progress :)

the campanula is coming along. :)



this sock is really not very relaxing. I cannot memorize this lace, so I have to look at the instructions very frequently, especially throughout the even numbered rows but it's so lovely, and so thoroughly written that I have produced, on my very first ever attempt, a toe up sock (ok, half a toe up sock) that fits me (and my size 10.5 feet, following the included directions for those with longer feet!) perfectly. I'm just amazed. :)

campanula

I started this last night. it's going kind of slowly so far.

first off, I've never done a toe-up sock before. it is kind of a kick to be able to stick my foot in it already but.. it seems so.. alien.

secondly.. I couldn't make heads or tails out of the provisional cast-on movie at knittinghelp.com so I sorta winged that and it's a little wonky. maybe I'll do a better job on the second sock. :)

third.. I gotta tell you I'm not much of a fan of the K3tog(tbl) process.. whoa. what a almost unpossible thing to do!

fourth.. isn't it pretty?! I have to keep stopping and admiring it.

I'm using knitpicks new cotton blend sock yarn, risata.. my first experience with this.. or with any knitpicks sock yarn, actually, although I have some essential and a ball of that other new striped one.. well.. 2 balls.. stashed. I like this yarn. I'll have to get more.

fourth again.. isn't it pretty? scroll down a bit and read my campanula post again.. you know you all want this pattern. :)

there's a GIANT spider..

outside.. webbifying the door to the deck.. huge! spider so today's sock portrait was taken on the front steps instead of the deck!



man socks of fleece artist nova sock, mahogany color. these are definitely fraternal socks.. so much so they look sort of like half-siblings, only one parent in common. the yarn is not colorishly consistent from one end of the skein to the other. I offered to yank 'em out and knit from both ends of the ball at once, once I was sure there was enough yarn to do that but he says they're fine the way they are. *whew*. :) I'm pretty tired of this yarn.. the first sock has had 3 different heels and was finished when I decided the second heel was also not acceptable so.. I'm glad I don't need to keep knitting it.

there was enough yarn to finish both socks, though.. so I'll stress less about that when I get around to knitting the other skeins. :)

surprise!!

toddler size.



such a fun pattern, I wish I knew more babies. this one of knitonecrochettoo ty-dy in verandah color, I got it half price from.. a shop with a similar name.. maybe that was the name of the shop and the yarn is from a place with a similar name, I.. have a ball band and know I'm right now. :) cotton stuff. is for the sister of the baby the baby one is for, so.. if the baby one fits the baby, this one oughta fit her.. :)

I look forward to these sweaters being tried on actual children so I can gain a clue far as what size actual children are...

it's really not my fault I don't know this. My children are 20 and 23 so it's been a good while since I had little children around.. and they were both weird children far as sizes go. the first one was tiny.. she wasn't incredibly tiny, 5#8, which is the official first baby size in both our families.. I was 5#8, my husband was 5#8, my niece was 5#8, my daughter was 5#8.. my sister's first was 4#11 but he was really early.. none of the rest of 'em were.. and that's all the first babies we have in several generations so.. it's kinda the pattern. she was small and she stayed small for a while so she fit premie stuff and 3 month stuff for a good 4-5 months.

the second one was huge.. biggest baby ever born on either side of our family at 6#11 :-P. he lived up to the huge standard though, in the beginning and wore 18 month clothes from the time he was 4 months old until he was 2 and a half.. he actually wore out 18 month clothes. he was born, he grew round, and then for a couple years he stayed the same circumference and got progressively taller. when he was 2.5, he finally started getting too tall for those 18 month clothes. today he's the tallest slenderest person in the family.. but of absolutely no help in figuring out whether these sweaters are going to fit small children.

the mother of baby Paxton who will be born next month says she is sure he weighs 42 pounds and is 3 feet tall already. she is also no help.

so.. cross your fingers. I like knitting these. It'd be nice if they actually fit little children.

wowza!

look at me, I'm back again. and.. I may not be done yet.

I was sewing the buttons on my baby surprise jacket.. *finally* when the doorbell rang and startled the sweater out of my lap.. was the postman and he brought me TWO packages.

One, a swap from the knitty swap board, two balls of STR fairgrounds.. I'll take their picture later, the camera batteries gave out on me..

and the other, my rut-busting swap package, all the way from australia! such an exciting package.. look!



a magazine! I can't wait to sit down and enjoy it. :) a magnetic notepad. Someone's been peeking in my kitchen and saw the terrible state my grocery list is in.. I actually *needed* this. :). a skein of striped sock yarn in brown, gray and cream.. I have tons of plain cream to fill in heels toes cuffs/whatever to go with this! 2 balls.. one red, one cream, of alpaca.. wow.. so soft! I'm going to swatch a small bit of this in stripes and see if it comes out of the sink still looking like waldo, or if it comes out lookin' like strawberry shortcake :) doesn't matter either way I don't think, but nice to know from the get-go. :) alpaca socks? or maybe mittens. :) and a big ball of washable wool in gorgeous fern colorway.. all greens and tans and spring-like, from celia's basket. AND.. gummy dinosaurs... AND!!! loads! of cherry ripe (which is now having a nice relaxing cool-down in the fridge!). heaven must be sorta like this. :)

SO fun.. my first knitting-related secret pal swap ever.. won't be my last! wow. :)

Ok.. I'm back..


here's the lovely yarn I got today from diane at knitty, in exchange for some of my own that I could spare. socks that rock light weight, in fairgrounds colorway. perhaps not a color I'd have chosen from the full range but! a chance to try out the light weight and see what I think of it. I have a christmas wishlist to prepare, don't ya know.. some STR may want to be on it. then again, it may not. we'll find out. :)

and this..



is the baby surprise jacket, all done with it's buttons on. I think it's cute. I sure hope it actually fits a baby.

anyone know how big a baby is? I've long since forgotten..

Campanula for the Cure

I met this gal, MezzoDiva, on the knittyboards a few weeks ago. She's participating in the weekend to end breast cancer events and has designed a lovely sock, Campanula for the cure, to help with her fund-raising. The pattern is available free of charge, as a thank you for sponsoring her in this event. *and*, there's a knitalong! it even looks like there are prizes! It's a beautiful pattern, a wonderful cause, and I'd like to invite all of you to support this worthy cause and join in on the fun.

Honestly, I do not have this pattern yet. I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of MezzoDiva on the knittyboards and congratulated her on her lovely pattern and wished her the best success with her worthy undertaking, and all my non-financial support along the way, but unfortunately all my financial support, at least this quarter, is going to my nephew who is running in the chicago marathon in october, to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Fighting these blood cancers is a strong goal for our family, we lost my sister's husband, my nephew's father to an especially nasty one 2 years ago.

MezzoDiva kindly offered to share her pattern with me at the time and.. I couldn't ethically allow myself to accept her generous offer since I am not able to offer my financial support to her cause at this time. At least I don't think I accepted, I don't find the pattern in my email! This morning I awoke to an invitation to join the KAL though.. so now I can actually do something to help. I can tell all y'all to go check it out. :)

Please. Go check it out.

the sheep shed

I need to respond to a comment on an earlier post and can't see a way to do so!

Becky, who is from SC but lives in Virginia (which makes her kind of the opposite of me.. born in virginia, living in SC) wanted to know about the sheep shed. the sheep shed.. or sheep shed studio.. is this nice online business that sells all kinds of fleecy fibery things and a lot of brown sheep closeouts/seconds at *really great* prices! really great. :) I'm obviously most interested in sock yarns so I've purchased wildfoote, wildfoote handpaints and cotton fine (which makes a nice summer sock :)) but there's lots of other good stuff to choose from too. Color selections are limited but I never have any trouble finding stuff I want/need.

anyway, that's what I'm using to knit the gansey sock, the mistletoe wildfoote from the sheep shed. the color of this as it appears on my monitor is not very similar to the color the yarn appears at my house, but I can't say for sure that there aren't some skeins that do look that color.. I'm really fond of the color I have here, and may well order another couple. :) on the other hand, there's a few colors available now that weren't when I last ordered so maybe I'll get them, instead.

swapping goodness

I forgot to say how excited I am about finally managing to make some good swaps at knitty. I mailed out today one swap of a 4oz CTH mill end in a color I just don't really care for and 2 skeins of seconds/closeouts cotton fine I got for cheap, in exchange for a skein of light weigh socks that rock.. in a color that I wouldn't have chosen, but someone will like the socks, I may even like them myself once they're made, but it gives me a chance to try the light weight.. I haven't been overwhelmed with lust for more after my experiences with the medium weight, partly because I really dislike dramatic pooling and partly because the yarn is just too heavy to be very practical in south carolina!.. it sure is fun to knit though.. wish I knew more people who lived in cold places and liked dramatically pooling socks.. :-P. but it really was yummy to knit regardless of what it looks like so I'm excited to have a chance to knit the finer weight and see what I think of it, without having to actually buy it. I will probably replace that cotton fine because I was kinda fond of that color..

and I also mailed out a skein of CTH life's a beach that I got as a christmas gift.. that particular colorway just didn't speak to me at all.. I couldn't get excited about wearing socks of it myself and couldn't convince myself any of the people on my socks gift list would love it either, I've been trying to swap it for a while and finally did, for a skein of fleece artist merino sock in a colorway I'll have to see to decide if I/anyone will be crazy about it but it's a new yarn for me and I'll be excited to knit it... I think I'll like it fine if it doesn't scream "someone else!".. it's so hard to tell with fleece artist, my limited experience indicates that even if you look at pictures and know what the color looks like, the yarn that comes may be completely different.. but all my limited experience is with nova sock so I'm excited to try the other flavor, regardless of what it looks like. :)

really excited. hopping up and down can't wait excited. :) on both counts! very very pleased with my trades.. I hope the people that are receiving my stuff in return feel the same way.

also I'm looking forward with great anticipation to my knitty rut-busting swap exchange.. I'm really looking more forward to my gal I sent stuff to getting her package.. I sure hope she likes.. at least something.. I think it was a good package... I bought the same stuff for me and *I* like it.. :) than I am to getting my own package but!... I am some kind of looking forward to getting my own package.. so much fun, getting suprises in the mail. :) so much fun. I hope it comes soon. I hope my package gets received soon too.. it should more than have arrived, I.. I'm guessing the gal I sent it to must be out of town. she better be out of town havin' a good time. :)

I think I'll go wander over to the sheep shed and see what kind of stash-replenishment I can ponder there...

more socks :)

I finished the lacy scallops socks last night. :) Cherry tree hill Sockittome mill end.. I bought 9 ounces and finished these socks for my size 10.5ish feet with less than 1/3 of the lot, so.. I guess I'll be making some more stuff of this color. :)



I finished the first of the plain man socks, except for kitchenering the toe closed.. I figured not doing that until the second sock is finished will insure I don't run out of yarn. :) this is regia galaxy in the wald colorway. second one is started, but since it's a nice mindless plain stockinette sock, I generally save it for working on late at night so it may take a while to get done.



I started the I love Gansey sock, the current project of the six_sox_knitalong yahoo group. this one is a pretty serious reach for me, not as much because of all the cable stuff.. although I have next to no experience with cables.. as because there's just so much going on to keep track of.. the big cable bit = a 20 row repeat, the heart bit = a 15 row repeat, and the little cables.. one row going // and the other row going \\ on each half, twisting every 4th row. this is seriously taxing my already fairly scattered brain. this is probably the sharpest clearest photo I've ever taken of a sock too, and yet it's horrible far as showing what's actually going on with the sock (perhaps you can see that so far I have one section of the skinny cables twisting after 3 rows, and another section further along twisting after 5.. I figured nobody would ever really know but me and I don't believe it bothers me. these socks are of.. will be of wildfoote seconds/closeouts I bought from the sheep shed. the dye job on these skeins is somewhat inconsistent so I reckon that accounts for the second thing. I find it really appealing though, and perfectly suited for this sock. :)

what's doin' and what's done

boy, it's hot out there.

what I'm doin':

a plain stockinette man sock, of regia galaxy. for some reason that one didn't make it outside for a portrait.



sockbug's lacy scallops sock, for the ravelry sockalong. this is a cherry tree hill sockittome mill end that just happens to be close enough to burgundy and orange that I'm proclaiming it so, and calling these my hokie socks. :)



a ribbed man sock of fleece artist nova sock in "mahogany". I'm not sure there's enough yarn to finish man socks, so this sock has had a 4ply regia heel.. too thin for the rest of the sock.. and a 6ply regia heel.. too thick, really, but I probably would have lived with it.. except it was also too pointy, so out it came. I'm about ready to cross my fingers and just finish the thing.. once I get it back on the right number of needles.. and hope for the best. I worry about running out of yarn a lot but it's only happened once.. maybe there's enough. it's just.. skimpy yardage.. nervous about it.



bubbly curtain, from mason-dixon knitting, for the powder room window. euroflax originals in champagne. I bought 2 skeins when we were in illinois and.. it's not going to be quite enough, so I need to get around to getting one more, I reckon.

what is done:



gray mansocks, of wildfoote. I worried about running out of yarn on these and came mighty close to doing it.. but there's probably 2 yards left. :)



stripey mansocks, of regia brasil.



stripey summer socks for me.. the bit towards the toe that's in the sun is closer to actual color, at least on my screen. plain ol' ribbed socks, regia surf.



a pair of horcrux's.. fortissima 100% cotton sock. I really like this yarn, actually.. too bad it seems to have been discontinued. if you've got some in your stash and don't want to use it, feel free to send it to me. :)



actually, a pair of pairs of horcrux's.. this pair of socks that rock medium weight in "henpecked". shelley sent me this yarn. :) if any of you happen to have any of this stuff layin' around unloved, I'd be happy to adopt it too. haha.. as if. :) there's only one shelley. :) these socks worked up to have distinctly hokie-colored stripes in too.. this pair may wind up being for my new niece-in-law for christmas. maybe. there's more of that mill end the lacy scallops are being knit of, so she may get those. or something of some of the rest of it. definitely, she's getting hokie socks for christmas one way or another. :)



and continuing the harry potter theme, a pair of "fawkes".. a socktopia pattern. these are of a cherry tree hill supersock mill end, and are for my sister in law for christmas. it's not very phoenix-colored yarn, but she used to live in phoenix.. that makes it work, right? :)

there ya go. what I'm doin' and what I've done.