Knitting Iris

Pumpkin Socks

Appropriately, these socks were finished on the way to the pumpkin patch last weekend where the pickings were already getting a little slim.  The pumpkins were in a few leftover piles in the field but we managed to find some good ones and spend a couple of hours seeing the sheep, chicken, goats, rabbits, riding the pedal cars and more, despite wind and hail followed by plenty of sunshine. 

The yarn is KnitPicks Dye Your Own in fingering weight that I dyed self-striping with Coreopsis tinctoria and Yarrow over a year ago now, posted about here and here.  They were knit toe up with the magic loop on #1 Addi Turbos over 56 stitches and they hit about mid calf so they're bunching around the ankles a little in real life.  I just loved knitting these and they had the perfect amount of modern-day witchy-ness when worn today peeking out from under green velveteen jeans and my "new" $4 thrifted-in-Seattle Jack Purcells with the smiles on the toes!  So, I guess these triple as a pair for Socktoberfest 2006, the Sock-A-Month knitalong, and I suppose even for the Witch Sock Design Contest.  I'm not sure if they can top my last year's knee-high witch socks, though.  You can expect to see a lot more of this type of candy-corn striping around here in the next little while.  I guess it's in my bones right now.

We've been doing some pretty messy crafting and concocting around here lately, including potato printing, papier-mache and the "oobleck", above, that we made earlier this month while reading Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  We pulled it back out the other day and added googly eyes to make crazy monsters, aliens, critters, and ghosts.  There seems to be a few different "recipes" out there for this stuff.  We got ours from The Ultimate Book Of Kid Concoctions, by John E. Thomas and Danita Pagel, where they call it Gooey Gunk.  Here they call this Glurch and another mix with cornstarch Oobleck.  Whatever you call it, it's all gooey and fun... and not nearly as messy as I would have thought.

October 10th Socks

Finishing these socks is one of the things I did this past weekend.  They are a belated birthday present for a good friend whom I've not seen enough of this past summer.  We'll be having dinner with them this evening and it'll be so good to have time to catch up.  These were the socks that I had originally intended to be for her only I made them too long in the foot. 

The yarn is Lorna's Laces in the Fun Knits colorway, knit toe up size 1 dpns over 56 stitches.  The toes and heels are reinforced with a solid brown sock yarn.  This colorway reminds me slightly of the Opal "Tiger" colorway.  These were a pleasure to knit up.  Both this pair, and the one in the October 4th post, were started in September, by the way.

The big cottonwood tree log that I photographed (is it O.K. to use that word when you're using a digital camera?) these on is where a squirrel has been perching to dismantle the cones that it spent days last month tearing off and tossing down from a nearby fir tree.  I presume it's taking the seeds out and hiding them away somewhere?

Sunday, while I everyone was away, I stopped over at the antique/junk store around the corner to go pick up this funky old work table.  I thought it would make an interesting, but effective sewing table.  The other day I measured the space where it would go and then measured the table and realized that it would fit PERFECTLY where I wanted to put it.  Then, I noticed the red SOLD/HOLD tag.  Somebody had bought it last weekend.  The irony is that I've looked at this table a handful of times over the summer, each time passing it by, thinking that the table top was too rough.  There are things that I've seen sitting around, never bought, at that place for the last 10 years.   I had actually intended to go the weekend prior to get it but never did.  Oops.  It's the one that got away.   I still like the idea of that table, so I asked to take a picture of it.  There is a shelf along the back side of the table, underneath, where a sewing machine could be stored when not in use.  The "cabinet" on the right hand side is an old wooden, ammunition box with a shelf installed inside.  The drawer is a random one from another piece of furniture.  It's really quite clever, I think, anyways.  Oh well, I guess it's back to sewing on the dining room table for the time being.

Dissappointed, rather than going back home right away, I stopped by another antiques store and then went for a drive, checking out the fall colors and listening to Stuart Maclean with the Vinyl Cafe on the radio.  I can't imagine a better way to spend the day.

The yarn at the bottom was from Shannon's mom, so now, I've been gifted sock yarn from both mother and daughter, alike.  Gotta love sock-knitting friends!  Thank you!!!

Oh.  For those who were wondering, the felted fellow's name is Ralphie.  Not very exciting, I know.  He whispered it in my ear.

October 4th socks

Addendum below!

Regia Crazy Color #5437.  Knit toe up, magic loop, on #1 Addi Turbos.  Heels and toes knit with matching solid sock yarn, 2 strands held together.  3x1 ribbing.  Last 2 rows knit with #6 needles.  Cast off EXTREMELY LOOSELY with the suspended bind off.

Amur maple leaves and Highbush cranberry bushes at the nursery where I used to work.  The Mountain ash that we planted in our yard for R after he was born.  This is the first year it has produced berries.

Added:  the pattern that I use almost exclusively for sock knitting is Wendy's Toe Up Sock Pattern, altering only the total number of stitches around.  Typically, for a pair of women's socks knit from most 4-ply yarn such as Regia or Meilenweit I'll wrap and turn until 8 stitches on each side are wrapped.  For a finer sock yarn like Opal or Lorna's Laces knit on #1 dpns, or for a men's pair of socks, with more total stitches I might wrap 9 on each side.  With sport weight yarn, usually only 7 stitches.  Oh, and 50% of the stitches are used for the heel, give or take a stitch or two if there's patterning to work around.  Thanks for asking.  Anything else?

... and I messed with the pictures in this post, changing them around a little.  It was bugging me.