Secret Pal Question of the Week #4

Apparently, some people had problems answering the secret pal question last week regarding how much stash is too much. I obviously didn't but I can see where this weeks is going to be difficult. Here are some fireworks photos taken by Chris on 4 July to add some flavor to this post. More can be found in this flickr set.

1. What yarn (that you don't have/haven't used) would make your stash complete.

I don't really have an answer for this one. I buy yarn that I like when I like it or when I have a project in mind for it. So if there is something I haven't found it yet to be able to tell you. That's probably the cop-out answer but its the best I can do for this one.

2. What yarn do you never want to be without?

This question is fairly easy. I am unreasonably fond of smooshy and classy. I am currently coveting butter peeps and chinatown apple smooshy sock yarn. I've knit up 3 skeins of smooshy in just the last few months and have another I'm already planning to knit up soon (probably in August because its PURPLE for project spectrum.) I would be very happy to have lots of this yummy yarn.

Finally on the sock knitting front. Does everyone remember this sock?

I've frogged it. It turns out that my cast on was not the only thing too tight. I think the whole pattern is. When I put it on it looses a lot of its charm because it gets somewhat stretched out. I don't like that so much and think I will try this pattern in a different yarn. A somewhat thicker yarn. So the whole thing now looks like this.

I apparently knit the heel from its own bit of yarn. Also I opted to leave the ribbing because when I do knit something with this yarn there seems to be a really good chance it will need some ribbing so why not have it done already?

A sneak peak

I am just a few minutes away from finishing my latest project for Chris. Thankfully in a plum colored wool with lavender silk flecks. REAL yarn. Wool and Silk. Yum....

I realized it was actually getting dark out and that maybe I should take a shot before all the light was gone and you get only dogs again.

Speaking of dogs. Gus has a new bed. Chris ordered a large green screen for easier substituting in photos and it came in a big big box. Just the right size for a cushion to go on. Gus is in heaven. A BOX!!!! He couldn't be happier.

Well ignore that "Mom, stop!! I want to go back to sleep..." He looks more like this about it.

I have one thing about this new camera that I really hate. If you rotate so you are taking a vertical rather then horizontal picture it only registers that it is vertical when I hold it in with a certain end to the top. Its extremely awkward and forced to move my right arm that way. Not to mention that I feel as though I am going to drop the camera (not something I want to do at all). Also ALL the images taken that way are blurry.

Please note the difference between the first image of Gus and this image of Chris. Gus was taken with the wrong end of the up and I had to rotate the image in iphoto and in flickr. Chris was taken with the correct end of the camera up and is blurry like all my photos taken with that end up, but I didn't have to deal with rotating him. Its going to be extremely annoying to have to rotate everything twice. Once for iphoto so I don't have to remember later that it needs rotating to have the focus appear correctly and once for flickr because it doesn't remember the rotation when it loads stuff.

And no I can't get Chris to behave for the camera no matter what I do. I rarely get a decent photo of him. Its why I'm happy I already have a couple in my office. Gus at least loves to pose.

Last Night

So last night I am sitting in bed a few minutes before I normally go to sleep reading a book. Chris comes in gets ready for bed and then sits next to me and asks me to teach him to knit. He tried really hard but since I wasn't prepared for it I didn't have straights which would have been WAY easier then my extra long circs. I also didn't have the right needle size for the yarn I had laying around. But we gave it a go anyway. Here is his first attempt. Not bad I'd say. The yarn is apparently splitty? He wants to learn so he can help me with these scarves.

Here is the scarf I am working on. Its not done yet but I'll finish this ball of yarn tonight and then we'll have to go get some more because we only got one ball or some reason. This scarf is HARD to photograph. He picked a drop stitch pattern and it looks really good (well for novelty yarn...) in person but might test his skills to photograph it. Plus blue...bleh...

I got a surprise (of sorts) in the mail today. Robyn sent me part of a package that is destined for my house later this month early! It showed up on my doorstep today and its so so cute. Teeny is the right word. Thanks Robyn!

Finally, some of you may notice it in the pictures for the next few days, but I got a new camera. A Canon G9. Just small enough for a large pocket. A more "professional" camera as Chris puts it. He'd decided 30k odd photos was enough to retire the old one. Plus he seems to think it might be time for me to move beyond just snapshots. We'll see, but he's already started on the lessons.

Right now the high resolution images I am taking are crisp in my iphoto but flickr loader is making them just slightly fuzzy around the objects edges. Its driving me nuts.

A second example a little worse then the first. I would not be at all surprised if I am the only one that sees the fuzz around the edges. I'm sure I'll figure out how to fix it but for now....driving me BATTY! Totally and completely BATTY!!

not much going on around here

haha. Not much knitting on the sock still. I think its the cables. Slow no matter what you do because there are are sets and sets of cables on the foot. At least for the version I did. Regardless I will be taking a bit of a break from them because I am going to work on some crazy commissioned scarves. Sadly they are not a paid commission because its coming from Chris for his photography stuff. But none the less they'll need to get done sometime soon. Maybe someday soon you'll be seeing my work in a magazine! Of course it will end up being a men's magazine, but still...

The thing that a lot of my afternoon was devoted to is this huge pile of what looks like scraps.

Doll clothes. Hopefully enough of them turn into actual clothes that I can make a few outfits out of these. We'll see. I'll start sewing them tomorrow.

Right now I'm off to start that first scarf so I can try and get it finished tonight. Yes I know its 920PM in Texas but really, its only 87 yards...

By the way, here is Abby baking in the sun. Both of them love to bake in the sun. Notice the large crack in the conehead? She tore open the skin in the same spot that she injured last time and had to get back in this thing. Took her 20 minutes to have it torn apart after she cracked it. I went and got two more just in case. Seems like she will be wearing them for a while because she'll have to wear it for a couple weeks after it looks like it healed so it won't be so tender and easy to tear open. NO infections thankfully.

Vampire...I'm convinced they exist...

I so wish I had a picture of this to prove it, but alas it was just barely caught out of the corner of my eye and I turned just in time to see it.

I have a black cat named Ozzy. You might remember him? He looks like this. Regal. Solid black. Serious. Luminous yellow eyes. Standard halloween cat. I should have bad luck forever because he daily crosses my path. Etc...

Anyway, said black cat was sitting just about 4 feet or so from the bottom of the stairs. He yawns and the long pointy teeth come out. Just as he is starting to close his mouth Penny bounds down the stairs and slides to a stop just in front of him and he leans in and bites her neck.

See!!!?? Vampire. He is totally a vampire. I'm going to start calling him that now. This is the third time I've caught him!

Ok now for socks. I've knit almost NOTHING in the last three days. Suddenly very very busy.

No third repeat for me, I did cast on too tight, and just the heel flap done from where I finished on Monday. I'll get to it this weekend some more. Maybe get to knock out this first sock. I'm not even to the halfway point though!

Trading Acorns for Bees

Apparently, I've decided that my knitting should be seasonal. I've traded my autumn acorns in for a some drunken bees. Certainly more appropriate for early summer. The whole time I was trying to knit acorns this yarn was asking to be bees. So there you have it. Let the yarn decide and you can't go wrong!

I'm really loving this pattern. I've knitted through two of three pattern repeats on the leg. I haven't tried it on yet so I need to do that before I can decide if it is loose enough for me to knit the third repeat or if it is time to go on to the heel and continue down my foot. I'm really hoping to be able to do the third repeat. I think I would like the length as usual. I may have cast on a little tight though so we'll see. Here is some detail to hold you over while I think about this, try some sock on, and keep knitting away at it.

Secret Pal Question of the Week #2

The secret pal question of the week for week #2 is "As a child what did you look forward to most about summer vacation?" I don't really have an answer for this so I've been delaying. I did mostly the same things year round. It was just another season for the most part. And Hot.

Something I have been working on. I've actually knit two of these because I somewhat messed up the first one on the very last row but didn't realize until after I had kitchenered. I decided to just knit another and keep one for myself. Seemed easier that way. I can't tell you any more about it because its a secret. If the person it is for can figure it out from this picture well then they really do deserve to know.

The second thing is that after I knit the two items above I pulled the needles from the acorn sock and ripped back to the ribbing.

I've started a new pattern but I'm only six rows in so no picture of that yet because you can't tell there is anything there!

Wondering (400th post)

I've started my next pair of socks. Acorn Socks from KnitSpot.

I can't say I'm all that happy with them. I'm less then one repeat in and I already don't like them. Actually I have concerns is probably the better thing to say. I love the idea. I'm having no trouble with the knitting. I love the yarn and it works very well with my chosen needles. So what's my problem?

I have concerns about the practicality of these socks for one thing. I mean they are totally inappropriate for shoes of any kind. So I'd have to wear them barefoot, but I'm supposed to wear at least sandals all the time if I do any standing or walking or using my feet at all. So that's an issue. Which only makes my second concern all that much more prominent.

See those big holes. Not the intended lacy ones. The really big ones. Ok. I know its hard to tell since I haven't knit much of the sock, nor have a blocked it, but there are big holes. You make the top of the acorn by knitting many many stitches into one stitch. rather then being a centered stitch that makes all but the first stitch unattached. It looks very lopsided to me. I don't think I can live with it.

I'm seeing a different pair of socks for this yarn. Its going back to the ribbing this evening and I'm going to try a different pattern thats been in the back of my brain for the last several rows. I think the yarn is trying to tell me something...

Nearly there

Its quite a lot closer to being finished. I have about 50 rows left. I have a bunch of stuff to get done tonight and it is 9PM so I only have about an hour to finish half of what was on the list. So this is all you are getting.

occupying my time today

A custom order.

There are eight of these bags. They worked up surprisingly quickly. Only a couple of hours of work. I think she wants three, I need to ask though before I can post the others to the shop. The pictures don't begin to show how cute these bags are.

The outside front. The print was very large and I had a time figuring out how to cut it so I would get eight substantially the same bags. I think I did a really good job of it too!

The outside back. This fabric is Knitmare on Elm Street. Its a deep chocolate brown with white and sage images. Very cute. There were five images on the fabric and I made sure to get them all on one side or another. Some bits, like the cats tail might be cut off thought.

The inside. The matching knitting skull fabric. Very cute again. The needles are sage green and the skulls are white with green dots. I didn't quite have enough of the green silken thread for all eight bags so I will need to be getting more of that.


Doll Clothes.

A bunch of doll clothes. These are actually a surprise for the recipients so I won't be sharing much of this besides little teasers for a while. But teasers are fun too! Most of the work on this today was just picking out some patterns and finding fabrics to go with those patterns. I washed all the fabric with vinegar and lavender, my usual color setting combination. So they all smell really nice. Even with that I am worried about getting stains on her dolls because apparently the doll skin stains easily. I think I am going to line everything I think could be staining with a thin muslin. Such as blue jean material. That way nothing dark or questionable will touch the skin and the effect of the clothes will still be the same.

Fiery socks and my reading.

My sock managed to get all the way up to the where the gusset starts while I was finishing that 500 page book this morning. I'm not sure why I rushed through the book except that it was a really good book. I think it took 6 hours or so of reading to knit this foot.

some did, some didn't

Some of what I intended to do today got done. Some of what I intended to do today didn't. We have a new box with ink cartridges for the printer. Which was needed to do a bunch of the sewing I need to do. Patterns for doll clothes are easier when they are printed out. We have a clean-ish kitchen though there are a couple of piles of books and whatnot to go to another room. I didn't get any sewing done today. I did get some knitting done.

Sock number 2. I wasn't actually planning to start it today, but we drove to town to get some errands done and its a good drive and I knit around town. So some knitting got done. Sort of in public, if you count in the car as in public. I didn't really have the opportunity anywhere else. Shopping requires attention apparently. I did manage to acquire some new books at the used bookstore. I need to go through my old books and see what I have read and if there are any I haven't. There were a couple at the store that I thought I *might* already have so I didn't want to buy them and double up. I've already done that once this month and figure that I probably shouldn't do it again! I'll admit that I am also 140 pages into my new 500 page book. Thank goodness for the used bookstore because the library is lacking somewhat and is very far from here.

I love the way this ball looks by the way. Very very pretty. Ok so now I am off to choose my doll patterns, make some dinner, and walk some dogs. Hope you are all having a terrific weekend. Oh and I almost forgot, a bag or two and the earrings and a couple of stitch markers will be making it in the shop tonight! Probably around 830 Central time because I am going to go deal with dinner now. He's playing Hunger Strike from Temple of the Dog. Something about starving? I think this means that he is hungry?

From my worktable

(Its picture heavy!!!) I've been told I haven't talked about the shop in a while. I will admit that I was completely surprised to find out that the next things to make there way off my worktable during this creative shop break are beaded. Very very surprising. I thought I would sit down and sew during this break.

Earrings that make me happy...there is one other pair but it didn't photograph this time around very well...

Turquoise and Red. I wanted to do something with my red flowers which have blue veins and this was the perfect solution.

Green and Orange. This all at once reminds me of summer and freshness and of Autumn and the changing of leaves and pumpkins beginning to be seen.

Purple, Orange, and Green. Love this combo. The purple bead looks almost black in this photo but its really much lighter. I thought I would only be able to make one and then remembered a lone stitch marker that had a second of the clear top bead. So there is a pair!

I also got creative and made some charm dangle things for cell phones or cameras or backpack zippers or whatever. I had some big beads with holes to small for bags and to big for stitch markers.

And this combo with the iridescent quality. I didn't have enough of these beads for making stitch markers so I paired them this way. I think its cute. They would make cute earrings too!

So these things plus some new stitch markers and some zipper pulls(!) will be making it in the shop sometimes soon. There was a little weird issue with my desktop computer (where I do all the shop work on the photos) that it needs updating and was driving me nuts and I couldn't remember the password Chris set to update it. Its updating now.

In knitting news way down here at the bottom of the post. The sock is finished and I'll be starting the next one sometimes soon. Not sure it will be tomorrow though. I have a BUNCH of very teeny clothes to make for a friends daughters doll and a custom bag order that needs attending to since the fabric arrived today. Plus whatever else I come up with!

Also does anyone remember this sock from a long time ago?

Its been frogged, reskeined, washed, and dried. Its ready to find a new home. I realize that while I think the color is really pretty it doesn't fit my normal knitting aesthetic and chances are really good that I won't enjoy knitting it no matter what I do. Someone really ought to get to enjoy it. Don't you think? So I'm posting it for trade/sale on Ravelry.

Progress

I'm not feeling very talkative tonight, but I've made it through the heel gusset so I thought I would share that with you. Now to make a flap and start up my leg.

Ok, question for everyone. We are going to Portland for vacation in August (we think, we are pretty sure... we need a dog/cat/house sitter...Kitzy? Isidore?). Anyway, I am looking for suggestions about cool stuff to do up there. Obviously, we already have a long list of stuff that's cool, but I love to get others opinions and thoughts and out of the normal tourist way attractions... Anything? Truely anything is good! Yarn stores that are good with friendly people are good to know about too! I may have a couple of days by myself...

Back to knitting.

fiery

That is what these new socks are. Fiery.

There is so much color and pattern in this sock yarn that I am just going to knit plain socks again. I'm pretty sure that lace or cables would get totally lost with these colors.

I am about two inches further along now. They are making me very very happy, which is good because I am STILL sick. In fact now I have a dry cough now to go with my congestion. Can someone send me some healthiness??? Thanks. And send Jenny some dryness too. Wisconsin is very wet and scary at the moment.

I'm off to go relax. Take some more meds (they don't seem to be killing my gauge at the moment) and drink a LOT of water and some orange juice.

I need an orange hit

I haven't cast anything on yet since the shoes. Its not that I haven't tried. Its just that yesterday I was far less intelligent then I usually am (probably the meds?) and today was just really busy at work. Lunch=Work. That usually doesn't happen. Ah well...

Why do I think I was far less intelligent than usually yesterday?

I cast this on, my own design, I'm very excited about it. I realized though that the pattern needs to be toe-up and I started with a cuff the first two times. So I tried toe-up. No go. I thought my needles were too thick and I didn't have thin enough, but then I started having doubts about that.

Because I cast on this sock 6 times and always too loose. I've played with this base yarn several times before and never had problems on my normal needles...

Not to mention that I twisted this join 5 of the 6 times.

Is it possible that cold meds can make one a looser knitter for a day? Thats something to ponder anyway.

I think the real problem is that I need a hit of orange. Its been AGES since I knit something orange. I'll be casting this on this evening. You can't do better then orange, yellow, deep red and white. No, definitely not. This is a really nice set of colors. Wish me luck!

Remember this?

Remember way back in April I knit a purple and yellow striped sock? Well I'm knitting up the second!

I spent a LOT of time answering emails this evening so this is all I have for a post. This is almost to the heel flap. Once I do two more purple stripes I am there!

Also I'm plotting something else...not knitting though...

Harvesting Strange Autumn Leaves

Pattern: Embossed Leaf socks by Mona Schmidt from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks and IK Magazine Winter 2005 (yes I own both, is it weird that I had knitting magazines before I learned to knit? Apparently they don't have the magazine in their back issues either!) . Ravelry link and my ravelry project.
Materials: Less then one skein of Smooshy Sock yarn in the colorway strange harvest.
Needle: US#1 Addi Turbo 40" (2.5mm)
Start Date: 29 May 2008
Completion Date: 3 June 2008
Size: 11M
Project Spectrum 3: Earth (green, brown, metalics) and Air (gray, yellow, white)

You were expecting this post right? Obviously, I was gonna finish them last night. They still need a good blocking but who knows when they will dry if I try and do that first. So that would just be delaying this post like I usually do. Since I knit these faster then usual I figured I would post them faster then usual! Four days into June and I already have my first AIR finished project! I don't expect to repeat the speed here again, but it was kind of fun to finish a pair this quickly!

Notes: This color in the pictures about and below is really close to the actual. Its a really nice yellowish green that some people might be inclined to call puke green, but I love this color! I didn't get a good picture of the heel, but the pattern heel left a lot to be desired so I switched it to match my zombie sock heel (eye of partridge with garter stitch border) You can sort of see it in the picture. I think it was a really good choice. Very pretty.

(Don't mind the dog hair on the carpet. They like that carpet a lot and have been shedding like CRAZY the last few weeks. Gus has lost more hair then it looks like he even has but none the less still has a ton more! Yes I am that pale pale pale shade of white. I will admit it. I don't spend any time at all in the sun without slathering on a bottle of sun screen. I do that anyway when I am going to be indoors all day. Seriously.)

My second modification was to the number of stitches cast on. I have "swimmer's" calves as Chris puts it. I call them exceedingly curvy. Either way I need the cast on to be wide around. So I cast on 80. Thats my usual number I think and it makes them tight enough to stay up but loose enough not to feel restrictive. The pattern calls for 64.

I knit all 80 for the twisted ribbing. Then I immediately decreased by 4 by knitting a single round that isn't in the pattern and decreased when I got above each of the four decreases for the pattern's first round. (Hopefully that wasn't too confusing.) Incidentally instead of trying to add in another leaf set and decrease it out I just added a bunch more purls between the leaf sets. Three stitches in each purl section to cover my now 12 extra stitches. I knit through a half pattern repeat and decreased by 4 stitches again. I knit through a full pattern repeat and decreased by 4 stitches again. Finally I knit through a full pattern repeat and decreased by 4 stitches one final time. Leaving me a full pattern repeat at the specified 64 stitches before I got to the heel. Worked perfectly. No other changes except to make them longer by one pattern repeat because my feet are long. Super comfy fitting socks.

I love how the star toe makes the leaves at the very end come to a point. I walked around in these for a bit and the decreases that you walk on felt weird at first but I got used to it pretty quicklly. Its really comfy on my toes. So thats always a plus. I have really rounded toes. So I generally don't decrease as much as the patterns say, as they get to pointy, but I did for this because it was so rounded. I like it alot. Did I say that already?

This is how much yarn I have left. Its about 1/2 of an ounce. I am hoping to make myself a pair of socks from all my left over smooshy because I had a lot left from Chris socks and from my Zombies and now from these. Plus I have another skein in my stash that I just got from Robyn's Nest (Knit and Purl Mama's store, I also linked above directly to the smooshy page, she's got great customer service!). To be honest I am eyeing the chinatown apple colorway and I'll probably need at least one more skein to have enough leftovers for a decent pair of socks. I have them plotted in my head already and adding on more colors won't change the pattern any... I just have to knit through all the big skeins so I make sure I have enough to knit decent socks with those skeins! Probably first I am going to knit some of my other skeins of sock yarn because while photographing it all I made plans that I am excited about for a lot of it. Already started the next sock...

By the way, Chris said today that he thinks I might be wearing out my camera. I think I have taken more then 20000 (20386 to be exact) photos with it. Its been around the world with me. Its been dropped on hard surfaces 80 or 90 times (probably more then that - definitely a lot more if you count soft surfaces!). Not to mention slobbered on (dog photos!) and I've let the battery run to the ground and still tried to and succeeded in taking pictures with it. Tonight it had trouble focusing on what I wanted a macro shot of. Namely the toe of this sock. If anyone can wear out a camera, its probably me!

There are already so many photos here so why don't we end with one more. My Gus is worn out from helping with my photo shoot. He kept moving too much so a bit blurry but this is usually how we see him anyway...

Almost Finished...

I am one and a half repeats and a toe from finishing.

Happy Knitting!

I lied.

Not purposely obviously. I finished the scarf last Thursday at lunch and still had about half my knitting time left. What to do? Well the night before I wound a skein of yarn into a ball and pulled out a cool pattern. I did this totally without thinking about it at all. Other then it needed to be gray or yellow for project spectrum.

Well I cast on and knit about 12 rows before I realized. I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE KNITTING SOCKS! I said I wouldn't knit any socks in May!! I lied. I didn't mean to. It was totally not intentional! I promise! (I kept going anyway though because I didn't really feel that guilty.)

This thing flew off the needles. I understand what that means now. I cast on at lunch Thursday and knit the ribbing. Did one repeat on Friday while waiting for my car to be inspected. Cast off Saturday night after NOT knitting for most of the day. Literally this thing took like 6 hours of knitting time. Super speedy for me.

So late yesterday after my chores were done I cast on this.

When I went to bed last night I had finished the ribbing and half a repeat. I am 3 more repeats in and just about to start the heel. How did that happen?? I only knit for an hour at lunch today. I am seriously confused. Not that I mind. I love these socks. I know you will ask, so these are the embossed leaf socks in Smooshy Strange Harvest sock yarn. AKA Harvesting Strange Autumn Leaves. At this rate I will be putting them down as a finished project late on Wednesday. One week exactly for a pair of socks? Its a record for me who usually takes two weeks.

I did have some modifications but I'll talk about those in my finished project post since I'll need something to talk about there I think...

Oh by the way. I balled this yarn so tight that I couldn't pull the center out of it. The bit of yarn that sticks out of the top snapped when I pulled on it. Knitting from the outside of the ball definitely leaves the ball looking a lot prettier and keeps it sturdy. Might just keep doing stuff this way and not go back to the center pull. We'll see. It definitely photographs better.

Can I finish??

Project spectrum Earth is coming to an end very quickly. I am hoping to finish my scarf by 31 May. Maybe not blocked but finished with knitting and end weaving in.

I have about a third of the ball left and I think it will make a very nice sized scarf if I knit the rest of it. A bit short right now.

So what are the chances that I can finish by Saturday? I have Friday off (I love a very short week) totally. I could get a LOT of knitting done then if needed. Hmmmm...

::

PS I will be posting the cherry bag and the green circle bag this evening. (I'm trying to keep somewhat toward the front of the list "sock yarn" search list in Etsy.) There is only one of the green circle bags. There are 4 cherries but I will be listing them one at a time (keeping at the front of the search again...)

ETA: Green bag is gone. I'm going to list one of the white bird bags to replace it.