Nothing says I love you like handknit socks

The first sock for the Hubby took me nearly a year to knit. I was bored with it. There were lots of other knitting projects that kept pushing these socks to the bottom of the knitting bag. But then, I decided, enough was enough. I was tired of always looking at them. I wanted them done. So I set a deadline and then knit like a mad woman on a mission. A mission for handknit socks for Valentine's Day. And it worked.

Pattern: Simple Socks by Cat Bordi
Yarn: I started these things so freakin' long ago I don't remember.

I've been working on these socks for so long that the first one actually went to France with me last March. Here it is at the beach in Nice. I'm happy to report I wasn't the only woman knitting at the beach that day. Just more proof that I could easily live in France.

2009: Projects in Pictures

Here's a few of the projects I worked on in 2009. From baby hats to jam to baby dresses, quilts, sweaters and a few little projects for me (hat, started a sweater and made myself socks). Oh, and I learned how to make creme brule. A pretty productive year if I do say so!

Sometimes you need a little encouragement from a Junior High Gym Teacher

Monday night I went to Purly Girls. I was happy to be there and working on my socks. I finished turning the heel but I had no desire to pick up the stitches and work on the gusset. I just didn't want to do it. My other project was a lace project (more details to come later) and I can't work on that one and be social at the same time, well I can, but it's riddled with mistakes if I do.


So I sat there, staring at my sock, mentally willing the stitches to pick up themselves. Then Jean and Molly chimed in words of encouragement and tips. They were sweet. Amanda just laughed at me. Monica told me to get to work. But Katie, she had a different approach. She channeled her inner Junior High Gym Teacher. You know the one. She yelled at you. A lot. She yelled at you to run faster. Jump higher. Don't be afraid of the ball even though it was flying at you at a freakishly fast rate of speed and you followed every natural instinct in your body to duck. I mean, I'm just guessing that's what she said.

Katie told me I was bigger than the sock. She threatened to yell at me to get me to knit. It was slightly frightening, but it worked. I picked up the stitches. I figured out the pattern. Then I went home and ate ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was slightly traumatic.

But the heel is coming along just nicely.

FO: My Socks

While I was in France, I was able to finish my socks!

Pattern: Simple Socks from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles

Yarn: Nodding Violet from Socks That Rock

Once again, I seemed to have a bit of a yarn pooling issue. Now that this is the second time I've made these socks with the same pooling issue. Which means it's the knitter. I've started a pair of socks the hubby and I'm seeing the same pooling. It's time to get smaller needles, rip out his sock and start over.

But at least his socks had a bit of an adventure. Here they are soaking up some sun in Nice, France. Nice, huh. (Editor's note: while the socks may look like they are striping, the other side is really pooling.)

A bientot mes amies!

I leave in a few hours for France with my mom and my sister! We are all very excited about this trip! This is something we've talked about for years, but one of those things we've never really acted on until a few months ago. And I'm so glad we did! I know it'll be a great adventure full of fun sights, yummy food, and I'm sure a few squabbles...we are family after all! But at the end of the day, your family loves you no matter what! Plus, in our case, it's usually all settled with a glass of wine or a good gin and tonic!

I'm currently debating about the whole knitting needle on flight issues. Normally, I'm fine, but now I'm working on my socks with two long metal circs. If I can take them on the plane, I'll have a new pair of socks to walk around France in. Otherwise, I'll have to shove them in my suitcase and hope there are good movies on the flight to entertain me. But then again, how do you enjoy a good movie without good knitting? Ah...I know...my issues....you all feel for me. I can tell!

Enjoy your crafting/cooking/travel adventures while I'm away! I look forward to reading all about them on your blogs that I've come to treasure so much!

I guess the hubby was listening

Last Friday night, as I was finishing my first sock, I was singing the praises of just knitting on one project at a time. I quickly cast on for the second sock and got to work. I showed the hubby my fabulous new sock and he too agreed, it was fabulous, then went back to watching T.V.

Fast forward 48 hours to Sunday night. I was getting ready to pick up the sock, when I was distracted by the lovely new scarf pattern Rebecca sent me, Springtime Bandit. Then I realized this lovely yarn I had needed the perfect pattern to go with it. And there you have it. The beginning of my next project.

So here I was: in one hand, the pattern, in the other, my luscious yarn. Then I heard it:

The hubby: "What are you doing? You can't start another project until your socks are done. Isn't that what you were talking about the other night?"

Me: "Ah....huh."

Hubby: "Where's your sock? Put that down and finish your sock."

Me: "Uh, O.K."

What's a wife to do? That's right. I knit on the sock on Sunday night. And on Monday at my knitting group, I started the scarf. Pictures to come later. Stay tuned.

Well huh.

I've been using the "Erin" method of knitting (focus on only one project instead of my usual three at the same time) for a while now and it still amazes me at how quickly I get things done.

Like this sock for instance. It is supposed to be my travel knitting project, but clearly I'm just whipping right through it. I've got the first one done and the second one is well on its way. I guess I'll just have to wear them around France instead of working on them!

Now to find another project....perhaps the hubby will get a hand knit pair of socks for being understanding about this two week trip with my mom and sister to France that he wasn't invited on.

They are not so much stripes...

...as they are diagonals. But it's better than the yarn pooling so I'll take it.

Back in the saddle again

It's been a very long week and sadly, there has been no knitting. Last week I finished my project (a gift to be shown later). And to top it off, I also finished my book! I don't like that anxious feeling of what to knit next as I dig through the yarn stash while also flipping through my library of knitting books. Usually, I don't have this issue as I have projects lined up. But not this time. And this crazy week I just had didn't leave me with any knitting time, let alone much free time anyway.

But I'm happy to say it's a new week. And a new project was cast on this morning in fact. Then progress was made when I met up with Jessica, Rebecca and new knitter Margaret at Trophy Cupcake for knitting and a sweet treat! Nothing like friends and a good sugar rush to get a sock project off to a good start!

Idiot

That's me.

Or maybe super-duper stubborn.

But really, just desperate to knit.

I'm kind of in between projects right now. I've just finished a series of little knitted gifts. I'm waiting to start a sweater for myself until after I get back from my trip to France as I have a really bad habit of starting big projects, then setting them aside, only to pick them up and royally screw them up. And I don't want that to happen again, so I wait.

With lots of sock yarn sitting in my pretty yarn stash, I thought, perfect. I can whip out a pair for me and be on my happily knitted way. However, I don't have a swift to wind yarn. And I've tried winding yarn using my winder without a swift. And it generally ends up with me annoyed at myself, swearing and untangling knots until midnight.

And once again I have done just that. Only this time I started earlier in the evening, but it still took a while to hand wind, and untangle, 380 yards of Socks That Rock in Nodding Violet. And now I'm throwing my no-money-on-knitting-rule-until-after-France out the window and going to amazon.com and buying a damn swift.

My Dad, the foot model

One thing I forgot to do while I was visiting my parents for Christmas was to get a picture of my dad actually wearing his socks. Crazy I know. He said he'd take a few pictures of them and send them my way. I think if he gets tired of fishing and woodworking in his retirement, he could earn a few extra buck in the foot modeling industry. Take a look:

(I think my mom helped with this photo)

(Here the photographer experiments with different lighting techniques). Thanks for the pics dad - they are great!

Done and done

Finally. My dad's socks are done. The second sock stripped perfectly, unlike the first one. My gauge was much better with the second one. I'm just going to tell my dad the non-stripped sock is the "left" one. He's my dad. Just like the funky, clunky coffee mug I once made him in pottery class when I was a kid, he'll love them.

Project: Simple Socks - Cat Bordhi

Yarn: ShibuiKnits Sock

It'll never grow

That's the point of the sock that I'm at. You know, where you knit, knit, knit and knit some more only to pull out the measuring tape to discover that you're .5 inches away from where you were 20 minutes earlier. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on my dad's socks and that gives me the energy needed to keep going! That and I can finally cross one gift off my Christmas-to-make list - and that keeps me knitting faster and faster!

AGH!!!!!

Ok. I'm taking deep breaths.

Remember the first sock I made for my dad's Christmas present this year? Remember how the yarn pooled on the leg, then striped perfectly on the heel and foot?

Remember how some people said, it happens, yarn pools. I accepted it and moved on.

I moved on to sock #2 and now look:

The damn thing is striping perfectly!!!!! Which means, it's not the yarn, it's ME!!!!!

And now I have to rip out the first sock and redo it, in the vain hope I can recreate my gauge and hope the yarn stripes. Otherwise, they'll look really, really silly. So much for getting a jump on my Christmas knitting. Am so annoyed! So annoyed I say!!

Christmas '08 Project Update:

Dad's sock. One down.
One to go.

Stay tuned.

Getting back to business

There's been a lot going on around the Knitting Knot these days which sadly means, not a lot of knitting. But now, it's time to get back to business.

My dad's sock is almost done. I think. I still need my mom to measure his foot so I can get it just right. My plan is to have her measure it while he's asleep on the recliner in front of the t.v. Should be easy.

But this is an interesting thing with the sock. When I started it, the yarn was pooling instead of striping.

However when I turned the heel and start the foot, it began to stripe. Interesting, huh.

Why sock knitting is like that bad Junior High crush

Admit it. Most of us had them. You know, those Junior High crushes on the boy that didn't even know your name. You didn't pay attention in math because you were too busy day dreaming about how you two would go to the dance together and live happily ever after. Or maybe you didn't pay attention because when your notes should have been about some mathematic equation, you were too busy writing his last name after your first name. Deny it if you like, but we had them. No matter how much you wanted him to like you (or for that matter, even know your name), it just wasn't in the cards. That's kind of how I feel about sock knitting. I want to love it. I want it to love me back. But I don't feel that way right now. And I haven't felt that way in a long time (remember the Toe Jazz socks? Yeah, me neither.)

But like any good Junior High student, I'll keep at my studies and try to focus. I'll keep working on the socks with the hopes that one day, the crush will be fulfilled.

Tri Training, Knitting & One Less Car On The Road

In an effort to get in some triathlon training where ever I can, and to keep up with my goal of using my car less, I decided to ride my bike up to the Fiber Gallery after work to pick up my new sock book. I figured it'd be about 3 miles each way. Easy-peasy, right? Well, as you savvy Seattle knitters know, the Fiber Gallery is on Phinney Ridge. That's ridge as in big fat freakin' steep hill.

Not to be deterred, but rather challenged, I figured, why not. So I rode from my place up Fremont Ave to the zoo, then cut across to the main drag along Phinney Ridge. At about 39th and Fremont, I'm sucking wind big time. Muscles in my legs (and ass) were aching that I didn't know ever existed. So, having no shame what-so-ever, I got off and walked my bike up and even steeper part of the road. Now the thing about this road is, it's not as crazy steep as many hills in Seattle, it's a slight incline that just goes on and on (OK, maybe it's 2.1 miles, but it seemed like eternity.)

About halfway up the hill, I did get back on and power through. It was worth it. It was a beautiful afternoon and Jessica was working and greeted me with a smile. She didn't even mind that I was totally sweaty, panting, and slightly ditzy. I even couldn't remember if I needed a skein of Manos or Malibrego for a scarf I want to make.

Here's a view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains! You don't always see that when you're whizzing by in a car!

Christmas in July

This is the year that I actually start my Christmas gifts early! And I even whittled down the list of who gets knitted gifts. This year's first project goes to my dad. He's getting knitted socks. I'm very excited about this project because I'm learning how to do socks on two circular needles and I have to say, I'm totally loving this and wondering why the heck it took me so long to get here? It's a pretty simple sock pattern (more on that when I actually buy the book - look for post to come later this week.)

But here's the reason for the socks for dad (aside from the fact that he's the best dad and deserves handknit socks from his kid). My sister and I have a running joke about who's the favorite daughter. It can be for either parent. At any time and for any reason. For example, I was talking to my dad the other day when he got a call on the other line. He went to answer it, came back and said it was Lindsay (the sister). I said, "Did you tell her you'd call her back later because you were talking to your favorite daughter on the other line?" That type of stuff.

When I was visiting the family over the Fourth of July at our place in Cascade, my dad proudly displayed his new favorite toy. It was a gift from Lindsay for Fathers Day. And I can honestly say, I've been dethroned as favorite kid. This gift freakin' blew everything out of the water. No comparison.

My dad now owns a bright orange Boise State University beer bottle opener that plays the Paul J. Schnider final call of the famed Fiesta Bowl game where the BSU Broncos came from behind in the final seconds to win the game. (I hate to do this, but to get an idea of how great this play was - in the minds of Broncos - here's a link to a crappy YouTube clip where the BSU fan actually spelled Boise wrong in the title. It's just classic.)

And the best part, she found it for 99 cents. (Editor's note: personally, I believe that's because no one would want that reminder of a game, but whatever.) So needless to say, he went around all weekend offering to open all of our beer bottles. The rest of the guests were all Idaho Vandals (for those readers not from Idaho, this is the big, massive football rival. It's messy. It's personal. It ain't pretty.) But it made my dad happy. Especially as we all squirmed when the damn thing would go off.

Now, to give my non-Idaho readers another perspective of how beloved this damn game is, it was played about two years ago and if you go into any big store that sells T.V.'s in Boise, they still replay that game on all of their T.V.'s and people still stop and watch it. Plu-eezeee, get over it for crying out loud. Move on. That's what I'm hoping these socks will do for my dad, help him move on past that damn game. And put me back in the favorite daughter throne that I so rightfully deserve.

(Pictures of these fabulous-favorite-daughter-winning socks to come later, my camera battery is recharging.)

Sock Knitting with the Yarn Harlot

The Yarn Harlot came to town again with more funny knitting stories and adventures to share with us! A group of Purly Girls met up there for a little knitting and laughing. Since the Yarn Harlot does love her sock knitting, I thought it would be the ideal time to start my second sock.

Mara was able to join us. She brought her sock knitting too and she finished it. And yes, that is all the yarn she had left when she finished. Nice knitting.