Finished Socks and Started More

I finished Kathy's Christmas socks on the 24th and gave them right to her. She got to wear them all day Christmas day. They are a pattern I just made up. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy. It's really really soft. Kathy picked it out from my stash. Soft Summer Sky is the color. Very pretty.

So I started socks for my Aunt Martha Christmas night. Her birthday is January 15th. I might even get these done in time to send them to her. She picked the yarn out last May but I don't know what it is. The band came off. I just know it is part cotton. I'm doing a 3x3 rib with a purl row every 5th round. These needed to be pretty plain because of the stripes in the yarn itself. I hope she likes them.

Another FO Mitts

Yay I finished these last night. I can get them sent off tomorrow. They won't get to my sister before Tuesday probably but she really doesn't care. No pattern, I just cast on 36 stitches, with the beads on the tail. I pushed up a bead after every second cast on. This is 100% wool I got last year at JoAnn's and it's really super soft. It comes in some pastel colors plus red, navy, black I think. It's worsted weight so these were done on 5's and 7's and a really fast knit. I like the 3 rounds of seed stitch at the end of the hand and thumb.

Christmas FOs

Got the two required things done. Lily's sweater and Lura's socks. Totally changed up the sweater. Abandoned what I started, downsized the needles and did a totally different idea. Made up a 2x2 rib for the socks switching out every 8 rounds. The sweater is Colinette Skye in Popsickle and is about a size 5. The socks are Colinette Cadenza worked top down and about a size 8-9 shoe.

Christmas might be late

I got sick. In the bed sick for six days. Flu bronchitis fever. Awful. No knitting for 5 days of it. I had already frogged Lily's sweater and started over. I finally finished it except for buttons. I'll get a picture this weekend in the daylight. Plus I had promised myself to finally knit socks for my niece Lura. I'm now 10 rounds and the toe from finishing sock #2. At last. And it's the middle of the night. Taking a break and planning to finish it, go to bed then take pictures tomorrow. These things have to get mailed off to other states. I don't even have the sweater buttons to sew on yet. I dread the idea of shopping on Saturday. If Walmart has no buttons, it's a 60 mile round trip to the next store so I'll be waiting until Monday when I go to work. Hmmmm. The socks have to get washed and dry so they can't get mailed tomorrow either. It's just not fair to get sick before Christmas when it gets in the way of knitting.

Kool- Aid dying with Miss Princess

We interrupt the frantic sweater knitting. The sleaves are blocking now. So I'm on hold until they get dry then I will sew the sweater body together, put on a collar, then make the ruffle/skirt.

Meanwhile, earlier this month my son brought my four year old granddaughter for the weekend to see grandmother. Yay! We got to try dying yarn. We used some Knitpicks yarn and her favorite flavors of Kool-Aid, pink lemonade, cherry, and grape. Grandmother managed to add a bit of lemon- lime, because lemons, cherries and grapes all have leaves. Our first try was pretty fun. I got to help just a little bit. Once I showed her what to do, Miss Princess decided she really didn't need my help much at all. I was merely allowed to moosh the yarn around for her while she squirted the dye. I was allowed to do any messy cleanup of course. Here are some progress pics.

And now for the final results. She's pretty happy with herself. Grandmother is already supposed to be knitting her socks. They aren't getting started until after the sweater is done.

TA-DA! I'm so cute and so is my yarn!

Knitting as Fast as I Can

Whew ! I've been burning up my needles for the last two nights. Christmas is coming and my granddaughter is needing her sweater. I made one for her little sister for her birthday in September. If I don't get this one done now, it will be too late for this winter. I started it Sunday and then hated everything I did. Abandoned that and started over last night when I got home from work. Ugh. My fingers are tired tonight. Last night I started at the waist of the back with a crochet chain and worked up. I got the back ready for the shoulders. Then started the left front. The button band is worked right in. I got about 10 rows done then quit for the night. Tonight I finished that side and got the right side started. I forgot I had to make buttonholes and had to rip out 6 rows. Ouch that hurt! Redid that after calculating what rows to do the buttonholes on in order to get in five of them. I'm just past the half way point. I have 4 more rows then do the armhole shaping. I'll get this side done tomorrow night and get the fronts attached to the back with a 3 needle bind off at the shoulders. Then I can start the sleeves. This is a size 4-5 sweater and I don't have a pattern. I'm writing it as I go. I'm using #9 bamboo needles. I made another sweater with this yarn on #8 needles but it works ok on the larger size also and it's going faster. I'm doing this in Colinette Skye in Popsicle. She picked the color herself from my vast stash of yarns. I think it's turning out pretty cool. After I get this sewn together I'm going to pick up all around the bottom and make a very full long ruffle. Like maybe 6-7 inches long and double the stitch count - maybe double it twice. She is a girly girl. I haven't figured out if I want a ruffle at the sleeve cuff yet. I also haven't figured out what to do for the neck. Guess I better be thinking about that while I sleep. I'm running out of decision time fast.

Carol's birthday socks

I made socks for my friend Carol. I got them done several weeks ago, or they wouldn't be getting done at all. Her birthday is Dec 9. I'm mailing them this week to her. Another friend saw them this weekend and could not believe I was sending off anything chartreuse. It is my favorite color after all. I am resolved. They're cute socks, sport weight, soft and she'll like them I hope. I already can't remember what lacey pattern I used from SKS, but something. The yarn was from Oldfield Creek Sock & Yarn. It is 100% wool but not superwash. The tag says machine wash cold water and lay flat to dry. I used all but about 2 yards of the 246 yard (100gm) skein to fit a size 8 wide foot. These are toe up socks, magic loop on #3 Knitpicks. I did a Sherman short row heel. It is super easy to do. No wraps, no YOs. It is now my preferred short row heel to use. I got to it through Knitter's Review in a thread about a boomerang heel. I would post a link to it but have no idea how to do that or what the link to the Sherman heel is anymore.

Tiger Paws

It's been awhile. Time just gets away since I had to go back to work. Whew! I've been knitting socks. And Christmas is nearly here. HOW did that happen?

Mizzou beat KU Saturday night and about 30 minutes later I finished the 8th Tiger Paw. That is 2 for my son, 2 for his wife, 2 for his first princess and 2 for his second princess. Yay! I was getting really tired of that same yarn. Got them washed Sunday morning really early and they are about dry now. I will send them off tomorrow. Maybe the big fans will get them in time for watching Mizzou beat Oklahoma next Saturday.

All the socks are made with Claudia Handpaint sport weight yarn. I used #3 Knitpicks circular and magic loop and worked all these top down. I like how the yarn knits of course since it is Louet. No pattern, just 2x2 ribbing and plain feet. Big ones for the daddy socks, and little ones for the 2 year old. The color is Steelers, as in Pittsburg. But they have the same black and gold and the Missouri Tigers do so I thought that would work. I hope they all like their socks. Otherwise I spent a lot of time for nothing. Yikes! I started Nov 13 and finished 13 days later. Time out for work and Thanksgiving cooking of course. Drat how work gets in the way of my knitting time.

Last post I had some romantic notion of working on that fab stole. Ha! It's now buried in a knitting bag and probably won't see the light of day until mid to late January. I've already started the sweater for my 4 year old granddaughter. I have 2 weeks to get that done or it won't get to her by Christmas. I already know my niece's socks will be late. Fortunately she's old enough to be tolerant of that. So my stole and my second knitting bag, already half done, have now moved to past the back burner. Oh yes, and the 4 year old is waiting for more socks. We dyed yarn with Kool-aid together on Nov 12. As soon as the sweater is done I have to get busy on those. Will have to post pics of the dying process. She had much fun doing it.

Too many projects, too little time.

Another Noro Bag and more

I finished another Noro bag over the weekend. Well, to be fair, there wasn't much finishing involved. Sew a bottom seam, sew on two handles and sew down a hem around the top inside. No side seams involved. I made this bag with no pattern this time. I just cast on some stitches with Noro Blossom yarn, and joined in the round. I did a few rounds, decided to increase a bit, did that, worked even awhile, then decreased some until it looked right, did a few more even rounds. Then I worked one purl round for a turning row and did about 7 more rounds even then bound off. I made two handles not so long and sewed the thing together. I had yarn left so made a rose for it just like for the last Noro bag I showed a couple of posts ago. I think it makes a gook knitting bag. It's too loose for an actual purse type bag. I knit it on #6 or 7 needles. I can't believe I already forgot. MUST write down this stuff or I forget in less than a week. Just one of the ills of aging, for anybody who is still young. I would have had to knit on #4 or 5 US needles to get the stitches tight enough to be sure things won't fall through the fabric made. Anyway I think it turned out fine and I love the colors.

I am starting my first lace stole also. I took a picture a couple of weeks ago. I've got a bit more done, but have several other things going so it's not getting that much attention on a daily basis. It's the Honeybee Stole by Anne Hanson. So far it's a fairly easy pattern and I absolutely love the Malibrigo laceweight yarn. It is very soft. VERY! It is mottledy colored orangey yellow, but the picture doesn't show the orange parts so well.

It's probably going to take me all winter to get the stole done, and anything else for that matter. I started back to work on Monday. I retired June 1 after 30 years with the government. I knew I would have to go back to work. Well, this was the week. I am now a support contractor in my previous office. I'm sort of doing the same work I did as a civil servant. I'm just not the boss now. I'm whining because it means way less time for my hobbies. And it means I have to get up at 0530 with no sleeping in until 0900 or later. No staying up really late until 0300 either anymore. I feel pitiful about that right now. I'll get used to it. I can do this for another 2-3 years. I'll have to be more dedicated when I do sit down to knit so as to get more done in less time. That's my plan anyhow. We'll see how I do.

Happy feet

These are my granddaughters. That's Princess Gigi on the left. She's two. Princess Lily is on the right and she's four. I think they're pretty special.
Lily got her own custom socks this summer. One of her princess duties was to choose the yarn for her first pair of socks. She chose "pink Grandmother". But then she revised to the variegated with purple and aqua. It is Cascade fixation yarn. She has pink top cuffs, heels and toes. Her mother took the pictures so, sorry you can't see the heels. Lily likes her cuffs turned down. These are a 3x2 rib with a purl rib every 4th row showing on the outside. Only it rarely shows since she turns them down. That's ok. She gets a 6 gore star toe, jus tlike most of the top down socks I make. I really hate doing kitchener stitch so just don't, usually. Besides this toe is easy and fits so well.

Princess Gigi really liked her big sister's socks. She liked them so much she kept taking them for herself. So she got her own custom pair. They are just a skosh big so she will have a bit of growing room at the toe for this winter. She has pink fixation yarn, the same pink as Lily's socks, actually. Her cuffs are a garter rib 2x2. She wants to wear her socks every day but her mother won't let her do that.

I'm thinking Grandmother will have to knit more socks for the princesses.

Halloween

Yay! It's Halloween. Thought I'd show a better picture of me. I actually have curly hair. Isn't it wonderful? I know, there is that wart on my nose, but it is green, my favorite color, so I still have stars in my eyes when I look at it. And my little friend froggy is hanging out with me still. He's so cute.

I made a cute Noro bag last week. It was really fast. Took 2 skeins and was all garter stitch. I had enough yarn for a longer handle, but decided I liked the short handle so just did that. It was all one piece then sewn up. See the before sewing and after pictures. Then I decided it needed a little flower on it. I put a button on the other side and made a crochet chain loop to connect the two. Now the bag has an actual closure on it.

Habanero

My first post to my blog. I actually figured out how to make the thing. Well, I like to make things so yippee for that. I make lots of things, but lately I knit..obsessively perhaps. I may talk about other things I make here sometimes, but mostly knitting. Yes, I know my picture is needlepoint. I like doing that too so expect to see more of that stuff sometimes.


I collect yarn. I have more yarn now than I can knit in my life. I like to look at it and touch it. It is all beautiful. I knit socks and sweaters and scarves and bags and throws and anything else I can think of. I also read knitting books.


I love starting things. I have "issues" sometimes with finishing them. I am working on that. Perhaps having this blog will help me with my issues.


I've been knitting off and on since I was five years old. My great aunt taught me the knit stitch. Everything else I know how to do I taught myself. I never took any classes and didn't even know such things were possible until about 18 months ago. I'm in my late 50's now, so I pretty much knew things before then.


I just started knitting socks last winter. I hate dpns so had always decided not to do socks. Then someone in a shop said "magic" loop. It is magic. I watched her for 2 minutes. Then said, where is a needle and I was ready. I've made over 20 pairs of socks since then and usually have 3-4 pairs going at any one time. It's turned into another obsession.


So, I'll share, on this first post, one of my pairs of socks made of some of my favorite yarn. Cider Moon. Love this yarn. It is so soft. It is in the Habanero color and I used the sport weight yarn called Glacier. These are toe up socks. I didn't have a pattern specificaly.

I used things from two books. First, I have Sensational Knitted Socks, perhaps my sock bible is how I think of it. These are toe up socks on magic loop. SKS doesn't help with the start for this but I started with a 4/4 magic loop cast on and then increased to 44 stitches and worked even stockinette for the foot. It has a flap heel and gusset. I put a K1S1 on the back of the heel to keep it snug. I didn't decrease back to 44 stitches on the gusset because of what I wanted to do for the leg. I was going to need 48 stitches there.

For the leg lace pattern I went to another book, Favorite Socks from Interweave Press. I used the lace pattern from Evelyn Clark's Go With the Flow socks.

I think these worked out pretty well. They feel wonderful and will be great if winter ever gets here.

With the toe up construction I was able to use every bit of this great yarn in the socks, not wasting one bit. I know it's not really visible (I will get better at the photo thing), but I bound off at the top in purl to show the bumps on the outside. I like how that looks at the top of my socks. I also usually use a needle one or two sizes larger than whatever I knit the socks with, just to be sure the bind off isn't too tight.