Éire go Brách

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I decided to CO some adult socks, probably for Youngest Daughter. These are from "Go Ireland" from Knitivity. I got it last spring, of course, and just never got round to working with it. The pattern is the Waterloose Socks which I made for myself and my DIL in the spring.I also CO another pair of Dobby Socks for one of the grands. Haven't decided which one, yet as two of them are the same size, born only eight months apart. Then ones for the littlest one I think as the other one refuses to wear socks (and shoes, and clothes most of the time).

Today I'm helping my BFF, F move. Not everything, but we're renting a truck and moving his old stove and fridge into my place to become my new-to-us stove and fridge. Plus a few other things, too. It'll be a long hot day, I'm sure!

Shawls and Socks

I have been working on my Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl in the evenings. Thought I'd share a ketchup pic with you. Again, this is just half the shawl from center to end. Which creates the question: How big is a triangle shawl supposed to be? What's the average length from neck to point and from side to side. This one is now four feet from side to side (along the longest edge of the triangle) and 18 inches from back of the neck to tip (down the row of YO eyelets you can see on the right hand side of the pic). If I make it long enough to cover my ample bottom, I'm guessing the long side will be about 8 feet from to make the neck to tip measurement 3 feet. Does seem a bit much.... Yes it would be warm, but 8 feet... I'm just over 5 feet tall, so if the shawl is up to my neck in back, draping over my shoulders it'll be somewhere between my knees and ankles...

Can one add more to the point without adding width? If I make it shorter it'll be like this big arrow pointing down to my bottom which I'd really rather not draw attention to. The final answer of course might be that I just never wear it out of the house, but what fun is that?

Did some work on some socks yesterday, too. Remember my Mickey Mouse Socks I worked on while I was at Disneyland in Oct/Nov? Well I pulled it out of the mouse hole and started working on it. Got the heel decreases done and am working on the foot of the sock.

And I got the heel flap done on my DIL's 2nd Waterloose Socks. I'll turn the heel and begin the decreases today. The first sock is still attached to the ball of yarn I'm using on the second sock. I'll work until both socks are even, knitting off the first sock if I have to. Then I'll put them away until I go to Tennessee. At that point DIL can try them on so I'm sure they fit.

Monday Blues

I didn't get a whole log accomplished on the second Waterloose sock. Now, don't get me wrong, I knitted all day.... and if I had all the sts I frogged..... the sock would be ready for the heel flap. My glory in being able to knit a lace sock has all diminished and I'm back to the knit six rows, frog five...When I do the pattern row..with all the yos and K2togs my count comes out fine. When I do the next pattern row, with five rows of st st between, the count is all wrong, I have to frog back to the previous pattern row and do it again. Then I get ten rows done and have to frog back again to the last pattern row, redo it and continue. I don't understand.... I'm determined to finish these, though, so I will persevere!

Now for the Jolly Roger.... I just found out this morning my daughter is sending my grandsons (7 and 9) to Hawaii to live with their father. As she hasn't spoken to me in several years now, I don't know if it's permanent, where she will be living or any other details. I do know he won't be able to wear the Jolly Roger sweater in Hawaii so it'll go on hold till later in the year and I'll finish it up for my other grandson who lives here. His birthday is in October and he'll be able to wear it.... I asked on the Knitlist about knits in Hawaii. 66% of the answers were, "Don't bother" to "Light cotton or linen shirts." No socks needed. Silk would probably be good, but I'm not knitting silk for a 7 year old! I'm open to suggestions! I suppose I could learn to knit toys...

I'll see what kind of brain dead knitting I can do today till I recover from the shock of not knowing if I'll ever see my grandsons again or not....

Worked Hard!

I finished up the first Waterloose sock as far as I'm willing to knit until it gets tried on (which won't be until I go to TN in March). In fact, I'll probably have to unknit a bit from this sock onto the other. I weighed the remaining yarn and I've used 6 gms too much on the first sock. I have no idea how long six grams are, :) but we'll see if it's enough to make a difference once the second sock, which is CO and the cuff is finished gets down towards the toe.


What a sense of accomplishment!


I also finished up sock #1 for Heet the Feet (link for more info over there ----> ) The next step on the second sock is turning the heel, so that one should be finished up in short order. Then on to the next pair!


And I'm proud to announce, the front of the Jolly Roger is finished. This pic is right before I did the neck shaping. Arggggggg! Will CO and start the back today. I think....

I feel much better about my progress on accomplishing my goals for the Gift-Along. (More info over there -----> )

Another adorable baby sweater! If I had lots of money....or even some money.... Someday I'm going to make a sock monkey. And a Dalek! Extermiknit! Extermiknit! What a cute Skull Sweater!

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

Miscellaneous Miscellania

We cleaned out the cupboard under the stairs.... These are the after pics. The before pics were just six inches of everything but the kitchen sink. The only thing we didn't find in there was old food. Dishes, garbage, more garbage.... But now it's clean. For maybe another three hours. But the amount of stuff we got rid of will help keep it clean. That and two new huge storage containers. Oh... and I inherited/snagged several bags to keep knitting projects in. Shopping bag type purses, little clear back packs... very nice!

Knitting was minimal. Got a few more rounds done on the Waterloose socks, and got quite a bit done on the first Heet the Feet socks. Worked on those while watching The Bourne Ultimatum. It was good...and some of the chase scenes had me knitting "really fast!" But it's more of the same as the other Bourne movies. Guess someday I should read the books.

On my list of things to knit this year....I'm letting everything sit in favor of knitting the socks. I think that's why I had to put my Bamboo Walking Socks (Mickey Mouse - The Sequel) on hold. I'll just knit socks if given the opportunity. Have to be more disciplined about this!

Isn't this Fairytale Dress cute? I'd love to make it for my littlest granddaughter but she's so picky about clothes...there is more than a 85% chance she'd never wear it longer than for me to take her picture.

Isn't this a gorgeous Baby Surprise Jacket? For those that enjoyed the knits in The Golden Compass...here's a pattern for Lyra's most famous hat. This has to be the cutest cupcake hat I've ever seen! And a black cat hat!

Take a look at Colin's puppies! Can you imagine anything cuter?

Lynn has some gorgeous fraternal socks...Monstersocks! I wanna make a pair like those. Guess I need to make more regular ones so I have leftovers to work with! Or one could make an afghan out of sock yarn--NOT! But it's gorgeous! What a cute idea for a teapot cozy! I've been playing with the idea of special buttons on fulled items for awhile now.

I did it!

I started knitting socks last February. I've never been able to do any kind of a fancy stitch pattern in the sock itself. The only thing I've managed is a basket weave type pattern. However I've finally managed to knit a feather and fan pattern into the leg and instep of a sock! Ta Da! These are the Waterloose socks (link on the right side) I'm making for my DILs birthday. I'm soooo proud! It feels as good as finishing my first pair of socks!

I read on someone's blog yesterday when she frogged a project, she skeined, washed, and reballed the yarn after every frogging. Wow! If I felt I had to do that, I'd quit knitting, I think. Not only do I not wash it, I often just knit it as it unravels! This is a the cuff I knit for the above
mentioned sock that was way too small. I was gonna save it for another pair of socks (I really hate doing cuffs) but decided instead to use it for the heel flap on the Waterloose Socks. So I just grabbed the end of the yarn and started knitting it right off the cuff. Saved lots of time and all that.

Today's my last weekday of vacation. Eldest Granddaughter goes back to school Monday which means I have to be up, fed, and ready to take her to school by 8:00 am. Seeing I have been sitting here till 9 or so every morning, I'll have to cut back on some of it. I've started really reading blogs recently and commenting on them. I may just have to go back to looking at the pictures.....

I read on Ann's blog yesterday, and then on Amy's that there is a challenge to Heet the Feet for the Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte, SD. So I cast on two socks using the Magic 28 pattern. It's a catch all pattern that will fit "somebody" no matter what size yarn or needles you use. So, if you're in the mood to do some charity knitting, this is a good cause.

The Cheyenne River Rez is the rez my mother is registered on. She's the last of our family to have enough blood to be registered. She has 140 acres of land that she leases out to a native farmer to use. Once she dies, though, her land will revert back to the tribe and our ties to it will be severed. She's 91 years old, still driving and bowling and travelling. We have genes for long life on my mother's side. All the women I know about lived into their 80s and 90s....guess I'll be knitting socks for a long time, too!