Limelon socks are getting going

The socks are on the move. I was so terrified of the striping pattern with the circular knitting, and I feel so silly. It’s just as easy as doing it with row knitting; a step or two more to hide the jog perhaps, but that’s it.

I’m making progress. I’ve finished the schematic of the sock, which in this case means I’ve written down for myself how many rows each section is and how many repeats of the pattern there are. It’s something, though. I’ve finished the cuff of the sock (3 repeats of a four round stripe) and am getting into the leg now.

The more I get done, the more confident I feel and the more I want to work on it. Last night, I didn’t want to put it down. Just one more round, I told myself, then one more color change, etc.

I’m also working on a small challenge I’ve set up for myself. Lion Brand’s newsletter is giving the instructions for 24 square patterns; 1 per week for 24 weeks. I’ve challenged myself to keep up with it, to make all the squares the same size – 7″ (there’s the dreaded math again) and them stitch them together as an afghan. This week – week 1 – it’s the seed stitch, which is nice, mindless knitting and I can watch TV while I do it. I’m having to force myself to motivate to work on it (I think it’s something like 53 rows) for more than a row or 2 at a time b/c I want to be working on Limelon. Limelon has become the definite name of these particular socks. I don’t even call them the Limelon socks anymore, just Limelon. LOL I’m such a crackpot!!!

Technorati tags: knitting, sock knitting, socks, knitting challenge

The Limelon socks begin

They are on the needles, finally. After a whole lot of math, a whole lot of false starts and a whole lot of frustration, I’ve got them on the needles.

I’ve decided to use a four row repeat for the striping pattern, with the heel flap/turning and the toe decreases done in solid color. I’m using a K2P2 rib for the cuff and K3P1 ribbing for the rest of the sock. Once I get to the foot, though, I’ll probably switch to simple stocking stitch rather than using the pattern stitch on top and st. stitch for the bottom of the foot.

I was obsessed with this project last night. I’ve been sick for the last few weeks (pneumonia) and I’ve been pretty much laid up in bed, so I’ve been watching a lot of soaps and doing a lot of knitting and trying to finish up the blanket that I’m making for the nurse @ my aunt’s nursing home in CA. The knitting blahs hit me a few days ago, and now that I’ve shaken them, I just don’t want to stop. I think finally getting the sock on the needles helped as well. I actually stayed up knitting until after 6 am (Jacob is not with me this weekend b/c I was so sick and we didn’t want to risk him getting sick as well) working on this project. I think I would have stayed up later, but I had a small glitch. I’m not sure how to go about carrying yarn up rounds so I don’t have to cut the yarn every set of stripes. I know how that works with rows, but is it the same with rounds? HELP!!!

Yarn and 1st Knitted Sock pictures

Here are some pictures of yarn that I’ve been talking about and the first sock I’ve ever made. If, that is, I can figure out getting pictures into this blog…here goes nothing.

Apparently, I don’t have those pictures on this computer…I really hope that I’m back on my regular laptop by tomorrow; the recovery disks are supposed to arrive then. Cross your fingers that I don’t have to do a total reformat and lose everything.

As soon as I’m back up on MY computer, I’ll post the pictures.

Knitting blahs

I’ve got a mild; working its way to serious, case of the kntting blahs. I think a lot of it has to do with being sick and just stuck in bed. Nothing is really very appealing to me. I’m STILL swaching the damned lime/mango socks. I’ve been at this for over a week, but I just can’t get into it enogh to work for very longl

**Update 10/22** I never finished my blah post or posted it…LOL I really did have the blah’s.

I’m starting to get over it and I’ve been back to enjoying knitting again. I finished the swatching for the lime/mango socks and I need to chart out the color changes for the striped parts. I’m a little nervous about this b/c I fear it will come out wrong, but it’s a sock, it’s creative and a mistake is just a new design feature, right?

As soon as I get offline, I will get started on the charting and the cast on. Wish me luck.

BTW…I’ve given up on those bamboo DPN’s for now. I just wasn’t having any luck getting the microspun to slide on them no matter what I did. I came this close to using the sandpaper that came with them to smooth them out, but I’m still afraid that I’ll ruin them; not that they are useful to me now. Any advice on sanding for smoothness??

Lime/Mango striped socks

I’ve been working on a new pair of socks. Kind of self designed, but not really. I’m using a basic sock pattern (although, rather than swatching anymore, I’m thinking of using a sock calculator so I can just choose my needle size).
When I first decided to try sock knitting (over six months ago…it took me a long time to get there) I bought 4 skeins of Microspun by Lion Brand; 2 of lime and 2 of mango. They are very bright, happy colors and they inspired me. So now they’ve been sitting in my project bag forever now. After finishing my first sock last week, I decided that I wanted to use the microspun and I wanted to do striped socks with solid heeel and toe (with the solid color lime on one sock and mango on the other). I grabbed the same (simple) basic sock pattern and did the “dreaded math” to figure out the number of rows so I could plan my striping pattern etc. I was so excited to use my new bamboo dpns, but they worked TERRIBLY with the yarn (yes, I know I’ve been bitching for days now about those damn dpns). So I’ve finally given up on finding a way to make them work and gone back to the metal needles. They’re still a little too long and still annoying, but I’m going to have to get some shorter metal dpns.
Anyway, the second pair has begun…well, swatching and planning, anyway. I’m really enjoying playing with a pattern and feeling like I can actually make something of my own. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s a strange, but AMAZINGLY good feeling!!! Knitting makes me feel like nothing else ever has, it’s like I’ve found the thing I’m meant to do. I really wish I could find a way to make this my living…

First sock, dpns and a pound of silk

I did it!! I finished the dreaded first sock. I feel so freaking accomplished!!! It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, of course, it was my first attempt, but it fits and it’s comfortable and I love it. Now i have to avoid “second sock syndrome”…LOL I will post pictures of the sock as soon as I upload them from the camera.

I also got my yarn from ebay this week. It’s so gorgeous that I think I should be calling it fibre instead of yarn…LOL It’s a 50/50 silk/rayon blend in a colorway called Golden Grapes. It’s a mix of shades of reds, purples and golds. I love it. I just don’t know what to do with it. It’s a very fine yarn (I haven’t done the test where you double a strand and run it through a needle guage to figure out what needles size would work best) I was thinking about the corset-t that was shown earlier this season on Knitty Gritty. It’s gorgeous with a lace inset pattern. I’m not sure, though. Does anyone have any suggestions for a project with a fine stranded yarn in silk?? Something pretty, a little challenging, but not something for an advanced knitter. Maybe intermediate…Thanks in advance for advice and for input. I’ll also post a picture of Golden Grapes as well as a skein of sock yarn that I got (OMG it’s GORGEOUS!!! It’s shades of reds, oranges and yellows. So vibrant and so pretty.) I think I’m getting addicted to hand painted yarns…LOL

I got my bamboo dpns last week and it’s the strangest thing. I love my bamboo straight needles, but I really am not loving them, though. They don’t allow the stitches to slide well at all and everything seems to get caught up on them. UGH!!! I have both 4″ and 6″ DPNs and I really want them to work. I’ve tried rubbing them down with lotion and wiping it off (which worked beautifully with the straight needles, but not the dpns), I’ve tried rubbing baby powder on my hands…neither thing has worked at all. I’ve thought that maybe it’s the yarn I’m using. I’ve started another pair of socks (yes before the second one to my first, which was really just to see if I could get the basic construction down) and I’m using microspun by Lion Brand (which I really have loved working with in the past). If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate hearing them. The set of bamboo dpns came with a square of sand paper. Maybe I need to sand them? I thought of it, but I was afraid that I’d ruin them if I tried.