princessdeia

September 7th 2007
Filed under General, Project Spectrum v2.0, Summer of Socks

Stromtroppers, Heroes World Tour, 6 Month Anniversary, and trips to the dentist have all meant I have very little time to knit.

All I have been able to go is knit a few lines here and there. My Gretel Beret is nearly finished and last night I cast off the cuff on my first Baudelaire sock. I am pretty pleased with this sock as it was my first attempt at a toe-up sock, I loved the figure 8 cast on.

Hopefully, I will be able to post soon with some lovely finished items – I seem to just love everything I have knitted recently, I’m almost longing for the autumn so I can start wearing them.

Speaking of Autumn, I am trying to organise a New Fall Season Swap at the Pop Culture group on Ravelry, it is just a mini-swap – just some yarn for a nice small Fall project (enough for a scarf, hat or gloves or socks) and a TV watching treat (candy, chocolate or hot drink), pop over and join.

August 10th 2007
Filed under Summer of Socks, Sweaters

This sock might not look very expensive to you but it is worth 16 gold pieces to me…

That sounds really geeky, but then I am a geek, read comics, love sci-fi movies and if I had the time I would probably have played RPG. When I read about Knit Wars on the Lime and Violet site I knew this was the challenge for me.

This is the perfect way for me to control my spending, I am going to treat my gold like Boots Advantage Points, for every 4 pieces of gold I earn, can be translated into one pound actual money to spend on yarn/knitting supplies.

Of course this comes at the perfect time because Get Knitted, have started selling Knit Pick needles, I have resisted temptation as I have spent a lot of money on yarn over the past few months, but I have been dying to get my hands on an Option Set for ages, then I saw the collection of DPN’s that they sell and I wanted them too.

So far this week, I have managed to earn nearly 10 pounds from a few hours knitting casting on my Central Park Hoodie and finishing one sock. However, I did encounter the Knitting Mojo Blockage monster – which I think translates to me not knitting much this weekend.

Edit: I have just realised even blogging can earn me gold!

July 31st 2007
Filed under Socks, Summer of Socks

One of Jason’s old school friends got married in Las Vegas last autumn, unfortunately we couldn’t attend the wedding – but they had a Wedding Reception for their family and friends this weekend in Cambridge.

The reception was in The Old Library of Trinity Hall, which was an amazing venue – whilst we had welcome drinks in the courtyard we watched all the punters – waiting for one to fall in! Their wedding cake was Vegas themed and so obviously we loved it!

Having watched the punting, we had to take part and after dinner, we had our little adventure (although Jason didn’t join in). having no idea about punting I ventured into a boat with some guests from America – which was the right choice as we were in the only boat with wine! Whilst enjoying the sites of Cambridge we discussed amongst other things our favourite Family Guy Quotes, mine being the whole Cookie Monster Addiction scene.

Last night, whilst at home suddenly realised that like my favourite blue monster that I am an addict, only I am addicted to Cookie A sock patterns and not choccy-chip treats. I cast on my Pomatomus socks last night and at around midnight I realised I had completed the ribbing and almost on repeat of the pattern (about 20 lines), I think I am hooked on the pattern.

July 23rd 2007
Filed under Finished Projects 2007, Socks, Summer of Socks

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes in Sea Blue.
Pattern: Generic Sock Pattern.
Needles: 3.25 mm Circulars (2 needles).
Notes:This was my first attempt at knitting socks with two circular needles, I have to say I can see the attraction – although the pattern was in stocking stitch it still knitted up so quickly, like knitting with DPN’s it takes a few rows to get use to the technique, but it then is so simple.

I used the short row heel on these socks and I am still not convinced, I prefer the heel flap technique.

July 14th 2007
Filed under Finished Projects 2007, Socks, Summer of Socks

Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Sock Yarn in Lipstick
Pattern: Hedera.
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs.
Notes: I alterated the pattern slightly, by adding an extra twisted knit stitch before and after the lace parts on the main part of the foot, it is lost in the stocking stitch.

I loved the row of twisted knitted stitches on the heel flap (done on the picked up stitches), it creates a beautiful effect and hides any mistakes that could have been made whilst picking up the stitches. I think I will be adopting this technique on all heel flap socks from now on.

July 5th 2007
Filed under General, Stash Enhancement, Summer of Socks, Sweaters

I have spent the last few days stuck at home looking like a hamster with toothache. I am on horrid tablets, and have been warned to stay away from alcohol for the next few weeks. (I will come out in a rash ). Luckily hiding out in my bedroom has given me the perfect opportunity to knit! I decided to cast on my Pure Silk Shrug – originally, I started out swatching and I was going to practice the lace pattern before jumping into the actual shrug.

However, when I realized the sides only started with 18 stitches (I am making the medium size), I jumped straight in, and night and mornings worth of knitting and I am on the second side. I thought I should do the back last when I was more confident about the lace and cables.

Stupidly, I could have used this time to finish off the socks I have on the needles and then I could post some FO (I think my lack of knitting this year is embarrassing).

Still to the yarn goddess is around to cheer me up and my Knit Picks order arrived look at all the goodies. Most of this is planned for future projects, Central Park Hoodie, Fetching, Coronet and maybe a River Stole.

1. Undamaged Box, 2. Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor, 3. Shimmer in Morning Mist, 4. Shimmer in Stained Glass, 5. Andean Silk in Navy, 6. Wool of the Andes in Arctic Pool Heather , 7. Palette in Brindle Heather, 8. Palette in Navy

June 18th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks, Summer of Socks

The Sockapalooza Socks are finished, all the socks I have knitted to date have been plain, I have never had the need to block socks before as Alison pointed out lace socks look so much better blocked, so I returned to SnB Nation, found two wire coat hangers (thank goodness for the dry cleaners). and made some sock blockers (some photos tp follow).

My attempt at knitting socks with two circular needles is coming along well, I managed to turn the heel and am decreasing for the toes. I opted to re-try a short row heel rather than heel flap, the stripes are smaller with this magic stripe yarn, than with Opal and I thought it might look silly with a larger stripes on the heel.

Of course, I can’t just have one pair of socks on the needles and this weekend, I cast on Hedera (my first attempt at a Cookie A pattern), I think these socks are going to be a breeze to knit, the pattern is easy to memorize (only four rows for a repeat), and it looks really affective.

Unfortunately, we had an extremely busy weekend, and I was unable to do much knitting. On Sunday we joined the thousands of others under the arch to see Muse, strangely, we on Saturday we discovered several of our friends were going, so most of the early part of the gig was a series of text messages and hunting in bars for friends.

June 5th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks, Summer of Socks

Traditionally, Tuesday is meant to be Knit-Along Day, so I thought I would update with my progress on my sockapalooza socks. I finished my first sock over a fortnight ago and have just turned the heel on the second sock – all was going well, at least that was what I thought!

I looked back at the first sock to calculate how many repeats of the pattern I needed to complete for the foot and I noticed an error on the in the repeat (in between the blue lines) I missed out rows 5 and 6, only making three eyelet rows not the four, I have in the other scallops.

Normally, I would let this slide but these socks are a gift and I wanted to create something truly special, so I am going to have to rip part of the first sock.

I know the summer of socks isn’t due to start for another few weeks, but the sunshine in London has prompted me to cast on yet more socks. Recently a few sock patterns I have been looking at, are written for two circular needles rather than double pointed needles, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to learn a new technique.

Alice recommended the tutorials on knittinghelp.com, so I had a quick look and I suddenly realised like knitting with DPN this looks more complicated than it is. I decided to experiment with the yarn I recently received in a swap – as it is self patterning it is really only suited to Stockinette socks, the yarn came with a pattern on the ball band so I hunted in my knitting supplies, I found two 3.25mm circular needles and cast on! After a few nights of great TV (24 finale, Prison Break and Heroes), I have knitted almost six inches of the leg.

May 16th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks, Stash Enhancement, Summer of Socks, Sweaters

I have been taking advantage of Rule 2.a in the guidelines for Knit from Your Stash and have ordered several hanks of Natural Dye Studio yarn. I first brought this yarn for my One Skein Secret Pal, last year and of course, I had to buy some for myself. However the yarn has sat in the drawer since the summer, when I signed up for Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, I decided to send this yarn to my spoilee.

The thought of being separated from this yarn, drew my right back to eBay. My plan was to buy some yarn to make my sockapalooza sock, my pal is from America and loves colour, so I thought a hand dyed British socks would be perfect. The colour is Lilac Sun, as for the pattern, I am thinking something like Lacy Scallops (pdf) or Razor Shell (pdf).

Of course, I couldn’t bid on just one lot and ended up buying four different colours – and there was me thinking the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, was designed to help stash-bust not to encourage me to buy more yarn!

As I am knitting from my stash I have already decided what socks I am going to make. I am going to jump on the Cookie A bandwagon, the Lipstick (bright pink) is going to become Hedera, the Regency (pink/lilac )is going to become some Pomatomus and I guess if you are going to knit some Cookie A socks you have to make some Monkey socks which will be the Midnight Ice (blue/white).

To help encourage me to knit these socks, I have signed up to the Summer of Socks KAL, I doubt I will be able to knit four pairs of socks this summer – I am sure SSS will set in but you never know. I guess I should finish the my jaywalkers.

I am trying to convince myself that buying yarn from Knit Picks is benefiting numerous knitters therefore it doesn’t matter that I am breaking the rules of Knit from your Stash, I could place an order entirely of sock yarn – but I have been thinking about patterns I love, like Central Park Hoodie and Fetching and have been buying to make those projects.