Hurry Spring! Socks

Needles: Size 1
Wool: 420 yard skein of hand-painted Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Select, a pure superwash merino fingering weight yarn. Colorway: Holiday Ornaments from AlaskanNancy on Etsy.
Pattern: Plain stockinette over 54 stitches

Daffodil Baby Socks

Needles: Size 2
Yarn: Leftover yarn Summer Sun by March Hare on Etsy. 75/25 Superwash merino/nylon
Pattern: Infant Socks, a free pattern found here. Modified by reducing number of stitches to 36 and using a K2,P2 ribbing.

Sage Leaf Socks Done!

Needles: 2.0 mm dpn
Yarn: Merino superwash sock yarn, 80% merino and 20% bamboo from WoolCandy on Etsy. Colorway: Olive
Pattern: Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave, ed. by Ann Budd

I started these socks last September and have finally completed them!

Organizing My Yarn

I spent all of yesterday organizing my yarn and ended up with two large (18 gallon size) Rubbermaid storage totes and four file boxes. The storage totes hold my sock yarns and the others everything else. Everything is sorted by type of yarn and color. I also sorted my leftover sock yarn into gallon ziplock bags. I have two filled with fingerweight leftover and one with heavier (sock and dk weight). I'm hoping to use these to make Monstersocks.

I found some yarns I'd forgotten I had. I also couldn't find some I was certain I had, but I'll keep looking!

Wearing Socks!

The weather folks are predicting snow and freezing rain today so I'm wearing my socks. They may look strange paired with a skirt, but my feet will be warm!

Citron Vert Baby Socks

Lime Baby Socks, the first pair for 2011! I am busy knitting shop samples for the four classes I'll be teaching in the next couple of months and won't be able to work on more socks until I'm done. Hopefully, that will be by the end of next week!

These socks are made of leftover yarn, 100% Superwash merino wool yarn in fingering weight, I bought on Etsy from Evermore Studios on Etsy. I used size 2 needles and the stitch pattern is a double seed stitch.

Monstersocks!

I am being overwhelmed with baskets full of small balls of wool yarn left over from my sock knitting. What to do? I was intrigued by this idea which I first saw on a blog I read regularly, SockLadySpins. What a great idea! I may try that!

Looking Forward to 2011

I am not going to be as ambitious with sock knitting next year. Instead of trying to knit six pairs of socks a month (four pairs of adult socks and two pairs of baby socks) which is what I tried to do this year and then burned out at the end, I'll try instead to knit two pairs of adults socks and one pair of baby socks a month. If I can manage more, great, but knitting is supposed to fun, not a chore.

I am spending some time fondling my yarn and putting together "kits" of yarns and patterns in quart-sized ziploc bags so I'm better prepared. I'm also making lists. Oh, yes! I am a very prolific list maker. My friend Margaret, who is also a librarian, shared with me that she makes little boxes next to each item on her lists so that she can check each item off as it's completed. I've begun doing that too, but I have to admit I still scratch it off. That is so satisfying!

Baby Bunny Baby Socks

Needles: 2.0mm dpn
Yarn: Unknown; from stash
Pattern: My Favorite Sock Pattern (free)

I wanted to knit this pattern again in a solid yarn so I could more clearly see the pattern.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph. It's 3:30 pm and we're having another storm. It's hail and rain and sometimes snowflakes, but the snow isn't sticking to the ground. At least not yet. Still, it's gray and dark outside so I had to take this photo using a flash.

I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can!

I'm trying to finish up the samples I'm making for the classes I'll be teaching January through March. Unfortunately, there are no socks among them. The shop already has someone who's teaching a basic sock class. I'd love to teach a workshop on how to design socks, but the shop owner doesn't think that will fly. As I teach my classes, though, I'll talk to the students I have and see if I can drum up some interest.

I am also knitting socks! Yes, they are baby socks, but they are socks! I have one finished and I'm almost to the heel of the second. I will try to get them done by the end of the year and post a photo. I'll also update my blog sidebar. Stay tuned!

Where are the Socks??!!

I've been distracted by other things and other knitting the past few weeks and my sock knitting has temporarily been put aside.

The breast-biopsy-with-pathology-reports-with-various-opinions problem has finally been resolved. There was never a question that the biopsy showed cancer, but rather that I had a something (atypia) which indicated that the biopsy, which is only a sample, had missed picking up cancer. The usual way of dealing with that is surgery--sometimes called an excisional biopsy and sometimes a lumpectomy. I didn't want to have surgery unnecessarily and researched this topic extensively. Some researchers insisted that it was always necessary to have surgery and others, more and more of them in papers published in 2010, said if the biopsy had removed all of the microcalcifications (which mine had) close follow up would be all right. I wasn't thrilled about having diagnostic mammograms every six months for two to three years either. Two things helped resolve the problem. The first and most important was yet another pathology opinion, this one from Dr. David L. Page, a breast pathologist at Vanderbilt, who is considered to be one of the world's expert on the subject. His report said there was no atypia and that "routine mammographic surveillance is appropriate". I also had a diagnostic mammogram and the radiologist report came back "Benign. Recommend routine mammographic follow up". So that's over. Yay for that!

Now to knitting. I taught a class at my local yarn shop --Fiber Nooks and Crannys-- earlier this month. It was on learning how to knit cables by knitting a cable hat. I had four students and it was a lot of fun. Now, of course, I want to teach more classes--one making lace and cable fingerless mitts, one making a lace cowl, one making a hat with lace and cables which look like hearts, and another on mittens with bobbles. I am busily making models for these and writing a description of the classes for the shop owner.

Add to that working two days a week at the library and going to the gym three times a week plus reading, quilting (not much, but a little), and just living my life and the upcoming holidays, plus my birthday and wedding anniversary, and my days are full.

Yes, I will go back to sock knitting. I just don't know quite when that'll be. My best guess is the end of December.

Sweet Dreams (baby socks)

Needles: 2.0mm dpn
Yarn: Koigu KKPM 2235 (solid) and Koigu KKPM 102 (multi-color)
Pattern: Plain stockinette

Socks for Afghanistan

Needles: 4.25 dpn
Yarn: Lambs Pride Worsted, 85% wool and 15% mohair. Colorway: M-75 Blue Heirloom
Pattern: My Basic Socks (free)

These socks were made for afghans for Afghans This pair knit up in less than two hours.

Leftover Sock Yarn

So, you may be wondering. Just what does one do with leftover sock yarn? Well, one answer is make baby socks and that's what I do. Yet I still have sock yarn left over. In fact, I have a LOT of sock yarn left over!



One idea is to make more socks, striping several different yarns and/or stitches and I like that idea. I'll begin, however, with making a pair of baby socks that way; it's on the schedule for this month. I have other ideas too and will work on these from now until the end of the year.

And all those tiny little snips of yarn? I save those in a glass jar. In the spring I'll put them out for the birds to use to decorate their nests.