Socktoberfest & CAL/KAL

I signed up for the this.

These are a few things that I've decided.
Thing 1) Sock yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Golden Harvest.


Thing 2) These are for mom to go with her brown Clarks.
Thing 3) The foot will be unpatterned.
Thing 4) The socks will be worked toe-up on dpn's.

I'm sorting through sock patterns to find a suitable design. This is my first time using CTH. I'll use the foot as a guide to choosing the leg pattern. It will give me an opportunity to see how the yarn patterns on the needles.

Vera of Vera's Crafty Blog is hosting a CAL/KAL at Feel the Love Along. It's to encourage knitters to experience crocheting and for crocheters to experience knitting. I've begun looking for a project that will either be all or mainly crochet in keeping with the spirit of the CAL/KAL.
I crocheted almost exclusively when I was in my teens and early twenties. I continued to knit doilies off and on for several years before I stopped crocheting completely in my early thirties. Except for the occasional finishing, provisional cast-on or dropped stitch, I never pick up a crochet hook.
I'm looking forward to finding a pattern and yarn to execute for this knit-along.

This afternoon Calvin of Colaman Knits (hope he gets back to blogging) came over for a sock knitting lesson. Calvin is the only male member of our knitting guild the Palmetto Purlers. He picks up new techniques quickly and performs them to perfection. He's my first knitting visitor ever and I thoroughly enjoyed his company.

On Monday, the floor man is coming. He estimates that it will take him for days to do the floors. This is one of the last tasks remaining. They have to finish the bathroom and the laundry area and do some painting touch ups here and there.




Time continues to wind down. It appears that we'll be ready for the holidays after all.

Cakes, cakes and more cakes

Cakes! Small cakes, medium cakes, large cakes, jumbo cakes. Yarn cakes!

It took me most of Saturday afternoon to wind all this sock yarn into cakes. One skein decided it wanted to star in Yarnz Gone Wild. A few buddies tried to make the cut but were quickly reined in.


Natural Light (Solid colors are truer.)


Flash
The color-blocked hoodie continues to take shape. I'm about halfway on the front. Kids clothes look so funny with the short arms and legs and long torsos. I have to keep reminding myself that their proportions are different from those of us full-sized humans.


(The colors are washed out by the flash. The green is a deep green not even close to the seafoam looking color. The red is deeper and the blue is a very dark navy.)

After much consideration, I decided to leave the sleeve green and make the hood gold. If I don't like the results I can always re-work the pieces.

Other knitting progress has been reduced to a snails pace. The Palmetto Purlers Knitting Guild meets on Tuesday and it will be my first meeting as president. To that end, I've been researching info to clear up some misinformation and working on items to present to the membership for the upcoming year.

Decked Out

My new knitting spot. I probably won't get much use out of it this year but wait until next year. It's nice and quiet in the backyard and totally isolated from the front. The only problem will be the dreaded mosquitos and the emus that live down the hill. When the wind is blowing the wrong way the give off quite a whiff!



Work is ramped up once again. Walls and trimmed primed. Fireplace mantel in place. If things keep on the current track I'll get the room up and working before Thanksgiving.

Last night a few members of the Palmetto Purlers met for our quarterly "Dinner Bunch" meeting. I can't make the "Lunch Bunch" get togethers so I try to make the dinners. We went to Gervais & Vine. It's a wine and tapas bar. In attendance was Gail, Barbara, Millie, Mom and myself. This might be the smallest group we've had so far. The conversation was great. We enjoyed hearing about Barbara's recent trip to Scotland with her husband.

I'm not a wine drinker. Wine gives me hot flashes and headaches so I steer away from them. I did try a half-glass of Pinot Gris that was quite nice. The food was awesome. The "Petite Filet with Feta" was cooked perfectly and the cheese plate was wonderful. The asparagus was so-so but the Raspberry Creme Brulee Cheesecake that I had for dessert was smooth and creamy and the raspberry sauce was just the right touch.

Still plugging along on Pumpkin. I started the front last night. The red sleeve looks like it was knit by someone else. Sloppy gauge, uneven stitches. I'll probably re-knit it so that it looks as good as the green one and the back. (Just realized my green sleeve is supposed to be the hood color. I'm not to sure about putting a gold hood on the sweater. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it. Betcha I'll refer to my notes the next time.)

Beautiful (Picture heavy post)

The weather this entire weekend, the cookout we attended yesterday, and my birthday made for a beautiful weekend. The birthday which occurred yesterday was very, very low-key. It's seems funny that as long as I was on the upside of 45 I was okay with the age thing. I've never held the apprehension that some people give to landmark years such as 25, 30, and 40 and actually thought I never would. This 50 thing is something new and there are 4 more years to go before it arrives. Perhaps it's the infirmities I've experienced the past few years and the realization that most people my age are simply not having these kind of problems.

I miss hanging out with my "girls", dancing so much that my feet hurt and being so silly that my family was amazed. This weekend has been the first in almost 2 years that I have been able to actually enjoy without constantly being reminded of our overwhelmed by pain. Life is good and maybe in the grand scheme of things it's working out just the way it's supposed to. I once again enjoying my silly side and I've re-connected with some of the "girls". I still have yet to dance until my feet hurts but that not far down the road.



Kayla, niece the eldest, prepared and decorated a cake for my birthday today. Everyone was busy and heading out of town in different directions yesterday. I joined the kids this evening for the traditional singing of Happy Birthday and cake.

On the 7th I ordered some more Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. Mom wouldn't come help me pick out sock yarn and we got home she wanted one of the colors that I had picked for myself. I searched on line to find it and of course since these are handpainted there was some difference.

At Simply Sock Yarn I found the sought after Champlain Sunset colorway for mom. She processed and shipped the order immediately and the yarn arrived on Friday. This one is a little heavier on the blues and light on the orange. It's still pretty and I'm sure will make a wonderful pair of socks. I love the yardage in their hanks. At 420 yards per 4 oz there's more than enough for the calf-length socks like to make for our size 9 1/2 and 10 tootsies. (Theresa if you need some advice for large size feet I'm your girl.)


CTH Supersock in Old Rose and Champlain Sunset, LL in Glenwood( to go with a single skein purchase made earlier this year by accident. Hopefully I can blend the dyelots.)
And of course once you start searching and check out the sources and prices it's hard to stop. I order some CTH Supersock Potlock from Little Knits. I've read the Knitter's Review review, that looks so strange typed out, of CTH where they compare it to Koigu. I 've knitted with Koigu and the feel does remind of that yarn and it also reminds me of STR which I've only touched.


CTH Supersock Potluck in Candied Cherries and Peaches, Red Lovers Dream, Golden Harvest, Rio, Carnivale, Crown Jewels, Key Lime Pie
I've been putting knitting moderation into practice. I'm still making good progress on most items. I haven't worked on Tilia in a while due to gauge issues but other projects are still in rotation and there are some updates.

I've finished the feet and turned the heels on the Cotton Color socks worked in a simple 2 x 2 rib pattern. The 2S2C method will remain in my reportoire for the 50 gram ball socks.


Today I purchased buttons for Rachel. Mom as always graciously modeled her sweater. (Yes, our house is painted a shocking shade of chartreuse green. Somehow it's always worked and makes the house fairly easy to find.)




Pumpkin continues to grow. I've made it to my previous point and more. Sleeve #2 is on the needles and quickly approaching the halfway mark. The sizing is much better this time around. It'll be a little big and hopefully last to next Fall/Winter season.

Chilling, Grilling & Knitting

After a nice relaxing weekend, the past 3 days have been very busy. I was on grill duty once again and received a nice surprise when a certain little busy body was brought over for a visit on Labor Day.


Isaiah has decided that I am his play pal. Aunt B. I'm loving every minute of it.

The sweater would have been almost a perfect fit. A little on the long side but very little growth room. I frogged the sleeve I'd started and am working on the size 4/5. Trust your instincts. I didn't go with the original size I started because I thought it was too big. Should have listened to his dad from the beginning.

Monday night I finished Rachel. Though technically not an FO, I need to purchase or make buttons, the seaming is complete and the crochet trim is done. I'm not to enarmored of Berroco's current selection of patterns, but the archive contains some really nice ones.


Tuesday I received the Jaggerspun Zephyr I ordered on line from Sarah's Yarns for some more Swallowtail Shawls. Service was very prompt and shipped the same day I ordered The price was excellent. At $34.00/1 lb cone this beats any price I've seen even with shipping. She included samples of all the yarns she carries.


Ebony and Lady Slipper
This morning I had an appointment in Charleston. This gave me perfect opportunity to check out Knit. Their selection of yarns and accessories is fantastic, overwhelming to be exact! I exerted much self control and my only purchase was 3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn.


Peacock, Champlain Sunset, Blues/Purples.
My original plan was to purchase Koigu. I still have the Charlotte's Web kit so I opted to try something new. If you are in the area and have time check them out. It's so worth it.

Color Blocking

This afternoon I finished the back of Pumpkin. I decided to rip out on Thursday and make the size 3/4. I've opted to to do it in colorblock instead of a solid color since I don't have enough skeins of navy. My intention was to do a Fair Isle or intarsia. With that in mind, I bought 5 skeins of Sirdar Legend in navy and 2 each in green, red, gold and white.


I'm going to do one sleeve in red, the other in gold and the hood will be green. The colors are bold but not overwhelming. Besides, I love seeing kids in colorful clothing.

The Bamboo Color socks have officially changed to the Openwork Rib socks. The pattern is from SKS. I used the PGR short-row heel and made them a half size larger in the foot than my size. They fit mom perfectly. I was hesitant to finish them while she was in Reno for fear of having the ankle and the leg too small.

I steam blocked all the pieces of Rachel. Every once in a while things do go according to plan.


I purchased a Jiffy Steamer from an estate sale last year and this was my first time trying it out. Being a firm believer in the power of wet blocking, I've never given steam blocking a try. The fiber content of Linet requires that you steam block. Even though it was a slow tedious process having to block each piece individually on a card table, I have one thing to say about steaming. Convert me baby!

So far I've finished all the seaming and the single crochet trim around the sleeves. I was looking forward to borrowing it from mom. That hope was dispelled when I tried it on. The sleeves are about 2 inches too short and given that me wearing it wasn't part of the original plan it fits her perfectly.

At this moment, I'm trying to avoid the sound of Trekking, Shepherd Sock and Bearfoot calling my name. It wafts ever so gently saying ... Knit me Beverly, knit me Beverly. I will be steadfast, until tomorrow.