The Ones

When I first moved back to the US a year ago (yep, July 5 was one year,) I spent 6 weeks with my mom in Marin County before moving to Passaic. And it was there that I finally got to meet up with a knitting group instead of being a lone knitter. The lovely ladies of EweKnitty meet up Sunday mornings at the Starbucks in Mill Valley. If you're ever in the area you must stop in. And it was during those meet ups that I was first drawn to knitting socks. Sock Sensei Laura was just completing her pair of Embossed Leaves and I knew I had to make those socks. They were The Ones. The socks that inspired me try this out for myself.

Before I left Marin I had bought some Jitterbug in Bright Charcoal. I cast on for something but it wasn't working out and I didn't want to waste the good stuff. So I bought some Sockatta. But I didn't get to work on anything until I moved to NJ. It was in September that I completed my first sock. A complete disaster! Then there was a series of failed attempts at Jaywalker. And finally common sense took over. In November I made myself a well fitting, plain vanilla pair from KP Essential. Well almost plain vanilla. Peacock Picot had a picot edge and an Eye of Partridge heel. I had to do something beyond basic. A pair of Gwen's made for H-J J followed, (she has yet to receive them, something which MUST be remedied!) And during a visit back to CA I made my first toe-ups, Firestarter. The rest, as they say, is history. I became a sock fanatic.

And yet the socks that started it all, The Ones, had yet to be made. I will still shaky on understanding my feet, which yarn would work well for what, what size needle to use for any given cast on to make sure the sock would fit my wide-ish size 10 feet. And finally, the planets aligned, the Sundara Sock yarn in Sky was wound into a cake and I cast on. No mods, no changes, just followed those directions as they were written. The leaf pattern really is intuitive and I was able to read my work so I wasn't tied to the chart. The first sock knit up quite quickly and if it hadn't been for my own wanderlust this pair would have been completed in May. But I waited until July 1 to cast on for the second sock, and one week later it was done.

This pattern is a great example of why socks do indeed need to be blocked.

So it is with great joy and great pride that I present my finished Embossed Leaves. The Ones that made me a sock knitter:

Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt
Interweave Knits Favorite Socks
Needles: US 2 / 2.75 mm KP fixed circs
Yarn: Sundara Sock
Colorway: Sky


Closeup of stitch pattern and gusset,

heel,
and star toe.

The combination of soft, soft yarn, the color and design just make me smile when I look at them. Heaven.

Rude Awakening

A couple of days ago I got a PM from my sock sensei, Laura, letting me know that Cookie A's Ornette Sock pattern was finally on sale. "When," she wanted to know "was I casting on?" Somewhere between Cookie A's website and a glance at my bank balance I had the cruel realization that it was time to finish up what I had started before starting something new. How adult of me! But it's true. I currently have 16 WIPs and a snoozer to contend with.

The (seven) sock WIPs in alphabetical particular order:

Toe-Up Crusoe (Ravelry Link)

Dublin Bay (Ravelry Link)


Esther (Ravelry Link)

Flame Wave (Ravelry Link)

Marie Antoinette (Ravelry Link)

And lest we forget, the second sock of Monkey (Ravelry Link)

and Embossed Leaves (Ravelry Link)


Lucky for me, it appears Laura was mistaken. The pattern hasn't actually been released yet (though there are lots of test knitters.) There's still time!

Dude! Where'd She Go?

My time with Mommy was short and endless, all at the same time. When I mentioned to a friend that I was sad that Mommy had left, my friend was a bit surprised. I had seemed to be stressed whilst Mommy was here. And that is our relationship in a nutshell. We drive each other a bit nuts when we're together but miss each other terribly when we are apart. Perhaps this is due to strong personalities and me growing up with no testosterone in the house. Or perhaps that we both have strong personalities and have spent the last 10 years separated by 10,000 miles (now that gap is down to 3,000. Closer, but not close at all.) Did I mention that we both have strong personalities? Or that our experiences with the Doom Mobile added to the stress? Anyway, when we aren't at each other's throats we can get up to some pretty wacky/silly stuff. Take, for instance, our last day together. As Mommy was packing away her things, she offered to leave me this not-so-cheap spray in hair treatment for younger looking hair. No it doesn't take away the gray (I only have a bit at the temple,) it is supposed to "transform dull, coarse, brittle, aged hair into youthful, healthy looking, silky smooth, beautiful hair"


So Mommy agreed to a little experiment.

Before	Spritzing it on	After

Do you see a difference? Maybe not, but we were doubled over in laughter as we staged the shots.

Anyway, with Mommy gone the knitting ban has been lifted. Actually, I finished Marigold before she left, and she quite liked them.

Click pictures to enlarge
Pattern: Marigold by Pamela Wynne from Flint Knits
Yarn: Hand Maiden Casbah (100g, 325 yds) from Knitty Noddy (see link on side bar)
Colorway: Dandelion
Fiber Content: 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
Needles: 2.5 mm KnitPicks Nickel Plated 47" Circulars
Cast on with Judy's magic cast on

I've finished Sock One of my Embossed Leaves

Click pictures to enlarge
Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt
Favorite Socks (25 Timeless Designs) from Interweave Knits
Yarn: Sundara Sock
Colorway: Sky
Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Needles: 2.75 mm KP fixed circs (Magic Loop)
Gauge: 15 sts = 2" in stockinette

I've worked most of the leg on Sock One of Marie Antoinette. Someone said that if there could be such a thing as a sexy sock, this would be it. I must agree!

Click pictures to enlarge
pattern: Marie Antoinette by Anne Hanson (Knitspot)
yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool
colorway: Paris
fiber content: 70% merino, 30% seacell
needles: 2.5mm KP fixed circs

And I am making good progress on my Crusoe inspired socks. I say inspired because I am knitting these toe-up and much bigger. I don't know who could slip on the originals with a CO of 44 sts and 2.5mm needles for a size 9-10 foot. I think I'll use the heel and flap from my Oriel socks. I started the second sock because I needed something to travel with and hadn't decided what to do with the heel. And don't be fooled by those DPN's, there just holding the stitches in place!

Based on the stitch pattern in Crusoe socks by Marilyn A Roberts in
Knitty Spring 03
Yarn: ShiBui Knit Sock
Colorway: Spectrum
Fiber: 100% Superwash Merino
Needles: 2.5 mm KP fixed circs (Magic Loop)
Gauge: 15 sts = 2" in stockinette

Was it worth the wait? Tomorrow I'll back with a little Stash Flashing and then, I'm warning you now, I won't be back until next Wednesday. Shavuos is Monday and Tuesday so I'll be out of commission.

Structure is Good

So what is this new plan I have been, not so subtlety, hinting at? Simple really. Beginning in January I made a concerted effort to write daily. But it isn't always easy. I don't have a dog or cat or small children to write about on those "filler" days. So what's a girl to do? Adopting the accepted What's On Your Needles Wednesdays and Flash Your Stash Fridays was a good start. But I needed more structure. Top that with an insatiable need to knit socks (despite the little deal with myself,) returning to Crochet for some of my long forgotten WIPs and real desire to explore even more deeply Color Theory (which I have taught to graphics classes) I came up with the following schedule:

Monday- Sockdown 2008
Tuesday- Corochet
Wednesday- What's On Your Needles
Thursday- Color Theory
Friday- Flash Your Stash/FOs

Of course any earth shattering events will be shared with glee or woe, depending.

In the meantime, it's Monday so here's the first Sockdown run down.
If you glance over to the side bar, you'll see that all socks have been removed from Here's Where I'm Holding and moved to Sockdown 2008. Each pattern is currently linked to its source site as are the yarn's I'll be using. I still haven't figured out which pattern I want to use for my Zen Yarn Garden...

Nor have I decided which yarn to use for my New Pathways sock, nor which sockitechture. But I have enough going on right now, so I'm not too worried. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

In the meantime, here are two new contenders.

Snakes in the Grass is based on the Snakes in the Sand stitch from VK Stitichionary 2: Cables. I've converted the stitch pattern for the round and used Judy's Magic Cast On for this toe-up sock. This is my first try at "design" and I have some ideas I'm playing with for the heel. We'll see how it goes. The yarn is Fleece Artists Somoko in Rainforest. The colors are perfect and I don't think they'll distract too much from the pattern. (The yarn is actually darker than this, it was very bright outside.) The needles are KP Harmonies fixed circs, 2.5 mm and as usual, I am knitting them Magic Loop.

And here is Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt. This is the sock that started it all. Once I say my sock sensei, Laura's, finished pair I KNEW I had to start making socks. It took me a while to get to these, but it was worth the wait. These are knit up on Sundara Sock yarn, in the Sky colorway. Needles are KP Nickel fixed circs, 2.75 mm, Magic Loop.

So that's it for socks until next week! Tomorrow. Crochet.