Friday, July 03, 2009

Yarn Pr0n Friday!

You all know that Roxanne over at Zen Yarn Garden is my very favorite yarn pusher. Sadly, recent developments mean that I’m probably going to have to drop out of one of her clubs. Hey, it’s how I’ll be saving my pennies to re-up for the Rockin’ Sock Club and Fiber Baristas for 2010!

Anyhow, this club is her Colour Burst club. It uses non-sock yarn bases, so we get everything between sport weight and worsted.

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This month’s offering is her Gemilicous Sport base yarn.

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Colorway is named “Rugged” and I really like it.

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It’s 250 yards/4 oz of 100% Superwash Merino

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To all of my American friends, have a wonderful holiday weekend! We’re attending a wedding today, then driving to the Lake. Nothing quite like the 4th of July at Van Buren Point!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Hey! WiP Wednesday on Thursday!

Not much exciting going on here. I have accepted delivery of my shiny new Rav-4 (love it!!) but don’t have any pictures yet since it’s been raining.

I’ve been doing just a little knitting. My Everlasting Bagstopper is flying along. Not surprising since it’s a pretty simple knit

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Not bad, considering I cast on Sunday night! It’s going to be one of the three Knit-a-Longs at Bloomin Yarns, starting next week. Store employees should get a head start, you know!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Spirals!

Houston, we have a finished project!

I cast on these socks at the NCAA Division II Softball Championship in Salem, Va. I needed a plain stockingette sock that I could knit successfully while still keeping most of my attention on the (30) games taking place in front of me over a two-plus week span.

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Arch increases on the insteps

This is my second pair of Spiraling Master Coriolis socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I like knitting them because there is just the tiniest possible bit of “pattern” which comes in handy to keep my attention, but it’s still brainless and I don’t have to look AT ALL.

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Yes, the spiral continuing into the rib is intentional.

As this is my second pair, I expanded the cuff of the socks a bit as they reached the point where my calf started widening.

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Standard New Pathways heels

I’ve done a ton of these socks. I can pick up and put down the heel turn, no problem. Most of the time.


I have no idea how I got the heel turn that f’d up!

Notice there’s about four rows missing between the one stitch that’s dangling and the stack on my left needle. I have no clue how I did that, and since the wraps had been picked up already, it wasn’t worth trying to fix it. That was the second sock and the heel was ripped out and started again.

These socks suffered through multiple week-long knitting hiatus stretches, most recently during last week’s car debacle. I just wasn’t in a knitting mood (or crafting mood for that matter) while I was at the Lake last week.

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Yep. The left socks is more blue. The right sock is more red. Three cheers for handpainted yarn!

I picked them back up when I got to Bloomin for work on Thursday and finished them off on Saturday at the store. They got me through Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (a much better project than the Postwar Mittens I knit … and tinked … during the Super Bowl) and served their purpose nicely in softball press boxes in Virginia and Oklahoma.

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2009 Softball Socks

Pattern
: Spiraling Master Coriolis
Source: New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Size: mine (8.5” circumference, 9.5” length)
Yarn: Pagewood Farm Alyeska
Color: Crayons
Source: Wolf Creek Yarns, Grove City, Pa. (Purchased at 2009 Pittsburgh K&C Festival)
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm Hiya Hiya 16” circulars
Started: 22 May 2009
Finished: 27 June 2009
Mods: Increased a bit as I got near the top of the cuff, then did a 2x2 rib instead of garter ridges atop the leg

Note to the curious: Yes, the coriolis socks are a challenge to get on/off of my feet. That's probably because I'm a tight knitter and prefer bulletproof socks. But I've never felt them bind or be in any way uncomfortable once they're on. New Pathways rides again!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Vacation: FAIL

Where do I even start? I guess I’ll start by saying that I’m very happy that June is almost over, since it has become one of the worst months I’ve had in recent – and distant – memory. Excuse the lack of pretty pictures. I have plenty of stuff I want to get back to, but I’m not “there” tonight.

As you may remember, two weeks ago, I found out my full-time job was going bye-bye come Sept. 1. On that same phone call, I arranged to take the first five of my 17 days of vacation during the week that ended today.

So last Friday, I shut down my work laptop and figured I’d enjoy a good solid nine days away from ye olde full-time job. A little time at the lake, an afternoon sewing at the quilting store … what could be bad about that?

Last Saturday, we had Ysolda Teague at the store. It was much fun, but was quite literally a 12-hour day at work. I was completely shot when I got home around 10:30 pm. I hope to post more about that day a little later on.

Sunday morning, I woke up and got my act together to leave for a few days at the Lake. I finally got on the road around 1:30 pm. One of the last things I did before I left the house was to apply my “6-10” (June, 2010) registration sticker to my license plate. The plan was to stay at Van Buren until Thursday morning, then head homeward in time to work at Bloomin.

So I start driving. It’s my first trip up for the year, but I’ve made this drive a million times. I’m listening to “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me” on my iPod. The world was good.

Two hours later, I’m still headed northbound on I-79 and am just south of Erie, Pa., when my cruise control clicks off. No big deal … until I hit the gas to get back up to speed and nothing happens. I hit the hazard lights and coast at 35-40 mph for two miles to the next exit. When I brake at the bottom of the exit ramp, I truly have no car left, so I coast at the speed of frozen molasses to a stop on the side of the road. No cell signal, so I climb a nearby hill to call AAA, the Hubster and my parents (at the Lake).

Tow truck takes me to a dealership in Erie, where my parentals meet me. I get to hug my dad for Father’s Day and then he starts driving back to Pittsburgh. Mom and I grabbed some dinner, then headed back to the cottage.

My timing belt had stripped at 70 mph. Pistons and cylinders collided, also known as “catastrophic engine failure.” The car has been donated to the Butler County Humane Society.

Which leaves me car-less and job-less. Hubster was budgeted for the next new vehicle, but now we’re crossing our fingers that his Corolla with 117,000 miles holds on for a few more years.

Earlier today, I test-drove a few cars and picked what I think is going to be a winner.

[Side Note: Knitting Friends have been invaluable through the Car Debacle of 2009. Knitting Friend #1 has a mechanic husband who was very helpful through the “fix it or trash it” debate. Knitting Friend #2 has a husband who has business relationships with a number of dealerships in the Pittsburgh area and has really been a huge help with the purchasing process. Don’t want to think about how much more icky this whole thing might have been without their guidance.]

I though I had weathered the storm. We’re on track to drive home a new vehicle tomorrow after a half-day of work at Bloomin. I went to knit night at Borders tonight and stayed longer than I had planned with LaurieG and CelticQueen. Much fun!

And then I came home. And checked my least-used email address. And found out that I’ve been let go from the first job I picked up when I moved to Pittsburgh. The one closest to my heart.

I don’t know when I became radioactive, but I’m ready for it to stop. Seriously. Stop.

Is it July yet? I know there are only four days left in June, but I’m starting to think I’m not going to make it.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

WiP Wednesday: Spirals

I’ve been knitting, but not a ton. I cast on these socks as my press box knitting for the 18 days I was on the road for the end of may and start of June.



Simple Master Coriolis. Pagewood Farms Alyeska in Crayon



They also turned into good knitting for the Stanley Cup Finals. A much smarter choice than the Postwar Mittens that I had to tink after the final minute of the Super Bowl.

Either way, that’s pretty much my only active project at the moment. If you want to see me get to the heel turn on Sock #2, come and join us at the Barnes & Noble at the Waterworks mall at 7 p.m. tonight for a little Hurricane Knitters action. It’s been six weeks since I’ve seen this group, so I’m really looking forward to it!

Oh, and since I anticipate horrific traffic on Rt. 28, I’m going to leave early and go visit The Quilt Company before knitting to avoid all the icky detours.

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Stanley Cup Champions!

Hi! I still exist!

I survived my 18-day road trip for work, got home, recovered for a week, and was terminated on Friday. Effective Sept. 1, 2009. I'm better off in the long run, but it was a serious shot to the ego.

[SIDE NOTE: I'm extremely fortunate that this will not put us in dire financial straights, and it looks like it's not going to affect my professional reputation. I was terminated because the boss doesn't want this position telecommuting anymore and I'm unwilling to move. If you know where my employer is located, that makes even more sense. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, the Universe has a plan and all that.]

What made my crappy day much better was Friday night's Stanley Cup Final win by the Penguins! Since I went to the Steelers parade back in February, I figured "why not!" and went downtown today to the Pens parade.

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1. DSC_0105.jpg, 2. DSC_0139.jpg, 3. DSC_0210.jpg, 4. DSC_0115.jpg, 5. DSC_0082.jpg, 6. DSC_0085.jpg, 7. DSC_0072.jpg, 8. DSC_0155.jpg, 9. DSC_0169.jpg, 10. DSC_0223.jpg, 11. DSC_0014.jpg, 12. DSC_0080.jpg, 13. DSC_0040.jpg, 14. DSC_0047.jpg, 15. DSC_0187.jpg, 16. DSC_0030.jpg, 17. DSC_0161.jpg, 18. DSC_0117.jpg, 19. DSC_0151.jpg, 20. DSC_0208.jpg, 21. DSC_0095.jpg, 22. DSC_0060.jpg, 23. DSC_0132.jpg, 24. DSC_0034.jpg

To hit some of the highlights and recap my day as I did back in February ...

• Leave house a few minutes before 11 a.m. Stand on the T platform at Castle Shannon for (no joke) 25 minutes before the first car comes by.

• Stand the whole way in. Realize that Hubster was dead-on that this parade will be more heavily attended than the Steelers parade. Think this is a combo between better weather and the fact that school is out.

• Exit the Steel Plaza T station at 11:57. Yep. Grant Street is packed. Troll the sidewalk on the "uphill" side of the street for a bit, realizing that I'm not going to be elevated enough to get any decent photos.

• Attempt to get to the New Jersey barrier. Realize that with people five deep, I'm never going to get decent photos from there.

• Try to take photos anyway when Mario Lemieux drives by. Fail miserably, but get a half-decent crowd shot. (I like the energy and motion of the shot)

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• Climb up on one of the concrete flowerpots in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse. Perfect spot for photos. Highlights:

ICEBURGH!

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My old boss. From 15 years ago. Yeep!

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SUPERSTAR!!! Max Talbot is the guy in the white sweater. Sadly, he never turned towards me. :-( Bill Guerin is the guy on the left with the video camera.

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Flower with the Cup!

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• Parade wraps up around 12:40. I hung around for a few extra minutes to let the crowd thin, then headed over to the supplier of Dan Bylsma's Magic Burritos to grab some lunch

• Get on an inbound T at 1 pm sharp

• Listen to the crankiest T driver ever: "Yinz keep touchin stuff you don't know nothin' about. Now we're gonna be stuck on this here hill!"

• Walk off the Castle Shannon platform at 2 pm. Head home. Do minimal work for remainder of day. Take a nap.

Tomorrow's plans include starting my workout routine and doing the minimum amount of work necessary for survival. If I get motivated and remember to take pictures again, hopefully you'll start seeing regular blog posts from this here URL again!

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Niagara Falls!

I’m home after a hellacious 18-day business trip. We are now officially watching the Cubs tonight, since the Pens aren’t doing so hot (we have TiVo, so we can go back and catch up if there’s a reason to).

Hopefully, I’ll be flush with free time once I get caught up on sleep. Meanwhile, I bring you a Yarn Pr0n Friday Saturday from one of my very best sock club sign-ups, Fiber Baristas.

The May shipment was handled by the #1 reason I signed up for this club in the first place – Roxanne from Zen Yarn Garden. Do me a favor and admire the texture in the first three pictures, the color in the final one.


The theme of the 2009 Fiber Baristas sock yarn club is “Postcards from Home.” Each dyer has done something to give us a taste of the area of the world they call home. Roxanne lives in Toronto, so other than generally being in love with the yarn she dyes, I was particularly excited to see her shipment.


This yarn showed up just hours before I left for the first half of the aforementioned business trip. As many of you know, my family has a summer home on the shores of Lake Erie, about an hour’s drive from Niagara Falls. The postcard in with Roxanne’s shipment was of the Falls with a Maid of the Mist included in the shot, but it focused on the Horseshoe Falls.



There are many tones of seafoam green in this yarn (yes, it’s green, not blue. Remember, I told you to wait for the last shot to look for color!) and nearly white spots representative of the foam in the falls. It’s the Serenity Sport base, 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon, 4 oz, 250 yards, and I adore it.

Roxanne took the time to get the color right in the above photo. I thank her again for letting me "borrow" this shot. Yes, I asked first and am using my own bandwidth.

It is a perfect reminder of “my” lake, and I’m going to have to figure out something perfect to make with it. Many thanks to Roxanne for letting me borrow her color-corrected photo of this yarn. I tried, but just couldn’t get the color figured out properly!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

This Is A New One ...

I've stayed in lots of hotels, and seen lots of nice ... and odd ... touches in hotel rooms all over the country. But this is a new one.


Bet it's not hard to figure out what goes through my head every time I walk into the bathroom ...

"Rubber ducky, you're the one! You make bath time lots of fun! Rubber ducky, I am awf-u-lly fond of yoooooooo..."

I (obviously) made it to Salem safely, if a little carsick. Things get busy tomorrow, so here's hoping the hotel room bed is comfy. I'm pooped!

Bawk!

Three or four Saturdays ago, I walked in to the store for my shift at Bloomin Yarns and Michelle said "Do you want to knit a chicken?"

Of course I said yes. By the time I left (early) at 2 pm, I had all the green chicken-bits (including beak and legs) all made up. Others in the store have knit other chickens. This past Saturday, Michelle asked me to keep working on getting the chickens ready for their debut. I knit two beaks, seamed up Mr. Pink and crocheted a pathetic pair of legs for Mr. Pink.


They need some beans in their butts, stuffing, beady eyes, combs and tails. I think they're awesome.

I'm off to Salem, Va., until Monday night. I'll try to post while I'm gone, but who knows what life will have in store. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone.

Pattern is "Gordon, Jamie and Hugh Chickens" from "Rowan Purelife, the Organic Cotton Kids Collection." It's a great book with patterns for many animals and kids age 0-8

Monday, May 18, 2009

Warm Paws

I had been wanting to try colorwork for quite a while. When I started browsing the “Critter Comforts” section in the Winter 2008 Twist Collective, I was pretty sure I had found a great first colorwork project. I think I was right.

Michelle at Bloomin is responsible for those pansies. NOT me.

I started these mittens just before Thanksgiving. They also feature my first-ever knitted hem! I did a provisional cast-on for both mittens, it only unzipped properly on the second mitten, thanks to a Lucy Neatby YouTube video.

They had several stops-and-starts between other projects. They were my Super Bowl project, and I had to tink about two rounds that I knit (incorrectly) during the last minute of the game. But that's OK. I'll take it.

Thanks to CelticQueen for modeling my mittens, since it’s very hard to take pictures of your own hands.

I got a little confused with the decrease instructions on the chart for the mittens. You have to “steal a stitch” from the previous half-round each time you do a double decrease. I figured it out, but not before a few false starts on decreases for the first mitten.

I like the checkerboard pattern on the underside of the thumbs, showing here.

I did do a gauge swatch, but I wound up tighter than I should have been anyway. As a result, they are just barely big enough for my small paws. I’m hoping these mittens loosen up a bit with a good soaking/blocking, but if they don’t they might be a gift for my sister-in-law. And that’s OK too.


Postwar Mittens

Pattern: Postwar Mittens by Mary Ann Stephens
Source: Twist Collective, Winter 2008
Size: one size
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull in blue, black and white
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 2/2.75mm Hiya Hiya (2-16” circs)
Started: 23 November 2008
Finished: 16 May 2009
Mods: None
Ravelry Project Link

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Better In Person

I’ve been on a vest kick. Not so much with the actual knitting of the vests. More of a “boy, I wish I had more vests!” feeling. I fought it off in the fall, but couldn't resist this spring.

Back at the end of March, we had a quiet afternoon at Bloomin Yarns after running our final set of classes for the Shetland Triangle KAL. We had a couple of knitters concentrating on starting their Shetland Triangles and I started itching for a vest.

I started flipping through the store’s three-ring binders for women’s vests, and I found the perfect pattern. After a brief quest (with an entire LYS at my immediate disposal, I had plenty of options), I settled on Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed cotton. Then I was off to the races.

It was a very quick knit. Would have been well under a month had I not rediscovered my mojo on the evil Cloning Anemone socks. I finally felt like I saw the finish line on those and knew I had to strike while the iron was hot.

The plain stockingette back was my hospital knitting when the Hubster had his shoulder surgery back at the end of March (he’s doing great, BTW! Not quite halfway through his physical therapy, but a couplea weeks out of the sling).

I wanted a pic before I went to Maryland. This was it.

The cable front was fun. I used a modified version of Hungry Stitch (YouTube link) for my SSK’s, so I feel like I learned something on this project. After knitting my armbands and neckband, I chose to bind off all in knit, rather than K1P1 rib. I like the smoother edge.

I should have tucked in my shirt (and lost 30 lbs) before this picture. Oops.

This is the handknit I wore to Maryland Sheep & Wool, as you may remember from my recap post. I got several compliments on the vest while traversing the festival grounds (hence the post title), which was fun. This was a great knit, it fits me perfectly, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if I knit it again. Highly recommend!

Necklace is from CreationsbyUli on etsy. Love. It.

Cabled V-Vest
Pattern: Cabled V-Vests by Lisa Carnahan (pullover version) SW-004
Size: 48”
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed
Color: 310/Coffee
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 6 (ribbing)/US 8 (body) Lantern Moon Destiny Circular Needles
Started: 21 March 2009
Finished: 26 April 2009
Mods/Errata: No actual mods, but there is one exceptionally nit-picky small error in the pattern. I have two purl stitches leading up to my cable panel. On Row 1 of the front for my size, it should begin with a purl stitch, not a knit stitch. By the time I got to that point and realized I had a problem, I was not going to rip and re-knit 53 sts of 1x1 ribbing.
Ravelry Project Link

Special thanks to CelticQueen, who was kind enough to take the two "modeled" shots this afternoon when she stopped in at Bloomin Yarns. I particularly like the last one of the neckline!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

BOOM

I think my family started going up to the Lake when I was six. We bought a house the following year. Picture this house, but white with green trim/shutters:


And in a different location. I’ll get to that.

In 1990, my parents decided that rather than doing all the fixing that was going to be needed on the old/existing cottage, we’d build a new cottage on the same site, from scratch. You’ve seen a million pictures of this house. Here’s the easiest one for me to grab, since I'm too lazy to go hunt for a better one:


In order to clear the site for the new cottage, we sold the existing cottage for a paltry sum on the condition that it was moved off-site by a certain date. Somewhere, I have pictures of that white-and-green cottage on a cart, being moved down to the end of the street.

That’s where it stood for 18+ years. Down at the end of the street. We passed it on the way to our (shiny new) cottage every time we came in or out of VBP. At one point, it was sold and the new owners did an amazing job of fixing it up. They had cool flowering bushes up on the street, flowers in the boxes, the whole shebang.

Sunday morning, my mom called. The old cottage? It went BOOM on Saturday night.


The owners -- the ones who did all the work to make it look great and be comfy for the bulk of the year -- were at the restaurant just outside of the community when a fire started, probably in an upstairs bedroom. It consumed enough of the house that (they think) it got to the gas water heater, gas stove, gas furnace. Explosions were heard. Shockingly, the next-door neighbors slept through the whole thing.

I’m quite interested to see what it looks like when I get up there in a few weeks. And I’m very thankful nobody was hurt in the fire! Pardon me while I scurry off to find fire extinguishers for this house and the lake!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Holi-Dazed and Confused

Well, not really.

After my painful experience with the Cloning Anemone Socks (I wore them over the weekend and they are quite comfy, in case you were curious), I needed a ‘palate cleanser.’ The lemon ice of my knitting world at this point of time was Socks that Rock Mediumweight.

I couldn’t find my Turtle Daddy blockers immediately, so the cedar ones are in this photo

The pattern provided with this Rockin’ Sock Club kit was a traditional cuff-down pattern. But that’s just boring.

Toe Pic! - I tried to do a standard toe and it wouldn't cooperate. So Garter Toe it is!

Well, that and why should I pick up heel flap stitches when I don’t have to?


New Pathways heel

So I took the 8-stitch, 16-row stitch pattern and plunked that bad boy right into a Riverbed architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters (c’mon. You knew I’d do that, right?)

Mirror image cuffs!

I also took the pattern and did a mirror image chart for use on the second sock. I think it turned out just great!

Nice spring sky!

Of course, when I went to make that mirrored chart, I realized that I had omitted a row from my “portable chart.” Oops.


Oh well. Nobody will notice. Right?



Holidazed Socks
Pattern: Holidazed by Anne Hanson
Source: Rockin’ Sock Club, November 2008
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Color: Muddy Autumn Rainbow
Needles: US 2/2.75mm, Addi Lace, Magic Loop
Started: 22 April 2009
Finished: 12 May 2009
Mods: Diagonal Twill Rib pattern knit toe-up into the Riverbed architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Ravelry Link

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Sheep. Wool. People.

It’s been a week, and I’m just getting together the energy to blog about my trip to the 2009 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Pathetic.

But, the website for my fabulous job was down from noon Friday until noon on Monday last weekend, resulting in about 300 emails coming through all at the same time. All-America nominations for my division closed on Wednesday and my phone was ringing off the hook. It was a completely miserable week of work.

I’ll get back to blogging more regularly very soon. I miss it and I miss all of you guys!

Meanwhile, my mom, my aunt and I drove down to Maryland last Friday and went to the Festival on Saturday. I almost immediately ran into the group of people I most wanted to find. If you read Turtlegirl’s blog, you already know the amazing group of women she hung out with last weekend. Shortly after meeting up with all of them, I met Javajem …

Cristi (Turtlegirl76), Pam (Trillian42), yours truly, Jody (Javajem). Photo borrowed with permission, since I had major Camnesia all day.

And, this year, I made sure I got my picture taken with my favorite Turtle

Again, stolen with permission. Isn't Cristi's sweater awesome?

I spent the rest of the day wandering around, meeting up with mom and Suzie on occasion and basically enjoying the day.

The one and only time I busted out my camera was just before I met up with the aforementioned bloggers. Roaming Tigger takes requests, especially from dyers we really like. So just for Roxanne …


And, in case you can’t figure out what dyer that might be, here’s where you can see her labels a little better below.

Tigger likes pretty yarn!

I hardly bought any yarn, but did buy a decent amount of non-yarn stuff, so here’s a photo of all the loot


One skein of Autumn House Farm sock yarn, two STR-M mill ends, a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Twisted Rare Gem, a lucet, a nostepinne (both rosewood), a pair of mittens made from recycled felted sweater and fleece-lined, the paper bag is soap, there’s a festival tote bag on the right, a set of Signature Needles DPNs (2.5mm, 5”) and it’s all lying on the sheepskin I brought home to keep my feet from becoming blocks of ice next winter.

Our TV room is right above our garage, so my feet get really cold really fast on the floor in this room during the winter. We have at least one more winter in this room before we start moving things around on this floor, so I figured that purchase was worth it.

I also got some Hiya Hiya sock needles, in pairs of 16” circs, but I forgot to put those in the picture and they aren’t very exciting anyway.

I’ll try to come back and blog a little more about some of the non-yarny bits soon. Here’s hoping I can throw up another post tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I Thought I’d Never Finish

I started knitting these socks in another lifetime. Roughly when softball season started. Now my work stuff is kicking into high gear in honor of the end of the season. I start to travel next month for Championships.

But at least these socks are finally finished.

Thicker cedar blockers used b/c they made the ribbing spread out

This is the Rockin’ Sock Club kit from September, 2008. I opened the package took one quick look at the Cloning Anemones pattern and said “That’s an Upstream.” After my class with Cat back in November, I suddenly had all the confidence I needed to translate published patterns into Cat’s New Pathways.

Just for Turtlegirl … toe pic!

The pattern was written top-down, but I wanted to knit toe-up. So I started with Judy’s Magic Cast On and started zipping along until my toe box was completed. When it was time to start the arch increases, I got to work.

Master Reinforced Heel from New Pathways

With four stitches in the middle of the instep to start the arch increases, I was able to start the cable chart right away. It’s a 1x1 cable, every four rows. It drained my soul for nearly three full months.

As I increased within the center “V” two stitches every three rounds, I was easily able to incorporate those added stitches into the pattern as they appeared. It’s an easy pattern to “see,” so the only hard part was owning up to the fact that every few rounds, I had to cable more stitches.

But it’s so pretty!

By the time I got to the end of the leg of the first sock, I realized I was in trouble. But I seem to have whatever the opposite of “Second Sock Syndrome” is, meaning that I’m too damn stubborn to leave the pair unfinished. So I soldiered on.

Please excuse my pasty white legs

Cloning Anemone Socks

Pattern: Cloning Anemone Rib by Team Blue Moon
Source: Rockin’ Sock Club, September 2008
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight
Color: Tide Pooling (RSC 9/08)
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm, Addi Lace, Magic Loop
Started: 5 Feb 2009
Finished: 19 April 2009 (note: first sock was finished 2/21/09)
Mods: Knit toe-up into the Upstream architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Ravelry project link