One sock down...

...one more to go (see it on the needles in the upper right corner?).

I'm finally going to finish this pair. This has been on the backburner for close to 2 years. I forgot how sturdy the material feels once it's knitted up. I thought about doing twisted stitches on the ball and heel of the foot but I'm sure it'll be around for years before I wear them out.

Its like knitting floss but I'm looking forward to putting these babies on my feet when the cold weather hits.

Got Sock Yarn?

I'm sitting at work bored out of my mind and itching to break out my current sock project to secretly (shhh!) knit at my desk. It's just a generic toe-up pattern to learn a better way to knit socks toe up but the color of the yarn I'm using is beautiful.

It's Hazel Knits yarn in a colorway called Olympic Rainforest...as in Washington State's Olympic Rainforest. It reminds me of the description of the little town of Forks, WA that the Twilight book series is set in. I think Hazel Knits did an excellent job with the colors representing the name of the yarn. It makes me want to pack my bags and head to Seattle or Portland.

I have another skein of yarn that I bought from an indie sock dyer who made Twilight themed sock yarn called Forks, WA.

To me the colors don't really remind me of the the Pacific Northwest...too yellow-green for me I guess. The colors are very muted compared to the Hazel Knits yarn but I can't wait to knit this up. It's a silk merino blend and feels very cushy.

My final sock yarn purchase for awhile (at least until Stitches West) is this yarn from indie dyer, Fiberphiles who sells her yarns on etsy.com.

I got it in the mail last week and it the vibrant colors in this picture are just as gorgeous in person! The wonderful turquoise color is what caught my eye and made me have to have it.

With all this yarn buying I finished my Charade socks the other day. Yay!

It was simple and mindless with enough detail...a great pattern. Mana (kitty) wouldn't leave me alone and get out of the shot. (So glad the stubble on my legs didn't show up though!)

I was listening to the Stash and Burn podcast this morning and Nicole (or Jenny?) mentioned the Vestuary group in Ravelry. Vestuary? Well, it's a group for those who want to fight off the February blahs by knitting up a vest of your choosing. I have a vest cardi pattern that I purchased last month called Simply Squared. It's perfect for this group! I need the motivation to knit something bigger than socks or a cowl. After last year's Tilted Duster disaster I didn't want to go through the heart break of screwing up another sweater project. The pattern is a nice baby step back into the sweater knitting world.

Tangy Socks

I finally finished these obnoxiously bright beautiful orange socks right before Thanksgiving. The picture doesn't show the lace pattern that runs up the middle, but I swear it's purty.

Maybe I'm not meant to knit socks?

It's the last week of Socktober and thought I'd churn out some socks this month. I even bought a couple new skeins of sock yarn to get myself motivated. I taught myself how to make 2 socks on 2 circular needles cuff down. I would have a finished pair now but I decided to get fancy. I got to the heel and decided to use Cat Bordhi's method. I failed so miserably I needed to frog the whole thing. Back to the sock drawing board. =(

I picked myself up and bought this lovely orange skein from Hazel Knits. This was meant to be made into a cushy pair of fall weather socks. It will go perfect with my black clog Danskos. I originally wanted to use the Firestarter pattern because I wanted to do a toe up sock this time and I just learned how to do Judy's Magic Cast-On. Then I read feedback from people who have worked on theirs and I wasn't enthusiastic anymore because of all the trouble some people were having. I'm a newbie sock knitter so any pattern that has a ton of errata or mistakes I wouldn't catch on my own won't work for me. I did attempt it but didn't get far so I frogged the little bit I knit.

So I found a pattern called Express Lane. It's a toe up pattern also. I used the magic cast-on
instead of the provisional cast-on it called for. I get to Row 1 and I'm stuck....I don't get the instructions. I'm pretty sure that the instructions the pattern gives and the magic cast-on don't mesh and I got lost. I tried to figure it out on my own for HOURS. It shouldn't be this difficult! It's just knitting!!! I gave up and turned to the people of Ravelry to help me out. I posted my dilemma last night and went to bed. By this morning I had 3 different responses! Hallelujah! Ravelry is awesome. Can't wait to get home and finally make myself some freakin' socks. I may not be able to finish a pair but I should at least get one sock started correctly.

boring. boring. boring.

i'm working on a practice pair of socks with a new knitting method. 2 socks at the same time on 2 circular needles. woo. great. i get it. but all in stockinette?! but i'm already bored. it's great to work on while i visit my mom at the hospital but sheesh! i should rip it out and find a more challenging pattern. i feel like i'm wasting 2 lovely skeins of shibui yarn (in Wasabi) on a boring pair of socks. not the best project to get me excited by sock knitting.

I'm a knitting fiend!

The mojo is back baby! I've been knitting up a storm.

I'm working on Dahlia from the Knitty Winter 07 collection. It's a knitted top down raglan but the first part is not knitted in the round. I'm still trying to figure out how this will eventually be done in the round. I don't get it yet. I'm using Cascade 200 wool in a cranberry color.
I got bored by all the stockinette in Dahlia and decided that I needed a side project. I knew I wanted to use my ITK sock yarn and teach myself how to knit 2 socks at the same time with two circular needles. One problem. I couldn't find the book I bought to teach myself. I realized I left it at my brother's place when I dog sat for him a few weeks ago. CRAP!

I was eager to start the Jaywalker socks so I settled on figuring out magic loop. I looked up the video on knittinghelp.com and casted on. The zigzag pattern is easy to memorize. Magic loop goes so much faster than knitting on dpns. It's fairly easy so far until I turn the heel...that will probably be a challenge. It's a shame I can't seem to figure out how to do 2 socks at once. I'm already feeling second sock syndrome.
I'm using a basic superwash sock yarn that's been hand dyed from Cosmic Fibers. It's zig zagging along quite nicely but it's like knitting up dental floss. This is the finest gauge yarn I've ever used.

Second time around

Back in August or September I started one sock. It's twin never saw the light of day. It came out wonky and huge. I felt defeated, gave up, and moved on to other projects. Since this is a Christmas gift I'm on a knitting deadline now. I frogged the unfortunate sock last weekend and made myself knit it over. I am halfway done with the second sock. I notice myself slowing down with the 2nd sock and dragging it out. I would love to learn how to knit 2 socks on circular needles at the same time. It wouldn't take me 5 months to finish a pair of socks.

New month*New season*New knitwear!

Happy September! I don't know what it is but I keep finding new patterns that I love. The gals at Zephyrstyle.com sent me an email about their new Juliet cardigan pattern. I think I'm in love with it. It's tooooo cute. I must knit it. NOW!
Well, not now but it moved up to the top of my knitting queue. It doesn't look like a difficult pattern and it can be modified to your liking - long or short.
As soon as I finish my mermaid gloves (after knitting Bubba's Dashing gloves) I'm going to knit this baby up so I can get good use out of it in the fall. They suggest using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and knit it double stranded. I may substitute different bulky yarn so I don't have to knit it double stranded. I'm not very good at substituting yarn though.

*Progress Report*

Fingerless gloves for Bubba:I used Knitty's "Dashing" pattern for the large size. It looks like a blue tree trunk. Looks better worn because it shows off the cable pattern.

Red Socks for a friend:

Only got through my first ever sock. I don't like the heel. There seems to be too much material there and I don't know what happened. The foot seems gigantic too. Hmph. I'll have to figure it out with the second sock and make some modifications if I can.

Erin and I left today's A's game early and she took me to an amazing yarn store in the SF financial district of all places. It's called Artfibers. There's a lot of yarn in that small shop, but you couldn't tell by how well organized the place is. The yarn is beautiful and high quality. The pricing is quite reasonable too. I walked away with only one cone of lovely 100% tussah silk and will transform it into a Kira K (store manager at Artfibers) lace scarf design.

That's all for now. After I get all my instant gratification projects out of the way I'll get started on Juliet. I keep forgetting I want to learn to crochet though. I'll fit that in sometime.

Start of Something Red

My first sock...

...and hopefully I will make it to the second sock.