busy, busy!

I'm taking a class at my LYS about doing two socks at a time, toe-up. It's actually a very simple idea, doing two at a time: just use a longer cable (magic loop) and work from two balls of yarn. No prob. I've never done toe up before, so that's really where I'm learning. Our instructor taught us Turkish cast on which is crazy simple: just wrap the yarn around your needles then start knitting the wraps as if they were stitches! It's like I'm just flinging myself straight into a sock!

Here's the socks I've started:

I received a review on one of the baby hats I made this year. I unfortunately couldn't make the shower, but I sent the gift along with someone else and I hear it was a big hit!

I bet that the mommy-to-be would love the colors. I just wish I'd placed those darn stripes lower.

5 stars!

Well, I now have a review on the socks.

"Squishy."

OK! He said they are thicker than his usual socks (yeah) and that they have a little more squish to them, which is comfortable. Maybe I have a convert? He also said they were rather warm. And he was a good boy and showed them off at work. And Pumpkin has enjoyed running around the bedroom with "daddy's socks." All in all, a success.

More footwear, this time in the Baby Parade of 2008:
Cute, CUTE, CUUUTE little Saartjes for my friend's little boy due in September. I don't really enjoy knitting booties, I've decided. But the cuteness of these makes it worthwhile. It's the buttons.

The pattern was a little wonky at times, but once I finally was able to project the finished bootie in my head, I was able to figure it out. I had to knit a little on blind faith until then. I was going to do this set over again for another friend, but I don't think I have quite enough yarn for both hat and booties. That's OK, though, because this way each of my friends can get something different for their bambinos-to-be, which oddly enough, equalizes things.

Accio socks!

"Honey, what are you knitting?"

"[blah blah, whatever I'm knitting now]"

"You haven't knitted anything for me!"

[in my head:] "But what in the world would you actually wear that I could reasonably knit?"

Well, now I have! DH's socks are done and have turned out quite well. I have yet to receive an official report on how well they wear (because he hasn't had the chance to wear them yet) but they do fit him well. *phew!* And such a nice picture, to boot. He seems to like them. If he enjoys wearing them at all, I might even consider it a yearly anniversary tradition to make him a pair of socks. At any rate, he seems satisfied that I finally made something for him.

The yarn almost ran out on me. I need to figure this out. Poking around on Ravelry, I didn't see anyone else having trouble with this using this yarn. Why is this happening to me? Am I knitting at an impossible gauge? Is it because it's men's socks?

Well, in the future I need to do toe-up, two-at-a-time to avoid disaster. Good thing my LYS is planning some classes on this soon. That way, if I do run out, the ankle is a little shorter, but they're still socks. One toe-less sock would have just been silly.

Felix Felicis!

Haha, ten points for Gryffindor! (Even though I'm a Ravenclaw...)

I scored some of Sunshine Yarns Harry Potter-inspired sock yarns today at her update. It was crazy. She said she would update at 10:00 am, and at that time, you could literally watch the yarns being posted up each time you refreshed the page. She posted 5 each of Gryffindor and Snape (I snatched one of each) and 2-3 of the rest, then I flew to check out. By the time I completed check out... almost all of the yarn had Apparated on out of there.

Check out the Snape colorway:

It's very subtle, and I think will make for some manly-looking socks. It's like Christmas in April, because this yarn is for Christmas gifts. (ssh!) I decided to only get the two, since hand-painted yarn costs many galleons, but if I like working with it, I'd like to get more, especially the Accio Firebolt colorway for some Jaywalkers (I think I am going to have to succumb to wearing hand-knit socks myself. It's really inevitable, isn't it?)

Nine little monkeys...

...being born this year!

Seriously, by the end of 2008, I will have knitted gifts for NINE new babies. NINE friends & family are having babies this year (or already had them.)

...

And that's just the ones I'm knitting for.

What a girl knitter needs...

Is a way to surf Ravelry and knit at the same time. Overload! I can read while I knit, but being on the internet is hard what with all the clicking and scrolling. What bliss it would be to shop for new yarn while I fondle old yarn knit though...

It would also be nice to have a way to tink SSKs. Those are a real mess to undo.

DH's socks are halfway done, and I know this because #1 is complete (with the exception of end-weaving) and #2 is cast-on. The finished sock is a perfect fit. :D Which means, of course, that I'd better not throw it in the dryer, lest it not remain a perfect fit. (Oddly, though, my swatch--and yes, I made a swatch and washed & dried it--did not shrink a bit. If anything, it grew, which really blows my mind.)

have you any wool?

Time for some yarn pr0n! *evil grin*

I got a Knit Picks catalogue in the mail the other day and open it up to have a row of happily-dressed feet and saw this:

I'm just tickled by that color combo for some reason. I love chocolate brown paired with other colors because it heightens the prominence of the other color. But here, it's like the others set the stage for the brown. It's cute.

Then, I saw a pic of some other yarn by Claudia Hand Paints and toodled on over to her site and found this pretty picture staring at me:

Oh... that's yummy. All the golds, browns, and pinks blend together but then there's the splash of pretty blue.

But what's really tempting me is the Panda Silk from Crystal Palace. My LYS carries it and I've been thinking about it ever since I laid eyes on the stuff. (that was months ago.) I love monochromatics and I can just see a knee-high sock knitted up in the Nutmeg striping yarn with the ribbing, heel and toe in the coordinating sButterscotch solid. (The brown-toned ones) I want!

Once I saw these pretty yarny colors I couldn't get them out of my head! I love the idea of bamboo/silk/wool blend. How luxurious is that?

Funny thing is: I don't wear pretty socks! Isn't that a riot that I would drool so much over sock yarn? And adore knitting socks? I always wear basic white or black socks and I like them thick and squooshy on bottom. So, what would I do with fabulous sock yarn, or for that matter, fabulous knitted socks? I'm terrified of knitting fabulous socks for myself only to find I don't enjoy wearing them. Oh yes, this is ironic, miss Acciosocks...