The morning we released the last and final pattern for Sock Madness 6. Our five finalists will be knitting this lovely pattern which combines twined and regular knitting. I really enjoy test knitting this one and am sure I’ll do more twined knitting in the future.
Comments Off on Rossling
Tagged Again with the socks?, Knitting, Rossling, SM6, sock madness, Socks, twined
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve blogged about my crafty world. Last weekend I went to a conference and afterwards surprised my mother by showing up at her Mother’s Day brunch, and the weekend before was a quiet weekend at home.
I finally finished the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece, and it’s a great sweater-dress on her right now. I think she could get 2 years’ worth of use from this, this year as a dress, next year as a sweater:
And then I realized I had a friend with an impending baby to be born and I hadn’t made anything, so I quickly whipped up the Hoot Cardigan, which I saw Lucy Lee knitting at her weekly knitting group at Mind’s Eye Yarns now with an online store too! (note, I bought the grasshopper sky sock yarn a few weeks ago and still am in love with it) and I knew it would be perfect for the newest arrival in my tribe:
I have been working a bit on photography skills, and part of what I have learned is to not have anything directly on a background, because that will produce shadows that may skew the object a bit. The best thing to do is have the object hanging vertically somehow, and shaped (see how the Hoot Cardigan is done above?). So, in order to actually accomplish this for socks and gloves, I bought a plastic hand and clear plastic foot online. The foot looks very nice with the one completed Monkey Sock I’ve done:
Compare and contrast that with the pictures on my project page and you’ll see hands-down the plastic foot is the way to go.
Of course, this prompted my partner to tell me I had to stop buying body parts online.
I am currently working on the second Monkey Sock, so soon I will actually have a pair to wear!
I finished weaving the Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club April offering – the “This Way and That” scarf:
I need to work on not beating so hard – I learned that I should only beat once, but as my friend and amazing weaver Anna Branner says, “beating is more like placing the yarn.” So, I know that for next time!
With all this traveling I’m doing, I’m trying to knit while traveling and spin while at home (I’m bringing my spindles on the longer trips). So last night I spun up the Gnomespun Mythic Fiber Club Heqet I received earlier this month. The Manx Loaghton spun like a dream, although there is a very obvious “right” end and “wrong” end. I deliberately spun this thick, instead of my usual fine stuff, and then plied 2 strands together. The 4 oz bump yielded 3 3/4 oz of yarn, 172 yards at 7 wpi. It is soft and squishy and downy.
I also practiced playing around with my camera’s ISO settings. This first pic is on the highest ISO setting, 1600, which is good for very dark indoor scenes:
And here it is at the lowest ISO setting, 80:
It’s still way too sunny out to take the perfect picture, but I was not going to wait until the sun was at a different angle to take the picture. Note how the yellows are very washed out in the top picture.
That’s what’s been going on in my crafty world!
Yesterday we kicked off round 6 of Sock Madness with the pattern Dolce Pazzia. Being the test knitter is the only way I could possible beat these ladies through the gate! Sweet Madness indeed.
Comments Off on Dolce Pazzia
Tagged Again with the socks?, beaded, Dolce Pazzia, Knitting, SM6, sock, sock madness 6
Good morning, zucchini blossom
This is one of the plants that still needs to go into the earth box. Apparently pretty quickly, because it is getting ahead of me.
So are the potatoes!
I didn’t look in on the potatoes for a couple of days (just a couple, I am not neglectful) due to my job trying to kill me (another post I hope to write soon, I promise) and the potatoes grew! I am a new enough gardener that seeing something sprout after it’s planted in dirt and then watered it still magical. I don’t think it ever stops being magical, which is probably why gardeners are always adding more plants, taking up more of their yards, learning to can and freeze properly. They are addicted–and so am I. Now, if I can just remember to check the potatoes every day, I might be able to keep them alive.
Despite the job that’s trying to kill me, I have done some other stuff too.
I took this sweater out of Pterarnodon Worsted that was too big
to this kinky mess of yarn
And overdyed it a couple of times (I know it’s hard to tell from the photographs, but I promise, it’s much lovelier) to get a darker, richer brown that is destined to become some kind of vest I think. I have just under 1000 yards of yarn here, so I have room to play. Any suggestions?
Also, I started a new sweater.
I do love a poor photograph in the morning, don’t you?
I cast on the Surfer Tee that Stefanie Japel has been blogging about this week–mostly because I liked the neckline and I am a sucker for a kangaroo pocket. The pattern is free right now on her blog–not sure how long it will be up.
I am doing something that most people would advise you not to do ever never ever. I am knitting this sweater in the size I want to be and not the size that I currently am. Perhaps I am overly optimistic because I have lost 20 lbs recently, and am hoping that I can lose another 20-30 more before the cold comes again. I am knitting for my future self and I don’t care who knows it. I needed some sweater therapy and this is just about right. (Yarn is knit picks swish worsted in lost lake heather–which is knitting up nicely, but I have to say, I am so used to minimally processed stuff (EG, Pteranodon Worsted) that this feels kind of like American cheese when you’re used to artisan cheddar.)
What are you working on this weekend?
Comments Off on Good Morning, Zuchini
Tagged Balcony Garden, gardening, In The Works, Inspiration, Knitting, potatoes, Stefanie Japel, Surfer Tee, zuchini
I sort of finished a sweater for Oona.
As in, it’s done but she won’t let me have it back long enough to properly block it.
The pattern is called Boheme, and I used Juniper Moon Farm’s Sabine. It knit up super fast, and I added two little i-cord flowers, similar to the Boheme sweater that was gifted to Oona in December by our friend Suzy Q.
The buttons were some adorable Jemima Puddleduck ones I found at JoAnns ages ago, and was thrilled to finally have something that matched so perfectly!
Hopefully at some point it will get blocked so I can get a decent picture of the lace portion on the bottom.
I’ve knit several pairs of fingerless gloves for Daniel. He’s very choosy so I’ve written 3 or 4 variations on the pattern but this one seems to be the favorite. He often loses one, necessitating a new pair. My plan going forward is to order several skeins of this black and always do the same 2×2 ribbing so that when he loses one, I can just knit a single. I’ll have to go back and modify the pattern a smidge to reflect this ribbing style.
Comments Off on Fingerless Gloves for Dan
Tagged Knitting
At last I can show you some of what I have been knitting. This is Roosimine, the round 5 pattern for Sock Madness. I wasn’t the primary test knitter but I did get called in for backup when Tricia thought it was really easy and wanted to see if I thought the same. I knit loosely and I think that gives me an advantage in these sorts of patterns so that I blew through the cuff very quickly and it goes over my heel with the greatest of ease. I have a high instep though so when I got to the arch shaping the sock wouldn’t go onto my foot and I put it away in time out for awhile. Lo and behold, when I got it out for a photo session this morning it does go on my foot but it’s wicked tight over the instep. Now I must decide whether to frog and reknit the foot with shaping on alternate rows rather than every row or just let it be and hope it loosens up a bit more. It’s a very fun knit and I highly recommend it!
Comments Off on Roosimine
Tagged Again with the socks?, Knitting, Roosimine, roositud, SM6, sock madness, Socks
 |
| The shop on the same day we got the keys... |
 |
| How one area of the shop looked as of yesterday. |
 |
| The other half of the front area. Today, all of the yarn was finally put out... |
Comments Off on A Call to Arms: Setting Up the Shop
Tagged crafts, knit along, Knitting, local yarn shop, LYS