Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Ahah!

I finally found the blog post about Cat Bordhi's "learning yarn" that I was describing yesterday!

I think this is such a great idea; now I just need to find out when it will be available and who is selling it. Until then, I'll just have to find some yarn in my stash to use as learning yarn...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

knitting progress

I am still making progress on the Noro scarf. I love the gradual color changes. Here's a photo of the end of the scarf as it's rolled up while I'm knitting it:
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And here it is zig-zagged out:
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I have finished clue 2 on both socks for the May mystery sock pattern. It is a fun knit. I wish the cables showed up better, but maybe once the socks are complete, they will stand out more:
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Since I have to wait until Friday for clue #3, I am continuing to work on both the Noro scarf and Circle dishcloth:
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I'm about 3/5 done with the dishcloth. I have two more pattern repeats to go. This pattern is really cool. I'm only having trouble with carrying the yarns up the side where I'm changing them. You can't see that in my picture - ha ha.

I've been thinking that I need to get some practice yarn to start learning the techniques that I am not familiar with. I need to learn to knit Make One increases without holes, because I usually just decide to knit through the front and back loop, but this is not always ideal. I also need to learn how to better carry yarn up the sides of my work, because I'm having issues with how this looks in both the Noro scarf and the Circle Cloth. I'm sure I read somewhere that Cat Bordhi developed a yarn that was supposed to be the ideal practice yarn, but I tried searching online for this today and couldn't find anything about it! If anyone knows if this is available or when it will be available, please leave me a comment! I think it's a fantastic idea! From what I recall, it changed colors so you could see your different stitches and also stood up well to repeated frogging and was a yarn base that had excellent stitch definition. I want some!

I will leave you with a new Shelby photo:
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He can't understand why I am this interested in yarn. :-)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Wee Tiny Sock Received and other knitting updates

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I received an adorable blue (my favorite color!) wee sock from my wee swap partner, Lisa. Thanks Lisa!! I did receive it last week, I'm just late in blogging about it. :-)

The Sampler Socks are complete:
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I sure hope they fit my friend!!

I cast on a Circle Dishcloth which is a really interesting pattern:
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I also knit this Bee Stitch dishcloth, which is such a fun, easy pattern:
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Oh, and this is the wee sock I knit for my swap partner, Jessica, using Maizy yarn:
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I'm also really enjoying the mystery sock KAL of the "kiila" pattern by Yarnissima. I finished clue 1 for the first sock and am about halfway through the 2nd sock. The next clue will be posted on Friday. So far, the pattern has a little twisted cable pattern up either side of the foot - cute!:
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I am trying to cable without a cable needle with this pattern, but last night I dropped a stitch and it was almost a disaster. I still think my cable might look a little funny at that spot, but I managed to get the stitches back on the needles with the right number of stitches and move on. Those little two stitch twists are tricky sometimes!! Reminds me of the Brigit socks...

Friday, May 1, 2009

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:
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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.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Lots of photos to post, but too lazy to post them now.

I have a cold. :-( As soon as I'm feeling better, I'll post a blog update to share all my latest projects!

The sampler socks are done! I participated in the wee tiny sock swap and sent and received wee socks which I have photos to share. I knit a dishcloth and cast on another. The Noro scarf is still progressing.

And tomorrow, a new mystery sock project begins on Ravelry. I hope I get over this cold quickly!!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Wee Tiny Sock Swap!

I just signed up for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap over on Yarn Miracle's blog!!

I participated in this swap last year and it was a lot of fun. It will be busy weekend for me, since I will have company visiting, but surely I can fit in time to knit a wee tiny sock!!

Here's the sock I knit for my swap partner last year:

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Matching socks and scarf progress

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They match! Hooray! I was worried that this might be a difficult task, but they seem to match fairly closely and I'm glad... especially since I got the magic 8 cast on to work on the first try this time!

Did I ever say what pattern this is? It's the Sampler Socks pattern from knotions.com. This is another of those patterns that I knew I wanted to knit the first time I saw it! It's a lot of fun and my second ever attempt at toe-up sock knitting! I'm also participating in two KALs with these socks, the SKA Challenge on Ravelry and it's my April project for the 52 week Challenge KAL on the Carefree blog. Plus, they are a belated birthday gift for my best friend!

I am also making progress on my striped Noro scarf. It's nice to have these two projects to go back and forth between. Here's a progress shot of the scarf:

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