March 28, 2011

The Sock Challenge

At he time of this writing, only 3 people have finished the first sock of the sock challenge.  Tracey finished first and she whipped through those socks like her needles were on fire!  And a great looking pair of socks they are. Yay! And congratulations T.


Then Joanne finished her socks which are being modeled by her daughter, Shakira.  With the hand painted yarn most socks are fraternal rather than identical twins, but the socks are bright and lovely, just in time for Spring.  Congratulations Joanne.


Also finished are Carol's socks which are as lovely and also fraternal twins:


The socks are warm and soft and lovely and being modeled by Carol herself.  Congratulations Carol, you did a great job on those socks!

The rest of the ladies are still on their first sock, but the pattern for the second sock is ready to go.  The ladies are working on the Little Acorn Socks by Joanna Ryan.  Unfortunately this pattern is in the archives and no longer being offered online, but it's a quick knit so there should be something to show you soon.

As for me, I finished one Kai Mei sock by Cookie A:


Don't look at it too closely because I might have used some creative license to make this sock (translated means I screwed up), but the second sock remarkably, has the same error in the same place. I'm remarkable that way.

Cookie A is all about the math and you know how I am with math!!  It's amazing I got  the sock done at all!  I can only count on fingers, and I screw up as soon as I get into the double digits, starting with the number 10. 

Maybe you didn't know this, but the World Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIPD) is June 11, 2011.  The knitting circle ladies and I have applied for a permit to have the event at Pelham Bay Park (South) in the Bronx, easily accessible by train, bus and car.  Details will follow as we get closer to the date.

I'll be back with pictures of my finished Kai Mei socks and pictures of the new sock as soon as possible.

March 01, 2011

One Thing At A Time

The first time I made Nutkin socks, they were a Christmas present for my sister.  I coveted them and swore I'd make a second pair for myself.  I tried.  The second pair of Nutkin socks went to my son, Jason.  I don't mind much that he has Madelinetosh Sock on his feet instead of mine or that he's enjoying wearing the socks (clean or dirty - ew!).  He loves them, and that's what matters.

I also made him a pair of socks with some Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn (mediumweight) with a pattern I made up.  He doesn't mind pink, or flowers, or mismatched socks - as long as they're handmade.

To make it up to myself that in two months I made two pairs of socks and they both went to my darling son, I decided to make myself a pair of socks - for real this time.  Wanida socks from Cookie A's Sock Innovation:
Yeah, about that.  I'm not having any problems understanding the pattern:


It's not Cookie's issue, it's mine.  Totally mine.  The pattern is written in English, a language I understand and use daily.  It's me.  I can read, I just don't always do it because I  know everything all the time.   Yeh, right.   That's why there's these:


Thanks Joanne!  The Madeleines are lovely with coffee.

Moving right along.  I made and scored some lovely new items just in case my to do list gets less than 200 items on it.  New books:

Think Outside the Socks has some patterns in it that have me drooling!

One of my co-workers went on a ski trip at Lake Placid and right there on the premises they had a yarn shop.  Imagine that!  She thought of me and bought me this:

Woo hoo!  Thank your Boriana!  It's real yarn and needles and they even included a free pattern with the yarn.  If I ever go skiing, I'm going to Liberty's Yarn Shop.  She's also on Etsy.

Joyce, my at work knitting buddy felt the urge to purge and I inherited a couple of goodies from her:

It's a pile of Trendsette yarn and a pair of fancy pants scissors (which I honestly needed!).  I can never find scissors and these are small enough to carry around in my knitting bag.  Woo hoo!  Thanks Joyce.  While I've never worked with ladder and ribbon yarn before I can't wait to get started.

And I also scored some Cascade Heritage sock yarn from Soujourn Knitter's personal stash.  Yay!  I have just the pattern for it:

That's Miss Kitty trying to model her 'foot' so she can get a sock out of the deal.  Hahaha!  Not likely!