Correction Quickie

So, it's been roughly a month since I wrote this post about how I love Ravelry and I weirdly just stumbled on the CORRECT yarn that I have. I had mistakenly written that the unlabelled yarn I have is MM Aloe sock yarn, it's actually S.R Kertzer On Your Toes 4 ply with Aloe Vera, and the colourway is called Blue Print.
And I don't know if I like it knitted up :/ This one might stay in deep stash...

Sock Talk.

I finished the first Wise Hilda's ribbed sock this morning. Took me exactly a week. I'm pretty pleased with that,  seems like a perfectly acceptable length of time to knit a sock. Or it did until someone asked me how long it took and when I told them that it took about a week they looked at me like "for a sock? really??" but was obviously too polite to say anything. She's not a knitter though, so I'm not going to let myself feel bad about how long it takes me to knit an item until a knitter looks at me with that same pitying scorn. And then of course, I will have to stab said person in the neck with my needles. (kidding!)

I do not think sock #2 will be finished in a week-I got a lot of that sock done in the car and unless I can convince M to drive me around for 4 hours over the weekend, the second one will probably take almost 2 weeks to complete.
 I finished it while watching the end of season 2 of The Killing. (Loved it, btw)

I'm a little concerned that I won't have enough yarn to finish the 2nd sock. I should be knitting this sock on smaller needles, but I didn't have 2.5mm dpns when I started the sock, and 2.25mm dpns seemed way too small for my feet. My first pair of socks were knit on 2.75mm dpns, and they had more sts, and are kind of baggy (tho not uncomfortable). These socks are ribbed, and with less sts so the fit is definitely better. I may do another pair of Wise Hilda's basic ribbed on the 2.5mmdpns to see how those fit before I start any fancy socks.

Some pictures from the sock when it was still a wip:

Part of the reason I waited so long to knit socks was because the whole concept of doing the heel seemed so intimidating! 3 socks in and it's my favourite part! I feel like a real bad-ass after successfully turning a heel. Plus, I like short rows.

Finished!

On foot!


I used the three needle bind off, instead of the grafted toe, because it's awesome and I love it.

Second sock has been cast on.

Now I need to brainstorm a reason for a long drive...

Wabi Sabi!

We went on an overnight trip to Ottawa, left Friday morning and spent the day at the museum of Science and Technology ( I love museums), Had the best milkshakes ever (Elgin st. Diner), swam in the pool at the Sheraton and the next morning after a big breakfast, we went to Wabi Sabi. Not all of us of course, M took the boys to the park, and A came with me. What a fantastic store! So friendly and warm inside and full of lovely, lovely yarns and other nifty things! Buckets of roving and spinning wheels, buttons, needles. And very nice ladies working inside :) I did purchase a couple of things.

 3 hanks of yarn: 

Kargil by Couleurs Mouton  in Girolle (which is french for Chanterelle. I think. I had to google it.). Made from 80% superwash merino / 10% cashmere / 10% nylon-So you know those socks are going to feel daaaamn fine on your tootsies.

 

 Huh, strange... I bought an artisanal yarn made in Quebec, in Ottawa. But have never bought Qc yarn in Qc. Though, to be fair, I've never seen Couleurs Mouton in the local yarn stores I've been to.

And this pretty thing is  Manos Del Uruguay Alegria in Olive.

 This yarn is 75% superwash merino wool and 25% polyamide. Nifty fact about Manos Del Uruguay-it's a non-profit organization that helps rural women! Neato! 

And finally, in this luxurious 85% Merino Superwash Wool, 15% Mulberry Silk: Cascade Heritage Silk Paints in Celtic (discontinued)
Urgh, I need to sticky roll my chair-that's a lot of cat hair.

I looked this yarn up, and bloody hell! Gorgeous yarns! How have I not seen these before?  Water Lilies is stunning and moving to the top of my wish list, followed by Shadows and Deep Water. 

And finally, I picked up some Chiagoo us1.5 (2.5mm) dpns. The one size I was missing, is missing no longer!

 

I didn't get much knitting done while I was actually in Ottawa (obviously) but I did knit while M drove. Not the whole time. I like being a passenger on long car rides, watching the scenery go by, keeping M company while he drives and stopping B from hassling his older siblings. B doesn't do well in cars for long periods of time, nor does C, yay motion sickness. I dosed them both with Gravol and was expecting B, at least, to pass out but that never happened. Instead he was a giant pain in the ass. Oh well, at least he didn't puke. And at least I had knitting to calm my irritated nerves. I had cast on Wise Hilda's basic ribbed sock on Thursday, and knit about three rows. I got about 2" done in the car on the way there, and about 3.5" on the way home.The kids have Monday and Tuesday off so who knows how much knitting I'll manage in that time. Probably not much, But I will make sure to ball up the Cascade Heritage Silk Paints, I don't want it to get tangled.

Almost 6" of sock done!

And now for a nice, hot bubblebath.

FO socks!

I have finished my first ever pair of socks!!!

I lurve them. They look good, and feel so cozy. I can see why there are people out there who knit nothing but socks.



Before I had even finished the socks, I was searching for another pattern for my next pair. Next up: Wise Hilda's basic ribbed sock. (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-ribbed-socks) I'm going to do them in the  Manos Artesanas Camino Color (in Porto) that I had in my stash.

Pretty!

Until I started unwinding it.

It took me roughly 3 hours to untangle the mess.  When I wind a skein or hank into a ball, I set myself up in front of the tv. I hang the hank over the top of one of my kitchen chairs and start winding it up. It's not fancy, but it generally works pretty well (I'll take picture next time). This time, not so much. I'm not sure if it was human error or the yarn got funky 3/4 of the way in-I was quite sucked into season 2 of The Killing. I ended up having to cut out the worst knot. I was then able to untangle the rest of the mess. I think the main ball will be enough for the pair of socks, but if not, joining the little ball is not a big deal.



I have 4 balls of sock yarn in my stash, all very inexpensive; except for the Araucania Ranco Multi, but I bought that with a gift certificate back before I knew what I was doing, I didn't even realize it was sock yarn at the time, I just fell in love with it. So being under the impression that most sock yarn is inexpensive, I perused a couple of online stores to see what is available. I am now coveting very expensive sock yarn. Blue Ridge Yarns Footlights in Blue Lagoon and Mossy Hollow. Malabrigo sock in ALL THE COLOURS!! (but especially Ochre,  Eggplant, Aguas,  Chocolate Amargo). Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in Botanical, Riptide, Rockwater,  (oh hell, they're all lovely, I'll take any of them). 

Gawd, I love the names of these yarns.

Mitten surgery.

The second pair of adult sized mittens I ever made were called Sapphire Heather Mittens aka my heucheras (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sapphire-heather-mittens). I made them last spring because I had a skein of Madtosh vintage in Heuchera-a gorgeous colour that I wanted for an accessory of some sort but would never actually wear in a sweater. Therefore, mittens.

I knit them, following the pattern to a t-and they came out nice, except the thumbs were too short. I  barely ever wore them though, they aren't as warm as the mitts I have made from Malabrigo worsted and Swish bulky.

This week, the weather has finally started to warm up (but still chilly enough for light mittens)
 so I pulled out my Heucheras. Wearing them for a couple of days made me notice how irritating the tiny thumbs are.

Stubby thumbs needed fixing. I didn't really plan ahead, or look at the pattern except to find out the size of needles I used.  As I needed them done in under an hour so I could pick up B from school, it was a bit of a rush job. Normal people would just grab another pair of mittens and save the project for when they have time to really focus. That is not how I work. On anything. Ever.  Getting the thumbs undone wasn't easy. I had weaved in the ends pretty well, and didn't want to cut and hope for the best. In the end though, frustrated, I did just randomly cut and it turned out okay. I think.

I picked up 10 stitches, and knit in the round until I was satisfied with the length. Stitched it all up, and voila! No more stubby thumb. Grabbed mitten #2 and repeat. They're not as pretty as they were, but they fit better and now I like them a whole lot more! It didn't take very long to fix them, I had plenty of time to knit, take pictures and pick up B at school. Goooo me!

Other wips are still wips-I just got to the heel flap on sock #2 and I have about 4 inches to go on the back of Cypress before shaping the neck. Yay! That's really not a lot...after the neck shaping is done there will be much seaming and then the dreaded picking up stitches for the ribbing. This sweater isn't going to be finished until June-and then I won't even be able to wear it. meh.

FO post!

I finished the first sock this morning! I am pretty pleased with it, though size 2 needles may be a little big, especially for a bamboo yarn. But whatever, it's squooshy and feels so very lovely on.

It was a fairly simple knit, heel flap went smoothly.  I turned the heel without any issues. I've picked up stitches before, so I wasn't too concerned about knitting the gusset until I realized I had several rounds of garter stitch. ugh. I frogged back and read that part of the pattern carefully; then picked up stitches from the back loop like I was supposed to, and voila! no garter, all stockinette. Gusset decreasing was easy.then it was on to the foot. Pretty straightforward, all stockinette until toe decreases. When I got to the toe decreases, I put the sock down and watched a couple of youtube videos showing how to do the three needle bind off. I practiced that bind off with my pink practice sock and I love it! It leaves such a nice edge! Went back to my sock, finished the decreases, put my stitches on holders so I could turn the sock inside out and did a perfect three needle bind off.  

 Just knitting.

 Working the heel...like a boss. HA!

Here you can see the dreaded purl bumps! Curse you!

Fixed it!

And then it was super long foot knitting that turned into an actual sock!

I'm pleased, and I think I'll be able to do another sock. I was worried I'd not want to knit another one right away because borrrringggg, but I definitely want to get another sock going! I want to have this sock finished as fast as possible so I can wear them! But I also want to use that gorgeous Araucania Ranco Multy I bought years ago when I had no idea what I was doing. I've also been coveting madtosh sock yarn and malabrigo sock yarn. I want to buy new yarn, but I cannot justify it. I also want new needles. I have 2 sets of cheap bamboo needles and they're okay, but I really like my Knitter's Pride dpns. I don't have any of the KP dpns in sock sizes, but WEBS carries a set  ( http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitters-pride-double-pointed-knitting-needles/knitters-pride-dreamz-double-pointed-needle-sets/) and I WANT. Really reasonably priced, but I still can't justify it, not when I own two sets of bamboo needles (though I am missing some sizes that the KP set has...stahp). Also, having just found out my mastercard had some false charges and was canceled, I'm without a credit card and cannot order the needles anyway :/ meh.

In non-knitting news; my right eye is still hurting. Back story? Sure, this morning in the shower I was washing my hair. I was using the Seanik solid shampoo bar by Lush and managed to get some in my eye. It was fucking awful. The burning...oh god the burning. I flushed out my eye for 10 minutes or so, moaning and groaning in pain the whole time. Out of the shower, my eye was swollen and red. The swelling subsided after several hours, but my eye is still red (over 12hrs later)and irritated. No knitting for me tonight :(