Girly Socks

 
I finished a baby gift. I'm trying to decide if I should make more socks or a matching hat. There is a lot of yarn left. The yarn is Cascade Fixation. The color is 9518. The pattern is my own for newborn socks. 

Hmmm...

I look at my blog and there are all those unfinished socks staring up at me. So, what's my plan? I'm going to run upstairs and cast-on a pair of baby socks out of Cascade Fixation. The rationale is that my friends having babies will not wait for me to finish my socks to have their babies, the yarn store just got in Cascade Fixation, and Matthew is going to put my baby sock pattern I wrote up on the store's website and I want to double check it one more time. If you buy my story then perhaps I should give up homeschooling and sell real estate or something. With that, I'm going upstairs to cast-on.

I'm finished!

 
The yarn is Limbo Mexiko in Fjord from Stahl. Elann had it for about two days. I'm a bit bummed they are out. I really like it. It's DK wt and I knit the socks on size 3 dpn for about 6.5 sts per inch. 

Yet another pair of socks

 
I took Kate's Toe-up Sock class the last two Saturdays. That meant starting more socks, buying more dpn's... You get the idea. 

close-up

 
 

Unbelievable swearing

On the fifth repeat of the second chart of the Flower Basket Shawl, things really got ugly. Now that I am a mom of four, I seldom curse. Today, I cursed and cursed and cursed. I would count and have the right number of stitches. I would knit the other half, count again and a yarn over would be missing. There were two rows of tinking and one row of reclaiming yo's that had sped away. Those stitches drop so fast to the yo in the column that it is unbelievable. Thank goodness that stitches will not drop below a yarn over. Otherwise I shudder to think how much tinking would have gone on. I guess this is a learning experience. There is no point in posting a picture. The shawl looks pretty much the same.

New Olympic Buttons

These are at the beadslut live journal. Click on the title to go get your team chocolate, team caffeine or team merlot button.

Olympic Training photo

 
I started working on the Flower Basket Shawl yesterday for training. I'm probably going to knit kiri for the Olympics in a slippery cotton/rayon yarn called luna from elann. It started out fairly smooth. I figured out how many stitches I should have after each row and went to it. I was thinking, wow, all those people who picked this project were really smart. This is easy. Well, then there was a knitting incident. Said incident occurred in row 5. It's true, I got a little brazen and was talking on the phone and knitting and I hadn't had any coffee yet. Damage toll was high. I had to rip all the way back to the last row of the last repeat to salvage. I've knit all that and 5 rows more so, I don't have a deficit for the day. I hope there are no incidents like this come the 10th when the games begin. 

A family shot of the current socks

 
They are posing with the super cool Ikea dragon blanket my son received for his birthday. It has scales and a tail. He's a bit afraid to sleep under it and puts it over the baby gate to guard his room while he sleeps. 

Close-up of the SIP's (Socks in Progress)

 
 

Even more Olympic buttons over at JenLa's

As always, click on the title/link. I'm going to change to the shawl/wrap button. There's even a clapotis and a men's team button. There are buttons for people from many different countries. I really think this is adding to the fun/anticipation of the great world wide knitting event.

New team usa button at the quacking fiber addict

Click on the title to go take a look.

A finished Pair!

 
I like a lot of color. Can you tell?

Now I need to cut out some more sock bags to hold my WIP's. Since I always have atleast 4 pair on the needles, I need more bags so that I can grab and go. I'm thinking I should color code them somehow. 

Olympic Knitting News

Hey, the Canadians are getting organized! They are having a blog for their team. The info is here

I think our USA team needs some organization. Does anyone have any ideas? I have a sneaky suspicion that our team is massive, beyond belief.

Speeding to the toe

 
This is the second Opal 6 ply sock getting closer and closer to being finished. Maybe I'll finish it Monday. 

A baby skein of yarn

 
Friday I went to a beginning spinners group at my local knit shop and I finished spinning and plyed this yarn. I didn't think it was too bad for my fourth time at the wheel. 

Toe up socks

 
I took the first of two classes on toe up socks this morning. It was really cool. I did a figure eight cast on and was off and running. Next week, we learn the heel. 

I made a sock bag today!

 
Actually, I made two, but I gifted the other one before I took a picture. We were talking about sock knitting bags and the version that Kate has wouldn't hold a 100g skein of Opal. The only choice was to design a better sock bag. Kate wanted purple so she got an incredibly purple bag with a lime green pocket. It had 5 little slots in one pocket for her dpn's. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the fancy pocket in mine. I will be forced to sew some more tomorrow. 

This is another view.

 
 

My Olympic Swatch

 
Here it is, in all it's glory. In the instructions it says it took the auther 24 hours to knit the shawl. I figure it will take me 2-3 times that. So that would be about 72 hours of knitting over a 16 day period. If I take one day off for blocking that means I will have to knit approximately ... gulp... 5 hours a day with 4 kids. I need to go have a lie down. 

Olympic Anticipation

Once again, click on the title to head over to JenLa's and get super cool Olympic team buttons.

My yarn came today and I swatched. I'm ready to go.

Get Your USA Olympic Team button

Click on the title above and head over to JenLa's to get your button. I guess other bloggers have skills, I'm not one of them and can't make my own button. Thanks, to the ladies at JenLa for making buttons.

Hopefully I don't let the team down.

Group photo

 
of the four different pairs of socks I'm working on. There are three more hiding out somewhere in the knitting. 

Moving Right Along

 
These are from Sensational Knitted Socks with many alterations. I can never ever follow a pattern. They are being knit in Knitpick's Merino Style Honey. I used the Eye of the Partridge heel that I learned from the Dublin Bay Sock pattern and I'm planning on using the Round Toe from The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. At this point the Twisted Sister Sock Workbook falls open to that page. I'm supposed to loan the book to someone next Monday and if she doesn't return it, I'll cry! 

Yet another

 
I have a feeling these will be frogged because they are too big, but I'll wait and see when they are a bit farther along. I'm not enjoying working on the size 0 needles. 

The Joy of 6 ply

 
These socks are flying off the needles and they are nice and thick. I always wear socks around the house and think these will be toasty warm. 

The Brave Little Sock is Back

 
At the rate I am knitting these Mermaid Socks they will be finished in 2007. Perhaps I can pick up a little speed in the Year of the Sock. 

Ready, Set, ....

Before I left for knit night, I put some lace weight dye your own yarn into some water to soak. I'm dyeing it right now to get set for the knitting olympic games. We'll see how it works. It wasn't well thought out. There's always another skein tomorrow.

I was at knit night tonight and someone asked me if I read the Yarn Harlot. I said that I do all the time. She said that I had said three things the Yarn Harlot wrote about in her last book. I confessed to not having finished her last book. I became physically ill at the part about Christmas knitting and couldn't continue on. I was ordered to finish reading the book by next week as my "assignment". Apparently one thing I had said was regarding scissors. I was leaving early to go to Target to buy scissors. We have atleast 15 pairs of kids scissors and they are all missing. In ten years I will ask my knitting friend to borrow a pair of scissors. I bet when she has kids, she can't find any scissors either. The other thing I said was that my husband was begging me to start the holiday knitting for next year the day after Christmas. Poor guy had a rough holiday season and I didn't even finish his gift on time. I'm not sure what the third thing was. I bet it was something that every mother says over and over and over. I can't wait until these ladies have kids. With four kids, I'm like an alien being.

Another Knitalong

Yes, I'm crazy. I just joined another knitalong. The Yarn Harlot is hosting the knitting olympics. My goal is to knit my first shawl in 16 days. To some of you in blogland, that may seem like a lame goal. But remember, I have four kids and homeschool them. Enough said. For this knitalong, you have to cast-on during opening ceremony and finish by the closing ceremony. Swatching is considered training, so you can be all set to grab the needles and go.

A Homeschoolalong??

I've started a homeschoolalong. Our first topic is China/Chinese. I'm still putting the blog together. If you are interested, go to the link in the title to head over to the blog.

Clapotis was the 3rd knitting disaster of 06

I must average one of those a week. There were no mistakes, I loved knitting it, the gauge was correct. There was just one little problem. It was too stiff. It would work as the shawl thing, but I couldn't see it used as a scarf. Has anyone else had this problem? I think I need a much softer yarn. I may dye some knitpicks to use.

Sock Stash part 1

 
There is enough here for 6 pair of adult socks and 5 pairs of toddler socks. That means I have enough sock yarn for over 26 pairs of socks, not counting some socks in progress. 

Sock Stash Part 2

 
That would be enough for eleven pairs of socks. There is quite a bit of Regia, some Lorna's Laces, sockotta, a ball of opal, a ball of black essential that is too dark to be seen and some some Lana Grossa 

Sock Stash part 3

 
  We have Zinnia from knitpicks, merino style in rhubarb and honey, some stuff from elann and the second ball for the brave little sock's mate.

Possibly the third knitting disaster of '06

I didn't have enough of the same colorway so I'm mixing in the brighter blue/purple. We'll see what happens. Can you tell what it is? I think everyone has knit one but me. It's my first stashbuster of 2006. 

A good knitting week...

This week I was able to join the 200SOX knitalong and the Knitting Blogs Webring. I'm thrilled about both. I'm in the queue for the Spinning Wheel Webring and trolling around for new and exciting knitalongs.

2nd Knitting Disaster of 2006

This one was not my fault. I don't know how you can create a ball that is incredibly tangled, but somehow that happened. I just couldn't get it untangled. After an hour I hung it up and called customer service. Knitpicks is sending me a fresh ball so I can try again. I just love yarn places with really nice customer service. After an hour of trying to untangle it, it's possible that I was unhinged and blabbering incoherently. All I know is my new yarn is on the way. 

1/2 way to warm feet

 
I've got one down and the second started. This is Opal 6 ply and it knits up fast. This is my kind of knitting.