Stop already!

What in the name of hose is going on here?

I’ll bet you’re thinking, now that’s a long sock. You’d be right!

I am knitting a long sock, a knee sock in fact.  I got two balls of sock yarn for Christmas so I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a pair since the yarn is already evenly divided for me.

I trolled Ravelry for a free pattern that would work for me and found Knee Socks!  by Diana Parrington.  It’s a pattern, but not.  She assumes you know how to knit socks and describes the modifications she made to make knee socks.  Great!

One starts with a toe up cast on.  I don’t know if you know this about me, but I dislike toe up socks intensely.  Most toe up cast ons are the epitome of fiddly and insane making.  (I hope that’s not TMI.)  I thought I’d use my usual short row toe started on a crochet provisional cast on.  That worked great even though I didn’t have a crochet hook on me at the time I started knitting.  I just used my double point to pretend it was a crochet hook and made a mess of a chain.  It still worked even though it was messy since you take it all out after turning the toe.  Perfect!

I added calf shaping and am now going to knit ribbing until my yarn runs out – which looks to be soon.  Yay for knee socks!  Or just sock in my case, until the second one is begun.

Socky sock

We’re fraternal, thanks for asking.

I’ve been sitting about and was able to finish my current travel project socks.  Aren’t they pretty?

These are my first pair made from Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in the indisch rosa colorway.  I like the yarn quite a bit, it reminds me of my favorite Trekking yarn.  You can guess from that, that I like a hard wearing sock yarn.  I’m sick of making pretty socks from fancy pants yarn that look like shit after two washings.  Give me some socks that can be worn and I’m good.

I just used my tried and true sock plan – top down with short rowed heels and toes on 60 stitches.  They fit well and I can make them in my sleep.  I did try to make them identical but this yarn doesn’t seem to be symmetrical enough to do better than fraternal matching.  They look close enough not to bother me.  Yay socks!

Snow, seriously

Can I Photoshop all that snow into grass?

I am working because I am not the type to come to a cold place for fun.  Yes I CAN ski and board, but honestly I haven’t in ages because I hate being cold.  Which is probably good that I knit.

I’ve not been home a lot these past few weeks, just long enough to wash a uniform and repack so I completely missed the fact that I’d be in Jackson Hole today and that it probably won’t be very warm.  Yes I’ve got my coat and mittens but no snow appropriate shoes or the will to find a way the one mile into downtown to do touristy shit.  I could in fact snowboard since I am right next to a ski resort, but unless I can do it in my pjs or my (now very tight) jeans and my work uniform peacoat, that shit ain’t happening.  So today I’ve decided to knit while looking at the snow and crank the heat to 76 degrees.  Netflix may also enter the picture.  Yes, glamorous isn’t it?

The sock is admiring the snow out the window and happy to be inside.

My poor little sock is only a bit farther along than when last you saw it, which is not the fault of the Crazy Zauberball yarn – just a nasty December schedule.  It reminds me of the Trekking sock yarn, and in fact I’m wearing my favorite Trekking socks right now (in the 76 degree heat).  I hope the Zauberball wears like Trekking.  Sure, it’s not a glamorous fancypants sock yarn, but these Trekking socks have worn like a champ and the pills just give them character.

So now with my afternoon planned I’ll set my alarm for 4am and knit in the warmth!  I hope y’all had a great Christmas!  I cooked and ate and ate and ate….

Choose happy

There is something so sad about seeing flags at half mast on such a beautiful day.

So rosy and pretty!

My travel project at present is socks.  I bought some Crazy Zauberball in pinks the other day and just love this yarn!  The colors change slowly but steadily and the pink is so vibrant and happy.  I’m just knitting up 60 stitches in 2×2 rib for the cuff and will change to stockinette and plan shortrow heels and toes.  Nothing challenging but that is the best wearing sock for me.

So happy socks and two more days until I get a day off!  Yay!

Lagging

Oh fair isle, how I don’t like to knit you. Yet here we go again…

This is the total yarn purchase for my trip to Switzerland.  Yes, I went back to Switzerland again to packmule my momma back home.  I am now officially a huge, hot mess.  I did manage to sleep in today with minimal middle of the night hijnks, so maybe I’m being a bit dramatic.

Back to the yarn.  I bought these sock yarn skeins in Bern with the intent of making There & Back Again Socks.  Love!  I just adore that pattern.  Of course it’s a toe up pattern and I hate toe up sock knitting so I’ll do it my way (cuff down) and just do the chart backwards.  That shouldn’t be too hard of an adjustment with this pattern.  I just need to finish up the basic socks I’m knitting at the moment to get started on these.  I plan on making two pairs of the T&B socks, but sometimes my eye wanders.  Maybe I’ll end up with dots or skulls for the second batch…

Raspberry cupcake afterthought

That is a mashup title and maybe I don’t have the hang of it.  Mashed thusly are (left) raspberry coat pinned together for the most part; (middle) super yum cupcakes for old folks; (right) finished Hello 80s Socks!

We shall begin with the raspberry coat, shall we.  What you see here is the body sewn up and the hems pinned in preparation for hemming then lining.  Of course I still need to sew the lining together.  I’ve decided to bag the lining rather than doing a more high brow application by hand.  I finally realized that I’d been dragging my heels on this coat construction because I didn’t want to choose the “wrong” method to construct it.  That meant I didn’t make the darn thing at all.  I resolved to just do it – it’s not going to be the coat of the century but it doesn’t really have to be.  It’ll be (hopefully) a nice warm coat for winter and I’ll have made my first coat.  I can build on my coat making knowledge next time based on this raspberry coat of today.  It’s the Nike “Just Do It” sewing philosophy.

The middle pic of a scrumptious cupcake is one of a batch I made for Mom’s xmas party with her crew.  I opted to make chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Both recipes are from Paula Deen and are delicious.  The cupcakes are dark and moist and so easy to make it’s embarrassing.  The frosting is this recipe and I added an extra teaspoon of vanilla and a bit more powdered sugar to make piping it easier.  30 cupcakes off the assembly line.  The best part was putting candy canes in a baggie and smashing them up with a meat hammer to make the festive decoration.  Gotta love a meat hammer.

The right picture means it’s official:  The 80s are OVER!  Yup, Hello 80s socks are done!  My first afterthought heel socks turned out well.  They also fit very nicely so I’ll have to add them to the sock knitting rotation.  They look especially nice with the striping sock yarn.  You get a bullseye heel effect with the stripes.  The socks are fraternal twins rather than identical.  They were identical pretty much up until the last heel when I guess I did one more row and ended up with smudge of purple on the last heel bit.  I could have ripped the whole heel out and started over, but NO!  It’s fine.  I do not live in Crazytown.  Vesper Sock Yarn is still yummy in case you were wondering.

Well the 80s are over so I’ll be taking down my Billy Idol and Adam Ant posters and digging out some flannel plaid for the emergence of grunge.  Later I’ll be watching Pretty in Pink on my automobile sized VCR.  Awesome!

We

Raspberries and oranges

No, the title isn’t a recipe – it’s my project names.  Sounds delicious though.

First up are a pair of Spey Valley Oranges!  I made sure I took a picture of the rainy steps to contrast with the sunny orange yarn.  The pattern is Spey Valley from Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road.  I made the socks as written by Nancy since she knows a thing or two about socks.  They came out great and I learned how to make a Vikkel Braid.  Easy!  The yarn is The Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors Sock Yarn in the Jack colorway.  I think I got this yarn at last year’s Rhinebeck so I’m glad to have them finished for this year’s festival – even though it should be nice and pleasant weather this year.  These socks fit great with the heel flap heel and decrease toe thingie, but don’t those 2.5″ toes look crazy long?  That’s the pattern, but I have super short little toes and tiny feet so 2.5″ is a serious chunk of my sock length ;-)  They are cute though.

The raspberry reference in the title is for my Raspberry Coat.  I know you thought I’d have that whipped out by now, but that coat is a ton of work and I am super procrastinate-y about it.  It doesn’t help that it’s not even alittle bit cold outside.  Nada.  What I have done on the coat is make and fit the pattern, cut out the wool and most of the huge huge huge amount of interfacing.  I need to fuse all that on the wool and cut the lining next.  Then marking, machine set up and buttonhole tests.  Then, and only then, can I sew.  It’s rather like painting a room, the majority of work is prep.  Can you see why I procrastinate?

And in the orange theme of this post, I’m thinking this sunny salad will be delicious today.  I’ll report back!

Most random ever

In an inadvertant effort to produce the most random post ever, I give you the below collage:

The upper left is one of a pair of completed Summer of Socks 2011, Medallion Lace in the Crapshoot colorway from Periwinkle Sheep.  I thought I’d use the heel flap called for in the pattern and while it’s fine, I still like my short row heel and toes better.  Live and learn.

Upper right is the line drawing of Burda Style 11-2008-116 coat that I’ve begun tracing off for use for the Raspberry Coat.  I thought I’d shorten it about 18″ for a mid thigh length.  I am currently 1/3 of the way through tracing off the pattern from the most irritating Burda pattern sheet ever.  Hey Burda, I’d pay $20/year more if you put LESS stuff on each pattern sheet.  You are a bunch of crazy bitches over there in Germany.

And the giant picture of my big toe is my totally unprofessional pedicure (self administered) using the crackle nail polish I’d been hankering after.  I used Sally Hansen Brisk Blue with Ink Splatter Crackle over top.  Love it!

Summer kicks

Despite having to work a few more hours because of the summer travel rush, I do still have a bit of crafting time.  In fact I finished my first pair of socks for the Summer of Socks 2011 love in.  These bright socks are knit from my favorite Vesper Sock yarn in the Sweet Water colorway.  I think these are more parrot than sweet water, but that’s perhaps because I knit on them in several tropical destinations in the Caribbean (work, not fun).

The knit pattern is a variation included in the Summer Spirals pattern.  This variation is Spiral Wave and is a bit more subtle with the waving considering the loud yarn I chose.  I wanted a small pattern that wouldn’t conflict with the bright, tropical colorway.  I think this worked out nicely and the pattern was quite easy for road knitting.

Heel and toes are my usual short row method and I must admit I’m fond of a loud pair of socks.  No, I don’t usually wear them as socks out of the house so they don’t need to knit from “normal” and “appropriate” colors.  Though come winter, these may just get a wearing under boots.

My last sewing project (Beignet skirt) turned out well, but the quick pics I took of it were bad.  Stay tuned for better piccies.

Delicious rain

Oh Columbus, you are a delicious one!  Today I began a really crap-tastic work trip, well technically today is fine, the next two days will blow hard.  Such is life.  Today is our focus though.  I think those TNNA atendees past and present will recognize Jeni’s Ice Cream in the center and the left represents my lunch from A Taste of Belgium - a crepe filled with goat cheese, spinach, red peppers and balsamic glaze.  It was very delicous.  Jeni devotees may wish to know that my ice cream dish is three mini scoops (from left clockwise):  brown butter almond brittle, Rockmill Golden Ale and apricots and cardamom lime.  I am not an ice cream person but after hearing all the praise I went for it and was glad I did. So very good and not too sweet.  In fact I would love to work my way through their inventory as a fact finding kind of thing.

Now it’s some Summer Chill on Pandora and knitting the first pair of Summer of Socks in the comfy hotel bed while watching the rain.  Tomorrow and the next day will be icky, but today was delicious.