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Delightfully witchy socks.
Kinda of makes me long for ruby slippers.
The yarn is Lovesticks Frankensock from The Sweet Sheep Self-Striping Sock Club.
I was a bit disappointed when I first opened the package at the garish colors. How could I have been so foolish! These are my favorite socks ever.
Knit toe-up on size 2.25 mm needles. Short row heel. Picot point bind off. And I'm as pleased as punch :-)
And I also just made it in time for the Sock a Month Knit-Along. Whew!
This battle I won. Fiona had a little chat with her dad this morning about how she wanted to play in the snow. "and dad, I'll wear pants, too." she says. She had a great old time playing/yelling at Jarvis. I think she lasted about 45 minutes before she decided it was too cold and wet.
This hat though, is a great big loser. Even on Simon it doesn't do much for me. It looks so cute on the model in the magazine and browsing Ravelry I never saw an ugly one, but on me it does NOT look cute. I think my head is too big, and this hat just adds pounds and pounds to my forehead that I don't want there. Sigh. I will rip and make Lochschal instead.
I'm going to go with the Best Friend Cardigan. I'm worried I will end up looking fat and frumpy, but I did find a Debbie Bliss Cable Blanket that I like so if the cardigan is a failure than the cat will end up a winner.
Also, I've finished my socks for the Sock-a-Month Knitalong, but I forgot to shave my legs, so lets do pictures of those tomorrow :-)
We have been given an awful lot of snow over the past few days. Here is a picture I took from my bedroom window. A few days ago the ground was bare!
My husband took this picture of himself and the snow on the back deck. I love him, but he's weird.
Fiona brought her boots to me this morning and says "I want to go outside mum, it will be fun." I told her that was fine but she needed to put on some pants first. Did I mention she was naked? She then insisted that just boots and hat was all that would be needed. Although I don't want to squelch my tender young children and their desire to get out and commune with nature, I had to be firm, no nude toddlers in the snow, even with hat and boots on.
She threw herself on the floor and screamed the rest of the morning. I thought a bit about letting her suffer the natural consequences of running nakey bum through the snow, but decided that might not be the best parenting decision in this case.
Oh, and then, when I checked my email over breakfast I found out someone had hacked my ebay account and bought an mp4 player and camera. That kind of sucked. Luckily it was a fairly quick fix, but still I had different plans for my morning than changing all my passwords and chatting with ebay.
Anyways, I think the weather calls for a new hat. This will soon become the Trapper Hat from Vogue Knitting Winter 2005/06. The yarn is Rowan Big Wool.
And here's the swatch I knit up for my new cardi. I think this is the pattern I will use, it's Seed Stitch Jacket from Vogue Knitting Winter 2004/05. But, I also like this one, Wenlan Chia's Best Friend Cardigan. I'm trying to choose between the two, and am having a trouble deciding. What do you guys think?
So, I figured out another loophole that I forgot to add. If I'm knitting something and I need yarn to finish the project, I can buy it.
That's what the Elann Peruvian Highland Wool is for. I'm going to double strand it with some bulky yarn I've had for a while and knit a very chunky sweater. Than one of two things will happen, I will love it and you guys get to see the results, or I will hate it and reknit it into a blanket for my cat. Exciting isn't it :-)
The other yarn is Filati Italian Collection Tebe Extrafine Merino and that's for Kaelen. Very nice and soft. She's started a Debbie Bliss pullover for her baby brother. She was planning on just acrylic, but I intervened. Couldn't help myself, and now I'm teaching my daughter to be a yarn snob, too.
More Eucalan cause my old bottle has almost run out and the latest Knitscene cause I'm a magazine junkie.
I ripped Kaelen's cabled cardi. I feel pretty guilty about it. What kind of mother rips her own childs sweater out. But I just couldn't stand to knit it and when I thought about it I felt depressed. I needed to figure out the math for the sleeves and I reknit them twice and I held it up to Kaelen, sighed, and decided I would buy her a cardigan, then I went down and helped redecorate her room. My guilt eased up a tiny bit after that, but I will have to do more for her before it is completely erased.
I did see this hoodie that Charity from Knitting In the North is making for her daughter. Maybe I will try again, but not anytime soon. I just don't want to knit for anyone for a while, not even my first born. Bad mom! Just selfish knitting for me, thank you very much.
I've been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning my house. We've been living in maintenance mode since Simon was born and it was definitely time to do more than maintain. So I've been decluttering and deep cleaning and I'm starting to like my house again, plus I know where stuff is, and the kids toys are no longer taking over.
My mind just went blank, so that's all for today folks, but I'm planning to be a regular poster this week, so see you tomorrow.
Here are the finished Log Cabin Socks I gave Peter for Christmas.
These were so quick to knit and he seems to really like them. Wears them all the time. He's even hinting that he'd like another pair.
These were knit with 2 skeins of Cascade Pastaza color 066. I changed them at little bit. I added an extra row into the cables just because the tightness of the cables was hurting my hands. Also, right after I turned the heel I found I had to decrease a lot more than the pattern called for to get the sock to fit right and the same at the toe, I had to decrease more than the pattern wanted to get a nice shape.
In further news, I've decided it's finally time to put myself on a yarn diet.
I, Ms. Knittypants, do solemnly swear not to buy yarn until the end of April.
I'm thinking I have enough yarn to keep myself busy for several years, but I'm not going for torture here, just a little bit of self-discipline. Honestly, I can't imagine completely cutting myself off from stash purchases, I really love yarn, but I'm worried that I'm becoming a spendthrift. And since one of my goals for this year, is to really think before I spend money and since yarn shopping is an area of my life where I rarely think before purchasing, this should be a good exercise for me.
A couple of loopholes. I'm getting my last skein of yarn for the Sweet Sheep Self-Striping Club in February. Obviously, that doesn't count. Neither does the Christmas yarn that is making it's way to me even as I type.
Also, I may purchase yarn for another pair of socks for Peter. I'd like to make him some out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted or Dream in Color Classy. A nice soft pair of socks that won't take forever to knit up.
I was going to try and find more loopholes, but really, I'd better not.
Deep breath... of course I can make it till April, it's not like I'm addicted or anything.
When the first needle went I was sad, but you can still knit with 4 needles. The second snap minutes later was too much.
I need to invest in some stronger needles than my Brittanys for socks. I'm thinking about getting the Knitpicks Harmony set. For those of you that have them, are they very strong? I really prefer wood to metal, so I would like to try the bamboo, but not if they snap too easily than I'd prefer the Nickel-plated.
Sigh, these are the two fronts to Kaelen's cardigan.
This here is the back of the cardigan I'm knitting for Kaelen. It's a Sirdar pattern #2234. The pattern is pretty boxy so I am making a few changes to give it more shape and neaten things up. The yarn is Cascade 220.
And I just received an order from Knitpicks. A whole bunch of needles to round out my collection.
Look at the size of these ones! You might be wondering why in the world I'm buying such ginormous needles, but I actually have yarn that requires these. I have a scarf waiting to be knit with some yummy yarn and humongous needles. It's my reward for finishing the above cardigan.
Also, have any of you seen the sale at Tidal Brook Yarns on ebay? They have a clearance section of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden for 40% off. I exchanged some of my Christmas money for some of their treats. Silk and cashmere, mmmmm...
Happy New Year, everyone. I've got no real resolutions this year, mostly I'm just hoping to start getting more stuff done. Since pretty much every goal I have in mind depends on the little people in my life and since really my most important work is the developing of healthy children and healthy relationships between us, really every single other thing I get done is just gravy.
On the other hand, my 2 older children are very interested in learning to sew, I am very interested in learning more about vegetarian/vegan cooking, and my two youngest have decided to give cloth diapers a go (I'm really wishing the 3 year old would try giving the toilet a go, but she lacks focus). So my year should be including these things, but I refuse to make them resolutions, I'm not ready for resolutions during this sleep deprived state of my life.
The poorly lit picture above is my Ribby Cardi still being finished. I so wanted this done by the end of 2007, but for some reason the finishing is taking me forever. Hopefully, I can get the front bands done tonight and get a start on installing the zipper.
I've also started a cardi for Kaelen, this was another project I wanted done before 2008, but it decided it really wanted to be my first project of the year. And I have a backlog of finished stuff to show you guys, so that's coming, too.
