Six More Weeks of Winter KAL

Well the groundhog from hell has spoken and we will be having six more weeks of winter.  As you know, I love winter and next to fall it's my favorite time of the year.  This years lack of snow in our area pared with biting cold temperatures has been rather disappointing.  My friends in New England have gotten more than their fair share of snow and I would gladly take some of it off of their hands! 

To get us through the next six weeks, I started a Six More Weeks of Winter KAL in my Ravelry Group.  It's a casual KAL and you can even knit one of my patterns that you may already have.  If you want to purchase a pattern for the KAL use coupon code: Phil for 20%, good until the end of the day.  I'm giving away three patterns for prizes, all you need to do is post a picture of your FO from the KAL in the group to be entered.  I'm going to be joining in the KAL to help me with my goal of using 10 skeins before MDSW. 

Two pairs of socks knit from stash using two skeins of yarn.  I'm not counting the contrasting color on the Hearts in Owlantis since it was leftover from another project.

I didn't bother to check my gauge since Wentletrap is one of my designs (Do you think you are the only one who plays Russian Roulet with gauge????) and I wound up using more yarn than I planned and actually ran out on the toe of the second sock.  I put an SOS up in the Socks That Rock Group on Ravelry and Turtlegirl was kind enough to come to my rescue.  This was what was on the package when it came:

I finished up the toe and blocked them yesterday.  They are nice and dry this morning and I'm going to wear them today. Woot, woot! The yarn is Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Fire on the Mountain colorway.

I tend to get a little stir crazy when we wind up staying inside so much.  I rearrange furniture, clean out closets and generally drive Andy crazy.  We keep Iggy's crate in the living room during the day so that when we leave he can see Kiwi and not feel like he is all alone.  He is still way to young to leave unattended at this point.  The crate wasn't really an eyesore, but it really wasn't adding anything to the living room either.  I took some quick measurements and realized that it would fit perfectly under a repurposed sewing table that we had by the front door to keep our keys and other clutter on.  It looks much better and best of all didn't cost a thing.  We had been looking at coffee table crates on Amazon, and they are crazy expensive!  The table is a little taller than the crate, which I like because it will give Iggy plenty of fresh air.

Progress

I'm making progress for my goal of using 10 skeins of yarn before MDSW and have finished one Hearts in Owlantis sock.

I know a lot of knitters who are cold sheeping and not purchasing any yarn until they have knitted down some of their stash.  While I am trying to stick to the goal of 10 skeins, I'm not restricting myself from purchasing more yarn if I see something that I fall in love with.  Like this skein from Knitted Wit that fell into my Etsy cart:

It's pretty close to a Tardis blue and is even prettier in person - it has a lot more depth of color and is quite stunning.  What can I say?  I had to have it!

If you are cold sheeping and trying to get your stash down to a reasonable amount of yarn, a good way to do it is to go through your patterns and prioritize them.  Look and see which patterns you really want to knit and then pick the yarn to go with the pattern (if you bought the yarn specifically for the pattern already, then you are one step ahead of the game!).  Put both the yarn and pattern in a project or zip lock bag so that it's ready to go when you decide to cast on.  Give yourself a reward every time you finish a project that included stashing down.  It can be something small and simple like a special candy bar or a nice glass of wine.

If you don't have a pattern in mind for some of the yarn you have, check out Ravelry's search feature.  Enter the type of yarn you have, then check out the suggested patterns for it and completed projects.  There are some great ideas to be had there!  If you have some left over fingering weight yarns, Stash Bash and Camberwell are both great projects to use up those left overs:

Hearts in Owlantis and Despicable Socks

Socks are one of my favorite things to knit.  I almost always have a sock on my needles.  They are portable, can easily fit in my purse and can usually be knit from one skein of yarn.  If you are intimidated by complicated stitch patterns and have put off knitting a larger project because of this, socks really are a great way to get your feet wet - or keep them warm and dry!

My new Hearts in Owlantis pattern features a small bit of stranded colorwork in the center portion of the leg.  If you have never tried colorwork, these socks would be the perfect pattern to start with.  If you wanted to do a stash busting project to make these, you could even use several colors for a totally different look.  I'm dying to make them with a darker main color and a bright and possibly variegated contrasting color.  I'm having a hard time staying here and writing since I really want to go and dig through my stash to see what I have that would work! haha!

I have a coupon code for Hearts in Owlantis that is good through April 1 in my Ravlery Pattern Shop.  Enter: hoothoot when you check out and it will take $1.00 off.

 

The other fun sock pattern that is coming is Despicable Socks.  I love the Despicable Me movies and the Minions crack me up.  I laugh every time I see them and I even have a Despicable Me Fart Gun app on my phone.  Before you ask, it has a timer delay on it and yes I have set it to go off when I am not in the room! 

A couple of months ago Slipped Stitch Studios had a limited edition Minions bag set that I absolutely couldn't resist.  Michelle Berry of Berry Colorful Yarnings paired up with Slipped Stitch Studios and sent a long a little mini skein of a colorway called Minion. 

 

Before my bag set even arrived I was messaging Michelle to get my hands on the Minion yarn.  I had the design for the socks in my mind for a while and hadn't seen the right yarn for it.  The Minion colorway in the wide stripes is exactly what I was looking for.  They have a modified short row heel that has been designed to help prevent the pooling that can occur in the instep area with many self striping yarns. I am also including notes on how to get your sock stripes to match.  The pattern is available for pre-order on Ravelry: Despicable Socks and will be delivered to your Ravelry Libray on April 18th.  Why a pre-order?  It's so that you will have time to order the yarn from Michelle if you would like to join in the Despicable KAL in her group on Ravelry!  If you would like to pre-purchase the patten, use coupon code: Bapple until April 1 for $1.00 off.  Michelle will also have a few other colorways that are Despicably themed coming next week, so be sure to check to see what they are.  I have heard rumors that there is going to be Gru colorway!

I have some really exciting news to share with you!  My friend Stephanie of Spinderella and I are going to be sharing a booth at the Powhatan Festival of Fiber on April 26.  Steph will be bringing her fabulous hand thrown pottery yarn bowls, paintings of fiber animals and yarn, and her lovely hand spun yarn.  I will be bringing a full selection of my patterns and some fun project bags to store your yarn in.  I'm also going to kit up a few sock patterns and the Iridill shawlette pattern with some of my favorite yarns from Indieway Yarns!  I'm so excited to be a vendor this year.  If you are in the area I hope you can come to the festival and stop by our booth.

Sock Surgery or Why Knitting While You are Tense is Not a Great Idea

Last month I was working on a new sock design, Hearts in Owlantis.  I had the owl and heart design in my mind for a while before I decided to chart it out.  Once it was charted I couldn't wait to cast on!  The first sock came out perfectly.  It fit great and I set it aside while I cast on for the second sock.  It was one of those cold dreary winter days where you just want to stay inside, watch movies and knit.  I often wonder what non knitters do on days like this?  Anyway, Andy and I decided to have a marathon of scary movies and shows - all day long.  We started out with The Thing, moved on to The Shining and then The After (which is a pilot that Amazon has come out with) and finally finishing the evening up with The Walking Dead. 

Normally I am pretty relaxed during horror movies and I very rarely jump.  I don't know if watching so many in a row got to me this time, or what happened but the second sock was not the same as the first.  Did I notice before I finished it?  Of course not.  Why would I?  I mean really, why would you check to see if the second sock was the same as the first, right?  The colorwork portion of it was pretty tight and very hard to get over my ankle.  I might have been able to wear it, but I knew I would never be happy with it.  I contemplated what to do with it for a few days and finally decided to preform surgery.  It would be better than having to re-knit the whole sock and if I didn't like how it came out it wasn't going to be a great loss.

It looks nice and even and not overly tight here. I didn't do a great job carrying my floats on the back and that was where the issue was.

First I took a needle one size smaller than what the sock was knitted with and ran it through the stitches where I was going to cut.  Yes, cut.  No guts, no glory.

I was careful to find the beginning of the round and started the needle insertion there.  Then I got out my steeking scissors and began cutting.

I made sure to only cut the pink yarn since I wanted to save the cuff and beginning of the leg. 

I cut all the way around and then picked out the little bits of left over pink yarn.

This next part was easy, I just attached new yarn and re-knit the colorwork section and heel as I wasn't crazy about what I had done there either.  When I finished the heel I ran the smaller needles through the foot of the original sock and snipped it off.

Completely separated and ready for grafting!

I used the Kitchener stitch to graft the two pieces together.  I was worried that I would be able to feel the seam where the pieces were grafted when I was done.  I was especially careful not to make the graft too tight or too loose and it wound up coming out very well.  Not only is the seam invisible, but it can't be felt either.  Now both socks fit and are ready to go!  

Margi is in the process of test knitting this pattern and it will be ready for release in a few weeks.  Here is a picture of her progress.  It's in Knitters Brewing Company Serene in Sweet Ruby and Campfire.