Newbies

Can I just say there's nothing like someone's first sock? I mean as sock knitters go, you take a leap of faith that the heel will magically appear every time. But having done it before, you're somewhat reassured that yes, it really DOES happen. When it's your first sock EVER, despite reassurances, you're not really sure. You almost feel like it's an initiation ritual that they will reveal is a joke and show you the real way. Then you get to the toe, and while not nearly as intimidating, grafting is a whole new mystery. I mean come on, can you really get single piece of knitting from two without a visible seam? But then you see it happen, MAGIC!


















So why the spiel? Well Stephie (forgive any mispelling), completed her very first ever sock on Friday at Knit Knite. She promptly received a round of applause and much congratulations. She even said there was no second sock syndrome as she was anxious to do the second to have a pair. She started with a pattern and then moved on to the sage advice of Heather who help guide her beautifully. I gave some minor advice on her continental style as out of the group I'm the only one. ( I know I'm weird) Beautiful sock and I can't wait to see the pair.

Stacy was also there working on her first sock. She seems to be making some good progress despite a few little pauses on Friday. It was a fortunate thing that we managed to find her again and she joined us at Borders.

And I suggest you all demand photos of Heather's current socks. I got to see the beginning parts and they are BEAUTIFUL. A lovely use of the color rich Shibui Knits Sock yarn.

But CQ, what about YOUR knitting? Well I finished the model for Bloomin Yarns and I'm finishing a matching cap. I also picked up some yummy Tilli Tomas silk yarn to do the River Rock scarf in a color called Glazed Ginger and found teal beads. YUM! I've also got back to MS3 and only have about 25 rows to go on Clue 4.

P.S. Laurie seems to think that I've cursed her with my witchy ways as she's now had to rip all the way back about 3 times. I have no idea what she could be talking about (whistling)

PeaPod Revisited

So I had two baby sweaters to make. The first was my traditional Babies and Bears which was sweet and I promptly forgot to get a picture of. I'm told the recipient becomes quite active and cheerful when it is tried on. :) The second is this take on the Peapod. I like the one piece for the body as I'm not a big fan of seaming. I also thought it lent itself well to the yarn. It's Lifestyle yarn from Zitron. I bought it at Bloomin' Yarns and I'm glad I did. Nice hand, knits up fast, and easy care. The colors are a nice take on gender neutral without those washed out mint green and softy soft yellow. I'm thinking I'll have to try some of the other colors too for baby sweaters.

Speaking of Bloomin' Yarns, I'll be stopping by tomorrow to pick up stuff to do a shop model of a baby sweater with some cool sock yarn from Shibui. Heather picked some of this up in some yummy colors which I think will make some beautiful socks. I'm thinking some of these with a golden yellow or orange and teal. Trust me, you'll have to see.

Oh and if you're looking for an MS3 update, well I've taken pity on Heather and Laurie and have slowed down. Although seeing the message about Knit One's fashion show, I'm thinking I need to finish in time. I mean there are PRIZES people!

Where Have You Gone...

No I haven't forgotten my friends in the blogosphere. I've just been running amuck in the real world. Heather would say that it was the reason I'm further ahead on MS3. She might be right but it wasn't on purpose. See she and Laurie tried to get me to sign up and I knew they already had by the time I did at the 11th hour. So I thought I'd be WAY behind. From the pic of our progress, you can see I was mistaken. Laurie's is the lovely lacey navy on the left. Heather's is the bright and sunny piece on the right. And mine is the plumy perfection (for me anyway) in the middle. I'm just about to start Clue 3. Special thanks to Heather for the shot as I've been lax about taking a picture since I couldn't do the yarn justice with the camera phone. This pic was taken at Knit One, while the three of us shopped in honor of Laurie's Bday. She turned 29 (with some experience) on Friday. I still find it fascinating how the same pattern can be played out so differently to reflect each person. Laurie's has the classic perfect dressy piece feel. Heather's reminds me of warm summer days and yummy nectarines waiting to wrap around you. Mine reflects the punk/Goth side coming out in something I can wear around less "adventursome" folk. :) So different, so same, all BEAUTIFUL.

Friday we also joined the mob at B&N for the Harry Potter release. I took both Celtings and they had a blast. Elder Celting won some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and Younger Celting won some make your own charm kit. Both were thrilled. Neither has read it yet but I finished it on Sunday night. Satisfying even if the epilogue is a little cheesy.

In other knitting news, I'll be at Borders on Friday nite as this is where we moved to. I missed the initial move due to Family Weekend. I'll be bringing one of the baby sweaters I'm working on. A faux fairisle self striper based off the Pea Pod sweater construction.

But EVERYONE's Doing It...

So first off, I want to share my Sock in Socks. I finished on Wednesday but have not had the opportunity to post. I wore them to work yesterday with my crocs and loved how the colors peeped through the holes. I felt so accomplished when I pulled them apart after grafting the toes. So how did I do that? Well first I knit my usual toes and then seperated the stitches for inside and outside sock with 4 dpns(2 inside, 2outside). I then grafted the inside sock first but left the weaving in of the end until after. Then grafted the outside sock. This was trickier as I was grafting from the opposite side of the fabric than I was used to, but I did it. I wove in the end and then did a magic trick of pulling a sock out of a sock. Finally I wove in the last end and VOILA! A beautiful pair of socks. I think I'll do this technique again but we'll see how much I like it when the colors are not so wonderfully striped.


Things I learned from this:

• Don't watch TV while casting on, you'll have to redo too many times.


• Use stitch markers to count blocks of stitches when casting on, less counting


• Ribbing isn't scary once you realize your rhythm


• Continental or combination knitting makes this easier to figure out (thanks Laurie!)


• First time round, do a self striper with easy to distinguish colors. This will help with being able to tell if you're using the right yarn


• Making the socks face to face (knit the inside, purl the outside) really helps. (thanks again Laurie!)


• Frequently check for crossed stitches. Much harder to go back


• Don't be inimidated. When you first knit something it looked hard then too.

So what now? I'm working on one of my required baby sweaters but I've succumbed to the siren call of Mystery Stole 3. It was hard but I held out against Laurie and Heather signing up and trying to get me to as well. I even held out agains Yarn Harlot's post about it. But then I started reading more and more. And then the deadline was happening in mere hours. And beads... I love beads. But the nail in the coffin was Celtic Consort saying "that's good. you should pace yourself. Show some control." He might as well have said just do it. Most of you know that saying I shouldn't/can't/won't do something is issuing a challenge to do it. Right then I went, signed up, and starting looking at laceweight options. I knew I wanted something I could find locally but wanted to research online.

The Celtings and I were off this morning to cruise the local crack dealers for options. I decided that since I'd been thinking about Knit One lately, I'd hit there first and pick up on the back side. Fortunately, I didn't have to stop anywhere else. Lots of choices. They had the Helen's Lace in Black Pearl which was tempting. I had decided on the murky man colorway idea for my version. Something dark with a purply hint. They also had Handmaiden Camelspin (70% silk, 30% baby camel) which was REALLY tempting but no dark colors and none of any one to utilize for the project. Some nice Malabrigo laceweight too. But what captured my heart and wouldn't let go? Handmaiden Yarn's Sea Silk in Midnight. Heck even those pics don't give you a full idea. I even found beads that match almost exactly. I got my teeny crochet hook there too. The nice girl who helped (sorry I didn't catch her name) was even cool enough to help handwind a "naughty" skein when it kept snagging as we tried to do the ball winder. So now I'm off to catch up to everyone else. Check in for pics later.

Others

The Celtic Consort has always expressed an interest in being one of "Them" or "Others". He also thought if he lived in the comic book universe he'd be a super villan. A proud moment for him was teaching Younger Celting his evil laugh. Kind of funny considering I'd always thought I'd be a misunderstood superhero. Karma is funny like that. So what's this got to do with anything? Well I went to knitting last nite and saw these: Hard to read I know but they're instruction manuals on how to be a super villan, better living for the super villan, the new superhero's handbook, how to survive a robot uprising, and how to be a pirate. But here's the funny thing. Look at what the sign above this display says:

Yes that's right it says IMPROVE YOURSELF. I found this hilarious. I mean who in management or marketing thought this was appropriate.

Anyhow, back to knitting. We MIGHT be relocating based on some reactions last nite. We are no longer posted on their calendar and we have to "make room" for some big event involving ghost hunters. While gently put to us, the attitude towards are group has really dropped off since we started two years ago. So two options are being investigated. Borders right across from South Hills Village seems to be okay and when called last evening we were told of a manager who also knits and spins. YAY! We've also discussed approaching Jo Beth on the Southside. This was kind of nice as it presented the opportunity of liquor and late night being added. I'll let you guys know.

Sock in Sock is moving along but has been delayed due to the deployment of the applications I develop at work. Think along the lines of giving everyone in my office the equivalent of a specialized Microsoft Office that I helped to design and develop. Neither small or easy. So knitting time was sucked up there. On the issue of the toe, I think I'm going traditional as I love the socks way to much to risk a toe I might not like. BTW, I saw the socks that Julia made out of her recent spinning efforts. One word: gorgeous. Okay two words: freakin' jealous. This girl always amazes me that she can do so many beautiful things. Makes me wish I had more time.

Conundrum

Here's my latest question: Do I cave to the MIL's desire to have a picture of all 4 grandchildren or do I take a stand? My MIL continually ignores my two boys while lavishing attention on my nephew and niece. And I'm not just thinking this, my husband sees it too. She recently expressed the desire for the picture to her husband who then shared with my husband. My thought is that if she really wanted to see the boys, she would make it to at least a WHOLE soccer game or A baseball game in a season. She would take the 15 minutes to drive from her house to mine to spend an occassional afternoon with them. Heck, she might even call me to bring them to her house. Keep in mind here, that my SIL and her two children actually live further from her than we do and my MIL is frequently doing things with them. I'm also a little overdone with my SIL dictating how the pictures will go. She even did it when I had the majority of the children. I would like a say here as to where we go, when we go, and even what the pics should look like. So do I take a stand here and say, I'm not doing it until someone meets us halfway here? Do I remind my mother in law that she hasn't actually seen my kids since April when she came earlier in the week for Elder Celting's birthday because she wasn't coming to his party?

Okay rant over. Back to knitting:

Here are some pics of my turned heels. Was actually pretty easy to do. I was expecting difficulty but Laurie confirmed my suspicions on how it was accomplished which is similar to cabling without a needle. While I'm working on the gusset and foot, I'll decide what type of toe I'm going to do. Laurie did a star toe for hers but she has long pointy toes. I've got flat wide feet and tend to do my toes wider. I'll let you know what I decide. BTW, LOVE the stitchholders Mary Pat sent. They are fabulous for not dropping the stitches on these things. Next up, Babies & Bears sweater for the guy at work.

Happy Solstice

Happy Solstice a little early! For those who know me, you know that tomorrow is a holiday, Summer Solstice. Apparently the magic of the day has come a little early to my house. I took the day off to get to an appointment for Elder Celting. This left me with a day to myself to enjoy the knitting I would do all day every day if I could. So imagine my surprise when I found not one but TWO packages in my mailbox. The first was from my exchange partner Mary Pat. Now here's a woman who knows my weaknesses. She sent a mug from her local chapter of the TKGA. This will be headed into the office tomorrow. In addition, she sent a Stitchkeepers which will help me keep my sock in sock from slipping off the needles. Funny thing was that when I read about them in Knitty's latest feature, I was thinking I needed to order some for our next exchange for HER! There was also a Go Knit Pouch in my favorite color and two bags of candied nuts which I can tell you already are tasty. :)

The second package was my latest installment from the Rockin' Sock Club. And rather appropriate for my celebrations tomorrow. The yarn is STR lightweight in a colorway named Firebird. All sorts of flamy colors in there. To show it off the pattern is The Solstice Slip. Rather on the money don't you think? Now the pattern can be done toe up or cuff down and I'm debating. I've been trying to get out of my usual groove so I might just do the toe up version. I don't understand the rabid devotion of toe up or cuff down that some folks have about socks. Me personally, I started with cuff down so that's what I'm usually thinking. That said, I don't find toe up difficult or objectionable. I'm thinking I'll do toe up just to break out from the norm.

But CQ, what about your Sock in Sock? Well here's my progress. I'm working on the heel and will soon reach the point for turning. I'll probably be calling Laurie for some advice but worst case scenario, I think I can manage. I'll also be working on plying my spinning. Julia's posts have been urging me on with this. There's also a baby sweater deadline around the corner. So there's a crunch for knitting coming and I'm going to get it done. I'm also thinking about what to make with the yarn I bought from Tess. Right now I'm thinking longer sweater, center cable surrounded by Fibonacci ribs. Input welcome. :)