All about the sock

Because you know I'm all about the sock. 'Bout the sock no trouble. I'm all about that sock.

Ok. I'll stop but I can't get that song out of my head.

I put my shawl away for a little bit. The dryness of my hands was making the yarn picky. I'll take it back out when the humidifier makes it way out.

So...off to CO another pair of socks. I just can't get enough.

Pattern: Toe up Socks by Sarah Peasley
Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton
Colorway: Blueberries/Grape
Needles: US 1.5 (the smallest I have ever knit with!)

Now that I have the next 4 days off I hope to make quite the progress on these socks, in between eating turkey, and shoveling what might turn out to be 10 inches of snow!

Let it snow, let it snow.....(any better than the base song?)

Bakersfield FO

Well, I didn't expect it to take me a week to snap a photo of my finished shawl and post it. Even with these photos I didn't even get a nice shot of the entire shawl.

Pattern: Bakersfield by Corinna Ferguson
Yarn: Panda Cotton
Colorway: Sable
Needles: Signature Needles US 6mm
Ravelry Page

It was a very nice knit, and I'll add a fast knit. These photos really show the middle pooling I ran into. I think it is neat!

I believe this shawl is going to get worn often. I can see it with my black sleeveless dress, around my black riding coat in the fall, inside my winter coat during winter....oh just love the options! The yarn is so soft and swishy.

From one finished object to starting another one...I've already picked out my next project. I recently purchased some Kollage Creamy in Coral.... Remember the scarf I knit for my then nephew's girlfriend? Well, now they are engaged. I loved knitting with that yarn and wanted a project for me.

My Ravelry que brought me back to Irishgirlieknits' Summer Wind pattern.

LOVE!

Bakersfield Shawlette

I started this shawl last week. I wanted to do a sideways shawl and in searching my Ravelry Que, I noticed a few patterns from this designer. So, I purchased all her patterns in an e-book.

I have had this Panda Cotton yarn in my stash for a couple of years now (yes I admit that!). I thought the colors would work with a nice black sweater and/or blouse that I own or even a dressing up to my black jacket during the fall.

My concern was knitting a sideways shawl up with a yarn that has a bit of elastic in it. I was concerned about how the edges could curl.

....so I blocked it early on Saturday and put it in front of a fan.

It did retain it's shape well, so onward I went.

This is what it looked like by Saturday night (in all fairness all day on Saturday was primary spent knitting

Today I was hoping to get it finished, however there were others things to do. (like all those items I failed to do on Saturday!)

The way this is knitting up I'm sure I'll have it finished in a day or two.

Pattern: Bakersfield
Yarn: Panda Cotton
Colorway: Sable
Needles: Signature US 6mm

Summer Socks

So far these are what my socks currently look like:

I'm finding this material to be a bit challenging in the humidity. There is quite a bit of cotton in it and it gets that 'sticky' feeling when you knit.

I can't wait to get back to my Panda Cotton as I'm really wanting to knit up the yarn that I dyed myself. I'm calling the color way 'Fruit Loops', as that is what it reminds me of.
I also owe you a photo of the Rockin Sock Club 3rd package. It was the Incredible Shrinking Violet. Definitely my favorite color way so far!I hope you have enjoyed your 4th of July! It is time for us to go enjoy some fireworks!

Dyeing

I finally got around today to using some of the Paas dyes the DH bought for me for Easter. All I have to say is what a fun activity and I can see myself doing this again soon!

Here were my steps:

I mixed up the dye disks into vinegar, then added the water. Time to turn the ivory yarn into color. I chose orange, purple and green.Into the steaming pot it goes to set the color.After some steaming and rinsing.To me it is just beautiful!

Now hurry up and dry....

Could I be done?

That would be yes! As you can see, I have finally completed my second pair of socks! WOO HOO!!I'm so excited to be done with these!!

In my search in Ravelry for my next project I found a few things. However, I'm going to head back to see if I can finish my Seasilk shawl before I get started on something else.

I also found this upon my arrival home this weekend:
I do believe Spring is on it's way.

'Cause you had a bad day...

Remember the song with that line in it? Happy listening.

Happy belated Easter! I hope the Easter bunny was good to you. S/He certainly was to me. Want to see the best gift s/he left:
Yes, that would be 8 boxes of Paas Easter Egg Dye Packages, WOO HOO!! This would be to dye the white yarn that I just purchased from The Loopy Ewe! I also got the candy as well, but this was a great surprise!

I've also been knitting. I told you that I had. Now, I finally have the photos to prove it.

I couldn't believe how close I was to the toe decreases when I got them on the sock blockers. I was then going to start the decreasing tonight, however I'm going to wait until I have a better day (hence the song in my title) - as I'm a bit afraid that I would mess up my gauge.

I love the pattern I'm doing on these. It is a K2 P2 from the cuff all the way down. Very easy!

I'm hoping to have them done this weekend. However, I would not take a bet on that.

I did let that employee I spoke about this weekend go today. It turned into a crazy fest with the broker they supported having a hissy fit at what I had to do. Can you imagine being a 40+ year old man and storming around like a 6 year old having a fit? Some people {eyes rolling}. I mean come on, grow up and act your age. Hello... they were not doing their job, they were not working the scheduled hours, they were lying on their time sheet? Can you say grounds for dismissal after doing these things even AFTER being put on probation? Enough said... so please be quiet hissy man.

So - for me this means taking over this individual's job, supporting hissy fit man, training 2 other new employees, keeping another one on track, conducting my own management duties and past position that I held all during the busiest time of the year for our company....I'm thinking this week may just cost me another 3+ pounds in stress eating alone!

Still studying...

I can not wait for this exam to be over. I am really spending some major time studying when I really want to finish my socks (they have been put on hold under this test is passed!). So, until then, they sit on the ottoman taunting me in their see through case.

There have been quite a few things going on in the past couple of weeks, I'll bring you up to speed on a couple of items.

First the Loopy order:

• 2 Skeins of Panda Cotton, Ivory - I plan on using this to try out Kool-Aid Dying.
• 1 Hank of HandMaiden SeaSilk in Renaissance colorway
• Loopy! She is a plush ewe with a shirt that reads "A Little Loopy". I mean after buying yarn and having a stash, who isn't a little loopy? :-) If you feel the need, you can buy one from The Loopy Ewe.

We also had a large celebration for my Grammie's 85th birthday! She has always enjoyed receiving handmade items. In knowing that my talents are quilting, knitting, beading and a tad of sewing I was a bit limited in what I could actually pull off in less than a week. A quilt - no way! Beads - well I have made her many items already and I really wanted to knit her something. However, we know how long it takes me to knit things, so..

I had a skein of Panda Cotton in the Roses colorway and felt that this would be perfect with her white hair. I decided on a neck cozy, something small enough for me to finish - yet in using a few YO's I could integrate a lace design. Off to the needles and a few hours later I had this:

(sorry for the poor photo...haven't had time to correct it)

I learned a few things on this project, how to make a knitted buttonhole and how to pick up a couple of dropped stitches, one of which included a YO.

Well I have to get back to the books, as this break time was a tad longer than I should have taken.

It's time for the big game...

GO PATS!!!!

I've spent some time knitting this weekend. Just to prove it I actually took a picture:
You see only one, as I knit with 3 DPN's so, I had to take the time to move half the top stitched to another DPN in order to take the picture. The other sock is in the same place, so you see one, you've seen them both! I figure with the game tonight I can get a few more rows done.

I can't wait to get these completed as (thanks to Ravelry) I already have my next project in mind.

Only 8 months and 16 days

until my Birthday. No time like the present to start with a Birthday Quiz:

You excel at anything difficult or high tech. In other words, you're a total (brilliant) geek. It's difficult for you to find people worth spending time with. Which is probably why you'll take over the world with your evil robots! Your strength: Your unfailing logic Your weakness: Loving machines more than people Your power color: Tan Your power symbol: Pi Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Also for our bunny photo of the week:It is so funny that she hangs her foot out the side of the second level panel.

I'm in a knitting funk. I've turned my heels (YIPPEE!!), now I'm hung on the gusset pick up stitches. UGH! When am I going to be able just to knit from start to finish without pausing at each change?

No more colds

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

We are finally back on our feet after battling colds for the past three weeks, hence the absence from the blog. The house is also now back in order. Ahhhhh. :-)

We had a nice low key day today. I talked my DH into helping me construct and decorate a Gingerbread house. It was about 2 hours of fun...and I can't say how much sugar we ate, it was alot! I mean we had to taste test it. ;-) Here is the final result:I also have a pair of socks to show you the progress on.I really haven't worked on them in a bit, something about when you are sick all you want to do is chill and do something mindless. Knitting for me is not mindless.

We've also hired a contractor to work on our shed. He is going to get it weather tight for us. DH and I came to that conclusion that being outside working in 30 degree weather was not helping us stay healthy. I wish that we had started the shed earlier but that wasn't in the cards. It is disappointing that we can not call it 100% built by us. We will also be penny pinching through the end of the year to pay this contractor.

Off to get some knitting done as these socks need to be done by Christmas!!!

Faded Jeans

Here are what my socks look like moments ago:
I love the way the color is coming out and the pattern. I've been using K2P2 alternating each round.

I said that I wanted to be done with these before Christmas...well then I looked back at how long it took me to knit my first pair of socks and it was two months. If I finished these prior to Christmas that will be 3 months...so each pair is now taking longer than the prior ones? This just isn't right! I need to spend more time knitting.

This shed project is putting a damper in my knitting time. Actually I could blame my job as well. Since we are building the shed by ourselves (and not having the weather cooperating all the time), we'll need at least another month on it and since my job pays for the bills...can't give that up either. Bummer.

Check out this sky we had one night this week. The colors were so vivid.

Even longer time

It isn't like I haven't been around. I've been here and there but mostly spending my internet hours on Ravelry. That site is way too addictive! It plays into my being organized streak. Where else can you catalog all your yarn by photo, type of yarn and be able to down an excel list to take with you!?

I also was a winner from eebeads.com I received an eebeads t-shirt and a $50 gift certificate back over the summer. I finally had some time to spend the gift certificate. I believe a new bracelet is in my immediate future!

The shed is progressing, a little slow but the overnight rains we've been having are not helping...by the time you give it a few hours in the morning to dry out.

I've had some time this past week to knit. I took Friday off to work on the shed, and well it poured. So, I continued on my Panda Cotton socks that I started in Florida 3 weeks ago. Here is what they looked like on Friday morning:

April 14, 2007

DH was out of the house for the bulk of today. It was so nice and quite I was able to finished my latest James Patterson book, Judge & Jury. Once that was finished I was able to knit about 4 more inches, between the two socks. I’m so excited that I’m getting so far along.

Although I still have the heel which, having only completed one class sock prior, is still a huge challenge to finish before I’ll breathe a sigh of relief!! I love how the colors of the material are coming out and this Panda Cotton is just a delight to work with.

I also scored myself some Jimmy Buffett tickets this morning. I was cleaning out my inbox and came across an email from a ticket house and one thing led to another…I’m thrilled that I landed tickets.

I also went to the PO and picked up the mail. I knew I’d have my Simply Socks order waiting for me. Allison hasn’t disappointed me yet on fast shipping. I was emailing her the other day about other non-wool sock yarns and she mentioned the Cascade Fixation. Of course, I had to buy some right away and a little bigger DPN to work the knitting with.

So now I really have to finish the socks I’m working on to start the new ones, I have a feeling it is a battle that is going to be a constant one!