Lots of pink

I've been knitting more socks for charity. Specifically, I wanted to make another pair for Mittens_4_Akkol before they were done with the sock challenge. (And they're a fast bunch of knitters, so I had to hurry.)

In addition, I decided to use up this ball of yarn.




For a large pair, I mixed it with some Patons crazy stripes.



And this is how they turned out!



They're done toe up using the Coriolis sock pattern with 2 strands of sock yarn using size 5 dpns. They're large on my feet, and measure to 27 cm (the size I was aiming for!) (My bookmark--and yes I do have one--doesn't turn up the pattern. It's by Cat Bordhi and was on the DIY show Knitty Gritty.)

They're definitely fraternal, rather than identical.



Here you can see a better view of the Coriolis swirling around the sock. That's where the increases are for the gusset, and then are a decorative element up the leg.



There was yarn leftover, so next I paired it with a Patons black sock yarn. (Note to self: Buy more black sock yarn, it's very useful.)



And look how pretty these turned out:




Magic "32" pattern on size 5 dpns. These measure 17 cm and will also go to Akkol.

Some of the Patons stripes was leftover, so I'm working on another pair, this time pairing it with a Cascade 220.



So far "they" (meaning: I hope there will be a second one) look like this:



Lots of pinks make lots of socks.

Shrug done

I finally got around to re-working DD's lace shrug (it was too snug and the sleeve ribbing was too tight). I ripped it apart and knitted 3 more pattern repeats before the seed stitch band. The cuffs are also looser and feel less likely to cut off her circulation.



Excuse the facial expressions... we actually took these after she got ready for school and before the bus came--imagine having enough time for that! (Only during the first weeks of school does this ever happen).

It's a bit bulkier than she wanted, so we'll see how it'll stretch out as time goes on (it is acrylic, you know.)







Easy Lace Shrug by Lion Brand.
size 6 needles for the body, size 5 for the cuff ribbing.
Three extra pattern repeats to make it loose enough.

August roundup

It looks likes August was a month where I knitted for others. That's okay, since I have several UFO's that are for me and I hope will soon become FOs. (That's right, ever the optimist.)

For charity I made:

Two pairs of mittens to match two hats,

an adult-sized teal/black hat that still didn't use up the everlasting teal yarn,

and a pair of Magic 28 socks with the bouquet yarn.

I mailed a box to CIC with two pairs of handwarmers and 5 pairs of socks.

And...my splurge: a Noro scarf made from Noro Silk Garden--two skeins each of 201A and 246A. 39 sts of 1x1 ribbing on size 7 needles.

Not sure what I'm doing with it, but isn't it pretty?










I want to make another one.

A sock

A sock. That's what I'm knitting right now is a sock.

It may not look like a sock, but it is.



So far it's mostly heel and a little bit of a gusset. Soon there will also be a foot. But not a leg, since this is a footie.

Just in time for fall. Sigh.

P.S. My scarf is done and waiting to be blocked. There was a slight milk spilling accident by a nameless child in the course of eating his/her cereal, noticed only when the yarn felt wet and the dog was licking my yarn. How do you spill milk inside my yarn bag, anyway? Those were my two clues--plus a guilty look on my nameless child.

Must be blocked--and soon!

P.P.S. Blogging is keeping me awake long enough to get a load of laundry out of the washer and into the dryer. DD needs two white socks for tomorrow, not one white clean sock and one grass-stained dirt covered sock. Or, one clean but soaking wet sock. Ah, the joys of laundry and the lack thereof.

Stripes are marching along

I've done this much on the scarf since yesterday. Let's not talk about what else I did, which is (obviously) not much.



I didn't crop the pic this time so you could see a couple of my toes peeking up from the bottom. DD#2 bought new nail polish and needed to paint my toes these wild colors. They look just like Skittles. (Okay, so you can barely see my toes, but I'm NOT doing a closeup of my foot. Just imagine each toe a different color and you get the picture.)

A lot of progress has also been made on DD's shrug.



It knits up as a big rectangle. The, the sleeve cuffs are added.



I got both of those done and then pinned them together and had her try it on.

It's not a good fit.

The cuffs are too tight and the shrug doesn't come around in front to hide spaghetti straps (which is the point so that she can wear her sundress to school).

Before I ditch it completely, I think I'll add a couple of repeats of lace and make the cuff ribbing looser. I'm very doubtful that it will work (since, it will still be a big rectangle, just a looser one), but it's easier than starting over.

But first, I think I'll knit a couple more rows on my scarf.

I caved

I caved.

The urge to visit my LYS coincided with my payday. I've never bought Noro Silk Garden before (or, for that matter, any Noro.)

But, these skeins were 40% off and I couldn't resist.





Two skeins each of 2 different dyelots. Can you guess what I'm going to make?



It looks like this:



And the pattern, or recipe, can be found here. Jared Flood's striped scarf is probably the first thing to hit my Ravelry queue, and now it's finally made it onto my needles.

It was a long time coming.

Easy?

First, in regards to my fingerless mitts, it's actually my own pattern, found on the sidebar as Diamond handwarmers, and listed on Ravelry here.

For knitting this week I have managed to start a new project. Surprised? DD#2 has a sundress that needs a brown shrug, so I showed her how to make her way around Ravelry and told her to find a pattern. This is what she picked, the Easy Lace Shrug by Lion Brand.

For She-who-thinks-wool-is-too-scratchy, I picked out Red Heart Soft that will feel nice to her but also hold up ok (I hope).

This is what I've done so far:



Well, this plus about 18 more rows, but they don't count since they were ripped out at various times. Two things:

1. This "Easy Lace" shrug may be easy in the directions, but I sure have a hard time counting the whole way through. Tinking works much better than frogging for this project (but unfortunately takes a lot longer.)

2. I could follow it better when I realized that the decreases line up in a straight row, so I can know for every 11 stitch repeat if I counted wrong.

DD is loving it so far, so I hope the end result will be worth the effort.




(The seed stitch I managed to do okay. :)

CIC box

My knitting made it to the local Blue Crabs game on Sat. night. We sat in the outfield on lawn chairs (the "cheap" seats) so it was hard to see what was going on most of the time. But, it was a fun night and we got front row seats for the fireworks afterwards. (Which made us plug our ears and dodge the falling debris.)




That was the second sock, so now I had a pair, and today I mailed them off. These were for the quick CIC challenge. Two pairs of handwarmers and 5 pairs of socks were mailed today, on their way to Russia by the end of the month.

Overheard conversation

From the next room....

"If you don't stop chewing in my ear I'm going to punch you!"

Ah, siblings.

The State of My Knitting

Another week has gone by without blogging. Sigh. It's not even like I've been busy doing any interesting and varied excursions, or even any projects around the house. (My goal was to get a bedroom repainted before school starts. Now we're under the wire with 3 weeks left and no progress to be made. That is, other than putting most of the room's contents out in the living room.)

In an effort to organize my brain ('cause who wants to organize my living room, anyway?), I present to you:


The State of My Knitting.


I've been concentrating mainly on two areas: Charity. And Me.

1. Charity.

CIC has two challenges currently going on. One is for Hands of Help Orphanage in Romania and is collecting 100 hat and mitten sets (or separately to equal 100 sets). These are due sometime in September, but I'm going to mail them soon to get them out of my house.

Here's a rust/brown adult hat that I had done, so I just made mittens to match. Adult sized, and nice and warm.



Same with this set. The hat was done (but the braids were added.) Another adult pair.



The teal White Buffalo yarn just won't go away, so I made another hat, this time knitted with a strand of bland Cascade 220. Adult sized.



The next CIC challenge is a quick one, collecting socks for 2-6 year olds or socks and gloves/hand warmers for 13 and up that will be leaving for Moscow on the 19th. I have a few pairs hanging around, plus I'm trying to knit a pair or two more.

These are Magic 28 on 5s using Bernat felting yarn. So soft.



This is yarn that I dyed that I hope to use for another pair (but the weekend is flying by, so we'll see.)



2. ME! I haven't done much for me lately, but I did buy a skein of stretch yarn this week to hopefully make a pair of footies before the summer ends.



The Mirepoix Bodice has been started. 1x1 ribbing on size 3s. I don't know if I'll ever get to the bodice.



My Cobblestone pullover made out of my very own handspun still sits quietly in the corner. A sleeve has been started, but I'm pretty sure it'll be too big and should be redone. (All 5 rows of it.)



And there it is, the State of My Knitting.

July roundoup

July, oh July, where did you go?

This lazy month I completed:

3 pairs of rust charity socks for Mittens for Akkol.

4 completed hat/mittens sets for the current CIC challenge.

1 hat of the wrong size for the matching mittens, but will work good for something else.

So, if I count each item separately ( 2 socks look like more than 1 pair), I made 15 items. There, that looks better.

Typing test

62 words

Typingtest

This isn't a very accurate result since it doesn't include any punctuation or numbers (which I have to totally look for). But, it was fun to try.

How did you do?

Friday this and that

Here's a better picture of the last hat and mitten set, complete with a pompom.



Here's my next set of hat and mittens. This is made with White Buffalo unspun 3-ply. I had already made the hat so I just made the matching mitts.



And hated every stitch. I'm much too hard on the yarn and broke it several times on each mitt. DD says they're fine, but I'm still debating.

At church this week, a friend gave me a bag of knitting stuff. (I remember her when she was a wee one, and now she has a wee one of her own!) Anyway, the bag had belonged to her grandmother who had passed away, and when they were cleaning out some things she found this and thought of me.




Inside, along with some needles and yarn, was an almost completed sweater! I'd say it was around a kid's size 8-10 and all that's left to do is the neckband and the side seaming.



I'm pretty sure there's matching yarn, so...I think I'm going to finish it.

Lucy says, "I've got my eye on you!"

Matching mittens

We got rain here yesterday but not at the amusement park--how about that? The kids had fun, DS threw in rehab for the 1st time in over 3 months, and I unloaded the truck. Just like planned.

I also continued with my mittens obsession.



I've been knitting bulky mittens on size 7 needles using an I-cord thumb that never cuts the yarn. There's still a gusset increase but there's no cutting of the yarn so less ends to hide! I need to try an adult pair to see how they fit on me, but so far I'm really liking them!

Mittens:
Yarn: Bernat Felting natural Wool bulky in the "Happy Bouquet" colorway that I absolutely couldn't get a good picture of. Maybe I can get one outside that won't show so much yellow.
Needles: size 7 dpns
Pattern: 28 stitches, 9 stitches for the thumb, and making it up as I go.

Then I made a hat. And had DD#2 try it on. It fits. And the mittens aren't even close to being big enough. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but trust me, they're a mismatch. (Hat: 80 sts on size 7s that was also tight to knit in the round).



So then, I had to put that one aside and make another hat.



This one is 3x3 ribbing on 8s with 72 sts and the bottom folds up. It's too small for DD, which means it's the right size.



Going through my hat stash, I found all these hats. They've been previously knitted for charity and I think they're just waiting for some matching mittens.



I don't know if I can match all of them, or not, but I'm going to see how far I can get.

And now....on to mittens!

It's going to be an exciting day. DS#1 is on week #14 of his rehab and today he gets to start throwing. Then, the kids are going to an amusement park, where it's not going to rain even if it looks like that. (We need rain, but not today).

What exciting thing am I doing today? I get to unload the truck at work. Woohoo! Well, at least some of us have an interesting day.

In other news, Lucy, the dog who thinks she's a cat, got a haircut.

See?



DD#1 wanted her to have the traditional cocker spaniel cut. While it's cute, it doesn't really cut down on the rolling tumbleweeds of dog fur that we find everywhere.

This is her favorite position on the floor, and she does none of the typical turning around to get there, she just plops on the floor and stays put.



That means she gets stepped on alot as she's always plopped within a few feet of a human.

In knitting news, I've been working on hat and mitten sets for the new CIC challenge.



They're made with Fisherman's wool in the lovely brown shade. I had a pattern for the mittens (that I can't find a link to). Then, I made a matching hat that will hopefully fit the same kid.

I'm so proud of myself: I actually figured out the gauge of the mittens, figured out the sizing of the mitten to see what size the hat should be, and used a hat calculator to see how many stitches to cast on. (I'll look for the links later. No time now as I have to get ready for the aforementioned truck unloading experience.)

I had some previously knitted hats lying around, so I also made a pair of mittens to match this one:



The yarn was Lion Brand's bulky and not worsted like the hat, but the colors match and so do the sizes (I hope).

This is quite fun to do, and it's amazing at how fast the mittens knit up.

In other news, has anyone tried the KenKen puzzles? They're kinda like Sudoku, but have some math involved. I've just discovered them and it might become a new addiction. Check it out here!

Rust socks (and socks!)

Thanks for the complements on DD#2's new smile. She's still very excited and loves her smooth teeth.

Lack of blogging around here lately can be attributed to either
a) I haven't done anything interesting or
b) When I have, I've forgotten to take my camera.

It's kinda nice to have a calm summer. I'm working evenings during the summer to have time to do things with the kids during the daytime.

So far, we've specialized in "sleeping in". And also, "eating junk food". We did have a nice trip to my dad's over the 4th where we went to a family reunion and hung out with family. On our trip, we went to a county fair where the kids experienced what a REAL fair is like, and not like the little one down here. However, I forgot my camera.

Field hockey and softball have been finished up, with a 3 week break before any sports start up again. I've been knitting at all these events, but don't have a lot to show for it. (See the above mentioned "sleeping in" and "eating junk food" that take up the knitting time.)

When last I mentioned knitting, I was working on a coffee bean sock. Well, I finished that sock and finished the matching one. I was on a roll, so I made 2 more pairs.



All socks used Blarney Killowen 4 ply double stranded with size 5 dpns and 36 sts. These are for charity and each pair is a different pattern. (should've made different colored toes as they still look rather similar.)

Coffee bean socks:



Sixth Sense Socks (from the 6 Sox KAL group):



Mossy Ridge Socks (again from the 6 Sox KAL):



This has almost used up my supply of Blarney Killowen 4 ply, so it's time to move on to a different color.

(Gotto go--gonna be late for work. Surprised?)

Abracadabra!

Abracadabra (and $5000 later....)

Now you see them:




And now you don't!