actually posting on a Saturday!

I finished my Carefree Blog mystery socks last night:


I'm so happy with how they turned out and can't wait to wear them! Adrienne designed a wonderful sock and a fun KAL. The yarn is Tropical Peach Panda Cotton.

I also received a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. I won a prize from Barbara Bretton on the Romancing the Yarn blog. Of course Shelby had to inspect it as I photographed it:




I won a skein of KnitPicks Gloss Lace yarn in the colorway Kiss (hot pink!). It's 70% merino wool/30% silk. I have really been wanting to try a lace project so now is my chance!! She also included a nice tote bag. Thanks Barbara!!

Here is my progress so far on clue 2 of the Nancy Bush mystery sock:

The lace panel on the front:


and the ribbing on the back:


Just below the ribbing, I have started stockinette because the rest of the back of the leg is in stockinette. I have never knit a pattern in this style so it is very interesting! I'm also loving the Panda Silk yarn!! My goal is to finish clue 2 of both socks before clue 3 comes out on Tuesday.

Too busy knitting to blog!

Both of my mystery sock KALs are going well!

Clue 2 of the SKA yellow sock KAL comes out tomorrow. Here is clue 1:


I have clue 1 knit for both socks. The cool feature of this cuff is a vikkel braid (you can see it at the top along the needle loop) which was very interesting to knit. A little tricky, but not too bad once you got the hang of it. The designer for this mystery sock is Nancy Bush!

I finished one sock of the Carefree blog mystery sock KAL as the final clue was sent to us yesterday:


Here's a close-up of the pattern on top of the foot:


Isn't it pretty??? The designer for this mystery sock was Adrienne Fong.

I still need to finish clue 4 and 5 of the second sock, but the Yankees are playing again tonight so I should make progress on it!

Mystery sock

Here's a photo of my latest mystery sock through clue 3:


Such a pretty pattern and fun to knit! Really holds my interest so I don't get bored knitting it.

Yarn is Tropical Peach Panda Cotton.

My other mystery sock KAL starts on Tuesday (I'll be using the yellow Panda Silk).

Mystery sock update!

I ended up knitting the leg of the mystery sock yesterday and today. The colorwork section is complete and now I just need to knit the corrugated ribbing at the top of the leg. This will be the dark brown(almost black) Maizy and the cream-colored Panda Soy.

I think I am going to be on a colorwork kick for awhile! It's so much fun to knit, but challenging as well.

I found a free Yankees pin-striped sock pattern that I want to knit next!!!

There will also be two mystery sock KALs in September (SKA group and Carefree KAL blog group) so I will be a busy knitter over the next few months!!

July Mystery Sock

It's now July, and that means a new mystery sock pattern in the SKA group on Ravelry!

Clue 1 was posted on July 1st and it is a toe-up colorwork sock. The designer suggested using the Turkish cast on which I have not used before so I thought I would try it since the goal of the SKA group is to challenge yourself each month. Well, Wednesday night was very frustrating because I was having major trouble casting on! I tried the Turkish cast on and it came out very loose, so after knitting a couple rounds I ripped it out. I tried it again and did not end up with the right number of stitches on my needles. Then, I dug out my instructions for the figure 8 cast on that I used for the last two pairs of toe-up socks and for some reason I could not get the hang of that even though I found it simple the last time I used it!

So, I took a break and then tried the Turkish cast on again. This time it worked, although I ended up with only 19 stitches instead of the 20 stitches I needed, but instead of ripping it out, I just increased a stitch on the first knit round and it seemed to work out just fine!

My main yarn is Panda Soy in natural ecru. I got this with the gift certificate I won at last year's Knitters' Day Out. The first motif in the mystery socks is cherries, so I needed red and green yarn for the colorwork. I decided to use the poppy red Panda Soy that I had leftover from the May mystery socks, but I was having a difficult time deciding what to use for the green. I did not have any green Panda Soy on hand. I originally wanted to knit these socks in a red, white and blue theme but that didn't work out with the first clue being cherries. I debated about knitting the leaves in blue, but the "blue" Panda Soy I have is really more of a periwinkle purplish-blue so I didn't really think it would work. I looked into ordering green Panda Soy online, but the website I checked was out of stock of the green!

Last night, I started knitting the colorwork section and got to the point where I needed the green yarn. I dug out all Crystal Palace Yarns sock yarn that I have and after considering several possibilites, including some multi-color Panda Superwash, I decided to go with the only green sock yarn in my stash, the single skein of cactus Maizy. I'm a little nervous about this because I tend to knit Maizy on smaller needles than Panda Soy or Panda Cotton, but I decided to just give it a try. So far, it seems to have worked ok.

Here is my mystery sock after completing clue 1:


It would probably look a little better with a darker green, but I think I will probably just stick with the Maizy. This pattern will also involve a fourth color which is supposed to be a dark brown, so the bittersweet Maizy I have should fit the bill.

If nothing else, this mystery sock pattern will be a fun learning experience!

And, it has finally giving me something to blog about!

First WWKIP Day sock is done!

One sock down, one to go!

Also, Summer of Socks 2009 begins today - the theme this year is Low Stress!!



I am going along with this theme and not making any grand plans for SOS09, but I'm sure I will knit at least a few pairs of socks this summer to play along!

The SKA Group on Ravelry is having a fair isle mystery sock challenge in July, and I hope to use my Panda Soy to knit a pair of fair isle socks!

Tofutsies and WWKIP Day

Tofutsies socks are finally done!


Close-up:


I started these in September 2008 and finished them in June 2009! I'm looking forward to wearing them, because I think they will fit well.

My Cookie A Sock Innovation book finally arrived! I took it to Office Max to have it spiral bound so it will lay flat. Check out the picture on the first page:


Looks like a sleeping Eskie to me!! How cute!

Shelby says, "Hey, I am cute too!"


Yes, yes you are...

Saturday is WWKIP Day so get out there and knit! I plan on participating in the Photo Scavenger Hunt that the SKA Group on Ravelry is hosting (Sock Knitters Anonymous). Should be a lot of fun. I will be casting on a new pair of socks in Panda Cotton!

May Mystery Socks are done!

This was the May mystery sock KAL in the SKA group on Ravelry. The name of the pattern is "kiila" which means gusset. As you can see, the pattern design is primarily in the gusset (the area where the sock widens between your toes and heel - for any non-sock-knitters out there).

I wish my cables would have turned out better. I think I should have used the increases the pattern called for (make one) rather than knitting through the front and back loop. I really need to practice this increase and find a way to do this without having holes. But, I think these will be comfy socks. They are my first pair of Panda Soy socks for myself! And my first pair of red hand-knit socks so I will be excited to wear them.

Now, I just need to finish my Tofutsies socks:


I want to finish these this week, so I can cast on a fun, new pair of socks during WWKIP day on Saturday, June 13th!

mystery sock; Tofutsies sock

One mystery sock is complete:

I still need to knit the leg of the other one.

I have also been working on the second Tofutsies sock, so maybe I will finally complete that pair:

Mystery Sock cast on!

I cast on for the May mystery sock pattern by Yarnissima. For more info on Sockdown in the SKA group on Ravelry, click here.

Here's my cast on toe:


I'm using Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Soy in Poppy Red. I think I won this yarn from participating in the Olympic Sox KAL last summer.

First Sampler Sock is done!

This sock was a lot of fun to knit! I have already cast on for the second one!

I know my blog posts have been brief lately, but I'll leave you with a new Shelby photo until I find more time to blog:

Lamb Cam

Check out the Lamb Cam at Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm!

Also, here is the progress on my Sampler Socks - these are going to be a fast knit!!

Top of the foot:


Bottom of the foot:

so much to blog about...

I have so much to blog about, and don't know where to begin!

First off, I should post the final picture of my NatCroMo freeform crochet project:


This is my new project for April (more details to follow):


Yarn Miracle is hosting her Wee Tiny Sock Swap again this year and I want to participate! More info about this on her blog. It's a very easy, minimum commitment swap and a lot of fun!

I just got this book from amazon.com and it looks like a wealth of information! I can't wait to find the time to read it and try some of the color techniques it covers.

I'll try to elaborate on all this when I have more time to blog!

harika socks are finished!

The harika socks are complete!!







Pattern: harika - from Twist Collective
yarn: Maizy in Meadow Mist and Bittersweet
Needles: US 1 DPNs (and circulars to knit the cuff of each)
Cast on: 2/14/09
Finished: 3/28/09
yardage: approx. 410 yards

I also got caught up on my NatCroMo freeform crochet today, but I'll save that for another post.

J, K, and a finished harika sock!!

I have two days of progress to share for my freeform crochet:


J is for Jam - I crocheted a splotch of grape jam with some purple cotton yarn I found in my stash that was called "Grape" - perfect!

K is for Knowledge - when I first read this I was stumped, but as I started thinking about it, I thought of using some grey yarn to represent grey matter, and then I thought... why not crochet a little brain! So, I did (or attempted to anyway).

I also finished my first harika sock!!! The toe is complete:


It could look better, but at least the socks fit. I had to decrease on every round, so it isn't the prettiest toe, but I'm still happy with how the sock turned out:




I wish I could get the photos to show the colors in the lighter yarn, but it seems to appear grey in the photos. I guess the contrast is just too high.

I started the 2nd sock last night and my goal is to finish it by the end of March. Time to get knitting!!

NatCroMo and harika sock update

Saturday's inspiration for my NatCroMo freeform project was "G is for Ground". This worked out perfectly for my plan to unify the two distinct sides of my project so far. Ground immediately made me think of dirt and grass so I grabbed some brown and green cotton yarn and began to single crochet several rounds in brown around my entire piece. Then, to create the grass, I single crocheted once around with the green and then did random spike stitches to create the grass effect. I was looking for a good excuse to use spike stitches again, because I first learned them during last year's freeform CAL. Here was my piece after Saturday's crocheting:


As someone in the Ravelry group commented, the ground really grounded my piece!

Today's inspiration was "H is for Honey". So, I got some bright yellow yarn and decided to crochet some corkscrews to represent dripping honey. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out:


My knitting goal for this weekend was to finish the harika sock. I finished the foot pattern on Friday night and started knitting the toe, which was back to the knit two in one color, purl two in the other color. I made it easier on myself this time and put the purling yarn in my right hand and that went much smoother. I can knit in continental style much better than I can purl. But, I did learn to purl with my left hand for the first time with this project, so I can do it! It just slows me down. Anyway, I knit (and purled!) along on the toe until this morning when I reached the 16th round of the toe and thought, this foot is looking awfully long!


I tried it on and it was already big enough to cover my foot and I still had about 10 rounds to go.

So, I thought... do I just kitchener it closed now with 50+ stitches on the needles? No, that would probably look bad. Do I just finish the sock as the pattern is written and give the socks to someone with longer feet? No, these socks were too much of a learning experience and I really want to keep them for myself. They're not perfect, but I like them. After ALL this work, I want to be able to wear them when I'm done! Well, that really left only one other option... frogging... rip it, rip it, rip it... I put it off as long as I could. I went online and got my crochet inspiration for today and crocheted the corkscrews (Hmmm... I could have crocheted more of them, eh?)... I ate lunch... I calculated on paper exactly how many rows I wanted to rip out... I double-checked... I probably checked again... and then I did it:


Then I had to carefully get all 64 of those live stitches back on the needles - yikes!:


I know some of them are twisted, but I didn't care, I just wanted them ON the needles. And I didn't want to have to frog back any further. It really wasn't TOOO bad, 64 stitches are now back on the needles, waiting to be knit (and purled) once again:


Now, my plan is to decrease every round from this point on, instead of the graduated decreases that the pattern calls for. This will get me to the correct number of stitches after 16 rounds instead of the 50+ stitches I had after 16 rounds before I frogged. I'm hoping this won't make the foot look too pointy, but it's the only way I can get 72 stitches down to 28 without having a sock that is way too long for my foot.

I hope this works! I really don't want to have to frog this AGAIN!!

Wish me luck!

a little crochet... a little knitting progress

Day 4 of the freeform crochet project: D is for Drop

My thought process was: Drop... rain drops... rainbows... I chose some rainbow colored cotton yarn from the stash (well, multi-colored anyway) and crocheted a ruffle along the other half of my circle:


Note to self: the next time I do freeform crochet, I really need to get away from just going round and round in a circle! :-) But, that's ok!

If you have access to ravelry, be sure to check out all the other amazing freeform projects that everyone is creating. We're having a lot of fun with this! It's not too late to pick up a crochet hook and play along!!

The main reason I am not investing more time in my Freeform crochet project is because I am still diligently working on my first harika sock which I love! I have finished the gusset decreases (all in pattern, mind you! This was a first for me!) - luckily the chart was really clear and easy to follow - and now I just have to finish knitting the rest of the foot and the toe. And a second sock...

But, here's where I'm at right now:


close-up:

I started the harika socks!

I finally started the harika socks that I have been wanting to knit since the first time I saw them.

I wanted to use yarn from my stash, and I wanted high contrast yarns, so I chose Maizy in Bittersweet and Meadow Mist:



The cuff is very unique and something I have never tried before. You actually knit garter stitch back and forth (not in the round) for several rows which looks like this:



and then you twist it around to form the cuff like this:


Then, you finally join it into the round and continue the ribbing. After about 6 rounds of ribbing, my sock now looks like this:

As I said, this is a very unique sock pattern! It's very challenging, but it is fun trying these new techniques! This is also my first pair of socks using two different colors of yarn, so it is fun to try my two-handed fair isle knitting once again.

And don't worry, I am still working on the Inner Truth scarf! I was just anxious to cast on these socks, so now I have two active projects! (Not to mention my lingering UFO's that I still want to finish for the UFO KAL...)

Finished project... new project...

I finished the January beaded mystery socks:


and I cast on for my new project, the Inner Truth Cable scarf:


The yarn is Bamboozle with is basically a heavier version of Panda Cotton. The colorway is "faded jeans" which is the same color as my first ever knit socks: