Summer of Socks #1

Well my first pair of socks for Summer of Socks 08 are complete! I'm actually very happy to be done with them for the simple reason of having to do a cable in between my two circs. The pattern was designed for dpns. Anyway, I managed to get through those 7 pattern repeats in the leg of each sock and was thankful the cabling was only 1 row out of the 12.

Would I knit this pattern again? Maybe. It is a very pretty sock and I really like the look of the cabling. If I did them again I would definitely choose a yarn that doesn't stripe at all. I must also broadcast this warning to anyone who wants to knit this pattern. You must go up a needle size than you would normally use for the leg. If you don't, the sockie won't go over your heel! Bummer hunh?

Here are the stats:
Pattern: Saucy by Cider Moon
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted; Colorway - Chocolate Cherry (2 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks Size 2.5 and 2
Started: June 21st
Finished: June 28th

Prize Package

Remember when I had my 200th Post contest? Well I delivered the prize package to my mother when I was in South Carolina.

A handmade Boxy Bag was given....


...and inside of it was a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock skein. Blue is her favorite color and it just so happened that this was the color yarn in the giveaway. I also added blue beads to the zipper pull.

Momma was very happy and thrilled to be the winner! I'll be having another contest in July for my 1 year Blogiversary. Time has flown!

Saucy Sock SOS08

Summer of Socks 08 began while I was in Myrtle Beach and Mary Beth and I kicked it off together sister style! We both decided to knit the same sock pattern which is the Saucy Sock.

I am knitting Saucy in the Claudia Hand Painted yarn that I bought while on my New Jersey yarn crawl with Kim and Shameka back in March. The colorway is Cherry Chocolate and it has definitely lived up to it's name.

I completed sock #1 yesterday and immediately cast on for sock #2. I have been enjoying knitting this pattern, but a word to those who want to knit it, make sure you go up a needle size for the leg of the sock. The cabling pattern definitely makes for a sock with little, to no ease, to getting it over your heel.

Fortunately for me I forgot my needles in NY and borrowed MB's #2 needles which were actually 2.5's (at the time I didn't know). When I got home I put them on my 2's and realized that her's were larger. I was thankful for it. I would have had to frog and start all over with a larger needle if they had been not the size they were. I normally would have gone down to a size 1 needle for the heel and foot, but decided to stick with the 2's. Glad I did because I got a nice fit with them. The 1's would have been too tight.

Leaving The Beach

Sigh.  I am sitting here at the Myrtle Beach airport waiting for my flight back to NYC.  Where did the past 8 days go?  While I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, I will miss my sister and all the fun we have together.  We knitted, we scrapbooked, we sewed, we lounged at the pool. We just did all that we could during the past week.  Always a lot of fun.  

I will have lots to share over the next few posts. For now I leave you all with one of my favorite pictures from the week.  I took this pic at knit night on Thursday and Knit N Purl.  Lots of fun!

Thanks Mary Beth for everything!  Lots of love to ya and I can't wait to bring you up for Rhinebeck in October!

Yarn Crawl Monday

Monday was our day to hit a couple of yarn stores in the area.  As always, I never fail to find something that wants to come home with me in my suitcase.

The first stop was Joyfilled Gardens & Gifts in Georgetown.  This is a lovely little store that not only sells a nice selection of yarn, but also sells items made by local artists.  Each time I visit, the yarn selection seems to grow and Ellen who owns the shop is one of the sweetest ladies.

I had a pattern in mind that I wanted to find yarn for and the Berrocco Comfort DK fit that bill.  Yes, that is orange.  A color I never really thought I would purchase for myself after the *pumpkin* orange yarn I had purchased and sent back to Knit Picks for my Ribby Cardi. This is actually a very pretty orange that goes well with my skin tone.  The Louisa Harding Sari ribbon is for my Lacy Skirt.  

The next stop on our crawl was Island Knits.  A very cute little store that has ducks and swans floating in the water outside the shop.

Seems like every time we visit there is a 20% off sale on all regular priced items.  This time was no different.   I entered Island Knits with no patterns in mind at all.  MB was holding the below Schaeffer Anne yarn below and I "Oooo and Awwwwed" when I saw it.  I have always wanted some of this yarn because there is enough yardage to make knee high socks.  Funny thing is MB told me she almost bought this exact same yarn/colorway for me at Christmas.  I also purchased the Ty-Dy yarn.  Three little balls were sitting on a shelf all by themselves calling out to me.  I love the pink/green multi of it.  I told MB that I didn't know what I would make with it but I could follow Sophanne's philosophy of the pattern will come. Since purchasing the pattern has come and MB and I went back today to get the third ball.

Isn't this a lovely group shot of my purchases?  At Island Knits I picked up the Jo Sharp Knit 2 book (LOVE IT) and the Verena magazine we got at Barnes and Noble.  This is a new english knitting magazine put out by Burda.  Awesome new mag.  Already have 4 patterns flagged.

Mello Yellow couldn't resist jumping in the shot.

Life In Myrtle Beach

I arrived safe and sound on Friday afternoon around 1pm.  I had a delightful flight on a Delta Connection flight straight from LGA to MYR.  With the increasing costs of flying these days, let me just tell you how shocked I was that in addition to receiving complementary soft drinks on the flight, we also were giving  a choice between several real snacks.  We even had the option of taking seconds!  Wow.

By 4pm my sister and I had donned out swimsuits and found ourselves laying by the pool in her neighborhood for a couple of hours.  Ahhh.  The relief of the pool was wonderful for me. I will say my first day in MB was awesome.

I committed myself to running while I am here.  The beginning of my marathon training is right around the corner and I want to get in some running while here.  I got up early on Saturday morning and went for a 3 mile running around the neighborhood.  The neighborhood my sis lives in is still under development in some parts.  Well all I can say is I was swarmed with horseflies in the lesser developed area.  All I could think of was killer bees and that my sis would find my body laying in the middle of the road with the flies picking over my flesh.  But alas I survived and my run turned into a 4 to 4.5 mile run.

I do have some knitting to share.  When I ran out of yarn for my Coquette Lace Tube Top I decided to start another one of my summer knitting projects.  Below is a picture of my Ribs and Lace Tank from Interweave Knits.  I can't remember the issue right now, as I left this knitting sitting in New York. 

I am using Berrocco Touche yarn in black for this knit.  I am working on the 11 inches of knit for the straps and then just have a little bit to do on the back before I am finished. If I hadn't spent the last two days before my trip trying to pack and stuff, I probably would have finished it before I came to Myrtle Beach.

Mary Beth, Mom and I went on a little yarn crawl today.  I will post about it later in the week.  Some yarny goodness to share.  I also finished knitting the front of my Prairie Tunic and started a new project and started a new project (pics to come).

Gone To The Beach

Where: Myrtle Beach, SC

When: Friday Morning at 11am

Why: Cause I need a vacation and fun time with my Sis!

Plus I need my fill of some Mellow Yellow!

Will try to blog all the fun as it happens, but no guarantees.

Coquette Lace Tube Top

So after some trials and tribulations of running out of yarn just as I reached the bottom ribbing. After reaching out to the yarn store I bought the yarn from about 2 months ago to see if they had the dye lot. After them emailing me and telling me no. After ordering a skein anyway because I had no choice. After receiving the yarn and it being the dye lot I needed. After still not having enough yarn to do the 6 inches of bottom ribbing and settling for 4 inches. I have FINISHED!!!

I don't think the book correctly calculated the yarn needed for the project (I was on gauge too). I should have been able to do the whole thing with four and needed five, but really needed six to get it done all the way the pattern was designed.

I have abosolutely no yarn left. I used the little trickle of yarn that was leftover to complete a single chain cord to run through the top eyelets to secure the top to my body while wearing. I am happy to report the top fits and that makes me very happy after reading everyone's comments about how big it knits and some going down at least three sizes. So the fact that it fits me, does that mean I really need to lose some weight? LOL

I would definitely knit this again but with different yarn. This yarn sheds like there is no tomorrow. I had a hard time knitting with it in front of my fan at nice because the little sheds blew up in my face and made it itch. I didn't stop though.

Coquette Lace Tube Top from Fitted Knits
Yarn: Cascade Pima Tencel; Black (5 balls)
Needles: Knit Pick Options Sizes 5 and 7
Started: June 1, 2008
Finished: June 11, 2008

P.S. Coquette is indeed being propped up by my Tilted Duster. Believe it or not that baby is almost done. Hopefully it will make a debut soon, even though it is to dang hot to wear.

Heatwave and the Relay

Of all the weekends to have a heatwave come through it had to be this past weeked! Sunday was the Need For Speed - 50 Mile Relay from Bear Mountain to New Rochelle, NY. This was the HOTEST day of the weekend. With the heat index, it was over 100 degrees. We all had fun until the heat got the best of us.

The race consisted of 9 legs total and we had 6 runners on our team. The race began at 7:30am. All of the runners were walk/running throughout the race because of the heat, even so early in the morning. I made sure I was completely hydrated throughout the day to ensure I was going to be ok for my first leg of 6.8 miles.

My first leg got started at 12:45pm. High noon. Worst time of day to run. I felt great going into the run. The first 3 miles of my leg were on highway (absolutely no shade) and then the last 3.5 miles of the leg was along a secluded trail.

I was just shy of the 3 mile mark when I had to drop out of the race. I cried and felt like such a failure but my team was so supportive of me. I had trained so long and hard for this race and I couldn't run it. The heat overtook me along the highway. About 30 minutes into my run, my team drove past me to head to the next exchange point and they slowed down to look at me. They ended up pulling over because they said something was wrong. As I jogged up to them, they called out to ask if I was ok. All I could do was shake me head no. I was hot, dizzy, sick to my stomach and shaking. I grabbed a bottle of cold water and was just dumping it over my head. At that moment I decided to try and continue.

My team got back in the truck and took off but then pulled off to the curb again where there was a race marshall sitting to guide runners in the right direction. My team was talking with him and as I was running towards them this guy kept looking at me. As I approached I stopped and he wanted to know how I felt. I had to admit that I felt really bad. I was suffering from heat exhaustion and decided to pull myself out of the race. My fear was continuing onto the trail, which was right around the corner, and collapsing. I made the right decision for myself.

We proceeded to the next exchange area so our next runner could take off. While we werre waiting for her to finish her leg, race officials announced they were ending the race. The police and hospitals were begging them to end it because of the heat. During my leg (#5) and leg #6, people were collapsing left and right. The heat was brutal and they should have called it way earlier. It was like the Chicago Marathon all over again.

I am fully recovered now. I needed rest and lots of liquids. I was suppose to run a total of 10.5 miles on Sunday and that would have gotten me to my 100 Miles or Bust marker of over 100 miles in 10 weeks. I did only about 3 on Sunday and wasn't able to run at all yesterday, so I missed making it but am very proud of myself for running as much as I have the past few weeks.

New training goals are in the works. I will be starting my marathon training in a couple of weeks to prepare for my second running of the NYC Marathon on November 2nd. I also got entry into the NYC Half Marathon on July 27th. Of course I will probably throw in some misc. small races.

New Lace

Loopy Ewe sent another little package to me this past Saturday. This order qualified for free shipping and I still got it within 3 days of my order!
So what is it that I couldn't resist? Well, first there are two hanks of Dream In Color Baby Lace - Colorway Lipstick Lava. This stuff is yummy! I have it possibly earmarked for a Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls. Between both hanks I have 1400 yds. More than enough for this shawl.

While browsing the store, I can't resist looking at all the sock yarn. On the left is Dream In Color Smooshy Sock Yarn - Colorway Happy Forest and on the right is Scarlet Fleece Sock - Colorway Antique Watermelon. I couldn't resist adding these two greeny colors to my sock stash.

As of right now I am not adding anymore sock yarn to my stash until I start knitting and getting through what I got for SOS08. I can not wait for June 21 to come so I can start knitting with this stuff. Yes I am excited and I have even gone as far as picking out patterns for the yarn.

So here's my knitting projects update:

1. Lacy Skirt panels are complete as of last weekend. I did indeed received the correct dye lot of yarn and quickly finished them off. The only thing left to do is seam up the sides and get the ribbon to go through the eyelet holes.
2. The front for Prairie Tunic is about 50% complete. I have been working on it faithfully since I finished the back. I'm actually hating the needles (very dull points for a fine yarn) I am using for this knit and am looking forward to finishing it. It should be done in time to get on the plane with it.

I wasn't going to cast-on for a new project until Prairie Tunic was done, but I couldn't help myself on Sunday evening. I had four skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel yarn in my stash for Fitted Knits - Coquette Lace Tube Top. I didn't think this would take me long to work knit and wanted to take it with my on my trip to Myrtle Beach. Here's what I got so far. I am on the third skein and I am holding my breath about having enough yarn. I double checked my gauge and am dead on, but my pulse is still beating a little fast over it. We shall see!