Spinning beginnings....

I wish I had a much better camera to show off this awesome fiber! My spinning isn't much to look at, but I am enjoying myself. Also, I am intimidated to have to go back and ply all this once it's done! SheepsPyjamas and I are finally having our sockspinalong - we bought the same fiber (same color, too!) and we're going to spin it and see what kind of neat-o neon spring green socks we get! I will invite anyone who reads to join us! Spin to knit socks! It's my first -along, so I hope to make it a good one.

What I am particularly excited for is trying out something in Favorite Socks, or More Sensational Knitted Socks... I am nearly done with my sunrise/sunset socks, and still plodding along on the Sockotta ones. Eventually all will be finished - I'll need needles!

The fiber came from Nick's Meadow Farm. I have some more than this finished, almost 1/2 a bobbin!

To give myself even more impetus to finish, I went on a spending spree at the Woolery and ordered all sorts of Ashford goodies. 4 more bobbins, a niddy noddy (so i can get my *other* spun yarn into a hank!), a repair kit, and The Ashford Book of Spinning. Wow. Yes, I really went all out and treated myself, largely for no reason. Sometimes it just has to happen.

New and knitworthy!

Well hello again! This is what I've been toiling away on..... Enjoy!
Finally, as promised, pictures of my beloved Tsuki scarf. As you can see, I only have ~16" done, but they've been a GREAT 16"! It is being knit on size 6 Nacre needles, which somehow combine the sleekness of metal and the grip of bamboo. I love working with them! The yarn is beyond pleasureable to work with (and it's mohair! Mohair! oh, and silk! Silk!). It is luminous.






Here is a close up so you can see the bubbley, foamy ripples of the scarf. Isn't it delicious? Yummy silk, fun pattern (I've made a few mistakes on how many repeats I've done, but I am sure not ripping back! Besides, I very much enjoy the organic, unrefined nature of the scarf).










Introducing: Sunrise/Sunset Socks! This is a close up of the Sunrise sock (I think because I am working from inside and outside of the ball it sort of reverses). Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (can't remember the real color name...) Size 2 needles, Hiya Hiya, new at Woolcott! They are a little more grippy than my Addis, but my Addis are also really worn out! So these feel great, comparatively. They are also much smaller than my Addis, which I like. They are nice and pointy. These are being done toe-up-two-at-once-magic-loop! It's going pretty well, they are coming quick (ummm maybe because they are all i've been working on!)



And here is the far! See the sunrise and sunset? Kinda a little? Ah well, they might just be my most favorite pair of socks yet! The yarn is so so soft and wonderful to work with. I love the texture of the fabric - perfectly firm! They feel great on, cushy, and the ribbing makes them so comfortable. I'm in love! I need more! Thankfully I have some DK weight in neon blues-greens-yellows (I have a think for brights!)

New aquisitions....

Here is what tempts me as I labor away on a variety of other projects.... Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Crazy Woman! HA! It is my favored combination of blue-red-purples, ever-so-soft, and apparently likes to be knit on 3s.... Although I'd like to see how that works for me before committing to something like that. I like a good, firm sock.

What is keeping my hands away? Still, the Tsuki scarf, which slowly grows and ungulates out of my hand like a coral reef. Pictures to come...
Still, the Sockotta socks, one down, one to go. At least it's started, and living in my purse, ready to go whenever I am.
Lastly, I'm cranking out a baby sweater (bottom-up raglan cardigan in Cascade Superwash). Lotsa straight knitting, but it's small and it's going fast, even at 5 stitches/inch.






And also, this! This is two singles tightly spun together. Next step is plying the 2-plys, which will thankfully not take as long as plying the singles... I thought it would never end! My poor bobbin decapitated itself somehow (I found this out after wondering why my wheel was making all these weird noises....) but maybe with some glue and a little luck I can mend it.
So now, after I publish this, I will get to plying! I am very excited, it's my first 4-ply yarn. I am sure it will be just beautiful.

Saturday afternoon was filled with fun fibery goodness! I accompanied SheepsPyjamas and her little smidgling to 20^th annual Sheepshearing Festival. I have never been to such an event, so it was a very informative and exciting experience for me. We witnessed sheep being shorn with electric clippers (so fast!) as well as the traditional shears (which reminded me of Shear Genius’s Evangeline giving her client a hair cut).

The highlight of the day for me was watchingsheep herding. Lesson learned – dogs are smart, and sheep are…. Sheep. By the time we witnessed the herding demo, they woolly gals had already been chased around the field for a few hours, so they were a bit tired.

At first we couldn’t even tell where they were, until the dogs were summoned to round them up. They came darting out from a great pine tree, where they had been enjoying the cool shade (did I mention it FINALLY really truly felt like spring?).

The dogs responded to a variety of commands and whistles and herded the sheep into a pen, then got a few sheep out of the pen, then kept the rest of those sheep separate from the two already loose while they were being herded onto a ramp…. It was impressive.

There were other creatures on the farm: we saw a llama, chickens, three adorable alpacas, a miniature pony, bunnies, and a large herd of goats. The air smelled of spring, rain, and animal scents, which is a relief from the city air I usually inhale.

There were plenty of things to purchase, but I
limited myself to a foot long hotdog and a small shopping bag of fiber. I can’t wait to see what this looks up all spun up! SheepsPyjamas and I are planning a spin along using the neon green fiber, I am oh-so-excited to see what happens! I also got some yummy Blue Face Leicester (oh the dying possibilities….)

It doesn't get any cuter than little baby lambs. They were adorable!

It was a successful day: I got some sunshine, goodies to take home, and I had a most lovely time with friends!

no new knitting....

due to the fact that i've recently started a new job, i haven't been doing all of the knitting i'd like to do. firstly, i no longer have much of a commute - from a short train ride it's been cut down to a short walk. yes, yes i know you can knit while you are walking. but it's also been unreasonably cold in my neck of the woods. which, i understand, could be said for a great many places. global warming is scary.
so i have no FOs to speak of, however i have started a new knitting project! i can't be stopped, i won't be stopped. it's a stunning (and dead simple) lace pattern in Artfibers' yarn Tskui. it's an amazing shade of deep turquoise blue. it's one of the nicest things i've knit with. once it's blocked, it's going to be a work of art. it's very sculptural.
and not a pair of socks. i started a new pair with sockotta in handsome greens, browns, and white.
but they aren't anywhere near done, mainly because they aren't intended for anyone yet. i think the SO is up next in the rotation, perhaps past due even.
i am sure i'll find a rhythm again, and get back into hardcore knitting.

Wheeee.... Pictures! But no sock knitting.

How come I didn't know that you could upload pictures directly to blogger... Can you tell I'm new at this?

Without further ado....
These are the yummy sherbet socks.

They were made from my own hand-dyed louet pearl yarn, on size 3 needles. The size threes were a mistake. i thought the fabric felt fine (not loose), but now that the socks have been worn a couple of times, the stitches have spread out and the fabric is thin. I will be gentle with them. I love them because they are extra long - and I still had lots of yarn left over (rats!) If only I had cast on more stitches to begin with so they would fit over my shapely (and oh-so-pale) calves.






This is a close-up of the fabric, the stitch pattern looks great with the colors of the yarn (if I do say so myself). I read in the current issue of Wool Gathering about a similar stitch, but instead of lifting the bar over the stitches, you make a yarn over and pull that over the stitches.




Meet the Lavender socks!




Close up of the left and right twist. They are not exactly mirror images of each other, but I'll settle for fraternal twins.
Lastly, the ever-popular Eye-of-Partridge heel. It's very subtle on this pair, now I know it probably won't work the way I want it to using Trekking XXL.




My very first darning project! I wish I had gotten the chance to take pictures as I worked, but these will do for now. There are another pair that need some mending.






In all her wisdom, Rena Crockett does recommend steaming the old yarn so it isn't kinky, in the way, and a little more of a pain to weave in. You're right, and next time I will.
The image above was taken at the same time as the previous one, i.e. not quite finished.









The bottom picture shows what it looks like now, after one wearing. The yarn looks a little newer, and the colors don't match up, but it is a pretty good fix. I highly recommend learning how to mend things, although this was a painstaking task that took an entire work day and also a few hours of carefully unpicking stitches and weaving in ends.

In this world, such a thing exists as a darning egg, but I found that a hard rubber street hockey ball worked just as well. A lightbulb wasn't bad either, but I was afraid it was a little delicate, and not safely portable.



It is still cold where I am, so last week I decided I needed fingerless mitts. Actually, I decided that a few weeks ago, but hadn't had any knitting time for them. I wanted to make them out of something very special, and I was sure that I had one skein of something that fit the bill....
And not that Malabrigo isn't special, it wasn't quite what I had in mind.
I pored over Barbara Walker, and after hours of swatching, I fell in love with this eyelet pattern. The actual construction was a little bit of trial and error, since I was making it up as I went along - I knew I needed shaping (decreases in the purl valley's), but I got a bit too excited and knit far too long without decreasing... Resulting in having to frog half the cuff. Thankfully, these babies knit up quite quickly. And yes, for some reason I decided I wanted reverse stockinette thumb gussets. Call me crazy. The bind off I found in Vogue Knitting, it's a cute pico edge without having folded over rows.

And finally,

A pair from more hand-dyed Louet Pearl? And ohhhh what to do. I was thinking of Pomatomus, after seeing some more close-up pictures of the pattern, I think it's quite neat.














Contender #2 - Solid Koigu for mosaic socks?
That would require actually owning the book, which I don't, yet. One day, someday, I am going on a book buying splurge on Amazon and buying that, Favorite Socks, and No Sheep For You (I want that fore more mosaic knitting in Intoxicating).

I guess if I want to tackle the mosaic sweater, I should first cut my teeth on a smaller project to learn the technique.

And I think that is enough pictures/mind-spew.
Back to something important, like video games....

S.S.S.S.

I have finished the second sock of the hand-dyed pair... They are delicious sherbet colors (pink, orange, yellow). I aped the pattern created here. I am sure it is a lovely pattern if you follow it, but I liked the stitch, it sort of blew my mind the first time I saw it. I love how it creates tiny eyelets without having to yarn over! I also stopped doing the pattern far sooner than in the original; I kept telling myself that I was making them for me, so I can do whatever I want! They brought me to the toe finish line more quickly than patterning the whole way down.
Which brings me to the next phenomenon that I mention in my post title....
Second Sock Shorter Syndrome. I kept trying to convince myself that it was long enough before decreasing. Sadly, I was a little wrong. They will stretch a little, but they will also felt a little if I put them in the washing machine... So they may remain handwashed for their all little stitched lives. The first sock fit beautifully, so it's a little irritating that I didn't do the extra few rows, but it's not bad enough to rip everything out.

I am taking a short break from casting-on new socks to complete some other projects (gasp!), one of which is a pair of socks that have been languishing for months.

I need to mail the Lavender socks. I noticed some Regia Silk in lovely muted shades of beige and silver, just dying to be knitted up. It's eventually going to be spring here, so I have been eyeing the three skeins of Sockotta, wondering how it will be knitting socks with some cotton.


Decisions, decisions....

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.

i have a confession

i knit socks.
maybe you knit socks too.
i've knit socks for a year and four months. really, i didn't know what i was getting into when i started. i thought i'd try a pair. some sort of stripey regia 4-ply. size 3 dpns, as i recall. and 2s for the ribbing. those were the days when i changed needles for the ribbing.
now it's all magic loop on curly addi's... it's pretty irritating that i can't get the cord straight-(ish) again. i tried steaming it, and it worked, for a moment. next pair (trekking XXL in lovely shades of purples) they were once again like a slinky.
such is the life of an addicted sock knitter.

i am not sure what i am getting into with blogging about it, maybe some relief from my guilt for giving up cooking, cleaning, and human interaction, all in the name of knitting these wondrous little tubes that mysteriously fit feet. i am doing this for fun, maybe to learn something, basically just to have an outlet for all the stitches i make in my head.

i welcome you to share your stories, offer support, patterns, reviews of yarn...
all in the name of feeding a glorious, rewarding addiction.