Christmas Sock Update

I'm really pleased with how well the Brown Blob is progressing. I've finished the left front so all that's left now is the sleeves. I've also made the bold decision to go off pattern for the sleeves. (Cue the ominous music.) It's really not that big of an alteration and probably isn't even worth mentioning. I hate seams so I'm knitting the sleeves in the round rather than flat. I know knitters do this kind of thing all the time but my inner knitter is sitting back with a smug look reminding me that she reserves the right to say, "I told you so" when I'm ripping out the sleeve next week. 

I've also been somewhat successful at having two projects going at once right now. The Brown Blob is getting most of the attention, but between each piece of the blob I've been putting in a few rows on my Kingpin Socks. I didn't want to count stitches for the heel in the car so I cast on for the second leg. Then a couple weeks later I ended up taking these with me to the Des Moines quilt show and still worked on the heel in the car. I did okay until it came time to picking up stitches for the gusset. Definitely not a car activity. Thankfully I've had some knitting time outside of the car lately and have gotten the first heel and gusset completed. I'm trying to stay even with the socks so I've started working on the heel flap on the second sock. I've heard of knitters doing socks this way to avoid second sock syndrome, but since I've never struggled with that I don't foresee knitting two socks at the same time very often.

More Socks

The blue socks are done. It's been so nice to have a simple pattern to take a break with after the long project of Omelet. I'm going to be mean and make you guys wait just a little bit longer before I reveal Omelet. She really deserves her own finish post and not to be lumped in with a bunch of socks.

Basic Ribbed Sock; Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight: Surf

Monday I cast on a pair of socks for the husband. It's another basic pair of ribbed socks. The yarn is KnitPicks Felici in Kingpin. I got it when they had their summer sale and the yarn is discontinued, but in looking at the colors Felici currently comes in I may have found some more sock potential.

Basic Ribbed Sock; KnitPicks Felici: Kingpin

The one problem I foresee with these socks is that I have a 4.5 hour car ride home ahead of me today and I'm almost to the heel. I've heard of DPN sock knitters working two socks at once by making one leg, then the second, then working both heels and gussets that way, then working the feet for both socks, and finally the toes. I brought a second set of DPNs with me, so I might cast on the second sock for the drive home. I think it's going to be a bit too challenging to work a heel and gusset riding in the car. Next week I'll let you know how it goes.

And on to the socks...

I finished Omelet last Wednesday. I have the perfect photo shoot planned for showing off Omelet, but it won't happen until this weekend so you guys will just have to wait until next week to see the finished shawl. This week I've finally gotten to move on to the socks I've been itching to start. At the end of July the first sock snuck onto my needles during a weekend that was not good for lace knitting. Since the sock was not in the knitting plans I turned my attention back to Omelet rather than immediately casting on it's mate. 

I love the colors that Deborah Norville yarn offers, but I'm really getting tired of their winding practices. Can someone please explain how two skeins of yarn in the same dye lot can be wound in opposite directions? After knitting a few inches I discovered the stripes on my second sock had been reversed. I ripped back and restarted. I probably should have ripped back and restarted a second time so that the blue strips at the top of the socks were the same width. This pair of socks is for me and I have no intention of frogging an entire leg and heel just to add 1/4" to the first stripe, but it still bugs me a little that they don't match perfectly. 

Sneak Sock Attack

I've been making progress on the shawl, unfortunately half of it has been backwards progress. Haven't figured out why my stitch counts keep getting off (I have checked to see if my yarn overs slipped under my stitch markers, but sadly they weren't there.) Saturday night my husband brought home Cowboys and Aliens. It was a rather good movie, but after twenty minutes it became clear that I needed to pay more attention to it than my lace was letting me. Watching a movie with no knitting was just not going to happen. Since my yarn stash doubles as my footstool I was able to quickly grab a skein of sock yarn and cast on a simple sock. 

My parents are both pastors and celebrated 30 years of ministry Sunday. Their church invited the bishop to come speak and then held a potluck and a special program in the afternoon. I was so glad to have this sock with me. Mom and Dad moved to their current church after I'd already left for college, so I've never really gotten to know the members there. It's always nerve-wracking to be in a room full of strangers who all know you. Thankfully this sock proved to be the perfect ice-breaker. I met several ladies who were skilled at crochet and other needle crafts and this provided us a topic of conversation throughout the afternoon.

Basic Ribbed Sock; Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight: Surf

I have a tight yarn budget, so I usually choose complicated projects that take a long time to knit so I can get the most entertainment time out of my yarn. Normally this is a good thing, but sometimes I start to wonder if I'll every finish anything. I cast on this sock on Saturday evening and was weaving the toe three days later. Tonight I go back to the shawl so this little sock will be a loner for a while, but I think hope it will still be a few months before weather is cold enough for thick warm socks.

Picasso Socks 3

This long weekend was great for knitting. I finally finished the Picasso socks. I tend to be a slow distracted knitter, but on Saturday I successfully turned the heel and finished the foot! (I couldn't resist showing off my basil and African violet. I've tried for several years to raise an African violet, but this is the first time I've convinced one to re-flower after all of the blooms fell off.)

My green sweater is progressing at a much slower rate. I'm finally understanding why knitters have more than one project going at a time. The cables in this thing are rather intense and don't satisfy my craving for simple mindless knitting. 

Over the weekend I picked up Boyfriend Sweaters and I'm thinking I may be casting on one of those sweaters soon. They're simple enough for the end of a long day of work, and the yarn is big enough it's not going to hurt my fingers when my arthritis is acting up. The only problem is figuring out yarn substitutions. One of the sweaters I really love is knit with Baby Camel. I'm not sure what universe this guy lives in, but my husband would be horrified if I gave him a sweater that costs as much his wedding band. In the meantime I'm going to stroke my green sweater a bit more. I love that the cable pattern is finally starting to show.

Picasso Socks

The green sweater is progressing, but because of it's size progress is very slow to show. I've also been working on socks this week. My husband is very patient watching me focus on the green sweater and abandoning work on his socks. He has made several comments about how much he loves them and I like knitting for people who appreciate what I create so I've made it a goal to get these finished soon. (It's also really satisfying to have a project where an evening's work results in an inch of knitting rather than a single row.)

The yarn is Deborah Norville Picasso Marble. It's a basic vanilla sock with no real pattern.

Knitting it Together

*I apologize for the sadness of this post. It's been a very rough weekend, but I feel I owe it to my puppy to share her story.

Six years ago I was attending school in Iowa City. I had a class in the morning and worked in the afternoon. Iowa City has a large area called the Pedmall and frequently I would go eat there. I saw this small, terrified little dog running around and began praying for her. That fall I moved into a house that let me have a pet and went to the animal shelter where I found Niedlich. A few days after she came home I had a dream about the Pedmall Puppy and woke up to realize she was laying beside me. I've always believed God answered prayers, but was amazed at the answer he gave to my prayer for that little dog. I was hoping for a home for her, not realizing that I would be the one to give her that home.

The shelter estimated she was three when I adopted her. As she opened up it became evident that her first three years of life had been filled with abuse and fear. Thankfully the schedule of a student meant that I was home a lot and she didn't have to be alone very often. After finishing school I moved home with my parents (two pastors with flexible schedules who also made sure she was frequently able to be with people.) When I got married my husband and I searched for a place that would let us have a pet, but rentals are scarce in Northwest Iowa and no one would take Niedlich. My parents offered to keep her for us and my dear sweet puppy continued to have a home where she felt safe and was loved.

Unfortunately the demons from her past never completely left her. She was always afraid of strangers, especially men with sticks, and no training could remove that fear. Friday one of my parents' neighbors, a man with a cane, was visiting, and the fear overwhelmed Niedlich. The man is okay, but the injury required stitches. On Saturday we took Niedlich to the vet who helped her pass quietly, without pain and surrounded by love.

I knew that my cabled sweater was going to be far too difficult to work on this weekend so I dug in my stash and cast on a sock. This sock has helped me keep it together; knit it together really. When the emotions have overwhelmed me I have been able to focus on the needle going in, the yarn wrapping around, and the stitch coming out. This sock helped me stay calm during my final hours with Niedlich so that she too remained calm. It is at times like this that I am reminded what a gift the simple act of knitting is.

Linking up to: Ginny

Sock it to Me Week 7

I'm pleased to announce the completion of the first pair of socks in the year of socks! (We're just going to ignore the fact that these are February's sock and January is still waiting patiently in the front pocket of my knitting bag.)

I was so excited by how well I got the strips to match. I really need to get into the practice of starting striped yarn at a color change so then my strips will easily match up. (Of course when the yarn company decides to randomly repeat three strips of colors it throws off all of your planning. If you look closely you'll notice the purple strips stripy bit repeats itself on the right sock. Grrr.)

The yarn is Deborah Nroville Serenity Sock Weight in Spring Fling, and the pattern is a basic vanilla sock.

Linking up here:

Sock it to Me Week 5

My sock needles are looking very sad right now.

That's right. They're empty. This week I've been distracted by lots. I showed you the penguin quilt this weekend, but that is just one of the things distracting me. I've started clearing out the yarn stash by making baby hats. 

Judging from how slowly the hat is going (more so how little attention I'm giving it) this may not be the best plan for downsizing the stash. Most of my knitting time is going into the purple monster.

Have I mentioned lately that this sweater has 13.5 inches of knit stitches one after another after another? I just hit 11 inches and the prospect of finishing in 2.5 inches is very motivating. I'm trying to decide if I want to do 1.5 inches of that as ribbing for the bottom or do a turned hemmed which will require me to knit an extra 2 inches in a contrasting color and then turn the hem and bind the live stitches to the back side. (Yes, that sounds complicated to me too so I'll probably do the ribbing option.) You may have noticed that this sweater has no sleeves, but it has been decided that when my needles are free this sweater is going to have some time out in the stash while I move on to my green sweater that's full of lots of fun cables. Eventually the joy of cables will wear off and the idea of straight stockinette sleeves will feel like a break rather than a chore. When that happens I'll spend a week or two making sleeves and then will get the joy of a quick finish.

The last distraction has been quilting related.

Before Christmas I was spending more time on the pinwheel quilt than Christmas presents so it got banished to the closet so I could focus better on the stuff on a timeline. My quilt guild's show is 15 weeks away. Sounds like plenty of time, doesn't it? Then I realized that before the show I want to finish hand quilting the pinwheel quilt, machine quilt Coffee Lover, finish and quilt Hobbit, finish Penguins (although since that quilt is a workshop quilt I am allowed to display the top unquilted) and possibly do the Challenge quilt (a modern 5'x7' quilt in solids that is machine quilted by the quilter.) Suddenly 15 weeks does not seem like much time at all.

Sock It to Me Week 4

My sister and I had a lot of fun on our girl's weekend and I found the sock to be the perfect knitting companion. It occurs to me that I never shared which sock yarn I decided to bring. I chose Spring Fling by Deborah Norville. (I also scored a good sale when we went to JoAnn's so I got three more pairs of this sock yarn over the weekend.)

If you're wondering what I carried in my tool "box" I brought a yarn needle, tape measure, scissors, sock pattern, and a stitch marker (which I lost early Sunday morning so I think next time I'll bring at least two stitch markers.)

I probably could have gotten further, but I was still working on the gusset when we started driving home. Unfortunately we left for home around four which meant I only had an hour of light left. I'm getting decent at stockinette stitch without looking, but I can't do a gusset without seeing the stitches I'm counting.

Since this sock was last weekend's project though I've had time to work on it during the past week.

I absolutely love the pattern that the yarn created in the pink and purple stripes. (The pink looks a little orange in the picture, but it really is pink.) I think that I'm going to have to consider more vanilla socks like this when using self-striping yarns. Now comes the real challenge to starting a sock before finishing the second sock for the cabled sock...deciding who gets a mate first.

Sock it to Me Week 3

Socks and flu are both progressing slowly. I think I may be making a swing in the direction of health, so if no other bugs decide to attack while my defenses are down I might have real progress on my sock goals soon. Saturday is my quilt guild's winter workshop so unfortunately this week I think that my knitting time will be devoted to cutting fabric for the workshop. Our workshop is focusing on the Drunkard's Path block and I've decided to do a full size quilt for our bed. I'll be sure to take pictures as I go so that in the coming weeks I can do a series of posts on my new quilt. Today I'm pleased to report that the first of my January socks is completed.

Sock it to Me week 2

They say it takes at least two weeks to get over the flu. I'm on week three, but a second bug snuck in there when my defenses were low so health my still be a few days away. Knitting has once again been suffering, but I have made it to the toe of the first sock. Hopefully next Tuesday I'll be healthy and have a completed sock to share. (Frankly I'd just be happy with the healthy part though.)

Sock it to Me Week 1

I've decided a way to keep myself accountable during my Year of Socks is to add a weekly section showing  how much (or little) I've accomplished on my sock. My hope was to have the first of my socks finished by this time, but our house has been hit by a nasty bug that has zapped my husband and I of most of our energy. That said, I did finish the leg of the sock and turned the heel. I'm still working on the gusset, but hopefully by this weekend I'll have finished the rest of it.

My husband has learned to judge my illness level based on how much crafting I'm doing. (He knows things are serious when I'm surrounded by projects and not working on any of them.) I'm been fortunate with this illness that my Falling Stars cardigan has reached the part where I do 13.5 inches of stockinette. When I first saw this I groaned at the thought of that much stockinette, especially since the sweater is knit in the round so there isn't even purls on the back to break up the monotony. When you've got the desire to work, but can't think beyond insert needle, wrap yarn, pull needle back, 13.5 inches of stockinette have become a blessing.

I put the sleeves on waste yarn last Tuesday (the purple marker in the middle shows where the 13.5 inches starts.) It's less than I'd like to have done by now, but it's better than nothing.

The Year of Socks

I have decided that this year I want to focus on knitting socks. Of course I'm too scatterbrained to spend an entire year knitting nothing but socks, but I'm hoping to complete at least one or two pairs every month. I've been knitting for two years so socks are still fairly new to me. I'm hoping that by the end of this year my husband and I will have a pair of hand knit socks for every day of the week.

My sister gave me some sock yarn for Christmas and I couldn't resist making them the first pair in 

The Year of Socks.

I'm using the "I Love Gansey" pattern from Sock Club. Cables are probably not the best choice for this yarn, but with a high of 4 degrees I couldn't think of doing a sock with lacy holes. 

The cables and purled hearts get a bit lost in the self-striping socks, but I rather like the effect they have on the yarn. (Don't you just love those needles too? They were a Christmas gift from my MIL.)