Progress

Between yesterday and today progress has been made on Girl Friday. I have proof that I haven't forgotten how to seam, nor how much I dislike doing it. The front and back pieces have been attached at the shoulders and both sleeves have been inserted. Oh why does the second sleeve ALWAYS seam up easier and look much better than the first? I know the answer. I just felt the need to ask it.

Anyway, I'll hopefully be seaming up the sides in a little bit.

I feel more confident now that I will have the sweater finished in time for all the festivities in two weeks. I think I'll be on a button finding mission soon.

So during the past couple of months between procrastinating finishing Girl Friday and knitting on the Sock Yarn Blankie (and oh yeah knitting a pair of knee highs), I did cast-on for a Rhinebeck hat. My sister informed me that the one hat I made that she really liked on me was my Sockhead Hat. Well that was all I needed to hear. As you can see below I am almost finished with hat #2.

The yarn I am using is Socks That Rock in the Gingerbread Dude colorway (bought last year at Rhinebeck). I chose this yarn because the maroon spots match my Girl Friday. I wanted to try and be all matchy matchy.

I at first hated it, grew to like it and then kind of became eh about it once I started the decreases. There are two spots at the top where on one side there is a big pool spot of white and on the other side a big pool spot of brown. It kinda bothers me. I feel like some horns or something should be sprouting from these two spots. I'm hoping that once it's done and on my head the spots won't bother me as much. Mainly because hopefully I won't see them. We'll see.

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.

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.

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.

Rebel Birthday

Another birthday has come and gone (Tuesday the 17th). One last year in my thirties. I know some people can't wait for me to join the 40 club, but I am going to not rush it and enjoy whatever is in store for me during this year.

Since I had to work on my birthday (didn't make any sense to take it off since it fell in the middle of my work week), Manny and I went back to one of our favorite places last Sunday. We headed back out to Greenport, LI for the afternoon. The day was cloudy but it gave us some relief in the heat department which was really nice. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Claudio's again and even indulged in an ice cream desert prior to lunch since we had to wait 20 minutes for a table at the restaurant.

On our drive back home we took a bit of a scenic route. We pulled over at one of the small town beaches to enjoy the ocean for a few minutes. Manny and I were trying to decide if the water was warm or cold. He voted for cold and I voted for warm. I couldn't resist it and had to find out...

Manny snapped this photo of me and titled it "Rebel". You can see in the photo there is a designated swimming area and I am outside the zone. What can I say? I was living on the edge that day. LOL BTW, I was right. The water was warm and I wished I could have taken a dip.

I have been knitting and have made great progress. I restarted my knee high socks and it took me 2 days to get back to where I was before frogging. Now today I have an almost completed sock.

This is what it looks like on me...


...and this is what it looks like off...

It's unbelievably long. As I'm knitting I can't help but think this looks like a long sock for a snake. It's amazing how something so off looking fits just right. Anyhoo, as of this writing I have completed the cuff and just need to do the sew bind-off. Hmmm, I wonder where my sis stands with hers? ;-)
Oh, and I may have picked out another stashed sock yarn and matched it to a pattern already.

A Foot and a Half

Yesterday when I took pictures of my "knitting in progress" items, my Buttercup Socks looked like this...

I had a foot and a half done on them. Today they look like this...

A pair of completed socks!

I must say that I absolutely love this yarn and the color. Back before I got laid off from my job I had enrolled myself into the Sundara Sock Yarn club. Unfortunately, two shipments into the club I had to drop out because of no longer having the money for it. However, I did get some awesome skeins of yarn before I stopped the shipments.

This one is called "Tuscan Rose Over Lemon". It reminds me of a beautiful sunset and I thought it was a perfect match to the Buttercup Pattern. I knitted these socks as is with no modifications at all. I started them on July 29, 2010 and finished them today, August 14, 2010.

Now that Buttercup is off the needles, I can return my focus to this sock...

This is the Creatively Dyed yarn from my last post in which I said it was going to become a pair of knee highs. It's going to be a basic 2x2 Rib sock. My sis and I are actually knitting these together with the same yarn (different colorways) to wear up at Rhinebeck this year.

It will be interesting to see who finishes theirs first. Her and I have opposite days off from work so we always know where each other is and where we have to get before heading back to work ourselves. Right now she's ahead. I believe she is at 5" (or very close to it) on the leg of sock #1.

As you can see in the above picture, I am only at the ankle, but I will actually be starting over because I'm not happy with the "snugness" of the foot. I used size 1 needles and realized I should have used 1.5's on the foot like I did on my Mustang Sally 2x2 Rib socks. But alas, I am not worried about sis getting too far ahead of me. I completed what's in the picture in 2 days. So I am confident I can catch up to her and take the lead soon. :-) Lots of love to my sis!!!

RPM'ing

For an early birthday present my parents bought me some Fannie's Fingering yarn. I actually picked it out at the yarn shop when I was visiting Myrtle Beach. My mom was pretty sneaky. She was in front of me at the cash register and asked to look at the yarn I was holding. I was talking with my sis and next thing I knew my mom turned back around with a bag and wished me Happy Birthday. I was indeed surprised.

I loved this yarn so much I couldn't wait to knit with it. I knew that I would probably finish my Angee Socks while on vacation so I came prepared with a couple of sock patterns. I think I have learned about finding the right pattern for your chosen sock yarn. I initially started the Buttercup sock but soon realized I didn't like the yarn for the pattern. The colors in the yarn were obstructing the ability to see the pattern. So I ripped and settled on knitting a pair of RPM's.

It didn't take me long to knit these up. I enjoyed knitting the pattern more than I thought I would. I love the finished product.

Pattern: RPM
Yarn: Fannie's Fingering (Colorway: Falls Flowers)
Started: July 11, 2010
Finished: July 29, 2010
Mods: Completed an extra set of the Spiral Pattern to make the leg longer.

I have given myself a little challenge in preparation of attending Rhinebeck this October. I want to knit up all or most of my sock yarn by the time of the festival. At first I didn't really think it was going to be possible. Then, I pulled out all of my sock yarn stash and realized I only have yarn to make 12 pairs of socks. Plus I currently have another sock on the needles. That really isn't bad at all I think.

The Creatively Dyed yarn (the orange yarn in the upper left corner) has already been balled in preparation of starting a pair of knee highs. So that will leave 11 pairs of socks to knit. We'll see just how much I can knit between now and Oct 15th.