Pink Flamingo and Random Other Things

Well, the hats are in the mail, winging their way to my favorite "aunts-in-law". (I think I'm going to coin a new term here...I mean, why isn't there a term for anything other than mother- or father-in-law, brother- or sister-in-law? What about cousins and aunts and uncles?)

We had some lovely sunny weather here this weekend and went for a nice long walk in a park near where we live. It was so pleasant. Walked for about an hour. There's a loop path there that's 5 miles around, although we didn't park right on the loop so we just did a half hour out and then turned around. I'm not really sure how far we went, maybe 3 miles? Yesterday was crazy warm (we noticed our tulips are starting to come up!) and today is supposed to be warm too. Which is fine and all but it's only early March, and besides, we're going skiing this week!

Oh, and one more aside...my friend just reminded me of something...did you realize that this weekend is when Daylight Savings Time starts?! Already?! I'm not complaining here, but that sure snuck up on me!

In knitting news, I actually do have progress to report on my Fall Embossed Leaves socks, however I have no photos to share at the moment. I had thought I would leave them be for a while, partly because the fall colors are more fun to knit in the fall, but also because the first time around I knitted an entire sock before I realized that I'd made two rather large errors causing me to rip it back and start over. See, when I did the gusset decreases for the foot, I mis-read the pattern (totally my fault, a real "duh" moment) and didn't decrease enough...but didn't realize this until I started the decreases for the toe. Whoops. Meanwhile, I'd tried the thing on and my cast-on was WAY too tight, so that was the end of that sock.

So, back when I was home sick a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had the urge to work on a patterny sock, and I got them out. I made some decent progress, and then this weekend I finished sock #1 (which felt like sock #2 since I've done almost the entire thing twice now but with only one sock to show for it). It came out great! Yes, I know this blog is lacking in the photo department at the moment. You'll just have to trust me on this for now. See, I was going to do this Sunday night but truth be told, the movie my husband was watching (during which I was going to not really watch while I uploaded photos and blogged) totally sucked me in. It also had subtitles so no knitting got done. I'm not much of a knit-without-looking person.

ANYway...the sock came out great although I was a little afraid it was going to be too long in the foot for me, since you have to follow the pattern or it won't look right (the toe decreases mimic the leaves in the foot...very clever...but you have to stop at a certain point in the pattern for this to work). But it worked...it's maybe a tad too long but not by much.

I also started a new pair of plain socks...I'd been itching to start some, and I can totally justify having plain socks on the needles because the way I see it is, they're a must-have for travel and such, and I have so much sock yarn in my stash that I really should have some on the needles at all times anyway. So I dug out this Opal in Flamingo.



Here is a very exciting WIP shot of a couple of inches of a sock ;)



So far I like the yarn, although the patterning hasn't really shown itself off yet. I'll get moving on it soon.

I'm curious about other people's sock sizing...see, I have different patterns that I use, depending on the yarn:

- 56 stitches on size 3's for thicker sock yarn (I don't use this often though)
or
- 64 stitches on size 2's for "average" (that's what I'm calling it) sock yarn

But then there are the yarns like Trekking that are thinner still...and to me this Opal seemed a little thinner as well. These I feel are better suited to size 1's so I decided to do 72 sts on size 1's. I had started a pair of socks with Trekking on size 0's with 72 sts, but they ended up being too tight, so next time I'll try 1's. I am hoping that the size 1's with the Opal will do the trick too. We shall see.

What do you guys do? Do you have a system like this to follow depending on the yarn? Just curious.

So, as I mentioned above, we're going skiing this week. Heading up to Bear Creek for a few days and staying at the lodge that's right there on the mountain. I've never been there and am inclined to think that it's going to be more of a hill than a mountain, but should still be fun. I really wanted to go someplace where we could stay "on mountain" and not have to drive to the slopes...it's always a fun atmosphere at such places anyway. Now I'm just hoping the forecasted rain doesn't mess with our plans too much.

Anyway, I might not be blogging for a few days so if I disappear, that's why. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather holds and we get some decent skiing in! :)

Knitting-wise, I'm bringing my new Pink Flamingo socks and one other thing...perhaps the Fuchsia Lace Scarf? I need something simple for when there's people-watching or something else going on, but then I need something that'll hold my attention when it's quiet.

So, chat with ya later!

Thoughts

Hi! Just popping in here for a moment...no photos to share, just some thoughts and knitting babble.

First off, I just wanted to say how nice it is to have "met" all of you loyal readers who stop by here...it's so nice to get little comments and emails and such. :) Just wanted to say that I appreciate it, even if I don't say it enough.

Knitting-wise, I've got a slight case of startitis right now. I started a roll-brim hat for myself, and so far I'm loving it. Photos soon. I know I have a lot of hat patterns I want to try, but this yarn just needs a simple pattern. It's a thick and thin wool, in a white that has little bits of pink here and there. It was originally going to be mittens, but I decided that mostly-white mittens was probably not a good plan. I love the yarn, and it's special souvenir yarn from a trip my DH and I took.

I'm also thinking of frogging my gray socks (see sidebar) for the second time...the first try at them they were just a little too tight...so I went up 8 stitches but then down to size 0 needles so as not to overcompensate...but they're still too tight, and now they've lost all of their intrigue for me. They definitely need to be started over, not to mention put aside for a while. I have also discovered that I don't like size 0 needles...I like tiny needles as much as the next sock knitter, but those are too small. I think my plan will be to go up to size 1's and try again. Just not anytime soon.

I'm also itching to start some plain socks with a picot edge, and have decided to do them with some fun colorful yarn I recently got from the Etsy shop of a fellow blogger, Gypsyknits (there's a link to her shop on her blog). I love the yarn, so soft, and colorful! I got two skeins, one that has every possible color in it called Christmas Twinkle Lights and then one that's a dual skein combo, the main yarn being pink and white and brown and then a mini skein of brown for toes and heels (that one's called Creamy Neo...which I am guessing is short for Neopolitan? Like the ice cream? The one that comes with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla...am I right Kathy?). So I decided to start with the Twinkle Lights one and wound that into a yarn cake last night.

I have to come clean here...the yarn, um...fought me a little. I won the battle eventually but only after about 50 minutes of the yarn getting the better of me. See, it was entirely my fault because I decided not to use my yarn swift because it is so big and heavy (it's a wooden one, and I'm not pleased with it, more on that later) so I laid the yarn on the floor and tried to wind it from there. It didn't go well. (Here and there I've been reading about people who knit directly from the skein...?!? There's no WAY I would ever be able to do that! Especially with those feline types in the house. No way no how. Good golly.) What was supposed to be a 5 minute task turned into 50 minutes, and I didn't have time to start my socks! At least I managed to do this cat-free, as Maddie was sleeping in the bedroom and Moose was downstairs. However, the bell we have on him came in handy as I heard him coming up the steps and so I had time to reach over and close the door...he would have made a sticky situation much worse!! He meowed plaintively from outside the door for a minute, but eventually wandered off to wreak havoc somewhere else.

So back to the yarn swift...I'd gotten this one at JoAnn's well over a year ago, having wanted a wooden one, thinking it would be nice. And it is nice...nicely made and all...but it's so big and heavy and really doesn't spin all that smoothly/loosely, and that really makes it not so good for fine yarns. A huge skein of something thick can handle it, but I don't like it for lace or sock yarn. It just pulls too hard and puts too much tension on the yarn.

So now I am trying to brainstorm my options for getting rid of it, because I have enough stuff hanging around my house that I really don't want to keep something I don't like! I want to get one of those little lightweight ones that I've seen...they seem like they'd spin very nicely, plus I'd also rather patronize one of my LYSs and get it there. I doubt I can return the thing to JoAnn's, since it's been so long. I might try that though before I give up on that option. I mean, I've been able to return unused yarn to places like Michaels and ACMoore a year after I'd bought it, so who knows. But if that falls through, I might try Ebay or something...anyone have any suggestions? Anyone want it? I'd certainly sell it cheap. I mean, it works fine, as intended, and there's nothing wrong with it, I just don't like it for my purposes. I'm a much bigger fan of fine yarn than thick yarn, so that's what I use most. I'll post photos of it, but in the meantime, this is the one I got. I forget what I paid for it, but I know I got it on sale since I'd waited until I had a good coupon.

I'll be back soon with photos of yummy yarns!

Startitis, but no Finishitis

Lately I haven't had any FOs to report on because...I haven't finished anything. HA! Imagine that. I have certainly had a rash of Startitis, and while as we all know it is exciting and fun to start new things, it's also bringing me down a little because I am not finishing anything. Yes, I am aware this is of my own doing. And also because I am not finding oodles of time to knit, so when I do knit, I only get a row or two done on something which gets me practically nowhere, or at least it feels like it.

The other day I started yet another project. I know, I know, I should be smacked. But, the idea came to me when I was driving home one day, and since it involved yarn I already had, I figured what's the harm? Plus (because I need another excuse...) it is the only non-patterned knitting I have going right now. This is mindless stockinette...well, mindless to a point. Teeny tiny yarn does need a bit of attention. But still.

Here are some not-very-informative WIP shots. The yarn is KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint.



It's hard to see what this is going to be in these photos, but I am imagining a big, soft, light and airy circular scarf thing that can be worn once around my neck and hanging down, or wrapped twice for added fluff and warmth. We'll see if this comes out at all close to what I am imagining.

Here I've tried to spread out what knitting I've done so you can see the lacy stockinette it is. I like it. Oh, and I did a really loose cast-on on larger needles so that it's not restricting in any way when it's done. So it looks a little loose now but I think that's for the best.



It'll take me a while to do this one...so don't expect frequent post updates on it!! hehe.

So back to the lack of Finishitis...I really have been trying to concentrate mostly on my Solstice Slip socks, since they're the closest to being done of all my WIPs...and while I'm not tired of knitting them, I am tired of mentioning how I still haven't finished them, and I'm sure you're probably tired of hearing about these by now! ;o)

However...

In keeping with my latest trend, I now need to start yet another project. Notice there I said "need"? There's a valid reason for this one, I swear. See, it's a Christmas present for DH and I need to sneak knitting time in on this one whenever he's not around to catch me working on it. I am making him a hat and mittens that will go with his ski coat. I had made him some black mittens a while back which he wears all the time (I love that he loves them!) but I think he needs another pair. And his coat is blue so I figured, there's my plan.

This is the yarn I dug up from my stash (just some Lion Brand Wool-Ease) that goes well with his coat. I'm going to do mostly gray, with some patterning in the two blues. (And for the record, I think there's very little chance he will ever read this blog, so I'm safe mentioning it here!)



Off to swatch and cast on for the hat!