A Knitting FO !!!

Here are the Spring Forward socks, finished at last.   I worked on these on and off for several months and finally finished them last night as promised. What I learned: Two at a time socks is easiest when there are the same number of stitches on the front and back of the sock and they do not change at the heel!!! Re-arranging the stitches with this method caused major brain damage until I had it worked out, but then it was clear sailing to the end.     Details are in earlier posts, and on ravelry.

I am pretty pleased how they turned out and since we are heading into barefoot season, I think I will pack them away, but they may actually be gifted to some lucky person!

I began spinning the Dragonfibers fiber last Sunday, and it has such a full-on shimmer that I couldn't photograph it  well.   I will try again in the natural sunshine in a few days, but it does beg to be spun very fine.   

Today was my short day at work, and I finally got around to fertilizing the lawn, so in about a week it should be totally lush.   Of course for my three day weekend, rain is in the forecast and  I WANT to plant flowers.  With Sunday being Mother's Day,  I should be able to do what I WANT......   It isn't fair!

Wishing all the mothers out there a perfect day to do what YOU want.   Appreciate your mothers, let your kids appreciate you, and take a moment to remember the ones no longer with us.   

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I was surprised this morning with a Valentine's Gift of pearl earrings along with the card. Gary is not usually the jewelry type of gift-giver, so it was a surprise. May he was feeling bad because this was my 6th day working this week, but whatever, I appreciated the gift and the thoughts.

Here is a new photo of the Spring Forward socks in progress. Working my way to the toes.

Turned the heel

Yes,the heel is turned, picked up the gusset stitches and I am still 2-at-a-time and moving right along. The hardest part was getting the right stitch count on each needle with them lined up in the proper order. Now it is clear sailing through the gusset decreases as I move towards the toe.

Minstrel update: UPS tracking shows it has moved from La Marque, TX, to Houston, and has arrived in Dallas early this morning. to be continued......

I went to the library yesterday and saw they had the book, "Teach yourself Visually, Handspinning", by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. I thought right, sure, this would be pretty lame, but then I saw that the technical editor was Maggie Casey of Shuttles Spindles and Skeins in Boulder and the author of Start Spinning, which I already own. I knew then that this would be a worth while way to spend several days before the wheel arrives. Yesterday was the Superbowl, and since I am NOT a sportsfan, I blew all the way through this book during the game. It is great and covers everything from fiber prep, through handspindles and wheel spinning, to dyeing and knitting with handspun. The photos are great and even if the info is pretty basic, it is very clear for beginnners and a valuable resource along with Maggie's own book. I did confirm while I was reading this book, that even though I am right handed, I spindle spin like a lefty. I keep my fiber wrapped around my right wrist and draft with my left. I wonder what will feel best when I get the wheel set up.

Attacking the stitch count discrepancy

I made my way to the point where it is time to begin the slipstitch heel on my Spring Forward Socks. As the pattern is written for doublepoints, and as I am using the two at a time technique, I had some adjustments to do to the stitch count on the front and heel portions.

The pattern is 66 stitches in total around, and as written, it calls for 30 stitches on the heel and 36 stitches for the front. While working on the first sock, I was able to transfer 2 stitches from the end of the first side but when I got to the second side to transfer the last stitch to the other side, I was in the middle of the cable with no access. I sort of knew this was going to happen and I was prepared with two extra circular needles to start transferring and having both ends to work from.

What helped was using stitch markers. I had one from the beginning marking the first side to be knitted.
Have you ever seen such a jumbled mess. Each time I transferred a side, I either had one of each side facing forward, or the working yarn was on the wrong side. I kept at it though. Persistant, I am.

After about 45 minutes and many shifts, including using stitch holders as well, I finally got all the stitches transferred and the working yarn on the correct side of both socks, and I again used stitch markers near the top to indicate the heel side.

This all took place in the 3 plain rows of the pattern, but I am sure I screwed something up, but hey, this is the part that will be where the ankle breaks or inside the shoe and who will know????? to be continued.........

Back Spasms lead to a day off

Yesterday, I managed to work out at the gym very comfortably and felt fine for the rest of the day. Today, woke up....fine. Showered....fine. Got dressed and dried my hair.....fine. Had breakfast and sat down at the computer....fine. Got up from the computer and headed upstairs to brush my teeth and put on makeup to get ready for work....NOT FINE! One step from the top, my back spasmed with such a force, it almost threw me to the ground. I stood still for a while, grabbed the bannister, mounted the last step, and headed for the bathroom. My color was absolutely green in the mirror as I broke out in a cold sweat. After I grabbed 3 advil tabs and downed them with lots of water, I just stood as still as I could, since each time I moved, there was another spasm. Owwwweeeee...............I then slowly shuffled downstairs and called in to work.

I was afraid to sit down for fear of not being able to get up again, but after about 45 minutes, I sat in my chair to knit and listen to my IPOD to some of my favorite podcasts: QN, Cast-On, Sticks and String. My 2-at-a-time socks are progressing well and the Spring Forward pattern in easy to memorize with the knitting looking lots more complicated than it really is. Not much to show yet, but it will be a pretty quick knit.

While watching the Golden Globes last night, I worked on my lace scarf some more. I think I will steam block what I have to get a better idea of the finished length so far and how much more to go for about 50" final length. Before lightly steaming:

After lightly steaming:

Isn't the pattern lovely??

2-at-a-time Socks #2

Having successfully completed my first pair of socks using this technique, I went shopping in my stash for my next project....never mind that I still have several other projects in various stages of completion. From the Summer 2008 Knitty.com I am starting Spring Forward, a light and airy lace sock pattern that will do very nicely in Fortissima Socka, colori Eggplant, a nice blend of purples and beige in a cotton and wool blend.

After my experience in my last pair, I wound two balls of equal weight and then wound off from one ball until the starting stripe pattern on ball 2 was about the same as ball 1. I started the ribbing and I may be off a row, but much better than last time.

I will be adapting the pattern from DP's to the Magic Loop 2-at-a-time as described by Melissa Morgan-Oakes in her book. It is a 66 stitch pattern so I put 33 stitches on each side of the sock. The pattern is an 11 stitch repeat, so it should work out well. It may get a bit funky at the heel and the gusset, because the orginal pattern calls for a 30 stitch heel. I'll see once I get there.

Totally off topic, I was home the other day in the afternoon and the sun was shining very brightly at a low angle through my kitchen window. I noticed on my backsplash behind my sink the following images and had to photograph them.

The sun was reflecting back from my tea kettle on the stove, through my dishdrainer to the tiles under my window. I watched the reflection until the angle of the sun moved away and I am so glad I captured these ethereal images.