Knitting Iris

Super Sock Pal 2!

Look what came in the mail ON MY BIRTHDAY! I rode my bike down the driveway, peeked inside the mailbox and then had to ride back in suspense before opening the package to find these incredible socks that fit PERFECTLY!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my Sock Pal 2, Felicia, from Pennsylvania!  They are beautiful, so nicely made, and very comfortable.  She is blog-free, so this is the first time you'll see them, too.

She put so much effort into them...dyeing the KnitPicks Color Your Own with Kool Aid and then knitting them up in what I think is the broadripple pattern or something similar???  Whatever the case, I love them.

She included some minty scented soap and a postcard from her home state.  After putting them on, we immediately had to pull out the atlas and find out more specifically where in PA.   Apparently she lives in another small town, like me.

Felicia did a very clever thing when she made these socks.  She put in a dental floss (also minty!) lifeline just before starting the toe shaping so that if they didn't fit, I could rip back to the lifeline and reknit the toes with the extra yarn that she sent along.  You can see it in the pictures.  I didn't have to do that, but what a great idea!  It would take away a lot of the fretting over whether you're getting the sizing just right. 

I didn't see much of those blue toes, as they were covered in colorful wooly goodness all day.  All in all, a wonderful birthday, but this certainly made it extra special.

Thank you again, Felicia!  And thank you again, Alison, for another great sock exchange! 

Not State Fair

So it isn't the Montana State Fair, but rather, the teeny Lincoln County Fair.  The competition isn't exactly stiff, but if nobody deserves a ribbon in a particular category, well, then no ribbons are awarded.  It's fun to support the event, but I didn't enter as much as I have in the past.  Here are the results:

"Socks":  Blue ribbon for Sockapal2za socks.

"Sweater, womens' ": Blue ribbon and Best Hand Knitted Article(!) for Corset Pullover.

"Any other knitted article":  Blue ribbon for EZ baby leggings.

Sockapal-2-za Finished

Yarn: Mountain Colors  Bearfoot, Rosehip, with Elann Sock It To Me as toe and heel reinforcement.  Needle: Addi Turbo, size 1 circular.  Pattern: Open Twisted Rib.  Stitches: Only 50.  This pattern is quite stretchy.  But the small number of total stitches, as well as the fact that this yarn has little stretch to it (possibly due to the mohair content?) made it quite difficult to keep the top cast off edge from being a tourniquet.  First I did this bind off.  Does anyone know, is this the tubular cast off?  Then I did my regular go up a needle size or two regular bind off, done loosely.  Still too tight.  On the third try, I undid the top, changed to the reinforcement yarn,  increased to 60 stitches, did the ribbing, switched to a size 3 needle, and bound off loosely.  Good enough, I hope. 

I'm not terribly thrilled with the tiger stripey-ness of the yarn, but it's not quite so obvious in person.  It is incredibly soft even with a touch of mohair, which, of course, makes it a bit difficult to rip.  Luckily there wasn't much of that until the very end.

The verdict is out on whether the magic loop, or using 5 double pointed needles is faster for me.  It's pretty close, but it took until well into the second sock before I picked up speed, and I think the dpns are easier on my wrists.  Dpn's it is, but I'll still use the Addis sometimes just for something different.

O.K. So, now that I have the attention of a good portion of the world's sock knitters, I have a question for you....

WHAT do I do with all of THIS?

They have outgrown their Ziploc bag and have become a stash of their very own.   It doesn't help that I've started to knit shorter height socks lately.   

Here are some of the ideas I've come across:

Mini-socks or mini-sweaters for ornaments or advent calenders like these.  (I've already made an advent calendar out of wool felt.)

Baby and Toddler socks.  (O.K. Sure.)

Blankets and afghans like this (picture here), this, this, and this!  (No, thanks.  Too long term.)

Patchwork pillows: middle bottom picture here .  (Maybe.)

Patchwork sweaters like this, this,  and this.  (NOT!)

Frankensocks, or monstersocks here.  (Maybe a couple pairs for the kids.)

DOES ANYBODY ELSE HAVE ANY MORE IDEAS? 

Socks, Mountains, Lakes

Left: picture that does not do justice to sock, lake, or mountains.  Right: Picture perfect.

This is the first Sockapalooza sock, complete.  I'll wait to get a better shot until the other one is finished.  I didn't want to bind off yet until I weigh what's left of the other ball to make sure there is enough for the other sock (Oops. I should have split the skein before I started the first one.), and it's time to learn the more stretchy, tubular bind off.  Up until now, I've just gone up one or two needle sizes for the last row and the cast-off row.

That's Bowman Lake, Saturday evening, after C and the boys were sound asleep back at the campsite.  I sat cross-legged in the grass at the edge of the lake all alone (aside from the just-finished sock) for so long, that my entire right leg fell asleep.  I finally realized that, if a bear were to saunter up out of the darkness right about then, I wouldn't even be able to run and there would be nobody around to help.  That's when I stood up, almost fell over a few times, and gimped my way back up to the tent.  More camping adventures tomorrow.

So, where did you and your sock go today/yesterday/last weekend?

Sockapal2za Progress

This time around, the Sockapal2za is challenging me to try some new things.  First, I'm teaching myself the magic-loop. I'm not so sure that it's any faster...yet.  The verdict is still out.  My fingers haven't really gotten used to fiddling with the long circular.  Second, I'm designing something with a textured pattern. I've only done one fairisle pattern before and the rest have all been just plain ribbing.  The pattern is called "Open Twisted Rib".  The color on the left is too dark, and the one on the right is too light, but show the  pattern.  That's my hand in there making it look a bit deformed.  It's  coming along!

The longest day

The longest day of the year only seemed longer because we had a pretty rough morning around here.  One of those days where you just want to run away or crawl back into bed.  The boys weren't getting along with eachother, and I was having a tough time getting along with them.  I know the pictures I post can be pretty idyllic, but don't get me wrong, we're real people around here who have some days that are better than other days,  some days that are great, and others that are not so good at all.

And in the midst of all this, the lawnmower, which I just picked up from the repair shop yesterday, broke down on me again.  You know those times when you can't get something to work, and somebody else tries it and it starts right up for them?  Yes, it was one of those times.  Then we were out of gas.  Oh, and the grass was about a foot tall because it's been raining for 3 weeks, so it took forever, on the second 80+ degree day of the year.  In the back "yard" I decided to mow a crazy, curvy path through the tall grass to play in for a day or so before I'll mow it all down, and felt much better after that. 

When C finished work, we went for a swim at a nearby lake.  There's nothing like a beautiful, sunny evening at the beach to brighten your attitude, too. 

Back home, we had dinner, played in the grass path, and went to bed.  E asked me to sing "Don't take my sunshine away."  I don't know the real name of the song, or even if I know the correct lyrics, but my Mom used to sing it to me too:

You are my sunshine. You are my sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey.  You'll never know, dear, how much I love you.  Please don't take my sunshine away."

Appropriate for the Solstice, I thought.

Two hours later, E was still awake, tossing and turning and calling for me to come and lay down with him. "I NEED YOU, MAMA!"  Since it was still so light out and such a beautiful night, I asked him to go for a little walk with me to pick some daisies. It was a nice time together.  When we returned, I went and laid down with him in his bed. 25 minutes later, when he was still awake listening to the birds sing, I came downstairs and let him cry himself to sleep.

Here's to shorter days to come, hopefully better days, and earlier bedtimes.

Oh, by the way the pictures are of the wild roses growing where I can see them from a distance from the kitchen window.  The yarn is my Sockapal2za yarn, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, in the color Rosehip.  When I send the socks out in September, these bushes will have rosehips on them, instead of blossoms.  Nice coincidence.

Happy Solstice.

Let the sock knitting begin!

In honor of the beginning of Sockapal2za today, I thought I'd show you the fabulous fairisle socks that I received in the first Sockapalooza.  I love these socks!  They are Lorna's Laces "solid" colors.  They were made by Grauwal in San Fransisco.  Thank you, again!

In the first Sockapalooza, I was knitting for Judy at The Knitter.com.  Luckily, I didn't realize until after she received them who I was knitting for.  I would have felt like I was knitting for a celebrity.  If you are looking for sock yarn for your next project, they have a fantastic selection here.  They have other yarns and great service, too.

I'm excited about my new sock pal match.  I'm pretty sure that I'd like to use, Mountain Colors Bearfoot from Hamilton, MT, since it's "local",  but I'll have to see the colorways in person before I decide for sure whether they'll match my sockpal's preferences well enough.  Pattern?  Not sure yet.

Time to finish the other two socks in progress, first!