99 Squares

When I went to Myrtle Beach at the beginning of July, Sock Yarn Blankie made it into the suitcase. I was fortunate to be able to add squares from sock yarn scraps my sister and mom had. I have five completed rows done. 99 Squares total.

Since I've been home from that trip, I haven't knitted on Blankie at all. I reached a point where I needed to knit up some more of my sock yarn so I could get a little more variety in adding new squares. I was asked how I chose my yarns for each square. Do I just reach in the bag and pick one or do I have a *planned* approach. While I would love to be able to just close my eyes and grab a yarn, my mind has a hard time letting that happen. So without putting too much pressure, or restriction on myself, I decided I'm just trying to space out the yarns that I have A LOT of when adding squares.

So since my scraps were dwindling in the variety department, I decided I needed to start a new pair of socks while away before progressing further on the blanket. I am pleased to say that I am just about done with that pair I started two and half weeks ago. You'll get to see them in the next post. I also have the next pair ready to get on the needles. My plan is to always have a sock going. I'd also like to try and knit up as much of my sock yarn before Rhinebeck in October.

When I came home from Myrtle Beach I had a lovely package in the mail from my dear friend Yarny Old Kim. I want to thank her again because it was truly an awesome package of her own sock yarn scraps for my Blankie. Just look at all the awesomeness!

My Sock Yarn Blankie is now a *Friendship Blanket*! I love the idea of having yarn from my friends and family incorporated into the blanket. I can't wait to start adding all this yumminess into the blanket!

May I Introduce

Last week I flew down to Myrtle Beach to visit my sister and parents. I spent five days down south and the timing couldn't have been more perfect because I flew out of NYC on Day 2 of the triple digit weather days. Getting into the land of cooler 80 degree temps and central air conditioning was welcomed with open arms.

While the time flew during my visit, I did get some quality knitting time in on a couple of my WIPs. I even have an FO. May I introduce you to Angee. You may remember her from when I first showed her off back in, um yes, March?!?

Angee is definitely fraternal twins and I have to say I am more inclined to loving sock #2 (left foot in picture). While I love this yarn, I found deeper into the skein of yarn, the pooling/coloring started acting differently than in sock #1. Sock #1 is more green and #2 is more pink.

Also, if I had thought about this yarn more deeply before starting the pattern I chose, I think I would have just knitted it up in plain stockinette. Why you may ask? Because my favorite part of the sock is this....

That's right. The bottom of the feet, the part no one will ever see, is my favorite part of the socks. The plain stockinette truly shows of this yarn the way I think it was meant to be. Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20. With all that said, I will wear these socks with pride this Fall/Winter because on dark/gloomy days these socks will put a smile on my face.

FO Details:

Pattern: Angee (Cookie A - Sock Innovation)
Yarn: The Sanguine Gryphon (Eidos); Colorway-Azalea
Started: March 14, 2010
Finished: July 11, 2010
Needles: Knit Picks Circs Sizes 1.5 (leg) & 1 (foot)

Stay tuned for a Blankie update next time!

67 Squares

In addition to being busy knitting on the sock yarn blankie, I've also been busy making up little mini skeins for my sister of the yarn I have. I found I needed about 7.5 yards of sock yarn to make one square. So to make the skeins I measured out anywhere from 7.5 to 8 yards. For some of the yarns I had a huge amount leftover so I weighed out 5 grams which will yield several squares for sure. As you can see below, I have 17 sock yarns. That's a good many pair of socks. Plus, there are some socks I don't even have any scraps from.

So far I have finished 67 squares on the blanket. There are three rows completed and the fourth is a quarter done. After tackling all the loose ends from the first and second rows, I've been weaving in the ends as I add a new square. That way there is only 2 ends to weave at a time and they really doesn't take long at all to weave in and snip.

Here it is in all it's close-up glory:

I'm starting to run out of scraps which contribute to the ability to spread out some of the same colors. I'll work with what I got and then it's off to knit more socks!