Yarn by the Pound!

I thought, while I am waiting for my friend Sabrina (yes there are going to be 2 of us) I might do a quick update. I am waiting for her as  we are going to the Knit Picks warehouse sale. We figured it was worth the 2-3 hour drive for lovely yarn at $12/lb! I wonder what they will have, I'm hoping for some aloft and maybe some WoTA in colors for my upcoming projects.

So, I  finished a pretty twisted bracelet. The pattern is from Knitty First Fall, 2011 and is by Cat Wong. I used a sample skein of Spincycle natural novelty yarn I got at Madrona last year. The yarn is a varigated grey to black thick thin yarn with slubs of deep purple mohair. The linen stitch worked well to even out the thick thin bits and the little pops of mohair I think look kinda cool. The picture makes it look a bit more messy than it really is.

I also started working on an Aster Nyx shawl for Alyx. It is my payment to her for making my steampunk costume for me. So far it's buzzing right along. It is also my OWL project for the HPKCHC on Ravelry. The Gaia lace yarn from Sanguine Gryphon that I am using for the shawl is just amazing! It's so soft and yummy. It's a bit bit like kid silk haze, without the haze. I might have to pick up some for myself.

unstuffed puff

Other than that, I have caught the hexipuff addiction. Hexipuffs are part of Tiny Owl Knits' beekeepers quilt. They are super easy to make, use leftover sock yarn and are really addictive. The reason being is it takes 30-60min to make 1 hexipuff, but then you've finished something! I really am jealous that I didn't think of this. It's blown up on Ravelry like no tomorrow and at $5.50 for the pattern, she's gotta be making money hand over fist. Much like the Monkey Socks, I think it's just brilliant in it's simplicity.

I think that's it for now. I'll try and post my spoils from the warehouse sale.

Updates

I keep saying I want to update this more regularly. Apparently I stink at doing so. I could make a long list of excuses, but I won't. I will say it's partially due to the fact that I discovered that my blogger droid ap was pushing ads onto my phone. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing ads at the bottom of free aps, but pop ups, no way! So I un-installed it.

So, As I mentioned before, I finished my hitchhiker scarf! I even managed to get 42 teeth, even though the last one was 2 rows short. Joe even managed to take a good picture of me wearing it, which is nice. I have very few pictures of myself I like sharing.

Since I finished the hitchhiker, I've been knitting away. I managed to bind off the left front of my whisker cardi. I you all remember me talking about that a bit back. That just leaves the right front and the sleeves. Then all the finishing tid bits that I hate.

I've also resumed my fancy socklets, which were the culprits responsible for the breaking of my needle several months ago. I had managed to cast on and do 3 increase rows on the toe before the needle snapped. As you can see they are coming along well. These are from the Knit Picks fancy feet anklets kits. It is the Saturday pattern done in twinkle heather. The yarn is really fantastic It's soft and sproingy and not splitty in the least. The  stitch pattern is really showing up nicely. This is my first time following a pattern blindly, without doing all the math myself. I was really trepidatious about them fitting properly. It gives 2 different stitch counts for the cast on based on foot size, but the rest of the sock is all 1 stitch count. The heel you start once you are ready, it doesn't give a set length or anything. Which is good and I would have ignored it any way. What's amazing, is that I'm trying on the sock as I go and so far it is fitting well!!

Other than that, I've started horseback riding again. His name is Tiny and he's a lovely 18 hand Belgian lad. It's been fun to get back in the saddle. Riding was always the one form of exercise that I enjoyed. I will say it's a lot harder now that I am older and fatter. However, muscle memory is a blessing. Tiny's a lot of work, but at least I enjoy it.

You'll probably be seeing more regular project updates from me, and hopefully more reviews (I have lots of them to write up). I am doing the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup on Ravelry this fall. One of the requirements for it is that you do a project a month. So I'll have lots of knitting to write about! Also, I might be going to Japan in October, so look out for more on that.

Belated weekend posting aka blogger droid ate my post

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So, I spent 30min or so this morning writing up a post to make up for missing this weekend. It was lovely, and then my blogger droid ap ate it. So, I wil attempt to re-write it and give blogger droid a second chance. I wanted to test out this ap as I am hoping to use it at SDCC and Sock Summit to do travel blogging. Since the droid X didn't have spell check, and I use swype in my phone, please forgive any mis-spellings and/or typos. 

The steampunk costume is progressing nicely. Alyx pieced together the muslin test and after some initial confusion (the 2 center back pieces hid on us and didn't originally get seamed in) it fit great! The fabric swatches for the skirt arrived, so I am trying to pick a color. Once I do, I can order the fabric. Alyx, bless her, is in the process of re-sizing the shiry pattern. Her bf has also kindly agreed to help me make a belt to go with it all. I also have some great ideas for accessories.

 I cast on Marnie MacLean's executive funk on Sunday. I am already halfway through the lace pattern chart. I am making it with Knit Pick's comfy sport in ivory. The pattern actually calls for a fingering weight yarn, but they were out in my color choice. So, I cast on the number of stitches for the smaller size on 40in size 2's and then switched to 3's for the ribbing. I used size 6's instead of 5's fire the larger size. Initially I used a 36in cable, but I had to switch to a 47in and I might switch to 60in now. The grow a lot as you knit them. They are firing my 7.25in wrist perfectly at least! You can check out my ivory wristlets on Ravelry.

 So, my yarn choice was based on ether fact that I am knitting 4 accessories for my costume, 3 of which I want to kindof match. Knit Picks has several yarn lines that have a variety of rights with the same colors. Cindy was the only one with an off white in the neighborhood of the rights I needed. The cuffs called for a fingering, the collar for a dk and the spats for a worsted. So for the cuffs and collar I am using the sport. The spats will be done in current and trimmed in the ivory. I just have to knit like the wind. So, the whisker cardi is on pause for now. I will try and post pics as things progress.

Frakkin' Smegy Socks

So, to conclude the SSS saga. I washed them in hot water and tossed them into the dryer and that shrunk them up some. I think they will still be house socks though. The felici is incredibly warm and snuggly. Maybe the next go round with it will be better.

So, my new project are my Frakkin' Smeggy Socks. So named as it is Gothsocks gothling Frakkin' Toaster, on her Ricin' base. Ricin' is a merino, bamboo, nylon mix. I expect it'll last forever. It's got a gorgeous bit of shine to it, some nice stitch definition and a still a bit of stretch. The coolest part about the shine is that it makes the grey look silver. I'm really in love with this yarn and her use of colors. I don't generally like variegated yarns, but the way this is knitting up, I just might be a convert. So the second part of the name is a reference to Red Dwarf, which is a BBC comedy sci-fi series from the late 80's and 90's. It is really very hilarious and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do you. It's available on Netflix instant streaming. The reason for this reference, is the pattern I am using is Cristi H. Brockway's, Red Dwarf Socks. So, there you have a long winded explanation of my project name.

So far I am really enjoying the pattern. I have gotten to the heel turn at this point. I am substituting the fleegle heel instead of what she has in her pattern. I had a good experience with the fleegle, so I am going to continue to use it for now to get more sock knitting experience under my belt. Now, don't get the wrong idea. I am not going to be knitting nothing but socks. There were just a few KAL's I wanted to participate in the last couple of month. I plan to one day soon finish my hoodie, start a cardigan and a skirt. I want to have some nice things to show off at Sock Summit in July.

The conclusion of the sockasode or the sock saga continues?

So, the no wrap short rows didn't go anywhere. I still ended up with holes. So after talking to some awesome people on Ravelry in the sock knitters and knit freedom forums, I was introduce to the fleegle heel. This is nothing short of brilliant! I managed to knit is and I am still not sure how it came out so well. It is a no wrap, no guesset heel flap and gusset sort of heel. Liat Gat of Knit Freedom has some fantastic YouTube videos on how to do the fleegle heel. Her video ebook "Learn to Knit Toe Up Socks" also uses the fleegle heel. My only regret is I didn't watch her video on when to start working the heel and I instead used fleegle's formula. So, my sock ended up a bit long. Having already frogged it 6 times, I wasn't about to do it again. Especially, since it didn't have any holes!! From there I started a lace pattern I picked out of Vougue Knitting: Stichionary 5 called pigtails. It patterned up quite nicely if I do say so myself! So, the next error I made was my selection of the aristocrat cuff from Socks Ala Carte 2: Toes Up. This turned out to be a rather pretty, but not very stretchy cuff.  As the socks ended at the base of my large calves, this was a bad combination. To finish it all up I used my favorite sock bind off, Jenny's Suprisingly Stretchy bind off. So, they are a bit long in the foot and a bit snug in the calf. They also grew a bit with washing and blocking.

 I wore them for the first time on Tuesday. They were incredibly comfortable and I got lots of compliments on them! Tonight I am (at the suggestion of some lovely folks on Ravelry) trying to shrink them with the aid of the washer and dryer. We'll see how it goes. You can find my socks on Ravelry as SSS (Sabrina's Sorceery Socks). Also, here are some pictures for you.

sew simple

So, since one of our surgeons is out of town, we had no cases today. I went into work for a little while, but left early to meet Joe for lunch before a meeting. After the meeting I popped over to Julep to use one of my several member manicures I have built up. I don't get my nails done very often as I ruin them quickly. Between the knitting and all the hand washing I do at work they just don't stand a chance. I went with a nice dark blue, and as I am typing this I can see one has already chipped. DAMN! I did find out for future reference (read con) that they now have a nail polish that UV cures that is supposed to last 14 days without chipping. This I have to try!

After a bit of pampering, I headed home where Joe and I watched NCIS LA. The new season seems to be not so bad. We are still trying to finish the previous season of regular NCIS while we are recording the newest season. Same for Bones. Oh and Sons of Anarchy.... yeah that show needs to be on cable. I love it so!

I decided tonight after getting some knitting in while watching T.V. that I would work on my sew simple kit from Knit Picks some more. I figure since I plan on ordering some more needles that having a place to store them could be nice. Tonight I managed to finish the cable pockets. It's slow going as I have only used this sewing machine a few times before and that has been over a year now. So, with some luck maybe I will get to finish up this weekend. The test knitting is still going well. I just need to be less busy so I can do more than 5 rows a night. I am starting to get a bit faster at it now since my gauge is getting more consistent.

My needle pouch in progress. Not the prettiest thing ever, but hopefully it will be functional.

Test Knitting part 1

So, I recently agreed to test knit a pattern for hoodie  as it goes to quite large sizes and I am a plus sized knitter. The designed was king enough to let me give is a try even though I haven't knit a full sized garment before and I am perhaps not the fastest knitter in the world. I have decided to dedicate most of my weekend to working on this though. I decided to make this with a relatively cheap yarn as I didn't want to choose a really expensive yarn and ruin it. Also, since I need 3000 yards of yarn to make this in my size, I can only afford so much. I went with knit picks telemark in royal heather. The color is really lovely and I think it'll soften up nicely once I wash it. I'll try and post pictures as I go along with this. I am currently almost done with the bottom ribbing. I would probably have finished it by now, but I found a an issue where it looked like I sat down my knitting and dropped a stitch while I was gone, so when I came back I started knitting in the wrong direction. So half of the project was on row 5 and the other was on row 3. Yeah... so I just frogged it and started over.

The good news is now that I am wearing night braces for my carpal tunnel my wrist isn't getting all sore and numb from marathon knitting. So, I can knit a lot longer now. Though I think my doctor might not be so happy with that statement. Ah well.