Archive for the Category »Sock Knitting «

03
Jun 2010

Lazy Blogger

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I’ve been a lazy blogger over here at the old Creative Corner Blog but that doesn’t mean I’ve been lazy.  I’ve been spending a lot of time getting my Creations by Uli web site for my chainmaille jewelry off the ground.

Go take a peek: Creations by Uli

There’s still lots of work to be done.  I’m slowly building the gallery and some pages of interest to those who like my jewelry and also links for those who want to learn more about creating chainmaille.

Tell me if you like it…… my normal tendencies toward purple have totally shifted (I’m still a purple girl) and I’ve gone for crisp white with bright orange.  I love the look.  I can’t wear orange but it sure feels happy and cheerful to me for the site.

Well, instead of getting ready for Fab Fair which is a show I’m participating in this weekend, I’ve been playing with the template for this blog.  I think I love this template.  I think I’ll feel at home here as I try to write more.  June might be a bit hit and miss though because I think I might have slightly over committed.  Feels like I’ll be running from one thing to the next constantly.

Most interesting in the last little while is a dyeing workshop I’ve been participating in.  I will try to blog more about it this weekend.  We have one more session left to go but the first 2 sessions were fabulous.  Hard work but the results were so worth it.

Tonight I’m leaving off with my most recent handspun – some silky cashmerino from Fluff Fibers on Etsy.

It was a great spin and the result is yummy soft and fluffiness.

Currently on the wheel is some BFL/Silk from AllspunUp and today, I bought a bit more (just a tiny little bit) of the Fishy SAL that Kirsten from AllSpunUp is running.  What an undertaking!!!!  The fibre will all be Polwarth – such yumminess.  I’ve been so good about NOT buying any fibre but this past week has brought me to my knees again.  Let’s just say that there will be a few lovely packages in the mailbox soon.

It’s late and I must go but I’ll be back soon with more details about my dyeing experience!!!  A new hobby you may wonder?  Well, let’s just say I have a whole newfound respect for those who dye up all this gorgeousness for us spinners and knitters.

I’m in a Pro-D day all day tomorrow.  I’m hoping that I can sneak out my sock knitting project and just plug away at my current sock while I listen – all day long…. I MUST knit.

Category: Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning, Stash and Supply Shopping  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
05
Apr 2010

I have so much to catch up on

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it’s insane!!!  How could I be so blog lazy for so long???  Did the Ravelympics take everything out of me?  Well, I don’t know but I think part of it is that there is so much going on that the blog always gets the least attention.

I guess I’ll start way back when and go in little spurts untilI catch up……..

After the Ravelympics were done, the first thing I did was finish a pair of handspun socks with some gorgeous handspun from Crown Mountain Fibres.  This had been sitting in my stash for a bit but socks seemed like the thing to cast on.  They were a great knit:

Socks and Fingerless Mittens

Knitted on 2.5 mm Hiya Hiya stainless steel needles (my recent most favourite needles) and just my basic top down sock pattern.  The yarn was the gorgoues SW Merino in She’s Like a Rainbow – 3 plied.  I had quite a bit left when I was done so I decided on a quick pair of fingerless mittens.  I love the set!!!

It’s Easter Monday.  We had a lovely long weekend and I’m cherishing that today is another day off for us.  I’m trying to get all kinds of creative things done around here including some chainmailleing, some picture taking, some weaving, some knitting and some spinning.  My current project on the wheel is some super soft baby camel/silk which is a pure pleasure to spin. 

I will try to keep the updates coming over the next few days!!!!

Category: Finished Projects, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
17
Jan 2010

Knitting with Handspun

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It feels so good……. I’ve been finishing some stuff!!!

I finished knitting my handspun Lacy Baktus scarf.  I really truly enjoyed this pattern.  It’s a quick knit and although, it looks fabulous in commercial yarn, I loved the fact that it looks equally fabulous in handspun yarn.  The yarn I used was my first ever low twist single ply yarn.  I had my doubts whether it was even a knittable yarn once I had soaked and slightly felted it but alas……. the pattern lent itself perfectly to this yarn.

Here are some finished object shots.  I didn’t measure the dimensions but it worked out very nicely.  I think I had around 400 yards or handspun, maybe a little bit more.

Handspun Lacy Baktus

Lacy Baktus in a Bush

And in a fit of finishing, I finally finished this gorgeous pair of handspun ribbed socks made from a fabulous merino/bamboo/nylon blend.  They were a super quick knit because I knit them on 3 mm needles as my navajo plied yarn came out a bit thicker than fingering – probably a heavier sportweight.  I love the colours and how they turned out.  The fibre came from Fat Cat Knits.

4 by 2 Ribbed Handspun Socks - Spring is Calling

There’s something to be said about socks that are a little bit heavier weight.  They are not great in shoes but they sure knit up super quickly.  I did those toe-up on two circs.  You may teach and old dog new tricks, yet.  I do admit though that even in a toe-up sock, I’d rather knit a gusset style heel.

That brings me to spinning and knitting and the upcoming Ravelympics.  Having the Olympics so close to home, inspires me too make sure I participate in the Ravelympics.  The idea of the Ravelympics is to pick a project that will challenge you.  I know I could easily knit a Multnomah during the duration of the Games but I figured my challenge would be to spin for and then knit this beautiful little shawl.  I have now made a decision on the fibre and it will be this gorgeous blue SW Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend that I just received from the lovely Julie of Julie Spins.

The official day to start is during the opening ceremonies of the Games.  I can’t do much until then but train.  As my training I’m thinking I might try and take a similar fibre and see if I could succeed at a low twist single because if I can, that’s what I’d like to spin for this shawl.  If not, I’ll go to my standard 2-ply because I know i can do that, almost in my sleep.  Mind you, having talked about training, there are a lot of other fibres I’d like to spin like my Crown Mountain Farms January and February fibre club shipments and some other beauties.

But anyways, come back and watch my progress during the Olympics.  As a preview, here’s the fibre I have chosen:

Ravelympics Fibre - SW Merino/Bamboo/Nylon

Today was JR’s forth birthday.  If you’ve been around for a while, reading my blog, back in its old,old home, you’ll remember the stresses around his preemie arrival and then 2 years later his surgery and difficult recovery.  Now, he’s my big 4-year old boy….. it’s hard to believe how fast time flies!!!

Lipstick Boy - Happy Birthday Bud!!!

Category: Kidlets, Knitting, Ravelympics, Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , , ,  2 Comments
25
Aug 2009

Travel Knitting

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So, when we hit the road for Sock Summit, I had several knitting projects with us.  After all, our entire vacation consisted of about 1,800 km of driving.

I set out our first day of driving starting this baby blanket that had to be knit for a baby shower next Sunday.  It is now finished but I didn’t have it all finished by the end of our trip but I did make good progress.

Jordyn's Baby Blanket

Jordyn's Baby Blanket

The yarn is Puffin from Crystal Palace and it’s super soft and fleecy but it also pills like crazy so on my arrival down in Portland, I was covered in baby mint coloured fuzz – of course, to top it off, I was wearing black pants.  Yup, and that’s how I went to the opening night of the marketplace.  But really, any knitter would understand, wouldn’t they?

Most of my class time was spent knitting my niece’s scarf.  It’s for her birthday and it went in the mail today.  The handspun is one of my first handspun’s from last year when I started spinning.  It’s a lovely SW merino in great, funky colours.  Just right for a 8-year old…. well, she did pick it.  I finished knitting most of it while we were in Portland but I did finish it up and fringe it right here, back at home, the other night.  It’s done in a simple mistake rib pattern with a fun fringe.

Sophia's Scarf Close-Up

Sophia's Scarf Close-Up

Sophia's Birthday Scarf

Sophia's Birthday Scarf

 My other knitting project was done “under the gun”.  Little Miss was so insistent on her fingerless mittens that I had to comply.  I knitted those from our trip from Portland to Leavenworth and finished them up as we headed out of Leavenworth.  Hot summer weather and she wore them for the longest time.  I like the new marketing idea….. Nintendo DS Fingerless Mittens:

Nintendo Fingerless Mittens

Nintendo Fingerless Mittens

Fun handspun fingerless mittens

Fun handspun fingerless mittens

This was handspun that I spun really quite bulky.  A lovely merino from the lovel Ginny of Fat Cat Knits.  Gotta love those fun/bright colours and the yarn just screamed bulky to me.  I think the colourway was called neonicity.

And the rest of my travel time – after leaving Portland – and when I wasn’t working on any of the other projects were my “sock summit” socks – made with yarn bought on the last morning of the market place from Kimber of Fiber Optic.  It’s from her line of batik yarns and the colours are just fabulous.  I used a simple waffle pattern and went to town with my new yarn and my new HiyaHiya DPNs.  I might be getting my time lines mixed up here because I might not have worked on the Nintendo mittens between Portland and Leavenworth because I think I immediately cast on these socks when we hit the road and I made fabulous progress.  I finished them up as we were heading down the Coquihalla heading into Hope.

imgp0793

Batik Sock Summit Socks

That’s all she wrote in terms of travel knitting.  Not bad though, eh?

Category: Finished Projects, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , , ,  One Comment
21
Aug 2009

Needles

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I still have a few more road trip/sock summit/summer vacation related posts in my back pocket.  By now, I was hoping done with all my blog post ideas but I just didn’t get time to blog as often as I had liked.

Today I wanted to just briefly talk about some needles I picked up at Sock Summit.  There were several vendors who were selling the Hiya Hiya needles.  I can’t speak for all of them. 

A while back at a LYS, I tried to knit with the really, really short HiyaHiya circulars and I hated those.  I don’t even like 16″ circs for the short needle length.  I haven’t tried the Bamboo needles.  At another LYS a while ago, I tried a few stitches on the stainless steel DPNs and they seemed to have potential.

So, at sock summit, I picked up a pair of 2.5mm DPNs (at the moment I couldn’t find 2.25 mms which is sort of my standard sock needle).  I promptly cast on a pair of socks (my travel pair) and I must say that I enjoyed knitting with them.  I really enjoyed their lightness, the point worked well for me and I found them to have a nice feel in my hands and after always knitting with bamboo DPNs, I really have not enjoyed going back to metal needles but I really liked this set.  I liked it enough that on Sunday morning of Sock Summit, I tried to go find some more but for some reason, I was rushing so much that in the vastness of the marketplace, I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

hiyahiya

I ended up stopping at Twist of Fate in Kamloops on our way home and Erynn had the needles, as well, where I picked up a set of my beloved 2.25 mm needles – I should probably cast on a pair of socks, shouldn’t I?  I also picked up a set of 4mm wooden DPNs from her and I guess once I knit with those, I can tell you how I like them.

This weekend (right now) is the Gibsons Landing Fibre Festival.  Wish I could go but we’re busy and it’s a ferry ride (that’s not cheap) away and vacation and stash enhancing at Sock Summit was expensive enough that I really can’t afford any more.  I wish I could go to catch up with some good friends though as well as the prospect of having some weaving goodies there.   Ah well…………. maybe next year.

Category: Knitting, Sock Knitting  One Comment
15
Aug 2009

Sock Summit and Post Summit Stash Enhancement

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Just a quickie post to show the collage of my newly acquired stash:

Sock Summit and Post Sock Summit Stash

Sock Summit and Post Sock Summit Stash

 Here is where I shopped – the pictures are not in order:

  1. Crown Mountain Farms for their fabulous SW Merino and great colours (I got one old colourway and 2 brand new colourways)
  2. Fiber Optic - for the fabulous footnotes SW Merino/Nylon pencil roving and some sock yarn (no picture of that as I knitted it up right away – pics of that later)
  3. Lisa Souza - for a lovely skein of fingering weight sock yarn and some SW Merino combed top
  4. Susan’s Kitchen - for some lovely alpacca blend fibre and a beautiful skein of SW BFL sock yarn
  5. Hazel Knits – for a couple of lovely skeins of sock yarn, one merino/nylon and the other merino/soy/nylon.  I loved these yarns and wanted more, more, more….. I’m really surprised that I didn’t give in to more loveliness, especially maybe some shades of purple.
  6. Twist of Fate Yarns – on the way home, we stopped via Kamloops to say hi to Erynn and her shop and I ended up with some lovely fibre – acouple of brainds of SW Merino/bamboo and a merino/silk blend – can’t wait to spin those up.  Erynn is about to expand from her little space into a real store front and I wish her all the very best of luck with that endeavour.

As I mentioned before, I left some beautiful things behind.  Some I regret leaving behind but I have so much stash that I shouldn’t pine over a skein here or there.  It’s not like there’s a shortage at my home.

Category: Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
06
Aug 2009

Sock Summit – Day 1

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Well, we made it.  It was a long day of driving, with the border and the hoops I always have to jump through since I still travel on a German passport.  Of course, with the kids, we stopped lots of times.  Overall, it was a good drive though.  We arrived just before 4 pm and the market preview for students was opening at 4:30.  I pretty much abandoned my family and headed down to the convention centre.    I registered and picked up my swag, a Sock Summit tote bag and a button and then I lined up for the crazed line-up of knitters anticipating the market.    The doors opened and everyone filtered in very quickly.

Wowee……….. can I say overwhelmed.  I only had an hour until I was expected back at the hotel.  I quickly started scooting around trying to make it to at least who I was going to try to get to for sure.  So, I got my fill of Crown Mountain Farms SW Merino, met the lovely Kimber of Fiberoptics who was sporting one of my shawl pins, perfectly matched with a gorgeous lace shawlette made from her yarns (of course, I picked up my fill of her gorgeous sw merino/nylon pencil roving) and picked up something from Lisa Souza Dyeworks (some more SW merino and a lovely skein of yarn).  Looked at some Kromski Rigid Heddle looms.  Didn’t find any Schacht Flips but I do quite like the look of the Kromskis.  The wood and the shape are lovely and a little less expensive.

There were tons of places I didn’t even stop at.  Not even for a moment.  Just walked by in amazement.  I MUST go back.  Tomorrow I have a class at 10 am and after that, we will do family stuff such as visiting the zoo and the children’s museum.

Tomorrow I may have some pictures.

I didn’t buy and Socks That Rock yet although I do have my eye on some of their sock yarn and some of the Sheep to Shoe kits.  I, however, must admit that I was a little startled to see their Charlotte’s Web Socks That Rock kits.  They were gorgeous but I noticed that they had a chart included in them.  It was a spreadsheet.  I looked closely.  It was my spreadsheet that I once, upon a time, created to help keep track of knitting Charlotte’s web.  I’m sure it was edited to accommodate their yarn/colours but overall, I am very certain that not even the colour of the header that I had used in the Excel spreadsheet was changed.  Of course, someone elses name was put on the spreadsheet.  I don’t have the spreadsheet up over here yet.  It’s still over on my old blog, to be found with some deep digging for anyone still interested in Charlotte’s web.  Don’t know how I feel about it.  It was a bit odd to come across it, included in a kit.  Now I have to go dig my worksheet up to see if I’m right.

Well, time to settle down to help keep the kids settle down in the hotel room.  Travelling with little ones can be trying.  The excitement shall continue tomorrow and maybe I’ll even have some pictures.

Category: Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning, Weaving  Tags: , , , , ,  One Comment
28
Jun 2009

Handspun Goodness

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Right from its inception, I’ve been participating in the AllSpunUp Spin-along on Ravelry.  This time we spun some gorgeous SW Merino and some are taking it further and knitting up some socks.  I kind of got side tracked with my other socks in progress so I started my pair of socks with the lovely SW Merino I had spun for the May/June spin-along. 

Let’s start with the spun yarn:

The Finished Yarn for the SAL

The Finished Yarn for the SAL

 And here are the beginnings of the sock:

My Version of a Twisted Rib Sock
My Version of a Twisted Rib Sock
Closer Detail of the Sock

Closer Detail of the Sock

My idea was to do the sock that’s one of the patterns in the book The Intentional Spinner but I started without the pattern.  When I came home to check not much matched the pattern (even though the look is similar).  I didn’t frog back because I think it works quite nicely even though my pattern is way more work than the pattern in the book.

I’m tired tonight.  2 days of work next week and then I’m off for 5 days!!!  Can’t beat that.  I’m really looking forward to it. 

Category: 52 Pair Plunge, Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
25
Jun 2009

Finished Lacy Ribs

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Yahoo, I have some finished socks to show off.  I finished the Lacy Rib socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up.  This was a great little summery pair of socks to knit.  Here are some FO shots:

Lacy Rib Socks - Size M - 2.25 mm needles - Yarn: Tofutsies

Lacy Rib Socks - Size M - 2.25 mm needles - Yarn: Tofutsies

Lacy Ribs Pattern Detail

Lacy Ribs Pattern Detail

Lacy Ribs & JR

Lacy Ribs & JR

JR really likes to get his picture taken these days and he always wants to see the instant replay of his pictures on the digital camera.  He’s very cute.  The reason the above picture isn’t much better is because I was shooting off the internal memory rather than my memory card and had ran out of memory.  The cool feature of the camera was though that when I took that picture, it gave me a message on the screen after releasing the shutter that someone had closed their eyes in the picture.  It detected JR’s closed eyes.  Love it!!!!

Back the the socks.  The Lacy Ribs socks were a great knit but I sure had a few issues with it:

  • I started to knit the lace pattern around the whole foot on the first sock once I finished the toe but realized right away and frogged back.  On the second sock, I knitted almost the entire foot to where I had to start the in-step increases when I realized I had, once again, pattern around the whole foot rather than doing plain stocking stitch on the bottom of the foot.
  • I had huge tangling issues with the yarn.  It started with me pulling out a huge blob (I figure almost 1/3 of the ball) out of the centre when I went to cast on.  It took me hours to detangle and finally, I actually sacrificed some yarn because I just couldn’t get it all untangled.  There was a time when ferocious Sam also got a hold of the yarn and I had more tangling issues.  Also, when I ripped back foot #2, I had some issues with the wound yarn slipping off the ball and creating more tangles.  Again, I spent countless hours until I finally gave up and ripped and joined the yarn.  A few rows later, lo and behold,  I had a knot in the yarn and had to break the yarn again.  I have more stops and starts in the second sock than I’ve ever had in a sock.
  • There is something about the Tofutsies yarn that gets Sam, the ferocious kitten, all excited.  More so than even a wool yarn.  On the lable it states that a portion of the yarn is Chitin which it says is made from Crab shells and the like materials.  I’m thinking there’s some scent or something fishy left that makes him go crazy.  You should have seen me knit those socks……… I had to basically sit on the ball of yarn or he would keep stealing the yarn.  The yarn would be in my purse and I’d get the purse ready to go in the morning, sitting by the front door and he’d growl and steal the yarn…….. you get the picture (I do owe you the story of the wool devouring kitten anways).

But, all in all, they are finished.  I love the feel of the Tofutsies yarn.  I really like how the colours worked with the lace pattern.  It’s a stretchy pattern and I really like how they turned out.

Meet Sam and Spice:

Spice's Face

Spice's Face

 

Sam the Man - The Ferocious Kitten

Sam the Man - The Ferocious Kitten

Patchy is missing.  She is into hiding out a lot these days.  Have a good night.  School let out okay.  Little Miss’ report card was good.  She exceeds all expectations in her reading – other than that, she’s right along at the same level with the rest of the pack.  I’m feeling today should have been Friday but it wasn’t so I still ahve to get back to work tomorrow.  Have a great TGIF.

Category: 52 Pair Plunge, Camera, Finished Projects, Kidlets, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Socks from the Toe Up KAL  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
11
Jun 2009

Lacy Ribs in Watery Colours and Other Water Issues

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Today was a $2,500 day.  No, it wasn’t that wonderful of a day that it was worth that much money but we spent, unwillingly, that much money.  When we got our water bill about 10 days ago, we were dumb founded to see that our water bill had basically tripled over our previous bill.  I saw my husband’s chin drop when he first opened the bill.  Then we went to check out all our old bills and sure enough our usually very steady consumption had increased about 3-fold.  First we decided something was wrong because we really did know that our water consumption patterns hadn’t significantly changed.  Then we started doubting and wondering whether potty training the little man and cleaning endless and uncountable poopy underpants alongside daily baths really could have tripled our consumption.  Realistically, it didn’t make any sense.  My husband called the city and got a whole bunch of run-around but in the end, he got some tips as to what to check for.  We checked out the water meter and low and behold, even when there was not water at all running, the water meter kept churning and churning.  We observed it all last weekend and looked at the readings we were getting on the meter and it was ridiculous.  To make a long story short, we had a plumbing company in today.  We had a leak in the water pipe somewhere between the foundation and the house.  Our lucky scenario was that they’d find the leak before they got to the foundation (the lucky quote was about $900).  The unlucky quote about $2,500.  Well, you guessed it….. we had to go with option #2, the unlucky quote.  It broke hubby’s heart because he’s been working on finishing our basement for quite a long time and he was getting oh so close to finishing all the drywall.  Today, he had to remove several sheets of drywall and take down the vapour barrier and the insulation so that they could run the new water line.

Well, when all is said and done, we have water back, the water meter isn’t running when the water is turned off in the house and the city will give us a “leakage credit” once we show them that the repair has been done.  For me, I think that means that a new camera isn’t in the cards for a while.

Motime where I hosted my old blog also made a big announcement today about some changes and now I really don’t feel badly about leaving.  They are changing everyone’s blog address from “username”.motime.com to “username”.splinder.us.com (or something like that).  That is a huge change and with only a week’s notice of the change doesn’t give a lot of chance to anyone to make sure that people know that the URL etc for the blog will be changing.  The timing for me just happened to be right.

My knitting has fallen off abit.  I’ve had a lot of chainmaille orders in my Creations by Uli shop.  I’m not complaining at all but overall, it has kept me very busy.  One of my favourite and most popular little items has been my little rainbow spheres:

Rainbow Dodechahedron Cell Phone Charm

Rainbow Dodechahedron Cell Phone Charm

So, getting back to the knitting, I finished the first of the Lacy Ribs Socks from Wendy’s book Socks from the Toe Up.  My yarn is Southwest Trading Company’s Tofutsies in these great summery shades of vibrant blues, greens and yellows.  I’m working the size medium and the size is working out well for me.  Loving these socks so far.  Even enjoying going from the toe-up – and you know me – I’m a die hard cuff downer….

Lacy Rib Socks, Size Medium, South West Trading Company Tofutsies

Lacy Rib Socks, Size Medium, South West Trading Company Tofutsies

Lacy Ribs - Just the Foot

Lacy Ribs - Just the Foot

Lacy Ribs - The First Finished Sock

Lacy Ribs - The First Finished Sock

 

On to sock #2.  I might get good knitting time tomorrow night.  It’s the Little Miss’ first dance performance show.  We’re watching the show on Saturday afternoon so tomorrow night, I’ll just be lingering around and about with my knitting needles until I can go to pick her up after her performance is done.

Category: 52 Pair Plunge, Chainmaille Jewelry, Just Babbling, Sock Knitting, Socks from the Toe Up KAL  Tags: , , , , , ,  One Comment