good-natured ribbing

Though I just haven’t been in a knitting mood lately, I feel compelled to do something productive while watching episodes of The O.C. on hulu and the first season of Chuck from Netflix. I find that pinwheel baby blankets are perfect for this purpose. Once you’ve transferred the blanket to circulars, you can rock on with little attention needed for the knitting. Here’s the pinwheel I finished while revisiting the over-privileged characters of Newport Beach:

A friend called this “the lily pad,” an idea I like very much. It’s for a little one who’s about six months old right now. My goal is to get this to him before he is seven months old.

I decided to make a second blanket for his older sister, for her doll babies. This one was finished while watching the first few episodes of Eli Stone (jury’s still out, will give it a few more watches):

I made this one out of long-held stashed yarn, and ran out of the purple. When I realized this was going to happen, I couldn’t bring myself to unknit and decided to finish with the gray. I added some duplicate stitch leaves in the purple to try to tie the sections together. I kind of like the duplicate stitch effect, but overall am not loving my solution. I don’t know the little one very well, so I can’t guess at her reaction to the “arty-ness” (or lack thereof).

I got my socks! They’re Monkey socks from Catherine, and she also sent me a lovely Lantern Moon silk bag in emerald.

Green is my favorite color! Catherine hand-dyed the yarn, partly with KoolAid and partly with Wilton’s And the yarn is Henry’s Attic Kona Superwash — very soft and light. I didn’t know about this yarn, so it’s a new-to-me yarn. Thank you, Catherine!

I took the day off on Friday and finished the socks for my Sockapalooza 4 pal:

Whew! I’m really happy with how these socks turned out.

When I was in Seattle in January, I found this little sock monkey in a small gift shop and decided to put it aside for my next Sockapalooza pal:

Do all sock monekys look so worried? It did come down to the wire, a bit — maybe that was making him nervous. And he’s headed to another rainy climate…but he’s well prepared.

Now I just have to pack it all up!

I’ve been a big sockapalooza procrastinator this round. I’ve actually *thought* a lot about what I want to make for my sockpal and have been keeping up with her blog. Did I actually start knitting? No. Did I freak a little last week when I realized the date? Yes. Here’s a chart to illustrate my process:

The most excellent news is that I did settle on some socks I already had in progress. My sockpal and I have the same size feet and share some color preferences, so I decided to finish up the Spearfish socks already underway. I am now 1/3 of the way through the second sock, and should finish in a few days. I love these socks, and hope my sockpal does, too!

Spearfish Socks pattern from Designedly, Kristi
Lang Jawoll wool in red, with reinforced heel and toe. One pattern repeat in the cuff.

I recently finished two pairs of socks from the pool of eight I’ve had in progress for months (and months). In May I finished the Victorian Diamond Lace socks in olive Regia Silk and gave them to my mom for Mother’s Day. I’d recommend this pattern to anyone who is looking for a sock with a nice design and stretchy cuff. They were really fun to knit, too — the most detail at the cuff, with less and less detail as you accelerate to the toe.

This month, I finally finished a pair of socks for Kira — a pair I started a million years ago:

Baby Cable Socks on Kira’s feet, from Sensational Knitted Socks. Gems Merino Opal, Size 2 needles.

These are Thank You Socks for a craft favor from Kira. Kira made a fantastic set of Barbie clothes for me to give to my friend Fiona, who turned 9 last November. She and her mom appreciate Barbie fashion. Here are three of the garments Kira made, the knitted ones (see the rest of the wardrobe):

Thanks, Kira!

Some people might wonder about having 16 feet worth of sock pairs in progress all at once. For me, it’s a comforting thing. They’re getting finished, though slowly. Some are for me, some for family, and one pair may be for a jilted sockapalooza 3 member.

In between the socks, I’ve completed a few other things.

Today, I sewed the buttons on a baby sweater, for a friend at work:

It’s Mission Falls 1824 wool (stashed from the old mill), in the Mission Falls “Star” pattern. I added the smaller star on the back of the sweater. The intarsia’s looking a bit puckery, but there’s no time to block again — baby’s imminent. Let’s hope he’s not a critic.

For myself, in the early spring I finished a couple of things in the Blue Sky Alpacas – Alpaca Silk:

I don’t think I could ever get enough of the Alapaca Silk. It washes up beautifully and has a lovely sheen to it.

I was organizing my yarn this past weekend and found a bunch of unfinished projects in a plastic tub that had become part of the background in a corner of my bedroom. I hadn’t forgotten the projects as much as buried them under new yarn. After weeding 50% of my clothes and with Ikea at an all-too-easy-to-driving-distance, now I can SEE what’s crying out to be completed.

I required something straightforward to knit on while watching TV on Sunday, so I decided to try to finish a neglected item from the tub — my Melody’s Shawl, a kit from Morehouse Merino. It’s an easy shawl that’s knit in the round and involves dropped stitches *and* slicing (wheeeee!) at the end. I honestly can’t remember when I started it — but it was long enough ago that my credit union has “archived” the purchase info.

Here are some shots of the last steps:

It seemed so uninviting toward the end that I said that I would give it away. But after a wash (in Kookaburra Woolwash — I loooooooove it), I knew that I wanted to keep it after all. The laceweight yarn, while thread-like in spots, seems very strong and flexible. The natural color (“silver” — a blend of white wool and black wool) is soothing and the yarn is soft.

I’ve been feeling pretty domestic lately, so I bought some curtains and made a couple of tea cosies as gifts. I still need to block and sew the 8-ball cosy together. That one’s for my sister, Erin, who is a recent tea convert and asked for cosy.

Cascade 220, Felted Tea Cosy pattern from knitty.com

Cascade 220, 8-ball pattern from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation

If you look closely at the tea pot in the left picture, you can see a little me in the reflection. It kind of looks like I’m trapped in there. Definitely not as glamorous as Jeannie’s bottle.

Sherry and I visited Kira in Virginia a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good thing Kira finished my mittens while we were there, because it was freakin’ cold. Almost as cold as Michigan. Almost as cold as ICE…….ummm, well, yeah.

Anyway, she made me these beautiful mittens. And they have a Cascade Pima Silk lining. My fingers have never had it so good.

Knitters, fellow bloggers, and the handful of sympathetic friends and relatives who comment on our posts — I have two things for you today.

First, my nephew Ian’s Christmas stocking is done. It looks like it will hold enough cookies and toys to make his parents nervous. Mission accomplished!

Second, the Yarn Harlot has issued another challenge to knitters to support the Tricoteuses Sans Frontières (Knitters Without Borders) project, through which knitters and friends-of-knitters dontate to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.”

It occurs to me that the Yarn Harlot is kind of like Batman — she using her special powers to help people. Like Batman, the Harlot is very, very cool, if not as mysterious or independently wealthy as he. And if she carried a grappling hook and flew the Batjet, then my nephew might want to dress up like her for Halloween.

Check it out – I think it rocks:

I found a Batman logo, and used KnitPro 2.0 from microRevolt to create the chart. It worked “purrrrrfectly,” as the nephew would say. The yarn is Lamb’s Pride, in Onyx and Lemon Drop, size 6 needles for a dense stocking without felting.

Since my last post — a long, long time ago — I’ve acquired a mortgage and an electric garage door opener, my 3-year old neice has started claiming my name is Aunt Kris “Pa-TOHN-kha” (blatantly untrue), I’ve produced an origami Russian MiG-21, and I’ve received two Sock-of-the-Month-Club entries:

September: Jaggerspun 3-ply in a lovely red, cabled patten “There & Back Again” by Laura Anderson, Sirius Knitting (Ack, Harry Potter & Bilbo references at the same time, I’m a little overwhelmed…)
October: Regia 4-ply, pattern “Raspberry Lemonade” by Adrienne Fong

And, did I ever show the socks I made Kira for her birthday?

Continuing the baby and goofy hat themes…I recently finished some gifts for tiny people. The first couple of items are hats (great, and free, pattern from hello yarn – also the designer of the pirate hat Kira gave me). I absolutely loved the anime face when I saw it, so I had to make one right away.

I also did a variation on the hat for my niece, using Lorna’s Laces. She requested “bear ears, not bunny ears.” The pattern either runs a little small or my guage is off (which is more likely), so I don’t think the finished purple hat will fit her. Fortunately, there are hatless babies popping up like crazy around here so I should be able to find another recipient pretty quickly.

I also finished a baby blanket that I’ve been working on for a looooong time. It’s a pinwheel blanket, and I added the Leaf Edging from Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Embellishments. The color is much better in the left-hand picture – it’s Gems Merino Opal Blended in “Parrot.” The right-hand picture attempts to show the edging. The combination of the shape and edging reminds me of a sunflower, so I took the photo on a sunflower quilt Kira made me a few years ago.

I haven’t done much yarn shopping recently (relatively speaking). I bought one skein of Schaefer “Anne” sock yarn this month, to add to my “Anne” collection. I think I’m officially addicted to this yarn. It’s 60% merino wool superwash, 25% mohair, 15% nylon. Luxury for the toes.

I also purchased some Wildfoote via Kira — she was at a conference in Rochester, NY and found some time to explore the LYSs and picked up it up for me. Why can’t we find more Wildfoote around here, do you think?

I recently finished a pair of basic stockinette socks in Socks That Rock “Kryptonite.” According to my research, the green and gold Kryptonite should be enough to *at least* make Superman sick to his stomach (he’s a little too good for me — give me a tortured, Christian Bale-ninja-Batman).

Check out my first “eye of partridge” heel – the stitches really pop out in an interesting way. [OK, I realize that I sound like the knit nerd of the week, but I really can't deny it.]

I have also received my July & August Sock-of-the-Month club deliveries, yay! For July, there was a pretty lace pattern + Cascade Fixation, and for August, a (new to me) yarn called “Wick” from Knit One Crochet Too. It’s a blend of 53% soy, 47% polypropylene and is extremely soft to the touch.

1. Finished tiny tomatoes:

To quote a tiny Corie, these are the best little tomatoes “I ever saw.” Most of them are about the size of a gumball, a few are as big as a shooter marble. The yellow ones are sweeter and better than the red. I am always amazed at how much better home-grown tomotoes taste than the vine-ripened tomatoes in the grocery stores, even when they’re grown on an apartment patio overlooking a parking lot. Unfortunately, I think I’m only going to get a few batches of these — I suspect that I stunted the plant growth by placing too many plants in a small patio planter.

2. Finished sweater for a finished (Finnish) baby:

Pattern: Baby kimono Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Cascade Sierra
Needles: Size 6

The baby (new daughter of a colleague – welcome, Fiona!) was finished a couple of weeks ago, but a “closure” crisis cause a delay in gifting the sweater. The pattern calls for a ribbon closure, but all of the ribbons I found around here just didn’t work. Finally, Beth and Sherry encouraged me to reconsider a button, and I found a very cute one:

The kitty looks a little anime, no?

3. Finished birthday socks:

I also finished some *R E D* Birthday socks requested by a sister — but I can’t show those yet!

I bought some sock blockers and now plan to keep knitting and blocking new socks, tons of socks, perhaps 1 milllllionnn socks, so I can have more nicely shaped socks for photos. Perhaps I could become a sock stylist for magazines, like a food stylist?

The new ones:

Child’s First Sock (Nancy Bush) in Turquoise Wildfoote

Basic sock in Austermann Step Sock Yarn – “Gras”

I went to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago and tried to contribute a bit to the economy with some shopping in the French Quarter. I found a fiber shop called “The Quarterstitch” just off of Jackson Square. It’s more of a needlework store, with a small selection of yarn. I bought a pretty skein of chenille yarn in a color called “sweet grass.” The shop owner said that the yarn was hand-dyed by someone in Maryland whose mother taught him to dye.

The best thing about this yarn shop visit, though, was the extra deluxe wrapping of my purchase. Allow me to describe the process….

• The skein was first wrapped in green tissue paper.
• The wrapped skein was placed in a transparent plastic bag.
• Small, pink, heart-shaped pieces of tissue were dropped in the bag.
• Two small tags with the shop name and address were dropped in the bag. One was decorated with gold leaf and the other has a heart stamped on it.
• To finish it off, the bag was tied at the top with several ribbons in different colors, and the ribbons were curled with scissors!

I think it was the most lovely wrapped purchase I’ve ever seen. I seriously did not want want to open it and I put it out on a table to look at for several days. Eventually, though, I decided that I should unwrap the yarn and think about what to do with it. I think it will become a very soft and shimmery scarf.

Got my June Sock of the Month package today! It’s a pattern called “Climbing Vines” and it came with Schoeller Stahl “Fortissima Socka Cotton Color” in color 6512. The pattern uses the “eye of partridge” heel, which I’ve wanted to try for a while.

This sock yarn represents a three-state yarn spree during which I demonstrated my support of local businesses. I like to call it “slow yarn,” an international movement opposing fast yarn and promoting shopping within an ecoregion. It’s going to catch on, trust me.

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I have completely succumbed to Constructive Sock Obsession (COS). I caught it from Sherry. Seriously, I missed a few minutes of American Idol last week because it took me about 4 minutes to find the TV remote under a pile of sock yarn on my coffee table.

Anyhow…it’s been a cool spring until very recently, so my mom put her Mother’s Day wool socks to work immediately. The pattern came from my March S-o-t-M package (“Cabley Lacy Rib Socks”), and the yarn is a pretty color of Trekking XXL. It’s a toe-up pattern, and I learned a new garter stitch cuff.

I am also happy to share with you my April & May S-o-t-M packages:

Yarn: Trekking XXL

Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fondo

Both patterns are very pretty lacey designs named for Hawaiian locations. I wish I were knitting socks in Hawaii right now.

I was thrilled to get my Sockapaloooza socks yesterday – they’re from Peggy in Alaska! They’re Jaywalkers in Opal Handpainted Color 22. They fit perfectly and I love the blues and grays — the color/pattern combination reminds me of waves on a choppy sea.

Almost as fun as receiving the socks was learning that Peggy has family who live very close to me. Sock fate!

Thanks, Peggy — I love my socks!

Just a quick note to say that I mailed my sockpal socks today. My sockpal is not of this country so I had to mail the socks today in order to make sure they arrive next week. Because my camera batteries died, Nigel helped me take an action shot from his new Mac this morning.

Afte loading my camera with new batteries, it turns out I also got one “fancy picture” at home.

It’s turned into all socks, all the time at my house. I finished my sockpal socks on Friday, whee-ha! I’m going to wait on a full picture until I can block them, but here’s a closeup of the cables:

The colors are much deeper than this photo shows, but I couldn’t manage a very good picture this morning.

After finishing the sockpal socks, I started new pair of socks for my mom:

This is the toe-up pattern I received for the March S-o-t-M, in Trekking XXL, color 105, size 1 needles. I love this pattern so far — it’s easy to memorize and even though the yarn is variegated the lace is showing up nicely.

I also purchased some striping yarn that is begging to become knee socks for my neice (with ladybug buttons for accents):

I ran into a problem with the first pair of sockpal socks. The yarn I was using was Knit Picks fingering weight merino, and I loved the color I got with the Kool-Aid. Unfortunately, the yarn was really too fine for the pattern and the sock leg turned out to be very, very narrow:

Even the ribbing didn’t give it enough stretch, and going up a needle size made the cables look sloppy. Since my sockpal is not a Tim Burton animated character, I decided that I’d better look for different yarn. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, and the Schaefer “Anne” felt great, but were again too fine for the pattern. Increasing frustration led to putting the sockpal socks aside for a while. Instead, after admiring Sherry’s work on the Embossed Leaves socks, I decided to make a pair for myself in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino (color “Java”) that I picked up last fall in Charleston:

I loved working the Embossed Leaves pattern. The socks have a bulkier fit than I expected, but the yarn makes my feet feel like they’re at a spa. After finishing these socks, I realized that the Supersock might also work well for the Celtic Braid pattern. I picked up a skein last weekend in the “Potluck – Blues/Greens” colorway. I’ve completed one sock, and I think the density and stretch are much better:

I do love the blues and greens in this skein, very peacock-y. One sockpal, back on track.