Those are Black Peacock and Choco-Raspberry Mustard.

I decided it was the perfect time to cast on a simple self-striping toe-up sock. I want to use as much of the yarn as possible, so toe-up was the way to go, plus I wanted to try putting in an afterthought heel. I decided on using the Black Peacock first.

Here is the proto-sock:

A wee little toe, how cute!

Here is what it looked like after a couple days at work:

That’s side 1. Here’s side 2:

It’s like Jekyll and Hyde! The yarn was doing all sorts of pretty things in the blue/purple section on the toe, but once I got to the actual number of stitches for the sock, it was perfectly divided between blue on one side and purple on the other. I know you can see a little bit of each colour starting to peek around the sides at the bottom of that stripe. Well, here’s a little secret:

That’s only happening because I pulled a loop of the purple yarn to make it change!

I’m not sure what to do… I know changing the stitch count would make it change, but it’s a stitch count that will fit my feet. I’m winging this pattern as I go – I measured my gauge, did some math, and came up with the following:

I have a 8.5″ circuference at the ball of my foot. At a gauge of 10st/1″, that’s 85st. But socks need negative ease, so I took 10% off, which gave me 76. I could probably go down to about 72, but I wouldn’t want to go smaller. I’m torn between wanting to knit past the current black stripe to see what the next coloured section does, or ripping back to the point in to the toe that has 72 stitches and try going from there.

(Hee, seeing my wedding band in that picture makes me giggle. I’m married!)

‘Summer socks’ as in ‘socks that were knit in the summer’, not ‘socks to wear in the summer’.

The yarn is Lotus Yarns Chakra in the colourway ‘Bettie’. I bought this yarn at Sock Summit ’09, so I thought it fitting to be knitting it during Sock Summit ’11.

The pattern is Charade, and it was the perfect pattern for travel knitting. It was super-easy to memorize, and every other row is plain knitting anyway! I only needed the pattern for the heel turn, so I could always just pull the sock out of my bag and knit around and around and around. Socks are wonderful like that.

I really like the colourway. I’m not sure what this style of dying is, but there were short bursts of blues, pale green, and white all throughout the yarn. It wasn’t like some multicoloured yarns that have say, a section of blue, then a section of pink, then red, then it repeats again, and if it is in a skein you can get everything to line up. This yarn reminded me much more of the funfetti-style Koigu dyed yarn. The yarn is a little thicker than some sock yarns, these may end up being house socks, unless they shrink a bit in the wash. These are also the first socks I’ve ever knit that have cashmere content in the yarn!

I really like the toe in this pattern – it has more stitches in between the decreases than most patterns do, and I like the effect that gives.

It’s been a while since I’ve finished a knitting project, so these made me very happy.

Before I left for Sock Summit, I cast on a simple pair of socks in yarn I’d bought at the last Summit (so much for that goal of knitting it all up before SS11….). I finished the cuff while in Portland, and have just finished up sock #1!

I knit on the sock on my lunch break from work this week. When it’s not thunderstorming, I like to eat my lunch in Olympic Plaza to get some much-needed vitamin D.

And here’s the finished sock at home.

The pattern is Charade, and the yarn is Lotus Yarns Chakra in the colour ‘Bettie’. I lurve this yarn – it’s the first sock yarn I ever bought that has cashmere in the blend, and it is the silkiest softest thing I’ve ever touched.

I also cast on for a second pair of socks once I got home. I’m a really big fan of the videocast Round the Twist, and Carin is doing a nice slow-paced knitalong through Cookie A’s first book. I decided to cast on for the Rick socks, just like Carin, and join in the fun. I used more SS09 yarn, Liberty’s Yarn in Jabbersocky, in the awesome Lemongrass colourway.

Now, the day I started these socks, I had all my circular needles out for organizing. I knew I wanted to knit them on 2.5mm needles, so when I’d finished organizing I grabbed the needles I wanted and got going. After an inch or two the sock was looking very tiny, so I tried it on and it wouldn’t fit. I checked the needles, because I’d been having some problems with tightness when I was doing my decreases and lo and behold, I’d picked up my 2.25mm needles instead of the ones I really wanted. I ripped back to the ribbing, which fit fine, and started with new needles.

I tried the sock on when it had an inch or two of patterning done, and it fit over my heel just fine. I tried it on when there was 4″-5″ of patterning, and Rick and I reached a stalemate:

He was not going any farther than that. The bias stitches make the sock squeeze down small like a Chinese finger trap. So I ripped again, the whole thing this time.

I’m trying to decide how to proceed next:

Option 1 is to start again on 3mm needles, even though I quite liked the fabric the 2.5mms were giving me.

Option 2 is to add another repeat of the pattern to the leg while knitting with the 2.5mms. This keeps the fabric I like, but could make the heel of the sock problematic. Although I did take a class from Cookie A at Sock Summit (and have the signed book to prove it) so maybe I should venture into the semi-design-your-own arena.

Or I suppose there’s Option 3: forget the Rick socks for now, and cast on for a sweater. There’s a chance I might make it to Rhinebeck this year, and if it pans out, I don’t want to be sweaterless!

Monday I wandered over to a yarn store not 4 blocks from here, hoping to find some perfect teal yarn. I wasn’t too hopeful – it’s always hard going shopping for something so specific. Well, I walked in and found this:

Three little skeins of teal sock yarn! I brought it home and pulled out some black sock yarn I already had: I’d actually bought it a couple years ago to make some socks for Cinnamon Buns, but never got around to it. I started the socks that night, and they’ve become my work knitting. Before you think I’m a bad employee – theatre can be a very ‘hurry up and wait’ type of environment (depending on the show, of course), so it is good to have things like knitting to keep your hands and brain busy. A lot of my current cast does crosswords – I knit. Naturally, I only knit in those dead spaces, and if there’s an emergency (busted button or snap, broken prop) or I have a cue (handing off props, guns, blood bags, helping people change outfits in 10.5 seconds, supervising the safe “hanging” of an actor… I have a weird job) the knitting is the furthest thing from my mind. That said, here is what one night at home and a week at work (on a show with a slow Act 1) looks like in knitted form:

I’m getting close to the heel: you can see the start of the second skull pirate on the bottom right, a few rows after finishing him, it is time for the heel. I’ve made Cinnamon Buns try on the sock so far, and it fits, which is awesome. If you’re a knitter, the teal is Koigu KPM, and the black is Blue Moon Fiber Arts mediumweight.

I’ve decided that I will work on Cinnamon Buns’ socks first, and start my wedding shawl when they are finished. If I were to pick just one project, I’d knit his socks, so I won’t be too fussed if I don’t finish the shawl. Oh, shawl patterns! You know all those ones I showed you last week? I picked one! I picked one that wasn’t in that original post – in my defense, it is a much more recent pattern than those ones, and I hadn’t done a new search in a while. I will (maybe) be knitting Potager, by Anne Hanson for my wedding shawl:

(photo from Anne Hanson’s website)

This shawl is just what I was looking for. I wanted something that evoked leaves or flowers, to go with the flowers on my dress. There are a lot of lovely geometric shawls out there, but I wanted something more organic-looking. There will be some beads on the two ends, and I’ve ordered some 100% silk yarn from the Unique Sheep to knit it with. As one commenter mentioned, it’s my wedding, this is the time to invest in silk! Wool is a little more forgiving, but I want that sheen that only silk has.

Now the race against time begins!

Yes, that is one pair of finished Aquaphobia Socks, in yarn I bought at Sock Summit from Purl Up and Dye.

I didn’t make any (intentional) changes to the pattern. These socks were getting picked up and put down a lot, so there are a few places (especially on the second one) where the cable twists the wrong way. It didn’t bother me enough to change it once I noticed though, and once there was one wrong cable twist, why bother fixing the others?

The yarn is colourful enough that it is a little hard to notice. I love how there was no colour pooling with this stitch pattern. It’s a slip stitch pattern (like the heels on a lot of socks!) so these socks are extra-thick and warm. They’ll be great walking to work in the winter socks. I make sure all my winter shoes will fit hand-knitted socks. It means I only have to wear the big, ugly, clumpy boots when there are actual snowdrifts on the sidewalk.

This yarn was Sock Summit 2009 stash – I’m slowly working away at it. I hope to work up a lot more of it before Sock Summit 2011!

‘Had’ is the operative word in that last sentence. On Tuesday, I looked at the little tally on my pattern print out (I make a mark each time I complete row 20) and I thought ‘ that can’t be right!’. But it could: I only have 7 repeats left to go! That is this much:

I can now actually see the beginning (and end) as I’m knitting.

So with only 7 repeats to go, and more than 2 weeks until the deadline, what is a knitter to do? Cast on something else, of course.

That is the Eunice pattern from Cookie A’s book Sock Innovation. I recently started watching Round the Twist, a video podcast by Carin, and she has decided to knit every sock out of said book. I caught up on all 40+ episodes over a few weeks, so I’m joining in after she has already completed a different set of socks. I also need to do this to start using up some of that Sock Summit stash. The yarn I’m using is Wool Candy BFL in the colour ‘Robin’s Egg’.

I’ve been having a bit too much fun with this sock – I need to put it down and finish up that last little bit of Evenstar, and then block it. That’s why tonight I’m going to watch The Two Towers and knit, and tomorrow will be Return of the King. Those two movies should be just the right amount of time to finish 7 beaded points.

If I meet my current knitting goals, the thrummed mittens will be done by February 28th, and the Fiddleheads by March 7th (although I think I’ll be done before then).

Ideally, I’d finish both by February 28th.

That leaves me with the following projects to finish (or frog) by April 2:

These socks just need a lot of ends weaving in – I could do that in a day.

This modular linen shopping bag. I don’t want to frog this! For some reason I stopped working on it, then lost it. I found it again recently, tucked away in the storage room. I’ve stolen the needle from it for the thrummed mittens, but that doesn’t matter because mittens must be done first!

These socks will the challenge. They’re knee socks, and I’ve got one knit down to the ankle. Problem is, they’re a titch tight. I think I will soak and block what I’ve got so far, to see if that will loosen up the knitting. If it does, I continue to knit and have a wearable pair of socks. If it doesn’t, then I have to make the hard decision. I may also submit these to the Stampede knitting showase, if I do, do I need (or want) them to fit me?

And those are actually all the projects I have on the needles right now. The issue is that while I want the projects done and out of my knitting bags, there are other things I want to knit! My first Unique Sheep Lord of the Strings sock club kit arrived last week, and I joined the Evenstar Shawl knitalong. It is very hard not to jump in to those projects right now.

Maybe if I’m disciplined, I can finish the above projects (Fiddleheads, P’s mitts, Toe Socks, bag, green socks) I’ll have time before my birthday to cast on a new project. That will be completely allowed in the rules, because this challenge is to make me finish those things that have been hanging around.

Now I’ve got about half the length of leg that I need! I’ve been bringing them to work, and doing a few rows at lunch each day. I also finally duplicate-stitched the top of the heart on the finished one:

I’ve been busy at work, and I’ve been preparing a wholesale stitch marker order in the evenings at home. I haven’t stopped making cards either, I’ve got a whole pile of those to post and blog about, and I’ve even got a few for challenges! January will be one of the busiest, craziest months of the year, but things will get easier after that, and I even have some time off in March. I’m planning on spending that time crafting and baking.

I had a great Christmas, and I did something I’ve been wanting to do for ages: I put all my Christmas money towards a big purchase (rather than say, rent or groceries). A KitchenAid Artisan mixer is on its way to me! I’m very, very excited for that to arrive.

You got to see that end of the box, because the other end has a nice little label-holder with a neatly lettered label. This box contains:

Holes! Well, socks that contain holes, as well as all my extra sock yarn bits, and my Weavette hand loom. I’m planning on darning those socks so I can have warm feet this winter, and then making a few more rectangles for my handwoven sock yarn blankie. I’m going to be working on that blanket for a long time.

Now, to darn socks you need a tool usually called a darning egg, or darning mushroom (someone told me once just to use a lightbulb, but that only works if you don’t have CFLs. For one thing, those things don’t die, and for another, if your heels are shaped like my CFLs, I don’t know how you walk!). I didn’t have one of these tools, so the socks sat languishing. See the languish?

Luckily, there was a solution to this problem. Email mum, and ask her if she has granny’s (HER granny’s!) darning mushroom still. And the answer was….YES.

That is my great-granny’s darning mushroom. I do have a vague memory of her showing me what it was for, when I was about 4 or so.

Mmmmm, patina. It says Czecko-Slovakia [sic] on the underside. I’m really looking forward to using this.

Now that it is the day before I leave for home, it is time for a review. How did it all work out? Well, I finished one pair of socks, my Millicents. They only really needed one foot knit. I also discovered an error in the pattern, mentioned in this Ravelry thread.

Cara’s socks… are not done, but now only need one foot knit. This is starting to sound familiar. I don’t get second sock syndrome, I quite enjoy casting on the second sock. I just need to stall before I finish the foot, apparently.

The Eyelet Rib Bandeau: I swatched for it, and decided I didn’t like the way the stitch pattern looked, and was starting to doubt how much I’d wear the finished product (I still think it is super cute!). So, I looked around for something to cast on. I was hampered by the fact that I only had two knitting magazines here, and one book (and of course, teh internets). The book was Favorite Socks, which was no help for using up Rowan Cashsoft DK. This is where Ravelry came in handy, with the new experimental search. I found that I had enough yarn for another project I wanted to make, that was in the same magazine as the Bandeau! So, I cast on for the Clementine Shawlette.

I actually got a lot of this done backstage at the opera. I had almost no cues in all of act 3, plus I was stuck upstairs alone on the upstage side of balcony. There were windows and French doors all along it, so once the show started, I couldn’t move from where I was without being seen. So I’d sit down on the ground (no room for a chair!) and knit away. This helped with memorizing the pattern, I didn’t want to have too many loose bits up there that could accidentally get kicked over the edge. I memorized the pattern so I wouldn’t have to have the magazine up there.

I love that it is knit in two halves, rather than one piece, because I can use up every inch of yarn by just knitting until ball #2 runs out, then start again.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep this knit. I have a friend in mind who is going through a bad time, and I thought it might be nice for her, although I don’t know if she’d use it. I may just start a Christmas present box. That’s a novel concept; knitting Christmas gifts in April!

Last night I finished the first half, I’m going to start the second half today.

This trip was not without stash aquisition though: I got a great closing night gift from one of my co-workers:

Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn! Yum! His girlfriend is a knitter, but she maintains that her only input was the idea of getting me yarn, and that he picked the yarn and colour by himself. Impressive. Those two pictures are the same skein, I love all the colours in it!