Finished Object: Fall over you

Needle: Size 4 40" circular {Magic Loop with afterthought heel}
Project Name: Fall over you
Yarn: Patons North America Classic Wool Merino in Colorway Harvest - 1 Skein

These knit up super fast! Just over two weeks and they are complete. Love how fast they were and they are really thick and warm - so I suspect I will be wearing these when I am shoveling snow this winter.

These are an amalgamation of several patterns I have used and kind of a standard pattern I use now.

I prefer magic loop at this point with one long circular need, top down, one at a time.

Since this was worsted weight yarn and knit it on size 4 needles I knew it would be dense, so I cast on 48 sts over two needles, removed one needle, and then began the ribbing.

I did the ribbing for three inches, then five inches of stockinette before placing the waste yarn.

Here is a photo that shows the waste yarn knit in. The first time I chose a yarn that blended with the socks a little too well, so I got smart and found a higher contrast yarn the second time.

I always make my heel before I get to the toe, so that I can try on the sock and fit it perfectly as I go.

 

For this sock I added the heel after I had knit about five inches past the waste yarn, then I try on the sock and see where it is sitting on my toe area. I generally like it to be around the top of my pinky toe before I start my decreases.

I take notes as I go through my first sock and try to duplicate it on my second. I do not count rows, so my socks are not a perfect match ever. But I get close and the notes help make it so my heels are not funky. (Although I have indeed made socks and accidentally put a different heel in the second sock. Doh!)

I am really happy with these socks and I have already ordered a pair of liners for (Fox River Wick Dry Coolmax Liner Socks off of Amazon) so that if my feet sweat when I wear these the liners will wick that sweat away and keep my feet warmer.

I am pretty sure I will be turning to these this winter when I am shoveling all that Minnesota snow.

Getting my groove back

Trying to get my Blogging mojo back!

It's finally Spring here and that means we are all racing outdoors to get our gardens in shape quickly. We have a very short season here in Minnesota - so we really have to get our plants in as quickly as we can so they can have some grow time. I have decided not to grow veggies this year - and instead we are turning into more fruit growing. This is largely because we have a good farmer's market locally where I can get large quantities of wonderful veggies inexpensively.

We have a lot of projects to do here over the summer - and I find myself already looking at the calendar and frowning about how we are going to fit all the projects in we want to fit in and OH yeah - enjoy the summer too!

Part of my summer wish list is to clean up my WIP piles with my knitting. I have a LOT of projects that are half baked, so I really want to get those finished or frogged. I have been kind of obsessing over socks a lot lately - I think because I find myself buying more and more sock yarn and frankly - I have ENOUGH hats and scarves. You can ALWAYS use more socks. And the one's my mom makes me every year for my birthday I just love and they are so warm. It's like wearing a hug on your feet. So I would love to start making socks.

So about two months ago I purchased 9728 Beginner Socks (Cuff Down) sock pattern by Diane Soucy on Patternfish. (The pattern is on Ravelry but it redirects you to Patternfish for the pattern.) I thought for a first time out - starting on a worsted weight yarn would be less intimidating, so even though the pattern was $7.00 (ouch!) I went ahead thinking I would make a fleet of socks with this pattern and it would pay for itself with all the use I got out of it.

Sadly this is not the case. The pattern is two pages long and there really is not detailed instruction. To me a beginner pattern should really spell out the process and direct you. I found myself flailing about a lot and feeling frustrated. So after I made it through my first heal turning, I put it back in it's project bag and there it sat for two months. 

Yesterday I picked the bag back up and finished Sock #1.

I ♥love♥ the yarn (Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool - color 7869) but the pattern itself is just lacking. I know this is my first sock - and I wanted to make a classic sock - with heal flap construction - cuff down.... so I could really work my way through my first pair of socks in a classic fashion. But I am really dreading that second sock. It's the heal construction. I don't like my execution of it and I don't like the actual pattern of it.

 This is where I feel my execution failed - the stitches I picked up are a little too much like lace work. I am not thrilled with that - but find it livable. It's my first sock after all - there IS a learning curve.

It's a little hard to see in the photo - but there is a ridge line under my heal. To me that means I will get blisters or at least be uncomfortable if I ever try and wear these socks out in shoes. Bummer!

So I will dutifully cast on for sock number 2, but boy am I not excited about it! I am going to pay very close attention to the heal construction this time - and try to understand it better. I am thinking ahead to "NEXT" and I think two at a time toe up construction - perhaps with an afterthought heal?!?! Sound pretty good!

Nerd Girl Yarns = Awesome B-day Gift

For my Birthday last month my parents gave me some spending money, which allowed me to go and get some yarn I have been wanting to try for a long time. I headed to Nerd Girl Yarns and looked through everything Yarn on the site. In the end I fell in love with these two yarns and had to get them.

Bounce and Stomp in the colorway "Bad Luck". I got the last available skein of this and I cannot wait to work it up. The stats from the website: "4-ply fingering - 75% superwash merino 25% nylon
Approximately 463 yards (423 meters), 100 grams".  When I pulled it out of the bag I went "Ooooooh" and gave it a squish with my hand. Oh yeah baby. That's what I like!

The color explosion above is a worsted weight yarn called "Clever" in the colorway Wonders. Here is the stats about it from the website: "100% superwash merino. 218 yards, 100 grams. worsted weight". I love love love the colors in this.

Living in Minnesota - I wear a scarf over half the year. Most of my coats are black. I wear blue jeans every day. Yawn. So a violent pop of color on my neutral colored wardrobe, when I live in an area that lacks any color in the landscape for months on end - well it makes me REALLY happy.  I am anxious to get knitting on this as well!

As for the shopping experience? Great! The website was well organized and easy to maneuver. I clicked on the link for "all items currently in stock" and cruised through them looking for my must haves. I have been to the site before looking for sci-fi themed yarns and been a bit confused about how that works. So I avoided that this time and had a better experience. I am drawn to a lot of her sci-fi lines of yarn - so I may need to figure that out in the future.

I was able to pay with PayPal (easy peasy) and got great confirmation of my purchase and tracking info. My yarn was in my hands just a few short days after I ordered it! Wonderful!

Very happy with my Birthday gift! 

Ravellenic Games 2012

The Olympics opening Ceremony was last night and I was finally able to cast on my project! I am making the Colonnade Shawl by Stephen West. It was supposed to be my first Stephen West project, but as I researched this for the games I got swept into the Westknits Mystery Kal. These things happen.

I am very happy with my first days work. I had been up for 14 hours by the time I could cast on and was already pretty tuckered out from a long work week, but I was very exited about the games and the new project. I am knitting this in Sun Valley Fibers MCN Worsted which is just HEAVEN! Very soft and lush. I would work with this again in a heartbeat!

I knit until my hands were clawed and I was so tired I could hardly stand it. Then I set my knitting aside and watched Sir Paul McCartney sing Hey Jude. An interesting opening ceremonies. I wish it had been broadcast without commercials as I know they cut a lot of stuff out. (Although the commercials were good bathroom and stretch points, so they had their value I guess.)

Progress on my Westknits Mystery Kal will pretty much stop while the games are on. Clue 3 was released yesterday and although I read it and looked at the boards on Ravelry about it, it will be a while until I get to it. I am not quite half way through Clue 2 at this point.

Above is a photo of me using a crochet hook to pick up stitches on the icord edge. I tried over and over to pick up the stitches with my knitting needles, as the moderators for the KAL insisted that this was the easiest way, but it just didn't work for me. I need to remember that not everything works for everyone and I have to find the path that works for me with my work rather than trying to force myself to do something the way someone else tells me to. Honestly I felt a bit bullied by the attitude of the moderators and like there was something wrong with me for not being able to pick up the stitches the way they said too. I think it was just a very simple skill for them and they were a bit surprised at even needing to explain it to people.  There is a bit of snobbery on this Kal - it's not terrible, but there is a bit of an attitude that people with a lower skill set are needing a lot of help. I am still really happy I am doing this and my skill level is much higher than it was before I started it, but I can't help but feel a little feather ruffling at the snobbery.

Anyone else participating in the Ravellenic Games?

Nimbus Cowl

I came home tonight and my Nimbus Cowl was done blocking! Yay! Another finished object!

This cowl is a free pattern on Ravelry called the Stacked Eyelet Cowl. I knit this out of Zitron Nimbus (you see now where I got the name, yeah?) and I used about 1.75 skeins of yarn. The pattern was very easy and the eyelet rows keep you from snoring. Love how it blocked out.

Here you see Emma modeling it. It looks really good on her - but she would just destroy the heck out of this - so..... I guess I will just have to keep it for me!

This is actually really perfect for wearing with my black pea coat. It covers up that open neck perfectly - giving just a really nice pop of color. Another happy project!

More detailed notes on my Nimbus Cowl can be found in my Ravelry Project Page.