lostpurl

Grace is GREAT, better then chocolate cake :-)
I sent Grace some yarn, which truthfully I was never going to use, and was glad it was going to a good home. In return, Grace surprised me with this.


This is like handing someone a bologna sandwich and they give you the keys to their Porche. It is beautiful, and warm and made with love. I have been waiting for someone to take a glamour shot of me holding the shawl open. No one seems to want to take my picture. And I really wanted to share this with the world. Is so so beautiful. I am shawl impaired. I have started SK's SunRay three times. It says more about how great Highland Wool is, then my talents as a knitter. The yarn is a lot less frazzled then I am.
Yesterday I had to go for a stress test. Due to the knee problem, it was a chemical test. I know only to well how freezing cold the hospital is. There are morgues that are warmer then the hospital. So I wore wooly socks and took my lovely shawl. I was toasty warm. And the shawl got lots of touches. People couldn't believe that a real live person knitted it. The technician that did part of the test kept coming back for another touch. She even dragged in the Radiologist in to touch it. Oh Grace I wish you could have been there.
You can see the stitches in this picture, but the color is off. It is more like Tranquil Lagoon


Thank you, hardly seems to cover this gift. I have to go back to the hospital for some more tests. And I will be wrapped up in my beautiful shawl. Even if it is August.
Thank you again Grace, your the greatest

Some new yarns. The top on is from The Knittery in Australia. Talk about fast shipping. It was here in under a week. And consider I am as far from Australia as you can get and still be on the same planet. The color is "Orange Blossom" Merino, cashmere and nylon. So soft Bets could roll around naked on this stuff. Super super soft.
The bottom one is from Zen Garden Yarn Canada. Color is "Just Peachy" Merino and tencel also super soft. I undid the skein which is why it looks a bit messy. I will use one of these for my Sockapalooza partner. Ok I am sorely tempted to keep the Knittery one for me. I will strive to overcome my naked greed.

I have a skein from Jayne which my daughter has gone off with. I need to get it back and take a picture. Because it is beautiful.
And a gift so beautiful from Grace that I want to devote a complete post to it. Also I need to get someone to take a picture of it.


Bets and I swapped yarn. She sent me a box full of goodies.One of which is this Opal yarn. I love the turquoise color. I decided to do Nancy Bush's Child's First Sock from Vintage Knit Socks. The pattern is easy except for the purl YO knit. It is just so counterintuitive to not restore the yarn to the back of the needle after a purl stitch. I expect after I finish these socks, I will be making unplanned Yarn Overs for a long time

Round toe uses decreases over a lot over rows, to create a gently rounded shape. To do this successfully you need to know your row gauge. The decreases are usually worked over a number divided by 8, but can be a number divided by 10 or any number I guess.
I measure from the base of my big to to the tip of the toe. Then divide the inches by my row gauge. You can work less knit rounds if you need a shorter toe. Or start the toe part earlier.
Round toe is part of a family of toes that slowly decrease and end up with a number of stitches that are then drawn closed as opposed to grafting. The decreases can be worked to create a pattern as in the Star toe (toe used so beautifully in the Embossed Leaves sock) Swirl toe creates a decrease that seems to move to the right across the toe. The best source of information for these different toes is either Nancy Bush's Vintage Socks or Nancy Bush's Folk Socks.
If the number you are working isn't divisible by 8 or 10, do a decrease to get to the correct number and then go onto the Round toe action.
To work round toe over a number divided by eight
Knit 6 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 6 rows
Knit 5 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 5 rows
Knit 4 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 4 rows
repeat with one less stitch on each decrease round and one less row on the plain rounds
Until you have just 16 stitches left. cut yarn and run through the stitches on the needles. Draw up and run needle through the stitches again to close up the hole.
The shape produced fits my feet perfectly very tapered. When I grafted toes closed they always looked to blocky and the squared off shape never went away no matter how many times I wore them.
If you have toes that are in more of a straight line across, then the grafted toe is probably perfect for you.
You can see the blocky effect with the grafted toe on these socks I made my daughter.
I have tried all the tricks that are supposed to get rid of the sharp corners, and they haven't worked for me



I have the same problem with toe up socks. They are too wide across the very tip of the sock. And there is a lot of excess fabric over with would be your smallest toe.
Not to mention that I do crap short row heels :-}



Star Toe from Embossed Leaves Socks

One down, one to go.

I didn't want knee socks so I did a few mods on the pattern. I changed the heel flap to repeat the P1 K 5, pattern repeat. The flap is edged with seed stitch. I will do more rows of seed stitch on sock two. I did three seed stitches on each side. But one row gets eaten up when I picked up the gusset stitches. In effect I just used the lace pattern. I think they turned out pretty well. Of course I need to knit another one.



I did round toe, my favorite. I wanted to keep the P1 K5 pattern going. Due to brain damage I decreases in the purl stitches. This causes the purl row to go wonky. Next sock I will do the decreases in the knit stitches. That way the purl rows should remain true.



Sock without Suzann's big foot in it :-} I can't get the color right. But it isn't a light pink, more a peachy pink. The yarn is soft and cushy

If you missed out on Sockapalooza4 here is another sock KAL


It isn't a swap but a three month KAL, starting with the Summer Solstice (June 21st)and ending with the Autumn Equinox (Sept 21st) Makes me feel all druid. There are contests and other fun stuff. You get to flash your socks and their is a contest for the most socks knit (Jayne) And you can enter designs in a design contest.
I can't believe I signed up for more socks. But there is no pressure of completing a perfect sock for a partner.

Speaking of which I heard from my Sockapalooza swap pal. *Waves Hello* I am waiting for yarn to get started on socks for my pal. The yarn is coming from Canada and is probably sitting in a customs office someplace.
Oh and I would like to thank Jayne for pointing me in the direction of Etsy. Oh good another place to spend hours drooling and spend money. I have no control.
My socks are coming along well. I really really love the yarn and the pattern. I stuck my finger with the damn needle so I am taking a day off to let it heal a bit.
I would take pictures (the socks not the wounded diget) except the most evil line of thunderstorms is heading our way. The radar is a bit frigtening. Cate is probably getting hammered right now, and Kim will be next. Hale winds and lightening. Could we just have some nice normal rain, pleaseeeeeeeee