Confession of a Sock-a-holic

Hello, my name is Heather. I am a sock-a-holic. I currently have eight pairs of socks on the needles, and have been seriously considering casting on another pair for days now. I need an intervention.

Sock Yarn Blanket: Week 49

How has your week been? Mine is going pretty well. I got to work on my Sock yarn blanket a lot, so that is good. You know the drill, squares with stitch markers are from this week.

Here are the yarns I will be playing with in the coming week:

I finished one of the pairs of test knit socks this week:

(I am waiting on the rest of the pattern for the other one.)

I also started a test knit of a shawl made using sock yarn - ignore the black, that is not part of the shawl.

258/776, instead of 343 (I am slowly catching up!)

Blanket Project - Week 11

I'm a day early because I don't know how much computer time I will have tomorrow.

More squares were made this week!

I also finished Steve's socks, but since they are Thanksgiving socks, I am not going to let him wear them until tomorrow. I will edit to add a picture tomorrow night, or Friday.

I've only done a few rounds on Mandi's sock... there is barely any visible difference.

62/776, instead of 77

Proof of Love

Have you read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman? I did. I think I read it when I was pregnant with Mara. I recommend reading it - past the religious overtones is a really good anthropological look at how people understand and express love. While reading it, I instantly recognized gifts as my sister's language, and acts of service as mine.

Yesterday, I got a package in the mail. I knew it was coming; my sister gave me a heads up on Saturday that she sent it. I spent a lot of time checking out the window to see if the postal worker was here yet. At 3:36pm he pulled in. I tried to wait patiently for the thud against my front door. Mara woke up as I was waiting. I scooped her up as the package was set against the door, and made my way down the stairs. I opened the door and found this:

So exciting! I took the box up to my room so I could open it in peace (read: without children on top of me). I opened it and found this:

I expected the circular needles and grey yarn, both to make a pair of thigh highs for my sister, and the purple to make a pair of arm warmers for her as well. The green, though... that was a surprise. I picked it up, and squished it. I set it in my lap, and looked for a note. No note. The following text convo ensued:

Me: Is the green for me?

Pooks: Green is just for you because I thought you'd like it.

Me: I love it! I opened the box and squeed.

Pooks: Yay! I don't know what you'll use it for, but I'm sure you can think of something.

Me: I can't find my arm warmers, so I think I will use the green for those. I was actually thinking about how much I miss my hand warmers this morning. The green is perfect!

Pooks frequently gets me gifts I didn't realize I wanted, but when I get them I am not sure how I lived without them.

Yesterday, I worked very hard to finish two projects so I could get to the projects for her. This morning, I started on her arm warmers. This afternoon, I finished them. Tomorrow I will post them. 

Blanket Project: Week 9

This week, I didn't work on the blanket at all :( I have been really busy trying to finish a couple projects that have to be in the mail by the 15th. The first project is done, and the second was almost done, but then... I realized it was going to be waaaay to big. I frogged it this morning. I am trying to convince myself to CO again, but... my convincing isn't working so well.

Instead, I've been working on socks:

The pair on the right is for my mom. I really love that the stripes don't match, but I'm kinda worried she won't love them. They are ribbed, and the ribbed pattern says "mom" in morse code. I am about an inch shy of the heel. I might do an afterthought heel, but I'm not sure. I will look up a few heels this afternoon.

The pair on the left is for Steve. they are going to have a DNA cable pattern on the front. The yarn reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner. Working on it makes me want a slice of pumpkin pie, and a piece of pecan pie.

I really miss my blanket, though. I think I might do a square or two tonight.

42/776, instead of 63

Blanket Project Thursday - Week 4

I started two pairs of socks this week - one for my mom, and my first ever pair for me! The first sock for my mom is about half done. This is as far as I got last night:

You probably recognize the yarn from last week's post. I decided to go with cables after all, and am using the Simply Ginny Socks! pattern by Anna Peck Maliszewski. I decided to modify the pattern to have an afterthought heel because of the gorgeous stripes. This will be my first attempt at this type of heel. Wish me luck!

I've barely started the socks for me:

They are going to be helical stripe socks, which is mostly mindless knitting. I think I am going to sit them next to my computer downstairs for when I am waiting to load into WoW. (Yes, the game has lured me back with its promise of pokemon-type things, and the ability to play as a panda race.)

I used the lighter blue color in the blanket already - it is the big square for the week. I was going to use the skew sock yarn to make a big square, but then I loved the blues and greens too much to wait. I will use the skew yarn next week.

I did use the skew yarn and scrap pieces to make a small square, though.

Squares made: 29/776

Weekly Check-In

Hi Sunday! So many good things happen at midnight, I am having a hard time waiting!

Blog Stuff: This owl giveaway week was really fun. I will be closing the giveaway at midnight (or when I wake up, if I fall asleep first). I'll draw names tomorrow, and get in touch with winners. I got a lot of interest for the owls. Stay tuned for more owly goodness.

New from the babies: Gabriel is still potty training. I know *shakes head*. Anyway, today while I was at knitting, he pulled his diaper-thing to the side and peed on the floor by the shoe rack. Steve saw him do it, and was like "Gabriel, what are you doing?!?!??!" Gabriel pointed and said "Look, dog peed." As if we couldn't tell the difference between boy pee and dog pee. I have to admit, when Steve called me and told me I got many strange looks from the other people in the Barnes and Noble cafe because I nearly peed my pants laughing.

Mara has decided she cannot possible be awake without shoes on. First thing when she wakes up, she grabs her shoes and makes me put them on her. I am sure she would sleep in them if I would let her, but they have miniature spikies on the bottom (for advanced grip to prevent clumsy toddlers from dying) which hurt when she kicks. I get kicked a lot when she wakes up with nightmares.

Crafty things:

Nerd Wars starts tomorrow!!! (Which is really only an hour a way right now!!!!) So I was really good, and only started one new project. Other than this Cthulhu and the owls, I only worked on WIPs.

I managed to finish two of them! Both of the pairs of socks I had on the needles are done! This is good, because I need those needles to make two pairs of socks in October for Nerd Wars.

Still no CAL sqaures. I know, I need to work on them. I have been unmotivated for squares, though. I will try to get motivated. And I have a concrete plan for my niece's shirt/dress (dependent on the fabric I end up going with for the base), so that WILL happen this week. I will probably CO some socks tomorrow, too. And maybe the owl my best friend asked me for.

Books:

I finished reading "The Waters and the Wild" by Francesca Lia Block. Ah-may-zing! This had her stylist touch that I missed from''Pink Smog". The lines between reality and imagination were blurred in the best possible way. At only 128 pages, it is a super quick read, but worth the time. Yes, I know it is a 7-9 grade reading level book, but I will never stop loving the words that fall out of Block's head. Really, if I could crawl in her head for a week long vacation, I would. Any longer, and I would probably go insane. 

I also finished The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters by Lynne Vogel. A lot of the information went over my head. I think this book will make more sense to me once I actually make a sweater. I don't have yarn to make a sweater yet, but one day...

Blanket Project Thursday - Week 3

Only three weeks in, and I have made a square out of every color of leftover sock yarn I have. Expect the sample skein (10 yards) I have, but I plan on adding that this coming week. I really love this project, and it is hard to keep myself to a strict one square a day. I want to just sit and knit up the blanket, but I don't have enough leftovers yet. 

I finished a pair of socks this week, so the leftovers have been added to the basket. 

I knew I wasn't going to use the entire skein, so I made a square with it last week. I am trying to decide if I want to let myself start the helical socks, or force myself to wait until the October 1 to cast anything on. If I wait, I can maybe use the project for Nerd Wars. If I decide to wait, I will work on the skew socks. I think the skew sock yarn would make a great addition to the blanket.

I picked out the yarn I want to use for the Personal Sock Yarn Club in October. I am going to look through my sock book and at my ravelry queue to find a pattern. I am considering cables, but I'm not sure - I haven't done a cabled project yet.

I went to Joanne's because someone told me they were having a sale on sock yarn; I must have missed it. I was a little disappointed. I would like more sock yarn for the time between PSYC socks. Maybe my boyfriend got me a spot in the Ewereka yarn club?

Squares made: 22/776

Blanket Project Thursday - Weeks 1&2

I want this:

Shelly Kang's sock yarn blanket

More accurately, I want to make a version of this for myself. I saw this pattern about a year ago, and decided I needed to knit socks in order to be able to make a blanket from the scraps. I don't want to buy yarn specifically for the blanket, so that means I need to make a lot of socks, or things out of sock weight yarn. Maybe I can convince Becka's mom to give me her sock yarn leftovers?

Shelly Kang put the instructions to make a blanket like this on her blog.

Details on her blanket:

The finished dimensions are 53″ X 72.5″, or 134 X 184 cm (diamond point to diamond point.)

The finished weight is 2 lbs, 13 oz or 1.282 kg.

That’s about 5960 yards/5450 meters – or 3.3 miles/5.4 kilometers of yarn.

512 sts per square times 736 squares (counting each of the large squares as four) adds up to 376,832 stitches in the squares alone.

I want my blanket to be 60"x84". This will take 776 squares measuring 3 1/2" on the diagonal. The average weight of the squares I have made so far is 2.5g, so I estimate needing about 2kg of yarn.

My collection of sock yarn scraps so far is pretty small:

I have two pairs of socks on the needles right now:

and I am in a Personal Sock Yarn Club on ravelry where my goal is to make a pair of socks every month for the next year using stash - I had just enough sock yarn in my stash to do one pair a month for the next year.

My personal sock yarn club picks for the next year. The yarns on the left are for my mom, 
to be made before Christmas 2012. The yarn in the middle will make
 sporty socks for Becka, and the yarn on the right will all be for me!

I have a few skeins of sock yarn that are not enough to make a pair of socks on their own, but I am thinking of making a pair of helical stripe socks using coordinating colors. That will give me scraps in two more colorways, maybe three or four. I want my blanket to have squares in many colorways, like Shelly's. So far, I have made 15 squares (each large square counts as four). My goal is to make one square a day. If I keep up with that pace, my blanket will be done in a little over 2 years. I could probably finish it in less time, if I had all the sock yarn scraps needed. Hopefully 2 years will give me time to knit enough other sock weight projects to create the necessary leftovers.

How does all this fit into the theme for the week? I know it this is stretching the concept a little (or a lot), but since I am only using leftovers, I think I can rationalize this into the "make do" category. Some of the scraps I will be using are only a few yards long - not much good for projects other than this. Rather than throwing them out, I will be giving them purpose. Also, the scraps will not be sitting in the back of my stash, growing increasingly neglected and forlorn.

The "Make Do and Mend" movement came about during WWII, when not only food but also clothing was rationed. You can read more about this here and here. I was inspired by Cast-On series 8 to work on this theme for the week.

Weekly check in

Hello, Monday. I know, I'm late. I put the kids to bed last night and had every intention of blogging, but I fell asleep instead. 

Blog Stuff:
I didn't do research into the possible Saturday post, but the more I think about the idea, the more I like it. I will probably be mostly M.I.A. until September because I am traveling to Michigan on Thursday, and won't be back until the following Friday (Saturday?).

New from the babies: 
Mara attempts to say "I love you". Gabriel can say "Rapunzel". Also, does anyone else think it is crazy that three weeks from today is Gabriel's fourth birthday?!?!? I don't want to talk about it.

Crafty things:

I am a little ashamed of myself this week. I only finished one thing! A pair of toe socks for Becka. The second photo has a better sense of the yarn color (and also shows the HORRIBLE attempt at an origami heel that I frogged). The socks will look better on Becka because she doesn't have "Flintstone feet", as my mom refers to the wide slabs I have attached to my ankles.

 

I also finished my Nerd Wars dissertation. I am a few days early, but I have four Nerd Wars projects to do yet.

In the WIP pile, I have made a lot of progress. Both Skew socks are through the toe. The crocheted project bag is on the last `color repeat, and then I just need to make handles and a closure.

For the coming week:

I want to finish spinning the "spring morning" singles so I can ply it before the end of the month. I haven't done any of Rachel's squares, so I need to do that. I'd like to finish the Skew socks, but don't know if that is practical since I only have half my week this week - the other half will be spent doing only wedding things. I have to spend quality time with my sewing machine tomorrow - notion bag, messenger-style project bag, finishing appliques on bags for Jasmine's wedding, fix TdF bag...

 In the mail:
my new spindle came! Isn't it beautiful? 

The woman who donated it also sent a spindle snack, so I spun that. The spindle spins very smoothly.

August Crafting

For the past few months at about this time, I have been writing what WIPs I want to finish during the month. This month, I am going to to it a bit differently. I have quite a list of projects to tackle, but not all of them are WIPs. Some of them are just ideas. I'll put the things without pictures first:

-I need to finish that project bag A.S.A.P. Hopefully tomorrow.
-I will be making another project after the Ravellenic Games end.
-I would like to piece together half of Steve's quilt top.
-I want to cut the pajamas for Mandi's kids.
-I am making a mitten garland for a barter, and would like to finish that this month.
-I need to finish my Nerd Wars dissertation. In other Nerd Wars news, I have figure out 4 of the 6 challenges today: my Ravellenic WIPs for one, a bag I am making for a swap for the second, a market bag for the third, and a pair of toe socks for the forth.
-Make a quilt top for Craft Hope - Project 18 so i can finish the quilt and send it in September.

There are 3 new square patterns for my CAL, which means 4 more squares. If I can manage to do one square a week, I will be great. The patterns are Shape shifting in 12, Moon Granny Square, and The Crocodile Flower.

I am going to participate in a KAL during August and September to make non-vanilla socks with self-striping yarn. I plan to use the pattern Skew with this yarn, and will be casting on sometime this month.

For the Ravellenic Games, I have two projects to go - Diagonal Lace Socks for my mom, and the blue baby blanket.

Hopefully all will go well, craft wise, even though I will be travelling at the end of the month for a wedding. Wish me luck; I will need it.

July FOs - Which contestants made it?

Here are the WIP goals I set at the beginning of July:

Frog a scrap afghan to make cat toys. Completed! 
From this:

To this:

Finish Spinning my first fiber into singles, then Navajo ply it. And spin and ply the spindle snack. Completed!
From this:

 

To this and that:

-Double Moss socks - They defeated me last month, but this month I was victorious!
From this:

 

To this:

-Bryan's Can Cozies - Completed!

-CAL squares - All Caught Up!

After all that success, I suffered a little defeat.

-Aunt Kimmie's socks. Did not even touch. Fail. But, I will finish them in August! Maybe... 

Weekly Check-In

Hello, Sunday! It is time that time again. (I can't believe it has already been a week!)


Blog Stuff:
Last week, I said I was going to write a few things this week. I didn't. Don't worry, I will. They are on my list of things to write about. Sorry for being a flake this past week.


I want to start something this week - "Sewing Tuesday". I have A LOT of sewing to do - for the holidays, for some prizes I donated to competitions. I would like to start pulling my sewing machine down once a week and start putting a dent in these projects. This week, I will be sewing a bag. I don't know yet if this is going to be a "how-to" thing, or a show off thing - possibly a bit of both.

New from the babies: 
Mara learned that wearing a super hero cape does not make her indestructible. Gabriel learned the color "gold". 

Crafty things:
I finished all 4 squares for Rachel's afghan - I am all caught up! Just in time for the next batch to come out in the middle of this week... 


 

I made 2 can cozies for Bryan. They are the same pattern, but with different techniques.

Mandi's double moss socks

For Nerd Wars, I caught my dissertation up. Also, I used helping Becka move (see the rest day in this post) for the Giving Geeks challenge. For the other two challenges:

Mittens for the Geek Pride challenge

And the Heart toe socks for the Nerd Culture challenge

For the coming week:
I plan to spend the next couple days working really hard on Ravellenic projects. Tuesday I will start sewing a project bag. Wednesday, I will get a whole slew of challenges, so I will figure out the rest of the week from there.

In the mail:
Look! I made a new section. This probably won't happen every week, but this week I got some awesome things in the mail.


Remember the arm warmers I finished last week? I sent them to my barter partner on Monday, and she sent me her part of the barter - hand made buttons and stitch markers! Aren't they gorgeous?

Remember hearing about a my fiber-fairy godmother? Well, she struck again. When I checked the mail on Monday, there was a huge box outside my door. Inside I found a letter

and a LOT of fiber (that white rectangle is a piece of printer paper):

From Nistock Farms

Blue mystery fiber:

Purple mystery fiber

Babydoll Southdown

I felt so grateful when I opened the package. It is just amazing that someone would send me so much fiber, just because I mentioned I had run out. Thank you, Carrie.