Knitting in pink

Quick update on my sock knitting:

One Monkey leg done
One Serpentine foot done

Time for some heel knitting now!

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ETA: Contest over! Thanks for participating. I'll let everyone know who the winner is when I post my 200th blog entry.

Contest

Time for a new contest!

Coming up soon will be my 200th post and my 1000th comment. I'm not going to tell you how many comments I have as of now but I will let you know that this is my 191nth post. So here is what you have to guess:

1. On what day am I going to post my 200th post?
2. Will I get my 1000th comment on that post? If not, please say if it will be before or after.

The person who gets both answers right or who has the closest answer to question 1 and still gets question 2 right will win a skein of Vespers in self-striping Astro, which you can see here on the right of the picture.

Please answer in the comments of this post. You have until September 5 to enter your guesses. Thanks for participating!

Yup, I finished another pair of socks, bringing my total of singles socks down to 2. Definitely more manageable than 5 or 6! This means that in August, I've finished 3 pairs of socks, although I only knit 4 out of those 6 socks during the month.

My last finished pair is this one:

Stats
Sock #1: June 23, 07 - July 10, 07. Sock #2: August 20, 07 - August 25, 07.
Yarn: Yarntini Home Self-Striping
Pattern:Plain stockinette toe-up magic-loop with twisted rib cuff

They're just a couple rows short and a couple stitches not wide enough. But they fit anyways and I don't know many people that have smaller feet then me, so I'll keep them and wear them. I did a twisted rib cuff, my first time doing a cuff like that. Takes forever... The look is pretty cool though.

Right after finishing the Yarntini pair I cast on for 2 socks more :



The one on top is the mate to the Serpentine sock from the Sockamania KAL July pattern. For the toe I used Louet Gems Fingering in Pink Panther along with some pink reinforcing thread.

The second picture is of my first pair of Monkey socks for my Monkey Sock Swap Pal. I decided to do a picot cuff a la mini-Monkey, my pal said she'd like that. I've done two repeats so far and it's a quite pleasant easy knitting project. I'm using the ShiBuiKnits Sock in Mulberry mentioned in the last post.

My goal for September is to finish the pair of Monkeys, the Serpentine socks and whatever new pattern we'll get for Sockamania KAL (Anyone know how long this KAL is supposed to go for?).

2007 will definitely be the year of the sock for me!

Message to my Sockapalooza pal: I've been trying to reach you but I don't think you check your anonymous email. I'm concerned that my pair of socks might have gotten lost in the mail. You said you sent them to me almost 2 weeks ago and they still haven't arrived. Can you contact me with your regular email so that we can see if we can find out what happened? Thank you!

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I've been waiting for something to arrive in the mail to write this post. The last item I was waiting for came in today so now I can!

Here are a few things I ordered in the last couple weeks from etsy.

First I ordered a circular needle wallet from Piddleloop.

I special ordered one to match the project pouch and the zippered case that I already had bought from them.



It came with a few extra goodies; cute pencils, stitch markers, a little notebook and cute little tags.



I also found this cute necklace by Mack Handmade Goods. I thought it would be a fun addition to my jewelry box. I think that all knitters should get one!



Closeup on the pendant here.

Last but not least is this:



What is it you ask? It's a brand new camera strap from here, for my new toy.



It's a Pentax K100D bought after reading about it on Chemgrrl's blog. Using this fancy DSLR required quite an adjustment from my tiny 3 megapixel point and shoot camera, but I'm really enjoying it and I look forward to taking much better pictures with time and practice.

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On the knitting front: I'm 75% done with my second Yarntini sock and should be done within the next couple days. Next up will have to be my first pair of Monkeys for my Monkey Sock Swap pal out of the cuties on the right



The yarn is ShiBuiKnits Sock that we just got in at yarn4socks.

I finished another sock last night and I now have another pair all set to wear!

The socks are called Siren socks and are a design by Designedly Kristi or Fiber Fool. She designed this pattern especially for the yarn4socks August Sock Club. The yarn was Fleece Artist Sea Wool in a colorway hand dyed especially for the Sock Club. I had the chance to knit the first sock as the sample for the pattern while in Sanibel back in July. I finally got around to starting the second sock after finishing the Spiraling socks of my last post.

Here are a few shots:

The pattern was quite fun and entertaining. I really enjoyed the lace and doing my first eye of the partridge heel. The Sea Wool was very pleasant to knit with and I think that I will enjoy these socks quite a bit.

Stats
Sock #1 was knit between July 2 and July 11 2007. Sock #2 was knit between August 15 and August 19 2007.
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool in color Sea Foam (custom colorway)
Pattern:Siren Socks by Designedly Kristi

Next up: Yarntini plain stockinette socks and Serpentine socks

The August pattern for the Sockamania KAL was quite fun. Just a combination of knits and purls spiraling across the foot and around the leg. The pattern was written top down but I went for it toe-up. The yarn I used was yarn that had been given to me under the form of a knitted sock and the rest still unknit. The sock didn't fit so I ripped it out and I waited until I found the right pattern for it. The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in Copperbeech.

I enjoyed working with the yarn. It hadn't suffered one bit from having been previously knit and frogged. I also enjoyed the pattern so the first sock was finished in 3 days. Due to the demise of the Regia socks I was knitting for DH (they were too small), I was able to cast on right away for the second sock. After knitting the toe I hit a snag... There was a knot in the yarn. I just went on with the new yarn. It wasn't until I'd knitted a few inches that I realized that the yarn was striping quite differently then in the first sock. The way the color was painted and the colors themselves weren't quite exactly like the other. (You can see it fairly well if you click on the first picture above to enlarge it.) I guess they (Colinette), just tied two different dye lots into one... I know it's happened to other people, I remember one in particular that was quite disastrous. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is: I really enjoyed the yarn and I would use it again, but I'd really be aware that there might be more than one dye lot in one hank.

Stats
Sock #1 was knit between August 5 and August 8, 2007, sock #2 between August 10 and August 15
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug Copperbeech
Pattern: Spiraling socks by Anni Design (August pattern for the Sockamania KAL)
Mods: Knit toe up on Magic loop with short row heel

Now on the needles: The second one of these. I just might have 2 pairs of socks finished by the end of the month!

Happy Anniversary my darling!

I just heard from my pal that I knit the socks for. She loves them! I'm so thrilled that I was able to knit socks for someone else's feet (it helped that her feet were exactly the same size as mine!). She said they fit even better than socks she knits for herself... I'm really, really happy about it all. I haven't heard anything from the pal that is knitting socks for me, I keep hoping they'll arrive today but I try not to get my hopes up too much. I heard from her at the beginning but never again after that. So I hope everything is alright.ETA: I just heard from her, she just sent them to me! Yay!

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I finished a couple days ago my first Spiralling sock for Sockamania. I couldn't be happier with it.

I love, love the way the yarn works with the pattern. It gives it almost a woven look. The yarn I'm using is Colinette Jitterbug in Copperbeach.

I'll be casting on for the second sock later today and I hope to have a pair done by the end of next week!

Yes, I joined a new swap... and I'll get to knit my first pair of Monkeys!

Here are my answers to the Monkey Sock Swap THREE Questionnaire

The basics:
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? I'd say that I'm still an intermediate sock knitter, although I am getting fairly good at it.

The measurements:
Shoe Size: 5.5- 6
Foot circumference: 7 3/4"
Foot length: 8 1/2"

Yarn Preferences:
What colors do you love? I love pretty much any color besides lavender and coral.

Do you prefer solids or variegated? Nowadays I prefer solids, but variegated are fine.

Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn? Superwash wool only, at least for socks.

What colors would you never wear? Lavender, Coral, Yellow

What are your favorite brands of yarn? STR, Yarntini, Fleece Artist, Dream in Color Smooshy

Are there any new brands you would like to try? Sock Hop, Interlacement, Mountain Colors, Wollmeise

Cookie A. Patterns:
Which of her patterns have you already knit? None

Which pattern(s) would you like to knit and don’t already own? I do not own Thelonious, Mona or Titania's Revenge or any of her knee highs patterns. I would love to get my hands on Titania's Revenge, available at Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

Other pertinent information:

Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US? Any is fine

Do you have any allergies? No

Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals? No smoke or animals

Are you on Ravelry yet? If you don’t mind having new friends, what is your Ravelry name? knittinginpink

Sign-ups are going on until August 31 so there's still time to sign up!

I mailed out my Sockapalooza socks today. I hope they make their way safely to their new home and that they will be well loved. Farewell thee well my lovelies...

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It's not like I need any more sock yarn but... I'm really tempted to soon place an order from Wollmeise directly. I haven't had any contact with the dyer yet but it seems like you have to order at least 5 at once for them to ship. Am I right?

If that is the case, would anyone like to place an order along with me so that we would share the shipping? I can't afford and do not need 5 more hanks of sock yarn so if someone wants to buy 3, or 2 someones want to buy 2 each I think we could work something out. I have my eyes on some Rhabarber and some Versuchkaninken...


"samples of their colors won on a contest over at "From sheep to shawl and socks""

There really isn't anything but socks for me lately. I haven't touched my spinning wheel in about a month, it's just too hot... I'll get back to Willow in a month or so when it starts cooling down again. The Razor Cami is on hold, maybe until I get sick of knitting socks! Lol! Like that's going to happen!

Back to socks.

I have 3 single socks at various stages.

One is the Regia socks for DH. Those are about ready to start the heel.

I'm working on the foot of the Snicket socks. I'm a little further ahead than in the picture below:

A couple repeats more and I'll be ready for the toe.

Since I last showed you my socks in progress I started yet another one... I felt bad that I hadn't even tried my Sockamania July pattern (Serpentine Socks by Anni Design) so I gave it a go.



The yarn I'm using is Louet Gems fingering weight. The heel and toe is Pink Panther with a reinforcing thread in darker pink. The purple yarn is some I hand-dyed with a Louet sock dyeing kit. I ended up with 2 skeins that were fairly similar and one totally different. I'm trying to knit the pair with just one of the skeins, though, which is why I'm using the contrasting color. We'll see what I can do with 4 grams leftover for the leg.

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I've loved seeing people's sock drawers here and there on the blogs. So here is mine:



There are a couple pairs in the laundry, but they're mostly all there!