Have i got a great husband or what?

So hubby got me a birthday gift ... he got me a yarn yardage meter for when I dye my own yarn or have to split yarn into two balls. AND he got me jacquard dyes to boot! wow.

but the best part was ... UPS screwed up again, twice.

first the said they couldn't deliver ... reason? the other end of our block had a landscape truck in front of it -- we do NOT live on a dead end road, no reason they couldn't come in our way ... oh wait, that would be too easy.

But they promised my husband they were going to redeliver it ...

so he waited until 6pm and still no package - they dont usually deliver past 6pm, at least that is the latest I've ever gotten a package from them. so he called them up to see if the package was still coming.

turns out the driver delivered it to THE WRONG ADDRESS and had to be called back to get it and they had it in the UPS office ... if my husband wanted to go get it!!!

So yes, hubby went and got the gift - and when he got there, they searched for 20 minutes just to find ... it was sitting there right by the front desk all along.

so we ate supper late, really late ... but I got my gift. he is calling the vendor tomorrow to see if he can get some of the shipping charge back since he had to go pick it up - we will see what happens, after all it wasn't their fault it was UPS's .... again.

but I'm happy. Both have been sitting in my KP wish list for over a year and now I have them.

Yeah, me.

CURSES - Foiled again

okay so the blanket that I rushed thru .... my kid is sick .... so she won't be going to the shower - but I still should be able to go if hubby is willing to watch her (oldest girl is still going to want to go) ...

I was doing fairly good on my yarn diet .... I hadn't made a major purchase except for sock yarn at an incredible price ...

but damn Herrschners!!!

You know that Christmas yarn with the sparkle thread that's wrapped around it? It comes in Red, Green, White, varigated, blue (at least those are the colors I've seen)...

Well, that damned Herrschner's took it further and made it in Halloween colors & Easter tones too ... and then they put it all on freaking sale!!!!

UGH!!!! I couldn't resisit -- I binged :-(

Hubby is so going to shoot me ... they had some baby suede stuff onsale too ... and since I don't havething fit for baby projects I had to get some too.

I'm so dead.

damn Herrschners.

so I redyed the blue/brown yarn ... which wasn't really brown at all .... well this time I gave it a good cooking in pure strong coffee with just a dash of vinegar to set the color. rinsed it until the water ran clear ... I really like the color, its almost as ark as my daughter's hair.

From Hogwarts Sock Swap 5

The center ball is the original main color and the original brown was about 2 shades darker, but when it worked up it just wasn't enough of a difference and the yarn was lost in the pattern - this will work out much better.

now I just need to redo those stitches I had to pull out to do the redye and then I can book out these socks.

hubby is out of town most of next week -- I suffer from insomnia, especially when he's out of town, so I will have plenty of time to tick them off.

they should look sooooooo cutee!!!!

dye job gone awry

well not really ... I like what I got, but it was exactly what I was hoping for.

they should make some lovely socks -- it will have a wonderful one of a knd pattern to it.

I label these skeins "Close But No Cigar" color ways ... because while the skeins were colored the same way, at the same time, same dye-lots - they marled differently ... but they should make a beautiful effect once knitted up!

Okay so here's what I did .... I did a test swatch and kept careful records of ratios of colors (so I could make the batch bigger), colorant:water ratios, "cooking" times.

This particular dye lot used 11 parts blue to 2 parts purple Paas dye, to 2 cups water for 1/2 oz yarn, cooked for a total of 12 minutes. then cooled to room temp and rinsed then hung to dry.

here is how it was supposed to look:

This is what I got instead:

here is a comparison of what I got ... left to right (brightness is off):

1) the color I wanted (deep navy)
2) the rainbow batch used to see who colors would blend
3) the color I got (deep navy dyed over just blue)

as you can see -- they are all very nice (and youngest daughter has already claimed the rainbow mini skein for a sock)

as you can see - its considerably brighter than I wanted but it should still give me a good effect even if it isn't the exact one I wanted.

these were pure yellow paas overdyed onto onion skin dyed yarn ... the paas was microwaved and the onion skin was cooked in a crock pot for a whole day (I really needed more onions skins than I had to make it deeper ... but you use what you've got)

As you can see the color runs from a subtle onion to brighter yellow - it should flash wonderfully giving it a metallic look!

I've been told that it could be that the yarn has simply taken all it can of the dye and it can't take anymore ... I don't know .... I haven't heard of such a thing but I suppose its possible.

Ooooh I finally got it to work

I have seen some really nice plaid patterns come from varigated yarn that is knitted, so I decided to give it a go with crocheting to see if I can get it going. Normally I can't do it ... normally it just ends up muddled and scattered.

But I finally did it -- I worked the third block (clustered stitch) of The Fisherman's Sampler Afghan from Lion Brand ... only using clusters of 5 instead of 3 ... and I finally got it to plaid .. well kind of ...

Here it is:

Colorways

Okay - so I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog when she mentioned a yarn company's site ... one that i recognized by a book I have that they must have put out when they went national ... nice patterns in worsted weight, which seem to be too thick at first - at least I thought so until I made the pair for my last swap partner ... they are actually quite nice.

Anyhow the company is Philosopher's Wool and I was looking at their Colorways page to see which colors they have to offer .... when I was actually amazed that they color with Kool-Aid.

now I've done it myself, they make lovely colors .... I just never thought a professional yarn company would do it. Nice to know, but theirs looks marled & splotchy.

Missed the Worm ...

but its really okay ....

Herrschner's (my 'crack' dealer ... that is my yarn enabler) had Red Heart Heart & Sole w/Aloe on sale in lots of colors -- $3.99/skein, just over 200 yds each.

Well I put a bunch in my cart yesterday when it first switched over ... and let it sit there waiting to see if Herrschner's was going to have there annual 'free shipping' valentine's gift for their shoppers ....

stupid move ....

by the time I figured out that it wasn't going to be coming today ... and got back to my shopping cart -- most of the colors had been sold out. All that was left were solids (and what's the point, really) and self-striping in browns *Toasted Almonds).

Don't get me wrong -- browns have their place, but it wasn't my top choice.

So I watched as the grains of sand slipped thru my fingers. Sigh.

I'm hoping that Ground Hog's Day didn't translate into 6 more weeks without yarn for me.

STASH TIME

okay I broke down and ordered from Herrschner's again ... bad girl ... and got the last thing I really needed -- YARN!! oh and a bunch of scrapbook stuff ...

You know its funny - hubby doesn't seem to get upset about the scrapbook stuff quite as much as the yarn .. but I use the yarn more.

Well -- off to my Ravelry page to update my stash counter ... my counter on the site has kind of gotten out of date ... I will have to update it later, but its not as quite as Ravelry.

World's Greatest Knitting Husband

What a sweetie my hubby is -- he is so good to me its unbelievable ... yet being so open hearted can cause us all sorts of issues as people tend to take advantage of him.

but here is how sweet he is.

Yesterday my second order of books (and my partners needles) came in the mail ... $50 for free shipping feach order ... he knows I'm looking at the site again for yarn .... he sat next to me as I worked on my laptop.

So we had to go to the Mall of America - the only thing it is missing is a craft store (hint hint to any LYS owners out there) .... and I had commented that I wished that we would time to stop by Walmart to pick up some circular needles.

Well after MOA we went to Sam's Club - where he spoiled the two little ones we took with us (not so little really - 8 & 12) and when we got home he said that nothing else could get done until everything was put away .... figuring he was talking about the stuff he bought for them it was quite the surprise when he started putting on his shoes and said 'let's go'.

Well we got to Walmart and they didn't have the size I needed for my socks ... so I fretted a bit and he asked if Target would have them - nope, no craft area there ... well we walked around the store a bit and he peeked at the Blue-ray dvds (the next Betamax, if you ask me) and then asked if there wasn't anyplace close that had knitting needles - I said well there was Hancock Fabrics...

Boom, next thing you know we're there! What a sweetheart ... he found the knitting needles before I did and waited patiently helping me check the size on each one - it only took a little education for him to learn that mm size is not the same a US needle size. Nope they didn't get that small either.

I told him that the LYS (Three Little Kittens) would probably have them but we both agreed that they would probably be too expensive to buy two circs - so he ran me off to Michael's all the way back by Sam's Club (two cities over).

I wish i had my camera with me - it was quite the picture, he found the needles whip-stitch and even found the proper size quicker than the stitches pull-out when the phone rings (c'mon you know its happened to you too) ... he even tried to help find some size 3 sock wool for me. we found plenty of size 4 (worsted) but no size 3 (DK/sport) --- actually remembering that Michaels used to be Lee Wards, THE go to place for crafting when I was growing up, especially knitting & crocheting (they had two full walls and at least 4 whole aisles of differing yarn ... and the christmas felt crafts - OMGs, I still drool thinging about it all ... it was the 'candy store' of my youth) .... anyways they used to be LeeWards, now they are nothing like it - now they have a single aisle and four end caps and a part of the back wall of yarn, but only the width of two aisles.

I could have cried to see how the mighty have fallen. So sad.

But there my husband was, lookinwg at needles .... feeling the wool/wool blends ... checking labels ... and he actually seemed to be enjoying it! What a sweety. He found me two circs in the proper size, each a different color - that will make doing the socks on two needles so much easier.

He was so adorable! of course, I kind of blew it when I took the kids down the doll aisle to point out the shoes for my daughters 16" springfield doll -- she actually wasn't as excited about that as she was the teddy bears that they had there too.

Anyhow - so we left there and came home.

Being curious about different sock cast-ons I hit You Tube ... I was looking for how to do the Norwegian cast-on .... what I found were some vids on doing a 'Twisted German' cast 0n looking at them I think they are the same thing in actuallity. So I was watching them on the laptop during the commercials of his show so that I wouldn't interrupt anything (after all he had been so sweet).

Suddenly he looks at the screen and asks 'Is that the Yarn Harlot?' Yes my husband knows something of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ... he knows I like reading her blog, often talking to it - oh you know you do it too - and yesterday as I was uploading her audiobook 'At Knit's End' to my iTunes I kept laughing at the 'You Know You Knit Too Much When...' segments - I'm sorry I couldn't help it ... and then of course I shared them.

My absolute favorite so far that I have been giggling about all day? You Know You Knit Too Much When...you follow a man thru the store not because he is handsome but because he is wearing a sweater that has the cable you've been trying to figure out. That is so funny to me -- because I am that way with crochet, see crochet is my first love - its where i started to crawl, then walk, then run like the wind.

knitting is like learning a second language - I'm sliding off to the side here aren't I?

So wonderful husband took me to Michael's ... not because he didn't want to spend the money at KnitPicks but because he didn't want me to have to wait for two weeks for them to get here and then I wouldn't be able to get the in two different colors (I had explained how two different colors would be helpful, but that i wasn't a huge fan of bamboo because it gripped to tightly to the yarn)

couldn't you just eat him up? So now I have my needles, I'm pretty sure about the pattern I will use, but the yarn -- well I still haven't decided on that issue yet -- but you can't say he didn't try!

I think I will keep him -- sorry ladies, he's all mine!

Purtiest and saddest sight to be seen

Okay so I finally got around to taking some photos of the Crazy colors sock I've been working on -- maybe I will actually finish its mate before the end of summer ... lol. Its my 'empty hands' project...that is it keeps my hands from being empty when I'm someplace - it tends to come along, and while it will come out of my bag it will rarely get worked on or worked on at a snails pace.
It is a toe up sock of my own pattern (its fairly simple but I will put it up after the second sock gets finished ... so I can check the pattern). I had a bit of a problem with the increases ... I am so used to working with dpn's that I kept trying to work with the needle of the 'quiet' circs still holding stitches. For the second socks I will work them with the non-working stitches on the cable and not the needle, that way the first stitch of the other needle will be just a little tighter and not make the hole (hopefully).

here it is with the needles showing ... yes those are ebony circs - the ones I got on sale at herrschners.com ... they are very nice. I was a little leary at first because the wooden single-points I've used have always seemed to 'sticky' to be able to work with, I like to have the stitches slide off the needle when I'm taking off the stitches instead of hanging up or leaving lint behind - so I tend to stick with the metallic needles.
here's a slightly closer shot so you can see the colors a bit better. Actually I swear the photo makes the color too 'orangy' than it really is. It is a nice 'hot' color scheme of mosty red apple red & magenta (more on the purply side). In fact when you look at the first photo - the band by my thumb is red and the wide one near the toes is magenta. Okay - those letters aren't magenta but I don't have the color code for it yet.

I wish the photo would show the pattern a little better - I like the way it is working up...and it is so simple too.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
now for the saddest thing ... okay maybe not the saddest in your life but its the saddest on this page that's for sure.

Yes that is another pair of ebony circs that I got on sale. no they did not come that way. I thought I had order 2 pr of size 2.5 (3.0mm) for doing socks on but found that I had only ordered 1 pr so I set them aside by my bed and didn't think anymore about it and just used the matching pair I had, figured I could switch to them for when I do the cuff and heel .... well I didn't think anymore about it.
Until one morning after the kids had been wrestling on our bed I heard a horrid crunch ... at first i thought I had stepped on a pencil (they do their homework in my room on my bed where they can spread out) ... so I didn't panic.
Until I picked up the card! Oh my - I could have cried. My only consolation was that I paid less than 1/2 price for them. Actually I am going to see if I can't reshape and sand them into a shorter pair of needles and then wax them to coat them and see what can be done with them.

I'm not sure what I will be able to use them for, but I'm a creative chick -- I'll think of something.

Crash and Burn

Well ... there's no question about it. I've fallen off the wagon this time.

Herrschner's had that Regia 4 ply on sale for less than $3/skein and I fought it as long as I could. I got three each of two different colors.

Actually things would have been fine .... I would have passed it all by .... until I found the Bernat Bling Bling for less than $1/skein in pretty Moulin Rouge for my oldest daughter (5 balls is enough for her to make a super simple poncho for herself) .... and they updated the Scrapbooking sale page.

Oh my downfall are the tins that look like old-fashioned lunchboxes ... I have so many uses for them. Well there's lunch tins, of course. but there are also: sorting of it-bits that won't fit nice in my scrapbook boxes w/o risk of bending; holding stampers; hiding the seeds from the mice; present giving (such a unique box); recipe boxes (the new ones are a little too big for 3X5s and a bit small for 6X4's though); candy holders; easter baskets; cookie jars; etc. etc. etc.

I don't think they will be ant proof though. But I've gotten totally addicted to them.

I don't know where Herrschner's came up with them .... I haven't seen them on just the regular site .... they just seem to show up on the sales page out of the blue.

Well got to go. Got a pattern to perfect (and it is looking really nice if I do say so myself) and a house to clean for Sunday.

Why do I have to wait til the last minute all the time???

Stupid enablers

You know the end of the movie "Planet of the Apes" (the good one with Charlton Heston, not the remake that looked like monkeys could have done a better job) where Taylor finds the statue of Liberty's head in the sand and realizes that he as been on Earth the whole time? And he yells "Damn them ... damn them all to hell..."? You know that scene?

That's me and Herrschner's today .... only it isn't the Earth they've ruined, its my Yarn Diet they are trying to ruin.

They are having a stash stuffer sale going on and I just got the email for it this morning -- conveniently after the free shipping offer was over btw -- but that is probably a good thing because then it would have been totally irresistable, and I don't need that.

It is totally tempting ... bling bling is $1.29 skein .... they have Cheerio (nylon based) for 99 cents .... Regia 4Ply in Prints (more of an ombre) for 2.97 ... Sparkle Soft for $1.89.

AHHHHGGGG!! I've already got a bunch sitting in my 'shopping cart' waiting for me to break down completely. I just can't be strong any longer.

At these prices I can get a ton of yarn I know .... or samples of yarn I have never heard of .... without smoking the bank acct too much. But then there is hubby. I love him. I know he wouldn't like me to order anymore yarn. No more.

In our room I have a stack of boxes which I keep by my side of the bed. It is how I combat the temptation to order more yarn. It stands about 4 1/2 foot tall. It could very easily fill each of these boxes with yarn. and still needed more boxes.

Usually when I start feeling weak I can look at those boxes and it will make me rethink my yarn purchase (much to Knit Picks shigrin, I'm sure ... at least at Herrschner's I will still order other stuff like needlework/scrapbooking) but this time .... with these prices it just isn't working.

Its the Regia .... it really is. I love the colors they have offered. It will take about 3 skeins to make a pair of socks -- well I could get away with 2 skeins but I would like a bit of extra for patching heels and toes later (even hand mades wear out).

BUT I have so much yarn waiting to be created into their projects now it just seems unfair to put more in those boxes to sit and wait.

But then I look at the economy. I may not be able to buy yarn for too much longer. My goodness some of the stuff I've seen out there is $20 skein and it isn't even hand-dyed. While $20 is pretty steep for yarn, at least with the hand-dye or hand-spun you can see why it would cost so much (neither is very easy to do in large batches). BUT still...it won't be long until I end up in the same problem my mother had.

High gas prices. High heating costs. High food costs. Limited income.

You have to pick & chose where the money goes. And I hate to say it .... but crafting would be the first thing to get snipped out of the 'budget' (yeah, like I've got one of those...lol...my sides hurt now).

So really its mom's fault. She grew up in the depression so she was denied being able to get stuff when she wanted it, heck chances are she couldn't even get stuff when she needed it. Anyhow so then we went thru Inflation under President Carter and things got tough again (milk actually went up over $1.50/gal!!) and the yarn train got thin again. And just as the train started picking up speed we got a LeeWard's Craft Store within 20 minutes of the house (res. streets too).

Then ma became a totally hoarder of yarn. And it stuck ever since. And really it got passed on to me too. I in turn will pass it on to my daughters ... we have the 'addictiver personaity' gene -- I swear!

so now I'm using my blog as a way to avoid the purchase I know I'm going to be making.

yeah i wll probably break down and get the sock yarn. Its just too yummy to pass up. Kind of like chocolate -- which explains the waistline.

I'm so dead.

On or Off the Wagon?

Okay, today I'm feeling like I'm at my Senior Hayride again in high school. You know the one where they try to push you off so you have to run to catch up to the wagon? Well when they tried to do it to me, I didn't competely fall off so there was controversy amongst my friends whether it really counted or not.

Some said that technically since I held onto the wagon and never lost my balance was able to hop back on with out missing a step... it didn't count. Some said that since my butt left the platform, even for a little bit, it counted as being pushed off.

Well that's where I am today .... only its the Yarn Diet wagon I may or may not have fallen off of.

Herrschners had this super sale on hanks of their tapestry yarn. They came in an asst. of 5 hanks (about 43 yds each hank) ... so I ordered 10 sets. Even though its made for needlepoint, I figured it would be great for socks, especially those which have images or stripes. I thought it would work out great.

But now that they are here I'm wondering if I fell off the wagon or not.

Is it considered cheating on my diet by using a product meant for another craft?? I mean...it is yarn...but its technically for needlepoint not knitting or crocheting.

Its 100% virgin wool ... but there are no washing instructions - which makes sense, its not made to be used in garments .... it is moth-proof and color fast so I think it will be fine.
Some are twisted hanks and some are more like a skein of floss.
They are thicker than I thought ... or worsted than sport ... actually more of a DK weight, so they would make a rather thick sock.

Definately going to have to gauge it up before starting.

So here I sit amongst my colors (18 different colors) and not a white in the bunch. Which totally amazes me ... I thought for sure I'd get a ton of white, black, deep blue, etc. But I got a lot of autumn tones instead ... some lovely deep browns, crisp goldens, deep apple, and muted blues -- okay not too keen on those, but I will find a use for them.

I will have to find the color charts for these and get them into the 'stash counter' on the side bar .... "DMC Tapestry" I think would be best heading.

Well off to finish my exchange project. blew my knee out this weekend and was bed ridden so didn't get it off to my partner like I thought I would have. I'm so bummed. Even found two mistakes, one was easier to fix than the other ... have GOT to get this done and off.

I know this will be considered rude....

by a lot of people. It is definitely against exchange etiquette...but my partner has had her package for a month now and still has not posted photos of the socks I made for her, and the HSS2 site has disappeared ---so I'm just going to do it.

I liked them.
here they are...made with Lorna Lace's Shepherd sock yarn in BeeStripe with Gypsy in Raven.




here is a overall view. I used two different patterns, one top-down, one toe up. It changed the way the yarn pooled and how the heel worked up too.




Here's a detail of the heels. I really like both of them although the heels are different. I like them both for different reasons. The top-down had a nice thick back to it, however the toe-up has a thick area under the heel (which would suit my needs)

The toes turned out more pointed than I had hoped, especially on the toe-up, but that was because I forgot to increase my decreas and kept dec'ing everyother row.
The top-down I ended with a three-needle-bind-off which leaves a slight ridge on the inside, but then most socks I know have a slight ridge there. The toe-up used the figure8 cast on and I think I started with too few a loops which also helped to create the pointed toe.

I used the Gypsy to dress up the top so these socks can be used in the springtime too when the weather calls for shorts....or maybe I'm just more adventuresome than most....also it has a great tactal quality that I wanted to incorporate, it feels just like fur against the skin {no animals were hurt}. It also had the added benefit of hiding a slight difference in the height of the socks caused by switched needle sizes on the cuff.

Now I had planned it all out for one sock to be done with a size 4 and the other with a size 2...had the gauge worked out and everything and it should have worked out great...but when my daughter sat on my needle and I had to switch pairs it was just enough to set things off.

Its really too bad that I don't know how my partner feels about these socks--or maybe I do--because they are the most expensive thing I have EVER made, including my crocheted blanket/shawl that took over 10 skeins of yarn (its what taught me about yarn weights).

At $11 per sock (yep, $22 for the pair) I had really hoped to have seen some sort of acknowledgement on her blog if not the group. It hurts but you know what?

I'll live. I'll still make and give gifts. And I will never spend that much EVER again for a stranger. NEVER.

Yippee!! I finally got to open it up!

Okay so I finally got to open the package sent by my partner Cliodna Kettleburn....all I can say is...WOW.

Minimum req for the package was a pair of socks, a set of sock needles, and stitch markers--boy did she go above and beyond!

So what all did she send? 1 pair of fantastic socks! They are thick enough so they will keep my tootsies warm even in this brick refridgerator I live in....2 sets of Brittany sock needles, size 1, so I can do both socks at the same time--what a concept! Some heart shaped stitch markers that will be perfect for using on the smaller needles (they didn't photo well...they are on the needle that is stretched between the S & G pads)....oh, some post-it type notes shaped like a G (for Ginger) and an S (for Slytherin)....A bar of handmade soap in Ylang-ylang scent...a chinese bookmark....a chocolate frog--nope haven't eaten it yet.....and a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (okay I looked at the flavors--these I will be sure to share with the kids, after everyone gets over the crud). Did I forget anything?

Despite the problems this was really really fun! Her stitching is wonderful--I can't believe she has only been knitting since Feb! WOW....I really hunkered down and started getting serius about this last summer and her stitches are so much better than mine--I'm almost embarrassed now.

Hope they have a third exchange....this time I will have to start with things ahead of time--use the toe up pattern where I can handle the cuffs better, especially now that I know how to bind them off!

TLC Macaroon

Okay so I ordered some supplies for Yule gift giving---to give away mostly, not add to my stash.

I got some TLC Macaroon in chocolate brown for making a hat and matching muff out of for my daughters...I thought a matching set would be so nice and the color in the thumbnail seemed to match the base hair color wonderfully, though maybe a shade lighter.

Well....it just came. It is nothing like it should be....it is described as having a soft chennille base with a short eyelash wrap/carrier thread....it certainly does not meet with my expectations of the term "soft", in fact it feels kind of rough....it is supposed to be a bulky weight (size 6) but it looks more like a worsted (size 4) even with the wrapped thread.

I don't think this is going to work out for what I want it for....I'm not sure what it will be good for either, not with it being as rough as it is.

I think I box it up and give it as a gift to someone...maybe my oldest daughter....she seems to working on some big giant squares--I don't think she knows just what to do with them yet, lol, but she's getting quite the collection of them....some in Outrageous Orange, some in Racy Red (both bernat frenzy)....some in some yarn I don't know-probably some RedHeart she snuck out of my stash.

Don't know....time will only tell what I will do with it yet.

Twinkle Toes update 2

OMGs! I can not believe how quickly this toe-up pattern is going....I've been working on this sock for less than a day and I'm almost done with the foot!

If it goes this fast then I think what I will do is start on the second sock for my daughter and use it to practice the heel turn before I try it on my partners sock--that way any little mistakes will be forgiven.

Then too I will have a sock ready to practice the cast off with as well.

I am so used to doing a three needle bind-off at the toe that I am sure I will have some troubles with the cast-offs I've seen connected with toe-up socks.

Well off to do the last two rnds of my foot section and then get ready to make the heel....if I can figure it out that is.

Twinkle Toes update

well I have inc the number of sts needed for my partners foot....actually I'm not doing the Twinkle Toes pattern, just using it as a guideline....but I should have probably inc the number of cast ons to 12 (total) and worked 2 inc rows before moving onto the inc row/k row combination.

Also I waited until I had 32 sts on the two needles before splitting the stitches onto the 4 needles....I found this gave a better base to the sock and helped to prevent the needles from twisting backward--I actually got stitching and found that one of the needles had twisted around making a very ugly pucker...had I been working a cable st it would have been different, but it would have been very uncomfortable on the bottom of the foot....or on the top of the foot for that matter.

These are going to be some very interesting socks--not only am I using different tachniques for each of them....I did decide to use different needle sizes. This means that one sock will be just that much bulkier than the other...but hopefully not so much as to cause a real problem...I really like the concept.

The only thing the socks will have in common is the yarn, but even it will be slightly different due to pooling effects. I loved the way it ringed around the toe area! I wish it would do the same all the way up, but it has already gone to the single row of a single color...although it does change a little sooner than before so I'm hoping it will start to swirl around.

Now to prevent having to over frog I have inserted a peice of emb floss thru the stitches/loops of the last reg row for the toe---just incase I go on and find that I do not have enough stitches I will be able to stop the unraveling and easily find the stitches to simply pick them up and replace them onto the needles.

If I do not need to frog then I can simply pull the floss out later without having to pick it out--just so long as I did not split the floss at any point without realizing it.

I will more than likely do this every few rounds just to save myself some work--by doing a little more work now---should a problem arise like a dropped needle, a dropped stitch, a picked up stitch, etc.

This technique will come especially handy when I get to the heel flap/gusset.

Because I have never done a toe-up sock before I am anticipating a lot of issues with the "wrap, turns" on the short rows. I will check out knittinghelp.com as well for a video of the procedure but I want a stand by just in case as well.

If I run into too many troubles I can always contact one of these sock groups on Yahoo groups that I belong to:

T_Socks_KAL:Townsend Current Knit A Long
TownsendSocksKnitAlong:T-Knit A Long (I love the current group photo!!)

If you aren't familiar with Jeannie Townsend, that's okay...I didn't know about her until I started looking for sock groups either...if you decide to join check out the groups files---she offers tons of free patterns there, all of her own design! Some of the members have posted their own patterns up there as well. She is very talented, I don't know why she hasn't sold any of her patterns...although she did say once that the purposes of the group was to build internet buddies not make money....so its probably because she just has a really big heart!!

If you are interested she also has a blog:

Just Jeannie

To Blog or Not to Blog

So one of my kids caught me passionately writing on my computer the other day and asked what I was doing....'posting to my blog' I said....'what's a blog?' he asked. I had to stop and think....well its kind of an online diary--no that's not quite it either---its like being able to think outloud but having other people listen in to you---but that's not quite it either.

'why do you write a blog?' he asked next....another stumper. Why? Because I'm a stay at home mom who has a lot to say and no one to say it too....don't get me wrong....I can talk to hubby and usually do to the point of his ignoring half of what I say or he gets annoyed because he missed a funny line on his tv show....and I have had philosophical & political chats with my kids ever since they turned 3 and could talk back {my kids have very firm veiws--you should hear what my 10 yr old has to say about the Maine schools handing out birth control}, but with them I have to be super guarded....try my best to let them make up their own minds, teach them to find the facts and draw their own conclusions instead of running with the pack.

This became relavent this summer when my daughter had to do a video tape for her government summer course....the teacher assigned her to make a campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton--my daughter doesn't like Hillary, but he figured that since she was one of the few girls in class he'd like to see her take on things---when I asked her who some of her other choices were, since she was complaining about getting Hillary, she started naming off all the democrat delegates--I asked her who on the republican side she could have chosen if she had wanted, the answer was Guilliani, he was the only one. That's it--the teacher had decided to bias the class and lean them towards the democratic party. She did the assignment, btw, she did it "man-on-the-street" style....with family. Probably not a good thing since, well I'm more right leaning independent...her dad is more left leaning independent...and while her grandparents are democrats neither of them really like Hillary either....and big brother is a staunch Republican. She did okay, got a good mark for meeting the standards but she felt her grade wasn't as high as it should have/could have been had she been more in line with the teacher's veiws.

Oh wow, I'm off subject again, huh? I was talking about why to blog....or rather why I blog.

Because I have a voice that I don't see being met out there.....I have a common sense that seems to be lacking in this world....an old fashion value system in a new lifestyle....I'm a right leaning pagan/heathen and I'm telling you we are rare!

Well off to do more knitting--I just needed a break before I rip it out again for the fifth time--new pattern and I forgot to stop increasing every row about 5 rows back and I'm dreading pulling it out again. My poor partner....her yarn is going to be worn out before she even gets her socks.

Banging my Head against the Wall now

UUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!! I'm so frustrated....can you tell?

I didn't get a chance to go to the coffee shop with the other Scout Mom's this weekend as I had hoped because it was cancelled due to lack of interest. If hubby hadn't answered the phone I would have pretended that everything was honky doory and talked the oldest daughter, gimpy and all, to come with me and we could have spent the entire time knitting and talking and sipping coffee and tea--she says they have tea, it would have only been my second time there and the first time I got away without ordering anything---but no, hubby answered and I didn't think fast enough on my toes.....so I didn't get any knitting done yesterday.

Instead I spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen....especially the stovetop. This is the first summer that my oldest has been on his own while we went out of town--his favorite thing to do was use the deep fryer (and leave me the mess)....because I hate the dripping of the oil I have it on a sheet pan that's lined with foil for easy cleanup.

As it turned out 18 yr olds have no sense of oil life---I thought he had changed the oil at least once over the summer--he hadn't. Oil in a fryer, I'm told, needs to be changed at least every 3 months depending what you've cook in it...if you've done any sort of meat it needs to be changed sooner. Anyways, I never really thought much of the stove--I don't usually use it....I either use the oven (they are seperate units) or the microwave, the stove is mostly used when I want popcorn or fried eggs.....mostly its just the place I put the cookie sheets or roaster when they come out of the oven.

So I had been keeping the top of the burner cleaned up okay....but when I pulled out the burner trays to clean---OMGs---he must have spilled the fryer or something and wiped it up without thinking of cleaning under the spill-pan. I had sticky "dried" oil all underneath the dials, under the dial plate and the rubber gasket that holds the plate in place. He had switched the burner grate with the one from the other side knowing that I tend to put the big tea kettle & the Splatter Blue camper coffee pot there so you can't see it.....gaaaawwwwwkkkkkk. And only one single--just one--S.O.S. pad left to do it.....it died after I finished both drip pans, the dials, the dial plate, the gasket, the stove top, one grate....but it didn't make it thru the really ucky one.

I could have killed him, but you know he's a kid (at least to me) so I turned on the football game in the kitchen and started cleaning it up---everytime our team made a TD he'd say "did you see that?" or "Look at that, that's amazing" and I'd answer with "I didn't see anything, I'm too busy cleaning someone else's mess" or "no I was busy scrubbing this ____".....I think he got the point though because one time when our team made a TD he used it as an excuse to give me a great big hug....he NEVER hugs--"I love you" gets answered with "yup" or "huh?".

So I will have to wait until the next time I can talk hubby into taking me to the regular store to get some more and really pound it....MIL says she used to put them in a black plastic bag with a bottles worth of amonia, tie it shut and then put the whole thing out on the front lawn in the bright sun and it would just eat off the grease. It might be worth the try--except I have a hard enough time not getting sick from the smell of Moth balls, I can't imagine what the smell of amonia would do to me.

Anyhow, back to my knitting.

As it turns out not knitting yesterday would probably have been a good thing---because I got done with the first part of the second socks ribbing and found that --shit!--the guage is off again! I measured really carefully too--but the sock was WAY too big....I hadn't noticed it while knitting because I tend to keep the stitches bunched so quick work, but damn!

So now I've had to frog and now its back to the drawing board....so I like the simplicity of the pattern but the colorworks is driving me nuts....it is not working out the way I thought it would. One row one color, one row the next....no pooling!

{sigh} well I've got to get back to the needles---I have to get these to my partner by Halloween and hubby is taking three days off this week so I don't think there will be much knitthing going on then. He seems to get jealous of it....what he doesn't realize is that there are days that my crafting is the only thing that keeps me from-=-=-=-sending him back to work!!!