My Traveling Socks

These finally got finished! They've traveled there and back again.

I started with a pattern from More Sensational Socks but ended up starting over and doing just a generic rib. I think dd#1 will be wearing these the most.

This was Socks that Rock - lightweight yarn that I purchased at Stitches Midwest 2006.

The hanger sock blockers are new...bent them just today. Thought that'd work ok for taking pictures.

Now I've got to figure out what will be my next traveling sock project....hmmm...so many choices....

Baby Booties

Here's a picture of the finished booties. The pattern is here.

I think the pattern gets obscured with this yarn...although this yarn is VERY soft.

Sugar'n Cream Stripes

I had to give this yarn a try...
























And I've gotten the second baby mitt done and one of the booties. One down...one to go. Pictures will be posted when finished.


And I finished my last crocheted potholder this week too!
(no pics of that)

Two Color Hat

The Two-Color Hat is finished!

Here are my notes:
Make it like store bought hat...except do in the round.

(I used Yarn Harlot's "Knitting Rules" for basic directions.)

Oct 12th...did swatch. Andean Treasure is *so* soft!

Cast on green 112 sts. Size 2 needles.
1. 4 rows 2x2 rib green
2. 2 rows rib blue
3. 4 rows rib green
4. 6 rows rib blue
5. 3 rows rib green

Change to size 3 needles for stockinette sts in blue.

Knit until hat equals length of hand of hat wearer.

No swirl decrease...

1. Decrease round: K3, k2tog (around),
knit even 3 rounds.
2. Decrease round: k2, k2tog (around),
knit even 2 or 3 rounds.
3. Decrease round: k1, k2tog (around),
knit even 2 rounds.
4. Decrease round: k2tog (around),
knit even 1 or 2 rounds.
5. Repeat decrease round 4 until 6
stitches remain. Kitchener.

Finished Oct 21st.

Hats

My dd#2 has a favorite knit hat. It is store bought and has seams. The seams make the hat look funny when worn. I think so anyway! So I promised that I'd make a hat for her just like the store bought one except NO seams.

This hat is in Andean Treasure (Knitpicks) and is super soft.








This next hat is for my cousin's friend who is having a baby in December. Free Pattern Here. This yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Bubbly. I was only able to get one skein of pink so I am also using white because she wanted a hat....a pair of baby mitts (one done)....
and a pair of baby booties (soon to be started).

I'd have to say that I'm not overly fond of this yarn even though it is super soft.

Jaywalkers done!

Amen!

I had issues with this sock...too loose....too tight....way too much ripping back. One whole cuff, one whole foot and about 3" of the other foot.

But they are done and my dd loves them and I finished them in time for the game tonight. All I had left to do this morning was to Kitchener the toes shut...no big deal there.

I ended up doing a plain stockinette stitch foot. The toes are decreased on the pinky toe side. So they are left foot/right foot socks.

I used size 0's with 84 sts.
(Tried 1's but the socks were too big)
Zwerger Garn Opal Krokodil / Crocodile sock yarn.

Progress....or not!

The Eesti Trail Hiking socks got ripped back....

I had the heel completed. The decrease for the gusset stitches was wonky...so I searched online for pattern errata. Well....I found the errata but it was for the charted color work in the middle of the leg which, of course, was done. Bummer! So I ripped out the gusset, the heel and the color work.

As for the gusset....I never found an errata for that. But it's a mistake none the less. The pattern has you decrease 4 sts on the first round after picking up the sts along the heel flaps...and two sts on each side of the instep. The pattern says "dec 2 sts".

So when I reknit this I will decrease 4 sts on the first round...that helps with the holes that sometimes appear in those corners. But then on the other decrease rounds I will only decrease on the heel needles....not the instep needles also.

I cast on for the Jaywalkers Socks. They are for dd#1 and I'm hoping to finish them by next Friday. One cuff is done and the other is about 1.5 inches. Luckily she wants short cuffs. They are in the high school's colors (even though we homeschool). She's going to the Homecoming game and wants to dress in school colors.

Stranded Diagonal Potholder

Here's the inside of the potholder....
Isn't it purty!

Things I learned in this "little" experiment:

1. 42 stitches on each needle (2 circs - size 3) is not enough stitches. Finished size is 6.5" on the diagonal. Works nice to keep my arm of this nasty cold metal desk but for taking hot casserole dishes from the oven it would be useless.




2. Don't worry about the stockinette sts rolling. They will behave eventually.

I had done some garter rows to prevent the rolling. I don't like how that looks. If I had done more stripes of it in other places I wouldn't have minded. But this experiment was about doing color work not texture.





3. I chose to use the vertical straight lines in my colorwork to disguise the "jog". That worked for hiding the jog.....Except the lines don't line up...a jog may have been less noticeable. (I know there's a wrong stitch in there too...oh well...just a practice piece)


4. Next time try a smaller repeat.


5. Doing a stranded sweater with Cascade 220 (Wallaby leftovers) would be EXTREMELY warm!


NOTE: This post may not make sense on its own. Here's the previous "Potholder" post.

A Latin Riddle

Hey..... A Hobbit-type riddle in Latin!

Hic mortui vivunt, hic muti loquuntur.

Plus Laura Gibbs offers great encouragement for reading out loud....in Latin....but I'd include any language!

Dd#1's Rag Rug

Here's the rug dd#1 is working on.

It's made of bed sheets ripped into 1" strips and then hand sewn together.

As you can see she's almost out of sheets....but we've still got a very large bag here yet to be ripped. It's a very dusty job so we do it outside! Today would be a beautiful day to get some done.

Our neighbor double crochets rugs like this. We tried.....but our hands (and heads) favor the knitting needles.

Tribble

I love Ravelry! You can find all sorts of neat patterns and ideas there!

Here's a pattern that uses up scraps of dishcloth yarn. It's also a scrubbie of sorts.

I added 6 strips of fine tulle (1" wide) to make it even scrubbier.

Note: Ravelry is still in its beta stage but won't be long and it will be open to the public. You can put your name on a waiting list (if you haven't yet...it doesn't take too long to get an invite).

Crocheted Pot Scrubber

I bought 1 yd of large holed tulle (from a fabric bolt). Cut in 2" strips...from fold to selvage edge. Tie 6 pieces together with square knots (leave tails 4 inches or so...the tails become the stuffing on the inside).

Pattern is here:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf192070.tip.html

It is Dawn's post on August 31, 2007.

This feels real scratchy...like steel wool.

I don't think I'll be making too many of these. I really love the soft wool going through my fingers instead of scratchy tulle.

Roza's Socks

These are Roza's Socks, designed by Grumperina from the Interweave Knits Spring 2007 magazine.

Needles: Size 1 bamboo dpns
Yarn: Steinbach Wolle Aktiv Color 100 #7639

I added 6 sts (66 sts total) since I have size 8.5 feet.

Top cuff: 1 3/4" = 20 rounds
Whole cuff: 8" = 80 rounds

74 rounds from gusset to beg of toe shaping:
Round 74 on 4th needle knit first 2 sts together.

Arrange 31 sts on heel needles. 33 sts on instep needles.

Set up round: decrease 1 sts on each instep needle (#2 & #3).

Round 1: decrease on each needle (as per pattern).
Round 2: knit even

Decrease until 11 sts on heel (#4 & #1) and instep needles (#2 & #3). No even knitting round after this....do another decrease round to get 9 sts on heel and instep needles.

Do donkey ear trick.

Kitchener.

I had quite a bit of yarn left over. No worries about running out even though the cuff was fairly long.

I love how the brioche stitch looks in the ribbing.

Words and Where We Get Them

One of the Latin Proverbs that came up yesterday was:

Plures necat crapula quam gladius

In English: The hangover kills more than the sword.


Here's a blurb from that link in case you don't go there:

The Latin word crapula, like the words for so many of the finer things in life, is borrowed from Greek, "kraipale," meaning a headache, and in particular, a drunken headache. By extension, the word then comes to refer not just to the effects to drinking to excess, but to the drinking itself. Today's proverb could thus be translated as "Excessive drinking kills more than the sword does." But it sounds more fun to just say hangover!

And yes, if you are looking to improve your English vocabulary, "crapulous" is indeed an English word, along with a whole long list: crapulence, crapulency, crapulental, crapulosity, and crapulousness. Eegad, I love the Oxford English dictionary!


Do you ever feel "crappy"?

I say that all the time when I'm not feeling that great. I'll have to watch out....some may think I'm nursing a hangover! ; )

Basic Socks

These socks for dd#3 have been on the needles a long time. They were toe up Queen Kahuna style on #0 Addi Turbos.

The yarn is Kroy Sock Yarn....not my favorite.

I finished them on the way to American Players Theater yesterday. We went to see Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The weather cooperated beautifully this year....it's an outdoor stage. The costuming was beautiful and the actors incredible (as usual).

I read a few pages of the play the night before we left. But watching the performance and hearing the words spoken with inflections and emotions really makes a huge difference in comprehending Shakespeare. It will come to life now as I continue reading it.

The weather was cool...perfect for wool socks, wool sweaters and a clapotis on my lap. We were hoping the mosquitoes would be at a minimum and they were. I think I saw only one!

We swung past Cave of the Mounds on the return home. It had been a long, long time since I had been there. My kids and dh had never been there before. It was very wet in the cave but not as bad as the the record rain of August had made it. (It was the wettest August ever in Madison this year.) Part of the tour was inaccessible in August because of high water.

Diamond Rib Cloth

Here's another free charted pattern for you.

This is Louet Euroflax Linen on size 2 needles (55 sts).

It took me awhile to get the pattern downloaded. I've been using Firefox because of Ravelry but I had to use Internet Explorer to get this on the net. Quirks...got a love 'em.

Crocheted Diagonal Potholders

I intentionally ignored this project in last night's post as that post was getting long enough as it was.

It is a single crocheted diagonal potholder. I used this pattern sort of (plus the advice of my mom...since she's made a hundred of these things). This starts with a chain 45. Then single crochet around and around for about 20 rows. Whip stitch together.

I made one on the way to NC and another on the way back while we listened to HP and the DH on CD. Audio books is the way to go on long trips. It really passes the time quite pleasantly.

Well....someone on one of my groups was asking about Christmas projects. So I googled for the link I provided above for this pattern and ended up stumbling upon a knit version of this potholder. The scales fell from my eyes and I started brainstorming.

I could do an aloha cast on ala Crazy Toes and Heels (like toe up socks). That would give me a little purl ridge down the middle. I may or may not like that ridge....depends.

I could also do Judy's Magic Cast-On and avoid that purl ridge. I've done a little sample of this before and it isn't very hard to do.

As I was looking at that knit version and imagining all the different stitch variations that could be done I started to think about the Fair Isle class I was going to yesterday morning. I could get a lot of practice doing Fair Isle colorwork on these potholders. I could make them in wool too...possibly even a bit bigger and then felt them.....

The only problem I can foresee is the whole jogging issue which really threw me a bit when I finished the Fair Isle portion of the sock pictured in the previous post. I started to think I read the charts wrong because the design looked off. Then I realized it was the starting point of the round. (For those of you who don't knit in the round...you are actually knitting in a spiral so where your end of the round meets the beginning of that same round you are one stitch higher.)

But most Fair Isle sweaters are knit in the round so there must be a way to overcome this jog issue....or it is just hidden in the side seam area (there really isn't a side seam)? I'll have to do a little investigating....or if you know, fill me in on the secret.

And Michele...those are two more cast on techniques to teach. I'll offer a third...Long Tail Cast on in Purl. I did it for three projects. It wasn't too bad once you got the hang of it. I don't remember it anymore...I'd have to study the pictures again with yarn and needles in my hands.

What happened to August?!?

This past summer had to be one of thee shortest summers yet.

My last post was dtd July 20th...well most of y'all know what happened on the 21st. Yep! We got our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book from Amazon. AND it was Fish Days which meant I had to pretend to have fun out and about when I would have really rather been at home stuffed in the book world. I read a couple chapters that next Sunday. Monday was devoted to reading and I stayed up until 5am Tuesday to finish it. As expected it was certainly a book that I would NOT be able to read aloud to the kiddos. Too many tears throughout the whole book. Good thing the audio version arrived the day after my birthday. (Which also explains why I was so emotional after a bad haircut on my birthday....lack of sleep!)

We had a kagillion VBS meetings those last weeks of July as most of the helpers were not available for meetings after July 30th since we'd be away on the Higher Things youth group trip in North Carolina. We returned from that Aug 4th and VBS was Aug 6 through the 10th. I was elected craft person....never again...thank you very much!

Then throw in a few birthday parties (relatives and friends), a wedding reception, house and nephew sitting for 3 days while the older brother was transported to college and that was pretty much the whorl wind that most call August. There were a few other things that happened these past few weeks but I'm too ashamed to admit the depths of my procrastination.

One would think there wouldn't be much time for knitting and that would be partly true to some extent...but there are always those minutes in the day one can find to stitch a bit...and procrastinate some more....

Before the HT trip I kind of finished the cashmere scarf for myself...although it still isn't blocked yet. I'm debating on whether or not to add a smallish border on the very ends of it. I'll decide after it's blocked.



I'll just show the pictures of the rest of the projects OTN (on the needles):











The other time hole I fell into was Ravelry! My invite came when I was house/nephew sitting and all my pictures of projects were at home on my computer. It probably was a good thing though. I was able to browse to my hearts content without feeling that I should be uploading my projects. I've got most of my finished projects on it already. None of my stash. Yet. I'm loving being able to see other people's projects. You can see how well they liked the pattern, how it fits, what yarns look like knit up etc.

Thanks for the kick in the butt to post something...

Horcrux Socks

Finished just in time for the release of the last Harry Potter book!



Notice the lightening shaped scar around the ankle of the sock. The pattern called for it to be higher up but I decided to put that lace portion by the ankle.

Speaking of the pattern...
it is a free pattern from the Six Sox Yahoo Group.
They do six socks per year...hence the name.

I did it in Scholeller+Stalh Fortissima Socka bamboo yarn. This yarn is 60% Superwash wool, 25% Bamboo and 15% nylon. Color number 0006. I used size 0 Knit Pick circular needles. I did these toe up Crazy Toes & Heels style and then just put in the lace panel 10 rows after rejoining after the heel. I then added more ribbing above it until dd#2 said STOP!

I almost finished the ribbing at Knit Night last night. When I got home I continued the ribbing (1 row!), cast off both socks and took care of the 2 ends. I weave in the beginning tail as I knit the toe so that part was done a long time ago.

Little Twisted Rib Cloth

Finally...the July cloth is done!

The pattern is charted...only 4 rows...although it is a 13 st repeat plus 7.

This is done with DMC's Senso 100% cotton (size 3). I paid $2.75 for 150 yds. I probably have enough left over for a half of a cloth. Or maybe it would be enough for a lace edging for a pillow or towel????

I could see using this rib for the tummy part of a summer top...or the whole thing!

Unfortunately my summer time is already filled. I got volunteered to be the craft person for our VBS. This coming week is the last time I have to be sure all 5 days of crafts are ready to go. We only used 1 of the preplanned crafts. So it was a lot of brainstorming and preparing these past couple of weeks to come up with 4 other appropriate crafts.

We (my dd and myself) are off to a Higher Things youth group gathering at the end of this month. VBS starts 2 days after we get back...yikes!

And then there is Stitches Midwest the day after the final day of VBS....I think I'm going to have to pass this year....sigh.

And our youngest dd is freaking out about me being gone...that just adds the final touch to my already too busy summer.

I did take some time out last night to go to Knit Night. I got some great advice on finishing my cashmere scarf...it's almost done! I also got the ribbing done on my Horcrux socks (for dd #2). It was my traveling project so it took a bit longer than usual. On to that post......