Knit One Quilt Too

Another one bites the dust

I've finished another of my Socktoberfest pairs!  Yay!  I was wondering if this entitles me to start a new pair of socks.  I had been planning on finishing two more pairs before starting a new one, but I have this sudden urge to cast on for my Jaywalkers in the sock yarn Cathi sent me. 

These are my Coreolis Socks that I started at the Magical Moebius Festival with Cat Bordhi.  Now that her new book is out it's safe to show them.  In the photo above it's sort of hard to see the Coreolis effect, so here are a couple more shots.

This is Blue Moon Fiber Arts lightweight Socks that Rock, colorway Blue Brick Wall.  I just love this colorway so much and doesn't it look cool with my new shoes!  My Coreolis pattern only goes up to the top of the heel pattern, but in the book Cat has directions to make it go all the way up the sock. 

While it was a delight to finish these, it came none too soon.  About an hour later I noticed I had worn a hole in the heel of the hand knit socks I was wearing yesterday.  I have to say this is the most disappointing thing about knitting socks!  They do wear out and that's very sad for me.  I haven't yet tried to darn a sock.  Anyone out there have some tips on that?  Can you darn an actual hole or do you have to do it when it's getting thin, but not broken through yet?

Well, lets move on.  Look at my latest moebius scarf.  This is for my Mom's birthday which was last week.  She's already seen it in progress, but I finally got the applied i-cord done last night.  This one is so soft and pretty.  It's made with one skein of Golden Chai 100% silk yarn from Artfibers and a skein of Hand Maiden Sea Silk.  I wound the Sea Silk into two balls and used it doubled, so it has three strands in the main part of the scarf.  I knit 3 rounds, purled 2 rounds until the Golden Chai was about to run out and did the i-cord just in the Sea Silk, which makes a nice edging. 

I love the fall colors in this scarf.  I chose the Sea Silk just for my mom because the colors reminded me of her.  Using the two yarns together worked out well because the brown tones of the Golden Chai toned down the brights of the Sea Silk.

 

Busy, busy, busy

Now that I've got my mojo back, I'm going crazy trying to finish things up (okay, I might have started something too!).  Let's see, what to show first.  I guess I'll start with the socks, since it's Socktoberfest.  I'm working on two pairs simultaneously.  These are socks that have languished for several months.  First up, are the Mystic Sea socks started at Camp Cockamamie on Orcas Island, WA.  These are knit with Socks that Rock, colorway Lunasea. I just love this yarn and the pattern is really great too.

Secondly, I just picked up again this pair from Cat Bordhi's Knitting Retreat in Newport, OR in April.  This is one of the socks that may be found in her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book 1.  This pattern is called the Coreolis. I have made mine to just bring the coreolis pattern up to the start of the heel.  In the book there are directions for making it spiral all the way up the sock.  This is such a cool pattern!  The yarn is also Socks that Rock, colorway- Blue Brick Wall.  This is one of my favorite STR colorways ever.  There are little tiny bits of purple that snuck in.  When I asked Tina about this she said the purple is from the dye behaving badly and some people don't like it.  I happen to think it's marvelous!

I also got some yellow yarn for my crochet blanket today and did another stripe.  For some reason Scrabble likes to show up when I take a photo of this blanket.  Do you think he's trying to tell me something?

Quilting continues along on My Bootiful Booquet.  Right now I'm just outlining the applique, but I plan to quilt a spider web into the purple background.  I'm still trying to decide what color and type of thread to use for that.  Any thoughts?

Now, here's the new thing I started.  I love the Soft Trees that were all the rage last Christmas when Stephanie put her pattern on her blog, Little Birds.  I've been planning to make some ever since.  Chloe is making some too and it's been fun to plan how to decorate each one.

Lastly, just because it's Halloween season after all, take a look at this and say awwwww!

One down; mumble, mumble to go

Well, I've met my first goal for Socktoberfest!  I'd like to finish up as many sock pairs as possible.  I make no apologies for being a starter rather than a finisher much of the time, but it's sock season and I'd like to see many of these off the needles.  This one was easy, as it's a plain vanilla sock.  I know many of the half finished ones are patterned socks and half finished for just this reason.  I think I actually started this pair because I wanted an easy take along sock that I didn't have to think about.  In fact, I might even start another plain vanilla pair so I can have something easy to carry around.  I'm not even sure how many pairs there are lying around that are part way done, that's how bad startitis is around here.  You'll be the first to know if I manage to finish another one!

   

Sock Season

We took a little camping trip over the weekend.  It was beautiful in Silver Falls State Park and we managed to do a hike and a bike ride and a lot of really nice relaxing by the campfire.  I finished one sock that's been hanging around for a while.  I barely got started on it's mate.  Up above I'm doing the sewn cast off.

This is Socks that Rock lightweight, colorway Cockamamie, and a basic toe up sock pattern from Wendy.  Let's hope it doesn't stay single for too long!

I've got more to show you from last week, but I go in for a treatment today and don't know when I'll be up to making the next post.  Luckily, after this one I'm halfway done!  I got a lovely comment from my friend, Jill, about the socks she made, so if you were interested in their construction check out her comment here (scroll down to the bottom).  By the way, it's almost Socktoberfest season.  After losing my sock mojo (and, really, knitting mojo too) for a while I have a hankering for finishing up some socks. 

Last Gasp

In the last gasp of Socktoberfest I started these last night.  I actually have several colorways of Socks that Rock in the stash.  Most are from the Rockin' Sock Club, but two are from the Black Sheep Gathering that I got in June.  I picked out this one, named Titania, from the Club and started the Embossed Leaves socks from Interweave Knits.  I knit these before in Koigu, but I always knew I'd do it again.  I find the pattern simple to remember and soothing to knit.  The socks have gained another inch or so today.  By the way, our house is not actually so incredibly cobwebby, that's a Halloween prop!

We had a very nice evening yesterday, though we only had 2 trick-or-treaters!  Last year we had lots more than that and several large groups.  I really don't know what happened to them all, but it was very cold last night (about 15 degrees F), so that may have deterred them.  Chloe and Ryan got plenty of candy and got about $42 for Unicef!  We are doing that as a Campfire project so we look forward to finding out how much the whole group got.

S is for...

Socktoberfest!  With days to spare I finished my second pair or Socktoberfest socks.  I love these with a passion.  The Mountain Colors Bearfoot was a delight to knit with.  The colorway is Red Tailed Hawk and the pattern is Chevron from Sensational Knitted Socks.  I love this pattern because it's a two row pattern and one of them is all knit.  Very easy!  Thank you, Lolly, for giving me a great reason to finish these beauties!

The spirit of socktoberfest continues with my new Socks that Rock kit that came just yesterday.  I signed up for next year's club and I'm really looking forward to the Club Camp next April.  I'm going to see if I can fit two knitting retreats and an unschooling conference into one month.  Should be interesting!

Have a very Happy Halloween!

My Hands are Killing Me!

Well, I got quite a lot done this week (enough to have some repetetive stress pain in my wrists), though not necessarily what I should have been doing!  In knitting news I worked past the heels of my Socktoberfest socks!  I think I've decided that the short row heel is not my thing.  I love the short row toe, but I'm going to see if I can find a nice toe-up heel flap and give that a try.  This photo is a bit of a tease, if you look closely at what's under the socks!

I also started and finished this little project in two days.  This is a hat from Handknit Holidays.  I was reminded how I love to knit with 1824 wool, but I don't really like two color knitting.  Not relaxing enough.  It did come out pretty cute though.  This is a little kid size, so I guess I'll have to find a little kid to give it to!

In quilting news, this wall hanging is seeing some action, though I now remember why I put it away last fall.  I must have used a heavy batting on this because hand quilting is just about killing my hands.

How do I know the batting is different from usual?   The hand quilting of the pillow went swimmingly and I realized how much thinner that batting is.  I ended up enlarging the pillow to meet my 16" specifications.  Here's how I did it:

First I zig-zagged on some extra pieces of batting.  Just butt the edges together and use a large zig-zag stitch.  I've done this before on quilts (mostly charity quilts) and the only thing you would do differently on a quilt is make a curved edge on the batt so that it doesn't always fold in that one spot.  I figured a pillow wouldn't get as much wear and tear as a quilt, but if it does I'll make a new one!

Then I just pinned and sewed some extra muslin to the back pieces and extra fabric to the front.  It was only a little tough in the two places where I had already quilted to about 1" of the edge.

And here it is.  I did indeed finish the quilting.  I made backing pieces for the pillow, though I haven't sewn it all together as I'm waiting for some buttons to come in the mail and I want to make the buttonholes with my automatic buttonholer on my machine (what a great invention!).

Gratuitous puppy-love!

The photo above with my socks may give you a hint of the two other pillows that I couldn't help starting.  It sure was fun to go to my Kaffe Fassett stash and choose colors.  They are all basted and waiting to be hand quilted too.  I spent all this afternoon cutting pieces for yet another quilt.  Same block pattern as the pillow.  This will be some lovely fall colors.

I also helped Chloe make a skirt this week.  She was so excited to begin and it gives me time to sit next to her and work on a handwork project, while only answering the occasional question.  She did all the sewing, ironing, gathering and pinning.  I only cut the fabrics because I wasn't quite sure about her using the rotary cutter.

I have a couple of other FO's to show, but they'll wait for another day.  Meanwhile, aspens are my favorite tree right now, so here are some lovely aspen shots from today.

Fireside knitting

We took our last camping trip of the season last weekend and it was fantastic.  We went up to the mountains beyond Mt. Bachelor which is about 30 minutes from our house.  We camped on Lava Lake where we had beautiful views of Mt. Bachelor, South Sister and Broken Top.  We went for a hike, went mountain biking, played games, made s'mores and relaxed in the sun.

I managed to get some knitting done on my Socktoberfest sock and finished it last night. 

Today as I was cleaning out my sewing room I got several projects in order.  This is the French Market Bag, which I knit a round or two periodically.  I haven't shown it in a while.  This is made from Lamb's Pride worsted.  I ran out of the green because I used some for another project and forgot I was saving it for this.  So I put in a band of turquoise to mask the change in dyelot.  I'm near the start of the handles finally!

And, here's Hana's sweater with buttons.  I think if I make this again I'll put in actual button holes, but it turned out nicely and is so soft and yummy.  I think she'll like it!

Holidays Already??

Today I went out and bought craft supplies for a bunch of different projects I'd like to complete in the next few months.   I may have to change the name of the blog what with all the paper craft supplies** I've been buying! 

Another thing I really wanted to try was the knitted wire votives in Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick.  I saw Grumperina's post about making them and was just taken with their beauty.  I decided to go with 26 gauge wire instead of the 24 called for because Grumperina said the 24 was hard on her whole body (scroll down to see the photos!).  As it turned out, the 26 gauge wire was no problem as far as hand pain.  I was worried about that because I've had significant pain in the past with certain cotton yarn. 

I finished the votive in the span of a two hour movie and it's so pretty!  Chloe thinks I should make these for everyone.  She also thinks this technique would also make some really pretty napkin rings.  I bought a bunch of different colored beads, so I guess I could.  I do need to get more wire.   This is the Artistic Wire called for in the pattern, 26 gauge, color gold (because they didn't have gunmetal). 

On another note, I was looking for a pair of Socktoberfest socks I thought I finished last year, and couldn't find them until I looked in my yarn stash.  There they were, a sock and a half done.  I figured I better get that finished before I work on some other Socktoberfest socks, so that was my knitting this morning.

** I'm really excited about making Artist Trading Cards now.  They are miniature works of art that you trade with others.  I'll be posting some photos of them on my other blog.