Knitting: Oh YES I am!

So after a bit of a hiatus with the start of fall... I've jumped back into knitting full force. It's a good thing. I'm amped up, I'm ready to finish stuff. I've had thoughts of pulling WIPS out of hibernation and getting them done. That being said, I am still having a bit of castonitis, too.

I was fortunate to have a nice long 5 day holiday break. I started a hat Tuesday night at Panera with Brandy and Becky. I finished it on Wednesday. It's for my BIL, Patrick. I hope he likes it. It needs some serious blocking though because my stranding was a little tight and it's a bit puckery.

Then on Thursday, while Turkey was in the oven, I was trying my hand at designing another sock. I pulled out the Harmony Guides, Lace and Eyelets book. I have a lovely variagated yarn that I purchased in Portland at Sock Summit from Hazelknits. I decided on a cast on of 60 and started this pattern with a 12 stitch repeat. Well 2 repeats into it, I realized it wasn't going to work. The design was completely lost. :(

So I moved on to another pattern which was a 20 stitch repeat which fit perfectly with my 60 stitch c/o. :) So I've done a full repeat, but I'm not totally sold on this one either, yet. So I set it down. Then Turkey was done and there was the eating and the bloating (j/k). And I decided to go with something I knew. I'm jonesing to have another pair of socks, stat! So I pulled out more yarn from Sock Summit, Blue Moon Socks that Rock in the ST-1 colorway. It's lovely shades of gold, green, orange, red and brown. Very FALL! I could totally see this yarn in a nice leafy design, however, I decided to use this in a Cookie A pattern. I pulled out Baudelaire which was on Knitty sometime back, but it was a toe-up sock... and frankly I wasn't in the mood for toe up (I don't know why). So I said to myself, "Sock INNOVATION!" Pulled that out and found a pattern I thought would look nice with a variagated yarn, "Rick." Friend Lindsey made one of these and it looks pretty awesome, so I decided to give it a go. It's a 60 stitch cast on, so I started. I made it through the cast on and did like 1 or 2 rows of the pattern and it was time for bed.

On to Friday. Met up with Cath and Jimmy at Staufs in the afternoon and brought ST-1 Rick along with me. I did about 3 more rows and just was NOT happy with it. I was really not liking the SSK through a YO. It wasn't fun, I was tense, my knitting was tight. Rick and I weren't seeing eye to eye. I stopped.

I pulled him out, left the cast on and went with something I knew very well, the Ampersand (with mods). I wanted a tighter sock than the first pair. I used the 60 cast on I already had instead of a 54. I used US2 instead of US3 and it's coming along nicely. I made it through the heel flap and turn and picked up the gusset stitches, did a few rounds of decreases and then went to bed.

Here's where castonitis comes to play. While I was working that sock I watched a repeat of Bones in which she's wearing this lovely grey cabled hat and me things I NEED that! And I have this gorgeous skein of Purple Highlander I've been dying to use and it will match my new purple vest! Perfect! Anyway, I have been good and haven't casted on, but my fingers they are definitely twitchy!

And I've really been wanting to make Brian a new Chullo hat. His is a store bought one a few years old and it's seen a better day. I thought of surprising him with one, he rarely pays attention to what I'm doing anyway. So I could work on it and he wouldn't necessarily be the wiser. For a few weeks now, I've been surfing for "free" patterns and I've found a bunch of crochet versions, but little on knitted versions. Still searching.... So Sunday, I tossed him my Interweave Holiday Knits and told him to see if there was anything in there that looked cool. And don't you know the pattern he picked is a Chullo hat by Kenny Chua. I totally forgot that it was in there. I laughed and said I was planning on making you one of those already!

So, I went to the stash and pulled out a bunch of WOTA Kettle dyed colors I had purchased some time back and that project never came to life, so I asked him to pick colors. He didn't really give me any good suggestions, so I think I'm going to just make it up myself and he can live with it. One thing for sure, the boy likes colors, so I think it will be good. And I am twitchy to start this project, too!

But I'm going to finish that sock first. Then look out! Hats! Hats! Hats!

Knitting: Back in the saddle

Well, nothing like hanging out with Cookie A to inspire one to knit again. The class was a lot of fun and while much of the discussion went over items that were in Sock Innovation, hearing it and seeing her draw it up right in front of you, had a much bigger impact. I can extract a lot from reading, but seeing the visual come to life and the person behind it explaining lends quite a different perspective.

Let me start with the drive there. It was long! In part, probably because I had no clue where I was going and partly because I took a wrong turn a time or two. But with my keen sense of direction, I managed to make a few turns and came out on a "good" road that led me where I needed to go.

Anyway, once in town, I called Susan the owner of Ball and Skein and host of the class. She told me to head over to the municipal building area because class wasn't at the shop. I indeed went over and the class was in an old railroad depot building.



So with class underway, the students picked through patterns to find SOMETHING they wanted to make into a sock. I chose a heavily cabled pattern and Cookie helped me work out the sizing and math and placement of "things".



My start is here. I might have gotten further in the class but I opted to do an 80 stitch cast on and rib, so going around 80 stitches for nearly an inch of 1x1 ribbing does take some time. I don't have a name for it yet, but my example is below.



At one point we had lunch:


And of course as all great things do, the class came to an end. Here's a slightly blurry shot of Cookie and me.


And, if you want to see more about Cookie A's adventures here in Ohio, please see her blog (she also has the class photo up).

After class, a bunch of us headed over to the Ball and Skein, where I purchased some fantastic sock yarns! Susan had a great selection (and a coupon for class attendees). YAY! The lighting isn't he greatest so you can't really see the great colors, but here they are. I'll have to take better naturally lit photos later this week.



So after the shopping extravaganza, I headed home.

Last Thursday at Knit Knite, Brandy showed off her finished sock #1 from the Ampersand pattern. She used Jingle Bell Rocks from Socks that Rock. It was pretty awesome and I fell in love with that pattern.

Saturday morning, I wound up my Farmhouse (STR purchased at SS09) and cast on the Ampersand while at the OSU tailgate. Unfortunately, there was a piece of the pattern that wasn't quite clicking right for me. It was definitely a dummy moment, but after fooling around for over an hour or more... I put it away. After getting home, I brought it back out and figured out where my mistake was. Moved on and I finished the sock on SUNDAY!! The only sock I knit faster was my Starry Night sock from last year. Anyway, I still love the pattern and I definitely want to knit the SECOND sock! Like right now. I could have cast on yesterday, but I needed a small knitting break. Then I ended up going to bed early. So perhaps tonight, 2nd sock will be born.

However, before bed, I drew up 3 new sock patterns. With the help of some Barbara Walker stitch patterns. Now I just have to get swatching and see if they will work. But first... the 2nd ampersand sock! :)