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Warm Up Sox

Posted on 25 May 2011
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It sounds naughty right?   Well the pattern comes from a book called The Joy of Sox, and yes, it’s a clever play on another book about something entirely different.  The pattern was originally knit starting at the toe and finishing at the cuff.  Now, I can knit socks toe-up, but I loathe every second of it.  I learned to knit socks from the cuff down (top-down), and it’s more familiar and comfortable for me.  So, I pretty much took the stitch pattern and worked it into a top-down sock.  Yeah, the cable is upside down, but it really doesn’t matter to me, and the basic idea of the sock is still preserved (or at least I think so anyway!).  Really love the eye searing green from the colorway called, “Night Vision,” and the yarn was fun to knit with, making a squishy pair of socks.  So sad that it’s summer and I won’t really be wearing them till the fall again, but when the cold weather comes, I’m sure they’ll be ready for my feet.  This is the third finished item in my 11 in 2011 goal for knitting this year.

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Go With the Flow Socks

Posted on 16 April 2011
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Finally, another spun-to-finished project.  I’ve been accumulating quite the stash of handspun, and I figured it was time to put some to use.  The yarn is dyed by Meg at Twisted Fiber Art, and she’s really quite the magician with dye.  The colorway is called, “Intrigue,” and was part of a club Meg ran for 3 months.  I spun the superwash merino roving into a thin single and then chain or navajo plied the yarn so that the colors would stay together as they were dyed.  I ended up with about 425 yards of fingering weight yarn that was then turned into a really squishy pair of Go With the Flow socks.  The pattern knitted up quickly, and I only made a few modifications – worked a plain slip-stitch heel and didn’t turn the work inside out after the heel flap was done.  I love the way they came out and refuse to take them off now that the photos are taken.  Yeah, it’s almost not-sock season, but that won’t stop me from stocking up for the winter!

 

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Gin & Tonic

Posted on 5 April 2011
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This is the second finished item of my 11 in 2011. Yeah I might be a little behind, but I can still make it, right?

The yarn is Sheepy Feet from Sheepy Time Knits, colorway, “Daisy Chain.”  The color pooled up making these awesome spirals of green around the socks and I love how that happened – looks like a twist of lime, going with the gin and tonic theme.  The sock pattern, Gin & Tonic, worked up really quickly and I’m happy with how they came out.  No real modifications to the pattern, just knit it as-is.  Pretty short post, but socks are socks, and it’s more about the eye candy here than any fancy write-up!

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11 in 2011

Posted on 5 February 2011
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So there’s a knit-a-long for doing 11 projects in 2011. I’ve finally sat down and made a list. This is a sort of replacement for the knitting resolutions and is a much better idea. Detailing 11 projects and going for just those 11 sounds like a good idea. So, here goes the list.

  1. Shedir Mittens – From the original hat pattern, my sister-in-law requested mittens to match her hat.  Given the way KnitPicks changes their colorways every season, the same colors aren’t available, but I think there are some that are close enough.  Using the linked pattern and continuing on to make mittens instead of fingerless gloves.
  2. Juneberry – I’m sort of intimidated by this, mostly because there’s pattern work on both the right side and wrong side.  But, with enough time, I’m sure I can finish it.  There’s 11 months left, right? – DONE - Ravelry Link
  3. Gentleman’s Fancy Sock – This project has been languishing and needs to be cast on and completed this year.
  4. Triumph Cable Scarf – For a relative on the husband’s side who was gracious enough to gift me 17 fleeces from her sheep.  I got a batch of roving back from about 1/3rd of the wool so far, and have gotten a little spun so far.
  5. Joanie – I just really love this sweater and definitely have the yarn for it already.
  6. Skulls & Flowers Mittens – They’re too cute.
  7. Casadh – Socks.  By the way, half of this list is going to be socks. – DONE – Ravelry Link – Blog Link
  8. Gin and Tonic – More socks! – DONE – Ravelry Link – Blog Link
  9. Irate Squirrel – Socks.  Can’t go wrong with a name like that. – DONE - Ravelry Link
  10. Frozen Margarita – Another awesome name.  Already have the kit, just need to knit it!
  11. Warm up Socks – Pattern from a book I have already, might as well, right? – DONE - Ravelry Link – Blog Link
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Sock Knitting Workshop

Posted on 16 January 2011
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I’m running a sock knitting workshop in Phoenixville, PA!  Check out the flyer above, but if you want the pdf version, you can grab that here.  I’ll be posting some more details later today, but I wanted to get this post up right away!

Someone forgot to put the cost of the workshop on the flyer.  So, the flyer on this page is the current one, sorry for any confusion!  The cost is only $7.  There’s still space left too, and if you need to brush up on some knitting skills before February, there’s plenty of time.

Skills:
Here are a few videos from knittinghelp.com that show the skills you ought to have before the class.
Long-Tail Cast On
Knit Two Together
Slip-Slip-Knit
Basic Knit stitch – either continental or english is fine
Purl – again, either method is fine
Picking up stitches – I’ll be teaching this one in the workshop

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The Year in Knitting, 2010 Edition

Posted on 13 January 2011
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I suppose it’s time to go back and review my 2010 knitting resolutions, even though I didn’t make them all. Also, letting the blog go for two months without a post is so not good. Need to get back on that.

1. The American Aran Afghan. This is the beast that I will tackle and finish this year.
YEAH NO. I got three squares in and ended up somehow injuring myself and couldn’t knit for a solid month or two. Pretty much killed that project. I’m sure it’ll be done eventually, just not any time soon.

2. Knit /spin any club yarn/fiber in the month it is received.
I hit this one out of the ballpark. All the club yarn was knit into socks, and all the club fiber was spun. Let’s just not talk about my stash equilibrium that I was hoping to work on by doing this.

3. Knit two sweaters.
Not just two, but THREE. One of those was a sweater knit out of handspun. Still need to get that post up, but I DID IT.

4. Knit one double-knitted item.
Missed this one for a second year in a row. It’ll happen when it happens, I guess.

And lastly, because the post needs some eye candy, a flickr slideshow of my Finished Objects from this year.

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Rhinebeck 2010

Posted on 28 October 2010
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RhinebeckMosaic So I swear, sometimes I actually post about knitting and yarn and things like that.  October 16 and 17 was the annual New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, more commonly referred to as Rhinebeck.  It’s become an annual knitter tradition to go up for the weekend and enjoy fall, the beautiful leaves, snorgling sheep, checking out everyone’s incredible knitwear, and most importantly, SHOPPING.  I’m going to keep it short and say that we had an AWESOME group carpooling to the festival and it was pretty much an epic weekend (THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!  HA!).  I came home with probably more than what I intended to buy, but I love everything and really really badly want to knit all the things right now.  I still need to get together a post about the awesome sweater I wore to show off, but that’s for later.  Can’t wait for next year!




Link to full flickr set, including acquisitions!

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Knitting update

Posted on 14 August 2010
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I know it’s been a while since I’ve had a knitting/spinning update, in the midst of the One Local Summer fiesta I’ve been having. I’ve still been knitting and spinning, honest! Now that it’s been half the year, I suppose we should go back and look at the knitting resolutions for this year and see how things are progressing.

1. The American Aran Afghan. This is the beast that I will tackle and finish this year.
Yeahhh.. I have four squares done. I’m finding the charting and the way the book is set up to be VERY frustrating and it’s putting me off from knitting the squares. Each square goes rather quickly if I sit down and work at it, but it’s an absolute pain to copy, cut, and arrange the charts so that it makes sense to knit row-by-row.  Plus, there was this random odd injury that made knitting painful for a few months.  So, I was spinning A LOT but barely knitting a stitch.  Then there was the Tour de Fleece which took up almost a whole month of just spinning.. Not sure if I’m going to finish this afghan this year.

2. Knit /spin any club yarn/fiber in the month it is received.
Doing REALLY well with this one. I’ve had three club shipments for yarn this year that resulted in three pairs of socks so far. There was also a fiber club with three braids of roving that ended up as three skeins of yarn.

3. Knit two sweaters.
One down, one to go. I knitted the Leaf Pattern Gilet which knitted up rather quickly and will be a fall favorite when weather comes back around to actually knit. Here are the details!

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Pattern: Leaf Pattern Gilet
Needles: US 6 (4mm)
Yarn:  Balmoral by Sirdar
-Ravelry Project Link-
So incredibly pleased with this project from the color to the yarn to the pattern. It’s a really lovely and simple knit and I’m so glad I was able to grab the magazine that contained this pattern while it was available.

4. Knit one double-knitted item.
Uhhhh… Maybe this winter? I’m still feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea and it probably sounds more complicated than it really is.

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Ravelympics 2010

Posted on 12 April 2010
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Pattern: Trevi
Designer: Anne Hanson
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm)
Yarn: Twisted Fiber Art Kabam in, “Kismet”
-Ravelry Project Link-

Wow what a project!  This was knit over the 17 days of the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver, Canada.  Ravelry hosts a knitting olympics of sorts – I entered this project in the Short Track Shawls event and finished just in time before the end of the closing ceremonies.  It was a close one.  I finished the border as written in the pattern, but ended up a few yards short on yarn.  This isn’t exaclty a yarn that I could just go out and buy more, so I ripped out the whole border and started over, omitting one stitch from the border – instead of three stitches, I dropped down to two, and ended up with only a yard or so left over.  It blocked up beautifully and I love the angular lace pattern.  Pretty simple as far as lace goes, but enough to keep me interested and still be able to finish in two weeks.  I’m super proud of it, and yet again, Meg, the dyer, did a fabulous job dyeing up the color evolution so it fit with the shawl progression just perfectly!

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2009 Knitting Resolutions – Wrap up

Posted on 9 January 2010
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2009 is over and gone, and I’m going to check through my list and see how I’ve done.

1. Clear the WIP queue from last year by the end of the month.
There’s still one outstanding WIP from 2008 in my queue, but otherwise, I did pretty well on the clean-up!  We’ll consider this one not complete, but close, right?

2. Knit two sweaters this year.
I got one!  I blogged about that one here, and got a good start on the second one, but haven’t yet finished it.  Hopefully soon.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month.
Oh boy did I EVER do this one.  And I think I deserve a HUGE GOLD STAR.  Because I’m awesome.

sockmosaic2009

I knitted a few socks this year. Here are my official 12 per the year, but the total count is 19 pairs *finished* this year (some were started in 2008).  The links below are to flickr and the original post on my blog.

1. January
flickr – blog		 2. February
flickr- blog		 3. March
flickr- blog
4. April
flickr- blog		 5. May
flickr- blog		 6. June
flickr- blog
7. July
flickr- blog		 8. August
flickr- blog		 9. September
flickr- blog
10. October
flickr- blog		 11. November
flickr- blog		 12. December
flickr- blog

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
I might not have gotten them all in on the right month, but here we have it! Some of those are 8 ounces, so I don’t have 12 photos, but there are more than enough ounces to count at least four for every month of the year.  Yes, I realize October is missing, but there are two entries for March, so the math works out in the end, yes?  Yes.
Fibermosaic2009

1. Jan/Feb
blog		 2. Jan/Feb
blog		 3. March
Flickr
4. June/July
blog		 5. June/July
blog		 6. August
blog
7. September
blog		 8. May
blog		 9. March
blog
10. November
blog		 11. December
blog

5. Dye more yarn and roving.
Oh yeah. Did that. Hosted a dye-day at my house with the local Stitch n’ Bitch and it was super fun.

6. Knit at least one pair of stranded socks.
Nope. Not even a little. I really over-extended myself this past year.

7. Finish holiday gift knitting throughout the year instead of all at once in December!
I guess I got this one? Sorta cheated since I only did one item for one person. It’s so hard knitting gifts when there are five sisters-in-law to knit for. I’ve opened up next year for requests, so we’ll see what happens.

8. Participate in another test knit.
Yep. A few of them. I think three total?

9. Work on an original pattern.
*buzzer*  Not even a little bit.  It was a nice idea though?

The tally comes to five out of nine.  I think the list for 2010 is going to be more conservative.  More on that later, while I think up some goals to set.

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