one down

It's true! Happy, happy dancing! I have officially finished one sock!!! LOL! That means there's only three socks to go so that hubbins will have two pairs. The red pair and the striped pair. I'm sure that you are just as tired of looking at this pictures as I am. Sorry bout that. If you don't look really close, the sock doesn't look half bad. : ) Huge gobs of thanks to Jan for teaching me to knit a toe up sock. I'm looking forward to cuff down. A couple of folks had asked me about this yarn. It is from Mountain Colors and the colourway is Ruby River. It's 45% mohair and 55% virgin wool. These won't be the first socks that my hubbins breaks out when we get home I'm guessing. :) I really need to find some cotton yarn to use. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, I've already cast on for the second sock for this pair. You know, I've heard so much about second sock syndrome. I just thought I'd end any "bad" juju before it started. Know what I mean?? Know I need to finish up the sock I started in the orange and black stripes, When I had sock class, I would work on the red one in class and the other at home so that hopefully something would stick in my brain cells. I want to use what I just learned before I forget it. LOL!

When I need a break from the size 13 socks, I work on my daughter's clogs. Her clogs aren't so bad as they are the same size as mine. Nice and normal...if there is such a thing.

Happy Knitting!!

weekend update

My sock class on Saturday was so much fun! Fortunately, I have an instructor with the patience of a Saint. Lucky me! Any way, the red sock that I had knitted had way, way too much knitting on it so she had me pick up half stitches all around the sock with a size one needle. That took me about...hmmm...maybe a little over an hour. Horrible. It was torture seeing all that knitting being ripped out. FROG! Major FROG! I assure you, it was indeed a learning experience, as I will never knit a sock that long before the heel. I swear upon all the yarn I have! Then, I had to learn what everyone else learned while I was picking up stitches. My class was really over at 12:30 and I left at 15:30. Jan, thank you so much for staying and helping me with my mess...ummm... I mean sock. : )


Then a little birdie told me about this great knitting back that was over at Craft Warehouse. This is the coolest bag. It has two "pages" of different sized zippered pockets. And the pages each have velcro down the center of them so you can add or take away "pages" as you need them. It is awesome and I love it. Like I said, I'm going to use it for knitting but I can see where many crafters could find uses for it. I do wish it was a little bit larger so that I could put a pattern in it without folding it up. Yes, I'm a little OCD. LOL! Really, most people never notice. Sorry about all the different colours in the picture. The bag is a beautiful purple paisley. And are you ready for this? Only 15 bucks. Yep, that's right. You can't beat that with a stick. hee hee.

My darling hubbins has been outprocessing. Such a freaking ordeal! It takes over a month to do it all. My god, I could have had this all wrapped up in about three days. However, that would require a woman running things. And your United States Air Force prefers to have the male warriors in charge of such things. Anyway, the point of this little rant is that, we have a date for the movers and a day to sign out then I guess we'll be on our way home. And I just have to keep believing that everything really does happen for a reason.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will have at least one finished sock to show ya'll. Cross your fingers and your knitting needles!!


Happy Knitting!!

gusset stitches

Here are both socks with fully increased gusset stitches! I'm so happy to have both of them at the same place. I also tightened up my figure 8 cast on for the striped sock. My hubbins did much of the loop pulling! He's sooo much better at it than I am. He is also ever so much better at the vacuum than me!! (My parents didn't raise a fool.) You know what I mean. LOL!

Tomorrow morning I have a sock class that I am really looking forward to. I think we are going to work on the heels. I attached the second 50 gram yarn ball to my hubbins striped sock. That's a lot of yarn for not even turning the heel. I tease him and tell him that he's gonna be wearing one red sock and one striped sock before he knows it. LOL! Since he's colour blind he might not ever know. Oh that's horrible, I'd never do that. Ever. I'll give ya'll an update tomorrow after sock class. I'm just about to cast on some clogs for my beautiful daughter. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Knitting!

exchange

This is what one of my exchange partners sent me! Thank you so much Sharon!! In addition to a very nice dishcloth, I received a note pad, a package of note cards AND a pair of needles! I just love doing exchanges. I always receive a dishcloth that someone put their time and energy into, you just couldn't ask for a better "gift."


I spent most of the day in bed feeling way down under the weather. I did do just a little bit of knitting while watching the NBA finals. Dallas lost and the Miami Heat won the championship. Just not the year for Dallas. I'm sure they'll be back next year tho. : )

I'm still knitting on hubbin's socks. It feels like I've been knitting them forever. The next pair I make will be for a "normal" foot. A nice, normal foot like mine! LOL! I'll post pictures of my progress on socks tomorrow. For now, I believe that you've heard me rattle on long enough. :)


Happy Knitting!!

socks and more socks

This is a picture of my progress on the socks. The sock I'm doing in a reddish colourway is coming along very nicely. I'm working on increasing the gusset stitches right now. If my hubbins had smaller feet, this would go much faster. :)


The sock with the stripes has not been as lucky has the other sock. I'm still working on the foot part of the sock and probably won't start with gusset stitches for a few days.


I also received an exchange dishcloth! I just love getting packages in the mail. Sharon was my exchange partner and she sent lovely "extras." I'll post pictures of those tomorrow.

I have to cut this short as I can hear my knitting calling my name. : )

Happy Knitting!!

slacker

Yes, I totally agree with you. I've been slacking; I haven't updated my blog since last Tuesday. So, I'll take 30 lashes with wet yarn and then we can move on. ;)

I've been busily knitting, I cast on a baby blanket for my soon to arrive niece. I've got a few dishcloths cast on for exchanges. And of course, I have two separate pairs of socks cast on for my hubbins.

My sock classes are going really, really well. Since there are only three of us learning, it's almost like PRIVATE sock classes. And who wouldn't LURVE private lessons? Anyway, I'm working on increasing my gusset stitches. I'll post pictures of my progress tomorrow. I'm being incredibly lazy right now. I should probably go to bed...but!!! Knitting is higher up on the scale than sleeping. LOL! I promise to post more frequently...that wet yarn kinda stings! : )

Happy Knitting!!

sock progress

Here are pictures of the progress I'm making on Hubbins socks. My instructor told me to stop when I reached the place on his foot where it starts to bend for the ankle. No problem there. I'm looking at the pattern that was handed out on Saturday and the next step is to do gusset increases, and I'm not totally sure how to do that. I figured it would be safer to just wait until this Saturday when she explains it. :)

Then I thought well...maybe I'll go ahead and cast on the other sock. You know, so I could be ahead of the game. I looked around and didn't have another circular in the size that I needed. :(

While I was digging around in my stash looking for needles, I found some sock yarn that I bought around the first of the year. I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try to cast on with it. This is a heavier weight yarn so I could use bigger needles. Anyway, I learned to do a figure 8 cast on for this sock pattern and can you believe I got it right on the first try? Neither could I...but I'm not complaining. LOL! I was very happy! Maybe that Starbucks before class paid off. :) The yarn is some that my Hubbins chose and really got stashed in the stash. I was glad to find it tho.

I didn't get the clogs for my daughter cast on. But I've already worked all the increases in the second sock, it's just plain knitting until I get to the ankle bone, so there should be no reason I can't cast them on tomorrow. I almost forgot to tell you that the toes haven't been tightened up at the cast on. I'm not sure of the best way to do that. Anyone have suggestions?

Happy Knitting!!!

weekend wrap up

My sock class on Saturday was so much fun. I really did enjoy it. I've wanted to knit socks for a long time and now I'm doing it. Yeah for me!! The sock I'm learning right now is a toe-up on one circular. A huge thank you to Jan for being such a patient instructor! I like the way the sock is working up so far. I don't think I did my increases correctly tho. It seems like the toe is just a little bit more pointy than it should be. But for a first attempt at socks, it's not so bad.

Hubbins was able to try his clogs on today for the first time. They fit very nicely. He has deemed them comfortable to wear so I'm calling them a success! I'll cast on for my daughter's clogs tomorrow probably. The colours she chose are bright blue and bright green. I think they'll look great. It is a strange feeling to go from using a size 13 needle for the clogs to a size 3 needle for the socks. Usually takes me a little bit of time to get used to the change.

I only read a little bit this weekend. I knit the majority of the time...I really need to get books on CDs or just download them to my iPod. That way I can knit while I listen to the book. How's that for multi-tasking? :)

Happy Knitting!!

felted finish

This is one of Hubbins clogs before felting. It's hard to see how HUGE they were. Trust me, huge doesn't even begin to cover it. :)




Add hot water and agitation and TADA!







It's like magic. I am really pleased with how well these turned out. I made a slight change when I knit this pair. Instead of a low heel in the back, I knit a few extra rows of stockinette. That gave me just a little bit more of a back at the heel. I think it looks better and will probably "wear" better too.

Tomorrow morning is my sock class. I am so looking forward to it. I can see myself knitting socks during the summer. I'll give you an update tomorrow after the sock class. Wish me and my needles good luck! :)

Happy Knitting