Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Sock knitting, hibachi style.

Just a quick post to show KIP - at the local Japanese steak house. This is our monthly dinner, but only Linda and I made it. Still, lots of fun, and delicious food.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

The Saga of the Thuja socks, part two

Through some skillful detective work, I determined that the needles used to knit  Thuja sock #1 were US 2.  So off I went to locate the US 2 DPNs, and finish up the socks.

I was able to find one. There are plenty of DPNs in my basket - size 0, 1,3,4 and up. Only the one of the set I wanted. This was a Thursday evening, so no Thuja knitting until I made it to the LYS and bought another set. In the meantime, I wanted to knit socks. Being a bandwagon-hopper, Monkey from Knitty is on my list. So it's Friday evening, I had a glass of wine and thought about what to start. Looking at my stash, it seemed appropriate to use the Lisa Souza Wild Things that I got from my secret pal. I cast on with US 1 DPNs, and started on the ribbing. So far so good.

Fast-forward to the next day. I can't figure out why the K1tbl, P1 ribbing isn't working. KUI strikes again. What seemed to be fine on Friday evening had a dropped stitch in row 1. So the knits were purls and the purls were knits, and it all got frogged. It turned out to be a good time to go to the LYS - I ran into a friend that I hadn't seen for years, didn't know she's a knitter and now have her lined up to attend the knitting guild meeting. So Thuja is back on track, with sock number one reknit to be long enough, and sock two ready to pick up gusset stitches.

I decided to wash and block the Red Scarf Project scarf, and sent it off with a Borders gift card and chocolate bar. It looked much better, a little wider, but not so different to take another picture. I finished a small shawl for my secret pal out of Mystical Creation Yarns wool/silk mix. It's very nice to knit; I used the Tie-one-on pattern from Knitty. I forgot to take a picture before I put it in the mail, so hopefully she likes it and posts a picture.

Last, but not least, I finished the twill scarf, took it off the loom and got it washed and blocked. It's amazing how much softer it is after washing! It curled significantly when I took it off the loom, let's hope the blocking helps to keep it flat. It could be an indoor or outdoor scarf - I haven't decided yet. I may also wash it one more time to see if it softens up some more.

Next up - a scarf with DH's handspun, Monkey socks and swatching for a knit jacket.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Red Scarf Project 2007

Here's my contribution to the Red Scarf Project:

It's the Mistake Rib Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, knit with KnitPicks Swish Superwash in Fired Brick and Red Pepper (2 skeins each). It's hard to see the different colors in this picture. It is soft and squishy, and I'll know the dimensions once it finishes blocking. I'll add a gift card and some snacks and send it off. It's not too late to contribute!

Does anyone know if it is worth blocking something that will be machine washed and dried? This scarf will be blocked, though I'll never know how it does in the wash.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Lime&Violet Sock Marathon

I had a comment wondering what the Sock Marathon was (Theresa, you so need to be in on this!), so here's some info.  I'm an avid listener of the Lime&Violet podcast, and they are (insert superlative here) sock knitters.  They came up with the idea of seeing how much sock yarn people had, in miles, then knitting socks, all the while sharing pictures of stash and socks.  So it's not a knitalong, there's not a blog, but the focal point is a Flickr group.

So I took inventory of the sock stash over the weekend, and came up with over 5 miles of sock yarn.  I made the mistake of doing this with witnesses; additional acquisitions will have to be done carefully.

There's the good stuff (hand-dyed)

and the commercial

Next up for sock knitting - finishing Thuja. I'll use the knitting time to plan the next pair. I have to try Jaywalkers one of these days!



 

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Saved by the Blog

So, sometime last spring I started knitting Thuja (from Knitty) using Trekking XXL. I completed sock number one, but then it became the summer of The Amazing Lace so it shoved into the UFO pile and who wants to knit a wool sock during the summer? Now, with winter and the Sock Marathon upon us, it's time to finish this pair of socks. The first one really is too short, so I need to undo the toe, reknit it to the correct length, and knit sock number two. The problem comes with remembering what size DPNs were used the first time - I wasn't completely sure I remembered. Since I modified Thuja to use the Trekking, the pattern doesn't help. Thanks to my current Secret Pal, I have a log book - not so last spring. After several weeks of wondering how to figure this out, I remembered that I had a picture of the work in process with the needles in the picture:

With a little luck, and Photoshop (CSI here I come), I was able to enlarge the appropriate section of the photo, and read what it says on the needle:

Now, once I finish the fingerless gloves for a friend (1.5 complete), the red scarf for the Orphan Project (yes I know I have to mail it very shortly) and a little something for my Secret Pal, my Size 2 DPNs and I have a date with some sock yarn.
 

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Finished Snakes on a Sock

Sock one was started sometime last fall, and finished on Christmas Day. Sock two was started Dec 26th, and finished on Jan 1st, 2007.

Now, keep in mind that I only worked during one of those days. Still, nice to know it can be done. As you may remember, the sock yarn was provided by Mama-E, who was my secret pal for SP8, and the pattern is from Lime&Violet.



In other news, DD has been accepted to Northeastern University, and has decided to attend. We are all thrilled and can't believe that she's heading off to college in the not to distant future. Time will tell what happens to the yarn/roving purchases - it could get ugly.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Walking the Winter Away

So, it's that time of the year where lots of new things get started. I've been walking almost daily since mid-August, but haven't kept track at all of how far I've traveled. Is it symbolic that I've covered a lot of distance, all of it either going in circles or on a treadmill? Anyway, I joined the Runagogo! to keep myself going during the winter, and also to track my mileage. Here's how 2007 looks so far:




DirecTV now has the Style channel, so between that, HGTV, DIY and the FoodNetwork I'm all set.

Monday, January 01, 2007

A Year in Review, the lazy version

In which I document my fiber activities of 2006, without getting up from the computer.

It all started with the Knitting Olympics. I stumbled across the Yarn Harlot and the Knitting Olympics (can't remember how) and decided to participate. Go Team Wales! That required a blog, so I started this one. The Knitting Olympics taught me that I could finish a project relatively quickly. The downside of this was an increase in the number of projects on the needles at any one time.

FOs for 2006
Scarves - 8, including Branching Out, my first lace
Socks - 5
Fingerless gloves - 4
Hats - 1
Baby kimono - 1
Stegosaurus - 1
Wine bottle cozy - 2
Woven kitchen towels - 4
Woven table runners - 2

Other highlights include seeing the Yarn Harlot, finding podcasts, going to the CT Sheep and Wool Festival, going to Rhinebeck, weaving camp, meeting other bloggers and DH deciding to spin.

More later on the WIPs and plans for 2007. Now I'm going to watch the parade.