Rambling Warps

New Patterns that I need to Add to the Website!

I recently got a new batch of patterns from Lucy Neatby of Tradewind Knitwear Designs... should have them on the site soon:

Chain D'Amour Scarf $5.50 This one looks like a LOT of fun... chain mail in wool (guess you could use wire also?)

Paradoxical Mittens $5.50

Gorgeous shawls

Poinsettia Shawl $11.50
Maple Leaf Shawl $11.50
Faroese Flower Shawl $11.50

Henry the Cat, wallhanging (or cushion) $11.50
Andean Vest Recipe $11.50

and of course, Cables After Whiskey... $8.50

Plus shipping... on the Weaving Rainbow site... click on Patterns & then Lucy Neatby TKD

Sockotta

Here's a closeup of the cast on section with a couple of rounds completed... the first time I did turkish cast on, I noticed that the center section looked like a slipped stitch.. not hole-y, but just a bit elongated, so when I cast on these socks, I did them by doing one side of the initial knitting through the back loop to give a bit of a twist... I don't think I like it... and have a hunch that the figure 8 cast on WILL be fine with circular needles and not as fiddly as it is with double pointed needles... we shall see... I think I'll give it a try as I really liked the way my cityline pink socks came out... and I THINK I used the figure 8 cast on for them... might have been the double knit cast on, I don't know, but I'll keep trying... (maybe not with this pair of socks)...

Speaking of, I do need a pic of the cityline pink socks, don't I? Maybe next time...

This IS Sockotta color 18...

Egg sandwich plus some extra toast

This was a couple of days ago...my son wanted me to show this off... a little charred for my taste, but he ate the whole thing!

And I'm told that the consumption of food grows to humongous proportions in the teen years... with boys, that is, I don't remember eating like a monster when I was a kid...

Mz Potter came back later to pose for this one:

And now it's time to wash our faces:

Click for full size

More about sock knitting

Today I started a new pair of socks with Plymouth Sockotta on the 2.5mm needles... will alternate between the dream catcher socks & the sockotta socks. It LOOKS like this yarn will be thick enough for the 2.5 mm needles, we shall see! The Sockotta yarn is color 18, I believe... it's an older color as this yarn has been mellowing in the stash for a couple of years... when the rainbow Lorna's Laces yarn didn't work out on the 2.5mm needles (my 2.0s are in use by the Dreamcatcher yarn), the Sockotta screamed "me me me" from its box in the garage...

I used the Turkish Cast on that I learned from Fluffy Knitter Deb's site only I used 1 long circular needle instead of 2 as she shows. Instead of using 2 different needles, I just lined up the 2 needle points from the one long circ & wound the yarn for both socks and followed Deb's directions. I just lined them up by putting the slip knot on first, winding 14 wraps, then put the slip knot from the other end of the yarn (or other ball, if you've got 2 balls wound) and wound the 14 wraps for it and then started knitting! Couldn't be easier... One day I'll do a pictorial of this to show how it is done.

As toe up toes go: I MOST enjoy the way the short row toe goes together, but don't love the way it looks... I most love the way the figure 8 toe looks, but doing the increases (4 stitches per sock every other round until I reach 70 stitches) is a bit boooooooooring... oh well. The fun will begin in time enough!

As yarns go:

Lorna's Laces: use a thinner needle (US 0/2mm for me)
Opal (ditto as with Lorna's laces)
Regia: 2.5mm (US 1-1/2 or 1, whatever you want to call them...)
Fortissima: ditto for Regia
Sockotta: ditto for Regia
Kroy: I THINK these would do well with a 2.5mm, but I've only done these socks with the yarn doubled using US 5 needles (3.25mm, I think?) as a worsted yarn.

I also have a pair of worsted weight (handpainted 80% wool/20%nylon) socks on the needles, but am waiting for some US 3 (3.25mm) needles to arrive so that I can restart them as the fabric is too loose on US 5 (3.75mm)...

I also have a pair of fuzzy feet on the needles...

No photos today... maybe next time!

What my kids are fascinated by

(Or are we raising them to become trash collectors??) We got our dumpster (a 3 yard container) on Monday...they were all excited by its arrival! We need it because we'll be generating a fair bit of construction trash, but not enough to require a construction dumpster... this should be plenty. On Monday, the boys (one of them did most of the work) filled the dumpster with trash that we accumulated from cleaning up the house (everything was in the dining room)...along with 2 or 3 bags of regular weekly trash (we need to start recycling again...)

Today that load was emptied. One of my sons asked me to turn the music down so he can keep an ear out for the trash pick up truck... when it came, EVERYONE had to go out to watch... after that, I had some yarn to bring to the post office for a couple of customers, and the trash truck was still around, so we got to watch them dump a few other loads...

Then we proceeded to fill our dumpster again, this time with stuff that we had tossed into the yard from things that we were getting rid of in the renovation process, old flooring, etc)... and there will be more when we get ready to re-do the back porch & then the floor from the kitchen & dining room... and the roof... and then another bedroom. Gary wants to close the back porch off completely, so instead of it looking like a fish tank, it will have 2 windows and insulation...

Although we made a big dent in the pile in the yard, it doesn't look like it yet: I think the yard will start looking better after the next dumpster load...

More photo catch ups!

Here's a pair of socks a wonderful friend made for me a few months ago, they're snug & comfy!

And a pair I made in the early 90s... from the Cottage Creations Wisconsin Winter socks pattern: 1 strand of brown sheep Naturespun worsted & 1 strand of Brown Sheep Wildfoote:

Dreamcatcher socks in progress:

and the other side:

I used a short row toe here... Opal yarn is thinner than other yarns, so I had to go down to 2.00 mm needles (US 0) from my 1's (2.5mm)... I'm using a knit 3 purl 1 ribbing on the top of the foot...

Hat using Noro Ouchou yarn:

I did this one top down, started with 6 stitches and increased 6 stitches every other round until I got the right number of stitches & then knit even until I was close to running out of yarn & then I did a knit 2 purl 2 ribbing... it's comfy! It's got a fair bit of silk in it & I can tell if my hands are on the dry side if the hat sticks to my hands!

Brought in the Archie tapestry loom from storage today so I can start working on some small pieces... it's smaller than my new (to me) Hagen loom & will be great for the small tapestries!

I'm still playing around with the locker hooking design, so no update on that yet... all that I've done with it is to stitch a red border around the edge & start on the background color...in other words: nothing to see yet!

Don't mind the floors... we plan to refinish them, but that's a way down the road since we have more critical things that need doing first! We've all been passing colds & stomach bugs around lately so haven't been very productive... I've got my yearly cough, which is NOT helped by the dry dry air... hopefully we'll go back to the old place & finish getting our stuff by the time the week is up!