Tee-Hee!

These particular socks make me giggle for a number of reasons.
1. The colors. Purple and Orange? What MORON puts those together for socks? Oh wait.
That was me.
2. These are my first toe-up project. I'm likin' it. I have (as you know) wide feet and these allow me to just keep increasing until I get as wide as the widest part of my flippers. Nice.
3. The colors mirror each other on the socks. I started one from the inside of the yarn cake and one from the outside so it is totally coincidental but I love it!
4. The project takes me back to BYOD when we dyed the yarn. Tasha, remember me winding this skein round and round those pews trying to make the repeats long enough? They're not all that long, are they?
Still, long enough to work!
5. Just looking at the colors makes me smell orange and grape Kool Aid.
6. I am totally avoiding about 4 other projects I really SHOULD be working on. I giggle out of a sense of sneakiness. (You've probably guessed by now that I'm not a good "sneaker".)
7. closely related to 6, These will NOT take me a freakin' YEAR to complete.
So there. :-p
8. These are for ME. They will be warm and fit perfectly and look goofy and be completely delicious in all the ways I love.

So far these have no pattern to tell you about. I cast on by alternating backward loop on two circs. I'm adding stitches 4 at a time (just like you would decrease on a top-down) until they fit my feet. I will then do plain stockinette. I'm thinking of trying a short-row heel on these as I've always wanted to and.....why the heck not? After that I'll probably do stockinette leg just for speed's sake and then a 2x2 rib cuff. That's the plan anyway.

Hint # 2 and something new

Here's SotSii up through hint 2. I finished it Sunday and went ahead and blocked it. It's really pretty. Hint 3 came out last Friday and I've seen several pics of folk's shawls up through 3. I think it looks a little snakey but I can tell that it moves back out after hint 3 so I'm sure it won't keep looking like that. I think it's beautiful! It also feels nice in the hand, which will be great when it's wrapped around me! Yay for Secret of the Stole 2!

This is what I've been doing this week instead of the stole hint 3. I'm designing a scarf for a friend. I bought the yarn first and then went on a pattern hunt. It is sport weight yarn so I was looking at all these patterns that I knew would take me until well into Spring to finish.

I found the perfect pattern in my Crochet Scarves book. I know how to crochet! I started working and realized that knowing how and being good at it are 2 totally different things.

I went on another hunt and found a great pattern in my "Encyclopedia of Stitchery". It's a knit stitch that looks like a crochet shell pattern. Yay! I did some swatching (pictured below) to see how many stitches to cast on and how much of a border it needed. There was an error in the pattern in the book but I found a correct version online. Love the internet! Hopefully I'll be able to post the pattern for the scarf for you here once I get it all worked out.

I'm pretty sure it'll be a beaut'!

And the first hint...........

Here's my completed first hint!!!!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have gotten this far! How sad is that? It really is an easy knit so far and I think I'll be able to do it in these small chunks. I finished this earlier in the week and today the second hint was released. I'd better get crackin'!

SotSii

I'm a joiner! Well, this time I am. And instead of just watching the pattern pieces come out for this knit-a-long like I did last time, this time I'm actually knitting it! Instead of using lace-weight yarn on size 3's as suggested, I'm doing fingering weight on size 5's. I am loving how it's turning out! Fingering is much easier to handle than lace for my first real lace project. Well, my first one that I actually have a hope of finishing. I'm using undyed Superwash yarn from Yarntreehouse, an eBay seller from whom I get my Rhythm yarn.......superYUM! I got 10 balls of the white superwash for about 20 bucks. You can't beat that with a stick!!!

Another first for me.... I did the swatch!

I had to since I was using a different yarn and all that. It's about 4.75"x7.5" after blocking, which isn't really much bigger than everyone else's. I'm planning to dye the stole whatever color it looks like it needs to be when it's all done.....unless it needs to be white. I know this isn't the best way to dye your yarn, but it's my stole and I'll dye it however I want! So :^P

A Poem for You

The Knit Before Christmas

‘Tis the night before Christmas and tho there’s no snow,
Moonlight on bare trees can still mean “Ho, ho, ho”.
The dogs are all sleeping, hubs just went to bed.
“Don’t eat all the cookies,” the last thing he said.

My fingers are weary, my eyes are both bleary
And early tomorrow I’ll fake “bright and cheery”.
But late through this night I will knit on these knits
For all my relations and their little chits.

Hats, scarves and washcloths, socks, mittens, sweaters,
What was I thinking? I should’ve known better.
There’s never enough time to get it all done
And most of these projects will never see sun.

“The thought is what counts,” is what most people say.
I think that next year I shall say it this way:
“I love you sincerely. I’ve thought long and hard.
This year I’m expressing my love with
Gift Cards!”

-Teresa Thomas

Swap!

I received my Christmas Swap package yesterday!!!! It was chock full of goodies...most of which I was sorta thinking I needed and some of which I had no idea I needed so badly! :-)

I got some On Line sock yarn (Yay stripes!!!) in City? colorway, some Australian Merinos Lame', silver with metalic bits. So, so , so gonna make these into Rainy Day socks that will be "Snowy Day" socks! Also Andes wool...looks sport weight in a soft yellow and grey colorway....official color name? 08. K. That bag also contained some red and green Kool-Aid, presumably for dying up some Christmas yarn.....which I was actually considering doing. (how'd she know?)

Also. Two pair of holiday earrings....which I've been wanting because I got a cute holiday necklace and needed earrings! "Handmade by" tags. Didn't even know I needed them!!!!! So pumped about these. A beautiful gingerbread house ornament with family name, several sock patterns printed off for me, sweet snowman pin (to go with the earrings and necklace, ya know) and some absolutely gorgeous christmas stitch markers. Again, I had no idea how much I needed Christmas stitch markers but now I know.....and I have some!!!

Yay for Annise! She's da BOMB!!! (that's good, Mom. trust me.)

Got my shirt.

Knitting nerds unite!