Plays With Yarn

Lots of car riding time.  I just got back from a trip to Maryland to help my best friend and her husband move.  My boyfriend drove the moving truck/trailered car, and I was basically slave labor.  But it gave me a lot of time to knit in the car, so I finished about 2 1/2 socks on the trip.  Another half sock today, and I have a pair to post about!  (The other full sock from the trip still needs a mate.  It’s on Addi circs, and my hands needed a break from the metal.)

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Happy Valley
Needles: KP Harmony DPNs in 2.25mm/size 1-the-smaller.
Started 6/23, finished 6/28
52PP2 count: 6/52 (yes, I’m out of order…pair 5 is below.)
SoS’08 count: 1

And a pair of baby socks I finished before I left:

Pattern: Stansfield 12 from More Sensational Knitted Socks, knit top-down over 40 stitches with a heel flap.
Yarn: J.Knits Superwash Me Sock in Florida, leftover from the first pair of Waving Lace Socks
Needles:  Lantern Moon rosewood Sox Stix in 2.25mm/sz 1.
Started 6/18, finished 6/20.
52PP2 count: 5/52

I’m doing fairly well on the 2nd 52 Pair Plunge so far.  Lots of baby/toddler socks in my future, as many of my friends/cousins are reproducing lately.

I do need to get spinning more.  I think I really need to take a lesson somewhere, because the wheel is just frustrating me, no matter how much I practice.  I’ll have to poke around and look into that later this summer, as the next couple of weeks will be taken up with moving ourselves, and then helping MORE friends move once they close on their house.  (I’m going to be buff from all the box-lifting after the summer is done!)

I’ve not been good about posting WIP progress, so these FOs just seem to come up out of nowhere, don’t they?  Today, I have one pair of me-sized socks and one pair of baby-sized socks (I’ve finished another, but the pictures came out horribly so I need to take more today).

Pattern:  No-Purl Monkeys, based of course on Cookie A’s Monkey pattern
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, color 711.  One sock pooled, one sock didn’t.  Ah, the joy/pain of Koigu.
Needles: KP Harmony 2.5mm DPNs
Started 6/10, finished 6/15 (Monkeys always go very quickly for me)
52 Pair Plunge 2 count: 3/52.

Pattern: Little Guys, from Knit Socks!
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Bosco, leftover from last summer sometime
Needles: Lantern Moon rosewood DPNs, 2.25mm
Started 6/12, finished 6/18
52 Pair Plunge 2 count: 4/52.

Summer of Socks starts today, so I’m going to cast on a couple of pairs of adult socks, one simple stockinette and another one that isn’t.  I still haven’t made any decisions on what my other pair is going to be.  I have a couple pairs set aside for a trip next week, but I might start one of them now.  Or I’ll start something different altogether.  Indecision is a wonderful thing *grin*

Well, actually, 11 days ago, but I do already have 2 pairs of socks done…right on schedule.  Pair #1 was a leftover WIP from May:

Pattern: Bevel, by my old blogging friend Natalie B!  (Link to the pattern is on her blog.)
Yarn: Knitpicks Felici in Mixed Berries, about a ball and a half
Needles:  My good old Lantern Moon rosewood Sox Stix, size 1
Started May 20, finished June 10.
Modifications:  None on purpose; this was a test knit.  The second sock was modified a bit because my notes were incomplete, so I knit the foot a repeat shorter.  Oops!  It still fits, so it wasn’t worth picking out.  Also, you may notice the stripe repeats are different;  I knit one from the inside of the ball, and one from the outside.  Yes, this was purposeful *grin*
52PP2:  1/52.

A couple closeup pictures (you know the drill–click for embiggenment.  What do you mean?  It’s a perfectly cromulent word.)

And…some baby socks.  My friends/family seem to have caught Reproduction Fever, so I have a feeling I have more baby socks in my future.

Pattern:  Baby Monkey by Sheri, based on the famous Cookie A pattern
Yarn:  Leftover STR Medium in Minestone
Needles:  Knitpicks Harmony DPNs in….size 2?  If I remember right.
Mods:  There were a couple typos in the pattern that I had to correct.  (Asterisks left out of the heel stitch pattern, a line left out of the foot that I noticed because I’ve knit Monkeys before and have the stitch pattern pretty well memorized, and a change of an 18 to an 8 because the foot was really starting to look freakishly long and had more repeats of the stitch pattern than the socks in the picture.)
Recipient:  I was going to give them to my friend Amanda’s son, but they were a tad too small for him, so I gave them to her for her daughter instead, when she grows into them in a year or so
52PP2:  2/52.

Sign of a bad blogger:  alludes to FOs, but never actually posts about them.

FO #1:

Pattern:  Diagonal Cross Rib Socks from Favorite Socks
Yarn:  One and Only Crafts sock yarn in Toulouse (got it on Etsy)
Needles: KP Harmony 2.25mm DPNs and circs (had to steal the DPNs for something else, so I finished sock #2 on the circs)
Started 12/5/07, finished 5/23/08.

And a closeup pic:

#2:

Pattern: Straight-Laced from Knit Socks!
Yarn:  Shibui Sock in Rappongi
Needles: KP Harmony 2.25mm DPNs
Started 5/17, finished 5/26.

The thing I noticed about this pattern is that it biased a bit (it’s sort of evident in the picture).  I suspect my tension is slightly different on my SSKs versus my k2togs, because the pattern itself is balanced.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

I didn’t do so badly on my May goals.

• Resurrect a couple of my hibernating projects (I have a couple of single socks, a couple of shawls that only need blocking, and a couple of other lace projects that needed to be set aside for a bit) and finish them. Oh yeah, I kicked some ass on this goal.  I blocked both of the shawls, finished one of the abandoned socks and picked back up on a second, and I finished That Damn Baby Sweater.
• If I start any more socks, I can only use yarn that is already wound (until I get through the yarn that’s already wound, of course). The only pair of socks I started was a gift pair, and unfortunately I had to order appropriate yarn for that.  Which, of course, means I had to wind it.
• Get some sense of organization going in my stash/patterns/books (including getting rid of things that aren’t getting the love)…I see spreadsheets in my future. I did well on the getting-rid-of-stuff, but not so much progress on the organization.  I think I’ll do a bit of that tomorrow.  The only concession to organization that I made was making a good number of sock kits (matching yarn to patterns and putting them in paper bags together).

Now…what about June?

• Finish the 3 socks in progress/UFO socks before June 21.  They’ll count for the 52 Pair Plunge II (yes, I’m insane…again), but not for Summer of Socks ‘08.  That averages to a sock a week.
• If I finish those 3 socks, then work on some baby or toddler socks.  (Only adult socks count for Summer of Socks.)
• Work on Charlotte #2 when I need something on a bigger needle.

I have a couple of FO posts in my future, but I need better pictures of one of the projects.  These pictures certainly aren’t going to happen today–it’s all rainy and dark.  (Why couldn’t it have been rainy and dark yesterday, when I had an eye appointment involving dilation?)

After my previous post on what to do with all the lace I’m making lately, I thought it would be nice to update and say that I have, indeed ventured into the realm of wearing shawls.

First, I wore Icarus to my best friend’s graduation, which was taking place in an ice arena, so I knew it would be somewhat cold.  In actuality, the arena was fine, but the day’s weather involved temperatures that began with a 4, so it was handy outside too.

Second, the Sampler Stole is nearly big enough to be a blanket, so that, wrapped around my shoulders/upper arms and pinned so the ends hang down the front, is a wonderful couch-sitting shawl.  I’ve been wearing that often on the cloudy days.

And today, I have discovered that if you take a triangle shawl, put it around your shoulders, bring the ends down and around, and tie them behind your back, it makes a shrug-like garment that is the right level of warm, stays on, and is practical for doing things around the house, and possibly even leaving the house if I decide.  (This is how I am currently wearing Charlotte the First–my first lace project–with a t-shirt and capri jeans.)  It takes a bit of doing to tie it with enough looseness to let my arms move freely, but it’s very comfortable.  If I were better with my camera’s self timer or had a handy photographer, I’d post a picture, but alas, I am home alone.  Well, except for two cats, but they aren’t good photographers.  Without opposable thumbs, they can’t really hold a camera.

I really should show my lace the respect it deserves and wear it more often, rather than let it sit folded, hidden, and unappreciated.  I promise I will do that from now on.

I have one more FO.  The UFO of Doom has finally been finished.  Behold…That Damn Baby Sweater!

Pattern: Jo Jo Basic Crew Sweater by Louisa Harding (from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms)
Yarn:  Knit Picks Crayon in Periwinkle and Cream, 2 balls each?  I think?
Needles:  I did the edging on size 5 bamboos, and I don’t remember what I did the body on.  It’s been That Long.
Started 4/29/07, finished 5/19/08 (for the record, I did the finishing on 5/15 except for the buttons, bought those on 5/18, and sewed those on the next day)

The finished product is nice and soft and cozy and all that, but I am NEVER using that yarn again.  I can’t stand working with boucle yarn.  But this sweater is finally done, and will probably go to my friend Amanda’s daughter.

(At least for this week. I worked on a long-ignored project today and thought I might have a Friday FO to round out the week, but I need buttons for it.)

Enough of that. To the FO:

Pattern: Madder Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock in Minest(r)one (I was shopping during a lunch break when I was in Portland, and kept mentally adding that R to the colorway name. Apparently I would have been better served by eating lunch before yarn shopping.)
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony, size 1-the-larger.
Started April 21, finished May 13.
Changes: Accidentally changed the gusset decreases–I did them my normal way, while the pattern apparently wanted 2 even rows between the decrease rows rather than 1. Also, I shortened the toe because I really didn’t feel like ripping out a few rows of the foot on sock #1, and then changed toe #2 so that it spiraled in the opposite direction. I don’t like the way this toe fits my foot; I won’t use it again, likely. (It’s some sort of round toe with a gathered ending. I much prefer a kitchenered toe on my feet.)

Also, it seems that these pooled unpredictably…the uniformity of the pooling is quite unusual, from what I’ve heard about STR. I took a picture of the other sides of the socks too, just to show how uniform they are:

The medium STR makes quite a cushy sock. These will be boot socks next winter.

Pattern: Mystic Light by Anna Dalvi
Yarn: CTH Supersock in Cherry Blossom, 1.75 skeins
Needles: Size 6 bamboo circ, Clover I think, the kind with the stiff plastic cord.
Started March 26, completed May 11.
Photo credit: The Boy

A couple extra pictures (as usual, click for embiggenment):

I had been concerned about how busy the yarn was when it was knit up, compared to how it looked in the hank (it looked like it had a lot more white before I knit it up), but I don’t think it takes away from the design. In Ravelry, I nicknamed this the Winter Sunrise Shawl.

(Oh, and I was right earlier this week–one more FO to come tomorrow.)

Pattern: Berlin (warning: pattern is in German!)
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Sock in Gluttony (for those of you keeping track, this does indeed mean I can get two pairs of socks from one skein of this!
Needles: Susan Bates size 1

The weird yellow bits you’re seeing aren’t part of the sock…they’re part of the sock that I had to put on my sock blocker, because the wood is about the same color as the sock! Otherwise, you would have seen a Brown Blob. All I could find in my drawer that would work properly were black knee socks with yellow heels and toes.

Here is a detail shot, as well as an outdoor one-sock-on-my-foot shot, just because I like it. (I cut most of my blindingly pale leg out of the picture, but you may still want sunglasses.) Click to embiggen.