The Lake Effect Yarn Crawl...Part 2

I just couldn't post all the pictures and keep going and going on about all the shops that I managed to see while on vacation. So here is part 2 of where I went. I had such a great time and saw loads of wonderful things as well as wonderful people!

After we (I) left Loop we headed for Hartford, WI and the Main St. Yarn Shop. I got to meet the shop owner herself and she was just delightful. We corresponded several times about the shop and how to get there. Once I got there we had a conversation about lots of different things. The shop is located on a street in Hartford that has lots of little shops on both sides of the street. It looked like a great place to live as well.

As soon as you walk into the shop there is a nice little seating area that I suspect is for the waiting husbands. Another special thing that is directly to your right hanging on the wall is this. I have known people who were working on this but have never seen the whole thing put together. It was certainly impressive and absolutely picture worthy.

I just loved this afghan. So much work went into this. I guess it's like eating an elephant-one square at a time. If you have never seen one finished-it's a sight to see.

What I especially loved was all the felted purses that the shop has. I was focused on them because I have often thought of making one and then making socks instead.
I really was drawn to this purse because it reminded me of those polymer clay squares that people make into jewelry. Each one of those swirl is a separate square. I have no idea how this was made but it was impressive. The black purse behind that one has little fuzzy caterpillar thing sticking out all around the top of the purse. There were other purses and I regret not taking more pictures of them because they were just so unique.

The shop was well organized and I found some yarn that I had only found in Alaska. So I was a happy knitting camper when I left. I am going to make a hat from this to wear to Rhinebeck next year! I made my son a hat with this yarn last year at Christmas and once it was done I was so pleased with it. I wasn't able to find that yarn here so consider this to be a big coup. So a hat will be made!

As we traveled on the next shop was a dual find.

See double yummy! I mainly went here because it was in the town of West Bend, WI which is where we were staying. I really didn't look at too much of the yarn. I was mostly interested in the beading part of the shop. I want to knit a beaded amulet bag and wanted to see if they had some 0000 dpns. Sure enough they did. So I bought five and then the search was one for decorative beads for the ends of the needles. I found a ton of beautiful beads. It was an awesome source for beads, classes and supplies. I sure wish they were closer to where I live. I might consider doing more projects with beads.
Here is just a fraction of the beads that were hanging up in the shop.

Here is another shot of the beads at the shop. Of course there was the yarn half of the shop...
Lovely yarn as sell as beading supplies. Wonder how many knitters walk in here and then get addicted to knitting with beads? Not hard I imagine.
These are my 0000 dpns with the beads I found. I will glue them on the ends of the needles and see what happens. I just love them!

So that's my yarn crawl in and around Milwaukee and three other cities. I really did enjoy the day and thank all the wonderful people on Ravelry The Lake Effect who gave me their recommendations. Y'all did a great job.

The Lake Effect Yarn Crawl, Part 1

Since I live 7 miles from the local ocean front here in VA, every fall I develop wander lust for higher elevations and all the beauty it brings. I make no bones about it; summer is my least favorite time of the year and fall is my most favorite and celebrated. Since DH and I have grown children we are free to take vacations while others with school aged children are busy doing the school thing. Plus in most places the hotel rates drop so traveling is a wee bit cheaper. So travel we did.

My oldest son is home from Afghanistan for two weeks so we traveled to Wisconsin to visit with him, his wife and her family. The last time we were there for a visit was five years ago for their wedding. There wasn't any time for a yarn crawl but this time I made sure that I did my shopping homework before going. I knew there would be one day of down time where DH and I would have to fill the time ourselves. So being the good sport that he is, we did a yarn crawl in and around the surrounding areas of Milwaukee. Thanks to all those on the Lake Effect group to the names and cities of shop that were their favorite spots. After visiting them I can see why. So let me take you on a tour of where I went all in one day! I was exhausted but so pleased with my purchases and all the lovely shop owners I met.

First we plotted how the trip would go. We drove to the furthest place and worked our way back towards the hotel. So, my first stop on the list was...Knitting Knook.


I was a bit nervous when we drove up to the address we were given and it turned out to be a two story house. One side of the house was the yarn shop and as best I could tell the other side was a stationery/stamp shop. I didn't take the time to go to the other side because, let's face it, I was there for the yarn! While the shop seemed very small to me, they packed a lot in there and there were was all kind of eye candy to feast on.

I really wasn't looking for any thing special. I just wanted to see what they had that was so different from the beach shops where I live. Our yarns tend to be for more our climate. Their yarns seem more heavy wool based yarns. There were yarns that I have never seen here so I was interested in them.

I am not usually interest in novelty yarns, but I thought the teddy with the bumpy colorful scarf was cute. When I picked up the yarn the scarf was made of it reminded me of fuzzy caterpillars. The yarn came in many color choices and would make a cute scarf for a little girl.

Since the shop was a house they made the fireplace a nice place to display different kinds of yarns and I did love the sheep toys. At Christmas I am sure there will be different stockings hanging there!

As I mentioned above, I am not in to novelty yarns but I could not resist this picture seeing a scarf draped over this basket of sale yarns. It was so bumpy and soft. I am kicking myself now for not buying some and seeing what I could have done with it.

Then there was this jewel. It's hard to see but this is a Kid Mohair lace scarf. It was so airy and very beautiful. Again, I am kicking myself for not at least buying the pattern. This picture does not do it justice.

The shop was lovely and the ladies were very nice. While I was there it started to get crowded and I had other places to go so it was time to go. If you are ever in Fox Point, this is a must shop to visit.

After Knitting Knook we drove to here...

Loop is located in Milwaukee. We had to drive through some seedy neighborhoods but then all of a sudden the houses and lawn were manicured and there was a cute little coffee shop and other little shops. If there was a word that I would use to describe Loop, it would be tready. The shop was bright, cheerful and full of more upper end types of yarns. The shop is neat as a pin, well organized. If you are a person who loves doing stuffed animals and felting, this shop did a great job of displaying and their handy work.

I tried to capture as many of the creatures and stuffed items there were displayed all around the shop

Are the little stuffed animals cute or what? They had examples of the latest in stuffed

Amigurmi items.
I really enjoyed their displays of natural fiber yarns. They did a wonderful job of displays everywhere.

I really love the felted Christmas trees. It's a project that I would love to do someday and a great use for the jars and jars of button I have squirreled away. Cute idea for a swap gift ladies!

One last picture of some really yummy colors that were a drawer. I am sorry that I did not write down the brand name of the yarn but it was soft and airy. There was a scarf right above the drawer on display where they doubled the yarn. I think it was more of a cobweb that lace weight. Either way, it was beautiful.

...and let us not forget what colors and shapes this time of year brings. The whole front of the shop was covered with a wide variety of fall colored leaves. It was interesting to see all of the different colors and shapes.

I will write more about the other places I visited but think that is enough eye candy for one day. I wouldn't want to push anyone over the edge and send them into a yarnabetic shock.

Wally Wart

Wally Wart came into my life a few years ago when I was on a mindless swing through K-Mart of all places. The city where I live in all of their infinite wisdom, plowed up a perfectly lovely farmer's field to build a huge Super K-Mart. Since going to Walmart (total lack of self control on my part) was costing me a fortune I caved and started shopping at K-Mart. I didn't go in there very often but once-in-awhile I would go and wander around and actually find something that I just had to have. This is when Wally Wart came into my life.

He was sitting there will all his little friends when I walked by. They were so quiet I almost missed them. Something caught my eye and there he was with his big green eyes and bumpy skin. I wasn't afraid of him but thought he was a bit ugly. When I got past the bumps and how big he was, he is sort of cute. So I took him home to live in a safe and interesting place..

Wally lives under the lovely ferns in my backyard looking at the back door. He watches for me to come out and visit him. The dogs visit with Wally too. My only regret about bringing Wally home is that I didn't bring some of his friends with me so he would have someone keep him company. So I decided in his honor I would dedicate my newly finished Tadpoles to him.

So here is Wally and his new friend. I sure hope that Wally is happy with his new friend.
is that a smile I see on his face?


In my last post I talked about socks that pool and here is an example. If you look closely you can see the green climbing diagonally up the leg of the sock. Since it's on the back I really don't care. If you check out the heel because it's a more textured pattern, the pooling doesn't make any difference.

Here is a side view of the Tadpoles. The pooling continues up the sides and in the front but it's not so bad there. I like the concept of the socks. The pattern appears on the front. It saves a bunch of yarn and truly isn't the front the only place we really look?

Baby Frogs (Tadpoles)

I was struggling to find a sock pattern for the September socks. I did not start until after Sept. 15. I have been trying to make a dent in the shawl and just lost my goal of a pair of socks a month. Thankfully, a nice person make that decision for me. A woman knit the Tadpole socks and posted them for her Sept socks and I knew right then I had to knit these socks. They looked pretty easy so why not!

Finding yarn to do socks in is a challenge. Most of my sock stash came a wee bit before my obsession for knitting socks was in full bloom. So I bought willy nilly. I have lots of variegated socks but not all patterns look good with different colors going everywhere. Tadpoles are great for variegated and solids both; even socks that are known for pooling (tadpoles-pooling? lol!).

This is a side view of the first sock that is nearly finished. You can see the pooling that will be on the back of the sock. It's very evident. The pooling on the front of the sock isn't so obvious with the textured pattern. I thought this yarn was best to do the Tadpoles in because they have a nice mixture of blue and green. The blue represents the water the babies are growing up in. The green represents the land they will be heading for. Okay, so I had the yarn and just got lucky with the colors...lame but it works!

This is another side view. This is the heel and gusset. When the sock is finished I will put it on my usual leg and take another picture. I am almost done with them but not enough to show a finished sock. I just started the foot on one and the other sock still needs to have to toe decreases done and I will have a whole pair of socks.

I have been trying to do four projects at the same time so blogging as been very little. I promise I will try to do better.

Simple Yet Not Quick
I have had a hard time sitting down and blogging lately as seen by such a gap of a month not too long ago. I am not one to have too many projects going at once. I have a phobia of becoming a knitter with tons of UFOs. I don't want to be a "false starter" knitter. I am not a method knitter by a project knitter. I pick out a project and pour all my TV watching time into that project. I have two projects on Ravelry that are hibernating currently, a Nemo hat that needs fins, and this project in progress.

As you can see from this photo, the computer is on my left and the TV is in front. When this picture was taken, it was late last night and I was ready to pack it in and go to bed.

My most current project is the Simple Yet Effective shawl. Don't let the name deceive you. I have had to use two life-lines on this shawl. It might only be knits and purls but one can get a bit lax and then miss the increases. To make this shawl large enough to fit anyone I purchased three skeins of Berroco Sox Metallic. I have already done one skein and am now 1/3 of the way into the second skein. Since it's yarn that is used a lot for socks and the needle size is a size 5, this project is going to take a while. I guess this will be one of those projects that I will have to do while working on other projects. Three skeins of sock yarn is going to take a while.

This is a shot of the shawl with just one skein done. It looks small to me but when you do this
to it, it does look longer. That gives me hope that I am not spinning my wheels. So this project will be back after it's washed and blocked to show how far three skeins of yarn can go. Like I said, it's going to take a while!

Party Pooper

I truly had intended to have posted when I finished the Jaywalker socks. Things did not go as planned but that was totally my fault. I got a little too big for my britches. I looked at the directions and wanted to shift the stitches and when I did that, it created a big problem. I tried and tried to fix it by subtracting stitches and it flat did not work. So I decided instead of driving myself and my knitting friends more nuts than I already had, I would do two simple adjustments. I usually knit the gusset stitches down to 6 to fit my foot. I went down to 4 in hopes to tighten up the foot of the sock. Shifting the pattern on the foot caused me to have 42 stitches instead of a nice snug 36. I decided I would just do the foot in stockinette and let it go. So if the sock looks different than what you thought it should, it is. I know when I am licked and it was totally my fault.

The lesson I learned was that a designer puts things where they look best; for the most part. In this case that was true. I was messing around with a perfectly good pattern. I should have knit one pair and then made adjustments on a second pair so that I would know what I was about to deal with. I thought I was more experienced than what I was. It certainly put a new light on things for me. I need to keep trying new socks and mistakes are steps toward knowledge on how to make a sock of most any kind fit my foot perfectly. I do love making socks and think that I am getting better but I still have a long way to go.

I did confirm some things I know about my own foot. The heel was too tall and had too many stitches across (42). 36 stitches seem to work best for the width across the heel for me and about 36 rows total for the height. I know that the gusset stitches in most of the socks I have done so far need to be whittled down to six. I know that I pretty much need someplace between 60-65 rows from the gusset to the toe decrease. I have a short foot.

As you can see from these two photos, the sock pools around the top of the heels (which means there are too many stitches for me).

Even though the sock pools around the ankle and the heel is just too large for me, I like the socks. They turned out well considering I tried to wreck and perfectly good pattern! lol! I will wear the socks this winter to see how they wear since they seem a wee bit larger than what I think they should be. It was a good lesson that confirmed the fact that I know my own foot and that I am beginning to look at a pattern differently than I did 5/6 years ago. No pattern is engraved in stone.

Late to the party

I usually pride myself in being on time for everything I do. I had it drummed into me as a kid that it's inconsiderate to be late and it makes others miffed when you aren't there as expected. Barring city traffic, summertime tourist and dogs that have bladder the size of walnuts, I do my very best to get there on time. This next project is the one exception.

I remember hearing about my current pattern way back when I was taking sock classes at one of our LYS about five years ago. When trying to decide what pattern to knit the month of August I was looking through my sock group pictures of finished sock patterns. Boy! There sure are a lot of socks out there. I stumbled on to one and Eureka! I found my August pattern.

Someone knit a pair of these in the exact same yarn that I already have. What are the odds? So I ran upstairs to the sock yarn stash and found two skeins of this yarn. I wound one of the balls into two smaller balls and got started. I was so excited. I would know what my socks were supposed to look like in the color they were going to be knit in! When does that ever happen? Like never.


These socks are knit with Opal Prisim. I knit them on 2.50 mm dpns. I loved this part of the pattern; different sizes and their stitch count. Awesome. I haven't tried them on but I did read the part in the pattern where it says the socks aren't really as flexible so I went up in the stitch count. Measuring my feet for the Charlene Schurch book was brilliant and now I much better judging a pattern and possibly how it will or will not fit so I can change my cast on amount.

I loved these socks because it reminds me of the ripple afghans I used to do when I crocheted a lot years and years ago. I am amazed that knitting has so many patterns and possibilities. Too wonderful!

I have not finished one sock yet otherwise I would drag out my half leg and have it model my sock. I have spent way too much time chatting with my Christmas swap group when I should be knitting. The flower beds in the front of the yard need weeding and all I can bring myself to do is knit, knit, knit. Okay, chat, chat and chat.

It's all about the gifts!

Sometimes, it really is all about the gifts. Who doesn't like getting a present of some kind for their birthday? When you go to a baby shower, what is emphasized; the gift for the baby but of course! Some gifts are sent, some are received, some are hand made, some are store bought and some you just have to buy for yourself. That's what this post is all about...the gifts!

The first gift came to me via something I volunteered to do because I was interested in what the person was doing. I met this person Q, at a Yarn for Breakfast group that I belong to. In a casual conversation one Saturday Q mentioned that she makes soap. I have a collection of interesting soaps in my bathroom. They are just in a little basket and sometimes I have to dust them off. I bought some olive oil soap from France back in 2001 and haven't been able to force myself to use it. They are huge blocks. So ever since then I have been adding to that basket.

I was lucky enough one fall to be gifted a very nice sized box of scrap lavender from my favorite lavender farm here and I have been giving it away from time to time. I have made sachets for my three knitting groups. I have two envelopes waiting to be mail with a zip baggie in each of them going to two new Ravelry friends and I gave some to Q. So Q was nice enough to give it back to me in this form.
I doubt seriously I will use this soap up because it's so pretty, but I wanted Q to know that I do so appreciate it! So gift received.

Some gifts are given. I belong to a Christmas swap via Ravelry and the only thing that was notable that I sent my swap partner Nanna, was this.
I tried to use the computer screen blackness as a background for the stocking. It's knitted with left over sock yarn on size #3 dpns. I knit the first one on #1 dpns and was so discouraged that I almost gave up. The toe gave me fits. Since I needed a hand made gift for the July swap, I decided to use #3 and they worked out better. It's not exactly knitted like a regular sock but pretty close.
Here is a whiter background. It's very small and fiddly to make. I am not sure I am a small and fiddly knitter, but I gave it a try. It was fun doing the swap. I forgot to take a picture of all of the box's ingredients so I will just tell you what they were. I bought her a tea cup with a strainer that fits to that cup. The cup even had it's own warmer lid. Nanna mentioned she liked Earl Grey tea so I picked up a nice 2 oz bag of loose Earl Grey. I thought it was funny that I even stumbled on to a bag of tea candy sort of like this brand. The box was only supposed to be $5-10 excluding the postage. It's hard to find things to bulk up a box for that amount of $$.

So I got a really nice box from Nanna and that is a gift that was received. It came on a Saturday that I was home thankfully! I am never sure when someone leaves a package if it will be there when I get home or not! Here is what I got.

Here are almost all the ingredients from my box. I did eat three pieces of chocolate before taking this picture. They really were delicious! Two of them were chocolate covered cherries and the last one was a small piece of chocolate that I think had hazelnuts in it. Really good stuff. I do love chocolate! So wait until you see what's in the boxes.

This is the handmade ornament I got. Isn't that cute? I love handmade ornaments so this will be so pretty on my tree with all the others I have made and collected.

Also in every box was one of these...so I got three! Jackpot. I will use these for something creative down the road. Then the next box... these are really small glass Christmas balls for a tiny tree or maybe earrings? They are just like the larger version. They might look good in a really small glass jar for a table scape. Just too cute.

And then the last box had this...
Isn't he just adorable? I collect old world looking Santas and this one will fit in nicely. Thanks Nanna for such a lovely box that I know a lot of thought went into! I look forward to October's box. I only hope that mine will measure up to yours!

Then there is the gift you give yourself. Another enabling friend from Ravelry and Yarn for Breakfast turned on to a site where I found the best deals. I have already ordered three skeins of yarn but this gift I gave to myself was a reward for my year's biggest clients this week. I am beat at the end of the week so I thought I would need a treat. So I gave myself these little treats at 30% off and free shipping.

These should help ease the pain I feel in my feet. I am so excited to keep adding to my Addi collection. You should check out this site! So remember it really is about the gift but the best gift you can give yourself is a good friend and time spent with them having a good time! Now go call someone and have a laugh or invite them to come and knit with you. Happy Knitting!

Failure to Plan

I figured since I did so well on the last pair of socks, I should do another pair. So I am, but I hit a snag. I failed as so many knitters often do; to plan ahead. When I finished the last pair of socks I was so smitten with them I cast on the second pair less than five minutes after I closed the toe on the last sock. When I got to the heel I rooted around my reinforcement yarn drawer and found two cards of Schoeller Stahl's Fortissima Socka in dark brown. In my mind that would be a perfect color for my newest socks. So away I went. Here is how the first heel looks.

Because I seem to have such a problem with the ball of my socks wearing out much faster than the toe or heel of the sock, I thought I would be smart by starting my reinforcement on the foot of the sock at row 40 instead of the toe decrease. I usually have to have 70 rows from the gusset decrease to the point where I would start the toe decrease. This time I started the reinforcement at row 40 so that the complete ball of my foot would be covered. I thought I was so smart!

I wasn't sure how the dark brown would look with so much of it at the end of the sock, but I had gone too far to rip it out. The second sock was to the point I needed to do the heel so as soon as I finished this sock, I could whack out the heel and be in the home stretch to finish my July socks in July! I have gotten behind in my commitment to knit twelve pair of socks for the year. I am still one pair down on the count but maybe in August I can catch up!

Here is the first finished sock. I thought it turned out well after the adjustments that I made. I have ever expanding calves so my total stitch requirement for the cuff is expanding also. Tidal Wave calls for 64 stitches and I changed that to 72. After I finished the ribbing I decrease two stitches per needle as evenly as I could and then started the body of the sock. I tried the sock on and it seems to be much better for not stretching the cuff to within an inch of it's life. So now I know that I can make this adjustment and I am feeling confident that eventually I am going to feel comfortable with changing more sock patterns to fit my Flinestone feeties.

My failure to plan my need for reinforcement thread as put a stall on my second sock. The heel is about halfway finished. I did an Internet search and found a resource for the thread and I went nuts! I ordered 14 spools so that this won't happen again for a while! So here I sit and wait for the mailman to bring me the fruits of my Internet thread spree and thinking about another pair of socks.

Sock Stats: Yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka. The colorway is Mexican Country hence my naming the socks Mexican Tidal Wave. Needles are Knit Picks #1 1/2 2.5mm.

Tidal (Title) Struggle

Personally, I think the hardest thing about writing this blog is coming up with a catchy title that ties in with the theme of the knitting shown here. This time was no exception. I look at the sock and come up with lots of titles and then think how silly they sound and 86 the idea. I wanted to tie the theme and the photo of my latest project with the official title of the design name. It's been tough. Does anyone else out there in blog land have this problem besides me?

I truly think that fall is my most favorite season for so many reasons. I am built for cold weather (this means I am overweight). Fall colors are my most favorite colors because I think on some subconscious level I have memories attached more to those colors. Things like seeing the leaves change while driving across country with my family and when I was a kid. Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but I do love the shades of orange in the pumpkins and seasonal squashes. I love the shades of the old football mums we wore at the homecoming football games. in high school. Christmas has my most favorite color with so many shades of Green. So most of my knitting seems to be earthy and warm tones of fall colors. So it's no surprise that this latest project has shades of brown and beige.

I did a search on Ravelry for free sock patterns. I found a ton of them but then had to weed some out. Cuff down, toe ups? I only know cuff down so I try to only favorite the cuff down socks. I also have to be sure that the directions are not mainly charts and that they are usable for dpns. I knit socks with dpns only. Ever since I learned to make socks I have really taken to using dpns.

So I had this pattern as a favorite for a while now and decided I needed to do them. I am one pair of socks behind since joining The Great Sock Off 2009. I missed making socks in May and started my socks late for June, but they are done and I have already picked at pattern for the July socks which will be cast on here shortly. I don't want to get behind again.

So here are the June socks! They are titled Tidal Wave socks, hence the title for this blog entry (play on words-Title-Tidal). They were very easy to knit. It was only a 12 row repeat. The pattern is pretty straight forward. I had some Plymouth Yarn Rockin' Sox in a variegated brown. I was not sure that the pattern would show up very well but it did just fine. I loved that the foot is just stockinette so the pattern is only on the leg of the sock. So if you are a newish knitter, this would be a great sock to save after you have your first pair under your belt.

I read about 10-12 blogs on a regular basis. In some of those blogs I noticed that they are using a leg or half a leg to model their socks. I really love the way that looks so I got myself one. When I slipped my sock on the form I did notice that the form's foot is a wee bit slimmer than mine so the sock does look a little big. So here is one of my Tidal Wave socks on the new model.

Like I mentioned above, the 12 row repeat pattern is concentrated on the leg. I did 5 repeats. After trying on the socks, I discovered that the cuffs are a bit snug for me so an adjustment will be made on the next pair of socks that I am knitting for the month on July. So there are the Tidal Waves socks; simple yet sturdy.