Socks!

I finished the first of my RPM socks


The fit is perfect, and I can't wait to start working on the second one! Sadly, I have to wait. I must first make my dad a pair of socks, so he doesn't feel left out.



I selected the Plain Winter Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks because my guage matched, and because they would work up quickly. I'm close to the heel turn already.

I'm hoping to finish hint 2 of my stole sometime tonight or tomorrow. Hint 3 will be published tomorrow, and I'd like to be ready for it!

Wouldn't ya know

Last week I posted about how I tried to capture snow falling and mostly I ended up with a picture of the world around me.

This week I have a picture where I was trying to capture the snow covered world around me, and ended up with a picture of snow falling. Or are they orbs? Or faeries?

Luigi believes in faeries.

He chases them all the time.

Wheee!

I'm so excited!



I finished hint #1 tonight! I even finished in time to submit it for the prize drawing. :D

I've been thinking that maybe those diamonds are actually flowers. They look sort of like flowers. You have the cluster of decreases in the middle with yarn over petals surrounding it. Flowers would match the suggestion that we use an earthy color for this stole. hmmm....

I believe it is time to go celebrate with a class of wine, my sock, and an episode of the Sopranos.

Secret of the Stole Swatch

Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Moss

Top Swatch
Cast on: US3 and US2 held together (US3 alone was tight)
Cast off: US7 I made an effort to cast off very loosely.
Knit: US3
Size: 8.25in wide, 4in tall

Bottom Swatch
Cast on: US4 - turned out nice and stretchy
Cast off: US7 - I cast off normally and it turned out too tight.
Knit: US4
Size: 7.5in wide, 4.5in tall

Results:
They look almost identical. Top swatch turned out a little wider and Bottom Swatch turned out a little taller. I think a lot of this is due to blocking. The bottom swatch's bind off was too tight which limited how much I could stretch out the lace. I also just did a better job blocking Top Swatch, because it was the second swatch I knit.

For this project I intend to go with the size 3 needles. My yarn is finally in Lexington, so I'm hoping I get it today. Fingers Crossed!

I also finally got around to making the heel for my sock

Pictures from last week

The first day of school last week, it snowed.



I discovered that it is really hard to capture a picture of snow falling. I'm guessing you have to mess with shutter speed. Doing a few experiments with shutter speed might be a fun project for one week. I did manage to catch the snow way away in the background in the picture above, which I'm happy about.



I've been spending my time between classes hanging out in the library. It is a nice quiet place to knit (or study).



How I wish Luigi was always this cute and this sweet.

I'm debating how to handle days where I have multiple different decent pictures taken. Sometimes its difficult to decide which one matches the day best.

Juliet Scarf

You know how on Thursday I said I expected to finish my Juliet Scarf sometime next week. When I said that I actually meant I would finish it that night.



It wasn't fully my choice to finish it. I ran out of yarn. The scarf was only about 25 inches long instead of the suggested 37 inches long. But don't worry, this story has a happy ending.



Pattern: Juliet Scarf from Knitting Little Luxuries.
Yarn: Partial skein of Rowan Felted Tweed (unknown amount)
Needles: US 8
Finished size: 37 x 7 inches
Mods: I left the book at my mom's so I'm not 100% sure but I think the pattern intended you to end on the last row of the chart. I didn't like the look of it because that row ends with a big hole. It looks great in the pattern, but not so great standing alone. I ended on row 6 instead. This also happened to be the perfect place for the amount of yarn I had. In the end I had just enough to weave in.

I'm so glad it blocked out to 37 inches. I still think it is a little short. If you knit this, and would like to be able to tie it, I suggest making it longer. I intend to make or find some cute pin to use to use with this.

Knit knit knit

I've not had nearly as much knitting time as I thought I would, but I still got a decent amount done on my Juliet scarf



She is now 21.5 inches long and the suggested length is 37 inches. With any luck I'll be done sometime next week!

I've not started my dad's sock yet. My second set of US1 dpns seem to be MIA. I feel a strong urge to cast on about 20 different projects. I must resist.

I signed up for the second secret of the stole. The clues start tomorrow. Unfortunately my yarn has not arrived. :( It has finally been shipped though! YAY! Maybe I'll be able to buckle down and catch up once it gets here? Wishful thinking? Probably.

I'm enjoying my anatomy class. Is that weird? I bet I'll be cursing it come test time. ;)

The first beer

For christmas I got TheBoy a Mr. Beer kit so he could try brewing his own beer. Last week we bottled the first batch.



I haven't gotten much knitting done, but today is the first day of class so I'm sure I'll have plenty of knitting time.

My first class was a Pilates class and I'm a bit skeptical. The instructor is a young grad student who is a certified physical trainer/something or other. She also explained that she is about to get certified in Pilates and that that means she "is qualified to teach this course." Now I would prefer that she was already certified, but I'll take close.

Now here is the real kicker, after all that she mentions: She has never done Pilates. And that she will be learning from our text book and then teaching it to us. Say what?

Now I need to decide what to do about this class.

Lacey WIP

Today's WIP is the Juliet Scarf from Knitting Little Luxuries. I borrowed the pattern and the yarn from my mom. I really love this scarf. It is my first time knitting lace, and my first time working from a chart. I didn't think I'd like working from charts, but I LOVE it. I now understand why everyone wants charts.

Project 365 - First Week

With the first week of project 365 now over with I'm the proud owner of 3 pictures. If I can manage three pictures a week, I'll be cool with that. The above one was taken yesterday evening while on a walk.

I've been thinking about it and I don't think pictures of WIPs or yarn should count toward my 365 project total. If I counted them I would be cheating myself out of exploring and trying new things. Big ticket items like a first sweater, or a large completed lace project however I think are fair game.

FO's from the trip

While on the trip I finished my brother's socks. I don't have an FO picture for the pair, but I can assure you the second sock looked the same as the first. ;)

I also started and finished a pair of fetching while I was there


Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Cascasde 220 Superwash, color 888
Made for: My mommy
Mods: I used a purled bind off insted of the picot bind off. I also picked up extra stitches for the thumb and decreased them away. To be honest I picked up the extra stitches because I wasn't 100% sure which to pick up. I decided to not bother finding out because I've noticed fetching thumbs sometimes have holes. I thought the extra stitches might pervent this. They didn't.

The yarn for these was actually left over from my brothers socks. I think I still have enough for another small project.