yet another sock.

I’ve got cast on issues.

I started a mitered square the other day and it was just UGLY.. the pattern made no sense at all!  Then I realized I had dropped a stitch in the very first row and that was probably why it just didn’t look right. 

I was making the squares for my knitting group that I occasionally go to in Cuyahoga Falls, but I’m not sure I’m going to finish it… let alone start more.

Oh… and the fact that I’ve had a purple sock sitting without a mate since January got to me so I cast on for it’s second.

I had done the first sock for a test knit and because there were so many cables it was an at home type project, and since most of my knitting is done on the go it got put off.

It’s the lazy river socks that she sells on her site.  This sock is just great… nice and snug because of all the cables.  And just so you all know… when we test knit for her we don’t have to post about it at all on our blogs.. I do it becasue I like the pattern.  If I didn’t like the pattern, you would never know I knitted it.

I’ve been spinning lately too.  Finished up the first layer of the silk cap and I’ve been working on that Cherry Tree Hill roving that I’m going to hopefully make some lace outta.  I’m dying to spin up the roving I bought from KK awhile back… and I bought more roving from KK that I haven’t shown yet.

These next 2 weeks are going to be a killer with school.  I’ve been doing my homework and keeping up so the class wasn’t too bad… but I haven’t done much work on my 2 big projects yet.  One is due next Monday, the other is due next Thursday.  Guess what I’m going to be doing on the 4th of July… a thematic unit!

silk and a monkey

Started the monkey socks again. I finally decided to just measure my foot… measure my swatch… do the math to see how many stitches I would need to cast on to fit my foot, then adapt a pattern based on that number.

So I fiddled with the Monkey pattern a little. I added an extra stitch to each side. We’ll see how it looks when It’s a little longer.

Oh… and I’ve been wanting to dig into some silk and my new spindle, and I finally did it on Sunday night. I grabbed the silk cap that I ordered from paradise fibers last December and I’m loving silk. It was VERY hard to draft out the caps but the more I did, the better I got. It’s definitely a slow process, especially with how fine I’m spinning the yarn.

Giant update… sorta

I have a tendancy to not post when I have content…. especially if I’ve got multiple things to talk about.  I post about the coolest… and save the rest for a later date when my blog content is lacking a bit.  However, I forget to post the other stuff… so I need to stop doing that. 

Still working away on the green socks.  My goal is to get them done before my dad’s birthday in September.  I’ve got plenty of time… I just need to get them done so I can start my sister’s b-day gift.  These are pretty close to being finished.  Both heels are done and now I’m just knitting until the yarn runs out which isn’t too far away…my dad has some large feet.  Note to self: when making socks for dad buy more than the usual amount of sock yarn… or buy artsy yarn cause she’s got some freakish yardage.

Speaking of artsy yarn… the monkey socks I was making out of her superwash merino have been frogged.  They just weren’t going to fit my massive legs.  Well.. they FIT… but you couldn’t see the pattern at all.  So I frogged and I think I’m going to make the anastasia socks with her yarn instead.  I think this pattern will be much easier to adapt than the monkey pattern.

Still working on the Knit Picks Candle Flame Shawl…  This time with the correct pattern.  ;-)  The right pattern makes all the difference and the chart is super easy to read and memorize.  I’m using the Shimmer laceweight yarn and I LOVE IT.  They actually have some of the colors on sale right now if your quick.  It’s a alpaca/silk blend and is quite amazing to work with.  I think Knit Picks laceweight yarns are my favorite out of all their yarns… and you can’t beat the price.

I’m making a cabled dishcloth out of sugar ‘n creme yarn… it’s a pretty pattern and I love it, but cables on cotton is just not fun to knit.  I do love the colors though.  Something about the color brown I’m quite in love with… brown and pink… brown and blue…  mmmm..

Oh… and now for one of those things I just didn’t post about…

When I got back from the fiber fest last month I had purchased a lot of silk… but I didn’t have a spindle that I could spin true laceweight yarn on… so I ordered one.

It deserves a giant picture… I have a thing for the bosworth spindles.  I had bought a heavier one earlier this year and I’m still in complete love with it… but I thought a lace one would be nice for spinning up my silk.  I’m not sure how my wheels will spin up silk and such so I’d prefer to do it on a spindle.  Spinning silk on a spindle isn’t very scary when you’ve only got 1.5 oz total to spin.  The new spindle is a featherweight spindle made from Pau Amarillo wood and weighs 13 grams or .46 ounces.  It’s just lovely.  Sheila from Bosworth is such a pleasure to work with and answers all my stupid questions.

Great Lakes Fiber Show 2007

So Denise came over and we went Fiber Festing today… oh fun times.  My mom and grandma came along too but our wanting too look at fiber bored them a bit so they went off ahead on their own.  Great Lakes Fiber Show gets better and better every year… especially if you know your stuff when it comes to fiber.  The more I learn about the quality of certain fiber the more I realize that they have some GREAT deals at this festival.

I tried to bring home an angora again… the lovely lady at Sheep Haven…. She let me hold one of the males…. I didn’t want to give him back.

Fiber fest way today… it went quite well.  The top left is some superwash fiber from Sheep Shed Studio.  They go buy mill ends off of Brown Sheep and they’ve got tons of stuff for great prices.  You can’t beat superwash roving at $12 a pound… and I didn’t have to pay shipping from Wyoming either.  :-D  Next to the roving on the right is some Angel Face laceweight from Briar Rose Fibers.  Further to the right… trekking… of course.  Under the trekking (the bright blue shiney stuff) is 5.8oz of some soysilk.  Next to the soy silk are 3, 1/2 oz silk caps in similar colors which is hard to tell from the photo and on the other side of that is 3, 1/2 oz silk hankies.  One of the hankies is dyed, and the other two are white so I’m thinking a 3-ply yarn.

 that’s all the excitement… I’m going to go be productive now. 

more beginnings

I keep starting projects… 

I was going to finish up my dad’s green socks before starting a new pair, but I really needed something other than stockinette socks on the needles.  I needed something exciting that I WANTED to knit.  So I took out my artsygal yarn and a size 1 circ and casted on.  I love these KnitPicks circs so much I can’t even tell you.  I was thrilled last week when I saw that they had new REAL number 1s and REAL number 2s… not the 1.5s and 2.5s that they called 1s and 2s before… so I ordered one in each size… and picked up a set of the options needles while I was at it because you know… it’s worth it for the free shipping. 

Restarted the candle flame shawl yesterday too.  I kept meaning to start it again… but when I logged into ravelry… and noticed mine didn’t look anything like the others people were making… I went back and looked at the pattern.  Apparently right after I printed the pattern it was changed…… so now I’m making the new pattern. 

Lace…mmm…

I ordered this a week or so ago.  It was quick to get here once shipped, it just took awhile for paypal to take the money from my bank account and such, but that’s pretty typical.

I got it off of artsygal.net.  Pretty pretty stuff.  I think my picture is pretty accurate too.  It looks lighter on her site but still… gorgeous!  It’s a zephyr base too, same stuff Lornas uses for their lace.  Now I just need the perfect shawl pattern.  Any recomendations?