You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Knitting' category.
This past week, Spring Break, I picked up some new hobbies. I’m actually a bit obsessed with them. I somehow stumbled onto lucky star origami while in search for good luck charms as a present for a coworker down on her luck. I am crazily making these cute little stars and can’t seem to stop. I’ve already ordered some special paper to make them and have been practicing with magazine pages and such. Well, this then led to my intrigue with making origami gift boxes because in my search for directions on how to make these lucky stars I stumbled onto beautiful origami gift boxes. Now I have some origami books on box making in my cart at amazon.com but hmmm I’m letting them simmer until I get my head straight and thinking. I want to be sure this is something I am willing to stick with.
My other itch of an obsession are stitch markers. I am dying to try them out. I’ve seen some really pretty one on etsy and was thinking wouldn’t it be fun to make my own. So I picked up some beads and whatnots at Hobby Lobby but held out on tools because I had a 50% coupon (MARA750, expires 3/31/07) for joanns.com and recently became a free shipping member so I ended up with a good deal on a nice tool set and free shipping, hehe, can’t beat that. Plus while I was shopping I just added some more nifty items for my future to be stitch markers. Why not, right? 
The package should get here sometime Friday. Can’t wait to start.
For some reason I am in such a crafty mood. I’m usually not interested in making things other than my knitting. But as I read people’s blogs and see their creations I am so inspired.
On a knitting note, I hope to finally finish my scarf I started last month for my coworker tonight. Hurray! I’m really buckling down and making myself finish all or most of my projects currently on the needles that have been specifically made for people. That way I can eventually start on socks for me again and use the nice yarns I’ve recently accumulated.
I’ll post some pics of what I’ve been up to when I get home. The lucky stars are just too cute. Now I need to find cute jars or bottles to hold them in so I can give them away to boost people’s spirits, I know they put a smile on my face when I see them.
ETA…pics…
I made the pastel box and stars are made from origami paper. The shiny stars are made from left over gift wrap paper. And the colorful stars are made from the packaging paper that came from my other origami paper set. Now that I have pics of them, they seem to be so very few in number and they took quite a bit a time to construct. Hmmm.
Finally the coworker scarf. Just so close to being done. The color isn’t how it really looks since it’s night time and I had to use the flash :(, so it’s a bit off. By the time it’s all knit up and done, it will measure just under 7 feet. Ekk, that’s long! But my friend is a a lot taller than me so its gonna work out just fine.
I finally have pics to show off. Just three colors from Sweet Georgia. All I could get my hands on before things were taken out of my cart at The Loopy Ewe since people were already checking out and buying it all up.
From Left to Right: Omakase 4, Omakase 2, Omakase 7
More pics of the colors by themselves and what-nots…
Omakase 7
Omakase 4 : This one is one of my faves. The pic just really isn’t that good. 
I kinda kicked myself in the bottay when I received my order because I only purchased one.
Omakase 2 : I really like the one on the left in the first pic which is also the one on the bottom in the second pic. I liek the more saturated look. They are both the same colorway but obviously there is a slight color difference in them. If I plan to make socks with this color I will have to alternated between them. I understand that this is all hand dyed so it’s all good. I may just make footies, who knows.
No plans to work on these anytime in the future. They are gonna be sitting in the stash until a pattern jumps at me. 
I’ve been so busy with school and work that I’ve not had much time to do any knitting or posting. Oh the little joys in my life. I am so tired right now, but I really want to post some tid-bits. So lets start with Saturday Sock yarn.
I was lucky enough to win some Schaefer Anne sock yarn on eBay. I think I only ended up paying $17 total with shipping already included. Not a bad deal. The colors are really pretty. I’ve never touched this stuff before but just really wanted some, like always. The eBay seller was really great. The yarn was shipped as promised, but for some reason took a week to get to me, I think that was a postal thing.
Yarn Info: 60% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Mohair, %15 Nylon
Here’s a close up so you can see the Mohair.
It’s really fuzzy looking. I’m not use to sock yarn looking like this.
So, I really like this yarn, the look, and the color. I don’t have any plans for it as of yet. It’s gonna be living in the yarn stash for some time. I purchased the yarn from mcporter114 on eBay. The seller has pretty darn good feedback and some nice yarns.
On a happy note, I finally took some pics of my socks I knitted using my Interlacements Las Vegas Lights yarn. I don’t know if I blogged about how awesome it was to knit with this yarn. But yeah, it was amazing. So soft and just flew through my fingers. I am in love with this yarn right now. Well, seeing as how it was my first fancy yarn I worked with, I love it. I still have yet to work on my other fancy yarns so I really don’t have much to compare it with. But for now, I love it. And I want more, oh so much more. Plus, one skein/hank, was just enough for me to make a pair of footies and have quite a bit left over.
As you can see, there is a bit of fuzz going on at the bottom of the feet. These socks are really soft and I did not think much of it until it was too late. The instructions on the yarn said the yarn was machine washable so I threw them into the laundry after the first wear and they came out a bit fuzzy. So now I just hand wash them with Soak and block them with my ghetto fab wire blockers. This has helped with the fuzzing a bit and I hope the keep these babies around for some time. Oh and Interlacements are a really saturated yarn. Even after 5 or more washings I still get some color running in the water. So, I don’t know if its just me or if its a normal thing.
Oh by the way, my order from 
came in on Friday and I fondled the sweetness of Sweet Georgia all the way to work. It’s very pretty stuff, but this is just a teaser, I’ll post more about it when I get pictures of it. Off to bed…
I just about had a massive attack. Sheri at 
had an update tonight and knowing that Sweet Georgia was going to be for sale I had to stalk the site until it was up. I’ve never worked with the yarn but I just had to have some because the amazing woman behind Sweet Georgia is taking a long break so no more sweetness for awhile. I think the yarn went on sale at 8:15pm Central time, I stalked the site at 7:45pm just refreshing until it was available. Oh my goodness it was such a race to the finish. As I tried to check out my first time around one of the yarns I had in the cart was already sold out. AHHHHH!! So bright idea, just pick whatever –> put in cart and check out. I ended up with 3 colorways, I think. I’ll just have to wait and see when I get it, and keep ya’ll posted. All the yarns in that line sold out in practically less than 30 mins. geezzz. Oh, and bills yeah, I’m horrible, I say no yarn until they are paid off, and what do i do? Buy more. Ehh, okay, unless another awesome indie dyer decides to take some time off, I should be good. *crossing my fingers* 
Ps…yeah I know, plug plug, I keep plugging the loopy ewe, it’s just Sheri totally rocks as a seller and I’m sure many who’ve purchased from her feels the same way.
I know, another post so soon after my rant about roses. But that’s just me ranting, this is what it’s all about…Socks!! I thought since I was washing my socks I’d take pics of them after they were nice and dried. All of these socks went through a normal washing in the washer and then off to regular drying cycle. They came out mushed like thing tend to out of an over stuffed dryer, but I used my ghetto fab wire blockers to prop them for pictures. As you can not see…no wires…I used my handy-dandy photoshop to get them out so some of the images may look a bit odd.
This was my first pair of hand knit socks. I bought the yarn from Knit Picks sometime last year in May 2006. Knit Picks no longer carries this line of sock yarn which is sad because these socks have held up quite well. I used Silver’s sock tutorial to knit these. They turned out pretty darn good for a first timer. I was really excited so off to my local yarn store to get some nicer sock yarn and I picked up the Lana Grossa pictured below…
I had actually started the cuff in June 2006, but somewhere from July till November I had fallen off the knitting wagon. But then one night, I couldn’t sleep and it hit me, I should knit and finish up the projects I had started. I frogged the cuff and recasted (is that even a word?) thinking I would make the BF some socks. Turns out I’m a big newbie and did not cast on enough because I thought it was all the same since the ribbing would stretch. Well, it did, just not enough for his ogre feet. hehe. So I was like, hmm I’ll just make them for me. At first i did not like the feel because I could feel the bumps, but after the first machine washing, they soften up a lot. I think the more I wash them the softer they get.
Ahhh, the first footies. I had a lot of extra yarn from the first pair that I thought, what the heck, lets make some footies. When working with these I did a few adjustments with going down a needles size smaller. I think I used a US 1 and only cast on 60 while with the above I used a US 2 and cast on 64. These are a more snug fit which I prefer.
My first time working with Trekking XXL, hmm what can I say, I liked it. Not as fuzzy as Lana Grossa which is a plus because I could see more stitch definition. But not so soft to the touch at first. But oh my goodness, they are really soft now. Softer than my Lana Grossa’s. Oh and I have tons left to make more socks with. I can go with another pair of footies or some with a longer cuff. Eh who know…
As you can see I have a thing for my socks matching. I’m a freak, what can I say. But I know when I start working with the fancy stuff, matching will pretty much be out of the question. Oh the agony. 
j/k…
A few days back I was talking about destashes and how I’m never lucky enough to get in on the action. Well…I sooooo got me some action. wooohoo. I was lucky enough to stumble onto a new post at the knitters review forum where someone was posting a destash because they were picking up a new craft and no longer wanted to knit, oh I know, what?!? Anyways, I went to the person’s blog where all her pics were posted and stumbled onto a listing for Socks that Rock color Marbles, and boy did I act like a crazy person. She was only asking $15 for it and shipping was included in the price. Helllllooooo this is a major deal. I’ve never had the opportunity to even touch this stuff, but I’ve heard so many people talking it up and loving it so much I had to have some but didn’t want to pay retail for it, not just yet. Well, this was such a opportunity to get this yarn at a steal and for me to check it out. I LOVE IT!!! It is really soft and I mean, I was fondling it for quite a bit. I’m afraid to knit it up because I love it so much the way it is. Now I want more, oh so much more. I’ve been browsing the website to see what else I like, and oh, I like a few $100 worth lol. But no new yarn for now, not until I get the bills paid off and whatnots… then…oh its gonna be craaazzzaaayy…
Ahh, the lovely yarn.
I sadly went through with it. I made myself take scissors to the sock. My heart was beating so fast. The hardest part was taking that first snip. To cut up something that I had worked so hard on was very depressing. But once I heard it rip, that was it, I was on a mission to get this sock ripped and rolled. It took a bit of cutting to even get the sock to frog properly. As you can see in the pics, I had quite a bit of tid-bits all around. I thought I was gonna roll the yarn into a ball, but it became so tedious. Then a bright idea, ahhh use my yarn winder, and after that, ripping was pretty darn fun. I decided to just keep the yarn on the tube and I’ll just knit from it. This way, it’ll give me motivation to finish the darn sock so I can use my winder.
Chronicles of my Frog…
Taking the scissors to it, oh the agony…
It took quite a few snips to get it to here.
You can see all the bits and pieces that came from all the snips.
I finally was able to get acutal yarn that would unravel correctly.
Bright idea to use my winder to help me wind as I frogged.
So now I must knit from the cone. This will be incentive to actually finish.
Okay, so I did as promised, more knitting and less with the shopping. I finally finshed the second sock for the BF and it actually is a decent fit. I still haven’t frogged the first sock yet, and I know I must. But I am so tired of the freaking sock. I don’t want to work with it anymore. I want to work with my fancy yarns and make something that’s not just stockinette stitch. Ugh. But I still have my coworker socks to finish up and the scarf. The saddest part is all I want to do is look at pretty yarns on-line.
I do feel a sense of acomplishment finishing up the sock. BUT it really makes me rethink ever knitting socks for the BF again since he’s a size 11, ugh I know, I mean they are not crazy huge as I’ve seen other people talk about size 13 or even 16, but compared to my size 5, its just sooooo much work. I think I’m in the all about me zone, where I just want to make nice things for myself. 
Anyways, here are some pics of the sock…
As you can see in the pic, I used my homemade wire hanger sock blocker-wannabe. I doubt I’ll ever block these socks, but just for presentation sake. Eventaully I’ll talk myself into acutal fancy blockers, but for now, the money is all for the yarn.
Sock on the foot. Not a bad fit.
Okay, I really need to get back to the imporant task at hand. I’ve been buying sock yarn like crazy. I keep seeing deals and sales which I can’t ever seem to turn down and I am getting myself into so much trouble. All I do now is come home, get on the comp, check out if there are postings of great sales for sock yarn. Soooo sad, I know. What I really need to do is get back to my love of knitting. I have a few projects I want to finish up. Lots of socks in the making and yet all this time wasted by shopping for more sock. Ugh.
On a lighter note, I really like destashing posts that people have. I’ve never been able to get anything from the destashing but it’s always interesting to see what people have up. There’s a site I go to just about everyday to see what people have for sale and it’s pretty neat. It’s just a destash website on blogspot. Check it out : http://destash.blogspot.com . I’ve tried to get some stuff a few times but I’m too slow or others are just very fast at emailing the seller. ehhh who knows.
Anyways, all my yapping…I’ll make it worth your reading by adding some sock yarn p*rn. Here are some pics of Cherry Tree Hill yarns purchased from Trash and Treasure…
Colors from Left to Right:
Birches, Indian Summer, Misty Moor, Winterberry, Java, Wild Cherry, Loden, and Bark.
K…off to knit something…really, no more shopping…just window shopping. hehee
Hehehe, so I couldn’t pass up the Valentines sale at yarn4socks.com. I believe the sale was anything that had pink in it would be 20% off. Well, a few of the Fleece Artist sock yarns were on that list so of course I had to get some more. This sock yarn is so soft. I still have yet to knit some socks up with this yarn, but I thought I’d just get a few while the price is right.
Color (top to bottom): Cosmic Dawn, Parrot, Piñata
Some one-on-one pics:
I don’t know how much I like Cosmic Dawn, it has a lot of black in it. So I wonder how it’s gonna turn out.
Parrot, hmmm what can I say, it’s different than what I usually go for. Kind of calm a mellow with the lime green.
Piñata…ahh…This is a definite pleaser. It’s bright so that = Love. hehe
Oh, and some tidbits about Fleece Artist that I did not know and found out about from the knittyboard.com. I didn’t know that Fleece Artist sock yarns did not come pre-labeled. The store owners who purchase this yarn have to label the yarns themselves, so thanks to them, we actually have names to refer to. Also, the labels don’t have the yardage info on them either. The sweet ladies at yarn4socks.com included that with the names. Oh and on a side note, I forgot to mention that the service was really speedy. I placed my order on Friday and received my yarn goodies on Tuesday, so hurray for Priority shipping and great service.
Now for the +1 Noro
I have never used Noro Kureyon to knit socks with but have seen posts where people have. So along with the sale, I thought I’d go ahead and pick up a skein since it would put me at a bit over the $50 mark, so free shipping for me too. 
Well, it isn’t as soft as the fancy stuff, but I really like the colorway a lot. Bright and colorful. I only purchase one skein so I’m just gonna make me some footies. Yup, I’m in such a footies mood, most of my socks have been footies.
EEgaads…I am accumulating a bit too much sock yarn, especially since I’m starting to fancy the nicer ones. At this rate, I really need to slow it down. Bills come first, then of course yarn, then food, wait, I think I have it backwards, lol. Ugh and I have some Cherry Tree Hill coming soon too. Oh well, I can always destash a few months down the road.
I just had to use my yarn winder some more so here are my Trekking XXL 100 all nice and tidy. I bought two skeins thinking I could make matching socks, but even from the same lot, the colors are so different. So I’m gonna have to learn to love fraternal socks. Hmmm.
Ahhh, the BF socks, update… I still have yet to frog the first one, just can’t seem to make myself do it, just yet. Having the socks side by side, you can see the extra length I added on the second one, I’m liking it more. I also added a few more stitches to the foot to give it more room since the first one was too snug. Oh, and I don’t know if it’s noticeable, but I am not using the DP needles I originally started with. And why would that be? I broke another one. Ugh, so no spare, no nothing. I had to switch to my 7 inch Clovers. So Chiao Goo are not the needles for me. I love the length at 5 inches, but I could only seem to maybe finish a pair of socks and they are done with. The Clovers on the other hand seem sturdier, ehh, we’ll see how long they last.
This is an ankle sock (I’m so gonna start using “footies” it sounds so much more fun) I started for another coworker. She picked out the color, it’s Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multieffekt color 3020. I’m using needle size US1 fancy Colonial Rosewood DP needles. I really like them. Very smooth. I just hope I don’t break them like I have been breaking my bamboos.
I just wanted to post a pretty yarn pic. This is Claudia Hand Painted Yarns the color is Carousel. Purchased from Sheri at…….you guessed it The Loopy Ewe. I still don’t know what to do with it. So far I just snuggle and feel its softness.
I’m so excited I just had to post. I ordered my wool/yarn/ball (whatever you want to call it) winder from joanns.com and it came in today. Hurray!! I was so excited I had to take it for a test run and have been winding balls like crazy. At first when I took the winder out of the box it looked kind of cheapy and didn’t seem sturdy because of the plastic look. I was a tad worried since I did read some comments about the winder falling apart on people who just used it once. But oh what the heck, I just grabbed a whole bunch of skeins and went to town. End result…I love it!!!! It really is a decent piece for personal use, I don’t know how well it would last for commercial use, but for me, just perfect. Plus I only paid about $25 for it since I used the 50% off coupon.
Here’s the lovely machine…
Some winding pics of my Regia Sock yarn…I really love bright “clown barf” colors. LOL
This is one of my fave pics, I really like up close shots of the fiber and colors.
Plus it gives me a chance to practice taking better pictures.
I really love this yarn. I had been knitting with yarns such as Lana Grossa and Regia before I ever touched this magnificent work of art. The color is titled Las Vegas Lights and I bought it from The Loopy Ewe and boy o’ boy was it a good gamble. I had never touched this stuff before but someone had it posted on their website, not this color but the brand and of course I just had to try out some fancy yarn. This is amazingly soft to work with. It slipped through my fingers like butter. I only bought one skein because I just wanted to sample it but I knew I would be able to make ankle socks just for me from one. Now that I love it so much, I can’t wait for Sheri from The Loopy Ewe to get more back in stock.
I just wanted to throw a nice sock yarn pic in just for the heck of it. This was my first order of Lorna’s Laces and it is really soft as many people have praised it to be. I’m thinking of using Georgetown to make Cookies Pomatomus socks, but then again, who knows… Oh I just have sooo many sock ideas going on that its driving me crazy not having more than two hands.
Oh My Goodness!!! The UPS truck just delivered me some goodies… Wonderful BF sent me 2 dozen roses from an on-line company called proflowers. I knew he was getting me flowers but it’s always nice to receive gifts in the mail. Ofcourse I opened the box up and the flowers look all not so pretty but after reading the instructions it says to peel a few of the old petals off and in 8 hours the flowers will bloom. So I’ll be posting the not so great pics now and some pretty ones later on.
My box, hehehe I couldn’t wait to open it…
The fancy flowers. Obviously I can not arrange flowers whatsoever.
Finally the really best part of this was that my first order of Fleece Artist sock yarns came in too which was really exciting. I was hit with double gifts. Hurray!! I ordered these two beauties from LittleKnits. The green one is Forest and the othe one is Jester. Green is my favorite color so I couldn’t pass it up and you know how I love bright socks, so Jester hehe just looked and sounded perfect.
Oh they feel sooooo soft and cuddly… 
This was taken in natural light so it may be a tad brighter… 
Don’t forget to click on the images for a closer look
So…I know this is suppose to be the year of socks for me but I have been knitting up other items. I had purchased some decent acrylic yarn at Hobby Lobby (I know I can hear some ewwws out there at the thought of working with acrylic, but it really isn’t so bad. Especially when it doens’t leave a hole in my pocket. hehe) a few weeks back so I could teach another coworker how to knit. Anyways, I had no idea what to do with the yarn. I really liked it since I love bright rainbow colored items. But what to make with it? All I had was socks on my mind. I came across a real neto pattern from a poster who posted on knittinghelp.com forum. He had used it for his malabrigo yarn and the stitch looked really pretty and simple. The actual pattern comes from Scrunchable Scarf. It’s turning out pretty nice. Take a look…
Here are some stats:
Cast on 30sts
Yarn: Honey Bee Sweet Delight
Color : Crayons
Needle: Addi Turbo Circs US6
It’s pretty darn soft and the stiches are comming out pretty defined even though there are a lot of colors going on. I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. I hope my coworker likes it.
So, I’m sitting here, just debating with myself on what to do. The finished sock for the BF isn’t such a great fit. And I knew this. I knew the fit was a problem when he tried the sock on 2 months ago, but I thought hey, it will stretch. Well, as I’m working on the second sock I’m really fighting with myself over making it a better fit and frogging the first one so I can fix it up a bit. The main problem with the first one is the foot part being a bit snug so I really wouldn’t be frogging the whole sock. Ugh. I think I’m gonna just do it. that way atleast I’ll be somewhat happy with the end result. Then as I’m thinking I’ll frog, well heck I might as well add some more length to the leg part. Luckily I bought 3 balls to work with so I have a decent amount extra. It’s so sad but this will be the first sock I ever frogged. LOL that sounds so funny, yet soooo horribly sad. But I suppose it had to happen sometime.
Lol there you have me trying to photoshop stuff and doing a not so fantabulous job at it. Anyways, there are the plans. Just frog like crazy and make the leg longer. Ugh I hope all this doesn’t take me another month. I want these done!!! Grrr
Well, I’m currently working on socks for my BF and it really sucks. I have been working on them for what seems like forever since his feet are sooooooo much bigger than mine. Plus I’ve been naughty and doing ankle socks for myself during the whole process. Maybe that’s why its taken me soooo long. I think I started these socks at the begining of January or was it late December…ah…who knows. But I really want to finish them just so I can say they are done. I had never used Regia before so it was different than my usual Lana Grossa… Here’s my progress so far. Hopefully I’ll be done sometime this month.
So this is the one finished sock and its mate in the works. Nothing fancy just the basic sock pattern for a mens sock with a slip stitch heel.
Up close pic of the work in progress. I’m using Size 1 US (2.25mm) ChiaoGoo needles that are 5″ long. Pretty nice to work with. They bend a bit and I did break one of them. Luckily I fall under the use 4 dp needle cattegory so I had a spare…well…now I don’t anymore
Lol, me again with another quiz. I’m pretty bored, and these things are just silly fun. And my results are…
What kind of yarn are you?
You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with others, doing your share without being too weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely refuse to change your position once it is set, but that’s okay since you are good at covering up your mistakes.
Take this quiz!
So this is more sock yarn to add to my stash. Most of these yarns are just Trekking XXL. I have a few Lana Grossa, Regia, and Fortissima. This all came in one order. Pretty much I need to stop buying more sock yarn because I have way too much…or do I?
It seems that a lot of knitters out there are blogging and posting really interesting stuff about their knitting and the amazing things they are able to create. Me on the other hand, not so much of a superb knitter. Just a newbie trying to figure it all out. So here I am, jumping in and opening up. Technically, I’ve been meddling with the idea of knitting off and on for a year now. I picked it up again this past November and have decided that 2007 for me will be the year of Socks!! And boy did I jump in to something crazy. I’ve already accumulated a pretty nice size “stash” of sock yarn so the journey begins… I’ll be posting my collection shortly.
