the mystery is solved

Sorry that the picture's not that good. I'm too pooped to take a decent one. I'll try to get a better snapshot tomorrow. There's a flickr group where you can look at the finished quilt tops. Currently, there's only pictures from the last mystery posted.

Off to pass out quietly in front of the tube.

PS. G - those are awesome looking sox. Glad to see that you're finally making something for yourself.

Stepping on

I've finished my Austermann Step socks, and I love them. Started them last Saturday night, and cast off and sewed in the ends at 10 last night, so they really did go quickly. And now I get to wear them today — yay!

On the needles now: Knitpicks sock memories (red hat, which is a lot more purple than shows in the photo), in the free Cable Twist Socks pattern from Hello Yarn. I started these at 10:30 last night, and I'm just a few rows away from the heel already. Let's hear it for thicker yarn and #2 needles! I was worried that the colourway would obscure the pattern but in fact, it enhances the pattern.

And here's a nifty design tool: generate a PDF graph paper chart, of whatever size grid you like. Handy for if you wanted to design your own patterns.

sock woes

Notice anything weird with this sock? Look right at the middle of the foot. What happened? It's as if a totally different yarn was inserted. I don't get it. You may also notice that it doesn't look anything like it's mate - it's really pooling. When I drop off the second sock, I may never be asked to knit another store sample ever again. Only a completely inept knitter could end up with totally different looking socks from the same skein.

I spent every spare moment working on the sock today because I won't get much knitting done this weekend. Tomorrow, I'm participating in a mystery quilt. It starts at 9am and it's supposed to go til 5pm. I'll be pooped by the end of the day.

And on Sunday, I've got a quilt class. I'll be learning how to make the Night Weave quilt. I've picked 2 bright batiks for the 'ribbons' and I'm using black for the background. I haven't done the pre-cutting yet. Can you guess what I'll be doing Sunday morning?

a thousand words

I'm popular

I went to Knit Nite tonite. I was the popular one as everyone admired my new neck warmer. I even wrote out the pattern for someone. The store got a new shipment of Malabrigo so I picked up a skein of Indigo (lots of blue but also shades of lavender, too). I'll use it to make myself another neck warmer.

I delivered the sample sock to the store tonite. It's proudly on display with the basket of Tofutsies sock yarn. I guess I should get started on the second one.

I spent today and this evening seaming up Arwen. I hated doing the cuff. What a mess - I mis-crossed cables, I was twisting stitches - ugh. I also ran into a problem when seaming the back shoulder to the arm. One was longer than the other. I originally started from the bottom of the armhole and worked towards the shoulder but I was getting puckers. So I ripped it out and started from the shoulder so that the puckers will be under the arm. It looks much better now. I kitchener'd the sleeve seam and the shoulder. That took forever. I am so glad that I did some of the finishing now. If I had to do all that seaming at the end, I might never finish it.

And then there was the moment of truth - I put it on and it fits! I only have one little quibble - the sleeves are a bit long so there's some bunchiness just above the cuff that obscures the cables a little bit. I think it's due to the fact that I was between sizes so I knit the next size up. That made the body wider and since the cardigan sports drop shoulders, it makes the sleeves longer. I am hoping that I can block the sleeve to the right length. Overall, I am very pleased. I am really motivated to get that right side knitted.

Sock photos!

Finished the socks for Tony. What a nightmare that was. After I finished the first one (toe-up), I realized that it was an inch too long. So I ripped back from the toe, and then decreased and kitchenered the bottom. The second sock went a lot more smoothly. The nice thing about working with self-striping yarn is that you don't have to do any measuring the second time around — you just have to follow the pattern from the first sock.


And on the needles at the moment: Austermann Step socks. These are going SO quickly. This first sock was cast on Saturday night at 10'ish, and finished last night. I'm hoping to have the second sock done by the weekend, so I'll have new socks on Sunday.


Off to watch Lost now!

my prize

I won a contest from the Arwen KAL a few weeks ago. My prize arrived yesterday - it's a ball of Trekking XXL sock yarn.

I sewed on the binding on the Coca Cola quilt yesterday so I can resume knitting now. I should cast on the second Tofutsies but I've been knitting a scarf with some novelty yarn that's been lurking in the stash. It'll probably end up being a Christmas gift for someone as I don't think I could possibly wear it.

Since I don't have any knitting content, I'll end with another picture. Here's Ricky - the self-blanketing cat. He will find a quilt and crawl underneath it. Luckily, there's lots of quilts to choose from.