More yarn and more socks..kinda

Well the last of the yarn arrived. i bought some yarn from a fellow blogger Becca. She is moving and destashing and as a fellow knitter I just had to help her out. =)

This is Claudia Hand Painted Yarns from Louet. Short sport 100% merino in Color John B.



This is closer to the real color



This is my first time seeing this yarn. It is soft and very very squishy. Me like. Me want more.

This is from The Yarn Tart I can not remember what the color is. I think it is Thistle.



The Noro socks were going to be my mindless knitting that I do while making dinner or while the kids are doing their home work, but that changed. I was looking at my New Pathways book and I was reading about the Milkmaid Stocking and thought to myself " Hey I have the same number on my Noro socks and I have enough Noro to make these". So Noro is not mindless anymore. Noro has become Milkmaid Noro. Progress is only about another inch and now that I have to follow a chart they mightbecome The Slow Milkmaid Noro Socks.



So now I need a mindless sock. Enter (drum roll) ......Mindless John B. It really happened by accident. I was sitting there while the last batch of yarn was sitting there and well since Becca had already had one of the Claudia hanks balled up I figured it was fate. So I grabbed the needle off my Mommy's socks (do not worry Mommy i will finish as soon as I dig out that other ball this weekend) and started. Mindless John B will be toe up so I can use all of the yarn. At only 112 yards per hank these will be anklets (just the way I like my socks)



This was done while watching the last half of MythBusters.

=)

More Yarn P0rn!

Well yesterday I got another package of yarn! But first updates!

Mom's second Dove sock is now a few rows pass the heel. Guess what happened? The d%mn cable popped out on this cable while I was decreasing. This is the second of the first set. Come on Knitpicks do you really make them this crappy or am I just lucky to receive the set that both cables were defective? I managed to push the cable back into the metal piece and it stayed. I didn't switch the cable for one of the newer ones yet but I will when I start knitting on it again (after I go stash diving to find the other ball - you think I would learn by now to get all the yarn I need.)



Here is the Noro cake



here is my sock so far



I can see how this yarn can be addicting with the whole " I'll keep going until I get to the next color" thing cause that is what happened so far. =)

Okay here is my Socks That Rock

The first one is Scottish Highlands in heavyweight





here is Rook-y in medium weight from the raven series



with flash to try to show the pink,green and blue



I have been petting these 2 skeins alot (I have them sitting right next to my iBook) and I want to knit them now!!! The Rook-y most likely will become Bellatrix by Momma Monkey as a thank you and as a memorial to a great sock designer (in case if you didn't know Momma Monkey lost her battle with lupus a few weeks ago. She was the person behind Socktopia and a brilliant designer) She will be missed.

=)

That was fast!!

I received the cables today!!! That was way fast. (How come yarn doesn't arrive that fast?) Anyway I should be on my way soon. I am a little slow because once again I am sick. Why yes this is getting really annoying!! I was told today that when I reach my dosage (which should be where I am at right now hopefully) and then wait a while for my immune system to even out, I won't be getting sick every week. This time it is not bronchitis it is strep. Most of the weekend I thought it was just the side effect kicking my butt, but last night I could not swallow without pain. My problem will be is that until everything gets use to the drug I will be getting sick and quickly (and that is going to be fun with 3 kiddies around huh?)

Anyway, on to the good news. I received my shipment from Webs. So lets bring on the yarn p0rn!! (it always makes me feel better)



This is Artyarns Supermerino 4 in colorway 123 (my favorite). Supermerino 4 is like a sport weight/DK. It suggests size 4 needle. Oh as a little side note i am now using Flickr for my pictures so feel free to click on them to see a bigger picture

Next up is Artyarns Handpaint Stripes in 2 different colorways. 123 and 108. This is worsted weight and this lovely 123 will become a matching hat to my cabled wristwarmers. 108 I am not sure, but most likely something for the girls.



108



123

Lastly is something new to me. Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I have heard much about this stuff (going both ways) and when I ordered the yarn it looked blah and I was thinking to myself why am I ordering this stuff?



This is what it looked like on the website. Well I bought it anyway. I have heard tons about how the coloring of Noro is to die for and some people would be happy to just knit with Noro for the rest of their lives. So basically I crossed my fingers.


This is the side view. Now I was getting happy. After picture taking was done I wound it up on the trusty ol ball winder and boy I am happy. I think the reason why this was the only colorway left was because of that blah picture. Works for me. Next time I will show you the cake picture, very pretty.

Yes I started knitting it too! It did feel very rough while I was winding it, but the knitted part feels softer. I have also read that when you wash it the yarn blooms kinda like linen and becomes much softer.

Well That is what is going on over here. I am sick and now I have lots of yarn (between webs and my dying and more still to come) and no energy to knit it. Figures right?

=)

One sock and then a problem

Well it took less then 20 minutes to finish the one sock.

Pattern: Dove socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways For Sock Knitters
Yarn:Calzetterina
color: Milan
needle: size 4 40 inch magic loop
For: My mommy (whose foot is a lot smaller then mine hence why my foot is squished into it)





While I was biding off, one of the worst things happened.



The cable came out of the metal screw piece. Of course I tried to put it back in and well it just fell back out. I called Knitpicks and they are sending a replacement. Which is fine and dandy but it will be here in 5-14 days. So I went hunting for the other 40 inch cable (had to switch it with another cable) and know I am more then half way up the foot.

Cute puppy pic:

In the month we have had her she has gain 5 lbs!!



Next time I will have the yarn I ordered form Webs!!

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

Yeah we had snow!!!! It was wonderful. We got about 6 and a half inches of fluffy-ness until it started raining!!! So right now it is more slush then snow. The kiddies wanted to go out and play (me too!!) and I told then after lunch. Bad move. Oh well at least wee got to see snow this year. Can we have more please (but without the rain, ok?)

Ta Da

They are dry and the sun was out so I got some really nice pictures. This is what I spent the past weekend doing: Dying yarn. I had fun and just played around and granted some did not come out how I pictured but I love how they all came out.

First up is 2 hanks of dk weight yarn.
This one was done in the mircowave. Yellow on one side and blue on the other makes green in the middle.





This is the other DK one. The dye bath was dark purple. The red I was using seems to soak up really really quickly so by the time it got to the middle it was mostly blue. It looks like tie dye and I love this one. This was a "Happy accident".





Next up is fingering weight yarn.

This was done on the stove too. Different purple mix and I just placed the yarn in and swirled it just a little. I usually do not move the yarn much in the pot. I like the molted colors that come out this way.





This next one was also done on the stove. I left this one a little longer then usual and well the water slightly boiled and the color is more uniform. There are variations in color, they are just more subtle.





This one was done in the mircowave. Blue to green.




This last one was done with leftover dye. I added black to mute out the brightness but still show the color (totally inspired by the raven series from Socks that Rock) The bottom is green then it goes into blue then red. The red again was absored real quick and left the black dye behind. I have no clue why or how. I like how it turned out very much.




Well that is what I did. I kinda got back my mojo. I started socks yesterday for my mommy using the New Pathways book and well shortly (like in about 20 after i get off the computer) I will have 1 sock done. My mommy also came over today for a visit and she tried it on and it fits great. Yes I was totally wondering how the heck it was going to fit correctly while I was knitting it. I should just trust Mrs.Bordhi and from now on I will.

What to do....

When I have knitted my butt off in the past week to finish The Stepson's Blanket (which he loves) and really really do not feel like knitting? I know sounds impossible right?, But I went to get blood work done this morning and did not bring any knitting!! I think part of it has to do with being so tired and right now I have a huge headache (not a migrain thank goodness!)

So what did I do? First off I pulled out the beads again and made another 4 sets of stitch markers. I am sorry about the picture. It was late and the batteries were going.



They other thing I did, well they are still drying, I am hoping tomorrow I will be able to blog about them. I also did a little yarn shopping. I was very good and did not harass the mailman today, though I am not sure about tomorrow.

=)

It Is DONE!!!!!

Yes I am talking about my darling Stepson's Blanket. Last I left you it was drying. When I pulled it out of the dryer I was amazed how soft it became. I used acrylic (Caron's Perfect Match) and well I did not like knitting with it. To me it was rough and well I am really really glad it softened.

I did not have the strength to put the border on that I was talking about last time. While I was avoiding the blanket, I mean looking for ideas (and catching up on blogs) I read Mason Dixon and well applied i-cord edging seem a very good idea indeed.

So that is what I did on all night wednesday and thursday. I have never i-corded so much before in my life. It got to the point that I was not even looking at how much more I had to do because it was way too depressing. I hope this boy realizes how much he means to me for me to torture myself for him. Anyway it cam out really nice. I like the applied i-cord (though do not count on me doing it anywhere anytime soon, I have had my fill for a long while) and then on saturday (I take my meds on friday and that knocke me out and makes me loopy, not a good idea to use a sewing machine) I sewed on the backing.

Here is a finished pic. I have to take more to show the backing and border (I was really tired saturday night and well Stepson took it as soon as I snapped this one.



I also finished those baby socks. They are so cute!!

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish in Deep Ocean (leftover from Nephew's christmas gifts)
Needle: size 6 40 inch circ Magic Loop
Time: really about 2 hours (with kiddies around)
Cuteness: come on they are baby socks =)
pattern: Cat Bordhi's Little Sky Socks (from New Pathways book)



In other knitting news I am finally at the heel on my monkey sock. I still have not hat the Knitting Fairies come and visit me yet and well I do believe that these socks are taking forever (of course it might help if I actually knit them every so often)

=)

Socks

As I am typing The Stepson Blanket is in the dryer drying so I can put the border on it when it is dry. It needed to be washed. Last night while I was finishing all of the sewing Snickers tried to help (ALOT!!!!) I know The Stepson likes Snickers but I do not think he wants her slobber all over his blanket.

So here is the quick project. I self taught myself Magic Loop (which makes knitting in the round quick) I did the first baby sock in the book Little Sky Sock. The whole time I was knitting this sock I said to myself a number of times "How is this going to be a sock?" and at the end it was a sock!! I really like this whole sock construction in a totally different way. I really want to make all of them.



I also have made a little progress on my Toe-Up, No Purl, Chart Upside Down Monkeys. I switched to 2 circs and it is going faster (If only my RA would cooperate I could have a pair of socks!!)



I am close to the heel.

Yes little to show so I thought well what about cute puppy pics. Sounds good but well she is getting as bad as the kids with trying to get a good picture.


Please?!



Nope



Almost!



Finally!!!!

I have to go check the dryer now, I have a border to knit on!!

Look at what I made

Well the Stepson is here this weekend so what am I suppose to do with him around? Not work on his blanket. Ok no problem there are lots of things I could work on. The thing is that well it is just today that I can not work on it, tomorrow when he goes home it is back to the blanket. I am almost done with number 12 then I get to sew it together. I am hoping to get the starting the border by the end of tomorrow.

Anyway I needed something short and sweet. I have the new Cat Bordhi book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters" and well all the trial socks are baby socks. Short and sweet. The thing is that you need stitch markers marked A,B,C, and D. I do not have anything like this. So what am I to do? There are plenty of beautiful stitch markers on Etsy and other online stores but problem a) I need them now and b) I can not see spending up to $20 for stitch markers that I could easily make.

Years ago I use to do a ton of beading and I still have a good amount of the stuff left in one of those plastic shoe boxes. So I pulled it out and got to work (after I raided the Daughter's beads for alpha beads)

Here are the results. (I seriously have to try to take better pictures)



Then I was like 'wow that was quick and easy I think I will do some more'

Here are some green ones


Here are some what I think are Chinese characters ones:


These look kinda like eye balls but they are really swirls:


Last but not least I have for ya these stones wrapped in gold wire ones:



Not bad for an hour huh? I also of course went thru my beads and organized them so that took about another hour. I have this really big urge to run out and buy more beads. Though really I would like to get some different alpha beads and make another set.

Well I am off to try one of those socks!!!
(I am not mentioning my health since well I do not want to jinx anything)

=)