18 days left.....are you ready?

Hello everyone...there are only 18 days left till Christmas.....are you ready?

I AM NOT!

But I am trying......I am just going to jump into what I have been working on......

I started some socks for a Christmas present for my niece, Grace!  Now, I have had a lot of people ask me how I make socks....so I put up a new free pattern on my blog here....it is not really a step by step pattern, but more of a recipe....it is how I almost always do my plain vanilla socks...I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I do.....Here are the socks for Grace.

I worked on my mitts (so close to being done!)

and I mostly worked on the fingerless mitts for Darlene's daughter, Shyla.....

Now, I still need to start Paige's boyfriend a pair of baggy socks...but I was waiting on the yarn....and it came in!  Louise from Biscotte Yarns always does such a lovely job of packaging the yarn!  This yarn is soooooooo soft, I highly recommend it!

I also got a couple more Hiya Hiya Swap packages

The first is from Stacie aka knittingchic on ravelry.....Her package was so wonderful....she made me stitch markers and a bag for me...thank you so much Stacie....I can see the extra time you put into the package to give it just the right touch....thank you!!!

The second was from Jennifer at BugBear Woolens....she picked out the perfect color (Hook em Horns!) for me and look at the darling sweater ornament and some lovely tea....thank you Jennifer!  I love your yarn so much!

I also got Destination 4 of the Miss Babs Knitting Tour....it is Sydney Australia....800 yards of Katahdin in the Sydney Colorway, with beads, and a fleegle beader.....wow....great package!

I got my newest set of Northern Light needles from Dyakcraft...these were the Silver Northern light Needles, that they had dipped in nickel and polished like Nickel needles....you can see at the bottom that the line from the screw in tip is gone...these are going to be awesome to knit with!

I also got my secret santa package.....JoAn in Austin was my secret sister and she got me all kinds of goodies....A burlap Longhorn bag, Caron Simply soft yarn in a burnt orange colorway, two knitting books...one called Wire Knits and one called 60 Quick Knits, there is some Ghiradelli Chocolate, finishing needles, some split lock stitch markers and some Bernat Boa Yarn in beautiful Pink.  Thank you JoAn!

Last on my stash enhancement list......I am sure you all know that I knit at work during lunch every work day...there is a group of about 6 of  us....and we had a new one join us last week....her name is Amy....she did some practicing and then was ready to go....so Darlene and I started her on a weigh it shawl...Darlene brought in some Miss Babs Yowza for her to pick from and so did I....she liked my Mad Hatter colorway so she took that..but I loved Darlene's Deep Sea Jellyfish.....so we kind of did a swap....I no longer have the Mad Hatter, but I have this beauty!

Oh, and here is the start to Amy's shawl....she picked it up super quick (even if she was too hard on herself).

Well....that is really all I have.  I have lots of knitting to do this week so hopefully I have more pictures to show you next week....I leave you with a Genius Minion request to Santa! I am so in love with Self Striping socks...that I never thought of a Self Cleaning House!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!!

Self Striping Sock Recipe - Toe Up

If you read my blog, you know I love knitting Self Striping socks.....I wanted to share my 'recipe' of how I knit my socks:

 Self Striping Sock Recipe

Supplies:

100 grams self striping yarn ( Tested in Biscotte & Cie Felix Loopy Kisses Colorway and Must Stash Yarn The Wall Colorway and Must Stash Yarn Sesame Street Colorway)

Size US#1.5 (2.5mm) needles (or size necessary to obtain gauge of 8.5 stitches = 1”)

Size US#2 (2.75mm) needles (or size necessary to obtain gauge of 8 stitches = 1”)

Sizes S (M, L)

So, this pattern is really just a ‘recipe’ and not a step by step pattern.

For the toe and foot, I like to use a smaller needle, so with size US 1.5 (2.5 mm) I like to cast on 20 (24, 28) stitches using either Judy’s Magic Cast on or Turkish Cast on with 10 (12, 14) stitches on each needle…. After cast on, k all stitches once if using Judy’s Magic Cast On and k all stitches twice if using Turkish Cast On.

Increases:

Now, I do my increases a little different…..when reading this, it may sound like the increases are uneven….but I do it this way to make the ‘purl bump’ of the kfb to be consistent on both sides of the toe.

Increase Round:

Needle 1: kfb, knit to 2^nd to last stitch on needle, kfb, k1;

Needle 2: kfb, knit to 2^nd to last stitch on needle, kfb, k1

Knit Round:

Needle 1 and 2:  Knit all stitches

I like to have my toe just a touch rounder, so I do the following:

Round 1:  Increase Round

Round 2:  Increase Round

Round 3:  Knit Round

Round 4:  Increase Round

Repeat Rounds 3 & 4 until you have:

56 (64, 72) stitches

Now for the heel…..I like to either do an afterthought heel, or the Fish Lips Kiss Heel.  If I think I can get the striping pattern to work out evenly in the fish lips kiss pattern, I will use it.  If I want to use a contrast color or I just think the striping sequence will be messed up too much, I use an afterthought heel.

If using afterthought heel, I will knit the foot until sock measures approx. 2 ” less than desired length.

If using Fish Lips Kiss heel, I will knit the foot until sock measures approx. 1 ¾ ” less than desired length.  I cannot give you the directions for the Fish Lips Kiss heel, the pattern is available here.  Once the Fish Lips Kiss heel is completed, I switch to larger needle US #2 (2.75 mm) and continue knitting in the round until sock is desired height minus cuff height…..then k knit in k2, p2 rib for desired length of Cuff.

Bind off, and I recommend using “HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind” and I have a video of it here.

Here are the directions for Afterthought heel:

K28 (32, 36) with waste yarn, the slip all those stitches back onto to the left hand needle (do not knit to end of round).

Now I switch to larger needle US #2 (2.75 mm) and knit the waste yarn that you just knitted and then continue knitting in round until sock is desired height minus cuff height…..then knit in k2, p2 rib for desired length of Cuff.

Bind off, I recommend using “HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind” and I have a video of it here.

Now come back to the Afterthought Heel:

Using US #1.5 (2.5 mm) needle, pick up the right leg of 28 (32, 36) stitches just below the waste yarn of the heel.  Flip the sock around so that the top of the waste yarn is facing you and repeat picking up the stitches just above the waste yarn.  Using a spare needle, carefully remove the waste yarn to create an opening for the heel.

Start new yarn and work in the round….in the first round, *knit 28 (32, 36) stitches and then pick up and knit two stitches in the gap, repeat from *.  Now total of 60 (68, 76) stitches.

Shape heel as follows:

Round 1:  *k1, ssk, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, k2tog, k1, repeat from * on next needle

Round 2: Knit

Repeat rounds 1 & 2 until 16 (20, 24) stitches remain.

Cut yarn with tail long enough to Kitchener Stitch the heel.

  

Enjoy!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

December Already?

Hi everyone....can you believe that tomorrow is going to be December 2015?  Just 32 more days and we will be in 2016....crazy!

I am going to jump right into my stash enhancements.

I got my last 3 skeins of yarn from Desert Vista Dyeworks....this will make 13 skeins of DVD yarn so I can participate in the pair of socks a month next year (Yes, I know I only need 12, but I have one spare).  There is Color Accents Orange, Zombody Says Boo, and Laduree Macaroons:

Then, Knit Picks brought back their felici yarn for a limited time, so I got 4 in the Time Traveler colorway and 4 in the Rainbow colorway:

I think I have told you guys before that I am not doing the Strickmich!Club for 2016....one thing that Martina does is send 4 club color beads with each shipment.  I have not used these beads yet, but I have a friend (Paula) that does not use her beads and she has sent me hers....she sent me her last two sets recently....THANK YOU PAULA!  You Rock!

Last week I told you that I was doing a HiyaHiya New products swap.  Basically, I send out an envelope with some new HiyaHiya products and that person sends me some sock yarn....well, I got my first package.  This is a skein of Opal Yarn.

My last stash enhancement is not knitting related.....I have worn glasses from about the age of 9 to 32.  I had Lasik Surgery in January of 2004....well, the told me that when I hit my 40's I would need reading glasses, and it was very probable that I would need distance glasses again.  I am 43 now (soon to be 44) and it was time.....so I went to the eye dr and she said I need my first pair of progressives.  They came in on Friday and I have been trying to get used to them since.  They give me a headache and I think I see worse with them....but I will give them another week or so and see if I can get used to them.

Now, on to the knitting!  I told you last week that I moved into a new building at work and showed you my wonderful view.....well, I did not tell you that it is  FREEZING in this building....so, I decided to make myself a pair of Fingerless Mitts with some of my new Felici Yarn.  I finished one, but still need to do the gusset and hand on the second one.

Darlene wants to make her daughter a pair of these along with a sockhead hat for Christmas, so I told her I would get her mitts started:

I think I may have done one or two more cables on my Doodler Shawl.....I think this shawl may go on the back burner for a while.

That is pretty much it for the knitting....however, I more things coming down the pipeline that will start tomorrow (the 1st of December).

My sister called to tell me that my niece wants a pair of hand knit socks for Christmas.....I wish she would have told me that like a month ago.....so I will be starting those tomorrow for my December pair of socks.

Then, Paige loved her baggy black socks and apparently so did her boyfriend (Chris)...she sent me this text:

So, her boyfriend wanted some socks with a pattern on it (funny, I know!).....but he is going to settle on just grey....for December in the Bags By Awesome Grannie Forum, there is a contest to use Biscotte Cie yarn.....well, I found this grey Biscotte Cie yarn and he likes it...so I am going to try to get some men's size baggy socks made....here is the color that is on it's way to me from Canada!

Yesterday was Jaime's Birthday....and while I am certain he does not read my blog (heck, he has enough of my knitting on a daily basis), I still want to say Happy Birthday Jaime!

Well, that is all I have....I leave you with a few pictures of the kids playing on Thanksgiving at my  aunt's house (You should recognize Antonio and Celeste)!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is everyone ready for Turkey Day?  I am NOT!  Thankfully I am going to my aunt's house so I do not have too much to do!  I only have to make 2 dishes, but I still need to go grocery shopping....Yikes!  I did want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  I hope you have a wonderful time!

I had a pretty busy week at work last week.....and it seriously affected my knitting time.  I moved from one building to another at work (right across a parking lot and driveway).  It was not far, but I was the "Move Coordinator" and that sucked up my time, and it make me super tired in the evenings (what's up with that?)!  In my old building I never saw daylight.....the building was made of concrete with very few windows.....well, the new building is made of lots of glass and look at my new view from my desk!  I am super excited!

I have some pretty exciting semi-stash enhancements....first, do you remember when I was going to try to crochet a hippo for Darlene?  Well, I failed miserably...but I met a wonderful lady on ravelry named Denise.....she made the hippo for Darlene and one for me (Can you guess mine is the longhorn color one?)

I gave Darlene hers this morning....I was going to wait till Christmas, but I just couldn't....she loved it.

Denise, I have no clue if you read my blog or not...but THANK YOU SO MUCH!  You ROCK!

I got my 4th and final shipment from Strickmich!Club 2015.  As I have said all along, I did not join for 2016, but the funny party was......I did not even get an invite to join again (usually current members get to sign up first)....so I am guessing they did not want me back!

I had a SNB a my house a few weeks ago and a good friend of mine showed up with a backpack that looked like cable knitted fabric......no, I did not NEED a backpack....but I got one!  LOL!  Isn't it cute?

I am also doing a New Products for Hiya Hiya.....so Qianer sent me 10 silk eye masks, 10 Octopus Snips, and 10 Sheep Needle Gauges.....I am keeping one set and swapping the other 9 sets....you can read all about it here.  Thank you Qianer!

The stash enhancement I am most excited about is a large bag that Darlene made for me.  Her hubby made her a large bag like this....it was meant to be a sweater bag for an awesome sweater that she was making her hubby (more on that later)...but it is so large, you can carry anything in it......well, this was pretty much a one of a kind and she is not selling it in her shop....but I found the cutest sheep material and I asked her if she would make me one if I paid her.....of course she said yes (because she is awesome) and I am soooooo thankful to her for everything she does for me.....This bag is so awesome....I just love it...and it has straps!!  I already have my stuff in it ready to go.  Thank you so much Darlene!

As for the knitting.....well, I finished the socks for Paige.....I know this seems kind of minor, but these socks are much  larger than any other socks I have knit....she wanted them 'baggy' and 'loose'.  These socks were about 350 yards of BLACK!

I also worked on my doodler.....I finally finished wedge 17 and I only had 6 grams of yarn left!  WOW!  Now I am onto clue 2.....seems I am staying a clue behind because clue 3 is already out and I am not even 1/2 done with clue 2.....but here it is...it is a little hard to see because clue 2 is all black (I must be crazy to knit with so much black)...but it is coming along!

Okay.....so remember I told you about the awesome sweater that Darlene was making her hubby?  Well, she finished it and it is just phenomenal!  It fits her hubby perfect and he loves it....Way to Go Darlene!

Well, that is it....sad, I know.  I had Antonio all weekend, and I have Celeste and Cat tonight, then Antonio again tomorrow...so I am not sure when I will ever be able to knit again!  Ha, Ha!

I leave you with some fun pics.....

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!