Golf and knitting…

Introducing Fanny, otherwise known as my new golf socks!!

pattern: Get off Your Fanny…oops, that’s Move your Fanny.  Freudian slip?

yarn: Tofutsies color #723

mods:  A few.  I followed the heel as written, although I couldn’t get it to work exactly as written for me.  I’m sure there is nothing wrong with the pattern.  I chalk it up to operator error.  But I got it to work in general and I like the way it looks.  I kept the 1×1 rib going all the way down to where the toe began and then I used a regular wedge toe.

I really like em and plan to start some for a friend soon. 

*ETA:  I used a little less than 50g to make these socks and I have big feet!  You could definitely get 2 pair of these socks out of a ball of Tofutsies.  At $16 a ball, what a bargain!

Played my first round of golf (12 holes with Mr J) and had a great time.  No, I didn’t take my knitting in my golf bag, but it did cross my mind!!  Lesson four is next week…we’ll see how much he’ll have to reteach me, huh? 

Hogwarts Update

Rebecca over at Hogwarts Sock Swap had a great idea to have everyone who is participating do a “show and tell” day.  We are suppose to show the latest picture(s) of our progress and tell a little about it.  We get 5 house points for doing this!  GO HUFFLEPUFF!!

My socks, which I call “First Task Socks” are for my Gryffindor secret pal.  I am using Wyvern for my pattern with a few very minor modifications.  I’m using Judy’s Magic Cast On to begin the wedge toe.  Obviously, I’m making the toe and heel the gold color and I added the “sport” striping at the top.  I’m knitting everything except the ribbing at the top of the cuff on 29″ 2.25mm Inox Greys.  The ribbing is done on 29″ 2.75mm Inox Greys.  Again, obviously, done by Magic Loop.  When I got to the heel I wanted to make them stronger and normally I would go down a needle size but I’ve found that that really makes the heel (especially a shortrow heel) tiny.  I opted instead to double the yarn but still do them on the 2.25mm.  I think it works and they are cushy-er.  Oh, and I am using NatureSpun Fingering weight in the bordeaux (#200) and sunburst gold (#308).  I had to do a few calculations to figure out which size in the pattern to follow seeing as the pattern is written for sport weight. 

I promise that they will be washed as well as de-cat haired before they leave for their new owner! 

All in all, I am very pleased with the way these are turning out!!  I believe I could have them in the mail by late next week should all the stars align.

Too Funny!

I did this quiz and look where it put me!!

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You’re the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl… or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

It is so right!!  And I can’t wait until my trip there!

Grasshoppers are done!

And I couldn’t be more pleased!  They fit great and they are SO SOFT!!!  You can refer back to this post if you want the details.  I’ll just show you the pretty pictures here:

I was really beginning to worry that I wouldn’t get any pairs of socks out for May for SAM3 because I kept just doing one of a pair and then moving on to the next.  I have 3 pairs in various states on the needles right now.  Hopefully one pair will be done in the next few days.

My sock pal knitting for me in Sockapalooza 4 has asked me about the ribbing I add to the bottom of my socks.  For top down, I have used the center 18 stitches or so that are left after you turn the heel before you pick up the gusset stitches (for heel flap, obviously) but have used that as a guideline on socks that are toe up and/or short row heels.  I just do a P2, K2 starting either right where the turn is finished (and the gusset increase rows begin) or where the pattern row begins on the instep (for toe up).  Does this make any sense?  Again, I feel this is a great way to get socks to fit better.

OK, now I REALLY have to cast on my second Hogwarts Sock Swap Sock!!

TAGGED!! Ugh!

I was actually doubled tagged by Yellow House Treasures  and Eleven Stitches  for this 7 (8) Random Things meme.  These things drive me nuts but I also hate to be a stick in the mud, so I’ll play.

Each person tagged gives 7 (or 8, depending on who tagged you…I’m going with 7) random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

7 Random facts:

1)  The first time I ever stepped foot on a sailboat was my second date with J.  Needless to say, I am on my 3rd sailboat and in love with it! 

2) I own and regularly watch a television that is approximately 26 years old and absolutely gigantic!  We hope to do something about this soon!

3) In a previous life (or at least it feels that way), I was a genetic lab tech. 

4) Not that I have lived in many places, but my favorite so far is the seacoast of New Hampshire.  No one believes that a southern girl like me would love NH because of the winters.  Well, I tolerated the winters for the absolutely amazing summers!!  The sailing is amazing, too!

5) I am a closet Star Trek Voyager fan.  I find it a guilty pleasure to knit by.

6) I have taken up golf!  I never thought it would happen but I am 2 lessons in and I think I’m hooked!  We’ll see how I feel after being out on a course.

7) I’m still owed a cat….  I wasn’t in love with our house when we first looked at it.  In order to convince me to consider it, J promised me a “cat per acre.”  We live on 3 acres.  I’ve not fought this because I would be afraid to add another to the mix.  Also, I don’t know if we would have room on the boat for the 3rd.

8) I love reading knitting blogs and I get very upset when I check my Bloglines subscription and no one has posted.  This is a fact and a heads up that everyone needs to post more often!!  ;o)  Of course, I need to, also!

OK, so I did 8 afterall.  I have really enjoyed reading everyone else’s meme but I want you to know how excruciating this was for me!!!

OK, I tag: Cindy and Bethany.  Everyone else has already been tagged.  Its amazing to see how these things get around the internet!

AAhhhh, Grasshoppa!

Oh, that was bad, wasn’t it?

Well, Grasshopper #1 is finished.

I really love these (grasshopper #2 is past the heel, so not far behind), both the wonderful yarn and the pattern.  I followed the instructions for medium and used Inox Express 40″ circular to do these magic loop (2.25mm on toes, heels and leg, 2.5mm on foot and 3.25mm for cuff ribbing).  Although I want to be true to the spirit of the club, I did make a few modifications.  I did a traditional wedge toe, casting on with Judy’s Magic Cast On (my new favorite for toe-up) and, as you can see, I put a ribbing on the bottom to keep the foot from being baggy (I continue to love this technique learned from the Inside Out socks).  I did a K1tbl, P1 ribbing at the cuff because I think that it looks cool and kinda goes with that Ktbl seam up the back.  I also knitted in elastic in the cuff.  I honestly don’t know if it will make a difference…I think these are destined to be baggy.  I used a tubular bind off as explained in The Knitter’s Handbook and this is now my favorite bind off for toe up (if you end in a K1, P1 rib).  It just looks so professional and finished.

I will agree with a lot of the knitters out there that this was not the easiest sock to knit because of the P2togs, but once I got the hang of it….  It was tough on my thumbs and left index finger (I knit continentally).  I just didn’t push myself and took plenty of breaks to work on easier socks.

Hopefully I will have sock #2 finished and ready to wear very soon!

More Questions

Thanks to all of those that left opinions on the socks (so far).  I think I’m having second thoughts on the colorway, but I like the pattern.  If I do ultimately decide that they are not what I want to send my pal, I can always gift them or, if they fit, keep them.  I am making the small size and I don’t know if they will stretch to fit my 9.25″ circumference feet (anyone done these and can give me a heads up?).

The other reason I’m posting, and this is also to get feedback, is that Mr J and I will be traveling to Ireland soon and I have been obsessively on the computer booking flights, B&Bs, rental car, etc.  We will be in Dublin in the beginning of the trip and then will do a very short stay in Doolin (On the shores of Co Clare).  So, I was thinking, it would just be silly to be all the way over there and not take the chance to go to the Aran Islands, right?  I’m even thinking of BUYING an ALREADY KNIT sweater.  The horror!  You see, the first time I went to Ireland with my husband, I refused to buy a finished sweater and instead bought yarn and a pattern and knit it up when I got home.  THAT’S my Irish sweater.  But I was looking around online and found this site.  They actually sell a kit!  Isn’t that cool?  And there largest storefront is on Inis Mor (don’t have all the appropriate accents to insert) which is the largest of the Aran Islands.  Hhmmmm, can you say “daytrip?”  We’ll see if I can convince Mr J to go there instead of a round of golf (right!).

ETA:  Now that I look at what it costs to get over there, if all I think we will have time for is to go in this shop, I might be better off to order it all online (cause my luck is that they never have what I’m looking for in stock).  I’ll have to think about this.

And, lastly, at one point I was able to put pictures up on this blog and when you ran your cursor over them a little window would pop up and you could view them larger.  That no longer happens and I don’t know what I am doing differently.  Anyone with WordPress have any ideas?  Thanks.

I hope she was serious…

My Sockapalooza 4 pal said that she wanted “bright” socks.  Do you think this fits that description?

Or do you think I should try to find something brighter?  Hee!  Its Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in colorway “brights.”  And the pattern is Hedra.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to look, if you would lose the pattern, but I like it.  What do you think?  Be honest.

In other knitting news,

This is a King Cole pattern called Toys 3000.  This was given to a friend’s daughter for a baby shower gift.  Fun and fast to knit.

Finally, we need to mark 5/7/07 as the day that the cats got the closest to each other that I’ve ever seen when not under duress (for example, on the boat). 

Notice how Bonita is sound asleep and, therefore, probably is not aware that Marmalade has gotten this close.

One down…

Here is a sneak peak at the finished first Hogwarts sock

Sorry about the funny angle of the shot but I was trying to let you see the “scales.”

I’ll be casting on the second Saturday night because I have a baby shower gift to finish.

Things are also moving along on my Grasshopper socks and I am still weighting yarn possibilities for my Sockapalooza 4 pal.

Swap Updates

About a year ago I did a secret pal swap where I was the pal to Paper Tiger Knits and my upstream pal was Beautiful Plumage.  It was a very good experience but I didn’t join up for another basically because of the stress of coming up with things for people you don’t really know and are you spending enough and will they like it, etc.  Well, never one to learn from past experiences…I am now in 2 sock swaps: Hogwarts Sock Swap and Sockapalooza 4.  And in these not only do you buy a few things for them but you have to come up with a sock pattern, yarn and actually KNIT them!  Oy! 

Hogwarts:  This one has been going pretty smoothly.  I contacted my victim pal and she has gotten back to me.  She is a Gryffindor.  I finally gave up trying to find yarn in a brick and mortar and just ordered what I wanted in the appropriate colors online.  I’m on the second incarnation of the sock having completely ditched the first one (its lying around here somewhere).  I am very happy with this sock (about an inch or so past the heel on sock 1).  The heel bothers me a bit–when it isn’t on the foot it is rather ugly.  However, on the foot I think it is very nice.  My pal’s foot is a little short and a lot less wide than my foot and this sock is very tight on me.  I think it wil be juuuuust right on her.

Its probably hard to see, but on top is the a “dragon scale” pattern.  Its Wyvern.  It was written for sock weight, I think, but I’m using fingering.  I just figured out what my gauge was on 2.25mm needles and did a few calculations to determine that I can just follow the large size as written and it should be ok.

I have also been contacted my my upstream pal (sock knitting angel) and she seems very sweet.  She sends me all kinds of greeting cards and little emails to just say hi.  I feel very lucky (and a little guilty that I’m not more like that downstream–but you are what you are).

Now, for Sockapalooza 4.  I got my downstream pal’s info off the site and contacted her.  She seems very nice and has given me complete creative control (poor girl!).  I have sent a few emails to learn a bit more about her.  I’m pretty sure I know which pattern I want to use but I’m still debating about the yarn.  I’m not in too big of a hurry because, while Hogwart’s guidelines say you can ship out your socks anytime before July 21st, Sockapalooza wants you to wait until Aug…uh, well, sometime in Aug.  So, I have plenty o’time.

However, my upstream pal has not contacted me.  In someways I don’t mind.  But I sort of want to know if they have had issues and had to back out or something.  I guess it isn’t any big deal.  I’m not really doing it JUST to receive….

Non-swap related knitting:  I’ve cast on Kneehigh to a Grasshopper (STR club) and am really loving it so far.  I’m not very far into it because I’ve been working a bit more and trying to concentrate on the Wyvern sock just in case I change my mind again.  I should have pics soon.

I want to start a pair for my friends Nicky, Jeane, and Jennifer.  Nicky and Jeane are gardeners and have said that they will keep me in asparagus, spinach and yellow tomatoes if I knit them socks.  Good deal if you ask me!  Jennifer expressed interest in receiving handknit socks while we were in CA.  I found a yarn she likes and I’m thinking of doing Monkey or something of that nature.  I’m just waiting on foot measurements (HEAR THAT!!??!!). 

That’s it…back to the needles.