Fruit and Socks
by Vickie

I have been knitting socks like a fiend since the beginning of Jan. When I joined a sock group on Ravelry I have been trying to stick to my commitment of knitting at least one pair of socks a month. There is a sub group with in the sock group that is trying to knit two socks a month. Whew! When I thought I was going to quit my job, I signed up to do two socks. Since I am not quitting my job after all, there is no way I am going to be able to knit two pair of socks a month. I did however do it in the month of Jan. I had picked two easy pair of socks and made it. I finished the second pair (first pair of Monkeys) on 1/29. Cut that pretty close, huh!

These socks were started on December 9 and finished Jan 1st. It took awhile because of our Christmas vacation in Alaska. I knit my son a hat and two baby hats so the socks just got pushed aside. I have worn them several times and they have been washed as many and they look great so far.

I call these Pumpkin socks. The color is perfect for me since I love all the fall colors. The texture is bumpy and reminds me of the blemishes on pumpkins. This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Stripe. Woodlawn is the colorway. It took two skeins with a total of 430 yards on #1 dpns. The pattern is from Sensational Socks by Charlene Schurch and is called Stansfield #11.

The pattern caused some pooling in the socks but it didn't really affect the look of the socks to where I wanted to frog them. The texture lessened the impact of the pooling which I usually don't like. This time it added some interest.

The socks are soft and easy to wear. They wash and dry well in the dryer. That makes me a very wool sock wearer!

Monkey See, Monkey Do
by Vickie

I really love being a member of Ravelry. It has opened up so many doors where my knitting is concerned. I think I belong to about 16 or 17 groups. I would belong to more but there just isn't time to keep track of all of the conversations so what I have is manageable.

Since learning to knit some where around five years ago, I made it my goal to learn how to knit socks. I took lessons, well a class and then have done everything else after that on my own. I knit cuff down socks and love doing them. Recently I have been attracted to some more fancy patterns that happen to be toe up socks. Since I don't do them yet...I am a wee bit limited but only until I take a toe up class.

So when I found a more fancy pattern that was a cuff down, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and try something new. I have to say that I am thrilled with the way they turned out. Many of you have already done these but it's my first time making them.

I made them with Rio de la Plata in the colorway of Chinchillia. They have flecks of dark brown, pink and with different shades of beige. I usually knit on #1 dpns but this time since the cast on amount was only 64, I had to use #2 dpns. I was surprised that going up a needle size did not make my socks bulky. I didn't want really huge bulky socks that I can't get into sneakers or clogs. Fat socks are only good for me when I don't have to be a grown up and wear shoes.

This is my very first pair of Monkey socks. I love their bumps and twists and turns. They look so much harder than what they really are.

Here are two shots that show the color variations in the yarn that made it perfect for this kind of a pattern. The yarn was so easy to use and hopefully it will be easy to wash and dry. I am not into hand washing my socks no matter how wonderful they are!
Not only are there the regular Monkey socks (that have the purl stitch) but someone has come up with another take on the Monkey socks, called No Purl Monkeys. The texture looks a little more smooth but from what I have been told by someone who has made them, they go faster. As if that is not enough...now there is another version called Micro Monkeys. I am going to try and do both patterns when I get a chance.

The designer, Cookie A has now even got a book with her sock patterns about to be published sometime around April. I pre-ordered the book and the delivery date is around the beginning of April. I am excited to get another sock book where I can knit them cuff down and I like her designs.

There will be other posts about socks since I belong to this group. I have to knit at least one pair of socks a month for 2009. This should be fun!

Gifted Love
by Vickie

Last year in the fall I joined the Secret Santa Swap via Ravelry. I think there were 25 sets of us or some number close to that. I was so excited to stick my toe back in the swap water. I had a bad experience once and have avoided them all these years since.

I had such a good time packing up my things for my partner that I really didn't focus on what I was going to get. I was totally in the moment of collecting things. I had so much fun that I even talked DH into helping me snoop out the best items from my person's list.

I received two skeins of yarn and am happy to say that I have completed both projects that called out to me for each skein. Just this now I finished the second skein and am happy to say that I think I have found a new kind of yarn that I like that isn't all wool.

I am getting to be such a yarn snob so when I got this yarn I wasn't really sure how I was going to feel about knitting with it. If you scroll down to the bottom of the display you will see this colorway #1812. It's called Stewart Island. The band on the ball does not have the official name but I found it when I was searching for a link for this entry. It's nice to know there is a real name not just a number.

I used #1 dpns and cast on a total of 72 stitches. The cuff is just and 2X2 ribbing that is approx. 2 inches. They are my "go to" pattern of socks titled, Sue Von Ohlsen's Favorite Socks. This is the pattern I learned to knit socks with. They aren't fancy but they fit like a glove. Ask my MIL. She got two pairs for this past Christmas. I got a lovely note from her that said she really liked them and they fit well. We wear about the same size.
Here are my unmatched feet in the socks with the camera flash on and here is one without...
Either way, my feet aren't a matched pair, but then neither are the socks, but I really don't care. They fit snugly enough for my needs and I know they will wear well in the washer and dryer. My kind of yarn and socks! Thanks to yarnmama797. I am very pleased with how my socks turned out.

The next skein that was in the box spoke to me as fingerless mitts. I made them first and here they are

I have been wearing the mitts lately driving to and from work. Saturday when I drove through a local coffee place, the girl handing me my coffee commented how cool and cute my gloves were. She really liked them. A complement always makes a knitter's day!

The pattern is from Farmhouse Yarns and is called Wine Country One-Skein Winter Mitts II. I didn't use their yarn because I already had my Santa Swap yarn. They are warm and softer than I had thought they would be. This pattern is perfect for a beginner. I had never made a hole that large (on purpose-lol!) in my knitting before. You just have to not over analyze the directions and take the leap of faith that it's going to be okay. It does work. I did much better with the second thumb than the first one. I also made one a few rows longer than the other but since they are under the sleeves of my jackets, not a big deal. I would like to make some more to give away and this is the perfect pattern to use for that.

Frozen Water

by Vickie

I am not sure how good my photography is but I wanted to just put these pictures so all of you could see what we saw in downtown Anchorage. Every year the city of Anchorage has a New Year's Eve party called Fire and Ice. They wet down the center of a little park and make a nice smooth slick ice rink. That is where the city's Christmas tree is also. Then there is an ice sculpting contest. Huge blocks of ice are set up in the snow above the rink encircling it. Here is what we saw while the walked around downtown.

We were lucky enough to see many to the ice carvers actually working on their displays. I think that is supposed to be a Moose (which I never did see while I was there darn it)!

This is of a bear with a salmon in his paws.

This supposed to be the skyline of downtown Anchorage

This is of a goose

This is of the Anchorage Christmas Tree. It was so pretty when we saw it at night while downtown.

This is one of swimming salmon. They look like they are swimming up stream.

Okay, okay, so I did see one Moose...sorta...

Wool Bounty
by Vickie

Back in the fall DH and I drove to Montpeiller for the Fall Fiber Festival. I had heard about it while a member of a spinning guild a while back. I decided that despite working for a few hours on a Saturday, we could leave after I got done teaching and then drive up there. So after work we hopped in the car and drive a few hours away from here and went to the festival. I had a purpose for going. I had four very dirty fleeces that needed to be processed. I had washed two myself and decided that I would just pay someone else to do the work for me this time. I had taken one fleece to give this place a try and they did such a good job, they got my business again. So now they have done a total of 5 fleeces for me. I just love how clean my fleeces come back. This time was no exception.

While we were in Alaska on Christmas vacation, a nice little (well not so little) box arrived. I took over a week to open the box. This is what I found...

As you can see there are four different shades in the box. They sure didn't look like that when I dragged them up to the festival. I am so pleased with how they look. I wish I could tell you the kinds of sheep the wool came from but I can't remember. Two of the fleeces came from a farm in Suffolk, VA and the other two were gifted to me and I never did write down the breeds.
This is the darkest of the fleeces that I sent off.
The one of the far right seems to have a bit more gray in it than the one above. When I sent them off they were equally dirty so I really couldn't tell what the "cleaned" color would end up being. I am pleased with both.

This one seems to be more an egg shell with a hint of yellow. I could mix it with anything but since I have never dyed yarn I was thinking that this one and the one below would be great ones for that.

All-in-all, I am very pleased with the roving. I saw the weight on the box and it totaled 15 pounds. That's going to be a lot of spinning and that's going to take me a while...

The Great White Way
by Vickie
As you know from a previous posting that I spent Christmas in Anchorage, Alaska. I have some observations about our trip. My oldest son will be leaving for Afghanastan for a year and we wanted to spend time with him and his wife before he deploys. I think this trip to Alaska will be our first and last but who knows.

The flight there was long and exhuasting but we did get there and our luggage got there 36 hours after we did. We booked our flight on Northwest via Orbitz. Neither place informed us that anymore than a six hour layover means that you will have to fetch you luggage and re-check it for the next flight even if you are on the same airline. We had an eight hour layover in Minnesota. We found out that the Mall of America was just a tram ride away. So we got on the tram and spent some of our layover time there. We could have easily gotten our luggage and re-checked it if we had been informed. No one in Norfolk or Minnesota said one word. We got on the plane and left and didn't even know that the luggage was not going with us. Orbitz said they were responsible and of course Northwest said it was Orbitz that caused the problem. Lots of finger pointing.

Since there is a 4 hour time delay from the east coast to Alaska it was pretty tough sleeping. The sun doesn't come up until around 10:40 am and sets around 4:30 pm. Not a lot of sun during the winter months. I was up at 3 am ready to start the day and of course everyone else was out cold. At 7 pm I was toast. My DIL said it takes a week or so to get used to the time difference and I think towards the end of the trip I was getting the hang of it. Although going to work in the dark and coming home from work in the dark seems depressing to me, she said that you get used to it.

I found that the cold there is a dry cold so if you are planning to visit there take some lotion and drink plenty of water there. Your nose and skin tend to dry out there. I got a bloody nose while I was there. We have humid weather here so guess my nose had something to say about the dryness.

Before going, I had gone on to the Alaska Knitters site via Ravelry and inquired about shops in the Anchorage area that I should visit. I talked my son into taking me to two while I was there. One was next to a sporting goods store he wanted to visit anyway, so that was easy.

The first shop that I went to was here. The quilt below is the first thing that got my attention. It's very hard to miss because if is so beautiful.

I just loved that someone from the shop made this quilt. This photo doesn't do it justice! I have always loved quilts. I am in awe of the time, patience and creativity it takes to put one together.
It's just lovely.

Something else that was notable were these..

Such pretty bags, but I really didn't have room after having to buy new clothes, but I did make three purchases none of which were yarn.

The shop had some really nice selections of roving and I could not resist. I was dying to purchase some Quivet but they said the best time to visit is in the spring and summer so I didn't bother going out to the farm. Didn't matter because I got something out of the ordinary anyway.

I bought this because I just loved how white it is and it's Merino. I love spinning and knitting with Merino so that was the first one I bought. Then...

I bought this because I want to combine it with the white to make a rag yarn. Have no idea what I will knit out of it when I am done but I loved the color. Since green is my favorite color I had to have it. I also bought this...

This was as close to Buffalo as I was going to get so I bought it. It's 25% Buffalo and 75% Tusseh Silk. It is so soft you can't even imagine. I looked on the label to see if there was a website that I could link to but there is only a name, Laurie Sikiewicz from Anchorage listed on the label. It gives here home address and phone number but I am not posting that here. If you want information about how to get in touch with her about her roving, just send me an e mail or leave a comment and I will get back to you.

There's just enough here that I can make a project that I saw Here one a fellow blogger's site. Scroll down to about half way through the post.

The next place that I went is here. Their site is under construction so you won't see anything there except for the Merchant's map, but I did go there and have some lovely pictures to prove it.

I really loved this place because it was a rather large shop that reminded me of two other shops that I have been in the last year. There was such a variety that I could have spent all day in there and still not see everything.

I could not resist these. They are just so cute. I do have a question though. I could see that the group on the left hand side were made mostly from cotton. Will they be warm enough for a baby in the winter month? They were so colorful they reminded me of spring and little girls in their Easter bonnets out a Easter Egg Hunt.

The red, white and blue hat were more like what I had in mind for winter head wear. Looks warmer if nothing else. Really nice color work.




I did buy the yarn for my son's hat at Far North. So I did help the Alaskan economy while still not breaking the personal bank. Truly if I had been smart I would have taken a smaller bag and bought more things but not so sure I would trust the airline to get my back to me in a timely manner...Happy Knitting!

Not a Copy Cat
by Vickie
While away for Christmas vacation I brought knitting with me to kill idle time in the airport and while visiting my son and his wife. For some reason, Orbitz gave us a layover in MN for eight hours and I knew that would be prime knitting time and I was armed and ready! I took some 1824 cotton yarn to make this hat again. I am going to donate them to charity so thought since I had the time and it wasn't too complicated a pattern I would be able to get a lot done. Turns out I only got two finished, but I did get some other important knitting done instead.

My son has never asked me to knit anything for him. I did knit a wool scarf (he picked out the yarn) two years ago and I have never heard that he has ever worn it, except on this trip to AK. I flat out asked if he ever wore the scarf and he said yes that he had worn it to the Christmas party for his work recently. While we were watching TV he asked me if I could make him this hat. I said no, but maybe I could come up with something like it. Since I already had a hat pattern with me I figured that would give me a place to start.

So the son wanted to go to a local sporting goods store and lucky me there was a local yarn shop (which I will talk about by name in a later post) right next door. What are the odds?? So I went in there and looked around at the different yarns and didn't find anything on my own. The person working in the shop showed me some yarn I had never used before so I mulled it over and decided it would do well with the pattern I had in mind. My son came over to find me and these are the colors he picked out for his hat.
I have never knit with Llama before so these would be perfect. It was soft and very easy on the hands to knit with. I used 100 stitches for the base of the hat. The largest baby hat that I had was 80 so I more or less guessed that 100 would be a good start. I also went on the Internet and looked at other hat patterns to see what their stitch count was. 100 was the average amount. So 100 it was.

My son looks better with darker colors around his face and I had seen that most of his clothes were darker colors so I started with the green first. I started with knitting the first row and then knit the moss stitch to give the hat the texture I wanted and so that the brim of the hat would not roll. I knit the moss or seed stitch several inches and then decided to change the color and just knit from there thinking it would blend right in. Wrong. So you can see from the picture that I only did one band of the knitted stitch.

Then when I changed the color I realized that I had to do the whole hat in the moss stitch so that it would continue to have the texture and didn't have an indentation like the knitted band had. So it was an easy pattern to knit.

Decreasing for the top of the hat was a little bit of a challenge. I started with 100 stitches and everything came out even with every other stitch being a knit stitch then a purl, but when I started to decrease the pattern was disrupted. So I tinked it back and added one stitch at the beginning of the first decrease row. I did the decrease row in the knitted stitch and then I knit the row between the decrease row in the moss stitch. You hardly notice the rows of knitting. It did change the pattern a bit but since it was on the top I didn't really care. The hat turned out well and my son was pleased. He had to try it on about three times to see if it would fit and how long I needed to make it.

This is the hat finished. You can see that I only did a few rounds of straight knitting. Then when I saw the indentation I decided I didn't like it, so I just continued with the moss stitch.

This is my son with the newly finished hat on. The picture is a little dark because he was playing video games when I insisted hat he try the hat on for a photo for my blog.

Here is a side view of the hat.

I am pleased with the way the hat turned out with my minimal knowledge of creating patterns. It was fun and I gave my son something I think he will wear a lot. I did give him the bad new that if he washed the hat he could put it on his key ring later...I will wait for the news from him that he forgot and washed the hat. LOL!

Christmas Comes Early
by Vickie

I was on the phone with my mom when there was a knock on the door. Guess who it was? It was Santa Claus...well sort of. Santa was dressed up as a mailman. Isn't he cleaver? I thought so because I have been waiting for what he brought.

I have already showed what my basket looked like that I sent to my Secret Santa Swapee and now I get to show you what I got. I have to say I was a bit nervous but I wasn't disappointed at all. Check out the pics.

I actually showed great restraint and grabbed the camera for this shot before tearing into the gift. I can't believe I didn't open first, put it back together and then take the photo. There was nice book in the bottom of the box. I will show more of that later.
After tearing into the basket I set everyone out to take another pic. There is a lot of stuff here. I was surprised at how much came in the box. Let me list the items:
1. A reindeer bath mitt
2. Peppermint Life Savers
3. Tons of different teas and even a box of tea bags
4. Handmade wreath and Christmas tree beaded ornaments
5. Jasmine and Vanilla Bath Soak
6. One ball of Berroco Comfort Sock yarn (color way #1812-needs a cool name)
7. 2 skeins of Araucania yarn (colorway Copihue)
8. 2 Maroon square candles
9. A magnetic tape measure (it's too cute)
10. Creative Couture Yarn Traveler
11. Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles
12. Stitch counter for needles

I love to knit socks but usually use only dpns. Now that I have this book, I might have to re-think that.
These are the handmade wreath and Christmas tree beaded ornaments. I have not done any knitted beaded anything. This inspires me to give it a shot. They are very cute.
In all honesty, this is the icing on the Christmas cake. I loved the yarn. The colors are so me, fall with no blue or pink!! I just love the yarns. I am going to make socks as soon as I can from Berroco. The Araucania is destined to be fingerless gloves. I hope that I can find a pattern that will use the same yardage. The label says about 48 yards. I am not sure if I will have to buy more or do two different yarns to get the gloves but I am determined to make myself a pair so I can learn how to do the thumb part. I have been thinking about making a pair while knitting a new pair of socks I am working on right now.

I haven't done a swap in years and years because I got burned so I am very pleased that this one turned out well. Thanks to Amanda from CA. You did an outstanding job!

Fiesta Time!
by Vickie
I mentioned in an earlier post that I joined a Ravelry Christmas Swap. I don't usually join these things but I couldn't resist this time. I mailed my package yesterday.

I forgot to take a final photo of the basket all wrapped up. I had some of that plastic shrinkable sheets and used a hair dryer to give the basket a professionally wrapped look. It was super easy! I crammed as much as my $40 would allow.

You won't see my Fiesta Shawl in the basket because I packaged it in a separate container. I also gave my Secret Pal a ball of purple roving that I knew I wasn't going to spin. I have four fleeces that should be on their way here sometime between now and Jan. So I will have plenty to do later!

Here's a close up of what's in the basket. I had such a good time doing this and I hope the person loves it. I think I might do this again.

My person said she is sensitive to wool so I looked for a yarn that would fit the bill. I found Fiesta. I talked about winding it in another post but did promise to show the finished shawl. It was super easy and I really was surprised how well it turned out. It's good for a beginner knitter. Even better!

Here is the promised picture of the shawl. It's not large and I really think of it more of a scarf than a shawl. I did realize after I finished that the cast on was a little too tight but the upside is that it made it sort of circular. It would be lovely as an accent piece on a light colored or black blouse. It was sent to someone who lives in a warm climate so I think it could be worn in spring and fall. It wouldn't keep anyone really warm.
I hope my Swapee enjoys everything in the box. I gave each item careful thought. Merry Christmas!

Dilemma

by Vickie

I had a different post saved under draft about my yellow lace socks by Charlene Schurch. I looked back at Ravelry to see when I notes the project started. It was dated April 3. There were two others in a group of women at a shop were I used to hang out that were all going to knit the sock together. One has dropped the idea, one has finished and this one has a dilemma.

I started working on the gusset knowing that I had lost the row count of a 24 row pattern. I thought I was so smart by trying to take a short cut that would like me meet my goal of finishing my 2008 UFOs. I worked on the first sock for about the last three to four hours and got to a point where I could try it on. It's too big. I have never had that happen before. I know why after sitting and starring it for a while this afternoon.

It should fit snugly. I decided to start the gusset and continue on in stockinette. The stockinette is more loose and hence the sock does not fit. So now I have no idea what to do. I really don't want to frog the socks. They have taken too long already so I want to get them done.

As you can see from the photo I have made great progress but now I have no idea what row I am on in the pattern sequence and the only way I can make the sock continue to have the proper flow is to figure out what row I am on. The rows are so similar that I am not sure I will be able to tell one row from the other. I will have to do this to both socks.

Should I frog the socks back to the cuff and start all over? Or should I tink back the rows until I can figure out what row I am on.They are such lovely socks and I really don't want to start all over but...if anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know. I want to finish these by 2009.

Sigh.

Finished Projects
By Vickie
I am so proud of myself these days. While I was having computer problems I decided that I needed to set a little goal for myself. Since I wasn't blogging, I should have more time to work on finishing things. So I talked myself into finishing some UFOs that I have looked at everyday on my Ravelry account. The pictures of the UFOs were annoying and they needed to be dealt with. So I did.

I can't remember in which order I finished them but I got two things done right off the bat that I have left undone for way too long. The first one was my Blue Heron Clapotis. I bought two skeins thinking that would be enough and it wasn't. Then I was lucky enough to find someone who had some extra on Ravelry and bought some from the nice lady. Sadly it was not the same stuff and I still didn't have enough to finish my Clapotis. So just by chance one day I dropped into see a friend who works at one of my LYS and there was more the same yarn I started my Clapotis with. Lucky for me. Too bad I didn't buy enough the first go round because I got a 20% discount. I finished my Clapotis, finally.


















Then feeling really motivated, I finished another long standing project, my Lily Chin shawl. It took 10 balls of a cotton yarn that someone gave to me. It's huge and I love it. I haven't worn it yet but will shortly because the weather is changing here. Even though it's cotton, I think it will be plenty warm. I thought when I started this it would be easy. It was not that easy. The pattern is easy enough but if you don't use life lines you will rip you hair out trying to back out hundreds of stitches. I could see there was a mistake, just couldn't figure out how to fix it. So I learned my lesson about using life lines.

I would knit this again, but I would start off using life lines instead of waiting until I was ready to quit. I love the cotton and it was frustrating and fun at the same time. Thank you to the person who gifted me the yarn. I hope you are pleased with the way it turned out.

I did take my very first neck down sweater class and I have almost finished that too. I will show a picture of that as soon as the wind stops blowing long enough to take a picture of what's done but that will be a later post.