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.

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!

Sunday Adventure & Knitting

I will warn you that this is an extremely picture heavy post. Was very hard to narrow down the pictures to share. So with that said....

Manny and I decided to go out on one of our little adventures this past Sunday. We took the top off the Jeep and headed out to Greenport, Long Island. The day couldn't have been more perfect!

Greenport, LI:

(We had the most delicious meal here while looking out into the harbor)

(A close-up of what we think is a Seagull sculpture)

(Our bellies were full and I in a new hat)

Orient Point:

(Catching a Ferry coming into dock)

(Catching Manny skipping stones in the ocean)

Vineyard Hopping:

Lenz (Stop #1)


Pellegrini (Stop #2)



Finally, just so there is some knitting content, a picture of the Sock Yarn Blankie.

Good progress has been made. I have been picking up stitches between 2 blocks to create the second row of blocks. I currently have only 5 more blocks to attach to complete the first row. After that I will pick up half the stitches on each end (cast on for the remaining half of the block) and the second row will be done. I spent my dinner break last night weaving in yarn ends. I think this will be the only way to keep my sanity. Weave in as I go.