FO: socks, and Capecho progress

Here are the socks that I was working on. We went on a spur of the moment camping trip because everything just fell into place. That gave me ample time to finish these. Capecho is also making progress, now I just need to produce the sleeves and collar. I'm going slow on that one because It's too danged hot here to wear it any time soon.

I'm also going to start on Coachella from Knitty as soon as I get the yarn in the mail. I realized last night after swatching that I'd bought the wrong "suede" and there was no similarity between the two yarn brands. Sneeky naming..... So I ordered the right yarn online from WEBS and I'll be returing the untouched yarn from Michaels. Lesson learned.

Flashing My Stash

My mom and I went to see the yarn harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at WEBS in Northampton. I think it was the first time I spent any significant amount of time in Northampton and it was a pretty good time overall. I didn't meet Stephanie up close in person because I had to come back to pick Paul up at a friend's house in Boston and I didn't want to be too late for waiting. Of course Stephanie was a great speaker despite her nerves and she mentioned stash a bunch of times. So my mom asked me how much stash I had. I think being allergic to wool and a fairly new knitter helps in keeping the stash "manageable", though as of late I've had a few episodes of "What was I thinking!" Also I've been knitting a lot more recently as I've been spending more time with my family and attending pre-events for my friend Dave's wedding. Knitting calms me and makes me more tollerant and hopefully more tollerable to others.

So here it is, my somewhat diminutive stash:



From left to right there are: the disturbing and unnecessary amount of yarn I bought for the Vogue Knitting cover Capecho. I'm not sure what posessed me to buy so much except for that fear Stephanie talks about that the world will run out. My sister said that she likes the color, so maybe I'll make her a throw blanket out of the leftovers once I'm done.



Next to that is the pile of leftover microspun from the Arrrrgyle hat I made my brother-in-law Deq. Just above it is the first start on the chart that I did as a warm up. I suppose I could make something of it, but I hate the yarn, it's so splitty it made me want to pluck my eyeballs out with dpns...



Next column at the top is the pair of socks I'm working on for myself out of Cascade Fixations. I'm working them both alternatingly so that they match fairly closely at each stage of creation. I did most of the cuffs while I was waiting at various pre-wedding events. I've been working on Capecho, but it's now too bulky to easily carry with me so I cast on the socks for traveling.



Just below the socks are two skeins of Jaeger Aqua Cotton that I got at Windsor Button along with the leftover bamboo and the leaves of bamboo scarf that will probably be gifted away once I block it. I have no idea what I will do with these 3 skeins, though the cotton will likely become socks. I was on a purple kick when I bought them.



Next over is a ball of red cotton that I bought for play and now have no idea what to do with :)

Below that is an assemblage of pink and cream stuff that I used to make a bunny hat out of for my niece Charlie, I've started several mitten/bootie projects which she has since outgrown :) and at the bottom near the pink pile of fun fur is a couple tiny balls of periwinkle cotton that are leftover from the cross-slung cabled bag that I knit as an interpretation of Tasha from knitty.com.



And lastly the two fuschia squares are the charity blanket squares we were asked to knit at the WEBS event out of cashmerino that they gave us *free* which I knit in my first foray into non-vegan yarn and surprizingly didn't break out in hives or even really itch too much. They knit up so quickly that I was truly depressed when the yarn ran out and I had none left. I just wanted to blog them before I mailed them off.

So there you have it, my current projects and stash. Not too bad...

long time, no blog...

I have since finished the second sock and presented them to my sis-in-law who loves them :) I tried to keep it on the down low that they were for her so that she would be surprised. And she was (or at least pretended to be). So I had all this microspun leftover and couldn't decide on what my next project should be so I started a pair of mini socks for the String Bean. Here's a picture of how far I got during our little weekend trip to Cleaveland, Ohio. We went to Bruce's Wedding. I wish I had pics but Paul forgot the camera ;-)

So here's a pic of the mini sock instead (dollar added for scale):


My next project will be a pair of arrrgyle socks for my brother-in-law for his birthday in September. That gives me just about a month. If I can find the right yarn I think that should be enough time. I hope he likes them :)

I finished the first sock!

I had gotten down to the toe on the way to my in-law's house on Tuesday and was just left with the grafting/kitcheners stitch to connect the front to the back which I accomplished today in my semiweekly needlecraft lunch hour at work. I even had time to cast on and work a little on the second sock. I'll share pictures when I get home to my digital camera tonight. I'm sort of psyched to be back to the fun part of the socks (the going round and round without dereases) again and this time I will be sure to remember all those useful life lessons I learned from the first sock. I'm sure they'll come out slightly mismatched, but c'est la vie! They're just socks!

In other news, it's been beautiful weather for motorcycle riding. A few showers here and there but not enough to dissuade me. Here's a cautionary note to non-motorcycle riders: Even though motorcycles are great at acceleration and getting up to speed quickly, they are lousy at braking. If I leave several car lengths between me and the car in front of me, that should not be viewed as an open invitation to pull out in front of me, especially if your caddy can't do 0-50 in any kind of reasonable time period. It's not nice. And don't ride my tail, that's not nice either.

Oh and last night Paul and I got fed up with the futon and went to BJs and got a memory foam bed topper for it. OMGs. I was rather skeptical that 2 inches of foam would make any real kind of difference, but we had slept on the one that Paul's parents have on their sofa bed and loved how it felt on that. Turns out it works just as nice on a futon. So for anyone who doesn't like their lumpy mattress, go get a foam topper!