Socks?

I made another seamless kimono sweater.

--insert photo here--

Oh, that's right, I forgot to take a photo.

Well then, let me describe it (because that's as interesting as a picture). I used the same green and pink Berocco Vintage yarns, this time with a green bodice and a pink and green striped bottom. The sleeves were half green and then pink with 4 green flowers on each sleeve. It worked out well (see the above pic)(nevermind, just take my word for it) and almost completely used up the yarn.

The good news is the sweater reached its baby girl less than 1 month after she was born. Good chance of fitting into it!

In my on-going effort to catch on my UFOs, I've been working on my Faggoting Ribs Sox. You know, the socks that were to be my summer socks that I could wear during the summer. Yes, the summer that is completely over and done.

The socks, while not done, have been making progress.

One is complete, and one is done with the hard part (beading--my first try).



The second sock has really gone much faster. The ribbing is easy to memorize and the beading portion was done within 24 hours.



Yarn: Online supersocke cotton (and that's all I can read--the rest is in a different language. It could be color Sortierung 95. Or color # 1037)
Size 1 dpns
pattern: smaller size (I think I did that by accident since I circled the bigger numbers but then found myself on the smaller size halfway through the first sock. I guess my brain rebelled at casting on 180 sts for the cuff and chose 150 as the easy way out.)

M4A socks mailed!

The deadline for mailing the Mittens-4-Akkol socks for the sock challenge was yesterday. And I got them in the mail yesterday. Phew!

I had full intentions of mailing them at the beginning of the week, but it didn't happen. (Possible food poisoning, no box the right size, oops--holiday.)

Also, I saved the note writing until the very end. There were 22 of them and they needed to be simple for the Kaz kids to read (or have someone translate), but different since they might compare notes.

I enlisted my family to give suggestions. The person with the "Go Redskins" suggestion had to think until he came up with a better one. We tried Bible verses, but since this is not a religious group we gave that up. In the end they were all a variation on the theme "I hope you enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them".

Would writing them as I was knitting them work out better? I don't know, but I'll keep it in mind for next year.

October Roundup

While not officially participating in Socktoberfest, I still managed to concentrate on socks. Eight pairs as a matter of fact. Most were small socks using 32 sts and bulky yarn, but one was a thin pair with 60 sts.

Also finished was the Curve of Pursuit afghan that started on 10/9/09 and finished on 10/24/10. Phew! Glad that's done!

A sweater and baby set was also finished up and mailed. (Hopefully it will still fit.)

It was a good, knitting month!

Recent finishings

For a cousin that was born in June, I finally finished her baby set and mailed it out. (Mailing it was the hard part. Getting the yarn and knitting it was the easy part. Sewing the buttons on was hard in a I-don't-want-to-do-it way, but really it was the mailing it that delayed me so badly. I figured I had until fall, anyway, since it was not a summer outfit, but just keep procrastinating and procrastinating. Hopefully it'll still fit. I think it will, but I'm not holding my breath....)




Pattern: The Seamless Kimono Sweater
Yarn: Berocco Vintage 50% acrylic, 40%wool, 10% nylon. Supersoft wt wt and washable.
Needles: sz. 7 (that's what I wrote on the pattern, anyway. I went up a size to hopefully make a 6-9 mo. size.)

It's a really easy pattern that does a K1,yo at each neck edge that makes a finished, nice looking edge. Hmmm, maybe I should make one for me....

And these are actually the first pair of Saartjes booties that I've ever made. Aren't they cute?




Also, as the M4A sock challenge is nearing the end, I managed to knit 4 more pairs. The three tweedy pairs are all on 32 sts and the maroon pair is 36 sts, basketweave pattern. All are on sz. 5 dpns. All were sped along by the massive soccer and field hockey practices and games in the last 2 weeks (the price one pays for the previous rainouts.)



With only four (4!) major UFOs left, I'm starting to feel caught up. (Crazy, I know.) But, nothing can be knitted in the dark at soccer practice. So maybe I should cast on for something new?

The Curve has been Pursued

DD#2 asked me the other day if I ever blogged anymore.

Yes, I said. Well, kinda.

I haven't blogged lately because I've been trying to finish up my Curve of Pursuit afghan. I'm on the last set of brown triangles and I'm determined to finish before the end of October (which is coming up lickity-split).



But one brown triangle looks sorta like the other one.



A lot like it, actually.



And each triangle takes more than a skein of yarn. And bunches up on the needles so it doesn't look like much.



So they take awhile to do, and it's not very interesting blog fodder.

But finally I finished the triangles.



And was ready for the border. I decided to knit in the round in garter stitch, so it took a lot of holding on to the needles and trying not to lose the stitches.



After awhile I got the hang of it (after losing four purple end protectors.)



I did 5 green garter rows and one brown garter row, plus the bind off.



Each border round was 1064 sts (plus the increases at the corner). That makes more than 13,832 sts on the border alone. Phew! Glad to be done with that!

Actually, I'm glad to be done with it all.



At the moment I'm rather tired of looking at it. This afghan took me more than a year to make. (On Ravelry there's some over-achievers who have finished this in 6 weeks. Crazy.)



When I recover from the knitting of it, I'm going to be really glad of the addition to my living room, even though it will look like this most of the time.



Specs: Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn in chocolate, fern, and off white (all the while wishing it was Cascade 220 but not wanting to spend $$$ on a blanket that I would then have to handwash.) Four size 8 circs, one for each side. Eight stitch protectors, bought specifically for this projects, 4 of which were lost, but then refound.)

I'm still glad that I did it and I think I'm going to love it. But never again.

Although, looking at the Ravelry projects, there's some interesting color combinations. Wouldn't it be pretty as a baby blanket? With pinks and greens... or purples and blues... or...

A lovely weekend (and 2 more pairs of socks)

This weekend we went on a quick trip to Florida for DH's nephew's wedding.

Let me just say that "a quarter to 4" is actually 3:45 and not 4:45. 4:45 is not a good time to wake up when it's 15 minutes after our target departure time! (I still can't believe I did that.)

"Wake up, everyone! We need to leave 15 minutes ago!"

In our mad rush, we left one of DD#1's shoes behind. The one that she drove an extra 1.5 hours the day before to retrieve from a friend's house before driving the 3 hours to our house after going to her night school class. Which meant we had to go shoe shopping as soon as we got down there. Which she normally would've enjoyed, but was still too mad about already having the perfect pair of shoes but not being able to wear them. So she bought an almost identical pair.

We made it to the airport okay, but not without some anxiety. The rest of the weekend, though, was much better.

It was a lovely wedding with some great food (I don't think I'm going to cook for the rest of the week. Just saying... we could all go on a diet for a week.) The weekend was full of hanging out with family. Our immediate family of 6 were together for four days, which hardly ever happens anymore. The entire group of cousins (one of which was the groom) were all present, which hasn't happened in years and years (which would mean that it's never happened since a couple of them aren't that old.)

In between all the events, there was some down time, which meant that I had plenty of time to knit. (Yep, I even knitted at the pool.)

I finished a pair of thin socks (the ones that went to the DC United game).



60 sts, sz. 1 dpns, 79 rows foot, 9.25" long. I made them non-matching and like them that way.

The second pair was started down there and finished today (since who wants to do laundry, anyway? Hey, I've doing pretty well. Since getting home today I've been to a field hockey game.)




Patons Classic Wool in Rosewood. Size 5 dpns, 36 sts, 40 rows for the foot. 7.25" length.

The M4A group is getting close to their goal (somewhere over 500 pairs). So, I could probably stop knitting socks at any time.

The question is...will I be able to stop?

It's doubtful.

Two more pairs

Two more pairs of socks are done, and here's a quick picture. (Quick, meaning: trying to do this whole post while supper is warming up in the oven. No time to redo the photo, so just ignore the strand of hair that's coming off one of the socks.)




I'm still using up the DK weight tan yarn, this time pairing it with a sock weight green yarn. The right pair is green and yellow/brown sock yarns knitted together. Both are 32 sts on sz 5 dpns.

Not only are we reaching our goal for M4A, but I'm reaching my saturation point on knitting socks. (However, I have 2 more pairs on the needles, so hopefully I can at least finish those.)

Hand of Help

Ya'll have seen these woolies before, but here they are all collected and ready to mail. They're going to Hand of Help that is sending a container over to their orphanage in Russia in October.

5 hat and mitten sets:




6 hats:



They were mailed today, Oct. 4th. Yeah--more warm kids this winter!

Sept. roundup

September, or, as I like to call it, the month of socks, is now completely over. Completing little items has made it look like I've done more knitting this month.

I've made 6 pairs of socks and 1 hat.

Okay, it looked like more until I wrote it down in black and white. Maybe it's not more than usual, maybe it's just the same amount.

I've also done 4 triangles on the Curve of Pursuit afghan. While it's not a finished item, the end is in sight. Look for the CoP to be on October's list of finished items (Even if I have to lug it around everywhere in order to accomplish that).

More socks!

It's all socks, all the time.

At least it's felt like that for the past week. So much so that I've managed to make 4 more pairs!

Here's the thin socks, plain vanilla on size 1s (and the stripes match!):



Once I finished those, I combined the sock yarn with a vintage Red Heart Worsted Wool yarn in a bright blue for this pair. (28 sts on sz 5s)



Then, I found 4 skeins of Uruguak DK yarn that was leftover from a sweater. It's a blend of merino, alpaka, and silk and super squishy.

I combined it with a brow/black twist sock yarn for the first pair.



32 sts, sz 5 dpns, 34 rows foot length.



And then, these yarns were combined for the second pair.



32 sts, sz 5 dpns, 36 rows foot length.



There is enough DK yarn to make another pair (maybe a smaller pair), but my UFOs are calling me...

(Although, I must admit that I'm pretty good about ignoring them...)

A Hat is done

I told my son that I would make him a hat (because I'm pretty sure that I've made a hat or two by now that have turned out well.) It's to go with his soccer uniform on cold days while warming up. (I'm pretty sure there are cold days in the future, although the past ones have either been in the 90s or raining.)

So, I looked for a lettering chart. And got stuck. I printed out 3 charts to try one or the other. He saw what I was doing, and we decided that he would graph the letters himself. And he did.

I told him that the lettering looks just like his writing (Which is rather un-readable so he took this as an insult.) I just meant that it was uniquely his (and it didn't follow the standard sizing that I was used to.)

Anyway, he graphed 2 versions, a big and a little and I knit a swatch of both. He chose the big.

This is the pattern that I worked from. (It's a wonder I could remember what to do where, with the letters 2 spaces closer and the checkerboard all different. But, being too lazy to rewrite it, I used this and once I established the first row it was easy to follow.)




(DD thought I did too much math for a hat, but I assured her that every step was necessary.)

Here's the hat (and the son):



"Hey, do you want your number on there too?"

"Sure!"



Now we're just waiting around for the cold weather...

United

Last night we went to a DC United game, the professional soccer team that plays out of Washington DC at RFK Stadium. DS#2 had the opportunity to play on the field in a short scrimmage with his team.

Here he is playing, the tall one in the middle (right to the right of the lady scratching her head):



It was only for about 10 minutes, but it was a great experience just to be able to kick the ball on a professional soccer field. (I'm sure it was just a way to get fans out to the game, and it worked. Four of us came from our household. There were four games going on at a time, which makes 8 teams, and they did at least 2 sets, which was 16 teams, plus lots of parents and family.) Then, we stayed and watched the game.

This is my knitting project at the start of the evening. (One of my kids actually asked me, "Did you really bring knitting to a soccer game?" What's wrong with him, doesn't he know me by now, anyway? When do I go to a sporting event and NOT take my knitting?)



(Sorry, if I had taken the time to put my reading glasses on and look at the picture I would've noticed how blurry it was. Well, hopefully I would notice, anyway.)

We sat right behind the players bench.




The stadium filled up more by game time, and across the field was a drum corp that played the drums the whole entire time. It was fun to hear them in the background (but we were happy we weren't sitting on that side.) There were also giant flags that people waved every time there was a good play.



At the end of the evening, the United lost 3-1, and I had a longer sock (with an equally blurry picture.)

Can this lady finish ANYTHING besides socks?

No, apparently not.

I've knitted a couple of rows on a couple of UFOs this past week, but they're nowhere near done. (The afghan? With the ever-growing triangles? It's getting to be a real pain. The triangles just don't want to get done. And I only have 3 and a bit to go. Plus, a big border, but I don't want to think about that right now...)

All I've been finishing is socks. (We've started the fall sports season and really, an afghan isn't very portable, is it?)

Here's the first pair made from Red Heart Heart and Sole in the Rustica colorway.



60 sts, sz 1 dpns, yoyo heel, 9.5" long. These seem to be boy colors; that is, except for the stripe of fushia. It's not a big stripe, but it still seems a bit out of place.


Then, I took the leftover sock yarn and combined it with a sport wt. rust color and got these:



32 sts, sz. 5 dpns, 7.5" long. I ran out of Heart and sole for the feet, so had to substitute a leftover Trekking sock yarn. (No, I didn't yet break into my new stuff.)


It's pretty cool the way they match each other, isn't it?





In 3 days time I attended a field hockey game and 2 soccer games, so here's my next pair:



Did the cuff at home, leg at 1st soccer game, heel that night, foot the next morning at the other game, and toe at night. (It rained the whole way through the game, but with a waterproof knitting bag and with DD#2 holding the umbrella, I was still able to knit.)

Another field hockey game today, another sock to knit. They go together well.

I might've bought some yarn...

In August I ordered yarn.

(This is like last week when I told my DH, "I bought a skein of yarn today."

He says, "Yeah? So what's new?")

As I was saying, I ordered yarn from two different far away places and they both came on the same day.

First, I bought this yarn from eBay. This is one of the listings that starts at 99 cents with free shipping from China. I didn't get it for 99 cents, but at $2.25, it still seemed like a deal.



It's very pretty and I might try bidding on some more in the future.

Next, I put in a big order from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions that's located in the Netherlands. When it's coming from that far away, I figure I need to make a big order to make it worthwhile. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

First, I got a selection of Trekking XXL sock yarn. (Apparently I was in a grey mood.)



Plus, here's some Charisa sock yarn.



Then, I was running low on roving so I got several braids.



And then, I thought I'd try out these batts to see how they spin.



So far, I've managed to not cast on for anything new...well, from these yarns, anyway.

Jo-jo heel

Here's a preview of week5, socks5. I'm trying out a new heel that I heard being talked about on one of the lists. It's called the yo-yo or jo-jo heel. Over on Tessknits, it's described well, and renamed as the Double-stitch Short Row heel.

It gives a nice, tight heel with no holes or stupid double wraps.
(Wow, I actually wrote "hools" instead of "holes". Sad but true.)



I liked knitting it alot--much better than a regular short row heel.

This is actually second sock. And it's past the heel so it'll be done soon.




60 sts, sz 1 dpns, plain vanilla sock except for the Jo-jo heel.

The directions are not in my head well enough, though. I think I'll do the next pair using the same heel just so it can become more natural to me.


Lucy says, "What's for dinner?"

Pursuing the Curve

In the last month, I actually did work on something besides socks. I've been knitting on my Curve of Pursuit afghan. Soon it will be cold weather and time to pull out an afghan and snuggle up. And if I want the afghan to be this one, I'd better get cracking.

When last you saw the afghan, it looked like this:



Ten triangle layers had been completed and the eleventh was just started.

Now it looks like this:




Eleven triangles have been completed, with one more to go. And then the border. And then done and ready for snuggling. (Lucy is getting a head start. Why is it that if I actually want a picture of her, I can't get it, but if I don't really care (and vacuum the couch to get rid of the dog fur), then she's all for being the star?)(Yes, I did just do a set of () inside a set of (). As long as I have equal number of left ones and right ones, then that should be okay. Right?)

Since the end is is sight, I've been thinking about throw pillows. Last winter I bought a couple on clearance that clearly don't match, but were way cheaper than a plain pillow form so I couldn't pass them up.

Now, I've been looking for fabric to cover them up. And I found this:



It's a swatch that I ordered from Spoonflower and it just arrived today. If you don't know anything about Spoonflower, it's this great site where you can design your own fabric. I haven't done any of that yet, but I've done plenty of looking around. I first heard about it from Kathleen Taylor's blog where she's designed several fabrics and has been playing with them. (She made color-your-own outfits for 18" dolls, among other things.)


Every week there is a themed contest and it's fun to look through the designs and vote for my favorites. Last Thursday they had a free swatch day...hence my swatch. Here's the fabric that I ordered. I'm thinking something like this. Or maybe something else. There's so many choices!