they're grooooowing

Doh! I keep forgetting to take a close up of the bottom, so you can see the yarn better. Because I am sure you are all curious! I'm curious.... Thanks to my awesome Summer of Socks blog reader Barb - the Jaywalkers are looking pretty!

The pattern is a little hard to see in the picture, but what's going on is some rhombuses (or rhombi, according to Merriam Webster), with eyelets in the middle, and the pattern repeats such that stockinette chevrons separate the rhombi. Oh, words.
Yeah, and there is some random diamond at the bottom that I thought I was going to go somewhere with, but didn't!

Yesterday a piece of Verizon equipment broke in the building I work in. This resulted in our entire office being without phone or internet service for the entire day yesterday, and until 12 today. One of the important features of my job is to answer the phones and direct calls (mostly just try and get rid of solicitors...). Other parts of my job rely on the internet (ordering, coordinating guests and repairs with the office of the building, reading knitty....). Thankfully Monday morning I tucked the book I was reading into my bag just in case I had some free time. You Don't Love Me Yet isn't a particularly long book, but I hadn't gotten that far into it. I finished it right around lunch time (1pm for me). You can't go that far where I live and NOT run into a book store, so I stopped by the college book store I work near and I picked up Three Bags Full - somehow I haven't heard of this book yet! It's a very clever book about a flock of sheep who want to mystery of their shepherd's death. It isn't cutesy, but it is filled with some pretty hysterical puns. It treats the sheep very intelligently and left me hanging right up to the reveal. Sometimes the language is dense, which could come from the fact that it's been translated from German, or because it's the author's first novel. It doesn't have a whole lot to do with knitting, but it does revolve around a flock of sheep who are prized for their fleeces.
I give it 5 "Baas!"

Tough toes.

I can't think of anything clever to say about these socks. Some not-clever things: they feel too big. Not too worried - I am going to push forward, and leave the rest to giving them a good wash when they are done. and maybe a very quick dry. these are going to be some sturdy socks.

What's taking over most of my mind is moving. I just packed one big storage container full of stuff from my kitchen - specifically just one cabinet. I am thinking I'll need to have yet another garage sale, because i didn't comb through the kitchen at all when i had the first one. i have some leftovers from the first sale. So I'm trying not to throw up from thinking about how much crap I have to move and what happens if I don't get rid of it. Moving has never felt so stressful before - but I think it's because I've had two years to accumulate stuff, rather than my past moves, where I hadn't been in a particular place for that long. Whine, groan, moan.

Going to relax and watch some silly TV for a while before I prepare dinner.

SOS!!

Ohhhhh weird green noodles! No, actually just some over spun yarn. I love these pictures.

Sheepspyjama's very close guess as to what I weighed skeins down with: just a full Nalgene! It worked really well. However....

Winding it I found that the dry sections were straight, and the sections that were still damp were very curly. It isn't so bad as I'm knitting it, thought. The yarn is decently soft, but very sturdy. Sheepspyjama's are nice and squishy - maybe if I sized up my needles the fabric would soften some, but the yarn itself is quite springy. I have no idea what these socks are going to look like.... Probably some sort of lacy something. We'll see!

There are Pomatomus. But not for long. I am not a fan of the way the yarn stripes, and the twisted stitches take eons and eons. Maybe it's the way I knit. If I could find a more suitable colorway, I'd try the pattern again.


SOOO much Sock yarn!

Summer of socks officially began yesterday, and I did start yesterday. This picture represents around 1/2 of my total sock yarn stash. It's not that impressive, but it makes me very happy!

Sorry to be brief (but it's Friday night!) Next week I'll have more to show off. Maybe I'll have figured out a pattern.

More socks!

Here is a bigger picture and a close up on the Sockotta socks. The poor ball of yarn has been tumbled around my purse for many months, so for the moment I've retired it as my "on-the-go" project. That, and my purse was just getting a little too heavy. They are really plain 6x2 ribbing, size 2 Addis, and the slip stitch heel you remember from a few posts back. I like the Sockotta more than I thought I would, it's not a tough to work with as I feared. It does have some wool in it, which balances out the cotton. I love the way it patterns up, and it has a nice sheen to it. I have a few more balls kicking around sockstashland, but I am not sure I'd go out on my own and buy some.
Here is a close up of the finished toe. Really neat the way the colors line up near the bottom!
That's it for this update... This weekend I accomplished zero knitting (actually not true - I did a little bit Saturday night on the Tsuki scarf before I got too engrossed in Jacob's Ladder - talk about vivid dreaming...). This week will be a little more tame (say I say now...) so I hope to get some more knitting done.

Teaser

I feverishly finished the heel turn while on my lunch break, and then scurried back in to surreptitiously scan in said sock heel... (did I ever mention my love of alliteration?) Here is the Sockotta socks, colorway unknown (I probably lost the label long ago). I think these are destined to be on the feet of a man.

I am a lazy sock knitter. Gauge? I pretty much stick to 2s. If they are too small for me, they'll be for someone else. Too big? For my sweetheart then. And so, thankfully this is a pretty manly, or at least unisex (as if that's stopped me before!) color.

And oh oh! You can see near the tip and all the way at the other end where the needle is cut off (I was in a hurry!) how worn the needle is! I have completed maaaaaybe 7 pairs (margin of error +/-1) with these and the parts that are rubbed bare do make them a little more difficult to knit with. And see how the cord is all curved around? fun. These might crawl off into retirement after this sock is finished (I've finished one of the pair already). I really like the Hiya Hiyas, and the Addi lace needles weren't bad, but for the money I'd rather have the Hiyas. The cord is much more flexible. Plus at my LYS, I could only find a pair of 32" 1s, which make two at once magic looping just a tiny bit annoying. I did it, but I would have liked a little more room.

I will have more pictures when they are finished, and lots more to show off - sweetheart + camera are visiting tonight.

turning the heel....

i wonder why turning a heel is so magical.

I work feverishly to get down to knitting the heel flap (which i think holds it's own magical powers) and then knitting that tiny little bit of fabric that curves and molds itself to my foot. after knitting a straight tube, it feels so special that you are constructing this elbow, and the foot shoots off in an entirely new direction. it's so simple but so important. who wants tube socks?

i've just completed turning the heel on the current pair of socks. i still need to pick up stitches along the heel flap (slip stitch ribbing - i mixed it up from my typical eye-of-partridge heel).

after these are cast off and aside, i may make these beauties, but i am not sure what yarn i would like to use. not sure if i have something appropriate in the stash. i liked using the regia silk - i made a handsome pair of convertible mittens in black from Not Just More Socks (that title always seemed grammatically incorrect to me). But I just wound up some lovely shades of solid koigu to try my hand at one of the mosaic socks from Sensational Knitted Socks... It's so hard to make a decision.

I haven't challenged myself to doing either complicated cables OR colorwork in my socks. Both of which I've conquered in other parts of my knitting. So we'll see what I dive into... Perhaps I'll get pictures up tomorrow.