Hot Socks Swap

My Hot Socks Swap arrived! Alice sent the most wonderful package and card. Thank you so much Alice! I LOVE the purple sock yarn. It is so pretty. I can't wait to find the perfect pattern for them. I also loved all the goodies that came with it in a cute tote. The candle smells so good, the lotion is great (I had to try it right away) and the hot chocolate is delicious (I had to try that too).




The yarn was hand dyed by Jeni. Purple is my favorite color and it is just beautiful. I can't wait to start on them, but I might need to wait until after Christmas because there are a quite a few projects I'm hoping to have finished before then.



The Central Park Hoodie is coming along. I took a break from it this week to work on some other things, but it's getting closer. I'm close to finished with the main body part. I have to rework the top of both front sides. I thought I made a mistake on one size and tore it back, only to realize the mistake was on the other side. Anyway I just took a break from it to move on to a sleeve because it was driving me a bit crazy. The sleeve is coming along and there isn't much more to go on this one.




My cat isn't the most playful. She rarely plays with my yarn, but as soon as I started trying to take photos of my sweater today she dove in and couldn't leave my pieces alone.



I just finished up the market bag. I had received this one in a swap a few months ago and got so many complements I thought I'd make up one myself. The strap looks short, but it'll really stretch as soon as I put things in it.



Pattern: Magnits, Saturday Market Bag
Yarn: Cascade, Sierra Quatro, Color # 91
Needles: Size 15 and 10, Boye Needle Master Interchangeable
Alterations: None
Thoughts: I really do like these bags, and I might even make more, but it's not the most enjoyable knitting for me. The big needles are awkward and it's just hard to handle.

Marching along...

I've been working on my Central Park Hoodie for about a week now. It's going pretty well, and I'm about 11 inches into the back and two sides which I'm knitting as all one piece. I really thought I'd love having this all in one piece as it would circumvent the need for a bunch of seaming, but now I'm struggling with the weight and bulkiness of it. It seems that after I knit a few rows my wrists are tired from knitting.


Since I had some time to knit last night and my wrists were tired from the hoodie, I decided to start on another pair of Fetching. I knitted a pair of these before for a swap and I loved the way they turned out. I'm knitting this pair with Rowan Calmer, in a relaxing ice blue color, from my stash. They are so soft, I'm thinking that I might have to keep them for myself for typing in my cold office.


Lastly, Kat has received my swap package so I can post on it now. It was part of the Hot Socks Swap and I had so much fun putting it together for her. I made the sock knitting bag from a pattern from here. I knit the stitch marker bag, and put together the stitch markers. She seems to love it so, it was a success.

Central Park Hoodie

About a week ago, I saw a photo of this sweater. I fell in love with it and was off to get the pattern the next day. It took me a week to figure out what yarn I wanted to knit it out of. I looked at this, this, this, and this, before deciding on Philosopher's Wool. I wasn't sure if I wanted a green or a purple, but after seeing this, I knew it had to be purple.


I'm going to knit the sides and the back as one piece like many other people on the Central Park Hoodie KAL. I also decided that I wanted to do a tubular cast on. I wanted to do a 2x2 rib but I couldn't find any tutorials, so I did a little experimenting until I figured it out. I'd like to say it was simple enough from there on out, but I had the 4 inches of ribbing done before I realized that I had cast on for the smallest size instead of the medium size. Then after frogging all of that, I started again, this time with 4 stitches too many because I'd forgotten to take them out for making it in one piece. Maybe third time is a charm, because it seems like I'm finally on the right track.

Embossed Leaves Socks

On vacation in Vermont, my husband made a turn off of the way we were going and the next thing I knew we were here. I ended up with a Winter 2005 issue of IK and fell in love with the Embossed Leaves Socks. These were such a pleasure to knit up, and they are definitely my best pair of socks so far.

Embossed Leaves Socks
Pattern: designed by Mona Schmidt, Winter 2005 issue of IK
Dates: Began 9/23/06-Finished 9/30/06
Yarn: Louet Gems Merino-color Shamrock, 2 skeins
Needles: I started off wanting to try knitting with one long circular, on a 0 Addi turbo, but it was really slow going for me with constantly moving the stitches around, so I switched back to what I'm used too, Brittany 5" DPN size 1.
Details: Although the knitting with one long circular wasn't my thing, I did learn how to use the 1x1 rib cast-on which left a very neat edge to the top of the sock. However, I did notice that it is less stretchy than my usual long tail cast-on. I also worked on knitting tighter on my needles to make guage. It was hard on my hands in the beginning, but it got better as I got further along. After making a few pair of socks with both short row heels and heel flaps, the verdict is still out on which fits better, but I think I'm leaning towards the heel flaps.

Striped Socks

I started these socks back in July when I was on vacation. I got busy with a few other projects and just picked them back up recently and finished them. They will be a gift.


Striped Socks
Pattern: No pattern. I used a 3x2 ribbing that I liked. I cast on 65 stitches, knit from the top down, with short row heels and toes.
Needles: Size 1, 5" DPN Brittany-I love these little guys, they don't get in the way when I'm knitting. I am on my second pair though because they are thin and I wasn't careful enough with the first pair and set them where they ended up with heavy stuff being layed on top of them and they broke.
Yarn: Regia Strato Color-I'm not sure on the color because I lost the ball band.

Stitch Markers

I recently particpated in a stitch marker swap on swapbot. Melissa sent me some lovely stitch markers. I also recieved two sets of stitch markers from Angie (who appears blogless) I'm in love with the set that spells out KNIT. Unfortunately, even though I've torn my knitting area apart twice looking for them they are hiding out at the moment, so there is no photo of them.


I forgot to take photos of the markers I sent, but they were very similar to this set that I made myself at the same time.