Baaaaaa...

Yeah, that's how I'm feeling. I just wanna say that I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I've been distracted by the truly vicious time waster that is Guitar Hero 5. Yeah. Just thankful I didn't get my plastic toy guitar on the new Beatles Rock Band today. Anyway. I have made some progress on the Lenore socks, but due to my inability to ignore the shiny coloured notes on the screen, I have not got a photo to prove it. I am done with the heel and have decreased the gussets and am ready to start on the body of the foot. I swear.

Pictures soon :*)

Quoth the raven...

Nevermore.

A little while back a friend asked me if I would knit a pair of socks for her teenaged daughter. She had seen my blog, and had liked some of what I'd already done. It would have been impossible to say no when a teenager actually expresses an interest in handknits. She thought she'd like something in blacks and purple/burgundy. Enter Socks that Rock in Lenore:

This yarn is very had to photograph. It's primarily black, with a deep pinky/purple washed over it. Then for a pattern, she'd like something gothic inspired. Hmmm, can't think of anything much more gothic than Edgar Allen Poe, whose poem inspired the name of the yarn. Interestingly, both the poem and the yarn inspired a designer:

Lenore socks, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot). I've got a skein destined to be these socks for me too.

So I ordered the yarn, and it arrived late last week. I wound it up right away:

And using a digital scale split it into two equal cakes of yarn. They look different in size, but they weigh the same amount. One is more densely wound than the other. In this picture, on my monitor, you can see the variances in colour better, if not the specific colour. Then I cast on:

This progress is over the last couple of days, and so far, I'm very happy with how they're turning out, and I hope that the young woman in question is too. I'll be trying to post progress shots on these socks every few days or so. Fingers crossed :)

They are not my only project, though. I have a finished object to report:

The Double Eyelet Rib socks are finished. Yay! The pattern is a freebie by Wendy D. Johnson and I used Knit Picks Essential yarn in the Russet Tweed colourway. I used about 1.5 balls of yarn. Someday, I'll come up with a great idea for using up all the leftover sock yarn :)

No rest, though. No second sock syndrome for me. Nuh uh. I cast on the second Trilobite Sock:

I'd messed up the chart on the first sock for the entire foot of the sock. But I decided that I would knit the second sock properly rather than trying to repeat my mistake. So I'll have mismatched socks. My brother would approve.

Incidentally, the Lenore yarn was not the only one I ordered. I might have bought a couple more skeins to justify the shipping.

That's the Lenore in the middle with Fred Flintstone flanking it on the left, and Winter Solstice on the right. My lovely parents also presented me with a glorious gift certificate for Blue Moon for my birthday, so expect to seem more Socks that Rock making appearances in the future. I'd better get knitting.

Shhhhh

More yarn.

So, the final package arrived, and it is glorious! Three skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock. Haida from the Raven Clan. ST-2 from the Multicolor Wave collection (This is a Sock Summit colour, wahhh!). And Lover's Leap from the Watercolor Wave collection. I'm in love with this yarn. I'm dying to order more. It was a non-customs purchase too, so it will happen. Just have to wait a little while.

In the meantime. I said in my last post that I had knitting content. So here it is:

These shots are of a tank top from a knitting magazine I'd never encountered before. The magazine is called Verena Knitting, and is a UK magazine. The pattern is called Chocolate. I've dubbed my version Turquoise Chocolate, but I need a new name for it. I'm knitting it out of Waikiki, a yarn I picked up on sale when a LYS closed a while back. It's a linen, cotton blend, and I love the colours. I have a suspicion it will be really, really busy. Here's hoping it's wearable.

I also have socks. I finished the first Double Eyelet Rib sock:

And started a Trilobite sock from Wendy D. Johnson's book Socks From the Toe Up.

I'm a real freak, though, and failed to read the pattern properly. I knit along merrily through the toe, up the foot, into the arch shaping, turned the heel, knit the flap, and when I went to start the leg back in pattern, I noticed. I had knit the whole foot only repeating the first half of the chart! So, the leg looks decidedly different from the foot. Notice, I left it as it was. Can't be bothered to fix it. So lazy, am I. Now I need to cast on another sock quick, before I catch the dreaded second sock syndrome. Wish me luck :)

Sockapalooza

Well, sockyarnapalooza would be more appropriate, but it doesn't roll off the tongue as well. There has been an explosion of yarn acquisition chez Lizard. That yarn diet that I was supposedly on leading up to the Sock Summit that never was has definitely disintegrated. Ah well, c'est la vie. Enough with the talky, on to the goodies.

I made three separate orders, experimenting with different online vendors, and two of the three have arrived. First: The Loopy Ewe.

These are: Dye Dreams Dream Sox in the Passion Flower colourway. Soooo Pretty. And Dream in Color Starry in the Wisterious colourway. It's a little difficult to see in the picture, but Starry is spun with a silver filament. Sparkly stuff has been a problem of late. This one spawned the following order. It's so incredibly squishy in the skein that I had to try and get ahold of its sister yarn Smooshy. I was very happy with the service from the Loopy Ewe, I got my package super fast and it had a personalized message from the shopowner in it. Unfortunately for me, there was an issue with customs fees. Not the shop's fault, and I highly recommend it if you live in the U.S. or they have something you have to have and can't get at home. Which they might. Seriously, they have awesome selection.

So in order to get that Smooshy, I turned to a Canadian vendor: The Sweet Sheep.

Dream in Color Smooshy in the Flamingo Pie colorway, Colinette Jitterbug in the Ginger Cinnabar colourway. I can't imagine that pie made from flamingo would be particulary tasty, but the yarn sure is. And the Ginger Cinnabar looks good enough to eat too.

All Things Heather sock yarn in the Sunshine colourway and Malabrigo sock yarn in the Stonechat colourway. I have no idea what a stonechat is, but the colour is fantastic, and the ATH one totally looks like sunshine. This also came super speedily, and no customs fees. Yay! I'll definitely order from the Sweet Sheep again. All of my yarn is gorgeous, and I can't wait to knit with it. I'm thinking I should think about getting a scale so that I can split them up easily. I hate that paranoia as you're halfway through the second sock and aren't sure if you'll have enough yarn left over to finish it.

So, I have one more package winging its way to me and I anticipate its arrival very soon. When it arrives I'll try and get the pics up pretty soon. I also have some new knitting content to post too, but this has been a picture heavy post, so I'll save it for when the next package arrives. Now, somebody needs to lock my credit card up somewhere safe :)

Hey, Remember this?

Yeah, no wonder. It's been languishing for nearly two years now. Sadly waiting for me to be bothered blocking it. Well, no more:

To jog memories, this is the wing portion of Mystery Stole 3, also known as Swan Lake. I had a wedding to attend on Friday last week, and it occurred to me that the beads in the stole (which you admittedly can't see in the pictures would match perfectly with my dress. So here's the result:

These aren't the most flattering pictures of me, but the stole looked amazing. For the record, it is the Swan Lake Stole designed by Melanie at Pink Lemon Twist. It's knit out of an unnamed raw silk dk weight. The beads are I think size 6 and they're a soft coral colour. If I remember correctly, I knit it on size 4.5 mm needles. I've loved this stole from the start, it's merely a result of my hatred for finishing that it has languished for so long.

Moving on. I was on a roll last week. The wedding I attended on Friday was for one of my cousins, and two of her sisters had received handmade afghans as wedding gifts from me. It's become a tradition (To date I've crocheted 4 bridal afghans, and knit two) so I couldn't not make one for her. I've blogged previously the Hex Afghan by Nora Gaughan from Knitting Nature. Here it is blocking:

And posed in my parents' backyard:

This knit up fairly quickly and is the main culprit for the delay in blogging this time. All I had to show was a big brown blob. I think the blob turned out pretty well. I just hope the bride likes it as much as I do. It's knit from Patons Shetland Chunky in Taupe with 5.5 mm needles.

So what else? Elated from having completed so many large objects, I may have had a moment of weakness in a LYS. I've been avoiding buying yarn in preparation to attend Sock Summit. But try as I might I was one of the 30,000 knitters who bombarded the server and consequently was unable to get a spot. I'm disappointed, but that's the way these things go. Maybe they'll put it on again next year. In the meantime, I console myself with yarn:

Arequipa wool/alpaca blend sock yarn. It's a kind of dark picture, but it was the only one that came close to showing off the actual colour of this yarn. The colour is very eloquently called 221. I couldn't resist the washy watercolour feel of it.

Koigu KPPPM in the equally eloquent P40395. I can't seem to even find it on their site. Ah well. I shall fondle it fondly anyway. In the meantime, I have a couple socks on the go which I'll get to in a couple of days, but this post is getting far too long, so you'll just have to wait :)

Sidetracked

So, I've had one full week to myself with no school, and I've been trying to rediscover my life.  I think I had one, and it's nice to see that it hasn't abandoned me entirely.  I've been knitting and I'll get to that, but first I need to own up to a serious distraction:

I found this book in the new materials for the library, and while I don't tend to do a lot of cross stitch, I fell in love with this book.  I promptly ordered it online, and as soon as it was in my hot little hands, bought the materials for the main attraction:

I know, eh?  Looks fantastic!  Okay, so here's what it will look like:

Eventually.  The whole book is stuff related to magic and witchcraft.  Some of it is kitschy like cutesy little fairies and wizards, and the dragon on the cover (which I think is very pretty, just not for me), but then there are images of Father Sun and Mother moon, and this cushion.  The Celtic wheel of the year.  I hope mine comes out looking at least something like the picture from the book.

So enough of that.  This here's supposed to be about knitting, so here's some knitting:

This is going to be one of those projects that looks the same every time.  The Hex Afghan from Nora Gaughan's Knitting Nature.  Maybe I'll mix up the pictures a bit by incorporating things in the background to make it a little more interesting than a neutral taupe afghan.  Case in point: the lovely Rock Band drum kit it's photographed with here :)

I've also been working a little bit on my Double Eyelet Rib Socks:

Not too much to see there, either.  I've finished the heel and am about to work up the leg.  This is a great, simple, easy to memorize pattern that is perfect for mindless television knitting.  If only the afghan above wasn't so time sensitive, I'd be much further along on this.  Ah well, what can you do?

But wait, there's more.  I went to Michael's to get the materials for the embroidery above, and encountered something else.  Who knew there'd be yarn at a crafts store?

   

Well, okay, I knew but in my defense, the Kroy was on sale.  So, as the labels state, this is Patons Kroy Socks and Stretch Socks.  Muslin and Licorice colourways.  The stretch is something I've never tried.  Not sure how that's going to work, but I think it's worth a try.  So anyway, I'm going to cut it off there, and hopefully get some more knitting done.

Return to the land of the living

Well, almost anyway.

I have been plugging away on the final bits of my courses this term, and am so close I can almost taste it.  I wrote my history final on Thursday, and have my astronomy final on Saturday, and then I'm free until September.  I have been knitting off and on in an attempt to remain sane, so here's an update.

Carolina Sock number one is complete.  Mostly.  I have ends to sew in, but that part is not conducive to sanity, so it will wait.

In the meantime, I like to work one sock pattern and then another sock pattern before returning to the second sock from the first, so here's the new sock:

This is Wendy D. Johnson's Double Eyelet Rib sock.  It's knit from Knitpicks Essential yarn in the Russet Tweed colourway.  I was nervous about the little flecks of colour that are mixed in this yarn, but the pattern is coming through alright, I think.  It's a great pattern, incidentally and is one of her free ones.  I might also have preordered her book last week too, so there should be more to blog soon :)

Stash enhancement.  Hmmmm, there shouldn't be much to say about that.  I say "shouldn't," which somehow doesn't mean "isn't."  Ooops.  Some was necessary, and I'll get to that, but this is really pretty:

This is a hand dyed sock yarn from a Canadian dyer from Quebec called Biscotte & Cie.  Her colours are really gorgeous.  This one is Lupin in the Witch's Cat colourway.  It seems to meet the fine standards of the actual witch's cat in the picture.  Check!

Regia Galaxy Jupiter Granite.  This was an accident too.  I went to the LYS to get the yarn which is coming next, and found this in the sale bin.  How could I resist?  Seriously :)

This is what I went for, though:

Nothing spectacular, just a simple yarn.  Patons Shetland Chunky.  I got 15 balls of the Taupe colourway.  This is meant for a wedding present for my cousin.  The wedding is in June, I think I can manage.  Here's what I've got so far:

It's difficult to tell, but this is about half of the first repeat on Nora Gaughan's Hex Afghan from Knitting Nature.  I've wanted to knit something from this book for some time, and I've finally gotten the chance.  So far, it's coming together really well.  I just hope it doesn't get tedious.  I know it's going to get heavy.  Thank goodness this wedding is in June and not August :)

The last one is one I bought ages ago, but realized I had neglected to blog it. 

I'm not sure how I managed to miss it in my blogging, except that it's really pretty and it's possible I was hoarding it.  This is Americo Original 100% dehaired baby llama.  The colour is a steely grey, and I have one skein of it.  It's luxurious, and I'm awaiting the perfect pattern for it.  In the meantime, it sits on my desk and gets petted.

That's about it for now.  I just thought I should check in with the blog every month or so.  Bad blogger, I know.  Summer is almost here, and that should offer lots more to say.  I should return soon.  I hope.  No promises :)

More socks

Wow.  Once I get back to it, I finish fast.  Or so it would seem.  I have a research paper due on Friday, so that might be it :)

Anyway, onwards.  Hedera is finished:

I love this pattern.  I love this yarn colour, though I did have a little trouble with splitting.  Not so much as to be concerned.  I think next time I use Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, I'll try knitting from the outside of the ball.  I suspect that might have been the source of the trouble.  How 'bout a close-up?

There is one teeny thing I would do differently.  Next time I knit this pattern (and I suspect there will be a next time), I'll make a point of counting pattern repeats.  I seem to have made one sock about half an inch shorter in the leg than the other.  I will not embarrass myself further by showing a picture of this atrocity, but I also refuse to rip it and knit it over again.  I don't wear socks with anything but long pants or inside of a boot anyway.  So there :P

I will not let it get me down, however.  I've already moved on:

This is Carolina by Momma Monkey.  This is another amazing sock designer.  I understand she passed away recently, clearly she was taken too soon.  This is the first of her designs I've knit, but I've got plenty more lurking in my sock file.  It's very similar in concept to Grumperina's Jaywalkers, a sock I've already knit twice, and so far I'm finding it quite agreeable.  The yarn is Trekking XXL in colour 182.  It's all khaki greens and rich golds with a steely blue-grey and touch of cream thrown in.  I suspect this is going to stall in favour of a certain Japanese samurai who is going to have to become my priority, but based on the speed with which it's come together so far (I started yesterday morning), I expect you'll be seeing it again very soon.

In non-sock news:

I've actually got this mitten on the go lately too, I've merely neglected to blog it before now.  Not really sure how that happened, but here it is now.  How about a shot of the palm?

This is NHM #7 from the book Selbuvotter : biography of a knitting tradition / by Terri Shea.  The yarn is KnitPicks Palette in Sweet Potato and (I think) Tidepool Heather.  This is an enjoyable knit and I hope to be able to get back to it soon.  Meh, samurais await.

I've also picked up the stitches for the button band on my Greenjeans cardigan.  Which hasn't been seen here for a while.  But I've messed up the count, and now have to rip it out and start again.  At least it's only 2 rows, and while it's a couple hundred stitches, it could be worse.  In the meantime.  I've got some new skis to pick up today, then it's work work work.  I wonder if Tom Cruise movies might qualify as research...

Socks!

Yes, folks.  I'm back to knitting socks.  I last posted this sock in August of last year.  Pretty appalling, really.  Well, it's been sitting idle since then (due to no fault of its own, it's gorgeous) and I picked it back up the other day.  When last we saw it, sock number one was just at the end of its heel flap.  Behold:

Owing to the long gap in posting about this sock, I'll remind you what's going on here.  This is the fabulous Cookie A's design Hedera.  It's being knit on 2.5 mm KnitPicks circular needles (which I love, if only the joins would last better) out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Blackberry.  I'm a fan of all socks Cookie A.  I have knit several pairs of her socks in the past, and will knit many more in the future.  Case in point:

Pomatomus, Baudelaire, and Monkey.

This all brings me to this: Sock Summit.  I am so dying to go.  Maybe I'll see some of you there.