Princess Sole sock done

I finished the first Princess Sole sock with Socks That Rock wool in Peaseblossom. I used the baby cable rib stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I started purling all the stitches after knitting the heel flap, substituting SSP for SSK and P2tog for k2tog. I knitted the top of the toe and purled the bottom until the last couple of rows where I knitted both. I wanted to be able to graft the toe with the stitches purl to purl. I find that this sock is much more comfortable underfoot. I guess that I have ultra sensitive feet. I'll be making all of my socks this way.

It's Here!

I have been having so much fun spinning! My Ashford Joy arrived on Tuesday. I'm spinning short sections of the colored rovings together randomly so will have a variegated yarn when done. I'll have to see what the final effect will be after plying. I'd like to try the Navaho 3-ply but I may have to practice 2-ply before attempting it. I'm getting a more consistent yarn with practice. This little wheel is so smooth it's wonderful to use and it's very portable as it's light and it folds up.

I started saving sheltie undercoat and will try to spin that too. Harrison's furry butt snuck into the picture, I see, but Robbie is the one who keeps walking across the treadle when I'm preparing the fibre causing it to suck into the orifice when I least expect it. He's giving me lots of practice doing joins.

Only one more week until I'm back at school. The Royal Red Arabian Horse Show is in town this week so I'll be going to watch and drooling over all of the beautiful horses. Well, not literally. If I had been born wealthy I would do the horse thing.

I can spin after all!

Sharon at Golden Willow Natural Fiber brought in a line of dyes and has been having a great time playing with them. After hearing her talk about how strong the dyes are I got to thinking that maybe dyeing is the reason that I can work with Philosopher's Wool but not natural wool. She kindly lent me her wheel again and I tried spinning with dyed roving and, voila, no allergies! I then tried again with some natural wool and the allergies kicked in. I guess that the chemicals in the dyes kill whatever vegetable matter in the wool that is allergenic to me. So I have a lovely Ashford Joy wheel ordered which should be in this week sometime! I'll post pics when I get it. In the meantime, I still have Sharon's Kiwi wheel for practice. Luckily for me, Sharon loves dyeing fiber and can keep me supplied with whatever color my little heart desires. Right now I'm spinning some blue that I'm alternating with periwinkle and lavender in random order. This is so much fun!

Well, after trying the toes up sock method using two different increase styles I've decided that I hate doing multiple increases in tiny, tight stitches on teeny weeny needles. The Queen Kahuna book is back on the shelf and I'm back to making socks top down. I knit to avoid that kind of frustration.

Summertime and the Living Is Easy

Here are some update knitting pictures. The top one is a sock using the handpainted merino wool that I ordered from Britain with the fuzzy mohair/silk blend. The two colors complement each other very well. The middle pic is the Philosopher's Wool sweater. The last one is the newest Socks That Rock club wool that came in the mail last week. The color is Peaseblossom and I think it's my favorite. It looks like my sweet peas in full bloom. I'm using a baby cable rib.

I've also started a pair of toes-up socks using Queen Kahuna's book. I wanted to learn Fair Isle and Queen Kahuna's methods this summer so I've started a lot of projects. It drives Dan crazy and he ribs me about having the talent but not the endurance to finish things. I keep telling him it's all about the process right now.

Up until today we've had a ridiculously hot July. It sounds like everyone in the northern hemisphere has. Today it's actually a bit chilly but they're forecasting hot again tomorrow.

Summer is lazy-wonderful! Dan parks himself in front of the TV. I knit with the iPod in my ears so that I don't have to listen to all of the nonsense on TV that he's watching. I subscribed to Audible.com and have been downloading books and podcasts in addition to music. I've really been enjoying Fanny Flagg's latest "Can't Wait To Get To Heaven". She has such a gift for storytelling and she reads it in her southern accent. I really love all of her books. She's definitely one of my favorites and I'm always excited by a new book of hers.

The stores have back-to-school stuff out already. How depressing! Costco actually has Hallowe'en stuff and we even saw a Christmas tree on display there yesterday. I'm not ready to shift gears to thinking about school yet.

Philospher's Wool sweater

It took me a few tries but I have the Philosopher's Wool sweater started with this sleeve. This is the first time I've done Fair Isle and I was on a learning curve to knit with both hands but it's worth it as the Philosopher's Wool technique weaves in all of the yarns on the back as you go. The wool is minimally processed so my hands get nice and soft from the lanolin. I also have to pick out bits of vegetable matter which, for some reason, I find kind of cool. Connecting with the farm from my living room, I guess. This is definitely not a portable project though as all of the colors pretty much have to be handy and I have to concentrate to read the graph. The upside is that it goes much faster than socks on itty-bitty needles!

Happy Birthday Katie!

This picture just had to be shared! Wednesday was my niece Katie's sixth birthday. My sister Darcie took this picture of Granny giving her an enthusiastic kiss! Granny is Katie's great-grandmother Elsie who is 93 years young. She has lost both of her legs but, as you can see, she has maintained her vigorous upper body strength.

A Vow

I reluctantly returned the pretty little spinning wheel to Golden Willow Natural Fibers yesterday. I was talking to Sharon about teaching the students about clothing production in pioneer times and she offered to lend the wheel to me to take to school when I need it. Sharon is just one of those wonderful people who are passionate about fiber and willing to help people who are also passionate. She is truly a gem! I can't recommend her more highly! A group of knitters meets there on Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. so there is always support if needed. Mar Craig, who I've known for a long time through teacher education and K-9 Stubblejumpers dog clug, is an accomplished knitter (who knew?) and she popped into the shop when I was there. Mar has also offered unqualified help if needed. It's so much fun to find a group of knitting enthusiasts on my home turf! I never dreamed that my plan to start knitting last fall would evolve into this much passion.

Passion is a relative term, I guess. I'm starting to think a better word would be obsession. Make that an expensive obsession. I bought a Philosopher's Wool Fair Isle cardigan kit while returning the wheel. It's in beautiful heathered pastels - definitely my colors. I couldn't get Blogger to load the scanned picture of the cardigan so I'll have to send you to the Philosopher's Wool website for it instead. Now I need to learn to knit in the Continental way so I can do the stranded colors more efficiently.

I am now making a personal vow. I. Will. Not. Buy. Any. More. Wool. (At least until I finish using some of the enormous stash that I have accumulated in a short time.) There, it's in writing on the internet.

Schoo-ools out for sum-MER! I am a free woman for two months.

Happy belated birthday Canada! Anyone who wants to re-affirm their Canadian-ness or learn about our wonderful country go to Yarn Harlot's Canada Day post. I enjoyed all of the comments too. Definitely worth a read for this one.

Here is the first Pink Mist sock made with Socks That Rock mixed with Kid Mohair. I like it but it's a little snug. I suspect that it will block fine but I'm using it as the model for sock #2 so I don't want to mess with it until I'm done the pair.

This pretty little spinning wheel was very kindly lent to me by Sharon at Golden Willow Natural Fiber. I'm not sure how I didn't know about this place until a couple of weeks ago. She has an amazing little store filled with wonderful yarns, clothing, spinning, and weaving equipment and supplies! Sharon gave me a spinning lesson and sent the wheel home with me for a week to see if I liked it. It took me a while to get the hang of it and I wanted to drop-kick the thing a couple of times but I finally did it! The resulting yarn is not pretty. It reminds me of the kids' first attempts at knitting this spring but it is definitely yarn. Unfortunately my career in spinning is not to be. My allergies have flared after both sessions I spent with the wool. I don't think that I'm allergic to wool but I know I have grass allergies so even though the roving looks clean, it is likely the culprit. Sharon won't have seen the last of me, however. Walking into her shop is better than setting me loose in a candy store. Now that I won't be buying a wheel I can spend money on yarns instead! (Shh, don't tell Dan I said that at the start of summer when neither of us has a paycheque coming until the end of September.)

Here is the Socks That Rock wool combined with the mohair/silk blend on the foot. I think it just looks like a pink mist over the wool. We'll see how it feels when the sock is done.

A birthday surprise for me!

My husband surprised me yesterday with a new digital camera! It's a Panasonic DMC-TZ1. I haven't even read the manual yet. As soon as the battery was charged I took it outside to try. These pics are not retouched and I have no idea what the camera settings were. Not bad, huh? Imagine how much better a photog I'll be when I know how to work it. Thank you, thank you, my sweet thoughtful Dan! It's hard to surprise a spouse of 28 years but you did it!

Fuzzy sock solution?

I decided that I would try knitting sock soles with the addition of a fuzzy yarn and see if that would make my feet happy without changing needle sizes or having to reverse stockinette the feet. I found this lovely Super Kid yarn that is 70% super kid mohair and 30% silk. It's very fine so shouldn't make the socks too thick. Expensive but it has a lot of mileage so should do many, many socks. I hope it works!

Here it is, my first sock! I like how it looks, I like how it fits, I like how it matches my jeans. However, I don't think I'll be able to wear it. It feels like I'm walking on mesh and it's going to bug my diabetic-sensitive foot. Oh well, it can be my learning sock. I'm going to try again with a new yarn, a tighter gauge, and do reverse stockinette on the sole so it's smoother.

Wednesday evening

Still alternating rain and sun. Now there's a large, bright rainbow. This is the view from my backyard overlooking the park. I love the way the light and shade alternate over the trees.

jeesh!

Can we all say "c-r-o-a-k" again? This is my first sock. I foolishly did not count my heel flap rows thinking that I could just count down the sides and that would tell me how many there were. Turns out that those lovely slip stitches only show up once for every two rows knitted. So I made a really long heel flap that was more a rectangle instead of a square. Yes, I read all the books about how the heel flap should be a square yet still I continued to knit. It wasn't until after I worked the heel turn and started picking up the side stitches that I realized something did not compute. I also learned that frogging back to the k2, p2 ribbing was easy but that picking up those itty bitty twisty stitches wasn't. This yarn is Sock It To Me! Collection, Puzzle from Elann.

Wednesday afternoon

I've been home from work all week with a sinus infection. Because of the diabetes, when I get an infection, I'm sick and don't get better until I get on antibiotics. Other than feeling like crap I rather enjoyed this afternoon. It's one of those sunny, warm days except for when heavy black clouds roll in and it pours. Then it's sunny again, usually while the rain continues to come down in sheets. The smell in the air is better than any perfume. Only a little lightning and thunder could make this better. I love storms as long as they're just show and don't do any damage.

They don't call Saskatchewan the "Land of Living Skies" for nothing! This picture is from my sunroom as the clouds roll in for the latest outburst.

Here is the Black Water Abbey wool (bluestack) washed, dried and ready to be wound. Just looking at it makes me happy.

I am now doing the FLAK sleeves in the round on two circulars. It's so much easier than doing it on one short circular and I won't have to seam it.

two parcels

I got two parcels yesterday - the Black Water Abbey wool from the States and the ball winder and swift from Camilla Valley Farms in Canada. Having never played with a winder and a swift, I think that these tools are fascinating! The wool is Bluestack and it is absolutely beautiful! I have the sample card for the Black Water Abbey wool but the small sample doesn't do it justice. There are so many subtle colors and shadings that I can now see in the skeins. I'm going to wash all of it before knitting it. That way I can play with my new toys (swift and winder) as well as eliminate shrinkage and soften it up before I try for gauge. The buttons are also from Black Water Abbey and they are lovely. The silver Celtic patterned ones are for the FLAK cardigan and the dragonfly ones will be for the Black Water Abbey cardigan. I haven't decided what pattern I will use for the Black Water Abbey yet.

I also, like a lemming, saw that Blue Moon Fiber Arts opened up some more memberships in their Sock Club so I joined. As if I need more yarn now! But the Socks That Rock yarn looks so beautiful that I couldn't resist.

Croak! again

I suddenly realized why I've been avoiding working on the FLAK cardigan lately. Since I switched to shorter circulars and joined the sleeve to work in the round my hands have been hurting. I think that it's because I'm holding the needles differently (fibromyalgia could be responsible for this phenomenon). Subconsciously, I've been avoiding that discomfort and couldn't face knitting the sleeves in the round for as long as it would take me to finish both sleeves. So I frogged several rows back to where the join is and will knit them flat instead.

Knitters' Club

So far, I've taught about a dozen kids to knit. It gets easier as the first students to learn help the rest of them (kind of like big families where the older kids help look after the little ones, I guess). I've learned that if you want to improve your own knitting skills, especially fixing mistakes and untangling yarn, teach a group of kids to knit. Just kidding! It's been a lot of fun. When other people come into the classroom these days they are amazed and impressed that so many students are knitting. It's nice to watch the children encouraging and helping each other too.

Aren't they cute? This group of girls happened to be in for recess with me when I took the camera to school yesterday. They're the really eager ones who would rather knit than go outside! From left, meet Dawn, Vanessa, Danielle, Kenda, and Kevina. I have several nice pictures of these children so parents, if you email me privately (there's a link on this blog when you click 'View my complete profile'), I'll be happy to send you the ones with your child in them; and I apologize in advance if I have created fibre monsters in your families who are addicted to knitting and buying yarn. I promise that I won't introduce them to silk and cashmere yet....