Knitting in pink

Cross posted from the Hourglass KAL

A couple days ago I joined the sleeves to the body and started knitting the yoke. I'm probably half way into the decreases as per the pattern but will probably be adding more to avoid the "falling off the shoulders" look.

I tried it on this afternoon to make sure it fit, and I think it does.

Sorry for the extremely blurry picture but that is the best I could do!

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Thank you to everyone that has been submitting names for my new wheel. I'm having a great time reading all your comments and suggestions. Keep them coming, there are some great ones!
It was suggested to me that I list all the names that were given, and I will do when I announce the winner of the contest.

For some reason, I thought that my one year blogiversary was today. I was wrong, it was actually April 3rd. Oh, well. I'll still celebrate it today, just this once.

Since I started blogging here at Blogspirit (I blogged for a few months over at MSN spaces) I've written 147 posts (including this one), had 585 comments and had over 20'000 visits. I am really happy that you find me interesting enough that you keep coming back, thank you to all of you. I hope to keep you entertained or at least show you pretty pictures for at least another year! : )

In honor of this belated blogiversary, I will make official the little contest I started 2 days ago. I need to find a name for my new wheel. Please help me by suggesting names for it. If you've already given me a name, feel free to participate again. The person who suggest the name I like the best will win something nice, I promise. The contest will be open until April 30 midnight.

By the way, I've been looking at sheep stencils online, wouldn't the wheel look cute with one of these?

Let me introduce to you the new member of the family, my new spinning wheel:

There she is, still at the spinnery. I'm going to need help finding a name for her. Fricke is a name difficult to alter in a pretty way so I'll take all the help I can get! Maybe I'll even turn that into a contest... The best name wins something cool and fibery?

I bought my wheel from Twist of Fate Spinnery . They are located in Portland Connecticut.




These are the two owners of the small company. The guy on the right just didn't want his picture taken... Was afraid that his picture might end up on some blog or something! Lol! I did confirm to him that the picture would, indeed, end up on my blog.

I didn't get a chance that first evening to spin on the wheel, but the next day I dug into the 8oz Romney that they gave me and started spinning away. You can see the results of my first few bobbins here and here.

Here I am showing off my 3rd and 4th bobbins all plied up together.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

I've spun up two more bobbins to practice plying some more. Also I ordered the book "Teach Yourself VISUALLY Handspinning". Since I am teaching myself how to spin, I hope that this book will be a great help. I've also ordered some Corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farm for when I'm a bit better. Also, I still need to buy a niddy noddy (I used a hanger to skein the yarn you see above). I've really been enjoying my spinning time so far. It hurts my back though, so if you have suggestions as to how I should be sitting or what kind of chair I should be using I will gladly hear them.

More knitting content in a couple of days...

I was able to finish the second sock of the Child's First sock pair just a little while after I last posted about them. I am really, really pleased about them and will definitely wear them proudly. The pattern looks really difficult at first glance but it is really easy once you get into the pattern. Each row leads to the next and if you don't forget your yo's there are no other difficulty.

I used Socks That Rocks in the Apple Valley Road colorway. I think that it is the semi solid color is perfect for this pattern. The subtle color changes add some texture to the shell pattern.

Stats
The first sock was started March 24 and the pair was finished April 19. The first sock took 12 days, the second 7.
Pattern: Child's First Sock from "Knitting Vintage Socks" by Nancy Bush
Mods: I decided to knit the socks toe-up with my usual Turkish Cast on. I knit the pattern as written starting with row 1. 5 pattern repeats on the foot and 5 on the leg. 1 1/2" 2x2 ribbing. Garter Stitch short row heel.

These socks were my April Bumblebees and Butterflies Socktopia Socks and my pair for the Sock a Month KAL.

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Friday afternoon I picked up my wheel. They gave me an 8oz bag of Romney roving. I think I must have spun half of it yesterday. I will be posting about it tomorrow, but you can see some pictures in my flickr account.

I've been making progress on the second Child's First sock. Only a few more rows of ribbing, bind off, weave in ends and done!

Here's a shot from earlier this morning, when there was a little bit of sun outside:

I should be showing finished pictures tomorrow if I have time.

I have also cast on for the second Hourglass sleeve. I will devote myself entirely to it after the sock is finished and until the beginning of next month when Sockamania starts.



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Fun things happening in the next few days:

One of my best friends is visiting from Iowa (she's a knitter... imagine the possibilities)
My wheel arrived yesterday at Twist of Fate Spinnery. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow! : )
Next week is my one year blogiversary!

I've been recording and watching the Knitty Gritty episodes for a few months now. Some episodes, I have to admit, are totally uninteresting to me or are using yarn so utterly horrible that I can't bear to watch for more than a couple minutes until I press the delete button. Ever since I heard that there was a new series of episode coming up including some really cool people like the Yarn Harlot, Cookie A, Scout J., etc I was really looking forward to it. And these new episodes started showing and it's been pretty good so far. I haven't watch the Yarn Harlot's episode yet, I'm a few shows behind. Anyways. The episode I want to talk about was not in that 800 series, but in the 700s, 701 to be precise.

This episode is with Cat Bordhi and is called The Coriolis Sock. "Cat Bordhi, the "mad scientist" of knitting, is back with more intensely innovative patterns. This sock is named after the Coriolis force, the swirling phenomenon present in weather patterns. This pattern is mimicked in this unique garment that boasts a garter-stitch toe and a complete absence of gussets." Text taken from here. I'm assuming this new technique is one that is in her new book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One". You can also read more about it here.

I thought that the sock construction was really cool. You start at the toe with a garter stitch square, than you pick up stitches and start knitting. You have these increases and decreases that create a line that swirls around the sock, as far as I could tell. Also, you do not have a gusset with this pattern.



The thing that I thought was a little frustrating about the pattern was that it is knit double stranded. Which means that you would be using double the amount of yarn for a pair of socks. In the pattern, available here , it says that for a pair of socks up to 7 inch leg you need 1 ball of Austermann Step. And I just don't know how that is possible. But even if it was, I don't think you'd want to be knitting this type of sock with some expensive yarn like Koigu or STR or Yarntini for exemple! That would be one expensive pair of sock.

I would love to try out this sock pattern. I think the construction is super interesting. But if I do, I will be using some really cheap so yarn for sure! I will be watching this episode again for when I do.

If you've seen this episode, have tried the pattern or have any more information you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it!

Last night I went to my local B&N to browse their knitting books. I was very lucky in that I found some very cool knitting books to look at and some other nice books too.

My first pick was The Cute Book. This book was full of adorable little stuffies to make out of felt. One of them was a pair of sheep, so cute! I really liked the way things were explained and would surely enjoy making some of those. Another craft to look into for me! : )

I also looked at Simple Sewing with a French Twist: An Illustrated Guide to Sewing Clothes and Home Accessories with Style. A beautiful book full of pretty things. Yet another craft I would like to practice.

Another beautiful book was The Best of Vogue Knitting Magazine: 25 Years of Articles, Techniques, and Expert Advice. This would make a beautiful coffee table book as well as a very interesting and full of information knitting anthology.

Last but not least I looked at Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter. I must have this book. Now. I loved like 90% of the patterns. If I hadn't known that I could get this book cheaper elsewhere I would have walked out with it. I could see myself wearing quite a few of the patterns, some with some mods, like lengthening the sleeves and such. But definitely a must have book for me, especially now that I'm starting to make real garments for myself.

So it was quite a successful trip to the local bookstore...

Also going on are some stash enhancement and some knitting.

I've been knitting on my Child's First sock the second for a couple days now. This is a picture as of Saturday morning when there actually was some sunshine.

As of this morning I have reached the midpoint of the heel. My goal for today is to finish the heel and start working on the leg. This pattern is really easy for me now as I've memorized the pattern and know what comes next. So barring very bad luck I should be done in a few days. Did you notice the stitch markers I'm using? They are Zero Stitch Markers by Sock prØn's Aija.

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to score 3 skeins Cascade 220 on the Destash blog. I got even more lucky because the person selling it told me her friend had 3 more skeins in the same dyelot that she wanted to destash. So I quickly snagged the additional 3 and now have enough to make any sweater I want.



The color is 9422, a very pretty cherry red. It is a little more pink than in the picture. I might use it to knit Ariann, or Wicked. We'll see.

So this is what's been going on here at Chez Knitting in Pink.

Read - ing

I just finished reading this book this morning. It was a very quick read, I started to read 2 nights ago and read and read some more. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, although it reminded me a lot of another book I read a couple months ago, The Friday Night Knitting Club.

Knitt - ing



I've been knitting away on my secret knitting. If you like what you see, sign ups for our June Sock Club are still open! : )

Join - ing

In the last 24 hours I signed up for 2 more sock related knitalongs: Sockamania and Sockapalooza 4.

Sockamania is organized by Anni of Confessions of a Yarn Addict. Starting in May, participants will get a sock pattern by Anni which we will knit. Hopefully the patterns will match in some way Socktopia themes! : )

The sign ups for Sockapalooza 4 opened sometimes between late last night and this morning. I've been debating the last few days whether or not to sign up for it. My main concern is knitting socks for someone's else's feet. I can't try them on as I go, what if they don't fit? But I decided that I would try my best and that it shouldn't be too hard to do! So I signed up. Also, send off are in August, so I have plenty of time to knit a pair of socks that will fit!

Participat - ing



My Secret Pal 10 hostess has asked our group to post a picture of either the ugliest thing we've ever knit or the ugliest yarn we have. And since I had one of each I decided to post both.

On top is my second scarf ever. I knit it for my husband out of some Lion's Brand chunky acrylic yarn. Not only was the scarf too short but it was too stiff and thick, we called it the "Neck Brace". I have to admit that I tossed it a few months back. No need to keep something so horrible around. I can't say that the second scarf I knit for my husband was a better success... We call that one "The Rope".

On the bottom is some yarn I received at Christmas... As a joke, thankfully. But I still have to keep it. I keep threatening the giver that I will knit him a hat out of it. But I can't even get myself to do that! lol!

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Hopefully within the next day or two I will be able to resume my usual knitting and show you either the beginnings of a sleeve or the beginnings of another Child's First sock.

The last few days I've been working exclusively on a secret project. I'm over halfway done so I should resume current project knitting in a few days. But in the mean time I will show you what I finished last week:

I finished the first sock of my Child's First Sock. It went fairly fast after I figured out the pattern. I'm hoping I can knit up the other sock after my secret knitting is over and submit it for Socktopia April under the theme: "Bumblebees and Butterflies". I think that the shell pattern looks a lot like butterfly wing...


I also knit up the first sleeve to the Hourglass sweater. I am pleased of the modifications I made on the sleeve. Now I hope that it will all work out together when I start knitting the yoke. But first I have to knit the second sleeve, which will have to wait a bit!

For your enjoyment:

Spring is coming, slowly and Project Spectrum for April/May has begun. It is time to celebrate all pinks, yellows and greens.

Click on the picture to make it bigger

Enjoy!