Socks finished/Socks started

I finished DS's spiral rib socks this weekend. I need to try them on him but it is so warm here I hate to put a wool blend on him. I finally cast on a pair of socks for ME ME ME! I am using some Meilenweitt cotton jacquard that DH bought for me last spring. It is a great orange yarn (has some white, yellow and grey as well). I am getting 8 sts/inch which is unusual for me. I usually get 7 sts to the inch on sock weight yarn. I was able to do the picot edge but I used the instructions from BoogaJ instead of Claudia's.

It occurs to me that I should really try this on to make sure it will fit before going any further.

Blessed Friday!

Am v. glad it is Friday. Am even more glad that it is only one more week until Spring Break.

My knittin' bud at work is coveting my Truly Tasha shawl. I knit mine a couple of years ago in some burnt orange Cotton Fleece. I really like it- both pattern and colour. She's been after me to give her the pattern so I finally remembered today and printed it out. I enjoyed looking at the Wooly West website. I have the Happy Trails pattern book to use with the Happy Trails yarn. I knit the socks using the barbed wire pattern. I will look up the correct name when I get home tonight. I thought it was really clever of the author to use barbed wire as a pattern idea. I liked the Happy Trails sock yarn too. I've got some in my stash. I would like to knit with this yarn again now that I am a more experienced knitter. The two socks I have knit from this yarn are now too small to wear! I machine washed them and hung to dry. BUT I didn't know very much about stranding when I knit them so they aren't as "giving" as they could be.

Am plugging away at DS's tube socks. I am making the tube spiral the other way for the second sock-just cause I can!

Here book, book, book. . .

My favorite knitting book is Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. Several years ago I had to go to Utah for work and decided to bring along my copy to have autographed. I spent most of my time in Provo, UT and was packing to return home via Salt Lake City when I realized my book was missing! Horrors! It must have been stolen! I called and told my (then) DH how upset I was that someone had stolen my book. He calmly pointed out that it was highly unlikely that someone had stolen a knitting book. (What does he know?) I went to SLC and met Nancy Bush, briefly, at the Wooly West and even showed her the sock I was knitting. (Item: I was knitting the Ukrainian socks and had done the peasant heel wrong.) She was v. nice but I was upset that my book was Gone Forever.

When I returned home the book was laying on the bed where I had been packing my suitcase for the trip. This is a book that likes to get lost. I think I have lost my copy no less than seven times. It is currently lost. I think part of the problem is that I bring it to work sometimes and can never remember if it is at work or home. I was looking for it this time because I wanted to do a star toe on the spiral tube socks for DS. So I called Sister:

"I've already looked under the bed and can't find my copy of Folk Socks. Can you give me the directions out of your for the Star Toe?" After laughing at me she did so and I have finished one sock for DS.

It looks like he is wearing a bright red cast on his leg! I cast on this arvo for the second sock so soon he will be wearing TWO bright red casts! I am glad he is too small to tell me what he will and won't wear!

I didn't even go to the yarn store.

Saturday I met up with the local Betsy-Texans. We're an unofficial chapter of the Betsy Tacy Society. The last time I saw the girls was at my baby shower and I was hugely pregnant. This time I brought DS and Ames brought her baby girl. Baby Girl is almost a year old but DS is bigger than she is. She was so cute in her mint green warmups with rosebud embroidery. Both children were exceptionally well behaved. Even when the bakery closed and we were forced to go hang out at a Kroger's grocery store.

Yarns 2 Ewe is very close to where we met but I didn't even go there. I was kinda surprised at myself but I did just get all this great yarn last weekend. As it was, I was able to stop and attend Mass at my church. I call it my church but I haven't attended in several years. I am getting back into the habit of going but I really need to find a home church. The problem with Catholic churches is that they are getting to be so huge. It's due to the lack of priests but it really creates a impersonal atmosphere. St. Helen's has a new sanctuary. It is enormous. It is beautiful. It has a lovely baptismal font. It is far too grand for me to feel comfortable. I am a member there but I don't know if I want to stay there. The only pluses to staying there are that it is extremely close to home and they have a school attached. I haven't even discussed with DH if we could send DS there (he's only nine months!) but it is cheaper if you are a member of the parish. The other church that is fairly close is in the planning stages of a new sanctuary. Another huge place?

I love a boring training session.

Had to attend a useless training session today. Did I mind? No way! I sat in the back row and knit the entire time. I am knitting a pair of spiral tube socks for DS out of some sockenwolle we bought in Austin. I started them in the car of the way home from Austin and nearly finished the first sock. Then I tried it on DS. Note to self: try things on DS before you are nearly finished. I ripped it out yesterday and nearly finished the first sock during the useless training.

I have also done a swatch for DH in the brilliant purple Cascade 220 superwash. I like this yarn. Very soft. DH has picked a pattern out of Knitting on the Road (Nancy Bush) but I will have to do some maths to work out size and gauge.

And: I finished the Leaf Edged Baby Hat! I had nearly finished it on our trip to Austin and when I tried it on DS's big melon it was too large. So I ripped it back out and started the decreases really early. Then I got frustrated and just started decreasing the heck outta the thing. I wove in the ends today. It needs a serious blocking, I'm pretty sure the crown will pucker, and I think I am going to have to tack up the leaf points. But it's finished and he really does look cute in it.

I really need to get a place to host photos so I can illustrate this blog!

Happy Anniversary!

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person. In fact, my best Valentines have been from my Dad. He always would get me (and my siblings) one of those cardboard heart boxes full of chocolates. Unfortunately they were usually full of creams and I loathe creams. I much prefer chocolates with nuts or nougats or caramels. One year Dad gave me a heart shaped necklace with my initial on it. I still have it and wear it occasionally. Actually, I suspect that Mom may have done all this but Dad gets the credit!

But DH and I ended up getting married on 14 Feb. So it's not Valentine's Day anymore-it's our anniversary! So Happy anniversary DH!

DH, DS and I took a trip to Austin as our anniversary present. We did a lot of eating: Stubb's BBQ, Kerbey Lane Cafe (twice at two different locations) and Abuelo's (twice). Lots of good food. We also visited the two yarn stores in town. The first was Hill Country Weavers. HCW has been in Austin for a long time. I remember visiting them back when I was an undergraduate. That's where I first got the tatting bug (lace not ink!). They usually have a good selection of sock yarn but neither DH nor I were thrilled with anything on this trip. DH did find a purple yarn that he like but it was a cotton yarn and I really don't like to knit socks with cotton. He loved the shade of purple so I told him to find a wool or wool blend and I would make him some socks. I was also hoping to find some clearance yarn that I saw in September that had some lovely burnt orange in it but it wasn't on sale any longer. Honestly, I hate to pay $8.50 for 25gms of yarn. So we left HCW without any purchases.

We also made the long trek out to Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe. It wasn't really that long a drive, only 10 miles from MoPac, but it seemed long. Isn't it funny how when you are driving some place new that it seems like it takes forever but the return trip is so short? Anyway, BYS is a good yarn shop. The front of the store was devoted to flashy yarns-lots of novelty stuff with vibrant colours and metallic glints and fuzzy stuff. The rest of the shop is more "normal" yarns. DH found a brilliant purple he liked in Cascade 220 but I pointed out to him that he would have to handwash any socks I made from it. I told him to look around for the Superwash 220 and lo! they had it in the brilliant purple colour. He was really chuffed. He told me he would look through my patterns as soon as we got home because he wanted a textured sock. I bought a skein of Lorna's Laces in camouflage for a beanie for DS. And a ball of the Trekking in neapolitan ice cream colours that is so popular right now. DH also found an orphan ball of Steinbach Wolle Sockenwolle in a brilliant red with a black twist. He really liked it and even asked the saleswoman if she had any more. (They didn't). We bought it anyway and I started some spiral tube socks for DS.

It was a really wonderful trip and a fun way to celebrate our first year as a married couple.

Ummm, yeah.

Okay, so I misinterpreted the instructions for this ridiculously easy hat. Ripped back to my picked up stitches and began again. Am disenchanted with project but will finish as I think DS will look adorable in this hat.

I didn't get to knit much yesterday. I was deep in a SQL fog and didn't want to think about anything else. I knit a bit on the way home (DH drove). SIL and Brother had planned to come over for a little SnB but I was really tired and hoped that SIL would cancel. She said she would come over early but it was nearly 8 before they got there. SIL is a fairly new knitter and a voracious one at that. She is wipping out scarves and hats left and right. She is currently working her way through Lion Brand's Just Scarves book (that I gave her for Christmas). I also gave her Scarf Style which she has deemed "Too Advanced." She also pointedly informed me not to buy her any more books for gifts and that gift cards were better. (Sister gave her some knitting books for Christmas as well). I wanted to stab her with a knitting needle but restrained myself as I was nursing DS. I expect I will just get her gift cards to Hobby Lobby so she can continue singlehandedly supporting Lion Brand Yarn Company. I really do like my SIL but I did want to poke her last night. I mean, come on, she is LOVING the Just Scarves book. I think she is on her FIFTH scarf from the book.

I only knit a little bit on the baby hat as DS woke up whilst SIL and Brother were there. I'm still nursing him to sleep so he was up for the duration of their visit. SIL had a little cold so I couldnt sit with her on the sofa and for some reason DS wouldn't go near Brother. Fortunately she was only interested in getting some help on finishing her hat (I showed her how to use a Magic-loop type solution instead of buying more dpns) and starting the latest scarf pattern (from the BOOK I gave her).

After they left I stupidly watched Invasion while nursing DS. It was a suspenseful episode and I was too wound up to fall asleep afterwards. This is why I don't watch TV! So I am a little tired today as well.

I have two goals tonight: finish the baby leaf hat and do some laundry. We are going to Austin this weekend and I want to start a pair of socks to take with me. DH bought me some lovely orange sock yarn last spring when he was in Austin and I am itching to knit it. I think I will try Claudia's picot edge.

Leaves, leaves, beautiful leaves.

DS took a really long nap Friday evening so I started knitting the Leaf Edged Baby Hat . It is an easy enough pattern and I really enjoyed watching the leaves form. I added a leaf repeat as DS has a big melon for a 9 month old baby. He gets that from DH! Hopefully I will be able to make the adjustments to the pattern as I go along. I am a little confused by one part. It says that after completing the edging to pick up 96 (or in my case 110) stitches around the straight edge on the WS and then to knit rev. stockinette stitch for four rounds. I'm confused because I understand that I want to fold the hat along the rev. stock. sts but then I want it to be just regular stockinette for the rest of the hat. I just can't wrap my mind around this for some reason so I am just going keep going with what I think is right. I am also a little worried about running out of yarn. I am using some of my early handspun that I recently recovered from a early knitted hat. Actually, it was my very first knitted object and I tried to do two colour knitting. But I didn't carry the floats properly so I could not wear the hat. Whenever I can get around to getting a photo account somewhere I will add pictures to illustrate the damage!

I also knitted a little on my Multi-D scarf. I really like the Noro. It is such a springy yarn. I keep squeezing it. I may have to knit a matching hat out of it just so I can keep using the yarn.

I keep thinking of things I want to knit or that I need to knit. Sister sent me a hat she started for our SIL that she would like me to finish. My sister knits so tightly- this hat is practically bulletproof. I don't know how I am going to match her gauge. I like to tease her about being so tightly wound up that it tightens her gauge. She's currently knitting a tea cozy that looks like a cottage from Knitter's Stash. She said the pattern recommended an 11 needle but she's doing it on a 10 because all she had was a 10 or a 13. I told her that she should switch to the 13! So she did. I really hope that the cozy felts properly!