One Sock, Two Sock, Pink Sock, Blue Sock

I finished another sock, but it's a blue one. The one from Sock Madness - yes, just one. So I have two socks but they don't make a pair. Not even close. The good news is I have two socks finished and with just a little more knitting I can have two pairs of socks.

The fit on this sock is OK. It could be a tad snugger in the foot. I may drop down two more stitches in the next one.

As soon as I finished this sock last night I picked up sock #2 of the pink pair. Just a few more rows of the gusset decrease and then it's a race to the finish on the foot. I made good progress and hope to be done at the end of the week.

If the second sock for Sock Madness works with my stash, then I may start one of those. If it's the sport weight pair, I'll work on sock #2 of the blue pair and wait for sock madness pattern #3. I don't really have second sock syndrome. In fact, the more sock #1s I have, the more likely I am to do a sock #2.

Something I did notice. When I picked up the Koigu sock after working with the blue sock (Regia, I'm pretty sure) the Koigu was like knitting with butter. It was so soft compared to the Regia. I hadn't given it much thought before, but it was very noticeable last night.

The Bead Market

I do not need another hobby, but if I did, beading would be on the list. I went to the Bead Market today looking for rocaille beads for my linen scarf. There wasn't a huge selection of rocailles, but I found these and they are perfect.

On the other hand, there were tons of other awesome beads. It was a bit overwhelming, but I had a good time.

The linen scarf is on hold at least until I get my two pairs of in progress socks done. Then I may start it or I may go on with my Cherry Tree Hill socks and then start on the lace projects in my stash.

New Clothes

Will you just look at how well two of the shirts my Mom bought me for my birthday match my one finished KPPPM sock. Now if I can just get the other one finished, I can actually wear the socks with the shirts. I'm on the heel gusset of the second sock, but Sock Madness has gotten in the way.

I met for 5 hours yesterday with three other sisters in the wool (and 2 in spirit) and we knitted away on our Mad Cow socks. Don't ask, we didn't name it, but I like the pattern.

My yarn selection is working out OK, but it might have been better with a little more contrast between the two. I will consider doing the pattern again if the fit comes out OK. If not, I may adapt it and do a rib. I've finished another repeat since this picture. That's another 10 rows. I really need to start thinking about the heel. I did venture out this round and decided to do the sock toe up (as you can see) I've never done that before, but Susan showed me how. And no matterh which direction you went, toe up or top down, you have to do a short row heel and I've never done that before. They say it's challenging. Great.

Now as for finishing in the first 16 in my group. I'm not sure I even want to. My fingers hurt now from all the knitting. They aren't so much muscle sore, but sore from pushing the sharp needles around. I have set my mind to finishing these two socks as quickly as I can, but if I don't move to the next round, I don't think I'll cry. In 5 hours yesterday I barely got past the first repeat after the toe. There are people that have finished two socks already and I'm not even to the heel. But that's OK. It has been fun. And it ain't over til it's over.

One KPPPM Sock Done

That's double good news. I have one and a half socks done and a pair of needles freed up for Sock Madness. Now, if I can just find the yarn for Sock Madness, I'll be in good shape for Saturday.

Here's a lovely shot of the toe. This is a Jeri toe. I can do it, but can't explain it as well as Jeri can I'm sure. It involved finding the spot where I wanted the decrease and one round SSKand then the next round K2T. The next round you SSK using the K2T stitch as the K in the SSK. And the next round incorporating the SSK into the K2T. Not difficult at all and I forgot my stitch markers and survived just fine without them all the while on a plane. It makes a nice snug toe.

This shot shows the colorway a little better and it's just funny because of Baby Girl. She got curious about the beeping camera and jumped down to take a look. She is so crazy.

My plan for tomorrow is to track down my yarn for Sock Madness and, if time allows, pick up the gusset stitches on KPPPM sock #2. I really don't want it to get left behind. Knowing I'm not that fast a knitter, I know I won't finish before Sock Madness kicks in, but I want to keep moving and it is good to stay in the sock mood.

And oh yeah, this is stash busted.

It's Madness - Sock Madness

The emails are flying amongst the SOWs (we're international now with Jo in Ireland). There is much discussion about how to post to flickr. I figure, if I get that far, it will be a miracle.

Here's what the SockMadness website had to say about the yarn needs for the first pair of socks.

"As promised, here is a little advance info on the materials required for the first pattern. It requires one skein of variegated yarn and one skein of solid and US #1 needles. The weight is fingering and Felicia did the test knit with Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (of course)."

I have a goal of destashing, so I wanted to find something within my stash that would work. Luckily I have a photo record of my stash right here on my blog. So I searched my photo album and found this. That's an almost solid blue and a varigated brown and blue that I actually bought to go together. I was going to do some mixing of my own at one point, but this is perfect for this first pair of socks for Sock Madness. I'm starting to feeling lucky.

In other news, I'm about to wrap up one of my KPPPM socks to free up the needles. I'm traveling tomorrow and really hoping I can get finished no later than Friday. If I would just sit and knit for an hour or two it could be done. Except maybe for the kitchner and I'm not above making that wait. Pictures to follow.

Overdue Update

Has it been almost a month since I updated my blog? I can't believe it. I have been traveling a lot. And getting some knitting done too.

First, Josh and Daniel's clogs are done except for the felting. I don't want to felt if they aren't here to try them on. So we'll do that the next time they are here. Now DH is hinting he might like a pair. Tough luck hon, I'm out of the clog business for a while.

We finally had Christmas with my family in OK. My sister loved her crazy clogs.

They were huge when she got them. I think she might have been worried. And, although I didn't notice it before, I can see in the picture, that the one on left is bigger then the one on the right. Fortunately, when she re-felted them, they fit fine and were the same size. She loves them.

I'm cruising right along on my Koigu socks. After some discussion with the SOWs, I decided to just do a 4 x 2 rib with this yarn. Others had attempted a pattern of some sort and it only got lost in all the varigation.

I'm not a huge fan of striping yarn and you can kind of see it in this picture, but this yarn is spiraling. It alternates between the pink and the blue. Which to me is striping. Love the yarn, love the colors, am living with the striping.

I've turned the heels and with Susan's help picked up the gusset on one of the socks. Now I need to get these finished because I need the needles for Sock Madness http://sockmadness.wordpress.com/. I join my SOWs in asking, "What did I get myself into?" This is a speed knitting contest. One need only look back to my last entry to see that I've been working on these socks for - oh - about a month.

I'm in Wendy's toe up division, which means, right off the bat I'm learning something new. I've never done toe up socks before. But I guess that's what it's all about. Stretching ourselves to try new things. I did make the switch from double points to magic loop. That was a great trade too. No more stitches falling off the needles while they are in the bag. Magic loop makes a much better traveling sock project.

I have several skeins of sock yarn so I hope the first pattern is compatible with one of them. I figure it won't be a 4 x 2 rib. Most the of the yarn I have left in stash is not overly varigated so a pattern should work fine.

Finally, while I was in MN, I went to Needlework Unlimited and rolled around in their yarn. So many choices, so little space in my bag. I fell in love with one of their finished objects and knew I had to do it. It was a lace wrap made with linen yarn and 10,500 beads. Again, I'm having one of those "What the heck was I thinking" moments, but this wrap is fantastic. http://iwpshopinfo.interweave.com/Knits/2002%20newsletters/SummerKnits2002.htm Here's a picture of the finished object, but the picture in no way does it justice. That pattern was in the Summer 2002 Interweave Knits magazine.

I know I won't actually wear a shawl, so I'm making it scarf size which means I need half the number of beads. Oh good - only 5,250 beads to string on the yarn. Now that's mindless work.

I am on a yarn diet, so this linen is a bit of a cheat, but I did finish two projects and the socks are coming along, so I decided it was OK. Plus, I don't know when I will get back to Minneapolis and the pattern was free with purchase of yarn