) While knitting, the strand makes me think of chocolate and raspberries. Knitted up, it looks like fall leaves. I’m doing the toe-up version of ‘Vog On. I’m nearly done with the first one already – socks knit up FAST at 7 spi. And the lace pattern is easily memorized, so I actually have a project that can travel around with me.  It was too gray this morning to get a picture before leaving for work, but I’ll get one soon.

Choices, Choices

by

September 1, 2008

9:00 am

Comments Off on Choices, Choices

Yarn

, ,

Last week, there was a bit of a perfect storm on the Wollmeise front.  Sign-ups for her sock-club were open for three days, and then she did a shop update while people were waiting to find out if they’d gotten in. And then the Loopy Ewe split its Wollmeise shipment into three separate sneak-ups.

Oh, the feeding frenzy.

I entered the lottery for the club but didn’t get in.  (There were over 1000 entries for 535 spots.)  I had three skeins in my basket on her site, but left them, because I couldn’t quite afford both the club membership and the order from Germany.  I missed all three Loopy Ewe sneak-ups – I was in the car during the first two, and on the Reference desk for the third.  (I hear the third one lasted at least 10 minutes.)

I was offered two skeins by folks in the Loopy Groupies forum on Ravelry.   One Fluffy in Wilder Mohn, and one of the original 100% merino in Gewitterhimmel.  The latter arrived Saturday (along with some gorgeous nummanumma, which will be the subject of another blog entry).

Here it is posing with a baby banana tree in my yard:

Wollmeise and a Banana Tree

So, the question is: what do I make?

I’m thinking of making Helena from the Fluffy Wilder Mohn for Little Miss (although we’ll see how that works out as far as gauge, since the pattern calls for a DK weight.  It could be a little too lacy in the stockinette section to really work).  From the Gewitterhimmel, I’m thinking socks for me.  The Wollmeise has generous yardage (574!) and reportedly looks FANTASTIC is twisted stitch patterns.

I’m leaning toward the Estonian Socks from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book.  But other possibilities are Kate Blackburn’s Catherine, SpillyJane’s Naive Socks, Kristi Geraci’s Froot Loop, and the Roman Rib Socks from Little Box of Socks.

Thoughts?

Now That’s A Sock

by

August 30, 2008

10:13 pm

2 Comments on Now That’s A Sock

Yarn

, , , , , , , ,

Embossed Leaves Socks

Two of ’em, in fact.

Specs:
Pattern: Embossed Leaves, by Mona Schmidt, from Interweave’s Favorite Socks
Yarn: Tempted Hand Painted Bad Grrl in the Clover colorway, purchased from her Etsy Shop (You can also get her yarns over at The Loopy Ewe.)
Needles: Size US1.5 bamboo Clover DPNs.
Modifications: Doing an entire first sock and then ripping it out gave me a chance to test out a few things and discover I didn’t like the fit of the specified 1×1 rib cast-on. So, I did my usual cable cast-on followed by the 18 rounds of twisted rib. I refused to cut the yarn after turning the heel, instead picking up the gusset stitches on the first round after the short-rows. Also, I slipped the first stitch on every heel flap row to make picking up those stitches easier.

I love these socks. They’re so pretty! And the yarn is soooo soft and luxurious. If it weren’t 90 degrees out, I’d be wearing them right now. Actually, I almost did wear them to work today anyway, but my green blouse is in the wash. Maybe next week.

Ceci n’est pas une sock

by

August 27, 2008

8:45 am

Comments Off on Ceci n’est pas une sock

Yarn

, , , , , , , ,

Ceci n'est pas une sock

(Yes, I know that “sock” is not the French word for sock.)

That sad loop of yarn was once almost half of a beautiful skein of Tempted Hand Painted Bad Grrl in the Clover colorway. After that, it was a gorgeous Embossed Leaves sock that was, sadly, too big for my foot, and a little too loose-knit in the gussets.

So, I ripped. And ripped. And ripped. It takes surprisingly little time to rip out an entire adult-size lace sock. I wrapped the yarn around the lid of Little Miss’s block box, and then wrapped it again around the back of a chair, tied it in a couple of places, dunked it in the sink, and hung it to dry.

It was when I tried to rewind it into a ball that things went really sour.

I don’t know what happened. I put the hank on my swift and started winding, and I ended up with one ginormous tangle. I spent 4 hours detangling until the yarn snapped. Twice.

At the moment, I have one lovely (properly-sized) Embossed Leaves sock, one sock about 2/3 of the way through the leg and already on the second remnant of yarn, and three more small balls made out of the frogged sock. I am going to have a lot of ends to weave in. K has already renamed this project The Sock of a Thousand Tears.

But I love this pattern, and I love this yarn, and I am going to finish this pair of socks.

I mean, look at this:

Embossed Leaf Sock v1.5

How could I not give it a mate?

Goes Around, Comes Around

by

August 24, 2008

10:43 am

1 Comment on Goes Around, Comes Around

Yarn

, , , , , ,

I don’t check all of email accounts regularly, so I was a little slow to the party that is the Knitter’s Fall Preview. There are some interesting designs in the gallery, but I was especially thrilled to see that the tabard is making a comeback.

I’ve been meaning to crochet this one for ages:

Tabard

I’ll have to get right on that.

Now with Even Less Knitting!

by

July 30, 2008

8:41 am

2 Comments on Now with Even Less Knitting!

Yarn

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The last several months have been interesting around here. We decided to try to sell our house and move a couple of miles eastward. We found a house we liked, and we had an offer on our house, and then one day into the escrow, the buyer pulled out. Our contract with our realtor expired, we waited a while, and then we went back on the market with a new realtor. We found a house we liked, and we got an offer on our house with a promise that there would be no problem finishing the escrow in 30 days.

Sixty-four days later, we closed the sale. Week after week, we thought we’d be moving in another week or two.  My knitting stuff was among the first stuff packed up (in an effort to keep myself from procrastinating on packing up the rest of the stuff, you see).

Since then, just about the only knitting I’ve been doing has been a sample knit for Knit Picks, which I can’t share until it appears in their catalog.

And, since it’s high summer, what else would I be thinking about but Christmas?  Last week, I started work on another cross-stitch stocking, this time one for me.  It’s a little more complicated than the one I did for Little Miss, with metallic threads and beads and something called couching that I may have done once before… in junior high Home Ec class.

A while back, I signed up for Summer of Socks.  Have I done any socks this summer?  No.  I started one, but I haven’t made much progress.

Soon to come: pictures of that cross-stitch and maybe some progress on the sock.

FO (Felted Object) Friday

by

April 25, 2008

4:01 pm

1 Comment on FO (Felted Object) Friday

Yarn

, , , , , , ,

I go away for a while, and wordpress totally changes the look of things. Crikey.

Felted Bag

Last week, I was off work on Friday, and I decided to go through some stuff in the craft closet. I found a bag that I knitted up at least two years ago, but never got around to actually felting. So, I tossed it in our front loader on Hot with a few tennis balls, then ran it through again with a load of towels. And voila: a felted bag. The i-cord handle tied itself in a couple of knots during the process, but they came out easily. The pattern was supposed to be done in stripes of Lamb’s Pride, but I used either Noro Kureyon or Big Kureyon and let it stripe itself.

It’s my first felted project, and I have not fallen in love with the process. I think I’ll go back to socks now.

Loopy Loopy

by

March 17, 2008

2:44 pm

Comments Off on Loopy Loopy

Yarn

,

Last week was a busy one on Ravelry. At least, in one particular thread in one particular group.

It was Wollmeisemania over among the Loopy Groupies, as a bunch of us checked obsessively for days, waiting for the elusive Wollmeise 80/20 to be posted. There were people who stayed up all night… two nights in a row. There were people who checked every hour on the hour. There were people (like me) who had to get off the computer and go to work and missed it by 15 minutes.

It sold out in 5 minutes flat, people. That’s insane. But I did have fun chatting with everyone in the thread, and I went and ordered myself some consolation yarn:

 

Lorna's Laces

 

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Lakeview, a lovely colorway and also the name of my old neighborhood. I also ordered a bar of moisturizing soap that sounded nice.

And since this was my 6th order, I got some nifty goodies. That’s right, I’m officially a Loopy Groupie now. I also seem to be officially out of my Not Buying Yarn phase, but let’s not discuss that. Let’s discuss this instead:

 

Loopy Groupie Goodies

 

The official Loopy Ewe tote bag, a keychain, some chocolate kisses, and a skein of Fannie’s Fingering from Farmhouse Yarns. In blue, my very favorite color. The only negative is that it says it’s handwash only. I only buy superwash, because I don’t trust myself to remember which socks can’t go in the machine. Maybe I’ll embroider a little something on the inside to remind myself not to toss them in the washer.

In honor of my new Loopy Groupie status, I signed up for the Loopy Ewe Swap. I watched from the sidelines for the last round, and it looked like so much fun. I’m already planning my package. Hmm, maybe I should wait until I have a partner!