Sock Needles Are Flying

The Complete Christmas Challenge was a success. Saturday I had a marathon knitting day and finished off the last gift. They are completely sewn, just need to be felted. The intended recipient is a size 7, so I’m putting The Seacoast Knitters on notice, I need a fit model for these things. I’m afraid to felt them down too much. Heather would’ve been my fit model, wrist warmers and gloves for the petite women in my life were all tested out on Heather. But with her gone, I’ll have to turn to Joan or Anne as I suspect they also have small feet.

It’s already the second day of February and I’m without a challenge. A Samurai without a challenge is like a dog without a bone. I’m lost, what’s my purpose in life? VS informed me that this is a very sock heavy blog. I couldn’t argue. I only seem to want to knit socks, and buy sock yarn, and drool on sock yarn. So perhaps I should go with it and challenge myself to clear the needles of socks. Right now I have 3 pairs on the needles and the sock blanket. No way I’m finishing that blanket, but I do need to get back to it. I’ve been a total slacker and haven’t worked on it since the end of December. I’m at least 30 squares behind at this point. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

For the Melaine socks, I just turned the first heel and have the toe done on the second sock. About 30% done.

For the Aviendha socks, I’m finished with the first sock and at the arch expansion on the second foot. About 65% complete.

For the Ricky Morneaux socks, I’m just past the second heel, the photos a little old. These are going to be as tall as I can make them since I know they’ll shrink (30% silk). About 65% done.

But in all honesty I could easily finish these off in a month. So lets add a fourth pair to make it interesting. And since I’ve been trying to do gift knitting, lets say I have to finish these 3 pairs and knit a 4th pair for someone else by February 28th to be successful! I’m feeling motivated. I have a goal. Now watch those needles fly!

Cat out!!

The next generation of cat show cats has begun. I went into the show hall warning Mum that Callie isn’t as good as our Nessa Rose and to be prepared to take second all day. Callie showed me and took first for the Devon Rexes and got a 9th and 10th best kitten (out of 50!) Ok, so not as good as Nessa but nothing to be ashamed of.
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Callie really is a cool cat. She was happy to just lay around wrapped in a blanket. No desire to run. Well, not until she got wet, but that’s another story. Can you say "Cat out?!?!?!" Mum can!

Yes, the thumb is doing better and I was able to finish the Lulu socks that have been around since October. The pattern was fun at first but eventually the cabling on the left needle, not removing the stitches to a cable needle, became tedious and it made the stitches very tight and difficult to work with.

I also cast on the fifth 2009 Christmas gift. I’m still working on the fourth. As long as one of them is finished by next week we’ll be good.
I’ll give a peak at the fifth, it’s this pattern but in a different color. And no, I wont tell you who it’s for.

Somethings finished

We have returned from 28 below zero conditions. You can see the edge of the railing in this picture. The snow was about hip level. It was 90 degrees warmer in the house than outside. CRAZY! The car ride north was uneventful. I did some knitting of course.


Actually I finished off the Susie's Reading Mitts…part of the gift challenge. I immediately cast on another pair, which I finished last night. They have mitten caps, or whatever you would call the piece that is left off the regular fingerless mitts. I used Misti Alpaca Hand Dyed Worsted for the second pair. Wonderfully soft but a lot dye transfer onto my fingers while I was working with it. I'm hoping that it'll stop after blocking so that the recipient doesn't have a problem with orange fingers.




Saturday my mother and aunt spent some time talking, minus the phone. I had to laugh since they usually talk on the phone and each play computer games at their own homes. So while we visited they did that without the phone.

Later LT and I did some cooking…ok we took up space in the kitchen while my aunt cooked, but you know, we had the best of intentions.

And The Boyfriend, you ask. Yes he survived, but just barely. As you can see, he spent some time being a trophy, a head on the wall if you will.

I also finished the HoneyCowl. I knit mine flat so it wouldn’t have to go over the head. I just need to find a massive pewter button to fasten it shut and it’s ready to go. Well after it finishes blocking, it’s ready to go.

And finally, the the Cashmere Cowl No. 2 - Lace Rib…yeah, that was just not my cup of tea, too much chart work and too intricate. So instead I frogged it and decided to make another pair of Susie’s Reading Mitts. Everyone may just get a pair of these for Christmas since they’re so fun to knit (similar to a pair of socks) and functional.

That leaves me with 2 more Completed Christmas gifts, for a total of 3 down.

Oh and in other news, the Regia Stretch yarn arrived while we were away. It was a nice surprise to come home and find yarn waiting for me after an extremely stressful ride home. The weather was atrocious and instead of 7 hours it took us 9 1/2. I was so glad my Dad was driving his big SUV with 4-wheel drive. Anyway, I can now finish my second sock. I was feeling a bit guilty have a single lonely sock lying about.

Tomorrow we head to the artic (long and photo heavy)

Today I’m cleaning and packing. Why do they always seem to go hand and hand? I think it might be that old fear of someone having to enter your home while your not there and wanting to be sure it’s clean. Anyway, I’m packing for our trip to visit family on the border between Maine and Canada. Not the US and Canada, but Maine. That’s how I grew up thinking about it, as though Maine was the center of the universe unto itself.


Google Maps charts it as a 7 hour drive. The road trip will feature The Boyfriend, Mum, Dad and I. It’s always interesting ridding together. My parents and I have years of experience talking with Mum disputing Dad’s musical selections. The Boyfriend, who is normally quit verbose, tends to sleep through these situations, which is a foreign concept to Mum. Why wouldn’t you want to socialize since we’re trapped here for the next 7 hours together? While The Boyfriend enjoys their company, I think sleeping is his coping mechanism for dealing with the long hours in a confined space (he does the same thing on planes). Also, he didn’t grow up taking car rides this long, his family maxed out at 2 hours.

So tomorrow we head north to find -32 degrees and a complete lack of knitting stores. I’ll be bringing my Gravel Point hat and he’ll bring his Boy’s hat. Oh and did I mention that per usual, packing means spending the two days before fretting over exactly what to bring for knitting projects and the last twenty minutes stuffing clothes in a suitcase? At current count I’m at 8 projects, too many…

The dilemma is, road trips are an excellent time to finish small languishing projects that I lack the motivation to do under normal circumstances. The change in scenery and stimulating conversation offer enough of a distraction that my fingers can quickly work through the project when I’m not looking and I don’t even feel a thing. That’s not the dilemma, that comes with the knowledge that if I bring too many ‘chores’ I wont want to knit at all and the excitement of travel makes it easy to just pass up the knitting in favor of horse back riding or skiing (not likely to do either in this lifetime). So I must bring the right balance of chores and exciting projects (i.e., the latest socks). And herein lies the problem and why there are 8 projects being packed right now. Quick run down of who’s in…

The Cashmere Cowl No. 2 - Lace Rib…part of the gift challenge. The HoneyCowl…for spoiled me. The Callandor cowl…part of the gift challenge, and my own design.



The Steve Zissou hat to match Na-Ate Zissou’s. Susie's Reading Mitts…also part of the gift challenge.


The Ricky Morneaux socks, based on Dad’s sweater pattern using my hand dyed yarn. The Uptown Boot Socks, which have been waiting since we picked up Lulu back in October.
And the Sock Yarn Blanket, since it’s so portable and I’m behind on my squares.


Well the good part for you, is that after 14 hours in the car, I’m sure to have made some progress and have updates to show on a couple of these.

First Christmas Gift for 2009

Here is the first completed 2009 Christmas Gift. I’m not going to tell you what it is, because the recipient often reads this. But I will say that if you’re on Ravelry and you can find the details here. Next gift, a cowl type object.

Want to hear my knitting blunder? I'll share it if you promise to laugh and point.

I bought a single skein of sock yarn. I was going to make ankle socks. The last pair of semi ankle socks used 228yards and they had 3” of cuff (now that I work at a yarn company determining yardage is second nature). So this 208 yard skein would be fine. Yeah it would, until I decided to throw cables on the foot to make it more ascetically pleasing. Here I am with ¾ of a sock done and only ½ a skein left (about 104 yards if you’re mathematically challenged). That’s definitely not enough to finish this sock and do a second. And on top of that, Webs no longer carries this color (I bought it at Thanksgiving with my birthday gift certificate form my In-laws, thank you again by the way). So now I’m in a mad rush to find some of Regia Stretch Color in color 86 Dye lot 67822. I know it’s a shot in the dark but if you have any of this yarn and could part with it let me know.

Later: I finished the sock and have enough left to make one (not even a pair) of baby socks. Talk about a total miscalculation. Hopefully I'll get some from a seller on Ravelry soon.

From 7 to 4

When thinking up this month’s challenge, I consulted The Boyfriend for possible ideas…his thoughtful suggestion; “Knit all the yarn!” This comes on the heels of the living room reorganization which revealed the two giant duffle bags I’d been hiding at the end of couch in a corner of the room. Oops I forgot about those, that’s felting yarn and it doesn’t count in my 5 bins. Why I don’t know, but it just doesn’t.
Knit all the Yarn would be impossible, unless I attempted to make a hideous scarf on giant needles, holding quadruple yarns… no that’s just ridiculous!

This January I’ll be attempting to Complete 4 Christmas Gifts. As a knitter I feel it’s my responsibility to knit gifts for those I love. This year I only gave two knitted gifts and I think some people (parents and husband) would’ve appreciated something. I’m starting now while the Christmas spirit is still in the air, since I’m not usually motivated to knit gifts until 25 days before Christmas which doesn’t leave enough time to do something for everyone.

And to wrap up last months challenge…I needed to successfully complete 47 blanket squares by December 31st to finish the Seven Square Challenge. ON the 31st I had 48 and currently I have 51 squares so that was a successful challenge. It almost should be a sub-challenge for each month since I really need to stay on top of my square knitting if I want this crazy blanket to be finished before next Christmas.