Branching Out

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With the advent of the blog challenge of posting every day in November, I decided to branch out a bit and subscribe to some new blogs, not all of which may have fiber in their content.

This one does, but it's a totally different kind of fiber!

I love pictures...truth be told, I often skip the words on some blogs and just look at the pictures! Knitterly Things has nice pics! As does Little Purl of the Orient!

It's hard to find blogs... Most of the new ones I end up subscribing to are somehow recommended by others, links in posts, blogrolls on blogs. Searching for them doesn't turn up much!

Share some of your favorites!

May 3, 2007

Robbing Peter to pay Paul...

I stopped knitting the first sock when I reached the toe. Put it on a life line and started the second sock. And ran out of yellow yarn. Yellow hand dyed never match it again in this life time yarn. So, I joined the yarn from sock one to sock two and am knitting sock two from sock one till they are even. Then I'll figure out how to finish both socks! It's not really a big deal as I don't mind wearing weird socks. I think I might have enough purple to finish, but I have to find something to replace the yellow. White comes to mind as the Minnesota Vikings are purple, gold, and white. But, we'll see.

Here is another pic of the hat I finished yesterday.

The colorwork I did shows up a bit better. It's been washed and blocked, dried and put away on the stack of hats. These hats are really helping me use up bits and pieces of stash. I CO a hat with acrylic to make a roll brim hat, and then realized I could add in a strand of Encore acrylic/wool blend to make the hat even warmer...using two balls up at once!

Blog surfing: Don't these from "Down With KnittyGritty remind you of Neapolitan Ice Cream? Joansie "introduced" me to Brooklyntweed I just can't decide if I go for Knitting content or the photography! Dances with Wools has some great vintage crochet and knitting patterns. And Knitman has some gorgeous socks from Trekking color 100!

A blog without pictures is like a day without sunshine!

My new favorite M & M commercial!

May 2, 2007

'Nother Hat

Had a request for the pattern for the MicroSpun socks, so here it is!

Slouch Socks

Fits size 9.5 shoe size

Lion Brand MicroSpun Yarn

Using size 3 needles CO 48 sts

Garter stitch for 6 rounds. St st for 4 rounds. Garter st for 1 round. St st for 4 rounds. Garter st for 1 round

St st until leg is as long as you'd like it.

Divide sts for heel flap--24 sts on N2, 12 each on N1 & N3

Sl 1 p across, turn.

*Sl 1 k1* repeat * to * across, turn.

Continue these two rows for a total of 24 rows ending with a just finished k row

Purl 14 sts, p2tog, p1 turn

Sl 1, K5, K2tog, k1, turn

Purl to one st before gap in sts, purl the two sts on either side of the gap together, p1 turn

Knit to one st before gap in sts, knit the two sts on either side of the gap together k1, turn

Continue the last two rows until 14 sts remain on the needle ending with just having knit a row

Go down the left side of the heel flap just worked. Pick up 12 sts with one needle. With another needle, knit across the two needles holding the instep stitches. With the next needle pick up 12 sts along the other side of the heel flap. Now knit across half of the heel sts with the same needle, and slip the other half of the heel sts onto the first needle. There should be 24 sts on N2, with 14 sts on Ns 1 & 3.

Starting with N1, knit one round even

Decreasing Round: Starting with N1, k to the last 3 sts on the needle. K2tog, K1. Knit across N2. On N3, K1, ssk, knit to end of N3.

Knit one round even. Knit one decreasing round. Continue alternating these two rows until there are 12 sts on N1 & 3.

Begin knitting even rounds for 28 to 32 rounds or until foot is as long as you want it. (When I try mine on, I quit when the knitting reaches the base of my toes.

Round Toe Decreases: Knit to end of N1, K2tog, K1. At beginning of N2, SSK, knit across to last three sts on needle, K2tog, K1. At beginning of N3 SSK knit to end of N3. K1 round even. Continue these two rounds until about 8 sts remain on N2 and 4 each on Ns 1 & 3. Kitchener or graft these 8 sts.

I finished another hat for Michelle <--click. If you can see, I did a little bit of color work in it. I had one color on my left hand and one on my right (Continental and English methods). Not too clumsy, and I think my tension was pretty good for a first try at it.

Found some neat stuff while surfing the blogs today.

Knit a rug out of t-shirts <--click I really dislike using huge knitting needles or crochet hooks, which is why I've never made any of these things. But with all the t shirts we go through....hmmm I should just make a braided one......

If you are into miscellaneous crafting or just like looking at others stuff, Echoes of a Dream <--click is a great place to browse!

And last but not least, on the bottom of this page <--click is a pattern for knitted strawberries! I'm thinking filled with a potpourri of some kind, they'd be pretty attached to hanger in the closet, or in the undies drawer, hanging in the linen closet....

My youngest son and I ran away yesterday to the movies. We saw "Next" with Nicholas Cage. It was pretty good. I won't tell you anymore, because it can easily be spoiled.

I did take my sock with me. Got all the heel decreases done and quite a bit of the foot. Maybe an inch or so to the toe. I need to weigh the sock and the remaining yarn to see if I need to put a contrasting toe on them.

April 21, 2007

It's so much easier to knit with light colored yarns!

It was very nice to finish the purple socks. Although the Lamb's Pride Purple Haze Super wash was wonderful to knit with, dark colors are not...especially in dim light.

They did turn out nicely, though, in spite of all the frustration!

The light blue socks are from click--> Lion Brand Micro Spun. This is a 100% acrylic yarn that feels like a soft polished cotton. It is the same fiber I made the Ankh Dishcloth for B. This arrived in the box of acrylics I received last week. There was about two skeins of it, and from what I've been reading, one skein should make two decent sized socks. I tend to put short legs on my socks anyway, so there will be more than enough for a trial pair of socks.

I CO another hat last night. So far just a generic hat, ribbing, st st. That may change if I find an interesting pattern!

Since I found Google Reader, I've been adding more blogs to my List of Things To Do on the Computer Every Day. I think click--> TECHknitting is a good one to check periodically when one doesn't have anything else to do! This is a Subject <--click list of topics covered in the blog. Quite a bit of useful info there!

It's cold (mid 40s) and rainy today. Good day for socks! At least this morning!