Pattern: Upside Down Daisy from KnitIt! Spring 2007 
too bad all my Christmas knitting was for myself!
As we were taking all of our pictures downstairs by the tree, my sock model mentioned that he would love to have a pair of my homemade socks, "cause they are really soft and comfortable". I think he just likes the one-on-one Mom time and posing (not that MrK isn't always trying to get in the way). So, it looks like I have a project to make for someone else. We'll have to go to Inua and have him pick out a yarn for himself. I assume it will be something green. FrogBoy likes everything froggy, and he loved the name Pond Scum from my Grinchy socks.
Here is how much daylight we actually see. There is a hill to the south (to my back as I am taking this picture) and this hill obstructs the sunlight to the property. The picture is true to the amount of daylight that I actually receive in the winter. We plan to build on a south facing slope soon, so I might actually be able to grow houseplants with natural light. The building in the picture is my summer office and maintenance shed. The cut-out on the far hill is a buried segment of the Alaska Gas Pipeline which runs both above ground and under ground along our property line. Man, I miss the sunshine! That's why we vacation so much. I need UV rays! I need to produce natural vitamin D! I need the sun!
My December socks arrived after an extended wait. And here they are: The Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Grinchy Grouchy Socks Kit". One skein STR Grinchy, One skein STR Pond Scum, and a mini-skein of Whisper in Pond Scum. The pattern is {very} similar to the Chevron scarf in my winter queue. I was thinking about not doing the whisper, but instead have decided to not only knit up the whisper, but to add it to the toes. How can one be Grinchy this Christmas if one does not have hairy toes?
Within an hour of the Uptown Boot Sock being completed, so was my mini-sock in the Cherry Tree Hill "Slate". I abhor scant piles of left over sock yarn, so I i-cord on size2 until I have enough to make a trivet. Superglue the i-cord to a ceramic tile (or in my case, a bar coaster from the latest bar with ugly coasters {side note: strange but true, my husband collects cool bar coasters; I take the ugly ones and superglue i-corded reminants of sock yarn to them}).I received my Grinchy Grouchy Sock kit on Saturday, and today I received my Leticia. Both from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I will post on this tomorrow. I have to share, if you haven't seen already... "Here Hold My Sock". I found it while surfing for the Yarn Harlots Unoriginal Hat that I am knitting for my sister for Christmas. LOL!
Today is such a great day, I decided to double post. Now that it is daylight (kinda), I thought I would get another picture of the orchid. This brings me immense satisfation to have been able to keep this humidity-loving tropical plant alive in our dry, harsh, arctic environment. It is such a contrast to the world on the other side of the glass.
Boss is out of town today, all my work is done for the week, and I am getting my "knit-on" like a bad, bad girl.
I just HAVE to share the great day. I even got an email back from Sheri from the Loopy Ewe, she does such a great job with her customer service/blog/ business practices, that I had to let her know. Here is a glimpse at her email...
Aww - you're so sweet! Thank you so much for your email and I'm sorry for troubles with other sites. Maybe they're having a bad day. :-( At any rate, we love having you here and promise to always take good care of you! Hugs, Sheri
On Nov 30, 2007, at 4:23 PM, Krista Wilkinson wrote:
thanks...
i think i love u!
I have been having such problems with "the other" online retail shop: horrible service, shipping delays, rude/accusing emails. I just wanted you to know how much your hand-written comments on the invoices are appreciated. Your attention to detail is flawless and you come so highly recommended. thank you!
It is so nice to have online websites/stores that actually bring a personal touch to their practices. Thank you Sheri and your Loopy Ewe co-workers (if there are any).
It was such a beautiful sunrise that I just could not resist. Not many mornings are this gorgeous. We keep loosing sunlight until Dec22, with today down to 4 hours and 48 minutes of daylight. Sunrise at 10:15am and sunset at 3:03pm. It is right now 0F/-18C. We don't have windchill, so this is the actual temperature.
On the knitting note, not doing much today, just trying to finish the foot on my second Uptown Boot sock. I will have a couple pictures to post soon.
Then the three turned to five socks....
from left to right: Koigu from Layla's blanket, Yarn Pirate from my Tahitian Monkey socks, CTH in Cabin Fever from Roza's Socks, Lorna's Laces in Lakeview from my Waving Lace socks and then The Loopy Ewe Red Socks kit (dont know the yarn, but it was fabulous)
Last night, while sitting at the bar downstairs (yes, I have a full bar in my house, I ROCK!) I knit up some of my J.Knits in San Jose from my Campanulas for a Cure. I dont think I will be making up any from my very first sock, cause it is a sport-weight ski-sock, and I only have yet to make my CTH in Slate from my Uptown Boot Sock, that I only have one knit up. I was waiting for the second sock until after my Grinchy Grouchy Socks arrived & knit. Shipping confirmation says they arrived on 21Nov, but my mailman sucks! I am giving up and casting on the second sock after this post. That will guarantee the kit comes tomorrow, right when I need the needles. I did get my addi Turbo 40" in for Magic Loop, maybe I will try the Grinchy Grouchy on that. Socks for December!
Now that there is detail in the socks, the clean desk is not showing. At least I have a clean desk.
The littlest sock is Jennifer's Mini-Sock Recipe with a cast on of 16 sts. The larger sock is from Lime & Violet: The Daily Chum's August 30th entry titled Tiny Toes. You can see the full entry on Smoking Hot Needles: Avoiding SSS or 14 socks in 2 days!. Both socks are Cherry Tree Hill in "Cabin Fever". I combined the two pattern, since SHN's recipe stated heel of choice & toe of choice, which was frustrating to me. I am a knitting follower, I like to follow patterns.
My version as follows:
Using sock yarn, cast on 24 sts on needle size 0-2. Divide evenly over 3 dpns join for knitting on the round. Knit 6 rounds (K1, P1). Knit 18 rounds st st.
Heel: Place half your sts on needle#1, with 1st stitch in the center. Place 6 stitches on needle#2 and #3. Row1: knit to end, Row2: purl to end, repeat 3 times for 6 rows total.
Heel turn:
Row1: K6, ssk, K1 turn ; Row2: s1 purl-wise, p2, p2tog, p1, turn ; Row3: s1 p-wise, k3, ssk, K1, turn ; Row4: s1 p-wise, p4, p2tog, p1, turn ; Row5: s1 p-wise, k5, ssk, turn ; Row6: s1 p-wise, p4, p2tog. 6 sts remain
Gusset: Knit across the 6 heel stitches, then pick up 6 sts along left side of heel flap, knit all 12 sts of instep onto needle#2, with needle#3 pick up 6 sts on right side of heel flap. Rearrange sts so you have 9 sts on sides and 12 sts for instep. Knit one round.
Decrease: Round1: needle#1: k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: knit ; n#3: k1, ssk, knit to end. Round2: knit. Repeat until you have original stitch count (24).
Foot: Knit 12 rounds
Toe: Round1: needle#1: K3, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, knit to 3sts of end, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k3. Round 2: knit. Round 3: K2, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, knit to 3sts of end, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k2. Round 4: knit. Round 5: n#1: k1, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, k2, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k1. Round 6: knit. Kitchener stitch close.
Weave in yarn at toe, i-cord yarn at cuff to create hanger.
Pattern: Monkey socks by CookieA
Bb had requested a black hat with a green alien and I have never done stranded color, so sounds like a challenge. It went really well, I should have measured his head and creating a pattern instead of just increasing the dimensions of a baby cap. The top of the alien does not stretch enough, I should have {what? don't know enough about hats and stretch and two colors} The hat fits over his head, it is just a little tight 4/5th the way up. Couldn't find a chart on the alien face, so I just drew one up with graph paper.
On a side note: {NKR-not knitting related} I was on the Interweave Knits KAL site and saw some more of the awesome Snowflake Socks form Fall'07 and got inspired to immediately go Xcountry skiing. Heading out on my summer running path, I got the groove of packing the snow-trail and BAM there is a new warehouse right in the path that connects the empty field and the pipeline. Huge signs demanding "NO TRESPASSING" all over the place. Lovely, just lovely. Partially ignoring the signs, I decided to ski to the edge of property (which is actually owned by a friend, leased to these yahoos) and this nasty, burly Alaska-man in filthy carhartts steps out of the shop and stands in his driveway. I wave, MrK (brown lab) is along for the ski because within the next couple trips will be beginning skijor training, MrK starts to bark, the AKman stands portly in his driveway and we have to climb a gravel burm just to get to the remainder of the path. Lets see: "a word of advice, jacka$s, if you want privacy for your meth lab, try not placing it in the middle of an existing recreation path. There are 49 other acres on the parcel, just 'cause you need a backdoor excape path when the troopers come a knockin', doesn't mean you should block off everyone else's enjoyment." Oh, makes me sooooo friggin' mad! I had to take off my skiis to traverse this 12 foot incline burm just to stay away from this joker's rented property. I wouldn't be so mad, but this is a really great ski path cause snowmachiners can't drive over most of it, ruining the glide. Ahhhh.
I still need to buy yarn and cast on these awesome Snowflake sock. Who can ski without? And I did just order a 40" size2 addi turbo for magic loop. Just have to watch the video and scope out the links that the ever lovely Pat emailed. Thanks, Pat!!!
Hinano and knitting: a great combination for a relaxing vacation.
Cuff was started on the tarmac at Fairbanks International Airport here in Fairbanks. The leg was completed on the way to Seattle. Heel flap was started in Maui and finished on the plane to Tahiti. Heel was turned as I was waiting to leave Tahiti and as you can see, I was starting on the gusset and instep. Spoiled little Monkey socks.
Pattern: Monkey socks from Cookie A on knitty.com
Yarn: Yarn Pirate in their version of Brown Sugar
Needles: my trusty size 2 S.B. dpns
Cast on: October 18
First off, this was my first toe-up sock. I used Wendy's generic sock pattern, and lets just say, even the most detailed explanation didn't cut it! I bought three books to try to learn this. Uh, I frogged three times, finally got it. I only had to do two heels.
Pattern: Waving Lace from Favorite Socks
Thinking that I would be receiving a chocolate brown to golden to ivory. What I received was a deep maroon to a horrible shade of mustard seed/ squash/ cat yack. I opened the bag and WTH? I am so disappointed. So not what I had hoped for with my first hand-dyed, esty seller. I was expecting greatness and only received a mediocre sock yarn. I checked the tag. Yep, Brown Sugar. Guess I got the nasty dye job. Wow, I am so depressed.
I went and played around with my camera to see if under different light situations I could reproduce the colors. I hopes of reducing my disappointment, this is as close to the picture in different light. But the middle picture represents the colors in natural sunlight. Still disappointed. Guess I will stick to the Cherry Tree Hill. I am going to gather my courage and try Socks that Rock, to see how their colors turn out. I just hate spending $30+ and not receiving the colors I had hoped for.
We started off beautifully. The pattern was coming along great!!
All the side cabling is done, time to start in on the decreases...
Then all heck broke out! The brown turned to mud! There was no recognizable pattern to be found, so I ripped back four rows and put it back on the needle. The stitches got twisted and misaligned and went right back to mud again. In a fit of red-headed madness, I frogged the whole frickin' thing.
The patterns repeat eight times, but it wasnt the repeating part that got me confused, it was the decreases. I figured I would throw a stitch marker in for the initial row start and then some reminder clips after each repeat. Those little green markers are what saved me on the decreases. They were helpful reminders telling me that I was in the middle of a repeat and not at the beginning, so when someone ran by to ask me a question, I could go back and count eight stitchs instead of 128!
The finale! I am so in love with this design and the yarn, and the needles, and the stitch marker I made up from old earring beads. I am also so in love with DH for my Coach birthday bag! He is so awesome. I am constantly bombarding him with emails of all of my online shopping carts. He even had the kids pick me up a gift certificate for my LYS Inua Wool. Yeah for sock yarn!!
The Earth opened up on my birthday, September 10 and made Hawaii just that much bigger. My ego says that Mother Earth wanted to give me just a wee little bit more of Hawaii to enjoy. I was so excited to see the sign with my birthday that I made sweet DH (fiance at the time) pull off the side of the road to take th picture. Happy Birthday to me! And I am almost finished with the Shedir. I will post the finale of that sweet, sweet hat tomorrow.
I have the provisional cast on for my Campanulas, but gave up after three tries. I drove over to Barnes and Noble and picked up two new books with more explanation of toe up: Vogue Knitting and Socks, Socks, Socks. A $50 gift card only to realize that I have the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits tutorial already on my bookshelf, oops.
