Wednesday, August 20, 2008

More Socks before Maine

Tomorrow we head up to Maine for Rich's cousin's wedding weekend, so I have a quick post with the latest sock, unbelievably finished in a mere 10 days by the grace of too much Olympic-viewing:
Spring Forward Sprung
Spring Forward, done toe-up in Woolly Boully yeah oh yeah! sock, the Fishing with my Father colorway. The pattern and sock color are hard to photograph: the camera just can't show how loud this color is, and you just can't see the complicated pattern (because the yarn is so loud). I have to admit that the color grew on me as I was knitting. Actually, my appreciation of the yarn was no doubt helped along by how really pleasant it was to work with. Very nice yarn. The pattern was OK--not too hard once you got used to it.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Lean Mean Sock Machine

First things first: No, I have not heard back after my interview. Yes, it's been about 2 weeks. New resumes are on the way out, but I am disappointed the guy did not call me back. He seemed really interested and it would have been the perfect job, I think. Rats.

I am slogging through the Summer of Socks, and being more sock-productive than ever before. This winter, I can wear handknit socks every day, I swear. I may foist some off on others, as well. Share the hand-knitted goodness, right? Here's the latest:

I finished the Fern Leaf Lace socks (although I recently discovered this stitch is actually called "Baby Fern," but who cares).
Fern Leaf Lace Socks
These are done with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport and I LOVE THEM. I am KEEPING these, for sure. This yarn is so soft and was a JOY to knit with. It also is so pretty IRL--it seems a little drab in photos, I think, but in reality is gorgeous. Am I shouting too much? Sorry!

After those were done, I worked on the Seaweed Socks, in the Tofutsies yarn. As much as I loved the LL Sport? Yeah, that's how much I hated the Tofutsies yarn. The pattern, however, was great. Although it is pretty much lost in the busy colors of the yarn, it worked out well. In fact, I really think my enjoyment of the pattern was all that kept me going on these socks. The lace stitch has a short repeat--eight rows, I think? It was so tantalizing and really kept me engaged. "Oh, look," I would say to myself when the yarn was getting especially annoying, "Only two more rows and that's another repeat done. Only three more repeats and I can start the heel. Only two more repeats and the darn things is done. Woo hoo!" And lookie here:
Tofutsies Socks
All done! These were done on a size 0 needles (ouch!), and I made them with a short leg because I could not wait for them to be done. Then I had a little ceremony and threw the leftover yarn in the kitchen garbage with the coffee grounds and shredded zucchini ... Yuck. There may have been some evil laughter. Dr. Horrible laughter. Goodbye Tofutsies, and good riddance! But, on the good side, I am very pleased with the socks themselves.

And ta da! I just finished these:
Boyfriend socks finished
These are Boyfriend Socks, which oddly enough I ended up making for Mathboy. The yarn is by Spindle City Yarns in the Camouflage colorway. This yarn was great--it was very, very nice to use, and I can't believe how much yarn there was in this skein. I could have made socks for boat-sized feet with this skein.

So now I have to work on the Coupling Socks, but am finding that pattern really hard to memorize. Must. Concentrate. And I started a new sport-weight sock, because you just gotta love those quickies sometimes:
Lattice Lace Socks
This is going to be another one of those mishmash socks, where I cram a lot of other folks' techniques into one sock. The stitch pattern is Cross Hatch Lace from More Sensational Knitted Socks, and I think I've kinda got it memorized--row 5 is the only tricky one for me. I'm using the Zen String Lotus Toes Sport in Boreal, and size 2 (2.75mm) needles.