Becky's Knitting

Only a few more weeks until finals, which means I am studying hard (and procrastinating by blogging).  I am officially done with my internship at the Supreme Court and the class that goes with it.  I still have to write a 25-30 page paper, co-write a buy-sell agreement for a closely-held corporation, and outline for, study for, and take a Securities Regulation final.  I am hoping to be done all of this by April 30, but I have a little bit of extra time to work on the paper if necessary.  As usual when I get into finals mode, I have been doing lots of knitting, but not a whole lot of blogging.  So here's the latest status report:

• the Scandanavia Mittens are done and gifted to my mom, but are back in my possession for blocking and picture taking.  I probably won't get around to this anytime soon, but once I do these gorgeous mittens will get their own post
• the Unoriginal Scarf is finished and also in need of blocking and FO pics
• the Conwy socks for Daniel have been cast on, and while I don't (and can't because they are a surprise) work on them very often, I like the way they are coming out
• the first Monkey sock is complete and very cute.  I haven't cast on for the second one yet because ...
• I am about to complete the fastest sock I have ever knit, as explained below.

Back in February Grumperina posted some socks that I fell in love with.  The yarn is Sock Hop from Crown Mountain Farms, and I knew I wanted to get some, but it is pricey as you need two skeins to make a pair of socks.  Plus, it only goes on sale for one day a few times a year, so I had to wait until April.  Come April I had recently finished a few projects and hadn't bought too much yarn recently, plus I wanted to celebrate getting EIC, so I decided I deserved a bit of a treat.  Unfortunately they don't have the colorway Grumperina used anymore.  I couldn't decide which color to get, so I ended up getting two - San Francisco (blue and brown - something I don't normally pick) and Layla (purply pink - very me).  It arrived on Monday, and look how awesome it is! 

The reason the yarn is so expensive is that it is handspun, but it is so worth it!  I needed a new, mindless stockinette project, so as I finished up the first Monkey sock, I cast-on on Tuesday with the San Francisco colorway.  I went with my size 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks dpns, which I think was a good idea because the yarn sometimes gets very thin due to being handspun (there are also some thicker parts).  Between having a few meetings where I was able to knit, and needing some mindless knitting while studying, and this yarn being sooo addicting, I have already reached the ribbing on the first sock!  Here's the progress:

Here's the socks in progress while I'm studying and Major is passed out on top of me - aww!

I'm now up to the ribbing and will take more pics once I cast-off the first sock.  I don't know if I'll immediately cast-on for the second sock- I seem to have a single sock thing going on right now.  But it does work really well for mindless stockinette.  Here's the other single socks:

The beginnings of the Conwy.

And the first Monkey sock.

Normally I get a bunch of knitting done during the finals crunch, and I will get some done doing research for my paper, but unfortunately the paper writing, contract editing, and outline creating all require a lot of typing which is not conducive to knitting, so we'll see how much I get done this time around.  I cast-on for the Baby Lord jacket I have been planning and purchased yarn for, but it requires too much counting and concentration, so is on hold until I get to start my summer knitting.  I could do Mermaid or Sahara knitting as my finals knitting, but both of those require figuring out where I am on the pattern, so I will probably stick to sock knitting until school is over.

Posted by Becky at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Unoriginal Scarf, based on the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat, is now available as a free download.  You can get to it from the sidebar, and it is also available in my Ravelry Store.

Please let me know if you have any questions or find any errors, and I'd love to see any projects you make with it.

(Now if only I would hurry up and finish and block mine )

Posted by Becky at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday was First Thursday at HCW, so my mom and I met up when I was done with class.  In honor of March Madness, all balls of yarn were on sale.  I was excited to see that they got in the new Comfort Sock yarn.  It doesn't have any wool in it, so I picked up a skein to make a pair of socks for Daniel.  Finally - non-wool sock yarn so it doesn't make him itchy and non-cotton so it doesn't hurt my hands.  Even though the picture doesn't show it well, it's gray with slight shade variations.

I'm planning to make the Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road.  These will be a surprise so I will need to knit them on the sly.  I'm thinking I can at least make some good progress on them at school. 

Not on sale, but just in and GORGEOUS was the new Manos silk blend.  My mom and I both fell in love, and, not surprisingly, I got the purple and my mom got the one with lots of pinks in it (called Wildflowers).  This yarn is so me!  Even though I have two purple scarves in progress right now (the Swallowtail Shawl and the Unoriginal Scarf), I'm thinking about making a scarf with it.  Alternately, it would make lovely fingerless gloves, but I feel like I will wear a scarf the most.  I'm thinking maybe something slightly lacy.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

Last month I picked up this yarn, but I hadn't posted about it yet.  6 skeins of Mission Falls 1824 Wool to make a baby sweater/jacket for my oldest friend Laura.  We have the same birthday, and she found out on our birthday that she is having a boy.  I'm going to visit her in August when the baby will be about 6 weeks old, and I'm so excited!

I'm planning on making this Cable & Seed Stitch Jacket from Debbie Bliss Baby Knits.  I'm going to do the 18 month size so that maybe he can wear it his first winter with the sleeves rolled up, and then definitely wear it the second winter.  They live in Delaware so wool is appropriate up there.

Spring break began today at 1:45 for me, so I felt the need to celebrate that by stopping by The Knitting Nest on my way home and checking out all the new sock yarn Stacy has gotten in.  She has TONS of Trekking XXL - so many appealing colors.  I ended up picking up Trekking 100 because I have seen so many gorgous socks knit out of it (like these, for example).

Stacy was also unpacking a box of Hill Country Yarns in pretty pinks.  There was pink and red, all pinks, and this gorgeous pink and chocolate brown.  She carries their Instant Gratification yarn which knits up fast, and I've been wanting to try it.  I'm undecided whether to gift this to my mom, or make her socks out of it, or maybe make my lil sis socks out of it cause she likes pink too.  It'll live in my stash until I decide.  Stacy also got in more of the Longhorn and Aggie colorways which are great!  I held off this time around, but I'm sure I'll be getting some soon.

And, finally, here's my latest progress on the Unoriginal Scarf.  I haven't heard back from the Yarn Harlot yet about posting the pattern, but I don't really think there are any copyright issues so I'll probably post it soon.  I think I'm going to really like this once it's blocked, but it needs blocking very badly.

Before I cast-on any of the new projects contemplated above, I will at a minimum finish the Dale Baby Dress.  The crochet trim on the bottom is done and I am working on the neckband.  It is taking forever, but I definitely want to get it done this week.  Wish me luck!

Posted by Becky at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Since I finished the FIL socks, purple socks, and Waving Lace socks (pics of those last 2 coming soon), Sahara is on hold until the Tilli Tomas yarn comes in, and I haven't figured out the crochet on the Baby Roses Dress yet, I've needed some new projects to work on.  I've actually managed to work on Daniel's sweater while doing some law school reading, so I am almost up to the armhole on that.  I'm thrilled b/c I didn't think I could do cables and read at the same time, and while it does slow me down on my reading, it's ok when I don't have a ton of reading to get done. 

I made the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat back when she first posted it in November.  Back then, I was one of 62 people to have made it on Ravelry.  There are now 657 Unoriginal Hat projects on Ravelry!!  583 are listed as finished.  I guess now it really is unorginal.  

I had originally bought the Berroco Air yarn that I used for my hat to make a hat and scarf set, so I finally decided I should do the other half of the project (although it's really more than half since it's going to take a lot more time and yarn).  Here's what I have come up with, along with the matching hat.  I'm going to email Stephanie about it and see if she cares if I put the scarf pattern up as a free pattern, since I'm sure others would like to make a matching set as well.  If so, then I'll write this up for those who don't feel comfortable improvising patterns.

I've also cast-on several new socks since I finished all the old ones I had going.  First, a pair of Monkeys in Colinette Jitterbug in the Castagna colorway.  There's been some big debate on Ravelry about how to do Monkey's toe-up.  Just flipping the chart upside down apprently doesn't work b/c of the way the increases and decreases are done.  So then someone came up with this pattern which is supposed to be for toe-up Monkeys.  Well, yes, they are toe-up, but the chart is not flipped or in any way changed from the original pattern in terms of direction.  It seems the big changes are the cool heel and that she took out the purl stitches.  So if your concern is about the pattern showing up correctly, this pattern will not do it for you.

I decided that I didn't care if the pattern was upside down, so I am just knitting from the chart as written in the top-down pattern.  So far, I think they look great!

The specs so far: Knit on size 1 Pony Pearl dpns.  Judy’s magic cast-on to get 10 stitches on each needle. Increase 4 stitches every other round until reach 16 per needle. Knit 10 rows. Begin lace chart.  I think the toe is a tad too pointy for my taste, so I would do 24 total stitches to start if you're going to try this cast-on method (which by the way, I think is awesome!!)

The yarn is called Tempted Hand Painted Good Grrl in the colorway I Want Candy.  I am using size 1 Pony Pearl dpns.  Cast-on using Judy's Magic Cast-on, 24 stitches, 12 on each needle, and then increased 4 stitches every other row until I had 16 on each needle.  I am doing a 2x2 rib, which I plan to do for the whole sock (I figured stretchy is good since I don't know if she has wide or narrow feet), and then I'll do a little block of stockinette with OU in purls on the legs.  I don't expect to finish these anytime soon, but they are good purse knitting as they are mindless.

I also took some time out from these projects to whip up some really cute ornaments for a friend's ornament shower which I will post next time.  They are super cute!  Until then, Major says hi!  He's exhausted because we've been celebrating his namesake's return to Texas as Running Backs Coach and Assistant Head Coach!!  Yippee!!

Posted by Becky at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)