Socktoberfest Wrap Up

My final total of UFO socks completed for Socktoberfest doesn't quite match my UFOlympics total, even with a full month to work with. Life's always more hectic after school starts -- that's my excuse. Well, that & I was not faithful to the sock projects all month; I did do other knitting too.

My last completed pair was my J.Knits "Denver" socks. This yarn came from Knitorious, though J.Knits yarn is available at several of our LYSes in the area. The first sock was knit for Summer of Socks 2007. The second sock for the pair was cast on in November of 2007, so it was about time it got finished. (May I just say that I am so glad to be nearly finished with my one-sock-at-a-time UFO's? It's much easier & faster for me to do them both at once.)

In addition to the Lime & Violet "Suede Elvis" socks, during Socktober 2008 I also finished a pair for me in Lorna's Laces "Somerset" & a gift pair for my Mother-in-law in Paton's Croy. The Lorna's Laces came from a closeout sale when an LYS went out of business last year, & the Paton's sock yarn came from Chris' Needlecraft, back when I was first experimenting with knitting socks. It feels good to knit up some of the older yarns from my stash.

I also finished the feet of my "January" socks, in Sheepaints yarn from The Loopy Ewe. Since they didn't get finished during Socktoberfest, I'm not sure when they'll be completed. I've got other projects on the front burner for November. Maybe I'll get the January socks finished by January 2009, maybe not.


I hadn't cast on any new socks yet this fall, mostly from being burned out on all the sock knitting I did during the UFOlympics. All the empty needles finally started calling me, though, so I ended up casting on two new pairs last weekend. One of those pairs has the legs mostly finished already, because that was the project I took with me walking around with my Trick-or-Treaters. This is Mountain Colors Bearfoote in "Sapphire Trail", purchased either at Kirkwood Knittery or at Knitorious, I don't remember which. Both stores carry a good supply of Mountain Colors yarn.

A Weekend Stuffed with Yarn

I think this past weekend may have been my best Mother's Day weekend yet. (Well, except for some allergy related vertigo, that is. But sitting still makes for good knitting time, at least.) This past weekend was completely busy with fiber related activities, & I even have FO's to show for it.

I took Friday off work, & went down to Knitorious EARLY in the morning for the filming of a Stitch N Pitch news spot.

My kids went with me, since the promo shooting was going to be finished early enough for them to get to school on time. One of my kids took this picture. Looking bleary-eyed & half asleep is what I get for waking up at 5 a.m.

I also managed to fit some extra knitting time in around the other things I did that day.



There is video of the event available at Fox 2's website. Linking directly to the video doesn't seem to work, so search "Knitorious" on their site & it should bring you to the story. This link might get you directly to the video, but if not, try the other way.



Saturday was the big STL Ravelry Members Yarn Crawl. I didn't get to participate in every stop, but I did manage to make some of them. It was a LOT of fun. I got to see Ann twice in two days! Mary Beth did an awesome job organizing the Yarn Crawl.
My aunts who were visiting from out of town even got to participate in the Kirkwood Knittery stop, when my Mom brought my kids to join me. (Having the kids with me meant the Loopy Ewe stop was more expensive than it otherwise would have been, though. I ended up with 3 red Loopy Ewe water bottles that I wouldn't have bought otherwise.) I didn't take enough pictures of the day -- should have taken more pictures & bought less yarn! For more details about the Yarn Crawl, I know Mary Beth is planning a big post to cover the whole day.





Over the whole weekend, I managed to finish toes on FIVE socks. Yes, I said 5. One was a second sock to match one I started all the way back in Summer of Socks 2007, another pair had been languishing since last fall, waiting for me to even up the last of the foot sections, & the third pair were my Amtrak Knitting socks from the trip to Oak Lawn. Socks go amazingly much faster on size 1 needles than size 0, I must say.

I still need to weave in the ends on those 5 socks, but the Kitchenering is DONE. Afterwards, I did what I always do when I finish socks, I filled the needles right back up again!

Socks on Saturday

Besides the items I posted yesterday, I have also finished two more pairs of socks since the ones I posted in the middle of February.


For this pair, it was a matter of finishing the second sock, & then Kitchenering both of them. I started the first one all the way back last summer, for Summer of Socks 2007. The yarn is hand-dyed, bought on Etsy, in the color "The Owl", from Dharmafey of Cosmic Fibers.





This pair was knit doing both socks at once. The yarn is also hand-dyed, but purchased at one of my local yarn shops. The yarn company is Pagewood Farms, available at Kirkwood Knittery, in the colorway "Crayon."

So Close

& yet so far away from finishing one more pair for Summer of Socks 2007.


After Kitchenering sock pairs 5 & 6 on my lunch hour earlier this week, I put the remainder of this week's knitting time into trying to finish my second sock for the Grasshopper Etsy yarn.



I ended up Friday night with about an inch of foot still left to knit, along with the toe. This picture is from first thing Saturday morning, showing Friday evening's progress.



Yesterday Lucy tried to help me take pictures of my completed Summer of Socks. Here's all the details:

Completed for Summer of Socks 2007 -- 6 full pairs & 3 single socks.
Top Row, completed sock pairs, from Left to Right:
Regia Bamboo -- first pair
Brown Sheep Wildfoote
Tofutsies
Regia 4 Fadig
Regia Bamboo -- second pair
Beth Brown (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- this pair has garter rib on the leg, all other socks plain vanilla stockinette pattern.

Bottom Row, single socks, from Left to Right:

Lime & Violet's "Spiceland" colorway -- cuff for second sock is complete.

Grasshopper (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- second sock ended up halfway through the foot section at the close of Summer of Socks. One more weekend's worth of knitting & this would have been a pair.

Dyeabolical (Etsy Indie Dyer) -- second sock not yet started.

All socks done on DPNs, top down, with size 00 used for cuffs & 0,1, or 2 for every other part of the socks. (Except for using size 000 needles to pick up stitches for the gussets.) All socks are using either 80 or 72 stitches around.

A Little Bit Behind

Like the Cardinals, I just can't seem to catch up. I feel as if I'm always just a bit behind. Here finally are pictures from last Friday night. (I couldn't let it go all the way to Friday again & be a full week late.)


I took my Cardinal red Stitch N Pitch socks back to the ball park one last time. It was an exciting game, but as some famous sports personality once said, it's bad luck to be behind at the end of the game. My kids were excited about the homeruns, though, & at least I got some knitting done.

Quick Summer of Socks Update

Summer of Socks 2007 officially finishes on the 21st of September. I must confess that I'll probably take a break from socks when it's done, as I already have several other fall knitting projects planned.

My 4 pairs of vacation socks are complete, along with 3 single socks done in hand-dyed yarn. There's a decent chance that I'll finish at least one more pair of socks for Summer of Socks this year, or perhaps even two pairs. However, there's no chance I'll catch up with any of the sock wizards who are in the leading Summer of Socks in totals right now.




I'm working on the toes of my second pair of Regia Bamboo socks, & am starting the gussets on my Cardinal Red Stitch N Pitch socks. We have tickets to tomorrow night's Cards/Cubs game, so the Cardinal socks will be going back to the ballpark for a second time.






I've been taking my summer sock knitting pretty much everywhere, to the point of getting teased about it by my friends. The portability & completely mindless stockinette of socks make for plenty of ability to hold up my end of a conversation while still knitting, though.

Showing Socks a Good Time

Otherwise known as Playing Catch-Up Part 2. The Saturday I refer to is not yesterday, but a week ago yesterday, as in the 25th of August

The Yarn Harlot has said that socks-in-progress need to be shown a good time, in order to make up for spending their lives tucked into shoes & not able to see much.

I took her advice to heart last Saturday evening:



I helped to chaperone a teenaged birthday party, & managed to get some knitting time in while I was at it. We sat on the patio at the City Museum & watching the kids run & climb around & just generally have a great time.




I also found a knitting related craft kit in the gift store there. Pretty cool! There were also Sock Monkeys, but I masterfully refrained from bringing one home with me.








The blue Regia socks, my last remnants of the Vacation 2007 Sock Madness, had their feet completed while sitting on the patio. (Neither sock could be jealous of the other one being the only one to get out to the City Museum, since they got equal knitting time while I was there.)

The toes got done this week, & I expect to Kitchener them sometime tomorrow.

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.

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.

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!"