Knit-Along Part One

How's it going out there, peeps?  Are you having fun on the Relevé socks?  I admit, when I first saw the socks, I thought 'oh boy, this is going to be so hard and I'm going to fail just trying to knit after the cuff ribbing is over.'  I've never knit anything other than straight vanilla socks.  I have been known to get Jiggy Wit It and do 1x1 ribbing all the way down the sock.  Just once, though, with size 1 needles, and I'm never doing it again!  So when I saw cables and lace, I thought I was toast, and I have been so very pleasantly surprised.  This pattern is a delight to knit. 

The Shibui sock yarn I am using, aptly named "wasabi" is also a delight to knit.  I'm having quite a lot of fun here, folks.  After years of only knitting one kind of socks one way, this is a breath of fresh air.  The color and pattern (and this gorgeous weather) are making me feel like spring is right around the corner. 



Wasabi.  Wasssaaaaaabi. 

Here is one helpful tip I'm going to throw out there (just in case you didn't know this...or maybe you do something different, or better, who knows?).  When casting on for a sock, you almost can't cast on too loosely, however, it's lousy when you cast on too tightly.  Lousy like a tight rubber band around your calf, am I right?  Not that I...um...ever did that...before.  What can a knitter do to combat this serious issue?  One tool I use is to cast on holding two double-pointed needles together, like so:





This insures that the stitches are nice and loose for the top of my sock, but not so loose that it will fall down my leg when I wear them.  Once I've cast on enough stitches, I remove the extra needle and reposition the stitches around three DPNs (some people like to use four, I just use three so I can pretend I have a "spare" DPN if and when I lose one). 

 I just want to say, to any people out there who are skittish about using DPNs, please don't freak out.  Seriously.  It may look like knitting trigonometry to you, and it did look like that to me before I tried it, but really this is super old school knitting.  This is what was used before circular needles were invented.  You may have more needles, and they may have two pointy ends rather than one, but you only use TWO at a time, not all of them at a time.  Just like regular knitting.  It's in the wording, I think.  You hear "double pointed needles" and think it sounds much harder than it is.  I felt the same way.  In fact, I was so worried about the concept of intarsia...because it sounds like a communicable disease (!), that when I finally sat down with Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book and a blanket I was working on, I was stunned at how easy it actually was.  It's all in how you perceive it....let go of your fear, young Skywalker, and you too can use the force....

In the meantime, here I am, cruising to the heel. 

And I tried to stretch it out over my hand to fully show off its gorgeousness:





What colors are you using?  What yarns?  Heck, what are you knitting on right now? 

Drumroll, please....

Welcome to the first ever Great Yarns/Yarns Etc SOCK Knit-along! 

It took lots of Ravelry window-shopping, blog comment reading, and an exciting seven coin tosses (like the World Series, to be fair) and, my friends, we not only know what article of clothing we are knitting, we also know what pattern we are knitting, and we are in for a real treat!

May I present to you the Releve Sock  from our local designer KT!



This is a top down sock, with cables and lace (never fear, we're all in this together), in a fingering weight yarn.  The yardage required (depending on foot size) is 375-425 yards (343-389 meters). 

KT is a local designer, and has had patterns published not only on Ravelry, but in KnitCircus, Interweave Knits, and 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders, among others.  Her blog is here.  She very kindly offered a pattern of hers up for our knit-along.  I feel so fortunate!  Thank you, KT!

In order to get the pattern, you will need to go to this link, and when you check out, use YARNSETC as the code in order to get the pattern for free.  I had a little trouble with the code this morning, so email me (ellarine23ATyahooDOTcom--replace the AT and the DOT with the @ and the .) if you also are noticing trouble.  I have shot off an email to KT to double-check whether or not I just maybe did it wrong.  We'll get it hammered out, no worries.   

So...I'm gonna go sock yarn shopping this morning.  It's all for educational purposes, right? 

Oh yes, that's very nice.  What else have you got?





Oooooh, me likey.  Got anything else?



Oh Mary, you speak-a my language.

In other news, I have a slightly embarassing story to tell you.  Yesterday I was super-klutzy, and ended the evening (after stepping on a few children's toys and saying bad words in many languages) falling down the stairs!  Not all of them, really only about 4 or 5, but I feel strongly that they were perhaps the pointiest and most brutal of all the staircase (wah).  As I lay there, stunned, at the bottom of the stairs, I realized I had hit my hands and wrists all over the place while I'd tested out gravity.  Since I have a slight dash of hypochondria, I immediately had a teensy freak out that perhaps I had hurt my hands and...(gulp)...might not be able to knit!!

I immediately set to doing in-air, invisible knitting gestures to see if anything hurt.  I am pleased to say that I've been cleared for playing with yarn, still.  However, my husband and children think I should be benched for obsessive knit/yarn-intoxication.  Game on!

PS:  Forgot to add!!  I took the liberty of setting up a discussion thread on Ravelry for the knit-along.  If you need help for a part of the pattern, or you want to share about how much you love it, or just want to chat, we're there.  Just look for the Yarns Etc/Great Yarns board, and the thread should be at the top.  See you soon!  

Mish mash.

Uuuuuuuuugh I cannot take it anymore.

I have to confess something.  I can't keep doing this anymore.  It is sucking my will to live.  I'm starting to break out in hives every time I think about doing it. 

And by "it", I mean the Farmer's Market Cardigan that I've been knitting on since the Nixon Administration. 

In the past week, I haven't done a single thing with it.  I have it shoved in a large plastic bag (I love those huge gallon-sized plastic bags.  Perfect for knits.) and it's been left completely alone.  In my head, however, I've shamed myself so thoroughly that, if thinking about a project was knitting on a project, I'd have finished the dang thing and cast on for another one in laceweight yarn.  Oy vey.

My relationship to this knit is not going well.  If I had a personal relationship with this much hostile resentment simmering in it, we'd be having "the talk".  You know, the one where you start out trying to be all "it's not you, it's me" and "I need some time alone to work on myself" and end up yelling about toilet seats and mothers and "why don't you clean up after yourself, you gerbil-faced buffoon??!?" Yeah.  That's how I feel about it right now.


Angry baby is angry.

So.  Since I am the master of my knitting destiny (stop that laughing), I am making a decision based on desperation what I am capable of living with, combined with my desire to be done right frickin' now the amount of time I'm willing to designate to this project.  The finishing work on this cardigan is getting abridged.  Big time.  I'm skipping the pockets, and doing a different shawl collar treatment, one that doesn't require me to do arithmetic on the cables to make it look right (I swear it's got arithmetic on the cabling for the shawl collar!).  I'm also renaming it.  This will become the I'm About To... Cardigan.  Think I should sell the pattern on Ravelry? 

I've been knitting, not just thinking about knitting, this week.

  These are birthday socks for my mom.  (Hope you aren't looking, Mom, since I haven't gotten them to you, yet!)  You know about Noro sock yarn, right?  Gorgeous colors that drift ever-so-subtly from one rich shade to the next...and never a chance of making a perfectly identical pair of socks.  I tried, really I tried.  The one sock looks like I punted a squid, though.  Just a little inky on the toes.

These are "Picky Pants", in a gorgeous shade of Malabrigo ("Lettuce").  Sorry for the crap picture.  I love these pants so much...I just have to finish off the I-cord drawstring for the waistline of the pants and it will be good to go.

I also cast on for a second pair of Picky Pants, in Azul Profundo.  I keep going around the house, hoping to use the word profundo in a sentence, because it just sounds cool.  Profundo, eh?

Muy profundo, ci.  I have profundo feelings about the Malabrigo.  I like pizza profundo, it's supposed to rain-o  profundo today...ok, I will stop.

It's been rather chaotic around here the past few days as well, unfortunately.  We have had a bit of a cold making the rounds on the children, and that has reeeeallly cut into my knitting/sleeping/lazing about time.  I will hopefully have better news to report next time!  See you then!

FALL IS FOR KNITTERS!

What an exciting time to work with such wonderful fibers!

As the chill just begins to settle into the air my excitement for knitting is refreshed and renewed!

I'm knitting a dozen things right now, mostly things that require a bit of thought or planning, so what have I done...

STARTED A NEW PROJECT!

something simple, mindless, bright and beautiful!

Garter Stitch Baby Blanket, knit in seven strips of seven colors rotating one block on every strip to make a diagonal stripe pattern, made it before , will make it again, love it! Knit in Rowan Wool Cotton. We have some exciting new colors in the shop, Mary always picks the best stuff, she is such an inspiration to me!

One lovely surprise showed up at my house, my Mother wearing the vest I made for her!

Great Cascade 220, so many delicious choices!

The best way to get more Handknits? Wearing them and flattery! That's why these socks are for her, Shhhhh don't tell her, I'm not finished yet! Three Waters Farm Superwash Sock in none other than "Late October" I hope to finish by then!

Even our pumpkins are knit-themed! The original neon sign!  Thanks to my awesome Husband for helping me pull this off!

By the way, roasted pumpkin seeds make an excellent snack for knitters!

Make sure you come by and see what other trouble I'm getting myself into and please come and show off all the goodies you've been working on.

We've got great classes at both locations right now and wonderful news that 

Super Knitter, Sally Melville is coming to town! 

Check out the schedules on our website;

yarnsetc.com

I would also like to say a big THANK YOU to my students for making my first class so amazing!

See you all at the shop!

ONE SOCK, TWO SOCK, THREE SOCK... FOUR!

Stray Socks Around The House.

I started a new sock at Knit Night on Thursday, something special for a friend's birthday coming up soon. I finished it last night, much faster than I had planned.  It is Three Waters Farm, but I can't tell you the colorway in case it would ruin the surprise.

I figure that I'm ahead of schedule, got me thinking about the socks that are already waiting for me, I could have a little affair with this flashy red sock that was already on the needles, right? 

Oh sweet, sweet Jitterbug, your bouncy and bright deliciousness!

I turned the heel and started the cuff!

In my search for this little temptation, I found another PAIR just waiting in my backpack... yes, the one I took to Maine... in July, and still haven't fully unpacked. Oh, the guilty feelings!

Three Waters Farm- "Late October" Ah, cool weather, Fall colors...!

I'm not even sure that this is all of them, there might even be more socks sneaking around my house at night! Just so you know that I'm not trying to fool myself, I have dozens of other beautiful skeins calling my needles, and that doesn't even include the new yarns coming into the shop that I must have! 

Hint- Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock... OK, I already brought it home. 

It is hopeless, I've given in... 

Knitting, I'm all yours forever! 

At least my husband understands.