A Not Terribly Productive Month...for Crafting, At Least

November was a pathetic month for crafting.  Between moving, NaNo, and everything else, I've been a busy, busy person.  Not to mention when you move with kids you have to change schools and all of that kind of crazy stuff.  It's been chaotic, but that's not surprising at all, I'm sure.  However, in the past month of limbo, I have had a few things that I got done.  First and foremost!

Yup, that's right, I'm a winner this year!  That's my biggest accomplishment of the season.  I'm pretty proud of myself for it.  I have a long road before publication with editing and the like, but I was able to accomplish it in spite of everything else going on.  That alone is worth some serious patting myself on the back.  That makes two years in a row.

In addition, I also finished a pair of socks for my second child.  He's thrilled with them, and they're ready in time for Christmas.  That was a minor miracle.  For some reason he's got odd shaped feet.  The measurement across his heel is rather odd so what seemed like it should fit really didn't.  On top of that, I didn't want anything that would take much effort, given the way he wears through socks.  I know they're a future darning project, so I didn't want anything it would hurt too much if it got killed.  As a result, I've ended with a pair of socks I think I'm happy with for him.  This isn't the finished photo (because that didn't come off as nicely as I would have liked, but it's a beauty.

I'm finding I really like the Knit Picks yarns.  This one, as the other ones were, was wonderful to work with.  I just wish I could get my hands on more.  I didn't think I'd like the way the twisted yarn came out, but I surprisingly like this.  It worked out much nicer than I'd imagined, which definitely pleases me.  It definitely wouldn't be a yarn I'd use with anything with a serious texture, but it works out alright for a mostly vanilla sock.  This is another version of the MineCraft Socks.

Though it was after the November 30th cut off I'd given myself, I did manage to finish the socks for Bunny Boo too.  That was definitely an accomplishment.  I'd lost motivation and was tired by the time I got to hers.  On top of that, her feet are almost as big as mine!  She's only about a half inch shorter in the foot.  That means I'm effectively knitting an adult sock for her, which seems to take so much longer than the socks for the other kids, even though each size up isn't all that much more work.  Crazy how that works, right?

Apparently hers are in a colorway that's majorly sought after.  It's called Gummy Bear, though it much more makes me think of Care Bears.  She loves it, and that's what matters.  It was hard to stick to my guns on this one when people started contacting me for the yarn, with very good projects lined up for it.  I felt a little bad when I decided I had to honor my promise and keep it for my daughter.  However, the socks turned out great, knit up in the ever popular Hermione's Everyday Socks pattern.  I'd been avoiding this pattern because it's so overly used.  I hate doing what everyone else is doing and prefer to call attention to some lesser used patterns, but with self striping yarns, there aren't a lot of options.  I decided to go with something not quite vanilla, and my daughter loves Hermione from Harry Potter, so double win on that one.  I'm not a fan of vanilla socks, mostly because I want something I have to pay a little attention to.  However, I'm finding that simple socks are kind of appealing to me.  It's something I can knit away at without having to put all of my mind to it.  I can just kick back and enjoy, with enough interest to keep me working away at it.

Next up?  Socks for me.  Everyone else has gotten new socks for Christmas, so I'm knitting myself something enjoyable for the season.  My excuse is I need warm feet just like the rest of us!

So Very Busy

A Minion, Madeline Hatter, Ash, and Rainbow Butterfly Princess

Man, it's been a crazy week!  Last weekend was Halloween, which was a blast.  We went trick-or-treating at a friend's house this year, which worked out incredibly well.  The kids all looked great!  But it was colder than they expected it to be.  It wasn't a huge haul of candy, but I'm okay with that.  A mountain of candy is fun, but with moving and everything, it's so much better to have an amount that can be gone before we've got to move it to a new house.

Next year I hope to get even more creative with it.  I'd love to get to the point where I can make all the costumes for the kids.  That would be exciting.  I remember my mom making costumes for my sister and me.  It was always the best part of the year, picking out the patterns and watching them come together.  It was so much better than shopping for a costume from a store.  I've always missed that part of the holiday, but time and energy have really kind of gotten in the way, especially with four kids!  That's a lot of costumes to make!

Over Halloween weekend I did a lot of knitting, and pretty much anything to distract from the writing I should be doing.  I knit in the car on Halloween.  The next day I sat down and focused as much as I could between shopping for the new apartment and trying to get the house organized.  It was crazy chaotic.  All of this moving stuff has me run ragged.  It feels like I have no time for anything else!

And that second sock was no dream.  I kept making silly mistakes, like using the wrong decrease for half of the heel.  I had to go back and fix it.  It was going to drive me nuts if I didn't.  There were so many parts of that sock I swear I went back and fixed two or three times, which was funny because the first sock went together like nothing, aside from the endless rows at the end.  The second sock was complication after complication.  I was so proud of myself when I finally got past the heel and was able to move on to the next phase of the sock.  In comparison to the rest of it, the leg and cuff I could practically knit in my sleep.  It was easy and relaxing, even with all the crazy going on in my life.  That was exactly what I needed.  I honestly think that may have been what caused me all the troubles before, settling in and viewing it as easy, relaxing knitting.  I lost focus and made silly mistakes.

Over the weekend I wanted to check out best buy, look at options for games for the kids.  I found some great ones, but I also found a new Yoshi game for the Wii U.  It was awesome.  It was epic!  It involved yarn!!!

Of course, most of this stuff looks crocheted, not knit, but it's still super cute.  I'd never before seen a game so tailored to me!  You know what I want for Christmas, don't you?  Yup, my mind has been made up.

Then again, gaming would take away from my knitting time, and would cut into my writing time.  That's a challenge I really don't want to face right now.  I've got enough on my plate.  Still, there's nothing wrong with dreaming of the perfect life, one where all of my games are made with woolly goodness!  I think I would be in heaven at the perfect unification of my geek life and my crafty life.  I think that's a fantastic blend right there.  I could play that game for hours!  At least until I realized it was just a regular Yoshi game, and therefore still incredibly frustrating to me, but it would take longer because of all the cool yarn stuff.  It's a brilliant idea!

And finally, just today, I finished that pair of socks.  I still have two more pairs to knit, even in the middle of this insane move.  I'm not sure I'm going to get it done in time.  I may need to rethink this plan, or to leave lovely notes.  It's just to my kids, who know how hard I've been working this season to get everything done.  It's positively exhausting!  I'm even considering blowing off writing so I can crawl into bed early.  I'm completely wiped.

To think, I've got all of Christmas in front of me still.  As hard as it's going to be, I'm going to have to survive the Christmas season.  That means family events, Christmas lights and the whole nine yards.  I think I might  just drop before Thanksgiving and stay down until well after the new year has begun!  It definitely more suits my speed these days!

Well, That Went Not Quite As Planned

The first Time Traveler sock is done!  I was so excited as I bound it off that I had my son (who was 99% ready for school) take his shoe and sock off to try it on.  The result?  Failure.  His foot won't fit.  He can't get them past the heel.  I've got the gauge right, the measurements right.  The sock fits wonderfully on the foot, but the heel just causes a problem.  I forgot that while his midfoot is a normal size for his age, just like me, he has a problem with a really high instep and an unusually large measure around the heel.  It was tragic.  I began to go through my head to figure out how I could get it to be the right size.  The conclusion?

The socks are awesome, but they're not enough to get him excited.  As you can see, all was not lost.  His brother now gets a pair of new socks that somehow fit him perfectly (no idea how that worked out!) and I'm now casting on the second sock.  It's not terribly far along and certainly won't be done before the end of Halloween unless I knit like a beast, and since I'm moving, ,that's not going to happen.  Still, I'll have one boy happy to wear them all year round.  I know the next one up will love them too.  Is it wrong that I've got no problems with handing down socks?  They steal each other's socks all the time.  I'm creeped out by doing that with underwear though (even though, little secret?  My sister and I shared all our socks and underwear when I was a kid...)

And just in case you were wondering how I'm able to enjoy a movie with my kids while knitting?  Well, apparently you have no need to fear!  Little Bear has made sure I can enjoy all the proper fun of a movie while knitting.  The story is retold in exhausting detail (in case I missed anything by counting or looking at charts).  I even get popcorn hand fed into my mouth so I won't get the yarn buttery.  Who wouldn't enjoy a deal like that!  It's too funny because I put my knitting down once I was done with the heel turn and I was told I couldn't eat it myself.  I had to keep on knitting!  No, that one's not addicted to knits, not my Little Bear!  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and don't eat too much candy!  I'll be enjoying it myself, after some moving.  It feels good to be getting stuff in the new house!  Finally home!

Dashing Back to Double Points

As if it hasn't been made obvious in the past, my preferred method of knitting is by magic loop.  I've heard people talk about the whole "two circs" thing, and it boggles my mind.  The whole two at a time socks thing, I love the idea of each sock being perfectly matched to it's mate, but being realistic, I think that would be far too fiddly for me.  I have a hard time with fiddly things.  I tend to get frustrated.  One of the reasons I like socks so much is the ability to just go until I'm done, and in a reasonable time, I've got a sock popping off my needles and into use.

Unfortunately, finding circulars in a small enough gauge for socks at the local craft store (because I'm on a budget and there was a sale) wasn't going to be a thing.  I worked with what I could get.  I've always been petrified of using wood or bamboo sock needles (because I tend to bend the metal ones, so if I bent those, what would my grip do to wood?)  However, metal needles hurt my hands so bad.  I find myself aching, which leaves me unable to knit.  Having little other option, I chose to take a chance and go with bamboo double points.  I picked up US 0 and 1.

I will freely admit that I didn't cast on the first chance I had.  I looked at them a few times and thought, "Screw that, I'll just break them!"  Then I realized I really had nothing else to knit, so it was bust out those needles, or sit around with nothing to knit.  I decided empty needles would totally prevent me from getting my Christmas knitting done, so there I was, finding myself casting on.

A crazy lock kneed spider of a sock toe.

This project was definitely a learning experience.  The first thing I learned was that I'm really just not a toe-up kinda girl.  I suppose if I were to be knitting from two balls, and were making socks for myself, that might be advantageous.  I could knit them as tall as I wanted, or just knit until I was out of yarn, probably making for knee socks, if not longer.  However, if length of yarn isn't an issue, I'd rather just go with top down socks.  I actually like grafting toes, and I'm definitely not all for the fiddly start of toe up socks.  I'd done toe up socks on DPNs before, but I'd forgotten how much it makes me crazy at the start.  I can't help but think how much it starts out looking like some sickly spider with some kind of lock knee disease, keeping it's legs out straight in all directions.  If it were a spider, I can bet that would be painful.  That works for me, since casting on toe up socks with DPNs is pretty painful for me.  You'd think I'd learn by now, but I keep deluding myself.  I'm hoping this is going to be the last time I make this mistake.  I'm confident it won't be.

The socks in question are the Time Traveler Socks by Liz Sedmak.  She said they were named both for the colorway of yarn she used, as well as for the way they flew off the needles.  I knit these out of the recommended yarn (which is a new concept for me) KnitPicks Felici in the Spooky colorway,  I'd seen some knit up in the same colorway on the project page and loved them.  I have to admit, while working up the foot, I felt the same way.  They seemed to simply fly along.  It was simple and exiting, perfect for watching Frozen, The Lone Ranger, or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids.  I listened to a good bit of CraftLit while knitting recently as well.  It's great for stuff like this that almost seems to work up like magic.

The pattern side of this sock is a simple rib, nothing fancy.  Once you get the first row down in pattern, it's easy to see exactly what you need to do without referring back to the pattern.  I could probably knit the pattern in my sleep now, which is wonderful for knitting on the bus, while watching television, you get the idea.  At the end of the first night, this is how far I got, and I'd started knitting pretty late.  I was glad not to need a test toe because everyone was asleep.  As a result, this is the first one of the Christmas projects that wasn't obvious as to who it was for.  No one asked about it, so I said nothing about it.  Having started so late, I was a good way into it before the kids even had a chance to catch me knitting.  The really fun part is the sock is wide enough that it could probably fit my narrow foot.  This means they may not catch on to this not being knit for me, talk about sneaky!  They had no way of knowing that I hadn't forgotten who this sock was being knit up for, and maybe I was making these for myself, since I loved the colorway so much.  Of course I'm not a Halloween person (aside from it being the final marker for the start of NaNoWriMo (and that's a link to my profile, so feel free to add me as a writing buddy!)  I never would knit these for myself, but that doesn't mean I can't play at it.

The gusset of the sock was written a little less than clearly.  I have to admit, part of the flaw was that I've been exhausted.  The heat in my house has been working, well, less well than we would like.  As a result, I haven't been sleeping well, due to cold and aches.  This led me to not really following the instructions as well as I could have, which means the problem may be on me, not the designer.  Everyone else seems to get it just fine.  At the same time, the end result is kind of fantastic.  The whole gusset is a lot more invisible than it would have been if I'd done it the way called for in the pattern.

I have to admit, the sock does look a little strange to me without the obvious gusset.  The heel used (it's called a fleegle heel) is really easy and requires no picked up stitches or wraps.  It does leave a funky line up the side of the heel.  I'm not sure if I like the finished look o this heel, but I've already gotten several compliments on it, which is wonderful.  It's such a funky little heel pattern, which is something I totally love, funky designs that don't look like every other sock out there.  I'm all about having a unique result!

It's been a wonderful day for sock knitting.  I made two women's eyes bug out at how tiny the needles were, and how beautiful the finished product was going to look.  One woman's mom was a knitter.  The other woman was her mom!  I had to smile at that.  So many people are full of compliments and comments when they see me knitting socks.  It's so intimidating to so many people.  I find it funny because what socks are to people who fear the complexity of socks feel is exactly what I feel about sweaters, compounded with a bigger investment of time and money.  I just love how people react to my knitting in public.  I should do it more often.

The whole thing was capped off with a movie (sadly, not a Halloween movie) and pumpkin spice cookies.  Okay, to be fair, I didn't get to eat any of the cookies.  I'm not allowed to eat cookies, or at least that kind of cookies.  I can't handle the wheat and would be one hurting puppy if I ate them, but I could at least enjoy other people enjoying them while I knit away.  It definitely made for an awesome end to the night.  I've got a lot of errands to run tomorrow, so I'm not sure if I'll have much time to knit, but I'll at least be able to get the first sock done.  I'm really excited to see both finished socks paired up and tucked neatly in the box of Christmas goodies.  (I know, Halloween socks for Christmas...The Nightmare Before Christmas, anyone?)  Then I'll only have two more projects that absolutely must be done before Christmas, maybe three.  I need socks for one more kid, fingerless gloves for my mom, and maybe a pair of socks for my sister.  Given I've got a whole month left to do three projects (before the #grinchalong with The Knitmore Girls starts, at least.)  Then I'm done with my obligation knitting for the year, and I'll finally have attained my goal of knit gifts for everyone I'm gifting this year.  That would be a fantastic accomplishment!

Knitting for the Worthy

In my mind, everyone should be worthy of beautiful, hand knit goods.  The reality is some people just aren't worth it.  Some people just don't appreciate a hand made gift and would honestly much prefer something simple, like a gift card, or something they've truly wanted, like a video game.  I've had to learn to distinguish between the people who really deserve my hard work, and those who don't.  It's taken me a while, but I've decided there are some people I'm just never going to knit for.

As it so happens, one of these people is not my sister.  I picked up knitting when I was pregnant with my second child.  I'd lived near home, but life circumstances kept me away from my family.  I'll be honest, those early projects probably wouldn't have earned the love of my sister.  She'd probably have hated those early projects, made with cheap craft store yarn, simply because I didn't know what quality yarn was at the time.  I love my sister, but she's a bit of a snob when it comes to garments.  They have to be nice, fashionable, and very wearable.  Back in the early days of knitting, that's simply not what I would have had to offer.

After my son was born, it took me almost 8 years to get back to the point where I was near my family.  By then my sister was busy, especially with my mom having been in an unfortunate accident (and I mean that honestly, not in the "accidental" in quotes kind of way).  We hadn't really seen each other, yet I had promised her knits, and I would deliver.

My sister is one of those types that would be any knitters dream.  She loves lace.  She's not afraid to hand wash garments even socks.  Colors hold a special place for her, and she can appreciate the textures and the beauty almost as well as I can.  I say almost because she hasn't had the kind of exposure to yarn the way I have.  It's a different relationship when worked by your own hands.  Even so, she finds it beautiful.  I simply had to knit for her for Christmas this year (though this may be bumped up to her fast approaching birthday).  I knew I had to make her something special, so using the pattern I designed, that seemed like the logical option.

I have to admit, I'm not entirely a fan of how the colors played out.  I had imagined them being a bit more of a central balance.  I had to work with the yarn, matching up scraps to get the striping just right.  This was for my sister, who is every bit as much of a snob in my mind, at least when it comes to beautiful crafts, as I am.

To be fair, she probably would have loved them eve if they didn't so perfectly match.  That is my own personal bias on hand crafts.  Still, these would be her first knitted gift, so they had to be perfect.   They had to be just the way I saw them in my mind.  First impressions count for quite a bit, after all!

I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.  Not only is this a chance to rekindle our relationship as sisters, but it's a chance for me to share something I think she'll really, truly love.  It's something special we can share, since I know she'll truly love them, and if I make her knits year after year, she'll continue to wear them until they wear out, or her closet is bursting with them, whichever comes first.

This is all going to be very brief.  I'm really tired.  Still, I have a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule to keep, which seems to be working for me, and I forgot Monday (or more accurately, my net was down), so I wanted to keep the routine.  Tomorrow's project?  I'll be talking about yet another pair of socks.  Until then, have a wonderful night!

The Other MineCraft Socks

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm on a Minecraft kick.  I had just finished knitting Little Bear's Minecraft socks when his older brother asked if I could do socks for him next.  Frog Buckets (yes, that's what he likes to be called) picked out his yarn from the big box of yarn.  I've been gifted a lot of yarn lately, thanks to some wonderful people, so we've got some options to work with.  He chose this yarn, kind of earthy, and with shades of green and a hint of blue.  It's Comfort Sock by Berroco, a nylon and acrylic blend.  I can personally say I wouldn't have chosen it because I don't do acrylic for my feet.  My kids, on the other hand, do just fine with acrylic on their feet, so it's a perfect choice for my son.  My next challenge was finding a pattern.

I'm not entirely sure what I was going for when I started searching patterns.  I knew I was looking for something free, knit in fingering weight, and had a picture with the pattern.  Somehow I came across the pattern for what was called MineCraft Socks.  Given my son is obsessed with Minecraft, I wanted to check it out.  I must admit, I didn't see why these were called "MineCraft Socks".  I didn't think they at all looked like anything Minecraft.  To me, it looked more like a hex pattern on the Ravelry page.  It didn't make any sense, but my son decided he had to have them, so that's what I made.  I started up my MineCraft Socks for Frog Buckets.  He was super excited.

At first I didn't get it, but it wasn't long before I started to see what the designer might have been getting at.  A few rounds later and I started to notice, yes, that's kind of how the pixel pattern on the blocks kind of looks, at least when you're building with constructed stuff.  It doesn't scream Minecraft to me, but knowing it was Minecraft, it did make sense.  I just don't think I would have figured it out if I didn't know that the pattern was named for the game.  Most importantly, my son likes them, and that's what truly matters.  I'm actually finding I love the pattern too.  I might just have to try this again for the other kids.  It's easy enough to modify for various foot sizes.

Not long after I started these socks, they came on an adventure with me.  It's been a while since I've had a project to knit on the go, at least to easily take with me.  I've taken my knitting with me before, but it's not the easiest to take knitting along with me when I'm working on projects that are too quick or require too much paying attention.  These were perfect to knit on the bus.

Actually, I was really surprised because I not only was able to knit them on the bus, but I knit them on the walk home too.  It was about a thirty minute walk from the bus, so I was able to get a lot done.  The only down side was that I ended up knitting it too far!  I had to tink back an entire pattern repeat in order to put the toe on.  I guess that will teach me to knit while walking!  I should probably reserve that for things like knee socks.  Then I can knit for rounds without having to worry about it.

After the toe was finally done, it looked pretty sharp.  In fairness, I can't really review the pattern completely because I didn't use the recommended heel.  I prefer a short row heel for my kids' socks because it's easier to recalculate the heel than with a flap and gusset.  I also didn't use the toe in the instructions.  I'll be honest in saying I didn't really understand it.  I might have gotten it if I had knit it as I was doing the pattern, but I just didn't feel like it.  I decided I'd rather go with something I both knew and was certain I enjoyed.  The pattern and the yarn actually work out pretty well together.  I love how it turned out.  If it wasn't an acrylic yarn, I might consider making some up for me!  I might just use a different yarn and do it anyway.

For the longest time I was stuck on the idea that I had to constantly progress with my knitting.  I had to do something harder, something more challenging and new.  Now I'm finding I'm knitting a lot of very basic socks, which is better than I thought it would be.  I thought I'd be getting bored, but I'm feeling pretty good about these.  I'm knitting up some fantastic socks for my kids, stuff I can stick in a box of Christmas stuff for my kids.

The second sock is going up quickly enough, which is almost sad because I really like knitting them, and now I'm going to have to find a new pattern to knit.  I know socks go quickly enough, especially when they're for small feet, but I never anticipate them going this fast.  I would joke that I'm going to run out of yarn at this rate, but I know there's no chance of that happening.  I've got plenty of yarn for once.  I'm just hoping I can get some bigger patterns started soon, that way I won't have the disappointment of knowing it's all over much too soon!

The Unexpected Minecraft Socks

When I received this yarn I just thought it was a pretty blue.  Being blue, it was no surprise it ended up being slated to knit a pair of socks for my Little Bear before anyone else got a stab at it.  I'd looked at how the yarn knit up in general on Ravelry, and it seemed like a pretty basic self-striping kind of deal.  I figured it would work out just fine.

It took me a while to figure out what I would knit, but I decided on doing a smaller version of my Dunharrow Socks.  I love the pattern, and I think it's seriously not getting the attention it deserves.  It's perfect for my needs, simple enough to modify, yet complex enough to keep me occupied.  I'm not a vanilla sock kind of girl, though I may find that I need to be when I go back to school.  The best feature for me is how adaptable it is.  I can easily make it into socks for the whole family with just a bit of guess work instead of a lot of effort.  It also serves my obsessive need to have the socks match in length to the very row, since I can easily count the pattern repeats.  These have quickly become my favorite socks, but I digress...

When I started working the pattern up, I wasn't far beyond the ribbing before I noticed something, the dark splotches in the fabric had come out to make a perfect association in my mind.  It looked like a pixilated blue.  Just to be sure, I asked the rest of the family what they thought of when they saw the socks.  For an accurate study (to satisfy my scientific mind), I asked each one independently what they thought of the sock.  Each one of them, even Little Bear (at only 3) said the same thing.  "It looks like Minecraft."

After that they were named "The Minecraft Socks".  Little Bear was super excited that they were for him, but I had a growing problem.  Everyone now wants a pair of Minecraft socks!  I may just have to get creative on future pairs.  The yarn is discontinued, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to work out buying up every last ball for sale on Ravelry.  It's a wonderful idea, and I really do love the yarn.  I'm just trying to be realistic.  Helping people destash right now just isn't in my budget, and I'm not sure how long that yarn will continue to sit around.

As I got to the heel on the pattern the great debate began again.  Did I want to spend the time and energy crafting the same kind of heel as I had last time?  That would undoubtedly involve some level of math, and I'm not sure it's really worth the effort to spend that much time on a special heel turn for a sock that a three year old will wear for a year, maybe two, before his feet are too large for them.  If the fit wasn't right I'd have to rework it a few times, and I really wasn't feeling that kind of effort.  Instead I just went with a simple short row heel, which was probably for the best anyway.  Simple is better, and it just looked so pretty!  Surprisingly I was able to throw on a short row heel from memory!  I really impressed myself there!

From that point on it was the race into the toe.  As much as I want to knit these socks for a Christmas present for Little Bear (and the surprise was kind of defeated anyway by letting him see me knitting it), I needed to be sure they would fit.  What was the point in putting together a fancy sock if I knit the toe too long or too short.  I didn't expect his little foot to be anywhere near as long as it was, so the toe was a much longer slog than I thought.  What is it with kids and their fast growing feet?  I honestly can't keep up with them!  I really miss Little Bear having his tiny baby toes, in part because I could whip out a bunch of socks for him like they were nothing!

I've got to admit, I'm getting better about the dreaded second sock syndrome.  As soon as I finish the first sock, I start up the second sock right away.  That way the sock is taking up my needles, which means they can't be used for anything else.  I've learned this about myself.  If I'm allowed to slack off and not get the other sock started right away, I'll leave it for pretty much eternity.  When I come back I won't remember any of the notes I've made along the way.  If I'm wise (which generally I'm not), I'll make notations on my Ravelry project page.  Generally I'm not.  Of course, that trend is changing as I've got all the changes listed for my Minecraft Socks right there on the page.  I'm learning!

The second sock knit up like a dream!  I found myself thinking, Oh, wow!  Another pattern repeat down already?  How did that happen so fast?  It seemed like they were finished and done before I realized it.  Given how busy and chaotic my week has been, I was surprised I'd managed to get it done so fast, especially with realizing my Little Bear's feet aren't as little as I'd thought them to be!  I had a lot of errands to run this week.

Now that they're done (and I mean really done, ends woven and everything), I'm having one of those moments of not knowing what to knit next.  I have plenty of socks to knit.  I need to make a plain yellow hat before Halloween (we've got a minion in the house!)  I've got a lot waiting to be knit up, but I'm finding I really just want to sit down and knit another pair of these truly awesome socks.  They've become meditative, in a way.  They're stretchy, so I don't have to worry about getting the gauge just right.  I can just sit there, knitting away.

At the same time, I'm kind of proud of myself.  I have another item down to be tucked into the box of goodies for Christmas.  That's one more thing I can check off my list.  If I keep up at this rate, I'll have plenty of gifts for my family come Christmas.  It may not be as much as I'd like (my mom and my sister probably aren't getting knitted gifts this year, though that may change).  I started a bit late in the year.  My stash was too small to be ready for holiday knitting.  Still, it's a start, and next year I can start sooner (especially for the people who won't have changing sizes!)  I'm pretty proud of myself for even doing as much as I have this year.  Progress has definitely been made!

Little Gloves and Christmas Coming

I know, it's not even Halloween and I'm talking Christmas.  Well, to be fair, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween.  It's a lot of money to spend just for one night, and it's a more overwhelming night for me.  Spooky and scary isn't really my thing.  Besides, for crafting, there's not enough time to start on Christmas gifts after Halloween is over.  It ends up with stressed out knitting and a rapid struggle to get finished in time for Christmas.  For me, this starts with big plans to make handmade gifts for everyone, and ends with me finishing the stitching on a doll, deciding it's just not worth it to wrap the package before Christmas morning because that will mean not sleeping at all.  This is why I've stopped doing handmade gifts.

This year I don't have a lot of money for gifts, but I do have a small stash of yarn.  My kids need socks, so I want to knit some for them.  The kids haven't had any socks I've made for them in quite some time, so it's definitely time to knit up some more.  If I start working now, I should have a pair for each of them in plenty of time for Christmas.  But the most wonderful thing about sock yarn is it always leaves scraps.  Unless I were to do toe up and measure them out, there's no way I would finish off a whole ball of sock yarn.  Because of this, I've got scraps to do other cool things with.

Little Bear laid claim to my last sock yarn, from the pink socks I just finished.  He wanted me to make him socks, which would have probably been perfect a year or two ago, but now I think his feet are probably too big for making socks with my scraps.  Instead I decided to go for another project I'd made for him before, which was always fantastically successful.  I can whip them out in no time.  They're almost perfect take along knitting, but they really just knit up too quickly to be good for travel.  I knocked out a whole glove in the short bits of time I was knitting at this weekend's game day.  They're small, cute, and incredibly easy to make.

I did modify the original pattern quite a bit to make his little gloves.  I increased the number of stitches in the hand and the gusset since I'm using a smaller yarn than called for (sock not DK) and smaller needles (one size smaller) because that's what I have on hand.  I suppose I did have size 3 needles on hand, and I could have doubled the yarn to give it a thicker weight, but I decided it was a nicer finish to have them smaller and tighter.  It just more suits the knitting I like, and the tighter fabric will just be so much warmer for my kids as the winter rolls in.  It makes for a nicer product in the end, or at least that's my opinion.

I finished the first gloves while sitting in the parking lot of Walmart, waiting for someone to run in and pick some stuff up for the weekend's game day.  I hadn't expected to finish them before I'd arrived, nor did I expect to have much time to knit, but they worked up so quickly that they were finished before we even arrived.  I'd forgotten how quickly simple little projects like this can whip up.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  The real challenge was keeping them away from Little Bear, who wanted to wear them as soon as they were off the needles!

I was glad I'd packed additional yarn for the trip.  I knew I was going to finish these quickly enough, but I hadn't anticipated needing to cast something on as soon as I got in the door.  I'd thrown in some green yarn I'd used to make some fingerless gloves for Frog Buckets a year ago.  He'd loved those gloves, but they've since went the way of his other pairs, undoubtedly eaten by the void.  He always seems to find them at some later point, sometimes together, sometimes not.  Over the summer he found one glove of an earlier pair and insisted on wearing just that glove to his summer care for months.  Now that he's in school he's been begging me to make more gloves for him to wear.  He wants to show them off to all of his Kindergarten friends.  This meant he was next up on the list, since I wanted to make sure his got done.

His were yet larger, and they look far more simple because of the plain green coloring.  They're not as fancy looking, and they're a little bit lighter, since the sock yarn I'd made them out of is a little less heavy.  I cast the first one on at game day, and had expected to maybe clear the ribbing.  I ended up just watching everyone game, so I was able to knock out the first full glove during the event.  I even threw in the bind off.  This reminded me why I really need something a little more lengthy, like socks.  I wasn't thrilled with the idea of casting on twice at one event.  Next time I'll definitely plan better and leave the gloves for television knitting at home!

The second glove was cast on after we got home.  The kids were exhausted and dropped off to bed, but I stayed up to start on the other glove.  It was done early this morning, after feeling like somehow it must have been magically knit on during the night.  There was no way it was as close to finished as it was!  I'm still astounded at how quick and easy these gloves work up.

The only down side is I'm not used to knitting for my kids enough that any of this can be a surprise.  I want to check it to make sure the fit is good.  Nothing would disappoint them on Christmas morning like gloves that were too small, or socks that they couldn't wear yet.  This means the kids are going to know what their presents are ahead of time.  They're even going to have tried them before Christmas.  That's the down side to this process, but the up side is I know they love them!

Next year I think I'm going to plan on doing things differently.  I'm hoping I can have multiple projects going at once, so I can knit the kids projects after they go to bed or when they're not home and I can do the projects for other people when they're around.  After a year of getting better in the swing of fitting, I should have enough confidence to knit them a few things without having to worry about trying them on.  I can be the good gift knitter then.  For the time being, they're just going to have to deal with knowing what they're getting, and knowing it's going to be something they'll truly love!

Thinking Pink?

I was knitting on my latest socks, all in their happy pink, when I made a crazy observation, I wear more pink than I think I do!  I hadn't even thought about this.  Looking at the socks I've made in my life, there's a huge representation of pink.  It was pretty shocking.

The first socks I ever knit were kind of a teal and blue worsted weight yarn.  They were crazy thick, but I was proud of myself.  This was maybe my eighth knitting project ever?  Thinking about it, this sock was not well thought out.  It was worsted weight wool, which later got felted.  It was thick, heavy, and warm, much to warm for living in Texas at the time.  My then husband was deployed to Iraq and I was feeling homesick in the dead of summer.  I kept telling myself I would need warm stuff for winter, having never done a Texas winter before.  I'd tried to justify it by saying I would be home for Christmas.  It just wasn't a well planned project.  I think I may have worn them twice.  I don't have a picture of them, and sometimes I'm glad for that.  I'm not sure I knew what I was thinking at that point.

I didn't knit socks again for quite some time.  It was almost two years later when I got the bug.  I found a pattern for illusion knit socks of the Cheshire Cat.  I loved those socks.  They were gray and white, and my first real sock knitting, short row heel and everything.  Somehow I lost them in my last big move, which breaks my heart.  I still have no idea what happened to them.

Again, it took about a year, maybe closer to two before I knit another pair of socks for myself.  Most of what I'd been doing was for other people or large, complex patterns.  It wasn't until I got Sock Innovation that I decided to try my hand at another pair of socks for me.  It was all of my third pair of socks and the only ones I still have, in pink and purple.  It was a beautiful handpainted yarn, and though it's specifically not a superwash, the socks have been through the washer more times than I can count, yet somehow they still look beautiful.  I've since learned not to buy yarns I can't wash, but I think I might still do it anyway.  This was what led me to realize I have a thing for pink socks.  I'm wearing them today and realized the socks I'm knitting now are, yet again, a blend of pink and purple.

It was perhaps three years before I made another pair of socks, some lovely green ones with evergreen trees as a border.  I really love them, and still wear them all the time.  They're such a pretty color!  I keep telling myself I need to knit more blues, greens, grays, have socks in all sorts of colors.

This year I feel like I'm spoiling myself.  I've already made one pair of socks for myself this year and I'm working on another pair.  I don't exactly have yarn to make more right now, but that can be changed.  However, what colors were the two pairs of socks I knit this year?  My black rose socks are black and pink, and, of course, you know the others are pink and purple.  I'm starting to think I have an addiction to pink, which is especially funny because I proclaimed how much I hated pink for years!  Pink was far too girly for me, and I was not a girly person.  Clearly things have changed.

So what does that mean?  I currently have four pairs of hand knit socks in my size, one green, and four in shades of pink.  I think I have a problem, or maybe it's an addiction.  Maybe I just like pink socks?  I'm not entirely sure what the deal is.  All I know is I've got to do more socks, because I need them.  Four pairs of hand knit socks does not even get me through a week!  Between all the feet to knit socks for in this house, I've got a lot of sock knitting in my future!

Happy Pink Socks!

Yes, I'm knitting socks again.  These socks are made of an unknown yarn in a lovely happy pink and purple coloring.  By the color splash, they have to be some kind of handpainted yarn, which is good by me because I love it.  I bought this yarn somewhere around a year ago, and I've been hanging on to it.  I kept telling myself I hadn't found the right project yet.  I suppose I've learned my lesson on storing my yarn.  I lost the tag, and I have no idea what shop I even bought it in!

Of course, this photo does it absolutely no justice!  It's a beautiful yarn, but it looks so much less beautiful.  I love natural sunlight for photos, but when it comes to yarn, sometimes it just shines too much and the colors come out far more neon than they actually are.  That being said the yarn is definitely bright and happy.  I've been wanting to knit happy lately, so I got what I wanted.  Of course, this makes absolutely no sense against the beautiful fall colors of the season.  It would be far better suited to spring, but when you're poor, you work with what you've got.  Right now, I don't have a lot of options.

After much searching, I finally found the pattern I wanted to use.  It's called Dunharrow Socks.  There aren't many projects listed for it in Ravelry, which is really the way I most like to go with these things.  I prefer to stick to projects that haven't been knit by everyone, but sometimes they're not made popular for a reason.  In a way, I think this is one of them, though the idea of the sock truly is lovely.

I cast on to knit, and as I sat there, computer on my lap as I attempted to figure out where the pattern was going before I got there, my Little Bear came up and started burying me with toys.  Apparently I needed a train track.  That would help me.  He cheerily added trains to that track.  Next thing you know I had a space shuttle landing there.  I guess these are essential tools for knitting.  It's too bad I didn't know this sooner!  I would have started including them long ago!  I guess this is what my three year old thinks of what I do.  At least he's trying to help and not destroying everything I make!

The first cast on got me thinking.  That leg was going to be insanely wide.  With a stretchy ribbing, that sock could be huge.  Plus, all of the colors were pooling, so one side had this beautiful striping, but the other was boring and dark.  I really didn't want to rip it all out and start over, but I couldn't stand the pooling.  I decided it had to go.  Since I found the socks so loose, I decided to cast on with eight fewer stitches.  I suppose I could have taken it even smaller if I wanted to, but I didn't want to get excessive.  It turns out that it's about the perfect amount.  I probably could have still hacked off eight more, but I like them the way they are now, so this is what I'm sticking with.  I figured it was a slight modification for fit.  Modifications are a good thing, right?

I'm still not fully comfortable with this whole modification thing.  I don't necessarily think a pattern needs to be knit out of the yarn it calls for, nor do I think changing things up is a problem.  I've been known to throw a short row heel on just about anything to avoid knitting a flap, but I've never really gone so far as to remove stitches and make things narrower.  This was new and intimidating territory.

In an effort to lighten the mood (read, get myself to loosen up a bit!) I decided it was time to do something a little fun.  I kept threatening Little Bear that if he didn't take care of his baby, I would put that baby to work!  He thought I was kidding, but I've been saying it for days.  I just got a wild thought to do it already and get over it!  I sat the baby down, threw my knitting in it's hands (which was much harder than it looks) and snapped a picture.  Little Bear thinks it's funny that I have a picture of his baby, slaving away to make Mama some socks.

Once the fun was over, it was time to start a serious discussion about the heel.  If you're following along (and I assume if you are, you may have just read the last post and that's it) you know I hate knitting heel flaps.  Picking up stitches is something I despise.  I will avoid a traditional heel flap at all costs.  Instead, I opt for other choices.  This often means doing math, or at the very least I have to make some adjustments.  I decided to go back to my standard fall back, now that I no longer have my other precious books.  I pulled out New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, and away I went.  I opted to place the gussets on the side and keep the pattern going through the heel.  I only added ten stitches this time, so hopefully this will make for a better fit.  I've opted to use the reinforced heel, which means being a bit fiddly and trying to get one extra stitch slipped in there somehow.  I'll figure it out, I'm sure!

Since it was such a lovely day out, my knitting time got to be enjoyed in the fresh air today too.  I packed up the kids and went to the park.  I was sitting there enjoying the surprisingly warm air, when I noticed something funny about my knitting.  I was coordinated today!  My knitting matched my shoes!  How often does that ever happen?  I couldn't help but laugh.  Only I would be so coordinated to match the socks I was knitting to my shoes.

I'm about ready for the heel turn now.  I've learned my lesson about knitting when tired, so I'm not going to tackle these heels right away.  One day sitting on the needles isn't going to hurt anyone.  It might make me a little sad, because I can't wait to them, but my knitting will survive.

At the end of it all, I'm finding I really like this pattern more than I thought I would.  It may not look at it, but it's basic ribbing.  The ribbed portions are just adjusted one stitch to the side every other row, giving it this really funky textured look.  The pattern was so easy to memorize that I'd picked it up within a couple of rows.  I was afraid I'd find it boring, but I'm really enjoying it.  The colors are a wonderful blend for it too.  I'm thinking this may have to be my go-to pattern for sock knitting in the future.  It's simple enough to modify for the kids.  It's complex enough that they won't complain about yet another pair of plain vanilla socks.  Everybody wins with this pattern!

Hello Again! I've Made Socks!

Okay, it's time to reboot this blog!  I've got all my old knitting and crafting stuff on here, so it's worth picking up where I left off, right?  It only makes sense.

I've really missed blogging about my knitting.  Since I last posted I've made my own pattern, knit plenty of fingerless gloves, thrown together a few hats, and even knit a couple of pairs of socks.  I've taken big old gaps off of knitting too, which only makes sense.  I'm not so much a summer knitter.  It's about that time of the year when I get back into the swing of things.

So, what's on my needles?  Well, I just finished a pair of really awesome socks.  Unfortunately, I'm not in love with them.  The heel is too loose, so I'm looking into options to snug it up.  I'm probably going to rip the whole thing apart to the heel and redo that whole section.  It's better that than have a pair of socks I'm not happy with.  Sometimes I think the work is just worth it.  After all, socks are a lot of work!

As for the yarn, I absolutely adore it.  Unfortunately, it's still too scratchy for me.  I'm going to have to wear them with a pair of silk sock liners or something, because I can tolerate that kind of thing with a barrier.  It just bothers me that I'm not able to wear lovely socks like that.  I love them.  I want to wear them.  I just need to do some work on them first.  We'll see how it goes!

The pattern is a modified version of Black Rose.  I don't like knitting heel flaps, so I blended in a little bit from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.  I took the idea of the heel gusset she used instead of a heel flap.  Unfortunately, I was dead tired when I did the math, so I ended up with a heel gusset that was far too large.  I went based on the number of stitches picked up for the heel flap in the pattern, not by the number of stitches the pattern was around.  This means my heels are baggy.  That's thankfully not the hardest fix in the world.  And, worst case scenario, I rip the whole thing out and knit them again!  I'm really not going to cry about knitting them again.  It was a lovely pattern and I loved working with it.

Overall, I found the pattern for the socks to be decently well written.  I attempted the gloves, but I had problems with the pattern, then ran out of yarn.  Her instructions were confusing, and the whole thing was far too wide for my think wrists.  It was surprising to see that her size small wasn't much smaller than the smallest size of the socks!  I wouldn't recommend her glove pattern, but I definitely love the socks.

Now my daughter wants me to knit her a pair of them too.  Who can blame her?  They're absolutely lovely.  Maybe if I knit these up again from scratch I'll make them for her.  As I said, the yarn was a bit scratchy for me.  I prefer something that's a little less rough textured, if I were to have my preferences.  We'll see how it works up in the end.  It's a lovely yarn, so I'm not sure I'd ever have the heart to part with it!