summertime

when this is your definition of fun:

You definitely need to follow it up with a little bit of this:

hope you're having a good summer!

sock-tastrophe

i have no idea what happened. i was knitting away on my toe-up sock, cruising through the short row heel. YOing, K2tog, turning, etc, etc, all seemed to be going so well. but it was taking me forever to work through all those paired stitches. And then it hit me. Somewhere, somehow -- there were 3x as many stitches in that heel than needed. whoops. big whoops.

i've never messed up a heel before. after i knit my first pair of socks, i scoffed at all the 'turning the heel' drama that intimidated me from sock knitting for the longest time. and here i am. with some heel-turning-drama of my own.

it's so disappointing. i hate to rip, but i have no choice but to back it up and start over some night when i'm a little more focused i guess. for now i think i'll put it aside and concentrate on casting on for one of my new projects.

speaking of new projects. the postman brought me the yarn for a few of the projects that i've been obsessing over. #1 - Arisaig from knitty.com. This will be my second Ysolda pattern, I actually did her skull illusion scarf a few years back. I anticipate that this will be a 'reach' for me in terms of stretching my knitting skills. It's a challenge and i'm feeling a little intimidated, but i love the look of the sweater. The yarn called for in the pattern was on closeout at Knitting Garden, so at least i'm not out a million dollars if it should go to heck. yarn shown below with new Craft which also appeared today. colors are not very true at all.

my other obsession is Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits book. I heard the buzz, saw some of the finished sweaters and decided that it would be a good book for me. and it is. i even made it to an actual, live yarn store to try to find the yarn to knit one of the designs that I was into (short sleeved cardigan and textured tunic were my favorites). but they didn't have anything that would work that i liked. so back to the internet and I found some RYC Soft Tweed on closeout at Webs. and here it is. lusciously soft yarn. I immediately began swatching for what will hopefully become the textured tunic. we'll see how the swatch goes.

BTW - both the Knitting Garden and Webs shipped my order extremely fast. I was very pleased and will consider ordering from both shops again.

And finally, to take you out. A view of our front garden and the adirondack chairs that a friend made for us this spring.

toe-up sock progress and swatching

The toe-up sock is growing. faster than I might have thought. At this point it's just p2k2 over and over again for another 7 inches or so.

yesterday while running i made some knitting resolutions. i want to knit more sweaters, but the finishing and seeming of sweaters makes me nervous. so resolution #1 - knit more sweaters so that i get good at the finishing and it no longer makes me queasy. #2 - it's okay to have some stash yarn. sometimes you need to knit up a project and it's nice to be able and go pull somthing else from the stash. Still not sure that i'll ever let it grow beyond the one bin, but i think i need to feel okay about having any sort of stash at all.

I've been thinking about my next big project. I bought the book Fitted Knits, and there are three projects in there that I'd really like to do. But I'm having some troubles finding the right yarn online. I even went to a real live yarn store and they didn't have the yarn in the pattern or anything that would be an okay substitute. At some point I'll try another local yarn store, I think the Knitting Studio carries Cascade 128.

During this process I stumbled upon the yarn for Arisaig from knitty, on sale. and so i bought it. there are some beautiful finished examples on Flickr and i hope that i can knit something of that order. time to get cracking on those socks so that I'm ready when this new yarn shows up.here's k learning to ride the pump track at Catamount.

Toe Up Socks

Socks from the toe up. One of my running friends sent me a lovely package last month with some sock yarn and a copy of Interweave Knits which features a big section on knitting socks from the toe up. I'm keen to make a nice long pair of socks and have been wanting to learn something new, so I cast on. Again and again. That eastern cast on is a bit tricky. It's not the neatest toe, but it does look nice and smooth. Once these are off the needles I think I'll be able to smooth things over a little bit.

Apparently some people like the toe-up method because they don't have to Kitchner stitch the toe. Grafting never bothers me. It's kind of fun and it's totally cool to make a toe look like a smooth knit. But remember, I also Kitchner'ed the entire Lace Leaf Pullover sweater body and even before that when i was knitting all those Woolly Wonder Perfection Shorts - loads of grafting. So it's just something that I don't mind.

Perfection Shorts

K was essentially potty trained by the beginning of last summer, so it feels like I'm a long way out from diapers and all the soakers that i was once making. one of my friends on the running group recently had a little boy and i've been wanting to make her something.
These are the Wooly Wonder Perfection Pants in approximately a size small. Knit with very soft 100% wool from the stash and trimmed with Trelisk organic merino. The body was knit on #9's.

A quick shot of our garden as it finally starts to come into bloom. in a few days the purple coneflowers will bloom and then it will really start to pop.

RIPhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Afterthought socks. Knitted in a gorgeous hand dyed alpaca fingering yarn that I picked up at the Sheep and Wool Festival almost two years ago.

One finished. the second started but I just don't like #1. They're too tight around. The pattern is best suited for someone with smaller feet. And someone with stretchier yarn. I don't think i'll ever wear these, should i finish them.

But i'm not going to finish them. I'm going to rip up the one in progress and try to find something else for this gorgeous yarn.

Photos from Catamount