Yay, September!

I've been knitting a good bit lately but really don't have too much to show on account of the crapfest of weather we've been having. I had to give up on the hope of any usable natural lighting coming my way when the September installment of RSC came in. I tried. I waited. But screw it. My new Knitpicks needles came in and I want to cast this sucker on! If you're in the sock club and for some reason haven't gotten the yarn yet, go away now.

Woot! This color is soooo badass I can't even be near it without getting a minor twitch. The colorway is called Tide Pooling and the pattern, as I suppose you can read for yourself in the picture, is called Cloning Anemone Rib. Truly as rockin' as the club name might suggest.

Here's the yarn alone.

Lovin' it!!

I'm going to cast on for them tonight and attempt to do them 2 at a time, magic loop style. I've been working on a pair of plain vanilla toe-up's with my Potomac colorway doing the 2 at a time and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. My Second Sock Syndrome has reached such proportions that there's really no other option at this point. I'm kind of not thrilled with knitting socks toe-up anyway, but they really do seem to fit me a lot better in the end. I also don't actually have instructions for knitting toe-up socks 2 at a time via magic loop so those might take some figuring out. Perhaps some further planning would have been better. These socks though.....they're top down, for which I have a whole book of instructions. I'm hoping that 1) my wrists will hold out for awhile tonight so I can actually work and 2) that switching to my new super pointy and long Knitpicks Options will make it easier on said wrists. I'll let you all know how it works out.

God help me, I finished them! A tale of sock horror.

Yet another FO. These socks both pissed me off to the extreme and made me happy that I've clearly learned more patience in my knitting.

And a little closer...

And closer, still....

Pattern: Spring Thaw Socks by Cat Bordhi, found in the current Knitters mag

Yarn: BMFA STR lightweight in Amber

Needles: US 2, worked magic loop

Mg's of Xanax taken: 50

Don't get me wrong, I love these socks. As soon as I saw the pattern I HAD to make them. Seeing as how I 1) have giant feet and 2) am not exactly a pro at knitting socks from the toe up, I had some trepidation about doing these. They're 56 or 58 stitches and I'm used to doing more like 64-80 depending on yarn and needles. After trying on the toe several times I deemed the width sufficient as the twisted rib has incredible stretch. Seriously, unstretched these socks are about as wide as my three middle fingers. So obstacle one solved. Then came that goddamn gusset increase. I don't know why, but I NEVER trust the directions when it comes to where I should start doing them on toe up socks. This pattern has a very concise formula, as do most Cat Bordhi patterns with the "new" architectures, but I was confused. Seeing as how these socks were to be stretched to amazing proportions, I didn't know if I should be measuring my gauge for such calculations while it was just laying there or on my foot. I think the first go at these, I took my stretched measurement and then totally overshot my foot length. You have to do a certain number of rows in pattern to get to the heel and when I was at row 17 of 44 the foot was already working it's way up my ankle. Frog #1. I carefully ripped it back and started again....and apparently ripped exactly back to where my measurement mistake had taken place and did the exact thing over again. Frog #2. I carefully ripped it back and made sure to actually go back further on the foot. Still too big. Frog #3, though this one occurred at about row 30 in the pattern. It then occurred to me to redo my measurements. I used the unstretched rpi and remeasured my foot, finding it to be about half an inch shorter than before. So I started again. Then something else happened...which I've obviously blocked from my memory because of the trauma and I had to frog it AGAIN.

So...I finally got my first sock finished, though I ran into mild issues with the heel. Due to lack of attention span, I did something that got my stitches all over the place rather than on there designated needles. I muddled thru. When it came time to bind off I painstakingly searched the internet and found a good tutorial on the tubular bind off. I went to work all set to complete my sock and quickly found that I had left the friggin' 16 page tutorial at home AND the internet at the store wasn't working. Considering that my sock was my only knitting for the day, I was peeved. Luckily I had the foresight to look in the magazine index and there were instructions. I then found that I loathe doing a tubular bind off, but I got thru it. Apparently, though, where it says in the instructions to pull certain stitches "snug", it's a vicious lie. I then sat there and picked thru my stitches to loosen them and in the process ended up with some jacked up bind off that looks like armless person did it with their mouth and feet. So happy was I to have the sock done that I just said fuck it.

After all this it, I handled the remaining yarn and found that it felt disappointingly light. I scoured the store for the scale and couldn't find it. Putting my faith in sheer luck, I cast on for the 2nd sock. When I got home I broke out the scale and lo and behold, sock #1 weighed 2.10 oz and ball remains weighed 1.9 oz. "Fuck!!" I thought...and said...a lot. Since I already had some of the toe done I weighed it, too. It was something like .5 oz but had a needle stuck thru it. I decided to go ahead. It shortly became apparent that there was no way in hell that I was going to have enough yarn....you know, because I couldn't have figured that from the missing oz's on the scale. I decided to suck it up and order more yarn only to find that Amber was one of the colorways that BMFA pulled just days before I needed it. So I checked on Ravelry to see if anyone had some up for sale. No. I decided that I could get a good ways up the leg and even though ,because these are toe up socks, any mismatched color would be the showing part, I could substitute a similar colored yarn at the top. And then I knit as tight as I could.

Somehow, and this is beyond me, I was able to finish the socks with the one ball of yarn. I even had a tiny bit leftover. AND my second sock is a little longer than my first even though I knit as tight as tight can be. And Voila! My socks are complete and I am nervous breakdown free!

Last night I cast on for some Mittens Interrupted by Eunny Jang with some StormMoonKnits Celestial Bulky for which I've been hoarding until the perfect project came along.

My hand really doesn't look like a brightly colored cow hoof....at least I hope not. I'm super happy with these and they're such a joy to make after the hell of the Spring Thaw socks. I was planning on finishing them at the hospital today while my grandpa saw the doctor but I, ever the tard, left all the finishing tools at home so I just sat there in the waiting area holding them. I may even have them finished tonight if I don't royally screw up the thumb. I have a way of doing that. I think they're completely awesome and thank StormMoonKnits for creating such a yarny masterpiece with which I can work. The thought of making these probably is what kept the Xanax at 50mg's rather than 150-ish.

Not Dead!!

Wow, for someone who was going to make a effort to really stay on top of the blogging this year, I suck BIG TIME. Life has been particularly busy lately and while I've had ample time to knit, I haven't been able to squeeze in the logging of artsy activities. Sorry.

My progress in the 52 Pair Plunge is going at approximately the rate of a turtle stuck in molasses while trying to move up a steep cliff. I've knit some single socks...but they don't really count. I do, however, have this to show.

Pattern: Spring Forward by Linda Welch, available in the current Knitty.

Yarn: BMFA STR Mediumweight in the Lunasea colorway.

Needles: US 2's, done magic loop

I did 3 full repeats on the cuff. These socks took an extraordinary amount of time to complete despite the fact that the pattern is quite easy and structured in such a way that the sections roll by. The delay was due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to a shitty needle that was way too short for magic looping, loss of pattern while my computer was out of action, sweltering Italian heat that kept me from knitting like I planned to, and general distraction. The 4th installment of my Rockin' Sock Club came in right after I got back from my trip so that kind of stole my attention. Sadly, and typically, I have yet to complete that pair.

What else, what else....I went back to work at the yarn shop. That's going well and I have to say that while having to wake up in the morning isn't exactly my cup of tea at the moment, I very much enjoy being back. In fact, I kind of like working the morning shift as it's generally easier on my day. It's just a little tough at the start since the decision of when I go to sleep at night seems to no longer be my own. Gotta love the old folks.

The next thing on my knitting agenda is completing Cat Bordhi's Spring Thaw socks from the newest Knitters magazine. I've been having some "issues" with that which I'll go into more detail on when I have the FO to show. Also, as the weathers been getting a bit chillier at night I'd like to get my newest Clapotis done. I think it's going to be absolutely ass kicking when it's done. I just get easily bored with the Clap pattern. Still, the project is sitting here by my knitting chair taunting me with it's glowing green and yellow beauty.

Oh, oh!! I don't know if I mentioned this previously because I haven't posted in an eon but I've been gifted the basement as my craft and exercise room. That'll be mega sweet but I have a LOT of work to do down there before I can get moved in. I'm going to have to do some major stash reorganization which I'm not exactly looking forward to.

I think that about covers it. Till next time....which hopefully won't be such a long time off.

Finally!! FO's

I FINALLY got the baby blanket not only finished, but photographed and sent too! And the baby's only 4 weeks old. Amazing! The blanket I knit for his 4 or 5 year old sister is still folded up in my bedroom. I possibly should have sent that along, too, but I've not exactly sure how late in childhood a blanket is an appropriate gift. Anyhow, on to the good stuff.



And a really blurry shot that sucks, but at least it shows the blanket in its entirety.



Frankly I'm too lazy to type out all the yarn information, and actually I don't even know the colors offhand. The ball bands are long gone. If you're really curious you can check it out on my Ravelry project page. Here are just the basics-

Yarn: Dark Horse Fantasy in various shades of blue with a bit of black and tan
Needles: Size 7 circ's
Pattern: baby size Modern Log Cabin Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Mods: Instead of using the 4 colors the pattern called for, I used something like 8 and just put them in where I saw fit.

I can't tell you how thankful I am to finally have that monkey off my back! It shipped out today and should arrive on Friday morning.

Next order of business: Zombie Socks!



It was really hard to even *try* to get the pattern details or an accurate color, but here's my attempt.



Pattern: Zombie Socks by Emm1e on Ravelry
Yarn: BMFA STR lightweight in Rook-y from the Raven series
Needles: Size 2 circ, worked Magic Loop
Mods: I did 5 pattern repeats on the leg instead of 3 and had to add a few repeats onto the heel.

These socks are also my first pair for the 52 Pair Plunge....which I joined with some crack-pipe aspirations in my head. I am SO far behind, but I'm not too pressed about it. I'd rather enjoy what I'm knitting than feel like I'm knitting with a gun pressed to my temple. Tonight I plan on finishing the first of my second pair, the Spring Forward socks from the summer Knitty. Pictures of that to follow.

In non-knitting news, guess what I'm doing right now?!?! Oh yeah....I'm just sitting here watching DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER!!!!!!! Evidently A&E has decided that while Dog may be a bit of a "character" he may not be so much of a racist and have put his show back on the air. You know what this means!! My obsession can continue! I knew the new season was starting in July, but you can imagine my surprise when I heard that familiar riff and the voice of Ozzy as the show came on tonight. I totally spazzed out. Big time.

Alright, off to work on my sock!

Yarny Weekend

I had to deliver my mother to UM today so she could judge the MSMTA Solo Festival competition. Since I was (relatively) in the neighborhood, I decided to stop by A Tangled Skein to pick up some Conjoined Creations Flat Feet. I had seen it before but had become entranced by the sheets/units/whatever the proper term is for them that have popped up on Ravelry. I also scored some great pattern booklets from Sublime Yarn. Uh, and some Opal Rainforest collection and some Stitch Diva patterns I've been wanting. Also, I found the Oat Couture pattern for the Curlique Coverlet that I've been hunting for. That may win as the Item of the Day because I've been all over the place trying to find it. After some deliberation, I ordered some Kureyon from Webs with which to make it. I'll post some pictures of my haul once I figure out why Flickr has decided that my photos should be posted sideways, regardless of what editing tactics I employ.

This weekend should be pretty low key. I've been working in my office, sporadically at least, over the past few days and I've hatched a plan to assist with yarn/book storage. Now I just have to get off my bum and build the shelving units I picked up. My plan is to put one of those Target 4x2 units sideways under the long stretch of my desk and a little 2 story table unit under the shorter leg. Hopefully the printer to my laptop will fit there because it's been a real pain in the ass to have to run all over the place just to get a sock pattern....or whatever else I want a hardcopy of. But yeah, it's mainly just sock patterns. It may have been useful for me to have measured or something before I went out and bought the furniture, but if it doesn't fit where I want it I'll just find a place where it will.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not but I joined this years round of the 52 Pair Plunge. I don't know that either my willpower or my wrists will hold up to knitting a pair of socks each week, but I think it'll definitely help me downgrade the tremendous sock stash. I have a feeling that Fiesta Boomerang will be one of my best friends since it's so thick and sproingy. I haven't actually tested this, but I bet i can whip a pair out in a very timely manner with it. That starts June 1st, so if I appear to have vanished it'll be a safe bet that I'm just holed up obsessively knitting footwear.

Now I'm off to build!

ETA: The shelving unit TOTALLY doesn't fit! Dammit all!

More Monkeys!!

IMG_2249
Originally uploaded by knitglit

I joined a KAL on Ravelry and actually did the knitting!! I think I was just really excited to use this yarn, and who can turn down a Monkey sock? I have the first one completed....obviously, I guess, and am about to do the heel flap on the second. The colorway is KawKaw and was the sock camp colorway at this years Camp Crow's Feet. I wasn't able to go, but Cindy was kind enough to nab a skein for me. If anyone's interested in the colorway, Tina just put it up on the BMFA website today.

Leafling

I believe I mentioned that I had finished my Leafling socks the other day. Voila!

In trying to take a picture of these, I had the realization that I am apparently rather retarded in the area of putting on socks straight. Oh well. We can't all be good at everything. I also found that it's very difficult to get a decent photo of your own feet/lower legs while trying to simultaneously bend over, keep you long pant legs from dropping down, elude shadows, and keep a balanced hand. Here are some of the pics from the first finished sock, but we'll just pretend that I planned to use them here as detail shots rather than their real intent/origin, which was just me being hyperactively excited about having a single sock and thus taking approximately 1000 photos of my single foot. Yeah...."detail shots"....that's it.

I hope this is a better shot of the design.

Semi decent shot of the heel detail.

These socks were a pretty fun knit. They used a heel from Cat Bordhi's new(ish) book New Pathway's for Sock Knitters: Book One. Instead of doing a heel flap, stitches were added along the sides of the pattern panel so by the time the heel turn was worked, half the foot was already knit. Pretty sweet. The ribbing on the heel continues down to about mid sole, too, which is a new one to me. I think it looks pretty snazzy.

On to the specs!

Origin: RSC March '08

Pattern: Leafling by JC Briar

Yarn: STR Mediumweight, Lucky colorway

Needles: size 2 circular

Mods: none

I guess I should also add that this is the first pair of socks I've completed using the magic loop method. I began using the one needle out of necessity and just stuck with it. I found it to be pretty intuitive in practice so I didn't check to see if I was doing anything "right". It all worked out though, so yay! Considering that I often lose needles if they're not practically sewn onto my hand, magic loop is my friend.

Hope everyone is having a fun day, and for those not in my immediate area I hope you're having better weather. It sucks here and has for a number of days. However, the rain and general grossness outside makes for good cozy knitting inside.

Bellatrix

Finally, I present you with my completed Bellatrix socks.

Pattern: Bellatrix from Socktopia.net

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in Hard Rock

Needles: US 2.5 circs

These socks took me a loooong time to finish. This was due entirely to the fact that I decided to try knitting them on one short circular needle, which I hate, hate, hate. I just couldn't get into it. It hurt my hands, the heel flap was a pain in the ass to do, and the stitches were looking all spread out. I was not happy. I stopped knitting the first sock when I was about 8 rows from the toe and just couldn't pick it back up. After a month or so I finally switched the stitches over to two circs and finished it up. I was a bit nervous about knitting the second one because I figured the stitches would be much tighter than on the little guy. It turned out okay though.

In other news- I am S.I.C.K. I thought my throat felt a little funny on Friday night. Saturday I woke up at about 3pm and my entire throat was numb and very swollen. Within a few hours I had the full on super-congestion, big head feeling, weak muscled nastiness upon me. I was half delirious throughout the night because of illness and heavy medication, but I got out of bed pretty early due to my nose continually running. I made an effort to make myself look at least normal and went to work. I was the only one there today and I had a class to teach. My students sat there with me for awhile and then collectively were like," Uhhhhh.....how bout if we don't do this today". So they went home and I sat the alone in misery. Now I am going to sit here at home in misery, but WWE Unforgiven comes on PPV tonight so all will be well. The Undertaker is coming back from an injury and nothing can stand between me and the Undertaker.

Yet another FO

This one has been a long time coming. I don't recall if I had previously mentioned that I had started my Pomotomus socks. This was way back, like in April or May. I had been on a roll with the sock production and the new found obsession with STR, bu once I started the Pomotomus pattern it all kind of halted. There was something I wasn't getting about the pattern and I didn't like reading all the charts.....and the sock ended up tossed under a pile in my bedroom with about two inches of cuff completed. At some point of cleaning, the sock was found, placed in a bag, and moved into my office with the rest of my yarn. The other week I was looking for something else and I came across it. On a whim, I picked it up to see how much I still hated knitting it. Surprise, surprise......I didn't hate knitting it at all! I don't know what was wrong with my brain the first time I was fooling with the pattern, but it's not hard or confusing at all. There was one row of the pattern that my stitch count kept getting messed up on and I still have no idea why. It was easily remedied by adding in another stitch.

Here's a more accurate shot of the color.

Pattern: Pomotomus by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR lightweight, Mustang Sally coloway

Needles: size 2 circs

Modifications: left out some of the toe shaping due to reasons discussed below.

I became super nervous about running out of yarn when I was about halfway down the foot of sock#1. I ended up having just enough, though if I had knit the whole foot correctly I surely would have run out about one pattern repeat short of finishing the second sock.

I guess my absentmindedness saved my ass on this one. On the chart for the top of the foot, there's a point where you have to start adding stitches onto the end of the pattern repeat. I got wrapped up in watching TV and just kept knitting the regular pattern on the third (and final) foot section. It was easy enough to replicate on the second sock and didn't interfere with the fit, so all was good.

Stash Busting!!!

I did it! I actually broke down and knit something with stash material! Actually, I had to buy another ball of yarn for this, but I consulted some people on this and the consensus is that it can still be considered a stash busting project. Here it is:

And to get a better view of he colors:

Pattern: Artyarns Cashmere Diagonal Scarf by Iris Schreier

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted (black)

Paton's SWS in Natural Plum

Needles: size 8

Modifications: I tried following the directions exactly but the numbers for the foundation section just weren't adding up for me. I ended up skipping the slip stitches and just knitting. I tried to duplicate this on the end section but it got all nasty looking. Something just ended up not right with my stitch count. I tried to fix the little bit of fug that showed up in the last section while I was binding off and it worked, for the most part.

The other big (and perhaps even bigger) news for the day is that my fancy new sock blockers arrived! Even though I don't have too much of a purpose for them, this excited me to no end. Here they are sporting another FO, even though this particular FO is slightly older.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in the Alina colorway

Needles: size 2 circs

Mods: I omitted all the stitches and just knit the whole thing. This made it go a lot faster because I wasn't having to keep track of numbers, but it also left me with much less give. They still fit though and I think these massive blockers will stretch them into shape.

I also got this nifty stitch marker as a bonus.

Still trying to Update

I'll tell you, for being on a semi-sabbatical, I just can't keep on top of things. I guess that's part of my "all or nothing" life trend. The fact that I'm madly trying to get stuff loaded onto Ravelry before I leave doesn't help. Ravelry itself is super great, but Flickr and I....well, we don't always get along. I'm not particulary familiar with the service so I don't know if it's Flickr itself, or just my slow ass computer that makes it take literally like 20 minutes to upload a liited number of pictures. Then I have the added confusion of using two photo publishing services. As far as I can tell, and I realize that I'm very likely mistaken, I can't post pictures directly from Flickr. In my head though, they've already been uploaded ad are ready to go. But thn I have to go back onto photobucket and re-upload them for blogging purposes. Hmmm.....confusion. I'll get it worked out. Anyhow, I've gone on another bit of a start-a-million-projects-at-once rush. I think I kind of hit a brick wall there for awhile because I was pumping out really simplistic projects while I was amassing large quantities of more difficult patterns. Then, when I started in on all the "Hold up! What's this 70 row chart doing in here?!?" patterns, I felt a little blah since I couldn't really just sit in front of the tv and knit away, or even really knit at work. I guess really I only started 2 or 3 pairs of socks that I really just got the icks about. Unfortunately, Pomotomus was one of those pairs. I had high hopes for those. I'll finish them eventually. Another was the pair of Monkeys for my mom. I don't have an issue with tat pattern, just the yarn and the freakishly crappy needles. I finished the first sock but never got around to casting on for #2.
Okay. Enough of what I haven't done. Here is something that I like quite a bit and it is now complete.....though not kitchnered because I seem to have misplaced all of my darning needles.

And a close-up of the pattern.

This is STR mediumweight in Henpecked. The pattern is Stansfield 196 from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I wish now that I had continued the pattern down the foot, but this will have to do. I like the pattern enough to make a second pair and I'll just do the foot on that future pair.

I also started a pair of Mata Hari socks in STR Alina. I just wasn't feeling them though so I frogged it last night. Still, here is what it looked like.

I love the colorway and I love the pattern,just not so much together. I re-cast on for them in STR Amethyst, but I'm not even done the ribbing yet. We'll see how that works out.

In non-knitting news, I cut all my hair off. Voila!

It doesn't really show in the photo, but the underside of the back of my head is shaved. Not shaved bald, but way, way short. I really like it and it's super easy to take care of.

That's all for now!

Woot!!

I just got my invite to Ravelry and am sooooo excited!! I half wish I could postpone my trip to Italy so I could obsessively sit here and upload photos. The "responsible" part of me is als thinking about how this could potentally be such a blessing to me organization-wise. It'll require me to go thru everything, group everything, provide me an opportunity to re-house things in a sensical manner.......and then I have to deal with all the technological crap and re-upload all my shit from photobucket to flickr and mess with all the things photo related that I'm very surprised I haven't managed to jack up aleady. Poo.
Oh, and as promised like a month ago, here's the damage on my pretty, poor little Fire on the Mountian sock.

Ouch

I sillhave to figure out how to darn it, if that's what the process is even called. Okay, I have to run and play more on Ravelry! Yay!

Sock Tale

I don't know what it's been lately with all my sock mishaps. There's the one pair that I kept finding in dirty parking lot puddles. There's the one where I waited and waited to use this pattern that I really liked, only to find that it doesn't show up a single bit in the yarn.....Oh! And what's the deal with me never being able to get a sock over my heel anymore? My heels don't look like they've suddenly expanded greatly. My legs, maybe. Heels, no. Anyhow, remember how I ordered all that sock yarn the other month and it all accidentally came in at once and I thought I was gonna pass out? I stayed true to my prediction and plunged right into the Fire on the Mountain.

preeetttyyy

With help from my mother, I was able to successfully wind it into a center-pull ball using hands and the winder, sans swift. I don't know why it never occurred to me that this could be done. I recently read somewhere about doing this, and while it was a tad troublesome and undoubtedly more time consuming/messy than doing it with a swift, it worked none the less.

I decided to keep the pattern about as simple as a pattern can be 1) because I didn't want to obscure the color at all and 2) I wanted my socks quick. I opted for plain stockinette socks, loosely based on the Sock Love pattern at Chic Knits. Then this happened.

fug

As unappealing as I found the severe, creepy tie-dye-gone-heinously-wrong appearance of this, I received multiple compliments on them. I kept thinking."Well, maybe they're not so bad." and kept knitting, in case you're wondering why I worked all the way thru the heel while a large part of me loathed them. I like my heel, so I new it wasn't the necessarily the sock yarn itself.

I did some poking around on the internet and after I saw what some of the less goofy socks looked like, I knew what had to be done.

ouch!

Luckily I was able to salvage the ribbing because I've developed quite an aversion to doing it. All I did was decrease 4 stitches around and this what I ended up with.

worst FO shot ever

Please excuse the fact that it looks like my feet are propped up on a mountain of trash. They're not, really, but I quickly cleaned off the table afterwards. Since completion, my socks have travelled to Atlantic City, where I mistakenly hoped they would be some sort of good luck charm, and got to go on the beach. Then my f*cking shoe broke exposing a large chunk of metal that poked and rubbed away at my heel. I was able to quickly get another pair of shoes, but I thought my socks had bit it. After I got them home and washed up, I thin they'll survive. They must have had some luck in them after all. If I can figure out how to send my phone pictures to my printer, maybe I'll show some of our adventures. Maybe I'll also get off my butt and take some shots of my finished Quill Laces Socks, which I realized earlier that I had never done. Oops.

Shhhhhhhhh.......

I've been poking around on the Internet for quite some time and it seems to be the trend for Fridays to be yarn porn day. This couldn't be more fitting considering that today is perhaps the most yarn-pornyest day that ever there was. I have to kind of keep it on the down low though. I think I may have reached a new peak in the "Oh my GOD! What have I done?!?" category. Anyhow, let's get this party started.....
First off is aforementioned Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock.

Here's a bit of a closeup that shows the colors a little better.

I don't really remember what all I d about this yarn before, but the green one is Envy and the other is Vera. Yum, yum, yum. Even if it is way thinner than I had in mind when I ordered it. I still couldn't really capture all the coolness of the Vera. It's a very strange yet pretty combo of dark pink/mauve/fuchsia with some browns and grayish greens. The Envy is the one I'm attempting to knit up for my sister, though I think I'm going to have to frog it once again because now the sock is turning out super huge. Did I mention this before?? Possibly.....

Okay. Now here is what caused me to think that maybe I've really lost it this time. This is like the Adult Film Awards of my yarn porn.

Voila!

And in a view that makes me froth at the mouth just a wee bit more....

From left to right we have Pink Granite, Socktopus, Rhodonite, Lunasea (which is particularly applicable to me), Puck's Mischief, and Fire on the Mountain. All of it is STR mediumweight, with the exceptions of Socktopus and the Pink Granite which are lightweight.

Socktopus and Lunasea are two of the new colors from the Tides collection. I literally almost threw up from excitement when I saw that they had added them.

Fire on the Mountain is just like a hippie tie-dye rainbow for the feet. I'll be looking forward to digging into this one. It'll take me some time to think of something to do that won't f#%@# around with the color scheme. I got these two patterns, also.

I like the patterns from BMFA. I still am uneasy about mixing lace with colors, but apparently sometimes it works out just fine. So, what does one do when all these goodies happen to arrive on the same day?? Absolutely freak out. Now, I've hid yarn before for various reasons. I wouldn't want a kid to touch something or I wouldn't want someone to see something that may be for them. There have also been times where I was little ashamed that I had to pick up this or that while I as out so I may have just pretended that it didn't happen for awhile while the yarn rested in a hidden bag. This however........

You have to remember that the above happened in like a nanosecond while I thought someone was coming up the stairs. Yes, this yarn was hidden out of pure fear. Fear o what, I'm not exactly sure, but fear it was. It as like having a soft, squishy, super wash merino panic attack and moment of sheer joy simultaneously. Scary. I think I'm going to have to take them out one by one and just pretend the others don't exist. Then, once one is safely hidden, I'm come down and nab another one. Sickness, people. That's what this is. Plain old crazy-yarn-lady sickness.

Hope everyone has a good weekend !!

Quill Lace Socks

I decided not to waste any time before diving into another sock. Surprise, surprise. My latest endeavor is the quill lace socks from the current (??) issue of Knitty. I'm liking the pattern now, but found it a little tedious at first. I'm often that way when I first start something new. Now that I have it in my head and can just do it, the sock and I are getting along better. Oh, and this is my Little Bunny Foo Foo medium weight STR. See the resemblance to Lucy??

Here's a detail of the lace.

I made some sort of heinous mistake on the cuff and ended up with surplus of stitches. I did my best to fix it but knew as I was doing it that it wasn't exactly working out. I should have been less lazy and ripped back a few rows, but I don' really care too much. You can see a pretty obvious screw up here in the middle two columns.

It's in the back of the sock and it's not like a person could tell (I hope) without really looking. The sock also has an 'Eye of Partridge' heel, which I don't think I've even done before. It's not all that different stitch wise from my usual slip stitch heel, but there's quite a contrast in appearance.

I've gotta play around with my camera some more and figure out how to get shots that have more color accuracy. I keep getting wither really dark photos or the flash bleaches everything out so much that my pictures look either black & white or like a giant shiny thing. I'll have to put that on my to-do list. That's all for now : )