Category: Blog

I just spent way more time reading the new issue of Knitty than I should have. Here are the 2 patterns that WILL be made by me at some point in the not too distant future:

Isabella by Jordana Paige
I love her patterns, she wrote Starsky among other things.

Clessidra socks

Now, that sock pattern reminds me of another sock pattern that I have yet to tell you about. Well I did mention it but never the full story. The lovely, gorgeous Entrelac socks by Eunny Jang in the IK spring ’07. I cast them on the night I got the mag in the mail. I used some sock yarn I had on hand from Over the Rainbow Yarns (linked on the sidebar). Perfect colors, gorgeous pattern, matched gauge- or at least I thought so. Obvi my gauge changed from stockinette to doing entrelac. Because, I got the entire leg up to where I would start the cuff (that is all the way to my knee folks) and decided I should try it on.

Now, before you think ‘ why did she wait so long before trying it on?’, I did try it on after turning the heel and doing two tiers. It fit fine, a tad snug but I have other socks that are much more tight & they are more than functional.

So, I pull it on, oh shit. I pull some more. Not going on. No way, no how. Unfortunately my skinny ankles are not skinny enough apparently, for the lack of leg shaping above the ankles for 6″. I should have increased at about 4″ and then again at 6″. But I didn’t know that. So, I ripped out the entire sock to the heel turn. Yes, 5 full days of knitting only that sock & I ripped it out in less than 5 minutes. My husband kept apologizing to me while watching to make sure I didn’t have a brain aneurism from anger. Anger at myself, Eunny for the perfectly beautiful sock that was almost mine. So here it is, ripped out & waiting to be re-knit.

 (I am not giving it the satisfaction of a great picture)

Honestly I am not sure I will ever be able to bring myself to knit them again. I loved doing it the first time, it wasn’t a chore. I have a feeling the second time is going to be more than a chore. I have plans, ideas for the second time around. My own short row heel pattern, knit them both at once either magic loop or on 2 circs so they can easily be tried on after every set of tiers (not tears, I will say it is a damn good thing I was not pms’ing when it happened or I may have just burned them in the fireplace outside).

Deep breath.

Until now I couldn’t even talk about it without getting angry. But that is life when you knit other peoples patterns.

So after my 2 socks on 2 circs class last night I came home & cast on for a hat that I am going to teach colorwork with at Knit & Pearl.

I am happy with it, it’s simple 2 color fair isle. Teaches the basics. My color choice could have been better but I do like how it turned out. The class is April 19 & 26 at Knit & Pearl.

No Sew Soap Socks

Yarn: SWTC Bamboo (Handpaintedyarn Ejido) instructions given for both sizes

Needles: Size 4 (10) US, 40″ length for Magic Loop method

Gauge is not dire here, you should be fine, it’s a pretty stretchy tube.

Using a long tail cast on, cast on 20 (12) sts

– rotate sts on the needle so that the cast on bottom is on top, move sts to other end of your circular needle.

-pick up sts through the front bump of the cast on edge (you can see a good pictorial in this pattern).

– You will now have 40 (24) sts

For the bamboo sock I chose to do a broken up stockinette & garter pattern:

-work *4 rows knit, 1 row purl, 1 row knit, 1 row purl, 1 row knit, 1 row purl, 1 row knit, 1 row purl* repeat these rows ending 4 rows knit, when it measures the desired length. (you can slip your bar of soap inside to see how long you want to go).

For the wool sock I chose to do all stockinette. Just knit around & around until it’s the desired length.

Close with kitchener stitch.

To make loop:

Using end of tail from kitchener seam, crochet 10 chain, join through base of first chain.

Tie in ends & use!

They left out the one semi-celebrity that I am a dead ringer for…

Idina Menzel

If you know me & have not seen the movie Rent, get it just to compare how freaky the likeness is. I have actually been stopped twice here in town, once in a parking garage & once on State St. by people thinking I am her. Odd, that. But it is a star studded town, Santa Barbara.

Have you noticed that I am actually blogging??? Words & everything. This morning I am going to share the soap socks that Tracy & (she has a pictorial of hers on her blog as well) I did with pictures!! A few words on the soap socks. Tracy really got me going on these things. We tried Euroflax linen, SWTC Bamboo and various leftover wools, mostly from HPY. Don’t worry ladies, we didn’t harm any crack yarn in the making of these soap socks.

I made myself 2, 1 using the Bamboo and 1 using some of my scrap yarn. As I mentioned in a previous post, we found some yummy soap bars at Ross. In the bamboo I used one of the large Goat’s milk bars (from Scotland, that is why I truly bought them) and in the wool I used an acne soap bar that is about half gone. Just enough so that if I hate it I can toss it without the guilt of the cost of a bar. I am cheap like that.

Here they are being knit, midway, using magic loop. THey are on separate needles, I didn’t knit them at the same time seeing as how they are 2 totally different gauge needles.

Here is the bamboo, in color Azul. I did some sections of garter as well as stockinette to give it some more exfoliating power.

And here is the wool/acne soap bar. The colors are fun, like a circus.

Now, to compare the two.

In the shower, the bamboo soap sock kinda just moved around the soap, even though it’s knit on there tightly. I had to really work it around to get the lather going & coming through the bamboo. And, it didn’t exfoliate quite the way I would have liked.

The wool, on the other hand, lathered up nicely and exfoliated much more than I expected. It’s a singlespun wool so it will felt faster than if it were plyed. But what a great use of scrap yarns!

Yesterday afternoon I decided that some ideas for baby gifts I had just weren’t cutting it. So I went ahead & started something new. A reader is the recipient so mum’s the word until it’s done & gifted. Then I can share.

I have been working on dads socks a little here & there. 6 weeks should be enough time to not have to focus solely (hehe, no pun intended) on them.

And here is a picture of the Bea Ellis Knitwear Horse Hat. It was really hard to get the colors at night with no flash. Once I get cast on I will get some good natural light photos. I love how they send the wools for the hat & then the cotton for the forehead liner. I really can’t wait to get this started (and finished) so as soon as the mystery baby gift is done I will for sure start it.

and while all that cleaning/organizing was happening, what arrived at my house??? The Bea Ellis Knitwear Horse Hat kit that I ordered 2 flippin’ days ago!!! That was amazingly fast service. I am more than impressed. More to come on that once I get it cast on.

Back to watching The Patriot before bed.

I got about 20 minutes of knitting done this morning before needing to jump into a work Saturday. Now, we are lazy on the weekends. It is rare we do yard or housework on the weekends, that is saved for the week after school & work so that we can spend all weekend on our butts. But, I had to go and offer to re-organize & clean out my husbands work trailer (7’x12′). Actually this is how it really went down:

George- I have got to do something about that trailor (as he opens the back doors and tools literally fall on his feet).

Me- I will do it if you pay me a thousand bucks.

George- I would happily pay you to do it.

Me- (thinking before speaking, ‘What is a more realistic figure that I could get away with demanding before offering it up?’) Okay, seriously the next free Saturday I will do it for 500 bucks.

George- You got it.

Me- (running as fast as I can to get to a phone to tell Tracy we are making $250 each, before asking cuz who doesn’t want $250) Tracy, how would you like to make $250 cleaning out & organizing George’s trailor one Saturday???

Tracy- ummmm…..OKAY!!!

Now, today rolls around, my period starts. The last 2 days I had been telling both George & Tracy how I so did not want to do it. At all. But of course I gave in & did my fair share. Before Tracy even got here I had bought myself a new set of pruning shears and whacked the hell out of all shrubs, bushes, verge in my front yard. Tracy arrives, I am sitting in the middle of my driveway on my butt with said shears at my side. Breathing heavy and nursing some stupid injury from fixing a pair of rollerblades. George is at Home Depot with one kid. I was tired at that point. Knitting really is not so much of an aerobic/ strength building activity. Cutting all that greenery really took what little steam I had & whoooshed it all away.

But George got home, opened up the trailor doors & we started going. I have to say, it was much more fulfilling that I expected. We got it done in less than 3 hours. That is a pretty decent hourly wage! And I will also say that I have never seen it so logically organized. If only tools could look as orderly and neat as yarn does. Alas, we came inside, George made us pig-ribs for dinner and we knit. Both working on soap socks. Tracy had her first one almost finished using Euroflax and it’s fantastic! I made one out of some super thick/thin wool so that it will felt on size 10’s. It was a tad faster. So I thought my new bamboo would be great. Yeah that stupid tube is taking forever! We have some honkin’ big soap bars that we found at Ross. Some are gifties & some for ourselves. I used a turkish cast on and magic loop then a kitchener to close it up at the top & chain crocheted a hanging loop on the top corner. Happy I am.

I will do pics of the bamboo one to show more precisely the manufacture of said soap sock.

So, what shall I do with my $250 hard earned dollars? Yarn? George finally said I have enough & it would be wrong to have more. sigh. He is right of course. There is an entryway bench I have been dyeing to have. Also, I would love to buy myself some new fantastic glasses. Then there are the cones of Euroflax that I am dyeing to have. Oh wait, no yarn. Um…right. Guess that leaves glasses or a bench. I may be able to do both if I wait until the bench is on sale. And don’t do transitions lenses in my glasses. No, have to have the lenses. Now I am just rambling.  I will not leave you all waiting with baited breath. Once I make my decision on what to do with all my new $$$ I will let you know. (listen to me, you would think I won the lottery or something, I am so lame)

So here are my purchases for the last little while. I know, I have left a few out that I already used up.

Top of the picture you see 1 skein Lambs Pride bulky in Blue Magic from Knit & Pearl, to be used for a Meathead hat for my brother in law (he was jealous when the kids all got them for christmas & he didn’t).

 1 1lb cone of Lambs Pride Bulky in Roasted Coffee from Oregon Trail Yarn & Books on Ebay, to be used for another deep cowl neck sweater from Vogue Fall ’06 that I made using a boucle yarn in a previous post.

1 1lb cone of Lambs Pride worsted in Medieval Red also from Oregon Trail, it does not have a designated project yet but soon I promise.

2 cones of Aunt Lydias denim cotton, one is a marl linen, the other is chambray.

The dark orange set of balls in front left are cashmere from Colourmart, it’s laceweight that I just wound 3 strands together to make a worsted weight.

The bright yellow/green, color 9912,  ball is Cascade Yarns Bulky Leisure HD.

Behind that there is a dark green ball of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere from Knit & Pearl, I have 2 more balls of it in a light blue somewhere. Somehow it didn’t get inventoried, I am wondering if I offloaded it onto someone else, Marieke maybe? Anyhow, I am going to use this one to make myself an Odessa hat with pretty beads that have yet to be purchased.

Directly in front of that is a Pea green Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from Knit & Pearl to add to my stash that will eventually become a striped or maybe fair isle sweater.

In front of that is a ball of SWTC Bamboo from Knit & Pearl in Azul. Fun, fun, fun from Knit & Pearl. One ball of this yarn makes so many little things it just tickles me to think about it!

To the right of that are 2 balls of Crystal Palace Yarns Bamboozle from Craft Essentials worsted weight bamboo blend yarn for socks in colorway Fall Herbs.

Behind those balls are 2 balls of Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Cotton from Craft Essentials fingering weight, it is also a bamboo/cotton blend for socks in colorway Cinnamon.

And lastly on the right are 3 balls of Little Lehigh, cotton/acrylic Dk in colors It’s a Boy (blue), Sleepy Head (lavendar) and Play time (green). I thought the names were pretty cute and they are huge balls of yarn! Over 240 yards for $6 at Knit & Pearl. Great buy for all the baby stuff that is going around lately.

Not in the picture but on the way are a few cones of Peaches N Creme for bathmats, random kitchen stuff, washcloths, ballband washrags, etcetc.

Also coming are 2 balls of hand dyed superwash sock yarn coming from Over the Rainbow Yarns on Ebay. Leaflitter & Freaky Purple. I know, I don’t need anymore mileage in the sock yarn department. I haven’t actually finished a pair of socks in about a month. But I do have 2 sock classes I am teaching plus my dad’s bday coming up so that is at least 3 pair. Tada!!

And my mom’s Mother’s Day present is on it’s way. I will have to tell her & dad not to read so I can post about it. It’s a good one!

Look at the Horse Hat! It’s a kit from Bea Ellis Knitwear. I chose burgundy & a very pale silver blue color. I can’t wait to get it! How perfect for her long, freezing horse rides. They are doing a wagon train in a couple of months (right after mother’s day I think) so it will be perfect timing for those cool nights in the high desert and mountains.

That is what I have coming & have acquired. Jealous? Probably not but I am excited about it all. Can you tell there is a little more money coming in recently? I am done now. I shall knit, knit, knit. That is if I can get my butt off this computer.