I Survived Halloween!

Halloween night in East River South Dakota was a beautiful night with an almost full moon, little wind and warmer temperatures than we've had for a long time. Oh, and it was a Saturday night - but you probably already knew that. It was a good thing I bought four big bags of candy because I was out by 7:30 p.m. People were driving up with van loads of kids. Some of the vans had license plates which were issued in counties 50 miles from here! Granted we have a lot of children in our neighborhood and I know most of them at least by sight, but there were a whole lot more than that. What was really great was that 99% of them dressed up and a good number of their parents who were taking them around were dressed up as well. All in all, it was fun, but it was hectic!



I Off the Needles: I did manage to finish two more pairs to the 52 Pair Plunge III challenge. Pair No. 24 is based on a pair named Emily's Socks in the 2-At-A-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I am busily using up scrap yarn in any way I can. Another example of that is the pair to the left, No. 25, which is made from a left-over sock blank and some scrap Wildfoote by Brown Sheep. I recently counted up my full skeins of sock yarn (not counting what I have for sale in my Etsy shop) and I have enough for 18 pairs of socks, which still brings me a few short for the 52 Pair Plunge.

On the Needles: I've just started Pair No. 26 which is a pair of baby lace socks rewritten from an old crochet book (still can't figure out why I book entitled "Crochet" has knit patterns). But then after deciphering the pattern I can understand why needle arts kind of died out for awhile - those that needed patterns were just frustrated! These socks are in what is leftover from a skein of my Big Foot yarn. After this pair, I'll be half-done with the challenge!

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book No. 46 - Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti, by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain. I usually don't include the fiber books I read in my 52 Book Challenge. I'm making an exception on this one because I am fascinated with the whole concept of Yarn Bombing. I first heard about it a few months ago and admittedly, was a bit put off by the term. It is not destructive as one would believe from the term bombing. Initially, I thought planes flew overhead and dropped skeins of yarn on the unsuspecting. While I rather liked the thought of German sock yarn being dropped into my yard, there is a very constructive side to this medium and a very artistic one.

We have all viewed graffiti and for some the graffiti is a form of vandalism, but for some people and for some graffiti, it is a beautiful form of street art. Unfortunately, in our town we have freight trains going through frequently (usually during rush hours) and frankly, the only positive to this for me is the graffiti on the cars. I am awestruck. Someone has taken an ugly thing and made it beautiful (at least to me, I'm sure the railroads consider a crime). Yarn Bombing does the same thing. Suddenly small forms of knitted or crocheted work show up in unexpected places. Knitted feet on the base of signs, cozy-like garments on hand rails and parking meters, scarfs on statues. All are provided with a bit a humor.

Yarn Bombing has not only the patterns and photographs, but also vignettes on how others are bombing. It's a great book to get any fiber artist thinking. I am currently working on a yarn bombing project for my office at work. For now, I will simply say it is seasonal and will come down after Christmas. I'll post pictures when it's up.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It's right up there with Valentine's Day. I'm not sure why, because neither holiday was particularly important in our house growing up. Perhaps, it's because they're both low stress holidays for me - no big holiday dinners, no long list of presents to find, and I can wear what I want! So have a great one! I'm stocked up on candy, even though I'm not much of a candy person. But I figure most of it will go either from people stopping in the Center on Saturday or the Saturday night tricks n' treaters.
Off the needles: Pair No. 22 in the 52 Pair Plunge III/Amethyst Cable Socks. These are made from my Big Foot sock yarn in the Amethyst colorway. I'm switching to children's socks while a work to get a head of the curve in "the Plunge." Here's Pair No. 23 from some scrap sock yarn:


On the Needles: Pair No. 24 of Plunge Socks. Another pair of childrens' socks in more scrap yarn. Photo next time!

52 Books in 52 Weeks/Book 45: The Blueberry Muffin Murders, by Joanne Fluke. This is one of the earlier ones in the series so it filled me in a little bit more on the background of the characters. Fluke does a wonderful job of carrying a number of sub-plots along and tying everything together at the end. This one is about the murder of a TV cook/personality who is murdered in Hannah's pantry after eating one of Hannah's blueberry muffins.

Cabled Socks

After using the patterns of others and finding them way too big, even though my gauge is correct, I went back to using my own patterns. This is a cabled sock that I've made a number of times before, but this time I knit it toe-up. I'm very pleased with the fit. Also, it's made of Trekking XXL fingering-weight yarn, which is one of my favorites. This pair counted as my April socks for the Great Sock Off of 2009, as well as for the Limenviolet Sock Yarn Marathon. I'm now up to 2.29 miles of sock yarn used since February 1.

I haven't finished a book this week for 52 Books in 52 Weeks, although I'm close!

I'm continuing to work on the Pokey fluff, the alpaca fleece I purchased at North Country Fiber Fair. It's like linguine - the more I card, the more there seems to be in the bag!

Right now, I'm working on a pair of socks in the Strip Tease colorway from Tempted at 3AM yarns. I am using the pattern that came with the sock yarn, but I've made some significant revisions so that the socks won't end up too big.

New Socks

It seems as though everyone that sees me do two-at-a-time toe-up socks comments at this point that it looks like a bikini top - and I guess they're right! These socks are part of three Ravelry Challenges: The Knitting Purls Toe-Up Knit-A-Long (KAL), the 2009 Sock-Off Marathon (March sock) and the Limenviolet Sock Yarn Marathon (the one I found out I had 12 3/4 miles of sock yarn for). I'm going to use the Pillars of Fire pattern by Terry Ross for this pair and I'm holding off on knitting much now because I wanted a pair to work on at Stitches West, which is coming up this week.

The yarn is Lime & Violet Shuanmi2 Sock that I purchased from the Loopy Ewe (a button to the Loopy Ewe is conveniently provided in the sidebar). It's the Babies Blues colorway which while it has pink the blue is more of a dusty blue than a baby blue.

Since I've been holding off on knitting until I leave for Stitches West, I've been spinning. I bought some teal roving a few months ago off eBay. When it arrived it seemed a bit too intense for even a teal lover like myself. I barber-poled it with some natural and am very pleased with the result. The first skein is off the wheel and weighs in at 5.5 ounces, 480 yards and 18 wpi. I have plenty more of it to spin up so will be back at it when I return.

52 Books in 52 Weeks/Book 10: Dog On It, by Spencer Quinn is a the first in a new series - A Chet and Bernie Mystery. Chet is a wash-out from the K-9 division of a police department and he's partnered with a private detective who is former member of the same department. What is unique about this series is the mystery is told completely from Chet's perspective. The storyline itself is like many on television for the past 30 years, but I was drawn to this book because of the narrator. I really like Mrs. Murphy mysteries because much of those are told from the cat's perspective, but Chet did not strike me as being as intelligent as the dogs I've been around, and I found that disappointing.

Pomatomus Part Deux

Here is the first completed Pomatomus sock. I've started the second - no second sock syndrome here. But I'm going slow because I want most of this skein to count towards the sock yarn marathon. I couldn't find coral reinforcing thread, so I used a natural color on the toes. After this much work on a sock, I'd hate to wear through the toes - ever.


52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 5 is Unholy Dying, by Robert Barnard. I thoroughly enjoyed this British mystery from 2001. In many respects it's a typical British mystery in the Agatha Christie vein: It's set in a smaller city (okay not a village) in Yorkshire and the character most of us would find to be the most despicable is bumped off with a host of suspects with motives, the most likely of which is a Catholic priest who has been accused by the newspaper reporter/victim of having an affair with a young woman in his parish. Barnard has a pair of detectives that are worthy of their own BBC television series that wrap this mystery up into a neat little package right before the reader's eyes. Good characterization and excellent plot make what could have been a boring read into a page turner. Barnard has been writing mysteries as long as I can remember and only gets better.

The Great Sock Off of 2009

My plan was to hang on to my sock yarn for the Limenviolet Sock Marathon starting February 1, but then I saw the sign-up on Ravelry for The Great Sock Off of 2009. I couldn't resist. It involves making one pair of socks a month for 2009. I also needed a project I could carry with me. So the the LnV Marathon is going to be down about a quarter mile for January. My socks for the Great Sock Off will count starting in February.

This pair uses the Ragtime colorway of Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn. It's beautiful. This is my own pattern that I'm writing up. This is the toe-up version. I've a done a couple cuff down before.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 2 - Cat in a Midnight Choir, by Carole Douglas Nelson. This series features Midnight Louie, a black cat PI in Las Vegas - very entertaining and a great read.

Sock Flat

I finally knit up one of my sock flats from this summer. It's always a surprise what comes out. I did these toe up and because my bind off is so tight, I used a picot cast off which is not only looser it gives the socks a very nice finish. As you can see it only takes about 2/3rds of a sock flat to make socks for me. I'm working up an idea of the remainder - film at 11!

Belle Epoque Socks

When I saw the pattern for these socks in "2-at-a-time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes, I knew I had to try them. I don't buy a lot of solid-colored sock yarn and this pattern would be completely lost on the multi-colored yarn I usually chose. While light blue is not exactly my color, it was on sale at my local yarn store and I figured that these socks would at least go with jeans.

The picot edging on the top (you can barely see it in the photo) is what initially caught my eye. It was super easy to do and a nice departure from ribbing at the top. The cable is not really a cable and the pattern is so much fun, these socks go by in no time. I am really sold by the "2-at-a-time" method. At first, it seemed like it took forever to get a pair done, but not anymore. Plus, I really like that both socks match.