Seeing Double

Two Sets of Two Socks Complete:



Pattern: Plain basic top-down stockinette, with 80 stitches around, & 4 extra rows in the heel flap
Yarn: Regia Bamboo Color # 1066
Needles: Susan Bates metal Size 00 DPNs for cuff, & size 1 DPNs for remainder of the socks.

This is my first completed pair for Summer of Socks 2007. They were cast on June 21st 2007 & Kitchenered on July 28th 2007.

Verdict: I like this yarn & will use it again for more socks. The colors did pool somewhat oddly over the foot part, despite being a yarn with a mottled effect, but the pooling is subtle enough not to detract from the sock. I could have made them slightly longer in the leg, as I had plenty of yarn leftover.





Pattern: Plain basic top-down stockinette, with 80 stitches around, & 8 extra rows in the heel flap
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote color SY-200 "Rhapsody"
Needles: Susan Bates metal Size 00 DPNs for cuff, & size 0 DPNs for remainder of the socks.

This is my second completed pair for Summer of Socks 2007. They were cast on June 23rd 2007 & Kitchenered on July 28th 2007.

Verdict: I like this yarn & will use it again for more socks. The fabric on the size 0 needles is EXTREMELY firm, however, & I will probably try knitting this yarn on size 1 DPNs next time. I could have made them a little bit longer in the leg, as there is plenty of yarn leftover to be used as an accent color on another pair of socks.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

The toes on my Wildefoote socks are halfway done. I'm not sure if I'll get them done in time to Kitchener them this weekend or not. I tried to work on them at Knitorious on Wednesday evening. The light at Knit Night was good enough to work on them, but the conversation was too distracting. I missed a couple of decreases & had to tink back, so I switched to working on the cuff of my Dyeabolical "African Grey" sock. I'd brought that one in to show Rachel how it was knitting up.

Last night I went to an STL Knitting Guild Knit In, & worked some more on the "African Grey" plus my Lime And Violet sock. Both of those will be ready to go on to the heelflap sometime soon.




The only picture I have to show, however, is of my Tofutsies progress. The gussets are started on both socks. I may or may not have time for more picture taking on Sunday. My Saturday will be pretty busy, so I'll actually be lucky if I have time to do all the Kitchenering that morning.

For an incredibly easy Friday Trivia question, who knows the source of my blog title? (Not that I'm going to confess that I saw it performed live at the Checkerdome. That might be too big a clue, not to mention giving away my age.)

More Partial Socks

Still no vacation socks 100% finished as of yet, but I do have one pair ready to Kitchener this weekend. (I seem to do better early in the morning, when I don't need to be getting ready to go anywhere.) I may or may not get another set of toes done by Saturday morning, in which case my "Completed SOS 2007" sock count may magically jump from 0 to 4 individual socks this weekend.



Regia 4 Fadig Color socks have the heel flaps done now, though the pictures show when they were still in progress.



Here's a more recent Tofutsies picture. The colors pooled very differently from sock to sock, but I'm not sure that it shows up here. On one sock the pink & the white line up with each other to almost form vertical lines, but on the other the colors are more of a spiral.



I've turned the heels on these socks & picked up stitches for the gusset while on my lunch hour yesterday. I plan on taking them to Knit Night at Knitorious tonight, along with the Dyeabolical sock I started before going on vacation.

A Weekend of Mostly Reading

Some knitting happened here this weekend, but not a whole lot. Just in case anyone's been living under a rock, my post won't make sense unless you are aware that the last Harry Potter book was released this weekend. I did end up knitting a little bit at Borders Bookstore on Friday evening, but we went there for other books for my kids, & left there before the party really started. My daughter did end up with a balloon animal from a table in the kid's section & people in costume were starting to trickle in as we were leaving. I knit some on my Gyffindor colored sock (J-Knits "New Mexico") while waiting for my daughter to get her balloon animal, but didn't have any time to knit in line to pay, since there wasn't any line for the registers that early in the evening.

My plan was to try for a copy of the book somewhere other than the big bookstore chains, since I hadn't preordered a copy.

I got the second to last copy available at Schnucks (an STL local 24-hour grocery store), after getting there at 12:15 Saturday morning. The line was fairly short, so I got only a little bit of knitting done then too & I got home about 12:45. It took me 5 hours to read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, including time out to pet the cats who were surprised I was awake, & to talk to my stepson when he arrived home a little after 1 a.m. He wasn't surprised to find me up & reading, but he hadn't managed to get a copy of the book. I assured him my copy would be available by the time he got up, since he's a nightowl/late-riser kind of guy.

The rest of the weekend was mostly taken up with various chores, which is one of the reasons I decided to go ahead & read the book when I did. I'm a bit further along on my socks, but still don't have any officially complete. Next weekend may turn into Kitchenering Weekend as opposed to this being Harry Potter Weekend.

Conflicting Interests

On the one hand, I'd like to finish the toes of my two Almost-Done sets of socks this weekend. On the other hand, the last Harry Potter book will be released at 12:01 Saturday morning.

Something tells me that reading is going to take precendence over knitting this weekend.

In the mean time, let me offer up some of my better-than-camera-phone knitting pictures from the past fortnight

Into the Home Stretch

Wildefoote Sock Progress
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

After another day's worth of passenger knitting, I finally feel like I'm making progress again. One foot of the Wildefoote socks got done today. On other sock, the gusset is complete & ready for me to knit the other foot while riding tomorrow.

Once I get home tomorrow, though, it'll be time for massive amounts of laundry & unpacking, so I'm not sure when I'll get back to knitting or blogging. (Not to mention all the blogs I need to catch up on...)

As far as the other two pairs of socks are concerned, I've started the heel flaps on the Regia 4 Fadig. (I just checked & they are color # 1960 -- I suppose I could call them my Hippie Socks, except that they aren't really "Hippie" colors. I'd call them more alpine or something.) I also have the Tofutsies almost ready to start the heel flaps as well. There'll be a whole lot of sock finishing going on for the next couple weeks, I'm thinking.

Hiking, Not Knitting

Colorado Hiking View
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

I haven't been getting much knitting done on this part of the trip. We've been doing a lot of hiking, which leads to sore legs, but thankfully not sore fingers. I'm looking forward to the sitting & knitting time when we start the drive home tomorrow. It remains to be seen whether my kitties think my stepson is their new bestest friend since he's been the only one around for the last couple weeks. I hope they won't be mad at me for TOO long, but you never know with felines.

It Figures!

My Ravelry Invite came while I'm on vacation! No big surprise there; I kind of figured Murphy would stick his nose into this one.

The upside is that I found out about it when I actually DID have a little bit of spare time & net access to play around on it. I'm TalesOfYarn over there if anyone wants to say hi!

Cleckheaton Progress

Cleckheaton Progress
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

During Sunday's long drive, I got a couple inches knit on my Cleckheaton sweater in between finishing the foot of one of the Battle of Hastings socks. I'm really liking how it's turning out so far. The size 7 Addis seem enormous compared to sock needles!

The hotel in Burlington, Colorado had internet access, but despite having phone service, my cell phone couldn't send/receive email, so the photos I took late Sunday afternoon didn't get sent to Flickr until we were in Boulder at noon today. The plan had been to try to find a fast food place for lunch, but we ended up at a very good Mexican restaurant instead. It turned out that the restaurant was in the same plaza as the yarn store, which was convenient due to the address being a bit confusing. I'd have had more problems finding Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins if we hadn't stopped at the Mexican restaurant for lunch. The address for Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins says it's on Broadway, but the store actually faces Table Mesa Drive.

Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins was a bit overwhelming. Beyond words overwhelming, actually, so I'll wait for another day to try blogging that experience.

Today I finished the foot of the other Battle of Hastings sock. I may wait to do the toes until I'm back home again, since I have plenty of other socks to work on for the remainder of my trip.

Battle of Hastings Socks

Regia Bamboo Gusset Progress
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

Pattern: Plain Stockinette Top Down, over 80 stitches, with 4 extra rows in the heel flap.
Yarn: Regia Bamboo Color #1066 (I guess I'll call it the "Battle of Hastings" colorway.)
Needles: Susan Bates metal 00 DPNs for cuff, size 1 DPNs for remainder of sock, with size 000 needles used to pick up stitches for the gusset.

I finished both gussets yesterday, just in time for the long drive today. I haven't been able to get an updated picture into Flickr, though.

One of these is finished nearly to the toe after knitting in the car today, but I can't get my phone to upload photos where we currently are staying. I realized yesterday that the color number for this Regia yarn is 1066 -- the year of the Battle of Hastings.

My eldest got his cast removed the day before we left on the trip, & is doing fine. (Almost TOO fine, since we have to watch him like a hawk to be sure he doesn't overdue it.) He's having fun showing off his scar too -- such a guy!

Tomorrow I'm going to visit Shuttles, Spindles, & Skeins on our way to Estes Park. I can hardly wait!

I'm not sure if I'll be able to update again for a while, but I should have plenty of pictures to show when I get home again.

Yarn Basket LYS in Pittsburg, Kansas

JKNITS Yarn from Yarn Basket
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

Yesterday we drove to Pittsburg, Kansas for some shopping & to meet my husband's brother & his family for dinner. We stopped at the Yarn Basket, which is in an old-fashioned storefront in the historic section of town, at 512 B North Broadway.

I found out about the store through their listing on WWKIP for this year. The LYS is so new that it didn't show up when I searched the web for local yarn stores -- the closest one that Yahoo showed was in Joplin, MO, 2 hours away.

The owner, Lorene, was very nice, & very knowledgeable. She has a good selection of yarns for a brand new store -- everything from Peaches & Cream dishcloth cotton to Louet Linen. Yarn Basket also already has a wide array of books & several binders of patterns, with a table to sit & look through them. I didn't really have time for that this trip, but maybe next time.

There's an area with comfortable seating for sitting & knitting, which fortunately was empty so that my menfolk had a place to sit & wait while I looked around. I didn't look too closely at the worsted or DK yarn, since there's no way my husband would be up for trying to fit an extra sweater's worth or two of yarn into an already full vehicle. (Lesson for next vacation -- leave more space in the suitcase!)

I was torn between buying some laceweight or buying some sock yarn. There was a good selection of both, but I ended up settling on two skeins of J-Knits that I hadn't seen in person before. The "Boston" colorway is the one in this photo, & I also bought the "Louisiana" colorway, which doesn't show up properly on my camera phone.

If you ever happen to be in Southeast Kansas, I highly recommend stopping by the Yarn Basket

Vacation Knitting

Picked Up Stitches
Originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn

It's so nice to have nothing more complicated than picking up stitches to worry about. Relaxing vacations are the best kind!

I'm trying a different Flickr blog template to see if this one turns out better, size-wise.

The heels have been turned & gussets begun for both Regia Bamboo socks. The yarn has been very nice to work with so far, though there seems to be a bit of a color issue with one of the balls. (The camera phone won't pick that up well though.) I hope to be able to turn the heels on the Wildefoote socks tomorrow & have both sets ready for car knitting on the foot of the sock by Sunday.

Travel Socks

Travel Socks, originally uploaded by Tales of Yarn.

Here's a telephone picture of the sock progress after the first bit of passenger knitting. 2 sets of socks are in the process of having the heel flaps knit, & I hope to be on to the gussets before there is any more lengthy passenger time.

Editted to add: This is my first attempt at posting directly from Flickr. I apologize for the size of the picture. I've changed the template for next time.

Checking In

Southeast Kansas is rather wet. The only upside is that it made shooting off fireworks rather less of a burn hazard yesterday. Fortunately the flood waters are starting to recede here & the forecast should be dry for the next couple days.

Coffeyville & places downriver on the Neosho have the worst of it, though. It's like New Orleans on a smaller scale, except that people had a better chance to evacuate but more farmland was wrecked. It's been a very hard year to be a farmer or rancher, here in middle America.

On a less somber note, Summer of Socks progress is definitely occurring. Plain stockinette circular knitting is a good compliment to sitting & talking with folks at a 4th of July BBQ. Update pictures will have to wait, however.

I hope everyone who celebrates the 4th of July had a good day yesterday!

Be Prepared

I find it amusing that Brenda Dayne's Cast On series for the summer is focussing on camping & Scouting, given how much I've been following the "Be Prepared" motto lately. May I present a review of how much knitting I'm insane enough to believe I can do in two weeks?

I've got the plain stockinette lower section of a Norwegian sweater, ready for 16 inches of the same color in the round.






I've got 8 sets of socks in progress -- 4 pre-Summer of Socks, & 4 that are "SOS legal & started on the solstice or after" On the left, 4 sets of socks started before the Summer of Socks KAL. On the right, 4 sets of socks started since.

That should be enough socks to last me for a fortnight, right?



I recently finished preparing the one additional item that I want to take with me. The Yarn Harlot's latest book recommends taking a variety of knitting for long trips, to switch up needle size & type, which sounds like an excellent idea to me.



I finished the Cleckheaton sleeves last week, & this weekend I joined them together, did the front & back raglan pieces, & joined the front & back to knit as circular stockinette in the car. (The pattern called for picking up stitches for the front & back seperately, & working them both in back & forth stockinette, then seaming afterwards. I decided that was silly, so I'm doing it in the round instead.)




I tried the sleeves on before joining the front to the back, & tried to take some pictures to illustrate how it fits together. The directions say to pick up stitches along the top of one sleeve, cast on stitches for the neckline, & then pick up stitches from the top of the other sleeve.





Here it is all joined together & ready for car knitting.


Oh, & the reason for plain stockinette in the round for car knitting? Check Kim's post -- I've got the same issues, but fortunately a much flatter & less curvy route planned.