We Have a Winner!!!

Adrienne guessed the correct number of socks in the sock drawer. There were 48 pair in that drawer. I have sent you an email Adrienne, and I will get your Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in the mail as soon as I get your mailing address. Thanks so much, all of you, for participating in my little guessing game. It was fun, I will have to have another contest soon.

Now, the finished sock parade continues. First finished, are the ones I started last week. These are the Aran Socks and are knit in Louet Gems Sport Wt in Cream. I knit these at a pretty tight gauge for sport wt yarn, but I think it is perfect for socks. Karen is knitting them in CTH supersock at the same gauge and says they look great. I haven't seen hers yet, but she promises to post a picture of them soon.

Next finished were the Mini Pretzel Twists. I don't know why I waited so long to finish these. I think it may have been because I know it will be a while before I can get more Wollmeise, and I wanted to prolong the knitting experience. I do love this yarn. It is a bit splitty at times, but the knitted fabric is wonderful. And the colors are fantastic. I think I am going to have to order directly from The Wollmeise. It is like a Wollmeise frenzy at The Loopy Ewe when it is in stock. I was fortunate to get a skein in two other restocks, but not the last one. It went unbelievably fast.

And off the needles last night, Furrows knit in Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn in the Hercules colorway. This yarn was a gift from Karen. Sorry about the picture. It is rainy and gloomy out today. This is a really quick knit. When I got the toe closed on this pair and the ends woven in, I started the second Lace-agon sock. I am working on the heel flap of that one. The pile of singletons is dwindling, thank goodness. I have yarn screaming at me to be tried. The Dream in Color Smooshy is talking the loudest. I may have another distraction..... like the Aran socks.

Well, I am off to do more laundry and then knit for a while.

Have a great week!!!!

Awards and Contests

I got a comment from Hakucho yesterday, telling me to check her blog for an award. And there was this : That is so sweet. I have seen these on other blogs and I am so honored to get one myself.

Here are the rules:

Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about Blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

There are way more than 10 but I am going to list the ones I check first every day.

Karen : my sister and best friend. She just started a new job, go wish her good luck.

Hakucho : who gave me the award but not because she did that. I love the items she makes and that she shares them with us and she always seems to be working on a charitable gift like a prayer shawl, she always has a kind work to leave in the comments...etc

Janice : I love to read her blog and see what she is making both crafting and cooking : )

Beth: She has given me so much encouragement in my knitting ventures and I appreciate

that.

Pat: Pat makes the most beautiful socks and other knitted goodies too and she makes wonderful quilts too. What an inspiration.

Brooke: knits wonderful things and her blog always makes me smile and usually laugh.

Another Beth : I love looking at the socks she is knitting and the yarn she is spinning and Thursday dog pics.

Sheila : who knits beautifully but she also posts the most beautiful pictures of the South West

Allison: Also another fantastic knitter, but I am so inspired by the way she photographs her yarn and knitting works of art, I often find myself going to her blog to look at all the beautiful pictures.

Diane I love that she is able to stick to her charity knitting goals. I found the 25 things for Charity through her blog and I joined and failed miserably last year, but seeing she has already knit more than that so far this year, has inspired me to do better.

OK that is 10, there are many more that I read daily, but I am going to stop there, just in case I need to tag more at a later time.

And I have decided to have a little contest too..... just because I feel like it. I am going to post a picture of 1 of my sock drawers. This drawer is 2 feet x 2 feet and is about 11 inches deep. It by no means holds all of my hand knit socks. It is usually a little more organized than this but I didn't want to make it too easy for you.

So all you need to do is guess how many pair of socks you think are in this drawer and leave a comment on this post. The prize will be a hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Brights. How that ballband fell off of that yarn is beyond me, because I cannot slide it back on. It is reds, with some blue and black in it. I will stop taking guesses next Monday January 28, and will post the winner Tuesday. If more than one person guesses correctly I will let the random number generator pick the winner from those.

Have a great week all and Happy Knitting!!!!

Failure .... Kind of

Well, I gave into the temptation and started a new sock. Surprisingly enough, not with one of my new, beautiful, sock yarns. It was something in my stash. Something plain, calling out to be knit into a nice cabled, textured sock. Something other than a plain vanilla sock that seems to be the majority of the singletons I have stashed everywhere throughout the house. I have to tell you, I think I just need to stop knitting basic stockinette stitch and ribs. I cast on for these, and as soon as I wove in the last end of the first sock, the second one was on the needles. I love them. The first one fits wonderfully,and it is very comfortable. I will get back to the singetons as soon as I am finished with this pair .... I promise.

I also started another BallBand Felted Bag . It has been a while since I have knit one of these. Beth brought it to my attention that there was a group on Ravelry knitting this, so I joined. And since it has been a while since I knit one, I thought I better cast on for one to refresh my memory. So I dug through my stash. Wouldn't you know, I gave my last 2 balls of Noro to the knitting daughter about a week ago, so that was out. I found some Rio De La Plata in Chinchilla and some variegated Malabrigo, I am unsure of the color, and cast on. They are more complimentary colors than contrast colors, but I think it is going to look very nice. I forgot how fast these are to knit.

And I was so excited to learn I had won a blog contest. Alabama Fiber Dreams was celebrating her blogiversary and was giving away some wonderful prizes. And I was a lucky winner. I have not knit with either of the 2 sock yarns she is giving away, Lime & Violet’s Sasquatch Sock and Yarn Pirate’s Merino/Tencel blend. I have seen beautiful socks knit with both of these, and am looking forward to knitting them up into socks. Thanks Jessi !!! for the yarn and the wonderful blog. Go check out her spinning, it is wonderful. That is on my list of things to learn to do.

Well, I better go do a little house cleaning (yuck) before the kids get home from school. The boy child needs to get allergy shots today, so that will be an hour of knitting time later on : )

Have a great week!!!!

Socks And a Bag ......

.....from the knitting daughter 1. She swore off knitting for a while after the fingerless mitt knitting marathon we had. But her friends were so impressed with her knitted gifts, she decided to make one of her friends a felted bag for her Birthday. We still need to get a few buttons for the little tab thingy, otherwise it is done. Apparently I have no suitable buttons in the infamous button drawer. She knit this bag with Cascade 220 and the pattern is Lagoon from the Pursenality Plus Book. I think she did a fantastic job with just minimal assistance. She has picked out a few more bags she would like to make for herself, so I am sure she will be raiding my Cascade 220 stash in the near future. She already has several felted bags, but apparently you can not have too many.

And on the sock knitting front, I have finished 2 more pair. Thank you all for your encouragement and compliments. I have come to find that most of the singletons are plain vanilla socks, either a simple rib or a stockinette stitch. Maybe I should not make as many of those, since they seem to be put into hibernation the most. It just seems that some yarns and colors want to be plain vanilla. First finished is Mountain Colors, Bearfoot in the Firestorm color. I know this sock was at least 3 other patterns before it became a 4 x 2 rib. 60 stitches and size 1 needles. These are wonderfully soft, and smooshy. I know they will be exceptionally warm. I will wait to wear them this weekend when we have single digit temperatures.

And the second to be finished this week are the Great Adirondack Soxie in the Kenya color. Again a plain vanilla sock, 68 stitches and size 1 dpns. This yarn is very much like CTH Supersock. Same feel, same tight twist and wonderful to knit with. I have 2 other pair close to being finished, maybe by the end of the week. One pair knit in CTH Supersock Potluck Brights, and the other in Fleece Artist in the Hercules color.

Last night was the sneak up at The Loopy Ewe As soon as I go the email I dashed over to the site, only to find all the other Wollmiese shoppers had crashed the site. By the time it came back up the site was soooo slow and it was saying there were only 6 colors left, actually there were only 3. As I was putting them into my shopping cart, loopy fell over again, so I waited a minute and tried again, by now there was only one color remaining so I put it in my cart since it was one I wanted, only to have it bought out of my cart before I could click on the checkout button. I guess it was not meant to be. I have been fortunate to get some in other sneak ups so I was not too disappointed. There is always the next time or the time after that. But I do love the Wollmeise and the fantastic colors she produces.

I did, however, decide to try out some new needles. I went over the The Yarn Grove to order some of the Hiya Hiya needles . Has anyone knit with these. I have heard good things about the stainless steel circular needles, but have not heard much about the dpns. They are reasonably priced, so I thought I would give them a try. I am expecting some Harmony dpns any day now too. What am I thinking, ordering more needles when I am trying so hard to get my other needles empty. I may be my own worst enemy in this endeavor.

Happy Knitting everyone and have a great week.

Is Gopher Wood Still Available ?????

......I think we need to build an ark. We have had so much rain in the last week, with more still to come. DD1 is worried they will have to use snow days for flood days, and she is not thrilled about having to make up any time at the end of the year. They used to allow 3 incorporated "snow " days into the school schedule, but have reduced it to 1 ... I think. Not much of a winter so far here, but it is early yet .... maybe we will get some snow worth mentioning sometime, we are definitely making news with the rainfall.

Well.... there is a crack in my pursuit of finishing the singletons. But just a crack. It is not broken .... yet. I have heard so much about this wonderful Dream in Colors Smooshy, but for some reason had not purchased any. That is until this week.... I caved. And surprisingly, I bought a color I would not normally purchase. But I was drawn to it. I put it in my cart, and then took it out of my cart. Then I left The Loopy Ewe site all together. About 15 minutes later I went back, put the same color in my cart, looked around, put numerous other items in my cart, then emptied my cart and again, left the computer. Only to come back about 20 minutes later. This yarn was still there. It must be a sign ..... right? So I clicked checkout and it was promptly delivered today. Into the Mystic is the color. I may have to wind this .... I have no control over some things in life. So far I have been strong, but I have only had it in my possession for an hour. It feels really nice. It is soft and "smooshy" but honestly, I have fondled, umm I mean felt other yarns just as soft. So I am thinking I will just have to knit it, to see what all the hype is. That must be the true test. And only then will I know...... you know, just to be sure I have not been mislead.

I have finished 2 more pair of socks. I am close to finishing 2 other pair. But darn, if I don't keep finding more of those pesky singletons. How does one cure oneself of the Second Sock Syndrome.

First: the Opal Fish. I know I started these over a year ago. I had forgotten all about them. When I was searching for a different yarn I found the lonely sock, and since I think it is the oldest singleton I have, it was the first to be finished. Just a simple 3 x 1 rib on the leg and a stockinette stitch foot. Size one needles and 68 stitches. And they match perfectly. Look how dark the picture is, and it was 3 PM when I took it.. Flash required even outside. But I couldn't go off the porch due to the rain.

Second: the Stone Barn Fibers in the Lamurple colorway. This is the Zig then Zag pattern, but with a short row heel. This yarn feels very similar to Cherry Tree Hill and Shibui. The design shows up better in person and in better lighting.

Speaking of Cherry Tree Hill, earlier last year I designed two sock patterns for Cherry Tree Hill in the Sockittome yarn. They are available now where their patterns are sold. Sockittome Lace and Simple Sockittome are the 2 I designed. I am so excited about this. I have really been enjoying designing and actually having then published.

Well I need to pick the youngest up from church..... and then maybe google that gopher wood. Have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!!!

Same Mission ... New Year

I am still on the same mission .... the one I get on every now and then, that is until I am overcome with the overwhelming desire to cast on with a new yarn or a new design. I am finishing single socks .... I know .... again !! We will see how long my resolve will last this time.
First up: Kaitlin's socks. These were supposed to be for her Birthday in October. Better late than never right. She loves them. She says they are quite warm and her chilly toes appreciate that. The picture really doesn't show the unusual color combination in between the primary stripes. She asked for them not to match, but I couldn't bring myself to do that ... esp when it was so easy to match these.

Next were the Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in the Baby Blues. This is my Cool Breeze pattern. Very warm socks even with the lace. I wore these the other day when it was in the single digits outside with my Birks and had very warm footsies. And they are oh so soft.

Then were the Spritely Goods in the Peppercorn color. A cabled sock. It is the Cables Galore with a ribbed cuff instead of the cable cuff. I purchased this yarn from The Loopy Ewe also.

And then last night I finished my first pair of the New Year. These are knit in Yarn Love. I don't remember the colorway name and have misplaced the ball band. This yarn was in my Loopy Groupie prize bag when I attained groupie status. Just a 3 x 1 rib on the leg and a plain stockinette foot.

And as soon as I wove in the tails on these I cast on for the second sock of another pair. I think this one may have been hibernating for almost a year. I will post a picture of them when I finish the pair. They are knit in Opal in the Fish color from the first Rain Forest collection. I think when I go searching for all the singletons I may be surprised or shocked by the number of socks there are stashed throughout the house. I know I had forgotten all about the Fish socks and a pair I discovered last night knit in Bearfoot. All I can say is, I should never run out of hand knit socks.

My patterns have been restocked at The Loopy Ewe if you care to take a look. Included in the last shipment were the patterns for the new mitts and the latest socks.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!