Saturday, September 25, 2010

3 Weeks

I had lunch with YarnyoldKim yesterday and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful afternoon. We ate a delightful lunch outside on the cobblestone street behind my old work building. Amongst all the *catching up* talking, we did knit a little. Kim gave me rave reviews of my Sock Yarn Blankie. It was fun watching her point to the yarns she gave me and say, "I know this one. I knitted such and such with it."

Another topic of conversation was that we couldn't believe that Rhinebeck is just three weeks away. Kim asked me about my Rhinebeck sweater. Uhhh. Well, I am still planning on making Girl Friday my sweater for the festival but it will only be if I can get it out of this state...

Sad to say I took this picture probably at the end of June. It was my intention to block the pieces to size, seam it and then pick up for the collar/buttonband.

So what are my intentions now? Pray for a miracle? Hmmm, well I am now going straight for the seaming and picking up stitches for the collar. Blocking will take place once it's all done.

Now I need to figure out when I am going to accomplish all this so I don't have to wear a half done sweater being held together with safety pins.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

160

As promised, this post is all about what's happening with the Sock Yarn Blankie. The title of this post tells you that I have reached 160 completed squares on the blanket. There are a total of 8 rows completely done and 4 squares done into row 9. It seems my obsession with this blanket has taken over again. It's the only thing I have been working on since I finished my knee highs.

I placed the blanket on my bed, instead of having it blend into my black carpet, to try and give you a better idea of what it looks like. I don't have a wide angle lens on my camera so the first picture is taken from a distance.

These 3 pictures give you a close-up of all the squares...



I thought I would place the blanket across my queen size bed to give some perspective on the width of the blanket. As you can see, the blanket curls just over each edge of the bed. I think the width is perfect. Now if I can just get some length on this baby.

I'm having lunch with Yarnyoldkim next Friday and I can't wait to show the blanket to her. I started creating squares with the butt load of yarn scraps she ever so kindly gave me. It's truly become a Frienship Blanket.

Friday, September 10, 2010

FO Friday

One would have thought that I would have blogged about finishing my first pair of knee highs as soon as they were done. But no. For some reason I have waited almost two weeks to share them with you. So here is what I am now calling Night & Day...

Did you by any chance figure out why I am calling them Night & Day by looking at the picture? Yes, I have socks that are in the same color family but one is light and the other is dark. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed that they are opposite in light values. When I picked out this yarn I was totally in love with the deep autumnal colors and I thought the whole skein would contain those deep colors. But alas that wasn't too be. I have found out from my sis that her skein of yarn is the same way. So we have concluded that this is just the way the Dyer chooses to dye her yarns.

What can I say I love about this yarn? This was my first time ever to knit with a Creatively Dyed yarn and I must say it was very nice to knit. It stitches up beautifully and feels great on your skin. I also love the generous amount of yarn that comes on each skein - over 500 yards. Even after knitting a pair of knee highs I still had a nice amount left over to put towards my Sock Yarn Blankie. Would I buy it again this year at Rhinebeck? Yes, but I will look more closely at the coloring to ensure I get light and dark colors that I like.

Here are the FO stats:

Pattern: On-Your-Toes Socks by Ann Budd (Interweave Knits Mag. Summer '07)
Yarn: Creatively Dyed - Calypso; Colorway: Blocks
Needles: Knit Picks Fixed Circs. - Sizes 1.5 and 2
Started: August 5, 2010
Finished: August 29, 2010

After I finished the knee highs I did cast on for my next pair of socks. I got as far as the cuff and 1 round of the leg before I put them to the side for knitting on this...

I'll have a blankie update in my next post.