Cedar Creek Rip Along

Despite repeated reminders from tapmouse that Kaci, the designer of the Cedar Creek pattern, likes really snug socks, I went ahead and used size 2.25 mm dpns since I know I can get the stated gauge of 8.5 spi on them. What I should've done was to use size 2.50 mm dpns, at least after the picot hem, especially since I couldn't even get this little bit of the sock onto my heel, let alone past it.

But since tapmouse also found an error in her Pisgah Cedar Creeks, she's ripping along with me. I will miss those skinny brown stripes when I go up on my needle size, but I also don't think I'll mind the fatter ones I believe I will get.


On the bright side, I finished hint #7 of my SotSii. Only 2 more hints to go and I'm only 2 weeks behind the end of the KAL. Not too bad. It could've been a lot worse. Not sure if I can finish this by the weekend, but I'm going to try since we have Monday off.


And on the even brighter side, I got my April Yarn4 Socks kit with a pattern by Ann Hanson and some very pretty Herb Robert colorway from Woolen Rabbit, which I've never bought before.

SotSii hint #2

I think I knit hint #2 correctly, if not without a few bits of tinking back here & there. Then again, I have been more conscientious about checking every row now. But I'm still not confident that my larger flower motifs in the center section are correct or not. I hope they are as it's doubly a pain to knit around my marker. I need to switch over to one of my Zero markers ASAP. But at least it's done and I can finally move on to hint #3.


Technically my Twist sweater is also done on the knitting front. (Even the ends are all woven in!) It's just that I'm not done button shopping. My preferred pick is the button style on the left, but the Joann's I went to only had 6. Figures I like that style that is one short. I got the plainer ones on the right as my alternative in case I can't find the other buttons in either the Joann's near work or the one closer to home. I'm dying to call this a FO, but it looks like it won't happen 'til later this week.

I know it's not YPF yet, but I just got my last kit for the 2007/08 Y4S Sock Club. The yarn is Berrytini by Yarntini (congrats on her new baby!) and the pattern is by Michelle To (miknits) IIRC. Despite the fast/early delivery of all my kits and the lovely patterns & yarns, I've decided to limit myself to just the BMFA Rockin' Sock Club (STR) and Woolgirl's. And not just 'cause Lent starts tomorrow - I'm giving up mu buying for that. However, the beauty of the Y4S sock club is that you can buy a month kit here and there when you don't want to commit to the whole year. So I expect to buy a kit when I catch wind of the designer and/or yarn dyer (cough*April*cough*Ann Hanson*cough).


And if blogger doesn't delete or scramble my text again, here are my remaining 4 picks for the "you make my day" award (I'm purposely not mentioning all the big knit bloggers out there 'cause I bet they've gotten this award a lot):

Gilraen - a fellow STR and sock yarn fan in general. Plus, she can actually see Posh yarns in person. Sigh.
Kris Knits - one of the co-adminstrators of the STR club the first year (notice a theme?), but who always have lovely well-fitted sweaters. And a transplanted local girl - who can deny another UH fan in knitting blogland?
And as always, my non-knitting RL buddies, Wei and Home on Derange.

Looking through rose colored glasses

Just in case Kel or any other sock club member hasn't gotten their kit and doesn't want to be spoiled , don't scroll down past the first pic. (Though hopefully the Big Isle postal workers aren't so slow this time.)

First off, I have officially made my Socktobefest goals of knitting 2 of my Yarn4Sock club kits. My 3rd sock pair should've been Monkey2 or DH socks, but I took a slight detour with my Firestarters. Bad mommy. :p

Deets:
Yarn4Socks June sock club kit - sorta
yarn: Seacoast Panda (superwash merino/bamboo/nylon)in Melon Balls
needles: KP 32" size 1 (2.50 mm) circs
made for: Monkey1

The big modification:
Only used the Giotto pattern for the cuff. I got to the leg section and the leg lace pattern was horrible to do with the Panda yarn. So did like many other knitters and switched to Go with the Flow (Summer 05 Interweave Knits and/or Interweave Favorite Socks w/errata).

And of course, just in time for Halloween, I got my STR sock club package yesterday, a day later than some of my fellow Bay Area sock club peeps. Loads of other pics online of the rest of the kit so I thought I would have fun w/my gargoyle. (My post title is my ball band saying, btw.)

I think my gargoyle is less than pleased with the way I styled the opened skein on him. I was more concerned about capturing the red & black variations that I was making gargoyle dude look hip. Not that I did a good job with that either.


Love this first color of the Raven series and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest. Also looking forward to knitting the pattern too, though I probably won't do the poetry contest. Creative writing not being my strong point. I leave that to my non-knitting buddy. ;)

All over the place

There's something about our funky weather that's making me feel out of sorts and just unfocused.


I finished the first Giotto with the Flow sock, but I cheated and made them short/long enough for Monkey1. For some reason, I was so over this sock this weekend, but Monkey1 was loving it, so now they're for her. I also realized that I better get going with the kids' knits since Monkey1's feet are now 8" long. Her socks are soon going to take longer to make than mine since I foresee her feet being longer than mine before she even hit her 'tweens. Well, maybe I'm exagerating, but still. No wonder she's been bugging me for new shoes. And here I thought it was just the whole Imelda Marcos shoe gene that skipped me and went to her. (Although the whole joking about the Marcos gene may bite me in the @ss one day and I'll find out we're actually related to them, even if it would be several times removed.)

Slightly amused that in knitter's math, I am halfway done with Monkey1's Cabo Hoodie when all I have are the sleeves & hood to do. It's been hard to get motivated to finish this sweater ASAP when the weather climbs back into the 80's. Also, Monkey1's soccer practice is down to 1x/wk so I mostly have that golden hour (2, if I'm lucky) after the kids fall asleep before I poop out to work on my knitting every night.

But what do I do instead? I swatch for a sweater I loved when I saw it at Purlescence Yarns 1 year birthday party. Leave it to me to buy a pricey pattern ($11! I totally didn't pay attention to this 'til after they rang me up.) and yarn not on sale during their event. My excuse is that in the long run, it did end up cheaper than buying a sweater's worth of Dream in Color Classy I was initially gunning for.

I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew with this lace sweater pattern. I also realize I'm in a rut 'cause I bought yet another empire waist sweater pattern. Well, I have liked and bought other non-empire waisted patterns, but the only one that's come to fruition was the Ribby Pulli. In any case, this'll be a long term project for me 'cause the potential to muck this one up is high.

Of course, now that I only have one sock-in-progress, I immediately cast on for my Wollmeise Rhabarber Firestarters. This in spite of 1 more Yarn4Sock kit (knitspot's Merlot Vine socks) and Woolgirl sock club kit (Waterfall) I still have to get through. Not to mention our October Rockin' Sock Club kit that'll be arriving soon and my Fratello kit I'm dying to start.

Although sock clubs are fun, I realize I put a lot of pressure on myself to get them done. So despite enjoying my sock clubs, I'll probably limit myself just to STR next year when the others expire.

Siren Socks

Yarn4Socks August sock club kit

Pattern: Siren Socks by Designedly by Kristi
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Sea Foam
needle sizes: size 1 (2.25 mm) and 2 (2.75 mm) KP dpns
pattern size: medium

Mod - longer heel flap

Comments -
Love the yarn, don't love the little silk slubby bits here and there, but they weren't as big or bad as tapmouse's bad skein of Apple Laine yarn she got once. Not fond of the k3tbl's in the cuff, but it got better once I got used to them. Also, the lace panels once you get into the leg are offset by 1 row due to centering the heel. Had to keep track 'cause I was paranoid I'd screw that up, but it wasn't too bad after awhile.

And I loved the Zero markers that came with the Yarn4Socks August kit and their anniversary kit so I ordered more. So pretty.

I know it's not YPF yet, but I was so excited to receive the Fratello kit in the mail Monday. Talk about fast shipping! I had just ordered from Yarnissima last Thursday. Talk about a loaded package! Love the moo stickers. Love the laminated card and the pattern is printed on heavy glossy paper. This'll wait though as I want to knit this next month as my birthday knitting.

Attempting to stay focused

Finished seaming the hoodie (though I need to even out a few of the stitches) after extending it out 1.5 more inches (read on Ravelry that the hood is on the small side) and started a sleeve. I'm trying to finish this by the end of the week to meet the end of this year's Project Spectrum.


I did finish my first Siren sock though. I'm happy it fits and I didn't have to rip back along the way. Although I would have no excuse if I needed to since I can do it.

Love how the colorway knits up. (And I like it beadless, tapmouse. Thank you very much.)

And the one finished sock gives me the excuse to swatch my STR yarn from the stash for my Firestarter socks sometime this week, but I'm stuck on what color to go for.

I initially wanted to use my Fire on the Mountain (all colors discussed left to right), but it's in lightweight and the Firestarter sock calls for a 60 st count with a gauge of 8 spi. This would make for a really, really snug sock. (This also rules out the Wollmeise I just acquired based on what I've read being knit up by all the Wollmeisaholics out there.)

Then I thought about the variegated medium weights in my stash that would benefit from the Firestarter pattern and fit my foot with its larger gauge at the 60 st count. First there's January One. The colorway's almost fall-like in it's theme which I'm kinda in the mood for. Then there's Thistle which I forgot that I had bought in medium not lightweight, but it's more spring themed. Finally, there's the mill end that I bought off of Tapmouse's Camp Cockamamie stash. It's got that whole chicken and fall theme going too which makes it on par with the January One. It may even edge it out when I make my decision.

Oh, what to do, what to do.

It's Random Wednesday

Most of my chest congestion has loosened up enough, so I headed back to work. But before that I got a lot further on my Siren sock. It clouded up today so my lighting sucks, but it's looking much better. Happier with it now and I love the Fleece Artist Sea Wool.

I also managed to start my other Yarn4Sock club kit (June). The yarn is Seacoast Yarn's Panda (merino wool/bamboo/nylon) sock yarn in Melon Balls. Love the color, love the yarn. The pattern that came with the yarn is Anna Bell's Giotto socks.

Love the cuff detail. Don't love the lace pattern for the rest of the sock. The 3-stitch twist isn't too bad, but the kfb into a double yo is a total PITA. I totally have to fight the yarn to make that double stitch. I've only done one repeat of the 4-row lace pattern and I can't see fighting the yarn and pattern for 2 entire socks. I have a feeling that the Koigu yarn Anna Bell originally used will mean that if I do attempt this pattern again that I will need to use a similarly sproingy yarn like STR or Colinette if I don't use Koigu. So, I am going to happily rip back those 4 rows and re-knit the increase row to the correct stitch count and shameless steal her idea and do the Go with the Flow pattern for the rest of the sock.

Because the Giotto sock frustrated me so and the weather's cooled way off, I also cast on for Monkey2's Cabo Hoodie in the Malabrigo Worsted in Indigo I bought from Stitches West last year. The yarn is so, so, so yummy. Monkey1 will get a Cabo Hoodie too, but it'll be in Lanas Puras Melosa Worsted (she picked Cornflower). I'm enjoying the process of knitting of the Malabrigo so much I may make this my focused knitting for the week.


But I suppose it's a good thing I cast on my last 2 Yarn4Socks club kits 'cause my October one came in early with my eagerly anticipated Ann Hanson (knitspot) Merlot Lace sock pattern.


This kit'll have to wait though 'til I'm done with the Siren sock(s) at least.

Ribby Pulli

C'est fini! The ends are woven in, but no washing and/or blocking done yet. Which probably makes taking modelled shots (in my pajama pants no less) not the wisest thing. But I'll blame this horrid cold which has settled oh so wonderfully in my chest.

Unlike tapmouse, I went for the more fitted Michelin Man look 'cause my gauge tightened up way more than I thought it would despite swatching up 2 needle sizes. But I'm hoping blocking will help a little as I wasn't inclined to frog and start way over. Besides, that would mean I would need to buy more Cascade 220 as I don't have much leftover from the last skein.


Deets:
Ribby Pulli by Bonnie Marie Burns
Size: 37 lower body, 39 uppper body (sleeve count was the same for both)
Needle sizes: size 6 & 7

Modifications (aside from sizing up):
Added 2 inches of length to the body.

Omitted the bind off at the neck before starting the hood because I didn't want to eat up yarn doing it as I was concerned about having a yarn shortage. Luckily, I was proved wrong on the yardage, so I hope I didn't create any structural issues by not binding off the neck before picking up and adding stiches back in for the hood.

Omitted detaching the yarn and re-attaching the yarn after the first picked up row for the hood (again for yarn shortage concerns). I just moved the overlaping stitches onto a spare needle so I could shift the yarn over to the correct position.

Math interpretation challenges:
There was a typo in the sleeve count for the size 39, but no biggy. What I couldn't figure out was why I was 1 stitch extra in the fronts and 2 in the back despite the sleeve count being correct by the time I finished the raglan sleeve decreases & neck shaping. Since Tapmouse also had a count error in her size for the back when she was done with her raglan shaping, either we had interpretation problems with the pattern or there's more math typos. In the end, I decided to stop trying to figure it out and decreased the extra stitches away before doing the hood.

eta: I forgot to say I had plenty of CTH Twister left over for the hood. In fact, I accidently added 1" to the hood length before checking since I mis-remembered what it was supposed to be. The extra 1" made the hood long enough I think, so the leftover yarn will be made into a newborn hat for Hats for Alex. If you have any spare baby hats or want to use up some leftover yarn, consider Trillian's cause.

My first Wool Girl package didn't arrive in time for YPF, but it doesn't matter 'cause it's awesome.

I love extras! The little journal, pen, stitch markers, and the chocolate mint balm all with the Wool Girl label are great. I'll have to give the chocolate mint balm away however. While it's a great flavor in the mouth, the mint does a number outside my lips. Last but not least, the Waterfall yarn and same-named pattern are really lovely. I know tapmouse thanked me for leading her to Wool Girl, but it really should go to Carrie (and eventually Zonda) for introducing me to her in the first place. Awesome online store!


And all this focused knitting means I only have 1 WIP on the needles. A rarity indeed. But not for long. ;) In any case, I'm not sure if I like how the Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Sea Foam is looking in the Siren socks pattern. (The pattern is by Designedly by Kristi for the Yarn4Socks sock club.)

I hate to frog since all those k3togs & k3tbl were such a pain to do, so I'll plug on and see how the rest of the sock goes. The only reason I will frog though is if the sock doesn't fit when I try it on after the heel.

Pas de baa pour moi!

Amy Singer from knitty.com is in da house!

I didn't sign up for Amy's classes at Purlescence Yarns this weekend, but I did get the chance to have her autograph my book and hang out and do a little knitting. It was a blast as I got to witness another Hanna sheep siting. The Boba Knitters are so fun. Too bad I live so far, but maybe one of these days, I can pop in on their Sunday meet up.


And no trip to Purlescence would be complete without a Socks that Rock purchase. Hidden among all that Fire on the Mountain and other fun lightweight colors was the gem of Jewel of the Nile:

I originally thought I'd be buying a 3rd skein of Panda Cotton since I thought I would run out before I finished the first sock. Luckily I didn't and had a few yards to spare.

I finally succumbed to the lure of my Rockin' Sock Club yarn and cast on for my Solstice Slip. My first modification has been to do 1" of k3 p2 ribbing on size 0 needles in hopes that'll take care of any looseness on top.

But what I've really been wanting has been to do some lace knitting and the new (and early) Yarn4Socks August sock club package seems to fit the bill. The yarn is Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Sea Foam and the pattern is by Designedly By Kristi. Good thing I finished her Balance Socks pattern.

However, I may wind up my BMFA Geisha in Scaponia and cast on for a shawl. I saw some of the Purlescence crew knitting shawl patterns with their Geisha in I think from various patterns from Alison Jeppson Hyde's Wrapped in Comfort. (She was also at Amy Singer's book signing.)

The problem, however, is I don't know which pattern to make. I've bought both the Leaf Lace and Flower Basket shawl patterns and am considering getting Alison's book too. I really like the cut-out circle shape (I forget the correct term) of her shawls.

Balance

yarn: Yarn4Socks My Soc camel/lambswool blend in Hunter's Glen
pattern: Balance Socks fingering version for the April Yarn4Socks sock club installment in the medium size
needles: Susan Bates sock set size 1 (2.25 mm) dpns to get pattern gauge of 9 spi in St st

Random Project Thoughts:
Between the stiffness of the yarn and the left twist (ktbl in the 2nd st, k 1st st, then drop both off), it was slow going on the left sock. I still enjoyed this pattern so I think if I do another one (it came in sizes child, S, M, L) in a squishier stretchier yarn, it'll go a bit faster.

The yarn was a good learning experience, but I wouldn't buy it on its own if they keep the heavily fragranced softener. I'm assuming they used the softener due to the stiffness I've mentioned before, but it took me a long time to geting around to knitting with this yarn because the smell was so off-putting to me. I'm guessing the camel must be much lighter that regular wool since it came in 2 oz, 300 yd hanks, but it didn't knit up super fine like Scout's BFL I've swatched around on. I had a lot left over from both Y4S skeins for both socks.

eta: I just rinsed the socks over the weekend in a vinegar/water bath which I should've done in the first place to get rid of the softener smell. (Thanks, Batty for the reminder. I'll need to do this on the next yarn that's either smelly or stiff.) The socks themselves aren't appreciably softer, so I think the stiffness is a property of the camel down. Time will tell if it'll soften with wearing.

Next up, the Twisted Flower re-do! I've finished 1 repeat of the leg chart and would finish the 2nd 'cept I have to do that real life thing called folding laundry.

Metering the WIPs

In a supposedly rational effort (hah!) to keep my wrists and hands from wearing out, I've been rotating the WIP's cause:

1) I've got cotton. Well, technically my Something Red is in a cotton/wool blend, but still:

The pic shows I'm on the 4th skein of Knitpicks Main Line since it comes in 82 yd skeins as Monkey2 is showing her ire on my handknits. I haven't cast on anything for her in quite awhile. Just kidding on the kiddie ire. That's just mommy guilt kicking in a little since Monkey1 is more likely to ask for specific crocheted & handknit items.

2) (Left) The stiff Yarn4Sock club camel/blend yarn combined with a left twist consisting of a ktbl in the 2nd stitch on the second (left) Balance sock makes for slow going. That and the softener smell on the second skein hasn't dissipated as much as I thought it would - my one and only pet peeve about this yarn. I can live with the stiffness 'cause the knitted fabric has an interesting sorta velvety feel, almost (not quite, but almost) like a silk tweed - the caveat being I still need to wash these socks after I'm done with the second. But it's amazing to me how much this smell bothers me so much. (I've googled and haven't found a knit blogger in the club that's posted anything about this unless my google-fu is not working.) I know I should've washed the skeins first, but I definitely will the next time I get yarn that bugs me in this way.

3) (Right) And I hit a mental block on the 2nd Twisted Flower sock and not just 'cause I started on the medium size instead of the large for the first sock. I've realized I've been thinking my feet are larger than they are. I've started 3 first socks (maybe 4?) in the large size and had to rip back since they all came out too big. 'Cept the Twisted Flower, of course, which only came out comfortably loose.

So I cast on again for the Monkeys, this time in STR lightweight Algae. I figured doing an easier Cookie A pattern would get me back in the groove for the Twisted Flower and the squishy STR yarn would give my hands the break from the stiffer yarns. I also love the speed of doing the pattern size ("medium") on size 1 (2.50 mm) KP dpns.

It's not Friday yet, but I did finish the second test sock so Monkey1 now has another pair of socks. (The other reason to motivating me to get the Monkey off my back - I had an FO!) Have oodles of Hill Country Yarns Superfine Superwash sock yarn left (I'll need to weight it), but definitely enough for another small second pair of socks:

Yarn: Hill Country Superfine Superwash sock yarn in Raspberry Sorbet
needle size: KP size 0 circs
gauge: 10 spi St st
pattern: a test one for Tyler

And continuing the sock yarn lemming mode, my Knittery yarns came in. I had ordered directly from them before I discovered Woolgirl carries them.

left to right: Passionfruit merino, Cherries merino cashmere, Lakeside Flora merino cashmere

Scrumptious stuff, especially the Lakeside Flora! Tapmouse can testify since I flashed this stash to her today.

little FO Friday

yarn: KP Cotlin in Nightfall
pattern: Mason-Dixon Knitting linen hand towel - 4 repeats only since I had only 1 skein
unblocked/unwashed dimensions: 8" x 13"
gauge: 5.5 spi on size 5 needles (again unblocked)

Comments so far:
This yarn is very nice to knit with and am happy with the resultant fabric. The true test will be how my wee little towel will wear after some washing/blocking & use. Am curious to see how colorfast the yarn will be.

One Y4S club April sock down!
yarn: Y4S camel/lambswool blend in Hunter's Glen
pattern: Balance Socks in medium
needle size: Susan Bates sock set size 1 (2.25 mm)

So nice to have something off the needles. I've been plowing through my chevron scarf 'cause I might need the needles for the informal Ribby Pulli KAL I'm supposed to have with tapmouse. 21 chevron inches to go, 21 chevron inches...

Mitering for Hokies

Apparently after finishing my Grasshoppers, my sock knitting mojo disappeared. I met test sock gauge with my Scout BFL Indie Swag yarn, but when I started knitting the pattern, the cuff looked really tiny. I frogged it and will figure out if I need to go back to JKnits or wait for the yarn being used in the pattern to arrive.

So I decided to practice my mitered squares for the Hokie Healing project. Now I understand why Cara became obsessed. They knit fast, at least the first 6. The last 2 was more of an exercise in how many squares I could get out of 1 skein each of Plymouth Encore. I could probably get at least one more square out of the skeins, but then it felt weird having an odd one, so I'll send the leftover yarn w/the squares in case they can use it to seam the squares up.


The STR Peacock & Pisgah chevron scarf has been moving along more slowly, mainly because I haven't figured out how to knit well and watch a subtitled show (Jumong on AZN tv) at the same time. This show has become addictive. When my mom first got hooked on Korean dramas (well, the more modern soaps), I couldn't understand what the deal was. Now, both DH and I are hooked.


And actually, my sock knitting mojo hasn't disappeared entirely, it's just slowed way down. My April Y4S club sock is moving along and as it does, I'm starting to appreciate the colorway more. My initial view of the skein didn't thrill me, but the color looked better wound up and even more so when I started getting further along on the sock. I do need to finish at least this one sock because...

Y4S sent their June sock club shipment early. Check out the cute pinky goodness. The yarn is Seacoast's Panda yarn (60% merino wool, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon) in Melonballs and the pattern is Anna Bell's (My Fashionable Life) Giotto socks.

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.