Saturday, February 25, 2012

Joy and...sigh....

I will start with the joy. Yesterday I went to Sheep in the City getaway. It was in Oak Creek near the airport. It was smaller than last year but still a decent amount of vendors including one all the way from Pennsylvania! I got there and walked around the room going to all the vendors probably 3-4 times before I decided on what I wanted. The first thing I saw when I got there was a vendor selling sock yarn for 40% off. Problem was I didn't see any colors I liked. But in the end I did buy some. As I was walking out, I saw someone had left a just started project on a chair. The yarn caught my eye. I saw the yarn she had and I knew she had bought it from the 40%off vendor. I went to see if I could find a skein. I found one left. The yarn is basically and gray and purple sock yarn. The yarn was $16.00 and I got it for $10 and change after the 40% off.

I bought 2 other sock yarns and a pair of needles. The first time I saw the vendor from Penn. I saw this tiny mini skein of yarn I fell in love with. I can't show you a picture because their website isn't very detailed. But It's called, get this...Northwoods cottage! How could I not buy it? It has different shades of browns, beiges and pinks. It will make great looking socks.

The last yarn I bought was from a vendor I bought from last year called Happy Hands yarns. Can't show you a picture of that either because I think it was a test yarn. They had 6-7 skeins of it. It's a black and red hand dyed yarn. I think it might look good as a shawl. Each skein has 225 yards in it and I bought 2. So I had 450 yards to make a shawl/shawlette if I want. Or socks.

The last thing I bought was pair of needles. I am using size 4 neeles to make my socks and I am looking to go down to a size 3 and try that. But the Knit Picks needles I get in my local Ben Franklin store don't carry size 3's. I would have to order them online. I bought them for $7 which I thought was agood deal. I got home and compared to the Knit Picks and I would have spend $.50 more, plus shipping. So I think I got a good deal. These needles are called Chiaogoo (chee-oww-goo). Many people love these needles so I thought I would give them a try. I got one with a 40 inch cable so I can do socks on magic loop. I will try an take pictures of the yarns I bought and show them top you that way.

The sigh I referred to in the title of this post has to do with my Packer sock. Earlier this week I was going well on it. I had made the opening for the leg and was knitting along when I looked at it and it was not stockinette but garter stitch. I think what happened was after I made the opening, I turned the sock inside out (or opposite of the way I had it) and started knitting. I couldn't fix it. I tried ripping it out only to make it worse and I ended up with big holes and gaps. In the end, Icouldn't live with it and I ripped the whole thing out and strted over. I struggled with the cast on (that is the hardest part for me with this pattern)but I am finally cruising along and I hope to have a virtually mistake free sock this time around. I have to=ill Sept. to get these socks done so I'm not in to big of a hurry. I just really wanted one sock done so I could try doing 2 at a time.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Socks socks socks...and shawls

This week I have been knitting exclusively on my Packer socks. I am knitting the heel and am at the half way point. Then I cut my knitting...yes I said cut. Actually it's only one stitch. It's to make a hole to make the leg. It's pretty cool that you can cut one stitch and spread it to make a hole and the knitting keeps it from going all the way to the edge. If things go well, I should have the sock done sometime this week. I'm too beat from work to work on it tonight, Sunday.

Next up I am going to try again to knit 2 socks at a time with two seperate yarns. One will be the packer yarn and one a different yarn. I haven't decided yet which yarn.

Then I decided I want to make socks for the family. The pattern I am using requires you to draw your foot on a piece of cardboard for your personal footprint. Plus the person has to be around for them to try it on so they can tell me if it's too tight or too loose. It's from the toe up not the cuff down. Once a sock is finished and the important info is recorded, then I can make that person upteen socks and they will always fit-assuming their feet don't grow!

Here is a video explaining the "pattern"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6d076POJ04

Here is a video showing how you cut the knitting to make the leg opening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztbI4T373PU&feature=related

I hope these links are highlighted. If not just cut and paste the link to the top address bar (for lack of a better term). Make sure the current "address" is gone by deleting it before you put the new one in there.

The other thing that is controlling my knitting brain is I want to make myself a double knit shawl. By double knit I mean that one side is say black and the other side is gray. It looks pretty easy. I have some church clothes that I would like to have a double knit shawl for so I can change the color based on what I am wearing. I realized pretty quick based on squeezing my sock that I will need to use fingering weight or sock weight yarn. Otherwise it will be as thick as bulky weight yarn and not look good or have any drape.

Here's a link to a picture of the shawl:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/intertwined-shawl

Here is a video showing what double knitting looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJ8qd713_g&feature=related

Joel still hasn't uploaded the camera softwear to the new computer yet so I can't show you any pics. Our old computer died and we were able to get an identical computer (not the screen) for free. It is in pristine condition and looks hardly used. Plus it's 10x faster.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

What's up?

What have I been up to lately? Well, I've been knitting on Joel's hat. The ribbing looks great! I'm doing it on straight needles and trying to decide if I should just knit the whole thing on straights or switch to circular needles. If it ain't broke don't fix it keeps coming to mind. The other thing I'm working on is the legwarmers. I had to buy a larger size needle to accomodate my fat calfs. So far I've worked probably 2 inches on a size 5 and bought a size 6. I'm hoping it will be big enough but if not, I'll go up to a 7 when I need to. I'm enjoying it a lot although I had one problem where I lost some stitches but I think I fixed it.

For valentines Day Joel bought me a huglight. Here's a link: http://www.mylight.com/huglight-4-led-p-219.html

As of this writing I haven't used it yet. I'm hoping it will give enough extra light to knit in the car and work on my black legwarmers easier.

I decided based on a podcast that I listen to I would pick a pattern from my favorites or my queue on Ravelry to show. This one is one I tagged as something I'd like to knit sometime. I hope the lik works for you and you can see the pattern. Here's the link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pipers-journey

I finally got to use my mittens that I knit! They are nice! They are warm and wool has the property that if it gets wet it insulates so you still stay warm. The idea behind those gansey fisherman sweaters. I may attempt to make another pair down the road. We will see how these hold up. I do think my tight knitting helps keep the cold out and keeps them from getting holes and stuff.

Tomorrow I have a day off so I will knit amd use my new huglight. Can't wait to try and knit in the car sometime!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Legwarmers update

On Tuesday I went to Knitch for help in doing 2 at a time. The ladies there didn't know how and had to refer to the internet! It made me feel better. Even the knit shop ladies don't know everything. But I was surprised since magic loop and 2 at a time seem popular. But we got both legwarmers cast on but I was confused about in what order do I knit them? Do I knit one half of each sock turn and do the other halves or do I knit both rows of one sock and then both rows of the other? The lady helping me didn't really know either. After much thought, I decided to abandon the 2 at a time and just work on one at a time. I feel much better about it. I can learn 2at a time later with 2 different yarns.

I am now on row 5 of 25 of the ribbing. It is hard to work ribbing on black yarn...but not impossible. I can see the purls so I start at the end of the row and I go knit purl knit purl etc and I can tell what stitch I need to start with. It appears I am doing it right. The ribbing is starting to develop. I'm cautiously optimistic that this will turn out right. But I do need to concentrate on each row and mark down when I finish a row.

Doing this also reminds me again how much I love these Knit Picks needles and the cables. So flexible and easy to use for magic loop. I may post a picture later but black yarn does not photogragh well.