Saturday Sky & Socks

We had massive thunderstorms roll through the area last night, & the clouds today are still really interesting because of that.



I still have all the same socks on the needles that I did on Wednesday, but I'm part way through the heel flaps of the bamboo ones.


The Regia Bamboo is dyed in the "mottled" style, with little blips of color that are only a few stitches long. However, something about the way that I knit, or the size of my socks, seems to make the blibs of color line up to give me distinct stripes of color. It's most obvious with the turquoise in this pair of socks, but I also noticed it in my first pair of Regia Bamboo Battle of Hastings socks.

My final vacation socks are slowly progressing also. I hope to have them done sometime next week. I find that for "standing in line/waiting around in public" type knitting, it's easier when socks are earlier in the process. So the socks seem to do less travelling as they get bigger.

What's on My Needles This Wednesday

This has been another Summer of Socks week -- all socks, all the time, as if no other knitting existed except socks. Lately I've been all about refilling the needles from the finished vacation socks. The size 1's that I used for the Battle of Hastings socks have been refilled with a different color of the same type of Regia Bamboo yarn.



The size 0's from the Wildfoote socks I decided NOT to refill with Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn. I've decided to try size 1 needles for my next Wildfoote socks. The first pair fits fine, but the fabric is rather stiff. Therefore, I used a concept I found on Ravelry to come up with two more yarns for size 0 needles. There's a group over on Raverly called the "WOW Look What I Found In My Yarn Stash" sock club.

For the benefit of anyone who doesn't have Ravelry access, here's the group description:

Desperately want to be one of the cool kids with a monthly sock club, but realize you already have too much sock yarn? This group is for you!

It's the WOW! Look at this skein of yarn I found in my stash Sock Club. Here are the rules:

1. Once a month, go into your stash.
2. Find a skein of sock yarn.
3. Take a picture of it and post it in your blog, on ravelry, in this group, or just wave it around and go "WOW! Look what I got this month!"
4. You get extra points if the skein is still in the bag or box you brought it home in.
5. You get super extra points if the receipt is still along with the sock yarn.
6. You get quadruple points if you actually make a pair of socks out of that skein.

What do you do with the points? If you earn 90 million by the end of the year, you get to buy more sock yarn! Yay!

With the WOW! idea as inspiration, I found not one, but two skeins of sock yarn in my stash to use for my next socks. One is J.Knits yarn, in the Denver colorway. Several of my Local Yarn Shops carry J.Knits, so I'm not 100% sure from which of them I purchased this skein, but I am sure it was locally. (No extra points for me for having it still in the bag with the receipt; that would have at least answered the question of where I bought it!)





The other is Dharmafey's yarn, in The Owl colorway, from her Labyrinth-Inspired Handdyed Sock Yarn series.














Also on my needles are my final pair of vacation socks, which are at the foot stage, & my first "African Grey" sock from Dyeabolical, which also reached the finished-with-the-gusset phase this weekend & may or may not get the foot done this week, depending on how much time I have available to knit.



I would say that's quite enough socks for now, wouldn't you?

Saturday Sky & Cicadas

Once again, the Saturday sky isn't that interesting today. It's been so hot lately that I am content to sit inside knitting & listening to the cicadas. We did have one visit our porch today. I used the camera to zoom in & be sure that he was sitting on the OUTSIDE of the screen, because from a distance it wasn't that obvious.



This week I've been working on refilling my empty sock needles. Here's the proof:



I've started the second sock for my Lime & Violet "Spiceland" & my Grasshopper socks, as well as two others which I'll go into detail on later.



I've also been working on the red Cardinals Stitch N Pitch socks. I haven't decided yet whether I want to stop the garter rib pattern at the ankle, or continue it down the foot.

Squee!

Tales of Yarn was mentioned on Lime & Violet's Daily Chum! Yippee!

I feel like it's 15 minutes of fame, or something.

Rachel asked me here about the Eye of Partridge heel. It's very simple to do, though it makes multi-colored yarn look gorgeous & complicated. The slip stitch rows are basically alternated; if you start the heel section with a knit stitch on one row, you would start with a slip stitch on the following right-side row, or vice versa. (Not including your choice of selvedge, which I used 3 garter stitches to do.) In other words, except for there being that wrong-side row of purling in between, Eye of Partridge is the moss stitch of heels -- you knit the slips & slip the knits.

The only issue is keeping track of which row you worked last, so that they get alternated properly. That makes it slightly less mindless than a regular slip stitch heel, but it isn't any big deal if the lighting is good enough to "read" your knitting. I did run into difficulty seeing which row I'd worked last when doing my Wildefoote Rhapsody socks outdoors in the evening while on vacation, so I just worked on different socks -- good thing I'd taken so many with me!

What's Off My Needles Wednesday

Here are the socks that are Off My Needles this week:



I finished two single socks, & expect to cast on for their mates this weekend. The pink & green is from Grasshopper on Etsy. The green, white, & brown sock is the "Spiceland" colorway from Lime & Violet, with my cat Lucy thrown in simply because she always has to investigate what I am doing.



The last picture is one of my Tofutsie socks. The entire pair of Tofutsies socks is done, even though there's only one in the picture.

What's on my needles this Wednesday are the other socks that were there last week, plus the beginnings of a linen sweater. Somehow I can't bear to work on any of my heavier weight projects in this heat, even with being inside in the air conditioning.

Oh, & before I forget, my friend looked over my last post & let me know that her kitties are 9 years old, not 7.

Sundays Are For Sock Finishing

My Tofutsies & my two single socks from my Saturday post all ended up getting completely finished on Sunday. Pictures to come later, when I've had a chance to take some.

Instead of sock pictures, I have kitty pictures instead, & a plea in case anyone local can help. A friend of mine is being transferred overseas & is looking for someone to take her two cats, either as a long term cat sitting, or permanently. She'd prefer to have the cats back when they get transferred back to the USA, but wouldn't insist on that as long as she can find the cats a good home.





The first cat is named Holly & the second is Ashi. They are both girls, & both about 7 years old. (I think) They've been declawed, so they are strictly indoor cats.





I'd take her cats in myself if it weren't for my husband, who insists that we can't take in any more cats. If anyone in the St. Louis area knows someone who would take in a couple of cats in need of a good home, please let me know. My email is talesofyarn AT yahoo DOT com.

Tofutsie Toes & Saturday Sky

This week I knit several feet, but only a few inches. The Tofutsies pair & the Grasshopper single sock are ready to start the toes. The Lime & Violet sock is also close to the toe stage, but will probably be set aside for the weekend in favor of hopefully finishing the Tofutsie pair.



The small slices of Saturday sky which can be seen around the socks will have to suffice for this week. It's too darned hot to go outside any time after about 8-9 o'clock in the morning. The sky was mostly a cloudless blue, allowing lots & lots of sun to bake everything in the area. That's August in St. Louis for you.

Stitch N Pitch St. Louis Style

I didn't have a chance to post right away, so I'll just let the pictures tell the story:

Red Knitting for the Redbirds Game!












We had designers Robyn Diliberto & Sally Melville at the game as well.



Besides all the knitting, it was also nice that the Cardinals WON!

No pictures of all the other bloggers I ran into, but let me just give a shout out to Shannon, Sarah, Mindy, Kara, Jenn, & apparently Kathy whom I rudely didn't introduce myself to & only said, "Hi!"

Gussets Galore!

Here's a rundown of the state of my Summer of Socks 2007.



In answer to Kim's question, yes, indeed I do have a crazy number of socks going at once. Of the four sets which were started for vacation knitting, there are two pairs still on the needles. I just finished the gussets on the Tofutsies & the gussets on the Regia 4 Ply are started.




After getting my vacation knitting prepared, I ended up with starteritis wanting to try some of my handpainted stuff, so that's where the 3 single socks from my What's On My Needles Wednesday post came from.



I'm working on the gussets of the Lime & Violet & Grasshopper socks now, & halfway done with the heel flap for the Dyeabolical sock.



I picked up the stitches for the "Spiceland" socks on Thursday of this week, & have made some more progress since then. I like having several things going at once because that makes it easier to always have at least one sock at the Ready-For-Mindless-KIP-While-Waiting-Around knitting stage.




If you notice something odd about the needles in the "Picked Up Stitches" picture, you are correct. I learned a trick at the Knitter's Guild workshops this spring which has come in very handy. I always use the smallest needle possible for picking up stitches & it makes the pick-up row much neater.


Oh! This post reminded me that I do have one additional pair of Summer of Socks 2007 socks on my needles. I'm doing my first experiment with knitting from the inside & outside of a yarn cake simultaniously with a red hand-dyed wool/bamboo/nylon blend that I bought from Beth on Etsy. I figure those socks will be the perfect color to take with me to the Stitch N Pitch game on Monday evening.

That makes 3 full pairs & 3 single socks currently on the needles for Summer of Socks 2007, with 2 pairs completed so far this summer.

3 Quick Things

1. "Everybody's Working For The Weekend" is an early 80's song by the Canadian band Loverboy.

2. My sister-in-law's younger sister was minutes away from getting on the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis when it collapsed yesterday evening. She had to deal with being stuck in traffic, & finding an alternate way to get home, but she's fine. I'm so relieved for her, but so sorry for the families with missing or fallen loved ones. It's been an emotional day, & made a couple of posts I read yesterday seem even more meaningful & especially relevant.

3. This local story is very uplifting. I especially appreciate the last sentence.

What's On My Needles Wednesday

Over on Ravelry, Miss Violet, of Lime & Violet, suggested "What's On My Needles Wednesday." I instantly recognized it as a good idea for keeping track of the knitting without letting the blog go too long between posts or anything else like that.

So without further ado, here are my current projects on my needles this week:



Now that I'm home & no longer in fear of my yarn disappearing or getting lost on vacation, I've pulled out my handpainted stuff again.



I've turned the heel on the Grasshopper, gotten the heel flap nearly done on the
Lime & Violet "Spiceland", & started the heel flap on the Dyeabolical "African Grey".

I'm really liking the Eye of Partridge heel for yarns with multiple colors, though I tend to go with a regular slip-stitch one on the two colored yarns just to switch it up a bit.