It's Not Just Black and White

In the Garden Socks

Next week we will have more than just knitting content. I promise.

Until then. I have another finished pair of socks! These socks are the In the Garden socks from July 2009 in the Rockin Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They were knit on size 2 needles with the colorway Heirloom. I can honestly say I was not a fan of the top portion of these socks. Despite being on size 2’s they were really tight to knit. The pattern recommended 1s or 0s!

I loved that the pattern taught us how to cable without a cable needled. That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I did miss the going down a needle size for the purl portion of these socks so they are a little bulkier on the top and inthe middle than they should be.

I loved the colors of the yarn and they really do fit with the pattern. The socks were a very quick knit since they have a pretty short cuff. This was nice because I was able to knock them out in just a week and a half!

I’m slowly working my way through last years Rockin Sock Club. I did skip the March socks, and I’ve started the September ones. I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on those this weekend!

Swiss Hat

About 10 months ago, my friend Jessica decided to go to Switzerland as an Au Pair. She put in her knitting request of a hat for winter with the Swiss logo on it, semi-matching the Swiss flag.

I decided it was the perfect chance to break out the double knitting. That lasted for about 5 rounds and decided it was better to straight knit the hat with the cross in white. The hat was knit with Cascade 220 Superwash so it could be thrown in the washing machine and still fit correctly. It was knit on size 7 needles with 116 stitches in the round.

The hat was originally supposed to make it to Switzerland before it got cold. Another project got in the way and I had to push it back a little bit. At that point I decided I wanted to get it to Switzerland before the Olympics!

The hat arrived in Switzerland about two weeks ago and is now working to keep her warm. Overall the hat was a fairly quick knit once I got passed the cross portion of it. It was a matter of sitting down and finding time to get it done. She now can support both the US and Switzerland as they compete for gold in the 2010 Olympics.

Fraggle Squiggle Socks

With the Rockin Sock Club 2010 club shipments coming out for January, I decided it was time to finish the ones from 2009. I got on a sock kick and finished the May club from last year. The socks are the Fraggle Squiggle Socks by J.C. Brier. The colorway is Pepe La Plume.

I started these socks when they came in back in May and had completed the first sock back in November. I finally picked them back up and finished them last weekend. They were knit on size 2 double point needles.

The pattern wasn’t hard, but there was a lot to remember with it, so I never really put down the pattern. That’s not a bad thing though because the socks kept my mind busy but had small enough repeats that I could work on it in a group setting.

I adore all yarns that come out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They are so easy to knit with, so soft, and wear really well. The color doesn’t fade and I haven’t had a problem with the socks wearing out. While these have a bit of lace in them they should still hold up pretty strong.

I’m excited to move forward with the rest of the yarns from the sock club last year, as well as the ones from this year!

The Blues and Purples Blanket

Looking back on 2009, I don’t feel like I accomplished a whole lot when it comes to knitting…. I took on two really big projects, my best friends wedding blanket and the Dr. Who Scarf. Between these projects I fell behind on a lot of other knitting I wanted to accomplish.

In the midst of all of the knitting I started a few different projects and very few of them were finished. 2010 is going to be a year of finishing…. I hope! My goal for 2010 is for every two projects I finish, I can start a new one. Why am I writing this in the blog? It will never get done if I don’t put it in writing. I really would like to get a good chunk of these done this year, but I know that I will not complete all of them without starting at least 10 or 15 new projects along the way!

I would love to say that in 2010 I’m only knitting for myself. I said as soon as I was done with Christmas presents that would be the case, and it lasted an entire day! For that, I just have a goal of finishing some of my current projects. So what is on this long list of things, you ask? Here is the current WIP* list.

Will all of these actually get finished in 2010? Probably not. I’d like to make a dent, especially in the blankets. All four of them will be amazing when they are done and I can’t wait to use them! On that note, I better go pick up a pair of needles.

Happy New Year!

* WIP  = Work in Progress

Every family has at least one holiday tradition. I hope at least. While my family has a variety of traditions that range from when I was a kid to new ones formed in recent years. Every year there is a set of stockings that hangs above our fireplace with all of our names on them. My grandmother knit them all for us at some point or another. They don’t match in color, but they match in design. Each of our families has a set of them and each of the grand-kids got a stocking.

Since my grandmother passed away in 2001, the stockings had been put on hold. There hadn’t been any new kids to the family so it wasn’t a huge deal. A few years ago I asked my aunt and uncle if they knew what had happened to the stocking pattern. I was just getting into knitting and wanted to make sure we still had it somewhere. They were able to find it and mailed it off to me at college. While there wasn’t anyone to add, I had them for when we would need them.

In the last two years we have added two great-grand-kids to the family. My cousins welcomed a little girl and a little boy into the family. For Christmas this year I knit up their two stockings using Red Heart. They don’t match necessarily in color to some of the older ones, but they aren’t supposed to, each generation has a slightly different shade of colors and as the years go on they will fade to.

What are your holiday traditions?

Adrienne and Josiah’s Stockings:

Me Showing off the Finished Dr. Who Scarf

About two years ago my friend, Greg, asked me to knit him a Dr. Who Scarf. For those of you who do not know the history of the scarf, I recommend you read up on it. I’m not a Dr. Who fan myself but the history of the scarf is fun, and something that only a knitter would do.

With a few hundred other projects that needed to be completed first, the scarf got put on hold until this fall. I cast on the scarf at the end of July but didn’t make a whole lot of progress until the end of September. For some reason, I was convinced that straight knitting would be easy and the scarf would be done in a second. I wasn’t thinking clearly.

The nice thing about the Dr. Who scarf is that it allowed to me to use up some of the scrap yarn that has been taking over my collection through the last few years. The scarf is knit mostly with with wool and a little bit of acrylic here and there. It was knit on size 7 needles and the whole thing is straight knit. The pattern I followed was from the original. I did some math and figured there are approximately 60,000 stitches in the scarf. Adding up the numbers in total it took around 90-100 hours to complete.

Every knitter needs a project that they can look back on and say they are glad they actually made the attempt and finished the project. Would I ever knit a Dr. Who scarf again? Heck no, but I’m glad that  I jumped in and did it. It is something I can look back at and laugh about now that it is finished. Being able to say I actually knit a sixteen foot long scarf, feels like a huge accomplishment. It might also make me completely insane. Either way, at the end of the day the project is done and the owner is happy.

Here are a few more pictures for a laugh:

Hey Knitters!!! There are less than 9 weeks until Christmas… yes I said it, less than 9 WEEKS! Need some ideas for Christmas presents?

I posted FIVE new colorways up at The Knitted Geek Yarns yesterday! While I dyed them awhile ago I finally got them wound up and ready to post. This was my first set that had any bulky yarn in them, so I had 2 bulkys, a worsted weight, and two sock weights.

The Sock Weights:

Pumpkin

Dusk

The Worsted Weight:

Muddy Blue Jeans

The Bulky Weights:

Fire

SGA

In case you’re wondering, the Bulky weights make WONDERFUL quick hats!