Knitting in pink

Today is my 200th post... We have winners!

Please congratulate Jen C and Kristen (Jen C appears to be blogless), they got today's date right! Since there were 2 right answers I decided to create another prize so that I could reward both. So Jen C and Kristen, if you still read this blog and do so before you receive my email, please send me your mailing addy so I can send you your prizes! (my email address is in the left sidebar)

One of you will win the Vesper Astro and the other will win the Yarn Pirate Calamity. Congratulations to both of you!

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On today's Etsy Friday I will show you my latest purchases.

I ordered this cute little card for my Monkey Sock Swap pal from The Paper Crown. I thought the monkeys swinging in the branches were just adorable. You can't really tell in the picture but I had them write "To my Monkey Sock Swap Pal!" in the front. You can see it better here. I also received these 2 cute little pins and a flower sticker.



I also ordered a set of lettered stitch markers from Hide and Sheep in preparation of getting the book "New Pathways for Sock Knitting" by Cat Bordhi.



The stitch markers were safely packaged in the little tin. Now I guess I just have to buy the book and I'll be ready to go! : )

I made another purchase (non-etsy) that I'd like to share with you. A few weeks ago I found this blog: Good Natured Ribbing where multiple bloggers post. One of them, Beth just opened an online store with her husband, Knitzi. They currently sell 2 products: Knitzis and bags. If you knit your socks on double pointed needles, or use them for anything else, you really gotta check Knitzi out. They came up with a very pretty way of traveling with your sock in progress. Since I don't use dpns I went and bought one of their bags!



It's the perfect size for sock in progress and I've been enjoying using it already. If you hadn't heard from them yet I'd definitely go check them out!

I wouldn't want all of you to think I've stopped knitting socks with all this lace yarn I've been showing you lately, so here's a quick update on the socks I've been working on lately.

I finished my first pair of Monkey socks. Sadly, they're not for me but for my Monkey Sock Swap pal.

Stats
Sock #1 was knit between August 26 and September 10 2007. Sock #2 was knit between September 10 and September 20 2007.
Yarn: ShiBuiKnits Sock in Mulberry from yarn4socks
Pattern:Monkey socks by Cookie A.
Mods: I knit a picot cuff instead of the twisted rib cuff and used a short-row heel instead of a heel flap

I enjoyed knitting this pattern. The chart was easy and although I kept checking it I'm sure I could do it from memory now. I don't usually knit the same pattern twice (except for my stockinette socks) but I just might knit this one again for myself.

Another shot just for fun



I've also knit quite a bit on my Vesper Strange Little Mama sock. I'm almost to the toe now. It's my mindless sock, so I don't work on it every day, only when I'm away from home. I do have to get it finished and start the other sock by the end of next week so I can work on it while in Disney in 2 weeks.



I started a more difficult sock this weekend. I joined the Firestarter Sock-A-Long started by Peaknit (See her September 15 post for how to join).



The pattern is beautiful with lots of traveling stitches along the sides and a cool toe-up gusset construction that I wanted to try out. The traveling stitches really kicked my butt at the beginning as I'd never done any before. I had a hard time figuring out if what to do at first and then if what I was doing was even remotely correct. DH did his best to stay out of my way while I was running from the living room, where I was knitting and pulling my hair trying to figure things out, to the office where I was looking up info and staring at pictures of other Firestarters to see if what I was doing was right. Now all is under control and am proud to say that I can cable without a cable needle. That skill will come in handy when I go back to my Snicket socks.

Also, my row gauge is slightly different than the recommended gauge. I did some math and hopefully I started the gusset increases in the right spot and the sock won't be too short or too long. I should know by tomorrow (crossing fingers).



The yarn is Phoenix Fiberworks Fetish Superwash in the color Nymph. Tina will be the October Artist of the Month at yarn4socks and will be available then if you're interested! : )

Day by Day resume:

Saturday:

Drive down to NYC from Massachusetts

Sunday:

View from our room

Brooklyn Borough Hall

Frick Collection

Lunch at Starwich on Lexington Ave

Guggenheim


Under construction

Walk around Central Park


The Mall

Empire State Building


Manhattan at night

Monday:

Tour on the Circle Line Cruise



Lunch at Bistro Les Amis in SoHo

Visit to Purl and Purl Patchwork

Loved Purl, so pretty in there! Made my way to Purl Patchwork.

All fabrics in the picture come from Purl Patchwork

Stopped for a verbena mint tea at The Point NYC

Tuesday:

Lunch at Payard on Lexington Ave

Walk up and down 7th ave and Broadway to find the trim and button shops and Habu and School Products (I did not have their exact address with me)

Figure out that the trim & button shop that I wanted to go to was on 6th not on 7th

Find M&J Trimmings



Wednesday:

MoMA sadly without a camera

Lunch at the Cafe 2 and Dessert at the Terrace 5 of the MoMA

Bit of shopping at the MoMA Design Store

Trip to Habu and School Products



You can see more pictures of my trip here on my Flickr account

I had a great surprise waiting for me at the post office today, my Sockapalooza socks. A few weeks ago I found out that my pal had sent me a package, which had never seemed to make it to my post office. She kindly offered to send me another pair that she had knit and put together another package together for me. She sent me an awesome package and am not sorry to have had to wait. I would love to link to her blog but my pal doesn't have a blog.

My pal Emily treated me to some awesome cable socks that fit great. They're thicker and taller than the usual sock I make so will be nice and toasty this winter. I bought some boots a few days ago that they will go great with. I guess I'll have to take a picture of that for you!

Enough talking, here are the pictures:

She also sent me lots of goodies:



A candle in a cute little tin box, a little bag of moth repellent, soap from River Soap Company called Eve's Flower that smells like lavender and yummy yarn. The yarn is from left: Zen Yarn Garden Merino/Tencel in Purly Gates and Vesper in Neapolitan. You can click on the picture, as always, to see it bigger. I adore the card she used, I'd love to find out where I can get a hold of them. They're labeled ""Ewe Knits Series", an illustrated glossary of knitting stitches by Heather Hill Studio and Bonnie Magee". If anyone knows, I'd love to know too! : )

Thank you Emily!

While I try to catch up to everything after my trip to New York City, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the yarn purchases I made.

Karabella Lace Merino from School Products, Habu Textiles 100% Cashmere laceweight, Habu Textiles Wool/Stainless Steel laceweight from Habu Textiles

I guess there was a theme to my purchases, although I didn't realize it until just now.

Tomorrow I'm off for New York City.

Visit

The Guggenheim Museum

The MoMA

The Frick Collection

The Empire State Building

See

Central Park

The Statue of Liberty

Shop

Purl

School Products

Habu Textiles

The Point NYC

Stay

Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge

Knit

See you in a few days!

Yesterday, something incredible happened. I didn't know it was possible, having never witnessed it myself (well, maybe once, a long, long time ago). For you to believe it too I'm going to have to show you the proofs.

Proof #1

Proof #2



Proof #3



This incredible event is called "Casting on for socks #2 right after binding off sock #1". It is such a rare event that it got a very complicated name. The creator of the word didn't think it would be used very often. But I have been witness to this amazing event and I still live to tell the tale. I don't dare hope to ever see this happen again, but maybe you will...

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Is anyone reading this blog from New York City? This weekend I'll be headed there for a few days. DH has a 4-day conference to attend and I'm tagging along. I'll have 4 days by myself to be a tourist and do a yarn crawl. If you're from there I'd love to get together with you, so let me know!

I received yesterday my Special Swap package from now-blogless Susan. Special Swap is organized by Lynne and lasts a whole year. Every other month we get a new swap pal to swap with. Each swap is over two months and has a different theme. This time around, the theme was "Picnic". My Swap Pal sent me a suitcase full of goodies:

Along with the Picnic theme my pal went for a Cherry Pink theme. She got me a cute set of Watermelon picnic items, some pink lemonade tea bags, a cherry vanilla candle, a magazine full of amazing recipes and the lovely Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in Pink with a box of silver crystal beads. And all this in the cute cardboard suitcase. Not shown on the picture are a bag of pecans, a bag of dried cherries and some bite-size Toblerones... yum!!

She also sent me via email a recipe for Cherry Pecan cookies, to go with the pecans and dried cherries and a pattern for the Cherry Blossom socks by Sivia Harding to go with the yarn and the beads she sent.



I've never knit with beads yet but I intend to try and this might just be the best excuse to try it! Now I just have to get my hands on a dental floss threader (whatever that is) or a big-eye beading needle!

To continue the pink theme, here is my latest pair of socks.



They're the Serpentine socks from the Sockamania KAL July pattern. Sadly, they're the least favorite socks that I've knit. Not because of the lovely pattern but by my execution. I started the pattern a little to early on the toes and one of the cables bothers my little toe (I'm very sensitive like that!). They're a little on the short side so they'll remain house socks I think. You can see another shot with a great view on the cables here.

Stats
Sock #1 was knit between July 25 and August 2, 2007. Sock #2 was knit between August 25 and September 4, 2007.
Yarn: Louet Gems Fingering hand-dyed by me for the main color, Louet Gems Fingering in Pink Panther for the contrasting yarn. I used a dark pink reinforcing thread in the toe and heel area.
Pattern:Serpentine socks by Anni Design for the Sockamania KAL
Mods: Toe-up and short-row heel with contrasting yarn for toes, heels and cuff.

Contest update:
Thanks to everyone who's participated so far. If you haven't yet, the contest is over here.

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On Friday, my friend and I went on a trip to Lexington, MA to do some shopping. Not clothes shopping or shoe shopping, but food shopping. Our main target was the Wilson Farm to find some of this. My friend and I had never heard or been to Wilson Farm so we imagined a farm with a couple stands on the side of the road. You can imagine my surprise when we pulled in to this huge parking lot packed to the gills with cars. Down below the parking lot was a huge field with everything from vegetables and flowers. We were even more amazed to see the size of the building and the huge variety of produce and foodstuffs available. It's like Whole Foods but still on the farm level. There were tomatoes in every color and size,

delicious looking fruits



cheeses, breads, the best yogurt ever, anything you'd like for this meal.



I'm already planning my next trip back... yum! If you live in the Boston area, Wilson Farm is definitely a place worth checking out.

On our way there, as we drove through the town of Weston I noticed a sign that said "In Stitches". I said to my friend: "That sounds like a yarn store, let's stop!" We did, and I'm mighty glad I did! The store was very nice. Half of the store carried yarn and the other one carried stitching stuffs. After asking for their sock yarns I found this:



ETA: I guess I forgot to say what the yarn is! It's is Araucania Ranco in color 108.

Of course I had to have it. I might not keep it for myself but will give it to my Sock Monkey Swap pal (if she'll have a non superwash yarn). If she doesn't, I'll keep it for me! : )

After our stop at the Wilson Farm we drove to Wild and Wooly, a yarn store in Lexington. I didn't buy anything there. Although I should have bought this and this. Especially after seeing this over on Turtlegirl's blog. I am now kicking myself...