Tag: Sock Club

Posted in Current Projects

$)*&@*^ Decimal, Mini Mochi Socks, KP Sock Club, and Needle Gauge

Posted on by mslindz

Do you recall what the Decimal sleeve looked like yesterday? No? Check it out here. I was all excited because I was nearly done with the decreases and almost finished with it. When I got home yesterday, I realized that the thing is simply too big. WAY too big. Big enough to fit around my body (almost) big. Seriously – it was HUGE. I decided I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it and knew that I wouldn’t ever wear it with such gigantic sleeves. I took a deep breath and knew what I had to do. I took out my ball winder and frogged. Those keeping count will know that this is the second time I’ve frogged this sleeve. Ah well, I’d rather knit something that I’ll actually wear!

My first thought after frogging was that I’d just cast on a smaller number of stitches, but still make the sleeves 3/4 length. Then I thought more about it and decided that short sleeves might suit this very well, especially for wearing in the summer. So, that’s what I’m doing. I cast on the number of stitches I should have after the decreases and I’ll work the ribbing, 3 repeats of the bottom lace pattern, a few rows of the eyelet lace and then join it to the body. In my mind, I like how this looks, but we’ll see how I feel about it after I’ve knit it!

Here’s what the NEW Decimal sleeve looks like:

Decimal Sleeve Do-over

On the plus side, this shouldn’t take me very long to knit compared to the previous sleeve.

Today, as promised, I have a picture of my Mini Mochi socks!

Mini Mochi Sock

If you look closely, you can see the green waste yarn where the heel will be. I’m guessing I could probably get a pair of socks out of one skein if I did the ribbing now, but since I have two, I’ll make the leg a bit longer first. I love working with this yarn and really like how it’s turning out. I’m thinking of doing a pair of striped socks with this yarn similar to the ones I’ve seen people do with Noro sock yarn. I think that would look nice. What do you think? Should I give it a go?

I do believe I’ve mentioned it here before, but in case I haven’t, I’m in a few sock clubs this year. Recently I received two packages from the Knitting Purls Indie Dyer Sock Club. One was the March shipment (it was late due to an error from the dyer and I offered to wait to receive my skein) and the other was from this month’s shipment. I’ve never knit with yarn from either of these dyers, so it should be interesting to see what I think. I’m always looking for new folks to purchase from and I especially love supporting independent dyers, so I knew this club would be perfect for me.

The March shipment was from Indie Dyer. The yarn is the Sock-it-to-Me base and the colorway is Flowers and Showers.

Indie Dyer

I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Seems soft and I like the colors well enough, but we’ll see what I think once I’m working with it.

The May shipment was from Tempted Yarns. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Stacy’s yarns, so I was excited when this showed up in my mailbox! It’s the Good Grrl base and the colorway is First Spring Iris.

Tempted

I love purple (one of my favorite colors), so it’s no surprise that I really like the color of the yarn. It’s quite soft and springy. I think it will knit up nicely. I haven’t decided on a pattern yet, but I’m looking forward to knitting this up!

One last thing to show you before I go is this fantastic needle gauge I got from KaratStix. It’s handmade from bamboo and absolutely beautiful. I love how it has the 1/2 sizes for smaller needles and goes from US sizes 0000 to 15 (also has mm sizes on it). Totally worth getting if you ask me. I’m always afraid I’m going to break my metal or plastic needle gauge and this is about 1/4″ thick, so no worries there.

137/365: KaratStix Needle Gauge
Front

KaratStix Needle Gauge
Back

It would make a lovely gift for a knitter, too! There’s other products they offer and they’ll even do custom orders (right now it’s a bit of a long wait, but TOTALLY worth it, IMO). The shipping was really fast, too!

That’s all I have for today. In the next few days I’ll be migrating my blog over to my own domain, so keep your eye out for a post about that in the near future (this is assuming things work the way I want them to, of course, but it’s coming SOON!). Happy crafting!

Posted in Current Projects

Doing Better Each Day

Posted on by mslindz

About this time last week, I was on my way home from the hospital after surgery. The surgery itself went great (took about 2 hours total), but the first few days home were difficult. It was hard for me to move or do much on my own and I think the anesthesia didn’t agree well with me (whenever I slept, I’d wake up feeling nauseous), but I was walking pretty good and even went outside to walk on Saturday and Sunday. Matt went back to work on Monday and by then I was mostly able to do things on my own. He’s been home each day for lunch, which has been nice since I’ve been getting bored at home.

Tuesday my mom and sister came by and kept me company all afternoon. Wednesday some of my knitterly friends came by – Karen, Lani, Alita and Lisa. Lani was kind enough to bring some frozen meals for Matt and I, which was very much appreciated since I can’t do much housework or cooking still. Plus, the time with friends was great since I didn’t get to go to knitting group this week. My friend, Grace, stopped by Wednesday as well. She brought us dinner before she went to a yoga class. It was nice to have her come over and visit. Tomorrow Jessy is stopping by and I think my mom and sisters will be by this weekend, too.

Took a few days before I knit much after getting back home because I wasn’t feeling much like sitting up at first (mostly laid down and napped). Now, though, I’m back to knitting and I’ve been doing a lot of it! I’ll get to that part, but first I’ll show you what arrived in the mail just before I had surgery last week and since I’ve been home.

Last Wednesday, my Chevron Love Mitten Kit came in the mail from Knitterly Things. I can’t wait to knit these up! Should be a lot of fun even though I won’t be wearing them again until next winter. I got the “Tiny Dancer” kit. Irresistible combination of colors I had to have!

95/365: Tiny Dancer Chevron Love Mitten Kit

I ordered a pattern from The Loopy Ewe that was waiting for me in the mailbox when we got home last Friday. The pattern is Swedish Fish Socks. I already have some stash yarn in mind for it.

On Monday, I received yarn from The Yarn Bearer from the “Nightmares” sock club. This month’s theme is “Falling.”

96/365: Falling

I’ve really enjoyed being part of The Yarn Bearer’s club. The yarn’s I have received are beautiful! So glad I decided to join :o)

As for what I’ve been knitting… I’m still working on Decimal and it’s coming right along. I’m at the waist shaping portion. Seems like the more I knit, the less spittly this yarn is (though it’s still a bit splitty). I’m loving the resulting knit fabric, regardless of the splittiness of the yarn, though. The color, too!

99/365: Decimal - GROW!

I was working on the Baudelaire socks, but decided to rip them out. I had turned the heel when I decided I just didn’t love them. It was a combination of the yarn being a bit fuzzy/splitty and just not really loving the pattern. Wednesday I ripped them out and it felt liberating! Since I no longer had a pair of socks on the needles after ripping the Baudelaire socks out, I cast-on for another pair with the yarn I got Monday (above). I decided on the Marlene pattern by Cookie A. in the Fall/Winter 2008 issue of knit.1. I wasn’t sure how the yarn and pattern would go together, but I was pleasantly surprised with the lovely result.

Marlene Take Two

Initially I cast-on using US 1’s, but I couldn’t get the sock over my heel after two chart repeats, so I had to rip it out. Went up to US 2’s and it seems perfect now. The pattern has been an easy and fun knit so far. I think I have 2 more chart repeats before the heel, so it’s even further along then the picture above shows.

Haven’t been working on much else. I’ve been spending a lot of time watching TV, online, and knitting. Of course I’ve been doing a fair amount of walking, too, since that’s a big part of my recovery. I have a while before I go back to work and recovering is my main focus. Each day I’m walking and doing a little more!

Posted in Completed Projects, Current Projects

Sleepover, FO, New President, and Sock Club

Posted on by mslindz

I’ve been meaning to blog for a few days now, but I’ve been distracted by other things or just plain busy!

This weekend we had a knitter’s sleepover. It was so much fun!! I can’t remember the last time I stayed up so late, but it was a blast and totally worth it. I’m so glad one of the ladies in the knitting group opened her home to us! I got a lot of knitting done, watched movies, chatted, and ate good food. I intended to take pictures, but I got wrapped up in all the fun and forgot! A lot of fun, though!!

I was able to finish the Hogwarts scarf while I was there, though. Well, the knitting and the weaving in of ends. I did the fringe when I got home. I’m so glad to be done with this project. It was a bit boring, but at least I could work on it while doing almost anything else since it didn’t require I pay a whole lot of attention to it. It’s just knit around and around and around and… well you get the idea! So, here’s the third finished project of the year:

Pattern: Hogwarts Scarf in Gryffindor colors
Started: January 5, 2009
Completed: January 18, 2009
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice in Mustard and Brick
Needles: US 8 bamboo circular
Notes: I cast on 80 stitches instead of 70 because it fit around the 16″ circular better for me. Kept the same 22 rows before changing colors, though. Easy knit. It’s for my sister, who will probably get it this coming weekend.

Harry Potter Scarf - done

Recently came across this Polaroid program. Fun to play with! I did this photo of the scarf with it.

IMG_0717-pola

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Since the scarf is now DONE, I can work on something else! Matt asked me to make him a scarf and some gloves that would work well with outdoor photography. Took me a while to find yarn, but I finally decided on Berroco Comfort DK. It’s quite soft and I’m hoping it will be warm, too. I’m loosely basing the pattern on Cigar, but one hand will be totally gloved (all fingers covered) and the other hand will have finger flaps for the thumb and forefinger. Haven’t decided on how I’ll work the “flaps” yet, so we’ll see how that works out! After working on the gloves for two days, I’m about to the fingers on the first one.

Fits Like a Glove

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Yesterday I went for a second opinion consult on surgery. I’m having a test done next month and then I go back for a continuation of the consult. This pushes things back further than I wanted or expected, but I know that it’s the right thing to do. I’m just getting a bit impatient about it all. I want to be done already, but making the decision that is best for me is more important than making a decision just because I’m impatient.

Today is inauguration day. I was able to watch it on CNN on IPTV at my computer at work. This is my first time watching an inauguration and it was really great to be able to see it. I thought President Obama’s speech was moving and I teared up a little. He’s quite charismatic!

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Last week, I saw that sign ups were open for the Loopy Ewe Sock Club. I hadn’t tried for a spot before and was thinking I should pass. It is a bit pricey and it’s a year commitment. I told myself I couldn’t really afford it, but I’d also been feeling a bit like a deprived child who says “But you NEVER let me get ANYTHING!!” Which, of course, is usually not true at all. I figured even if I did try, I wouldn’t get in. So what did I do? Entered the lottery for a spot, then promptly forgot all about it, figuring I wouldn’t get a spot anyhow. Then, today when I was looking around on the Ravelry message boards and happened upon a thread in the Loopy Ewe group about the Sock Club. Apparently people were getting their emails TODAY about if they got a spot or not! I quickly checked my email and…

I GOT A SPOT!

Um… I wasn’t expecting this at all!! I feel a bit guilty for spending money on me, which is a problem I have had for a long time, especially since I’ve been working hard on getting rid of debt. But… I’ve heard such great things about this club and I’m quite excited about it!

This week is doing pretty good so far! Tomorrow I’ll be having lunch with a friend and I’m quite excited about it! New restaurant and good company mid-week :o)