What I have been doing since the last post...

A trip to the famous Purlescence



a tour in the Winchester Mystery House







my dad and I enjoyed Spring in California




And finally I finished a pair of socks

One sock done

Thats the first sock that I made for my Mom. As you can see the secret is out of the bag.



I let her try it on,

She said she likes it. I like it too. I finally managed to finish it only thanks to joining Knitwars. Having to rip back most of the foot really had me depressed about knitting it over again. However I ended up reknitting it in two days with the points you get for knitting time and ultimately finishing it.

The colors in those first two pictures are so dark. Here is a more accurate color photo:



And finally, the only major change I made was do a reinforced heel. Its so pretty.

Imagine pictures in this post

 Imagine there is a picture of the sock for my mom right here:






I can't actually show you the sock since it is a surprise for her. If you have access to ravelry then you can catch a sneek peak of it there. Today I did a bit of work on it and did a good bit of the leg of the sock. It looks really nice and I am slowly starting to like the pattern more. 

Imagine there is a picture of New Beth's hat here:





I just didn't take a picture of it. I finished the ribbing on the brim and am working on the hat part but it is going slow. Slow, slow slow. It feels like I am making no progress at all  at the hat even thought I knit and knit and knit. 

A Post for Sarah

Look Sarah:



I finished your other mitten!




Zacky is not so thrilled to see it done though. He would be much more excited to see a picture of both of them together for my Ravelry project page. Oh well. 

Now I am working on New Beth's hat. She wanted "a boring, plain hat" but I couldn't find a pattern for that so I am making it up. I think you all should be a little frightened for what I come up with. 

Eye Candy Friday - Sock Style

Here is my pretty Bartolomew's Tantalizing Sock in progress. I have been working on it on my train rides and as I scan the patient info into my computer I can do about seven to twelve stitches per scan. For most of the time I didn't try this sock on, I had faith in Cat Bordhi that the second sock from her book would fit me since the numbers were so similar to the first one. But then someone from the ravelry board mentioned how unflattering the back looked on them. 

Does this look unflattering?




I think it looks great! Hard to take a picture of that position, which explains why my foot is up in the air, but I LOVE these socks. There is a little nice rotation of color going around the foot that is fun to knit with. 

I have also been working a bit on my mom's sock but I can't show that to you. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish my sister's knitting so she can stop complaining about having only one mitten. 

Some Finished Objects and Some not yet done objects

I am slowly knitting my way through my holiday presents for people and I finished Beth’s present.



I love how the old fashion button looks against the yarn.



I finished ONE of Sarah's mittens.



And she is pretty grumpy about having to go back to school with only one mitten.

Here is the close-up of the sock that I promised you.



And to make up for my mitten failure, I also have close ups of cats:



Izzy birdwatching on the dog bed



Zack, making sure that Stella doesn't sit inside the paper bag.

Finished Objects and Some Works in Progress

I finished the Master Coriolis socks finally last week, and I love them.

Plymouth Sockotta Sock Yarn on US 1 1/2
Pattern is from New Pathway for Sock Knitters: Book One

I cast on and finished my sister’s hat.



Yarn Harlot’s An Unoriginal Hat done in Malabrigo Chunky in Whales Road (I love this color)



My sister actually really likes the hat.

Finally I am working away on my Bartolomew’s Tantalizing Socks.



I am almost done with the heel but when I started the heel I made a mistake and I put too many stitches on the heel and I am hoping that by the end of the heel it will work all out *crosses fingers*. I am loving this yarn sooooooo much. This is my first time working with Socks that Rock and I am so excited that I am in the sock club for the next year. I hope to have a close-up of the front of the socks soon so the linen stitch can show up.

I am also working on my some socks for my mom but shhh they are a secret.

Finally they are done!

THE socks are finally done!

Uptown Boot Socks from Favorite Socks knit with Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome Blue/Green Potluck.



I love how the stitches look.



Really proud of the gusset too. These socks journeyed all the way across the country with me. I have never been to California and I these socks met the fun underground knitters at the Society of Neuroscience Conference.


I know this blog has been quiet for a long time but between work and travel and grad school I have been busy. I have now sent out 3 out of 13 applications to grad school. 10 left and then it is knitting all the time. I can't wait for that. In anticipation I started this pair of Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.



This is done in Socks that Rock Lightweight in Tide Pool. I am loving how the colors are working up, and now I just need to finish the sock on my size 1 needle.

On some bad news, one of my Harmony size 2 needles broke today but Knitpicks customer service is sending me a new one . YAY for amazing customer service.

A full to the very edge to the brim Eye Candy Friday

Last weekend we played tourist at Mt. Holyoke college



Admired the buildings...



looked at the fancy gate...



took weird pictures from the library windows.



Then came the Seuss overload:











And we exercised THE sock...





But we were recovering nicely this week until I got this in my email today....



Now I'm scared for THE poor sock, not even past its ribbing yet....

A tear of joy?

The first of the THE socks is done.
Well... I say done in the sense that it can only be done until its partners is done and then we see how much yarn there is to do the toes in... until then its toe stitches are on stitch holders.

Thing One thought it was done the other day.



In fact it is longer then my foot right now but looks amazing on. Ever Dr. Seuss (With the Cat in the Hat behind him) pondered it for a while.



Yes, we were at the Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield MA. Both socks as well as my parents, my sister and my grandfather enjoyed our time there. More pictures from our trip will be posted tomorrow or when I feel like finding the cord for my camera. (This was a multi-camera family trip so we are buried in pictures)

Today I am mentioning THE sock because while I am happy to FINALLY finish it, its almost sad move on to the next one. I have hated and loved this pattern. Oh, wait. I still I have second dreaded sock to do. What did I say about hating this pattern? I have given myself until next Thursday evening to finish this pair of socks and one other pair of socks. Both pairs now have one sock finished in the pair. Can I make it in time?

Happy Mole Day!

This is just a hint of some of the pictures we took over the weekend. Can you guess where we were?

Errol

Meet Errol the long awaited wacky penguin!



He came to live with Beth over a week ago but it took him a while to become America's Next Top Penguin. He was pretty easy to make. I love his cute face.





He has a lopsided face that is just so cute and his eyes add such character.

Anyone wondering how THE sock is doing? Slower then I would like but I am working on it. Here is the progress so far.

Needed: Yellow/Orange Yarn

I promised someone (ok, Beth the roomy) that I would knit her Pasha for her birthday which is slowly approaching. Does anyone have any yellow or orange yarn I can use. I only need a bit and I'm not sure I want to buy some just for this project. This would be a great way for you to look at all those funny leftover balls from projects you have done in the past.

Do you think I can do the white in cotton yarn? I'm not sure off the top of my head if there is wool white in my stash or just cotton. Would that make poor Pasha look funny?

Shhhh, Don't tell Beth about this yarn hunt. She thinks I forgot her love of penguins.

The math

Well, if all else fails trot out the math and science. We weighed the six inch portion of sock I've already knitted



and the remaining ball of yarn.



Because I couldn't completely remove the two pairs of needles from the knitting, we had to throw in a compensation for the weight of the needle cord dangling off the scale pan. And the answer is....

6 inches of knitting, with the needles = 18 grams
weight of similar section of one needle cord = 1 gram
weight of remaining ball of yarn = 88.5 grams

( 88.5g / ( 18g - 2g) ) * 6 inches = 33.18 inches additional knitting possible

Which means that my original plan to knit a total of 36 inches of sock (2 * (10 inches of foot + 8 inches of leg)) still seems do-able without running out of yarn. At least, I hope so . However that 36 inches doesn't account for the heel section but it allows about 3 inches additional for the two heels.

Thank you to my dad who helped me weigh and did the math for me.