Socks - Toe Up, Two-at-a-Time, Magic Loop

I LOVE knitting socks. When I first decided to try to knit a sock, I was quite intimidated. I had never used dpns before, and all those needles looked very intimidating. I was lucky enough to see the sock episode of Knitty Gritty with Karen Baumer and then Stephan Pearl-McPhee (aka Yarn Harlot). They made it seem do-able so I tried it. I fiddled with the needles the first few times, taking care not to have the dreaded "ladders" along the side. After a few socks, I GOT IT. It was like sock knitting fused with my soul somehow. (Please forgive my picture quality)

Then I started using smaller and smaller needles. Then I discovered knitting one sock on two circular needles thanks to Cat Bordhi's book, "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles" and indeed they did. About a year ago, I found Melissa Morgan-Oaks book, "Toe up Two at a Time Socks (Two at Once on One Circular Needle). Truth be told, I had tried to master the Magic Loop before, but I just could not get it with the instructions I had. I love this book. She takes it - literally - step by step - with illustration and instruction that I found very easy to follow. This is probably my 20th pair.

I usually knit socks when I'm still thinking about a larger project - putting together my ideas, trying to imagine it all the different ways in my mind. Sometimes it takes me longer to reach a conclusion than others. I would think everyone does this, but I wonder if that is fact.

It's a balmy 59 degrees here in lovely NJ today. Yesterday I heard the birds when I woke up for the first time since the fall. Can't wait...Spring

Non-Fitted Knitting

It's nice for a change to be working on a non-fitted knitting project. I love the colors in this yarn which is Knit Picks Hand Painted Stroll in County Fair colorway. When I was young, rainbows were a big thing. Everyone had rainbow stickers on their cars. In fact, I remember buying a rainbow sticker and putting it on my first car when I was 18. I loved rainbows so much, I had two different sets of sheets with rainbows on them. The pillow cases made the curve of the rainbow. I thought that was so cool.

I got this stitch from a prayer shawl pattern and made it wide scarf/wrap length. It is a simple 5 row repeat which forms a "V" with yarn overs. It will definitely need to be blocked.

Last night I got up to advance the laundry, and thought I thought I had secured the yarn well, Rocco figured out how to unfold, turn around and open my knitting bag and got to a newly wound cake of this yarn. It was pretty tightly wound, but he managed to pull it all apart in the 5 minutes I was gone from the room -- that little rascal! I spent an hour unraveling and un-knotting his handiwork. About an hour later, I got up to make dinner, moving my knitting to a table he can not reach, I came back to the same yarn all over the room again. I still can't figure out how he got to it that little Houdini. He's so cute when I tell him he was a bad boy, he so excited from just having the thrill of un-doing, he hangs his little head and looks up at me apologetically as if to say, "I know I was bad, and I'll try not to do it again, but you know I can't help myself". Love my little boy.

I'll post another picture when this one is blocked.

Aran Duffle Coat a.k.a. My Nemesis

I have been planning to knit this coat for myself for at least three years. I found the pattern, which was a freebie at the time from Knitting Daily and loved it. I made one for my sister who was pregnant at the time, and she liked it because it was warm and big. She is much, much smaller than I am in height and weight - always has been. I knew I only had one knit of it in me at that time, it was the perfect interim warm-wear for her.

A year later, I thought I would knit it for myself. I bought the yarn. At the time, I was at my heaviest. The thought of all that knitting was just too much. So I decided to wait. Ironically, last year, I was diagnosed with diabetes and a very under active thyroid. Ironic because it forced me to lose weight which I am still working on, but to date I have lost over 100 lbs. I have been planning to knit it since the summer. Much less knitting than it would have been two years ago -- or so I thought.

In my last post about it, I had just the button bands to finish. A few Sundays ago, I did just that. I was so excited about being able to wear it to work the next day. I tried it on and UGH...I hated the hood. It felt way too bulky, and I also realized I needed to make the button & button-hole bands wider. I knit this a little smaller figuring next winter it would fit perfectly. Making the bands wider would allow me to wear it for the remainder of this winter. Anyway, I was aggrivated, but still excited. Last Sunday, I took to it again. I removed and frogged the hood. I knit a nice roll collar. I widened the button bands. I put it on and boom, the bottom of it lays behind my hips because I figured out that there is too much decreasing at the top of the fronts so it sort of "falls" behind my legs at the bottom. I sat down to survey how I could fix this problem, and realized I would have to rip out the sleeves, and the fronts down enough so I could re-knit the front-tops. I was so upset, I threw it into the bottom of my closet and there it sits. So much for the Aran Duffle Coat.

I remembered I had a lacey scarf I started with Knit Picks Stroll but ran out of yarn. So I ordered the yarn and that is now my priority project. No fronts to deal with, no hoods, no aggrivation.

Thinking of all that frogging, I ordered this Simplicity Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VRF7HQ/ref=oh_o01_s00_i02_details (for some reason Blogger will not let me upload the image where I want to). I have been looking at this for about a year. The price was about $80. I wasn't willing to pay that, but I was willing to pay $55.82 especially after having to wind down 5 hanks of yarn the other night -- my hand and wrist were aching. Guess I'm getting old...