Knitty Gritty Thoughts

May Day Mission Complete!

Well hello there - that was kind of a long break wasn't it?  Life has been busy, a lot of things came up in my personal life that I had to take care of.  Anyhow I'm still decluttering but I felt like talking about knitting today so you get a brief synopsis of what I've been working on.  Don't get your hopes up, it's rather brief, I'm still not in a chatty mood but I did want to share my little rays of knitting sunshine! =)

First up - I finished my may day socks, hurray!  It feels so good to be done early (they were due May 1st)!  Now I can find fun little treats to put in the bag and weave in those ends.  They've already been blocked but sadly you can't see the pattern well  because I can't use my sock blockers.  My pals foot is waaay smaller than mine.  But you get the idea.

The dream in color smooshy may have redeemed itself to me, the yardage on that skein is insane and it's very soft to knit with too!

Embossed Leaves Socks
All the rav details here

Here's my little WIP roundup and 1 FO too  - all of these projects are so enjoyable to me, I'm having a hard time choosing which one to focus on first! =)  Clicky for big.

1 - Butterfly jacket from the current wool gathering knit with 2 skeins of berrocco ultra alpaca.  I love this knit, the garter stitch and simple shaping have taken on a meditative quality while knitting and I love the cute retro shape!  Plus I always love when I manage to find something that few people are knitting, it adds to the fun! =)  Rav dets here.

2 -Tiramisu baby blanket - super easy crochet pattern, if I only could manage not to lose my hook every 5 seconds!  I'm off to buy another so I can finish it off.  Rav dets here.

3 - Glee has been resurrected!  The last time I talked about her I threw her in a corner due to concerns about fit, dye lot issues (well it really should be "year lot" issues.  The two skeins were from different years of shearings and are 100% natural colored prime alpaca.  One year is darker than the other.  If I had planned ahead I really should have alternated skeins but on second glance it's not as bad as I thought it was.  I'm planning on putting back in the needles I yanked out and give it one more try.  Rav dets here.

4 - Cabled Rangoli Hat - very cute and helps with hat hair syndrome, who doesn't like that?  I was SO inspired by Miss Nasseknits version - check out her photo here!  This may be a hat I will actually wear!  Ravelry dets here.

Anyhow have a great weekend all! =)

Mindfulness in the Craft Room

Thanks everyone so much for all the lovely, mindful comments!  I'm afraid life has gotten away from me again from responding to them as I would have liked, I'm a little (lot) busy at work, and with another work trip coming up, MIL visiting for 3 weeks and a variety of other stuff I don't want to discuss here things are not slowing down anytime soon! =)  Every one of your items is a inspiration to me, and I'm filled with all sorts of lovely, mindful ideas that I can't wait to try out!

In the meantime I've been "decluttering" my craft room *sigh*.  It's exhausting.  What I did was pull everything out, everything from the closet went on the floor.  All my yarn and fiber went on the guest bed.  I cleaned everything and scrubbed all the cabinets, shelves and desks and then only allowed items back in the room that I really enjoy or had a plan for using.  Yarn, fabric and fiber went back in pretty fast.  I did have about 3 boxes of yarn that I didn't have plans for and wasn't speaking to me so I'm going to pass them on to new owners.(Angelika, check your mailbox!) =) ;)

When I was done I was still left with that giant pile in the middle of the room.  Everything in the closet was mostly "misc" crafts.  You know, the other crafts that you've tried and then abandoned?  Beads, calligraphy, 15 pillow forms, 3 bags of polyfill, extra, old fabric in patterns I would never wear.  Rubber stamps, embossing powder, glitter glue, markers and paper (I can't draw to save my life), 3 boxes of ink pens, tracing paper, coloring books, half-done projects stuffed in a drawer, etc, etc, etc. 

Plus the magazines, oh the magazines!  I like to tear out pages to save ideas for later and then I stuff them in a drawer if I don't get around to cutting them out and gluing them in my inspiration book.  Needless to say they pile up quickly.

Cleaning out my craft room is hard.  I have a hard time letting it go.  Every little bit of it is a part of my craft history which was changed and evolved to bring me to the type of crafter I am today.  I know now I love fiber and yarn, I adore knitting and can't picture my life without it.  I love spinning.  I love dyeing fiber and carding fiber and making battlets. I love sewing.  It's important to me to be able to sew with a machine and by hand.  I enjoy embroidery, even though I'm not very good at it yet.

But when I started, I didn't know any of those things.  My mom got me started early, ever since I can remember we crafted together but we didn't do any of the things I do now.  We painted, traced, beaded, rubber stamped (a lot!), glued, and paper mache'd our way to fun stuff.  I baby sat other children as soon as I was old enough and I always brought a backpack full of crafty fun from my craft room to play with them and they loved it!  I was always a favorite babysitter. 

I've been moving and carrying this stuff around for so long and I realized it's time to just let it go. 

Declutter.

It's time to give it to a new generation of crafters so they can find something they enjoy doing.  What I did was pile up boxes and boxes of stuff and let my nieces pick through. 

Those bags and bags of stamps?  On to a happy new home!  The bead loom, beading kits, markers, pens and misc stuff that helped me find my inner crafter?  Gone!  I hope it will help them find their own creative muses and find the right crafts for them.  And hey - if it's knitting I'll be there in a heartbeat to teach them! ;)

My craft room is almost finished and it feels so light and airy in there now, stepping in there makes me happy.  I'm so happy I cleaned it out.

Aside from decluttering I've been busy.  I spun up some beautiful (if I do say so myself!) yarn from my Deep End of the Ocean battlets.  This is a dk/sportweight, 260 yards, 3.7 oz and very, very soft and oh so pretty! I love this colorway!  If you are interested in this colorway I have just enough on my worktable to make another set and I'm happy to custom card it for you.

I also am part of the May Day sock swap.  I haven't talked much about my sock here,  I ran into some issues when I ordered yarn (3 colors of dream in color smooshy).  The colors that arrived were NOT what I was expecting so I had to let it marinate for awhile until I could decide what it wanted to be.  Happily I'm making progress.  This is the embossed leaves socks.  I love knitting this - it's beautiful, fun and best of all knits up quickly!  These are going to be some cushy socks!

Happy Monday!

FO - Badcaul Socks!

Just when you thought it was all rippling all the time around here, I have a FO for you!  This FO is l-o-n-g overdue..in fact I started these socks over a year ago.  This is the first pair of socks I've really ever had SSS (second sock syndrome) on.  The pattern is lovely....the yarn is lovely...what's up with that?!?  I don't know what took me so long!

Anyhow, I'm pleased to present my badcaul socks, finally!

Badcaul Socks, pattern by Anna 
Knit Time: 1 year!  Actual knit time...oh 3 weeks or so.
Needles: 2.25mm Inox 40" magic looped
Yarn: 2 skeins of koigu, one for each foot.
New Techniques learned: Toe up, short row heel, and cableing without a cable needle (yea!)
Final Note: Well written pattern (par the course, all of her patterns are well written) and an easy to memorize cable repeat.

(They were feeling shy)

So what's up next on my knit list you may ask?  I've been swatching for a new summer top out of the new nashua book.  It's all Katie's fault really, she invited me to knit along with her and Beth and a few other people for this top.

I swatched last night in SWTC Bamboo yarn in Turquoise.  I had originally bought it for the Marisposa shawl but the pattern is badly written with huge omissions of instructions.  To be quite honest you couldn't pay me to touch that thing with a ten foot pole.  So... I'm trying to put the yarn to use,  I'm not entirely convinced this is the right yarn for the job, what do you think?

My Knee socks rock!

I have a very serious problem right now.  I can barely put down these addicting knee socks to even take a pic and show you guys.  You may remember awhile ago I asked you what colors of Lorna's I should do knee socks in?  I soon came to the realization that 2 skeins probably won't cut it on the legs/feet.  I am taller than 6-foot people with boat feet to match. So - I know I needed more yarn and rather than buy more Lorna's, I splurged.  2 skeins of STR shaded solid and 1 skein of the contrasting for ribbing, heels and toes. 

This is very serious indeed, all I can say is that -

This Yarn

+

This Pattern

=

A very happy camper!

The yarn is brand new socks that rock, it's so new in fact I don't even think I've seen anyone blog about it yet.  It's a new line called Shaded Solids and the color is called Midsummers Night.  The contrasting color is Love in Idleness.  Don't you just love the calf shaping?

Yummy.  Me and my knee sock are going to go commune quietly now.  Send food- and chocolate. =)

Woven Cables

I got back into town this week and I'm slowly settling back in to my schedule of work and home-life...amongst that I finally finished the scarf pattern that many of you were asking about (and thank you for the interest by the way, I'm flattered!=)) I did end up making it to Purl in NYC and purchased some koigu for Anemoi mittens in my fav colors of the moment, chocolate brown and turquoise.  (Have you seen Tiennie's and Erica's?  Very lovely!)

However...without further ado...here are some pics and the pattern is in PDF format.  I've put it in the right-hand side bar under patterns in a PDF format (or you can download here).  I love this pattern for how simple and classic it is, it's the sort of thing which goes with everything and always looks great!

I've also completed my first FO of the year a pair of socks for hubby...you know those gold toe socks?  Well these are blue toe socks simply because I ran out of yarn.  They're knit with a full ball of brown kroy for each leg/foot and then switched to blue when I ran out.  The pattern is a simple, easy "plain vanilla" sock pattern, my favorite kind.  I actually wrote it up for a friend who was making socks for the first time so I'll post it here shortly too just in case it would help anyone.

Made a little progress on Rona, I've learned that stitch markers can be your best friend with this pattern.  Marking out each repeat is a handy way to keep track of a small set of stitches.  I believe I'm on about round 50 so far (and fading fast, I don't know how much longer it will last before I put it away for a bit!)

Have a great weekend!

Handknit Holidays: Cabled Socks

Handknit Holidays Cabled Socks
Actual Knit Time: 2 weeks
Needles: US 6 Needles (Started with 5's, too small) Magic Loop Options Needles
Yarn: Rowan Cork from Free Rowan Subscriber Gift (2.5 balls) for size 10 feet
Final Note: The pattern seems to be a favorite in the handknit holidays book, I've seen them all over the blogosphere, they are v-ery cozy!

P.S. Free yarn part - Anyone interested in the extra yarn from this project?? I have 1 full and 1/2 ball of Rowan Cork, in Oatmeal free to you if you'd like to try it.  Simply leave a comment by Friday the 1st.

Hope everyone's holiday weekend was great, if you celebrated.  Our Thanksgiving was nice, it was my first year cooking a real full sized turkey and it turned out great, yea!  I was really worried about defrosting it, then about cooking it completely but it all turned out in the end.  Work has me a bit stressed so I'm not feeling too chatty right now but I will say I've been really collecting the color cards lately.  I love seeing a smidge of color of what the yarn looks like in person rather than a monitor and is also important to someone like me who lives a bit far away from any local yarn stores.  I ordered some JaggerSpun color cards from Sarah's Yarns and she sent me e-v-e-r-y single color card of yarn that they sell, how neat is that?  It was a veritable mountain of yarn samples!

I also got really lucky and I was chosen on Fybrespates blog to win a skein of sock yarn for giving her feedback on her new online shop.  The yarn just came today, isn't it yummy?  It reminds me of fall- lovely leaf peeper colors.

Organized Knitting

I finished the first of the Handknit Holidays Cabled Socks this weekend.  The pattern is really fast to knit and gives you a lot of bang for the knitting buck (meaning it looks a lot harder than it is =))

The majority of the weekend I spent in the kitchen working, however when I did find free time I was still working.  In this case I organized my knitting patterns.  How do you organize your patterns?  I've tried a few ways over the years and finally separated them into categories and put them into page protectors.  The plain blue binder on the right is miscellany with tabs for smaller categories.  It feels good to be oh so organized! (No I'm not anal, why do you ask??)

Have you seen the new bloglines feature?  They created something called a "playlist" so you can view subsets of recent updates from feeds.  However I've been using it for something else altogether by creating a playlist of all my feeds I am able to see when the last time people have updated their blog was.  It makes cleaning out the old feeds (helll-ooo last updated 2004!) very easy.  I managed to get rid of 35 feeds that people just didn't blog at anymore, neat-0!  You should give it a try.

P.S.  I'm wearing Lorna's Laces in vera socks today with my crocs, just in case you were curious =)  Happy Holiday Week, and Gobble Gobble!

Socks n' Stuff

Having issues with internet precluded my from posting this on Friday, so I apologize for the wait for the winner.  For some reason bloglines didn't pick up my feed anywhere from 12-36 hours later so I also apologize if you missed out.  I do give out random knitting things from time to time so hopefully next time it will work out, and stay tuned.

Anyhow, Sarah won the needles via random number generation, congrats Sarah, they're in the mail to you!

You should also check out Christine's Stash Sale, she's selling off all her yarn because of some life changing events and giving spinning a try.  All the yarn is super yummy and priced to move.

 

I'll post a pic of a sock I posted before but I'll put it up here again because I am just amazed at how well the stitch definition comes off on these new sock blockers that arrived this weekend (no affil).  They looked a little big sitting there but apparently I just have huge ski boat feet because they fit my sock perfectly =)  Now I'm motivated to finish the other one that's been languishing for months, yea!

Badcaul Socks by Anna in Koigu knit on Magic Loop

Anyhow, we spent the weekend putting a little "Sweat Equity" into our home.   I may have mentioned this before, we purchased our first home last year, a little 3bed, 2bath with a garage and the smallest kitchen known to man.  Honestly, it's so tiny, you could blink and you'd miss it.  Well we've spent a good portion of the past 6 months improving the house, pulling out carpet and putting in the pergo floors, painting, new light fixtures etc.  We just finished our biggest project to date, renovating the guest bathroom.  We pulled everything out except the shower and started over, tiling up part of the wall, new tile floors, molding and a beautiful new vanity I got on sale cheap!  I like sales and I really renovate under a strict budget.  I should say I have very particular looks I like and I managed to pull off something that looks more expensive than it is through careful shopping and I'm very happy. 

The 3 things that need to be done are the master bath, laundry room and kitchen and we were debating what to start next, I think the kitchen it is.  It's a very fine line for us as this is a temporary home, no longer than 2 more years here so we want to make it look nice but also for it to sell so everything we do I keep that in mind.  We're debating tearing out the whole thing but I have to question if it's worth it, in a perfect world we'd probably have to rip out some walls but for now we're going to try and keep it simple, tile, new appliances and new countertops, preferably corian.  Did you know the avg kitchen reno costs 40k??? EEK.  I always watch those design shows and they turn out nice, but it's not worth it for this area.  I'll post a pic so you can give me your opinion, NEW Cabinets or NOT???  And no laughing at the small space, I already warned you =)

I'm baaaackk

Thank you all for the well wishes, I really appreciate each and every one of them.  I'm feeling much better, thanks for asking and I am able to turn my head side to side which is a skill I took for granted until recently.  I now feel like I'm a safe driver and can check before I move over a lane.  Before I was asking the hubby like, "Honey is it clear???" and he'd say, "Wha?  Oh sure I guess."  I guess!  I need a little bit more confirmation before I just get on over to the lane.

Ah well! =)  The wedding was beautiful, they held the ceremony at Duke Gardens which are just amazing.  The reception was held at a park and it all would have been quite lovely if it wasn't rainy and cold and there wasn't a lot of last minute things gone wrong like missing chairs and tables, flowers not delivered and a freak chemical fire which made the person who was making her cake have to evacuate and she had to find a last minute sub the day before.  How crazy!  We had a little bit of a bridezilla on our hands there for a minute but it all worked out at the end, they walked down the aisle, said their I Do's and that's the most important part.  I have caught a cold though from sitting in the rain so I'm just sitting here very hoarse and a wee bit miserable trying to work.  No pics of the wedding unfortunately I forgot my camera at the house so I'm waiting for people to email them to me.

   

I did start a sock for Socktober in the car.  It's from handknit holidays, the cabled house socks in Rowan Cork and they are so soft and they knit up so quickly!  They've been on my must-knit list for a while now.  I figured I would also answer lolly's questions as well...

Socktoberfest Questions

• When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

I taught myself to knit socks from a generic knitting simple pattern and a few online tutorials.

• What was your first pair?  How have they "held up" over time?

I knit my first pair in black woolease for the hubby as a pair of bootsocks.  They turned out ok, no large mistakes but the acrylic does not hold up well at all.  They're a big pile of pills and fluff right now.

• What would you have done differently?

I don't think I would have done anything different, they were a good pair to learn on and I recommend knitting with larger yarn at first.  As a beginner that first sock took for-ever and a day.  If I started with smaller yarns I think I would have gotten bored and dropped it.

• What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

Anything superwash!  Really, I dislike handwashing hubby's socks because his get dirty and stinky and pick up the dog hair on the ground.  I like trekking, koigu and anything hand-painted and don't mind hand washing my own =)

• Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

I learned on DPNs which I recommend, it gives you better feel for how the socks go together at the heel.  I them moved to 2 circs, then to Magic Loop.  ML is my preference, and would rarely knit a sock any other way.

• Which kind of heel do you prefer?  (flap? or short-row?)

I'm a flapper!  Short-row is just not my thing and I always seem to have holes on one side.  Haven't set aside the time to sit down and figure it out.

• How many pairs have you made?

I don't keep count but probably 25 or so...only 3 pairs for me, the rest to hubby and as gifts.

I'm a winner!

I feel really lucky lately, last week I won a contest on Amanda's blog of Zhinka Dinka Doo for a great book of quilts from better homes and gardens.  The pictures are beautiful and inspirational and just the thing I needed with my newfound interest in making a quilt of my very own.  Thank you Amanda!  This past weekend I cleaned out my "closet 'o shame" of all my UFO's.  It was quite crazy how many older things I had started but never finished because I didn't know the technique or I got distracted.  In part of my late summer cleaning I will be posting them all here and getting the list manageable, frogging what I know won't work or finishing what does.  As part of that I picked this koigu sock back up again to finish the second of the pair.  If I don't finish this one, this will be my first "second sock syndrome" and I'm trying to keep up a record.  What good is a sock if you only have one?  It's like only having one sleeve. 

I also finished up the other set of the Opal socks and put them in the mail.  AND - I finished up the test knitting for Catherine and I don't know if I'm supposed to keep it a secret so I won't post pictures here.  However, the pattern is very very cute and you all are going to want a copy when it comes out! =)
The past weekend was also hubby's birthday and I don't know what I was thinking but I got him one of those "video rocker" things.  He loves it --- my living room not so much! =)
**Links I'm loving:
Kim Hargreaves new collection is out
PurlSoho has a blog: The Purl Bee
New Zephry Style tops are out
Cat Bordhi was on knitty gritty last night (making the cashmere cowl I finished here)