Some Progress

It took a little bit but finally I have something to show for it.

All this time I have been saying that I am not just a winter knitter. Because knitting is for all times. But now I think that it may not necessarily be true. While I knit in the summer because I like to knit come fall I think I knit more. Not because the weather is cooler but rather because I do more things. I travel on the bus (knitting time), I sit in class (knitting time), I have down time before classes between classes (more knitting time). It was how last week I finished my Escher socks.

And this week what I can show you is that I finally have progress on my Potpourri socks. So much progress that I almost wonder if I can pull this off in a year. Probably not. But you know it might be possible. Once I got over how much I hated the double figure eight wrap in the pattern, it is a breeze. Well... I shouldn't say that. don't want to jinx myself.

I also started on a different pair of socks. They are the spot check socks and it will be some color work which I am excited about. It is going to be made out of Malabrigo in ravlery red and Mountain Colors Bearfoote in Bitterroot Rainbow.

The differences in the size of balls is actually somewhat comical...

Well hopefully this means the amount of knitting I am doing is on the up swing. And for the mothers and fathers that are worried, yes, I take notes in class as well. I wonder when I will knit when I graduate?

And Then There was One

Good news. I finished my first pair of socks. I am a little bit behind schedule but with the Tour de Fleece I figure July is an okay month to only finish one pair of socks. Though, it does mean I get started off to a bit of a slow start. Hopefully August I will pick up speed and knit a little faster.

My camera was fogging up because it was so muggy outside!

As you can tell by the swing bench I am once again at my roommates parents. Not only for the free air conditioning but we are also celebrating our birthday (we were born on the same day but I am a year older what are the odds) which is actually tomorrow. So far her parents have been spoiling the crap out of me and I love it. best. birthday. ever.

But socks! They are paca-peds in tye-dye knit in the collision pattern. And were the first out of my sock grab bag. I am really happy how they turned out especially the top of the foot looks very nice. It is currently way too hot to be wearing them now though. I will put them away in favor for cooler weather. Last year I was stubborn enough to wear hand knit socks until June. This year I learned my lesson.

What finishing one sock means though is that I only have one (YOP) sock on the needles. So this means I get to cast on again right? RIGHT? Casting on it one of my favorite parts of a project.

Here is the progress of the Jade Schooner socks modeled by an adorable kitty named Bootsie! I am just past the heel of the first sock!

FO: Friday The Hipsteriest Scarf that Ever Hipstered a Scarf

Remember those huge needles I showed you a while back? Well I'm starting to remember why for the first four years of my knitting life I didn't own a needle under a size 11. And even then I rarely used a size 11. I spent a lot of time knitting scarves out of chunky yarn. And then I discovered socks.

But there is something about the clicking of giant needles that are just sort of fun. Really Really fun. I saw this sample at my LYS and immediately fell in love with it. It looks hard but it is just one ball of yarn that they make to look very complicated and messy(in a good way).

When I bought the yarn I also bought the size 35 needles. At first I was hesitant buying such big needles. When would I ever use them again? Well so far I have knit two projects on them and I am currently spinning the yarn for a third. So other than my size three needles that constantly have a sock on them in recent times these have been the needles that have seen the most action in a while and I will eat my words.

I am not one of those "knitting is only for winter" people. I love knitting at all times. The bad thing about summer knitting though is that I have to wait until winter. Or at the very least until it is not 90 degrees out to wear them. Maybe I should look into knitting tanktops.

But I don't know hipster scarves are just so cute. Especially when they are this darn hipstery. Look at that! the fringe came with it too. Which is just awesome.


Also currently off the giant needles? Here is a sneak peak of the rainbow scarf I've been raving about. But more on that when it is actually complete.

Friendship is Magic

I am in a rainbow battle. No not really. Maybe it is more like the rainbow express? It all started when I asked my wonderful and talented friend Tanya, who was drawing custom my little ponies at the time, to draw a birthday party picture for myself and my roommate (we have the same birthdate but she is a year younger!) With the custom pony she had drawn of me and one of my rommie.

Here is the picture it is sooo cute! I offered to knit her something for her troubles and she requested rainbow fingerless gloves. I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them out. But they are full of rainbow-y delight you'll have to trust me on this one.

Then on Monday I got more rainbow goodness from her in the form of two keychains! They're super cute and they're like the friendship necklaces from when I was little. One to keep and one to give away (although I want to be selfish and keep that one too!) I was expecting a key chain in the mail but not two and definitely not so darn cute! Mine is already on my keys and I think I know what to do with the other one.

She sent my sister a catbus from totoro as a keychain. Look at the detail on that! If I didn't love my key chains so much I'd be jealous! She is a very talented person!

The newest thing in her etsy shop that I am coveting though is the set of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic key chains she just made and that I got to see in person! Super super cute!

The next rainbow thing that is going to be sent one the "rainbow express" is going to be a joint effort project between us. I have started on my portion but I want to keep it under wraps for a bit. But I will show you the yarn and colors for it.

Intrigued? Like the rainbow? You should!

Rockin' the Suburbs

I am spending this weekend in the suburbs with my roommates family. Because they are awesome and because of lack of air conditioning in my house.

Unfortunately because of that. And general (I get really bad second sock syndrome but hate knitting two socks at the same time) I really don't have a whole lot to report. I finished the cuff of my second tie-dye collision sock done with the flat portion and the rest of it is in the round so it should go much faster. I like knitting in the round much better than knitting flat. Being done with the cuff though also means that short rows are coming up. And we know how much I like those.

I really love this yarn though. So rainbowy and delightful. It really does look like a tie-dye something or another. I bet it'll look awesome as a square for my quilt.

To battle Second Sock Syndrome I have started another sock. It is still in it is begining stages. But it is Dream in Color Smooshy in Good Luck Jade and I am knitting the Escher socks pattern. I knit something similar a while back but while they look sort of similar (or rather this one looks like the inside out version of that one) the patterns are completely different. This one though is more of a traditional sock construction that I like.

Also, I can't leave without showing you all what I am taking pictures on. It is a swing bench that my roomie's family brought up from Oklahoma when they moved and I have never seen anything like it. It is beautiful and I would love to know more about it. Very very cool.

PS: I was totally listening to the Ben Folds song while I wrote this.

WIP Wednesday: Year of projects Update

FINALLY (I know right?)

Unfortunately I don't have that much to update. I am just over half way done with the top of the sock. and knitting is slow going. I've currently decided I like spinning better than knitting so that is what is up.

Hopefully by Sunday I will have two socks to show you (maybe) and then I will have my first pair done! unfortunately right now it just looks like a strange little piece of work. Oh well. It'll look cool when I'm done.

Give me a chance eat dinner and I'll be right back with another unrelated post.

FO: Friday Rainy Days

First I want to apologize for the horrendous pictures in this post. I waited all day to see if it would stop raining and the sun would come out. But I think this is just how bad it is going to stay. (sorry rain is hard to get a good pic of but trust me is terrible!)

But I do have FO's that I want to share with the world! (I also wanted to share my new hair cut but that will have to wait for a day that i didn't walk home in the rain).

First, The latest in my Tour de Fleece progress. Spindle spun wheel plied. I've been having terrible luck with spindles lately. I broke another one! from the two that I showed you last time. And it was my favorite so I don't want to talk about it =(.

But this turned out fantastic and I've already started on the next one of the set. It is 80/2o Merino/Angora blend that is so scrumptious I wish you all could reach into your monitors and touch it. Soo soft and omnomnom delicious. It is n plied about 167 yds. and is squishably soft

Second, I finally finished this pair of socks! I was originally going to give them up for an MPIRG silent auction but we ended up not doing it. So I put them on the back burner.

Then recently decided that I needed to finish them before I started my Year of Projects (didn't happen). But now they are done and I have another set of needles free to start a Year of Projects sock. WHoo! And I have a new pair of socks. Double whoo.

I've come so far, yet so far to go.

I have been knitting for a while. In just a few short years I will be able to say that I have been knitting for half of my life. And for someone who didn't learn from their parents when they were younger that is a pretty big accomplishment in my book. Truely though I've only been really "into" knitting in maybe the last four years or so.

Something that I am still terrible at though? Garter stitch.

I know I said a few posts back that I didn't find it comforting instead I found it boring. However, it may very well might be that I am not good at it. I ended up ripping out the first band twice and then googled how to do a garter stitch (I find lace charts not intimidating. First stitch you learn whilst knitting? Hard.)

My first random pull for the Year of projects was the color colision socks in Paca-peds tye-dye. It is going alright but it has two things I'm not very good at, garter stitch and short rows (and short-rows in garter stitch). After all that is said though. I have a sock. Just one for now. The other is barely even a square big. Should get going on that.

I will admit though I am rather tempted to cast on another project. I have never been a serial project knitter anyways. What is stopping me though is the fact I have two sock WIP that I was planning on finishing before this whole thing started! (oops)

The Weekend Update

Okay. I was too busy on Wednesday to do a WIP: Wednesday, had a needle malfunction on Thursday (I lost my spare DPN on the bus!) to have a FO Friday, I was really really close. But so far. So for the silence of this week am I just going to give you a rundown of the projects (except my YOP sock that will be for tomorrow).

1. On the wheel is a BFL silk blend from wool gatherings that i have an idea for that I am excited for.

2. Yesterday felt like a spindle day so I pulled out an old project it is a Merino/Angora blend and I sort of forgot how deliciously yummy it is. Going to work on it more today I think I'm going to make it my goal to finish it for the TdF.

3. I have been teaching one of my roommates how to knit whilst we watch Merlin. Isn't she doing fantastic? I also lent her my copy of stitch and bitch she seems to like it. I'm so excited to live with another knitter again.

4. In honor of the Tour de Fleece I was going to teach my friend Paul how to spin. Because we are both broke and wanted to do something that was free. He liked treadling but lasted about 10 min before he gave up on drafting. Oh well.

5. The only WIP currently besides a few pair of socks I"m trying to finish up is this big and awesome shawl.

The needles are comically big. Size 36's my normal standard size I use most often is a size 3. Think about that for a second. Here it is in comparison to a size 10 needle and my thumb.

A little while after I took that picture I realized that I screwed up the pattern a bit, ripped it out and started it all over.
That is all I have for now. I'll try showing off some more of my work. And maybe blog about my new job later! Tomorrow I'll put up a post about my Year of Projects update. But that is all I have for now.

A Girl, a Book, a Year, and a Dream.

Every once in a while I get it in my head that I like to challenge myself (sometimes not true). And I see something on Ravelry and it's like WOW I want to do that! Sometimes it works really well. Last years Tour de Fleece made me a much better spinner. Sometimes I crash and burn. I once tried to talk part in the 52 pair plunge (knit a pair of socks a week for a year) got ALMOST 15 socks in and failed badly. So badly I gave up before the half way mark. Let hope that this is going to be one of those good ones.

I was poking around the forums, looking at peoples' profiles when I stumbled upon a group called Come Blog-a-Long (link on the side). And they had this interesting idea, pick a book (a pattern book) and see if you can knit through it in a year.

As luck would have it I was looking at the book "Knitting socks with Hand Painted Yarn" the day before wondering why I had yet to knit anything out of this wonderful book? There wasn't a single pattern in it I disliked. So this group, this book and this Annie just seemed like a good fit.
There are 21 patterns in the book, while not quite the 52 required of the plunge a daunting task. But I think I can do it!

That was too weeks ago since then I have been planning. Ball winding. Needle buying. Yarn sorting (and a little bit of yarn buying) in preparation for this. Here has what my preparation has yielded!

I had the stash for 19 of the projects (yikes that was an eyeopener!) I scared my roommates by taking my stash out of my room all at once, not going to do that again. I picked yarn, bagged them all individually along with a note.

The note is the pattern I plan on using, page number, toe up/ topdown, needle size, circ/DPN, yarn I plan on using and whether or not it is flat or in the round.

My goal is once I've made it through 10 socks and am on a good track my reward is buying myself the yarn for the remaining two socks (four balls in all). Most of my yarn is commercial a wide variety of brands, the only repeats are Dream in Color Smooshy and Malabrigo (not surprising two of my favorites). And two of my socks will be tackled in Hand Spun. One of which I'm not done spinning yet...

Enough Jabber here is the full list in order of appearance. (Note: These are all Ravelry links to projects that don't quite exist yet, but if you want to know what yarn/needle size I'm planning on using take a look!)

Longbourn Socks
Zigzag Socks
Punctuated Rib Socks
Staccato Socks
Copper Penny Socks
Color Collision Socks
Split-Toe Sweethearts
Whirlpool Socks
Herringbone Rib Socks
Schooner Socks
Corrugated Stripe Socks
Flame Thrower Socks
Chevvy Socks
Spot Check Socks
Potpourri Socks
Spread Spectrum Socks
Braided Gem Socks
Escher Socks
Goldengrove Socks
Rib Fantastic Socks
Switcheroo Socks

All of this. This entire exercise is in hopes of finally having enough scraps to finish my Barn Raising Quilt. I decided that I'm only going to knit squares from projects that I've already completed. It's more special that way.


I'm planning on doing this whole shebang by randomly grabbing a bag, seeing if I have the proper needles available and then CASTON! I will start tomorrow though right now it is late, and I am tired. I stayed up just to post this =D

Wish me Luck!