I finished them!

I look down and what should I see?

Two finished socks staring up at me!

I finished all the knitting on the second sock last night and this morning I grafted the toes together and weaved in all the ends. I got them done just in time for January Socktopia. These would have been done much more quickly had I not procrastinated starting the second one. It is amazing how much more quickly and easily the second sock went.

Yarn: Lang Yarn's Jawoll Jacquard, Color: 82.0155
Pattern: Silver's Sock Class
Theme: Celebrate Good Times - because your first pair of socks is always cause for a celebration!




Because you can see her in my sock picture I figured I'd introduce you to my new friend Sophia.

You see right before Christmas D asked me for suggestions for Christmas presents because he wanted to get me a little more than he'd already picked up. I threw out a few ideas and one of them was for him to take me to Build-a-Bear because I had never been. He liked that idea and said he would. Well come Christmas I found out he'd already gotten me plenty of presents so when he forgot about Build-a-Bear I didn't say anything. A few weeks later he remembered saying "Oh no! We forgot to take you to build a bear!". I told him it was alright and he could save the idea for another time, or use it as a surprise. Well this weekend when he picked me up to take me home he started going the wrong way, and to my surprise we ended up at build a bear.

Tomorrow Feburary begins which brings me to thoughts about the new socktopia themes! If I could make any socks I wanted I'd make these:

I love this pattern and think the socks look very romantic but the truth is they are too complicated for me right now. I'm sure I could do them with time, effort and many tears of frustration but that just doesn't seem like much fun.

I have decided to go with the box of chocolate theme and will be doing these in browns:


If I finish the first pair early enough to make a second I'd like to make these for the short and sweet theme:


The future sock patterns are Vogue Knitting on the Go: Socks Two. The book is small, easy to carry and has quite a few cute patterns. The three I posted are my favorite.

Chocolate Decadence

Decadence by Knitpicks
Color: Chocolate

For some reason when ever I say "Chocolate Decadence" the song "Pardon Me" by Incubus pops into my head.

This yarn will become the Men's Cashmere Scarf from Last Minute Knitted gifts.

Fiber love

Life has been a bit busy with the start of school and I haven't been home much in the daylight hours. I almost forgot that it was yarn pr0n time and when I remembered tonight I started freaking out about what I would post because it was much too late to take any pictures. Lucky for me I have some pictures of a special yarn I have been saving, I wanted to save it for a bit longer but I guess this week is just as good as any other.

Meet one of my Christmas presents from my Mom - yes she's a fiber snob.





Joseph Galler's Peruvian Tweed
"The Heavenly Fiber"
100% alpaca
Color: 111


This stuff feels so soft and wonderful. There are no dyes, all colors are naturally occurring in the lovely fiber providing alpaca's. I looked up alpaca on wikipedia because I'm a dork like that and it says that alpaca's have more than 22 natural colors!

Now I do have a dilemma with this yarn... WHAT DO I MAKE WITH IT????

It is a light worsted or DK weight yarn and there is 600 yards. This stuff is soft, snuggly and warm and I want to take advantage of that. I was thinking of making a cozy, but that needs 800 yards and I'm not sure if 600 yards would produce a suitable size. I don't want to pick the wrong project for this yarn, its too lovely to do that to, so please send me your ideas if you have some!

Born again scarf

I don't have a lot to report but I felt like I should post something. Today was my first day back in classes and my first day working a temp job at the campus bookstore. The bookstore gig is just for the first two weeks or so, to get them through to book rush.

I recently restarted my basket weave scarf which I frogged back in October because I didn't like how it was turning out. Link to what it looked like in October

Here it is now:


I really love how it is turning out this time around. The size seven needles are working so much better than the eights were and the decreased width is also nice. I can't wait until it is done so I can wear it!

Warning Geek Moment:

If you don't know what I'm referring to with this picture you really should check out this link which is pretty funny. Mine is just me being goofy.

Lets try this again

Well I'm going to be busy until the evening tomorrow so I figured I'd go ahead and get the pr0n up now. I'm sorry about last weeks pr0n being blurry, that is what I get for trying to use an unfamiliar camera while half asleep. So because last weeks silky wool didn't turn out I decided to try it again this week, while awake, with my own camera. ;)

Alright so even with improved conditions this silky wool was kinda tricky, I don't think it likes being a pr0n star. Either the picture was in focus and the color was way out of whack, or the color was dead on but the picture was blurry. Grrr. After like 15 million pictures I finally got something that was in focus and somewhat color accurate so I took it and ran.

First the full body shot:


The close up:

Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool
Content: 65% wool 35% silk
Color: Teal (20)
I have an amusing tidbit to share with you from my mom who recently took up knitting again. She decided to make a pair of socks as her first project and she has been updating me periodically through IM about her trials in getting the socks started. One of the most recent messages was this:

"I did get to start k2 p2 but they all ended up on one needle"
I have to admit this made me laugh. I know she can do it, she just needs a little help getting started. I'm going to help her when she comes to visit tomorrow. I've got to start my second sock so we can start and work a few rounds together.

Everyone have a safe and enjoyable fiber friday!

Half way done

Today I learned...

That taking pictures of your own foot is a bit difficult.

I finished my first sock!



It is just an itty bit tight. I don't think my toe turns out as long as the toe in the directions.

Close up


I think the sock looks pretty weird when it is not on a foot. The ribbing for the cuff makes it look so skinny compared to the rest of the sock, the toe decreases really fast to a flat topped triangle and the heel looks a bit odd. I'm not sure if that is just the nature of the type of heel used or if it is a newbie sock knitter thing. It looks alright on which is what matters.

One sock down, one more to go! YAY~

Yarn Pr0n

Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool

Well I'm at my moms right now for her birthday. She loved her scarf. I hope this picture came out ok, and isn't too huge. I'm having to use my moms camera and my mom's computer, so everything is very different than what I'm use to.

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf Complete

Pattern: Multi Directional Diagonal Scarf
Yarn: Wool of the Andes Buly Hand Dye, Storm
Needle Size 9
Length: 64 inches, not including fringe
Width: 5 inches

This is my first finished project of 2007 and I am so pleased with it! The knitted portion took two whole skeins of yarn and I had to use a portion of a third to make the fringe. When I finished the scarf it wasn't hanging all that nicely so I made my first attempt at blocking. I dampened it with a spray bottle, smoothed it out over a towel, and threw a hot towel down on top. I used the hot towel because I remember reading somewhere that it helps drying time some. The blocking worked and it now hangs beautifully.

When I was in the basement of my apartment building heating the towels up in one of the dryers I noticed something in the corner. A cute little vine has grown into the basement bringing with it a splash of color and cheer.


I'm not sure what it is today but there are tons of birds hanging around. My cats go nuts about one bird, so you can imagine what happens when there are a lot of birds. Bird watching for my cats involves clinging to windows, lashing the tail, and making this odd chirping noise. It is cute for the first few minutes.
The bird watching did give me a chance to capture Luigi's special window scaling skill. I'm not sure how he manages to stand on those little bitty window bars, but he does.

I have started my first sock! I am only about 1.5 inches into the cuff but for a first sock I think its going pretty well. I didn't work on it at all yesterday, but I might get more done today.

Happy New Year!

In 2006 I learned to…
Cast on
Knit
Purl
Increase
Decrease
Join yarn
Cast off
Cable
Fix a dropped stitch
Tink back
Frog (I was so scared my whole scarf would unravel! LOL)

I made…
Three Irish Hiking Scarves
One moss stitch scarf with beaded fringe
Random practice pieces

I started…
Basket weave scarf (frogged the whole thing)
Multidirectional Scarf

In 2007
I will…
Knit something for myself, because I haven’t yet.
Feed my sock obsession with my knitting – Hello Socktopia!
Knit something lacey
Felt something
Attempt some form of color work, even if it is just a swatch.
Personalize this blog a bit more.

And today I thought I’d share that thing I made when learning to knit. You know the thing where you just knit with no real intention of it being anything?

It ended up looking like a scarf.