Sock pictures!

I just finished the last row of my first pattern repeat. I thought I would post a picture before I started on the second repeat. In the pictures below, ignore my "stitch holder." I didn't want to dig through my knitting stuff to find a real stitch holder, so I just grabbed some paper clips, lol Hey, they work!

Ignore the ugly cuff portion, that will get folded down and sewn in place when I finish the socks. I am pleased with how the lace is turning out. It is not very complicated, but looks fantastic. This last picture without that horrid flash is much truer to real life than the above picture.

Well, that's all folks!

Tribute socks, REBOOT!

Ha ha ha, the title says it all. Toe-up did not work with the Tribute lace pattern. It was looking okay, but some of the shaping wasn't turning out right. So after 2 days of work, I frogged it... and yes, I felt like crying a little (out of shear frustration, not sadness, lol).

I started the sock reboot last evening and by this evening I am just now back to my previous progress level (used up all the yarn I pulled out and am back to pulling from the skein). I am not enjoying the slipping stitches to shift the pattern between needles (sorta hard since I am working both socks on the same needle...it sucks, I am having to put stitches on a holder until the next needle, it is a lot of messing around). I am really liking how the lace is turning out though, looks just like the picture. I do wish I was using a wool and silk blend. While not as easy care as the wool and nylon blend, it would show the stitches better and just look fantastic. The socks are still turning out really nicely though.

I have no delusions of finishing the Tribute socks before my KnitPicks order gets here. I was hoping to knit up a chunky double knit hat and scarf for my brother's Christmas knit, but I'll need to push myself to finish these socks first. I already have two projects going, even if the green jacket for my husband is very much on the back burner. I have issues with starting projects and not finishing them. It is important to me to get all these gifts done on time, and I don't want to have projects hanging in limbo.

I will post a picture of the socks once I get at least one full repeat finished of the lace pattern. I am on row 16 of 24 at the moment, so hopefully I will have a picture very soon :)

By the way, Reboot is an awesome show, and is now available to stream on Netflix!! Alphanumeric!

Addi Turbo Update.

I used the Addi Turbo Lace in size 1 (2.5mm) to make the socks for my husband. I liked the needles well enough, but did run into some common issues that I had hoped to avoid by buying "premium German needles." The main issue I noticed was the cable. The cables are soft, and I soaked them in boiled water to release the coil memory, but ended up fighting with them while working anyway. Casting on was downright unpleasant because the cable just wasn't soft enough to make a nice loop. It wasn't as much of an issue once I got the cast on over with, but it still felt a bit stiff at times. I also noticed the join snagged a tiny bit. It wasn't bad, but it did annoy me when it happened. Lastly, the tip while nice, just wasn't sharp enough.

I used the smaller size 0 (2 mm) needles to cast on and knit the toe portion of the Tribute socks. The bluntness made it difficult at times. I switched to the regular Addi Turbo size 1 needles, and found it nearly impossible to work with. I could not do the k2tog and the ssk stitches without a lot of struggling. I switched to the lace tip needles and it is going a lot better now. I am frustrated by the bluntness of the needles.

I do think the Addi Turbo needles are good quality, but I will not be buying a full set of them or any of the interchangeable sizes. When I made my recent yarn order from KnitPicks.com I also ordered some needles. I got a size 1 fixed circular in nickel, and sizes 4,8, and 10 in the interchangeable Harmony needles (as well as a cable of course, lol). I bought sizes that I will be using for Christmas knits, so I should be able to get a pretty good feel for them. I would like to get some more nickel tips in the future, I love the way yarn slips on metal and that I knit faster on them.

I can't wait to get my KnitPicks needles and try them out. I have high hopes for the needles and the yarns I ordered. The package should get here end of this week or sometime next (hopefully sooner though!) Expect lots of pictures when the box gets to my house!

Christmas project #1 - Tribute Socks.

I just started project 1 of 11 Christmas knits. Yes, I am making 11 knitted gifts for Christmas this year. I just ordered the yarn yesterday from KnitPicks.com. I had purchased the yarn for this gift when I bought the yarn for my husband's socks. I just started knitting them today and I am totally not following the pattern at all, lol!

The socks I am making are super cool and they are named Tribute. I love the look of these socks, and picked them out for a certain person that I think will like them. They are such fun looking socks! I really am not following the pattern for these at all. These are top down socks, but I am making them toe up. I will make the gusset and heel portions like I did on the Diamond Wave Socks, only I am using the pattern chart for the lace from the Tribute pattern. I turned the chart upside down to work it. It seems to be going well so far, so here's hoping it turns out well! I will post pictures once I get more of the foot portion done so the lace pattern can actually be seen.

A note about the yarn. I have purchased most all of the yarn I will need for my other 10 Christmas knits. I may make one scarf in the black yarn that I ordered, then purchase a beautiful jade green later to make another one. There is a certain person is the family who likes green, and this green yarn is very beautiful but still masculine enough to make a nice scarf for the man I am thinking of using it for. I had thought the yarn wasn't available until the end of October, but I was wrong! It is available the 5th! I forgot to order sock blockers with my last order, so I will make an order on the 5th for that yarn and those sock blockers I keep forgetting to buy.

Elementary Watson Socks, complete!

I finished binding off my husband's socks last night (super late actually...). He tried them on today and seemed to really like them. I think the striping is a little bit weird and they would look much nicer in a solid color. I still think they look nice though, it's not like I don't like them. I do have a few ideas to make them better next time, like casting on more stitches to make the toe area wider and less...pointy.

Anyway, less talking and more pictures!

I like this sock pattern enough that I will make it again after Christmas knits are done. I would like to make at least one more pair for my husband. The pattern is pretty easy to follow and I actually learned to do a couple new things from it. I spent the time to learn how to cable without a cable needle. It was very easy once I got the hang of it and I MUCH prefer it to using a cable needle. Another technique I learned was Jeny's Surprising Stretchy Bind-Off. It really is surprisingly stretchy and something I will most likely be using a lot in the future.

I made these socks using Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn, a size 1 (2.5mm) circular needle (magic loop method) and the following pattern from Ravelry.com.

Scarlow Jacket update.

I was able to get a bit more time in on the Scarlow Jacket for my husband. It is working up fairly quickly and is super simply so far. I completed one of the side panels this morning, and am liking the look of it so far. I am doing a simple stripped garter stitch, so this is great for working on without thinking about it much. This is perfect for knitting while doing school with my girls.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about it so far. Since my new needles came, this project will go on the back burner for a bit again while I make a pair of socks. Socks when I can pay attention and focus, this jacket when I can do nearly mindless knitting. I am hoping to get the second panel finished by the weekend. It would be nice to have this done by the time the weather turns truly cool.

Here is a picture of the completed panel :)

Addi Turbos!

My new needles just came! On first look, they really don't look like anything special. They also look different than I was expecting. I ordered all needles with 32" cables, a size zero, and two size ones with one of them having lace tips.

The first thing I noticed is that the Addi Turbo Lace did not have a red cable, but a light blue cable similar to the regular size one needle. Also the size zero is very different from the other needles. It has a golden cable and is much more blunt tipped. Also the size is not stamped on the cable, only a "2" on the needle portion (the 2 would stand for 2 mm I am assuming). All the packaging looks exactly the same except for noting the different needle sizes. It seems weird that the packaging says the size is stamped on the cable, yet one needle has the size on the needle portion. Is the size zero really an Addi Turbo? I won't be sending it back even though it doesn't seem like it is out of the same series. It would be too much hassle to return it, and the needle seems to be high quality anyway.

What I am looking for most in a needle is a soft cord and a nicely tapered tip. These needles fit the bill perfectly. I do think the Knit Picks needles had slightly softer cables, but I have not yet worked with these and that may make a difference. I plan to start a pair of socks for my husband today, and before I do I will soak the cables in some hot water to see if they soften up some more. I don't need to soak them, as they are quite nice already, but I will do it just for curiosity's sake. As for the needle tips, they seem nice. I am a bit disappointed that the size zero is blunter than the size one, but it is still sufficient. The lace needle has a nice long fine tip that looks perfect for working with small sock yarns. I suspect that I will fall in love with the Addi Turbo Lace.

 From left to right - lace #1, #1, #0.

 Here you can see the difference between the size 1 and the size 0. That solid gold cable is about the same pliability as the blue one, but it doesn't feel quite as slick.

Here are the tips. The tip difference between the lace and regular tip isn't that huge, but dang! Look at that nice sharp tip on the lace needle on the left! You can see how blunt the tip on the size 0 is. I realize it is a small needle, but I was hoping for more of a tip than that. I have yet to see how it knits, so maybe it will be fine in the end.

I will post again about these needles once I've worked with them. But so far, so good!

Diamond Waves Socks complete!

I finished these sock a couple days ago but have been too busy to post until now. Overall I really liked the pattern and will probably make it again once Christmas knits have been made. The Paton's Kroy FX yarn was decent. It is not a luxury yarn, but seems durable. I have yet to wash the socks, but will update once I do.

Here are pictures of the socks themselves.

You can see that I am modeling the socks on my feet. I do not have a sock blocker yet (plan to buy a set the end of the month though!). I also decided that while these socks fit snugly on my narrow-ish feet, there is no way they would fit the wide feet of the person I was hoping to gift them to. I am keeping my first pair of "real" knit socks.

When the socks are on, I really don't mind that the yarn is slightly different colors (one is lighter than the other). The striping is a sort of causal fun that doesn't bother me now that the socks are complete (perhaps I am just happy that they are done, period! lol) They don't add quite as much bulk as I was expecting when worn inside of my shoes, but they do add a bit of cushion and a ton of warmth. I have worn the socks for two days, and I am really going to have to make some more!

As I said earlier, I will update this post after I wash these socks. The yarn says it is machine washable and dryable, but I haven't tested that out yet. If I were going to gift them, I would have washed a swatch just to be safe, but since I am keeping them I will take the chance of washing the socks.

A note about the needles and method used to make these. I used the magic loop method and really liked it. I have tried knitting on two circulars and hated it too much to bother. I don't mind using DPNs but magic loop seems less of a hassle to me. The needles I used were rather short, so next time I will make sure my cable is longer. I used shadow wraps instead of wrap & turn, and will most likely keep using the shadow wrap method. I found it to be a bit easier and it looks nicer. I really like having invisible wraps instead of that ugly out of place thread when doing traditional wrap and turn. This was my first time knitting toe-up and two-at-a-time. I will be doing something different for my next socks (following the pattern to be precise) but will experiment with this more in the future and try adapting patterns for toe-up and two-at-a-time.

Diamond Waves Sock progress, and a needle order.

I powered through sore finger tips and aching hands to get the heels completed on the socks yesterday. My hands are so sore, but I'm loving every minute of it! I had some trouble with the heels in all honesty. Remember this is my first time doing either toe-up or two-at-a-time, AND I decided to use a new wrapping technique on top of it. I used Alice's Shadow Wrap, and actually I much prefer it to the standard wrap-&-turn I've used previously. The tutorial for the Shadow Wrap here.

 See, I really did complete the heel!

I am really liking the pattern so far. It is easy enough to do while I watch tv, and it is quite pretty without being too feminine. This would make a great sock pattern for either guys or gals.

So far I am pleased with how the socks are turning out except for one thing; the yarn color. I made sure to get yarn out of the same dye lot, but they are wound differently. One has more prominent contrast threads than the other and I swear the shade is much lighter. I am still torn whether to gives these as gifts or not. I was leaning towards giving them as gifts, but now I am thinking I may just end up keeping them. I think the socks are beautiful, but the whole not really matching thing bugs me to no end. I don't know what I'll end up doing in the end. It may depend entirely on how much time I have and how many projects I can get completed before Christmas time.

Now to get to the exciting part; the needle order! I stated previously that I was trying to decide which needles to get. I would like to get an entire set of needles that I love, but I need to find which needles I love first! I will be getting at least one circular needle of KnitPicks Harmony line at the end of this month, but wanted to try something else out in the mean-time. After several searches I discovered that the number one knitting needle preferred by the majority of knitters are Addi Turbos.

I placed an order today on Amazon.com for 3 Addi Turbo fixed circular needles. I ordered all of them in 32" cords with a size 0 and a size 1 in regular tips and a size 1 with lace tip. I wasn't going to order a lace needle, but figured heck, I am trying to find my perfect needle after all. The needles are nearly twice as expensive as the KnitPicks needles at $13.50 each. I think that is probably as high as I am willing go pay for individual needles. The KnitPicks Harmony needles are $7.49 each for the smaller size. My order of Addi Turbos should come by the end of next week. Once I am done with the Diamond Wave Socks, I will work on my husband's jacket until the new needles come. I am really looking forward to using them!

While ordering my needles I do believe I may have stumbled across a nice online yarn store. I bought my needles on Amazon.com, but it was through a third party vender named FabYarns&Knits. I went to their website out of curiosity and was pleased by the premium yarns and tools that they carry. I have had a hard time finding luxury yarns on the web, but they have a pretty good selection at FabulousYarn.com It is nice that they also do discounts. You can sign up for their newsletter and get 5% plus they give a 10% discount on every order. The 5% off stacks with their other discounts too. Orders over $100 get free shipping on top of the percentage discounts. There is even a crazy 30% off if you order over $1,000. It would be awesome to get that much luxury yarn, but good heavens that is a lot of money! I can't deny it would be a great deal to get $1,000 worth of yarn for only $700, but that is like my yarn budget for the whole year, lol Their discount page here.

I will probably end up making a $100 order from FabulousYarn.com either end of next month or early November. It would be a great place to get luxury yarns for Christmas gifts from. 100% baby alpaca hat anyone? That would make one dem fine gift :) I will no doubt get the yarn for my husband's jacket from there if I end up making a nicer quality one for him. Oh the yarn I would buy if only I were rich! lol

I believe that is all for now. I will be posting again with pictures when the socks are complete.

Here comes knitting season!

The hot days of summer are slowly becoming a thing of the past and cooler days are approaching. Yes! That means it's knitting time! Knitting in the summer is surely quite possible, but not very pleasant if working on anything that covers a lap.

My summer knitting break is over and I've picked up my needles again over this past Labor Day weekend. I had a few goals for knitting this year, and toe-up socks and two-at-a-time sock knitting were both there. So I started knitting a pair of socks, toe-up and two-at-a-time. I also started knitting a jacket for my husband. While there was a sale at the local Joann's I picked up enough yarn for two more pair of socks.

First the socks I have started. I am using a pattern found on Ravelry.com called Diamond Waves Socks. For the yarn I am using Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn. I am using a size 1 circular needle. The yarn is self striping and 75% Washable Wool and 25% Nylon. It is not the softest yarn out there, but it should be warm, durable, and very importantly washable. I have not yet decided if I will make the socks to fit me, or make them as a gift for Christmas. I am leaning towards them being a gift since I have so many gifts to make in just a few months. Here are the pictures of my progress thus far.

This last picture the lighting is off, but it shows the pattern quite clearly.

I used the Magic Loop cast on, and have been working on the socks since Sunday. It is rather slow going because the size 1 needles make my finger tips sore rather quickly. If I am going to be knitting a lot of socks I may yet invest in some support gloves to help with fatigue and protect me from blisters.

Thank you to my awesome Mother-in-Law for helping me get started on these socks! :)

The other project I started is the long-planned jacket for my husband. I had previously picked out the pattern to use, the Scarlow. I picked out yarn for the project and the price was over $120. I tried again, looking at discounted yarns and got a price of $97. I don't have $100 to be spending on yarn right now, but wanted to start the jacket for him. I ripped apart a huge afghan that I had started years ago and never finished. I have plenty of yarn to work on the jacket and they are colors that he should be okay with. The major problem is that the yarn is cheap acrylic yarn (Red Heart Super Saver) and is worsted while I need a bulky weight yarn. I am doubling up the yarn and using two strands to gain the thickness and gauge that I needed with the size 10 needles. The jacket won't be as nice as it would have been if made out of nice wool yarn, but if this turns out fairly nice and he actually wears it then I will make another one for him out of nice yarn later this winter. Hopefully by the end of the year he will have two jackets :)

I just started the jacket Monday night, so haven't been working on it much so far. I work on the socks, then switch to the jacket when my hands start hurting. I am working on the side panel and here's a picture of my work so far.

The stripped panel is achieved by alternating colors every two knit rows. My main color is two strands of dark green, and my contrast color is a strand of tan and a strand of sage green.

I have several projects planned to make as gifts for Christmas this year, so I've got a lot of knitting ahead of me these next couple of months. I will be making at least 4 pairs of socks and a few scarves, hats, and such. When the family and I stopped by Joann Crafts on Labor Day I stopped by their yarn section to look for sock yarn. I didn't find anything really great there, but did get a couple yarns. My husband likes the idea of having some socks made for him so he picked out the yarn he wanted. He picked out a green color of the Patons Kroy Socks FX. I have a fancy sock pattern in mind as a gift for a specific person that calls for a white yarn, and I actually found a yarn that I thought would work. Red Heart, Heart & Sole yarn is 70% Superwash wool and 30% Nylon. The Red Heart is a bit softer than the Patons yarn, perhaps due to the "with aloe" bit. Here is a picture of the yarn I got, three skeins of each.

On a last note for today, I am in need of some new knitting needles. I only have one circular needle in size 1, and it is on the short side. I am going to need at least a size 0 and a size 1 needle with longer cable if I am actually going to complete the projects planned for gifts (most of them are made using fingering yarn). I need to look around for what needles I'd like to buy.When my husband's parents were here visiting, my mother-in-law let me look at her KnitPicks needles. They seem very nice, with soft flexible cables (one of the main things I am looking for in new needles) and they have a nice feel to them. I will definitely keep the KnitPicks needles in mind, but I will look around more before deciding for sure what to get.

I hope to get the socks done this weekend, start on the next pair and make some progress on my husband's jacket. It is great to be knitting again!