Getting Closer

At the risk of stating the obvious, kids socks are faster knits than grown-up socks.  (Unless the grown-up has itty bitty feet and the kid has big Hobbit feet, of course.)  I'm getting close to finishing the "Straight-Up Socks" for Francesca.  I'm knitting the leg - it's ribbing all the way around - and am going to keep going until I run out of yarn.  I started with one 50g skein and it looks like they may end up with 3-4" of leg/cuff.

Straight-Up Socks in Watercolor Stripe

Her foot doesn't even look like a child's foot in that picture.  Maybe I should have taken it next to my foot for scale.  She's got long, narrow feet so the socks look pretty funny when she isn't wearing them - long, skinny socks!

Today is my knitting day with Michele and Leigh, so I'm off to Michele's house in a few minutes.  Maybe I'll actually finish these today.  Then I can work on my Monkey socks until Saturday, because we all know that since Sunday is May 1st, that means...

Cast-on for the May KALs! 

What Rhymes With Purple? Who Cares - They're DONE!

It's been at least six days since my last post, but I have a good excuse.  My parents, brother, and mother-in-law came to visit for Easter, so as of last Thursday our house was overrun with family.  They left this morning, causing me to wish yet again that we lived closer to our families.  Chris went to work, the kids were off to school, my family headed to PA, and Chris's mom drove back to NY, leaving me alone in the house.  A full house to an empty one - BAM!  Just like that.  Typically when this happens, I would sit on the floor with Rogue, petting and talking to him so I didn't feel too lonely.  But he wasn't here of course.   Just the empty house.  It was a rough morning. 

If that wasn't bad enough, I had to go for a blood draw for my annual physical and anyone who knows me knows that I'm not good with needles.  Especially with needles being stuck in my body.  I was a bit of a wreck this morning due to anxiety, lack of sleep from the weekend, everyone leaving, and the impending needle sticking.  My Mom convinced me before she left that I should ask a friend to go with me, so I texted my knitting buddy, Michele, who proved that she's not only a knitting buddy, but an all-around good friend in general.  She picked me up, took me to give blood, and brought me home.  I'm happy to report that there was no fainting, even after my arm sprung a leak and dripped blood all down my arm.  Good times.

What?  This is a knitting blog and so far all I've done is pour our my sad, pitiful story?  Oh, all right.  Back to the topic... 

Check it out!  I did manage to get a good amount of knitting done while everyone was here!  First off, I finished my purple Mona socks by the first morning we all woke up in the same house.  Woohoo!  I was so glad to finish them and move on to something else.  My Mom modeled them for me so I didn't have to try to take pictures of my own feet.  (Go ahead, try it - it's not as easy as you'd think.)

 Completed Mona socks!

Once they were finished, I was ready and willing to teach my Mom some new sock knitting techniques that she was excited to try.  First we practiced the long-tail cast on, which she picked up very quickly.  Growing up, she taught me the knitted cast on and until recently, I never knew there were so many other options!  Once she got the long-tail, I showed her how to use it to cast on a cuff-down sock using magic loop with the needles I got her for her birthday.  We cast on, ripped out, cast on, and then knit a few rounds.  From there, I showed her how to cast on again - but this time for two-at-a-time (2AAT) cuff-down socks.  (Ooooooh, two-at-a-time!  Nice.)

Next it was toe-up time!  Say hello to Judy's Magic Cast On!  Again, she picked it up quickly, and after practicing a few times, we cast on for 2AAT toe-up socks.  Using a Ravelry pattern called "Straight-Up Socks," we started knitting - she making socks for herself, me making ones for Francesca.  I wish I had taken a picture of her socks while she was here since they are so cute and she was doing so well!  Plus, while I've become a little bit of a yarn snob, she was using this really soft and pretty yarn that she got from Big Lots.  For $1 per 50g skein.  A dollar.  That's a $2 pair of socks.  Well, $2 plus 15-20 hours of labor.

I knit the toes and about half an inch of ribbing on the foot for Francesca's socks before discovering that I somehow had made them too wide.  So after knitting that far on Friday, I frogged them Saturday morning and started over.  I worked on them quite a bit on Saturday, a little bit on Easter Sunday, and a couple of hours today.  They're coming so cute!

 Straight-Up Socks for Francesca

I'm actually past the heel now and am working on the leg.  The plan is to keep knitting until I run out of yarn.  Since the legs are ribbed the whole way around from the heel up, I don't have to worry about leaving enough yarn to do a band of ribbing at the top.  They're all ribbing!  So all I need to leave is enough to bind off.  I'm hoping to finish them in the next two days so I can enter them in the KAL for this pattern.

After lunch today, I reached a point on Francesca's socks where I couldn't continue until I tried them on her feet.  (The Straight-Up Socks pattern is knit to fit - there's no specified number of rows, stitches, etc.)  I was forced to take a break, so I did what any knitter would do.

I cast on another pair of socks.

When my Mom was here, I had her help me wind a skein of Grant Creek Yarn in the Leaves colorway.  I've been wanting to knit a pair of Cookie A's Monkey socks, so I figured there's no time like the present!

Monkey cast-on

I've got about a half-inch of ribbing done, so not much yet, but stay tuned.  I'm sure more will be coming soon!

The End of the Rainbow

Eight days and the creation of two rainbows later, my Skew socks are finished.  The Knit Picks Felici yarn is so soft and pretty, I really enjoyed working with it.  And it did add a little ray of happiness in my days recently, which is why I had set aside my purple Mona's to make these.

The self-striping yarn worked fabulously with this pattern.  Here's a good shot showing the diagonal stripes, starting from the big toe and radiating up.

One of the coolest parts of the Skew pattern is the heel.  It's not a short row heel, heel-flap heel, or any other type of heel I've knit so far.  The creation of the heel in this pattern is referred to as "the origami moment" when it comes together via the kitchener stitch.  The heel goes from a nondescript bump-out of increases at the center of the round to a funky swirly pocket.

How cool is that?

I'm very happy with my yarn choice for these socks.  Not just because I wanted happy yarn, but because I think self-striping yarn is the best choice to really show off the structure of this pattern.  I've seen a lot of cute Skew socks knit with variegated yarn, but they aren't as dramatic as actual stripes.  Just my opinion, of course - not everyone may agree.  However, if you plan to knit these socks, please, please, don't use solid yarn.  :)

Rainbows

I finished my first rainbow Skew sock today and cast on the second.  They're either a quick knit or I've abandoned all pretense of doing anything other than knit the past two days.  Or both.

Skew socks 

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Rainbow

Note:  The colors are a little washed out from the flash, but I didn't realize it until I had uploaded the pictures.

You can see the the toe of the sock starts at the big toe with a little of the orange color, then is knit diagonally. I used self-striping yarn so the color changes are built-in.  At the top edge of the sock, just before the cuff ribbing, a series of short-rows are worked to get the edges back to horizontal, as you can see by the wedge of red just before the horizontally-striped ribbing in blue & green.

The skills used are Judy's Magic Cast On, toe-up socks, K, P, k2tog, k3tog, ssk, p2tog, short rows, kitchener stitch (used on the heel) and I choose a sewn bind-off for a stretchy edge on my top ribbing.

The pattern is very well-written - you can blindly follow it and everything works out.  It's available for free on Ravely.com - just do a pattern search for "Skew."

Once I finish the second sock, I'll take more pictures, including a heel shot since it's very unique.

Day Two

It's now the second day since we lost our incredible, amazing, irreplaceable Rogue.  Two days which seem both a blink and also an eternity.  Sunday is a memory seen through a blur of tears and shock and feels like a horrible nightmare from which I'm still hoping to wake up.

Yesterday I was home, completely alone for the first time in over nine years.  I had an appointment in the morning and when I walked in the door afterwards, I stifled my usual "Rogue-y, I'm home" call which would bring him running.  And then I burst into tears. 

I could almost forget that he was gone as I watched movie after movie, not accomplishing anything but just sitting on the couch. Then the phone rang - his vet calling to ask how he was doing after his trip to the hospital.  I could barely choke out the news to her.

I forced myself to make a sandwich for lunch, and after setting it on the coffee table and returning to the kitchen to for a glass of water, I found myself looking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't sneaking a sniff or a lick.

When it was time to pick up the kids from school, I walked into the dining room to knock on the window which was his queue to come inside.  I stopped short and just stared for a few seconds, crying again.

These little bursts of reality are the hardest to deal with.  I don't want this to be real.  I miss our beloved dog more than I thought possible.  This morning, Chris cleaned and put away his food & water bowls as well as his collar and toys.  I don't know what's worse - seeing his things and knowing he won't be coming back to them, or seeing the empty space where they were.

I tried to knit Sunday evening and yesterday to distract myself, but I just couldn't.  Last night, I picked up my purple Mona socks and immediately put them back down.  They were too depressing - I just couldn't work on a project that wasn't making me happy prior to everything, let alone now when my spirits are so down.  So I started something new, something to hopefully add just a bit of brightness to the difficult days ahead.

Skew Socks in Rainbow

I hope I can successfully knit this tricky pattern so that every time I wear them, I can think of my happy memories of Rogue.

With Sadness

Today we lost our beloved dog, Rogue.  It was sudden and unexpected, and our family is in shock, denial, and filled with immeasurable sadness.  He was such an amazing part of our family, the best dog we could ever hope for, and he will be greatly missed.

Rogue
Nov 18, 2001 - April 10, 2011

 

Grant Creek Goodness

I couldn't resist.  Honest.  And sock yarn doesn't count as stash, so one more skein couldn't hurt, right?  Heidi of Grant Creek Yarns listed a bunch of absolutely gorgeous yarn on her etsy site this evening.  There were about four that I was drooling over, but I limited myself to one.  (See, I was a good girl!)

Rustic Firebrick Merino Sock Yarn

Is it beautiful or what???

If the Easter Bunny is looking for a gift for my Easter basket, I'd love any of her solid/semi-solid colors, especially the Apricot, Ethereal Blue, or Heron Blue colorways.  *hint hint*

I'd better finish up Mona so I can knit more socks - I'm on the foot now!

Turn, Turn, Turn

I did it!  I finished the heels of my Mona socks.  Last night I buckled down and knit the heel flaps, with their annoying ptbl stitches and all.  This morning I turned both heels, picked up the gusset stitches down each side of the flaps, and am now decreasing to get to the number of stitches I need for the foot.

Here is a photo of the socks so far (it's a little washed out from the flash).  The dpns across the front of each sock will become the instep, or top of the foot, with the pattern continuing down it.  The other two needles are holding the gusset and heel stitches.  Once these decrease down to 31 stitches per sock (they're over 40 now), I'll put both socks back on one circular needle to finish working them via magic loop.  

Mona socks with heels & gussets

The farther I get into these socks, the more I've realized that of all the socks I've knit so far (about 10 pairs), these are my least favorite.  The yarn isn't as soft and squishy as some - it's nice but not really nice, and I think a lot of it is also the color.  I wouldn't have knit purple socks if this month's Solid Socks KAL color wasn't purple.  And while the pattern isn't bad, I probably wouldn't have picked it as one of the first to knit out of the Knit Sock Love book.  So a bunch of different little factors are working together against my enjoyment of these socks.

But I will persevere!  These socks will be knit.  Oh yes, they will be knit.

It's bus time so I'm done blogging for today, but stay tuned for my continuing knitting notes and commentary.  And if you enjoy my blog, don't forgot to click to "follow" it!

Ptbl

Last night I got to the heel flap for my Mona socks.  I have to say that while the Mona pattern hasn't been difficult so far, it's not my favorite to knit.  There are a lot of ktbl stitches (knit through the back loop).  Not difficult to do, but for some reason they really annoy me.  Maybe because they slow me down, and I have to think about whether I'm doing a regular knit or the back loop knit.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that the heel flaps are a plethora of ptbls!  Purl through the freaking back loop.  Grrr....



Sure, it doesn't look like a big deal.  Not too hard, you say.  Nope, not hard, but a royal pain in my butt.  Grabbing those back loops from stitches that were twisted from ktbl on the previous row makes makes my jaw all tight.

I'm attempting to resign myself to the fact that the heel flaps may take me longer than the whole ankle of the socks did.  But I shall grit my teeth, attempt to grin, and bear the ptbl pain in order to complete my April sock mission.  My socks have been knit from my circular needle onto separate dpns so that the challenge may begin.  Wish me luck.  And patience.  And minimal jaw clenching.

Winner Winner Osprey Dinner

To quote one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story:  "I won, I won, I won!"

I found out today that I was picked in the random drawing for the "Socks from the Toe Up" KAL on Ravelry for my Ribbed Ribbon socks in March.  Yeeha!  My first month doing KALs and I won!  I can hardly believe it!  

For my prize, I got to pick a skein of Crazyfoot sock yarn from Mountain Colors.  I chose their Osprey colorway.  It's dark with some rich colors running through it and this swatch looks just gorgeous.

I already emailed them with my choice, so hopefully I'll get it within a week or so.  I've never used or even felt their yarn, so I'm looking forward to having it in person.  (And rubbing it on my face.)

Ah.... someone up there knew I needed a little burst of happiness today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a major award!
Shucks, I wouldn't know that.  It looks like yarn.
Well, it is yarn, you nincompoop.  But it's a major award.  I won it!
Damn, hell, you say you won it?
Yeah, knit power.  Knit power.

Purple Progress

I'm making a little bit of progress on my purple Mona socks.

The kids are off to bed in a few minutes and then I'll do some more knitting until my bedtime.

It's interesting, I'm finding that I keep making mistakes on these socks . I've tinked back more times so far on the first three inches of these socks than I have in all of the other pairs of socks I've made put together.  And it's not that they're hard - following the chart is straightforward.  I think my Thelonious-addled brain is having trouble with an easier pattern and is zoning out.  I'm also having major anxiety over my Zumba classes because of the owner of the dance studio where I hold them, so I'm sure that's contributing to my knitting (and sleeping and eating) issues the past few days. 

Hopefully things pick up this week and I start flying through these ghastly purple socks.  Once again, purple is not my favorite color, but I have been able to knit without grimacing too much.

Wait a minute...  Grimace from McDonald's is purple...

Coincidence???

I think not.

And in case you're interested, here's more than you ever wanted to know about Grimace....

Grimace - Grimace is a large, purple character who was first introduced in November 1971 as the "Evil Grimace". In his first two appearances, he was depicted with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes and sodas. "Evil" was soon dropped from his moniker, and he was reintroduced in 1972 as one of the good guys. In 1974, he was redesigned, going from two pairs of arms to the single pair he has today. His role continued to grow, and by the mid 1970s, he was a major character in McDonaldland. Commercials and merchandise generally portray Grimace as a well-meaning simpleton whose clumsy antics provide a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. The character was retained after the streamlining of the characters in the 1980s, and soon details of Grimace's background and family life began to emerge. His Uncle O'Grimacey first appeared in 1986 and would visit only one month per year, around St. Patrick's Day, bringing Shamrock Shakes. Additional family were revealed in a McDonaldland VHS tape "The Legend of Grimace Island": He has an unnamed mom, an unnamed dad, a grandma named "Winky", a great, great grandma named Jenny Grimace, and a might be brothers with "King Gonga", who is the king of all Grimaces. In "Grimace's Oddysey", Grimace is portrayed as a ham radio enthusiast who uses a homemade transmitter made from a colander. Despite his massive girth, Grimace took ballet classes.

April = Cast On

Yesterday was April 1st which means the start of new KALs (knit-a-longs) for the month on Ravelry.com!  So of course I cast on a new pair of socks for the "Knit Sock Love" KAL.  April's pattern is Mona, and I'm knitting them in purple so they'll also be eligible for the Solid Socks KAL this month.  I'm so not a fan of purple, but the color I picked is pretty dark and isn't annoying me that much.  At least not yet.

Cast on for Mona - 2AAT Magic Loop

As with all of Cookie A's socks, Mona is knit from the cuff down.  Because it looks like the pattern chart is worked an even number of times, that means it won't cross needles and can be worked 2AAT fairly easily.  At least until the heel, when I have to do some fiddling.

The picture shows the first 1/2 inch or so of the cuff ribbing.  Since then I've finished the inch of ribbing and also did about 1.5 inches of the pattern - just over halfway through the chart.  The instructions say to knit until it measures 5" (including the ribbing), ending on row 12 of the chart (I believe there are 24 rows).  So I'm barely started, but hoping to make some good progress this week.  I don't have any Usborne home shows scheduled, but I do have a book fair to close out after I get the school's list of free books, but that should still leave a lot of time for knitting.

Amazingly enough, I haven't yet cast on my socks for the "Socks from the Toe Up" KAL - the Bavarian Cable socks.  I have the yarn and needles on deck and ready to go.  I'm usually so anxious to start a new project that it's hard for me to not cast on another pair of socks.  However, I'm finding that so far this month (yeah, a whole two days of April) that I'm not feeling the urge yet.  So I'm going to work on Mona until that must-cast-on-something-new-now feeling comes over me, then I'll be all set to go!  Where if I make myself cast on the second pair now, when that urge comes it would mean a third pair would have to be started.  And that would just be crrrrazy.

Yeah, I'm outsmarting my own brain.  Not sure if that's something to be proud of....