Lookie

It's spring! Well at least my socks are spring socks. I finally finished my Spring Forward socks. Yeah I know it took me long enough. Maybe now I can restart my Central Park Hoodie sweater and finish that with just enough time left in winter to block it but not wear it. Anyways back to my lovelies.

The yarn is from Ellen's 1/2 pint Farm, bought at Rhinebeck last year. So it did not marinate in the stash for too long. Probably long enough to pick up cat hairs from both of my boys though. It is a merino/bamboo blend yarn. I was trying to pick up different blends last year and I don't think I need to do it again for a while. Bamboo has a lovely shimmer to it but it also has less give than wool and I missed the give. Somehow it just makes things more cozy to me.

Do you see how the toes zap towards each other? You know what that means? I put in half of an extra repeat so the right sock is slightly longer than the left. I will tell you if it bothers me when I wear them for real one day, not just for a photo shoot. I do think it looks rather nifty!

And while the heel many not be the most exciting part of a sock I know someone else that likes them almost as much as I do. So this shot is for you. Not my most impressive heels but still cool in my opinion.

So now that I have freed up another set of knitting needles I have cast on two more projects in as many days. I'm telling you startitis can whip me around like a wet noodle. Yeah I have no idea what that means either, but it sure was fun to type.

I also have a root canal scheduled for tomorrow. Is it wrong to think of it as knitting time? Surely if I am a good little girl and don't bite the dentist they will let me knit right? If I drop a stitch, is it wrong to make the dentist wait while I pick it up again? Hey I am just trying to get the ground rules set out.

Happy Knitting Y'all!

Lookie

Today here on the blog is Work In Progress(WIP) Wednesday. I finally remembered to get a couple of pictures. First up we have my slow and unsteady Pink Spring Forward socks.

I would probably have a second sock or even a first if I actually worked on these instead of letting them sit next to me on the couch when I mock them with other things I am knitting. It never ceases to amaze me how much a project jumps ahead when I work on it instead of thinking about it.

I really like not having to think about what to do next and having something to carry around in my purse. Only plain socks fit this bill. I can carry more complicated ones with me but I don't. There must be a huge WHEE factor in it for me, whee, round and round, whee! Yes carousels amuse me quite a bit too. They have fancy horses and go round and round, whee.

Anyways, I did not even bother to fight my case of startitis. The same night I blogged about it I cast on three, yes three things *ahem* socks. One did not make it past around when I knew it was not what I was looking for, another had around two inches knit before I realized I am not digging how it is turning out. The last one has cashmere in it so it won.

I am calling it my Green Tea sock. The yarn is Fiber Optic's Kashmir in the Sage colorway, I believe. I should have know the stash would attack with another green yarn, it worked so well for them last time. I was having a hard time deciding if this should be socks or mittens. I thought the color would remind me of spring all winter long. Then I realized I can never keep light colored things looking clean enough. Spots and stains find me when I am not looking, and sometimes when I am looking. So now my feet will know what cashmere feels like. Is it wrong that I am jealous of my feet now? I know it is odd but is it wrong?

Sock knitting

My stash is now attacking me and casting itself on in color coordinated ways. I cast on two new socks this week. 

Should I be eating more veggies? Do you think my body has found a round about way of asking for salads? I don't think it is that because I've been eating salads like they are in season. Oh they are in season? Good to know. 

I've got four (first) socks on the needles and two of them are green and cast on within days of each other. The first one was spurred on by my need to know what Knit Picks gloss yarn feels like in sock form. I had some in my stash but I had not knit with it yet. I am looking forward to knitting some knee highs and am interested in using this yarn. I decided I better get busy and get a pair knit so I can start test driving them. See how they wear and if they pill. I was told they do, but I like to see how I affect things. A friend and I knit socks from the same type of yarn and her's felted quite a bit and mine did not. On the other hand I know I can not use alpaca sock yarn the way I use regular wool sock yarn. Alpaca socks felt on my feet and I need to take that into account before and knit bigger socks. It has happened twice now, I am unwilling to lose another pair of socks to it.

The second green sock was actually cast on first. I tried it with a pattern and had to rip back because the pattern was lost in the deepness of the green. Well that and the cable pattern I chose had all the stretch of chain mail. I decided these could be plain stockinette socks too. It would be OK with me. Sometimes I feel bad for making plain simple socks, but I love having a project like that in my purse. It is amazing how much faster I churn out simple socks. Unless it is a sock for D, who knew 2 more inches could take so much longer?

My spring fling socks are moving along as well. I get to start a heel any day now. The pattern does not have any complicated stitches but it still requires my attention for each round. I think I know how to read my knitting but I think it takes as long to read it and figure out where I am in the pattern as it takes me to just keep track of where I am in the pattern while I knit it. I do like the way it looks so far, like little garden paths meandering back and forth. 

I went to the farmer's market today too. Unfortunately I found out where sheep retire.

I only like my sheep on the hoof producing fiber, I don't eat them. I did when we lived on the farm, but now I make the decisions and no sheep eating for me.

If you want to know a bit about how sheep are raised watch the movie Sweet Grass it was filmed in Montana. It brought back memories for me. I found it interesting but odd without narration. I knew what was going on most of the time but your random viewer would most likely not.

I can not say I enjoyed the film, interesting, but not enjoyable. I found the end quite off-putting and sad. One man has quite a tirade in which you learn quite a few swear words and insults. So if that kind of thing bothers you I recommend turning off the movie when he starts shouting at the sheep in the mountains. He is in pain, depressed and alone, not a good combination. He does not commit suicide but it is not fun to watch a guy fall apart at the seams.

The first part is the most interesting and full of sheep and wool. So take my recommendation with a grain of salt and check it out.

Two socks and a sleeve

Well let's see what have I been working on so far this summer? Yesterday I had three different socks on the needles but today I only have two. I finished a pair for D and will show them to you on Friday, for Finished Object (FO) Friday. That is assuming I get a picture of them before they go down to the laundry and stay there till next weekend. I think I am worse than a kid  in the candy shop, I can not wait for someone to wear the new item including me. I switched my socks at knitting group and wore the wavy cable socks home when I finished them. I guess I just can't wait to get started wearing them out.

I'm knitting Spring Forward socks from Knitty in yarn I bought at Rhinebeck two years ago. Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm, a merino wool, bamboo and nylon blend in a lovely jaunty pink. 

This is another one of those patterns I see on all the blogs and tell myself "I need to knit that." I love that Knitty has such beautiful varied patterns and all for free. I do admit that I've looked at patterns there and decided they were not for me, until I rediscover them on a blog, knit with different yarn and fall in love with them. Isn't it amazing that changing the color or sheen in a yarn can make such a difference in how a patten is perceived? No wonder that designers get upset when someone messes with their vision. However, if you put a pattern out into the world you must accept that knitters are incapable of doing it your way all the time. I choose to believe that most designers are happy with that. Still it must be somewhat like having a baby and giving it away to the world.

Speaking of Knitty I found another patten there for this yarn, Malabrigo sock yarn in the Candombe colorway, Nemesis. Clearly I went on a pattern hunt on Knitty and found some pretty ones.

I needed something to knit while we watched a movie and all my current projects required charts so I started a basic 2x2 rib and figured I would find a pattern after. I got this far...

Then I remembered my first pair of Malabrigo socks are a bit loose and I meant to knit them with less than 80 stitches in a round, guess how many are on the needles in that cuff above. Yep 80 of those little suckers, so I frogged back and started again with less stitches as the pattern I'd found required and found the cuff should be shorter than what I have there also. Now I am ready to start the leg portion. With all my mistakes/'I'll figure that out later' things this sock may truly be my Nemesis.

Yeah, I know it is lame but I had to do it, I don't know why but I had to.

I pulled my Central Park Hoodie sweater out of the 'time out' pile and decided to start the other sleeve. I had misunderstood the pattern on the first sleeve and was debating making the second sleeve the same as the first just recreating the error in it or starting over and doing it the right way. I knit four pattern repeats and decided I really wanted to do it the right way. Maybe I just decided not to mess with the designer's baby in this case.

That is the offending sleeve of which we speak. I was going to rip it back this weekend so would not be tempted to use it, but I would like to compare the sleeves to see how they differ. Now I'm moving right along with it and have eight repeats done on it. Shortly I will be starting the sleeve cap and then it will be off to the blocking pile.

So, two socks and a sleeve, that is what I'm working on now. I felt so lost yesterday because I finished that sock for D and now my purse has no knitting in it. It felt so empty and without a higher calling. "What? All I'm carrying is your keys, wallet and cell phone? No Yarn? Where is the wool, woman, the wool?"