Summer knitting

After an aborted start working on a Poolside with my stash of Rowan Calmer I started again on Irish Coffee and am quite pleased.  I stopped the Poolside because I realized my yarn wasn't a really good match, Calmer acts a lot like a wool yarn, not very much like a cotton so I decided it would work better for me in a  pattern that actually calls for wool.  I also have come to realize that living in southern California doesn't really require wool for sweaters, at least for pullovers.  As cold as I can get (hey, I got cold in Lahaina, Hawaii, true story!), I still can feel like I am suffocating in wool when I wear my one wool pullover, so perhaps a blend is the way to go for me.

I have also heavily altered the neckline and fit of this sweater, it is supposed to fit like a tunic, rather loose, but I am making it significantly more fitted.  The snugger fit is also me hedging my bets a little knowing that cotton tends to stretch and definitely more so in a full garment than in a 4" x 4" swatch.  For the neckline I cast on far fewer stitches than are called for because in just about every project on Ravelry with a model, she is wearing a t-shirt underneath since the wide neckline is so wide their bra straps would show otherwise.  Since I want to be able to wear this as a sweater without something else underneath I knew that neckline would need to change.  So I grabbed my copy of Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard and took inspiration from her raglan pattern Pink to adjust the sweater more to my liking (plus copious amounts of math using my gauge swatches, checking and re-checking myself to be sure).  Thus I have a great v-neck for this fabulous sweater.

Once I got to the split for the sleeves I have pretty much faithfully followed the pattern.  I really love how the cable on this one comes together, so very pretty.  Thus far I am loving working on this and as always Thea writes a great pattern, I highly recommend this one, I may even make it again but following the original neckline!

Gettin' my crochet on.

After promised for who knows how long I finally ordered the yarn, bought the pattern, and got started on a blankie for Destructo-boy.  I had long admired the Babbette blanket but the thought of making a huge blankie out of fingering weight yarn made me want to weep.  So after checking the numerous projects that have been made with that pattern I decided it would work just fine with worsted weight yarn.  Then the conundrum of finding just the right colors of yarn in a washable fiber.  Knit Picks to the rescue!  They recently came out with their very first selection of acrylic yarn, perfect for a grubby little kiddo.

I am a little overwhelmed at the amount of squares that need to be made for this blanket, but it will look so cute when finished I think it's worth it.  Now I just need to figure out how to relax and not worry overmuch about the colors used in each square.  I don't want it to be too heavy on one color and light on others, but don't really want to stress about it either.  Regardless it is coming along nicely and it a nice change of pace from the knitting that normally takes up all my time.  When it is done I think it'll look great, that's just a long time from now I fear!

Scary Lace...

Is not so scary anymore!  I finally have cast on the lace project that inspired me to learn to knit lace in the first place, Shipwreck Shawl from the Spring 2009 issue of Knitty.  I admired it way back then but thought I would never be able to do something that complicated.  So I started smaller and kept learning about how to follow charts and that lace is essentially just making increases and decreases.  I am currently about 30 rows into it as of writing this blog entry and am sailing along quite nicely.

The trickiest part thus far was the cast on, I had to watch Fleegle's video of the cast on repeatedly before I finally realized what she was doing and got it done myself.  Normally it doesn't take that long for something to 'click' but for some reason this technique took awhile.  Once I had that done it was pretty easy sailing since I have already mastered working the magic loop (although dpn's could be used for this project just as easily, but who would want to!) and all the first rows required were knitting and yarn overs.  I already did the strawberry chart and it was a breeze, I am beginning to suspect that I am quite capable of knitting this project with little to no difficulty since I have been making lace shawls for over a year now and seem to do pretty well with them.

Admittedly I have no idea what I will do with this shawl once it is completed, I have never worn a circular shawl and don't know that I ever would.  This is one of those projects that I am attempting to do just for the challenge and the fact that the finished object is gorgeous.  Maybe I'll need to buy a piano just to put this shawl on for display!  Just kidding, because seriously, where would I put a piano, and I don't even play!

Dark & Stormy is done...psych!

I thought it was done, then I wore it for two days straight.  However, every time I saw a mirror all I could think was 'That sweater should be about an inch or two longer'.  Sigh, so you know what I did next.  Yup, I pulled out most of the collar (I stopped at the short row part as I should be able to finagle the pickup row into looking okay on the new hem rows) and unpicked the sewn bind off on the bottom hem.

I wore it for the 2 days and LOVED it, just that length thing really bugged, so it is all back on cables now and I am working on adding another 12 rows to the bottom ribbing.  You'd think I would have learned by now to trust that intuition and really look at my gauge swatch (it only grew in stitches across not in rows, so it should have been obvious my sweater wouldn't grow that way either), but no, I didn't.  I suspect I was feeling a bit tired of working on it and just wanted it to be finished and my impatience has now bit me in the a$$. 

The upside of my current misery is that I will have a sweater I am in total love with at the end, I just need to remember to keep my patience in the future when I knit (like that'll ever happen!).  That patience will be sorely needed with the next cardigan I am working on, #49 Milk from Verena of fall 2010.  It is a nice long cardi that will take quite awhile to complete.

Stash down progress

One of my goals for 2012 was to knit down some of my accumulated stash.  Why you ask?  So I can buy more yarn silly!  Like I have been dying to try Bugga! by The Verdant Gryphon, something from Quince & Co., and something from The Plucky Knitter, among other endless choices.  Since my stash boxes wouldn't close before the new year I definitely needed to use up some of the collected yarn before I could set about gathering more.

I am currently working on four different items using up stash: a Dark & Stormy cardigan with my 14 skeins of Knit Picks City Tweed, the January Mystery KAL by Susanna IC using up a skein of Araucania Ranco, a Dew Drop Cowl using 2 skeins of Serenity, and Gordes Socks from Silk Road Socks using my gorgeous skein of Madelinetosh tosh sock yarn (I don't know why, but it is so pretty I just want to eat it, I know it won't taste good at all, but...).  The extra bonus is that the cowl is intended to be a gift for Christmas, so I am also working toward the goal of knitting for the holidays all year long!

I have already finished up a Stacked Eyelet Cowl with 2 skeins of Serenity sock yarn (another holiday present bonus!) and a Springtime in Philadelphia hat using the last of my Valley Yarns Charlemont.  See, I am knitting so fast I haven't even had a chance to blog about projects before finishing them up!

I am feeling pretty good about getting enough skeins out of my sock yarn box that I can now close it, and my worsted weight box now has some breathing room for the yarn currently residing there.  I still need to clear out more yarn before I can buy anything but progress is being made, yeah me!

Potty Training, mark 2

Good God, I have to do this again!  I don't know who was unhappier with it last time, me or Lil' Miss?!  Neither one of us like it and I gave up for a bit before starting again and letting her take the lead, that worked much better.  Now it is time for Destructo Boy to give up the diapers.  I hope we both survive!

Yes, I do realize I am starting this WAY later than most people would, but I didn't want to turn it into a huge fight and he just didn't seem ready.  I say this because he is already 3 and I know many people think I am way late on starting this.  In my defense he was a late talker and had no interest whatsoever in the potty.  Now he is very interested and I am hopeful the whole process will go quickly and smoothly!

We just started this week but he seems to like the potty chart so far, there is just something about kids and stickers.  For our potty chart Lil' Miss and I decorated a half sheet of poster board with diecuts made with my handy dandy Slice leaving a space in the center for an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper where we will actually keep track of the pottying.  For the 8.5 x 11 paper I just used an Excel spreadsheet to create columns for the days of the week and a marked starting line at the bottom of the page.  Every time he sits he gets to put a sticker on that day regardless of whether anything came out or not (right now we are encouraging the habit of sitting on the toilet, I don't care if it is successful or not).  And yes, I did just tape it to the back of the bathroom door with packing tape, I am so uncreative with my hanging of the actual chart!

Next we need to go to the store to get the inspirational potty training underpants, I am not talking about Pull- Ups, I hate those things (glorified diapers that are impossible to get off without making a huge mess!), but rather about the cloth ones most often sold by Gerber.  It seems like the Pull-Ups style pants are just too much like diapers and keep the kids too dry but regular undies are so thin that if when an accident happens everything gets wet.  The nice thick cloth ones are  a nice happy medium for our family, now just to find the blasted things!  They do seem to be nearly impossible to locate in local stores, which I kind of wanted to do for Destructo to get to carry them to the checkout and be able to understand what a big boy he is.  Maybe we'll get lucky at our next Target trip!

Still knitting along!

Yup, I am still keeping up with the advent calendar scarf knit-a-long!  I know, I'm shocked too.  It's a little unclear to me whethe r the patterns are getting easier or if I am just knitting faster as I am getting each day's pattern done on that day.  And doing so even with wrapping presents, last minute shopping trips, and finishing up handmade presents!

Here it is up to day 18, I meant to take a picture every 7 days but I started on the pattern for the 18th before I remembered, oh well, an extra day doesn't hurt!  I am kind of glad I decided to do this in laceweight yarn as this sucker is already pretty long and I still have 6 more days to knit, I probably could have gone down a needle size too. 

As much as I love participating in this KAL I can't help but think about life after it.  I think it will be nice to not have to worry about falling behind if I miss a single day, but it will also be sad to not have something to look forward to every day along with the camraderie of all the knitters working on this around the globe (694 projects, 26 nations and all 50 US states represented).  It will be nice to finally get started on my Dark & Stormy cardigan though!

Advent Craziness

Somehow in my fevered brain I had the brilliant idea to participate in the Advent Calendar Scarf 2011 KAL, what in God's name was I thinking?!  I have been able to keep up thus far, but I fear I will soon fall behind, especially once I start on the cookie baking craziness, {WARNING: extended tangent ahead!}  for some reason I always end up making 10 different kinds of cookies, am totally stressed and wiped out then have tons leftover, when will I learn!  Although I did finally learn about the glitter wrapping paper that tape won't stick to, oh the frustration of self-unwrapping presents, didn't get any of that this year since Target has this awesome kraft paper wrapping paper this year.  I have been wanting to use kraft paper for years and they finally have some for sale, yeah!

progress up to the third day's clue

Anyway, back to the knitting, the pattern is a lace sampler and is a complete surprise as every day we get a clue for that days pattern, like a child's advent calendar.  It usually takes me about 5 to 6 hours to get through the days pattern which I have been able to keep up with so far, I just fear I will fall behind as we get closer to the big day.  It is fun though, I have already encountered a number of stitches I had not done before, and it is interesting to see how each pattern looks with all the others.

I think the idea is to have a scarf complete to wear on Christmas day, but since I already have a red dress to wear I think the scarf might be too much.  I actually have two red dresses, but I got hit bad by buyers remorse and bought the second one as I thought I'd get more use out of it than the first, which I still need to return back to the store, ugh.  Somehow I don't think even laceweight yarn can dry that fast though it would be nice to try.

and progress up to day 10!

Digger progressing, slowly

I am loving this jacket, it just seems to be taking awhile to finish up.  I suppose the fact that I am into endless stripes up the shoulders and into the hood doesn't help with the boredom!  Destructo-Boy certainly loves it, every time he sees it while I am knitting it he pets it and asks if it is for him, too cute!

I won't lie, the intarsia was very intimidating but once I got started on it I could begin to see the sense in it.  I still feel a little rough on what to do when switching colors, like how much tension to use.  However, since it hasn't fallen apart I will assume I did it correctly if not perfectly.  For the lettering I used the stranded technique rather than intarsia and it seemed to come out pretty good, no puckering on that part.  I kind of mixed the two techniques on the construction vehicles and that may be part of the issue with the puckering.  Not sure, but I will definitely do this technique again and maybe not mix them up to see if it looks better that way.

Another new technique for me on this project will be the zipper, I have never installed one on a knitted project before.  There is some sort of fancy way of doing it I have read notes about that involves putting holes in the zipper prior to knitting it into the garment.  I'll figure it out when I get there I suppose!

Starting on my second quilt

fiesta de los muertos by Alexander Henry Fabrics

Since I have special ordered the fabrics off the internet I suppose I really do need to get this gift done for Mister Vonkysmeed for Christmas!  He has always been a huge fan of Oingo Boingo and has had a box full of old concert t-shirts sitting in the garage for years.  I thought it was a shame for them to be sitting in the box and suggested using them in some sort of project instead.  He agreed to this idea and I discovered a wealth of information online about t-shirt quilts.  To make sure I actually got this done I promised him a Christmas gift, and now that I have the fancy interfacing on hand and have ordered fabric I really need to get started on it!

The fabric is really amazing, part of the folklorico collection by Alexander Henry fabrics, they will definitely work with the assortment of shirts I have, 99% of which are black and at least half say Dia de Los Muertos on them.  The confetti fabric  seems almost custom made to go with Oingo Boingo!  I'll be using it for the sashing and binding around the shirts themselves, the fiesta de los muertos fabric will be used for the back.  I think I'll be using my new quilting book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman to figure out how to piece the back together.  I think I may go get a few pieces of solid fabrics to work with the patterned fabrics on the back, maybe even for the binding too, I'll have to get started piecing and see what speaks to me.

The interfacing I have is amazing!  Unfortunately I have no idea what it's called or where to get it, my friend The Quilt Master bought it through a friend of hers for me.  It is essentially a very thin cotton with the fusible stuff on one side of it.  What this means is after I fuse it to the shirts they will continue to be soft and flexible instead of stiff like regular interfacing but still stable enough to cut out properly.

Now wish me luck as I go off to start cutting and fusing!

Of mysteries and frustration

I have two big projects on the needles right now, and funnily enough they are both on US 7 needles (really glad I ordered those nickle plated ones now!).  One is a mystery KAL by Susanna IC as a thank you for her support group on Ravelry reaching 1,000 members.  The other project is from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard, the Backwards Cabled Pullover that I am making the backwards version of.

My mystery project is just that, a total mystery except that I know it will be a crescent shaped shawl designed by Susanna IC that uses beads.  I ordered some Valley Yarns Charlemont in dusk for this project and am enjoying the yarn thus far.  You can really feel the silk content in the yarn, it has that same dry crispness that silk fabric on the bolt has.  The yarn is a tad splitty, but not enough to keep me from ever using it again, the limited colors available will do that (only jewel like tones available and I prefer brighter colors).  The beads are from ArtBeads.com, TOHO 6/0 silver lined gray, and look amazing with the yarn to my eye.  I wanted a more subtle effect than the silver lined clear beads I also ordered were giving me, just too much bling for me.  The first clue of six came out last Saturday and I was done with it by Sunday.  Unfortunately for me the clues will be released about every 10 days or so meaning I'll probably do a lot of knitting on it and then it'll sit for a week until the next clue is released.  Of course, that leaves me plenty of time to fight with the other project...

That other project isn't too difficult if one actually takes the time to carefully read the pattern which I failed to do.  I misunderstood part of it, 'Repeat Increase Row 1 every other row", I read that as being every other right side row but she literally meant every other row.  Due to this mistake I had to restart after getting the raglan shaping finished, and then had to restart it again after I missed a raglan increase and it would have driven me crazy to leave it as is (yes, I am that much of a perfectionist, I would have seen it every time I put it on and it would have bugged!).  Being on the third try now it is going fairly smoothly, I hope to have no more issues with it.  I am finally getting a chance to use up some Knit Picks Swish dk in beach glass that has been in stash for quite awhile now.  I always knew it would be used for a sweater of some kind but had no idea which one, after looking through this book trying to decide what to make I think it will look great with this one!  Hopefully I'll have enough yarn to make the sleeves longer, full length or 3/4 length.

Scrapbook Progress

Yea!  I finally have made some progress since I have actually felt like working on them again.  The book for 2010 is completely finished and I am in progress on the winter/spring portion of 2011 and scrapping Lil' Misses birthday book (each kidlet has a book of just their birthday's, thanks Gramma for that great idea!).  I am rather proud of myself that I am making progress since I haven't even received the supplies to scrapbook the in progress pages, but that certainly doesn't stop me from designing the layout and printing the pictures!  Now I just need to keep the momentum going and keep caught up with them!

Late Summer Knitting

It has been a pretty cool summer so far making it not terribly difficult to knit this year.  I've been working on a few projects I can't talk about (Christmas gifts are kind of hush-hush you know) but I am working on two things right now that I can talk about.

First up is the Plein Air Tote out of Interweave Knits Fall 2010.  It is a really nice looking pattern and I am using up some basic Fisherman's Wool yarn that I was give for my birthday on this project.  I have changed up a few things, like using smaller needles since I am using worsted rather than aran weight yarn and mixing two colors for the moss sides.  It has been pretty easy to follow so far, I already have both cabled sides and the moss stitch panels all done.  This is one project I fear may end up hibernating for awhile though, since the pattern calls for a sewn lining and I'll need to find some leather handles for it.  Since I am not a fan of thrift shops I am not really sure what I am going to do to find inexpensive handles, maybe I should enlist some of my more thrift store-friendly buddies for help.

My second work in progress is Lil' Misses cardigan for back to school in a few weeks.  She chose the Olearia pattern by Georgie Hallam which I must say is fantastic.  It was definitely a little confusing at first since there are several variations to the cardigan included in the one pattern, so I would suggest to anyone else using the pattern to read through it first as I found I needed to.  The cardigan is being knit with some lovely Knit Picks Comfy sport weight yarn is the bison colorway, I know, it's not exactly the first color that comes to mind when you think of a 6 year old girl.  However, since we have already bought some new clothes for fall and the one thing they seem to have in common is brown, I though this color made the most sense for a cardigan (I feel like I am knitting with chocolate when I work with it which is a special bonus!).  Plus everyone, even a 6 year old, needs some nice neutral colors in their closet!

Quilt in progress

I cannot believe how fast this thing went together!  Okay, I realize now this was a ridiculously easy pattern, but at least now I understand how quilts go together.  I still need to get the backing fabric, I already have the batting and just received a brand new walking foot in the mail so I can quilt it all together myself.  Now to figure out exactly how I want to quilt this thing, shadow quilting the seams, or just big X's across each square?

Yes, I am already thinking about the next one, which will be a t-shirt quilt of all Mister Vonkysmeed's beloved Oingo Boingo concert shirts.  I should have that done in plenty of time for Christmas and now is a great time to start being on the look out for Day of the Dead fabric for the backing.  So I guess the Big Block quilt pattern was a pretty good introduction to what I will need to do to get that project done!

Finally learning to quilt

To be honest I have kind of quilted before, but it was a Hawaiian applique style quilt so not quite the same thing as a pieced quilt.  A few friends of mine quilt, Crafty Auntie and The QuiltMaster, and their beautiful projects have finally inspired me to get started on learning this craft myself in spite of being terrified of having to cut a very straight line.

Since I often suffer from startitis, to force myself to get my act together and get the fabric ready by a certain date I set up a crafting party for this weekend so I can get help cutting out all the pieces in preparation for sewing it all together. I could ostensibly cut them out myself, but the chances of them beign square if I do it with my limited supplies is slim to none.  The QuiltMaster offered up her rotary cutter, board, and whatever fancy rulers she has to help me get everything cut out.

For my first project I decided to make a really basic quilt for Destructo Boys' crib, well now it's a toddler bed since we pulled the drop down rail off about a year ago.  I think it would look so much nicer with a quilt on top instead of just a sheet.   I found some free patterns online and the one that most caught my eye was the Big Block quilt from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe.  It looks simple enough for me to get some instant satisfaction, but enough different with the borders to keep me interested in it.  Best of all it should give me some instant satisfaction so I can learn how to put a quilt together rather easily so I can make more!

Since I went out and got my fabric for the blocks, sashing, and borders I should be all ready to go for this weekend.  I found some great prints with hot rods and woodies at the beach for the blocks and a really pretty mottled blue to use for the sashing and borders that seems to have all the blues that are in the other fabrics in it.  For the lining I am waiting until I have more time to go through the less expensive flat folds at my local fabric store, for some reason spending $30 on the back of the quilt just makes me sick,  It is great fabric, by Hoffman, but that is still a bit pricy for me.  I suppose I should pre-wash the fabric already purchased to make sure if there is any shrinkage it happens now and not after the quilt is all assembled. Wish me luck!

My cardigan gets a time out

It's not the sweaters fault really, it is definitely all mine.  I didn't look at the measurements of the finished pieces and figure out what would work best for me, I just followed what would normally be my size and started knitting.  Unfortunately this plan didn't work out too well as my Nantucket Pink (Ravelry link) has turned out much too small.  Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely pattern, well written and the finished cardigans are beautiful, I just needed to take more care before I started my project.

Once the fronts and backs were finished they looked a tad on the small side so I washed and blocked it then basted the fronts to the back to try on and I just don't like how it is fitting.  In the pictures the sweater is definitely pulled across the bust to close, but mine is just beyond that, it simply looks too small for me.  Plus I am not a huge fan of the stretched too tight look (why I didn't take this into account before I started knitting is beyond me!).  So I guess I will just have to take this as a lesson to not just do gauge swatches (I made 3 for this blasted thing!) but to also check the designers math with the stitches and final measurements (this one was off by about a half inch), and to make sure the final measurements are what I want for my finished garment.

Maybe one of my next projects should be something from Wendy Bernards Custom Knits (Amazon link) to help me learn how to take more control of my knitting.  I know that any pattern can be adjusted to fit better, I just am not really sure how to do that yet.  I will probably do some small adjustment to this cardigan when I reknit it, such as putting in bust darts, I am just not sure if I should go up a needle size or just follow the instructions for the next size up.  I foresee some math in my future!  Now that I have some pictures of the beautiful but too small cardigan now I can begin to frog, sigh.

Rainbow knee socks, third times the charm?

why yes, I am enjoying my ipod!

Yup, I have started these suckers three times already.  I am so hoping that this time they come out the right size.  In case you were wondering, these are for Lil' Miss, not for me, I'm not really a 'rainbow' type person.  When the new colors of felici were released last month I knew she would love the color so bought 2 skeins to make her some knee high socks (cause doesn't even fashionable Kindergartener need some snazzy knee hi's?).  It is a really nice yarn base to work with, washable merino wool that is nice and smooshy, and it can being handle ripped out three times and re-knit!

The pattern I finally settled on was Riblet (Ravelry link) socks by Katt Walker designed to fit a wide range of young'uns.  All would have been great if I hadn't decided to do them up to the knee (they aren't designed as knee socks), it is a really well thought design of ribbing all the way down the sock to ensure a comfortable fit on many different foot sizes.  However I decided to just cast on and go for it after some reassurance from a fellow Raveler without doing any kind of gauge swatch to check my gauge against Lil' Misses calf circumference (I need to re-read my own goals list on the left bar don't I!).  So after about 2 weeks of knitting I tried them on her again and this time she said they "didn't feel so good."  Sigh, you know what that means!  I frogged them and started over. 

Funny aside here, a non-knitter friend was sitting in the room with me and some knitters when I began ripping them out.  The poor thing was literally squirming in her chair watching me do it, I think she was just about ready to leave rather than continue to watch in growing horrified fascination.  Everyone else understood my problem, yes I could just finish them, but they wouldn't fit and would never be worn so it was better to rip out 2 weeks of work rather than continue on with a doomed project. 

I cast on for the second time with 70 stitches instead of 55 and of course after being too small this time they were turning out too big, so frog again.  For my third attempt I cast on with 60 stitches and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out this time.  My gauge seems to have relaxed some too, for some reason when I started these I think I was attempting to choke the life out of the poor yarn.  Now that I have gotten used to working with it I seem to be having an easier time of it.  Hopefully I'll get them done before she grows out of them, I just have to keep plugging away now that they seem to be the right circumference for her leg.

Glynis socks redux

Remember how in my last post about these socks I said I was a bit off on the gauge?  Well, yes that 1/2 stitch per inch off on the gauge makes a difference, a pretty big one too.  After getting an inch of ribbing and 4 repeats of the lace pattern done I decided to try on the socks again.  It was a huge struggle to get them over my instep, nigh impossible, sigh.  I had to rip them entirely out and start over again.  So not happy about having to do that but the alternative of having socks I can't wear or that are only partially knit is worse so I began again with the next needle size up, a US 2.

Now that I have restarted them, they are coming along quite nicely, I only did 4 repeats of the lace pattern of the leg instead of 9 as called for in the pattern because I didn't want socks quite that high.  It seems that a 3-4 inch leg is what works for me and once I got to that point I started the heel flap.  I had to do 18 slipped stitches on the heel flap height, about  2 3/4" high.

The color is definitely growing on me, once I had the mental image of Shrek blowing big pink bubbles the colors make me giggle a little inside every time I see them.  It remains to be seen if anyone else will be as amused by them as I am.  The yarn is a joy to work with though, so soft and easy to knit.  It does get a little splitty but it's not a huge problem and thankfully my harmony needles are so pointy it's pretty easy to deal with.  Hopefully they will wash up and wear nicely too and if they do I will definitely be investing in more Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy sock yarn!

I am beginning to rethink the whole 6 socks in 2011 goal, I think I am going to end up with 12 pairs by the end of the year at the rate I'm going.  They may not all end up being for me, I just got some Knit Picks Felici in rainbow and tiki to make some socks for Lil' Miss, but I will definitely end up with more than 6 by the end of the year.  This would be why I sometimes lowball my expectations, I get so excited and happy when they are surpassed!

Another Sock KAL

So I started out the month of March by joining another sock knit-a-long, this time with the Sock Knitters Anonymous group.  One of their challenges for the month is lace, and lucky for me I have a spanking new Sock Innovation book by the uber-talented Cookie A. begging to be knit out of so here I go!

For these socks I am using my lovely new skein of Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Sock yarn that I bought for myself at the beginning of the year.  It is a truly interesting shade of pink and green, called magenta-moss on WEBS.  It truly is magenta and moss, with some browny-green thrown in for good measure.  I think it'll be one of those colorways that will grow on me over time (I have now decided it looks like Shrek chewing Bubblicious gum).  Happily I was able to split the yarn in half and get each sock started at the same color change.  I never would have been able to get the yarn split evenly without my yarn scale, I am getting a huge amount of use out of that thing.  Hopefully I'll get two matching socks rather then fraternal twins since I was able to get both started at the same color change.   

I chose the Glynis pattern out of the book as after perusing the projects on Ravelry of socks from Sock Innovation I decided that this pattern would look the best in self striping yarn.  My gauge is a tad tight, but really, how much difference will 1/2 stitch per inch make?  I think I'd rather they were a bit tight to get on then too loose. For some reason I am having a devil of a time so far keeping the pattern straight, I keep making mistakes and having to pull out work I just did to get it right.  Frustrating, but necessary.  Here's to hoping it'll get easier for me as I go along.

Toes Up!

Got started at the beginning of the month with the KAL in the Knit Picks Lovers group on Ravely.  I am using the Toe-Up Socks With a Difference pattern by Wendy Johnson and am adding in the motif from Pillars by Lisa Stichweh.  For my yarn I am using some Knit Picks stroll tonal in the blue yonder colorway, I am absolutely loving how the colors are blending, such gorgeous blues, teals, and aquas.  It was a pretty easy start once I figures out the cast on.  One of the Ravelers posted this link for a video explanation of how to get TAAT started on magic loop, after watching it through twice I gave it a go and got my socks cast on with my first try.

I followed the instructions for the increases and then did an additional 4 rounds before starting the lacy motif on the instep.  I am really liking how they are coming along so far, but am worried about how to increase the gusset to make for a taller heel flap.  I was clued into this post from Wendy's blog (a great read if you love knitting!) where she describes altering her pattern (yes the one I am using, hooray!) to make room for a taller heel flap.  I think her adjustment may be a bit much for me, but it definitely gives me a starting off point to adjust the pattern to fit my feet.  Thank goodness for helpful knitters on Ravelry!  I wouldn't have had the guts to try toe up socks without knowing I could get their help.

 

I am actually a bit past where I was when I took the pictures, I am just about ready to start my increases for the gusset.  Wish me luck as I try to figure this next step out!