Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Yarn contest!

Now that I have your attention...

Adrienne is having a contest - it's a yarn giveaway! Just go to her website here to read all about it.

Free yarn - does it get any better?

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Wash Day

You can never have too many pairs of handmade socks - it's laundry day! Nice to have a wood stove to hasten drying.


It occurred to me that I've finished up or started more socks.

This pattern is A Little Twisted Socks by Debbie O'Neill for The Knitter's SOTM club. The yarn is Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in Eggplant colorway. The leg was somewhat complicated - LOTS of cables - but the sock I thought turned out really well.


Ta dah! Here are the finished Maze socks from Sensational Knitted Socks vol. 1.


The charcoal color is Regia silk and the offwhite color is Dale of Norway Baby Ull. It's knitted on size 0 (2.00 mm) needles. The leg pattern was FUN - mosaic looks so complicated but really isn't. The feet were very tedious... Hugh loves them!

Speaking of Regia silk, this pattern is for my older son. The pattern is Snicket. I'm done with the first leg. Once I figured out how to cable without a needle, it was much, much easier.


I'm making another pair of Jaywalker socks. This is Regia yarn, colorway is Nation Color #5399 - isn't it fun?


I'm loving the big stripes and what the chevron pattern of Jaywalkers does to it.

Lastly, here is Tea Time - another design by the wonderful Adrienne Fong. This is another mosaic knit, using Meilenweit colors #1334 & #1335. It's going together really fast. I'm loving this design - and wondering what black with a self-striping yarn would look like in another pair?


Off to cheer on the Pats!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Projects for the December and January

I am SO behind on blogging - so I'm starting on projects I've completed and have in progress, then we'll talk about the holidays (fun!) - I'll get there!

With the holidays I've been busy knitting for family and friends. I made these socks for Uncle Steve - this striped design always reminds me of him and the colors he likes. It's my own design and made with Regia mini-Ringel. The self-striping pattern is really fun to knit with!


The luxury sock of the month club offering from the Knitter was my cup of tea! It's an Adrienne Fong design - what could be better? The pattern is called Zen Garden and the yarn is by Claudia Handpaints and is also called Zen Garden - specially designed for the SOTM club. With apologies to Mike Myers, it was like knitting with butter! So, so soft and wonderful to knit with.


Among my other Christmas treats was this beautiful yarn from Adrienne - I tested knitted a sock for her and she sent me this beautiful yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, home of Socks that Rock yarn. The colorway is Xmas Rock. Isn't it gorgeous?! I had such fun knitting these socks (for me, me, me!). It's another Adrienne design called Crazy over You - very fun pattern and it knits up fast.


In terms of *ahem!* stash exhancing, I just bought some beads from Earth Faire and then noticed they had Apple Pie yarn which I've been wanting to try, thanks to positive recommendations from Baseball Knitter. She's right - it does smell good! Not like apples though. DS 2 has already claimed the yellow yarn for himself. This should keep me out of trouble for at least a little while... Aren't they beautiful beads? I can't wait to knit with them!


I *finally* finished the socks I was knitting for DH! I started the first one last March at taekwondo winter camp in Maine. I loved knitting the mosaic pattern for the leg of the sock but the alternating dark/light in the foot was just plain tedious! This sock is from the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch, the pattern is called Maze. The dark yarn is Regia silk - charcoal, the offwhite is Dale of Norway Baby Ull. Soft, soft yarn - if I did this pattern again I'd do the foot as plain stockinette and NOT do the alternating colors again.

This is a picture of the sock in progress - I promise there are two! I'll take a picture soon with the laundry hunk modeling them.

It's time to knit!