I have been so busy lately. I’ve been searching for a job and Paul sold his car so we found a new one and put a down payment on it. It has to be in my name (hey, I own two cars now!) because Paul doesn’t have a GA driver’s license (getting one today, though), so we thought it’d be easier to put the loan in my name, too. That has been a headache. Whatever. We’re almost past it, and I have a job now (starting next week, I think), so a little less to be anxious about. And less money to buy yarn with. But more when I’m making some!

I finished the Jaywalker I’ve been working on (but only one. The pair will come after I finish the second Breeze sock for Mom). Isn’t it nice?

It puckers some around the ankle/top of foot, which I don’t like, but I guess that’s just the nature of the pattern. I really love the yarn (STR) and the pattern was fun and put some nice zig-zagging, jaywalking lines on the sock

For the past few days, I’ve been putting all of my efforts into the Log Cabin blanket. Right now, it’s 20″ x 19″. I want it to be at least 3 times that size, but probably closer to 4 or 5 times that size. So I’ve got a lot of work to do! It’s pretty mindless, though, so good for movies.

That’s it for now. I’ve got to knit like a crazy person for the next week or so, until I start work… then I won’t have as much time! Oh, and only about 350 people in front of me until I get a Ravelry invite! I’m very excited. Should come at the end of this week!!

I’ve finished the Monkey Socks!

Pattern: Monkey from Knitty
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Lakeview, purchased from The Loopy Ewe
Needles: 2.75mm Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs for the ribbing and first two repeats, 2.5mm Brittany birch DPNs for the next two repeats, and 2.25mm Brittany birch DPNs for the last two repeats on the leg and the rest of the sock
Time to knit: First sock started July 19, 2007 and finished August 2, 2007 and the second sock started August 7, 2007 and finished August 10, 2007
Places knitted: My apartment, the hotel in Blairsville, GA, and perhaps a few times in the car

They look just fabulous, if I do say so myself I will definitely make another pair in the future… I love knitting the pattern and I love the finished look. Next time I might try a different type of heel. I’m so proud to have finished my second pair of socks and my first lace socks! I entered these in the Q3 Challenge at The Loopy Ewe

Of course I have cast on for some new socks. I didn’t like this pattern at first, but now I’m loving it. I’m knitting Jaywalkers! Aren’t they pretty so far?

I like the colors, too, which are lining up quite nicely on the sock. It’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Foofaraw. I tried to do the Uptown Boot Socks from Favorite Socks with this yarn, but it was pooling something awful. I’m glad I switched. I’m farther along now; I’ve turned the heel and everything, but I’ve got to get Paul to charge the camera (I’m not sure where he’s hidden the charger) before I can take a more updated picture. I’ve also done some more on the log cabin blanket… someday I’ll put pics up for that, too

Oh, and for the record, less than 1000 people in front of me before I get an invite to Ravelry! I’ve already uploaded the stash and projects and everything to Flickr, so I’m all ready. Hopefully the invite will be here next week!

More knitting has been done! On Sunday, while trying to keep my mind off food because it was Fast Sunday, I finished a dishcloth I started for myself before vacation. Isn’t it pretty?

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth from MDK and the ballband on PnC

Yarn: Peaches ‘n Cream in white and peppercorn ombre

Needles: Size 7 KnitPicks circular

Time to knit: Started sometime in mid-July… I forget exactly when, and finished August 5, 2007

Places knitted: My apartment and the beach and pool in Myrtle Beach

Here it is in action on my faucet!

Of course I’m knitting socks, too.

A finished Monkey sock! The other is being cast on as we speak.

They fit great and I love the pattern. I really love the square-ish toe on this sock, too.

Before handknit socks become socks, though, they begin as yarn. And this is how the second Monkey sock began:

Lorna’s Laces Spaghetti. No, that’s not the colorway… it’s what the yarn looks like in this picture! WHAT a pain to untangle. I told Paul he needs to make me a swift this weekend. He didn’t sound too enthused, but as evidenced by this, I really need one!

Even though this doesn’t look like I’ve made any progress, this is Lorna’s Laces Spaghetti in it’s untangled version. All ready to be wound on the ball winder.

And now it’s ready to make the second sock… finally! It was a 2.5 hour journey to get to this point!

And some eye candy:

I went shopping today! I bought two skeins of Cascade 220 for a hat for Dad for Christmas (and maybe Jimmy for his birthday), 9 skeins of Hempathy for the Hip in Hemp skirt from Knitty, and since I couldn’t resist, 2 skeins of Claudia Handpainted in blue terra cotta. It was too gorgeous to leave at the shop! I also bought some needles for the hat: Brittany birch in size 6. That was all from Knitch, a LYS in Atlanta that I really like. The Favorite Socks book was purchased at Borders (I had a coupon!). I LOVE the socks in that book!

Today was a good day

It’s been a while since I’ve written about it, but I have been knitting!! There’s proof in pictures!

I started the Hedera sock from Knitty, which was supposed to be for Mom for Christmas (I thought it a good idea to get started early). I was worried that it was a little too small since it was my first time using US size 1 DPNs. Turns out it kind of was (my calves are bigger than my mom’s, but I think it still would have been small on her, even though they technically “fit” due to the stretch of the lace). But that, unfortunately, was not the biggest problem I had with that sock, as evidenced here:

My brand-new Lantern Moon DPNs broke! TWO of them! One of them broke when I leaned over my knitting bag in the airport on the way to Puerto Rico (bad timing, huh?), and the other one broke on my second-to-last day in Puerto Rico when I tried the sock on. The first time no stitches dropped, but the second time I lost about 5 or 6. Since I don’t know how to pick up lace when stitches are dropped, I just frogged it. I was kind of angry about the needles breaking ($20 down the drain!) and my gauge being all wrong, so I quit hedera and decided to start these for mom:

They’re Breeze socks, also from Knitty… the newest issue, no less. I’ve actually finished the first sock, a couple of weeks ago, but I had to take a break from the second sock because I couldn’t take it on vacation to Myrtle Beach for fear Mom would see them. I’ll show finished pictures when the second one is done.

Never fear that I’m only knitting socks! Look:

I got Mason-Dixon Knitting from the library and started my first ball-band dishcloth with some Peaches ‘n Cream.

Here’s the first finished one. And the start of the second:

The second happens to be the inverse of the first.

They were quick knits and I’ve finished both. They’re for Kim for a wedding present. She gets married August 10th.

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth from MDK and the ballband (hence the name) on PnC

Yarn: Peaches ‘n Cream in white and shades of green (I think)

Needles: Size 7 KnitPicks circular

Time to knit: Started and finished the one with MC green on July 9, 2007 (I think) and started the one with MC white July 10, 2007 and finished July 11, 2007

Places knitted: My apartment

And for the end of the pictures of works in progress…

I started the Log Cabin Blanket featured in MDK. It’s not perfect because I’m not great at picking up stitches, which is essential in this type of knitting, but it looks pretty good.

I’m knitting it up in Caron Simply Soft in a variety of colors. I’m going to do the warm/cool contrast on each side, with all these colors:

It should be a really nice blanket when I’m finished! And, should we get pregnant any time soon, I’ll make it a little smaller and it’ll be our baby’s first blanket

Non-pictured (at the current time) items I’m knitting include some toe-up socks (my first!) in Trekking XXL and Monkey socks in Lorna’s Laces, as well as another dishcloth for myself.

I finished the Saturday Market Bag! This is perfect timing as I was hoping to use it at the beach for my family vacation at the end of July, but then Paul and I decided to go to Puerto Rico next week, so I wanted it for that, too. I also leave Friday for Portland for Paul’s brother’s wedding, and I think this bag will be nice to stuff my smaller bags into to make my one “personal item.” That way I can cheat and take more stuff

Anyway, this project went well. It was pretty simple, except the seaming threw me for a loop at first. I’ve never seamed anything before, so having lace be my first seaming project was a bit of a challenge. I ended up using a whipstitch-type deal to do it. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than I was expecting!

Here’s a picture of the bag all finished:

And here it is with four rather large books in it, to show it’s stretching capabilities. I’m very pleased with it’s stretchiness!

Pattern: Saturday Market Bag with this variation

Yarn: Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream, color Rose, 100% cotton, worsted weight, less than one skein, and something like $4

Needles: Boye aluminum, size 15 (10mm) straights and KnitPicks Options, size 10 (6mm)

Time to knit: Started June 13, 2007 and finished June 27, 2007

Places knitted: It was all done from the comfort of my apartment!I’ve also been working on my second pair of socks. I’m using Knitty’s Hedera pattern and the Cherry Tree Hill turquoise yarn I just got. I really like them so far. They’re for Mom for Christmas. This is the first sock, and I’ve done the whole cuff and a little bit of the heel flap. It’s going well so far and will be a great project to take to Portland and Puerto Rico, especially since I’ve heard there have been problems with taking metal needles through airport security, and the only non-metal ones I have are DPNs!

Finally, I cast on yesterday for the Peppermint Twist sweater from the first Stitch ‘n Bitch book. I’m using KnitPicks Shine Sport and I’ve got about an inch of ribbing done, so there’s a lot more to go!! This will be my first sweater so I’m excited. It’ll probably take forever though!

Hopefully I’ll finish those socks over my vacation and make some progress on the sweater when I’m home!

My order from The Loopy Ewe arrived today! I ordered it on Monday around 1pm and it was delivered to my mailbox about 4pm today, Wednesday. Now that’s quick shipping!

Here’s everything I got:

And, specifically:
Cherry Tree Hill in Turquoise (for some socks for Mom for Christmas)

Cherry Tree Hill in Sugar Maple

Lorna’s Laces in Lakeview (SO much prettier in person!)

Stone Barn Fibers in Ice Cream Sundae (my favorite!)

The pictures aren’t great, but they’re roughly true to color (other than the turquoise, it’s brighter and prettier). I got the little Loopy Ewe postcard to take on vacation with me (I have two vacations this summer! Which is nice, since I had zero last year), some needle inventory cards, and little samples of some other yarn (one of which I’m totally in love with).

Paul already about had a heart attack (Kristin: “I spent about $150 on yarn today” & Paul: “HOW much?”) when I told him I bought all this (and some other stuff which hasn’t gotten here yet). I wonder if he really would die if I bought more…… it’s probably not worth it

I’m definitely casting on for some socks tonight. I’m so excited! I love this yarn! And I will totally order from The Loopy Ewe again… probably sooner than later.

I finished knitting my first pair of socks ever!!! I am so, so proud. And I totally loved it. I guess I’m a real sock knitter now (especially since I spent $79 on 6 hanks of scrumptious sock yarn from The Loopy Ewe today!).

They’re not perfect. Some stitches aren’t quite right…

and the self-striping didn’t quite match up…

but they fit great! (even though the second one is a tiny, tiny bit smaller than the first)

Oh, and they’re super comfy

Pattern: Silver’s Sock Class

Yarn: Trekking XXL in color 134, sock/fingering weight, about 3/4 of the skein, and I think the whole skein was about $15

Needles: 4 Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, US size 2 (2.75mm)

Time to knit: Started the first sock at the end of July 2006 and finished June 11, 2007, and I started the second sock June 12, 2007 and finished June 18, 2007. Total time about 10.5 months, but the second sock was only 6 days!

Places knitted: In the Salt Lake airport, on the runway on the plane in the Des Moines airport, in the Chicago airport while I was spending the night, in Kentucky, in my apartment in Salt Lake, in my apartment in Atlanta, at work in Atlanta, at Chastain Park with the kids in Atlanta… and probably some more places, but this is all I remember

I can’t wait to get my new sock yarn in the mail and start on some new socks. It should come Wednesday or so. I’ve got plans for some lace socks for Mom and some knee socks for my sister for Christmas gifts… figured I should get started early since I’m so excited! Until then, I have the Saturday Market Bag to work on.

I’ve been keeping myself busy with knitting since Paul has been in Dallas, school is between quarters, and the people I was nannying for moved.

First, I finished my first sock ever on Monday:

Then, I cast on for the next sock on Tuesday (it’s not blurry in real life):

I’m using this yarn for the socks. It’s Trekking XXL in color 134. I loved it when I bought it (nearly a year ago!), but that love grew when I saw a completed sock in it.

Aside from socks, I finished the One Row Handspun Scarf from the Yarn Harlot, except mine is totally not from handspun yarn. And I might have done the knit in the back stitch wrong. But that’s okay because I still like it!

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf
Yarn: Red Heart’s TLC Essentials in Island, 100% acrylic (soft, washable, and cheap!), worsted weight, 1.25 skeins or so, cost was probably less than $5 but I don’t remember exactly
Needles: Knitpicks Options (I used circular but obviously didn’t knit in the round), US 8
Size: Scarf length is about 62″, give or take, and the width is about 4″
Time to knit: Started this in October 2006, finished June 12, 2007. Yeah it took forever but in my defense, during that time, I was a full time student, had either a part time or full time job, planned a wedding, got married, and moved across the country.
Places knitted: In the car before work in Utah, during class (like Family Economics) at the U, in my apartment in Salt Lake, in my apartment in Atlanta, at Chastain Park with the kids at work in Atlanta… and probably a few other places

And finally, I cast on for the Saturday Market Bag last night, with a variation I found on the web that I like better. I couldn’t figure out how to get the lace to work right at first as I’ve never knit lace before, but I finally got it on the third try. I’ve done two of the lace repeats (so hardly nothing) but it’s looking good so far! I don’t really like the huge needles as they get in my way, but I do like how the big lacy pattern looks.

That’s it for now! I hope to finish the second sock soon, and make more progress on the market bag. If I don’t get them done soon, school will start again and I’ll have significantly less time.