a knitted hug

"A knitted hug" is how I described this little shawl in the card I wrote to the recipient of this shawl. She's a dear, and she was there for me as I was losing my granddad to kidney cancer last year, and now her grandma is going through the same thing. Just as I knit baby stuff with good intentions for the wee one, I knit this shawl with thoughts of peace and healing for L and her grandma through this tough time.



Yarn: Neighborhood Fibre Co. Studio Sock
Colorway: Randle Circle
Used: About two-thirds of a skein
Pattern: In the Land of Oz
(Ravelry details)



I can't say enough good things about this pattern. It is a truly easy lace pattern. You knit lace only every fourth row, and you can always tell where you are on each repeat. I love that kind of intuitive pattern. I'll definitely be knitting this again - maybe in a bigger version!

I plan on giving this to my friend today, if she's back at work. I have a feeling she went to Iowa for the weekend to be with her grandma.

a sock-ish update

I whipped through my socks-in-progress while I was in Ohio visiting my family ... and on the spur of the moment decided my mom should receive them!

Here is a link to her shot. My photo didn't turn out so well, as you can see:



I brought some "emergency sock yarn" with me, and I'm glad that I did, because I knit much of the foot of this sock in the airport and on planes:



STR lightweight in Marbles
US 1 needles
toe-up stockinette

I acquired this yarn from Irishgirlieknits' contest and it's so pretty! Continuing the spirit of giving socks away, these will go to my BFF - I gave her a pair a couple years ago. She texts me all the time to tell me the socks are keeping her feet warm on a school ice-skating trip, or that it's raining, her boots have a hole, and these are keeping her feet warm and dry. She loves pink so I think she'll love these.

I adore Socks that Rock (as the five pairs of socks I've knit from it show) but I'm starting to realize in hindsight, I should have made more purchases in Mediumweight rather than Lightweight. The 360-yard put-up in LW doesn't make for very tall socks when you're knitting for size 10 and 11 feet (which my mom, the BFF and I all have). Ah well. I will just knit shorter socks is all!

current projects

Here's what I'm working on these days:



Toe-up sock, no pattern (yikes!)
Socks that Rock Lightweight, ST-1
72 stitches, 2x2 rib
US 1 needles

I got together with some knitterly friends at an Irish pub yesterday and made a ton of progress on this and now I'm past the heel flap and onto the leg.

I also am working on a shawlette for a friend:


Pattern: In the Land of Oz shawlette (a very easy feather-and-fan pattern)
Yarn: Neighborhood Fiber Co. in Randle Circle
I'm nearly halfway through the charts. Super easy pattern.

Well, that's all that's going on with me right now. Hope your WIPs are flying along!

My (unofficial) Knitting Olympics project is done!

It's true; I have finished my first toe-up socks. Just typing those words made it sink in, I think. I can't believe it!



Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Pansy Go Lightly
Pattern: Dead Simple Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson
US 2 needles
Time to knit: About five months (with at least two months' break in the middle, for Christmas knitting)
Rav details

Learning toe-up came about rather spur-of-the-moment, as I blogged about in September. And I'm so glad I took that class with my buddies Tasha and Hazel!

As you can see, these are almost too tall for the sock blockers. And I had 19 grams of yarn leftover! I'm glad I ended the socks where I did, because within an inch they would've needed calf shaping.



I loved working with the Smooshy - so much subtle color variation! - but was bummed when it broke once, on the sole of the second sock. (I also hold my yarn with a death grip, so I am partially to blame.) Despite the name of the yarn, Smooshy, I found it to be a thinner sock yarn.



I currently have no socks on the needles (well, apart from a hibernating, soul-socking, Regia Tweed 80-stitches-a-round stockinette one) but for now, I'm going to focus on a shawlette I've been working on for a few weeks when stockinette was all I felt like doing. It's the In the Land of Oz shawlette, and I just found out a friend is facing some rough times, so I feel like this would be a nice, woolly hug for her.

slow and steady ...

Above is my unofficial Knitting Olympics project. (It's 'unofficial' because I didn't sign up for any teams on Ravelry or sign up via the Yarn Harlot's blog. Just joining in with the spirit.) I'm trying to finish up some WIPs during the Vancouver games, and this is the only one I've worked on so far. I've got about 40 rounds of the pattern + 17 rounds of ribbing to go. I'm planning on getting a lot done on Friday, my only day off work this week.

I have to say that turning the heel of sock no. 2 went 150% better than it did with sock no. 1! No lifeline and no mistakes. I think I have this toe-up heel flap down to a science (well, as long as I follow written instructions).

Happy Knitting Olympics!

I can't say that I have a project in mind. I'm just going to knit as much as I can on my current WIPs. Not exciting, I know.

I do, however, have a finished pair of socks - the first FO of 2010!



Pattern: Shifty by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Pacific
Mods: Knit one fewer repeat on the leg
Needles: US 2
Details on Rav



Loved, loved, loved this pattern. It was really intuitive, even for a generally anti-pattern sock knitter like myself. The yarn is squishy and wonderful, too. I just wish I would've made the leg a bit longer. (I cut it short because of my size 11 feet, and I had 33 grams of yarn left. Whoops.)



The twisted stitches don't look all that impressive while you're knitting, but put a sock on your foot and BOOM. Super pronounced!



The color was really hard to capture, but I think the first picture is most accurate.

Verdict: I'll definitely be knitting this pattern again!

a little of this, a little of that

Sorry for the radio silence - I feel like I start every post this way but man, I am bad about updating!

Since I last posted, it has snowed not once but twice!



We got five or six inches the last weekend in January. I hadn't seen more than dusting in my neck of the woods since I moved here four and a half years ago. So this was pretty darn exciting.



Gracie loved running around in the snow drifts. She looked like a rabbit, bounding around!

Gracie had a big day last week - she has had a spot on one of her eyes for a little while now, and last week she had a procedure to remove the hairs from inner eyelid that were causing the degeneration on her eye. Her eyelids are a bit puffy, and she needs quite a few drops every day, but she is doing well.



As for me? My birthday is Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it. It will be a furlough day (boo), but I am planning some nice things, including lunch with my sweetie, knitting with my SnB gals and even a massage and haircut at a local spa! I can't wait. I've never treated myself to something like that. I have a 14K relay race Saturday morning so I'm going to use a gift certificate I got for Christmas from a dear running buddy and have a pedicure before the race. (My friend turned me onto the idea of getting a treat for your feet before a big race and I'm officially a convert.) I'm a little worried about how the race will go, because the snow and resulting ice put a damper on my training, but I'm trying to remind myself that I'm running 4 to 4.5 miles and I can get through it just fine. My teammate and I made awesome shirts and I can't wait to debut them on Saturday! I haven't run a race since last May, and I didn't run in the inaugural 14K last year, so I'm pretty excited.

Have you noticed the pattern sale benefiting earthquake relief in Haiti over on Ravelry? It has not escaped my eye. I have been drawn to shawlettes as of late - I purchased In the Land of Oz (perhaps it would make an appropriately named shawlette for my mother, Dorothy) and I plan on purchasing Daybreak before the sale ends at the end of the month.

(I realize I am behind the curve, as I usually am on all things in the knit-blog-iverse, but have you seen Stephen West's collection of patterns? So many lovelies!)

I am faithfully working away on a second sock as well as an Ishbel for my Grandma. I've set aside the laceweight Forest Canopy Shawl for her and am working on something more manageable. I'm slowly realizing that lace shawls are just really tough for me, and I want to enjoy my knitting, not stress about it the way I do with each charted row of lace. I will ease my way into lace knitting with this, my second Ishbel.

In an ideal world, I would finish Ishbel (I'm just starting the lace) in the next two and a half weeks so that I could cast something for the Knitting Olympics. (Like one of these shawlettes I keep scooping up in the pattern sale.) In reality, I know that will be highly unlikely. Maybe I will surprise myself!

another sock is done

Pattern: Shifty by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Hazelknits Artisan Sock in Pacific (color is more accurate here)
Rav details here
Mods: Knit 5.5 repeats on leg instead of the 6.5 called for in pattern, though now (of course) I see I could've probably done 7.5 repeats. Oh well.

This sock is super sproingy and fits my foot like a glove. The pattern is really easy and intuitive. I highly recommend it.

I've cast on for its mate already, as well as the mate to the purple toe-up sock I blogged about most recently. No SSS here!

In other yarny news, I got a new piece of furniture for yarny notions and things at Ikea last weekend and did some reorganizing/cleaning of the office. I really love it in here now. Click the photo to learn more about what is where!

toe-up FTW

In my last post, I posed the question: Which sock would I finish first, a toe-up or cuff-down one?

Ladies and gents, I share with you now my first toe-up sock:



Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Pansy Go Lightly
Rav details

I am thrilled with how this turned out. It is super tall on my leg (though it doesn't look especially tall in this photo). It's easily the tallest sock I've made. I could've made it a bit taller (by my measure of weighing the yarn), but I grew tired of it and just wanted to finish already!

I am hoping to cast on the mate in the next few days, but now I am itching to finish that super sproingy cuff-down sock that is nearly done ... I've never had Second Sock Syndrome and I don't intend on starting now!