Ride Sally Ride

Yes folks, you can believe yours eyes! I have completed a 2nd FO this week. Mustang Sally socks are done done done! Woo Hoo. I absolutely love them.

This was the first time I knitted with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock yarn and I can't wait to knit with it again. This yarn lives up to its name. It totally rocks! Mustang Sally is turning out to be a popular colorway. Shameka and Deb, as in Chappy's Mom, both bought it this past weekend at Rhinebeck.

So the pattern for Mustang Sally was a combination of a couple different techniques. I chose to knit them toe-up utilizing the way I knitted my Falling Love Socks toe-up and adjusted the pattern/stitch count etc. to accomodate the pattern of 2x2 Rib. This was the first time I ever ventured out to try something like this. I had never ever thought about "creating" my own sock.

Even though I wasn't able to attend Rhinebeck this year with everyone, I did have a personal shopper helping me out. See what Kim brought back to me??? This is Socks That Rock in colorway Hot Flash! The name suits this yarn perfectly don't you think?. I immediately fell in love it with as soon as she showed it to me at lunch today. This is the first yarn I have in Mediumweight from STR. I'm gonna have to let it marinate for a bit until I decide the perfect pattern for it.

Now this yarn here Kim didn't purchase for me this year. A few weeks ago I had been blog "snooping" and came across a post of Kim's stash on her blog. I immediately spotted this awesome pink and black yarn. That's right, I spotted it on the back of the table amongst all the other lovely yarn she has in her stash. I took a chance and asked her if she could tell me what yarn it was. I wanted it, but I didn't even know if she still had it in her stash anymore since the post was from February. Kim bought this yarn at Rhinebeck last year. She told me she would see if they had it this year and if they did she would get it for me. She told me today that the Gypsy Girl Creations yarn didn't come out at Rhinebeck until Sunday and by then she spent all her $$$ (Hmmm I really wonder how that happened?!?!). She so graciously offered to me out of her stash. As soon as I saw it in person today I had no problem whipping the cash over for it. Kim thank you soooooooooo much!!!!! I think I'm gonna make another pair of Monkeys with this yarn.

A Little Bit Of Everything

I really didn't get much knitting done this weekend. Everytime I sat down to knit on Friday evening, I just felt sick to my tummy. I think it had a lot to do with getting to bed really late and then waking up really late in the day. My system was all out of wack. But, tonight I was able to make some good progress on my CPH sleeves. I have completed 8 increase rounds and only have 2 more to go (that's going to be a total of 16 rows more). After that I will be working on finishing the sleeves up to measure 19" before I attack the sleeve cap.

Today I managed to finally bind-off my first Mustang Sally sock. I used a new technique for this. I completed the sewn bind-off. I am really impressed with how it turned out. I didn't have to worry about it being too tight or too loose. It was just right. I must remember this technique for future socks. I will cast-on for the second sock by the weekend. I'm currently working on another Christmas gift and I want to make some good headway on it before I pick-up Mustang Sally #2. Plus I want to give CPH some TLC this week. As soon as I finished the sleeves I will block everything and seam. I can't wait to start the hood!

So as I said earlier, I didn't get much knitting done this weekend. On Saturday Lisa came over and we did some scrapbooking. Or should I say, Lisa scrapbooked and I printed pictures. I printed enough pictures to create 5 more spreads. I did manage to finish "At The Exhibit" spread on Saturday though. I had everything done last weekend except for the journaling. Now my scrapping count will increase to 2 more completed. This spread is from my visit to the Skyscraper Musuem in Battery Park. It's amazing that there are actually musuems we can go to in the city for $5. In addition to the Burj Dubai building exhibit, they also had a section dedicated to the Twin Towers. It was awesome to see photos from when they were being built.

Moving Right Along

I have made some great progress on my CPH. After running around on Friday and finishing up some chores, I spent the evening curled up on my couch knitting CPH. I managed to finish all of the Back on Friday night and completed the Front on late Saturday morning. It really looks like a sweater to me now and I am so excited. I told my sister the other day that this is the first sweater I have made that I can actually see me wearing!! Tonight I am going to spend time on the Left Front. I should be able to knock it out in no time since I worked out the kinks and row math already for the other sections. After that I've decided I am going to knit both sleeves at the same time. I've never done that so any words of wisdom to those who have would be welcome.

So what else did I do? Oh yes, I casted-on for the second baby bootie sock on Sunday during my train ride to Long Island. Between an hour knitting on the train yesterday and about an hour this morning at work, I managed to complete all the way through to the heel. After I work on CPH, I am hoping to finish this little baby up. BTW, Mary Beth, I can understand your pain in regards to knitting your Traveler's Socks. These booties are on size zero needles and I always feel like one is going to snap in half when I k3tog or p3tog on this project. However, I figure there isn't much to these socks that I could deal with the dpns. I surprise myself sometimes!

Here is the completed, or almost completed, Mustang Sally socks. I actually finished them on Thursday at work but I couldn't take them off the needles. First, I had forgotten to bring my little thing of notions so I had no needles to do the sewn bind-off. Second, if I had had my notions I still wouldn't have been able to bind-off because about 17 rows down the back of the sock I noticed I purled a stitch instead of knitting it. And it's not like I carry crochet hooks with me all the time because since I am a knitter, I don't expect to be needing a crochet hook. But alas, on Thursday I did. There was no way I was going to frog back 17 rows. Nope. Wasn't going to happen. I wanted to drop the one stitch down 17 rows and crochet the stitch back up to the top. So, I managed to fix the sock on Saturday but I still haven't done the bind-off. Simply because I have never done a sewn bind-off and am not too sure about it. It reminds me of seaming and I suck, ooops I mean stink, at that. If I'm not too tired I'll get to it tonight, if I am then it can wait another day.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. On Saturday my girlfriend Lisa came over and I taught her how to knit. We covered the long-tail cast-on, knit stitch and purl stitch. This is actually the second time I've sat down with her. Back in the spring she started knitting and practiced but then stopped. Now she has seen all the great stuff we create and it perked her interest back up. I sent her home with a homework assignment and I can't wait to see how she does with it. I had pics to post but unfortunately I accidentally left my camera in Long Island, so sorry Lisa, I will get them to you as soon as I can.

Mustang Sally Has A Heel Up On CPH

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! It's a pity we can't have holiday weekends all the time. Can you imagine just how much knitting we would all get done???

So how did I spend my day off on Monday? Well, I spent the day with my boyfriend and he decided he had wanted to really clean out his house. Ya know, organize alot of things. I was rearing and ready to help him and when I asked what I could do he told me, "Nothing. Why don't you sit and knit?"! Wow. So, I positioned myself on his couch armed with my knitting projects. I sat and enjoyed knitting while feeling the wonderful cross breezes coming through the windows in his house and, of course, watching him clean. He really is a great boyfriend!

Saturday I finished up the 4" of ribbing on CPH. While I was on the Long Island Railroad heading out to my boyfriends, I managed to complete about 20 rows of the pattern. By the end of Monday I completed another 12 rows of the cabling (I also worked on my Provence Throw). The picture below shows what CPH looked like after working on it last night. I need to work the pattern until the piece measures 14" before starting the armholes. Right now I am at almost 11.5". I am absolutely enjoying knitting CPH. This is such a quick knit!

Mustang Sally sat to this side all weekend. Last night I worked about 5 rounds of the foot. I didn't progress any further after that because I needed to figure out the math for the gussett/heel. I decided I wanted to do the one I did for Falling In Love socks but the stitch count was differnt so that is why I had to do some math. During some downtime I had at work today I figured it all out. Instead of knitting on CPH tonight, I wanted to get through the gussett/heel on Mustang Sally. So thus, Mustang Sally has a heel up on my CPH!

I must say that I am really liking how the 2x2 rib pattern is coming out on this sock. I am very happy that I chose this simple pattern to showcase this beautiful yarn. Isn't it funny though how this pattern is making my sock look really long in the foot? Believe it or not, it's not any longer than any of my other socks. It fits perfectly! Thank goodness because I was a little worried. Whew!

Now I am ready to complete the cuff which will all be in the rib pattern. I'm aiming to have sock #1 completed by sometime Friday!

Central Park Hoodie Underway

Today it all began! After knitting my gauge for the Central Park Hoodie yesterday, I decided to start it today. At first I didn't think I would be able to start the hoodie until I freed up what was on my size 6 needles. These needles were being occupied by a Christmas present that I am knitting. After taking Shameka's suggestion into consideration, I decided to take the needles from this project so I could do the ribbing on the sweater and then put the 6's back on this project. After the ribbing I change up to a size 8 needle. This is one great thing about working with Boyle interchangeable needles.

Now, did I think I would complete the four inches ribbing today? Nope. But guess what? I did! Here it is. As stated in my last post, I am knitting the front pieces and the back piece together all in one piece. I thought this was going to be confusing but after knitting the first couple of rows I found it to be easy. When casting on, you cast on 1 less stitch from the right front, 2 less stitches from the back and 1 less stitch from the left front. I have just started the cable pattern (not in photo).


Since I had finished my Monkey socks this week, I was anxious to begin another pair. After me not being such a sock knitter, I have gone to being one that feels weird when I don't have a pair going! I decided to finally knit with my Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Socks that Rock" yarn, colorway Mustang Sally. I am absolutely loving the color in this yarn. It is so rich and beautiful. I wanted to do a simple pattern to show off this yarn. I decided on doing a toe-up sock with a simple 2x2 Rib pattern. I am currently up to the point where I need to do my increases for the gussett/heel. Before I do this I snapped Mustang Sally's photo today chillin' in the flowers in my front yard.


On a final note tonight, I completed one of my Christamas gifts! So that leaves me with two in progress right now. Of course, this isn't everything that I am knitting for the holidays. Hmmmm, gotta look at my list and see what is next!