Death of a Sock

I've been knitting on the Nanners socks, and I don't like them. Don't get me wrong, I like the pattern, and separately, I like the yarn (Brooks Farm Acero), but I don't like them together. I haven't been able to really get into this project (the Girasole aka time-suck may have something to do with that). Therefore, I have decided to frog it, and to document the death of a sock.

Act 1: The Sock is fooled into thinking that this is just a regular picture day.

Act 2: The sock is worried, but still hopeful that perhaps this is just a minor frogging.

Act 3: The sock begins to beg for mercy.

Act 4: The end is neigh.

Act 5: The sock takes its last breath...

Act 6: The end.

My apologies to Arthur Miller. I don't know anything about Death of A Salesman, but chances are very good that I butchered any resemblances.

I needed a bit of a mental break from everything, and as a consequence, I haven't knit since Tuesday. I have grand plans to maybe stay up all night knitting or at least knit all day tomorrow while DH goes to a powwow, so maybe I'll have some progress pics soon. Sorry for the boredom on here.

Gah, I suck at blogging

Ok, I suck at posting progress pics. But all I've really worked on lately is the girasole (I vote for a new definition of girasole-it should read "time suck"). I was going to do both pairs of socks in the KAL this month, and I'm barely halfway through the first Nanners sock. How about a pic of that? I have it in front of me, and I'm at work..... ok, here's a pic:

Yup, that's all I've got for today. There is a sale at my favorite yarn store tomorrow (SWAK), and my DH has decided we are going to a powwow in Tulsa tomorrow. Sooooo, he's only given me 30 mins to shop. That's not nearly enough time, but I've already scouted the store to locate what I want in the hopes of getting out of there in time with the yarn I want. I won't tell you what I'm eyeing because this blog shows up on Ravelry. Gotta keep it a secret lol.

I have my computer back!

A project update will follow soon, assuming I can pull myself away from the computer long enough to take pics.

Quick girasole pic

Its posing as a hat. :) My computer had to go to the Apple store hospital on Tuesday (the screen went out), and isn't expected to released for 5-7 days from last Wednesday. Its been rough. :\

Girasole progress

I'm moving right along with the Girasole. I had to transfer it from a 24" cable to a 32" cable (I have the Knitpicks harmony interchangeables). I just finished row 7 of chart C, for those of you who are doing it too. I know it may not be obvious to some of you, but I love blue. I really really love this color blue lol.

Nanners

Here is today's progress on the Nanner socks. I still don't love the yarn, but I think I'll be able to live with it.

Who knew yarn can be hot?

I'm knitting the Nanner socks with Brooks Farms Acero. It is 60% wool, 20% silk, and 20% viscose. It is making my hands sweat to knit with it. Odd, no? Well, here is a pic of the pretty pretty yarn.

Decisions, decisions

I can cast on my next pair of socks at midnight (3.5 hours from now, but I doubt I'll stay up lol). There are 2 sock patterns per month (1 from the book, 1 free). This month, they are:

Free pattern: The nanner socks:

Pattern from the book: The On-Hold Socks (rav link):

I don't know which one I want to do first. I fully intend to do both. I'm also having trouble picking out a yarn. I have a blue one that I can use; but again, I don't know which pattern to do it with.

So, which pattern do you guys think I should do first?

The socks are done!

I am finished! Well, except for the blocking. I have to wait for my sock blockers to come in the mail (I'm hoping they'll be here Monday). This is the first pair of socks from the Ravelry Socks from the Toe-Up knit a long (KAL). The socks are a tad bit looser than what I like, so I am giving them to my best friend. Here are the details:

Needles: Size 3 dpns

Pattern: Wendy's Lacy Rib Socks (rav link) from her Socks from the Toe-Up book

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, colorway Pool (not happy with the yarn btw)

Toe: Judy's Magic Cast-on, CO 20 sts and did 3 increase rows before increasing as indicated in the pattern.

Heel: Slip-stitch heel

Started: June 4, 2009

Finished: June 27, 2009 (I was distracted by other projects)

Project notes: Pattern very easy to memorize; is very stretchy! Go down a needle size or 2. I made the small size, but they fit my bff's medium sized feet.

Talk about being a follower

I've fallen in love with the Girasole by Jared Flood (his blog is brooklyn knits-link to post). Wendy has done it, and I have several friends planning it or doing it. Most of the projects on ravelry are done either in fingering weight yarn (for a shawl) or in worsted (for a blanket). I want something in-between, so I've thought of finding a nice DK weight yarn to use. If I do use worsted, it will likely be Cascade Eco wool, and if I use fingering, it will probably be Tempted (she's also doing a girasole). I don't like shawls though. However, one of the knitting gurus at the LYS is doing it in fingering weight, and I really liked it. I'd mentally envisioned this blanket as being a future baby blanket, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Lol, I just bought the pattern, so I may be in a bit of trouble if I find the perfect yarn any time soon.

Almost done!

My little elefante is only lacking eyes and a tail. I've been a little lax on posting pics, so I've posted some below.

The feet bore a fun resemblance to cupcakes.

The feet and the body.

Fast forward almost a week...... nearly finished! If I make this again, I will NOT crochet the ears as per the directions. I can surely knit something easier than it was to crochet them.

I kinda sorta sewed the head on crooked, so I'm going to have to sew the eyes in so that the elefante is looking to the side. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that, so I'll probably set her down until SnB on Wednesday.

The elefante has a head

The elefante has a head! My pic is a bit misleading though-its not really attached to the body. I still have to crochet the ears. I tried tonight, but it was so tight that I was damaging my fingers. I'm going to wait until I relax a bit.

Elefante butt

Progress check on the elefante! I have sewn in the ends on the legs (I didn't want to "finalize" sewing on the legs until I got all of them on there and it looked ok) and started the trunk.

lol, my finger hurts again. I really should wear a bandaid on it until it recuperates.

Ouch.

This is somewhat hilarious, but I knit too much last night. I finished the body for the elefante and attached 2 legs. The tip of my index finger on my left hand is beet red and sensitive. I just tried to knit a row on the sock and it hurt too much to do any more. I am officially a weenie.

Pic from WWKIP

Here is the picture from the world wide knit in public day event in Tulsa yesterday. Stacy of Tempted Yarns (website, Etsy store) took the picture. Left to Right: Logan and his socks for his dad (blog), Cody with a skein of Tempted (I want to say the colorway is Sherwood, but don't hold me to that, and Cody is blogless), and me holding the first of my lacy ribs socks.

Knit in Public day

Today was Worldwide Knit in Public day. Several of my SnB friends and I went to Tulsa to the farmer's market to knit there. Then we went on a yarn crawl, hitting 3 stores. I came home with some cute Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM), all the same colorway (P713) but 2 different dye lots:

I actually like the more faded one better, but there was only one skein (of course!), so I can't use it for socks. I'm thinking of making these with it (pic from Ravelry):

Cute, huh? I have one really cute pic of my friends and I at the KIP, but I'm waiting for permission to use it from the photo-taker.

Found something bright and shiny to distract me

I've bought the yarn to CO this pretty pretty distraction: Elefante. I've got a cute light pink for the body, a darker pink for the ears, and a chocolate brown for the end of the trunk and feet (its all berroco comfort by the way). Adorable, no? I've been effectively distracted.

Oh, and here's the sock progress after SnB tonight:

One thing I'd like to note. This is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Pool. Numerous people have told me that they've never had a problem with this yarn bleeding before, yet it has turned my needles greenish blue and leaves marks on my fingers after I've only knit a few rows. I have messaged Madelinetosh and asked for advice on how to stop this; I'll let you know what she says (you know, in case something like this happens to you). 

I'm going to go cast on an elefante.

More sock progress

Since I'm too lazy to drag out my digital camera, you get a iSight pic. I've turned the heel, and now I've just got to decide how long to make the leg portion. It looks like the spiral coloring is going to be gone on the leg. Oh well.

I went to the local yarn store today, just to sit and knit with friends. There was also a learn to knit class going on at the same time. I helped some of the students wind their hanks into cakes (ball of yarn), and helped one girl cast on. It was fun.

Sock progress

I think I'm making decent progress. I'm in love with the spiral striping! I wonder what the variegation is going to do when I get to the heel.

Done!

I've transferred the non-knitting posts to the other blog, so everything should be just about knitting. :)

This makes me incredibly happy!

I'm on the Yarn Harlot's blog post about her Dallas stop. Link. Squeeee!

In other news, I CO a new sock. Its part of the Socks from the Toe-Up KAL on Ravelry. Here is my progress so far:

I think the pooling is interesting. I'll keep going for another few inches to see how it turns out before I decide whether or not I'm going to change yarns.

As always, I'm easily distracted. In keeping with that trend, I'm going to try to learn how to knit continental tonight (I'm a thrower). 

I've made a change...

I have changed the purpose of this blog from TTC to knitting. To see my ttc blog, please go here. I'm trying to figure out how to move all of my TTC-related posts over to the new blog so that you don't have to read them if you're here for knitting. Until I figure that out, just gloss over them.

I hope you enjoy the new content of this blog. I'll do my best to AW my knitting habit.

Finished!

I finished the first of the sunrise socks (link is to wendy's downloads page). I learned how important it is to make sure you leave enough tail when you cut that yarn-I had about 8 stitches left to bind off (I used wendy's sewn bind-off) and about an inch of yarn. I ended up tightening up the tail yarn all the way around the sock in order to gain an extra 2 inches of yarn so that I could finish. I am not pleased with the ribbing on the cuff; I might rip it out and redo it. The sock is sized a bit big too-I've recently read on Ravelry that Wendy advises going a size down. I knitted the small, so I guess I should have used size 3 needles instead of the 4s that I got gauge with. 

I'm proud of my first toe-up sock, and love the color. That's not going to stop me from giving in to second sock syndrome though. I've signed up for the Socks from the Toe-Up KAL on Ravelry, and it started yesterday. I'm going to use the Madelinetosh Tosh sock below to knit Wendy's Lacy Ribs socks (link goes to the Ravelry page-the pattern is in her new book Socks from the Toe-Up). I'm really tired, so I'll CO tomorrow on my lunch break.

Ooops

So I meant to finish that sock last night, but I stayed up until at least 3am on Friday, Sat., and Sunday nights. Therefore, I was really tired last night and fell asleep at 6:30pm. I woke up again at 1:30am, went back to sleep at 3am, and got up at 8am. Yet I'm still tired. I'll be ready to start the ribbing tonight I hope (assuming I can stay awake).

Stitch n Pitch & Project Update

There's this thing called a stitch n pitch. Local yarn stores reserve blocks of tickets, we buy them, and then everyone knits at a baseball game. We have a minor league team in OKC called the Redhawks, and our SnP was last Saturday. It was a lot of fun, despite DH's sour mood. I had cast on a toe-up sock on Thursday for practice before starting the Socks from the Toe-Up KAL on Ravelry (starts today), but didn't make much progress because of the amount of time I spent driving to see the YH at Dallas.  I finished the toe increases at SWAK on Saturday afternoon, and continued to knit at the game.

Here's what I had about mid-game:

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday knitting, so here's what I had this morning:

Pattern is Wendyknit's Sunrise socks and the yarn is tempted good grrl into the blue. 

As for my foot being on the YH's blog, she's doing the post about Plano tomorrow. Fingers crossed that I'll see my tattoo there.

Today was Yarn Harlot Day

Tonight, the wonderful Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, was in Plano, Tx, at Legacy Books.  We left OKC at 4pm, and due to some lovely construction, barely made it there in time. We missed the introduction, unfortunately, but were able to hear the majority of her talk. Knitting is apparently healthy, helps expand your brain, and apparently holds off dementia (and possibly cures psoriasis lol-this could be beneficial to me). Google repetitive something something something (it is freaking 2am, and I've driven 7 hours since 4pm, so I can't quite remember what she called the research term for knitting-I'll fix it if I remember at a more decent hour). Anyway, sorry this picture is so dim, but the other one I took does not show her personality as well as this one does:

Since we were pretty much the last ones there, we had to wait quite a while to get our books signed (there was only 1 girl behind us in line, actually). When I walked up, she called me her "little petal." I was so nervous that Kate had to tell me later that she said it lol. Here I am telling her my name (I totally just typed "telling me her name"):

Of course I wanted to show her my tattooo, so she made me put my foot up on the table so she could take a picture for her blog. I wasn't aware that I am that flexible! Her screen on her camera is broken, so I have no idea if its going to turn out well. She's gotten great at taking wonderful pic anyways, so my fingers are crossed.
She kindly wrote down my name and biomaj for the pic.
Finally, here we are together. She's taller than me, but not by much. We determined that our feet are the same size.

A lovely time was had by all, and I am exhausted. Remember my post from a few weeks back where I worried about coming off as stalkerish? The girl in front of me had me beat. Fo sho. Oh, and thanks to the lovely bookstore employee/volunteer photographer. You did a lovely job.

Belated vacation update

Here's the update I promised you 3 days ago. :)

*Pittsburgh Zoo*

We have very few chipmunks in OK, so when I saw a wild one at the Pittsburgh Zoo, I took his pic.

Mike and me and some fish

Octopus!

Shark.

Most times, you'll see the signs that say "you must be TALLER than this to ride....;" its not often I see one that says shorter than, and the fact that I'm taller than it is a confidence booster (sorry the pic is so big-iPhoto wasn't cooperating, so I had to upload it elsewhere).

 *Elizabethtown*

I'm not sure where this farm was, but it is an example of one of the many beautiful farms in PA, and one of the reasons I want to move back.

My childhood best friend Sarah and I were goofing off for the camera. :)
I lived in the town of Berwick, PA, before we moved to Oklahoma. The whole point of our vacation was to go back to Berwick and reminisce/look around.

This is the house we lived in. The yellow shutters weren't there before; my bedroom was the top window over the front of the house.

This was my grandpa's house. I thought he had built it, but my mom corrected me. Apparently this house was a station on the underground railroad, and my grandpa remodeled it. That fence is new. It has 3 floors, an attic, and a basement. I wanted to look inside, but didn't want to be a creepy random person lol.
Sarah's parents still live in Berwick. This is me, Sarah's mom Debbie, her sister Steph, and brother Scott. The dog Scooter is in the front.
Finally, on the way home we saw a very entertaining truck bumper.

I'll do a separate post for my knitting projects from the trip.