Woolly Bladders

My Sockapal3za socks arrived just now! They are GREAT! I refuse to take them off.


[Click for biggersize.]

Um, the postcard says 'Sheboygan.' I was possibly a little bit too excited to arrange my photo-composition properly. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that my socks come from Sheboygan, because I have never been there, and it's such a great name.


Happy socks!

(I do not usually wear my pants rolled up that high, by the way. Just thought I would mention that.)

These beautimous socks were knitted for me by Roberta, who also wrote me the sweetest postcard and sent me lovely cheerful pressies.

Yay!

Thank you so much, Roberta! They're perfect.

Um, remember how I was done with my Sockapal3za socks? Well, yesterday I had another look at them, and I couldn't ignore how very much they are not the same length...



See?

And ok, I knew this already. I did some vigorous wet-blocking, with many, many pins to try to get the small sock to grow. Then I took the socks to show my knitting group, and although the general consensus was a generous 'everyone has one foot bigger than the other,' I was uneasy. I mean, what if my sockpal does have unmatching feet like the rest of us, but my larger sock fits her smaller foot?

Anyway, yesterday I decided I have to re-knit the toe of the smaller sock. And this afternoon, right after I totally promised myself I would do nothing but de-clutter my bedroom, I found myself staring at this...



Oh well. Back to work!

These are the socks I'll soon be sending to my Sockapal3za sock pal...



...but I'm still trying to figure out what I should send *along* with the socks. Help! I'm thinking a little bottle of wool wash, the leftover Fleece Artist 'Amethyst' sock yarn for mending purposes, and... what? What else? I have no idea!

Possibly I will go lurk through the Sockapal3za update page on Alison's blog and see if anyone else has decided what to send.

Tonight I have for you a photo of the sock I am currently knitting...


Sock; Trekking XXL, Color 76.

I like it so far, *and* it's sort of different from the other Trekking socks I've made -- very subtle, small stripes. And it's burgundy-ish! ♥ burgundy.

In other knitting news, I am almost done with the body of the Lara Sweater! I hate knitting it, but I can't wait to wear it so I force myself to continue.

End of Tiny Sock Update.

Still can't find my camera cord, but the new computer has a built in webcam (which I am CONVINCED is secretly broadcasting my washed-out face all over the Internet), so I have used it to photograph my progress on a Jaywalker Sock...


(Not the best quality, I know. Shhh.)

I'm really liking this pattern, and it goes very quickly. Plus, I LOVE the yarn (Schaefer Anne in a gorgeous wonderful dark red). So, I am a happy girl.

More sock-photos soon. Especially if I find my camera cord. :)

Since chiquitadequeso (her knitting blog is here) hasn't had time to update on her sock progress for a couple of days, here are some photos featuring *both* of our Sockapal3za sock projects. The blue sock is chiquitadequeso's, and the purply-burgundy one is mine.





[Click for bigger photo.]

More photos ( behind this cut... )

More photos soon, when I'm finished with the second OMG FIDDLY AND DIFFICULT sock cuff. :)

Oh, but here's the sock cuff a few hours ago, with us at L&L...



Back I go to knitting and re-binge-watching LOST!

At last, a quite bad photo of the Christmas socks!



Oh, how I slaved over them, with their long leg portions and fair-isle decorative bands...


(Click for big photo
in new window.)

When I took this picture, Dad was really busy doing important Pottering About (note the hiked-up Pottering About Sweatpants), so I had to just drag him outside and take a quick photo... hence the weird perspective.

I am ridiculously proud of these socks, and Dad is actually a little bit respectful of my knitting now, because he luuuuurves his blue Christmas socks. The pattern (which I changed to have patterny toes as well as cuffs) is from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks, and I used Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Heather yarn (Highland Mist & Gunmetal Blue for Dad's; Sand and Cajun Spice for mine) and size US 0 & 1 needles. They took ages.

Still, I enjoyed knitting them SO MUCH MORE than I am enjoying knitting the stupid damn Lara sweater. I sometimes have to put the Lara sweater on the floor and step on it a bit out of spite, and I think it is driving me to drink.

Hence, today I am knitting a beret. I think. I am trying to make up a beret, because Cassandra wears a beret to keep her hair back when she washes her face in I Capture the Castle (film), and I thought that would be useful and clever.

My beret (which might actually be very small and only useful as a fruit-cosy or similar) is made out of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky. It is a discontinued yarn, and although it is both tweedy and named after Yorkshire, I am not sure I like it. It feels... foody. Like maybe if I touch the beret-in-progress too much it will all just crumble into tiny felty chunks.

But it's discontinued so it was cheaper and I will feel thrifty when I wear my crumbly hat and wash my face. :)

[ Edit : I think the Yorkshire Tweed Chunky is *not* discontinued, actually. Oops. Not quite sure why I thought it was.

But, the beret worked out quite nicely, so I will feel *clever* when I wear my crumbly hat and wash my face, and clever is possibly better than or equal to thrifty. ]

...it's thrilling narrative, I tell you!

Ok, so... knitting group. I love my knitting group. Love it! I could write for pages about how good it's been for me, and how finding the group and the people in it helped me start getting my life back after everything fell apart and I'd been shut in the house taking care of my Mom for a year, etc., etc.

But you know what? I'm going to post a photo instead. Here's Tracy and Chauntel with an enormous throw rug...



(Click for Big Photo.)

Yeah. I don't even have anything to say about the enormous throw rug, except that I think it's amazing and great whilst still managing to be slightly alarming. Do you see how big that is? And it's made out of Homespun®: Yarn of Doom, too.

To be honest, I think Chaun might have been too traumatised to do anything but peek around the side of it.

(I say this with love, by the way, because I do really, really like the throw rug. I just also really, really fear it. I'm not good with a crochet hook at the best of times, but crocheting that much Homespun®: Yarn of Doom? ~shudder~ I can't even talk about it. Let's move on.)

Oh! Except that I have to link to my favorite knitting photo ever at this point. I'm really hoping Tracy won't mind...

Here it is! And, note how very, very uneasy Tracy looks. Whereas she's ecstatic about the enormous crocheted rug Chaun made, and I like the contrast in facial expressions. It's very "What Have I Done?" vs. "Yay!!"

[ Edit : Oops, um, apparently I have made some mistakes. See, the enormous Homespun®: Yarn of Doom crocheted rug? Is not so much a crocheted rug as a knitted blanket. And looking at the photo, I can see the yarn-overs, and I might possibly even have a vague memory of being *told* it is knitted and not crocheted just after that photo was taken, but I will totally deny that if questioned.

And maybe if Mary hadn't HOARDED it I'd have had a chance to notice it was a blanket and not a rug. Kidding! So kidding.

Mary did kind of hoard the blanket though. I estimate that it sat next to her chair, folded up in a paper bag, for nearly an hour. But we LURVE Mary so she is allowed to hoard all knitted projects for indefinite amounts of time. ♥

So, now you know the truth about the Enormous Round Knitted Blanket Made of Homespun®: Yarn of Doom! (Thanks, Tracy! Leave it to me to make a big post based on crap information. Possibly is a good thing I quit grad school; my thesis would've been full of lies! :D ]

Ok, so... that's my Knitting Group post for this morning. There's more to say about knitting group, yes, but I haven't slept much, I have a lot to do, and I'm super-excited about going to Solvang later today, and also I really want to post some pictures at aldenmacrae so I'm going to have to skimp a bit.

I will, however, leave you with a picture of one of the socks I am knitting at the moment...



(Click for Big Photo.)

It's with Trekking XXL, Colorway 100, except for the heel, which is Regia 4ply or something. Who the hell knows. Oh, and knit on US Size 1 needles. Which reminds me I was going to say something lovely about the Brittany company, but I'm sick of this post now, so I'll save it.

Ok, I can kind of be arsed now.

Here's the new Fleece Artist sockyarn (note that the yarn on the right is a-gonna make some lovely Gryffindor socks, oh yes it is)...


(Click for larger photo.)

Fleece Artist 100% Washable Merino sock yarn,
Colors: "Rainbow" at left, "Origin" at right.

Then, there are these. More Feather & Fan socks (so far, my favorite sock pattern ever ever ever EVER), out of Fleece Artist Burgundy sock yarn:


(Click for larger photo.)

Feather & Fan socks for ME, from Socks, Socks, Socks book,
Fleece Artist 100% Washable Merino sock yarn,
Color: Burgundy, Needle size: US 1.5 for lacy bits, US 1 for heel, toe, & sole.

As you can see the socks have two different sorts of toes (one each, obviously. Shut up, I'm tired and crampy and may possibly have had a bit too much wine.) -- I like the rounded one much much better, so am going to rip out the pointy toe and re-do it like the round one just as soon as I'm less tipsy.

G'night!

[ ETA: I absolutely did not accidentally post this at aldenmacrae just now instead of here. Nopenopenope. Didn't happen. ~headdesk~ ]

Hiya!

Ok, so, I broke down and joined a couple of Yahoo Groups knit-alongs. (That didn't come out right, but you know what I mean.) One is for Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road book (which is all socks, yay) and another one is for the crazy Socks Socks Socks book (very hit-and-miss book; don't recommend it except for, like, two patterns. Ok, one pattern. Which is, conveniently, the first pattern in the knit-along).

So, right now for the Knitting on the Road knit-along I'm working on somethingn called a Friday Harbor sock. Behold, for it is below...


(Click for Big Photo.)

Friday Harbor sock from Knitting on the Road,
Fleece Artist sock yarn in Blue Lagoon,
Squeaky, increasingly unpleasant Bryspun Flex DPNs: US Size 2.

The finished Friday Harbor socks are going to be for my Mom, I think, although Dad's worried that the nursing home will lose them. I plan to stitch her name on the bottom in black superwash yarn, though. Dad is baffled, and insists that this will take hours. Awwww.

(Socks = gift for Mom due to guilt, I think, because I was kind of impatient with her today about how There Are Not, In Fact, People In Her Ears Listening In. I'm sorry, but 28 = too young to have one's mother turn into one's child -- and certainly too young for this to have been the established pattern of life for the past howevermany years. Blast and damn and stinking brimstone to the whole situation.)

I was, at this point, going to post more about the other socks I've been knitting (almost finished; just have to re-do an overly pointy toe on one of them) and show you some yarn I got recently, but I am very crampy, have just taken a Xanax to combat massive anxiety woes, etc., and am now feeling very "bugger it" about the whole idea of posting more.

I will, though, and soon. Pics are uploaded and everything. Just, you know, can't be arsed right now.

Still playing catch-up with posting photos of things I've finished whilst I've been between knitting blogs. So today you get two poor-quality photos (I blame the lack of natural lighting; will take better photos when the sun comes out) of socks.

First, the socks I knitted whilst reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince...



(Click for larger photo;
opens in new window.)

HP6 Socks;
Interlacements Toasty Toes sock yarn;
US Size 3 needles (Size 2 for ribbing);
From Basic Sock pattern in Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet.


And then this pair was knitted right after the HP6 socks, because I liked doing the HP6 socks so much, oh yes I did...



(This is a craptastic photo, so
clicking here does NOTHING.)

Post-HP6 Socks;
Schaeffer Anne sock yarn;
Everything else = same as for HP6 socks.


There! Now if I can just find the stupid Clapotis, I'll be all up to date with knitting stuff!

So, I *almost* finished Dad's ~coughcoughFather'sDaycough~ socks. Here is a picture for your sock-viewing enjoyment...


(Click for bigsize.)

Dad's socks;
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (Color: Black Watch);
Basic toe-up pattern on US Size 1 needles.

The "almost" refers to the fact that sock on the right is shorter than sock on the left, so I have to unravel it, make the leg longer by about an inch, re-do the ribbing, and then use Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast-off. I have just learned this cast-off method, you see, and it is indeed much more flexible/stretchy than the way I was casting off before.