One of those scatterbrained posts

These stinkin' cute pair of socks for Monkey2 are done. Monkey1 will get a matching pair since I bought an extra kit from Woolgirl.


Woolgirl Sanrio & Friends sock club
White Oak Studio fingering weight yarn
Playtime socks
size 2.5 mm KP dpns
modified 56 st count


I also managed to knit another hat that is still not appropriate for Squid's brother. This time, I made it too small. Doh!
Mission Falls 1824 Wool
size 8 KP circs
A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend
mod: 10 sts less cast on than pattern

I didn't think that when I downsized the pattern, the crown decrease area would've been that much shorter. I wonder if the designer's got a lot longer row gauge 'cause I didn't think I decreased the stitch count that much to make that significant a difference.

In any case, my hat knitting karma continues to suck 'cause I started Bounce this weekend and after figuring out why I had such the brain freeze on this pattern (methinks there's an errant asterisk in one of the set up rows), I cannot for the life of me correctly repeat the 2 stitch pattern at all. So my hat knitting is on time out for a while. Maybe I'll knit gift scarves & fingerless mitts instead.


On the happy side, a small but pretty order from Woolgirl. I am late to the Flat Feet party, but I was hesitant to buy one since the one I saw being knit up at Sock Camp seemed kinda thin. But the colors are fun and it will be interesting knitting this novel yarn. And I just love the Dashing Dachs sportweight skeins I got. Salt Marsh is pretty (though I want to add Harvest Mouse to the name due to hanging out with the biologists at work too much) and Incantante is utterly gorgeous.

I just read the first 2 paperback books from the highly popular Twilight series books by Stephanie Meyer and would love to knit the Incantante in a Twilightish theme. I will admit that once I got over this series being in the Young Adult/Teen category, I actually enjoyed them. I was remiss in not researching the book before I bought it on a whim, aside from the vague knowledge that it was about vampires. JK Rowling or Ann Rice, the author is not. There are portions of these books that need more judicious editing, but I blame that on the whole "new JK Rowling" expectation. Next time I will check the online book reviews first, especially Amazon.com. The first listed reader review for Twilight is so snarkily funny.


On the not-happy side, there's a matching hole on the other side of my Mariilinda sock. Monkey 2 is lucky she is cute. She couldn't explain what she did, other than it got stuck on something.


So what's a knitter mom to do but cast on another pair of of socks (STR Rocktober).

finished Marilinda pair

Since our Memorial Day weekend was spent indoors up in the Sierras due to the rain, I finally finished my Marilinda pair:


Scout's June 2007 Indie Swag Club kit
pattern: Marilinda by Cookie A
yarn: Scout's Swag BFL in Kizkalesi
pattern size: large because I had a smaller gauge than called for (9 spi)
needles: KP Harmony dpns 2.25 mm

I enjoyed the challenge of the pattern, but I didn't enjoy knitting the yarn so much. The virtues of BFL sock yarn are probably posted & written about elsewhere, so I'm sure it'll wear well. I guess I'm too used to squishy sproingy sock yarns lately.


And Monkey1 can finally stop saying she's embarassed that her Edward Monkey is nekkid. I finally knit him a sweater from some of the STR heavyweight we used in Sock Camp. But just as soon as I finished the sweater, my little task manager asked for a scarf, so I used the STR Sock Candy in navy that came with my Sock Camp homework assignment. Monkey1 is happy for now, but I still have to knit Edward his socks at some point.

Marilinda

I'm waiting to start a super secret project, so in the meantime I decided to work on my WIP's rather than start my Monkey Kaw Kaws.


Pattern: Marilinda by Cookie A originally for Scout's Indie Swag club
Yarn: Scout's Swag BFL in Kizkalesi - the yarn that came with the club pattern
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony 2.25 mm (size 1)
pattern size: large because my gauge was smaller at 9 spi


I also finished my "gauge scarf" from Camp Crows Feet. It essentially reinforced the fact that I do not like to knit medium weight STR on size 0 (2.00 mm) needles.


And that's it for now. I'm also working on my Grace front and intermittently on Monkey1's Lindy Hop sleeve (the only WIP right now that isn't teal.) We'll see if I get the Grace front done before my super secret project can commence.

Slow Camp Recovery

At least I got 90% of the laundry done (still need to hang Monkey1's remaining clothes) and some house cleaning done. Otherwise, the only thing I got done was Cat's baby Coriolis socks. Unfortunately, the garter stitch box toes are skewed and one's shifted 90 degrees of the other. Oops.


I haven't cast on for the unofficial Monkey Kaw Kaw KAL, but I did open up my skein...


...and wound it up into a yummy cake. Love this colorway. Tina had a work cut out for her when she did her Raven series and then had to come up with a crow-themed colorway for sock camp:


I also opened up my skein of Lucky from our March Rockin' Sock Club kit...


...and wound it up too. As my makeup buddies know, I have a thing for green and so this colorway is just fab. I'm excited to cast on for my Leafling socks after I took the sock camp class with JC Briar who designed the sock pattern. Her class on different cast-on's just warmed my engineering-geek soul:


But first, I'm being a good mommy and working on Monkey1's second Dublin Bay sock and working a bit more than a couple rows of my Marilinda sock that was my Scout's Indie Swag kit from last year. It's so much easier to manipulate this BFL yarn now that I have my Knit Picks Harmony dpn's. What a difference the right tools can make.

Not an FO in sight

After my sock-knitting moritorium was lifted, I got a little bit AADD with my knitting, but some of it could be considered swatching. While waiting for the Secret of the Stole ii KAL to start next week, I decided to do a 2nd swatch on size 4 needles. This time my swatch size was 4.5" x 8" (despite not paying attention & binding off a little too tightly) which I think is closer to what I think the lace fabric should be. It's interesting how much lighter this swatch came out too, but I'm sure it'll look different again in the full size.


I'm going with the excuse that I am swatching with my Salish Sea socks. I did start this sock on size 2 (2.75 mm) needles thinking I'd get the pattern gauge of 7.5 spi with them since I got 7 spi on size 2.5 (3.00 mm) needles on my previous STR medium weight socks. However, I didn't meet gauge and had to rip out the toe since I could see the medium size on the slightly bigger gauge would end up a bit too big. I've restarted on size 1.5 (2.50 mm) needles and got gauge.


The other sock I'm "swatching" for is Cookie A's Marilinda socks from Scout's Indie Swag club back in July '07. Since Cookie released the pattern to the public I got the urge to cast on. The yarn is Scout's BFL yarn, colorway Kizkalesi. I don't quite have gauge so I'm fully prepared to frog and re-start this if I have to, especially since I'm still getting used to the BFL yarn. I started on bamboos with the yarn since my metal dpns were too slippery, but I had to switch back since my bamboos are not pointy enough from some of the stitch manipulation I'll need to do. (KP Harmonys are on backorder so I don't know when I'll get them.)


Monkey1 had been bugging me for a pair of gloves, so I started her Fetchings in my leftover KP Merino Style from her Red Riding Hood. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to check the amount leftover when I started, so for now she has 1 lonely Fetching. Instead of frogging it, I'm going to order one more skein and use the leftovers from that skein for a baby hat or booties.


I am still working on my Twist. I finished the first sleeve last weekend and hope to finish the second sleeve this weekend. It would be smarter for me to baste the fronts & back together first to make sure that its not too small though. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


I'm a little late on the YPF since tapmouse showed her Yarnissima/Wollmeise loot already, but since I was a good girl and didn't buy anything from either the latest Wollmeise update (though I totally love the Vincent & Paul colorways) or the Woolgirl sale. I surprised even myself on not buying any Wollmeise at all.


I'm still trying to figure out my knitting and non-knitting goals for the year and whether or not I should go on a complete "no buy" (hah!) or figure out how I'm going to "focus" my buying. So we shall see.

Rockin'

I got nominated by Carrie! How sweet. I totally wasn't expecting one of these.

And since turnabout is fair play, here's my list of nominations in no particular order:

Tapmouse - Aside from getting me hooked on STR by cleverly giving me a few yards of her leftover Rolling Stone and Cedar Creek (?) to play with, she introduced me to knitting by loaning me her SnB book. So hats off to my STR & knitting enabler.

Batty - I had to check her blog first to see if she's been nominated already, but nope. So I'll nominate our favorite bat-loving goth knitting blogger. (Only she can wear a bat print dress with elan!) Unless I didn't go back far enough. Anyway, I can't remember meeting her online through my first KAL (the Lotus Blossom Tank - LBT) or through the knitty board, but then that is where I first found out about the KAL.

Knitting Betty - the founder of the LBT KAL, great photographer, budding knitting designer, and mother of the totally cute Young Man.

And last but not least, Kel - I met her through the LBT KAL too. I get my Big Isle fix from reading her blog(s) and she's a STR club member too.

And in the rockin' theme, the first Summer of Love Lace sock is done. I used size 1 (2.50 mm) KP circs to get a tighter gauge though not as tight as the pattern (8.25 vs 8.5 spi), but it works for me. Otherwise, the medium size would've been too snug.


And before I forget, my last Scout's Indie Swag from my 3-month subscription came in last weekend. The color is Chuck T's by guest dyer, Yarn Nerd. I love how the Go Knit pouch coordinates so well with the colorway. And from looking at Nell's skein, I think mine doesn't have as much charcoal in it:


It's a good thing I only signed up for 3 months, 'cause I am woefully behind on knitting any of the swag I got. I love them all, but I think I've overloaded myself.

She called it!

Tapmouse knew I was in Project Manager mode when she called that I would finish this pair by the end of the week. What she probably didn't realize was that due to Monkey2's love of the Wiggles, I had that darn song "Do the Monkey. Ooh, ooh. Ah, ah. Ooh, ooh. Ah, ah. Monkey, monkey..." running through my brain the entire time.

Quick recap:

Socks that Rock Algae lightweight
Monkey by Cookie A
size 1 (2.50 mm) Knitpicks dpns
no mods


I'll have to re-take the picture for my Scout's Indie Swag June package, but you can see better ones in Scout's flickr group. In addition to Cookie A providing the pattern for this month's swag, she also chose the color for Scout to dye. When I told Tapmouse this, she asked if it was in the green color family, but I couldn't tell her 'til I got the package. Scout hides the actual color when she previews it in her blog. And what do you know, Tapmouse was right! It's green. A teal green, but still...green!

You can get a better looks at the pattern photo here since the hard copy printed out too dark to see the details of the sock.

So now that I'm done with my Monkeys I have no excuse for not working on my second Twisted Flower sock. I initially entertained the thought of leaving sock 1 as is with the leg knitted on size 2 (2.75 mm) dpns for a "large" and the heel & foot on size 1 (2.50 mm) circs for the medium, but the more I get into the second sock, the more I realize I need to re-knit the entire first sock. Aside from the nightmare option of cutting the sock in half and then knitting the leg as a medium then grafting it to the other half, I realized I should've reduced the number of stitches for the foot to 72 sts (the "large" again), not the 68 sts for the medium. Then there's the realization that I also should've done one more repeat on the foot before decreasing for the toes. I'm not fond of toe jams in shoes or socks, especially when I can fix the sock.


In between all this I'm still managing to get a couple rows on my Something Red here and there though I've slowed down since I got to the ribbing section. My poor April Y4S club second sock is being sadly neglected.

Oh, by the way, I got in Ravelry this week. My name there is Nartian. It'll be slow going loading my projects and stash into my notebook since I can't cheat and do it at work, especially since flickr.com is blocked from our network. I'll be sticking the Ravelry button on my side bar at some point.

Saturday Swag

So I got lucky when I entered the "lottery" for the next round of Scout's Indie Swag and am in for the months of April, May and June. I got the package last night and I love the colorway. The yarn is BFL so it'll be me first time knitting w/this type of wool. This yarn will wait however since I need to swatch it and figure out what pattern it wants to be.

And here's the obligatory opened skein pic:

And since I'm on the subject of yarn clubs, not much progress on my Y4S April sock. Still like the pattern, the yarn's okay but I've decided the color is not my favorite and most decidedly not me. I'll still finish the pair because I am a masochist, but I'm carefully considering not renewing. I am definitely in one-two clubs too many.