“Why, yes, I have been knitting socks a lot lately. What gave that away?”

A little old crack in my index finger isn’t going to keep me from knitting, nosirree. Band-Aids to the rescue. Last time this happened was last year during either Sock Wars or Summer of Socks. It’s those teeny tiny pointy needles…

Them thar gorgeous socks in the background are my Sprucey Lucy socks using the Schaefer Nichole in the Greenjeans colorway (sooooo soft and squishy). Started them yesterday, and I’m about an inch away from starting the gusset increases in preparation for the heel flap.

Now, I’m not normally too bad about having a bunch of WIPs (works in progress for the uninitiated) around. I generally have 2 or 3 at the most. So, let’s take a quick WIP inventory, shall we?

• Deep V Sweater (from Erika Knight’s Classic Knits) – started in January
• Kelly’s Kupkake (prototype made at the end of March; needs retooling)
• Cell Phone Pouch, Take One (still sitting on my desk after a couple weeks, awaiting felting)
• Cell Phone Pouch, Take Two (ditto)
• Lacy Ribs Socks (just started last weekend, a few inches away from being finished)
• Petite Pineapple Doily (just started 6/12/09 and progressing rapidly)

Lacy Ribs Socks – 6/8/09 (they’re much farther along now)

I suppose it’s good that four of the above are pretty much close to finished. That leaves the retooling of the cupcake (which I kind of have figured out in my head, so as long as that doesn’t defy the laws of physics, that one should wrap up pretty easily) and THE SWEATER. I feel like I’ve been working on the sweater way longer than five months. However, seeing “five months” typed out makes it look a lot longer than I thought it would.

I now have a bit more incentive to finish the sweater (oh, I’ve been working on it here and there, but with significant breaks in between): there’s another sweater I feel I just HAVE to make. I just have to make it because… well, I had a dream about it. In my dream, I discovered I just happened to have this finished handknitted (by me) sweater just sitting in the house, that just needed its final blocking (but still looked plenty good enough without it). It had beautifully detailed cabling, and I could tell from the way it looked in the dream that it had to be a Norah Gaughan design (I looooove Norah Gaughan’s designs). It was in a pretty coral-ish color, not overly bright, just soft enough but not too muted.

So after getting some breakfast in me the next morning, I checked my Ravelry queue. Nope, not there. then I checked the patterns I had tagged as favorites (I have over 250 patterns tagged as favorites… fortunately, Ravelry has a search feature for favorites), searching for cardigans and Norah Gaughan. BOOM. There was Kingscot. And even in the same color I dreamed of. Now, the sweater in my dream wasn’t necessarily that exact sweater, but about a 95% match. It had a fit just like Kingscot, with beautiful cabling down the front and buttons at the yoke, but not too clingy at the bottom.

And, of course, because I MUST. PREPARE. NOW. to knit this sweater, I’ve already purchased the pattern. I just need to find a suitable yarn that won’t drain my bank account. The quest begins… more to come later (could be a while, too).

In other news…

After two months in my new stomping grounds in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, I finally checked out one local yarn shop (LYS) — Lamb’s Ear Yarns in Gilford. It’s a nice little shop, smaller than my “old” LYS, Yarns R Us in Hamburg, PA. I will definitely be going back to Lamb’s Ear again, although I doubt that it will be exclusively my LYS of choice — inventory there seems geared more toward sweaters and colorwork, and there’s only a small selection of sock yarn (all good sock yarns, too), just not nearly the wide variety Kim has in Hamburg. From a customer service standpoint, though, Lamb’s Ear is excellent. The owner, Sue, was very helpful in showing me her inventory and knitted samples around the shop. I ended up leaving with three beautiful skeins of sock yarn, and some yarn ideas brewing for the dream sweater mentioned above.

I also plan to check out Patternworks in Center Harbor, and The Elegant Ewe in Concord… but probably not until later next month (too many trips to Lowe’s sucking away the yarn budget).

Hopefully soon I will have a finished pair of socks and a doily to blog about. Stay tuned!

Sweet Sock Wars death. Click to embiggen.

Remember way back, oh, 4-5 months ago when I was posting about Sock Wars III? You may also remember that it ended pretty early with a whole lot of sock warriors remaining to play, and many continued on (it’s still winding down, with the last 10 or so warriors alive and kicking… er, knitting). I chose not to continue playing, as did my assassin, Caitlin; however, she said she would still knit the pair of socks that were slated to “kill” me, but it would take a while due to her schedule (plus, she had to start over from scratch).

I had kind of put it out of mind most of the time since then, but every so often I would wonder how Caitlin was coming along on the socks (although I certainly would never dream of nagging her about it… I could wait patiently for however long it took her to knit them). Imagine my surprise when I returned home today after teaching a sock class, to find a package from Caitlin waiting for me in the mailbox! As soon as I got in the door, I had to open it. Let me tell you, these socks were so worth the wait. They’re gorgeous! I love the color(s), love the self-striping yarn (Schoeller + Stahl Sockina Cotton, colorway #5 — she thoughtfully included the label and some scrap yarn), love the chocolate bars and cantaloupe-scented soap, all in a beautiful gift box! (Why yes, I am wearing the socks right now… haven’t eaten the chocolate yet, saving that for after dinner.)

Death Socks modeled both in context (with a glimpse of fish tank) and on their own.

See, they’re just gorgeous. Don’t you agree? And best of all… a perfect fit!

Thanks, Caitlin — you rock!

In other news… I taught my first-ever knitting class today. A pair of baby/toddler socks, knit two at a time, toe-up on magic loop (pattern forthcoming). I think the class went well, although I’m sure I have plenty of room for improvement in my teaching. Only two students, both of whom I fortunately already know from hanging out at the yarn shop (or, “yarn bar” as my husband calls it). I did the cooking show trick and had another pair of socks already started and knit up to just before starting the heel — so I could be sure to have time to teach the heel technique in class. Even with something small like baby/toddler socks, it’s hard to get that far along in just 3 hours, with the teaching and chatting (especially when you’re knitting two at a time).

As expected, I slightly overestimated the amount of knitting time I would have this past weekend. However, I did meet my goal of finishing the Baby Fern Rib Socks (Ravelry link, login required). I was determined to stay up Saturday night until they were done, including weaving in ends (around 11:00 PM, maybe a little after).

Baby Fern Rib Socks – click photos to embiggen!

• Pattern: Baby Fern Rib Socks (2-at-a-time magic loop version), my own pattern — Ravelry Link
• Started 9/17/08, finished 10/4/08
• Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks, Olive colorway, used about 3/4 each of 2 balls.
• Needles: US 0 Addi Turbo, 40″ circular

I did have quite a bit of knitting time, but a long hike and geocaching took up all of Saturday afternoon between lunch and dinner. I managed to squeeze in some knitting time Friday night, Saturday before and after breakfast, after dinner Saturday night, and a little bit on Sunday morning. Since I wouldn’t have had much time to work on Billy’s sweater after finishing the socks, I decided to work on my Fearless Monkeys (Ravelry link again, login required) for the wee bit of knitting time I had before breakfast and before and after a hike on Sunday morning — didn’t even get through a whole pattern repeat on those, but then it’s something like a 14-row pattern repeat!

Pardon me while I take a brief detour from the knitting content… Turnout for this retreat was extremely low compared to previous retreats, only about 25 people (normally there’s 60-75 people, a statement on the current economy and/or gas prices, I suppose). My best friend Pam (of the Corn Snake Socks) was scheduled to lead two activities on Saturday afternoon that I’d signed up for: first, a hike up Bald Mountain, and second, Geocaching. Now, it had been 23-24 years since I’d last hiked up Bald Mountain — at that time, I was a teenage camper. The big difference between Bald Mountain in the mid-80s and Bald Mountain now is that there is a wind farm up there. Clean energy is a good thing and all, but I’m sad to see the windmills up there since I had always felt secluded from civilization whenever I was on the top of the mountain. Plus, windmills totally FREAK. ME. OUT. Especially up close like that. Especially when I’m walking along the access road right under the spinning windmill blades of DOOM, seeing their huge shadows swooping around me. But I had to get up there and take pictures of that whole bunch of freakiness that is the wind farm. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Bald Mountain pre-windmills. But other than the windmills and access road, it looks pretty much the same: all rocky, with scrawny little white birches and scrub oak, and totally covered with wild blueberry bushes. The blueberries were always the highlight of a hike to Bald Mountain during a week at camp in the summertime.

Scary-ass freakiness that is the wind farm atop Bald Mountain near Wilkes-Barre, PA

After returning from the hike, we had a short break before heading out for geocaching. Pam and I were joined by another woman, Dolores. Since we had a limited amount of time, and this was the first time Dolores and I were trying geocaching, we opted to only search for one cache site, the one farthest away from the camp lodge. I had a ball playing with the GPS unit, and we did find the cache. Hey, it’s really just an excuse to go for another hike!

Sunday morning’s hike was mostly on trails I was familiar with. For a large chunk of it, we hiked along the old railroad bed (which really just looks like a rarely-used, mostly-grass-covered road, no railroad ties anymore) and ended up hiking to the edge of the camp property (which edge, I have no idea). A little more hiking than I had bargained for on a Sunday morning, but fun nonetheless.

So now, it’s back to the usual, working knitting sleeping eating breathing boring crap that is not camp. I will miss it.

The Lake at Bear Creek Camp

Well, it’s time to head off for a nice, relaxing weekend away at camp. It’s the same camp I went to for one week every summer from about 5th grade through 11th grade, with my 3 closest friends. The trip this weekend is for Wild Women Weekend, which a women’s retreat. There’s the “wild” stuff — various hikes, low ropes, high ropes, rock-climbing wall, geocaching, and boating (if the weather cooperates) — and there’s the “mild” stuff — craft and cooking classes, health and beauty workshops, reflexology, yoga (although that sometimes gets a little beyond mild), and stories by the campfire.

The last couple times I went, I signed up to participate in several different activities. This time, it’s all about the relaxation. Well, I do plan on hiking — maybe a night hike on Friday and a longer hike on Saturday — but other than that, my time will be spent knitting, reading, and socializing.

Camp knitting rounded up on my craft room desk (the violet and Miracle-Gro are staying home)

So I’ve decided that the knitting I’m taking along will be my current Baby Fern Rib Socks-in-progress, along with materials to (finally) start a baby sweater for nephew Billy. Yeah, I bought the pattern and yarn for it back in freakin’ January or something crazy like that. It definitely wasn’t any later than February, but I’m pretty sure it was January. I might take the Fearless Monkeys along as well just in case I need an alternate project to work on. (I’m probably seriously overestimating the amount of knitting time I will have available or will be able to tolerate nonstop.) I am really hoping I can at least finish the Baby Fern Rib Socks this weekend. I’ll be even happier if I manage to get Billy’s sweater started.

I swear there will be a new FO of some sort in my next post.

I’m so excited to announce that I’ve finally released the Baby Fern Rib Socks pattern today! I’ve done quite a bit of tinkering with it since my first draft. First, I had two knitting friends test-knit for me (thanks again Bridget and Sandie!), then, after incorporating their comments, I decided to write a second version of the pattern for magic loop knitting 2-at-a-time on one long circular needle. And then, after hearing how at least one of my knitting buddies (coughKriscough) hates short-row heels with wrapped stitches, I wrote a second heel option into the pattern that uses a different method to close up the gaps that doesn’t require wrapping or picking up wraps.

I’m currently knitting my sock-length pair 2-at-a-time on magic loop, and will post additional photos when those are done. So for now, you’ll just have to look at the anklet version again.

The two versions of the pattern are available as PDF downloads through Ravelry. You don’t have to be a Ravelry member to purchase, but Ravelry members also have the option to save the PDF in their Ravelry library. (If you’re a knitter, crocheter, spinner or yarnie and haven’t signed up for Ravelry yet, what the heck are you waiting for?! Go. Now. Sign up!)

Ravelry Links:
Baby Fern Rib Socks (DPN version) pattern page

Baby Fern Rib Socks (magic loop 2-at-a-time version) pattern page

Price:
$5.00 (U.S. currency)

Description:
This toe-up sock with a short-row heel features columns of baby fern stitch separated by columns of ribbing. The stretchy stitch motif combined with a stretchy yarn makes for a pretty stretchy sock. For anklets in U.S. Ladies size 8.5 or smaller, only 1 ball of Patons stretch socks is needed (assuming you unravel any gauge swatch and re-use it for the finished socks). For anklets larger than U.S. Ladies size 8.5, or for longer socks, you’ll need 2 balls of Patons stretch socks. (Or substitute the same yardage of another stretchy fingering-weight yarn.) Pattern includes two different short-row heels — one with wraps and one without.

Please feel free to contact me at lynnioknits [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or comments about this or any of my other patterns.

Just a quickie post today — I tweaked the Helical Stripe Baby Hat pattern just slightly, and uploaded a revised PDF file.

Lemme guess… you can’t tell the difference between this one and the previous one, can you? That’s the beauty of helical stripes. The only change was instead of dividing up the hat into 5 equal sections (since I have 5 colors, including white), I divided it into 4 equal sections so that I’m not knitting one color with more stitches on each round (kind of hard to explain — trust me, it’s better this way, although the first one wasn’t “wrong” the way it was).

OK, it seems like it’s been forever, but it’s actually only been since about Labor Day that my knitting time has been cut back severely. So, what’s been keeping me from knitting as much? Well, first of all, I haven’t been taking my knitting along to work lately (lunchtime knitting) because things have been too busy at the office — and I’d rather leave the office at a decent time and skip the knitting over lunch so I can get a little more work done instead. Second of all, there’s that weaving project I’d been procrastinating about for several weeks (or maybe more like since early July).

(click any of the photos to see it larger)

The weaving is finally done! What we have here is a set of four placemats, handwoven from the same bamboo yarn (Silk City Bambu 12 for warp and tabby weft and Silk City Bambu 7 Variegated for pattern weft) that I used for my nephew Billy’s baby blanket. These will be one of the raffle prizes at “Cruise for a Cure” this weekend — a sort of car show (no awards, though) that my Dad’s garage is hosting as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society through our church’s Relay for Life team. I like how the placemats turned out — I miscalculated a bit on the length, however. I knew the approximate shrinkage from making the baby blanket; unfortunately, I had this feeling I miscalculated and wasn’t going to have enough warp after starting the weaving (turns out I had plenty), so I made the placemats each 2 inches shorter than I had planned… and also unfortunately, the weaving naturally shrinks more warp-wise (lengthwise) than it does in width. So after washing, they ended up more square than rectangular. But still usable. I’ll just have to file that little tidbit of information away in my brain in case I need it in the future.

Anyway, what little knitting news there is… I’ve started another Helical Stripe Baby Hat. After a little show-and-tell at Yarns R Us last weekend, the first one I made ended up being a shop sample in return for replacement yarn to make more for the hospital. And I’ll be teaching a class on how to make it later in the fall! The date has also been set for my Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Magic Loop sock class at Yarns R Us — Saturday, October 18 (9 a.m. – 1 p.m., I think). I’m really looking forward to it. I’m tweaking the baby sock pattern just for the class, so it will hopefully knit up a little faster.

I haven’t touched the Monkeys (sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit…) for several weeks now. I think they will probably need to hibernate until October so I can get some other stuff done. First off, I need to get the Baby Fern – Rib Socks pattern finalized and uploaded to Ravelry. And after that I need to get started on some Christmas knitting… oh, and a little more weaving, too.

Earlier this summer, Grumperina featured a pair of helical stripe socks on her blog. I was really intrigued by the concept and sort of filed it away in my brain for a while. Fast-forward to this past Friday, when I picked up several pastel shades of Italian cotton yarn (Filatura di Crosa’s Porto Cervo) that was on clearance at Yarns R Us, figuring I would make some more baby hats for the hospital.

(click the photo to see it larger)

I actually hadn’t thought of doing the helical stripes at first, but then the lightbulb went off. I had five colors total: pink, yellow, green, blue, and good ol’ white (1 ball of each, except for the white — two balls of that). I started at the top with a length of i-cord to be tacked down into a little loop later, then increased like crazy. I didn’t like how it turned out at first — I kept using the white till I was finished with the increases, but it was too much. I wanted to start the stripes much sooner. So I started over, again with the i-cord. Then I started adding the other colors as soon as I had a stitch count divisible by 5 (15 stitches). Increased a whole bunch more while working the helical stripes, until I had a hair more than 80 stitches on the needle. Then I just worked even in the helical stripes to the length I wanted, and switched to all white for the rolled edge. Voila!

• Needle: US 5 Addi Turbo, 40″ (magic loop technique used)
• Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Porto Cervo (100% cotton, aran weight), 10 grams each pink, yellow, green, blue and 20 grams white
• Started: 8/30/08 (and ripped and re-started 8/31/08)
• Finished: 9/1/08
• Gauge: Approx. 5-5.5 stitches per inch, stockinette
• Construction: Top-down, stockinette, rolled edge

I quickly wrote up some simple instructions — please note, however, that these instructions are extremely basic and have not been thoroughly proofread/tested. (It’s not rocket science and if you make a mistake while knitting this, it most likely isn’t going to be a serious one — plus it’s a quick knit and doesn’t take a lot of yarn. You can even use scraps!) Click to download PDF instructions.

Just when I thought maybe I was done knitting Fla-Vor-Ice Cozies, my coworker Brian returned from vacation and witnessed Rose and I using ours. Of course, his preschool-aged daughter has the same intolerance for cold hands while enjoying a frozen treat… so I said I would make one for her. I am pleased to present Brianna’s Fla-Vor-Ice Cozy:

• Yarn: ONline Supersocke Summer Color, colorway #1040 (leftover from Spiral Eyelet Socks)
• Needle: US 4 Addi Turbo, 40″
• Pattern: Mostly K2 P2 ribbing. In the middle I did 1 purl row, 1 knit row, 1 purl row, 1 knit row, then *YO, SSK [repeat from * to end of round], 1 knit row, 1 purl row, 1 knit row, 1 purl row.

Did the first half of it on the drive up to visit Craig’s sister and our nephew yesterday, and finished the rest at home today while watching The Scorpion King (man, did I ever need these two days off…).

Next up, my first pair of Monkeys. I started them on August 10th. The yarn is Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Wool sock yarn, Thoroughbred colorway (it’s mostly shades of brown, but I love how it has a hint of pink here and there). I’m loving knitting with this yarn — it’s so soft and squishy, and I just know it will feel great on my feet when the socks are done. I’m calling them Fearless Monkeys, first because of the yarn, and second because I am fearlessly knitting them two at a time on magic loop.

This has become my favorite technique for socks at the moment. No worrying about making sure I do the same number of repeats on a foot, leg, cuff, etc.! And best of all, both socks are done at the same time — not that I have much trouble with second sock syndrome, but sometimes it takes me a little longer to finish a second sock (Baby Fern – Rib Anklets, I’m looking at you!). Granted, there are some patterns this technique just does not work with — for example, any pattern where you need to shift stitches from one needle to the next to do a decrease or some such thing — but for the Monkeys it seems to be working just fine.

I’ve also started another pair of footies for Mom — no surprise there, since she knew I would be making her some more. Just started them today. But in order to keep some small element of surprise for her, I won’t post a picture here till they’ve been gifted.

Now that I have the feedback on the Baby Fern – Rib socks from my test knitters, I’m tweaking and finalizing the pattern. I’ve also written a second version of it for (wow, you never would have guessed this) two at a time on magic loop. I will be test knitting that version myself, using more of the Patons Stretch Socks yarn (this time in the Olive colorway, so appropriate for the pattern name).

And all of this knitting seems to be an elaborate scheme to avoid working on the set of handwoven placemats I really need to finish (and actually haven’t even started yet). I guess it would be a good idea to quit procrastinating, since I need to have them done before September 13th! (OMG THAT’S ONLY 3 WEEKS FROM NOW!) Yeah, I’ll get them done… but I MUST start them tomorrow.