They're Finished

A fine Easter celebration was had AND a pair of socks was completed.


Pattern: Ann Norling Adult Socks II: Play on Ribs - Wide Wale Rib
Needles: Knitpicks DPN Size 2
Yarn: Opal Magic- Orange
Comments: Great fitting sock. Pattern works well with self-striping yarn and I'll likely be making these again.
Cast on for CPH again last night...194 stitches makes for very long rows but when I'm finished I'll have the entire body with no side seams so should be worth it.

Sunshine in NY and a Yarn Update

At long last I am at home when the sun is shining. That is not to say that we've not had some sunny days this week. But after I've made my way home and then prepared and eaten dinner it is too dark for flashless pictures. I've been working away on my Opal sock and am very pleased with both my progress and the noticable improvement in my knitting skills. Having an electronic balance at work is a good thing and I was able to weigh my remaining yarn and determine that I had used much less than 50% for the first sock and so could indulge my desire for symmetry. I could not be happier with the results and as you can see I'm almost to the heel flap.



Now for an update on the yarn purchases. In order of purchase:

First, I bought a skein of sKnitches Syncopation sock yarn in the Day Spa colorway on EBay. This one is hard to photograph. The official color description is chocolate brown, warm pink, and leafy green. The leafy green approaches lime and the warm pink is closer to peach in my book. Syncopation is a self striping yarn with stripes of various widths. I'm thinking a simple stockinette pattern for this one.



Next, on my spring vacation, I checked out Simply Socks where I purchased 2 skeins of Claudia Handpaint in Begonia, 1 skein of Fleece Artist Merino in Paris and 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces in Denim.




As I mentioned earlier, I had google searched a yarn store on my route to Grove City and originally planned to stop there on my way back to NY. Instead I stopped on my way to Grove City to break up the rainy drive and had no difficulty locating Butler's Country Knit Shop. The shop is on a residential street in a house and Marge Butler has 3 rooms full of yarn at 10 percent discount. I walked away with a skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Supreme Purple which has already been knitted into a Dulaan hat, a skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in olive green which is reserved for a Branching Out Scarf, and a skein of Trekking XXL which had a teal cast to it in the store but now appears to be purely shades of gray. Perhaps a pair of socks for DH if he continues to be so helpful...more about that later.


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In addition to my purchases, my cousin gifted me with a skein of vintage Tahki Donegal Tweed (purchased when the skein price was $4.50). I'm looking for a good project for this one.





We had an exciting Thursday evening turning all my new yarn into "cakes". DH watched me wind the first skein and after receiving much helpful advice and feedback about all the things I was doing incorrectly I turned the task over to him. It's a win-win. He has something to do and I get more knitting time.



Stay tuned for pictures of the two Dulaan hats which are currently blocking and my "very last" sock yarn purchase from Webs.

I've Made a Sock

I prefer not to think of myself as an ADD knitter. Rather, I have different projects which I work on at different times depending on amount of available time, difficulty level and required amount of concentration. CPH can be worked on almost any time and I squeeze in a few minutes in the morning prior to work and random bits of time in the evenings. My sock, however, requires much concentration since it is my first. I've been stalling on moving beyond the heel flap until I could devote my entire attention to the work with little chance of interuption. Saturday morning, I successfully made the gusset, picked up stitches on the heel flap and started knitting the foot. I was so delighted with the result that I kept stopping to admire my work every few rows. Eventually, I realized that if I kept plugging away I might conceivably finish the sock. By Saturday evening I was done except for Kitchnering the toes and I was very tired so postponed that task until this morning when I was alert. Amazingly, when I slipped them on they fit perfectly. I'm still not wild about the yarn but am glad my first sock is with a forgiving yarn. Little mistakes aren't visible. I have the small holes at the heel flap corner which everyone writes about so next sock I'll have to work on "fixing" those and I'm not very confident about my seaming technique yet but I'm very excited to have actually knit such a complex object.


Now I have to decide if I'm going to try to match the pattern on the second sock or just start knitting where the yarn ended. I really want matching but don't know if there is sufficient yarn.
Friday, DH and I drove to Buffalo on a window related trip and I visited a yarn store. A small amount of yarn was purchased and I have one more EBay purchase to show. Stay tuned.

Cheating on My Main Project

Those who know me well would confirm that I am not a patient person. I see this quality in my knitting at regular intervals. Yes, I spent most of the day on Friday with CPH and much progress was made. But, by Friday evening I had decided I really needed to start a project which could be completed this weekend so I could cut another notch on my Completed Projects list. None of the WIPs were going to work so I eyed my Burly Spun Lamb's Pride and cast on for the cabled helmet hat. And besides, I really need to be working on those Dulaan projects. Thus I fell into temptation.
I've been working off and on all weekend but see that my original goal is not going to be met. I still need to seam the back, knit on earflaps, and crochet tie strings. Working on size 15 needles feels awkward after the smaller needles of my other projects but there is something satisfying about the speed of completion. Here's a picture of my progress so far.

(The picture is a little bit deceptive as you're only seeing half of the hat. There's another half underneath.)
As promised yesterday, here are some pictures of my Wide Wale sock. When I look closely I can see some laddering at my DPN junctions. A part of me wants to frog but reason has prevailed and I've resolved to figure out how to do better in the future.


Borrowed the idea of stretching my sock over a drinking glass from another blogger who shall remain nameless since I've forgotten where I saw it.
Some stash enhancement occured via EBay but I'll not update until the items actually arrive.