Omi's Crosshatch Socks

Let me, before I forget again, thank you all very much for the well wishes for my Omi's Birthday! I think she'll be surprised to get a pair of socks in the mail, now, that all the festivities are over.

I loved making these socks, first, because I made them for her, and second, the yarn is so very soft and squishy. Here are the specs:

yarn: Peruvian Baby Cashmere (wool/alpaca/cashmere blend) 3 balls each 109 yds with a little left over
needles: 2.5mm 5 DP
stitch pattern: "Crosshatch" from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
size: 8 1/2 US

I made them toe up with Judy's magic cast on, which is my all time favorite. I like how the stitch pattern looks, but as usual, by the second sock, the pattern was getting a little on my nerves. The good news is, it's easy to memorize. I think the pictures show the lilac color quite well. To have comparison I've included the baby blue balls, same yarn. I think I'll make some fingerless mitts fwith these. It's not really sock yarn, but as I said before, since my Omi is not going to run around in sneakers with these socks on, they will do just fine, warming her feet.

Sam's got a run-in with a fir tree. There was blood running down from a gash under his eye. Hot read blood on his white fur always makes me panic. So after I tended to his wound, I had to take a picture, because he's got some green spots on his forehead as well. Of course, he didn't think it was funny! ;o)

(you can click on all except the last picture to have a better look)

My sweater hasn't been touched in days, I'm afraid, but I left it out in plain site, so my guilt can grow a little each day and will make me work on it again, soon I hope.

In the meantime I've been spinning, and I've already cast on for my next pair of socks. They'll be for a dear friend.

I'm so bumped out, because I've still not received my Cat Bordhi sock book. I've pre-ordered it, and I think I'll never do that again. It's supposedly on it's way, 14 days now. I'm normally a very patient person, but I was looking forward to this book for month, since it was first to be released sometime in May? . People all around are talking about it already, and I feel LEFT OUT! O.K. rant over. Can't do anything but wait anyway. And knit socks from other sock books. Hrumpfh!

Some promised pictures!

Well, here we are, the promised pictures of Hannah and her knitted presents. She got the cardigan for her birthday, even though she was not here at the time. The blanket is going with her to University. It was sizzling hot, when we took those pictures. Can you imagine how Hannah felt with the woolen Cardigan AND the woolen blanket on her lap? Just thinking about it opens the gates, and sweat starts to flood down the neck. She's very happy with her blanky, and by now it's packed and ready for the trip to Halifax.

The Kathrine Hepburn Cardigan fits a bit loose, but when it gets colder she might want to wear more than a T-Shirt underneath it. She likes this one too. It's always a bit tricky to knit for someone else, but I let her choose the model and the yarn/color, so not much could go wrong. Both pictures don't show the pretty cherry red, but with the piercing sunshine outside even in the shade it was not possible to get it right.

Now on to newer stuff. My poor sweater is not doing too well. I have to redo the edge of the back. As I was knitting about 2 inches of the second front, I realized, that I did the neck shaping on the first front on the wrong side, so I have to rip that back and redo that as well. That sucks, and I've got the creeping feeling, that I don't like stripes very much. Humph. That's why I had to cast on for ...

... socks for my granny! They are long overdue. I don't know why I didn't think of knitting her a pair or two or three in all this time. Maybe because she's always knitting socks herself, but NOT FOR herself! Since she's not running around like a spring chicken anymore, I choose a yarn, not normally used for knitting socks. It's Baby Cashmere from elann, a blend of wool/alpaca/cashmere. It's VERY soft and a little fuzzy. I didn't know if I had enough yarn, one ball is 25g/109yds, but since she's got a smaller foot than I do, I don't think I'll run out. I'm using the Crosshatch stitch pattern from "More Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. This stitch pattern was the reason I bought this book. I first fell in love with it when I saw Pat's crosshatch lace socks. I liked her choice of yarn too, but didn't want to copy her completely! ;o) Besides I'm working on my stash. My granny likes red, but I don't have red in my stash. Think this lilac color will do?

Sorry about the bad picture, better ones coming soon! I'm done with the first sock. My first fear of not having enough yarn was put to rest. (swipe sweat of my brows) I'm suffering a little from SSS. Thinking of knitting the second sock makes me groan, even though I love to knit for Omi. Alright, I'll get over it.

Now I'm going to have some fun with my spinning wheel. It's too hot to knit. Besides, I've got to get Biko out of the pool, I swear she'll grow some fins soon!

Some rain snuck up on me! I love it!

Happy Birthday, Granny!

My sock knitting Grandma turned 85 today. She was very sick this year, but with loving care from her daughter in law she recovered nicely. Thank you, Petra!

Happy Birthday, Omi!

Spiralling Socks done - check!

I was p r e t t y bored the night before I finished the second sock. It was late, and I knew I would not finish it up that night. The camera was at my hand (wanted to take a cute picture of Biko sleeping, but when I got back with the camera, she was gone. Tzz, sometimes she's just so sensitive);o). Anyway, I put the sock on my arm and took some pictues. I like how the colors play out on this one. The inside shot of the sock is a bit bright, no flash though, just the spiraling light bulb with "day light" light. Well, I thought it's an interesting shot! ;o)

I like orange (you all know that by now), and it's funny how only one cuff had this color. Oh, I forgot I wanted to tell you about the yarn I used. I'ts Jojoland Melody. A 100% wool yarn, NOT superwash. That it's available in superwash as well, I discovered after I bought these two balls. I love to look at the presentation of their yarn on their website. Funny thing though, look at my socks and look a the photo below. It's not quite like I imagined the yarn to look like. But there's no mistake both balls are the color # Y 45, no doubt about it. I knew of course that they would not look alike, that doesn't bother me at all. But I would have liked more bright blue and orange, like in the left sock. Oh well. The thing is, I've got more of the same yarn, different color though, and it doesn't look like the photo on their website either. Hmmh. Would NOT have bought that one, had I seen it in person first.

Many have guessed wrong that this is some Trekking yarn. I too think it looks like it, but Trekking has some nylon in it and is superwash.

yarn: Jojoland Melody, color # Y 45, 5og/ 220 yds, handwash only

needle: 5 DP 2.25mm (I can not knit with 4 DP, that feels too akward too me)

size: women 10 1/4

patter: Anni Design for Sockamania Club KAL - August
modifications: I used smaller needles, I cast on more stitches for the cuff, decreased back to the 66 sts called for in the pattern. Made the heel flap shorter, so I had to pick up less sts for the gusset. Decreased down to 30 sts for the sole part. All that to fit my foot better. It would have been too wide otherwise.

Now that's an excellent example on how a project gets NOT done, when working on other projects. I haven't touched my sweater in a couple of weeks now! So how should it get done in time for fall? Well, I don't have anything else on the needles right now, so I will pick it up again and knit some more. Then again, as soon as Cat Bordhi's new sock book arrives, I'll drop everything in my hands and cast on for another pair of socks! And also, I'd like to spin, spin, spin, never stop! And that gets in the way of knitting. But this time I'm working on a 3-ply with some roving I dyed a while ago. But there's no rush to finish in a hurry!

The grass is no longer green. It's hellish hot and uncomfortable here, but I don't want to complain too much, did that already. Biko is fixated on the tennis ball, as usual.

Next day:

This was last night. Today I kitchenered the second toe shut and washed and blocked them. They were dry in a jiffy, considering that it has 30 C outside. They were still warm when I put them on.

I liked this pattern, simple but effective.

And now back to my sweater. Nothing else on my needles right now. ;o)

"Hit The Town"

You all saw a glimpse of this roving on the previous post. Here it is once again , "Hit the Town" hand painted by Fat Cat Knits, which I pickup up at Pick Up Sticks. Aren't these colors vibrant?

I divided the roving in half and spun these two bobbins. They turned out differently. It's really surprising, the whole adventure of spinning.


It took me several days to spin this up. I thought I'd spin a little thicker than usual, but instead wound up with the same thickness as usual - thinnish.








Winding the spun yarn onto the Niddy Noddy is my least favorite thing about spinning. I did it early in the morning, while the rest of the family was still sleeping, because I had to count to get the yardage
I'm not good in winding the yarn into a skein, especially when it's a big skein like this one.
Here's a close up. The above picture shows the colors best, it's very muted after plying. Where the sun hits the skein it shows the colors better, but when you see the skein up close and personal it's rather dull. This would make nice socks with a Trekking like affect, but since it's 100% merino wool and 2-plied at that, I will not use it for socks. Would be a waste of time and material. It would not withstand the friction between heel and shoe very well, and even with all my sock darners I would not be happy to have holes every five minutes.

So what should I do with this yarn???It's 100% merino as I mentioned, 533yds, and a fall color. It's fingering weight.

Polish Merino sheep.

I had some singles left over from the Merino, as well as from the brown BFL, so I made a little mini skein, which I will use for mini socks. That should be fun!

Here's the natural brown Blue Face Leicster, it turned out to be 390 yds. This concludes the spinning for this project. See the picture below, there are all three colorways, which are 1398.5 yds in all. I'm going to knit a shawl with this yarn. Need some quiet time for that. I can see me knitting this in the coming fall or winter months.

Blue Face Leicster sheep.

With all the spinning and plying, there has been little knitting going on here. I managed to knit this mini sock for my daughter. She choose the sock yarn, I would have never chosen that for her. Boy, I would have been far off! She tried on the Kathrine Hepburn cardigan, and it fits her well, only the shoulders are a little too wide. We will take pictures during the week.

We've never used our front porch before. Today I really wanted to go outside, but it's just too hot for me in the back yard. I can't stand the heat. So I made a cozy little place for the doggies and tried out the old rocking chair, which Hannah brought home from Montreal a few years ago. I felt quite old sitting there, rocking and knitting a sock! I laughed to myself, like a lunatic (hair wild form the wind), nice picture eh? The dogs enjoyed it though. They don't get to be out front very often. Their noses were up in the air, sucking in all the BBQ smells from the neighbourhood.

Oh yeah, there's the sock for Sockamania Club KAL for August. We got the pattern a couple of days ago. It's an easy knit/purl stitch pattern, but that's fine with me, because I'm impatiently awaiting a new sock book, and then I'll go to town with sock knitting, you'll see! ;o)

Since I took the above picture I finished the first sock and started the second one. I have to tell you something about the yarn, but that will have to wait until the pair is done.

Roving and Batts - for my spinning pleasure!

Folks you misunderstood me! Especially Elisabeth, I know I'm a mad woman, but not for the reason you mentioned! ;o) I totally LOVE Blue Face Leicester roving/yarn! I didn't like the Tulip roving when I first saw it because of the colors! I liked the hat I knit with it though. BFL is the next best thing if you can't get your hands on merino, I think. But I've only spun merino once (finished yesterday, still have to ply it).

But have a look what's still waiting for me: These wonderful batts are waiting patiently in my roving stash. I've got them here at Spritely Goods. She's got a lot of lovely stuff, and a very friendly service.

This is Merino/Tencel blend, 100g of it, ready to be spun or dyed, whatever. Very soft to the touch.

Merino/Silk blend. I could not resist. When I was picking up the Lace Flyer Kit at Gemini Fibers, I had to take some roving with me. The hardest thing was to decide which color. And since I don't want to spin the same color or variations of them all the time, I stepped out of my color comfort zone and took these two colors. The below picture shows the colors more accurately.

200g each of some Corriedale. I think I'll make some colorwork mittens out of it, as soon as I'll get to spinning it. Love both colors very much.

200g charcoal merino/tencel, that should be interesting to spin. I'll need this as toes and heel part for the self dyed roving, I did some time ago.

This is 200g camel. I wanted to give it a try. Looks (and feels) very coarse to me.

And here is what I've been working on the last week or so. On the left is beautiful natural brown Blue Face Leicester, and on the right is my first Merino wheel spun, both ready to be plied.

Have a great weekend!

Spunky Fiber Club June - Tulip!

Another day, another post. This was June's installment, 4 oz of Blue Face Leicester called "Tulip". To be honest, I didn't like it. Red is a color which I have a hard time to get feelings for, good ones, I mean. Usually I love Amy's hand painted roving a lot. But it amazes me always, how roving changes after spinning.

Nevertheless, since I'm a member of the Spunky Club now, I started to prepare the roving.

Since I didn't care all that much for this fiber, I thought I give Navajo or chain plying another try. So I spun all of it. I've got 1 1/2 bobbins full. Spinning is always a lovely thing to do. There were wonderful color combinations and nice effects during spinning, and I was warming up to it.
Chain plying is another thing, I'm not good at. It's a great PIA, but I think I've learned something, as usual, and the next time I come across another roving I don't like, I'll give chain plying another try. I need a lot of "other tries" to get this finally right. There are sections which are good, others are horrible, it's all part of the learning process, I tell myself.

Funny thing is, there is lots of lovely roving in my stash, but what do I spin? The one which I don't care for, go figure!

Since chain plying cuts the amount of singles in thirds, I've only got 135 yds in the finished skein. Actually I've got two skeins. I was trying to spin a little thicker this time. It came out heavy worsted. Too lazy to get the WPI tool out. It's not important. I wound the larger and smaller skein into one.

For some reason I took pictures of each step of the whole process to making yarn. It's a lot of work, and I didn't have to prepare and paint the roving or share the sheep for it, still, it takes time to make yarn.

Now I thought, I've come this far, now I can knit up something so everyone can see how it looks as a knit fabric.

What to do with 135 yds? A hat of course! I wasn't going to look for a pattern for this one. Before I fell asleep, I had a vision of a hat, I could make. Next morning I grabbed some 5mm DP needles and got to it. I made it up as I went along, and halfway through I knew I would run out of yarn, and also, that it was going to be big. Since the yarn's called "Tulip" anyway, I thought it would be nice to make the crown in my hand spun yellow. That's what I did.

It might look funny to you (it did to me), after I put it on my big noggin, it was still too big, but with a bit tucking here and there, I had a cool looking hat on my head. I'm actually looking forward to cold weather so I can use it. I might knit this "style" again, with some modifications, because I like it. And since it's Blue Face Leicester wool, it's not scratchy, nice for a hat.

There you have it!

I know it's the end of July, but I haven't gotten my July Fiber installment. I've seen it, and it is a wonderful color! Can't wait to get it and spin it! Got to go, must get this brown BFL off my bobbins, to make room for other lovely stuff.