Six Socks

I'm a joiner, what can I say? I joined the Six Sox Knit-Along about a week ago but am just skipping to the second sock. Unfortunately I won't be eligible for the grand prize (if you post WIP and FO pictures in the correct folders, you get entered into a drawing - if you do all of them, you get entered into the grand drawing). The SAM classes do a sock a month and this is a sock every two months so that seems more reasonable. I wish I'd signed up a couple of months ago!

The sock for August/September is "Making Waves" designed by Pam Ordnier. It's a really cool sock with 4 stitch cables that make a wave texture. I did my swatch and will post that soon. For now, you'll just get a picture of the yarn. I'm not sure it's that appropriate for socks because it's 100% wool, single ply, and a little rough. I think it will be softer when washed and I'm going to hold some thread along with when I do the heel. The color doesn't really come through in this picture but I'm using the green color. It's really a mixture of blues and greens with some yellows. Kind of like a pond that's covered in algae (I'm so poetic). I'll use the yellow and pink for future projects.

Eileen is such a role model... look how far she's gotten on hers. See, she got done the first one in June! Bravo!

BBC NEWS | UK | Crafty sheep conquer cattle grids

"Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire moors have taught themselves to roll 8ft (3m) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids - and raid villagers' valley gardens.
The crafty animals have also perfected the skill of hurdling 5ft (1.5m) fences and squeezing through 8in (20cm) gaps. "
Rolling sheep are probably responsible for my tangled knitting yarn!

Stash Catalog: Donegal Tweed

This stuff is georgeous:

So many different colors, not enough for a sweater... hmmm. 100% wool.

Standards & Guidelines for Crochet and Knitting

Standards & Guidelines for Crochet and Knitting Compiled by
Craft Yarn Council of America April, 2003
(pointed out by LII)

The publishers, fiber, needle and hook manufacturers and yarn members of the Craft Yarn Council of America have worked together to set up a series of guidelines to bring uniformity to yarn, needle and hook labeling and to patterns, whether they appear in books, magazines, leaflets or on yarn labels. Our goal is to make it easier for consumers to select the right materials for a project and complete it successfully.

Here's a cool site to look up yarn weights and metric needles.

Stash Catalog: Harrisville Shetland

I have a bunch of little balls of various colors of this 100% wool yarn. I so want to try "feral" knitting and now I can. Woo-hoo. This is a swatch out of two of the colors I have a lot of. I also was able to practice various yarn holding methods. This is in the round on 2 size 2 Addi circs.

Stash Catalog: Mink-Wool Blend

Isn't this beautiful? It's about 1.5 pounds of 50-50 mink-wool blend. It's probably lace weight. Can you imagine a shawl out of it? mmmmm.

Stash Catalog: Alpaca

100% Alpaca. About 10 different colors. About 6- 50g skeins of each.

The story of the immaculate stash...

This is the story of the immaculate stash; that is, the stash without the SEX (Stash Enrichment eXpedition).

In June, a angel named Jill R. came down and asked if I would be interested in some of the yarns she needed to get rid of (the annunciation?). It seems that Jill is a weaver of beautiful and varied fabrics. She's been in SABLE condition for a while and her DH said some of it has to go. She marked it up for a yard sale but decided to offer it to me instead. (YES!) I thought I would get a couple of bags, but she brought 6 huge rubbermaid tubs of all kinds of neat goodies.

I'm taking pictures and will be cataloging some of my goodies here on my blog. I've been swatching like crazy, too, so I'll show those. My first project out of the new yarns is a short sleeved cardigan out of the Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme yarn. It's similar to the ones in the Tricoter book but I'm doing it in the round a la Fee. Still need to buy buttons. Here's where I am so far:

Matt's sock, a swatch

This is a swatch of the pattern (pdf) for one of the socks of the month last month for the Yahoo Socknitters classes.  I really wanted to knit these socks but time got away from me.  Now the yarn's going to be used for the flame socks : (

It's Wildfoote done in the round on my #2 Addis.

I, I'm still alive... for the very first time...

Sung.  Anyway.  I'm now going to be part of the KR Webring, so I guess I better get some pictures up!  I was going to hop in the bathtub with all my new stash and get my DH to take a picture but I haven't done it yet.  Maybe tonight?

I'm still here

This blog may look abandoned, but it isn't! A few knitting things going on right now: 1) donation to my stash of a ton of yarn (from alpaca to mink to cotton) 2) swatching of said donated yarns 3) a short-sleeved cardigan of a bumpy cotton yarn 4) still... the flame socks for Mark 5)a lace attempt using 840yds lace weight linen rayon blend (can you say knit, tink, frog, repeat?)

I'm hoping to get my own digital camera this fall, but until then it's using the DH's and having him upload the pictures. He does a great job and even does the color correction and cropping thing, but it will be nice to do it on my own.