Loopy Purchase

Since the supplies list went up on the Sock Madness site, I used my fingers to do some shopping. I only ordered on Tuesday, and the box was waiting at my front door when I arrived home from work! I ordered about half of the yarn that I'll need from The Loopy Ewe. As always, I am very pleased with my purchase and am now even more excited for Sock Madness to begin! :)
I ordered Colinette Jitterbug in Summer Berries, Claudia Handpainted in Sharks, and Cherry Tree Hill in Green Mountain Madness. The yarns feel wonderful and look so great.

Progress Update

I've been knitting exclusively on the Flower Motif Shawl since Sunday, and its really coming along! I have just a litle bit of the last hexagon to knit and about 2/3 of the border. The border is knitted on with a technique that I haven't tried before, but it is going well. I'm really hoping to block this last motif when I arrive home from work tonight. I think that I only have about a half hour left to knit and, as luck would have it, that is just about my commute time! I put motifs 7 and 8 to block last night and they should be dry and ready to be sewn to the rest of the shawl so that I can continue the border.

I'm in a little bit of a hurry to get this done and mailed so that I can move on to some other projects. I have a van pool friend that has asked me to knit some pogies, a mitten worn by scullers (rowers) while practicing in the early morning hours on Greenlake. I made the first pair a few weeks ago. Her sculling friends liked them so well that 2 of them want a pair as well. I don't really like the feel of the yarn that she has given me, but they're quick to knit (3 hours or so) and each pair pays $20. I'll like having the extra money to spend on my addiction! (To knitting, that is:) ) This project needs to be done soon as Sock Madness will be starting in just a couple weeks! I really need to have no other projects that must be worked on during that time. I'm looking so forward to all that I have planned, but there just don't seem to be enough knitting hours in the day, and work certainly doesn't help! ;)

Socks Finished

The Esprit socks were finished in no time! I've just been a lazy blogger. In the picture you can see the first one only, but I do have a pair. I was working on them at my in laws, 2 weeks ago, and my MIL loves them. She told me a couple times, "I have a birthday, soon." They did end up just a little longer than I like to wear and, with the elastic in the yarn, will easily stretch to fit her feet. (Hers are slightly larger than mine.) I knit these from Cat Bordhi's latest sock book. I'm still loving those patterns. I don't have the book checked out from the library right now, but I managed to practically memorize this one.

A Trip to the Frog Pond

I've decided that I didn't really like the combination of yarn, pattern and color that I was using for Arietta, and have decided to rip-it out. Since I have all this yarn that I no longer have a pattern picked out for, I cast on for a pair of socks out of a couple balls. So far, I love the fabric created by knitting the yarn on size 1 needles! (The yarn is Elann’s Esprit. While I didn’t like it so much on size 3 needles for a sweater, it does make nice, thick socks.) There really is a saving grace through this whole ordeal, after all! :) I can always use more socks and don't have any in cotton that fit very well. These are going to be wonderful.

Socks Finished

I stayed up a little late, last night, but just had to finish these! :) They are from the February Sockamania pattern, Simply Love. I used 2.25 mm dpns instead of the 2.75 mm recommended by the pattern. I also only knit 2 repeats of the leg pattern, rather than the 3 called for in the pattern. This way, they are the perfect length for me. I did end up with quite a little bit of yarn left over. The only other change that I made in the pattern was that I accidentaly omitted 1 row of the heart pattern! As a result, the hearts are not quite as wide. For the yarn, I used Meilenweit 100's Marmi. The colors are fuscia (pink and purple and white.) They fit very well and I'm wearing them today. They really make me smile.

Projects, new and old

I finished the knitting on the Blue Swing Cardigan last Saturday and allowed myself to cast on for a pair of socks. This time, it was the Simply Love Socks, from the Sockamania group. This is February's pattern and as such, has lace hearts knitted into the top of the foot and the leg. I'm enjoying the pattern and it is going quite quickly. I cast on on Sunday afternoon and already have the 2nd sock half done! I'm excited to wear these as I love the colors and the first one fits perfectly, after going down a needle size from the one suggested by the pattern.
Now that the Sockamania pattern is almost finished, I am looking forward to restarting on Arietta. I have all the colors that I need, now, and they're all about the same hue, so that they will work well together. (There is a small picture on the side bar of the yarn before I received the pink that will replace one of the tans.) I hope to finish the Simply Love sock tonight and start working on the sweater.
I still had finishing left to do on the Swing Cardigan, but just couldn't bring myself to do it until last night. I did finally sew on the ribbon and buttons. This pattern calls for ribbon to be sewn to the area of the fronts for the button & buttonhole bands. The process was quite fiddly and even after spending a great deal of time on it, didn't come out as well as I had hoped. I do tend to over do the perfectionism aspect of most things, so I am reasonably sure that Elann will still be happy with the finished project. For a FO picture, I'll let you know when they post the picture on their model.

Finished!

I finished the Baby Surplice Jacket, last night! :) It is very cute and will probably be the next baby shower gift that I need. The size came out 0-3 months, I’m guessing. However, the garment stretches so much that it may even go up to 6 months! The bottom band had buttonholes all the way around so that it can be buttoned with the ends close together in the back or barely overlapping in the front, allowing for a wide size range. It is very boyish, in its blue and brown. My SIL likes the more muted colors and is expecting within the next month. This little sweater is knit in Elann’s Esprit which is cotton and also contains some elastic to help keep its shape. I’m sure they’ll machine wash it, but I’m hoping she’ll be willing to keep it out of the dryer.
On the whole, I’m pretty easy going, even with hand knits: if a person loses or ruins a piece, it was theirs to do so. I don’t get really upset, when it doesn’t go well and still do knit for the person as long as they at least like what I gave. On the other hand, I always love to hear that an item I made is worn often and cared for lovingly. I expect this one will fall some where in the middle. Yarn choice came into this equation quite well. I do expect the cotton/elastic combination to wear well, even if put into the heat of the clothes drier. The label says to hand wash and lay flat to dry. I know that elastics last longer when taken care of like this, but doubt that I’d go to that much effort for a mostly cotton sweater. I’m sure they’ll get months of use out of it and that it will keep him warm and cozy.

In other news, I ordered the yarn to knit Arietta about a week ago. I received it and cast on immediately. After finishing the ribbing and a bit of the chart, I decided that the colors I had chosen were not quite working. The dark brown and the blue are too dark to go with all the other colors. So, earlier this week, I ordered a lighter blue and another shade of tan that I expected to be between the 2 colors shown. You might be able to tell where this is heading...When I received the new shipment, yesterday, the light brown looks like a different dye lot of the same one shown here! They won't work together because the difference is too slight. Today, I ordered again, but this time chose pink. I was always a little sad that they designer didn't have that color in there with all the other lovelies! :) The second photo is of the colors that I have as of yesterday.