Monday, December 29, 2008

Mom's shawl

This is one of my Christmas knitting projects that I had not blogged about here since my mom reads my blog:
It's a knit shawl using black Caron Simply Soft yarn and just a basic increasing garter stitch pattern. At the beginning and end, I increased at both ends of every row and in the middle section I increased at both ends of every other row. Which gave it a strange shape, but I think it looks ok when she is wearing it:
And here's a picture of Shelby enjoying one of his Christmas gifts from my mom (a dinosaur shaped Nylabone):

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas update

Here's the photo of my first completed Tofutsies sock and as you can see, I have already cast on for the second one:
I had finished knitting the gusset decreases long ago, but in two days I finished the whole foot section and toe! It was nice to have hours to knit on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I wonder how long it will take me to knit sock #2...

I received some yarn as a Christmas gift!!! :-)

I got this:
and this:
The colorful Woobies Wool yarn is 100% British Blue Faced Leicester Fingering Weight Yarn. It's really soft!!! I can't wait to find a project for it. The colorway is called "Anasazi's Sunset".

The other yarn does not have labels, but with 7 skeins, I can use it the next time I find a big project that I want to take on! I usually only buy one or two skeins at a time so I never have enough yarn in my stash for a big project. Now I do!

Here's a close-up of the Tofutsies sock foot:
Also, my grand-niece really seemed to like her socktopus!
I think it's funny that she instinctively put it on her head and in the pictures with the pattern on knitty.com, the kid has it on his head in several pictures. I guess socktopuses are meant to sit on kids' heads!! :-)

Friday, December 26, 2008

One Tofutsies sock finished!

I finished one Tofutsies sock and it turned out nice and it fits! I'll post a pic as soon as I can. Now, I just need to cast on for the 2nd one!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Most of my knit gifts have been given and well-received. I still have to wrap the socktopus. That will be given tomorrow.

I am now back to working on the Tofutsies sock since it is the one unfinished project that I have had sitting around for awhile.

I am still thinking about knitting the SKA mystery sock in January. It is going to be a beaded sock! I am hoping that I can use the beads I bought for the KDO class I went to in September.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Socktopus complete!

I finished the socktopus!
I don't have a lot of time to write, but here's some more pictures:
I really don't like embroidering faces, and I'm not thrilled with how this face turns out, but I hope it's ok:
Here's some pics with a light background:
Shelby had to stick his froggy toy into the top of this picture:
Then, he needed to rest:

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Socktopus update! 5 down... 3 to go!


5 legs of the socktopus are complete! For some reason, the legs are not all going the same direction, but oh well! I must have reversed how I was picking up the stitches on some of them. The striped leg is leftover Wick yarn from the socks I knit awhile ago. Very nice and neat to work with! The lavender sock is leftover from some crocheted baby blankets and the light blue sock is Denim Style left over from one of the hats I knit for KDO in September. I like the scrunchy effect I got from the alternating knit and purl rounds as the pattern suggested.

Here's a close-up of the 3 most recent sock legs:
Shelby says "Why don't you show everyone the fingerless gloves that you finished??":
"Here, I will sniff them to make sure they are ok":
"These gloves are boring... they don't have squeakies in them or anything!":
Well, hopefully my Dad will like his new, longer fingerless mitts:
They look almost black in some of these pictures, but they are hunter green. I'm happy with how they turned out!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

2 legs done... 6 to go!

The socktopus is underway! Yes... I know I still need to finish my Dad's fingerless mitt, but this so much more fun to work on! The body of the octopus is Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn in ivory. The increases were a little tough to knit in the dishcloth cotton, so if I make another one I will probably use an acrylic yarn. I think it will be fine though once it's done; just a little tough on the wrists when knitting!

Getting to the socks was such fun! I knit the blue one first using Red Heart Casual Cot'n in the Majestic colorway. I love this yarn, but never know what to use it for. It's really soft! So, I thought I'd make a nice long sock for the octopus. For the 2nd sock, I figured I'd make it a little shorter than the first one and I used Caron Simply Soft in raspberry. This was leftover from the Irish Hiking scarf that I knit. I add a white stripe at the top of the sock for a little contrast.

You can see the yarn I plan to use next peeking in the top left corner of the photo. Some light blue denim style yarn. I think I may make this a "scrunchy" sock and add some purl rounds as the pattern suggests. Fun!

Stay tuned as socktopus continues to gain additional sock-covered legs (tentacles???)!!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Socktopus

I cast on the socktpus last night! I'm using Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn because I liked the ivory color that I had in my stash. I really think I'd like to make a smaller socktopus out of sock yarn too! Hopefully I'll have a pic to post soon!!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Misc. update

First, I'd like to thank all who voted for my project in the Carefree Holiday Knitalong! I was so surprised and proud to learn that my Through the Loops Mystery socks were voted the favorite project knit with Crystal Palace Yarns. Those who participated in the KAL were allowed to vote. To see the announcement, click here. I won 4 skeins of my choice of Crystal Palace Yarns and I decided to try the new Panda Superwash. It's a blend of bamboo, superwash merino and nylon. I enjoyed knitting with Panda Wool in my magic loop class and this yarn should be similar, but washable.

I am still knitting along on the 2nd fingerless mitt for my Dad. I finished the thumb increases and now just need to knit the top of the hand and the thumb and it's done. I should be able to work on that tonight!

I also have my next project planned! The new issue of knitty came out this week and as soon as I saw it, I knew I'd have to knit a socktopus!!! Be sure to click on the link to see all the cute pictures. It's a knit octopus that is wearing 8 different socks! Great way to use up some stash yarn and make a cute knit toy. If it turns out nice, I think I'll give it to my grand-niece for Christmas.

The Tofutsies sock is still lingering in a project bag. I have no motivation to continue knitting it right now, but am anxious to cast on a new pair of socks using some stash yarn! I just need to decide on a pattern. There's also another mystery sock KAL coming up in January in the SKA Ravelry group, so I may be doing that!

And since this has been a post with a lot of links, but no pictures, I will leave you with a random picture of Shelby:
This is an oldie but a goodie (this pic's actually from about 5 years ago!). As you can see, he likes to gather his toys and lay close to them. He also usually sticks his feet out when he lays down. Funny boy. :-)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tuesday Knit Live???

I've been so bad with updating this blog lately! I updated it last Tuesday, and here it is Tuesday again. I have not been keeping up with updating every Saturday! I will get back on track eventually. I have started the 2nd fingerless mitt for my Dad. I think this is the last Christmas gift that I have to knit. No problem!

I also started knitting some mini sweaters from Berroco's Minutia '08 patterns! I don't know what I'll do with them yet, but they're such fun to knit.

First, I knit sweater #9 using some leftover Lionbrand Microspun that I had in my stash:
Then, I knit sweater #2 using some TLC Cotton Plus (also in my stash):
I think I need to buy or make some little hangers for them...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

a wee sock project

I knit this little sock ornament last night. I improvised the pattern using basic top-down sock construction with a heel flap. I held three strands of sock yarn together: Cactus Maizy, Purple Maizy and Magenta Panda Wool. I cast on 12 stitches using US2 circular needles (magic loop).

It was a quick little project. I'll probably take it to yarn-love tomorrow night and submit it for the Winter Wonder-gar-land contest.