but as i was browsing one site or another, i came across this…

my (second-ever) loaf or “boule”

we’ve been blending up a storm at chez crankygrrrrrl. husband just bought a blender and has been mixing up some green smoothie goodness. that, coupled with an insane desire to knit something for me…and an itch to do something different, but not mind-bending…led me to cast on for this…wait for it….brilliant sock.

i bet all clown vomit yarn would like awesome in this pattern. and pending the completion of this pair of socks, i will be flagging this pattern for many of those yarns in my stash. that is not to say that the pattern isn’t worthy of pretty sock yarn, cuz i’ve seen some beauties….i’m just saying that this will work for the ‘difficult’ skeins.

that being said, this yarn isn’t producing dazzling color patterns…but i’m still loving the knitting and it produce a -tame- and handsome sock.

off to drink my dinner smoothie…in this one we used: spinach, kale, carrot, celery, cucumber, avocado, banana, blueberries, clementine, vega whole food health optimizer, apple juice and some water. sounds “eww” but really “yum”!

i’ve been working on these socks for quite a while.  they were started on a weekend that we visited a friend’s chalet on her property in southern ohio.  i was really creative with the name…are you ready for this?….

cryptic note?  measure twice, knit once. had i been a good blogger i would have chronicled my follies.  long story short, i knit the foot too long.  it was *a pain* picking up stitches and snipping off the toe…i tried to save the yarn at first, but gave up shortly thereafter since it didn’t frog smoothly (think of the agony of pulling the length of theyarn through each loop rather than easy peasy frogging).

lesson? pay attention!! and measure twice before you move on to the next part of the sock, else you create more work for yourself.  by the way…the picture?  courtesy of my phone camera.  amazing what good light will do for a photo!

yes of course i’m running it.

no, i’m not crazy.  no, really.  shut up.  NOT CRAZY.

we signed up for the run then, POOF!, twist collective winter 2010 came out. it was inevitable that i would  knit up mascots for us. jennie eveleigh lamond created leif & astrid, an adorable pattern for knitted viking dolls. look at that picture!  so cute!  (i can’t remember bloggy etiquette…am i allowed to save that picture and serve it up on my blog?)…

meet *my* creation (in the likeness of my husband…with a more yellow-peachy complexion and sans hair).

leif aaron-son (rav project link)

he comes complete with a smirk and badly stitched facial scar.  i love the shoe lace detail…and the cape…i mean cloak (hubby insists that he will NOT fly, so it must be a cloak, not a cape).

you also know not to mess with him because of his tell-tale tatoo

don’t mess with this bro-tha

[gotta forgive the picture editing...no photoshop on my computer and the online tools provided by adobe kinda suck...better to blog and regret than to never blog at all]

i try not to be the person to wait to make resolutions (why wait, start now!)…but i did want to have a more productive 2011.  more socks! however, the socks i started for the husband were just not clicking for me.  i ended up frogging them because the cable flow was not jiving with my vibe, ya dig?

i didn’t abandon the project, though.  i dug deep, cast on 12 stitches with jmco and started a toe-up sock.  i’m getting about 8 stitches per inch on US 1′s…but before i actually measured by gauge, i increased to 72 (too big?!).  i don’t have the heart to frog again, so if i have to, the sock will morph into the fil’s socks and my harry potter yarn will leave the house

sigh.  hopefully we’ll have a camera up and running soon.

have a good monday.  :)

first 2011 wip – hp socks for dh
looks like more frequent blogging will commence at the expense of picture quality
…look for more “lap pictures”…i’ll try for better photo shoots later

my husband’s love for knitted socks has evolved over time.  at first he wasn’t too keen on the wild colors and wooly feel. but i slowly added hand knitted socks into his drawer (and he truly appreciated the time i put into my quest to keep HIS feet warm).

anyway, knitting production dropped drastically in 2009-10 and as a result, the wool socks in his rotation were starting to wear out.  i pulled a pair with a large hole at the toe and put them in my darning pile…imagine my surprise when he pulled his foot out of his shoe – wearing the offending sock!  when asked why he was wearing them, he sheepishly replied, “my feet were cold and i HAD to wear my knitted socks!”

suffice it to say, i’m amping up knitting production on his socks.  these are knitted in a special edition harry potter colorway in hedgewig of opal.  i’m leaning toward nylon blend yarn these days since the all merino sock yarns tend to wear rather quickly.  (don’t you think so too? in fact, i’m knitting in wooly nylon into toes and heels of that yarn since i’ve had so many sock fails…er…holes…recently).

knitting notes: cuff down, co72 using long tail cast on, k2p2 cuff, start cable pattern (my own)

kitchenering without a needle? dammit, I was finishing the sock before we arrived. I closed the toe by ‘hooking’ the yarn through the loops with another dpn!

this is sam…what a handsome model!

happy new year to you and yours. may your next 365 bring you much joyous knitting and yarn!

my knitting life has taken a back seat to other things that have piqued my interests. but with less yarn and needles there is a little black hole growing. i miss my knitting friends, online and in RL. truthfully, we have all developed other interests…and ravelry (awesomest knitterly website ever) has quieted the blogging knit world a bit.

in 2011 i’ll have to devote some real time rediscovering online knitting destinations and finding new knitweb treasures. link it up in the comments if you wish (a head start would be nice).

it contains a skein of lornas laces shepard sock in zombie bbq.

le sigh.  i was hoping to knit with it over my vacation. thankfully the fil is picking up our mail.

I just lost the last 15 minutes of my life! (my phone ate my post).

synopsis:
christmas = good
knit = fountain pen shawl
gift = for aunt sally
I like the yarn = kp shadow

on my second sock = just turned heel

happy day. bye

More socks are on the needles…and this time I have a picture! (forgive the lighting…my phone’s camera is a pretty poor excuse for a camera).  I realized that I am in dire need for new socks. Many of my old ones are showing signs of wear with bare spots, little holes, big holes, and felting. Yup, even the superwash socks are felting.

I normally machine wash but hang dry them…but even so…they are probably aging faster than they should. I think this may mean I will be gravitating toward german sock yarn with some sort of nylon in it.  The socks made of this type of yarn in my collection have fared best. Sigh. But I love merino superwash! Too bad I’m too lazy to hand wash!

The socks above were based on a stitch pattern I saw on Ravelry (but for the life of me can’t remember what it was from).  Here are the details:

Yarn:  from KnitPicks.com in Watermelon (aka clown vomit)
Needles: US1 dpns
Pattern: my own
Details: CO 72, k2p2 cuff, ribbed leg with single stitch cross over every 5 to 6 rows, slipped heel stitch, dec to 12 on toe, kitchener closed.
Notes: don’t you just hate the color pooling?