little bit of crazy leaking out

Over Memorial Day weekend Hubby’s brother, SIL and niece were out here from NY.  We all planned to get together on Sunday for dinner.  Although it was the end of May, I had not shipped nieces x-mas gift to her, because I had not sewn the lining.  The knitting was finished, but no lining had been sewn, and other knitting projects caught my attention. 

Now the pressure was on, I had a week to get it done, no problem.  Sunday morning (yes, Sunday, shut up) I pulled out the sewing machine, rummaged thru the  fabric stash, and the zipper stash (yes, I have a zipper stash) and sewed up the lining for Quinn.  While on the ferry boat, on the way to dinner, I sewed the lining into the bag, took photos on the dashboard and wrapped it.  The bag was gifted and very well received, even five months late. 

pattern:  Quinn
yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
needles: Clover Bamboo
notes: I loved knitting this bag.  Ok, eventually I loved it.  I had some trouble at the beginning, but that was all operator error, nothing to do with the pattern it’s self.  The pattern is wonderfully well written and the results are amazing.  This pattern did offer some challanges for me, grafting in pattern, sewing in a zipper and lining , and knitting 12′ of i-cord (it was supposed to be 16′ but I gave up at 12′).  I was thrilled with the way the lining turned out and I was lucky to find an almost perfect zipper match. 

 

At VY&T on Saturday it was pointed out to me, more than once, by more than one person, that it had been a while since I had updated my blog.  Comments about “the green socks still being there” and hints about possibily posting abounded.  So, with out further ado, more green socks!

pattern:  my own, k3p3 rib, K5p1 leg, dutch heel, standard toe
yarn:  Kroy Sox
needles:  Crystal Palace US2.5
cast on:  October 30th (ish)  cast off: Dec 2nd

I’ve been doing some spinning too. Yes, I have fallen to the dark side.  On Thursday I spun up the remaining roving from my class, then on Friday I wacked together a lazy kate so I could do some plying.

I am actually quite pleased with my first finished yarn. 

 

 . . . and another FO!

pattern:  Spinner’s Shawl by Evelyn Clark
yarn:  Silky Wool
needles:  Clover Bamboo US8
cast on:  Dec 2nd  cast off: Dec 10th
notes:  Love this pattern, though it did turn out larger than I had planned.  The border is quite wide, which I chose to have amnesia about while knitting.  The cast off is great, nice and stretchy!

Since I had spun up all the roving I had, I picked up some more on Saturday.  Practice, practice, practice!  What holiday knitting?! 

I was granted a stay of execution. It rained.

Bug went back to school today, two hours late, but still! She and I were both going a little bit stir crazy. Tomorrow is a half day. Bubba was very disappointed that school was canceled for him, but I did get a call from school transportation and he will start riding the bus on Monday.

I have been knitting, a second green sock, and if I want it to count for Sock-a-Month I need to finish it tonight. I am past the gusset so I just have the foot and toe to go, totally doable, but I knit like a 4yo, we’ll just have to wait and see.

My knitting pace has slowed to a crawl.  Hubby has been working long, and odd (3am to 1pm or later), hours.  I’ve just been plain tired because I’m staying up to late to avoid waking hubby when I get into bed.  He’s going to bed about 7pm and I feel bad disturbing him when he has to get up at 1:30am, but then I have to be up in the morning to feed the kids, make lunch and get Bug onto the school bus.

I am almost to the toe on the first green sock.  I’m not sure what will be cast on next, I have the second brown sock waiting for me as well as the second green sock.  Maybe I’m getting a bit socked out, I could finish Quinn, then start on the second socks.  I am almost finished with the body of Quinn then I have to knit something like 16′ of two stitch i-cord to knit for Quinn.  Maybe I’ll just cast on those socks after all.

Saturday morning I went to the LYS to hang out, drink tea and knit. I did end up purchasing two skeins of sock yarn, one of which I started knitting with before I even paid for it, a skein of Trekking XXL #62. The other skein is Lana Grossa Meilenweit colortweed #1009. I am so happy that they have gotten in more “man colored” sock yarns, you can only knit so many pairs of pink socks.

I have to say that I fought with the Trekking XXL for two days. Love the yarn, but it is a tad thinner than the previous sock yarns I have used and I had a terrible time getting a gauge I was happy with. I finally realized that a gauge of 8.5sts/1” was not going to work when I am knitting for size men’s 10.5, on a deadline. Just too many stitches to even contemplate at this time, so I placed the Trekking into stash and did a bit of diving to find some lovely green Kroy Sock.

I swatched, found a gauge I was happy with, did a bit of math, looked in some sock books, did some more math and some graphing, looked in another sock book and finally decided on  K3 P3 for the ribbing and K5 P1 ribbing for the leg and instep. I am in love with these socks! No, really I am! Simple but elegant, I think. 

It’s not the best picture, but I think you can see how the K5 is centered under the K3 ribbing at the top.  If you can’t, well, believe me, it is, like this:

Oh, and that’s the colortweed I mentioned above, in the background.

I am sad Socktober is coming to an end.  There is no way I will be finished with these socks by tomorrow so it looks like my tally for Socktober will be two pair, plus one sock plus whatever I can finish of the sock above.  Not to shabby.

I finished off another pair of socks from the Holiday Gift List.

pattern:  based on Gentlemen’s Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush
yarn:  Knit Picks Essential Solid - Dusk
needles:  Clover Bamboo US3
cast on:  October 21st  cast off: October 26th 
notes:  These socks are based on the socks from Knitting Vintage Socks because I misread the pattern when I was ordering yarn for the project.  I read the first line of the pattern which says “with yarn doubled, cast on …”  Oh, hey, I thought to myself, these will knit up in a jiff with the yarn doubled.  I ordered the yarn and when it arrived I sat down to start knitting.  “Cut off extra strand of yarn.”  WTF!  The socks are knit with the yarn doubled for the cast on but one strand for the rest of the sock.  But, I have all this sock yarn!  So I went ahead and knit the socks with the yarn doubled and just fiddled with the numbers to make it work.