I'm well on my way to completing my pair of socks for January! As mentioned in my last post, I started these for a craft-along on Craftster, and I love how they're turning out! While they're not to my personal taste, they are cute, and the Goofy Girl LOVES them! Without further ado, here is the first rainbow foot!
I can't begin to tell you just how excited she was to find out that the first sock was done! She put it on right away and refused to take it off for well over an hour (until bath time)! Now that's an appreciated knit!
I've already cast on for the second sock, and I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of the weekend (in which I hope to have more dedicated knitting time than I've had in the last 3 days!).
I just love how hand knit socks look on little feet!
Rainbow Feet!
A yarn snob from birth... Oh! And more socks!
I kid you not. My son is a yarn snob. Did I mention that he's only 7 months old? It's that or he's just as in love with Fleece Artist as I am! I could put 3 skeins on the floor - and I swear - he'd go for the FA every time! Love that boy - I'll make a knitter out of him one day (he already sits at my feet and happily watches me knit - he's fascinated by those shiny sticks and pretty yarn)....
Speaking of Fleece Artist - I am hoping with all my might that the Nova Socks I bought off from someone on the Ravelry ISO/Destash group shows up in my mail box today - I'm starting to get a wee bit anxious to squish it!
In other news, I've started a pair of socks for my goofy girl. I've started them as my project for the Craftster 2008 Colour Craft-a-long. I had actually bought the yarn I'm using for my January project for last year - but obviously - I never got around to using it (it had come in the mail too late to really do anything with). I'm honestly glad that I've finally found a use for it - I've been looking at it for nearly a year now not knowing what to do with it. Rainbow isn't really my thing - but it's perfect for my goofy girl. I'm finished the gusset and into the foot of the first sock - should be finished it tonight (and hopefully cast on for the second).
Oh! And I just have to say - I LOVE how fast kid-sized socks knit up! I've honestly not spent much time on them, and they're quite literally flying off the needles. I'm using the same pattern I used for my birthday socks/hubby's socks/dad's socks (8 sizes in one pattern - I love it!), and I have not yet used the same sized needles for more than my dad's and hubby's pairs (I used a 2.5US for theirs, and a 2US for mine, and a 1.5US for GG's). I must know my gauge fairly well - I figured that if I went a needle size down from the needles I used for my socks, and knit the child's large (which is a size larger than GG would normally take - they are supposed to fit a 10-12, and GG is in the size range below that), they should fit GG pretty well. Well, lo-and-behold - they fit her leg PERFECTLY! I'm pretty impressed with myself - and I have to say just how much I love the pattern - it is my absolute go-to pattern for plain socks now!
Oh! And I spoke to my sister about her blanket - I told her I'd have it done for her sometime in the next 10 years or so - but I'll make her something else for now. I told her that I had been thinking about making her some fingerless mitts/gloves or something - and she seemed very happy with that idea! Yay - blanket be gone! So, one day soon, I will be CO'ing some fingerless mitts - most likely a pair of Fetchings!
Well, that's about all I have to ramble about on the knitting front for now - hopefully I'll have some pics to post tomorrow!
***For reference, the sock pattern can be found at http://www.doublediamondknits.com/free.html - it is the Basic pattern in 8 sizes - right at the top of the page
2007 - A Look back
Well, 2007 has been my first full year knitting! I have knit previous to '07, but it was only 2 small-ish garter stitch projects ( a baby blanket and a scarf in '06, and I think I made part of a scarf back in 1990 *when I first learned the knit stitch - lol*), but it's only this year that I have seriously started knitting and made some actual progress.
Planning ahead for 2008 has made me think about the different techniques that I have learned this past year, and I have to say, I'm at least a little impressed!
In 2007, I learned:
- How to purl
- Ribbing
- Short rows (learned for Calorimetry)
- Knitting in the round
- Simple lace (started when trying to knit a blanket for my not-yet-born at the time son *turned into a cabbage patch doll blanket for my daughter*, and later picked up again to make 2 Tuscany shawls)
- Cables (did a small swatch, just to see if I could, then started a blanket for my sister)
- Basic sock construction (slip-stitch heels, turning a heel, gussets)
- Kitchener stitch/grafting
- Drop stitch (for a drop-stitch scarf I made my sister)
- Basic hat construction
- Mitten/fingerless mitten Construction
- Some sweater construction (for Daisy - a baby sweater)
Oops!
Looks like life (and deadline knitting - remind me not to do that next year!) got away with me and I haven't managed to post in quite some time! Hope everyone had a very happy holiday season!
Santa was quite good to me - on the knitting front, I received some yummy Fleece Artist sock yarn (a skein of 2/6 merino and a skein of Sea Wool - which I've been dying to try!), a needle keeper for my sock WIPs (I need more of these - you'll see why below!) and a gift certificate for my favorite LYS (Wool n' Things in Orleans) - which I will use to buy some Fleece Artist Casbah (cashmere - yummy!). I also am getting a ball winder (MIL forgot it at her house - she'll be mailing it to me), and I have a copy of Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circs on the way to me!
As for the gifted knits:
I did manage to get the Ruby Tuscany done - at 3 am the day we left for the holidays! I'm not overly happy with it (too short IMO, and the 2 ends blocked funny - BOO!), but Hubby's Gramma loved it - so that makes me happy!
Hubby's socks - well, the first sock has yet to have it's mate. I tried working on them on the car ride to the GIL's, but apparently, although I can knit (lace even) while watching tv, my mind cannot process plain ol' stockinette in the round in a dark car. Oh, and apparently the tote I chose to carry the sock-in-progress in likes to pull multiple stitches off of needles.... Needless to say, I ended up frogging the sock (too many problems to fix for my patience level). I'll get that second sock done one of these days!
My Dad liked his socks - and one of his friends even commented that they looked "store-bought" - which I take as a compliment (to me it just says I did an excellent job). I don't know how well they fit him yet, as there's no need for wool socks on a beach in Jamaica (where he is now) - hopefully I'll find out when he gets back :)
Hubby's Aunt really liked her scarf - as did everyone else! It actually ended up as quite the conversation piece that evening!
My MIL loved her shawl. Seriously LOVED it. She raved and raved about it. Comments such as "I can't believe how intricate it is" and "It's hard to believe you've only been knitting for just over a year" and "WHAT!? You knit this while watching TV?!?" were heard (from her) multiple times.
Anyways...I'm a little sleep deprived at the moment (teething baby = 3hrs of sleep last night = not my idea of fun) so I'll post photos of everything later on (maybe after a nap)!
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that all handmade gifts were appreciated!
Ummm...
Looks like I forgot to mention - I finished my Dad's socks. Days ago. Possibly even a week ago (actually, come to think of it - it has to have been at least a week ago!). Anyways, here they are - I hope he likes them!
Progressing along nicely on the Ruby Tuscany as well - on the 5th set of 9 (possibly 9 1/2 - 10) sets of repeats. Oh, how I hope it's done by the end of this week!
Oh, and I asked hubby if he'd mind if his present was late (his socks) - looks like I'll be trying to fit in and finish his second sock this week as well! Worst case - Tuscany will be finished the following week instead :/
2008 Knitting Goals
As I've been working on my Christmas Gift Knitting, I've been thinking about what I'd like to accomplish for 2008.
First off - "general" goals:
- One pair of socks per month (or at least one pair every second month if it's a "patterned" pair ie.pomotamus)
- At least one intarsia/stranded/fair isle project
- At least one sweater for myself
- All Christmas knitting to be completed by Dec.1st 2008 - if it's not done by then, it's not going to be gifted! December will be reserved for knitting for myself!
- New Stockings for the 4 of us (well, at least 2/4)
- Endpaper Mitts (Eunny Jang)
- Toasty Topper (Winter '07 Knitty)
- Wicked (Zephyr Girls) *Have yarn & pattern
- Monkey (socks)
- Shedir *have yarn, need proper needles
- A Pair of Selbuvotter Mitts
- We Call Them Pirates Hat
- Scoop Du Jour *Have Yarn
- Fetching
- Hannah
- Jaywalker
- Drive-Thru
- Embossed Leaves
- Pomatomus
- Entrelac socks
A little bit of progress is better than no progress at all...
Well, not a ton of new stuff to report, but I have managed to make some progress on the Ruby Tuscany - I'll be starting the 4th set of repeats after I'm done writing this post. I'm happy with how it's progressing, and am hoping to somehow be over the half-way point by the end of the week (this was seeming to be a logical goal before hubby came down with a throat infection, and now both the Goof and myself are starting to feel not so great). Anyways, I'm hopeful that this will be done before the December 20th deadline I set for it. I'm thinking that I might actually be liking this Tuscany better than the first one I knit.
The one thing that still gets me is how I can do multiple sets of repeats out of the first ball, but after that first ball, it goes to one set of repeats per ball. I suppose it really does make sense, but the ends start to get annoying after a few balls (not at that point yet - still on the first ball, but working on it again brought back this thought).
Another thing that I have noticed while working on this Tuscany, is that I made a few mistakes on the first one. First of all, in the second half of the chart, where the k3tog changes, (in the first Tuscany) I never changed to the other stitch sequence, but I am in this one. Second, the very last stitch on the WS before the YO, I never knit it on the first one, but am on this one. Lemme just say - the sides look much nicer on this one (but I do still love the first one I knit), and things make a lot more sense....
As for my Dad's socks, well....They're sitting on my bedside table, an inch away from the toe decreases on the second sock. I know! Soooooo CLOSE to being finished, but the lack of work I had done on Tuscany, I was starting to get overly anxious about getting it done in time, so I decided to set aside the sock for a bit in order to get something done on Tuscany. I'm not concerned though - an evening of tv knitting should get the sock finished. In fact, I may try to finish it up tonight!