Dude! Not Even Two weeks!

I finished the socks for my second sockapalooza pal. I started them on October 31st--today is the 12th of November--that's not quite two weeks!!!

I've never knit a complete PAIR of socks so quickly. I'm just flabbergasted.

They're in for a soak right now, then they'll take a day or so to dry out. I have the day off tomorrow, so I think I'm going to go to the store and pick up some things to send off with them. Hopefully they'll be on their way by Wednesday!

Done! (Maybe)

I finished the socks for my second Sockapalooza pal a couple of days ago. I wove in the ends and stuck them in some wool wash for a bath. When I pulled them out, I started to panic because they seemed a LOT SMALLER than they were when they went in. I've been afraid that they were too small all along, but now they definitely were.

However, now that they've dried completely, they look to be not as small as I feared. The fabric doesn't feel as dense and unflexible as it was when they were wet. They're knit out of a bamboo-wool blend that I've never used before, so maybe the yarn swells a lot when it takes up water, but shrinks down again as it dries? I don't know.

I've started a new pair for my pal just in case (made from Koigu--something I'm familiar with that won't play tricks on me!). I think I'll send her the pair I've completed, and then if they don't fit, I'll send her the second pair.

Zipping along

(This isn't the right color, either. This is a little too much red.)

I'm zipping right along on the VogOn socks for my sockapalooza pal. I'm still quite enamoured with this yarn and pattern. These socks are knitting up so quickly. I've turned the heel and am working on the heel flap. I think what I'm doing is the Eye of Partridge heel, but I haven't done enough rows to be able to really see the pattern yet.

I got a package in the mail this week from KnitPicks with my first-ever set of KnitPicks needles. I've been wanting to try these ever since they came out, but I haven't done it until now. I've only tried the 16-inch 2.25mm needles so far, and I like them a lot. They are sharp, but the points don't hurt my fingers as much as the AddiTurbo Lace Needles I have. I've never knit with 16-inch needles before, though, and it's taking me some time to get used to the shorter length of the needles themselves. I think I will be asking my family for the Nickel-plated Options set for my birthday or Christmas this year.

No clever title today.

I was THISCLOSE to getting a new car this week. The insurance appraiser that came out to look at my car told me that if there had been any more damage to it, they would have just written it off as totaled and given me the value to put toward a new car. That was such a strange statement to me. The word "totaled" brings to mind a car damaged and mangled beyond repair. Mine still works fine, it's just that the left blinker is smashed out and the hood and bumper are dented quite a bit. The issue is that I drive a car that's 12 years old and has nearly 265k miles on it (you gotta love them Toyotas!), so the cost of repairs is coming awfully close to the value of the car. As much as a new car would be nice, I'm glad that I can keep this one--it's all paid for! Not that they would have given me much toward a new car anyway.

On the knitting front, I finished the socks for my brother last night. I think they look pretty good, if I do say so myself!

I immediately cast on for my Sockapalooza socks, but I wasn't really happy with how it was looking. On my lunch hour, I ran over to Magpie Yarn (which isn't too far from where I work) and browsed their sock yarn selection. I decided to try some of Crystal Palace Yarn's Panda Wool, which is a blend of bamboo, wool, and nylon. So far, I LOVE IT! Normally, I go for yarn that is more "squishy" like Koigu or Cherry Tree Hill, but I'm pleased with this yarn. It feels nice when I knit with it, and the resulting fabric is soft--much more so than you'd imagine just feeling it in a ball. It's knitting up nicely in the Vog On lace pattern and the colors are beautiful, although not as loud as they look in the photo below. The colorway is called "Red Cinnamon" and it's got red and orange and brown and magenta in it. It reminds me a lot of the colors of the leaves in fall. I might have to go back and snag a couple of balls for myself.

(Sorry about the crummy indoor lighting--I'm too lazy to photograph them when there's actually DAYLIGHT!)

One thing to know about this yarn, however: gauge is going to be misleading. You might be spot on for your gauge swatch, but go down a size or two anyway because the resulting fabric is really stretchy.

Where does the time go?

I can't believe that it's been three weeks since I posted last. I've been craZy busy (as my brother used to say--with the Z just like that). I've had an insane week. I found out last Monday that I had an ear infection, so they stuck me with a needle and put me on antibiotics. On Thursday night, I was involved in a car accident. No one was hurt, but my car is a little banged up. Luckily, the other person's insurance company is going to pay for the repair on my car.

I've been knitting quite a bit. I started and finished a hat for my friend Kyle this month. He'd asked for a hat to keep his "little head warm when it gets cold outside." The only directions he gave me was that it be in black. I ended up doing a hat based on the Marsan Watchcap, without a brim, and with more stitches than the pattern called for because I was knitting at a tighter gauge. It was a fast knit, worsted-weight yarn on 4mm (US6) needles (the original pattern called for 4.5 mm/US7 needles but I didn't have any).

I learned a lot from this hat. First of all, the pattern is made up of a twisted-stitch rib (K1 through back loop, P1) and the K1P1 was the catalyst I needed to get me to learn how to knit continental-style. Secondly, I learned a lot more about how a stitch is constructed when I took a pair of scissors to the bottom of the hat. Kyle told me--after I'd already knit nearly the entire hat--that he didn't really care for hats with folded-up brims. Rather than rip back 5 inches of knitting, I opted for surgery a la Grumperina. It's not professional-looking, by any means, but I don't think he'll notice.

I've also been working on my brother's socks. I've finished one sock up and am about two-thirds of the way done with the cuff. I haven't woven in any ends on either sock yet, but I'm hoping to have them done by the end of next week. I was planning on finishing them this month, but I took a few days off to do Kyle's hat.

I'm also on the hunt for a nice lacy sock pattern. I've signed up to be a Sockapalooza 4 Sock Savior, and the person I'm knitting for says she prefers thinner socks, so something lacy should do. They're going to be in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, in the Cherry colorway--a nice bright, lovely RED. I'm thinking about doing the 'Vog On pattern, just longer than anklets.

Big Thanks!

Look what came in the mail for me on Friday! A Sockapalooza 4 package that included a fantastic pair of socks, a beautiful card, and a mini-sock blocker with instructions on how to make socks to fit it.

They came from Debra. Thank you so much! The socks fit perfectly and are very comfortable and I've worn them around the house all weekend. I immediately put the blocker key chain on my purse and it's fabulous. Maybe this next week I'll make a sock for it.

The color in the photo above isn't really accurate. The socks have a lot more red in the purple than you can see here.

Thanks again, Debra! I love my new socks!

Look! Look! I'm finished!! Say it with me--woo-hoo!!!



I don't know exactly what I'm going to start on next. I've joined up with Mystery Stole 3 and received my yarn on Wednesday or Thursday--one skein of oatmeal-colored Lane Borgosesia merino laceweight. It was my first order ever from The Loopy Ewe. (My parents are talking about moving to St Louis--if they do, I'll definitely have to arrange to visit the Loopy place!) I have no idea what size needles to use for this yarn. I think I want to try some of those KnitPicks needles or the Addi Turbo Lace needles--something with a sharper point. Just starting to do a swatch on that fine yarn was kind of difficult.

I think I'll also start another sock. I've got several colors to choose from: some Brown and Pink Koigu my first Secret Pal gave me, some red Cherry Tree Hill I purchased a few months ago, or some cotton that my current Secret Pal sent me. I think I'm going to just do a plain sock because I want to train myself how to knit and read things at the same time. I'm starting school again in the fall, and I can't give up my fiber!

Checking In

I've been busy working on my Sockapalooza 4 Socks. I've turned the heel on the first sock and I only have 15 grams of yarn left. I wasn't sure how much yarn the sock was going to need, so I bought three skeins. I guess I should knit a repeat and weigh the yarn a la Grumperina and get an idea of how long these socks will be if I make them only from one skein apiece.

I've been sewing.

My little sister made me a bag to carry my socks-in-progress around in my purse, but it was slightly too small. So I found a pattern on the internet and whipped this little bag up. I really like it. Especially because it's red, which seems to be my color of choice this year. Does anyone else go through phases where they buy everything in one color? A few years ago, it was light pink. This year, it's red. Dark burgundy-red.

I also made myself a pretty bag for my books for church. The messenger-style means it's also come in handy last week when I was a really good girl and rode my bike to work EVERY DAY. I still want that Biria bike, but I can't justify the cost right now.
My little brother got married this past weekend. Hooray for him! But you know, it's really really weird to think that my little brother is all grown up and MARRIED. Does that mean I'm a grown-up too? Here he is with his bride and my grandpa. Don't they all look cute?

Look what came in the Mail!

This was on my doorstep when I left to go back to work on Thursday. (I may or may not have been a leeetle late getting back to work...)

This was inside (you can't see it all in this photo, but I can't upload photos of everything that was in there in one post).

Thank you, Thank you, Secret Pal!!!

I can't believe how much was in this box: a book called "One Skein Wonders," two balls of alpaca yarn , some wool/silk yarn, cotton sock yarn, ribbon yarn, a container of wool wash, and a little container of something called Wool Wax. It's a lanolin cream and I LOVE it. There were also six balls of roving (two light pink balls of merino and the pink and grey and the other two pink balls are Corriedale). Enough for a sweater, I think. My secret pal gave me some ideas of where to find more if I want to make a solid pink sweater, but I may use the grey/pink for a stripe or a yoke or something. I guess we'll see how it spins up.

What I want to know is how did she know that I really wanted to make a pink sweater? Did I say something about that somewhere?

My little sister made this bag for my socks to go into while they're in my purse. It's made of an old silk shirt that I used to wear and lined with some fabric that she bought to make a quilt. I really like the bag, but I may ask her if I can have her make another one just a bit bigger. I don't know if a brand new, just-wound ball of sock yarn will fit in this one. Maybe she will if I offer to make her another pair of socks in exchange...
I went to a friend's house this weekend, and she wears the same size shoe as my sockapalooza spoilee. As I feared, the sock was too big. WAY too big. As in about two pattern repeats too big. So RIIIIIP! It's going much faster now that there are fewer stitches in each row. I didn't have any scrap yarn with me this weekend, so I learned how to do the figure-8 cast on using the magic loop. Now I'm slightly paranoid that they're too small, but I'd personally rather have my socks a little too small than a little too big. Negative ease, I think they call it! :-)

Edited to add: A Title

Lots of news this week.

On Saturday, I finished the second Pink sock. I like them! Unfortunately, now that summer is here, it's too hot to wear boots to work, so only black sensible socks for me for a few months. We have a dress code at work and my manager has specifically mandated (for my benefit) "NO FUNKY SOCKS". Only black socks are allowed. In a fit of rebellion, I bought some nice black boots to wear so no one can see if my socks are blue or purple or orange or pink. I'll just have to stockpile a stash of "funky socks" to wear once the weather cools down again.Isn't my Jamison cute? I'm going to have to take some good pictures of Mattie to post or she'll be jealous.

I had two skeins of Cascade 220 left over from Eris, so I went to the yarn store and bought a skein of brown yarn and the pattern for Fiber Trend's Felted Clogs. I whipped the first one up on Saturday and haven't started the second one yet. I may do that this week and wash them when I go home over Mother's Day weekend. Someday I will have a house with my OWN washer and dryer.

On Tuesday I went shopping for yarn for my Sockapalooza socks. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Tahoe Colorway. I think I'll be knitting these toe up and using Melanie's Twisted Stitch pattern. I decided to try out the Magic Loop method and bought a very long 2mm (0) needle. I keep casting on the wrong amount of stitches, though. I can't count very well, apparently! I'll have pictures of that next time.

And finally, I got an e-mail today saying that I've been accepted into the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Sciences Graduate Program! Whoo-hoo! I didn't think I'd get in. It'll be a long haul, though. I'm trying to avoid debt as much as I can, and I don't want to give up the full-time benefits of my job. So it'll be a night class here and there for several years, I think. I'm still in shock.

SOCKAPAL-WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO-ZA!

Sign ups started today for Sockapalooza 4. Yippee! I've been at my computer all evening stalking the Blue Blog watching a movie and knitting and I signed up as soon as I could. I've read as people posted about Sockapalooza before and I always thought it sounded like fun. I'm really excited to take part now.

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted for so long. I've been tinkering with the blog format quite a bit over the past couple of weeks, so I didn't really notice that I hadn't actually SAID anything. I've added a stat counter (I always wondered how people knew what Google searches had led to hits on their blogs!) and have been playing with buttons and so forth. I'm also trying to figure out to make those progress bars that show graphically how much you've got left of this project or that. The new blogger made it a bit easier to organize my sidebar, but it's not sophisticated enough to do what I want it to. I don't understand html code very well, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn it to get my blog to look the way I want it.

I went to the Spinning Guild meeting on Friday night. I didn't bring my wheel with me as I was coming pretty much straight from work, so I worked on my current purse socks: Elongated Corded Rib socks from the Sensational Knitted Socks book in cotton candy pink Cascade Fixation.
I'm about two inches farther than this picture shows. I've finished the gusset decreases and now it's just straight knitting in the pattern until I get to the toe decreases. I found the second ball of yarn (one of the cats had batted it under the couch and I hadn't seen it in days). I'm a little concerned that I won't have enough to finish the sock. I only bought two balls and I've got six inches or so left to go and only 15 grams of yarn. I'd rather not have to try to track down another ball in this same dye lot.

I came home from the guild meeting on Friday with this:

Over 100 grams of Alpaca roving in a fabulous colorway: Mostly lavender/lilac colored, but with occasional bright sections of a limey-green-yellow. Lovely! It's fun to spin up. The Romney I've been working on is currently on hold while I play with the softer stuff.

Like the rest of the country, we had a cold Easter weekend. It snowed here on Friday, although we only got about an inch. I'm glad that my plants are in containers that can be moved inside from the patio!