Parting Ways Socks

I just finished a pair of Parting Ways Socks (pattern by Jackie Erickson Schweitzer at www.heartstringsfiberarts.com) using Regia Stretch fingering weight yarn. I found the pattern on sale at Hobby Lobby some time ago and just never put sock yarn and pattern together. Most of my sock yarn is variegated or hand-painted. I'm not sure this pattern would look right using that kind of yarn.

The design elements on this sock are intriguing. The pseudo-cable frames the heel on both sides and the purl one (p1) that separates the instep from the bottom of the heel continues to the tip of the toe. They're both very minor elements, but they give this pair of socks some extra pizazz.

This sock counts towards the Limenviolet Sock Yarn Marathon for 270 yards, for a marathon total of 2085 yards or 1 mile, 325 yards. It also counts as a second March sock for The Great Sock Off of 2009 Marathon.

I've just casted-on for a fingering weight sweater in Brown Sheep Wildfoote in a gorgeous purple tweed yarn. This sweater also allowed me to try out my new Sweater Wizard, that customizing a pattern using my gauge and the elements I choose for the sweater.

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge/Book 14: Metro Girl, by Janet Evanovich. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for some time and this challenge has given me the opportunity to get it read. I love Evanovich's gregarious characters and the ones in this book are no different. The story revolves around a claims adjuster who goes to Florida in search of her brother after she receives a mysterious phone call from him in the middle of the night that ends with a woman screaming and the going dead. Like most Evanovich's books, this one is fast-paced and a quick read.

Stitches West

It seems as though we spent most of last week either getting to the San Jose/Santa Clara area of California or attending Stitches West. We had a wonderful time, had an opportunity to visit with our son and his wife and enjoy much warmer temperatures than we experience in South Dakota in the winter. I also had a chance to attend Market at Stitches West as well as some wonderful classes.

I intended to purchase much more than the four skeins you see above, and planned on shipping my shopping home via UPS. Frankly, I was so overwhelmed by the selection, I couldn't decide. Fortunately, I did have a list the opening night of market and snatched up a couple skeins of Mini Mochi (in the center) and Socks That Rock (on the bottom). I say fortunately, because had I waited until Friday, I would have been out of luck. There was a booth near the front exit with the skeins at the top. I walked by them, I don't know how many times, and they kept calling to me, so I purchased those as well. As far as colors go, those two are my favorites.

Also, I went to three very different classes, from three very different instructors: Pattern Drafting with Edie Eckman, Even Cooler Socks with Lucy Neatby and Stashology with Chris Blysma. All were superb and well worth the price of admission. With every class I left with new information.

I have a difficult time traveling without a project and this time was no different. I worked on a pair of toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, made with Limes & Violet sock yarn. The pattern is called Pillars of Fire and is really for one sock at a time (both the yarn and pattern can be purchased at the Loopy Ewe). One of the socks is being modelled by my new foot. This sock, like many of my other projects in 2009 fulfills a number of challenges on Ravelry, including: The Knitting purls Toe Up Knit-A-Long, the Limenviolet 2009 Sock Marathon (320 yards for socks/1815 yards total for Marathon or a little over a mile) and the 2009 Great Sock Off Marathon.

Also, when I travel I read a lot, particularly on the plane. This past week I finished off three for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge:

Book 11: The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, by Lilian Jackson Braun - another entry in the "Cat Who" series. this one involved the disappearance of the owner or a credit union and party train.

Book 12: Unraveled Sleeve, by Monica Ferris. This is one of the series that involves the owner of a needlework shop in Excelsior, Minnesota, who is a reluctant detective. This time she's on the North Shore of Lake Superior and solves the mystery of the demise of a mystery instructor at a needlework retreat.

Book 13: The Cat Who Lived High, by Lilian Jackson Braun - this was the last of the series I needed to read. It's taken a lot of years as I started with the first on when I was in grade school. In this one, Qwill and the cats go back to the city in hopes of saving an architectural gem.

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.

Misti Alpaca - Part II

I finished the Misti Alpaca sweater last night and here it is drying. The color is a little washed out from the previous photo. The earlier photo shows the correct colorway - the flash went off in this one and seemed to wash out some of the color. On the whole, I am pleased with it. It only took 3 skeins of the Misti Alpaca fingering/sock weight. The label gives the impression that it is machine washable. Fortunately, I read a post which stated it felts if machine washed, so I guess I'll be washing this by hand!

The 1300+ yards goes against my 12-3/4 miles of sock yarn in the Limenviolet Sock Yarn Marathon.

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge/Book 9: For some odd reason, I enjoy reading holiday books out of season. Further, it doesn't seem to matter which holiday. A Highland Christmas, by M.C. Beaton is one the entries in the Hamish Macbeth series. I enjoy Hamish Macbeth's pragmatism and he doesn't lose it during the Christmas season either. He is not a perfect character, however, which makes him all the more likeable. It ends on a happy note for all concerned.

Misti Alpaca Sweater

A few weeks ago, I started a sweater with my Misti Alpaca sock yarn. Today I got to the point where the sleeves attach to the body. It's my favorite place to be on a sweater, because now the end is in sight. It's also an easy inch of knitting and gives me an opportunity to think through the upcoming decreases for the body and sleeve. There is a seven-repeat cable pattern that makes up the rib of the bottom and cuff with a simple lace pattern for the rest of the sweater. i hope to have this completed by the time I leave for Stitches West.

52 Books in 52 Weeks/Book 8: Fortunately, audio or recorded books are included in the count. This is fortunate in that I do a substantial amount of knitting and driving (not at the same time) in a given week, so I listen to audio or recorded books out of a need for "white noise." Even though it is background noise to some extent, I need for the book to make sense to me. It's no problem when I read, because I can flip back if I have a question, not so with a recorded book - at least not easily. I ran into that problem with Book 8: A Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich. I think I've read everything Erdrich has written and this is probably her most monumental undertaking. The stories and how they are interwoven into one is fascinating - but that's where I needed to be able to flip back. By the end, I think I got everything straightened out in my head, but I really need to go back at the end of the challenge and read the book for myself, because I'm sure I've missed something important. So, A Plague of Doves is a highly recommended read, rather than a listen.

I Can Haz Wollemeise!

For months, I have been trying to snag a skein of Wollemeise sock yarn. Sometimes, I've missed by seconds. This time, my timing was right on the money! I got this skein because someone on the message boards on Plurk was de-stashing. (Thank you yarnbeans!) It's in the colorway Vincent and has mustard yellow, avacado and blue green and various hues and tones in between. Hans is shown giving it a little sniff and both kitties are checking it out before fighting over in the second photo. Hans is more of a lover than a fighter, so he let Greta give the skein a good snuggle. I haven't posted those photos because I'd like to keep the blog at a G-rating. Suffice it to say, Greta is no longer allowed to listen to the Limenviolet podcast, because she obviously understood what they were talking about with regard to Wollemeise.

Pokey Fluff Update: I'm still carding. This week I ran into quite a bit that were second and third cuts. I was very disappointed. I tossed quite a bit that had a staple length of less than two inches. I'm still going to have quite a bit, but my initial estimate of three pounds out of a four-pound fleece was obviously high.

52 Books in 52 Weeks/Book 7: Still Life, by Louise Penny. This is the first in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. The series was highly recommended to me by one of the members of my Thursday Morning at BagelWorks Knitting Group, Susan M. I pass that high recommendation on to you. This series takes place in a small town in Quebec. Still life refers not just to the still life painting rendered by the victim, but also those who have a still life in that life and change must come to them, rather living pro-actively to any degree. Still Life is one of the best books I've ever read and one of the most artfully crafted. Penny's use of metaphor and simile is outstanding. I understand she develops her characters over the course of the series so the books need to be read in order. I will do that and can't wait to read the the second in the series.

Pokey Fluff

Nope, it's not a cloud - it's Pokey Fluff. Pokey is an whitish alpaca that lives on a farm near Montevideo, Minnesota. I purchased his four-pound fleece at the North Country Fiber Fair last fall, but I was waiting until I found my drum carder to do anything with it. I finally found the carder around Christmas time. (It was hiding in one of the few unpacked boxes in the garage.)

When I found it, I remembered the drive band was broken and years ago and a few moves ago, when I packed it away the manufacturer, Clemes & Clemes, was into skateboards instead of drum carders so I had no idea how to get a new one. Shortly, after I found the drum carder, I discovered Clemes & Clemes was back into drum carders, carders and spinning wheels and a new drive band would only cost me $20. The rest is history.

Even though Pokey's fleece had been picked and washed, there is still quite a bit of guck in it, so I'm guessing I'll have a little less than three pounds of batts. I originally planned to dye the batts and then spin them, but since the batts are so fragile, I think I'll spin them up into a two-ply lace/fingering weight and then handpaint it. I'm only doing two batts a day, so this is will be a long-term project.