Finally finished!

It took me forever to get around to sewing the tiny buttons on these tiny booties, but I finally did it and they are so cute. I gave them to the expectant couple and there were many squees of cuteness, I was happy.

Details:

• pattern: Saartje’s Booties (pdf)
• yarn: Lana Grossa Multiringel Cotton
• needles: size 2
• finished: June 15, 2008
• Ravelry page

Peanut was curious and slightly suspicious of the booties, but maybe she just really wanted to get in on the photoshoot.

What’s in your bag?, originally uploaded by freshgroundknits.

This morning I picked up my bag and was like “damn this bag is heavy! What the hell is in here?” So I took inventory…

Loosely clockwise from upper left: coffee, water bottle, pouch with my toiletry type stuff, mints, mp3 player, chico bag, receipt from my visit to the travel clinic yesterday, palm pilot, sunglasses, random CVS extra care cards, piece of tissue paper from a bagel, keys, two pens, wallet, and the Monkey sock I’m working on.

My cell phone is missing because I used it to take the picture. The flickr photo has notes if you want to click.

I’m curious what other people carry around in their purse/backpack/main bag on a daily basis. Post what’s in your bag! Include a photo if you can, this will be fun!

At one point in time I think there were over 700 people knitting the Monkey sock pattern on Ravelry, currently there are over 5000 projects. I always thought they were cute, but never had any real desire to knit them and kind of stayed away since they seemed so popular. I have that tendency, to want to be anti-whatever is popular at the moment. Remnant of my rebellious teen years? Maybe, maybe not…

Anyhow, that was how I felt until I saw this Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in “Tropical Storm“. I saw it and the Monkey immediately sprung to mind as a great pattern to knit with it. It looks lovely so far and it’s heavenly to knit with.

After I finished the first sock I ran into a problem. I had been knitting the socks with my 5″ Brittany Birch size 1 dpns. I’ve never been a huge fan of them, as they are bendy and break easily, however I like the 5″ size. Unfortunately, one of them broke when I was about halfway through the foot, so I was left with only 4 needles, doable, but not my favorite way to knit. (Note: I have already written them for replacements once before, and this was my replacement set. Luckily they sent me a full set of 5 needles. Unfortunately, this is the 6th needle I’ve broken.)  At the same time I lost my 7″ Bamboo size 1 dpns AND my friend who borrowed my size 1 circs has not returned them yet. So I sucked it up and knit on 4 needles for the cuff. I couldn’t stand it though so I finally broke down and bought the Lantern Moon Sock Stix. They were $20, but worth every penny. I LOVE them. They are so smooth and sturdy. It’s such fun to knit with them. However, changing needles resulted in a change in gauge. And this is what the result looked like:

Do you see how the yarn is pooling and flashing on the second sock? I was not happy with that at all. It was also smaller than the first sock. I tried a couple of different remedies. I frogged and switched back to the Brittany dpns using only one Lantern Moon. Still too small and pooling. I frogged again and tried consciously knitting more loosely. Still more pooling. I frogged and tried knitting tightly on 2s. No pooling, same size as the first sock, but the stitches were visibly bigger. I gave up, frogged for the third fourth time, reskeined it and let the yarn sit for a day. It was bizarre, I’ve never had problems like that before with socks. Sometimes the second sock is a little tighter, but nothing that visible. I was so frustrated. I decided to take a break and started working on a hiking sock from recycled yarn.

Last night I was worried that I would end up with second sock syndrome so I balled the yarn and started knitting again. I decided to just us the Lantern Moons and try just knitting loosely. I don’t want to jinx myself, but so far so good. I’m about one pattern repeat into it and no pooling, flashing, and it’s about the same size. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is, but we shall see with the final product! No more frogging for me!

I think that the Widdershins now count as my longest WIP. I actually started them in August of 2006! I gave up on them December 23, 2007. It’s too bad because there were several parts of the sock that I liked.

The toe was my first Magic Cast On, which is now my favorite cast-on:

The short row heel turned out beautifully (because I modified the gauge significantly I had given up on the reverse heel flap in the original pattern).

And in general I just thought the sock looked nice.

Unfortunately, I hated knitting them, I hated it with a passion. The yarn I used, Brown Sheep’s Wildfoote, was just awful for this pattern. It was rough on my hands and extremely splitty. Knitting cables on size 1 needles was not fun at all. Knitting is supposed to be fun-right? After I finished the first sock and sat down and thought to myself “Do I really want to knit a second one?” My reply was an emphatic “No!” So, I frogged it. I’m using the yarn to knit some basic 2×2 rib socks and I’m much happier.

Portland Dew, originally uploaded by freshgroundknits.

So, apparently my pattern is today’s pattern on the SnB PAD Calendar. However, I wouldn’t know for sure, since I still haven’t received my copy! I emailed them about a month ago, perhaps it’s time for another reminder?

Thanks for stopping by! I plan on updating more frequently this summer since I won’t be in class 5 hours a week while working full time! Hooray for a little vacation!

Chevron Socks, originally uploaded by freshgroundknits.

I finished these just in time for Christmas! My mom loved them! Here they are being modeled by their new owner on Christmas Day. Yes, I’m behind. I’ve been so busy, I’ve barely had time to knit. I think this summer will provide me with more knitting time. Until then, I’m going to try to post some projects I’ve completed since I last posted on Halloween.

I’ve been waiting for my camera to recover (and free time) before posting some of my most recent FOs, however I really didn’t like having my feet as the most recent post in my blog. So, here’s a teaser of my (finally finished) Syncopated Cap by Kate Gilbert.

I rarely do cuff down socks and now I’m at the toe of the Chevron Socks, which I started way back in July and I’m not sure which toe to do. Here are a few pics. I’ve ruled out the French toe and am leaning toward just a standard grafted toe-any suggestions?

(apologies for the camera phone pics, my camera is kaput at the moment)

My first fair isle endeavor has been tons of fun, unfortunately, I forgot to check with my friend gauge before casting on.

It’s just really too big.

So it’s back to the beginning!

I was able to take a four day weekend and go camping on the Outer Banks of NC. There was lots of sleeping, swimming and lighthouse touring. I also got to see Martin Sexton play a crowded noisy bar in Kill Devil Hills. All in all it was tons of fun, but I didn’t do a lick of knitting!

This is the Bodie Island Lighthouse in Nags Head, NC. I feel very lucky to have snapped this picture with absolutely no tourists in it!

The marker for the first successful flight in Kill Devil Hills, NC

The campground (Oregon Inlet)

The campground was actually really nice, although the beach part was not the best for swimming or relaxing. This is one of the areas that allow driving on the beach, so there were tons of trucks lined up along the water. Apparently it’s an excellent fishing area.

And finally, the Ocracoke Island Lighthouse, this is the oldest working lighthouse in the US. It is also in someone’s backyard, so the whole touristy part felt a little awkward.

Sunset from the Ocracoke-Cedar Island Ferry, those are shrimp boats in the water.