Yarn!!

Last week I got two yarn packages in the mail. I wonder if that means I have a problem, as I had just returned from my trip to Denver with 4 –I mean 5skeins of sock yarn the week before, and now 4 more skeins have arrived! I won’t ponder on that, but just be happy for more new yarn!

I received my Loopy Ewe order and my first Woolgirl 2008 sock club package. Both were WONDERFUL! First I’ll let you know what I got from The Loopy Ewe, as the Woolgirl sock club may be a spoiler for some….so beware—there are sock club spoilers below.

From The Loopy Ewe I received my first Yarn Nerd yarn, Creatively Dyed yarn and Cherry Tree Hill yarn. Hooray! All new yarns for me—but that is not a difficult task, as even though I have quite a bit of sock yarn, there are tons of different yarns/dyers to pick from.
Yarn Nerd: 100% Superwash Merino; 450 yards; color 5 O’Clock Shadow
I just love, love, love this color! It was why I placed my order, and like I said, I just love the color! I can’t say it enough—WOW!!!





Creatively Dyed: 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon; 360 yards; color New England Fall (12)
No superwash here, so it is a good thing that I hand wash my socks, so I’ll not have to worry. But I did run across a wonderful tip that someone (whom I cannot remember—sorry!) shared, which is to do a purl row before beginning the toe to remind you that your sock is not superwash, so it has to be hand washed instead of washed in the wash machine. If I remember to, I think I’ll do that when I knit this yarn. Gotta love sock knitting tips, even if you don’t remember where they came from.

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock: 100% Superwash Merino; 420 yards; color Peacock
I must confess that it is not exactly what I pictured in my head (even though I saw the picture on line), but it is still a very pretty color. It is likely that if I had seen it in person it would still be at the yarn shop, and not in my stash, but I’ll happily make and wear a pair of socks out of the yarn for myself.

Recently I was talking to someone about purchasing yarn online vs. in person, and they mentioned how hard it is for them to purchase yarn online because you cannot feel the yarn or see what color is really is. I do agree that it is much nicer to feel and see yarn in person before making a purchase, but for me that is not very practical unless I want to really limit my sock yarn selection. So while it is true that sometimes the feel and/or color are not what I was expecting, that is the nature of purchasing yarn online, and I am willing to accept that. Imagine all the wonderful yarn I would be missing out on if I only purchased in my not-so-local yarn shop!

I also picked up a sock blocker key chain from Knitcelleneous just for fun—it didn’t hurt that it also took me over the $75 mark to qualify for free shipping. As usual, The Loopy Ewe takes special care when packaging your order—it was shipped in a box, with the yarn wrapped in tissue paper and then in a plastic bag for safety. A hand written note was included on my invoice along with a special gift and

WoolGirl Sock Club- April 2008
This is my first time in the WoolGirl sock club—WOW!! The package was AMAZING!!! After opening up the box, I found my yarn & goodies in a plastic bag tied with a purple ribbon and flowers. It was so pretty to look at that it was hard to open it. Inside the bag was my beautiful purple Mama Lama yarn. Oh and it is so super soft! I took it with me over the weekend and just had to have people touch it because it was so soft! I look forward to knitting with it soon. Also included with the shipment was a sock pattern, notes on the color selection, a coupon for my next yarn purchase (just twist my arm!), some pretty note cards with pictures of the yarn included in the shipment, a WoolGirl pen and a WoolGirl bag to put my sock project in. WOW! Jen sure does spoil her sock club members! I though a regular WoolGirl order was special, but it has nothing on my sock club package! But I still do think that a regular WoolGirl order still makes a person feel really special.

Denver!

I was in Denver, CO for the Frozen 4 WCHA Hockey Tournament last week. I had a really good time in spite of how poorly the Fighting Sioux played. No more comments on that!
While in Denver, in addition to watching hockey, touring things such as the Denver Mint, the Capital Building, the Molly Brown Museum, driving into the mountains & visiting Wynkoop Brewery (more than once), I managed to stop at 5 yarn shops—hooray!!

LambShoppe
http://www.thelambshoppe.com

This was a very friendly shop, and the last one we visited. While I cannot remember the woman’s name (she works the 9-12 shift), she was super friendly and helpful! Even though I’d never been in the shop before, I was treated as a regular customer, and felt right at home. What a great shop! I was even invited to one of their sock knitting groups, but was unable to attend, as it was the day after I left for home. The other two people I brought with me were not shopping for yarn, but still had a good time, and the shop was one of the two that we visited that they really enjoyed—that is a very good thing that they could have a good time in a yarn shop when they were not there to shop! I was good, and only purchased a skein of sock yarn, a skein of Scoubie Du to make a baby dress that was super cute! The pattern is Buttercup Sundress and is in this book: Country Living Cozy knits for cuddly babies by Elanor Lynn. Now I am working on tracking down the book. My first attempt is inter-library loan, we’ll see how that goes, as I’ve never tried that before. I also brought home Mountain Colors Baby Hat & Socks pattern, suggested by (and located for me in the shop) by a really nice knitter in the shop.

Pagewood Farm Yukon Sock Yarn in greens (70% Merino, 20% Bamboo 10% Nylon)
Trendsetter Scoubidu in Yellow Stone Wash

The Recycled Lamb
http://www.recycledlamb.com/

Another very friendly shop, and the other shop the two with me that were not purchasing yarn really enjoyed. While in the shop, my friends even helped someone fix (or do something like that) their spinning wheel. It was a very nice shop, and while difficult to resist, I did not actually purchase any yarn here (but the other knitter in the group did!). This shop had spinning and weaving in addition to knitting/crocheting.

Posh Yarn Boutique
http://www.poshayarnboutique.com/

This was the first shop we stopped at. The shop owner, Sylvia, was very nice and very helpful. I had e-mailed her before going to Colorado looking for a specific sock yarn kit, and while she did not carry it, she let me know that another shop did, which was really helpful, and we made a special trip down to the other shop to get the yarn. She even invited us to their “Bobmas Eve” event, but we were unable to attend, due to it being when the hockey games were being played. While there, at Sylvia’s suggestion (a wonderful one I might add!), I purchased my souvineer yarn—Red Rocks Fiber Works in Dark Chocolate. It is 100% superwash merino, and was dyed in Morrison, CO. http://www.redrocksfiberworks.com/. It is a very pretty color, and I’m looking forward to knitting a pair of socks out of it—now to decide on a pattern.

Purls of Wisdom
http://www.purlsofwisdomyarn.com

Another very nice and friendly yarn shop! This time I picked some Aussi Sock yarn www.oasisyarn.com in Oak Moss and Spanish Fiesta. 990% Aussi Merino 10% Nylon. I also purchase a circular needle case, as I really need one to work on some organization. I am planning to knit “I Love Gansey Sock” by Janine Le Cras with the Oak Moss.

One more yarn shop………

Showers of Flowers Yarn Shop
http://www.showersofflowers.com/

Boy do they have a huge selection of yarn! I ended up with Pagewood Farm Yukon sock yarn in Golden and a skein of Cascade Yarns 220 superwash in a dark green to make a Koolhaas hat for my brother. His favorite color is green.

As you can tell, by the end of this post, I got tired of writing about the yarn shops, but I really did enjoy them all, and had a wonderful time actually being able to see & touch all the yarn in person instead of on the internet!

STR Sock Club March 2008

Well, I ment to put the pictures futher down on the blog, but my skills are quite new, and this is where they landed......maybe next time I can figure out how to move them around.......

I just finished my Rockin’ Sock Club March 2008 socks on Sunday. HOORAY!! When I opened up the package I fell in love with the color! By now everyone should have their package, so it should be safe to mention that the yarn is a beautiful combination of greens that just screamed “knit me into socks fast!!” This pattern is my first dip in the pond of Cat Bordhi’s new sock architecture, and I must admit that I am intrigued. It was interesting to knit the heel flap and gusset at the same time (and no stitches to pick up –yea!). I knit the small size, casting on 60 stitches in STR medium weight. I must admit that I was a little worried about casting on that many stitches, as I’ve knit two other pairs of socks in the same yarn, and cast on 48 stitches for the one pattern and 44 stitches for the other pattern—but they were a variation of a ribbed sock, and the sock club pattern was over ½ stockinette stitch, so I took a leap of faith and cast on the 60 stitches required of the smallest size. I must admit that while they do fit, they could be a little snugger, so if I knit the pattern again, which I am pretty sure I will, I’ll find a way to cast on fewer stitches—I know it can be done, I’ll just have to do a little thinking to figure it out. For my birthday, I received Cat’s “New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One” book, so that should be helpful when trying to modify the number of stitches in the pattern.

Last night I gave the socks away to my best friend. I know that she will take care of them and love them very much—what a funny thing to say about a pair of socks—“…and love them very much”—but she did ask if I knit her a pair of socks for her birthday, and when I said no, she was very disappointed. So what could I do, but give her my awesome Lucky green STR socks?!?!? I forgot to get a picture of the finished socks, so I’ll have to get her to model them. So for now, here is a picture in progress.

On the needles now is a pair of purl-free Monkey sock from CookieA. The pattern can be found on knitty.com. So as you can see by my description that I modified them. I don’t have an aversion to purling, this is my second pair, and I’d heard of the purl-free Monkey modification, and thought I’d give them a try.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTmonkey.html

WoolGirl package(s)!

Yup, not just one package, but two! Bad Andy, bad!

The yarns pictured are the following. Top: Chameleon Colorworks Bambino fingering weight (30% bamboo 60% superwash wool & 10% nylon) Briar Rose colorway. From left to right: Miss Babs: Hand-dyed Fiber Goods Yummy Superwash Sock & Baby Yarn in Raspberry Cane colorway; Cherry Blossom Fibers Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn in Central Park colorway; The Unique Sheep Verve Superwash Merino Fingering in WoolGirl with a Twist colorway.

This is the yarn from my very first WoolGirl order, which I place on 02-22-2008, so a few weeks ago. It has been here for quite a while, but I am just now posting about it, so don’t’ think that it actually takes that long to ship and arrive, because it doesn’t. In fact, it was shipped the day after it was ordered—so super quick in my opinion! I’d been eying the Miss Babs “Raspberry Cane” colorway for quite some time, and finally just had to take the plunge and order it. The colors are even better than I imagined they would be! I’m not ready to cast on with it yet, but hopefully in the next month or two (or at least to have them done by fall)—no need to wait until you are ready to cast on to purchase sock yarn!

I was showing my husband the yarn, and asked him which one he thought I should cast on with first, and he suggested the Chameleon Colorworks Bambino. At the time, I thought I would take his suggestion, but in all actuality, I cast on my next sock with some yarn that I did not purchase from WoolGirl, but from Prairie Needles in Battle Lake, MN—but that is another post.

The packaging was very nice, and the yarn was even wrapped in tissue paper tied with real ribbon--what a treat! Jen even included a short note and a lavender wool wash sample–it smelled great, and I have already used it. Oh, and I should mention that the tissue paper wrapped yarn was also in a plastic bag for safety! What a nice touch. Obviously from my first sentence, this will not be my last order from woolgirl.com!

Sock Questionnaire

I found this sock questionnaire on the Sock It To 'Em Knitalongblog, and decided that it would be something to write about on my blog today, as I do not have anything inspiring to write about at this time.

Sock Questionnaire

1. What's your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word 'yarn' is singular. Just pick one. I know it's hard.)
Well, I do only have so much experience with knitting socks (I’ve knit I think 7 or 8 pair so far), but looking in my stash, I seem to be drawn to purchasing Claudia’s Handpainted.

2. What's your favorite brand and type of sock needle?
I’ve used Brittany Birch double pointed and KnitPick Harmony double pointed. I like them both, but knit with my Harmony needles much more often now that I have them.

3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down, or sideways?
Cuff down. But sometime this year I plan to try toe up, I even have a pattern I want to try….. Loopy Laces Toe Up Socks by Wendy Knits that I purchased from The Loopy Ewe.

4. Both socks at the same time or just one?
Just one at a time.

5. What's your favorite toe and why?
No preference yet, but I’ve done many standard toes and like them.

6. Favorite heel?
I’ve done the heel flap many times and one short row. Both are fine. The nice thing about the short row is not having to pick up the stitches, but I’m getting better at it, so it is not so bad.

7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks?
Patterned. I’m still kind of afraid to knit plain stockenette socks, as I have it in my head that patterned socks are more “forgiving” in the fit than a stockenette sock. I only “kind-of” knit a gauge swatch, which is likely the root of my fears. There, I said it!

8. Who do you knit the most socks for?
Me!

9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them?
So far I have not. I have instructions to do so, but I find it very unlikely that I would ever do it. So far I have not found a need to darn socks, so I’ve not decided exactly what I’ll do when the time arises. Likely I’ll have to ask someone to throw them away for me, as it would just be too hard to do.

10. Do you only wear handknit socks?
No, I do not. My collection is not big enough yet. I think I have about 7 pair of my own—I’d have to count them. I doubt that I will ever only wear hand knit socks, but I could be wrong. As time goes on and my collection gets bigger, I do anticipate wearing them much more frequently than my typical once or twice a week.

Bonus question: What pattern, if any, is your basic "I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks" sock pattern based on? Do you keep it on paper or memorized?
So far I don’t have a “go-to” pattern, as knitting socks is still fairly new to me, so I am excited to try new patterns. If I plan to knit for someone else, I do a ribbed sock of some sort. I think I’ll always have a pattern on paper, not memorized, but after knitting socks for a while and reading about them, I think that I could knit a pair without a pattern, but I really have no desire to do so.

Now, for my own entertainment, I think I may try to link a picture!

I'm back to try this again!

It has been many years since I've blogged, and you should have seen me try to access this account! What a riot that was!

Since I've last posted, my knitting skills have gotten much better, and I've started knitting socks! I even joined a sock club, and am in the process of joining another one.

No time to post more, but I was just happy to get in and post anything! Next I'll have to try adding pictures!

The Amazon Bootie!

Last week I finished the bonnet I was working on, and sent it to my grandma to finish for me (she crocheted the trim around it, put the french knots in and made the cord for it). I included the matching booties in the package for her to look at. She then sent me a very nice e-mail to say that the pattern did not mention the type of yarn or needle size, so clarified that I needed to use baby yarn and a size 1 or 2 needle. This did not mean much to me at the time, since I had use Baby Ull and a size 2 needle. It did however, take on a whole new meaning once she sent the bonnet & booties back to me, along with a bootie she had knit to show me the size they are supposed to be. I have now named my bootie "The Amazon Bootie", as it is a full 1 inch longer than the one my grandma knit. Mine was 4 1/2" long! It seememd little when I made it, but apparently I was mistaken!

I think for now I'll be done making booties (except to finish the 2nd amazon bootie I am currently working on so I have a pair). Soon I will look for baby yarn (likely the next time I am at the yarn shop), but I really am in no hurry, as I feel a little let down about the size of my bootie, but rest assured, I will get over it, and continue to make booties, as the really are kind of fun to make!