AmphibiaKnits

Crafting Wasteland

Here's the regular random post for June 17.

I live in a crafting wasteland.  Some people might think that Nova Scotia would be chock full of crafty goodness.  They would be wrong.

Granted, this is the home of Fleece Artist, Lucy Neatby and Ilga Leja.  They're all crafty goodness incarnate. But in terms of actual supplies? It's a wilderness.

You cannot buy decent knitting paraphernalia here to save your life.  I'm not sure about spinning, because I don't do it. But I suspect if you have a hankering to take up spinning and you live in Nova Scotia, you'd be ordering a wheel online from out west or the US.

I have been unable to procure decent needles here.  This is the home of the Addi blunts and the bamboo breakables.  Anything more durable requires Paypal or Mastercard and the patience of Job when dealing with Canada Post. 

Today's rant is directed at beads. Yes, beads. 

We have a Michaels here. It has a beading section.  There are many wondrous beads to choose from.  Except seed beads.  It doesn't really have many of those.  There are a few tubes of 6/0 beads, and some 11/0 beads.  But if you want 8/0 beads, you're out of luck.

So I was thinking of ordering some online. Then I saw the shipping price and decided against it. This is Nova Scotia. This is the capital of Nova Scotia, in fact.  The legislature sits here. Cruise ships dock here weekly between May and October.  Surely we have beads other than the scant offerings at Michaels.

Before I started to knit, I used to do a lot of beading.  I made tons of funky bracelets with cool clasps and memory wire and venetian glass and who knows what else.  But I never needed small beads. 

There are two bead shops that I know of here.  We have as many bead shops as yarn shops. The first used to be called The Bead Pod.  Then it was sold or taken over and it was Faroz beads (or something like that).  Now It's Halifax Bead and Metal Clay.  

So I decided to go there to see whether I could find some 8/0 seed beads for the Tour de Sock which will require 500 beads.

For a store that advertises itself as having the largest bead selection in the province, it has pretty slim pickings for seed beads in 8/0.  There were around 10 choices.  Now, bear in mind that I have a stash of about 900 skeins of sock yarn.  I should be able to match pretty much any beads with a skein of yarn.

I found 4 containers of 8/0 seed beads which I thought might do.  Four.

Apparently the 10/0 and 11/0 seed beads are all the rage.  The helpful sales person asked me what I wanted the beads for.  I told her I need them for knitting.  Then she obviously thought she had mis-heard me, because she said, "Oh, native beading? We get a lot of natives looking for beads." 

I cringed.  Um, we don't call people "natives".  The correct term is aboriginal.  

And no, that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for size 8/0 beads to string on yarn.  You know, the stuff made from sheep. We do have those in abundance in Nova Scotia.

So I purchased my little containers of seed beads and went to store number 2.

It is somewhat amusingly but inaptly called Beads-R-Us. They do have a lovely selection of belly-dancing skirts in the back.  But they don't have a lot of seed beads.

In fact, I found one colour in size 8/0.   They're yellow-green. 

I have no idea how many are in each little baggie.  Hopefully 250 or so.  I dumped them into my little iPod container.

So after an afternoon of hunting for beads in a torrential downpour, this is my haul.

Yes, I did previously purchase about 500 3.0 mm hematite beads from Michaels.  But I discovered that the hole in the beads is so small that sock yarn won't go through it.  They might be okay on a laceweight project, but they're not going to work for sock yarn. 

So for Tour de Sock with the 500 beads, these are my choices.  Blue/fuchsia [which would be amazing with my skein of TFA Blue Label in Iris], light blue [which I was saving to use with my Bomber Moth Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga for Adrienne Fong's Dewdrops pattern], gunmetal, ruby pink irridescent, and the yellow-green beads. 

It's a crafting wilderness.  But I will persevere.

I could use the yellow-green beads with my Eidos in Tethrippon.

I could conceivably even use them with the March RSC Hope Springs Eternal. 

I also have several other choices for those particular beads.  So it's not as if I'm fussy or hard to work with.  Have yarn, will travel. Need beads.

So Tour de Sock stage 2 opened on Monday June 10.  I got the pattern that night when I got home from work. I had decided to do fraternal twins out of Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in Adonis Butterfly and WRM Melon.  [Far left and middle; the one on the right escapes me right now, but was t5oo pastel and didn't quite go with the Adonis Butterfly]. 

Apparently my braindead streak continued. 

I decided to do the first sock in the blue. So I promptly cast on 72 stitches for 2x2 ribbing.  Then I did 16 rows.  And discovered that I had in fact cast on 76 stitches.  So I decreased by 4 and continued on.  

The colourwork was pretty good.  I was pretty happy with it.  I was still having trouble carrying the second yarn in my left hand.  I'm a thrower, so it's hard to pick.  My biggest issue was figuring out how to tension the yarn.  

By the time I got to the third sock, I had it figured out.  Yes, that's right.  Third sock. There are only 2 in a pair.  

You can tell I didn't have a good experience with TdS #2. 

The twisted rib pattern calls for the first stitch of rows 5, 13 and 21 to be borrowed from the end of the previous row. I interpreted it as shifting the row by 1 stitch on each of those.  So by the time I finished Chart B (24 rows) and started the second repeat, I realized something was horribly wrong.  The stitches weren't lining up.

So I hemmed and nawed a little bit and then decided to frog the whole thing and start again with the correct stitch count.  And then I read some of the help / chatter thread and realized I needed to do 20 rows of 2x2 ribbing before starting the cuff chart.  Off to the frog pond. 

So that's what I did.  But I started sock #2 in the orange yarn instead.

I finished it on Saturday (June 15).  And by finished, I mean I kitchenered the toe and wove in all the ends.  It was wearable.

I started sock #2 on June 15.  The above picture fairly accurately captures the blue.  I decided to do the contrasting toe but not contasting heel or cuff.  If I did them again, I'd add more contrasty bits. 

I am finding with this Tour de Sock that I'm learning lots. With sock #1 I learned beads.  With sock #2 I learned colourwork and oodles of twisted stitches.

Can I just say how much I am over twisted stitches? We've broken up.  There is no immediate marriage looming on the horizon.  They're slow and awkward and splitty.   I despise them.

Sock #1 of this pair was my learning and swearing sock.  Sock #2 was marginally better behaved, but I'm just glad to be done.  I did the cuffs and colourwork band on 2.50 mm needles and the body in 2.25 mm needles.  I did size medium which is 72 stitches.  I was a little afraid they wouldn't fit.  I know my tension for sock #2 was tighter than sock #1 because I was feeling stressed and cranky and not loving the pattern.

But miraculously they actually fit.  Woo hoo!

I finished them tonight.  I think I'm about number 102 or 103 or 104 on the leaderboard for Stage 2.  If it hadn't been for the false starts, I could have finished in the top 100.  

It was too dark for decent photos, so I just did the bare bones photo to prove that I've completed them as directed and on time.  I'll take more artsy pictures for my project page tomorrow.  I actually have a beautiful vase with these two colours in it which will be an excellent backdrop.  I'll move the ginger jar out and use the orange and blue vase instead.

So anyway, they're done.  Good riddance.  Wretched things.  

I have enough yarn left in each skein to do the companion sock, I think.  The SG Skinny Bugga is in 450-yard skeins, so I think I'd be okay.  But there is no way that I will pick up this pattern again for a very long time.  We are not friends.  So my feet will have to be satisfied with fraternal twisty friends.

In terms of yarn content, my Rockin' Sock Club yarn for May arrived late last week.  It's lilac and burgundy-purple and pond scum and olivey green.  I think the club colourway is Fleur de couleur. My ball band inside says fleur de rouge (which means flower of red).  

It reminds me of a skein of Yarn Love which gave me a lot of trouble when knitting up [Marianne Dashwood in Garden Bouquet].  I already know that this skein is going to end up with the pond scum bumping up against  the burgundy purple and looking vomitous. It can't be helped. 

Here's the Yarn Love. I frogged it.  I then attempted a Cat Bordhi something or other and frogged it as well.  Then I tried something else and frogged it.  After three times the yarn is in a permanent time-out.  It's like Sweet Georgia's Honey Fig colourway.  Lovely in the skein but hard to work with.

I think the pattern that comes with the May shipment is a good one.  I'll give it a whirl, but I'm not holding my breath. Stay tuned.  Of course, it may not happen until after Tour de Sock is over.

Then there was a teensy slip which I blame squarely on Ericaberry. We were having a striped sock discussion, and she urged me to get some String Theory so she didn't have to buy it all. 

It was kind of like Bugga with Christine. 

So three skeins leaped into my cart.  Two of them are 100% BFL (the Tachyon base), and the other is some other wacky breed of sheep -- Falkland or something like that.  

The colours are super-saturated and vibrant.  I really like them.  Apparently BFL has a longer staple length than merino and wears better.  Let's hope so.  Princess has worn through the toes of every pair of socks I have given her.  I don't understand it.  It's not even as if she has elf feet with toes that curl upward.  

Ceci n'est pas ma fille.

 

So perhaps some BFL socks will last longer.  The other thing I might do is try reinforcing the toes. I could do slipped stitch toes.  Or maybe colourwork toes.  

In other random stream-of-consciousness....

The hamstring is healing.  I'm getting laser treatment.  The chronic achilles tendonitis is slower to respond.  But I was in agony a week ago.  This week it's [the hamstring] a ton better. I'm not there yet, but I'm much closer than I was. 

The last thing I leave you with is some interesting sidewalk art I noticed the other morning when I walked the dogs.  Obviously the neighbourhood kids got into some fingerpaint.  It's quite cool.  And I love the fact that the water-based paint only lasted until it rained.  Evanescent and transitory art at its finest.

A couple of maple leaves also caught the kids' fancy.

I want a maple tree.  I'd really like a red maple.  

I need something to replace the peach tree which the dogs destroyed.  Little bastards.  Grrrr.

That's it.  I'll get some better Tour de Sock #2 photos tomorrow.  Then we start down the path to colourwork on Wednesday night at 6:00 pm my time (6:30 pm in Newfoundland).  I don't know what yarn I'm using yet.   I suspect I'll be using 2.50 or 2.75 mm needles.  I might use some STR mediumweight or some HK PIquant (I have stick o' butter and violetta and shannypants which may all go nicely together). Or I could use some Bugga.  I also have some Akasha Zeropoint (?) which I bought specifically with the intention of doing colourwork.

Hey, if I can get this colourwork thing mastered, I can see some designing in my future.  

 

Still Braindead

[Ed. This was the post for June 10. I didn't get around to actually blogging because Stage 2 of Tour de Sock started.  So this is a week late.  I'll do today's post separately.]

Why, yes, I *am* still braindead, thank you for asking.

I finished my Minnie Vanilli socks.  They’re standard stockinette with an afterthought heel.  I specifically wanted to do a star toe heel so that the decreases would be evenly spaced around the sock. 

I finished both tubes and then did the heels.  So I did two afterthought heels one after another.  I did the heels either on the same day or a day apart.  It was not as if I started the first one a year ago and then only just got around to doing heel #2 just now.

So I did sock number 1 with a star toe heel.  4 decreases evenly spaced apart (1 per needle).  Then I kitchenered when there were about 24 stitches left on both needles.

And I promptly picked up the second sock and did a regular wedge toe heel.    I fully intended to do another star toe heel and then completely forgot about it. Duh. Braindead.

And I thought I was so smart when I placed the yarn for the afterthought heel.  I thought I’d do it in the middle of a black row, so that it would look nice.  But I didn’t think about the fact that really the yarn is a 4-stripe pattern with 2 of the stripes being black.  So on one sock, there are two yellow stripes next to each other, and on the other sock, there are two red stripes next to each other. 

 

I should have placed the afterthought row in the middle of either a red or a yellow stripe. 

Picking up black stitches for the afterthought heel?  Another braindead moment.  What was I thinking?  And to top it off, I was using black needles.

Today’s braindead moment?  Deciding that I am going to listen to the Odd Thomas series during Tour de Sock.  That wasn’t the braindead moment.  I knew that I had purchased the first four Odd Thomas books in audiobook form, because I’ve listened to them all.  I couldn’t find them on my Audible library, so I must have purchased them on iTunes.

That, my friends, was mistake number 1.  Over the years I have transferred my iTunes library from computer to computer, and my account has gone from my old work email to my personal email.  And somewhere along the way, I lost a bunch of stuff.  So I am quite sure I paid full price for the first three (if not four) Odd Thomas books on iTunes.

Until tonight, I actually thought the only one I had misplaced was the original (Odd Thomas).  I had re-purchased it from Audible last week and am just about at the end of it.  Then when I went this evening to put the next couple of books on my phone, I discovered they weren’t there.

So I assumed (see the braindead theme running through here) that I had purchased them on iTunes and lost them, so I re-purchased them from Audible.

On a whim I did a computer search for Odd.  As the last of the newly purchased books was downloading, what did I discover?  All the old Odd Thomas books were in fact on my computer in my iTunes library.

I have now paid for the exact same audiobooks twice.  Full price.  And wasted 3 credits on duplicates. I’m actually speechless with stupidity. 

And speaking of stupid, I pulled a hamstring in soccer last night so I am hobbling today.  My current theme song is Brain Dead (sung to the tune of “Born Free”). I did manage to get in to a new physio place, so that’s promising.  I have to go and ice myself soon. 

In the meantime, I shall be working on my cuff for Tour de Sock #2 and listening to one of my many Odd Thomases….

 

 

Braindead

In preparation for the Tour de Sock stage which will require cables, I decided I need to know how to cable without a cable needle.

I googled it, and found a great tutorial by Grumperina.  

I've had an urge to to Katniss for a few months.  It really appeals to me.

My original thought for TDS #2 was that I'd use my Bugga in Grouchy Ladybug and my TFA Purple Label in Seabreeze.

As you can see, they've both been used and frogged, so they're not in pristine condition.  But I love the colours together.  

So I decided to try a Katniss in my skein of Bugga in Signatus Lacewing. So far so good.  I'm just ready to start the heel flap of number one.  Look closely....

You maybe can't quite tell, but there are 7 columns there.

And from the other side?

Why, that's right, folks.  5 columns.

I somehow ended up with 4 stitches too few between the cables on one side, and 4 stitches too many on the other side.

For what it's worth, the cabling sans cable needle is working well.

So once again I am left with options:

1. Frog it and re-start.
2. Frog it and don't bother.
3. Keep on going and put the off-kilter cable down the heel but slightly to one side.

Since these aren't intended for any particular recipient and are really just learning socks, I think I'll go with number 3.  When I photograph the finished pair, I'll make sure the wonky cable is hidden from view.

You're probably wondering why I started talking about TDS yarn and then leaped into my Katniss discussion. It's because my mind works that way.

I have decided that I think I need a slightly more tightly twisted yarn than Bugga for the cables.  The Katniss is working fine, but there are times when sliding the needle back into the loops doesn't quite work and I end up picking up only one or two plies.  I think the Skinny Bugga is slightly tighter, so I might go with that.  I don't have two skeins which are the same colours as I had originally chosen.

I do have a Grouchy Ladybug, but it's quite a bit more variegated than the Bugga version, and if we're going to be doing cables, I don't want to have them hidden by the yarn. So I was thinking of Boxelder Beetle, which is close but a little more muted. And my other choices are Sandworm or Adonis Butterfly.

Ironically, I'm cursing myself for not having a better selection of blues.

The Adonis Butterfly is just a bit too pale to work with the Boxelder Beetle or even the Grouchy Ladybug.  So I've pulled out two other choices -- Sea Urchin or WRM Melon.

Adonis Butterfly:

WRM Melon:L

Sea Urchin:

I'm tempted to go with the WRM Melon because it's a little edgier.  The Sea Urchin and the Adonis Butterly look a bit too pastel baby blanket ish together.  

And in the category of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? Here's my tale of braindead woe. On Saturday I had to mow our lawn. Then I decided to do the next-door neighbours' lawn since they (Phil and Joanne) have blown our snow on the sidewalk in winter.  Then  I decided to do the neighbours' lawns immediately to our right and then two houses over (next to Phil and Joanne).  The two outermost neighbours are related (which is funny, because two brothers also have houses on the other side of the block), and the husbands seem to work elsewhere and are only seldom home.  So I felt sorry for the women having to mow (completely ignoring the irony that I am a single parent who does the mowing....) and decided to mow for them.  So that was a big sweaty slog.  I had to empty the grass catcher three times.  And in the process of this mowing frenzy, I was sweating and ended up sweating all over my iPod which was tucked under a bra strap.

The result?  It got waterlogged.  I've had it in rice for 5 days but it is just dead, dead, dead.  The on button isn't working.  And apparently I don't have enough good karma points stored up to be able to redeem them for a working iPod.  Sigh.   It was the new one.  I've had it only a couple of months. It's even personalized with "Amphibiaknitter" on the back.  Dammit.  Braindead. 

RIP little iPod.  That's the second iPod which has gone to a watery grave....

Done!

Tour de Sock #1 is done.  I'm calling them Lisey's Secret Fans because I've spent most of my time listening to Lisey's Story by Stephen King while working on them. 

There were a couple more bumps along the way with sock 2.  Christine pointed out that I had done the heel wrong for sock #1.  I did an eye of partridge heel (because that's what I had copied down onto my graph paper in my knitting book for Chart C).  But it's only EOP on the outside; it's regular slip stitch heel on the inside, so it's supposed to have the middle spines coming down from the bottom of the last fan. It's a very cool design touch, but I am full of fail.  On sock #2, I thought I had made the right correction to the chart, but as it turns out, I only did so on the right side rather than on the left side.  So it's still a little wonky.  

But they're done.  

Magda has pointed out that the secret sneaky instep bead would make it uncomfortable for Princess to steal these for wearing inside her work boots.  I heartily agree. These are mine, all mine.  The yarn was a gift from Christine, so I'll not be giving them up to my daughter. 

I only did a secret fan on the back of sock #2.  I didn't have enough beads for two full secret fans.  You can read my x-rated diatribe on my Rav project page if you're remotely interested (and not remotely offended by 4-letter words). 

Tour de frigging Sock

I'm home sick today.  I'm trying to be zen about this stupid frigging sock, but it's not working.  You can check my Rav project page for the running details. 

Sock #1 -- June 1, 2013-June 3, 2013

Sock #2 -- June 3, 2013 - in progress.

Grrr....

1) It meets the 9" requirement. Check.

2) Note the very sexy little bead at the bottom of the v on the instep.  Very chic, if I do say so myself.

3) I ended up twisting the last stitch of each heel flap row in an effort to get those selvedges a little tighter.  One one side, it gives kind of a neat little twisty line going down. (See photo #8) I need to figure out how to do that for the other side of the heel flap.

4) Did the single sole gusset decrease, which I do fairly often anyway. See photos 6 & 7.

Sock #1 is a success.  Sock #2 is in the midst of full-fledged fail because I forgot that I don't have enough beads for both sides of the sock.  Grrr.

Here's what I have learned:

1) It's a good thing that I didn't volunteer for a TdS team, or I would bring everyone down.  There is no way on the green earth that I can knit 2 socks with 500 beads in the space of a week.  No way. Ain't happening.  I loathe and detest beads.  

2)  When I make my effort with the next beads, I'm going to use a very tight twist yarn.  My choices are Sokkusu and Socks that Rock.  Since my 500 beads are hematite, I think I'll have to use a grey. I think I have 2 skeins of HB#2 in Sokkusu, and I have a wound skein of Deep Unrelenting Grey in STR.  Not sure what weight it is, but it's going to have less yardage than the Sokkusu, so I'll have to wind some Sokkusu.  

 

0

Anticipation

Forgot to take photos until it was almost too late.  Here's the Hazel Knits Artisan in Jam Session with the matte and metallic beads.  

I'm going with the shiny metallic beads.

Bring on the first Tour de Sock sock...

Speaking of Fiber....

Of course, in Canada, that would be speaking of fibre....

Princess wanted me to buy Clif bars when I was at the grocery store last week (or whenever). They're usually found in the quasi-organic section at Sobey's. I was at Superstore but didn't find any.

Instead, I saw these.  I was so horrified I had to take a picture.

Whoever was behind the name brand for that particular product should be fired. Or shot.  Or locked outside a bathroom. 

Really?  Bowel Buddy?  They couldn't have called them Fiber Friend? 

I showed the kids and they were suitably horrified.  And the Lad pointed out the price.  $13.79.  I nearly fainted dead away when I saw that.

And no, they didn't have any Clif bars at Superstore.

Then the other day, when I went to Sobeys, I noticed there was a rainbow.  We don't see them that often here, so I had to take a picture.

Then I noticed it was actually a double rainbow, which is even more rare.  

The outer rainbow was much more faint than the inner one.

By the time I got home (which was about 5 minutes later), the outer rainbow had disappeared.

Okay, that's all the non-knitting out of the way. Or pretty much all of it, at any rate.

What have I accomplished since I last blogged?  I finished the first Wollmeise Simple Skyp sock, I knit a pair of Simple Skyp socks in Woolen Rabbit Harmony, and I finally finished the second Wicked Vanilla.

And I have developed an annoying and alarming case of paresthesia in my thumb and forefinger on my right hand.  It makes it uncomfortable to knit, so my knitting has decreased drastically.  I noticed it two weekends ago, and it has bothered me every day since.  I even tried changing the way I tension the yarn in my hand to relieve the pressure on my forefinger, but that didn't help.  I have actually not knit anything since the weekend.  

Here's the first Skyp to my Loo sock.  [I appear to be on a Buddy roll here, but I called it Skyp to my Loo on my project page because it's a play on the old song and the yarn is ... well ... brown].

I did an eye of partridge heel on it.  It's meh.  One down, one to go.

Then I finished the second Wicked Vanilla.  I did just a plain stockinette with a Strong heel from the Charlene Schurch / Beth Parrott Sock Knitter's Handbook.  

I decided to go with fraternal rather than identical socks.  I had done the slipknot between the charcoal and the purple on the first sock, and I did it between the charcoal and the green on the second sock. I'm not sure that I would do that again for a self-striping yarn.  I ended up with a double stripe of green on one instep and a double stripe of purple on the other. 

According to my knitting notebook, I started #2 on May 20 and finished on May 25.

The yarn is Dye Hard Fibre Arts Serendipitous Sock (Self-Striping) in an 80/10/10 MCN blend.  The colourway is Wicked.

14 rows of ribbing; 72 rows for the leg; strong heel; 32 heel thing rows; then another 43 rows on the foot, 20 rows for the toe decreases and then kitchener. 

The second Skyp socks were out of my Woolen Rabbit Harmony in New England Red. This was my first time using any Woolen Rabbit yarn, even though I have (had) 14 skeins.   I had started to use this once before and then frogged whatever it was I was making from it.

I want to branch out and use yarns which I haven't knit with before.  The Woolen Rabbit Harmony fit the bill. 

It's quite a big yarn -- it feels rounder and bouncier than a lot of yarns, particularly 80/20 MN yarns.  It feels comparable to Bugga in terms of its size, but it's not a sportweight. It's quite soft as well, which is nice.

I did find it splitty, and it's one of those yarns which only seems to soak up the dye on the outer layer, so when the yarn splits, it's white underneath. That's not a bad thing; it's just a thing.

Overall, I'd probably give it 4 stars and I would definitely use it again.  My only complaint about the Woolen Rabbit is that the colours you receive are not necessarily close to the colours on the website.  I had a couple of disappointments with that, and I know Mapleweave had one.  (She had ordered a skein of Harmony in Sea Dreams and it arrived covered with red spots.  It was like she got the red algae version.  I think the Woolen Rabbit was a bit difficult in terms of a return or an exchange).  

For this second pair of Skyp socks, I carried the Skyp pattern down the heel.  I started the heel on the wrong side (so that I could do k2, p6 and then do the skyp pattern on the right side).

Overall I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. 

I have now gone back and unpicked the unsuccessful heel on the Cherry Love Socks in the Sweet Georgia BFL in Cayenne, but I don't have the strength to try to fix it right now.

And I'm a little (a lot) worried about this nasty numbness / tingling in my hand.  It's only in the one hand.  It feels sort of half way between numbness and that icky feeling of when the blood goes rushing back to an area after it has gone to sleep.  It's very unpleasant.  And since I've signed up to do Tour de Sock, which requires completion of a pair of socks within 10 days, I wonder whether I'll be able to do it.

The first Tour de Sock sock is designed by Adrienne Fong (Bellybutton Knits), and it requires 50 matching beads.  I had a tube of metallic purpley-red beads and one of the matte purpley red beads, so I strung a couple of each onto a skein of yarn.  If it's sunny tomorrow, I'll take a photo.  I didn't think to do that earlier when it was light out. (Duh).  I think I'll end up going with the metallic shiny beads.  I bought them thinking that I'd end up using a burgundy yarn, since I have quite a few in stash.  But when I pulled out my wound cakes to see what worked, it seems that the beads are a better match with a purpley yarn.  The beads match my skein of Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Jam Session.  And since that's a colour which is near and dear to my purple and pink-loving heart, I'm quite looking forward to knitting with it.  And the beads.  

No other pictures, and no other deliveries.  I'm waiting for my paper version of The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet Vol. 2.  I'm also waiting for the May RSC offering, but that of course won't get here until some time in mid-June. 

I haven't done the March pattern yet.  I feel that I ought to, particularly since it's the only sock club I'm in this year.

Okay, off to ruminate about what to knit next.  I suppose I could start the second Minnie sock. 

If I dither long enough, it will be bed time and it won't matter. 

 

 

Knitting ADD

I think I suffer from knitting ADD.  I flit from project to project.  When I finish something, I decide to start a new project instead of finishing up something from the Lonely Hearts Club.  Oh well.  

It's Victoria Day weekend, but it's not exactly warm and welcoming out there.  It's cold. Good weekend to stay in and knit.  

I have lots of arrivals this week -- needles, yarn, a book and a FO and an almost HO. 

But first, let me get the non-knitting content out of the way.  The thing I love about my iPhone is that I always have a camera with me.  

As I was leaving the gym the other day, I was walking toward what appeared to be a two-tone car.  I thought it was mostly copper coloured with some sort of wacky blue and purple on the front quarter panel. 

But no -- it's paint which changes colour depending on the angle and the light. It's a beautiful blue and pinky-purple.  In 1983 I had eyeshadow like this -- it was called Blue Roses.  Anyway, I think I'm in love.

Princess (the car geek) tells me it's called chameleon paint. Yep, I am definitely in lurve.  

Okay, enough with the non-knitting and onto the fibre.

I think I mentioned that I had ordered the Karbonz from WEBS and then ordered some more from the Loopy Ewe.  The Loopy Ewe package arrived last week. (Oh, how I love the feeling of parcels in the mail...).

Sherri has done something new with the Loopy Groupy stuff, so I got a bookmark kit. I had ordered the Karbonz 6" DPNs in 2.0, 2.25 and 2.50 mm sizes.

You can see the tips fairly well.  I retract what I said, they're not quite as pointy as the SNA 2.0 mm needles.  They're probablly comparable to somethinig like Hiya Hiyas or Chiaogoos.  I wouldn't use them for anything requiring k3tog or p3tog.  They're okay for ssk and k2tog and they are totally acceptable for stockinette and ribbing. 

I like them quite a bit, but they will never eclipse the Signatures.

Speaking of which, Signature is unveiling something new at the end of the month.  My guess?  Interchangeables.  That's what I suspect.  Of course, I can't enter the contest because I don't live in the USA. So feel free to use my guess.  Interchangeables, interchangeables, interchangeables.

I also ordered 4 skeins of Biscotte & Cie self-striping yarn. It's from Quebec.  Believe it or not, I didn't find anything else yarn-wise that I wanted from TLE.  I might actually be running a fever.

Two of the skeins are watermelon self-striping.  There's a lighter and a darker.  I kept going back to Ravelry to check out people's projects, and I liked them both so much I decided to get both of them (melon d'eau A and melon d'eau B).  There's a bright sunny vibrant summery one (a moi le coco) and a blue/neutrals one called Loopy's Mountain Hike.  I quite like them and am very excited to knit them up.

So those make me pretty happy.  

I also ordered Rachel Coopey's Coop Knits Socks.  The book is only available from her website, but if you order the print version, you get a coupon code to download it from Ravelry.  

I like the socks and I like the fact that she uses real-world models. Many of the socks have cabley / twisty stitches, so I'm going to start with the basic lace ones (Calamint will be first on the needles).  I like the fact that she often has the leg and foot with different patterns and then alternates them on the other sock.  

You can see what I mean about the fraternal feet. The green pair (whose name escapes me) is an example of that.

Anyway, the book is lovely and the charts are nice.  There's a picture gallery index which is always handy.  My only complaint is that the paper is a little on the thin side.  But since I'll most likely be knitting from PDF or will be transcribing the charts onto graph paper in my knitting book, it's not a big deal.

I have had Mixalot in my Rav cart forever.  I finally purchased it, along with When Vampires Knit Socks.  I've had my eye on that for a long time, but the 20 pound purchase price put me off.  I think it works out to about $32 or $33 for 12 patterns.  I realize that's a pretty good deal, but I was mentally resistant to a two-digit price starting with a 2, particularly when there's currency conversion involved.  We'll see how I get along.  More socks for retirement. 

It occurs to me that I have the Knit Girls to thank for that particular purchase. They are the queens of enabling.

Since I last blogged, I have been fairly prolific, but in a one step forward - two steps back kind of way.  The reason my Rav name is Amphibiaknitter is because I do so much frogging. (And amphibian knitter kind of blended into amphibiaknitter). 

I did almost a complete Semaphore sock using some Blissful Sock in Guinevere from Impulse of Delight.  I was almost at the toe decreases when I looked down and realized I had not been paying attention and had repeated rows 1-10 several times rather than doing 1-10 and 11-20.  So I frogged it.  Then I decided to do a garter stitch rib sock with it for my FIL.  I got about half way down the leg and discovered that I did an extra row of plain knit when I should have been doing a patterned row, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.  So I have wound the yarn back into a ball and am leaving it for now.

I like the Skyp socks pattern by Adrienne Ku, so I decided to cast on a pair.  I thought I'd use some Wollmeise to see how I like knitting with the Twin.  I had a skein of Fratello already wound up, so I decided to use that.

The yarn base itself gets two thumbs up.  But the colour?  I realize this is heresy, but I am not a fan.  I don't care for the yarns which do wacky pooling striping flashing stuff.  It's one thing if they're variegated in the way that a lot of BMFA is variegated, but when yarn has kind of random globs of colour, it drives me nuts.  Don't get me wrong -- I have nothing against either shade of brown in the Fratello.  But please, pick one or the other.  Even though this is probably classified as a tonal or a semi-tonal, all I can see is uneven stripes which overwhelm what is an otherwise very simple stitch pattern.

This is 2.25 mm needles and a 72-stitch sock.  1x1 rib (which was a mistake -- should have done 2x2).

For comparison purposes, I cast on the same sock in my Woolen Rabbit Harmony in New England Red because I thought that would be a nice yarn to show off the pattern.  I am doing 64 stitches on 2.50 mm needles for that one.  And I was smart enough to do a 2x2 cuff on it.  But not smart enough to take a photo.  Duh.  Next time.

So I am going to cruise along on the brown Skyp sock after I finish blogging, but that dark striping is really driving me crazy.  I've just switched to the Karbonz DPNs.  We'll see if that makes me love the sock a little more.

I do occasionally feel guilty enough about my Lonely Hearts to make the second sock.  I had started my Crocus Vernus socks more than a year ago, and in fact got the first sock finished in about a week.  (That was March 2012).  I didn't even start the second sock until September 2012. Then it languished forever.  I dug it out recently and decided I had to finish it.

I love the finished product. They're knitted in Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering in Carpet Ride.  I love the Plucky Knitter sock yarns.  This was my one and only experience with the Primo Fingering.  I have a couple more skeins of it, and I'll for sure be using it again. 

Finished the second sock right before blogging today.  This is one of those patterns which I actually prefer on the leg to the unblocked version.  I often find that stitch patterns end up looking kind of meh on the actual leg, but this one is the reverse.  It's even nicer on the leg.  I will have to get a photo of them on my actual feet (or possibly on Princess's feet). For now, Lola and the Knit Picks sock blocker will have to do.

The sock is 68 stitches and I used 2.25 mm needles. 

I have The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet 2 electronically and am waiting for the paper version.

There are a couple of the hats in there which I think I'd like to make. The Polyommatus corydon is particularly fetching.

I might do the Smerinthus ocellatus sock fairly soon, but I'm not going to use something dull and moth-coloured.  I quite like the toe detail.  Hunter gives good toe.  Or I might do Metopsilus porcellus in something bright and vivid.  Delias eucharis is lovely, but that's a lot of twisted cabley stitches.  I'll have to learn to cable without a cable needle for that.  I just find twisted stitches and cables kind of slow going.

Speaking of slow going, Christine referred me to Tour de Sock on Ravelry.  I've joined up.  What was I thinking? I don't have time to knit a pair of socks in 10 days.  Witness the long delayed Crocus vernis.... And to make it worse, there's some sort of Stealth Stitch group [Sock Sniper] as well which is a companion group, so I signed up for it as well (but the non-combatant category, which I hope means I don't have to be attempting to knit socks at the speed of sound).

The cool thing about Tour de Sock is that the net proceeds all go to Doctors without Borders. And I think the patterns are donated, but I'm not 100% certain.  There's a supply list, and I think a couple of the socks are colourwork (yeah, I see myself dropping out right now) and two have beads.  One requires 500 size 8/0 beads, and the other requires 50 size 6/0 beads.  One of the two is supposed to coordinate with the yarn.  I can't remember which one.

[ETA, as I've gone back to get the Rav links for my blog, I re-read the supply list for the Tour de Sock.  It's 50 size 8/0 beads, not size 6/0 beads.  Great.  I'm a moron.]

Living where I do, there's a dearth of most crafty-related things.  So I went to Michael's where I know they sell beads.  There's a section where they sell quite nice beads in little tubes.  Now what size do you think they are?  Size 6/0 and size 11/0.  Helpful.  Size 11/0 is apparently too small.  

And there are zero size 8/o beads which are marked as such.  

I was in a quandary, so I took a look at the bead sizes. The 6/0 is 4 mm, and the 11/0 were 2.25 mm (or something like that).  So I figured that size 8/0 might be 3 mm, so I found some 3 mm beads.  That was actually no mean feat.  There weren't 500 of anything except for the hematite beads.  So I grabbed 5 strands of those (which are pre-strung on fishing line, which is kind of cool).  I'll have to go back and see whether the 500 beads are for the matchy matchy one or for the other.  I may use the new skein of Dove from Tanis Fiber Arts with those beads.   Of course I dropped a couple when transferring them into a container.  

I may have completely missed the sizing, and 8/0 beads may be some other size all together.  Live and learn I guess.

But while I was there,  I picked up some silver and platinum closed jump rings in 4mm and 6mm sizes for stitch markers.  I also picked up some of those shepherd's hook earring things to use as locking stitch markers.  I thought that was pretty clever, particularly when I went to what passes for a knitting section and saw that there were no locking stitch markers other than in the Jumbo size. 

Well, that's all for today, folks.  We shall see what the rest of the month brings for knitting.  In the meantime, in front of me right this very instant I have a Ripple weave, and the two Skyp socks.  And so why am I thinking about casting on for another sock?  Well, because I have knitting ADD, of course ...

Hooray for May

The marking is finally done.  Then I had to co-read another 4 papers, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Two additional students ended up deferring their final exams, so there will be one more small round of exam marking (and creating- ugh).

But enough.  On to other things....

Remember these?

They're Floral Gums.  They're perfumey.  I used to love them as a kid.  But then again, I also like Thrills gum.  My kids think the Floral Gums are disgusting. Quinn says they're not exactly gummy, which is true.  They're kind of hard. And kind of addictive.

I finished the second Monkey sock, so now I have a pair.  I like how they turned out.  I was pretty disappointed initially with the Mango Tango colourway when it arrived.  But it grew on me as I was using it.  So the Monkeys are a hit.  I did 64 stitches with 2.50 mm needles.

 I finished the first Epic Lattice sock.  It’s a little snug because it was done on 2.25 mm needles and is only 64 stitches around.  I may end up giving that to Princess and knitting myself another pair on bigger (2.50 mm) needles.  It’s a great pattern – well written and clear. I will do the Green Goddess sock soon.

 

I also had a hankering to do a stripey sock, so I pulled out the Classic Minnie yarn from Nalani Yarns (which I had started in a pattern and didn’t care for.  It’s the Corn Snake on my Rav page) and decided that the yarn didn’t need anything more than plain stockinette.

I did 72 stitches and started with 2.25 mm needles for the leg, and then once I hit the afterthought heel line I dropped down to 2.0 mm needles.

I was going to try to do a forethought heel.  I pulled out The Sock Knitter's Handbook by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott.  But I have to say, it doesn't work so well if you're using DPNs.  I can't get my brain around it and there were going to be ridiculous ladders.  So I gave up and decided to do an afterhtought heel instead.

I have some icky Fortissima Socka in black which I'll use for the heel.  Or I may use the actual Classic Minnie yarn.  We'll see.  It depends on how much of the stripey yarn is left after the second tube.

  

I was using my Signature needles.  The size 0 (2.0 mm Signatures) are steel rather than aluminum, because apparently the aluminum didn’t work on the smaller size – it was too bendy.  The points on the 2.0 mm Signatures are not quite as stiletto as the points on the 2.25 and 2.5 and even 2.75 mm needles.  I’d say they’re more comparable to Hiya Hiya DPNs or ChiaoGoo DPNs.   They’re also quite heavy in comparison to the aluminum ones.  So I have used them for socks in the past, but they’re not my favourite.  To be honest, I prefer the Knit Picks nickel-plated size 2.0 mm needles.  (And I don’t know where on earth I’ve put them.  I can only find my 2.25 mms).

The other night as I was lying in bed, I was googling the Knitter’s Pride Karbonz.  I can’t remember why I started thinking about them, but I did.  I ended up ordering some from Webs. I ordered the 1.50 mm needle size (in case I want to work with thin yarn, and lots of stitches to make really dense socks), 2.0 mm and 2.50 mm needles. They didn’t have any of the 2.5 mm needles in stock.  So I ordered them.  The three sets together was about the same price as a set of 5 Signature DPNs, so the price point is right.

I wasn’t sure whether there would be join issues between the stainless steel caps (or are they nickel?) and the carbon fiber needles.

ETA:  nickel-coated brass.  Duh. 

When the Blackthorn needles came out, I was so excited that I bought 3 sets (plus a 3” cable needle).  They were priced somewhere between the Karbonz and the Signatures, but closer to the Signatures.  The packaging was nice (compared to the Karbonz) – the Blackthorns came in their own little zippered pouch, which I thought was a really nice touch. 

I tried to love the Blackthorns, I really did.  But it just didn’t happen.  They have an odd feel to them and have an odd sound texture.  I also wasn’t crazy about the tips because they were too blunt.  I used an emery board to make the tips a wee bit pointier, but it still didn’t help.  And the actual needles feel like they’re faintly ridged length-wise.  So I never knit more than a few rows with them.  They have been relegated to my “seconds” needle pouch.

I didn’t receive any kind of a confirmation or a shipping email from Webs, so I thought I would just cancel the order.  On Monday the Loopy Ewe Sneak Preview indicated that Sherri was bringing in the Karbonz needles, so I ordered a set of 2.0 mm, 2.25  mm and another 2.50 mm.  I also ordered 4 skeins of Biscotte & Cie because I’m currently (again) smitten with self-striping sock yarn.  I was pretty jazzed when I got an email on Tuesday or Wednesday saying that my order had shipped.  So I was about to cancel the Webs order.

Then I checked my mail and discovered that the Webs order had arrived.  Holy moly, that was lickety split fast.  I don’t know what happened. Canada Post is NEVER that fast.  And I didn’t get a shipping email from Webs or anything.

So I decided to try the 2.0 mm Karbonz since I was using 2.0 mm Signatures on the foot of the Classic Minnie vanilla sock. 

Based on my experience with the Blackthorns, and my undying love for Signatures, I wasn’t expecting much.  And I was actually kicking myself for having ordered more without having tested them.

But I am pleasantly surprised – more than pleasantly surprised, in fact.

The tips of the Karbonz are not as sharp as the stiletto tips on the Signatures (2.25 mm and larger).  But they are (almost)*  EXACTLY as sharp and pointy as the Signature 2.0 mm needles, and even have the same taper point.  I’ll see if I can get photos during the day.

*When I look at the pictures in close-up I can see that the Karbonz are just a wee bit more blunt than the Signatures in the 2.0 mm size.  

 

The body of the Karbonz needles feels smooth rather than ribbed.  That’s a huge plus for me. With knitting needles, there’s no such thing as ribbed for her pleasure.  As I said above, the join between the cap and the body is smooth and seamless and not noticeable at all.  I was expecting that there would be some drag because of the body of the needles, but it’s almost imperceptible.  I’m a tip knitter, so I end up concentrating all my work at the tips, but there is no friction as the rest of the stitches spread over the rest of the needle.

Some people have referred to the Karbonz needles as light and “warm”.  I agree that they’re pretty light in comparison to stainless steel needles. They’re probably comparable to the lightweight aluminum in the 2.25 mm and larger Signature needles.   In terms of warmth, I don’t really notice that one way or another. I guess if I put my finger on the tip and then compare with the body, then I can see what is meant by “warm” needles.  I’m not a bamboo knitter (gave that up after my first sock when I got smart and found Signatures), so I don’t have a passion for the “warmth” of bamboo or wood.  So the warmth factor for me is neutral.

Other reviewers have referred to the Karbonz needles as flexible. They aren’t flexible in terms of being bendy. Some plastic (and maybe the casein needles) and wood needles are what I would describe as bendy. I’m not a huge fan of bendy.  With the Karbonz, there is a little flexibility, but no bend.  I think you can feel that there is some give if you try to bend the needles, but they won’t break.

I assume that they also won’t bend out of shape in the way that the Signatures do and in the way that bamboo needles do.  I have a couple of Signature needles which are slightly and not-so-slightly bent, and I can’t stand knitting with them.  I can feel it.  It feels awkward and wrong.  Maybe I’m just being a bit Princess and the Pea about it, but I don’t like bendy needles.  The Karbonz seem to snap right back into position, so I don’t think that they will be bendy in that way.  To me, that’s a huge plus.

Remember this? 

Oh fer ****sakes, I just realized that the 1.50 mm Karbonz are 8” and not 6”.  I hate 8” needles for socks.  Blech.  Oh well.  But seriously, who am I kidding?  Am I really going to knit socks on 1.5 mm needles?

I will wait to see how the 2.25 and 2.50 mm Karbonz do.  I’m not sure how any of the Karbonz will do with things like k3tog and p3tog.  But so far on ribbing and stockinette and toe decreases, they are just fine.  I haven’t noticed any splittiness with the needles going into the yarn, so that’s a plus. 

These might even pre-empt the Knit Picks nickel-plated DPNs as my second favourite needles.  And for some things, they may in fact even eclipse the Signatures. 

So I am very pleased with them as a purchase.  The price is absolutely right.  For people who really like the Signatures but don’t really like the price point, the Karbonz are worth investigating.  At $14.95ish per set, they’re a good price, and they are much better value for the price than the stainless steel versions. 

So as a dedicated DPN knitter and usually a Signature knitter, these Karbonz get two thumbs up from me.  That may change in future, but for now, I’m pleased. 

In fact, I just cast on for the second Classic Minnie sock.

[And then realized that I cast on in 2.0 mm needles when I did the leg of the other one in 2.25 mm needles....]

I also purchased three skeins of yarn in Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label. I am in love with the January offering for the Year in Fiber club this year.  The pattern is one by Tanis herself, and it’s beautiful. It’s just the kind of pattern which appeals to me.  It’s like the repeating geometric Cookie A patterns.  The yarn for the January shipment was called Patina and it’s absolutely glorious. If it becomes a regular colour in a year from now, I'll get a skein then. (Same thing with Tanis' pattern). 

I thought about joining the club again, but this year Tanis is venturing into other yarn weights, and really I’m a fingering weight girl.  So I think the January shipment is the only one I would be desperate to have.  (That may change, depending on what else she comes up with for the year).

I was looking at the TFA site and noticed the Iris colourway.  I had yearned for it a while ago, and when I went back to look at it again, it was still calling to me. It’s as attractive to me as Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, and that’s saying something.  So I ordered a skein of that, a skein of Lucky Penny and a skein of one of the greys (Dove Grey ?  Shadow? The one with less blue and more pinky/ purple undertones).  They arrived yesterday.  What is up with Canada Post?  There is something seriously amiss when they can actually get stuff delivered in reasonable time.  I assumed that things would be slow now that Tanis and Chris have Rowan, but they were super speedy. 

Lucky Penny, Dove and Iris

 

And I can say that the yarns do not disappoint. They are lovely. 

Speaking of Cephalopod Yarns, I would really love some Mantis Shrimp, Jewel Anemone and Moon Jelly.  And of course a more purple skein of the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. 

If I were going to make a BMFA order (which I am NOT), I'd get After Sundown, What the Foqua (love the name), Plum Crazy and Sabretooth Caterpillar.

In other non-knitting stuff, I finally baked the FIMO Christmas ornaments we made at Christmas.  Unfortunately, the big sock monkey's leg broke because I think he dried out.  (Really? They've only been sitting on the kitchen counter since Christmas...).

These are mine.

These are Quinn's.

I need to get some gloss finish for them, but that can wait.  

Here they are in close-up in case anyone is still reading down this far and is even remotely interested. No patterns.  All from my brain. 

 

Halfway There

It's almost the end of April. I'm halfway through marking.  Ugh. 

But since it has been a couple of weeks, I thought I'd do a wee (and by wee, of course I mean bloated) blog update.

Sometimes I decide to blog about the yarn frolics first, and other times I decide to leave them to the end.  And sometimes I blog in the order of the photographs in my phone.  That's basically how I know what to blog.  I do a blog post after uploading my photos to the computer.  It works for me.

So in random order....  A couple of Fridays ago, they were installing a new transformer at our head office building.  The crane was huge, and the transformer is huge. 

I'm not sure how high the chain link fence is around the transformers.  It's maybe 6' high or 8' high? 

In the top picture you can see that the two older transformers are the ones under the brick building. The new one is shorter.

On the same day of the transformer installation, I walked in the other direction along the waterfront boardwalk.  There were some interesting looking streetlights on one of the piers. 

The grouping is an artistic installation called The Way Things Are.

The two above are Got Drunk, Fell Down.  Snort.

The one leaning over the pier is Fountain. It's taking a leak.  Literally.

There must be a pump hooked up underneath the lamp stand which continually brings the water up  from the harbour.  It's hilarious. 

I just love the sinuous shapes. 

Here's the blurb.

And for those who are wondering, yes, it is almost ALWAYS cloudy in Halifax.  I haven't had decent sun for pictures since I don't remember when.  Ugh.  

The ironic thing is that with all of this Maritime Link stuff going on, some groups are saying that we should be harnessing photovoltaic power and drawing all of our energy from The Sun (which is actually bold like that on their website and in their letter to the UARB).  

Um, yeah. Not so much.  If we had to rely on solar power in Halifax, we'd be back to kerosene lanterns, candles, and tincans and string. 

On my way between the transformer and the art installation, I noticed a persian rug hung over the rails of a boat ramp.  Very bizarre. 

The Lad had to do a self-portrait for painting class.  They had to do an underpainting, and he did it in metallic fly-blue green paint.  Then he did the overpainting.  I love it.  Unfortunately, because we have no Sun, the picture doesn't capture the intensity of the colours.  

He literally did this in a day. 

I can literally sit and look at that painting for hours.  It looks good by Marilyn.  You can see how mesmerizing it is on the wall.

I'm so proud of my kid.  He's awesome.  His drawings and etchings are absolutely fabulous, but I'll leave those for another day.

The part you've all been waiting for is the yarn frolix.  So here they are.

My March Rockin' Sock Club offering finally came.  It's called Hope Springs Eternal.  I can't remember or see whether it's lightweight or mediumweight.  I like it well enough.  The yellow has the hint of scum which Tina is so fond of (of which Tina is so fond). 

The pattern is by Adrienne Fong (BellyButton Knits).  I like her patterns.  But I think I'll do it with a less variegated yarn. 

After I got my teaching honorarium, I treated myself to some Plucky Feet.  I like that base more than the Primo base, and I wanted some really neutral / work sock colours. 

From left to right, they're Milk Maid, Map Room, High Cotton, Road Trip, Lonesome Highway and Berry Cordial. 

In terms of what's actually on and off the needles, I worked my matchmaking magic and made another Happy Couple, so there's one less Lonely Heart in my languishing pile.  It's the Roadside Attraction socks by Star Athena (January Rockin' Sock Club pattern) using On Blueberry Hill Mediumweight. 

I have started the second Mango Tango Monkey and am part way down the leg. It's in a holding pattern for now.

Given my epic fail with the Falling Leaves, I decided to try a different pattern by Nancy Whitman.  I have three of her patterns -- Falling Leaves, Epic Lattice and Green Goddess. 

I started Epic Lattice using a skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Yarn in Chestnut. This is deep stash diving for me.  It's one of the first skeins I bought after becoming a sock knitter.  There are some uneven areas of colour in the sock.  Generally I love how soft it is, and it's a standard superwash Merino Nylon (10% nylon, I think, or maybe 15?).  The pattern is 64 stitches so I decided to use a 2.25 mm needle.  

It's really a tight fit.  I had trouble getting it on Lola to model it.  This will either end up as a Lonely Heart or it's going to someone with tiny legs. 

The pattern is clear and well-written, and it has a good explanation of moving stitches around to obtain a diagonal spiral effect.  

If I do this one again, I'm going to use a 2.5 mm needle.  I bet this would be gorgeous in a nice bright colour.

I am on the last 16-row repeat on the foot and then will decrease for the toes. I can probably get this one finished tonight.  Then tomorrow it's back to the red pen and the stack of assignments waiting for me.  Sigh.

Almost there, I keep telling myself, almost there...

Oh, before I go, I should mention that we went to see Stars on Ice last night.  It was absolutely fabulous.  It was breathtaking in places.  Some of the costumes were amazing and the choreography was just wonderful.  I would see that again in a heartbeat.  If you're in an area and Stars on Ice comes to town, treat yourself.  You won't regret it. 

I took Princess as my guest and she only said she would go along as a labour of love.  But she actually ended up enjoying it. 

I leave you with a dog shot.  We (I) finally washed their big dog bed, so now they're back to sharing a place to nap.