Well, I managed to finish a pair of socks and have a single sock off the needles that leaves just two first socks on needles. I wish I could say that those two socks one blue, one variegated; yellow, green, blue, are my only projects on needles but, well.... we know better don't we? I'm waiting on two sets of metal dpn's in the mail, another regia and knit picks. If you looked at the set you probably noticed that using US needle sizes there are two size one and two size two needles, I can state unequivocally that in this particular instance I have to agree with our friends in Canada... metric is just plain better on this one. In fact, the Yarn Harlot just had a post on this very subject the other day. Now, don't get me wrong I'm not going to start quoting temps in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit south of the Great Lakes but yarn is universal, as is knitting and as I stated before the language should be universal so I think I'll expand on that and say the tools we knit with should be universal, also. Which, by the way, has gotten me completely off the subject, which is that I have two new sets of sock needles on the way. One set will be knitting up my brand new Brooks Farm variegated, this yarn is gorgeous soft and sheeny (yes, I made up a word, and yes, I'm ok with it, maybe I didn't make a word up it spellchecked, go figure). It dawned on me, when I was at my favorite yarn store the other day, that I prefer yarns w/sheen to a matte finish yarn. I've been actively knitting for over 10 yrs and I just get it now, go figure. I am willing to bet if I asked some of my knitting friends if this is news to them they'd all laugh at me. The real question I have though is whether I can knit my second sock of the pink/grey variegated on the metal dpns, the first sock was knit on bamboo. It is my belief that my gauge will be different on metal needles, however, this is a sock we are talking about so it's not as if anyone's going to be checking to see if my socks are identical, unlike sleeves or mittens which are definitely a more public medium, so to speak. So, I must ask myself if these socks are not identical can I live with it, and if I can not live with it what would be the big deal of re knitting the first sock on metal needles, I'm not really happy with it anyway, it's more an anklet than a sock and I wanted a sock so I'd be adding inches anyway, better to wait until after I knit the second sock on my new needles than add the length now. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. And with that conundrum (look it up) rolling around in my head I will attempt to go to sleep. Later all... CJ Oh and K, with these kind of weighty sock questions on my mind I'm afraid well, your sweater doesn't stand a chance, sorry.
Socks, that is, I keep ordering more sock yarn and I found my metal Regia dpns online, sorry can't find Regia's website, go figure. I love the metal dpns and am waiting for the smaller set US1 to knit my Brooks Farm hand dyed superwash, I also need to wait for the yarn to speak to me. I started these socks with sock yarn from Summer of Socks sponsor Cynthia's Skeins, when I was on her website she said this yarn did not photograph well, she was right... I can't begin to tell you how vibrant her blues are. I am knitting this on my new Regia 2.50mm, I couldn't find 
Regia's website but I ordered the needles here. Now, I love these needles, the matte finish not too slippery and they're metal so I don't feel like I'm going to snap one in half every time I do something fiddly. So, let's get back to the yarn speaking to me, no I'm not loosing my mind, well maybe I am but not so you'd know. I start my sock and then find a pattern, all of my patterns are my own courtesy of numerous stitconaries, Barbara Walker comes to mind as do a few others. The problem is I'm getting so I can't knit plain socks anymore, I try to find a pattern to match yarn texture, colorway and weight. You'll just have to wait and see what I've found for this yarn. Herein lies the problem, once I've mastered the pattern and I love what I've I done I don't just finish the second sock ohhh no that would be way to easy... no it's on to the next yarn, the next pattern, the next needles, good thing I'm not being judged on finished pairs. Here are all the pictures of my single socks
, wait a minute only two, make that three first socks on the needles and 1 second sock on needles. If I'm counting right that's only 1,2 ... 4 socks and one of those socks is an official second sock so I'm doing better than I thought. I will not be looking in any nooks, crannies or for that matter knitting bags to see if I might have any more socks started, as I said before I'm not crazy. Here's to second sock syndrome, and the wisdom I showed, not sure where it came from, not joining the most socks contest for Summer of Socks, I'm sure you noticed where she underlined PAIRS, well, what's up with that anyway. I know I'm just being crabby because I'm not knitting pairs well. Maybe I should start a self help group for SSS. I think I'll go work on that now right after I start, I mean finish knitting a sock.... CJ
Went on vacation to Gettysburg, saw a bunch of monuments.... went on a ghost tour, really enjoyed everything. Even saw some reenactors, men, women and children, I can not believe in this day and age where it is perfectly legal to run around in practically nothing when it's hotter'n hell out you've got women dressing up in corsets and men in wool uniforms.... go figure. There were even knitting reenactors, this one can be seen holding my sock... my sock on vacation sock. The sock blends in with her dress
(I can't believe I didn't get her name) but you can see the sock there in her right hand, her knitting, I think it is going to be a scarf or shawl kind of thing that reenactor women wear, is in her left hand. Knitting spanning the ages giving me what I think this is the perfect vacation sock picture, after all, think of all the socks women of the civil war era knitted for the men and boys fighting in the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. I didn't mean for this blog to be a downer but being in Gettysburg is very thought provoking.... even though the battle isn't going on as your standing there the feeling I got is hard to describe... maybe I was channeling all the women waiting at home to hear word of their husbands, lovers, sons, fathers and brothers. It was very disquieting standing at the top of one of the monuments looking out over the 20,000+ acres of the bloodiest battlefield of the war, looking at my 3 boys, even as young as they are, I tried not to think about how I'd feel if they had to go to war. Writing this now makes me think of a book I've read more than once about the way a post apocalyptic maternal society deals with the issue of their sons going off to war. The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper is perhaps one of the saddest and yet, most hopeful books I've ever read. As I reread this blog I realize it does not reflect the fact that we really did have fun on vacation... the boys really enjoyed everything, and they definitely did not share my feelings... obviously they can't channel the knitters of days gone by... go figure .... I do think, however, they have been channeling the feet of all the recipients of all those long ago knit socks ... although, my sons are partial to multicolored socks and I don't believe socks knit in the 1800's tended to be of the multi color self stripping variety
of yarns. I wonder if my sons would be as enamored of the socks I knit if they were the plain gray scratchy wool of the 1800's. Somehow, I don't think so. Perhaps, I need to think some more about this whole Gettysburg experience and on that note.... I'll say later all... CJ
My answer to that question is no, as can be seen by this series of photos. The blue is from Cynthia Skeins, one of the sponsors for the Summer of Socks, I stumbled upon her yarn while I was looking for some metal dpns. I currently use bamboo but my stitches on my needles are a little tight I need something I'm not afraid of breaking every time I have to k2tog. I took the skein to my favorite yarn store to show it to them and admit that I cheated on them. They were okay with it becau
se, I realize it doesn't show up in these photos but, it is the prettiest variegated blue superwash merino. The pink variegated I picked up from my favorite yarn store today when I was there showing off the hand dyed blue. The variegated yarn is from Cherry Tree Hill in the old rose colorway, it's a 50/50 silk merino worsted blend and I'm planning on knitting up some socks to pull on my cold toes before bed on the cold winter nights we get here in NW Pa. I've also decided to bring this yarn (ok and maybe a couple of others) with me when the family goes to Gettysburg on vacation. Aprox 5 hrs in a car coming and going and numerous opportunities in btwn. I've also decided to use this yarn for the socks on vacation contest for Summer of Socks. Not sure if I'm going to use a funky stitch pattern for these socks, I'm thinking of going "plain vanilla" as the Yarn Harlot would say. I'm thinking, no pattern, don't have to worry if I'm distracted or have to put the sock down in a hurry. I'm planning on knitting it up on US2, and I'm sorta cranky because I did finally find some metal dpns on the net at The Knitter, however they did not get here in as timely a manner as the yarn so still waiting on needles I'll be casting these socks on bamboo. Part of the reason I'm loosing patience is because of the cute little sock 
Once again the knitting fates have come to haunt me
. I'm still not completely sure what I've done recently to piss them off but, man, they are out to get me. I recast the yellow, blue and green socks with less stitches and am doing my lace pattern. So, after I turned the heel on my lace socks I could wait no longer and cast on my pink/grey socks, smaller needles.... I was all set to knit the pattern that I had to tear out. I was certain I had the gauge right, started knitting, tried on the socks (again one of the many reasons to knit toe up socks), looking good.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....... how on earth can they be TOO BIG? Rip back to the beginning of the pattern.... remember how I told you I hate picking up little bitty stitches... well, I'm not any happier picking them up now. Anyway, this was not quite the too big tragedy of before..... think ....how can I save this. I know make it a modified rib, this pattern, not that you can really see it is lacey diamonds, if I alternate knit and purl diamonds, AH-HA, EUREKA and all that nonsense. Well, at least, the socks fit now. Anyway, does anyone know of any kind of offering I can give the knitting fates? I'm getting kind of tired of being on their bad side. Almost, makes me afraid to cast on another ...... oh who am I kidding ..... I might rip out alot but I'll never be so afraid of the fates that I won't knit. But, K, with this kind of bad Karma it's not looking good for that sweater of yours... sorry, take it up with the fates. Later .... CJ
This is the Molly Bag, from Lantern Moon, it is without a doubt the best sock knitting bag I have ever owned (not that I've owned many, lol). It would probably be a good bag for a lot of small knitting projects. The picture on the top is everything I have crammed into the bag, and there is still room for one more sock project. I have my Lantern Moon dpn needle case, two skeins of yarn, my pda, some hair thingies, my cell phone and sundry receipts and mail, oh and, of course, the patterns for the socks. The thing I really love about this bag is it has four pockets surrounding one center pocket (which has a cell phone pocket and a zippered pocket), I put all my knitting stuff in the outside pockets and the yarn doesn't get tangled w/keys and other irritating things like that. It is just big enough to carry everything but not so big you don't need to clean out the extra crap once in a while. By extra crap I know you all realize I mean non knitting related paraphernalia. I really love this bag and, in fact, can also see it being used in for things other than knitting, or in conjunction to knitting.... if I was still in that stage of life it would be a great knitting/diaper bag. I had seen the bag on Lantern Moon's website and immediately ran to my favourite yarn store, to beg them to order some. Well, it took a while and one trade show (where they got to see the Molly Bag) but finally they had the bags in their store. I showed up the day after the bags arrived and, while they only ordered three, one of each color the blue was already gone, as you can see I got the red. I think the orange was gone in the next few days. I do believe they've ordered more, which is a good thing as I am trying to convince everyone I know to get one. K, I'm sorry the bag is too small to tote your sweater anywhere... but I hope to get to it soon....Later, CJ
Here I was all set to start my socks for The Summer of Socks, yesterday, I was going to have my toe started so I could knit while my boys were at swim class. The best laid plans and all that.... Came home from work early feeling like complete s***, post surgery set back, didn't even feel like knitting let alone do a fiddly toe cast on. Needless to say, the boys didn't make it to swim class more prime knitting time lost. I did cast on my sock last night, counted my stitches per inch, figured out what I would need to actually get the sock over my foot, found a stitch pattern I liked, all was well. Or was it....was it just me or did you also here the mocking laughter of the knitting fates? I tried my sock on this morning, didn't make it to work today, either, I keep telling myself this to shall pass. Anyway, back to the important part I tried on my sock, the beauty of toe-up is you can try them on for size, they were too big....TOO BIG how is that possible, I checked my gauge, I can do basic math, I ripped back, slightly put out. I really liked the stitch pattern I had found and while it was easy to increase the number of stitches in the pattern, decreasing would need more mental calisthenics than I'm capable of right now. So I rip back to my standard 14 sts/needle and go w/my tried and true pattern, which while fine is not what I wanted to use. Anyway, the sock yarn in question is Tofutsies, and since I have plenty more skeins of it in many colorways I will use a smaller needle and cast on a pair of socks for the other pattern when I'm up to it. In the meantime, here's a picture of the sock I'm starting with
. I'm really happy with the colorway and I do like it with this particular pattern, one of my own design, which I will be entering in the sock design contest for Summer of Socks, so you'll have to wait for publication but it's not the one I started with and I'm sure when I stop pouting I'll be fine, until then I'll just be sulking, and knitting socks, my only solace in all of this is that I am once again knitting socks and all is right in my particular knitting universe. I hope all is well in yours also.... CJ..... Oh and K, no I haven't forgotten your sweater but its a finish me up project not a knit me because you can't knit socks today project, I hope that makes all of this perfectly clear. C
