Socktoberfest update!

Well two and 1/4 pairs of socks so far.... I'm shooting for three by the end of October. Socktoberfest has been fun, I'm really enjoying all the updates on Lolly's blog! The big pair is my regia pair and the little ones are of baby cashmerino... so soft.


To see for yourself, you'll have to click on my socktoberfest button, as I'm on my laptop without a mouse and it suddenly refuses to obey ctrl+c and ctrl+v commands. Damn laptops think they're so cute they don't have to function as well as desktops! Dragging items is also more than my laptop cares to do this evening. sigh.

The reason I'm without my trusty desktop computer is that DH and I spent the better part of an day rearranging the living room furniture. The result is wonderful, but left the computer desk, and it's companion computer far from their network tether. Instead of further swiss cheesing our house to run more network wire, we're gonna extend the wireless network I use for my laptop. Much easier the next time we decide to move computers, but until we get to the computer store we're functioning with my wireless laptop and the plethora of work machines in DH's room. I won't be using any of his, however, that room is frightening. Too many machines in one place, the hum alone is scary not to mention the possibility of screwing up some impossibly complicated machine/setup/attatched appliance.

Aside from socks, I have been playing with one of the ideas I got from a new book called Oddball Knitting by Barbara Albright. There are some great things in it, but what caught my eye was the little charm bag. I didn't actually read the pattern, just looked at the pictures and grabbed some leftover yarn.

That's a quarter at top for scale. I still haven't finished them, only the largest one has its string, and the two at the right aren't decorated at all, just knitted. These were fun and they use a tiny amount of yarn. The purplish bag is Noro silk garden, the green one is alpaca silk from Blue Sky Alpaca. The other two I can't remember.

I'm going to try and finish my newest sock. We'll see if I can possibly finish this pair by the 31st, they are huge and I have lots of stuff to do between now and then...Here's where I am now...wish me luck and uninterrupted knitting!

Heads up.

I finally finished the tiara. They are difficult to photograph, even with the assisance of DH. It took longer than I thought because of a killer headache that I suspect was weather related. It is suddenly fall here and apparently my head is a barometer. I also finished the regia socks and one baby sock and a hat ( to match Scout's scarf below). The baby sock is made from Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. Lovely soft stuff. Pictures coming soon... when I have both the big and little socks to show you.

Last month I purchased the pattern for Rogue, I'll have to look at the guage and see if cashmerino would work, or possibly the new Cashsoft from Rowan. The cashmerino has a little bit of a shine to it, which might bother me in a sweater like Rogue, Cashsoft is a little more matte. Anyway, Rogue will have to wait a bit, I'm trying to finish up some of the umpty million things I already started. Well, I'd better get knitting~

Wild and Wooly girls weaving and a Sock

I took a few days off giving myself a long weekend. It's been a fun little break. I got lots of not so fun errands done like two car repair appointments that were over due, and some fun stuff too.

Saturday I went to the Wild and Wooly girls meeting where we did a little card weaving. I hadn't done this in about 12 years and had fun playing with it again. It started with a little demo of cutting warp and threading cards (although the instructor had kindly threaded cards prepared for all of us!!) and progressed to weaving a nice little row of trees. I'm new to this group but they do lots of fun fibery stuff and just couldn't be a nicer group. Some talented spinners and knowledgable folks so I'm looking forward to learning more.

On the knitting front, I fininshed the back of my Londra sweater and I have one and a half socks done for Socktoberfest! I should finish them soon. I got distracted by the card weaving and other activities this weekend.
I will be further delayed by a request for a tiara. I should really make a few and have some on hand for just such an occasion. I'll post photos of that as soon as it's done. After the tiara, it's time to get to work on my tree for the festival of trees. Somewhere inbetween I'll finish my stripy sock. I may have to keep these for myself, I really like the colors.

Tonight we're off to see the new Wallace and Grommit movie.

Socktober!

I decided join in the Socktoberfest fun started by Lolly. Great idea, Lolly. Last night I cast on a pair of Regia striped socks on size 1 needles. I usually knit socks on 2's or 3's but 2's seemed too sloppy so I ripped and started smaller. Maybe I'm starting to knit looser? Anyway, here is the progress so far. It's going pretty fast despite the tiny needles. I am off to look for more sock yarn.

Socks!

While reading one of the knitting blogs I check out regularly and admiring Claudia's collection of socks, I decided to round up the socks I have on hand and photograph them. I was also inspired by all the socks shown on Quiddity's blog and entered in her contest! If you knit socks or just enjoy looking at hand knit socks, you have to check it out. An amazing array of socks.

After gathering up all the hand knit socks in the house (almost... I just remembered 5 more pairs that didn't make the photo) I was a little disappointed because I thought there would be more.

I've only been knitting for a little over a year, but sock knitting grabbed me early on in my knitting. Socks are my default, portable, mindless knitting. They are what I knit when I can't decide what to knit. I have a couple patterns pretty much memorized (sometimes I peek at the heel turning directions) and I have a sock on the needles all the time. When I'm only knitting socks I can finish a pair in about a week, when I'm knitting other things too, socks get done when they get done.

So how is it that I have only 13 pairs of socks to show for all this knitting.....? I realized that socks have also become my default gift! I have given away at least 4 pairs of adult socks and several pairs of baby socks! In fact, most of the socks in the photo are probably destined to be gifts as I haven't worn any of them, I just keep making them and stashing them.


So if you have a gift coming from me soon and see something you like let me know. If you don't see a finished pair of socks, have a look at my collection of sock yarn for something that appeals.

Scout is recovering from her recent surgery with only one additional panicky visit to the vet. She is healing nicely although the whole idea of taking it easy really bores her to tears. She is a girl of action who is up for anything anytime, including something as mundane as photographing socks.

All Stitched Up

Here is Scout with her finished mohair corkscrew scarf. Both of them have been all stitched up! Three guesses which one had to be restitched due to excessive monstering after surgery. Yes, Scout stops at nothing, not even recent surgery. She was sorta quiet for a day after being spayed, but despite the drugs and diligent efforts of her humans, she managed to blow out her stitches four days after her surgery. Not the outer stitches, which I understand happens on rare occasions when a cat excessively licks or picks at them, but the inner stitches which actually happens about never. The vet said she had never had this happen to her, nor had she seen it happen to a cat. My sister in law also works at an emergency vet and said she had seen this very rarely in dogs, but never ever in a cat. We were lucky the outer stitches held.

So Saturday morning I was getting ready to go to yoga and noticed Scout's tummy looked very odd. In fact, the way it pouched out unnaturally made me feel slightly sick to my stomach. I called the vet and we went for some emergency surgery. Just the kinda thing I like to do on a Saturday morning. Who needs relaxing yoga when you can rush your kitten to the vet? She spent the night and is home now with meds that actually make her verryyy sleeepyyy. She puts up a good fight, brave attempts to monster continue right up until the moment she topples over and zonks out. I intend on keeping her drugged and as quiet as humanly possible until the new outter stitches come out.



On a totally different note, piper/illustrator friend Stephen Gilpin's new book came out this weekend. It's delightful, you should go get a copy.