After Memorial Day, it's time for more socks!

Claudine and I decided to do a Sock off. I have a rather competitive streak as some as you may know. And once when Claudine and I were comparing sock yarn stashes, my competitive streak decided to show itself and the First Annual Sock Off was born.

The Sock Off will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The idea is to knit the most socks between the two of us in that amount of time. Socks will be awarded points on the following critera, and they'll be weighed afterwards (Claudine says her feet are bigger than mine, so this is an attempt at making it even)

• 1 point for a heel flap


• 1 point for a short row heel


• 1 point for a cable pattern


• 1 point for a lace pattern


• 1 point for a patterned heel


• 1 point for short row toes

Other points will be added as needed. Can you think of any that are missing?
The winner will get bragging rights and a sock yarn of her choosing from the loser. I think there should be a certificate involved as well...but we'll see to that later. :)

Really, it's anyone's game. I actually don't have a ton of traveling going on in June. July, with San Diego Comic Con might help give me a boost, but it's possible that I'll just be so exhausted from working the show that I'll come back to just pass out in my hotel room sans knitting.

So, I think the first pair of socks that I'm going to work on for the Sock Off will be the Over the Knee Stockings from Handknit Holidays (Ravelry Pattern Link). I've got new yarn (Louet Gems in a nice cream color), and a new understanding of the pattern (from having done it a couple times before and failing). I understand that I have to make the sock a few stitches wider to cover my thigh and that it also needs to be about four pattern repeats longer than the pattern specifies. Now that I'm writing that, I hope I have enough yarn. The strategy is that even if I dont' complete the pair by the end of the summer, I'll have knit so much on these socks that when weighed they'll out-match my competitor. mwa ha ha!

I Give Up

I know I can knit the Thelonious Sock by Cookie A. It's just to the point where I don't want to. And nothing you can say will make me! So I'm shelving it. The skein is already wound though, so I'll find another good sock pattern (there are many). I bought Little Box of Socks which, despite being published by Martingale press (I find their stuff is usually more homely than my personal style), it's actually pretty cool. There are way more interesting than non-interesting sock patterns in the mix. However, the non-interesting socks are pretty wild (ack! Save the Fun Furs!). Socks, I guess, are pretty hard to bork.

I do though still really love the Lorna's Laces yarn I'm working with, which is why I'll use it again in a different sock. Hopefully the next sock won't be quite as complicated. With all the other personal things I've had going on, I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with anything too complicated.

Speaking of too complicated, I started working on Jeanie from Knitty. I had cast on and done a row, but I think I borked the second row so instead of taking it back I just decided to re-do the whole thing. in re-looking at it though, it really looks like it's just an odd kind of rib for the most part. So I re-cast on and worked the first row again, and hopefully this time I'll be able to focus enough to actually knit it correctly. I've got a four hour train ride to Rhode Island this weekend, so I should be able to put some sort of dent into it.

We all need a little SEX sometimes...

Stash Enhancement eXperiences for you perverts out there.

I seem to be buying up my weight in yarn. It seems like I'm sticking to the laceweight and sock yarn as of late though.

First up is my own little tribute to Gramps. I bought it the day after he died because, well...touching something so soft was extremely soothing. And it's such a vibrant alive redish marroon I just had to have it:



As the tag says, it's from J.Knits. Lace-A-Licious is the name and i think the color is called Indiana or something along those lines. It's an alpaca laceweight and runs about 1200 yards which is pretty phenomenal. I could get another Icarus out of it, but I think I'll probably use it for one of the other myriad of shawls I currently have queued.

Next up, I met my friend Illana (that's a Ravelry link folks) for some good mediteranian food in Park Slope. I had de-stashed to her two and a half skeins of Twinkle's uber bulky yarn that I accidentally managed to get for $10 a ball (I KNOW!! Way cheap right!?). She told me to pick something from her stash I liked as an exchange. So I got this sexy looking thing:



That's STR lightweight yarn. I'm not sure of the colorway, I want to say it's flower power or something like that. I've used the STR mediumweight, but find that the socks I got out of it were a little too thick for my liking. They're really warm, they just don't fit in my sneekers. So I've wanted to test the lightweight stuff for forever, and this color way is just PRICELESS. It's actually really made me want to seriously lobby my parents come Christmas time for the STR Rockin Sock Club.

I also managed to get out of the deal this cute little number:


That's some sweet looking Malabrigio Laceweight yarn. I'm not sure what the colorway is called, but isn't it gorgeous? So, I think it was a pretty good trade. I got some smaller yarn out of it anyway. I should mention that those two photographs were Illana's, not mine. I never had anywhere near that amount of natural light when I take photos of my yarn. :(

I started organizing my yarns a bit more, in that I now have one BIG bag that I've been putting two smaller bags in. One of the smaller bags is laceweight yarn and the other is sock weight yarn. Those seem to be the two kinds of yarn I've been buying recently. They're easy to pack up with me when I go back to NY from wherever it is I've been, and I don't have to buy a ton of it at the same time.

That said, I'm just now knowing the wonders of a sweater that fits well. I LOVE wearing my TYC around. It's just the right weight. Most of my other finished sweaters I think are a little too warm actually, which surprises me because i'm usually always cold no matter what. My TYC actually keeps me warm, but not too warm.

Aditionally, I just cast on for Jeanie from Knitty. I have really only completed a row so far, so it's not even really worth showing a photo. The project looks somewhat challenging, but I'm sure that once I get into the pattern, it'll fly by.

Thelonious Yoke Cardigan?

Yup!
I finished the TYC! Doesn't it look darling! One of the few sweaters I've knit that I think I'll actually wear! It's great for these spring days that are too warm for a jacket but too chilly to just wear a shirt. I made the bottom about an inch longer and the sleeves a bit longer too. I actually don't even think the sleeves needed it. They're actually a bit *too* long now. The button holes I made are a bit big, so I'm going to have to sew them shut a bit, or just use the surrounding holes from the knitting instead of the button holes. I put on the buttons last week while waiting for my flight to leave out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (really, that's just a big mouth full for "barn with tiny planes nearby"). I found this lady:



Out of respect I didn't ask her what she was knitting (I gathered it was small and on wooden/bamboo DPNs), or even say hi, lest she think I crazy. I turned right back to my buttons.

Tonight, I managed to finish the leg of one of the Thelonious Socks that I started when I was in LA. Doesn't it look great!?



I love the stitch pattern. Which is good, because it looks like I'll be doing it at least three more times. Look at my issue:



yup. either my gauge was off, or i did the wrong size. Looks like I'll be sizing up for this one. Going from a small size to a large. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the size 0 needles I'm using, but they make a nice solid fabric that I think will hold up to the wear and tear that is my feet better than any other gauge.

So, back into a ball it is now. I'll re-cast on at SNB tomorrow night. I don't think I can focus on anything else except that right now, otherwise I'd totally lose it.

Buttons!

So, I found the buttons I bought for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan!! They were in a pocket inside a zippered pocket of the new Jordana Paige bag my friend Victoria gave me! They were just hiding out there the whole time! I was so excited I think I yelled rather loudly and disruptively at The Point. Used to be I could yell like that when I got excited and Burhan or Rebecca or Sande would get excited and happy. I think Illana was happy, but that was about it. Here's what they look like:



So here's a happy little badge I created on Flickr that'll show you what's happened so far in April. Lots of new yarns added to the stash, lots of traveling, and even more knitting. For any of the photos that you like, click on them to check them out closer. I've added most of these to Ravelry (the yarn related ones anyway).

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public items from happyskrappy tagged with APRIL08. Make your own badge here.

ETA: I can't get that damn badge to show up...so just click on the damn buttons above it. GRR! Why won't the flash work with blogger! I have another one of these things on the sidebar! It should work!!

So tonight I met up with Illana (She's Illana on Ravelry) at The Point. It was exactly what I needed after a whole day of running around answering crazy emails and getting ready for Comic-Con.

I finished the tangled part of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and I only have a few more inches of stockinette to do with some short rows for the back of the neck and then another inch or so of garter rib and then I can start on the button band!

Most massive update of the year

Ok...so lots has happened. My new job is exercising different parts of my brain, which is awesome, but makes it really tired to the point where thinking of writing something not work related is somewhat difficult. But I'm going to give it a shot now.

An Event
First things first, I went to Borders at Columbus Circle in the city to see the Yarn Harlot speak. You might have noticed me on her website a couple days after her talk there. I have more proof:


photo is courtesy of Smitten w/Knittin!

Her speech was funny, as usual. And I met some folks that were reading my blog that have never commented. We exchanged moo cards. (hi folks!) The whole event had a happy Cheers kinda attitude with it that comes from waiting for something that you all can't wait for. It was great, the Yarn Harlot liked my tattoo, I met new folks, reconnected with some old ones and had a great time knitting.

Yarn Shop Visits
So, I have actually been traveling a little bit with this new job. I like meeting all these new people and seeing all these different places. I've been trying to get to some yarn shops when I have a few spare minutes.

In San Francisco I stopped in at Artfibers Gallery on Sutter street while I had a free half hour before my flight. I didn't really get a chance to enjoy the store as much as I might have if I were there with friends or if I'd actually had time to knit. I loved the idea of being able to test the yarn. And a lot of their fibers were really unique and interesting. I bought about 350 grams of Sylph which is a fingering weight made of 76% silk 19% superkid mohair 5% wool. It's the "summer" version of their Kyoto and is destined to become a Pi Shawl from EZ's Knitter's Almanac.

I had a bit more time in LA and it seems like the yarn shops were open a bit later there as well. So I stopped in at two. I was bummed to hear that Knit Cafe was closed as they find somewhere to relocate to. I'd heard so much about that store and had bought their book and really liked the whole idea of the place. Instead, I stopped in at Wild Fiber. The place was really nice (it really is as big as it seems in that photo on their website!). The store had a really nice selection of yarns and I came home with about three cakes of a nice hand-painted lace-weight yarn. The staff was really friendly and nice and quite helpful.

Lastly, I visited my favorite shop by far of the three of them. I should reiterate that I really did like the other yarn shops, I just really loved Unwind. The owner was around when I stopped by and was nice enough to even give me the address of the closest In-N-Out burger (I had to try one when I was there!). I bought some Lorna's Laces, a Cookie A. knitting pattern (along with a couple other patterns) a pair of needles and I sat down to start swatching. It was a very happy and friendly environment and I actually felt at home for the first time all week. It was excellent. I'd go back there in a second!

WIPs

So I really have been knitting in my copious free time. I actually finished a pair of socks!


The pattern is the Blue Sky Master Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi's new book. The yarn is Noro's new Kureon sock yarn. And it'll be the last time I'll be using that yarn. Despite the fact that I really do love the colors, there's always one point (usually during the second sock) where there's a knot and the color changes completely. It didn't make as much of a difference for these socks because they were done top down, but it really screwed up the toe up socks I knit a couple months ago. The yarn is totally over spun and gets stuck to itself and I've already come really close to wearing out the back heel in the aforementioned socks I knit a couple of months ago. But I did like the pattern. I thought it was rather ingenious. My only problem is that the "reinforced heel" reinforces a part of the heel that I don't particularly need to reinforce.

I've also been working on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I took it with me on my trip to Tucson and LA and managed to work on it the whole way back from LA. I didn't even sleep on the plane which I think is pretty interesting since I usually fall asleep an hour into any flight. Here's the progress I've come up with so far:


That's a really horrible shot of it, but you can see that I've finished the body and the sleeves and have joined them to the body and started the yoke. I'm really loving the Rowan Felted Tweed and the way it's showing off all the cables.


This photo is infinitely better. Gives a much better idea as to what the yarn looks like. I'm most of the way through the tangled part of the yoke. Only issue is that i lost the damn buttons I bought from M&J for the cardigan! I have to go back and see if I can find the same buttons and re-buy them.

Anyway, this thing has gone on long enough. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time to update more frequently...we'll see...

Randomness

I've had a rather random week...so you end up with a random pictureless post.

• Knitted Rings: Someone gave me the Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar for Christmas. It was a very nice gift, I just wish that the calendar didn't use two days per pattern. It kind of kills it for me. A lot of the big patterns are things that are kind of too suburban for me and just not my style, but I have found some decent patterns so far. I dogear them and then I'll take them out and throw the rest away after the year's over. Well, this week (or maybe last week, since I was away from my office for a couple days I didn't keep up with it as well as I normally do) I saw a pattern for knitted rings. Like, for your fingers. Very novel. there were buttons on them. This seems like an AWESOME stash busting idea. So, you get a Tangled Yoke Cardigan done and you have an extra button? Voila, matching ring!


• The Joy of Knitting Tattoos: I was at a luncheon today with a bunch of people in the publishing industry that I didn't know. I was sitting next to a delightful woman from the New York Times (I have no idea what division, more than likely the advertising one since it was a publishing advertising luncheon) who upon noticing my tattoo asked if I knit. I said I do, and she and another person from another company and I started talking about knitting, Ravelry, Flickr all of it. It was awesome and a great way to break the ice!


• I finally got some moo cards of my own!


• I'm knitting a really adorable frog for a friend's birthday. She found the pattern on etsy. If you're on ravelry, I just added it to my projects, you can click on it through there to find the pattern. It's my first time using Manos del Uruguay. I love the acid green color and I really like the way it's knitting up. It's kinda inspiring me to knit a pair of mittens out of it.


• I finished one of the Cat Bordhi Sky Master Noro Socks. I kinda feel like it's a little too small, but hopefully that won't be a big deal. Also, I ended in the same color I began, so maybe this pair will match! I'll get a photo of the first one soon.


• Also, I almost forgot! Smitten w/Knittin snagged me my sock yarn that I ordered from Annie's! They sold my first order which is pretty upsetting, but at least they more often than not have what I'm looking for when I go there, which is more than I can say for some other knitting stores... Sorry to be snarky, I'm just quite upset about a few things my old favorite LYS has been doing/done recently. That sock yarn will be used for the Over the Knee Stockings take two.


• Also, also, Smittin w/Knittin and I are thinking of knitting exclusively socks and seeing who can knit the most socks between the beginning of July and the end of August. It might be a bit unfair given that I have a lot of travelling planned for those months which is prime knitting time (not to mention Burning Man 08 which is just like a massive time to knit like no other provided I pick up some bamboo cotton yarn). Just curious. If you were going to do something like this, would you set any ground rules, and if so, what would they be?

Well, that's just about all we've got here chez PassionKNITly.