New Year's Eve Rogue Roses Socks

It could be said these socks have been in progress for over a year and a half. I had started them in April 2010 but had to rip them back when it turned out that they were way to small. I was knitting too tight even for the larger size of the socks. I recast on in October 2011.

The leg for Sock A and B is 48 rows (4 pattern repeats). I started to knit row 49 and knit to two stitches before a marker indicating the beginning of purling. Then I continued with steps for creating the heel. I knit 5 pattern repeats (60 rows) on the foot. Then I started the toe decreases. The toe decreases were 1.75 inches long. I’m not sure this added enough length. I may need to knit another 6 rows of the pattern.

I finished the first sock and began knitting the second. After finishing 1.5 pattern repeats of the Sock B, I realized that I hate the way the lace pattern looks. Sock A had the yarn overs occurring by knit stitches and the Sock B has them appearing really close to purl stitches. This is causing the lace effect to look really sloppy compared to the other sock. I’m going to knit Sock A again, so the lace part occurs like it did with the first. So the socks will not be mirror images. It’s just two of the same sock with the pattern on the right side. Oh well.

Completed Simple Noro Sock

Simple Noro Sock

When we were doing the road trip to Disney World, I started on a pair of simple knitted socks using some Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn that I had purchased at the 2008 STITCHES Midwest. Yarn tends to linger in my stash for ages before I'll use it. I'm trying to break my hoarding tendencies and use up yarn that I have purchased. I'm not allowing myself to purchase any new yarns unless they are truly unique. As in, I'm not going to be purchasing any Cascade 220 at this year's STITCHES.

I've just completed the first sock of the pair. Picking up the stitches to turn the heel lingered longer than I had originally anticipated. I really did not want to go through the effort of turning the heel and knitting the foot. It took two months just to complete this one sock and I have another one to go. I'm hoping I can get it wrapped up in maybe a month.

Simple Noro Sock

I started knitting this during the road trip to Disney. This knitting project has, honestly, sucked. I knit a full three inches on day one of the trip after having cast-on 68 stitches. I placed the tube on my leg and realized this would never, ever work. So, I ripped out. I re-cast with more stitches and all appears to be going well. But I'm still on the first sock and haven't yet turned the heel. As any knitter could easily see, I have no passion for this project. We'll see what happens with it.

I'm not convinced I would ever buy Noro Kureyon Sock yarn again. I have high hopes that I can make the pair matching. But by having knit on size 2.5mm needles and cast-on more stitches I'm not convinced that it's possible.

Simple Skyp Socks

After a few assertions that "you don't make me anything," I began knitting my husband Chris, some socks. I picked the Simple Skyp sock pattern by Adrienne Ku and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Medium weight in the colorway Manly yes, but I like it too!, which really showcases the stitches - great stitch definition! It's a lovely gray.

I decided to not pick up an extra stitch on both sides of the sock to continue with the skyp pattern. This left me with just three ribbed sections of the pattern repeat on the foot, instead of five.

Like Magic

"It's like magic," I tell my husband as I continued to darn a hole in my mom's handmade sock. I had made the sock out of 100% wool - a slight failure on my part - and they were suffering from a lack of nylon. The woman loved them so much she couldn't deem them to be special, napping on the sofa/chair socks. Oh no, she put them to work walking around the house (thankfully she did not wear them with shoes) and they worked the best they could. After a few months the heel developed a hole and it was in need of a mend. I used my brand new darning egg and the instructions on darning I found at Knitty (Summer 2008) to fix them. The darning egg came in my possession when I was buying my TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level II Program yarn at Knit Picks. I was completely astonished at how nifty it worked and felt quite handy/self-sufficient at the accomplishment. It's not that I don't look at knitting as an accomplishment but there is really something to fixing a hole that is well...more impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of before or after. I'm sure she'll continue to wear them and more holes will develop, which couldn't make me happier. Thanks, Mom.

Progress...I guess so.

I finished the second cable sock yesterday. I'll now have socks for the fall. It's way too hot nowadays to even think about wearing socks. Since May, I've been in sandals.

The majority of my knitting time has been devoted to Level 2 of the TKGA Master Handknitting Program. It's really not easy. So if someone out there is looking for easy, pass this up. I think I finally have my lace and cable patterns written and will start knitting them soon. I didn't want to start knitting until I had a better idea of what the pattern would look like on paper. I had begun a swatch without doing this and had to cut it. Ripping wasn't an option because the yarn just clung to itself. I'm thinking of starting the mitten while continuing to work on the swatches.

I have knit the material for six swatches - they need to be blocked and seamed. But one of them it turns out will need to be reknit so it's really just five (5 out of 22). I didn't read up on seaming before knitting the K2P2 and made an error that won't allow for seaming - dammit.

But I also want to make my husband a pair of socks. The only knitted item I've ever given him was a K1P1 ribbed hat when I first started and well, I cast on an odd number without realizing that this would give me two knit stitches at the end of the row. He got an imperfect hat. I'd like the socks to come out better.

Cable Sock

Only one sock...it still needs a mate. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Multi.

They're Finished!!

Finally, the Queen of Beads...

An Evening of Felting

I spent tonight felting the Formal Foot Bag. It came out perfectly and roughly matches the dimensions in Bag Style. The bag turned out really well. It took an hour or so of being in the washer. After it dries I'll affix the bag to the leather handle I purchased from Homestead Heirlooms LLC at Stitches Midwest. I'm still working on the panel that needs to be attached to the front and back of the bag. I completed a few rows watching Watchmen but still have 6" left to go. I should have it finished next weekend. And maybe have the bag completed.

The news on my Queen of Beads socks is that there are no beads matching mine at the store. There going to send me some beads that are closest to them and I'll just use them to finish the rest of the sock. I'm not sure I care all that much at this point. and maybe if I un-knit some of the other sock and mix up the beads, it won't look so pronounced. Meh...no need to worry yet. I'll just have to evaluate the situation once I have more understanding of what I'm dealing with.

River Rocked - 5th Shipment of Socks that Rock

This shipment arrived on Saturday, while I was taking a nap. I really like the colors in this yarn: blue, brown, purple, orange, red. Just spectacular. It is like looking at the color palette of a forest. This is both a color way and pattern I would have easily picked out in a shop.
















I am still hoping that the Sock Club folks might have some leftover beads for my Queen of Bead sock. It turns out they used five different types of beads when putting together everyone's shipments. By my own calculations, after looking over the first sock, I'm short nearly 3 dozen beads. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I'm unable to acquire more.

Garden Daze - 4th Shipment of Socks that Rock

I received the latest shipment of the 2009 Socks that Rock Club over a week ago. In that time, the pattern and yarn have not grown on me. This entire package is not something I would ever choose to knit. For my taste, the colors are too bright and a little too reminiscent of a vegetable garden. Having not finished the first pair of socks (second sock syndrome is in abundance), I won't be getting to this any time soon.

Self-Impsed Exile

After injuring my back, it was difficult to resume knitting for hours on end. I took a week or so off after the baby hat. I've started seeing a chiropractor and have started to take longer breaks between my knitting so as not to put myself in any further discomfort. I have managed to stay busy.

In the interim of my last post, I've knit one footie and finished a lace scarf using two skeins of purple Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk I had in my stash. I bought this on clearance with no clear intention of what I would do with it. After scouring Ravelry, I settled on the FishTail scarf. The finished scarf measures 5 feet; a little short for my taste but it'll do.

I purchased 5 skeins of Noro Tidiori to add to my four skeins. I bought the first few skeins because it was on sale for $5 each. Looking back, it wasn't really the wisest decision to make but I couldn't pass up Noro or sale yarn. I saw a few examples of Clapotis (check out knitty.com) made with Tidiori on Ravelry and it reminded me of Missoni. With a lot of luck, I was able to find a retailer still selling the yarn, which became discontinued a year ago. At some point, after the footies and the mystery project, I'll start on a Clapotis. I really have to stop having incomplete projects laying around. All the UFOs I mentioned back in March are still lingering about the condo.

I'm still queued on the Queen of Beads socks, which means I have have two other Rockin' Sock Club kits sitting in wait. There's a new kit that will ship this month. I'm so terribly behind.

Queen of Beads Update

I'm never going to finish the second sock. Never. Ever.

I've tried casting-on a half-dozen times and even made it so far as to have gotten to the row where the piece is joined, only to have then dropped a stitch and been unable to pick it back up. At this time, I've given up.

I've started another project but am waiting to post on it.

Second Shipment of Socks that Rock

My second shipment from the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club arrived yesterday and it is bountiful. Just look at all those goodies.

It's been a busy two weeks

I finished up my flaming wave socks a few days ago. I don't want to gloat but don't they awesome?! They only took forever and a day to complete. It also turns out that I read the chart in reverse so they're not exactly like the pattern. I didn't realize that i was reading charts incorrectly until a few days ago. I learn something new everyday about knitting. Like the last pair I made, they were a pleasure to knit. The pattern gets stuck in you head so you no longer need it around all the time to repeat it.


As if the socks weren't enough, I also finished an unoriginal hat, courtesy of the yarn harlot's pattern on ravelry. This was a really easy pattern to knit (and this time I followed the chart correctly!). If I were to knit this again, I would use needles one size larger. I used Plymouth Yarn Hand Paint Wool on size 10 needles. It's a bit of tight knit, considering the recommended needle size for this yarn is size 15. I'm not sure of the color way as the yarn was a gift from a few years ago. I had originally knit it into a scarf but didn't like the scarf so I frogged it. There's still close to a full skein left in my stash.



I have another item to report on. I started the Rockin' Sock Club pattern and am now at the part where I work the heel cuff. I do love the colorway for this yarn and have found that knitting with beads isn't nearly as difficult as I had thought. I'm really glad that I haven't run into a knobby bit or part where the yarn is tied. It seemed lots of other people were encountering this problem.

Because of this project, I'm now very interested in knitting the Wild Clover Maxi Clutch pattern from Valley Yarns Stockbridge with beads. I had originally thought of not using beads.

It's here!

The package arrived last Thursday and it's just as awesome as I imagined. Not only did I get the sock yarn and a pattern but a nifty keychain (of both sock yarn and Rockin' Sock Club) and pin. I have attached my pin to my cubicle, as well as the the spare keychain of sockyarn. I've already had someone comment. It was more of "what is that?!" but still, it's got people talking.

Yesterday, I spent an hour trying to decipher how to get the beads on the yarn and finally succeeded. Now I just have to figure out what how to do a tubular cast-on.

Chris has been nagging me about not knitting him socks for weeks. I finally broke down and purchased some Cascade Fixation in black. Hopefully the color will satisfy him and since the yarn can be knit up on larger needles, it won't take me nearly as long. I couldn't buy just sock yarn so I bought a skein of Cascade 220 in magneta for a Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug (by Stefanie Japel in Fitted Knits) and two balls of Laines du Nard Mulberry Silk to make Candy Wrapper Sachets (by Leigh Radford in One Skein). The lavender I purchased over the summer is still very potent and will work well in the sachets. I really want to start getting into the habit of making little projects that can be given out as gifts--things smaller than hats and scarves.

Antsy-Pants

I had a rough day at work so it was great to get the email from Blue Moon Fibers indicating they shipped my socks that rock. I am super excited for the shipment to arrive. I have to go out and buy a binder, lest the packages accompanying the yarn remain loose. How awful would that be?

I'm of the group of people where waiting to open Christmas presents is really arduous so when a club member opted to reveal the contents of the package, I can't deny that I went straight to the website and proceeded to view the pics. And let me just say, the yarn is lovely. Although now I'm kind of sad I purchased Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck in a blue/green palette. Then again, can you have too many hand-knitted blue socks.

My other issue is that I am still working my way through a pair of Flame Wave socks. I'm happy to say over the weekend I made significant progress and have completed one sock. If I continue to knit at this rate, I should be able have the heel turned by the weekend. I'm 3/4 into completing the leg so I don't think this is me being too ambitious.

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

It's almost time.

I've been anxiously waiting and today...I got my username and password for the Rockin' Sock Club. Fantastic! I'm ready for my yarn package to arrive, which reminds me...

I went a little crazy this weekend at the local yarn store: Wool and Company (Geneva, IL). With reckless abandon, I went through almost my entire gift certificate, purchasing:

• 3 skeins of Tahki Donegal Tweed in Charcoal
• 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon
• 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted and 1 skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky
• 1 skein of Blue Sky Alpalca's Dyed Cotton
• 1 skein of Rowan Wool Silk DK

I do have plans for each skein so I'm off to a better start than normal. When I go on yarn expeditions, I tend to buy whatever is appealing which doesn't always work out with than making it into something. But with my stash being an ever growing beast, I don't know when I'll get around to these projects.

I'm still working on the Flame Wave socks from Favorite Socks, after having ripped back from the heel over Christmas. I choose the smaller size and it turned out to be too small for my feet. I couldn't even get them over my heel. It was quite sad and disappointing to have to rip back hours worth of work. In the end, I'll be able to wear them so it works out in the end.